This paper introduces a novel approach for dealing with the 'curse of dimensionality' in the case of large linear dynamic systems. Restrictions on the coefficients of an unrestricted VAR are proposed that are binding only in a limit as the number of endogenous variables tends to infinity. It is shown that under such restrictions, an infinite-dimensional VAR (or IVAR) can be arbitrarily well characterized by a large number of finite-dimensional models in the spirit of the global VAR model proposed in Pesaran et al. (JBES, 2004). The paper also considers IVAR models with dominant individual units and shows that this will lead to a dynamic factor model with the dominant unit acting as the factor. The problems of estimation and inference in a stationary IVAR with unknown number of unobserved common factors are also investigated. A cross section augmented least squares estimator is proposed and its asymptotic distribution is derived. Satisfactory small sample properties are documented by Monte Carlo experiments. An empirical application to modelling of real GDP growth and investment-output ratios provides an illustration of the proposed approach. Considerable heterogeneities across countries and significant presence of dominant effects are found. The results also suggest that increase in investment as a share of GDP predict higher growth rate of GDP per capita for non-negligible fraction of countries and vice versa.


Skeletal muscle necrosis is a common manifestation of viperid snakebite envenomations. Venoms from snakes of the genus Bothrops, such as that of B. asper, induce muscle tissue damage at the site of venom injection, provoking severe local pathology which often results in permanent sequelae. In contrast, the venom of the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus, induces a clinical picture of systemic myotoxicity, i.e., rhabdomyolysis, together with neurotoxicity. It is known that molecules released from damaged muscle might act as 'danger' signals. These are known as 'alarmins', and contribute to the inflammatory reaction by activating the innate immune system. Here we show that the venoms of B. asper and C. d. terrificus release the mitochondrial markers mtDNA (from the matrix) and cytochrome c (Cyt c) from the intermembrane space, from ex vivo mouse tibialis anterior muscles. Cyt c was released to a similar extent by the two venoms whereas B. asper venom induced the release of higher amounts of mtDNA, thus reflecting hitherto some differences in their pathological action on muscle mitochondria. At variance, injection of these venoms in mice resulted in a different time-course of mtDNA release, with B. asper venom inducing an early onset increment in plasma levels and C. d. terrificus venom provoking a delayed release. We suggest that the release of mitochondrial 'alarmins' might contribute to the local and systemic inflammatory events characteristic of snakebite envenomations.


Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) constitute one class of artificial oxygen carriers that are being produced completely synthetically. One formulation that has been evaluated extensively in clinical trials is a 60% w/v perflubron-based emulsion. Efficacy and safety of this perflubron emulsion was evaluated in a Phase 2 and a large prospective randomized Phase 3 multicenter European study, which collectively included a total of 639 patients. Perflubron emulsion was highly successful in improving organ function, reversing physiologic transfusion triggers and in reducing the need for allogeneic blood transfusions. There were no major safety issues.


BACKGROUND/AIM
The present study investigated efficacy and toxicity of re-irradiation for an in-field recurrence of spinal cord compression due to metastasis (SCCM) in elderly patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Data of 60 patients aged ≥65 years who were irradiated for an in-field recurrence of SCCM were retrospectively analyzed. The fractionation regimen of re-irradiation and eight additional potential prognostic factors were evaluated for motor function.

RESULTS
Median time to in-field recurrence was 6 (2-45) months. After re-irradiation, 25 patients (42%) showed improvement of motor function, 28 (47%) no change, and 7 (12%) deterioration. No second in-field recurrences were observed. Post-treatment motor function was not associated with the fractionation regimen. Radiation myelopathy was not observed. The cumulative biologically-effective dose for myelopathy was 80-137 Gy2.

CONCLUSION
Re-irradiation for in-field recurrences of SCCM in elderly patients appears safe and effective. Myelopathy appears unlikely, if the cumulative biologically effective dose is 137 Gy2 or less. The fractionation regimen had no significant impact on motor function.


The propagation of a longitudinal harmonic wave in a transversely isotropic shell has been investigated in the development of ultrasonic techniques for thick hollow composite cylinders. The characteristic equation for satisfying the stress-fee inner and outer cylindrical boundaries has been obtained in an exact form in terms of the wavelength, the cylinder radii and the material constants. The phase velocity of the fundamental mode is calculated for a wide range of the wavelength for various cylinder radii for some typical sample materials. The shell wave speeds for the second mode of vibration are also presented. Comparisons are made between shell wave speeds and plate wave speeds. The spread of the wave speeds for the composite shells is shown to be much wider than that for an isotropic shell.


ABSTRACT Little is known about the role of teachers in fostering wellbeing in the everyday context of school life. This paper explores the phenomenon among a sample of Norwegian teachers. Focus groups with 23 teachers in four schools (grades 1–10) in Norway were conducted. In the analysis of the findings three themes were developed: 1) fostering student wellbeing as the foundation to teachers' everyday philosophies, 2) managing the everyday reality of student performance expectations, and 3) teachers struggling to manage these tensions and dilemmas. This study indicated that the teachers viewed concern for students' wellbeing as integrated in their professional identity, seeing wellbeing and learning as intertwined. However, dilemmas and tensions in teachers' every day practices were identified, which related to competing expectations and conflicting priorities in the school context. High expectations on academic performance seem to leave the teachers little room for an holistic approach to schooling, where students' academic and personal development were interwoven. We discuss the possible consequences these findings may have for teachers' professional identity and judgements, alongside suggestions for how to address these aspects in CPD and initial teacher training programmes.


Non-destructive Quality control of tablets and blister packs by UV imaging Quality control of tablets and its primary packing material within the manufacturing line requires analytical routines that allow monitoring of the desired product attributes with high efficiency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of multispectral UV imaging combined with multivariate image analysis for verification of blister pack filling, differentiation of tablets of varying composition therein, as well as detection of imprint defects and surface cracks of bulk tablets. Moreover, the influence of polymer sealing foils on tablet characterization within blister cavities was investigated. Several tablets of different composition were imaged either as bulk, within unsealed blister packs, or within blister packs that were manually sealed with three different types of either PVC or PCTFE foils. It was demonstrated that UV imaging is a fast and reliable technique for counting and differentiation of tablets within the blister packs. The sealing foils did not prevent characterization of the blister packs with regard to the tablets within the cavities. However, the polymer foils were found to cause changes in the multispectral UV image data set that allow to distinguish the blister packs based on the used polymer. Classification of the blister packs according to the composition of the tablets and the sealing foil was achieved. Furthermore, UV imaging was successfully applied to the detection of defects on imprinted codes and cracks on the surface of bulk tablets. Multispectral UV imaging is a powerful tool for quality control of tablets. Considering the highspeed of non-destructive image acquisition, this technique is promising for implementation in the tablet manufacturing process.


In spite of a growing interest in organic agriculture; there has been relatively little research on why farmers might choose to adopt organic methods, particularly in the developing world. To address this shortcoming, we developed an exploratory agent-based model depicting Philippine smallholder farmer decisions to implement organic techniques in rice paddy systems. Our modeling exercise was novel in its combination of three characteristics: first, agent rules were based on focus group data collected in the system of study. Second, a social network structure was built into the model. Third, we utilized variance-based sensitivity analysis to quantify model outcome variability, identify influential drivers, and suggest ways in which further modeling efforts could be focused and simplified. The model results indicated an upper limit on the number of farmers adopting organic methods. The speed of information spread through the social network; crop yields; and the size of a farmer's plot were highly influential in determining agents' adoption rates. The results of this stylized model indicate that rates of organic farming adoption are highly sensitive to the yield drop after switchover to organic techniques, and to the speed of information spread through existing social networks. Further research and model development should focus on these system characteristics.


The Rockwell International 'Integrated Space Plan' consolidates a broad range of near-term and long-range objectives for the development of space. Beginning with the Space Shuttle and the establishment of Space Station Freedom, it logically extrapolates a course: back to the Moon, on to Mars, laying the ground work for the emergence of space commerce and in-space industrial activity, exploitation of solar resources, development of human communities in space, and eventually planetary terraforming and human interstellar migration. The hundreds of elements necessary to support this very-long-range vision are chronologically presented in a 120-plus year projection which identifies supporting, evolutionary, and synergistic technology and program interrelationships. At it's heart is a long-term growth strategy that emphasizes resiliency and robustness in any future space transportation system architecture and a philosophical approach to infrastructure development, which would assure that the elements we emplace now will satisfy strategic objective of tapping into the vast material and energy wealth of the inner solar system.


