ABSTRACT Background: P is a fully human anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) antibody that inhibits HER3 from binding to its ligand, heregulin (HRG). A Ph 2 study (NCT01211483; von Pawel, ASCO 2014, #8045; Mendell, ASCO 2014, #e19016) demonstrated progression-free survival (PFS) benefits for subjects with advanced NSCLC and high HRG mRNA expression (HRG-high) when treated with P + E vs E. Trial design: This is a Ph 3, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter study examining P + E vs E in EGFR wild-type subjects with advanced NSCLC who have progressed on 1–2 systemic therapies. The study has 2 parts: part A will enroll subjects with any HRG value to confirm Ph 2 results and further refine the HRG cutoff level before expanded enrollment in part B, while also evaluating the efficacy of P + E vs E in the HRG-high group; part B will enroll only HRG-high (per revised criteria) subjects to evaluate the efficacy and safety of P + E vs E. Subjects must have tumor samples (for HRG, and EGFR/anaplastic lymphoma kinase [ALK] measurements for adenocarcinoma histology), and must not have EGFR mutations, ALK rearrangement, or received prior anti-HER family treatment. Recruitment began April 2014, and 780 subjects will be recruited: 180 to part A (120 HRG-high, 60 HRG-low), 600 to part B (all HRG-high). Part A subjects will be stratified by histology subtype, ECOG status, and best response according to the most recent therapy. Part B subjects will be stratified similarly plus by geographic region and subcategories of HRG-high status. Within each stratum, subjects will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to E (150 mg/day PO) with P (18 mg/kg IV loading dose, then 9 mg/kg maintenance dose every 3 weeks) or E with placebo. Subjects will be treated until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. In part A, the primary end point is PFS; secondary end points are overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and safety. In Part B, the primary end point is OS; secondary end points are PFS, ORR, changes in quality of life, and safety. The study has 90% power to detect a 67% increase in median PFS in HRG-high subjects in part A (with 100 PFS events) and a 37% increase in median OS in part B (with 424 deaths). Disclosure: L. Paz-Ares: I have served on Advisory Boards for Daiichi; J. von Pawel: Advisory Boards for Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer Inc., Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Clovis, and AbbVie.; J. Mendell: Stock ownership and corporate-sponsored research from Daiichi Sankyo; X. Jin: Stock ownership in Daiichi Sankyo; C. Copigneaux: Employee of and holds stock ownership in Daiichi Sankyo; R. Beckman: Full-time employment and stock ownership in Daiichi Sankyo; stock ownership in Johnson & Johnson; Advisory Board for Cancer Institute of New Jersey Medicine. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


John Westerhoff offers this resource to help preachers and teachers revitalize their lives and ministries. Noting that the health of our spiritual life is based on our image of God, he asks readers to open their imaginations to new ways of knowing. Recognizing that the spiritual life can be fostered in many ways, he helps readers recognize which types of spiritual formation are most compatible with particular personality types.


This paper is concerned with the multiple opportunities and challenges of artisanal palm oil processing and the potential multiplier effects on local economies. It examines the effect of the presence of large oil palm plantations and their industrial processing mills on artisanal palm oil processing in two districts in the Western region of Ghana. Although artisanal and industrial processors have co-existed for a long time in the same catchment areas, little is known about the impact of this relationship on artisanal processing. Acknowledging the importance of rural diversity, complexity, and difference in agriculture-based off-farm activities, this paper also examines the effect of community and household level factors on palm oil processing incidence and intensity as well as the impact of processing on food (in)security.


The meridional overturning circulation (MOC) is part of a global ocean circulation that redistributes heat from
Equatorial to Polar regions. In the Atlantic, the MOC (AMOC) carries heat northward (the Atlantic Heat Conveyor)
which is released to the atmosphere and maintains UK temperatures between 3 to 5°C higher than they would
otherwise be. However, the present strength and structure of the MOC may not continue. The IPCC Fourth
Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007) concludes that there is greater than 90% chance that the AMOC will slow by up to
half by 2100, compared to pre-industrial levels, offsetting some of the warming over the European sector of the North
Atlantic, and contributing to the rate of Atlantic sea-level-rise. The IPCC also concluded that there is less than 10%
chance of abrupt changes during the 21st Century. Daily observations using the RAPID MOC mooring array at 26°N
are providing a continuous and growing time series of the AMOC strength and structure, the time series is not yet
sufficiently long to determine if there is a long-term trend in the AMOC. There was a significant reduction in the
AMOC in 2009-2010 that has since recovered. The relationships between the AMOC reduction and the anomalous
winter weather over the UK at the same time are not yet understood. Other observations do not at present provide
a coherent Atlantic wide picture of MOC variability, and there is little evidence of any long-term slowing. Despite
substantial progress over recent years in understanding and modelling the AMOC, projections of its future fate are
still subject to significant uncertainty.


In the present report we describe a heretofore unrecognized role for a Jak/STAT signaling pathway, namely the stimulation of expression of the aromatase P450 (CYP19) gene, and hence of estrogen biosynthesis, in human adipose tissue. Expression of this gene in adipose tissue as well as in adipose stromal cells maintained in the presence of serum and glucocorticoids is regulated by a distal TATA-less promoter, I.4, which contains a glucocorticoid response element, an Sp1 binding site, and an interferon- activation site (GAS) element. The stimulatory action of serum (in the presence of dexamethasone) can be replaced by interleukin (IL)-11, leukemia inhibitory factor, and oncostatin-M, as well as by IL-6, providing the IL-6 soluble receptor is also present. Stimulation of the cells by these factors led to rapid phosphorylation of Jak1, but not Jak2 or Jak3, on tyrosine residues. STAT3 but not STAT1 was also phosphorylated and bound to the GAS element in the I.4 promoter region. When regions of this promoter were fused upstream of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene and transfected into the cells, mutagenesis or deletion of the GAS element led to complete loss of reporter gene expression. Since adipose tissue is the major site of estrogen biosynthesis in men and in postmenopausal women, this pathway involving a Jak/STAT signaling mechanism acting together with glucocorticoids and Sp1 appears to be the principal means where-by estrogen biosynthesis is regulated in the elderly.


This report describes a novel cognitive-behavioral intervention aimed to increase self-esteem, in a lady with a diagnosis of bipolar illness. It is argued that self-esteem is important to the development, maintenance, and relapse of the illness symptoms, being both a vulnerability factor to, and a consequence of, illness episodes. The intervention involves modification of the strength of positive beliefs about the self through the focus of attention on specific behavioral examples of the patient's positive attributes. The intervention is described in detail and results over the longer term are reported. There were significant improvements on measures of self-esteem, which was in the normal range at posttreatment and follow-up. General psychotic psychopathology improved by 20% and there was an improvement in social functioning over one standard deviation. Results at 3- and 12-month follow-ups indicate that improvements were largely maintained although there was some reduction in the magnitude of improvement.


Globalizing forces have undermined many of the traditional attributes of sovereignty. The firm national boundaries of the Westphalian nation-state have been breached by enhanced global communication and commerce, as well as by the growth of transnational entities of many varieties, including businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governmental associations. While this transformation offers many benefits, the globalized world order challenges important principles of coordination and of political legitimacy. The existence of multiple overlapping legal regimes may impose costly burdens of complexity on individuals and firms that operate across jurisdictional boundaries. Globalization threatens, as well, the democratic accountability that afforded political legitimacy in the modern nation-state. This article, delivered initially as the twentieth Annual Lecture on State Constitutional Law, argues that states and state constitutions have a significant role in ameliorating the governance deficits accompanying globalization. States can provide a mediating structure to allow subnational bodies to participate in governance with less danger of conflict and confusion. As compared with the national political system, the state governmental process provides a means to incorporate international legal principles that is more accountable to the electorate and more likely to ensure the appropriate adaptation of global norms within the domestic system. In sum, globalization creates a potential crisis of coordination and legitimacy, and the state political system is well designed to address these concerns. Domestic legal doctrine will have to accommodate these important functions of states in the new world order.


A continuous periodic motion stimulus can sometimes be perceived moving in the wrong direction. These illusory reversals have been taken as evidence that part of the motion perception system samples its inputs as a series of discrete snapshots –although other explanations of the phenomenon have been proposed, that rely on the spurious activation of low-level motion detectors in early visual areas. We have hypothesized that the right inferior parietal lobe ('when' pathway) plays a critical role in timing perceptual events relative to one another, and thus we examined the role of the right parietal lobe in the generation of this "continuous Wagon Wheel Illusion" (c-WWI). Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that the illusion was effectively weakened following disruption of right, but not left, parietal regions by low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (1 Hz, 10 min). These results were independent of whether the motion stimulus was shown in the left or the right visual field. Thus, the c-WWI appears to depend on higher-order attentional mechanisms that are supported by the 'when' pathway of the right parietal lobe.


