Childhood obesity is a global epidemic, and understanding the relationship between physical fitness and various forms of intervention in obese children is essential to implementing effective exercise programs. The objective of the present study was to conduct a long-term follow-up (three years) of how an exercise program with or without diet affects the physical fitness components of obese boys. The participants were 18 boys, ages between 8 and 11, divided into two groups according to the program they followed. The exercise group (E group) followed a physical exercise program (three 90-minute sessions per week), and the exercise plus diet group (E+D group) this physical exercise program plus a low calorie diet. Physical fitness was assessed by the European physical fitness test battery including flamingo balance, plate tapping, sit-and-reach, handgrip strength, standing broad jump, sit-ups, bent-arm hang, 10×5-metre shuttle run, and 20-metre endurance shuttle run. Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to reveal overall intergroup differences (E and E+D group), and measurements showing significant differences were further analysed for differences between individual groups by the Mann-Whitney U-test. In both groups, changes were observed in various physical fitness parameters, especially limb speed, agility, aerobic fitness, and muscular strength in absolute and relative terms (which improved in more than one evaluation). Differences between the two programs were observed only in the short term. It was found that long-term longitudinal interventions based on exercise programs with or without diet produce improvements in obese children's physical fitness.


National postal operators have traditionally been both government owned and operated, in a market characterized by slow and steady growth in mail and financial transactions. Postal organizations were known to be both conservative and bureaucratic, a model that has now become obsolete. Over the past decade postal operators across Europe and much of the developed world have seen acceleration in digital substitution, as well as a liberalization of the market, such that posts today face lower volumes, but higher competition. Postal operators have had to engage in a massive transformation of their organizations to meet these challenges and have simultaneously sought to diversify their businesses to seek new growth opportunities. This chapter explores examples of postal business model innovations from three European countries and seeks to understand the dynamic organizational tensions that have led to experimentation in organizational design in the case of these innovations. We find the key tensions to be linked to cognitive dominant logic, resource struggles, capability substitution and product substitution. We illustrate how business model innovation may be considered to be a two-staged process of exploration and subsequent exploitation, and suggest areas of organizational design that deserve further research.


Automatic gait parameter tuning for biped walking robots is the subject of this thesis. The biped structure is one of the most versatile ones for the employment of mobile robots in the human environment. Their control is challenging because of their many DOFs and nonlinearities in their dynamics. Open loop walking with offline walk pattern generation is one of the methods for walking control. in this method the reference positions of the foot centers with respect to the body center are generated as functionals. Commonly, the tuning process for the trajectory generation is based on numerous trial and error steps. Obviously, this is a time consuming and elaborate process. In this work, online adaptation schemes for one of the trajectory parameters, "z-reference asymmetry", which is used for the compensation of uneven weight distribution of the robot in the sagittal plane, is proposed. In one of the approaches presented, this parameter is tuned online. As an alternative to parameter tuning, a functional learning scheme employing fuzzy identifiers is tested too. Fuzzy identifiers are universal function approximators. Fuzzy system parameters are adapted via back-propagation. An on-line tuning scheme for biped walk parameters however can only be successful if there is sufficient time for training without falling. The training might last hundreds of reference cycles. This implies that a mechanism for keeping the robot in continuous walk, even when the parameter settings are totally wrong, is necessary during training. In this work, virtual torsional springs which resist against deviations of the robot trunk angles from zero, are attached to the trunk center of the biped. The torques generated by the springs serve as the criteria for the tuning and help in maintaining a stable and a longer walk. The springs are removed after training. This novel approach can be applied to a wide range of control systems that involve parameter tuning. 3-D simulation techniques using C++ are employed for the model of a 12-DOF biped robot to test the proposed adaptive method. in order to visualize the walking, simulation results are animated using an OpenGL based animation environment. As a result of the simulations, a functional for the desired parameter, keeping the system in balance while walking, is generated.


Background: Idiopathic membranous nephropathy remains the leading cause of nephrotic syndrome in Caucasian adults. Immunosuppressive therapy with cyclosporine (CSA) is often successful in reducing proteinuria, but its use is associated with a high relapse rate. Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody that specifically targets CD20 on the surface of B-cells, is effective in achieving a complete remission of proteinuria in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy. However, whether rituximab is as effective as CSA in inducing and maintaining complete or partial remission of proteinuria in these patients is unknown. The membranous nephropathy trial of rituximab (MENTOR) hypothesizes that B-cell targeting with rituximab is non-inferior to CSA in inducing long-term remission of proteinuria. Methods and Design: Patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy, proteinuria ≥5 g/24 h, and a minimum of 3 months of Angiotensin-II blockade will be randomized into a 12-month treatment period with IV rituximab, 1,000 mg (2 infusions, 14 days apart; repeated at 6 months if a substantial reduction in proteinuria (equal to or >25%) is seen at 6 months) or oral CSA 3.5-5 mg/kg/day for 6 months (continued for another 6 months if a substantial reduction in proteinuria (equal to or >25%) is seen at 6 months). The efficacy of treatment will be assessed by the remission status (based on changes in proteinuria) at 24 months from randomization. Patient safety will be assessed via collection of adverse event data and evaluation of pre- and posttreatment laboratory data. At the 6-month post-randomization visit, patients who have been randomized to either CSA or rituximab but who do not have a reduction in proteinuria ≥25% (confirmed on repeat measurements within 2 weeks) will be considered treatment failures and exit the study. Discussion: This study will test for the first time whether treatment with rituximab is non-inferior to CSA in inducing long-term remission (complete or partial) of proteinuria in patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy.


E=[mc.sup.2] and Other Artistic Equations In his 1963 essay "The Two Cultures: A Second Look," C.P. Snow calls for communication between what he describes as the "two cultures" of "scientists" and "literary intellectuals" (Snow, 1963, p.59) so that, globally, humanity can survive and prosper (Snow, 1963, p.59, p.64, p.68, p.90). In fact, in this follow up essay to his "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution," 1959, Snow stresses the direness of the polarized situation between the "two cultures." He emphasizes the necessity of fostering communication, the dangers of this polarization to life on a global scale as, Snow states, "... science is determining much of our destiny, that is whether we live or die," and the imperative responsibility of educators to ensure communication that will hopefully be regarded by political "decision-makers," for, he adds, "... the purposes of avoiding disasters, or for fulfilling--what is waiting as a challenge to our conscience and goodwill--a definable social hope" (Snow, 1963, p.90, p.91). It may be possible--through redefinition--to achieve some steps toward this "definable social hope" by helping students and educators to see or by validating what many already see: that the "two cultures" exist within each person and that recognizing these different aspects of ourselves as complementary rather than in opposition contributes to a balanced, healthy, and whole personality. I suggest that when individuals begin to identify with both "cultures" they will be less tolerant of such polarity within education and society and will begin to foster and even expect a mending of this fractured societal persona. My thesis comes from the results of a questionnaire answered by 55 of my students (1)--members of the science and mathematics "culture," for they attend a science, engineering, and technology research institution, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology--who were taking one (2) of the following three Humanities courses during the Spring semester 2006: Art History 372, Modern Art; English 311, Creative Writing; and Technical Communication 211, Rhetoric and Media. Using redefinition in the classroom. Before discussing how I have interpreted the results of the survey, I will explain how I have used redefinition in the classroom. I believe and teach--to varying degrees, according to the course (3)--that articulated and supposed differences are not in opposition but are complementary and, thus, necessary for a healthy and whole personality and society. I offer alternative philosophical ideas, whether called monism, unity, pluralism, non-dualism, non-oppositional dualism, or complementary dualism, (4) rather than perpetuating the predominant dualistic philosophy of western culture that defines differences as opposites and, thus, as in opposition--one being good or right and the other being bad or wrong--and forever divided. Further, my method of redefinition includes my theory that personalities are either form-driven or content-driven and that individuals, though driven by their dominant skills, need balance in these traits. Specifically, a person's life choices, i.e. education and career, are chosen by that person's preference for that which is form-driven, meaning life situations where form, formulas or structures are primary and the content results from that form, or content-driven, meaning life situations where imagination and experiences are primary and the form or structure results from those experiences. Thus, those with the propensity for the studies of science and mathematics tend to be form-driven, while those with the propensity for the studies of arts and humanities tend to be content-driven. For example, Albert Einstein could be seen as having had a form-driven personality that tends to favor reason, logic, method, and formulas; however, he must also have had significant content-driven traits that enabled him to value and exercise the imaginative qualities required by invention. …


The increasing willingness of states to recognize same-sex relationships illustrates the central theme of this Symposium: federalism provides states the freedom to experiment with novel solutions to pressing social issues. The development of progressive policies seems to bear out Justice Brandeis' optimistic vision of federalism where "a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." With respect to same-sex relationships, however, state level reform efforts have not been uniformly progressive. To the contrary, the vast majority of these efforts prohibit the legal recognition of same-sex relationships and, in many instances, have been downright hostile to same-sex couples and their families. This widespread anti-marriage and anti-recognition sentiment should serve as a valuable reminder that there is nothing inherently progressive about state-level attempts to address social issues. To the contrary, the mantle of federalism has been used to justify some of this country's most ignoble legal practices, specifically the Jim Crow laws. Federalism is an institutional alternative; it is not necessarily a political ideology. Federalism can facilitate both a progressive and a conservative impulse, and, in the case of same-sex relationships it does both. The Essay makes three observations concerning the current legal status of same-sex relationships and the inadequacy of state and local reform measures to secure broad based minority rights. Part I of this Essay maps the current legal status of same-sex relationships and notes that, despite considerable gains, state level reform has been designed largely to deny legal recognition for same-sex couples. Part II establishes that federalism offers, at best, an imperfect institutional choice for those seeking broad based minority rights because state level protections currently are not portable and are particularly vulnerable to being overturned through majoritarian measures such as citizens' initiatives. Finally, Part III explores the human cost of the existing lack of uniformity among the states regarding the recognition of same-sex relationships. The confusing and conflicting status of same-sex relationships weighs heavily on same-sex couples. Four out of five same-sex couples live in jurisdictions without relationship protection. These partners remain legal strangers to one another with no reliable way to designate their partners as family. The one in five couples who reside in a jurisdiction with relationship recognition enjoy a certain level of protection within the borders of their own state, but must travel at their own risk.


