Detection of high NO 3 concentrations in domestic wells has led to concern about excessive fertilizer N use in crop production. A potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Russet Burbank) experiment was initiated to examine the effect of water and N on potato yield and quality, tuber N concentrations, petiole NO 3 concentrations, and N distribution in the soil. The field trial consisted of a line-source irrigation system with six water rates (0.33, 0.66, 1.00, 1.10, 1.20, and 1.30 times crop evapotranspiration ET c ) each having six planting-time N rates (0, 56, 112, 168, 224, and 448 kg ha -1 ) replicated four times with treatments applied to the same plots in two successive years on a Pittville sandy loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Argixerolls). Yields were significantly increased with water, averaging 14.1 to 54.4 Mg ha -1 in 1992 and 20.8 to 46.5 in 1993. Nitrogen rate significantly increased yield in 1993, averaging 28.7 to 44.1 Mg ha - 1 ,but not in 1992. Residual soil profile NO 3 -N (1040 mg kg -1 ) present at planting time in the first cropping season was utilized, denitrified, or leached from the top 150 cm of soil by above-normal winter rainfall before the beginning of the second season. At the end of the second season, low NO 3 -N concentrations were observed in soil profiles receiving 0, 112, and 224 kg N ha -1 , whereas a concentration of 1050 mg kg -1 was found in the 0- to 60-cm depth of soil with the 448 kg N ha - rate. High residual soil N in 1992 resulted in N use efficiency (NUE) for tubers of >200 g kg -1 ; in the 1993 season, however, NUE was > 300 g kg -1 . Near-maximum yields were obtained with 1.10 to 1.20 ET c applied water and 0 to 56 kg N ha -1 in 1992 and with 1.10 to 1.30 ET c applied water and 168 to 224 kg N ha -1 in 1993.


The experiments were carried out with 4-week-old broiler birds given a ration that was balanced in terms of basic nutrients. Following decapitation inverted intestinal sacs were prepared from the proximal part of the jejunum the incubation of which lasted 40 min. To elucidate the effect of folic acid on the transport of 35S-methionine the acid was used in a conc. of 4 X 10(-6). Studied was also the effect of replacing the sodium ion (148 mEq/l) in the incubation solution with equivalent amount of the potassium ion, and the incorporation into the same solution of monoiodine-acetic acid (10(-3)M) as it affects the transmembrane transport of methionine. The flasks with the sacs of each group of birds contained 10microCi 35S-methionine each. The content of cyclic 3', 5'-adenosine-monophosphate (cAMP), the SH-groups, and the activity of alkaline phosphatase in the jejunal mucosa were determined. Results showed that folic acid at 4 X 10(-6)M stimulated dependably both the transport and the incorporation of 35S-methionine into the erythrocytes. These processes were inhibited when monoiodine-acetic acid at 10(-3)M was added to the incubation solution. Identic negative effect was produced also when K+ was used instead of Na+. Folic acid was said to raise the content of cAMP, SH-groups, and the activity of alkaline phosphatase in the jejunal mucosa.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We suggest a scenario of spontaneous (or dynamical) C and CP violation according to which it is possible to generate domains of matter and antimatter separated by cosmologically large distances. Such C(CP) violation existed only in the early universe and later it disappeared with the only trace of generated matter and antimatter domains. So this scenario does not suffer from the problem of domain walls. According to this scenario the width of the domain wall should grow exponentially to prevent annihilation at the domain boundaries. Though there is a classical result obtained by Basu and Vilenkin that the width of the wall tends to the one of the stationary solution (constant physical width). That is why we considered thick domain walls in a de Sitter universe following paper by Basu and Vilenkin. However, we were interested not only in stationary solutions found therein, but also investigated the general case of domain wall evolution with time. When the wall thickness parameter, δ0, is smaller than H−1/ √ 2, where H is the Hubble parameter in de Sitter space-time, then the stationary solutions exist, and initial field configurations tend with time to the stationary ones. However, there are no stationary solutions for δ0 > H−1/ √ 2. We have calculated numerically the rate of the wall expansion in this case and have found that the width of the wall grows exponentially fast for δ0 H−1. An explanation for the critical value δ0c = H−1/ √ 2 is also proposed.


To date, no research has been conducted on interpreting for deaf jurors, as people are not typically eligible to serve as jurors if they cannot understand the language of the court. This chapter reports one aspect of a pioneering pilot study in Australia, which sought to investigate the capacity for deaf people to serve as jurors in criminal court by accessing courtroom discourse via signed language interpreters. Results of an experimental comprehension test administered to six deaf and six hearing mock "jurors" revealed that levels of comprehension between deaf and hearing participants were similar. Thus it appears that the deaf participants were not disadvantaged by accessing information indirectly via interpreting, and could legitimately serve as jurors, although this needs to be further investigated.