From its first publication in 1885 through the twentieth century and up to the resurgence of critical interest in Robert Louis Stevenson in the twenty-first century, Prince Otto has remained a puzzling anomaly in the writer's canon. A work that Stevenson himself ranked highly but which few others have viewed positively, Otto has suffered from a critical neglect greater than any other of Stevenson's full-length novels. As his recent biographer Claire Harman remarks, "Prince Otto has seldom been reprinted and is regarded with something like embarrassment by Stevenson's apologists" (247). One might include Harman herself in this category, given her verdict that Stevenson's stylistic choices in Otto "seem perverse and puzzling" (248). While other long-neglected works by Stevenson, such as "The Beach of Falesa" and The Ebb-Tide, have received renewed attention under the critical scrutiny of post-colonial theory, Otto has enjoyed no such critical renaissance. An author-centered criticism might insist that any novel deemed by an important author as "[h]itherto, my best" (Letters 4:212)--the words Stevenson used to describe Otto to his mother--merits a more attentive critical appraisal. Eschewing such a rationale, however, this essay will argue that the importance of Prince Otto in lateVictorian culture derives from the novel's urgent engagement with the politics of late-Victorian imperialism and its critique of the versions of masculinity that such politics engendered. By linking the novel to a particular crisis in Britain's imperial history--the siege of Khartoum in 1884 and the death of General Charles Gordon in early 1885--this essay will also challenge the still-propagated myth of Stevenson's "lifelong aloofness from politics" (Kucich 79). Rather, this essay will show, in his early fiction Stevenson was particularly aware of the role that politicized constructions of masculinity played in the expansion of Britain's imperial role. While Treasure Island (1883) openly promotes the aggressive masculinity of pirates and treasurehunters, Prince Otto at once presents a thinly veiled attack on the Prime Minister, William Gladstone, and constructs a critique of the juvenile imperial masculinity Stevenson had celebrated (if at times ambivalently) in his first novel. Harman claims that "Prince Otto is most interesting now for the gender anarchy it portrays" (250), and while "anarchy" may be a slight exaggeration, this essay will explore the ways in which the representation of a crisis of masculinity in Prince Otto deeply informs Stevenson's fiction as it engages with late-Victorian culture and imperialism. (1) I. "MY CHIEF O' WORKS": STEVENSON AND PRINCE OTTO In May of 1883--while avidly seeking a publisher for the volume of Treasure Island which had already been serialized in the pages of Young Folks in 1881-82--Stevenson wrote his close friend and mentor W. E. Henley revealing his ambivalence about his current work of fiction: "Otto" is, as you say, not a thing to extend my public on. It is queer and a little, little bit free; and some of the parties are immoral; and the whole thing is not a romance, nor yet a comedy; not yet a romantic comedy; but a kind of preparation of some of the elements of all three in a glass jar. I think it is not without merit, but I am not always on the level of my argument, and some parts are false, and much of the rest is thin; it is more a triumph for myself than anything else; for I see, beyond it, better stuff. (qtd. in Maixner 176) By March of 1884, however, Stevenson's opinion of his current novel had risen dramatically, as he wrote Sidney Colvin from Chateau Le Solitude, his home in Hyeres on the French Riviera: "Two chapters of Otto do remain: one to rewrite, one to create; and I am not yet able to tackle them. For me it is my chief o' works" (Letters 4: 245). This elevation--from a mere stepping stone to "better stuff" to "My chief o' works"--reveals a major shift in Stevenson's valuation of Prince Otto, his first full-length work of fiction for adults, which would eventually be published between his two most successful "stories for boys" Treasure Island and Kidnapped. …


Research through practice into the actual process of composing, such as William James
on automatic writing and thought processes, or Sigmund Freud on creative writing and
the unconscious, is rare, and needs extension and updating. This study builds a new
theoretical framework for critical and practical work on imaginative composition by
investigation of Edward Thomas's composing processes and complementary analysis of
the processes of writing my own poetry collection. Thomas's emphasis on
fragmentation of thought, hesitancy and silence in the content and form of his poetry,
positioning him on the borders of Modernism, reflects essential aspects of his
composing processes, as documented in his notes, letters, prose and poetry. The
creating and revisiting of my own works-in-progress and final collection, in the light of
the study of Thomas and in dialogue with readers, reveals further insights into poetic
composition.
Chapter One examines the point at which poems emerge and the influence of
external writing conditions. Chapters Two and Three look at absence in the composing
process in ellipses, aporia, gaps and unfinishedness, and in the art of submission as it is
used in composing. Chapter Four investigates distraction, non-logical connections and
physical and temporal disturbances in composing. Chapter Five shows the importance
when composing of sustaining a flexible and exact attention to immediate perceptions
and thoughts. The thesis concludes with an original poetry collection resulting from the
documentation of my composing processes during the research period. These poems
reflect and refract many points made in previous chapters, offering practical evidence
of them.
The principles of poetic composition established in this thesis are also more
generally applicable to the composing of poetry. Similarities observed in composition
processes in other art forms and in the writing of this thesis indicate that these
principles also apply to other creative and academic disciplines, providing areas for
further research.


Contractual joint ventures, sometimes also called as "consortiums", where several participants, without creating a new entity, unite their personal efforts and material resources with a view of achieving a certain common goal, remain a popular organizational form of large-scale international investment projects all over the World. In view of significant amount of their investments in these projects, any prospective foreign participants may wish to consider whether structuring their activities through a contractual joint venture would allow them to effectively protect their economic interests against possible adverse actions of a host State. Or, they should rather create a joint venture in the form of a partnership or a corporation under the laws of the project's host State or under the laws of another country? To answer these questions, the article analyses the status of contractual joint ventures and their participants in international investment arbitration and compares it with the status of partnership and corporate joint ventures and their participants. The analysis is primarily carried out on the example of contractual joint ventures under Swiss law, because this law has been frequently chosen by participants of international investment projects as applicable law in a wide variety of international projects. Although the absence of legal personality of contractual joint ventures prevents them from acting as a claimant in both ICSID and non-ICSID investment arbitration, it does not by itself preclude individual claims of their participants in both types of arbitration. Furthermore, the comparison between possible amounts of participants' individual claims reveals that under similar circumstances foreign investors in contractual joint ventures could potentially recover the same amount of damages as those in partnership and corporate joint ventures. On the basis of this comparison, the article argues that the use of contractual joint ventures would not put foreign investors in a disadvantageous position as concerns the possibility to protect their economic interests against an adverse action of a host State as compared with the participants in other two types of joint ventures.


This article seeks to determine whether the author of Jeremiah 34:8-22, in his critique of the events relating to the manumission of Hebrew slaves in 589/588 BCE during Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem, called for the enactment of distributive justice. Since the book of Jeremiah has a very strong intertextual character, the intertextual link between Jeremiah 34:8-22 and Deuteronomy 15:1-18 is explored. When Jeremiah 34:8-22 is read through the lens of Deuteronomy 15:1-18, it is clear that brotherliness does not tolerate debt slavery. By using Deuteronomy 15:1-18 as a supplementary text to Jeremiah 34:8-22, the author inspires visions of a counter-community, in which the debt slaves should be set free and be enabled to make a fresh start.


JSatOrb is an ISAE-Supaero's software tool dedicated to orbital calculation and designed for pedagogical purposes, with professional level features outputs. It has been initiated to find a soft which would fill the gap between local teachers developed tools and professional tools, exploiting state of the arts algorithms concerning space mechanics calculus. Even if current provided open source libraries are not fully compliant with our pedagogical requirements (simplicity, flexibility, multi-plateform and ergonomics), they provide complete and accurate calculus methods that are dedicated to a professional use. However, GUI part is not the main concern when used by space engineers which only require API access. Concretely, JSatorb project is open-source (MIT license) and under development. It is inspired from current full-stack implementation methods. Ergonomic and intuitivity are at stack concerning the front-end, which is mainly based on Angular(https://angular.io/) and Cesium (cesiumjs.org). Efficiency and correctness on calculus are provided by the back-end part, which relies on Orekit (https://www.orekit.org/). Developed in Java, Orekit is a space dynamics open source library. It depends only on the Java Standard Edition version 8 and Hipparchus(https://hipparchus.org/) version 1.


This study aims to develop and implement a tool called intelligent tutoring system in an online course to help a formative evaluation in order to improve student learning. According to Bloom et al. (1971,117) formative evaluation is a systematic evaluation to improve the process of teaching and learning. The intelligent tutoring system may provide a timely and high quality feedback that not only informs the correctness of the solution to the problem, but also informs students about the accuracy of the response relative to their current knowledge about the solution. Constructive and supportive feedback should be given to students to reveal the right and wrong answers immediately after taking the test. Feedback about the right answers is a form to reinforce positive behaviors. Identifying possible errors and relating them to the instructional material may help student to strengthen the content under consideration. The remedial suggestion should be given in each answer with detaileddescription with regards the materials and instructional procedures before taking next step. The main idea is to inform students about what they have learned and what they still have to learn. The open-source LMS called Moodle™ was extended to accomplish the formative evaluation, high-quality feedback, and the communal knowledge presented here with a short online financial math course that is being offered at a large University in Brazil. The preliminary results shows that the intelligent tutoring system using high quality feedback helped students to improve their knowledge about the solution to the problems based on the errors of their past cohorts. The results and suggestion for future work are presented and discussed.


Output-buffered switches are known to have better performance than other switch architectures. However, output- buffered switches also suffer from the notorious scalability problem, and direct constructions of large output-buffered switches are difficult. In this paper, we study the problem of constructing scalable switches that have comparable performance to output- buffered switches. For this, we propose a new concept, called quasi-output-buffered switch. Like an output-buffered switch, a quasi-output-buffered switch is a deterministic switch that delivers packets in the FIFO order and achieves 100% throughput. Using the three-stage Clos network, we show that one can recursively construct a larger quasi-output-buffered switch with a set of smaller quasi-output-buffered switches. By recursively expanding the three-stage Clos network, we obtain a quasi-output-buffered switch with only 2 x 2 switches. Such a switch is called a packet- pair switch as it always transmits packets in pairs. By computer simulations, we show that packet-pair switches have better delay performance than most load-balanced switches with comparable construction complexity.


