Hybrid organic/inorganic thermoelectric materials based on conducting polymers and inorganic nanostructures have been demonstrated to combine both the inherently low thermal conductivity of the polymer and the superior charge transport properties (high power factors) of the inorganic component. While their performance today still lags behind that of conventional inorganic thermoelectric materials, solution-processable hybrids have made rapid progress and also offer unique advantages not available to conventional rigid inorganic thermoelectrics, namely: (1) low cost fabrication on rigid and flexible substrates, as well as (2) engineering complex conformal geometries for energy harvesting/cooling. While the number of reports of new classes of viable hybrid thermoelectric materials is growing, no group has reported a general approach for bottom-up design of both p- and n-type materials from one common base. Thus, unfortunately, the literature comprises mostly of disconnected discoveries, which limits development and calls for a first-principles approach for property manipulation analogous to doping in traditional semiconductor thermoelectrics. Here, molecular engineering at the organic/inorganic interface and simple processing techniques are combined to demonstrate a modular approach enabling de novo design of complex hybrid thermoelectric systems. We chemically modify the surfaces of inorganic nanostructures and graft conductive polymers to yield robust solution processable p- and n-type inorganic/organic hybrid nanostructures. Our new modular approach not only offers researchers new tools to perform true bottom-up design of thermoelectric hybrids, but also strong performance advantages as well due to the quality of the designed interfaces. For example, we obtain enhanced power factors in existing (by up to 500% in Te/PEDOT:PSS) and novel (Bi2S3/PEDOT:PSS) p-type systems, and also generate water-processable and air-stable high performing n-type hybrid systems (Bi2Te3/PEDOT:PSS), thus highlighting the potency of our ex situ strategy in opening up new material options for thermoelectric applications. This strategy establishes a unique platform with broad handles for custom tailoring of thermal and electrical properties through hybrid material tunability and enables independent control over inorganic material chemistry, nanostructure geometry, and organic material properties, thus providing a robust pathway to major performance enhancements.


We have derived an intuitively interpretable expression of the average power-coupling coefficient for estimating the inter-core crosstalk of the multicore fiber. Based on the derived expression, we discuss how the structure fluctuation and macrobend can affect the crosstalk, and organize previously reported methods for crosstalk suppression. We also discuss how the microbending can affect the crosstalk in homogeneous and heterogeneous MCFs, based on the derived expression and previously reported measurement results.


IZA DP No. 16173 MAY 2023 Does Access to Citizenship Confer SocioEconomic Returns? Evidence from a Randomized Control Design* Based on observational studies, conventional wisdom suggests that citizenship carries economic benefits. We leverage a randomized experiment from New York where lowincome registrants who wanted to become citizens entered a lottery to receive fee vouchers to naturalize. Voucher recipients were about 36 p.p. more likely to naturalize. Yet, we find no discernible effects of access to citizenship on several economic outcomes, including income, credit scores, access to credit, financial distress, and employment. Leveraging a multi-dimensional immigrant integration index, we similarly find no measurable effects on non-economic integration. However, we do find that citizenship reduces fears of deportation. Explaining our divergence from past studies, our results also reveal evidence of positive selection into citizenship, suggesting that observational studies of citizenship are susceptible to selection bias. JEL Classification: G51, J15, J31


While the accomplishments of the biotechnology industry have been substantial, recent technological advances promise to dramatically increase the power and utility of the discipline over the coming years. The term "synthetic biology" has been coined to describe the application of these powerful new tools to the engineering of synthetic genetic sequences and organisms. In essence, synthetic biology represents the next iteration in the ongoing evolution of biotechnology, and hopes run high that in time, the fruits of synthetic biology will dwarf the past successes of conventional biotechnology. There is, however, some concern that the current patent-centric approach to Intellectual Property (IP), which has for years been the norm in biotechnology, is ill-suited for the needs of synthetic biologists and synthetic biology companies. This Article addresses these concerns and considers potential modifications to the IP system that might render it better suited to promote progress in synthetic biology. The Article begins with an overview of conventional biotechnology, including a discussion of the critical role IP has played in the growth and development of the conventional biotechnology industry. Next it describes the ongoing synthetic biology revolution, as illustrated by specific examples of various types of synthetic biology companies and user-innovators. The Article then explores the emerging IP imperatives of synthetic biology, highlighting numerous deficiencies under the current IP regime. It concludes with suggestions for adapting IP to the imperatives of synthetic biology, including a proposal to enlist copyright in the protection of synthetic biology innovations.


&NA; Research findings have consistently demonstrated that women living with HIV in the United States and globally experience declines in medication adherence and retention in care after giving birth. A number of studies have identified factors associated with postpartum retention in care, but the evidence base for interventions to address the problem and close this gap in the HIV care continuum is limited. Furthermore, the majority of studies have been conducted in low-resource or moderate-resource countries and may be less applicable or require adaptation for use in high resource countries. In the United States, up to two-thirds of women drop out of care after delivery and are unable to maintain or achieve viral suppression postpartum, at a time when maternal and pediatric health are closely linked. We conducted a critical review of the literature to identify existing gaps regarding maternal retention in the United States and conceptualize the problem through the lens of the integrated and ecological models of health behavior. This review describes existing barriers and facilitators to retention in HIV care postpartum from published studies and suggests steps that can be taken, using a multilevel approach, to improve maternal retention. We propose five core action steps related to increasing awareness of the problem of poor postpartum retention, addressing needs for improved care coordination and case management, and using novel approaches to adapt and implement peer support and technology-based interventions to improve postpartum retention and clinical outcomes of women living with HIV.


This article offers a review of the major results of the Tarquinia Project, a comprehensive study of the site of Tarquinia that the University of Milan began in the early 1980s. The project comprises new excavation at the site, comparison of newly excavated with already-known material culture from Tarquinia, detailed study of buildings at the site, and an analysis of the settlement process. The project also includes the study of a variety of literary sources, including numerous references to the ancient topography of Tarquinia; it produced a series of chronological maps of the ancient settlements in the area that help illuminate the history of Tarquinia and the changing relationship of the city with its territory. The Tarquinia Project also includes speleological, geographical, topographical, geophysical, paleoanthropological, paleobotanical, and archaeometrical research. To provide a better understanding of the fieldwork and to present our most important conclusions, I include in this article some of the most recent, as yet unpublished, discoveries.


Background: Fibromyalgia is a disease characterized by chronic pain, dizziness and sleep disturbances. It is an invisible disease with visible symptoms and no known cause nor cure. While the knowledge and acceptance of the disease has increased these patients to some degree still have to face skepticism, distrust and lack of understanding from health care professionals, family, and society. This forces the patient to spend precious energy altering their actions and appearances to convince others of the legitimacy of their symptoms. The process of getting a diagnosis can be long and strenuous which for many patients can lead to the development of depression and anxiety.Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe persons with fibromyalgia's experiences of encounters with health care professionals. Method: A literature-based study based on eleven qualitative studies.Results: Three main themes were identified; A struggle for legitimacy, the importance of understanding and frustrating meetings. The subthemes describe I am not being believed, The symptoms are invisible, Diagnosis - the false relief, Lack of support from healthcare professionals, The good meeting, Lacking commitment, Knowledge deficiency and Lack of effective treatment. Conclusion: Patients with fibromyalgia are to some extent met with skepticism, poor knowledge about the disease and lack of commitment, which cause unnecessary suffering for these patients. A good encounter involving emotional support, commitment from health professionals and a functioning dialog is seen as important to the patients and can counteract unnecessary suffering.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is the development of an audit risk model based on the decomposition of classical Audit Risk Model (ARM) with the addition of elements to assess the risks associated with various aspects of the task. Design/Methodology/Approach: The classical ARM is the basis of our model. The factors of the first and second order in the proposed model are the same as in the classical ARM, namely, the risk of significant distortion and the risk of non-detection. The risk of material misstatement is disaggregated into inherent and control risks. We included in the list of second-order factors that affect the value of risk of significant distortion, the risk of material misstatement of financial statements due to unfair acts. Findings: The paper contains the classic ARM's development analysis and the current researches in audit risk modeling review. We formulated the requirements to desired ARM's characteristics based on analysis we made. The ARM modification by classical conceptual model decomposition to the level of simple binary statements is presented. We describe the main structural elements of the developed model and their interrelations. Practical Implications. The presented disaggregated ARM can be used as a methodological basis for assessing audit risk in the course of fulfilling assignments for the audit of financial statements. Originality/Value: The classical ARM author's modification has been developed with the aim to its adapting to a practical risk assessment through logical-probabilistic modeling.


In this paper, we present a method which accurately estimates the likelihood of chances in soccer using strategic features from an entire season of player and ball tracking data taken from a professional league. From the data, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of the ten-second window of play before a shot for nearly 10,000 shots. From our analysis, we found that not only is the game phase important (i.e., corner, free-kick, open-play, counter attack etc.), the strategic features such as defender proximity, interaction of surrounding players, speed of play, coupled with the shot location play an impact on determining the likelihood of a team scoring a goal. Using our spatiotemporal strategic features, we can accurately measure the likelihood of each shot. We use this analysis to quantify the efficiency of each team and their strategy.