Recent studies in our laboratories have shown that urine from healthy adults contains immunoreactive and intact insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3). The aim of this study was to assess urinary IGF-I, IGF-II, and IGFBP-3 in a cross-sectional study of healthy subjects, as well as characterize urinary IGFBPs (uIGFBps) in patients with GH deficiency (GHD) and renal disease, such as, Alport syndrome, immunoglobulin A nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Urinary concentrations of IGF-I and IGF-II in pooled spot morning urines of healthy subjects, measured by RIA, were low and relatively unaltered throughout age, when expressed as either nanograms per milliliter or nanograms per milligram creatinine. To determine the complement of IGFBPs in urine of healthy subjects, spot morning urine samples were subjected to Western ligand blot and immunoblot analysis. IGFBP-3 was detected at 40-50 kDa, possibly due to variable glycosylation of uIGFBP-3. In addition, a 32-kDa IGFBP-2 and smaller unclassified IGFBPs were detected. Unlike uIGFs, urinary concentrations of IGFBP-3 (uIGFBP-3; nanograms per milligram creatinine) were age-, but not sex-related. Levels of uIGFBP-3 ranged from 40-60 ng/mL in children between 4 and 10 yr of age. After 11 yr, immunoreactive uIGFBP-3 progressively declined, attaining a plateau after 26 yr of age to approximately 18 ng/mg creatinine. uIGFBP-3 did not correlate with uIGF levels. Regulation of IGFBP-3 in the urine of normal subjects and of renal disorders was examined by RIA, Western ligand blot (WLB), and protease assay. Intact uIGFBP-3 was consistently found in normal urine and little urinary protease was identified. In GHD patients, IGFBP-3 by WLB was low or undetectable, whereas RIA levels of uIGFBP-3 were normal or high, consistent with the presence of IGFBP-3 proteolytic activity. In Alport syndrome, both RIA measures and WLB analysis were high, as was the IGFBP-3 proteolytic activity. Patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus measured low-normal levels of IGFBP-3 by WLB and RIA, and displayed little protease activity. This study provides normative data concerning radioimmunoassayable levels of IGFBP-3 in urine. The presence of normal-elevated levels of uIGFBP-3 by RIA in GHD indicates that uIGFBP-3 levels are not under GH control and are unlikely to represent filtered serum IGFBP-3.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Islamic creationism has been noted as a serious concern in Europe. There have been reports of boycotts of university evolution lectures and, in one extreme case, even a threat of violence. While religious objections are indeed at play in some cases, our understanding of the rise of Islamic creationism should also take into account socioeconomic disparities and its impact on education for Muslim minorities in Europe. Furthermore, the broader narrative of rejection of evolution in Europe, for some Muslims, may be bound up in reactions to the secular culture and in the formation of their own minority religious identity. On the other hand, the stories of Muslim rejection of evolution in media end up reinforcing the stereotype of Muslims as "outsiders" and a threat to the European education system. A nuanced understanding of this dynamic may benefit those who support both the propagation of good science and favor cultural pluralism.


Paul D'Arcy, The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity, and History in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, March, 2006, 292 pp. The Pacific Ocean is, according to Epeli Hau'ofa, a "Sea of Islands," a large world of sea lanes connecting islands. This powerful image, drawn to counter the dominant Western view of Pacific islands as isolated, nonviable economies, has so far gone unchallenged. In this book, a Pacific Historian explores the Pacific world in the eve of Western contact in the period between 1770 until 1870. It focuses on "Pacific Islanders' varied relationships with the sea as evolving processes during a crucial transitional era" (1), when maritime practices changed as new technologies and power relations emerged. Its regional focus on "remote Oceania" privileges Micronesia (especially the Central Carolines) and Polynesia. In five main chapters, the cultural spaces within Remote Oceania are examined as aspects of islanders' relations with the sea. This novel approach can indeed help to gain a better understanding of Pacific identity and history. D'Arcy attempts to overcome the D'Urvillean classification of the Pacific into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia that has been challenged by Pacific Historian Bronwen Douglas and others (8 fn). By choosing Remote Oceania as his field of study, he follows Archaeologist Roger Green and consequently excludes Near Oceania (Melanesia without Vanuatu and New Caledonia). Nevertheless, as the book covers the variety of Oceanic environmental systems and points out the interrelation of islanders and ecosystems, it should hold up for most of maritime Oceania. Marine ecosystems are in constant flux and offer opportunities and challenges of uncertainty. El Nino/La Nina effects on the climate as well as regional disasters have affected Oceanic life. D'Arcy proposes that the dynamics of marine ecosystems are part of the islanders' view of their seascape (13, 178). The different ecosystems (coral reefs, lagoons, and mangrove swamps) and their dynamics correspond with cultural representations of the marine environment. D'Arcy reviews these ecosystems and postulates that "the sea dominates the lives and consciousness of the inhabitants...as nowhere else on earth" (26). The immediacy of the sea is reflected in Pacific islanders' way of life, in their settlement patterns and diet as well as in everyday activities, swimming and diving skills and-perhaps-in physical features such as the bulkiness of the bodies or enhanced skills of long-distance vision (33,134). The sea features prominently in cosmology (40). In fact, the high frequency of destructive typhoons, tsunamis, droughts and volcano eruptions strongly supports the argument that Pacific islanders lived in an uncertain world that required them rather frequently to escape from famine by sea travel (35). With the exception of isolated Rapanui (Easter) Island, pre-colonial Oceania was indeed a "sea of islands." Canoe travel included long-distance voyages and inter-island exchange systems, as D'Arcy points out. He devotes a chapter to the various kinds of resources and objects of value that passed hands between the different ecosystems and the changes that occurred in the period under study. Kin relations between islands provided further reasons for travel, as feasts activated wider networks. Further reasons for canoe voyaging included the need to find an appropriate spouse, male competition, and the "pure enjoyment of voyaging and socializing" (54). Resettlement, migratory journeys and the hope to discover an uninhabited island were Oceanic answers to natural disasters, epidemics and conflicts, as by 1770, "the Pacific was still a sea of opportunity" (60). While the ocean provided routes, there were hardly any communal paths on land. Cargo was shipped rather than carried, due to the lack of wheel and beasts of burden in the area at this time (65). The risks of sea travel were outweighed by the benefits and balanced by the detailed knowledge and experience of navigators. …


We adopt an isotropic representation of the Fourier-transformed two-point correlation tensor of the magnetic field to estimate the magnetic energy and helicity spectra as well as current helicity spectra of two individual active regions (NOAA 11158 and NOAA 11515) and the change of the spectral indices during their development as well as during the solar cycle. The departure of the spectral indices of magnetic energy and current helicity from 5/3 are analyzed, and it is found that it is lower than the spectral index of the magnetic energy spectrum. Furthermore, the fractional magnetic helicity tends to increase when the scale of the energy-carrying magnetic structures increases. The magnetic helicity of NOAA 11515 violates the expected hemispheric sign rule, which is interpreted as an effect of enhanced field strengths at scales larger than 30–60 Mm with opposite signs of helicity. This is consistent with the general cycle dependence, which shows that around the solar maximum the magnetic energy and helicity spectra are steeper, emphasizing the large-scale field.


Four novel iridium(III) complexes (Ir1–Ir4) containing 2,3-diphenylquinoxaline derivatives with or without fluoro-substituents at different positions (L1: 2,3-diphenylquinoxaline; L2: 6,7-difluoro-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline; L3: 2,3-bis(4-fluorophenyl)quinoxaline; L4: 6,7-difluoro-2,3-bis(4-fluorophenyl)quinoxaline) as the main ligands and tetraphenylimidodiphosphinate as an ancillary ligand were synthesized and thoroughly investigated. All the complexes emit deep red photoluminescence (PL) with high quantum yields (Ir1: λmax: 662 nm, ηPL: 68.2%; Ir2: λmax: 669 nm, ηPL: 60.4%; Ir3: λmax: 639 nm, ηPL: 78.6%; Ir4: λmax: 642 nm, ηPL: 98.3%). Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with single- or double-emitting layers (EMLs) were fabricated using these new emitters. The double-EML device using Ir4 with a structure of ITO (indium-tin-oxide)/MoO3 (molybdenum oxide, 5 nm)/TAPC (di-[4-(N,N-ditolyl-amino)-phenyl]cyclohexane, 30 nm)/TcTa (4,4′,4′′-tris(carbazol-9-yl)triphenylamine): Ir4 (2 wt%, 10 nm)/26DCzPPy (2,6-bis(3-(carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)pyridine): Ir4 (2 wt%, 10 nm)/TmPyPB (1,3,5-tri(m-pyrid-3-yl-phenyl)benzene, 40 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) displays good electroluminescence (EL) performance with a maximum luminance, current efficiency, power efficiency and external quantum efficiency of up to 25 926 cd m−2, 16.6 cd A−1, 13.7 lm W−1 and 19.9%, respectively, and the efficiency roll-off ratio is mild. The results demonstrated that the number and position of fluoro-substituents can affect both the PL and EL properties of the Ir(III) complexes, which are potential deep red phosphorescent materials for specific applications in OLEDs.


This article presents some basic principles for conducting the antitrust analysis of multisided platforms that courts could adapt to the particulars of their jurisdictions and case laws. It has a particular focus on measuring consumer surplus for platform businesses and the implications of that for the design of antitrust rules. It shows how multisided platforms increase welfare by reducing transactions costs and resolving externalities among economic agents. It presents three normative principles for policy interventions and illustrates these principles by showing how they apply to recent debates over privacy. The article then develops a framework for considering antitrust rules in light of these principles given the objectives of antitrust law, error costs, and developing administrable rules. It lastly considers the competing approaches to analysing multisided platforms that were presented to the Supreme Court in the American Express litigation and the Court's decision in light of these principles.


Nickel-based activated carbon was prepared from coconut shell activated carbon by electroless plating with palladium-free activation. The materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and vector network analyzer, respectively. The results show that the surface of the activated carbon was covered by a Ni-P coating, which was uniform, compact, and continuous and had an obvious metallic sheen. The content of P and Ni was 2.73% and 97.27% in the coating. Compared with the untreated activated carbon, the real permeability μ′ and imaginary permeability μ″ of Ni-based activated carbon became greater, whereas the real permittivity ε′ and imaginary permittivity ε″ became smaller. Also, the plated activated carbon was magnetic, making it suitable for some special applications. In general, the method reported here might be a feasible procedure to coat activated carbon with other magnetic metals, which may find application in various areas.