In recent years, our knowledge about the mechanisms leading to acute and chronic changes in cardiac morphology and function has been progressively expanding.

Nowadays, human studies on cardiac remodelling mostly rely on a variety of non-invasive, rapidly evolving imaging techniques. Standard echocardiography is an established, cost-effective, available cardiac imaging technique currently applied to detect and quantify the severity of morphological and functional alterations of the heart. The pivotal role of echocardiography has been further powered by new ultrasonographic instruments, primarily two-dimensional and three-dimensional speckle tracking imaging devices which provide a comprehensive assessment of myocardial mechanics.

Nuclear and MRI techniques are reliable, highly reproducible methods increasingly applied in clinical and research settings. In particular, cardiac MRI has the undisputed potential to generate high-quality images of the heart at much higher resolution than echocardiographic and nuclear techniques.

Since the early 1990s, prospective epidemiological studies have consistently shown that echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a reliable marker of cardiac remodelling, independently associated to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The published Heart 1 manuscript, reports the results of a longitudinal investigation addressing the prognostic significance of changes in left ventricular (LV) shape, as assessed by cardiac MRI in a large population-based sample free of known cardiovascular disease enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Before commenting these findings in detail, some general considerations on available evidence in this research field may be useful.

In a pioneering paper published at the beginning of the 1990s, Levy et al 2 provided the first general population-based evidence that LV mass (LVM) estimated by M-mode echocardiography had a prognostic value beyond that conveyed by conventional cardiovascular risk factors. The authors documented a significant relation between LVM and incident cardiovascular disease as well as cardiovascular and all-cause mortalities in 3220 subjects participating in the Framingham Heart Study. In …


Prediction markets are used in real life to predict outcomes of interest such as presidential elections. This paper presents a mathematical theory of artificial prediction markets for supervised learning of conditional probability estimators. The artificial prediction market is a novel method for fusing the prediction information of features or trained classifiers, where the fusion result is the contract price on the possible outcomes. The market can be trained online by updating the participants' budgets using training examples. Inspired by the real prediction markets, the equations that govern the market are derived from simple and reasonable assumptions. Efficient numerical algorithms are presented for solving these equations. The obtained artificial prediction market is shown to be a maximum likelihood estimator. It generalizes linear aggregation, existent in boosting and random forest, as well as logistic regression and some kernel methods. Furthermore, the market mechanism allows the aggregation of specialized classifiers that participate only on specific instances. Experimental comparisons show that the artificial prediction markets often outperform random forest and implicit online learning on synthetic data and real UCI datasets. Moreover, an extensive evaluation for pelvic and abdominal lymph node detection in CT data shows that the prediction market improves adaboost's detection rate from 79.6% to 81.2% at 3 false positives/volume.


We propose an object-oriented specification language, FUS++, for expressing the functional behaviors and the desired properties of each telecommunications service at the analysis phase. Our approach is based on Fusion, an object-oriented method that consists of analysis, design, and implementation phases for software development. Accompanying FUS++ is a tool we developed for translating FUS++ specifications to Promela statements; validation of service specifications and detection of feature interactions are thus possible by applying Spin tools to these Promela statements. To ensure a correct implementation of services with respect to their specifications, we exercise a novel concept of adding a service modeler and observer (SMO) to the target system where the execution of these services takes place. Combined with a test scenario generator, SMO is quite effective in identifying implementation errors on the fly. This paper presents the FUS++ language, the specification of telecommunications services based on FUS++, the concept of SMO, and the realization of SMO in a CS-1 (Capability Set No 1) intelligent network. Index terms : telecommunication software engineering, validation, software lifecycle, property verification, intelligent network.


A method for high definition virtual acoustic display (VAD) based on a model called the "Virtual Sphere (VS) model" is introduced [S. Takane et al., Proc. ICAD2002(2002)]. This is named ADVISE (Acoustic Display based on the VIrtual SpherE model). In this paper, sound reproduction accuracy of ADVISE is first discussed via a computer simulation. Based on the simulation results, a practical way to determine necessary parameters for ADVISE is discussed, and these parameters are approximately given for the implementation under reasonable assumptions. Then, a real-time implementation of ADVISE is introduced. This system is realized as a binaural VAD with five floating-point DSPs (Texas Instruments TMS320C6701) hosted by a PC. Consideration of hardware performance and the programming in each DSP and the host computer is also mentioned. Results of a preliminary hearing experiment with this system showed a satisfactory performance.


Recent advances in the study of networked systems have highlighted that our interconnected world is composed of networks that are coupled to each other through different 'layers' that each represent one of many possible subsystems or types of interactions. Nevertheless, it is traditional to aggregate multilayer networks into a single weighted network in order to take advantage of existing tools. This is admittedly convenient, but it is also extremely problematic, as important information can be lost as a result. It is therefore important to develop multilayer generalizations of network concepts. In this paper, we analyze triadic relations and generalize the idea of transitivity to multiplex networks. By focusing on triadic relations, which yield the simplest type of transitivity, we generalize the concept and computation of clustering coefficients to multiplex networks. We show how the layered structure of such networks introduces a new degree of freedom that has a fundamental effect on transitivity. We compute multiplex clustering coefficients for several real multiplex networks and illustrate why one must take great care when generalizing standard network concepts to multiplex networks. We also derive analytical expressions for our clustering coefficients for ensemble averages of networks in a family of random multiplex networks. Our analysis illustrates that social networks have a strong tendency to promote redundancy by closing triads at every layer and that they thereby have a different type of multiplex transitivity from transportation networks, which do not exhibit such a tendency. These insights are invisible if one only studies aggregated networks.


This paper introduces a preliminary study about using a health monitor (HM) to contribute towards production and on-line testing of System in Package (SiP) that contain MEMS functions. The HM serves as a central unit for the test of both the structure and critical functions within the SiP. The study includes the review of existing test solution which could be in-tegrated in the HM and some initial ideas to test the MEMS functions as typically, BIST is not normally supported by these devices. A SiP RF transceiver is used as a case study. An evaluation of the feasibility of implementing a HM for testing a MEMS switch is presented. Preliminary simulation results obtained by superimposing a low frequency signal into the bias of the switch are encouraging.


SIR,-My colleagues and I have been very pleased indeed to read the long-awaited proposals by the Central Committee for Hospital Medical Services for a new consultants' contract (11 September, p 655). We are overwhelmingly in support of the principles enunciated in this proposed contract as a basis for negotiation and all the more so as they correspond exactly with the principles which were suggested in our letter (22 May, p 1281). Incidentally, it is very interesting to find that several other groups of consultants have been writing lately about their ideas for a new contract, the latest being from Merseyside (25 September, p 759), which in principle is virtually identical with our own proposals. This is not only a welcome change from the deafening silence of a few months ago but also indicates that most consultants are thinking along the same lines and very much in line with the BMA's proposals. The really important thing is the recognition of a basic working week for consultants as for everyone else. The BMA proposals define this week as a 10-session week, and we would accept this so long as it does not mean 9 am5 pm Monday to Friday week a la Barbara Castle. There can be no question of that. A consultant should organise his working week so as to keep his unit up to the expected standard and distribute his sessions as he thinks best. Everything else, apart from the basic week, should carry extra remuneration. In fact, the whole basis for a new contract could be summed up very simply by saying "agreed salary for a basic week and everything else extra." It is clear that consultants may have different views about certain details in this proposed contract. We ourselves would prefer, for instance, to have the "on-call" commitment quite separate from the basic week, but we consider that these are indeed details and can be subject for negotiation at a later stage. We would therefore make a plea to all consultants to unite in supporting the broad principles of this proposed BMA contract, which is the only hope of restoring some sanity in the differentials of salaries in the hospital service.


The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case was used as a point of reference to elaborate on the often divergent realities in education and sport for Black and White Americans. The impetus to integrate sport and the movement to integrate educational institutions in America were two separate yet often paralleled phenomena. It is typically argued that efforts to integrate educational institutions were about ensuring equitable access and opportunity. Less so, due to moral principles, integration in sports was more about winning and generating revenue. Still today, race-related divergences are reflected in education and sport. The intent of this article is to reflect on America's education and sport histories (then) and highlight some present-day realities (now) as associated with the social construct of race, particularly for Black male students and athletes.


We show how edge partitioning, a technique originally developed for external-memory search, can be used to reduce the number of slow synchronization operations needed in parallel graph search. We show that edge partitioning improves on a previous technique called parallel structured duplicate detection by allowing a higher degree of concurrency, even for search problems with little or no inherent locality. For domain-independent graph search, we also show that edge partitioning significantly improves search speed by improving the efficiency of precondition checking. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach to parallel graph search for domain-independent STRIPS planning.


Automated vehicles are not supposed to fail at any time or in any situations during driving. Thus, vehicle manufactures and proving ground operators are challenged to complement existing test procedures with means to systematically evaluate automated driving. In this paper, we explore software related challenges from testing the safety of automated vehicles. We report on findings from conducting focus groups and interviews including 26 participants (e.g., vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, and researchers) from five countries.