It has long been argued that cash balance (CB) pension plans offer a more equitable distribution of benefits than traditional final-average-salary (FAS) plans for teachers, particularly between short-termers and career teachers. However, it has also been understood that the impetus for reform would come from fiscal distress, rather than a concern for equity. In this paper I examine how the nation's first CB plan for teachers, in Kansas, adopted under such conditions, has played out for the level and distribution of benefits and system costs, compared to the FAS plan it replaced. My key findings are: (1) employer-funded benefits were modestly reduced, despite the surface appearance of somewhat generous employer matches; (2) more importantly, the cost of the pension guarantee, which is off-the-books under standard actuarial accounting, was reduced quite substantially. Thus, although much of the distributional benefit, originally put forth, did materialize, the primary gain for states considering reform may well be the reduction in the cost of risk-bearing.


In neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), early initiation of effective immunosuppressive therapy to prevent further relapse is imperative because even a single relapse can have devastating consequences. Several immunosuppressive treatments have been shown to be effective in preventing relapse. However, not all patients respond favourably to each treatment, possibly owing to several factors including variability in disease activity and differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs among patients. Thus, identification of predictors of the most suited treatment regimens for individual patients with NMOSD may help guide treatment decisions.

In their Journal of Neurology, Neurosugery & Psychiatry study, Stellmann et …


Mr M. F. Osmaston congratulated Dr Price on the clarity of his exposition of the development of schuppen structure at the toe of an allochthon. His argument for the development of above-unity values of λ (now widely called the geostatic ratio) as a means of initiating décollement in the absence of tectonic compression is, however, erroneous. He appears to have misunderstood the innumerable reports of high (but subunity) geostatic ratios found at great depth in the course of deep drilling, for he invokes a high geostatic ratio at great depth, capped by a seal at much shallower depth. In fact, as reference to any well log will show, the highest geostatic ratio always occurs within and just below the seal, decreasing steadily below it and sharply above it. Fluid pressure below the seal is essentially unrelated to that prevailing above it, as many a driller knows to his cost. In the common circumstance that a series of seals has developed at different levels, peak geostatic ratios are present at each seal but the peak values do not necessarily increase with depth, although the fluid pressures, of course, do. Reports of geostatic ratios marginally exceeding unity have always been unsubstantiated when the actual rock column densities were used in the calculation. The condition for décollement could arise, however, from the tilting of an over-pressured (but λ < 1) stratum, due to the pressure of the upslope water column within the stratum. In that case, failure would first occur near the foot


This article analyses the multimodal representations of public space in Chilean broadcast news reports on the figure of the hooded rioter and its alleged connections with the student movement. We seek to identify how space is constructed as a (de)legitimation strategy in relation to the actors involved and the actions taking place across four different news broadcast pieces in the light of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics. Results show that the multimodal representations of space are crucial to identify and functionalize hooded rioters as belonging to the student movement. Actions are dependent on the spaces in which actors operate, restricting the occupation of certain spaces to specific actors. Thus, transgressive protest actions are to be contained to educational spaces and represented as naturalized vandalism, ignoring the students'/demonstrators' motivations to recuperate/vindicate the public space.


Declines in native birds in New Zealand have raised questions about whether seed dispersal limits plant regeneration and whether introduced mammals such as brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) can replace absent native birds. We determined the relative contribution to seed dispersal by birds and possums in native secondary forest at Kowhai Bush, Kaikoura. The number of seeds dispersed per hectare per day by each animal species was determined based on the number of seeds per faecal pellet, the number of faecal pellets per animal per day, and the density of animals per hectare. Five dispersers had many seeds in their faecal samples: bellbirds (Anthornis melanura, mean 11.5 seeds per sample), silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis, 7.0), song thrushes (Turdus philomelos, 8.3), blackbirds (Turdus merula, 15.1) and possums (8.4). However, possums produced half as many faeces per day as birds and were present at lower densities than birds (1 possum, 3 bellbirds, 2.7 silvereyes, 6.4 song thrushes, and 3.2 blackbirds per ha). Consequently, on a per hectare basis, possums dispersed <3% of the total seeds, much less than bellbirds (22%), silvereyes (12%), song thrushes (33%) and blackbirds (30%). Possums also destroyed approximately 15% of seeds found in faeces, reduced the germination of gutpassed Coprosma robusta seed to half of that from bird faeces, and did not swallow fruit any larger (max 7 mm diameter) than those moved by birds. Consequently, possums provided little benefit from seed dispersal.


Growth of young (45 to 50 days of age) rabbits (n=48) was studied in a completely randomized 2*3 factorial design with 6 treatments: The factors were: basal diets of water spinach or foliage of Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) and supplements of Paddy rice or Sweet potato root or none. The rabbits were housed in pairs in cages made from bamboo and wood. Leaves and stems of Paper mulberry were higher in DM and lower in crude protein compared with water spinach. The proportion of the diet DM consumed as supplements was in the range of 27 to 31%. The supplements increased the growth rates on both forages, with no apparent differences between the two supplements. Growth rates were better for water spinach than for Paper mulberry. Feed DM intake was higher for the diets with Paper mulberry compared with water spinach but there were no differences among supplements. DM feed conversion was better on water spinach than Paper mulberry and for the two supplement treatments compared with the un-supplemented control.


While the painting of the 1880s and 1890s in Paris has been studied in great depth, the concurrent art criticism has not been given the attention it deserves. Conservative Echoes examines previously unexplored aspects of the symbolist criticism of art, revealing its conservative nature, and thus providing a new view of the art criticism of one of the most significant periods in the development of modern art.Art historians tend to focus on a small body of criticism written by authors who championed one or more of the artists recognized today as leaders of the avant-garde. In essence, it is the art that directs most studies of criticism rather than the criticism itself. Michael Marlais has studied late nineteenth-century criticism on all levels, from popular press to esoteric review, in order to understand the context in which avant-garde art criticism appeared. He focuses on the critics Felix Feneon, Albert Aurier, Alphonse Germain, Camille Mauclair, and Maurice Denis, noting both conservative and modernist features of their writing, while attempting to situate them within the antinaturalist intellectual trends of the period.Marlais emphasizes the relationship of avant-garde critics to the broader cultural milieu, thus providing both a valuable corrective in the study of fin-de-siecle art history and another way of understanding the cultural climate in Paris during that time."


The 3p6 3d8–3p5 3d9 transitions in Sr xiii, Y xiv, Zr xv, Nb xvi, and Mo xvii have been newly measured by means of a low-inductance vacuum spark and a 10.7-m grazing-incidence spectrograph. The measurements have led to an improved analysis of this complex transition group in these ions. All levels of the combining configurations have been established. The energy parameters determined from least-squares fits to the observed levels are compared with Hartree–Fock calculations. The effective interaction αL(L + 1) for the 3p6 3d8 configuration decreases markedly with increasing ionization. The effective electrostatic interactions D1(3p3d) and X2(3p3d) for the 3p5 3d9 configuration are practically constant through the sequence.


Behavioral abnormalities exhibited by reelin deficient mice may model behavioral deficit characteristics that are associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To expand upon the behavioral phenotype of reelin deficient mice, the effects of methylphenidate (MPH) and nicotine (NIC) were evaluated on specific behaviors in homozygous (rl/rl, 100% deficient), heterozygous (+/rl, 50% deficient), and wild-type (+/+, 0% deficient) mice to determine if drugs would differentially influence behavior depending on level of reelin deficiency, and to determine if responses to drug treatments modeled effects that would be predicted, assuming mice modeled impairments associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, or ADHD. In addition, NIC and saccharin vehicle (S-VEH) intake levels were measured to determine if mice self-administer NIC differently depending on genotype. A non-linear gene dosage effect of NIC, but not MPH, was observed in prepulse inhibition (PPI), such that NIC improved PPI in +/+ and rl/rl mice, while NIC tended to reduce abnormally elevated startle response and PPI in +/rl mice. During NIC self-administration trials, +/rl mice decreased NIC intake when concentration of NIC increased to 60 mg/kg/BW, while rl/rl mice tended to increase NIC intake with increased NIC concentration. Moreover, +/rl and rl/rl mice exhibited elevated levels of S-VEH intake, and rl/rl mice exhibited an intensified fluid dispenser side bias compared to +/+ mice. In tests of social interaction, rl/rl mice displayed impaired social recognition. In addition, NIC +/rl mice exhibited increased social behavior, while NIC rl/rl mice displayed decreased social behavior. In the passive avoidance (PA) test, all genotypes demonstrated the ability to withhold a response--which is a measure executive functioning--and rl/rl mice demonstrated enhanced performance. In addition, MPH produced enhanced performance in +/rl mice and rl/rl compared to VEH condition. Thus, behavioral outcomes and pharmacological responses in the present study expand upon profiles of +/rl and rl/rl mice, offer guidance about which behaviors across and/or within diagnostic categories may be most profitably modeled by behavioral features of these mice, and may provide insight into underlying neurobiological pathology associated with altered cholinergic and dopaminergic pathways as a consequence of disrupted reelin production.


Traditional risk-adjusted performance measures, such as the Sharpe ratio, the Treynor index or Jensen's alpha, based on the mean-variance framework, are widely used to rank mutual funds. However, performance measures that consider risk by taking into account only losses, such as Value-at-Risk (VaR), would be more appropriate. Standard VaR assumes that returns are normally distributed, though they usually present skewness and kurtosis. In this paper we compare these different measures of risk: traditional ones vs. ones that take into account fat tails and asymmetry, such as those based on the Cornish-Fisher expansion and on the extreme value theory. Moreover, we construct a performance index similar to the Sharpe ratio using these VaR-based risk measures. We then use these measures to compare the rating of a set of mutual funds, assessing the different measures' usefulness under the Basel II risk management framework.