Social scientists have long shown great interest in the spatial correlates of crime patterns. A subset of the literature has focused on how micro-level spatial factors influence the formation of crime hot spots. At the same time, tangential research has highlighted how neighbourhood disadvantage influences crime occurrence. The current study focuses on the intersection of these perspectives through a spatial analysis of Motor Vehicle Theft (MVT) and Motor Vehicle Recovery (MVR) in Colorado Springs, CO. We begin by conducting a Risk Terrain Modelling analysis to identify spatial risk factors significantly related to MVT and MVR occurrence. We then test whether the spatial influences of the criminogenic risk factors differ across traditional measures of neighbourhood disadvantage. Findings suggest that while a citywide effect is evident for multiple risk factors, their spatial influence on crime significantly varies across neighbourhood contexts.


Francis King, transl. and compiler. The Narodniks in the Russian Revolution. Russia's Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1917-A Documentary History. Socialist History Occasional Papers Series, No. 25. London: Socialist History Society, 2007. 111 pp. £5.00, paper.This is a collection of almost 50 documents, or excerpts from documents produced by various factions of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party between February 1917 and the brief meeting of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918. They include appeals from party committees, leaflets, speeches and reports to the Petrograd Soviet or the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets after the Bolshevik coup, or to the Constituent Assembly or SR party conferences and congresses, party resolutions or motions, stenographs and reports of party and Soviet meetings, articles, telegrams, protocols or minutes of party meetings. Most were published contemporaneously, either individually or in various party papers. The author's intention is to mark the 80th anniversary of the Revolution by presenting the perspectives of the different SR groupings during 1917, to rescue the SRs from the "dustbin of history," not as alternative leaders, but as part of the history of 1917 and a general socialist heritage. The documents have been selected from recent Russian publications of documents relating to the revolution.There is a brief introduction to the Narodniks and their debates with the Marxists in the late nineteenth century and a useful history of the SR party from its foundation at the very beginning of the twentieth century up to 1917. Francis King provides a chronological narrative covering political developments in 1917 into which the documents are inserted. Although the documents are addressed to various groups such as soldiers and workers, they are in reality mainly addressed to other members of the SR party. Like most commentators on the SRs, King sees their heterogeneity as the deeper cause of their downfall, beyond the personalities of Aleksandr Kerenskii or Viktor Chernov and the vicissitudes of 1917 itself, although he shows with some neat examples how these factors played out. The "fracturing" of the party creates the structure of the book and the selection of documents. So documents from all wings of the SR party are presented, from the Union of SR Maximalists (Soyuz Eserov-Maximalistov) to the People's Socialists (Narodnie sotsialisty) and no effort is made to evaluate which had more right to the title "Narodnik." Some of the documents of the "extremes" could have been left out, such as the People's Socialists; as King's text and they themselves recognized, they had miniscule support in 1917 and no desire to reunite with the main SR party, with whom they had long split. Space instead could have been given to regional SRs, either in the areas where the party had been traditionally strong, such as the Volga, or where they were to remain influential for a few brief years after 1917, for example Siberia. …


The author of this article focuses on the theoretical framework of the concept of care as a critical category of social inequality in order to outline possibilities for a redefinition of the relationship between work and care. Gender inequalities as well as inequalities that are based on other social categories, such as class, ethnicity, nationality, geopolitical location, marital status, and so on are incorporated in the social organisation of care which retrospectively reinforces them. Feminist debate has thus far formulated demands for the recognition of caring persons mainly at the national level, but the author of the article, referring to Arlie Hochschild and Allison Weir, shows that the current challenges of global capitalism point to the need to articulate these demands in a transnational context and to embed care in the discourse of transnational justice. She critically addresses the challenges that efforts to attain recognition for caring persons by including care as a labour-market activity are confronted with owing to the current changes in the social organisation of care under global capitalism, which involves among others the employment of marginalised groups of women and women immigrants in the caring professions. Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, the author formulates two normative criteria for reconceptualising care as a social engagement without subjecting it to the logic of market valuation.


The genus Durio is originated from Malaysia. Out of 198 registered clones,
D24 is known as the best variety not only in Malaysia but also in the world.
However, molecular genetic study on durian is still limited. This study was
one of the initial molecular work which could contribute to the database of
clone D24 durian. Firstly, we have compared three conventional methods for
total RNA isolation from different types of durian tissues. The results showed
that the CTAB procedure produced the best yield and high quality of total
RNA from 4-month old durian flesh. The yield ranged from 75.8 pg to 272.5
pg per gram of frozen durian tissue with an average purity ratio A26dA28o0f
1.78. The RNA from 4-month old durian flesh of clone D24 was successfully
used for the construction of a cDNA library.
The titer of the primary cDNA library was 5.1 x106 pfulml. The percentage of
recombinant plaques was 99% which indicated a sufficient cDNA library
quality for full-length cDNA screening. A total of 30 randomly collected clones
were generated from the cDNA library. Based on the comparison of these
sequences with the GENEBANK, the sequences were classified into 7
groups according to their putative functions i.e. general metabolism
(1 0 sequences); DNA and protein synthesis (4 sequences); glycosylation and
transport proteins (1 sequence); respiration chain and photosynthesis
(1 sequence); regulation mechanism (6 sequences); immunology
(1 sequence); and novel genes (7 sequences). The initial molecular biology
information of durian will also support further basic molecular work for genetic
engineering and crop improvement application in the future.
Consequently, two interesting clones, putative FKBP12 and quinone
reductase, were subjected to further characterization. These genes were
found to be present in the genome as single copy genes and expressed not
only in the 4-month old durian flesh but also in other tissues such as the
leaves and young flower buds. However, these genes were not found to be
expressed in ripening flesh tissues. The former, FKBP12 has a main function
of dissecting higher plants ca2+-dependent signal pathway. The latter,
quinone reductase plays an important role in xenobiotic detoxification.