BALB/c mice receiving antiidiotype antibodies before the injection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) generated an enhanced anti-HBs response. Mice given antiidiotype antibodies in a soluble form induced predominantly IgM anti-HBs, whereas alum-precipitated antiidiotype produced primarily IgG anti-HBs. Injection of antiidiotype antibodies alone induced anti-HBs that inhibited a common interspecies anti-HBs idiotype-antiidiotype reaction and recognized the group-specific determinant of HBsAg. These data support the view that antiidiotype antibodies may modulate the immune response to an infectious viral agent.


Background
Children born small for gestational age (SGA) with a poor adult height (AH) expectation benefit from treatment with GH and additional gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog (GnRHa). Because both SGA birth and GnRHa treatment might negatively influence cognition, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and psychosocial functioning, we assessed these outcomes at AH.

Methods
A randomized, dose-response GH study until AH involving 99 adolescents born SGA, of whom 61 children received 2 additional years of GnRHa treatment. At AH, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and TNO-AZL Adults Quality of Life questionnaire were administered to the study group. Additionally, the study group and 67 adolescents born SGA (19 GnRHa) from a second study group completed the Self-Perception Profile of Adolescents and Child/Adolescent Behavior Checklist at AH. Scores in GH-treated young adults with GnRHa treatment (GH/GnRHa group) were compared with GH-treated adolescents without GnRHa treatment (GH group) and a reference population.

Results
Mean age (SD) at AH was 17.5 (1.2) and 17.4 (1.4) years in the GH/GnRHa and GH group, respectively. Intelligence quotient scores were similar in GH/GnRHa and GH groups (96.33 vs 92.47). HRQoL was similar between both groups and also when compared with the reference population, but the GH/GnRHa group had a significantly lower perception of cognitive functioning. Self-perception and problem behavior were similar in the GH/GnRHa and GH groups. AH did not correlate with HRQoL, self-perception, or problem behavior.

Conclusion
Combined GH/GnRHa treatment has no long-term negative effects on cognition, HRQoL, self-perception, and behavior in early adulthood, compared with GH treatment only.


Plastic products are inexpensive, convenient, and are have many applications in daily life. We overuse plastic-related products and ineffectively recycle plastic that is difficult to degrade. Plastic debris can be fragmented into smaller pieces by many physical and chemical processes. Plastic debris that is fragmented into microplastics or nanoplastics has unclear effects on organismal systems. Recently, this debris was shown to affect biota and to be gradually spreading through the food chain. In addition, studies have indicated that workers in plastic-related industries develop many kinds of cancer because of chronic exposure to high levels of airborne microplastics. Microplastics and nanoplastics are everywhere now, contaminating our water, air, and food chain. In this review, we introduce a classification of plastic polymers, define microplastics and nanoplastics, identify plastics that contaminate food, describe the damage and diseases caused by microplastics and nanoplastics, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms of this damage and disease as well as solutions for their amelioration. Thus, we expect to contribute to the understanding of the effects of microplastics and nanoplastics on cellular and molecular mechanisms and the ways that the uptake of microplastics and nanoplastics are potentially dangerous to our biota. After understanding the issues, we can focus on how to handle the problems caused by plastic overuse.


The crystal structure of synthetic Tl feldspar, TIAISi3O8, was determined based on single-crystal X-ray diffraction data; monoclinic, a = 8.882(3), b = 13.048(2), c = 7.202(2) A, β = 116.88(1)°, V = 744.5(4)A3, Z = 4, space group C 2/ m (R = 7.33% for 462 observed reflections). The underlying framework is similar to Rb feldspar, RbAlSi3O8, and can be regarded as isotypic with sanidine. The structure accommodates Tl+ cations occupying the M site coordinated by nine O atoms. The more expanded Tl polyhedra as compared to the Rb polyhedra, in spite of the small ion radius of Tl+ relative to Rb+, result from the behavior of the stereoactive lone-pair electrons of Tl+ called " inert-pair effect ". The difference in centroid-central atom distance in the TlO9 polyhedron suggests that the lone-pair electrons are orienting parallel to the [001] direction in the feldspar structure. Therefore, Tl found as a trace element in analyses of natural K-feldspar can be considered as an actual constituent of this mineral. The syntheses of the present Tl-feldspar, TlAlSi3O8, together with Tl-leucite, TlAlSi2O6, and the chemical analogue of kalsilite, TlAlSiO4, shed new light on the crystal chemistry of potassium aluminosilicate minerals.


The ability to perceive sequences is fundamental to cognition. Previous studies have shown that infants can learn visual sequences as early as 2 months of age and it has been suggested that this ability is mediated by sensitivity to conditional probability information. Typically, conditional probability information has covaried with frequency information in these studies, raising the possibility that each type of information may have contributed independently to sequence learning. The current study explicitly investigated the independent contribution of each type of information. We habituated 2.5-, 4.5-, and 8.5-month-old infants to a sequence of looming visual shapes whose ordering was defined independently by specific conditional probability relations among pair elements and by the frequency of occurrence of such pairs. During test trials, we tested infants' sensitivity to each type of information and found that both types of information independently influenced sequence learning by 4.5 months of age.


Over a number of years, coals have been analysed in the geochemical laboratories of the University of Sheffield. Much of this work has been published and this paper presents an overview and, in some cases, a reinterpretation of the data. Most of the coal samples were obtained from seam sections in the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire coalfields (now included in the East Pennines Coalfield), and from the Parkgate Coal in particular. Sulphur variations are essentially due to pyrite. In individual plies of the seam, lateral variation in total sulphur is thought to be due to the availability of sulphate at the time of deposition. Access of sulphate into the coal swamp environment can be directly related to river channels, many of which are known to have been long-lived features. The pyrite is of concern because of S emissions, but in addition it is the location in the coal for Hg, Tl, Pb, As and Se, all of which are of major environmental concern. Concentrations were determined by direct and indirect methods. The most common of the latter methods is statistical, and some of the potential problems are reviewed. Also contained within pyrite, but not exclusively so, are Cd, Ni and Sb. Trace element concentrations from different pyrite samples are similar, strongly suggesting a common source. Comparable trace element enrichment patterns for coals and marine shales provide evidence of a seawater origin. The chloride concentration in the coals is high and can also be linked to seawater. The two elements, S and Cl, differ in that Cl is conservative, is not involved in diagenetic reactions and is retained in the coal in residual pore fluids. Illite and kaolinite are the main clay minerals present, with subsidiary chlorite and mixed-layer illite-smectite. In most coals, the clay minerals are dominantly detrital, but in low ash coals, kaolinite of diagenetic origin can be detected. In some samples from the Barnsley Coal, the source of this kaolinite, based on the trace element geochemistry, is dispersed volcanic ash (basaltic). It is also highly likely that organic matter contributes small amounts of Si and Al in the coal, and phytoliths are one potential source. However, the detrital sediment is a major contributor to the major and trace element geochemistry of the coals. Trace elements with a dominantly detrital origin are Rb, Cs, Cr, Ga, Th, Nb and Li. Trace elements are also associated with the organic matter to a greater or lesser extent. Germanium is mainly associated with organic matter, but V is also present in the clays. These elements are mainly contained in vitrinite, although Ge concentrations are more variable, suggesting some mobility during diagenesis. This is borne out by Ge, V and Be showing enrichment at the margins of the the Parkgate Coal, following 'Zilbermints Law'. Mobility during diagenesis is also demonstrated by the mineral infill of the cleat (joints). Stages of cleat mineralization have been recognized and related to diagenetic stages in siliciclastic sequences. Although there is evidence of element mobility after deposition in the coals, this is not thought to be related to the mineralizing fluids in the Pennine Orefields.


This paper investigates a semi-empirical approach for determining the stability of systems that can be modelled by ordinary differential equations with a time delay. This type of model is relevant to biological oscillators, machining processes, feedback control systems and models for wave propagation and reflection, where the motion of the waves themselves is considered to be outside the system model. A primary aim is to investigate the extension of empirical Floquet theory to experimental or numerical data obtained from time-delayed oscillators. More specifically, the reconstructed time series from a numerical example and an experimental milling system are examined to obtain a finite number of characteristic multipliers from the reduced order dynamics. A secondary goal of this work is to demonstrate a benefit of empirical characteristic multiplier estimation by performing system identification on a delayed oscillator. The principal results from this study are the accurate estimation of delayed oscillator characteristic multipliers and the utilization the empirical results for parametric identification of model parameters. Combining these results with previous research on an experimental milling system provides a particularly relevant result—the first approach for identifying all model parameters for stability prediction directly from the cutting process vibration history.