Background Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) designates central nervous system involvement caused by the tick-borne spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). The present study describes a spectrum of acquired ocular motor disorders in children with LNB. Methods Six paediatric patients (age 3–15 years) with ocular motor symptoms as first manifestations of LNB evaluated by a paediatrician and ophthalmologist are presented. Diagnosis was based on new onset ocular motor disturbances and detection of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis and intrathecal synthesis of Bb IgM and/or IgG antibodies by lumbar puncture. The children were evaluated before and after antibiotic treatment with a follow-up time of 1–7 months. Videos were obtained both pre and post treatment in four patients. Results Two children presented with acquired nystagmus, one with combined nystagmus and partial sixth nerve palsy, one with partial sixth nerve palsy, one with ptosis and one with Adie's pupil. Five of the patients presented with severe fatigue, malaise, nausea, headache and fever. Four had recognised a tick bite recently, and two developed erythema migrans. Intrathecal synthesis of IgM and/or IgG antibodies specific for Bb was positive in all children, and five showed CSF pleocytosis. Cerebral MRI or CT of the brain were normal. Treatment with intravenous or oral antibiotics produced rapid clinical improvement in five of the six children. Conclusions LNB can present as acute ocular motor disorders in conjunction with fatigue and other clinical manifestations. In endemic areas, children with unexplained, acquired ocular motor abnormalities should be evaluated for LNB, a treatable medical condition.


One of the most significant research trends in the last decades of the aeronautic industry is the effort to move towards the design and the production of "more electric aircraft". Within this framework, the application of the electrical technology to flight control systems has seen a progressive, although slow, increase: starting with the introduction of fly-by-wire and proceeding with the partial replacement of the traditional hydraulic/electro-hydraulic actuators with purely electro-mechanical ones. This evolution allowed to obtain more flexible solutions, reduced installation issues and enhanced aircraft control capability.Electro-Mechanical Actuators (EMAs) are however far from being a mature technology and still suffer from several safety issues, which can be partially limited by increasing the complexity of their design and hence their production costs. The development of a robust Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) system could provide a way to prevent the occurrence of a critical failure without resorting to complex device design. This paper deals with the first part of the study of a comprehensive PHM system for EMAs employed as primary flight control actuators; the peculiarities of the application are presented and discussed, while a novel approach, based on short pre-flight/post-flight health monitoring tests, is proposed. Turn-to-turn short in the electric motor windings is identified as the most common electrical degradation and a particle filtering framework for anomaly detection and prognosis featuring a self-tuning non-linear model is proposed. Features, anomaly detection and a prognostic algorithm are hence evaluated through state-of-the art performance metrics and their results discussed.


Recent evidence suggests that single dose administration of ginseng can improve certain aspects of cognitive performance and mood in healthy young volunteers in a dose and time dependent manner. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of acute administration of 400 mg of a standardized Panax ginseng extract (G115 .,Pharmaton SA)on mood and cognitive performance. Following a double-blind, placebo controlled, balanced, cross-over design, thirty healthy young adult volunteers received 400 mg of ginseng, and a matching inert placebo, in a counterbalanced order, with a 7-day washout period between treatments. Following baseline evaluation of cognitive performance and mood measures, participants9 cognitive performance and mood was assessed again 90 minutes after drug ingestion. Ginseng improved speed of attention, indicating a beneficial effect on participants9 ability to allocate attentional processes to a particular task. No significant effect was observed on any other aspect of cognitive performance and on self-reported mood measures. Previous research demonstrated no improvement on attentional processes, but significant improvements on tasks associated with episodic memory performance following administration of 400 mg of ginseng when participants were tested 1h,2.5h,4,h and 6h post ingestion. Consequently, it may be the case that ginseng offers alternative windows of therapeutic opportunity on different aspects of cognitive performance at different time points.


Most Virtual Reality (VR) applications use rendering methods which implement local illumination models, simulating only direct interaction of light with 3D objects. They do not take into account the energy exchange between the objects themselves, making the resulting images look non-optimal. The main reason for this is the simulation of global illumination having a high computational complexity, decreasing the frame rate extremely. As a result this makes for example user interaction quite challenging. One way to decrease the time of image generation using rendering methods which implement global illumination models is to involve additional compute nodes in the process of image creation, distribute the rendering subtasks among these and then collate the results of the subtasks into a single image. Such a strategy is called distributed rendering. In this paper we introduce a software interface which gives a recommendation how the distributed rendering approach may be integrated into VR frameworks to achieve lower generation time of high quality, realistic images. The interface describes a client-server architecture which realizes the communication between visualization and compute nodes including data and rendering subtask distribution and may be used for the implementation of different load-balancing methods. We show an example of the implementation of the proposed interface in the context of realistic rendering of buildings for decisions on interior options.


In this work, we report on an experimental investigation of the nonlinear optical properties near the first electronic resonance of thiol-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) being in the strong confinement regime. Using a cw laser excitation in a Z-scan experimental setup, we show the presence of saturated Kerr-type nonlinear optical properties of the QDs, at low intensity levels. The large optical nonlinearity and the control of the linear and nonlinear optical properties by the size of the QDs are of special interest for applications in integrated nanophotonic devices.


This article revisits the debate over the institutional foundations of the efficiency in the common law by examining the supply-side conditions of the production of common law legal rules. Previous models of efficiency in the common law, such as those proposed by Paul Rubin and George Priest, have stressed the "demand" side of the production of common law legal rules. They have argued that the driving force in the evolution of the common law are the actions of private litigants that generate a "demand" for the production of legal rules. It has been argued that these litigation efforts by private parties can explain both the common law's historic tendency to produce efficient rules as well as its more recent evolution away from efficiency in favor of wealth redistribution. This article does not directly challenge the traditional "demand side" model, but it proposes to supplement the model with a "supply side" model of the evolution of the common law that examines the institutional incentives and constraints of common law judges over time. It is argued that the traditional efficiency of the common law arose in the context of a particular historical institutional setting and that changes in that institutional framework have made the common law more susceptible to rent-seeking pressures and thereby undermined its pro-efficiency orientation. The article first describes the traditional demand-side explanation for the rise and fall of efficiency in the common law. The article then distinguishes a supply-side model of efficiency in the common law, examining the historical institutional framework that generated the common law. It will be argued that the common law evolved in a particular institutional framework that differed substantially from the modern set of institutional constraints faced by judges and which render the modern understanding of judicial constraints quite anachronistic. The article argues that there were certain characteristics of the institutional structure that produced the common law that tended to encourage the production of efficient common law rules: (1) the doctrine of "weak precedent" under the common law, (2) the polycentric legal order of the judicial system in the era in which the common law was formed, and (3) the reliance of the common law on private ordering, including freedom of contract and custom. The article then explains how changes in this institutional framework has generated a decline of the efficiency of the common law and a rise in rent-seeking pressures that has caused the common law's evolutionary path to deviate in recent decades.


Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality in the spinal cord injured (SCI) population. Reduced arterial compliance is a cardiovascular risk factor and whole body vibration (WBV) has been shown to improve arterial compliance in able-bodied individuals. The study investigated the effect of an acute session ofWBV on arterial compliance as measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV). On separate days, arm, leg and aortic PWV were measured preand posta 45 minute session of passive stance (PS) and WBV. The WBV was intermittent with a set frequency of 45Hz and amplitude of O.6mm. There was no condition by time effect when comparing PWV after WBV and PS. Following WBV, aortic (928.6±127.7 vs. 901.1±96.6cm/sec), leg (1035.2±113.8 vs.l099.8±114.2cm/sec) and arm PWV (1118.9±119.8 vs. 1181.1±124.4cm/s) did not change. As such, WBV did not reduce arterial compliance, however future research with protocol modifications is recommended.


The authors examine the relationship between stock market performance and retirement behavior. They first present a descriptive analysis of the wealth holdings of older households and simulate the labor supply response among stockholders necessary to generate observed retirement patterns. Few households, they find, have substantial stock holdings, and these holdings would have to be extremely responsive to market fluctuations to explain observed labor force patterns. The authors then exploit stock market fluctuations since the early 1980s (particularly the boom and bust between 1995 and 2002), along with variation in stock exposure, to generate a double quasi-experiment, comparing the retirement and labor force re-entry patterns over time of those more and less exposed to the market. Any difference in behavior that emerged during the boom should have reversed itself during the bust. The authors find no evidence that changes in the stock market drove aggregate trends in labor supply.


Vickers, Roy Henry and Robert Budd.  Cloudwalker .  Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2014. Print. This is a stunning new book from painter, print maker, carver, author and member of the Orders of Canada and British Columbia, Roy Henry Vickers.  It contains 18 new prints from this innovative Indigenous artist, which accompany the retelling of a traditional story.  The story explains the origin of the three great rivers: The Nass, The Stikine and the Skeena (or Ksien, which means "juice from the clouds").  It is the story of a young man who is carried up to the clouds by swans and wanders around on the clouds.  He carries a box of water, which spills when he falls.  The spills form the lakes and rivers on the land.  While the text tells the story, it also incorporates cultural knowledge including the cycle of the salmon and the importance of marmot hides as symbols of wealth.  The text is simple and readable at the upper elementary level.  While the story is important, it is the sophisticated artwork that makes this book stand out.  Vickers has used flat designs, incorporating the familiar formlines and ovoids found in traditional North coastal Indigenous art.  Ovoids are the rounded shapes used to portray joints  and sometimes eyes.   Some of the paintings show the familiar red and black figures on simple backgrounds of strong colours.  However  other figures are printed in shiny overlay most visible as you move the book to catch the light, creating hidden treasures for children to find.  For example the image on page 28 shows a figure by the river;  shiny streaks cross the page to represent rain and shiny fish are printed on the surface of the river.  This book, which reminds us that picture books and traditional stories are not just for children, would be an excellent addition to public and school libraries everywhere, as well as to collections that specialize in Canadian Indigenous traditional stories.  Highly recommended:  4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.