In this paper we analytically study the resonance response of cylindrical subwavelength apertures embedded in metal films at near-UV, optical, and near-IR frequencies. This analysis is concise, and allows accurate and intuitive prediction of both propagating and evanescent modes, which are key contributors to enhanced optical transmission through thin metal films. In this approach we do not analyze the detailed behavior of the fields inside the metal walls, but still obtain the effects of the implicit buildup of charges within those walls. We calculate the modal dispersion relation, cutoff dependence on cylinder radius, and waveguide attenuation for a cylindrical aperture embedded in metal. We support our findings with finite element simulations and find strong agreement with our theory.


We study the effect on click-through rates of applying textual and stylistic features often related to clickbait to headlines of newspaper articles which can be bought in a digital environment. Having a dataset consisting of triples—original headline, rewritten headline, CTR, where CTR is the click-through rate of the rewritten headline in a newsletter from the online kiosk Blendle—we can directly measure whether these "clickbait features" do what they are believed to do: entice readers to click on them. The main findings are as follows. First, the data shows that editors of Blendle indeed often use clickbait features when rewriting headlines. Second, most, but not all, of the clickbait features lead to a statistically significant increase in the number of clicks. Third, predicting the effectiveness of a headline only on the basis of its clickbait features is not possible. The data on which this article is based is publicly available online.


The use of the term `honor killing' has elicited strong reactions from a variety of groups for years; but the recent Aqsa Parvez and Aasiya Hassan cases have brought a renewed interest from women's rights activists, community leaders, and law enforcement to study the term and come to a consensus on its validity and usefulness, particularly in the North American and European Diaspora. While some aver that the term `honor killing' is an appropriate description of a unique and particular crime, others deem it as rather a racist and misleading phrase used to promote violent stereotypes of particular communities, particularly Muslim minorities in North America and Europe. This article works to lay the groundwork by presenting both sides of the debate over the term `honor killing' and analyzing the arguments various groups use in order to justify their particular definition of the term, and if and how they support its use in public discourse. I argue two main points: one, that `honor killing' exists as a specific form of violence against women, having particular characteristics that warrants its classification as a unique category of violence. Second, I show that while `honor killings' are recognized as such in many non-Western contexts, there is a trend among advocacy organizations in the North American and European Diaspora to avoid, ignore, or rebuke the term `honor killings' as a misleading label that is racist, xenophobic, and/or harmful to Muslim populations. This is a direct response to the misuse of the term mostly within media outlets and public discourse that serves to further marginalize Muslim and immigrant groups.


We demonstrate a compact, fiber-pigtailed, 4-by-4 wavelength router in Silicon-on-insulator photonic wires, fabricated using CMOS processing methods. The core is an AWG with a 250GHz channel spacing and 1THz free spectral range, on a 425x155 microm(2) footprint. The insertion loss of the AWG was reduced to 3.5dB by applying a two-step processing technique. The crosstalk is -12dB. The device was pigtailed using vertical fiber couplers and an eight-fiber array connector.


1302 © 2017 Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‐ Medknow Background: Obesity can lead to psychological, social, and medical problems that may negatively affect the quality of life Aim: In our study, we aimed to evaluate the body perception, psychological distress, and subjective quality of life of obese subjects in comparison with normal weighted ones. Methods: A total of 494 subjects, aged between 18 and 64 years, were included to the study. Patients with the body mass index (BMI) of ≥18.5–24.9 kg/m2 were assigned to the control group; BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 were assigned to the obese patient group. An ethical committee approval with protocol No. of 2011/242 was obtained from the Ethical Committee of Eskişehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine. Interviews were performed two times with obese subjects in the 1st and the 6th month of weight loss program, once with the control group. Data identification form, the form which included the biochemical parameters, Trait Anxiety inventory, State anxiety scale, Quality of Life scaleShort Form [(SF-36)(QOL)], Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), Zung Depression Rating Scale, and Zung Anxiety Rating Scale were applied to participants. Results: Obesity is more common in women. Obesity reduces the quality of life, negatively affects body perception, and triggers anxiety. Because of their body structure, obese individuals are exposed to social pressure and unethical attitudes. Conclusions: Both health risks and social implications of obesity are important. Further studies are needed to ethically evaluate the psycho-social problems caused by obesity.


The quality measures used in information retrieval are particularly difficult to optimize directly, since they depend on the model scores only through the sorted order of the documents returned for a given query. Thus, the derivatives of the cost with respect to the model parameters are either zero, or are undefined. In this paper, we propose a class of simple, flexible algorithms, called LambdaRank, which avoids these difficulties by working with implicit cost functions. We describe LambdaRank using neural network models, although the idea applies to any differentiable function class. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the resulting implicit cost function to be convex, and we show that the general method has a simple mechanical interpretation. We demonstrate significantly improved accuracy, over a state-of-the-art ranking algorithm, on several datasets. We also show that LambdaRank provides a method for significantly speeding up the training phase of that ranking algorithm. Although this paper is directed towards ranking, the proposed method can be extended to any non-smooth and multivariate cost functions.


We establish connections from optimizing Bellman Residual and Temporal Difference Loss to worst-case long-term predictive error. In the online learning framework, learning takes place over a sequence of trials with the goal of predicting a future discounted sum of rewards. Our first analysis shows that, together with a stability assumption, any no-regret online learning algorithm that minimizes Bellman error ensures small prediction error. Our second analysis shows that applying the family of online mirror descent algorithms on temporal difference loss also ensures small prediction error. No statistical assumptions are made on the sequence of observations, which could be non-Markovian or even adversarial. Our approach thus establishes a broad new family of provably sound algorithms and provides a generalization of previous worst-case results for minimizing predictive error. We investigate the potential advantages of some of this family both theoretically and empirically on benchmark problems.


State and local governments have long maintained regulatory authority to manage natural resources, and most subnational governments have politically exercised that authority to some degree. Policy makers, however, have increasingly recognized that the dynamic attributes of natural resources make them difficult to manage on any one scale of government. As a result, the nation has shifted toward multilevel governance known as "dynamic federalism" for many if not most regulatory subject areas, especially in the context of the natural environment. The nation has done so both legally and politically — the constitutional validity of expanded federal regulatory authority over resources has consistently been upheld by courts in recent decades, and federal, state, and local governments have been increasingly politically engaged in addressing environmental harms. Yet, remnants of "dual federalism" — which conceives of constitutionally protected, separate spheres of governance as between the federal and state governments — impact the governance of certain resources, like subnational forests. The preservation of the nation's forests, in turn, is critical to environmental well-being in the coming decades, especially when considering the crucial role of forests in combating climate change. The entrenchment of legal and political dualism in the forest context stymies federal inputs into subnational forest management at a time when state and local governments are unlikely, given current trends, to curb the destruction of a significant acreage of the nation's forests over the next fifty years. This Article, first, uses forest resources as a case study to shed light on the broader constitutional debate regarding dual versus dynamic regulatory approaches in the United States. Second, the Article is the first to thoroughly detail the under-analyzed status of subnational forest management regulation on the dual-dynamic federalism spectrum and the first to make a normative argument that U.S. forest policy should become more dynamic to avoid the unmitigated destruction of resources of increasing value to the nation, and indeed the globe, in a time of climate change.


BACKGROUND
Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have shown white matter compromise in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which may relate to reduced connectivity and impaired function of distributed networks. However, tract-specific evidence remains limited in ASD. We applied tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) for an unbiased whole-brain quantitative estimation of the fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusion (MD) and axial and radial diffusion of the white matter tracts in children and adolescents with ASD.

METHODS
DTI was performed in 26 ASD and 24 typically developing (TD) participants, aged 9-20 years. Groups were matched for age and IQ. Each participant's aligned FA, MD and axial and radial diffusion data were projected onto the mean FA skeleton representing the centers of all tracts and the resulting data fed into voxelwise group statistics.