A linear, axis-parallel, array of glacial and postglacial basalt samples from the elevated mid-ocean ridge in southwest Iceland, the Reykjanes Peninsula, shows three MgO lows and two MgO highs at 40 km intervals. Similar patterns are observed with other fractionation indices, e.g., Cr. These along-axis variations in elements affected by fractional crystallization are interpreted as evidence for segment-scale variation in crustal residence times arising from the focusing of magmatic activity at regular intervals along this elevated mid-ocean ridge. In the majority of the samples, Nb/Zr, generally considered to be unaffected by crystal fractionation, does not show a systematic variation with MgO. Lavas with unusually low Nb/Zr, erupted at the end of the last glaciation, are the only exception. These low-Nb/Zr lavas are generally restricted to the MgO highs, resulting in a wider range of lava Nb/Zr in these areas than in the MgO lows. It is proposed that low-Nb/Zr melts are available along the entire ridge section at all times, but are modified before eruption by mixing with melts that are more enriched in incompatible elements. Crustal processes at this ridge axis are governing the distribution of chemistry associated with the mantle.


A large number of factors (including road design, traffic volume, complexity) have been shown to influence the risk that drivers feel in any given situation. Previously we have shown that curves, hills, road width and median barriers were the road features that best predicted drivers' perceptions of risk. The present study examined the relationship between drivers' perceptions of risk and the speed they choose to drive. High definition video footage of a series of rural road sections was presented to participants whilst they were seated in the driving simulator. During the first part of the task, participants were asked to adjust the speed of the car to whatever they would choose if they were driving their own car. After this, participants were shown the same clips again (either at the speed they chose or at the speed the footage was recorded) and were asked to provide a continuous rating of how safe or unsafe they felt. Analyses revealed that higher speeds were associated with lower levels of perceived risk. In general, scenarios with high traffic volumes were driven at lower speeds and rated as higher risk compared to low traffic scenarios. Interestingly though, neither speed or risk ratings changed as a result of high traffic volume on roads with a wire rope median barrier. The presence of a police car led to the greatest reduction in speed. These findings provide insights into the relationship between risk and speed and the effectiveness of a range of countermeasures.


Objective: To evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of sodium valproate and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation using various experimental models in albino Wistar rats. Method: A total of 48 adult Wistar albino male rats were divided into 8 groups of 6 rats each. Group I was control (distilled water 1 ml/kg), Group II received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of indomethacin (10 mg/kg), Groups III-V were injected (i.p.) with sodium valproate 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg water, and Groups VI-VIII were given sodium valproate 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg plus DHA 300 mg/kg (i.p.), respectively. Anti-inflammatory activity was assessed using carrageenan induced paw edema and the cotton pellet granuloma models. R esults: We found that higher doses of sodium valproate (400 mg/kg) used either alone or with a combination of DHA (300 mg/kg) showed a significant anti-inflammatory activity when compared to control in both the models of inflammation. C onclusion: Combination of sodium valproate along DHA has shown promising anti-inflammatory activity. Ke ywords: Anti-inflammatory drugs, Sodium valproate, Rat model.


ABSTRACTA layered mesh inertial filter that was previously developed by the authors, was combined with an impactor, in which the collection efficiency curve overlaps that of the inertial filter, in order to provide a sharp-cut separation tool for aerosol nanoparticles operating at a moderate pressure drop of less than 10–15 kPa. The separation performance of the proposed "hybrid inertial filter" of the inertial filter and an impactor, such as cut-off size, steepness of the collection efficiency curve and pressure drop ΔP, was evaluated for a single nozzle type in order to confirm the proposed system. The performance of the single nozzle type, which can be used as a unit of a multi nozzle type, was compared with that of the previous type layered mesh inertial filter with a stainless steel fiber mat. The hybrid inertial filter was found to have a collection efficiency curve with a much better steepness at less ΔP compared to those of the previous type for particles with the same cut-off size: a cut-off size dp50 of 100 nm with steepness dp84/dp16 = 1.7, e.g., was obtained at ΔP ~12 kPa while dp84/dp16 = 2.4 at ~16 kPa was found for the previous type.


The paper presents a recent 3D scanning project performed with long range scanning technology showing how a complex sampled dataset can be processed with the features available in MeshLab, an open source tool. MeshLab is an open source mesh processing system. It is a portable and extensible system aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured models that arise in 3D scanning, providing a set of tools for editing, cleaning, processing, inspecting, rendering and converting meshes. The MeshLab system started in late 2005 as a part of a university course, and considerably evolved since then thanks to the effort of the Visual Computing Lab and of the support of several funded EC projects. MeshLab gained so far an excellent visibility and distribution, with several thousands downloads every month, and a continuous evolution. The aim of this scanning campaign was to sample the facades of the buildings located in Piazza della Signoria (Florence, Italy). This digital 3D model was required, in the framework of a Regional Project, as a basic background model to present a complex set of images using a virtual navigation metaphor (following the PhotoSynth approach). Processing of complex dataset, such as the ones produced by long range scanners, often requires specialized, difficult to use and costly software packages. We show in the paper how it is possible to process this kind of data inside an open source tool, thanks to the many new features recently introduced in MeshLab for the management of large sets of sampled point.


Abstract Students with learning disabilities seek postsecondary education at rates comparable to their peers yet lag behind on retention and graduation rates. This research used InQuiry methodology to analyze 44 individual perspectives from multiple K12 and postsecondary stakeholders. Quantitative data analysis generated a four-factor solution, identifying four "family groups" of participants. Subsequent interviews yielded qualitative data to inform the context for each group perspective. Families agreed on broad themes of self-advocacy and the need for intentional communication and collaboration between secondary and postsecondary settings, yet emphasized varying responsibilities and opportunities related to addressing these priorities in both K12 and college environments. The study generated promising practices and identified barriers to transition success from practitioners for practitioners.


Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) is a rare autosomal dominant syndrome characterised by the association of retinal and CNS haemangioblastomas, phaeochromocytoma and renal cell carcinoma. If a child of an affected parent has inherited a VHL mutation or the parent's mutation cannot be identified, then clinical screening is recommended. We report the clinical features in three parent-offspring pairs where the parents have presented clinically with renal cell carcinoma, phaeochromocytoma, cerebellar haemangioblastoma and retinal haemangioma, and the children have undergone pre-symptomatic screening. During the first screening a 13-year-old boy was diagnosed with bilateral phaeochromocytoma and later developed an endolymphatic sac tumour at 19 years. A right phaeochromocytoma was found in a 12-year-old girl who was screened from the age of 4 years and in a 13-year-old boy screened from 5 years of age. All children were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. These families demonstrate that clinical screening of children at risk of VHL can detect tumours before the first symptoms arise with a consequent reduction in morbidity. These observations strongly support the recommendation to undertake screening of the children of VHL patients.


'The National Bank of Turkey was founded in 1909 with British Government encouragement and support to further British economic enterprise in the Ottoman Empire' so we are told in all die standard and respectable works on the subject. This is correct in form but incorrect in substance, for one cannot accept the implications it carries with it, in some cases explicitly stated. These are that, in the first place, the Foreign Office was instrumental in actually starting the Bank, in the second place, that the Bank succeeded very far in its objects, and in the third place, that it ever received much Foreign Office support in what it sought to do.


This body of work addresses the ethical, legal and social implications of using genetic testing as part of US immigration procedures for family reunification. Last year, approximately two-thirds of immigrants who came to the US as legal permanent residents were family petitioned under the family reunification provision. Under this provision, a petitioner, who must be a US citizen or permanent resident, petitions to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to bring his or her immediate family members (spouse, children, parents or siblings) to the US. As part of the application process, the petitioner is required to show proof of the alleged family relationships claimed in the petition. This is typically done through documentation (e.g. birth certificates). But when documents are lacking or insufficient, or fraud is suspected, US immigration officials may suggest DNA testing (parentage or sibling testing) as a way to verify family relationships. In the past several years, DNA testing has become more frequent in immigration procedures, but the impact such testing may have on immigrants, their families or their communities is not clear. The objective of this study was to explore the positive and negative effects DNA testing may have on immigrant families, particularly regarding how test results might impact family relationships, social adaptability, and psychological well-being. This study incorporated interviews with immigrant families to (1) understand their experiences with DNA testing, and to (2) learn their opinions about the potential positive and negative effects of using DNA testing to prove alleged family relationships in immigration. Results from this research were used to develop educational materials including (a) an informational brochure for immigrants planning to petition for a family member under family reunification provision, and (b) an ethical "points-to-consider" document to inform policy-makers, immigration lawyers, advocates and immigrant communities about the study findings and the implications of using DNA testing in immigration for family reunification.