This paper aims to provide a non-technical explanation of the concept of trade in value added, with particular reference to East Asia. The trade in value added approach allows us to redefine the relationship between countries of origin and destination in international trade, and thereby addresses an important issue of measuring international trade in the face of growing production sharing among different countries. In contrast to the orthodox concept of trade balances based on foreign trade statistics, it focuses on the value added contents of a traded product, and considers each country's contribution to the value added generation in a production process.


Orientation: Organisations are practising leadership coaching more and more from a positive psychology perspective, yielding positive results. The current qualitative research focused on this coaching using work engagement, learned resourcefulness, sense of coherence, selfactualisationand locus of control as constructs. Although the researcher could find no previous research on this combination of constructs, the findings did link to previous studies with other constructs and combinations. Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to describe the positive psychology leadership coaching experiences of leaders in a large financial organisation. Motivation for the study: The researcher addressed the organisation's need to develop leadership by structuring and presenting a coaching programme. He chose positive psychology as the paradigm and experiential learning as the method to meet the organisation's goal of enabling its leaders to take up their roles with self-awareness, internal motivation and effective interpersonal connections. Research design, approach and method: The researcher used a qualitative and descriptive research design with a case study. Leaders attended ten experiential leadership-coaching sessions over three months. The sessions focused on work engagement, learned resourcefulness, sense of coherence, self-actualisation values and locus of control. The data gathering consisted of the coach's field notes and the participants' reflective essays, which they wrote after the last coaching session. The researcher analysed the data using discourse analysis. Main findings: The manifesting themes were the coaching context, engagement in roles, understanding role complexity, emotional self-awareness and demands, self-authorisation and inability to facilitate the growth of others. Contribution/value-add: Although intrapersonal awareness increased significantly, leaders struggled with the interpersonal complexity of the leadership role. Positive psychology leadership coaching should refine the operationalisation of interpersonal effectiveness. Practical/managerial implications: Organisations should integrate the methodology of leadership coaching with leadership development interventions to expose leaders to better intrapersonal awareness and functioning.


Engagement of the receptor CD244 (2B4) by its ligand CD48 has inhibitory and activating potential, and this differs depending on experimental systems in mouse and human. We show that, in both mouse and human upon engagement of its ligand CD48, CD244 can give a negative signal to natural killer cells, implying conservation of function between the two species. The signaling mechanisms used by CD244 in both human and mouse are conserved as shown by quantitative analyses of the direct molecular interactions of the SH2 domains of the adaptors SLAM-associated protein (SAP) and EAT-2 and of FYN kinase with CD244 together with the indirect interactions of the FYN SH2 domain with EAT-2. Functional experiments support the biochemical hierarchy of interactions and show that EAT-2 is not inhibitory per se. The data are consistent with a model in which the mechanism of signal transduction by CD244 is to regulate FYN kinase recruitment and/or activity and the outcome of CD48/CD244 interactions is determined by which other receptors are engaged.


The research aims to know the interaction and get the best dose of water hyacinth compost andphosphorus fertilizer to the growth and yieldof mung bean. This research conducted in UPT area of research farm in faculty of agriculture, Riau Universityfrom March 2015 until June 2015.This research used a randomized block design with 2 factors and three replications. The first factor is the dose of water hyacinth compostconsist of 4 levels (K0= 0 ton/ha, K1= 5 ton/ha, K3= 10 ton/ha, K4=15 ton/ha). The second factor is the dose of phosphorus fertilizer that consist of 5 level: (P0= 0 kg TSP/ha, P1= 25 kg TSP/ha, P2= 50 kg TSP/ha. P3= 75 kg TSP/ha, P4= 100 kg TSP/ha).Parameters measured were plant height, number of branch, flowering time, pods number per plot, the percentage of pithy pods, weight of 100 seeds and production per plot. Data were analyzed statistically using ANOVA and followed with DNMRT at level of 5%. The result showed the interaction between giving water hyacinth compost and the phosphorus fertilizer increasedpods number per plot, weight of 100 seeds and production per plot. Water hyacinth compost dose 15 ton/ha and phosphorus fertilizer dose 75 and 100 kg TSP/ha showed the best result inrate ofplant height, number of branch, pods number per plot, weight of 100 seeds and production per plot (1,5 m2) which is the best production per plot is 469,73 g/plot (3,1 ton/ha).


A precision measurement of the mass and width of the W boson is presented. The W
bosons are produced in proton antiproton collisions occurring at a centre of mass energy
of 1.96 TeV at the Tevatron accelerator. The data used for the analyses is collected by the
Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and corresponds to an average integrated luminosity
of 350 pb−1 for the W width analysis for the electron and muon channels and an average
integrated luminosity of 2350 pb−1 for the W mass analysis.
The mass and width of the W boson is extracted by fitting to the transverse mass
distribution, with the peak of the distribution being most sensitive to the mass and the
tail of the distribution sensitive to the width. The W width measurement in the electron
and muon channels is combined to give a final result of 2032 ± 73 MeV.
The systematic uncertainty on the W mass from the recoil of the W boson against the
initial state gluon radiation is discussed. A systematic study of the recoil in Z \rightarrow e+e−
events where one electron is reconstructed in the central calorimeter and the other in the
plug calorimeter and its effect on the W mass is presented for the first time in this thesis.


The anatomy of the pyloric sphincteric cylinder is discussed. The pyloric ring is not a separate anatomical structure, but is an inherent party of the cylinder. Contraction of the cylinder narrows the diameter of the pyloric ring, and thus of the pyloric aperture. The extent of the sphincteric cylinder is determined on radiographs. It is seen to be 3-5 cm in length when fully contracted. Anatomical features of the pyloric mucosal zone are reviewed. On the aboral side both the cylinder and the mucosal zone end at the ring. The entire cylinder is lined by pyloric mucosa, but the mucosal zone extends orally beyond the confines of the cylinder. In gastric ulcer it may extend much further up the stomach. In contrast to the cylinder, the greatest length of the mucosal zone is on the lesser curvature. The sphincteric cylinder and the pyloric mucosal zone are clearly defined anatomically. The term 'pyloric antrum', in contrast, has been used in many different senses.


The main obstacle to making the transportation sector ecologically more sustainable is political feasibility. Effective policy-interventions usually encounter strong public opposition as they interfere in costly ways with people's daily lives, unveiling a dilemma between political feasibility and environmental policy effectiveness. Evidencing the existence of this dilemma, the literature on attitudes towards different policy instrument types maintains that so-called push measures are less supported by citizens than pull measures, and that market-based instruments tend to be less supported than non-market instruments. While these findings may uphold when considering single policy instruments, whether they continue to do so when considering policy-packages, that is, simultaneously implemented policy-interventions consisting of several policy instruments, remains unclear. To identify politically feasible and effective policy-packages aimed at greening the transportation sector we use choice experiments with representative samples of citizens from China, Germany, and the USA (N = 4′876). Contrary to existing literature, we find that public support does not necessarily depend on the instrument type but rather on specific policy design and is highly context dependent. Moreover, despite significant differences between the three country contexts considered, various combinations of policy measures appear to be both potentially effective and supported by most citizens. Altogether, these results suggest that carefully bundled policy-packages may allow governments to employ instruments that would not be politically feasible if introduced in isolation.


Even fifty years ago, the United States was a superpower and Americans traveled for pleasure and worked abroad. Then, like now, the United States was a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, or asylum, or opportunity. Then, like now, human relationships crossed geographical and political boundaries, challenging the limits of family law.But globalization and the vast migrations of capital and labor that have accompanied it in recent decades have transformed family law in once unimaginable ways. Families have been torn apart and new families have been created. Borders have become more porous, allowing adoptees and mail order brides to join new families and women fleeing domestic violence to escape from old ones. People of different nationalities marry, have children, and divorce, not necessarily in that order. They file suits in their respective home nation states or third states, demanding support, custody, and property. Otherwise law-abiding parents risk jail in desperate efforts to abduct their own children from foreign ex-spouses. The practice of family law has become internationalized. American lawyers must be prepared to help clients whose families, and family law problems, extend beyond national boundaries. This article describes some of the major international developments in child abduction, marriage recognition, immigration, asylum, divorce, maintenance, and adoption that they need to know.


Abstract Because of the high complexity in microstructure evolution in friction stir welding, it becomes very difficult to design optimal welding parameters. To solve this problem, in the current paper, soft computing based data driven models are developed to provide accurate and instant predictions for the welding process, and a multiobjective optimisation approach is employed to find optimal solutions to achieve the desired quality and economic objectives. The current work studies the aluminium AA5083-O as an example, where not only weld quality and mechanical properties of a joint but also in process properties and production cost are considered as objectives in the optimal design.


UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) can be defined as an autonomously / remotely piloted air vehicle. UAV development has seen a constant rise due to the developement of highly reliable sensors and the Global Positioning System (GPS).
UAVs control system remains dominated by model based control system that can be unreliable in the absence of highly precise instruments and non linearities. In recent years, with the development of advance soft computing control methods, countless research work have applied these controls system In their autonomous systems. The objective of this thesis is to apply the concept of Artificial Inteligence
in UAV developement To meet this objective, a prototype Airship is designed with on board sensors and GPS receivers. In this dissertation, fuzzy logic was proposed for the autonomous airship.The navigation technique proposed is the waypoint following algorithm where a path is separated Into a series of waypoints. The fuzzy controller considers the differrence between the calculated bearing from the current
position and the target position. It then gives an apropriate propulsion value to the actuators. The actuators use the pulse width modulation as the signals. A servo
controller was developed to control the respective actuators, the motor speed controllers and the vectoring thrust servo. The PWM based actuator controller was
constructed by varying the delay between the "on" and "off" time of pin connected to the actuators. An on-board microcontroller as used to stream the GPS and other
telemetry data to the main processor wirelessly. The GPS and telemetry data were processed using string recognition methods.The processed and filtered telemetry and GPS data were fed to the fuzzy logic system. The proposed control system was tested on a simulation level before flight tested on a prototype airship. The control system were tested on simulation which were developed from simulink. The result
shows a feasible means of UAV control. Along with the prototype airship, a path planner was also proposed for the UAV for the purpose of obstacle avoidance and path optimization using genetic algorithm to minimize on the distance travelled and to generate the shortest path to cover the specified waypoints. The concept path planner was demonstrated on a cartesian grid.


Abstract Global and local transport experiments in ohmic, L-mode and H-mode regimes on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak are summarized. For ohmic plasmas, earlier results derived for energy confinement scaling in the Alcator (linear) regime have been confirmed, and the saturated confinement regime has been shown to be equivalent to that of L-mode. For auxiliary heated regimes, C-Mod provided a unique laboratory to test the standard scaling laws that had been previously derived. C-Mod's L-mode performance matches the L-mode scaling laws quite well, but the confinement times in H-mode were about 50% above the existing H-mode scaling laws. This difference was significant and pointed up shortcomings in the range and conditioning of the existing database. H-mode studies emphasize quasi-steady regimes with good energy confinement, no impurity accumulation, and no large edge-localized modes. A new H-mode regime, where the pedestal is regulated by a continuous quasi-coherent mode, has been investigated extensively. The regime is most accessible at higher safety factor, triangularity, and collisionality and at low ion mass, suggesting that the mode is a form of resistive ballooning. Studies on C-Mod first showed the quantitative link between edge temperatures, core temperature gradients, and core confinement. This link unified L-mode and H-mode and established a strong connection between local and global transport. Further work on the role of critical gradient lengths and marginal stability lent quantitative support to the ion temperature gradient theories for ion transport and have helped elucidate nonlinear saturation mechanisms for the turbulence. Local transport studies demonstrated connections between transport channels, with energy, particle, and momentum transport varying across regimes in similar ways. Experiments carried out in collaboration with the DIII-D, ASDEX-U, and JET groups confirmed the dimensionless scaling approach over the widest available range in machine sizes. These studies suggest that plasma physics is the dominant influence on transport in the core and pedestal for standard L- and H-mode discharges. Dimensionless scaling experiments have shown a strong improvement in confinement with the normalized gyro size (1/ρ*). Confinement was found to be Bohm-like in L-mode and gyro-Bohm-like in H-mode. These experiments also showed a strong degradation in confinement with collisionality.


Vacuum is needed in many applications and, there are many types of pumps that can provide the vacuum level needed. One widely used pump is the liquid-ring vacuum pump, which does not involve any solid-solid contacts at interfaces where moving and stationary parts meet. Though liquid-ring vacuum pumps are efficient and robust, manufacturers have aggressive goals on improving efficiency, performance, and range of operations. In this research, time-accurate computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses were performed to study the flow mechanisms in a liquid-ring vacuum pump to understand how it works and how the design can be improved. Based on the understanding gained, a physics based reduced order model was developed for preliminary design of the liquid ring vacuum pumps. In the CFD analyses, the liquid (water) was modeled as incompressible, the gas (air) as an ideal gas, and turbulence by the shear-stress transport model. The gas-liquid interface was resolved by using the volume-of-fluid method, and rotation of the impeller was enabled by using a sliding mesh. Parameters examined include the suction pressure (75, 300, and 600 Torr) and the impeller's rotational speed (1150, 1450 and 1750 rpm) with the temperature of the gas at the inlet of the suction chamber kept at 300 K and the pressure at the outlet of the exhaust chamber kept at one atmosphere. The CFD solutions generated were verified via a grid sensitivity study and validated by comparing with experimental data. When compared with experiments, results obtained for the flow rate of the gas ingested by the pump had relative errors less than 6\% and results obtained for the power consumed by the pump had relative errors less than 13\%. Results obtained show the shape of the liquid ring to play a dominant role in creating the expansion ratio or the vacuum needed to draw air into the pump through the suction port and the compression ratio needed to expel the air through the discharge ports. Results were generated to show how centrifugal force from rotation and how acceleration/deceleration from the difference in pressure at the pump's inlet and outlet along with the eccentricity of the impeller relative to the pump's housing affect the shape of the liquid ring. Results were also generated to show how the rotational speed of the impeller and the pressure at the suction port affect the nature of the gas and liquid flow in the pump and the pump's effectiveness in creating a vacuum. With the knowledge gained from the CFD study, a physics-based reduced-order model was developed to predict air ingested and power consumed by the pump as well as the liquid ring shape and pressure of the gas and liquid in the pump as a function of design and operating parameters. This model was developed by recognising and demonstrating that the amount of air ingested and power consumed by the pump is strongly dependent on the shape and location of the liquid ring surface. The flow rates of the gas ingested by the pump and the power consumed by the pump predicted by the model were compared with experimental data and relative errors were less than 12\% and 17\% respectively.


Besides the well established access control models, Discretionary Access Control (DAC) and Mandatory Access Control (MAC), the policy neutral Role Based Access Control (RBAC) is gaining increasingly momentum. An important step towards a wide acceptance of RBAC has been achieved by the standardization of RBAC through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 2004. While the concept of sessions specified in the ANSI RBAC standard allows for differ- entiated role selections according to tasks that have to be performed by users, it is very likely that more roles will be activated in a session than are effectively needed to perform the intended activity. Dynamic Sessions in RBAC (DS RBAC) is an extension to the existing RBAC ANSI standard that dynamically deactivates roles in a session if they are not exercised for a certain period of time. This allows for the selection of an outer-shell of possibly needed permissions at the initation of a session through a user, while adhering to the principle of least privilege by automatically reducing the effective permission space to those roles really exercised in the session. Analogous to the working set model known from virtual memory, only the minimal roles containing permissions recently exercised by the user are left in a session in the DS RBAC model. If the user tries to access a role that has aged out due to inactivity, a role fault occurs. A role fault can be resolved by the role fault handler that is responsible for re-activating the expired role. As will be presented in this paper, role re-activation may be subject to constraints that have to be fulfilled by the user in order to re-access the aged role.


About 70% of the earth's surface area is covered with water. Due to the sea level rise and increasing population in coastal areas we need to use our oceans more for energy production, food production, working and living.
 In the present paper we discuss the results of a model test for a floating mega island in large waves up to 15.5 m significant wave height. The objective of this study is to investigate the motion response and loads on the island. These results may then be used to support further innovation of these islands.
 The proposed island comprises 87 large floating triangles that are connected to one another. Together they form a flexible floating island of 1.5 by 2 km in cross-section at scale 1:250. The results are presented for the motion response of the island as well as the forces between the islands triangular modules and the mooring loads. These were measured using forces transducers and motion sensors.
 The present work is part of a conceptual test carried out at MARIN. The island modules are interconnected with springs and fenders. This method is much similar to what is used in side by side offshore operations in the oil and gas industry.
 Due to the flexibility in the connections the island will follow the waves in high seas. The forward two rows of the island will move in phase with the sea and therefore the amount of green water is much smaller than for a rigid island.


Background: Obesity is a complex, severe and chronic disease that can have an unenthusiastic effect on many systems in human body. In traditional medication, many medicinal plants have been used to treat obesity. The aim of the present study is to present medicinal plants which are available in Bangladesh that proved their anti-obesity activities have been. Method: Bibliographic study was carried out by analyzing conventional text books and peer reviewed papers, consulting wide-reaching accepted scientific databases. In this review, the investigation terms were "obesity" in addition to ("herbal medicine" or "plant", "medicinal plants" or "medicine traditional") with no limiting search objects. Later it was cross checked whether the plants were available in the country or not from the Bangladeshi online medicinal plants databases. Findings: More than 100 plants have anti-obesity potentiality; however, only 23 species are available in Bangladesh. The plants are: Achyranthes aspera Linn, Acorus calamus Linn, Aegle marmelos Linn, Allium cepa Linn, Allium sativum Linn, Bombax ceiba L., Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt, Cucumis melo L., Hibiscus sabdariffa L., Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam, Morus alba L., Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn, Phaseolus vulgaris L., Punica granatum L., Senna siamea (Lam.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, Shorea robusta Gaertn, Solanum lycopersicum L., Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry, Tamarindus indica L., Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Moringa oleifera and Citrus limon (L.). Conclusion: There are a lot of plants in Bangladesh which seem to be a safe treatment source for obesity control. Further researches are recommended to evaluate this potentiality for presenting effective and safe drugs for obesity in the market.