Changes in software systems are inevitable. Addressing future changes in the requirements engineering phase influences the resulting architecture, improves its maintainability and can prolong the lifetime of software architectures. In this paper, structures in goal models are identified and discussed. Such structures are parts in requirements models with a high probability for future changes. Designing a system to support changes is a way towards a longer lifetime. Variable requirements model parts can be handled using adjustable parts in the design. Thus, the better current as well as future variation points can be identified in the requirements model, the better changes can be handled by a system and, consequently, the longer the lifecycle of software architectures could be.


In this work an HPLC method for determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in edible oils on a DACC (donor-acceptor complex chromatography) column coupled with an on-line HPLC system with fluorescent detection. Method was used to determine the content of individual PAHs in the refined sunflower oil, virgin olive oil, cold pressed pumpkin seed oil, dark sesame oil and pumpkin seed oil produced with roasting obtained from domestic market. Calibration and validation were conducted for 13 individual PAHs among which are all 8 PAHs that are listed as priorities for determination in food and environment by both European Commission and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Correlation coefficients of calibration curves for all standards were above 0.999 in selected range and all validation parameters (limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy and precision) were within limits set by European regulation. Content of PAHs in cold pressed pumpkin seed oil, roasted pumpkin seed oil and especially dark sesame oil was several-fold higher than the recommendations set by different European oil research and production organizations even though for both pumpkin seed oils it was lower than limits set by official European legislation. High content of cancerogenous heavy fraction PAHs were found in dark sesame oil that advises to limitation of its consumption in human diet..


My 'Lenticular' Ring 2015 has been purchased by the Victoria & Albert Museum London for their Jewellery & Metal Collection, and will go on display when the V & A Dundee opens in September 2018.

This Lenticular changing colour ring (2015), commissioned for A Sense of Jewellery, is extraordinarily intricate. In the exhibition the presentation of this work employs technology of another type; following a collaborative project with Stef Lewandowski, of Makeshift, visitors are invited to put on Oculus Rift glasses, which enable a very close examination of Lenticular changing colour ring (2015). The view through the glasses is manipulated by a sensor, controlled by the wearer's hand. This approach to displaying the work acknowledges and looks to overcome the potential frustration of a visitor, who would like to look more closely ."

From the Museum website:

Physical description - Curved gold band, the surface a mass of tiny loops which are yellow gold on one side and white gold on the other. As the ring moves the surface appears to change colour.

Place of Origin - Scotland (Aberdeen, made)

Date - 2015 (made)

Artist/maker - Lamb, Andrew, born 1978 (designed and made by)

Materials and Techniques - Yellow and white gold

Marks and inscriptions - ADL and Edinburgh 2015 hallmarks for 18 carat gold on the inside of the band

Dimensions - Height: 8 mm, Diameter: 22 mm

Object history note - The ring was commissioned for the exhibition 'A Sense of Jewellery' at the Goldsmiths' Centre, Clerkenwell, London, 15 September to 19 November 2015, by the exhibition's curators Amanda Game and Dorothy Hogg.

Descriptive line - 'Lenticular' ring, yellow and white gold, designed and made by Andrew Lamb, Scotland 2015

Materials - Gold

Categories - Jewellery; Metalwork

Collection - Metalwork Collection


A study was carried out to assess soil erosion under natural forest in
watershed using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model within a
Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The Sg. Weng Experimental
Watershed, located within Hulu Muda Forest Reserve, Kedah, Malaysia was chosen
for this study. The study area comprised four watersheds namely Watershed 1 (2.6
sq. Ion), Watershed 2 (8.4 sq. Ion), Watershed 3 (7.6 sq. Ion) and Watershed 5 (42.1
sq. Ian).
The USLE model consists of five factors namely rainfall erosivity (R), soil
erodibility (K), length slope (LS), crop management (C) and support practice (P)
factors. The R factor was obtained based on four methods namely Morgan (1974),
Balamurugan (1990), Roose (1977) and rainfall equal or exceeding 25 mmIhr (this
study). Using a regular grid of Digital Elevation Model (OEM), a method based on
the maximum downhill slope and cumulative slope length was used for calculating
the LS factor. K factor was obtained from Department of Agriculture, Kedah based on five soil series. The C and P were combined into a single factor called vegetation
management (VM). The values obtained for each parameter were later converted to
raster layers for modeling the soil erosion.