The overall aim of this thesis is twofold: first, to develop and validate questionnaires that could be used for investigating relationships between perceptions of conscience, moral sensitivity and burnout and second, to describe patterns of self-comfort used to ease stress and illuminate meanings of living with a troubled conscience. The thesis comprises five studies and is based on both quantitative and qualitative data.In study I, a questionnaire was constructed to assess perceptions of conscience; the Perceptions of Conscience Questionnaire (PCQ). This 15 item-questionnaire was distributed to 444 care providers. Statistical analyses of responses showed sufficient distribution and a stable six factor solution congruent with reviewed literature. The six factors were labelled: 'the voice of authority', 'warning signal', 'demanding sensitivity', 'asset', 'burden' and 'depending on culture'. The findings suggest that the PCQ is a valid questionnaire. The aim of study II was further development of an existing questionnaire assessing care providers' moral sensitivity, enabling its use in various care contexts. The revised nine-item questionnaire, the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire Revised version (MSQ-R), was distributed to 278 care providers with various professional backgrounds. Statistical analyses of responses showed sufficient distribution and a three-factor solution congruent with reviewed literature. The three factors were labelled: 'sense of moral burden', 'sense of moral strength,' and 'sense of moral responsibility.' The findings suggest that MSQ-R is valid for use in various healthcare contexts. In study III, the PCQ, the MSQ-R and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were distributed to a population of psychiatric care providers (n=101) to investigate relationships between perceptions of conscience and moral sensitivity and levels of burnout. The hierarchical cluster analysis shows two clusters with Pearson's r >.50. Cluster A comprising items such as: being sensitive, interpreting and following the voice of conscience that warns us against hurting other or ourselves and developing as human beings was labelled 'experiencing a sense of moral integrity'. Cluster B comprising items such as: feeling inadequate, doing more than one has strengths for, feeling always responsible, having difficulties to deal with wearing feelings, perceiving that conscience gives wrong signals and express social values, having to deaden one' conscience, were all related to scores of the MBI subscales emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalisation (DP). Cluster B was labelled 'experiencing a burdening accountability'. The results show that levels of 'experiencing a burdening accountability' are closely related to levels of being at risk of burnout.The aim of study IV was to describe patterns of self-comforting measures used to ease stress. The written accounts of 168 care providers and healthcare students were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. The findings disclose two dimensions: an ability to use early learned measures to take care of oneself (ingression) and an ability to feel intimately related to life, other human beings and universe or God (transcendence). The findings provide valuable knowledge about self-comfort as a coping strategy. The aim of study V was to illuminate meanings of living with a troubled conscience. Ten psychiatric care providers, respondents of study III with various perceptions of conscience were interviewed. The interviews were interpreted using a phenomenological - hermeneutical method. The findings show that one meaning of living with a troubled conscience is being confronted with inadequacy and struggling to view oneself as 'good enough.' The comprehensive understanding indicates that inadequacy, both one's own and that of organization one represents, infuse feelings of shame rather than feelings of guilt. Shame concerns one's identity and need of reconciliation.Conclusions: The results reveal two ways of encountering a troubled conscience. One is being unable to interpret the ethical demand from a troubled conscience. This is indicated by connections between levels of moral burden and levels of burnout. The other way is being able to interpret the ethical demand and using one's troubled conscience to develop practical wisdom. This means facing shame of feeling inadequate, reconciling images of the ideal self and self-contempt, and becoming realistic about what one can do. In this process comfort seems to be a mediator of reconciliation.


Water pollution is a critical issue for human health, aquatic plant and animal biodiversity. While there are several different approaches to resolve this issue, our research investigates one possible solution of using aquatic plants as a natural treatment system. To identify the optimal plant for treating polluted water in India, we selected water from the Mithi river and three types of floating plants: water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), duckweed (Lemna perpusilla), and azolla (Azolla pinnata). We used a total of six measurements (dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity, pH, color of water, and the number of colonies grown on the culture media) taken for seven days to compare the effect of each floating plant on the change in water quality. We hypothesized that duckweed would be the best plant to purify water in India since its effect on reducing turbidity or biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) was found in past research.
Our results show that all three floating plants are effective at purifying the water. Further, duckweed significantly reduced the turbidity and number of bacteria in the water, suggesting it may be the most optimal water purifier among those three. Based on the results from this experiment, we recommend floating plants as one alternative to resolving water pollution in India, which would effectively purify water as well as require less cost for construction and maintenance.


We present a revisited semantics for multiset rewriting founded on the left sequent rules of linear logic in its LV presentation. The resulting interpretation is extended with a majority of linear connectives into the language of ωmultisets. It drops the distinction between multiset elements and rewrite rules, and considerably enriches the expressive power of standard multiset rewriting with embedded rules, choice, replication and more. The cut rules introduce finite auxiliary rewriting chains and are admissible. Derivations are now primarily viewed as open objects, and are closed only to examine intermediate rewriting states. The resulting language can also be interpreted as a process algebra. A simple translation maps process constructors of the asynchronous π-calculus to rewrite operators, while the structural equivalence corresponds directly to logically-motivated structural properties of ω-multisets (with one exception). The language of ω-multisets forms the basis for the security protocol specification language MSR 3. With relations to both multiset rewriting and process algebra, it supports specifications that are process-based, state-based, or of a mixed nature. Additionally, its deep logical underpinning makes it an ideal common ground for systematically comparing protocol specification languages, a task currently done in an ad-hoc manner.


This paper proposed a methodological framework for the assessment of carbon stocks and the development and identification of land use, land use change and land management scenarios, whereby enhancing carbon sequestration synergistically increases biodiversity, the prevention of land degradation and food security through the increases in crop yields. The framework integrates satellite image interpretation, computer modelling tools (i.e. software customization of off-the-shelf soil organic matter turnover simulation models) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The framework addresses directly and indirectly the cross-cutting ecological concerns foci of major global conventions: climate change, biodiversity, the combat of desertification and food security. Their synergies are targeted by providing procedures for assessing and identifying simultaneously carbon sinks, potential increases in plant diversity, measures to prevent land degradation and enhancements in food security through crop yields, implicit in each land use change and land management scenario. The scenarios aim at providing "win-win" options to decision makers through the framework's decision support tools. Issues concerning complex model parameterization and spatial representation were tackled through tight coupling soil carbon models to GIS via software customization. Results of applying the framework in the field in two developing countries indicate that reasonably accurate estimates of carbon sequestration can be obtained through modeling; and that alternative best soil organic matter management practices that arrest shifting "slash-and-burn" cultivation and prevent burning and emissions, can be identified. Such options also result in increased crop yields and food security for an average family size in the area, while enhancing biodiversity and preventing land degradation. These options demonstrate that the judicious management of organic matter is central to greenhouse gas mitigation and the attainment of synergistic ecological benefits, which is the concern of global conventions. The framework is to be further developed through successive approximations and refinement in future, extending its applicability to other landscapes.


Abstract Objective: To review the epidemiology of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Africa and discuss the various methods of screening for the disease. Methods: Review of the peer-reviewed articles in PubMed, Google, and Scirus about DR published from 1985 to 2010. Articles in all languages were considered, provided that the non-English articles included English abstracts. Results: Screening for DR can significantly prevent the loss of vision resulting from long-standing diabetes mellitus. Screening is also financially advantageous for both patients and health care systems. Several screening methods can be employed by primary care providers, who over the past 20 years have become responsible for the treatment and follow-up of patients with diabetes rather than hospitals. An additional concern for screening in African countries is the inefficient referral to ophthalmologists, given their scarce distribution in the African population. Finally, education of both the patient population and caregivers should be included as an essential component of screening programs. Conclusion: As of now, African health care systems are not prepared to deal with the increasing burden of diabetes and its complications. With inappropriate glycemic or blood pressure control, most patients will only seek care once micro- or macrovascular complications have already developed. Given the current difficulty in providing costly therapeutic interventions, a well-planned, cost-effective prevention strategy is required.


Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common functional gastrointestinal disorder referred to gastroenterologists. Although the pathophysiology remains unclear, accumulating evidence points to the presence of low-level immune activation both in the gut and systemically. Circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have recently attracted attention as being altered in a variety of disease states. Arachidonic acid (AA), in particular, has been implicated in the development of a pro-inflammatory profile in a number of immune-related disorders. AA is the precursor of a number of important immunomodulatory eicosanoids, including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4). We investigated the hypothesis that elevated plasma AA concentrations in plasma contribute to the proposed pro-inflammatory profile in IBS. Plasma AA and related PUFA were quantified by gas chromatography analysis in IBS patients and controls. Both PGE2 and LTB4 were measured in serum using commercially available ELISA assays. AA concentrations were elevated in our patient cohort compared with healthy controls. Moreover, we demonstrated that this disturbance in plasma AA concentrations leads to downstream elevations in eicosanoids. Together, our data identifies a novel proinflammatory mechanism in irritable bowel syndrome and also suggests that elevated arachidonic acid levels in plasma may serve as putative biological markers in this condition.


The use of "net profit" clauses in the movie business poses a problem. The standard perception is that Hollywood accounting results in successful films showing no net profits. If that is indeed so, then why have they survived for over four decades? This paper argues that a successful movie will fail to yield net profits only if a "gross participant" (a major star whose compensation is in part a function of the film's gross receipts) becomes associated with the film. Since the net participants typically are associated with a project first, the question becomes: why would net participants be willing to sacrifice some (or all) of their contingent compensation when a gross participant is added to the project. The answer is that the net participants are made better off, ex ante, both directly by increasing their expected earnings, and indirectly because the studio is willing to pay for the increased flexibility. Contingent compensation is endemic in the movie industry. Because the inputs for the commercial success of a movie are not all supplied simultaneously, the compensation schemes will be tailored to induce effort at the appropriate time. If the studio-distributor gives up too much of the back-end, it waters down its incentives to market the film effectively. At the same time, giving the net profit participants a share of the back-end sharpens their incentives, both before and after the completion of production. The net profits clause nicely balances these two effects.