The two-hundred-year-long relationship between the Arab world and United States has been fraught with tension and resentment. What began in the nineteenth century as a favorable exchange of cultural understanding and economic opportunity deteriorated with America's increasing interest in oil, and finally collapsed when America's pushed for the legitimization of the State of Israel. In this provocative new book, Lebanese-American historian Ussama Makdisi explores America's fractured relationship with the Arab world, and offers policy recommendations that can lead to its repair.


Phenylmercury(II) replaces a proton of creatine, H2NC+(NH2)NMeCH2C02-, in basic solution to form the zwitterionic
complex PhHgNHC+(NH2)NMeCH2CO2-. Creatine and creatinine (C4H7N30) react with PhHg((OH)N03)I/2 in aqueous ethanol to form a 2:l complex [(PhHg)2(C4H6N30][N03] which exists in two crystalline forms. Creatinine forms a 1:l
complex [PhHg(C4H7N30)][N03].1/2H20 at pH 1.4 on reaction with PhHg((OH)N03)l/2 in the presence of nitric acid.
The 1:l and 2:l complexes may be interconverted. Creatinine hydronitrate, [H2NCNMeCH2CONH][NO3], and the PhHg(II) complexes of creatinine have similar infrared (including deuterated derivatives) and 1H NMR spectra, consistent with retention of the creatinine ring and presence of a guanidinium group in the complexes. An X-ray structural analysis of one crystalline form of the 2:l complex shows bonding of PhHg(II) groups to the exocyclic and ring nitrogens of creatinine to form the cation
[PhHgNHCNMeCH2CONHgPh]+.


BACKGROUND
Short-term high-carbohydrate (HC) diets induce metabolic alterations, including hypertriacylglycerolemia, in both the fasting and postprandial states. The underlying tissue-specific alterations in fatty acid metabolism are not well understood.

OBJECTIVE
We investigated alterations in exogenous and endogenous fatty acid metabolism by using stable isotope tracers to label meal triacylglycerol and plasma fatty acids.

DESIGN
Eight healthy subjects consumed isocaloric diets containing a high percentage of energy from carbohydrates or a higher percentage of energy from fat for 3 d in a randomized crossover dietary intervention study. A test meal containing [U-13C] palmitate was combined with intravenous infusion of [2H2] palmitate to label plasma fatty acids and VLDL triacylglycerol. Blood and breath samples were taken before the meal and for 6 h postprandially. Blood samples were drawn from the femoral artery and from veins draining subcutaneous adipose tissue and forearm muscle for monitoring of tissue-specific metabolic substrate partitioning.

RESULTS
Systemic triacylglycerol concentrations were increased in both fasting (P = 0.02) and postprandial (P = 0.02) periods, and a greater amount of infused labeled fatty acid appeared in VLDL triacylglycerol after the HC diet than after the higher-fat diet (P = 0.05). Significantly less 13CO2 was exhaled after the HC diet (P = 0.04) and significantly less production of 13CO2 was seen across forearm muscle (P = 0.04). Systemic 3-hydroxybutyrate was significantly lower, postprandially, after the HC diet (P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION
Metabolic alterations suggestive of repartitioning of fatty acids away from oxidation toward esterification in both liver and muscle occur in response to short-term adaptation to a HC diet.


The infamous "no-poaching" agreements, which prevent an employer from poaching his competitor's employees, have recently been in the focus of the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust enforcement policy. Once considered a tool reserved for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley which were seeking to preserve their trade secrets and the know-how of their workforce by any means, recent cases show that these agreements could also apply to a low qualified workforce like those in the fast-food industry. American antitrust enforcers announced a shift of enforcement policy against what they consider as per se illegal restraints of trade in the labor market, and pledged to bring criminal charges against the individuals who implement such agreements. On the other side of the Atlantic, their European counterparts do not seem to be as alert on this matter; not that restraints of trade in the labor market cannot be found in Europe, but that they are not only treated under the competition law analysis but also under other legal tools in labor, commercial and contract laws. The contrast between these two enforcement policies shed light on the interests that guide American enforcers: in the wake of populism, antitrust appears as a strong answer to the concerns of consumers and the employees, in the same way that antitrust was created and developed to address the adverse effects of economic concentration on wages and the purchasing power. This answer, however, could hit a wall if it expects to resolve all of the problems with one solution. The interactions between antitrust and labor are complex, and an antitrust enforcement policy cannot entirely rely on its enforcer's zeal. Although strong enforcement against naked restraints on labor is necessary, an appropriate balance should be struck.


Equations are given for the elastic behavior of initially curved sheets in which the deflections are not small in comparison with the thickness, but at the same time small enough to justify the use of simplified formulas for curvature. These equations are solved for the case of a sheet with circular cylindrical shape simply supported along two edges parallel to the axis of the generating cylinder. Numerical results are given for three values of the curvature and for three ratios of buckle length to buckle width. The computations are carried to buckle deflections of about twice the sheet thickness. It was concluded that initial curvature may cause an appreciable increase in the buckling load but that, for edge strains which are several times the buckling strain, the initial curvature causes a negligibly small change in the effective width.


A significant variability in pitch accent placement is found when comparing the patterns of prosodic prominence realized by different English speakers reading the same sentences. In this paper we describe a simple approach to incorporate this variability to synthesize prosodic prominence in unit selection text-to-speech synthesis. The main motivation of our approach is that by taking into account the variability of accent placements we enlarge the set of prosodically acceptable speech units, thus increasing the chances of selecting a good quality sequence of units, both in prosodic and segmental terms. Results on a large scale perceptual test show the benefits of our approach and indicate directions for further improvements.


Rapid urbanization in the Tampa Bay watershed continues to challenge Florida's surface water management efforts. Upgrading of all wastewater treatment facilities substantially reduced the point source loads, but stormwater inputs and wetland destruction are degrading Bay water quality and habitat values. The 1987 Florida Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Act named Tampa Bay a priority waterbody to be restored, and the resulting SWIM Plan has formulated a comprehensive approach to reversing these detrimental trends. In 1989 new stormwater legislation improved institutional coordination and supplemented funding for the SWIM Plan's implementation. Most recently, Tampa Bay was included in the EPA's National Estuary Program which brings the federal government into the restoration activities. This paper will focus on the roles of the various levels of government responsible for protecting and restoring Tampa Bay. Their respective programs, regulations, and funding evidence commitment to a mutually supportive watershed management process. New federal stormwater requirements, revised State of Florida Water Policy, Southwest Florida Water Management District's SWIM Plan, and local government stormwater utilities are integral to the success of this important mission ... to restore and protect Tampa Bay.


Background: Authorship is a pinnacle activity in academic medicine that often involves collaboration and a mentor–mentee relationship. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors criteria for authorship (ICMJEc) are intended to prevent abuses of authorship and are used by more than 5500 medical journals. However, the binary ICMJEc have not yet been quantified. Aim: To develop a numeric scoring rubric for the ICMJEc to corroborate the authenticity of authorship claims. Methods: The four ICMJEc were separated into the nine authorship components of conception, design, data acquisition, data analysis, interpretation of data, draft, revision, final approval and accountability. In spring 2021, members of an international association of medical editors rated the importance of each authorship component using an 11-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (no importance) to 10 (most important). The median component scores were used to calibrate the pairwise comparisons in an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The AHP priority weights were multiplied against a four-level perceived effort/ capability grade to calculate an authorship score. Results: Sixty-six decision-making medical editors completed the survey. The components had the median scores/AHP weights: conception 7.5/5.3%; design 8/8.9%; data acquisition 7/3.6%; data analysis 7/3.6%; interpretation of data 8/8.9%; draft 8/8.9%; revision 8/8.9%; final approval 9/20.1%; and accountability 10/31.8%, with Kruskal–Wallis Chi 2 = 65.11, p < 0.001. Conclusion: The editors rated accountability as the most important component of authorship, followed by the final approval of the manuscript; data acquisition had the lowest median importance score for authorship. The scoring rubric (https://tinyurl.com/eyu86y96) transforms the binary tetrad ICMJEc into 9 quantifiable components of authorship, providing a transparent method to objectively assess authorship contributions, determine authorship order and potentially decrease the abuse of authorship. If desired, individual journals can survey their editorial boards and use the AHP method to derive customized weightings for an ICMJEc-based authorship index. variable. In a multi-authored paper where multiple authors with different areas or expertise, differing interpretations of the study data, and varying opinions on the literature revise a work, the final approval of a manuscript can have multiple levels of complexity.


Serum collected at intervals from rabbits treated with Freund's complete adjuvant was injected together with fluid diphtheria toxoid into recipient rabbits. Control rabbits received toxoid alone or toxoid mixed with serum of untreated donors. There was no antibody response in the controls or in recipients of serum obtained from donors 3 days after adjuvant treatment. Recipients of serum obtained from donors 1 to 9 weeks after adjuvant treatment responded with antibody formation. The magnitude of the response of recipients was correlated with the increase in γ-globulin concentration in the serums of the corresponding donor rabbits. Passive transfer of adjuvant action indicates that a serum factor, possibly natural antibody, is partially responsible for the immunity-enhancing activity of Freund's adjuvant.