This paper explores how team coaches make sense of working within shared leadership situations. Adopting an interpretive research lens, an under-developed area of research within team coaching literature, the study reported captures team coaches' experiences of coaching amidst decentralised hierarchies. The findings draw attention to how coaches work with two mutually independent and compatible dynamics of unity and energy in fostering conditions for mutual influence. To conceptualise the findings a 'Unity and Energy Matrix' has been developed, depicting four emergent team states: tentative, eager, functional and conscious. Each state reflects significant in-practice moments of coaching and offers insights regarding adopted interventions in response to the emergence of unity and energy.


We demonstrate the use of sulfur free reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerisation (RAFT) as a versatile tool for the controlled synthesis of methacrylic block and comb-like copolymers. Sulfur free RAFT (SF-RAFT) utilises vinyl terminated macromonomers obtained via catalytic chain transfer polymerisation (CCTP) of methacrylates as a chain transfer agent (CTA), and thus precluding adverse aspects of the RAFT such as toxicity of dithioesters. We have synthesised a range of narrow dispersity block copolymers (Đ < 1.2) and comb-like macromolecules by employing emulsion polymerisation allowing for the preparation of relatively large quantities (∼50 g) of the above mentioned copolymers promptly and straightforwardly. Copolymers were characterised using 1H NMR, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF-MS) techniques.


Based on calls to an outsourced call centre in Moldova, where the agents have received training in Swedish, this article deals with some cases when agents are attributed categorical belonging associated with the issue of outsourcing. The aim of the study is to examine how these challenges are handled within interaction. The analysis is implemented by a combination of conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis, primarily through the notion of omnirelevance, used to demonstrate the participants' orientation to social contexts. A main result is the subtle forms of resistance that agents exhibit when they respond to various category-based compliments, oriented to the location and language skills of the agent. One form of resistance is giving minimal responses and another is to return to the transactional procedure. The calls are part of a corpus of 800 calls. A comparative analysis also includes a call to a centre in Sweden.


Despite the numerical success of ISO 9000 quality management systems, the certification is much criticized, as it is not a risk-free undertaking. A review of the literature on this issue indicates that organizations often lack flexibility in the design and implementation of quality management systems, the level of the utilization of employees' skills and knowledge is low. This is because organizations usually approach this process of implementation in an empiric way. ISO 9000 certification can deliver business and financial benefits, but the managers of organizations should carefully design the ISO 9000 implementation strategy. To develop a mature quality management system, critical success factors for ISO 9000 certification benefits should be considered in the early phases of their planning and designing processes. The article presents the critical success factors for ISO 9000 certification benefits which can help plan and implement quality management systems according to the 9000 standard most successfully. The investigation has shown that very important for ISO 9000 financial benefits is a well-developed ISO 9000 implementation strategy. Strategic orientation is a moderating factor influencing the relationship between ISO 9000 certification benefits and the firm's financial performance. In the present study, a strong interdependence between the companies' certification motivation factors and the results obtained was determined. From the overall findings of the investigation, it can be concluded that strong internal motivation or willingness to improve a company's quality helps establish a quality management system that leads to external benefits (such as the improvement of the company's position in the market) as well as to internal benefits. Continuous improvement of processes, people and system, the reward system, team work, the measurement of performance and communication during the post-certification period are all critical success factors for the sustainable quality management system and for successful results of ISO 9000 certification. Quality auditors are in a powerful position to increase the value of certifications. Value-added audit may not only produce data for the use in granting a certificate, for improving documentation or for enforcing conformity, but also for making managerial decisions concerned with economy, staff development, technology, growth, product and processes, because these decisions are based on current performance.


Focusing characteristics of hemispherical microlenses formed on the end of single-mode fibers are investigated. The Gaussian beam passing through a hemispherical microlens formed on the end of a single-mode fiber is always aberrated and truncated due to its spherical aberration and aperturing. However, numerical computations show that for the majority of the microlenses whose truncations and aberrations are small, the truncated or aberrated Gaussian beam can be assumed as a Gaussian beam. The shifts of the size and position of minimum 1/e spot size and the shift of the maximum intensity position due to the spherical aberration and the finite size of a microlens are also discussed. To analyze these shifts, Fresnel diffraction integrals are used in the intermediate field region to the hemispherical microlens. Minimum 1/e spot sizes for hemispherical microlenses are measured and compared with the theoretical values of minimum 1/e spot sizes derived with diffraction theory as well as with those derived using the paraxial theory.


A global three-dimensional model of the atmospheric mineral dust cycle is developed for the study of its impact on the radiative balance of the atmosphere. The model includes four size classes of minearl dust, whose source distributions are based on the distributions of vegetation, soil texture and soil moisture. Uplift and deposition are parameterized using analyzed winds and rainfall statistics that resolve high-frequency events. Dust transport in the atmosphere is simulated with the tracer transport model of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The simulated seasonal variations of dust concentrations show general reasonable agreement with the observed distributions, as do the size distributions at several observing sites. The discrepancies between the simulated and the observed dust concentrations point to regions of significant land surface modification. Monthly distribution of aerosol optical depths are calculated from the distribution of dust particle sizes. The maximum optical depth due to dust is 0.4-0.5 in the seasonal mean. The main uncertainties, about a factor of 3-5, in calculating optical thicknesses arise from the crude resolution of soil particle sizes, from insufficient constraint by the total dust loading in the atmosphere, and from our ignorance about adhesion, agglomeration, uplift, and size distributions of fine dust particles (less than 1 micrometer).


This article introduces a special issue on the expanding research agenda on institutional fragmentation. The term refers to the growing diversity and challenges to coordination among private and public norms, treaties, and organizations that address a given issue area of international politics. International relations scholars increasingly address this phenomenon, framing it with alternative concepts like regime complexes or polycentricity. A considerable part of the existing debate remains focused on whether a centralized or polycentric governance architecture is preferable. Instead, as this special issue shows, domains of global environmental governance—like climate change, biological diversity, renewable energy, and forestry—are already fragmented. It is time to address new, more pertinent questions and help advance institutionalist research on this phenomenon. We introduce four major research themes for analyzing the fragmentation of different domains of global environmental governance: taking stock, causes, consequences, and responses.


Faces of Impressionism explores the development of the portrait in French painting and sculpture between 1860 and 1910 as showcased in one of the world's greatest collections of Impressionist art--the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Splendidly illustrated, this book assesses the portrait collection through the expert eyes of George T. M. Shackelford and Guy Cogeval, as well as from the perspective of a new generation of distinguished scholars, Isolde Pludermacher and Xavier Rey. Featuring some of the best-loved portraits in the history of art--Cezanne's Woman with a Coffee Pot, Degas's L'Absinthe--this handsome volume includes masters such as Denis, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Signac, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and a detailed discussion on Manet and his followers as depicted in Fantin-Latour's renowned group portrait A Studio in the Batignolles.


The Jones criteria for guidance in the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever were first published by T. Duckett Jones, MD, in 1944 and have been revised over the years by the American Heart Association. The current guidelines are an update of these criteria. For the first time, the guidelines are designed to establish the initial attack of acute rheumatic fever. Major manifestations, minor manifestations, and supporting evidence of antecedent group A streptococcal infection are discussed. These updated guidelines expand on the available tools to diagnose streptococcal pharyngitis and clarify the available antibody tests for detecting antecedent group A streptococcal infection. At the present time echocardiography without accompanying auscultatory findings is insufficient to be the sole criterion for valvulitis in acute rheumatic fever. Finally, this article addresses overdiagnosis of rheumatic fever and lists exceptions to the Jones criteria, including recurrent attacks in individuals with a history of rheumatic fever.


The area involved by the triple junction between the South American, Nazca and Antarctic plates activity was affected by Quaternary glaciations. Before 12,800 yrs BP an extended ice field occupied the top of the Patagonian Andes, irradiating glaciers towards the east and the west dominantly. Towards the east, the ice melted in piedmont lakes; towards the west, fjords melted into the Pacific Ocean. The Upper-Pleistocene climate amelioration caused the recession of those glaciers. Some piedmont lakes reversed their Atlantic outflow towards to the Pacific Ocean. The glaciers retreat caused the fluvial reactivations along crustal former faults that were located below the ice. The Patagonian ice field became therefore split into present Northern and Southern fields. At the second largest lake of South America, the Buenos Aires-General Carrera Lake, the water level dropped from about 500 m over present mean sea level to 230 m. Several glaciolacustrine deposits from this area are indicating significant variations caused by climatic changes, volcanism and tectonics, differing in spatial and temporal magnitudes. The triple junction activity involved subduction of the Chile Ridge below the continental South American plate, volcanic activity and faulting. During the glacier melting the Baker River captured three eastern-moving glacial systems towards the southwest, towards the Pacific Ocean. This rapid event is thought to occur 12,800 yrs BP. The lowering of these glaciolacustrine systems should be also interpreted in terms of the tectonic activity in the region and considering other processes operating in the lakes and within the watersheds.


Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is the predominant cause of early graft loss following lung transplantation. We recently demonstrated that donor pulmonary intravascular nonclassical monocytes (NCM) initiate neutrophil recruitment. Simultaneously, host-origin classical monocytes (CM) permeabilize the vascular endothelium to allow neutrophil extravasation necessary for PGD. Here, we show that a CCL2-CCR2 axis is necessary for CM recruitment. Surprisingly, although intravital imaging and multichannel flow cytometry revealed that depletion of donor NCM abrogated CM recruitment, single cell RNA sequencing identified donor alveolar macrophages (AM) as predominant CCL2 secretors. Unbiased transcriptomic analysis of murine tissues combined with murine KOs and chimeras indicated that IL-1β production by donor NCM was responsible for the early activation of AM and CCL2 release. IL-1β production by NCM was NLRP3 inflammasome dependent and inhibited by treatment with a clinically approved sulphonylurea. Production of CCL2 in the donor AM occurred through IL-1R–dependent activation of the PKC and NF-κB pathway. Accordingly, we show that IL-1β–dependent paracrine interaction between donor NCM and AM leads to recruitment of recipient CM necessary for PGD. Since depletion of donor NCM, IL-1β, or IL-1R antagonism and inflammasome inhibition abrogated recruitment of CM and PGD and are feasible using FDA-approved compounds, our findings may have potential for clinical translation.


In this paper, we propose an econometric model of the joint dynamic relationship between the yield curve and the economy to predict business cycles. We examine the predictive value of the yield curve to forecast future economic growth as well as the beginning and end of economic recessions at the monthly frequency. The proposed nonlinear multivariate dynamic factor model takes into account not only the popular term spread but also information extracted from the level and curvature of the yield curve and from macroeconomic variables. The nonlinear model is used to investigate the interrelationship between the phases of the bond market and of the business cycle. The results indicate a strong interrelation between these two sectors. The proposed factor model of the yield curve exhibits substantial incremental predictive value compared to several alternative specifications. This result holds in-sample and out-of-sample, using revised or real time unrevised data.


I am writing to respond to John L. Luckner's article, "Using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills With Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Perspectives of a Panel of Experts," which was published in the Spring 2013 issue of the Annals (158[ 1], 7-19).Assessment, the gathering of data about children's knowledge of reading and writing, is a critical part of a child's literacy education (Morrow & Smith, 1990; Pearson, 2006; Teal et al., 2009). Luckner, a teacher-educator and reading researcher in deaf education, provides the field with a detailed description of one assessment for early literacy- the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, or DIBELS. According to Luckner, the DIBELS is composed of seven subtests: Letter Naming Fluency, Initial Sound Fluency, Phonemic Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Oral Reading Fluency, Retell Fluency, and Word Use Fluency. He gave the DIBELS to a panel of published reading experts in deaf education and had them comment. With these data, he then provided recommendations for teachers and researchers for the use of the DIBELS with students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Luckner points out that while the test was designed for hearing children, both he and his expert panel support its use with deaf children, particularly those with residual hearing and who use auditory technology such as digital hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. In his implications for practice section regarding use of the DIBELS, Luckner presents a balanced perspective. He echoes the sentiments of the notion expressed by Paul (2013) and Moores (2013) that "ones size does not fit all." According to Luckner, "It may be more appropriate to use other assessments tools and/or procedures with students who use sign as their primary mode of communication" (p. 15). In his article, Luckner also comments on the importance of applying evidence-based practices (EBPs), along with adhering to the five recommendations of the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000) for teaching reading in deaf education and using the suggestions of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) for early literacy interventions.My commentary on Luckner's article has three parts. First, I add to the compelling reasons he has cited as to why we need to do a better job of teaching literacy to deaf children. Second, I invite Annals readers to consider other reading scholars' views on emergent literacy and early literacy assessment, focusing particularly on their consensus on the importance of conducting reading assessments that are imbedded in specific instruction rather than providing assessments apart from a teacher's literacy lesson. I also discuss the notion of EBP and the NRP findings related to reading education and deaf education and the WWC recommendations for early literacy interventions. I link Luckner's emphasis on a soundbased phonology and the role of phonemic awareness in the early reading assessment of deaf children as carried out through use of the DIBELS to the clarion call by Paul (2013) and Moores (2013) for the acceptance of multiple pathways in the study of literacy and deaf children.Compelling Reasons to Teach LiteracyLuckner cites five compelling reasons why being able to read and write is critical. First, he states that learning to read is essential for school achievement.Second, he claims that literacy is important to being an informed citizen. In my work testing inmates and suspects in the courts and prisons, I have found that most do not have the language skills in reading and writing to be informed citizens; nor do they have the literacy skills to work with a lawyer, participate in their trial, and read legal documents such as the Miranda warning and the guilty plea questionnaire, among others. Nor can they read the inmate handbook while in prison or follow probation and parole guidelines when they are released (Andrews, 2011; Vernon & Andrews, 2011). In short, it is often impossible to provide them their constitutional rights, with or without a sign language interpreter (Andrews, Vernon, & LaVigne, 2007; LaVigne & Vernon, 2003). …


Purpose: Microvascular processes play key roles in many diseases including diabetes. Improved understanding of the microvascular changes involved in disease development could offer crucial insight into the relationship of these changes to disease pathogenesis. Super‐resolution ultrasound (SR‐US) imaging has showed the potential to visualize microvascular detail down to the capillary level (i.e., subwavelength resolution), but optimization is still necessary. The purpose of this study was to investigate in vivo SR‐US imaging of skeletal muscle microvascularity using microbubble (MB) contrast agents of various size and concentration while evaluating different ultrasound (US) system level parameters such as imaging frame rate and image acquisition length. Methods: An US system equipped with a linear array transducer was used in a harmonic imaging mode at low transmit power. C57BL/6J mice fed a normal diet were used in this study. An assortment of size‐selected MB contrast agents (1–2 μm, 3–4 μm, and 5–8 μm in diameter) were slowly infused in the tail vein at various doses (1.25 × 107, 2.5 × 107, or 5 × 107 MBs). US image data were collected before MB injection and thereafter for 10 min at 30 frames per s (fps). The US transducer was fixed throughout and between each imaging period to help capture microvascular patterns along the same image plane. An adaptive SR‐US image processing technique was implemented using custom Matlab software. Results: Experimental findings illustrate the use of larger MB results in better SR‐US images in terms of skeletal muscle microvascular detail. A dose of 2.5 × 107 MBs resulted in SR‐US images with optimal spatial resolution. An US imaging rate of at least 20 fps and image acquisition length of at least 8 min also resulted in SR‐US images with pronounced microvascular detail. Conclusions: This study indicates that MB size and dose and US system imaging rate and data acquisition length have significant impact on the quality of in vivo SR‐US images of skeletal muscle microvascularity.


Over the history of time, people have had to solve a host of distinct social problems in order to adapt and thus achieve reproductive success, including negotiating complex status hierarchies, forming successful work and social groups, attracting mates, fighting off potential rivals of food and sexual partners, giving birth and raising children, and battling nature (Buss, 1991, 2001). Universal biological imperatives are associated with a universal set of psychological problems that people need to solve in order to survive; thus, all individuals and groups of individuals must create ways to deal with these universal problems. The ways that each group develops then become their culture. In my view, culture is the product of the interaction between universal biological needs and functions, universal social problems created to 12


As we all know, the advertising and marketing industry is a tough place to be right now. Budgets are tight, and expectations are high. Unsurprisingly, stress levels are peaking, and relationships between agencies and their clients are increasingly strained and short-lived. Yet the client / agency partnership is, to a large extent, heavily dependent on the nature of the interaction between the agency and the client's marketing director. It is a particularly difficult and tenuous relationship to manage, but if you can succeed at it, a major part of the battle is already won.


"Transitional States" is Robert Polidori's attempt to visually portray aspects of historical revisionism as seen through various stages of the restoration of the Palace of Versailles. What does it really mean to restore a room? Is it about the precise duplication of something which is now showing the wear and tear of its age, to renew it and make it again as it once was? Or does it involve entirely redefining the rooms epidermis to a completely different state, a state that it may once have had in an earlier epoch? The curatorial decisions that control this process reflect a political will and esthetic tastes which have altered over the period of the restoration. Photographed over a period of 25 years, the transient and temporary situations which the labors of these restorations afford, present temporal paradoxes that engage layers of history and power.


How are mediated memories brought into being? In other words, how can we understand the ways personal and public memories are enacted in environments that have become increasingly digitally networked? Following this fundamental question for current interrogations of the entanglement of media and memory, we first develop a concept of mediated memory work. Instituting experiences and senses of the past, these time- and space-bound efforts interweave with arrangements of people and their social relations, cultural discourses, objects and media environments. Capitalizing on such an understanding of mediated memory work, the article demonstrates how and to what ends the enactment of memories can be empirically studied by using the example of the Cuban-American community in Miami. In particular, building on participant observation, in-depth interviews and media ethnography, we outline practices, cultural artefacts, communal bonds, compassionate relations and a media manifold that have been employed by different segments of a diasporic collective in shaping how the country of origin and the exile is to be remembered.