In Ouagadougou and in many similar Sahelian cities, urban agriculture uses very often polluted water for irrigation of vegetables, including those that are likely to be eaten uncooked. As the pathogenic germs can survive long enough in water, soil and plants, this practice entails potential sanitary risks, particularly for farmers and their families. The potential of risks related to the use of sewage in agriculture is well known and sanitary instructions exist. However, there is no assessment of real risks within the context of sewage use on a small scale in small size plots, as it is the case in Ouagadougou, and common in Sahelian countries. The aim of the current thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of interactions between the environment and health. The specific objectives are: (i) - to assess incidence rates for diarrhoea In a period of two weeks and to assess prevalence rates for parasitic infections; (ii)- to assess relative risks and prevalence ratios among exposed groups and those of the population in general; (iii) - to assess levels of microbiological pollution of irrigation water, soils and vegetables; (iv) - to assess sociocultural factors and behavioural attitudes of the various actors; (v) - to assess environmental pollution at the level of residential areas; (vi)- to propose possible measures in order to reduce risks and to discuss their feasibility. The general approach that has been adopted is transdisciplinary, particularly with an epidemiological perspective associating microbiology, socio-anthropology, cartography and geomatics. The cartographical approach, with the assistance of geomatics made it possible (i) - to characterize residential areas in Ouagadougou according to pollution by refuse dumps and throwing out of sewage, (ii) - to locate market gardening sites in urban fabric, and (iii)- to assess the importance of exploited surfaces during the dry season, the cool season and the rainy season. Peripheral sectors are more polluted than central sectors. Variation in the total exploited surfaces between the cool season (December) and the dry season (April) is almost 85%. Six areas of market gardening represent in all seasons more than 55% of the total exploited surfaces. The majority of fanners in these 6 areas of market gardening live in 4 to 6 peripheral sectors (79% in 1992, 90% in 1995). The microbiological approach made it possible to monitor bacteriological (fecal coliforms) and parasitological (helminth and protozoan eggs) pollution in water, soils and plants. Water and soil samples have been taken in 4 market gardening areas which represent in all seasons between 49 and 56% of the exploited surfaces in the city; plant samples have been taken in the 4 areas of market gardening and in the central market of Ouagadougou. 668 samples of irrigation water, 247 samples of lettuce, 48 samples of carrots and 218 samples of soils have been analyzed between October 1993 and December 1995. The levels of bacteriological pollution for all types of water, most of the time, are above the thresholds recommended by WHO for the watering of vegetables that are likely to be consumed uncooked (1000 FC/100 ml). Water from canals or channels (Abattoir and Canal Central sites) prove to be more polluted, both bacteriologically and parasitologically, than the one from wells and dams (Boulmiougou and Tanghin sites). Lettuce from both market gardening sites and market has a bacteriological pollution that is beyond sanitary thresholds (100 FC/100 g), with higher levels in the market. A proportion of at least 10% of soil samples from paths are contaminated by parasites such as Ankylostomes, Ascaris and Anguillules. The market gardening sites which have the most polluted beds by parasites are those of Abattoir (79% of samples) and Canal Central (75%) which correspond to the sites with irrigation water that is also the most polluted. The socio-anthropological approach made it possible to gather ideas and beliefs of various actors in the chain of market gardening products (from producer to consumer) and to carry out direct observations about environmental factors as well as about practices in the various places in this chain. During the two years, 15 FGD (Focus Group Discussion) have been held with farmers, retailers, caterers and consumers. In 1995, 226 observations sessions have been held from 22 observation posts (5 market gardening sites, 3 markets, 3 caterers and 11 selected households). Whilst the environmental factors on market gardening sites are characterized by a high level of pollution, the behavioural attitudes of farmers during their activities, particularly walking barefoot, and expressed beliefs reveal a lack of awareness. The epidemiological approach made it possible to assess differences in incidence or prevalence rates between climatic seasons, between farmers and the general population, between market gardening sites, and between sexes, for diarrhoea, stomach aches and various parasitic infections. The data have been collected through households surveys and examinations in analysis laboratories of excreta and of households' drinking water. Three cross-sectional surveys with children as targets have been undertaken in 1994 (2 in the dry season and in the rainy season) and in 1995 (one at the end of the rainy season). Sample sizes were respectively 512, 599 and 3040 children aged between 0 and 4 full years and who have been weaned. During the third cross-sectional survey 208 adults, fathers or mothers of the surveyed children, have been also involved and water samples of 2996 households have been analyzed. A fourth cross-sectional survey dealt only with the group of market gardeners, with 191 adults, 97 children of farmers and 186 samples of households' drinking water. Differences are significant between the end of the rainy season and the two other seasons as far the diarrhoea and the main parasitic infections are concerned among the general population's children aged less than 5 years old. The incidence of two weeks' diarrhoea is very important in all seasons among the children of the general population (always > 30%) as well as among the children of market gardeners at the end of the rainy season (37.10 ± 9.61%). On the other hand, the incidence rate for two weeks' diarrhoea is low among adult farmers themselves at the end of the rainy season (6.30 ± 3.45%). The group of farmers, both children and adults, have in a very significant way higher prevalence rates than those of the general population as far as Ankylostoma are concerned (10.80 ± 6.68% against 1.40 ± 0.43% among children; 40.60 ± 7.38% against 14.90 ± 5.09% among adults). The difference between men and women is very significant for Ankylostoma among market gardeners (48.40% against 30.70%, PR= 1.58, p= 0.03). The epidemiological approach also made it possible to carry out a case-control analysis of diarrhoea among children of the general population aged less than 5 years old. The final logistic regression model draws a significant association (p < 0.05) between children's diarrhoea and 11 risk factors. These factors are related to either habitat conditions, or socio-economic conditions, or behavioural attitudes. The geomatic approach made it possible to disintegrate the main results of the epidemiological approach (as it has been done already for those of the cartographical approach) to present them at the sector level as thematic maps. The study leads to the formulation of recommendations in the area of (i)- actions and interventions; and (ii)- possibilities in research perspectives, regarding health and environment.


The derivation of transport parameters from radial-flow tracer tests will depend strongly on the conceptual and mathematical model that is fitted to the data. This is illustrated by a test over 199 m in the English Chalk, which gave a unimodal, tailing breakthrough curve with about 25% tracer recovery. A laboratory study suggested that the tracer used, fluorescein, experienced little sorption on Chalk so it was assumed that the field results were unaffected by retardation. Three models were compared: a simple one-dimensional (1-D) advection-dispersion, radial-flow advection-dispersion, and radial flow in a double-porosity medium. The two advection-dispersion models failed to fit the overall shape of the breakthrough curve, but the double-porosity model was successful in this regard. No model accounted fully for the conservation of mass of tracer, but the double-porosity model was again superior. The estimation of transport parameters (porosity and dispersivity of the fracture network, porosity of the matrix) depends strongly on the model employed, with a six-fold variation in dispersivity between the lowest and highest values. If the results from such tracer tests are to be used in parameter selection for larger-scale models of contaminant transport, it is crucial that the tracer test is itself interpreted with an appropriate model.


Simulation models in many scientific fields can have non-unique solutions or unique solutions which can be difficult to find. Moreover, in evolving systems, unique final state solutions can be reached by multiple different trajectories. Neuroscience is no exception. Often, neural network models are subject to parameter fitting to obtain desirable output comparable to experimental data. Parameter fitting without sufficient constraints and a systematic exploration of the possible solution space can lead to conclusions valid only around local minima or around non-minima. To address this issue, we have developed an interactive tool for visualizing and steering parameters in neural network simulation models. In this work, we focus particularly on connectivity generation, since finding suitable connectivity configurations for neural network models constitutes a complex parameter search scenario. The development of the tool has been guided by several use cases—the tool allows researchers to steer the parameters of the connectivity generation during the simulation, thus quickly growing networks composed of multiple populations with a targeted mean activity. The flexibility of the software allows scientists to explore other connectivity and neuron variables apart from the ones presented as use cases. With this tool, we enable an interactive exploration of parameter spaces and a better understanding of neural network models and grapple with the crucial problem of non-unique network solutions and trajectories. In addition, we observe a reduction in turn around times for the assessment of these models, due to interactive visualization while the simulation is computed.


In Pukaskwa National Park(PNP) on Lake Superior, Herring Gull(Larus argentatus) population is used as an indicator of ecological integrity. Since the 1970s, their populations have declined by 70%. Lake-wide declines in prey fish may be limiting natural food sources for Pukaskwa gulls. In the southern section of the park there's little access to human sources of food. In the northern section of the park, impacts of food declines may be buffered as birds can obtain anthropogenic food from nearby dumps. To assess regional differences, Herring Gull eggs were collected from northern and southern PNP. Markers of diet composition, stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, fatty acids, were measured in the eggs. Analysis supports the hypothesis that gulls from the southern PNP rely to a greater extent on natural foods. Understanding the degree to which anthropogenic food supports Gull populations is critical when utilizing gulls as indicators of ecological integrity in PNP.