Many modern applications of sensor networks and transaction analysis require real‐time processing of their stream data sets. These data streams vary continuously over time. Current stream processing approaches focus on only one of the two optimization perspectives, proposing optimization techniques for data streams processing regardless of the processing environment or improving the processing environment only. In this paper, a brief survey of recent approaches to data streams processing coming from the two optimizations perspectives is proposed; their shortcomings are presented as well. Then, a proposal to an innovative and integrative framework is developed; it is referred to as the continuous query optimization based on multiple plans (CQOMP) for data streams over the cloud environment. CQOMP combines the two optimization perspectives and provides an optimized stream clusters processing using multiple split query plans. Each plan is constructed for a cluster of data that has nearest characteristics and it processes streams tuples over the cloud. We also propose a novel algorithm called the optimized multiple plans (OMP) for processing data streams clusters on Cloud Computing. The OMP algorithm efficiently divides data streams and generates optimized multiple split plans. Each plan is for processing a group of data streams on the cloud. We present the experimental results of the OMP solution compared to the alternative state‐of‐the‐art data stream approaches. The experiments show the efficiency and the scalability of the combined OMP algorithm on different cloud environments, the real Amazon cloud environment, and the simulated windows azure cloud environment.


With this thesis on the aftermath of 1968 in France, I have recreated the moment and environment of the libertarian paper Tout! Usually associated in historiography with the birth of the gay liberation movement in France, my initial research revealed its influence as more penetrative and revealing of the diverse left and new, countercultural movements of the early 1970s. I sought the testimony of former militants, writers and artists to uncover historical detail and motivations, and consulted relevant textual archives, aiming to situate and examine the paper within a number of interrelated contexts. Results showed the paper's historical touchstones of scurrilous Revolutionary papers and 19th/20th caricature typified by L'Assiette au Beurre. The parallel paths of Dada, surrealism and situationism, and the Marxisant legacy of the Russian Revolution, foreshadowed the blend of cultural and political in Tout! May "68 was the crucible of militant, festive currents and speech, a time of rupture and reorientation for the various activists later at Tout!, the paper Action and posters of the Beaux-Arts inspiring new forms of agit-prop. In the aftermath of 1968, mao-libertarian current Vive La Revolution converged with an ex-Trotskyist, faculty-based group seeking cultural revolution. Figureheads Roland Castro and Guy Hocquenghem oversaw the merger of these groups and outlooks, coinciding with the launch of Tout! as a "mass" paper. With a new look and "new political attitude", influenced by Italian radicals and the US underground, Tout! challenged all forms of authority in Pompidou"s France, climaxing with the eruption of gay liberation in no.12. It was Tout!"s role in promoting "autonomous" gender, sexual and youth movements that led to the disaggregation of Vive la Revolution, and despite successful sales the paper came to a sudden end in the summer of 1971. Like the rest of the far left, Vive La Revolution and Tout! suffered State repression, but evolved from a "proletarian" Marxist critique of capitalism to attack the life routine of work, school and the family, judging the political Right and the Parti Communiste Francais as equally reactionary. The paper testified to the importance of international, indeed transnational activities of the far left in the early 1970s. It provided a formidable impulse for the gay liberation movement FHAR, and foreshadowed the first feminist paper Le Torchon Brule. As such it was a crucial press conduit for American radical left forms and practices, spearheading a shift from gauchisme to the growing counterculture. Tout! exemplified a brief, intense and fast-changing moment in French subcultural history and set new trends in left political journalism for the 1970s.


OBJECTIVE
To emphasize the importance of precocious diagnosis of extrahepatic biliary atresia and its direct relationship with the surgical re-establishment of the biliary flow before the second month of life. To discuss several complementary methods with the aim of selecting the ones that present better evidence, and avoiding delays in diagnosis and worse prognostic.

SOURCES OF DATA
Bibliographical researching regarding the period of 1985-2001, in Medline and MdConsult, using the following key words: neo-natal cholestasis; extrahepatic biliary atresia; neo-natal hepatitis. National and foreign articles were also elected based on the bibliography of consulted publications, and when necessary, for better understanding of the theme, opinions emitted in theses and textbooks were referred.

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS
The revision of the consulted bibliography led to the assumption that early diagnosis of EHBA and surgical treatment to reestablish the biliary flow up to 60 days of life are fundamental in order to achieve good results. Among several complementary methods of diagnosis, cholangiography by MR, US and the hepatic biopsy are the ones that provide the largest success indexes.

CONCLUSIONS
The referring of patients bearers of EHBA to centers of references in Brazil, is still made tardily, probably due to lack of enlightenment of the doctors of primary attention, allied to bureaucratic and technological difficulties. The experience in England in relation to the "Yellow Alert" program, allowed that the number of children referred to surgical treatment before the 60 days of life increased significantly. Among the complementary methods, the MR cholangiography, ultrasonography and hepatic biopsy should be used, depending on the technological resources of the diagnosis units.


BACKGROUND
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy affects about 4 percent of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and survival after the diagnosis of leukoencephalopathy averages only about three months. There have been anecdotal reports of improvement but no controlled trials of therapy with antiretroviral treatment plus intravenous or intrathecal cytarabine.

METHODS
In this multicenter trial, 57 patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and biopsy-confirmed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: antiretroviral therapy alone, antiretroviral therapy plus intravenous cytarabine, or antiretroviral therapy plus intrathecal cytarabine. After a lead-in period of 1 to 2 weeks, active treatment was given for 24 weeks. For most patients, antiretroviral therapy consisted of zidovudine plus either didanosine or stavudine.

RESULTS
At the time of the last analysis, 14 patients in each treatment group had died, and there were no significant differences in survival among the three groups (P=0.85 by the log-rank test). The median survival times (11, 8, and 15 weeks, respectively) were similar to those in previous studies. Only seven patients completed the 24 weeks of treatment. Anemia and thrombocytopenia were more frequent in patients who received antiretroviral therapy in combination with intravenous cytarabine than in the other groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Cytarabine administered either intravenously or intrathecally does not improve the prognosis of HIV-infected patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy who are treated with the antiretroviral agents we used, nor does high-dose antiretroviral therapy alone appear to improve survival over that reported in untreated patients.


To conduct controlled experiments is the classical method for identifying cause-effect relationships. This helps researchers evaluate and validate their research results. This master thesis quantitatively systematically surveys the present practices of reporting and using time in 113 controlled software engineering experiments published in 103 scientific articles in the period 1993-2002. The survey can be regarded as an extension of the study of Sjoberg et al. [6], who investigated several other aspects of the same collection of controlled experiments. The need for an analysis of time in controlled SE-experiments was recognized based on the results of an earlier survey conducted by Jo E. Hannay at SIMULA Research Laboratory. He identified that time often is reported as dependent variable. Due to the dependent variable's important role in experiments as provider of the effect construct in the causal relationship, it was relevant to find out how time is used. The investigation of time in controlled SE-experiments focuses on the following aspects; the overall frequency of reporting time, the use of time, the recording of time, the specification of time in terms of time units, and the validity threats that time can constitute. These aspects were regarded as the most important features of time, and hence, would give a thorough and appropriate picture of time in controlled SE-experiments. The main results of the survey of the aspects of time, is first of all, that time is reported in a substantial majority of controlled SE-experiments. Second, in most of the controlled SEexperiments time is used as dependent variable, or more precise, as measure of subjects' experimental tasks. However, in an extensive number of controlled SE-experiments time is not explicitly described as dependent variable, although it is used in that sense. Third, time measures are found to be recorded by subjects, experimenters and tools. An interesting finding in relation to this aspect is that the largest proportion of controlled SE-experiments did not explicitly report their time recording. Fourth, a majority of controlled SE-experiments measure the time in minutes. Last, but not least, very few controlled SE-experiments were found to address time in relation to validity threats. The main conclusions and recommendations of the research, is first of all, that SE-researchers documenting controlled experiments should explicitly describe time as dependent variable in the experimental design, when time is used as dependent variable. This is obviously important due to the vital role of a dependent variable in experimentation. Second, SE-researchers should consistently describe how time is recorded in controlled experiments, due to validations of the experiment results and to possible replications. Third, SE-researchers should specify time measures in minutes, because it provides an appropriate granularity of the time data. And fourth, aspects of time constitute threats to both internal and external validity, and SE-researchers should therefore assess time in relation to possible validity threats of the controlled experiments. The hope of this master thesis is that the results, discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the research provide useful insight to SE-researchers, so that they can improve the design of time in their controlled experiments. This is vital in order to advance a state-of-the art practice in empirical software engineering research.


Browse species supplement diet, increase diet variety, and expand grazing opportunity for small ruminants. However, information on the foliage-development pattern of browse species and appropriate time to begin harvesting/browsing with small ruminants is lacking. Study objectives were to 1) determine the growth pattern of browse species available in grazing lands, and 2) evaluate small ruminants' preference for these species. Browse species present in woodland (2.8 ha) and browse-research (5.2 ha) sites were identified and tagged in early-winter, 2019. The date when the first leaf-sprout occurred was recorded, and the canopy-development data taken fortnightly after the first sprout until the full canopy was attained. Eight Kiko wethers and five Katahdin rams were co-stocked rotationally in three woodland plots (0.4 ha each) from mid-May to mid-October 2019. The extent of defoliation (0-5: 0 - no defoliation, 5 - 80-100% defoliation) of browse species by animals was assessed. Canopy-development data were analyzed using the GLM procedure and plant-preference data with Mixed procedure in SAS 9.4. Nine species began sprouting in early February, seven by mid-March, and three by late April. Species varied in attaining the full canopy ranging from April 21 to May 21. Animals showed high preference for eight species, moderate preference for nine, and least preference for 11. Results show that browse foliage can be ready for harvest beginning late April to mid-May depending on the browse species. Moderate to highly preferred species can be used to develop browse program or manage these species with small ruminants if present in woodlands.