To explore the impact of cooperative learning (CL) on Chinese students' English oral proficiency, a 15-week quasi-experiment was conducted in a Chinese university during the first term of the Academic Year 2007-2008. A non-randomized pre-test-post-test control group research design was adopted with 37 first-year students in the experimental class (the EC) and 36 in the control class (the CC). The EC students participated in CL in conjunction with regular language instruction in an integrated skills course. They were exposed to CL activities for about 30 minutes in each session, making up a total of 90 minutes every other week. The CC students only received conventional whole-class instruction. The oral pre-test and post-test were conducted before and after the intervention to measure the students' gains in oral proficiency. The National College Entrance English Exam (NCEEE) and a final term English exam (FTEE) were employed to measure their improvement in general proficiency. Interactional data of two EC groups (the ESs) and two CC groups (the CSs) were collected by the oral pre-test and post-test, and a pre-task and post-task in the classroom. The purpose was to detect any change in their interactional strategy use. The interactional data of the ESs and the CSs were transcribed, and interactional strategies were identified in the transcriptions. The quantitative results are presented using descriptive analysis as well as inferential analysis. Effect size was also measured to examine the relative magnitude of the treatment. The interactional strategies used by these two groups were compared. The quantitative results revealed a null experimental effect on overall oral proficiency and on its components: grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation and discourse management, but the effect on interactive communication was inconclusive. Conversation analysis showed that the ESs appeared to do somewhat better in interactional strategy use than the CSs. Also, the results did not significantly favour CL in comparison with conventional whole-class instruction in helping Chinese students improve their general proficiency. As this study was conducted with intact classes with a small sample, the results may only be generalized to similar universities in China, and may not be generalized to all the foreign language learners or institutions in China.


Journal of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Pathology and Surgery Vol 4, No 2, Summer 2015 Introdouction: Injection of local anesthesia during dental procedures can induce metabolic changes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in the serum blood glucose levels after the injection of lidocaine with a vasoconstrictor during tooth extraction. Materials and methods: In this clinical trial study, we enrolled 60 patients. We extracted mandibular teeth by using inferior alveolar nerve block. We took a finger blood sample test from each enrolled patient immediately before and 10 min after local anesthesia administration. The anesthetic solution (1.8 mL carpule) contained lidocaine and 1:80,000 epinephrine. It was injected through the inferior alveolar nerve after negative aspiration. Only one carpule was injected into each patient. This study is approved by the ethics committee of the research center of Azad University of Medical Sciences. Results: The mean age of the patients in our study was 39.54 ± 15 years. Thirty-five patients were male, and 25 were female. The serum blood glucose level was 111.6 ± 25.47 mg/dL before local anesthesia and 115.3 ± 24.39 mg/dL after tooth extraction (P = 0.418). Eleven female patients and four male patients had a reduction in the blood glucose levels after injection. There was a significant difference between these groups (P = 0.01). Conclusion: According to our findings and previous reports, using local anesthesia during tooth extraction does not induce hypoglycemia and could increase the serum blood glucose level in individuals.


In the past farmers have been key rural citizens as farming has played an important role in local rural economies. Today there is a reduction in the number of people working on the land and farms as a business no longer make such a large direct economic contribution. At the same time the importance of farmers for managing farmland for wildlife, landscape value and tourism has been increasing. Yet commercial pressures mean that many farmers are leaving the profession or becoming more specialised, and it is no longer clear to many of them how they will continue to play an important economic role in the future. Although they are physically dispersed, individual farmers are part of a farming community living, working and interacting with one another. Current trends run the risk of placing an increasing strain on their ability to work together as a 'community of practice' and experience a clear, shared, farming identity. At the same time new agricultural technologies are being developed that also impact on the relationships that farmers have with others. For example, genetically modified crops, which have the potential to drive a wedge between farmers who may see the future of agriculture differently, but they can also demand, or be opportunities for greater farmer co-operation. Drawing on the findings of our study on farmers understandings of new, future technologies and genetically modified crops, this paper considers the impact of new agricultural technologies on farmer communities of practice.