RESULTS
TBSS revealed decreased FA and increased MD and radial diffusion in the ASD group compared to the TD group in the corpus callosum, anterior and posterior limbs of the internal capsule, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, cingulum, anterior thalamic radiation, and corticospinal tract. No single site with inverse effects (increased FA, reduced MD or radial diffusion in the ASD group) was detected. In clusters of significant group difference, age was positively correlated with FA and negatively correlated with MD and radial diffusion in the TD, but not the ASD group.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings reveal white matter compromise affecting numerous tracts in children and adolescents with ASD. Slightly varying patterns of diffusion abnormalities detected for some tracts may suggest tract-specific patterns of white matter abnormalities associated with ASD. Age-dependent effects further show that maturational changes (increasing FA, decreasing MD and radial diffusion with age) are diminished in ASD from school-age childhood into young adulthood.


In conversations over the years with people who have caught the sacred music bug, I've noticed certain patterns over how they initially came to fall in love with Gregorian chant and polyphony, the music codified as proper to the Roman Rite. There are patterns that emerge in one's life experiences that correspond in an interesting way to church teaching on the marks of sacred music itself, and I seriously doubt that these patterns are a coincidence. You might recognize yourself in these patterns. I'll start with my own story because I know it best. My own background in religious music was in a Baptist church that spared no expense in putting together over-the-top production numbers. We had a well-paid music minister, a choir of fifty voices, and we frequently hired full-scale orchestras to play on Christmas and Easter. These productions came complete with t-shirts and advertising blitzes. We sang Handel and Mendelssohn, and our ideal was driven by visions of brass choirs on balconies and hundreds of voices singing praises. The more the better was our motto. Then one day in my early twenties I stumbled into a Catholic Mass in which a single priest who was in his eighties chanted the Mass from the altar. There were no instruments. His voice was weak and old. His pitch was uncertain. There was no choir, no pomp, no advertising, no tshirts, and the people who attended--mostly poor people--mostly just knelt and prayed as the simple notes were chanted by the celebrant. What struck me was the overwhelming humility of the entire exercise, and how it achieved something that could not be bought or achieved through purely human efforts. It buried the ego completely. It was holy. That was the key. It actually arrived at the place that sacred music was striving for, and did it without any accouterments or pomps. The sound of it touched me to the very depths of my heart and I came to understand the place of music in the faith in a completely different way. I returned for many weeks with a tape recorder and recorded this priest singing the Mass, and listened all weekdays, morning and night, striving to understand how it was that something so simple and so humble could be so powerful, so real, so authentic, so salvific. Moving on to a second case, I have a friend who grew up in the Midwest in a medium-sized town in which the 1970s ethos of tie-dye-and-sandals Catholicism took hold. The preferred form of art was that phony folk music of Peter, Paul, and Mary, a time in which no music was considered true and human unless it was accompanied by guitar. Organs were considered "high church" and therefore inappropriate for a "people's church." This ethos brought us "earthen vessels" since gold was seen as a rich man's metal, and it gave rise to felt banners and homemade signs all over the walls of the church. Nothing was too casual. Jeans, t-shirts, torn shorts, unkempt hair--these were the preferred garb. The music was amateurish and awful, to be sure, but this was seen as something to be preferred. The experts had to be tossed from the seats of power in order for the true voice of the people to emerge. But then my friend discovered something else. He heard some Renaissance polyphony with its incomparable beauty, its glorious drift upwards toward the heavens. This music wasn't about the "people" and their grungy ways. It was about the majesty of God! Yes! This is what is missing in this whole tie-dye ethos: an awareness that the end of liturgy is not ourselves but the throne of God. …


The early‐life period is extremely vulnerable to programming effects from the environment, many of which persist into adulthood. We have previously demonstrated that adult rats overfed as neonates have hypothalamic microglia that are hyper‐responsive to an immune challenge, as well as hippocampal microglia that respond less efficiently to learning. We therefore hypothesised that neonatal overfeeding would alter the ability of hippocampal microglia to respond to an immune challenge with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and that concomitant minocycline, a tetracycline antibiotic that suppresses microglial activity, could restore these responses. We induced neonatal overfeeding by manipulating the litter sizes in which Wistar rat pups were raised, so the pups were suckled in litters of four (neonatally overfed) or 12 (control‐fed). We then examined the hippocampal microglial profiles 24 hour after an immune challenge with LPS and found that the neonatally overfed rats had dramatically increased microglial numbers in the hippocampus after immune challenge compared to control‐fed rats. Attempts to reverse these effects with minocycline revealed repeated that neonatal injections, whether with minocycline or with saline, markedly suppressed microglial number and density throughout the hippocampus and abolished the difference between the groups in their responses to LPS. These data suggest that neonatal overfeeding not only can have lasting effects on hippocampal immune responses, but also that neonatal exposure to a protocol of repeated injections, irrespective of treatment, has a pronounced long‐term impact, highlighting the importance of considering these effects when interpreting experimental data.


BACKGROUND
Lenalidomide is an immunomodulatory agent with antitumor activity in B-cell malignancies. This phase II trial aimed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of lenalidomide in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), follicular grade 3 lymphoma (FL-III), or transformed lymphoma (TL).

METHODS
Patients received oral lenalidomide 25 mg on days 1-21 every 28 days as tolerated or until progression. The primary end point was overall response rate (ORR).

RESULTS
Two hundred and seventeen patients enrolled and received lenalidomide. The ORR was 35% (77/217), with 13% (29/217) complete remission (CR), 22% (48/217) partial remission, and 21% (45/217) with stable disease. The ORR for DLBCL was 28% (30/108), 42% (24/57) for MCL, 42% (8/19) for FL-III, and 45% (15/33) for TL. Median progression-free survival for all 217 patients was 3.7 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.7-5.1]. For 77 responders, the median response duration lasted 10.6 months (95% CI 7.0-NR). Median response duration was not reached in 29 patients who achieved a CR and in responding patients with FL-III or MCL. The most common adverse event was myelosuppression with grade 4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in 17% and 6%, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Lenalidomide is well tolerated and produces durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.


Despite the great emphasis on sustainable forest management in the 1998 Indonesian reform movement, deforestation has only accelerated since then, with Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) exhibiting the highest rate of forest loss. Some forested areas have, however, been preserved by local communities. We investigate how and why two of these communities in Kapuas Hulu district, West Kalimantan, have managed to maintain their forests against the pressures of illegal logging and conversion to oil palm plantations. One village community had the capacity to act on its own, while the other needed additional capacity through intercommunity collaboration. Motivations behind these villages' decisions were both economic and eudaimonic; their desire for meaningful lives related to the community and environment and to past and future generations. The findings enrich the literature on land use change because description and analysis of successful resistance against logging and oil palm is still rare. As such, the findings offer a different way to understand and interrogate the challenges confronting present-day forest communities in Kalimantan and beyond, standing out against the mainstream impression that communities are still powerless or unwilling to resist the short-term economic lures. We also refer briefly to the environmental justice perspective.


Richard Kearney is one of the leading global thinkers in both Continental philosophy and post-metaphysical philosophy of religion, as well as an esteemed Irish professor in philosophy, currently teaching at Boston College, Massachusetts, USA. Professor Kearney first visited South Africa in May as joint visiting academic of the Universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria and North-West. The visit prompted the publication of this scholarly collected work, authored by South African and international scholars. These specialists in philosophy and religious studies analysed Kearney's influential work and brought his scholarly perspectives into dialogue with other leading thinkers in the field, both from Africa and abroad. This publication will be the first collective attempt to engage his work from the perspective of the African continent. This collected work contributes significantly in an interdisciplinary way to Ricoeurdian studies. The target audience of the book is peers and specialists in the field of Continental philosophy and philosophy of religion.


Colorectal carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies in the western world, and although fluorouracil (5-FU) has been used in its treatment for almost 40 years, new agents with significant activity have been introduced recently. Irinotecan (CPT-11, Camptosar), a topoisomerase I inhibitor, administered at 300 to 350 mg/m2 every 3 weeks is significantly more active than continuous-infusion 5-FU in patients who have experienced disease progression after conventional therapy with 5-FU. In comparison to best supportive care, irinotecan improves survival and preserves quality of life despite treatment-related toxicity. Moreover, the combination of irinotecan and 5-FU has been explored in a number of different schedules. In previously untreated patients, overall response rates are high. Irinotecan can also be combined with mitomycin (mitomycin-C [Mutamycin]), oxaliplatin, or raltitrexed (Tomudex). Oxaliplatin is a new-generation platinum compound that has demonstrated activity against colorectal carcinoma in preclinical trials. It has been evaluated as a single agent against advanced colorectal carcinoma in the salvage setting and also in combination with 5-FU as initial therapy for metastatic disease (where it shows significant activity). The toxicity profile of oxaliplatin (chiefly characterized by neurotoxicity) differs from that of irinotecan (primarily producing diarrhea) and the potential, therefore, exists for combining these agents or for exploiting their possible synergy with 5-FU. The introduction of these two new active agents of different pharmacologic classes promises to enable significant improvements in the treatment of patients with colorectal carcinoma.


In contemporary Chinese higher education, classroom lectures combined with a web-based learning support system are broadly applied. This study investigated what kind of feedback strategy could be effective in improving students' self-efficacy and course satisfaction in a blended learning context. Standard volitional messages were constructed and—along with traditional feedback content (knowledge of results and knowledge of correct response)— distributed to a large undergraduate class in China. Sixty-seven freshmen participated in this pure experimental study. Results indicated that students' learning self-efficacy and course satisfaction were significantly correlated. In addition, participants who received the knowledge of correct response plus volitional messages (KCR+V) showed greater course satisfaction than those who received other types of feedback messages. No significant difference emerged in self-efficacy. Future research directions are discussed.