Summary. An athymic rat strain lacking functional T cells was used to assess the role of cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in host defence against renal infection. CMI was ruled out as a relevant host defence component, but when cyclosporin A (CsA) was administered to athymic animals, renal infection was exacerbated. CsA is thought to affect T lymphocyte function and, in the absence of a target cell, cellular defences in the athymic animal were not expected to be compromised by CsA. An effect on noncellular defence mechanisms was therefore considered but our studies did not support this explanation-rather they indicated a depression of either cellular defences or of a specific cellular component. The present experiments have provided additional information on the relationship between CsA administration and the depression of host defence mechanisms but further studies will be necessary to identify the components affected.


Objective: To examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS). Methods: This methodological study consisted of 69 patients hospitalized in the palliative care (PC) service of three hospitals between June 2016 and August 2016, 69 carers who undertook continuously primary care of these patients, and 28 staff members working in the PC service and providing care to these patients. The data of the study were collected using the Personal Diagnosis Form, the POS. The scope, structure and criterion validity and internal consistency reliability of the scale were tested. Item analysis, Cronbach's alpha analysis, content validity ratio, confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity, criterion validity, patient validity, and intraclass correlation coefficient for the adaptation of outcomes of patient, carer, and staff groups were conducted. Results: The content validity ratio of the scale was found to be higher than 0.80 for patient, carer, and staff questionnaires. Item-total score correlation coefficients were determined between 0.27 and 0.72 for the items in the patient questionnaire, 0.33–0.67 for the carer questionnaire, and 0.34–0.72 for the staff questionnaire. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients were determined as 0.64 for the patient questionnaire, 0.73 for the carer questionnaire, and 0.68 for the staff questionnaire. Conclusions: The Turkish version of the POS was determined to be a valid and reliable tool to be used for assessing the needs of PC patients in three dimensions in terms of the perspectives of patient, carer, and staff.


Objective: To evaluate characteristics of congenital heart disease (CHD) in patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and assess potential associations with cleft outcomes. Design: Retrospective review of all patients with CL/P who underwent primary cleft treatment from 2009 to 2015. Setting: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, a tertiary hospital. Patients: Exclusion criteria included microform cleft lip diagnosis, international patients, and patients presenting for secondary repair or revision after primary repair at another institution. Main Outcomes Measured: Patient demographics, prenatal and birth characteristics, CL/P characteristics, syndromic status, postoperative complications, and other outcomes were analyzed relative to CHD diagnoses and management. Patients with CL/P with (+CHD) were compared to those without (−CHD) CHD using χ2 tests and analysis of variance. Results: Among 575 patients with CL/P, 83 (14.4%) had CHD. Congenital heart disease rates were significantly higher in patients with cleft palate (CP) compared to other cleft types (χ2, P = .009). Eighty-one (97.6%) out of 83 +CHD patients were diagnosed prior to initial CL/P surgical assessment. Twenty-three (27.7%) +CHD patients required surgical repair of 10 cardiac anomalies prior to cleft care. Congenital heart disease was associated with delayed CP repair and increased rates of fistula in isolated patients with CP. Conclusions: Congenital heart disease is known to be more prevalent in patients with CL/P. These data suggest the condition is particularly increased in patients with CP. Severe forms of CHD are diagnosed and treated prior to cleft care however postoperative fistula may be more common in patients with CHD. Therefore, careful attention is required for patient optimization and palatal flap dissection in patients with coexisting CHD and CL/P.


This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is often accused of, at best, not paying enough attention to human rights or, at worst, facilitating and perpetuating human rights abuses. This book weighs these criticisms and examines their validity, incorporating legal arguments as well as some economic and political science perspectives. After introducing the respective WTO and human rights regimes, and discussing their legal and normative relationship to each other, the book presents a detailed analysis of the main human rights concerns relating to the WTO. These include the alleged democratic deficit within the Organization and the impact of WTO rules on the right to health, labour rights, the right to food, and on questions of poverty and development. Given that some of the most important issues within the WTO concern its impact on poor people within developing States, the book asks whether rich States have an obligation to the people of poorer States to construct a fairer trading system that better facilitates the alleviation of poverty and development. Against this background, the book examines the current Doha round proposals as well as suggestions for reform of the WTO to make it more 'human rights-friendly'.


Craparo, Ardino, Gori and Caretti recently published an interesting brief report in Psychiatry Investigation concerning the role of childhood trauma, dissociation, and alexithymia in alcohol dependence.1 In their exploratory study, Craparo and colleagues found that people suffering from alcohol use disorder were exposed to a greater number of traumatic events in their childhood (sexual, physical and emotional abuse), and showed more dissociative experiences and higher levels of alexithymia, compared to a matched control group. Another interesting finding of the study concerned the negative correlation between the age of the first relational trauma and the severity of dissociative symptoms.

This is consistent with a wealth of existing research emphasizing that adverse childhood experiences can alter the affect regulation circuits (alexithymia) and the possibility of integrating mental, somatic, and relational experiences (dissociation), thus constituting a risk-factor for the development of addictive disorders, including the so-called behavioral addictions such as pathological gambling2 and Internet addiction.3 The study by Craparo and colleagues provides additional evidence in a growing field for the influence exerted by negative childhood environment and relationships in the development of addictive disorders. As the literature indicates, people suffering from addictive disorders may in fact use substances or excessive behaviors as an external regulator and a self medication for their dysregulated feelings and painful states of mind. This then supports a psychopathological model according to which the earlier and more frequent the exposure to abuse for an individual, the higher the likelihood of deviation from normal development. In fact, both theoretical and empirical research states that early and frequent negative experiences in childhood, especially in the context of attachment relationships, can foster the onset of a developmental trauma disorder,4 which entails significant alterations in different domains of psychological functioning, including attachment, biology, affect regulation, dissociation, behavioral control, cognition and self-concept.5

Therefore, research findings are consistent in supporting developmental models for psychiatric disorders, whereby childhood neglect or abuse is an important causal factor, increasingly for a range of disorders. However, it is now necessary for research on the developmentally traumatic roots of addictive behaviors to make a quantum leap, in order to provide more detailed patterns of associations between childhood experiences and addictive behaviors in a search for more specific models. In doing this, a valid, reliable, comprehensive, and detailed assessment of child maltreatment becomes essential for increasing our understanding of the origins of addictive behaviors in addition to other forms of psychopathology. In fact, given potential methodological issues around retrospective mea-surement, accurate recall, and willingness to report sensitive or stigmatizing personal information, the choice of a suitable measure of childhood maltreatment is a critical issue for both research and clinical purposes.

In this sense, the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA) interview6 is unique as the first, most comprehensive, well tested measure of child maltreatment, with published reliability and validity (including a sibling corroboration study),7 and it has been used in patient and community samples internationally.8,9,10 The only other similar interview is the Childhood Trauma Interview,11 which has a narrower range, less validational testing and less international use, but which has recently been adapted to follow the CECA in utilizing a wider range of indices for analysis.12 The CECA is considered the gold standard for the retrospective assessment of both trauma and lack of care experienced during childhood, due to its good psychometric properties, its careful, detailed, and behaviorally-based questioning, and wide range of experiences covered. In the 20 years since its initial publication, there are more than 100 studies with this measure that have identified specific patterns of psychopathological development. For example, studies with the CECA show that emotional neglect in childhood is specifically associated with the development of anxiety disorders13 and depressive disorders,14 and that role-reversal15 (i.e., parentification) and physical abuse16 are associated with the development of suicidal and self-injurious behaviors. Another recent study with the CECA showed that witnessing violence in the household is specifically associated with the development of substance use disorder among late adolescents.17 Other analyses point to differentiation of disorder according to parent involved with maternal neglect/abuse relating to internalizing disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression) and paternal neglect/abuse to externalizing disorder (e.g., conduct disorder, substance use disorder, antisocial personality disorder).17,18,19 On the basis of these and other findings, we believe that the use of the CECA measure and using an intensive interview approach can dramatically improve the quality of research data on the relationship between child abuse and addictive behaviors, as well as improving the understanding of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology more generally. This is not to underrate the usefulness of self-report screening tools for certain types of study, in particular for screening studies-the CECA.Q,20 a self-report measure based on the CECA interview, has proved robust in showing early experience influencing later disorder, and dose-response effects, but without the range of the interview measure to develop specificity of models, and the safeguards imposed in the rating scheme on accurate reporting.

It has been illuminating in the 20 years since the CECA was first published, to see its initial success in the prediction of depression being widely replicated but for a range of disorders. The measure has proved robust over time and across culture, and using the full range of the CECA measurement potential will allow for ever more specific models of disorder in relation to type of childhood maltreatment, by particular perpetrators and at specific ages. We believe that this kind of retrospective assessment for child maltreatment can make all the difference for developing consistent psychopathological model to inform clinical practice with individuals who have been traumatized in childhood.


In industrial interdisciplinary projects where engineers of different sorts have to work together, a framework is necessary in order to support such an interdisciplinary development process. For example, the design information created by the production automation engineer has to be set into relation to the software architecture the software designer has to produce which will control the automation plant. Such requirements result in the need to consistently integrate various specification methods and development processes performed during the various development stages.

This contribution shows that such an integration of heterogeneous specification methods concerning the various heterogeneous components of production automation systems can be achieved using the ViewPoint framework. This framework provides an intuitive understanding of different specifications involved in the development process, on the one side. On the other side the ViewPoint framework allows for a consistent and correct integration of these specifications due to its existing formalization by distributed graph transformation.