This paper has grown out of the practice of the Shepparton Koori Court in Victoria (Australia). It reflects the views of two 'insiders' to the process — the first sitting magistrate and the first enabling Aboriginal Justice Officer. We do not pretend that our views of the court's operations in its first 18 months are anything other than our own unabridged social and cultural constructions of what we have seen and heard in the court as hearings and procedure have evolved. This is not a paper replete with data and external evaluation. We have not collected statistics on our court. We present our thoughts on what we have observed. We do not present an analytical paper and we have not explored theoretical underpinnings about the place of Indigenous people in the imposed legal system. This paper is essentially descriptive. We believe this is the place to start — describing the changes in the culture of the court and the jurisprudence of the post-colonial state. In our view it is only after we start this conversation, in this way, that we can start to understand how much work we still have to do. We believe that in engaging insiders and outsiders in the sort of description which follows we can start to unpack our complex exclusiveness with its insistent inclusiveness. Aboriginal people are statistically more likely to come before a court than non-Aboriginal people, yet they are invariably outsiders to the process. We think our paper starts to uncover reasons why this is so and how we can, in practice, remedy this situation. This journal article is available in Law Text Culture: http://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol8/iss1/2 7 Law Text Culture Vol 8 20040000 Koori Court Victoria: Magistrates Court (Koori Court) Act 20021 Kate Auty and Daniel Briggs This paper has grown out of the practice of the Shepparton Koori Court in Victoria (Australia). It reflects the views of two 'insiders' to the process — the first sitting magistrate and the first enabling Aboriginal Justice Officer. We do not pretend that our views of the court's operations in its first 18 months are anything other than our own unabridged social and cultural constructions of what we have seen and heard in the court as hearings and procedure have evolved. This is not a paper replete with data and external evaluation. We have not collected statistics on our court. We present our thoughts on what we have observed. We do not present an analytical paper and we have not explored theoretical underpinnings about the place of Indigenous people in the imposed legal system. This paper is essentially descriptive. We believe this is the place to start — describing the changes in the culture of the court and the jurisprudence of the post-colonial state. In our view it is only after we start this conversation, in this way, that we can start to understand how much work we still have to do. We believe that in engaging insiders and outsiders in the sort of description which follows we can start to unpack our complex exclusiveness with its insistent inclusiveness. Aboriginal people are statistically more likely to come before a court than non-Aboriginal people, yet they are invariably outsiders to the process. We think our paper starts to uncover reasons why this is so and how we can, in practice, remedy this situation.


Time-resolved dynamics in charge-density-wave materials have revealed interesting out-of-equilibrium electronic responses. However these are typically only performed in a single material possessing a CDW. As such, it is challenging to separate subtle effects originating from the CDW. Here, we report on the ultrafast dynamics of the GdSb$_{x}$Te$_{2-x-\delta}$ series of materials where E$_{F}$ can be tuned, resulting in a change from an undistorted tetraganal phase to a CDW with a wavevector that depends on $x$. Using mid-infrared, near-infrared, and visible excitation, we find the dynamics are sensitive to both E$_{F}$ and the presence of the CDW. Specifically, as the Sb content of the compounds increases, transient spectral features shift to higher probe energies. In addition, we observe an enhanced lifetime and change in the sign of the transient signal upon removing the CDW with high Sb concentrations. Finally, we reveal fluence- and temperature-dependent photo-induced responses of the differential reflectivity, which provide evidence of transient charge density wave suppression in related telluride materials. Taken together our results provide a blueprint for future ultrafast studies of CDW systems.


Opioid misuse and abuse is a major international public health issue. Opioid use disorder (OUD) is largely maintained by a desire to suppress aversive opioid withdrawal symptoms. Opioid withdrawal in patients seeking abstinence from illicit or prescribed opioids is often managed by provision of a μ-opioid agonist/partial agonist in combination with concomitant medications. Concomitant medications are administered based on their ability to treat specific symptoms rather than a mechanistic understanding of the opioid withdrawal syndrome; however, their use has not been statistically associated with improved treatment outcomes. Understanding the central and/or peripheral mechanisms that underlie individual withdrawal symptom expression in humans will help promote medication development for opioid withdrawal management. To support focused examination of mechanistically supported concomitant medications, this review summarizes evidence from preclinical (N = 68) and human (N = 30) studies that administered drugs acting on the dopamine, serotonin, cannabinoid, orexin/hypocretin, and glutamate systems and reported outcomes related to opioid withdrawal. These studies provide evidence that each of these systems contribute to opioid withdrawal severity. The Food and Drug Administration has approved medications acting on these respective systems for other indications and research in this area could support the repurposing of these medications to enhance opioid withdrawal treatment. These data support a focused examination of mechanistically informed concomitant medications to help reduce opioid withdrawal severity and enhance the continuum of care available for persons with OUD.


DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) provides a cryptographic mechanism
for domains to assert responsibility for the messages they handle. A
related mechanism will allow an administrator to publish various
statements about their DKIM signing practices. This document defines
requirements for this mechanism, distinguishing between those that
must be satisfied (MUST), and those that are highly desirable
(SHOULD). This memo provides information for the Internet community.


Guide to library resources and services for San Diego students in the Marital & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling programs


Aluminum sheets were polished to reduce ruggedness and then textured in varying acid-ethanol concentration etchant to form pores. The textured surface was characterized structurally by using X-ray diffraction (XRD)which revealed aluminum crystallographic planes (1 1 1), (2 0 0), (2 2 0) and (3 1 1). Its morphology was studied by using energy dispersive X-ray (EDX)and scanning electron microscope (SEM)that confirmed purity of aluminum sheet to be 99.66% at. Reflectance of textured and plain aluminum sheet was analyzed by spectrophotometric measurements which showed that texturing reduced the reflectance of the polished surface by 26% in the UV-VIS-NIR spectrum of solar radiation. With reduced reflectance of the textured aluminum sheet, it was applicable for solar radiation absorption.


Wu, Duncan. William Hazlitt: The First Modern Man. New York Oxford University Press, 2008. 557 pp. $45. Duncan Wu, a professor of English at Georgetown and a long-time William Hazlitt scholar, has produced a masterly biography of Hazlitt, an often-overlooked Romantic writer. Beginning with his 1778 birth near London, continuing through childhood in the United States and the English countryside, and culminating in his adult years in the capital and on the continent, Wu describes in detail this apparent polymath. According to Wu, Hazlitt penned philosophical essays introducing theories of psychology and aesthetics; painted imitating the masters; presented thoughtful public lectures; and participated extensively in journalism, "a trade he could never give up, as he could not afford to do so" until his death in 1 830. His press career encompassed parliamentary reporting, editorial commentary, and rheatre, art and, above all, literary criticism. Wu names him the father of the political sketch that exemplifies linguistic caricature, the fearure story that combines anecdote and analysis, and the sporrs column diat enlivens events. The son of Unitarians, Hazlitt had an informal education, ranging from classics to shorthand, and a developing interest in the arts. Before he was eighteen, he lost his faith but not his belief in Radical politics. His lifelong commitment to its tenets resonates throughout Wu's text but surfaces most often in discussions of Hazlitt's disdain for acquaintances who abandoned theit enthusiasm for this credo. His attitude earned him the enmity of important authors, among them Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, and of periodicals that promoted conservatism. While it seems excessive for Wu to characterize publisher William Blackwood as a "malicious mug," evidence points to the latter's Bkckwood's Magazine as a major player in discrediting Hazlitt's work. As Wu makes clear, the attacks by this and other serials persisted, eventually constituting a "subgenre of literary journalism" so severe that Charles Lamb and William Godwin could hardly assuage its effects on their friend. As Wu follows Hazlitt, he pictures many men who shaped early nineteenth-century journalism, then a stepchild of literature but on the threshold of becoming the chief medium of public communication. The famous included: William Cobbett, who mentored him and welcomed him to the Political Register, James Perry, rhe Morning Chronicle owner, who hired him at thirty-four to cover the House of Commons, which was his first salaried journalism job; Francis Jeffrey, the longtime editor of the Edinburgh Review, who paid him well for his articles and regularly loaned him money; Henry Colburn, a ubiquitous periodicals' publisher, who brought him to the New Monthly Magazine against the wishes of editor Thomas Campbell; and Thomas Barnes, the successor as Times' editor to Hazlitt's brother-in-law and foe, John Stoddart, and a patron of Hazlitt at the paper in 1817. …


In this article we highlight rationalizations within industry that were initiated and conducted locally during overt or latent threat of plant close-down. A common feature in our four investigated cases of 'declining organizations' is that the surprising increases in productivity cannot be thought of as the result of 'management by fear' or other active measures taken by management. On the contrary, our findings suggest that the 'close-down effect' is brought about through workers' active and creative involvement in production matters when managers' interest in maintaining the established order at the workplace is fading away.


Abstract Single case studies led to the discovery and phenomenological description of Gelotophobia and its definition as the pathological fear of appearing to social partners as a ridiculous object (Titze 1995, 1996, 1997). The aim of the present study is to empirically examine the core assumptions about the fear of being laughed at in a sample comprising a total of 863 clinical and non-clinical participants. Discriminant function analysis yielded that gelotophobes can be separated from other shame-based neurotics, non-shame-based neurotics, and controls. Separation was best for statements specifically describing the gelotophobic symptomatology and less potent for more general questions describing socially avoidant behaviors. Factor analysis demonstrates that while Gelotophobia is composed of a set of correlated elements in homogenous samples, overall the concept is best conceptualized as unidimensional. Predicted and actual group membership converged well in a cross-classification (approximately 69% of correctly classified cases). Overall, it can be concluded that the fear of being laughed at varies tremendously among adults and might hold a key to understanding certain forms of humorlessness.