Situated in the external zone of the Milky Way, the Sun takes about two hundred million years to make a complete revolution of the Galaxy. Right, that's how long it takes, not a day less,--Qfwfq said,-- once, as I went past, I drew a sign at a point in space, just so I could find it again two hundred million years later, when we went by the next time around ... I conceived the idea of making a sign, that's true enough, or rather, I conceived the idea of considering a sign a something that I felt like making, so when, at that point in space and not in another, I made something, meaning to make a sign, it turned out that I really had made a sign, after all. Italo Calvino THE RECEPTION OF THE TRACE Let's imagine a beginning similar to the one Calvino's Qfwfq tells, but more down to Earth. We will begin not with a sign, exactly, but with the trace that precedes the sign. Our origin myth has two versions. In the first myth, a long time ago, chipped flint in hominid hand, some being confronts a roughly uniform piece of solid matter, say, an outcropping of granite, and, for whatever reason, scratches a mark into the stone. In the second myth, equally long if not longer ago, a meteor falls to Earth sending up a splash of pulverized rock, one shard of which hits the same granite outcropping and leaves an identical if unintentional scratch. For our purposes, the two versions tell the same story: traces arise whether they are intended or not. However it came to be, this trace or mark subsists as a difference etched into its stony medium. It endures for a while, for a thousand or ten million years. Insofar as it endures, it memorializes its making. Persisting as a difference figured onto a ground previously undifferentiated, at least with regard to the presence of marks, the trace marks its own origin. In the first instance, for its observer, the trace refers to itself. (1) The trace refers to its own coming to be as a trace. But what next? What does it mean for a trace to endure, to cross over distances and durations intervening between its coming to be in one place and moment and its itinerary of future destinations? With regard to the temporality of the trace: as long as the trace persists, it never ceases referring to itself. But too, the trace also marks in an indeterminate manner the datum that time passes and has passed from the moment of its taking place to all the later moments of its being observed, remarked, received by an observer capable of discerning it as a mark, as a sign of the event that produced it. Qfwfq's account could be taken to indicate that a sign comes to be not when its trace is made, but when it is read as a sign. There will be an interval, however infinitesimal or lengthy, between the production of a trace and its observation as a sign. The time and place to be concerned with intentions is occupied by the observer of the trace. Placed now in the time of that observer or reader, the trace presents itself to a present reception as a sign. Re-marking the trace, that observer can now intend to understand it, can allow the trace to carry its understanding away, perhaps to reconstruct a notion of the mark's moment of production, or to cross over to whatever other significances that observer can construct or entertain in regard to it. Having imported an observer and all of the systemic baggage that phenomenon brings onto the scene with it, our composite origin scenario is now compounded of these elements: a prior event that makes a trace; a material or technical object capable of tracing; a medium to accept and preserve the trace; the trace itself; intervening space; intervening time; and a later agent to observe and construe the trace as a sign. These contingencies and implications of the trace can be gathered up in the observation that, prior to any intention to code it for communication, the trace transmits itself. The trace is self-mediating. However, for all that--and this is the crucial link in this argument: the trace does not receive its own transmission. …


This paper explores the (co-)construction of identities in ritual interaction, by focusing on the choice of interactional styles. 'Interactional style' describes a cluster of similar indexical actions within the interaction "frame" (Goffman, 1974) of a ritual. Ritual is a recurrent interaction type, which puts constraints on the individual's "freedom" to construct their (and others') identities, in a somewhat similar way to institutional interactions, which have been broadly studied in the field. However, the constraints posed by ritual interactions are different from institutional, and so by examining identity (co-)construction via interactional style choices in ritual contexts, this paper fills an important knowledge gap. I approach interactional style choices through the notions of "role" and "accountability", and by placing ritual practices within Goffman's (1981) participation framework. I use examples of heckling at performing arts events as data. By focusing on interactional style, the paper contributes to the present Special Issue dedicated to interactional styles across cultures.


Abstract For realistic systems, a dynamic approach to reliability analysis is likely to require a significant increase in the computational efforts, due to the need of integrating the dynamic evolution with its characteristic times. Thus, it becomes mandatory to resort to validated, simplified models of process evolution. Such models are typically based on lumped effective parameters whose values need to be suitably estimated so as to best fit to the available plant data. In this paper we propose a multiobjective genetic algorithm approach for the estimation of the effective parameters of a simplified model of nuclear reactor dynamics. The calibration of the effective parameters is achieved by best fitting the model responses of the quantities of interest to the actual evolution profiles. A case study is reported in which the real reactor is simulated by the QUAndry-based Reactor Kinetics (QUARK) code available from the Nuclear Energy Agency, and the simplified model is based on the point-kinetics approximation to describe the neutron balance in the core and on thermal equilibrium relations to describe the energy exchange between the different loops. The (pseudo)measured quantities of interest are the reactor power and the average fuel temperature.


Background The developmental model of the origins of chronic diseases has shown the importance of undernutrition and poor development in utero on disease in later life, including coronary heart disease and stroke. Tracing disease back to fetal development means that this period can also be seen as the origin of health inequalities and, as such, a priority time for intervention to improve health outcomes. This paper reports on the evaluation of Health in Pregnancy (HiP) grants, a UK-wide unconditional universal cash transfer of £190 made to pregnant women who had sought medical advice before the 25th week of pregnancy. The grant was designed to provide additional financial support towards a healthy lifestyle including diet, with the cash element providing a greater incentive to seek advice at the appropriate time. Methods This natural experiment was evaluated using routinely collected data for all singleton births in Scotland before (2004–2009), during (2009–2011) and after (2011–2013) the introduction of the HiP grants. In addition to the primary outcome of birthweight (BW) we evaluated the effect on other measures of stage and size and maternal behaviour including contacting the midwife before 25 weeks. We looked for evidence of differential effects among subgroups including those defined by area deprivation, social class, marital status and maternal diabetes. The analysis was restricted to Scotland because of the high quality routine data available. We used interrupted time series models adjusted for time trends and seasonality in addition to maternal and birth characteristics to estimate the effect of the intervention (INT) and post-intervention (POST) periods relative to the years pre-intervention, and used multiple imputation to reduce any bias due to missing data. Results Among the 525,400 singleton births from 2004–2013 there was no significant relationship with BW (INT = −2.3 g, 95% CI: −1.9 to 6.6) or other measures of size and stage. The intervention was associated with an increase in the odds of booking before 25 weeks that disappeared post-intervention (INT OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.18; POST OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83–1.00). Results for the subgroups largely mirrored those seen for the population. Conclusion The small financial incentive did not have an impact on birthweight or other measures of size or stage but did appear to have changed health seeking behaviour. It is not clear that a threshold of 25 weeks is optimal to improve birth outcomes given that this is late in the pregnancy. Future evaluations would be enhanced if some randomisation were included in the study design.


The imidazolidine ring in the title compound, C19H24N2O2, adopts a twist conformation and its mean plane (r.m.s. deviation = 0.19 Å) makes dihedral angles of 72.38 (9) and 71.64 (9)° with the two pendant aromatic rings. The dihedral angle between the phenyl rings is 55.94 (8)°. The molecular structure shows the presence of two intramolecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds between the phenolic hydroxyl groups and N atoms with graph-set motif S(6). In the crystal, C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds lead to the formation of chains along the b-axis direction.


Technical advancements in virtualization and Service-oriented Architectures, the technology backbone of Cloud Computing (CC), along with the availability of high speed Internet has escalated the performance of CC in terms of elasticity, throughput, agility, or response time. However, according to the Gartner's Hype cycle of 2014, CC is at the "Trough of Disillusionment", which hints at "waning of interest as the implementations fail to deliver" [7]. The reason for this situation is the lack of a methodological impact analysis for adopting cloud-based services in an organization. In the context of CC an impact analysis is complicated due to the complex architecture of services and presence of influencing factors from multiple dimensions (technical, economical, and organizational). This paper, therefore, extends and evaluates the methodology "Impact Analysis Methodology for Cloud-based Services (IAMCIS)" that quantifies the impact of cloud-based services before they are adopted in an organization [6]. The methodology is illustrated in combination with a use-case obtained from a survey conducted with 17 organizations (with varied domain of expertise, size, and geographical scope), who plan to adopt or have adopted cloud-based services for fulfilling their IT requirements.