The EU regulations for organic farming require outdoor access for pigs, as one of the main organic principles is to establish sustainable farming systems including harmonious relationships between animals, plants and environment. Outdoor access for pigs provides benefits in terms of animal welfare as pigs are able to express their natural and social behaviour. However, it is still common to keep organic growing pigs indoors with access to outdoor concrete yards.
Main reasons for not keeping growing pigs on pasture are high nutrient inputs to the free-range area and high feed costs due to an increased energy demand in outdoor pigs. Reasons for the high nutrient loads on free range areas are the not-random excretory behaviour as well as the high input of supplemental feed. The reduction and better distribution of nutrients on the field can be achieved by different strategies. Considering the excretory behaviour and foraging activity of pigs the main focus in this study was to identify suitable environmental friendly paddock management systems for organic growing pigs with high animal welfare standards.
For identifying those, an experiment with growing pigs was conducted in Denmark. Within this experiment growing pigs got access to two strategies of land allocation. They got either access to 3x12 m of new land right away (allocation strategy 3) or to 1x12 m of new land on three days in a row (allocation strategy 1). In combination with new land they got one of the forage crops alfalfa or grass-clover and access to either high or low protein content in the supplemental feed. During the experiment behavioural observations were performed. Rooting, grazing, urinating and defecating were recorded to investigate the effect of management system on the pig's behaviour.
It was shown that pigs are rooting and grazing significantly more often in new land. However, urinating in this study is performed to a significantly lower extent in new land compared to old land. The allocation strategy affects foraging activity and excretory behaviour when the three observation days are regarded separately.
From the present study it became clear that paddock management strategies should be based on mobile systems including frequent allocation of new land, e.g. strip grazing or pasture rotations and mobile huts, feeders and drinkers. An interesting approach is to establish mobile paddock systems such as the mobile organic piggery (MOP). Nevertheless, more research in the field of paddock management systems is required. In particular more knowledge on mobile fence systems is necessary to make these systems common on farms.


This study examines the understanding of leadership in Germany, as it developed throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The investigation is based on the work of contemporary writers and thinkers, as well as on the leadership styles of key political figures. Given the ideological connotations of the term "Fuhrung" in post-war Germany, the aim is to reconsider the meaning of leadership, with particular reference to the alternative notion of spiritual guidance. The rise to power of Napoleon I fundamentally influenced the understanding of leadership in Germany, as is demonstrated through an analysis of the Napoleonic reception in contemporary literature. Despite polarised responses, the formation of the heroic ideal may be identified, the quest for spiritual guidance having become subordinate to the charismatic legitimisation of political authority. As advocated by Thomas Carlyle, the mid to late nineteenth century witnessed the realisation of this ideal through Bismarck. The intellectual response to this development is characterised by the work of Wagner, Burckhardt and Nietzsche. In different ways each figure emphasised the need to redefine greatness and to seek spiritual guidance from alternative sources. The reflection on leadership in the early twentieth century is traced through the work of Harry Graf Kessler and the circles around Stefan George. Hitherto unpublished material is examined, revealing both the influences of nineteenth century thought and reactions to the "personliches Regiment" of Wilhelm II. The intellectual debate culminates in Max Kommerell's 1928 study Der Dichter als Fuhrer. Read in conjunction with unpublished notes and correspondence, this provides new insights into Kommerell's thought. The concept of poetic leadership constitutes a potential spiritual and intellectual alternative to the ideal of the political "Fuhrer" which dominated the forthcoming era. It therefore remains of contemporary significance and may contribute to a broader discussion of the leadership dilemma in modern Germany.


OBJECTIVES
In our previous studies we found that both acute administration of CB1 receptor agonist methanandamide and repeated methanandamide pre-treatment prior to methamphetamine challenge dose elicited increase in the CB1 receptor mRNA expression in the mouse mesencephalon. As a reciprocal cross-talk is reported between the cannabinoid CB1 and dopamine receptors, that are highly co-localized on brain neurones, we targeted possible changes in relative expression of dopamine D1 and D2 receptor mRNA in mesencephalon in mice sensitized by repeated treatments to methamphetamine stimulatory effects and cross-sensitized to methamphetamine by cannabinoid CB1 receptor agonist methanandamide pre-treatment.

METHODS
To confirm development of behavioural sensitization or cross-sensitization, respectively, we observed changes in locomotion using the open field test. Mice were treated repeatedly with either methamphetamine or methamphetamine after repeated pre-treatment with methanandamide. After each measurement of locomotion one third of animals were sacrificed and the brain was stored. RNA was isolated from the midbrain and used for reverse transcription and subsequent real-time PCR.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
As in many of our earlier studies with the same dosage regimen we found in the behavioural part both development of sensitization to methamphetamine stimulatory effects after repeated treatment and cross-sensitization to them by pre-treatment with cannabinoid receptor CB1 agonist methanandamide. Real-time PCR analyses showed an increase in D1 receptor mRNA expression after the first dose of methamphetamine (that persisted also after the last dose of methamphetamine) and after the first dose of methanandamide (which also persisted after the methamphetamine challenge dose). In opposite a significant decrease in D2 receptor mRNA expression both after the first dose of methamphetamine and methanandamide (that persisted also after the methamphetamine challenge doses) was registered. Thus, our results suggest that both methamphetmine and methanandamide treatment can provoke changes in dopamine receptor density in mouse mesenpcephalon, the increase in D1 and decrease in D2 receptor subtypes.


A Lagrangian particle multiphase model based on the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin method with Rankine source solution (MLPG_R) is proposed to simulate 2D flows of two immiscible fluids. The model is applicable to fluids with a wide range of density ratio from 1.01 to 1000, capable of dealing with violent flow situations (e.g. breaking waves) and maintaining the sharp discontinuity of properties of the fluids at the interface.