PURPOSE
To describe the survival rate and peri-implant bone loss in very old patients dependent for their activities of daily living (ADL), treated with mandibular two-implant overdentures (IODs) in the context of a previously reported randomized controlled trial.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 19 patients received two interforaminal Straumann implants (Regular Neck, 4.1 mm diameter, 8 mm length) that were subsequently loaded with Locator attachments, transforming their preexisting inferior conventional denture into an IOD. The primary outcome measures were implant survival rate and radiographically assessed peri-implant bone loss. Secondary outcome measures included peri-implant probing depth and Plaque Index scores, as well as implant mobility. Nutritional state (body mass index and blood markers) and cognitive state (Mini-Mental State Examination) were also analyzed.

RESULTS
The patient cohort comprised eight men and 11 women with a mean age of 85.7 ± 6.6 years. The implant survival rate up to 5 years was 94.7%, with one early and one late implant failure. The mean loss of peri-implant bone height was 0.17 mm per year (95% confidence interval: 0.09 to 0.24; P < .001). Peri-implant probing depth and Plaque Index scores were low and stable during the first 2 years, and thereafter increased continuously. Correlation analysis suggests that a reduced cognitive function and nutritional state are not a particular risk factor for accelerated peri-implant bone loss.

CONCLUSION
The high implant survival and acceptable peri-implant health suggest that neither age nor dependency for the ADLs is a contraindication for the placement of implants. Nevertheless, close monitoring of the patients concerning a potential further functional decline precluding denture management and performing oral hygiene measures is advised.


This essay considers the persistence of collective and corporate models of literary authority within late-Victorian literature and print culture. While modern critics often understand Victorian authorship to be individually centered and governed by a dynamic of secrecy and disclosure, the periodical debates about anonymity that intensified in the fin de siècle suggest that Victorian readers and writers embraced a more flexible, collective notion of authorship. The plot, language, and paratext of Mary Elizabeth Hawker's pseudonymously published Mademoiselle Ixe, as well as the author-publisher correspondence concerning the novel, offer a representation of the corporate and collective interpretive modes that would have been familiar to late-Victorian readers, if not to recent critics. Hawker's text and the archival material it brings to light also suggest that modern readers might productively turn to the Victorian past to expand the definitions of authorship that circulate throughout nineteenth-century scholarship today.


Vulnerability to spoofing attacks is a serious drawback for many biometric systems. Among all biometric traits, face is the one that is exposed to the most serious threat, since it is exceptionally easy to access. The limited work on fraud detection capabilities for face mainly shapes around 2D attacks forged by displaying printed photos or replaying recorded videos on mobile devices. A significant portion of this work is based on the flatness of the facial surface in front of the sensor. In this study, we complicate the spoofing problem further by introducing the 3rd dimension and ex- amine possible 3D attack instruments. A small database is constructed with six different types of 3D facial masks and it is utilized to conduct experiments on state-of-the-art 2D face recognition systems. Spoofing performance for each type of mask is assessed and analysed thoroughly.


OBJECTIVES
Diabetes mellitus (DM) and renal impairment (RI) are both independent predictors of mortality after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). The two conditions often coexist, yet the impact on long-term prognosis after CABG of each factor relative to the other and the two in combination is uncertain.

METHODS
We undertook a prospective cohort study of 4869 patients who underwent CABG between 2003 and 2007. The cohort was divided into four groups according to preoperative diabetic status and renal function: patients without either DM or RI (reference group), patients with DM alone, patients with RI alone and patients with both DM and RI. Clinical outcomes were compared between groups. Patients receiving renal replacement therapy were excluded. The primary outcome was 5-year all-cause mortality.

RESULTS
The crude 5-year all-cause mortality rate was 9.0% for patients in the reference group, 11.1% for patients with DM alone, 20.3% for patients with RI alone and 28.5% for patients with both DM and RI (P < 0.0001). Five-year survival adjusted for potential confounding factors was significantly worse for patients with DM (hazard ratio (HR) 1.30; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-1.59), patients with RI (HR 1.32; 95% CI 1.08-1.61) and patients with both DM and RI (HR 2.04; 95% CI 1.65-2.53) when compared with patients with neither condition.

CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative DM and RI were important predictors of 5-year mortality after CABG. Patients with RI alone had a higher mortality rate than patients with DM alone, but this difference was largely accounted for by age and other comorbidities. The combination of DM and RI doubled the 5-year mortality rate after CABG independently of potential confounding factors.


Thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) has been shown to play a critical role in inhibiting angiogenesis, resulting in inhibition of tumor growth and metastases. To figure out TSP1's regulators will lead to reveal its biological function mechanistically. In this study, we show that E2F-1 could activate the transcription of TSP1 by both promoter assays and Northern blot. Analysis of various TSP1 promoter mutant constructs showed that a sequence located −144/−137 up-stream of the transcriptional initiation site, related to the consensus E2F-responsive sequence, is necessary for the activation. In consistence with up-regulation of TSP-1 activity by over-expression of E2F-1, the knockdown of endogenous E2F-1 inhibited TSP-1 promoter activity significantly, implying that E2F-1 mediated regulation of TSP-1 is relevant in vivo. In addition, E2F-1 could also directly bind to the TSP1 promoter region covering −144/−137 region as revealed by ChIP assays. Furthermore, the E2F-1-induced activation of TSP1 gene transcription is suppressed by pRB1 in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, the results demonstrate that TSP1 is a novel target for E2F1, which might imply that E2F-1 can affect angiogenesis by modulating TSP1 expression.


During our research we aimed at finding an answer as to what extent the different concentrations of 17-alpha methyl testosterone incorporated in the diet of common carp fries can influence the production parameters of the species, as well as how efficient their sexreversal can be with the use of this method. To this end, an aquarium experiment was conducted in the course of which four different hormone treatments were set and monitored. The fish feed was enriched with 17-alpha methyl testosterone in 50 ppm, 75 ppm, 100 ppm, 500 ppm dosages.
The obtained figures revealed that the hormone treatments had no influence on the production parameters and conservation of the common carp fries. Further on, our team is to determine the sex of the fish through the examination of gonads during autopsy when they reach the 500 g average weight.
Furthermore, a male specific test method which was supposed to be of great help in our attempt to select the sex-reversed specimens in the subsequent processes was also put to the trial. During the experiment the DNA-isolation of different sample types (muscle tissue, fin, mucus) of common carp with identified sex was successfully carried out. The extracted PCR product was examined with agarose gel. Our results indicated that the ccmf2 marker was applicable, however, the obtained figures were not reliable.


Cholesterol is an essential component of membranes in higher eukaryotes, and a precursor for further important sterols. Abnormally high or low levels of cholesterol are associated with increased mortality, thus the amount of cholesterol available to the cells from diet or by de novo synthesis needs to be closely regulated. One of the most important coordinators of cholesterol homeostasis is the sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) family of transcription factors. Although fundamental mechanisms of the cholesterol metabolism as well as their regulation have been well described, it is believed that only a limited number of contributing factors have been discovered.
The aim of this study was to identify novel targets of SREBP that contribute to the tight regulation of cellular cholesterol metabolism. For this, ten genes that had not previously been associated with cholesterol metabolism, but identified as putative SREBP targets through a combination of genome wide gene expression profiling and in silico promoter binding site predictions, were experimentally investigated. For nine of these candidate genes increased expression under sterol-depleted culture conditions was confirmed. Of these, four genes – C17ORF59, HES6, TMEM55B and SLC2A6 – were experimentally validated as regulated via SREBP transcription factors.
One of the most promising candidate genes, C17ORF59, was characterized in further detail to elucidate its functional
role in cholesterol metabolism. Knockdown of this previously uncharacterized gene lead to a redistribution of the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor from the plasma membrane towards the cell interior. Consequently, cellular uptake of LDL cholesterol is considerably reduced.
Cellular localization studies revealed that the protein C17orf59 predominantly locates to the endo-lysosomal system. Furthermore, knockdown of C17orf59 lead to a scattering of the Golgi apparatus and is associated with a reduced vesicular stomatis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) transport to the cell surface. These results suggest that C17orf59 might play a role in the recycling of LDL receptor from sorting endosomes to the plasma membrane.
By unrevealing C17orf59 as novel SREBP target and as relevant for LDL receptor localization and function, the findings of this study may contribute to a better understanding of cholesterol metabolism and introduce C17orf59 as putative therapeutic target for hypercholesterolemia and arteriosclerosis.


Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy and its incidence is increasing worldwide. We previously found that normal rat thyroid cells, transduced with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC)-related oncogenes, display an inflammatory signature, that includes cytokines, chemokines and their receptors (Melillo at al., 2005). One of the chemokine receptors we identified, CXCR4, is frequently up-regulated in thyroid cancer and the chemokine SDF-1, a CXCR4 ligand, induces proliferation, survival and invasive ability of PTC cells; moreover, CXCR4 blocking compounds inhibit thyroid cancer growth (Castellone et al., 2004; De Falco et al., 2007). In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the biological effects of CXCR4/SDF-1α in thyroid carcer, we performed a global genome expression profile, through DNA microarrays, of CXCR4-expressing human papillary thyroid carcinoma cells (TPC-1) treated or not with SDF-1α. We identified, as transcriptional targets of CXCR4/SDF-1α, two tyrosine-kinase receptors: TYRO3 and AXL. These proteins belong to a small Protein Tyrosine Kinase (PTK) subfamily of receptors that includes three members: TYRO3, AXL and MER, from which this family is named TAM; they can be activated by two ligands, GAS6 and Protein S, are involved in the regulation of immune response, and are overexpressed in some epithelial cancers (Linger et al., 2008). We found that TPC-1 cells, derived from a human PTC, constitutively express TYRO3 and AXL receptors, but SDF-1α stimulation increased their protein level and tyrosine phosphorylation. We found that most of the available thyroid cancer cell lines express both the receptors, albeit to different extent, and AXL was always much more abundant than TYRO3. In most cell lines, the two receptors display high levels of tyrosine-phosphorylation, due to constitutive expression of GAS6. An exception to this rule was the TPC-1 cell line, in which AXL was highly phosphorylated despite the fact that GAS6 is absent. AXL and its ligand GAS6 are also overexpressed in human thyroid carcinoma samples with respect to normal thyroid, as assessed by IHC. The inhibition of TYRO3 and AXL by blocking reagents or RNA interference targeting each receptor or the ligand decreased cell proliferation and resistance to apoptotic stimuli in different thryoid cancer cell lines. In cell lines that expressed both receptors and ligand, the simultaneous blockade of these molecules dramatically affected cell viability. Accordingly, we showed that the stimulation of GAS6-negative TPC-1 cells with exogenous GAS6 increased their proliferation and survival. Finally, we found that the blockade of AXL receptor consistently impaired thyroid carcinoma cell line invasiveness through Matrigel and, moreover, it inhibited tumor growth in nude mice. In this thesis project, we provide evidences that targeting CXCR4/SDF-1 or TYRO3/AXL/GAS6 axis might be exploited as novel anticancer therapyes for human thyroid carcinomas.


This report describes the technology data collection and analysis to set up a set of input data for the ETP MARKAL model of the IEA. The technology data is focussed on the setting up of learning curve parameters, using learning in clusters. The technology areas covered are electricity production, up stream oil and gas sector and CO2 capture. In addition, global but regionalised cost curves for biological CO2 storage in forestry activities are estimated and examined. Finally a comparison is made of the Western European database as set up for ETP and ECN's own database covering the same area. The comparison looked in some key result indicators and tried to explain the differences.


We describe the factors important in the design and the performance of femtosecond optical parametric oscillators. Resonator design, oscillation threshold, choice of nonlinear material, and signal output pulse duration are discussed. A detailed comparative analysis of KTiOPO4 and its crystal isomorphs with regard to applications in femtosecond optical parametric oscillators is given, and the experimental performance of oscillators based on KTiOPO4 and RbTiOAsO4 is compared.


A novel technique for the fabrication of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) fine patterning in sol-gel technology is presented in this paper. The fabricated ITO fine patterning could be obtained through a process which combines film fabrication with film etching. ITO films have good comprehensive property of visible transmittance and electrical conductivity, consequently they have been extensively used as coating electrodes. Indium nitrate (In(NO3)3.4.5H2 O) and stannic chloride ( SnCl4.5H2O) were used as starting materials which were modified with benzytone (BzAcH). The chelate complexes containing indium ions were produced during the process which of forming photosensitive ITO/BzAcH gel films through sol-gel technique. It was found that the gel films are sensitive to both the ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation and their solubility on solvents as well. For example, ethanol was reduced remarkably while the UV absorption peak disappeared with the dissociation of the chelate complexes correspondingly by means of UV-vis and IR spectrophotometers. Utilizing these characteristics, a fine pattern was obtained by irradiation of UV light on the ITO/BzAcH gel films through a pattern mask. of the fine patterned ITO films were heat treated at 500degC for 15 min, the optical, electrical properties and the surface element components were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra in this work


Tornado frequency may increase as the factors that contribute to severe convection are altered by a changing climate. Attributing changes in tornado frequency to observed global climate change is complicated because observational effort has increased over time, but studies of the seasonal distribution of tornado activity may avoid sampling biases. We demonstrate that peak tornado activity has shifted 7 days earlier in the year over the past six decades in the central and southern US Great Plains, the area with the highest global incidence of tornado activity. Results are largely unrelated to large‐scale climate oscillations, and observed climate trends cannot fully account for observations, which suggest that changes to regional climate dynamics should be further investigated. Tornado preparedness efforts at individual to national levels should be cognizant of the trend toward earlier peak tornado activity across the heart of "Tornado Alley".


Information and communication systems are now breeding grounds for electronic-evidence (eevidence) in audits, investigations, or litigation. Increasingly organizations are being ordered by law or lawsuit to preserve, retrieve, and hand-over relevant electronic records (e-records) because "the courts are uniformly recognizing the discoverability of electronic communication and documents" [Nimsger and Lange, 2002]. This trend is an outgrowth of aggressive tactics by regulators to ensure corporate accountability and deter fraud. In cases ranging from Securities and Exchange Commission probes of corporate malfeasance and insider trading to employment lawsuits, e-records are subpoenaed. Investigations conducted by the National Association of Security Dealers, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security routinely require companies, their business partners, or third parties to preserve and disclose e-records, including internal e-mail and instant messages (IM). A highprofile example is the probe into alleged White House leaks of a covert CIA agent's identity in which White House employees received e-mail stating: ''You must preserve all materials that might in any way be related to the department's investigation.'' E-mail, telephone logs, and other electronic documents were mentioned specifically. Any communication or file storage device is subject to computer forensic searches to identify, examine, and preserve potential e-evidence—the electronic equivalent of a "smoking gun." Preserving e-records and then restoring them so that they can be searched can seriously disrupt IS and over-burden Information Systems staff. What's more, a preservation order might specify not only the type of e-records (data files or email), but also stipulate that processes that over-write data be suspended, or that backup tapes be retained for unspecified duration. These stipulations are very disruptive to IS operations. That disruption depends largely on whether the company had an e-record management (ERM) system to systemically review, retain, and destroy e-records received or created in the course of business. This article presents an overview of e-evidence and computer forensics and their implications for Information Systems. It aims to encourage research into ERM and fully-indexed, searchable email archives by providing compelling reasons for how these approaches mitigate e-evidence risks and cost. These research issues are important for several reasons. Rarely are IS 458 Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume 12, 2003) 457-468 Electronic Evidence and Computer Forensics by L. Volonino departments prepared for the challenges that evidentiary rules impose on active and archival data operations. Retaining unessential e-records increases costs and risks. Companies may need to justify their e-record retention and destruction policies as proof of compliance with their accounting, regulatory, or legal obligations. Courts impose severe sanctions on employers who claim they are unable to comply with e-record requests because of Information Systems design flaws or sloppy e-records management if it obstructs an investigation.


This study, based on Taiwanese geographical concepts, develops a multi-touch interactive jigsaw puzzle (MIJP) to assist primary school students in solving geographical puzzles. The MIJP, which has multi-touch operating characteristics and provides two kinds of scaffolding tools, each with a different level of difficulty, can assist students in solving problems in the games and prevent them from feeling stuck and frustrated. In addition, it explores the influence of the interactive game approach (three levels of difficulty) on learning performance and satisfaction. The results indicated that the learning performance of each group, significantly improved after the experiment. In particular, moderate gaming difficulty led to the best learning performance for learners. A comparison of learners who did not use scaffolding to solve problems and those who did shows the level of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Moreover, the analysis of satisfaction evaluations by learners with/without scaffolding showed there were statistically significant differences in the measures of learning satisfaction. Finally, this study revealed that the students tended to be over-reliant on the scaffolding tools during the game, which prevented them from internalizing knowledge through the interactive learning process.


In this paper, we present an online reinforcement learning algorithm, called Renewal Monte Carlo (RMC), for infinite horizon Markov decision processes with a designated start state. RMC is a Monte Carlo algorithm and retains the advantages of Monte Carlo methods including low bias, simplicity and ease of implementation while, at the same time, circumvents their key drawbacks of high variance and delayed (end of episode) updates. The key ideas behind RMC are as follows. First, under any reasonable policy, the reward process is ergodic. So, by renewal theory, the performance of a policy is equal to the ratio of expected discounted reward to the expected discounted time over a regenerative cycle. Second, by carefully examining the expression for performance gradient, we propose a stochastic approximation algorithm that only requires estimates of the expected discounted reward and discounted time over a regenerative cycle and their gradients. We propose two unbiased estimators for evaluating performance gradients—a likelihood ratio based estimator and a simultaneous perturbation based estimator—and show that for both estimators, RMC converges to a locally optimal policy. We also generalize the RMC algorithm to post-decision state models. We conclude by presenting numerical experiments on a randomly generated MDP and event driven communication.


This paper introduces a new method for semi-supervised learning on high dimensional nonlinear manifolds, which includes a phase of unsupervised basis learning and a phase of supervised function learning. The learned bases provide a set of anchor points to form a local coordinate system, such that each data point x on the manifold can be locally approximated by a linear combination of its nearby anchor points, and the linear weights become its local coordinate coding. We show that a high dimensional nonlinear function can be approximated by a global linear function with respect to this coding scheme, and the approximation quality is ensured by the locality of such coding. The method turns a difficult nonlinear learning problem into a simple global linear learning problem, which overcomes some drawbacks of traditional local learning methods.