The purpose of this chapter is to investigate how complexity, accuracy and fluency interact in early L2 development, when learners' linguistic means are underdeveloped. Learners then resort to rote-learned formulaic sequences to complement their current grammar when it is unable to meet their communicative needs. The interplay between their nascent grammar and these formulaic sequences provides an interesting window onto how learners resolve tensions between complexity, accuracy, fluency, and communicative needs.Formulaic sequences are very common in early L2 productions and enable learners to communicate in spite of limited linguistic means so that they appear to be more advanced in the L2 than they actually are, in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency.In spite of their prevalence in early productions, however, the role that these formulaic sequences play in L2 development remains unclear. Are they used as communicative crutches until learners' grammatical competence enables them to generate these forms productively or do they contribute more directly to learners' linguistic development?This chapter reports on an empirical study tracing and analysing the development of such sequences over time in the early L2 productions of instructed learners of French. It is argued that these sequences gradually become unpacked during the acquisition process, and are used as models by learners in order to assist them in the construction of a productive L2 grammar. The tension between, on the one hand, complex, accurate and fluent formulaic sequences, but whose internal structure has not yet been analysed into its constituents in order to use them productively elsewhere, and on the other hand, an underdeveloped linguistic system which does not allow communicative needs to be met, seems to be driving the acquisition process forward in these learners. The linguistic status of these sequences seems to be that of single multimorphemic lexical units which have been assigned a semantic representation but are underspecified syntactically. Their intrinsic morphosyntactic complexity, therefore, and the fact that they can be accessed as single units rather than effortfully constructed from scratch in real time communication, gives the misleading impression of complex, accurate and fluent productions at a stage when learners' productive grammars are in fact very simple, approximate and non-fluent.


Recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies found that observation of biological action, but not of robotic action, elicits imitation and activates the 'mirror neuron system' in the premotor cortex (Kilner, Paulignan, and Blakemore, 2003; Castiello, Lusher, Mari, Edwards, and Humphreys, 2002; Meltzoff, 1995; Tai, Scherfler, Brooks, Sawamoto, and Castiello, 2004). This implies that the actions of other people and of mechanical devices are processed in categorically different ways. However, if the mirror system develops through learning (Heyes, 2001), generalisation should result in some activation when observing robotic action. We asked subjects to perform a prespecified action on presentation of a human hand or a robotic device in the final posture of the same action or the opposite action (Heyes, Bird, Johnson, and Haggard, 2004; Sturmer, Ascherschleben, and Prinz, 2000). Both the human and the robotic stimuli elicited automatic imitation: the prespecified action was initiated faster when it was cued by the same action than when it was cued by the opposite action. However, even when the human and robotic stimuli were of comparable size, colour and brightness, the human hand had a stronger effect on performance. These results point to the shape of the human hand as a source of features distinguishing human from robotic action. They also suggest, as one would expect if the mirror neuron system develops through learning, that to varying degrees both human and robotic action can be 'simulated' by the premotor cortex (Gallese and Goldman, 1998).


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this article is to review the literature on communicating transparency in health care pricing, both overall and specifically for medical imaging. Focus is also placed on the imperatives and initiatives that will increasingly impact radiologists and their patients.

CONCLUSION
Most Americans seek transparency in health care pricing, yet such discussions occur in fewer than half of patient encounters. Although price transparency tools can help decrease health care spending, most are used infrequently and most lack information about quality. Given the high costs associated with many imaging services, radiologists should be aware of such initiatives to optimize patient engagement and informed shared decision making.


Component-based software development is an effective technique for tackling the increasing complexity of large-scale embedded software systems. After building a logical software model, the designer must make design decisions, including choosing a multi-threading strategy and assigning priorities to threads, to ensure that the final implementation on the target execution platform satisfies non-functional requirements. Code generators for software design tools produce functional code, but typically ignore concurrency and timing issues. In this paper, we describe techniques for real-time scheduling and design-space exploration and optimization, with the goal of helping the designer synthesize efficient real-time implementations from component-based software models. Experimental evaluation shows that our techniques yield high-quality implementations with reasonable running time of the optimization algorithm


This paper focuses on the participatory design processes during a project concerned with supporting children aged 12 – 15 to carry out personal scientific inquiries and in particular how the process varied between two case studies conducted in very different settings but within the same school. The context for the case studies is a three year project on Personal Inquiry: Designing for Evidence-Based Inquiry Learning across Formal and Informal Settings which is being jointly conducted by the Open University in Milton Keynes and University of Nottingham. Our key challenge is to develop support for evidence-based inquiry learning and we are investigating how school students can be helped to learn the necessary skills in both formal and informal settings and how the use of technologies can support them in that endeavour. We have conducted trials involving children carrying out inquiries in science and geography. For these we have developed a personal inquiry toolkit which consists of a range of scientific data gathering equipment, together with web-based software, nQuire, that supports students' progress through their scientific inquiries. This toolkit, running on an Asus Eee netbook provides 'scripts' that guide the learners through a process of gathering and assessing evidence and conducting experiments. Teachers can orchestrate activities by specifying who can progress through a given inquiry and by what means as the availability and content of the activities undertaken by learners during the inquiry can be altered as they progress through the inquiry learning process. So far we have completed seven sets of trials in two schools involving more than 200 young people, with inquiries on a wide range of topics including healthy eating, urban heat islands (twice), microclimates, the link between exercise and heart rate, food packaging, and noise pollution. This paper illustrated using two case studies conducted in Milton Keynes, an early trial on urban heat islands and the most recent trial conducted on food packaging and reports on our approach participatory design in these trials, with particular reference to personalisation.


A geometric approach for 3D object segmentation and representation is presented. The segmentation is obtained by deformable surfaces moving towards the objects to be detected in the 3D image. The model is based on curvature motion and the computation of surfaces with minimal areas, better known as minimal surfaces. The space where the surfaces are computed is induced from the 3D image (volumetric data) in which the objects are to be detected. The model links between classical deformable surfaces obtained via energy minimization, and intrinsic ones derived from curvature based flows. The new approach is stable, robust, and automatically handles changes in the surface topology during the deformation.


msBP is an R package that implements a new method to perform Bayesian multiscale nonparametric inference introduced by Canale and Dunson (2016). The method, based on mixtures of multiscale beta dictionary densities, overcomes the drawbacks of Polya trees and inherits many of the advantages of Dirichlet process mixture models. The key idea is that an infinitely-deep binary tree is introduced, with a beta dictionary density assigned to each node of the tree. Using a multiscale stick-breaking characterization, stochastically decreasing weights are assigned to each node. The result is an infinite mixture model. The package msBP implements a series of basic functions to deal with this family of priors such as random densities and numbers generation, creation and manipulation of binary tree objects, and generic functions to plot and print the results. In addition, it implements the Gibbs samplers for posterior computation to perform multiscale density estimation and multiscale testing of group differences described in Canale and Dunson (2016).


Combined approaches to conserve both biological and cultural diversity are seen as an alternative to classical nature conservation instruments. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of urbanization coupled with exclusive conservation measures, on land use, local knowledge and biodiversity in two Quechua speaking communities of Bolivia located within the Tunari National Park. We assessed and compared the links between land use, its transformation through conservation practices, local institutions and the worldviews of both communities and the implications they have for biodiversity at the level of ecosystems. Our results show that in both communities, people's worldviews and environmental knowledge are linked with an integral and diversified use of their territory. However, the community most affected by urbanization and protected area regulations has intensified agriculture in a small area and has abandoned the use of large areas. This was accompanied by a loss of local environmental knowledge and a decrease in the diversity of ecosystems. The second community, where the park was not enforced, continues to manage their territory as a material expression of local environmental knowledge, while adopting community-based conservation measures with external support. Our findings highlight a case in which urbanization coupled with exclusive conservation approaches affects the components of both cultural and biological diversity. Actions that aim to enhance biocultural diversity in this context should therefore address the impact of factors identified as responsible for change in integrated social-ecological systems.


ABSTRACT 'The Baby Laughter' project (http://babylaughter.net) is a research programme in developmental psychology that uses online surveys and parent submitted videos to study baby laughter. We discuss how infant laughter has been neglected in the study of both humour and of developmental psychology. We describe our surveys and research methodology, together with some of the questions we hope they can address. Some preliminary results are presented together with illustrative comments from parents who took part. These results show that the topics of infant laughter track other cognitive developments, that it is an important form of communication and bond between parent and child and a marker of social and emotional engagement. We conclude by suggesting that the highly important role of laughter in early development has until now been underestimated.


Discovery of a population of the lesser mottled grasshopper Stenobothrus stigmaticus on the Dutch coast (Orthoptera) During an inventory of the nature reserve De Vroongronden between the towns of Renesse and Burg-Haamstede (province of Zeeland) the first population of the lesser mottled grasshopper Stenobothrus stigmaticus in the western part of the Netherlands was discovered. It was found in low dunes with a vegetation dominated by grass, sedges and moss. The animals are not very mobile and the nearest populations are at least 80 km away. Therefore, it is most probable that it concerns an old population and not a recent colonisation. Hopefully the discovery will initiate further research in this region.


1. Fasting serum cholesterol and triglyceride, and post prandial insulin secretion and lipaemia were measured in human subjects in a metabolic ward, who were given an ordinary diet (diet 1) in which the sucrose was isocalorically replaced by starch (diet 2) or vice versa. The subjects were nine healthy normolipaemic adult males. In eight of these subjects the effect of sucrose calorie reduction (diet 3) on fasting serum lipids was also studied. 2. When starch replaced sucrose, there were no singnificant differences in fasting serum lipid concentrations or immunoreactive insulin or in the insulin response and alimentary lipaemia after a standard mixed breakfast. 3. Serum triglyceride concentration fell and cholesterol concentration rose during the period of sucrose (and calorie) restriction. 4. After lunch and supper on the first two diets (when different carbohydrates were given) the lipaemic response was larger and the insulin response smaller after meals containing sucrose. 5. Thus, there was no difference between concentrations of fasting serum lipids when starch replaced sucrose at 23% total calories, but the concentrations of serum triglycerides were higher after individual mixed meals containing sucrose. 6. There were no significant differences in the fatty acid patterns of serum lipids on the different diets.