In order to extend the MLPG_R method to model multiphase flows, an innovative phase coupling is proposed using an equation for pressure at the interface particle through two stages. In the first stage, the formulation is based on ensuring the continuity of the pressure and the ratio of the pressure derivative in the normal direction of the interface to the fluid density across the interface. Gravity current, natural sloshing of two layered liquids and air-water violent sloshing are successfully simulated and compared with either experimental data or analytical solution demonstrating a second order convergent rate. The second stage involves the extension of the method to account for interface tension and large viscosity. This is achieved by adding additional terms in the original pressure formulation considering jumps for both the pressure and the ratio of pressure derivatives in either the normal or tangential direction to fluid density at the interface. The method ensures both velocity continuity even with highly viscous fluids and interface stress balance in the presence of interface tension. Simulation of square-droplet deformation illustrates sharp pressure drop at the interface and relieved spurious currents that are known to be associated with predictions by other existing models. The capillary wave case also demonstrates the necessity of maintaining the jump in the ratio of pressure gradient to fluid density and the bubble rising case further validates the model as compared with the benchmark numerical results.

Apart from being the first application of the MLPG_R method to multiphase flows the proposed model also contains two highly effective and robust techniques whose applicability is not restricted to the MLPG_R method. One is based on use of the absolute density gradient for identifying the interface and isolated particles which is essential to ensure that interface conditions are applied at the correct locations in violent flows. The effectiveness of the technique has been examined by a number of particle configurations, including those with different levels of randomness of particle distribution. The other is about solving the discretised pressure equation, by splitting the one set equations into two sets corresponding to two phases and solving them separately but coupled by the interface particles. This technique efficiently gives reasonable solutions not only for the cases with low density ratio but also for the ones with very high density ratio.


This short discussion of two publications on Decision Support Tools for Sustainable Forest Management concludes the series of this journal's Special Sections on this theme resulting from the 2010 Workshop on Decision Support Systems in Sustainable Forest Management held in Lisbon, Portugal, on April 19-21, 2010. While the current section doesn't exhaust all the collection of the papers that were selected through collaboration between the conference organizers, its participants, and the MCFNS editorial team, it contains the two last papers from that series that passed the peer review process within a one year period (one journal volume timeframe) and were published as a collection of papers under a common banner. Thus, the papers contained here conclude this series of Special Sections on the subject, and any other submission from that same conference that may pass the peer-review process in the future will be published as general submissions.


Recent statistics show that in 2015 more than 140 millions new malware samples have been found. Among these, a large portion is due to ransomware, the class of malware whose specific goal is to render the victim's system unusable, in particular by encrypting important files, and then ask the user to pay a ransom to revert the damage. Several ransomware include sophisticated packing techniques, and are hence difficult to statically analyse. We present EldeRan, a machine learning approach for dynamically analysing and classifying ransomware. EldeRan monitors a set of actions performed by applications in their first phases of installation checking for characteristics signs of ransomware. Our tests over a dataset of 582 ransomware belonging to 11 families, and with 942 goodware applications, show that EldeRan achieves an area under the ROC curve of 0.995. Furthermore, EldeRan works without requiring that an entire ransomware family is available beforehand. These results suggest that dynamic analysis can support ransomware detection, since ransomware samples exhibit a set of characteristic features at run-time that are common across families, and that helps the early detection of new variants. We also outline some limitations of dynamic analysis for ransomware and propose possible solutions.


An Anthropology of Landscape tells the fascinating story of a heathland landscape in south-west England and the way different individuals and groups engage with it. Based on a long-term anthropological study, the book emphasises four individual themes: embodied identities, the landscape as a sensuous material form that is acted upon and in turn acts on people, the landscape as contested, and its relation to emotion. The landscape is discussed in relation to these themes as both 'taskscape' and 'leisurescape', and from the perspective of different user groups. First, those who manage the landscape and use it for work: conservationists, environmentalists, archaeologists, the Royal Marines, and quarrying interests. Second, those who use it in their leisure time: cyclists and horse riders, model aircraft flyers, walkers, people who fish there, and artists who are inspired by it. The book makes an innovative contribution to landscape studies and will appeal to all those interested in nature conservation, historic preservation, the politics of nature, the politics of identity, and an anthropology of Britain.


OBJECT
The presence of cystic features in glioblastoma (GBM) has been described as a favorable prognostic factor. The aim of this study was to determine the survival outcome in patients undergoing surgery for newly diagnosed primary GBM with a large cystic component as compared with a large cohort of patients with noncystic GBM, while controlling for well-characterized prognostic factors.

METHODS
A retrospective review of 354 consecutive patients treated with resection of primary GBM was performed using medical records and imaging information obtained at the University of California, San Francisco from 2005 to 2009. Within this cohort, 37 patients with large cysts (≥ 50% of tumor) were identified. Clinical presentations and surgical outcomes were statistically compared between the cystic and noncystic patients.