This paper presents a novel concept for remote inspection and maintenance operations on next generation normally-unmanned offshore oil platforms. The concept is presented through the design of a robotic lab facility for automated and teleoperated inspection and maintenance operations by robot manipulators — ranging from simple inspection tasks to advanced maintenance operations. The lab facility is built around two cooperating robot manipulators equipped with sensors measuring temperature, vibrations, gas concentration and sound, and that automatically changes between tools to operate valves, exchange batteries in wireless sensors and to manipulate objects and the integrated process equipment. A graphical interface allows users to start automated inspection rounds where sensor data are collected, analyzed and compared to normal operating conditions, and alarms are generated if deviations are detected. Users may also plan new operations in a virtual environment before executing them, or remotely control the robots through a number of control interfaces. Live video feeds and stereoscopic vision are available to aid the operator during remote operations. A model-based collision avoidance system ensures that both automated operations and unplanned operations are verified before and during execution, and ensures safe operation of the robots. The paper presents results from the lab facility to illustrate the functionality of the remote inspection and maintenance concept, and demonstrate how remote operators may start automatic inspection and maintenance operations, plan new operations in a virtual environment, or directly control the remote facility onshore.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


: In this study wind potential investigated for the region to the east of Turkey's Hakkari centers. The wind speed and direction information used in the study were taken from the measurement station belonging to the General Directorate of Meteorology in Hakkari Center. Data sets containing 5 year wind speed and wind direction between 2013 and 2017 taken from this measurement station were analyzed by the WASP program. The NASA SRTM data library in the WASP interface was used to create digital maps for the region. Regional barriers required for areas where wind potentials are searched and roughness maps were created using Google Maps. As a result of these analyzes, annual average wind speed value of 1.96 m / s and average power density of this region in Hakkari Center is calculated as 12 W / m 2 . The prevailing wind direction belonging to this region has been identified as Southwest, but it has been found that this dominant wind direction changes with great proximity to the Southeast-Northwest sector interval on the South side.


Biomass conversion to biofuels is promising for production of renewable energy. Biofuels are sustainable, CO2-neutral, recognized to be cleaner than fossil fuels, but their combustion generates noxious gases and genotoxic substances and combustion of different types of biofuels has been associated with an increased incidence of lung cancer. Pyrolysis of biomass is the most efficient biofuel-producing conversion process and generates pyrolysis oil, or bio-oil, of which upgradation techniques are under development in order to produce green fuels, and similar to other biofuels genotoxic abilities have been shown in bio-oil. The main purpose of this project was to measure the mutagenic potential of crude pyrolysis oil through application of the preincubation version of the Ames assay using bacterial strains TA98 and TA100 with and without the metabolically active S9-mix in order to assess bio-oil's ability to induce frameshift-mutations and base-pair substitutions in terms of primary or secondary mutagenicity. The Ames assay was chosen because of its ability to screen complex chemical mixtures for content of chemical mutagens. The sample material consisted of seven spruce-derived fast pyrolysis oils obtained from different relative proportions of wood, bark and needles, which created a unique opportunity to study the feedstock components' influence on mutagenic potential. Three of the oils were obtained from 100 % of wood, bark or needles while the remaining four oils derived from mixed feedstock compositions. With limited chemical data available on the oils, the aims of this project were to determine the types of mutations the bio-oils would induce and how the feedstock composition would influence the mutagenic potential, as well as trying to predict the mutagenic potential of the oils through a partial least square (PLS) regression model based solely on their feedstock composition. The mutagenic potential of the concentration ranges of bio-oil test-solutions showed that all but the purely needle-derived oil induced positive test results under at least two of the four test conditions (TA98, TA98 + S9, TA100 and TA100 + S9) as well as evoking bacterial toxicity at different concentrations. Presence of primary and secondary mutagens inducing frameshift mutations and base-pair substitution were indicated in one or more of the oils, however with a higher frequency of positive test results for base-pair substitutions. The metabolically active S9 decreased the oil-evoked bacteriotoxic effect in both strains and generally lead to decreased reversion frequencies in TA98 and increased reversion III frequencies in TA100. The results demonstrated that both bacteriotoxic and mutagenic properties in spruce-derived fast pyrolysis oils were influenced by spruce feedstock composition and the statistical analyses showed that wood was the feedstock component contributing the most to the bio-oil-induced mutagenic potential. The positive Ames assay results in this study suggest that crude spruce-derived bio-oils may contain hazardous compounds which in this case were unidentified. However, as crude pyrolysis oil needs upgradation in order to be utilized as a high quality fuel, the probability of potential hazard from exposure to crude bio-oils like the ones in this project is rather small. The results of this project demonstrated mutagenic potential in crude bio-oil, but it would be useful to conduct mutagenicity assessment on more refined pyrolysis oil in order to see if the mutagenic potential will decrease after performance of various upgradation techniques on pyrolysis oil.


Many new education reforms use cash incentives to promote better student outcomes. The Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) is one example. With private donors financing 70 percent of costs, the APIP trains AP teachers, and motivates both students and teachers by paying substantial cash bonuses for passing scores on AP exams. So does it work? In this working paper, IPR labor economist Kirabo Jackson examines the APIP in Texas, tracking over 290,000 high school students between 1993 and 2008. He compared changes in student outcomes before and after APIP adoption at the 58 participating schools to changes across the same cohorts in comparable schools that did not adopt the APIP. APIP adoption increased taking an AP course by 21 percent and passing an AP exam by 45 percent. More importantly, Jackson finds benefits beyond the program: For those participating in APIP four years after it wasadopted, the probability of students persisting in college as sophomores rose by about 20 percent and earnings increased by 3.7 percent. The pay increases erased the Hispanic-white earnings gap and reduced the black-white earnings gap by one third. The results imply a per-pupil lifetime earnings benefit of $16,650 for a cost of $450. Jackson's findings suggest that one can raise achievement for students "consigned" to low-achieving, urban schools—and that high quality college-preparatory programs might be a viable alternative to transferring such students to higher achieving schools.


The body cannot be healthier than the food man eats. Nutrition is to health what drug is to the body too. This paper seeks to highlight the relationship between diet and longevity most importantly in prevention of morbidity and recovery from ill-health. Nutrition is coming to the fore as a major modifiable determinant of chronic disease, with scientific evidence increasingly supporting the view that alterations in diet have strong effects, both positive and negative, on health throughout life. Diet has been known for many years to play a key role as a risk factor for chronic disease. Hunger, malnutrition and poor lifestyle remain among the most devastating problems facing the majority of the world's poor and needy people; our communities inclusive. The Objective is to clarify the role of diet in preventing and controlling morbidity and premature mortality resulting from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Using Health Belief Model (HBM), questionnaire was designed for data collection, 100 questionnaires were administered, interviews and existing literature were used too. Data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, simple percentages and illustrative graphs. The findings show that poverty, ignorance, poor lifestyle and inequality were discovered to be the major limiting factors to proper nutrition which would have boosted health and longevity. The study demonstrated 65% increase in morbidity cases among the low income earners and the ignorant as to the average income earners and the ignorant. The result shows that there is a strong relationship between nutrition and health. Ignorance, as one of the limiting factors to proper dieting, is at the fore front. Base on this study/ findings, it is recommended that local food be patronized too in our locality and stakeholders should organize food/agricultural programmes at least annually to ensure knowledge is increased on proper nutrition with the aim of promoting healthy living.


Background: The evaluation of craving is very important to treatment of tobacco dependence. Objective: The objective of this research was to validate the Brazilian version of the Questionnaire of Smoking Urges-Brief (QSU-B). Method: Subjects enrolled to this experimental study were randomized into groups of zero, 30 and 60 minutes of tobacco abstinence. The study group was composed by 201 subjects (134 females and 67 males), age range: 18 to 65 (M = 38.15). The assessment instruments were, in addition to the QSU-B: Social and Demographical Data Form, Visual Analogic Scale for Craving, Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence and Anxiety and Depression Beck Inventories. Results: The two-factor factorial analysis presented a total variation of 78.46% and the correlation between these factors was significant and of high intensity (r = 0.636; p < 0.001). All Cronbach's alpha values from QSU-B were above 0.70. We observed a correlation between the QSU-B total score and the Visual Analogic Scale (r = 0.656; p < 0.001), and also with Fagerstrom's question 1 (r = 0.201; p = 0.004) and question 2 (r = 0.257; p < 0.001). Conclusion: QSU-B's Brazilian version proved to be an adequate psychometric instrument for the use both in research and in clinical settings.


The history of the ebook and e-readers began before World War II with Vannevar Bush, who conceived the memex as a way for individuals to store and read increasing amounts of available information. Project Gutenberg started digitizing texts in 1971. In this article the authors trace the history of ebooks and e-readers from these early beginnings to the current explosion of ebook use. While libraries started to experiment with ebooks relatively late, they have jumped upon the ebook bandwagon within the last few years. Problems have arisen with proprietary formats, licensing rather than ownership, and the mechanics of ebook circulation.


Transgender identities are as divergent as transgender experiences, but they are also often constructed and negotiated through and in opposition to medical and legislative discourse and practice. For these groups identity formation is complex, often problematic within existing classificatory systems, and limited linguistic possibilities that rest upon a male/female gender binary not always able to account for different practices and experiences of gender and sexual diversity. The paper analyses the impact of medical, psychiatric, legal frameworks on transgendered identities, and the constraints they impose. It explores the contribution made by art and cinema in providing non-traditional images and ideas that help transgendered people to form and articulate their identity to themselves and to the non-transgendered public. It examines the ways in which art and cinema articulate identities transgressive of the binary framework of male and female, to give representation and expressive reality to the multiple perspectives of transgendered lived