BACKGROUND/AIM
The necessity and efficacy of biliary drainage prior to major surgery in patients with obstructive jaundice have been reported in various clinical and experimental studies in Japan. However, it is not enough that Western countries understand the advantage of preoperative drainage. In this study, therefore, cytoprotective effect of preoperative biliary drainage drainage was evaluated using the cell biological technique.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ten jaundiced dogs and 10 with drainage (after induction of jaundice) were each divided into two groups: those with and those without 40% hepatectomy. Using these four groups, the advantage of biliary drainage before hepatectomy in obstructive jaundice was studied, using isolated hepatocytes and Kupffer cells.

RESULTS
In jaundiced dogs, isolated hepatocyte viability and intracellular cyclic AMP concentration were considerably reduced. The bleb formation rate, culture supernatant lipid peroxide and lactate dehydrogenase contents, and plasma thromboxane B2 and 6-keto-PGF1 alpha levels all markedly increased. These changes were more exaggerated in those after hepatectomy. In the dogs with drainage, all of these values were approximated to those in normal animals. The changes following hepatectomy in dogs with drainage were also less pronounced in comparison with jaundiced animals.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that biliary drainage prior to hepatectomy in obstructive jaundice mitigates liver impairment, both at the cellular level and in terms of prostanoid metabolism. It was concluded that preoperative biliary drainage prior to hepatectomy ensures better results for obstructive jaundice.


Fluctuations of solar wind magnetic field and plasma parameters exhibit a typical turbulence power spectrum with a spectral index ranging between ∼5/3 and ∼3/2. In particular, at 1 AU, the magnetic field spectrum, observed within fast corotating streams, also shows a clear steepening for frequencies higher than the typical proton scales, of the order of ∼3 × 10−1 Hz, and a flattening towards 1/f at frequencies lower than ∼10−3 Hz. However, the current literature reports observations of the low-frequency break only for fast streams. Slow streams, as observed to date, have not shown a clear break, and this has commonly been attributed to slow wind intervals not being long enough. Actually, because of the longer transit time from the Sun, slow wind turbulence would be older and the frequency break would be shifted to lower frequencies with respect to fast wind. Based on this hypothesis, we performed a careful search for long-lasting slow wind intervals throughout 12 years of Wind satellite measurements. Our search, based on stringent requirements not only on wind speed but also on the level of magnetic compressibility and Alfvénicity of the turbulent fluctuations, yielded 48 slow wind streams lasting longer than 7 days. This result allowed us to extend our study to frequencies sufficiently low and, for the first time in the literature, we are able to show that the 1/f magnetic spectral scaling is also present in the slow solar wind, provided the interval is long enough. However, this is not the case for the slow wind velocity spectrum, which keeps the typical Kolmogorov scaling throughout the analysed frequency range. After ruling out the possible role of compressibility and Alfvénicity for the 1/f scaling, a possible explanation in terms of magnetic amplitude saturation, as recently proposed in the literature, is suggested.


Previous studies showed that a temporal overlapping of the fixation-target with the saccade-target onset induces a shift of saccade reaction time distributions towards longer values. Here we present a series of experiments probing how an overlap paradigm, combined with the manipulation of stimuli durations, energy and transient changes might modulate saccadic reaction time distributions. We recorded saccadic reaction time in four participants in six experiments in which a saccade-target appeared at a random amplitude after a fixation period. First we parametrically manipulated the duration of the overlap using a range of intervals (from 0 to 200 ms). In a second experiment we probed the interaction of various foreperiod intervals (i.e. the duration of the fixation period prior to saccade-target onset) and overlap using two overlap intervals (20 or 140 ms). In two additional experiments we manipulated either the stimuli sizes or their contrasts in overlap paradigms (20 or 140 ms). Lastly, we introduced a visual transient during the overlap interval via two manipulations (both with a range of SOA): either a distractor ring appeared around the fixation-target, or dynamic random noise replaced the fixation-target. Results show reliable modifications in the latency distributions depending on the overlap interval as well as idiosyncratic differences. Furthermore, all our additional experimental manipulations also affected the latency distributions revealing strong interacting inhibitory processes. We conclude that the effects of overlap intervals may combine with the influence of other stimuli properties to produce strong effects on decision process.


In real world applications, graphical statistical models are not only a tool for operations such as classification or prediction, but usually the network structures of the models themselves are also of great interest (e.g., in modeling brain connectivity). The false discovery rate (FDR), the expected ratio of falsely claimed connections to all those claimed, is often a reasonable error-rate criterion in these applications. However, current learning algorithms for graphical models have not been adequately adapted to the concerns of the FDR. The traditional practice of controlling the type I error rate and the type II error rate under a conventional level does not necessarily keep the FDR low, especially in the case of sparse networks. In this paper, we propose embedding an FDR-control procedure into the PC algorithm to curb the FDR of the skeleton of the learned graph. We prove that the proposed method can control the FDR under a user-specified level at the limit of large sample sizes. In the cases of moderate sample size (about several hundred), empirical experiments show that the method is still able to control the FDR under the user-specified level, and a heuristic modification of the method is able to control the FDR more accurately around the user-specified level. The proposed method is applicable to any models for which statistical tests of conditional independence are available, such as discrete models and Gaussian models.


This study was undertaken with several objects in view.. First of all we wanted to know how frequently bilharziasis is likely to infest infants up to the age of two years in an endemic area. On first thoughts it would seem reasonable for the disease to be rarely encountered at this stage of life, since the African babe is seldom exposed directly to the streams or the water's edge for fear that it might be drowned or injured by crocodiles. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the infant is often washed in water carried from the river in buckets or gourds, and unless the water is kept standing for 24 hours or boiled soon after collection, many of these children can be expected to acquire the disease. Then there is the possibility that the African infant born of a mother, herself probably infected for many years, may have a passive immunity conferred on it by her and is therefore more able to resist infection by the cercariae at this age than when it is older.


Corruption is a threat to democracy and economic development in many societies. It arises in the ways people pursue, use and exchange wealth and power, and in the strength or weakness of the state, political and social institutions that sustain and restrain those processes. Differences in these factors, Michael Johnston argues, give rise to four major syndromes of corruption: Influence Markets, Elite Cartels, Oligarchs and Clans, and Official Moguls. In this 2005 book, Johnston uses statistical measures to identify societies in each group, and case studies to show that the expected syndromes do arise. Countries studied include the United States, Japan and Germany (Influence Markets); Italy, Korea and Botswana (Elite Cartels); Russia, the Philippines and Mexico (Oligarchs and Clans); and China, Kenya, and Indonesia (Offical Moguls). A concluding chapter explores reform, emphasising the ways familiar measures should be applied - or withheld, lest they do harm - with an emphasis upon the value of 'deep democratisation'.


RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE
The lived experience of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is poorly characterized. We examined the associations between patient-reported outcomes (PROs) measuring children's fatigue, sleep health, psychological distress, family relationships, and global health with clinical outcomes over time in children with CKD and investigated how PROs of children with CKD compare with those of other children.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS
212 children 8-21 years-old with CKD and their parents recruited from 16 nephrology programs across North America.

PREDICTORS
CKD stage, disease etiology, sociodemographic and clinical variables.

OUTCOMES
PROs over 2 years.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH
We compared PROs in the CKD sample with a nationally representative general pediatric population. Change of PROs over time and association of sociodemographic and clinical variables with PROs were assessed using multivariable regression models.

RESULTS
84% parents and 77% children completed PROs at all time points. Baseline PRO scores for children with CKD revealed higher burden of fatigue, sleep-related impairment, psychological distress, impaired global health, and poorer family relationships compared with the general pediatric population, with median score differences ≥ one standard deviation for fatigue and global health. Baseline PRO scores did not differ by CKD stage or glomerular vs. non-glomerular etiology. Over two years, PROs were stable with < 1-point annual change on average on each measure and intraclass correlation coefficients ranging 0.53 to 0.79, indicating high stability. Hospitalization and parent-reported sleep problems were associated with worse fatigue, psychological health and global health scores (all p<0.04).

LIMITATIONS
Unable to assess responsiveness to change with dialysis or transplant.

CONCLUSIONS
Children with CKD experience high, yet stable burden of impairment across numerous PRO measures, especially fatigue and global health, independent of disease severity. These findings underscore the importance of assessing PRO, including fatigue and sleep measures, in this vulnerable population.


The African Economic Outlook 2016 presents the continent's current state of affairs and forecasts its situation for the coming two years. This annual report examines Africa's performance in crucial areas: macroeconomics, financing, trade policies and regional integration, human development, and governance. For its 15th edition, the African Economic Outlook  takes a hard look at urbanisation and structural transformation in Africa and proposes practical steps to foster sustainable cities.
A section of country  notes summarises recent economic growth, forecasts gross domestic product for 2016 and 2017, and highlights the main policy issues facing each of the 54 African countries. A statistical annex compares country-specific economic, social and political variables.