RESULTS
There were no statistically significant differences in clinical presentation between groups, including differences in age, sex, presenting symptoms, tumor location, or preoperative functional status, with the exception of tumor size, which was marginally larger in the cystic group. Surgical outcomes, including extent of resection and postoperative functional status, were equivalent. The median actuarial survival for the patients with cystic GBM was 17.0 months (95% CI 12.6-21.3 months), and the median survival for patients with noncystic GBM was 15.9 months (95% CI 14.6-17.2 months). There was no significant between-groups difference in survival (p = 0.99, log-rank test). A Cox multivariate regression model was constructed, which identified only age and extent of resection as independent predictors of survival. The presence of a cyst was not a statistically significant prognostic factor.

CONCLUSIONS
This study, comprising the largest series of cases of primary cystic GBM reported in the literature to date, demonstrates that the presence of a large cyst in patients with GBM does not significantly affect overall survival as compared with survival in patients without a cyst. Preoperative discussions with patients with GBM should focus on validated prognostic factors. The presence of cystic features does not confer a survival advantage.


In this paper, the voltage sag ride-through capabilities of the line-connected electrically excited synchronous motors with damper windings (EESMs) is investigated. Two aspects are investigated, first the capability to keep the nominal speed and second the damping of speed oscillations by controlling the flux. We will design a voltage sag ride-through controller and show through simulations that the proposed controller has good speed oscillation damping capability and that the ride-through capability is improved.


Innovation is the main key to the sustainability of all industries. Fashion industry with traditional woven as its basic material is one of complex industries for its association with social environment in all cultural values, market taste, chain value, life cycle products and even government policy. This focus will likely be important as indigenous characteristic in the traditional woven becomes the competitive advantage of a region. The outcome of this study showed that traditional woven co-creation in design need an involvement of social actors in the social learning process. Indigenous co-creation of traditional woven is a social innovation learning activities that needs adequate involvement of actors and context. The purpose of this study is to analyze the challenges and constraints for the sustainability of Indonesian woven songket and to develop a practical co-creation model in attempt to cope with various constraints to generate recommendation for decision makers at local goverment level. This study used qualitative approach. The primary and secondary data to answer the research questions were collected through in-depth interview and focus group discussion.


With the growing amount and increasing heterogeneity of research on purpose-oriented networks (PONs) in the public sector, it is imperative to find a way to synthesize this research. Drawing on the varied research perspectives on PONs, we advance the idea of paradigm interplay and meta-synthesis as aspirations for the field and argue this is especially key if we want the study of PONs to inform practice. However, we recognize several challenges in the current state of the PON research that prevent the field from making strides in paradigm interplay and meta-synthesis. We discuss six challenges which we consider the most critical: different labels, differences across research foci, variation in measurement, the nestedness of networks, the dynamism of networks, and variation in the network context. We suggest six good research practices that could contribute to overcoming the challenges now so as to make integration of the research field more of a possibility in the future.


Both chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C are prevalent among the 12 million Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States. Significant epidemiological and clinical differences exist between Asian Americans and the general U.S. population, most notably the higher rate of primary liver cancer and the differential response to various antiviral therapies. Perinatal and childhood transmission is common for hepatitis B virus. Transmission of hepatitis C virus probably also occurs early in life and results from nosocomial transmission and person-to-person spread. Asian patients with chronic hepatitis B commonly have hepatitis B e antigen-negative hepatitis B with either the precore or core-promoter mutant hepatitis B virus, which may require long-term antiviral viral therapy because of high rates of relapse following therapy. Asian patients with chronic hepatitis C may have a substantially higher risk of liver cancer but a better response to interferon-based therapy, both in terms of sustained virological response and reduced future incidence of liver cancer. Understanding these differences will lead to improved care for Asian Americans with viral hepatitis and better disease control for hepatitis B and hepatitis C for the entire U.S. population. This review briefly summarizes the major issues in the clinical care of patients with chronic viral hepatitis and focuses on pertinent epidemiological and clinical differences between Asian-American and Caucasian patients.


This paper proposes a secure home healthcare system based on 6LoWPAN WSN. In this system, the hierarchical architecture based on clusters is proposed, and the hierarchical address structure based on location information is presented. Based on the architecture and the address structure, the secure address configuration algorithm is proposed. According to the destination IPv6 address, this system can automatically perform the routing in the link layer without route discovery. This system achieves the secure communication. Through this system, at any time a physician can monitor the physical parameters of a home-based patient such as a senior or less-mobile person, and a home-based patient can also alert a physician to call for help. In the latter case, the physician can quickly obtain the location of the patient in order to perform effective and timely treatment. The performance parameters of this system are evaluated and compared, and the data results show that this system effectively improves the system performance.