R. A. Gordon: The papers by Hall and by Holt and his colleagues at the Urban Institute are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in their analyses of what manpower policy can contribute to improving the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. Holt and his associates hold out high hope with a much expanded and improved set of programs. Hall writes off 80 percent or more of the effect on unemployment that Holt and his colleagues estimate would result from their recommendations. Indeed, Hall can see little if any effect of existing manpower programs in shifting the Phillips curve, and apparently believes that whatever their merits on other grounds, existing programs are largely worthless as a means of improving the unemployment-inflation tradeoff. My own position lies between these two extremes. I think that Holt and his colleagues are too optimistic, both in their assessment of the magnitude of the effect of their program in reducing unemployment and in their implication that a program of the size and kind they envision is politically feasible. On the other hand, I believe that Hall goes much too far in the other direction. His Table 1, for example, seriously underestimates the number of workers who might be helped by the Employment Service. While there is an interesting discussion, at the beginning of Hall's paper, of the alternate views that have been expounded regarding defects in the labor market that yield an unfavorable Phillips curve today for the United States, the views he summarizes are incompletely described, and he does not consider the various ways in which they may overlap each other.


OBJECTIVES
Firefighters are exposed to repeated traumatic events while the robustness of cumulative effects of repeated exposure to trauma on psychological distress among them are inconsistent. Considering the length of service and seniority are risk factors, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the interaction between age and seniority on psychological distress and quality of life among firefighters.

METHODS
Participants were 229 firefighters of the Hualien County Fire Bureau in Taiwan who worked full time in response to emergency services and disaster rescues activities. Probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, and quality of life were assessed among firefighters using psychodiagnostics questionnaires. Firefighters were stratified based on age into a young and a mature group, and based on length of service into a junior and a senior group, yielding four groups: "young-senior," "young-junior," "mature-senior," and "mature-junior."

RESULTS
A majority of the firefighters were dissatisfied with their health condition. All the firefighters scored relatively lower at the social domain of their quality of life compared with physical, emotional, and environment domains. In the post hoc multiple comparison analysis, the young-senior firefighters were found to be most vulnerable to psychological distress, manifested in having a higher prevalence of, and suffering from more, severe probable PTSD, depression, anxiety, and agoraphobia symptoms than the other groups of firefighters.

CONCLUSIONS
Age and job seniority have significant effects on psychological distress among firefighters. Being young and starting young to serve as a firefighter for a relatively long time is a significant risk factor for psychological distress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


The original policy for the implementation of payroll taxes was to impose a tax on wages as both a funding mechanism for, and a limitation to, qualifying for social security. However, the self-employment tax base developed severe inconsistencies with this original policy and among different tax entities by including certain returns on capital investments in the tax base. At present, different payroll tax obligations arise for similarly situated tax payers based solely on the type of entity the owner elects to be taxed as under the check-the-box regulations. These inconsistencies resulted from misguided efforts by congress and the treasury to view the payroll tax base with the same lens as the income tax. This misconception is evident in regulations and proposals that seek to distinguish wages from capital for purposes of payroll taxes based on the active/passive distinction that arose under the passive loss limitation rules of the income tax.Following the lead of the self-employment tax base, the newly minted net investment income tax base that arose under the Affordable Care Act now suffers from similar inconsistencies. Consequently, certain capital income for active members of tax partnerships is included in the self-employment tax base and this same income for shareholders of S-corporations is neither taxed as self-employment income nor is it taxed under the net investment income tax regime. Also, owner-employees are entitled to significant reductions in their payroll tax obligations when the value of their services provided to the company exceeds their share of the income from the company and this reduction is never recaptured even if the company becomes very profitable in subsequent years. The net investment income tax takes effect for the first time in 2013 and there are currently pending proposals for legislation that seek to merge the income tax provisions for the various flow-through entities under one standardized set of rules. So the time is ripe to eliminate the various inconsistencies in the payroll tax and net investment income tax by using a uniform standard consistently applied across all entities and taxpayers.This article makes four recommendations to restore the payroll tax regime to its original purpose and cure these inconsistencies in the payroll tax and net investment income tax bases. First, payroll taxes should be standardized for all taxpayers across all tax entities by using the reasonable compensation standard so that capital income is entirely eliminated from the payroll tax base. Second, the treasury should issue significant regulations to improve the administration of the reasonable compensation standard including providing safe harbor amounts for the value of services by owner-employees based on the average remuneration paid to similarly situated non-owner taxpayers. Third, to the extent that the owner-employee's share of income for the year is less than the value of services provided to the company, such deficiencies should be carried forward for up to three future tax years and applied to increase the payroll tax base of the employee-owner to the extent that the owner-employee's share of income exceeds the value of services provided in such later year. Finally, the definition for net investment income should be modified to simply include all items of income that are not otherwise subject to the payroll tax base.Since the proper implementation of these recommendations would require congressional action, these changes should be made on a revenue neutral basis. After taking the projected revenue adjustments along with the projected adjustments to future outlays, the tax rates should be adjusted downward to the extent the changes increase net revenues or upward should these changes result in a decreased in net revenues. These changes would reacquaint payroll taxes with the original policy for the social security tax and benefit system – namely, that it be based on the wages of wage earners rather than capital income – and would eliminate the arbitrary variance in the self-employment and net investment income tax bases between identical business activities of owners of different flow-through entities.


Much has been written about the so-called cultural defense or, more accurately, the proffer of cultural evidence by a criminal defendant seeking to mitigate a charge or sentence. Many scholars support the admission of cultural evidence, but argue it should be limited to cases where such evidence is used to negate the mens rea element of the charged offense. Others feel that the admission of cultural evidence violates the principle of equal protection and favors immigrant and minority defendants over American defendants, and therefore the practice should be sharply circumscribed. Recently, a few legal scholars have issued calls for recognition of an official cultural defense. In Cultural Convergence, Professor Lee neither defends nor criticizes the practice of using culture in the criminal courtroom. Rather, she seeks to illuminate why some uses of culture in the criminal courtroom seem to be more successful than others. Generally speaking, immigrants and minority defendants who seek to proffer cultural evidence in their defense are not successful. Either the judge deems the evidence irrelevant or the jury is not persuaded that the defendant's cultural background should be grounds for leniency. An extensive review of the cultural defense literature, however, suggests that immigrant and minority defendants who successfully introduce cultural evidence in their defense have one thing in common. The cultural norms underlying their claims are either similar to or complement American cultural norms, including retrograde, e.g., racist and sexist, norms. Borrowing from Derrick Bell's interest convergence theory, Lee argues that cultural convergence is one way to explain these results. Cultural convergence is the idea that the cultural defense claims of minority and immigrant defendants are more likely to receive accommodation when there is convergence between the cultural norms relied upon by the immigrant or minority defendant and American cultural norms. This article proceeds in three parts. Part I provides the reader with an overview of the major legal issues surrounding the use of cultural evidence in the criminal courtroom. Part II provides a comprehensive taxonomy of the ways Derrick Bell's interest convergence theory has been applied by legal scholars. Part III demonstrates how Lee's theory of cultural convergence can help explain many of the successful uses of culture in the criminal courtroom.


On the basis of trawl survey data collected during the MEDITS project (1994-1999), the distribution of Mediterranean hake populations was described in coastal areas corresponding to about three quarters of both the latitudinal and longitudinal extensions of the Mediterranean Sea, and in the 0-800 m range. Abundance and biomass indices (in terms of number and kg per km 2 ) are presented in 15 geographical sectors and 40 subareas from the Alboran Sea to the Aegean Sea. A statistical analysis by generalized linear modelling performed on such indices per main national blocks (Greece, France, Italy and Spain), and considering the effects of the six years of sampling and the depth, showed that biomass increased from west to east, while for all areas the most significant depth effect appeared between 100 and 200 m, corresponding to the depth range that hosts most of the summer nursery areas. The overall size-frequency distributions in shelf and slope waters, average sizes and total mortality coefficient Z per sector showed that the bulk of the MEDITS samples consisted of young individuals and, with only a few exceptions (western Sardinia, central Aegean), a generalized condition of growth overfishing was apparent. However, no negative trend was found, either in biomass or in average size of fishes, during the six years of the present study. Recruitment patterns were studied by distinguishing the youngest fish as Gaussian groups (modal length from 6 to 9 cm total length) in length-frequency distributions of each subarea and main stratum (shelf and slope). Considering the timing of MEDITS surveys (May-July), this approach emphasised the nurseries in the northern part of the western Mediterranean (Gulf of Lions, Ligurian Sea, northern Tyrrhenian Sea) and in the northern central Mediterranean, where recruitment occurs mainly during spring. On the other hand, few recruits were found in part of the central and particularly in the eastern Mediterranean, where recruitment occurs mainly in summer. MEDITS recruitment patterns therefore gave support to distinctions among Mediterranean hake populations, previously suggested on the basis of vertebral counts and other morpho-physiological, albeit fragmentary, data. In particular the central Mediterranean hake populations do not seem to be homogeneous, with an Adriatic unit very close to the northwestern one. The MEDITS experience therefore suggests that future management measures could take into account both general and regional patterns, the latter concerning mainly the younger fraction of the populations.


This paper is a revised empirical chapter of the ex-post evaluation of INTERREG III which was carried out on behalf of the European Commission during 2008 to 2010. One of the tasks was to assess the impact of INTERREG III on harmonious regional development and integration throughout Europe. This paper is focused on INTERREG-Strand A (cross-border cooperation). The empirical analysis, based on a factor with subsequent regression analysis, suggests that the history of cooperation matters predominantly for European Union cross-border economic integration, while the strength of cooperation in terms of strategic partnership or the common understanding of needs for cross-border regional development seems not to matter. Apart from history, the major determinants for cross-border economic integration and cross-border regional disparities are forces outside INTERREG, namely intra-industry trade of the national economies, Economic and Monetary Union and Schengen.