We use a behavioural microsimulation model embedded in a numerical optimization procedure in order to identify optimal (social welfare maximizing) tax-transfer rules. We consider the class of tax-transfer rules consisting of a universal basic income and a tax defined by a 4th degree polynomial. The rule is applied to total taxable household income. A microeconometric model of household, which simulates household labour supply decisions, is embedded into a numerical routine in order to identify – within the class defined above – the tax-transfer rule that maximizes a social welfare function. We present the results for five European countries: France, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and United Kingdom. For most values of the inequality aversion parameter, the optimized rules provide a higher social welfare than the current rule, with the exception of Luxembourg. In France, Italy and Luxembourg the optimized rules are significantly different from the current ones and are close to a Negative Income Tax or a Universal basic income with a flat tax rate. In Spain and the UK, the optimized rules are instead close to the current rule. With the exception of Spain, the optimal rules are slightly disequalizing and the social welfare gains are due to efficiency gains. Nonetheless, the poverty gap index tends to be lower under the optimized regime.


Evidence continues to suggest that patients with cancer require more information about their disease and its consequences. To evaluate the information needs of patients with advanced melanoma compared to patients with other malignancies, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 221 unselected patients from the oncology department of a dermatologic hospital In Italy. Patients completed the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System and the Need Evaluation Questionnaire, two standardized tools for symptoms and psychosocial needs assessment. Results highlight that patients with advanced melanoma have, in general, a higher need for information compared to patients with other cancers, even if they report fewer symptoms. Future studies on the needs of patients with melanoma may contribute to tailored and more satisfactory patient-centered care. Recommendations for clinical practice include that particular attention should be paid by the oncology team to the need for a strong therapeutic relationship.


Alternative material flow strategies in logistics networks have crucial influences on the overall performance of the networks. Material flows can follow push, pull, or hybrid systems. To get the advantages of both push and pull flows in networks, the decoupling-point strategy is used as coordination mean. At this point, material pull has to get optimized concerning customer orders against pushed replenishment-rates. To compensate the ambiguity and uncertainty of both dynamic flows, fuzzy set theory can practically be applied. This paper has conceptual and mathematical parts to explain the performance of the push-pull flow strategy in a supply network and to give a novel solution for optimizing the pull side employing Conwip system. Alternative numbers of pallets and their lot-sizes circulating in the assembly system are getting optimized in accordance with a multi-objective problem; employing a hybrid approach out of meta-heuristics (genetic algorithm and simulated annealing) and fuzzy system. Two main fuzzy sets as triangular and trapezoidal are applied in this technique for estimating ill-defined waiting times. The configured technique leads to smoother flows between push and pull sides in complex networks. A discrete-event simulation model is developed to analyze this thesis in an exemplary logistics network with dynamics.


As you know, the Commission adopted the Registry as one of the amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) announced December 18, 2003, and formally promulgated in the Federal Register on January 29, 2003. On March 11, 2003, President Bush signed into law the Do Not Call Implementation Act (DNCIA), which provides for the FTC to collect fees from sellers and telemarketers to fund the establishment and maintenance of the National Do Not Call Registry. Congress enacted this legislation, and provided complementary appropriations,2 to support the FTC's decision to establish such a Registry (conditioned on funding) as part of its amendment of the TSR.3 The DNCIA also set a short deadline for the FCC to finish a rulemaking proceeding, already in progress, reviewing that agency's telemarketing regulations (originally promulgated in 1992) pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and required the FCC to maximize consistency with the FTC's Do Not Call rules. Accordingly, the FCC announced its adoption of complementary do not call regulations on June 27, 2003, and formally promulgated them in the Federal Register on July 25, 2003.


The physical organization of data within a database has two major components: record structures and access paths. Record structures specify the grouping of data items into data records that are physically stored and accessed together. Access paths specify the algorithms and system data used to determine the physical location of data records and to efficiently support content-dependent searching. Choosing efficient record structures and access paths is complicated by the fact that they are interdependent. This paper formalizes these interdependencies and proposes an approach to solving the combined record structure-access path design problem. This work extends an existing database design system in four ways: (1) record segmentation is extended to include redundantly stored data in any number of independently processed segments; (2) dependent access paths are added allowing us to design multiple, interrelated file organizations at the same time; (3) new methods are proposed to assist in the generation of potentially useful record structures; and (4) inter-file organization performance constraints can be specified.


—Frameworks and libraries offer reusable and customizable functionality through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Correctly using large and sophisticated APIs can represent a challenge due to hidden assumptions and requirements. Numerous approaches have been developed to infer properties of APIs, intended to guide their use by developers. With each approach come new definitions of API properties, new techniques for inferring these properties, and new ways to assess their correctness and usefulness. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of over a decade of research on automated property inference for APIs. Our survey provides a synthesis of this complex technical field along different dimensions of analysis: properties inferred, mining techniques, and empirical results. In particular, we derive a classification and organization of over 60 techniques into five different categories based on the type of API property inferred: unordered usage patterns, sequential usage patterns, behavioral specifications, migration mappings, and general information.


Neuropsychological tools are used to gain more accurate insight about an individual's level of functioning (cognitive, behavioral, executive, etc.), and to make more exact diagnoses; therefore, valid neuropsychological tools are necessary for precise evaluation.  Valid neuropsychological assessment relies upon the individual putting forth maximum effort during testing.  While the literature is rich when describing methods of detecting incomplete effort, it is sparse when identifying instruments resistant to such response bias.  The goal of this study was to determine whether or not effort affects performance on the D-KEFS Tower Test by comparing the results with the Test of Memory Malingering (a neuropsychological assessment designed to measure effort).  Thirty-nine neurologically intact college students from a medium sized Rocky Mountain university introductory subject pool were asked to participate.  The participants in the experimental group were given a vignette explaining that they had been in a car accident.  The participants were then asked to pretend that they had suffered a brain injury and were having memory problems.  The participants in the control group were asked to do their best.  A blind examiner administered the D-KEFS Tower Test and The Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) to both groups.  Data analysis shows that there was a significant difference between the two groups' performance on the TOMM, but no significant difference between the scores on the Tower Test.  These results suggest that the D-KEFS Tower Test is relatively resilient to incomplete effort.


Abstract modeling, such as using epidemic models, has been the general method of choice for understanding and analyzing the high-level effects of worms. However, high-fidelity models, such as packet-level models, are indispensable for moving beyond aggregate effects, to capture finer nuances and complexities associated with known and future worms in realistic network environments. We first identify the spectrum of available alternatives for worm modeling, and classify them according to their scalability and fidelity. Among them, we focus on three high-fidelity methods for modeling worms, and study their effectiveness with respect to scalability. Employing these methods, we are then able to, respectively, achieve some of the largest packet-level simulations of worm models to date; implant and attack actual worm monitoring/defense installations inside large simulated networks; and identify a workaround for real-time requirement that fundamentally constrains worm modeling at the highest fidelity levels.


Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using monocytes/macrophages as mediators in human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) infection of thyroid gland tissues in autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT). Seventy-three AIT patients were enrolled in this study. The control group consisted of 80 blood donors. Monocyte/macrophage isolation for AIT patient samples was performed by adherence. HHV-6 was detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) DNA samples using nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR). Gene expression of HHV-6 active infection marker (U79/80) and chemokine receptors (U12, U51) in patient monocyte/macrophage samples and blood donor PBMC samples was detected using reverse-transcription PCR. HHV-6 viral load was detected by using quantitative-PCR technique. The HHV-6 genomic sequence was found significantly more frequently among AIT patient than control group samples. Markers of active infection were found in 8 AIT patient monocyte/macrophage samples (11%) and in none of control group PBMC samples. HHV-6 U51 mRNA expression was detected only in AIT patient samples (2/24 previously positive for HHV-6). Since HHV-6 genomic sequences were found significantly more frequently in AIT patient samples and active infection markers were found in patient monocytes/macrophages, our results suggest that monocytes/macrophages may be used by HHV-6 as mediators for thyroid gland infection.


This study examines to what extent how oil movements differently affect equity returns in general and sectoral levels of the GCC countries stock markets. Modeling the equity returns volatility requires using GARCH-type models. These models help to explore the pronounced differences of the conditional variance structures across sectors and markets. Chapter 1 compares the effects of changes in oil price return and its volatility on equity returns and volatility across sectors. The findings of this chapter show that despite the GCC states dependency on oil revenues, equity market performance at the sectoral level do not exactly associate with oil movements. Our results, in particular, show that the GCC stock markets do not always move hand-in-hand with oil market movements. In chapter 2, we explore the relationship within a specific sector, i.e. Banks sector in Saudi Arabia Stock market. We examine if oil price changes affect Islamic banks differently than conventional ones. The findings show a decrease in degree of co-movement between these two types of banking system and oil market, meaning that they are less integrated. Although the Islamic banks kept a higher degree of co-movement with oil, limitations of Shari'ah restrictions on Islamic banks have little impact on the relationship ii between oil and those banks. Chapter 3 examines whether the level of corruption influences how oil changes affect the GCC stock markets. The findings of chapter 3 show that dissimilar levels of corruption between GCC countries have inconsiderable differences on the oil return effects on the GCC stock markets. Oil returns affect both low and high level of corruption groups. The oil return innovation affects the equity volatility for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait more than other four GCC countries.


Critics of private equity have warned that the high leverage often used in PE‐backed companies could contribute to the fragility of the financial system during economic crises. The proliferation of poorly structured transactions during booms could increase the vulnerability of the economy to downturns. The alternative hypothesis is that PE, with its operating capabilities, expertise in financial restructuring, and massive capital raised but not invested ("dry powder"), could increase the resilience of PE‐backed companies. In their study of PE‐backed buyouts in the U.K.—which requires and thereby makes accessible more information about private companies than, say, in the U.S.—the authors report finding that, during the 2008 global financial crisis, PE‐backed companies decreased their overall investments significantly less than comparable, non‐PE firms. Moreover, such PE‐backed firms also experienced greater equity and debt inflows, higher asset growth, and increased market share. These effects were especially notable among smaller, riskier PE‐backed firms with less access to capital, and also for those firms backed by PE firms with more dry powder at the crisis onset. In a survey of the partners and staff of some 750 PE firms, the authors also present compelling evidence that PEs firms play active financial and operating roles in preserving or restoring the profitability and value of their portfolio companies.


Air-source heat pump (ASHP) has been widely used for residential heating and domestic hot water due to its energy saving and environmental protection as well as its high efficiency. However, with ambient temperature decreasing, the heating performance of conventional ASHP degrades rapidly which restricts its application in cold regions. In order to improve the heating performance of ASHP, this paper not only analyzes two ASHP cycles using economizer vapor injection (EVI) and internal heat exchanger (IHX) theoretically and experimentally, but also compares the heating performance of both cycles with a conventional cycle. The results showed that both EVI cycle and IHX cycle have better potential for application in low ambient temperature environments. The further study indicated that the heating capacity and power consumption of EVI cycle were higher than those of IHX cycle at the same ambient temperature while the COP of EVI cycle was lower than that of ASHP with IHX due to the different refrigerant mass flow. In addition, using EVI could reduce the discharge temperature significantly while using IHX increased the discharge temperature in comparison to the conventional ASHP. Furthermore, ambient temperature range from -15°C to -10°C can be chosen as the switch range of the two cycles to satisfy the heating performance and economy simultaneously.


The proton exchange membrane (PEM) is a key component in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). During standard fuel cell operation, the PEM degrades due to cyclic hygrothermal loads, resulting in performance loss or total failure. Improvement of current PEM materials and development of cheaper, more durable materials is essential to the commercialization of PEMFC technology, which may provide an attractive alternative energy source for transportation. This dissertation investigates a new PEM material which is a blend of sulfonated perfluorocyclobutane (PFCB) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). Hereafter referred to as PFCB/PVDF, this polymer blend was developed by General Motors CompanyTM as a potential replacement for the current benchmark PEM, the DuPontTM product Nafion®. The PFCB/PVDF blend is less costly to manufacture than standard PEM materials and investigations into its long-term mechanical durability are ongoing. Specifically, this document discusses the experimental and analytical work performed in the material characterization, constitutive expression development, and implementation of that expression into uniaxial and biaxial finite element geometries. Extension of the model to time-varying temperature and moisture conditions is also explored. The uniaxial finite element model uses a non-linear viscoelastic viscoplastic (NLVE-VP) constitutive expression with parameters determined from uniaxial creep and recovery experiments at a single environmental condition. Validation tests show that this model accurately predicts results from uniaxial tension experiments, such as stress relaxation, force ramp, and multistep creep and recovery, to stresses of 8 MPa and strains approaching 15%, which is the maximum hygrothermal strain expected in an operating fuel cell. The biaxial finite element model combines the NLVE-VP constitutive expression with the geometry of a pressure-loaded blister experiment, which better approximates fuel cell membrane constraints. Results from the biaxial model are compared to experimental results. The model accurately predicts strain in the blister test but predicts stresses that differ from those estimated from blister curvature. Additionally, it is found that both the non-linear viscoelastic and viscoplastic parameters are functions of the operating environment. Future experimental work is needed to characterize that dependence before the constitutive model is used to simulate the response of the PFCB/PVDF blend to fuel cell operating conditions.


The most contaminated nuclear plant in the country, Rocky Flats was an environmental disaster and the site of rampant worker unrest. Although estimates projected that cleaning up and closing the facility would take seventy years and $36 billion, something stunning happened. The project was completed sixty years ahead of schedule and $30 billion under budget and is now on its way to becoming a wildlife refuge. In Making the Impossible Possible, Kim Cameron and Marc Lavine explain how this remarkable feat was achieved--and how breakthrough levels of performance can be achieved by any organization.

 After analyzing numerous firsthand accounts and public records, Cameron and Lavine realized that the leaders of the Rocky Flats cleanup took a distinctive "abundance approach" to the task. These leaders focused on identifying and building on sources of strength, resilience, and vitality rather than simply solving problems and overcoming difficulties. The result was extraordinary positive deviance: outcomes far exceeding normal expectations.

 For the first time, Cameron and Lavine identify the specific leadership roles and key enablers--levers, techniques, and practices--involved in implementing this innovative approach. This fascinating and thoroughly researched case study concludes by revealing ten leadership principles ultimately responsible for the Rocky Flats turnaround, providing a complete guide for any organization wanting to better understand and apply the lessons of this incredible success.


Abstract Overpressuring, tectonic stretching and thermoelastic contraction are all processes that can drive the formation of opening-mode fractures in the subsurface. Recent studies on crack-seal quartz deposits in opening-mode fractures have yielded fluid inclusion microthermometric data, which for the first time allow us to constrain the pressure–temperature conditions under which these fractures formed. Here, we utilize the results from studies in the Lower Cretaceous Travis Peak Formation in the East Texas Basin and the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group in the Piceance Basin to construct stress history models based on mechanical properties, burial history and tectonic setting to evaluate the various driving mechanisms for opening-mode fracture formation. Our results show progress towards separating and independently evaluating these mechanisms. Although high fluid pressure and tectonic stretching can play a major part in the formation of opening-mode fractures, our results suggest that the persistence of fracture growth during uplift could have been strongly influenced by thermoelastic contraction associated with exhumation and cooling. For sandstone reservoirs, thermoelastic contraction will be more pronounced for stiffer, high Young's modulus rocks with higher quartz contents. These models can therefore be used to provide additional insights into the distribution of opening-mode fractures in exhumed basins.


This work presents a new instrument for non-invasive, real-time detection of excessively coarse particles in the overflow pipes of individual hydrocyclones. It enables operators to identify poorly performing hydrocyclones in need of maintenance and remove them from service. It also enables a reduction in coarse particles arriving to flotation that causes; cell maintenance for cleanout of this material, unplanned row shutdown due to blocked dart valves, and damage to cell components such as rotors. The hydrocyclone is an important device used in mineral processing beneficiation circuits for classification of mineral slurries by particle size. One input stream is separated into two output streams; an underflow of coarse particles that undergo additional grinding, and an overflow stream of finer particles that typically goes directly into a flotation circuit for recovery of the desired mineral. However the hydrocyclone is a major piece of equipment in the beneficiation process that has no instrumentation for directly measuring its performance. The parameters currently measured – inlet pressure, feed flow rate, feed flow density – are common to the entire hydrocyclone cluster which has many hydrocyclones. Thus no information is available to detect individual hydrocyclones that are operating poorly. The system described here detects the presence of unwanted excessively coarse particles in the overflow stream of a hydrocyclone using sensors mounted to the exterior pipe surface. It provides real-time monitoring, trending and alarming of the coarse particle level. This enables operators to identify poorly performing hydrocyclones, and take corrective action to reduce or eliminate the coarse particle discharge. The system development, operating principle, and in-plant operating data will be presented.


Conflict is inevitable in any large organization, and these conflicts, particularly in the board of directors, can often be costly to a firm both in terms of real dollars and in lost organizational focus. However, drawing on best practices in conflict management, the author suggests that organizations can take a comprehensive approach to quickly settle conflict inside the board, making use of four resources available to any organization. The first is the board itself. Directors and boards should take the lead in addressing their own problems and disagreements using the most constructive approaches possible. Boards also need to establish a set of internal and external resources. Internally, they can rely on resources such as general counsel, the chief ethics officer, and the organizational ombudsman. Externally, organizations can rely on mediation and arbitration as well as investigative counsel. In cases of last resort, the board can rely on public resources such as the courts and government agencies. However, this approach may not be enough. The authors suggest a new role: the board ombudsman, for a highly competent, independent and confidential resource who can help directors and boards to solve problems through effective, informal methods, such as assisted negotiation or shuttle diplomacy.


The on-chip communication requirements of many systems are best served through the deployment of a regular chip-wide network. This paper presents the design of a low-latency on-chip network router for such applications. We remove control overheads (routing and arbitration logic) from the critical path in order to minimise cycle-time and latency. Simulations illustrate that dramatic cycle time improvements are possible without compromising router efficiency. Furthermore, these reductions permit flits to be routed in a single cycle, maximising the effectiveness of the router's limited buffering resources.