A novel complementary approach of electron microscopy/environmental TEM and in situ hard X-ray ptychography was used to study the thermally induced coarsening of nanoporous gold under different atmospheres, pressures and after ceria deposition. The temperature applied during ptychographic imaging was determined by IR thermography. While using elevated temperatures (room temperature – 400 °C) and realistic gas atmospheres (1 bar) we achieved for the first time a spatial resolution of about 20 nm during hard X-ray ptychography. The annealing of pure and ceria stabilized nanoporous gold in different atmospheres revealed that the conditions have a tremendous influence on the coarsening. The porous structure of the samples was stable up to approximately 800 °C in vacuum, whereas pronounced changes and coarsening were observed already at approximately 300 °C in oxygen containing atmospheres. A layer of ceria on the nanoporous gold led to an improvement of the stability, but did not alleviate the influence of the gas atmosphere. Different behaviors were observed, such as coarsening and even material loss or migration. The results suggest that additional mechanisms beyond surface diffusion need to be considered and that microscopic studies aimed at more realistic conditions are important to understand the behavior of such materials and catalysts.


The proposed method for calculating the loading parameters makes it possible to determine the wear parameters after explosion hardening. The calculation method is simple and less time consuming compared with calculation methods that involve the use of nonlinear programming methods. The main methods of increasing the wear resistance of mining equipment parts using explosion methods are generalized. The reserve for increasing the wear resistance consists in the optimization of deformation parameters during the power and thermal intensification of processes and the development of new methods and technologies of hardening. The factors (parameters) of the studied processes: explosive cladding, alloying, hardening, are formulated. Optimization of the processes under consideration is possible by decomposing the process into simpler ones with subsequent optimization of the parameters of these processes and the synthesis of the obtained solutions. For the first time, a solution to the multicriteria problem of two-stage explosion hardening is presented. It is proposed to split the process into simpler ones. Optimization criteria are proposed for each of the simplified processes. The problem is reduced to a conditional extremum problem, which is solved by composing the Lagrange function. By transforming the wear equation, the optimal ratio of strength and ductility for parts operating under abrasive wear conditions is determined.


Abstract This article draws on my book Bosnia and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage,1 which incorporates ground-breaking fieldwork in Bosnia-Herzegovina and extensive research, and on my subsequent research and fieldwork in the post-conflict country. In the article, I explore the meaning that restoration and reconstruction of cultural heritage intentionally destroyed during conflict can have, particularly to the forcibly displaced. With the protection of cultural heritage increasingly being treated as an important human right and with the impact that forcible displacement during armed conflict has on cultural identity now in the spotlight, the importance of cultural heritage for those ethnically cleansed in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1992–95 war (both those who returned and those who did not) has relevance for considerations of contemporary post-conflict populations.


There is substantial evidence that older adults who have Down's syndrome are at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. However, whilst the neuropathological signs of Alzheimer's disease are almost always apparent in those over the age of 30, the clinical signs may not be evident. This may be because the neuropathological changes are not sufficiently advanced to impair performance or because detecting neuropsychological deficits is more difficult in the presence of substantial, global cognitive impairment. In this study, 70 adults with Down's syndrome were assessed using a battery of neuropsychological tests, some of which had been used to assess dementia arising from Alzheimer's disease in the general population. Participants were screened to rule out advanced dementia or a pre-existing degree of cognitive impairment which would preclude participation in the tests. Analysis of test results for those under the age of 40, showed significant negative correlations between the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales and performance on all neuropsychological tests, thus demonstrating the effect of pre-existing global cognitive impairment on these particular tests. The results of a cross-sectional age group comparison, showed no difference between age groups on neuropsychological deficits which may indicate advanced dementia. This was almost certainly due to the screening procedure. However, the older age groups showed significantly impaired performance on memory tests in comparison to the younger age group. It is concluded that the more subtle cognitive impairments which associate to Alzheimer's disease can be identified in the presence of a global cognitive impairment with sufficiently sensitive tests.


In this paper, the temperature dependence of the hysteretic processes of Co nanowires, squarelly ordered in an array prepared by electrodeposition in nanopores of alumina membranes was analyzed. Both the magnetostatic interactions induced in the nanowires arrays and the thermal stresses radial, azimuthal and axial stresses, which appear during the cooling of the system nanowire and alumina template from room temperature to 3 K was evaluated. The analysis of thermal induced stresses provides useful informations concerning the magnetic anisotropy in the Co nanowires. The temperature dependence of the remanent magnetization and coercitive field as an effect of the induced thermal stresses and magnetostatic interactions between nanowires was studied. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2837500


With the execution oF a Cultural Resource Investigation work authorization (#6-86/87) under contract #85-1115 (MOOS EA-00096), on 23 Jan 87 between the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan Department of State, and Western Michigan University, calling for a Phase I archaeological survey and reconnaissance survey of abOve-ground resources along a 12.1 km (7.5 mi) stretch of US-12 between US-127 and M-50 in Woodstock and Cambridge townships, Lenawee County, Michigan, the University undertook the following: 1. established an agreement with Crumlish/Sporleder and Associates, Inc. of South Bend, Indiana whereby this architectural firm would undertake the survey of above-ground resources in the zone of impact; and 2. instructed a team of archaeological researchers in the Department of Anthropology to initiate the appropriate background research and perform a systematic and intensive on-site survey of the project. Part I of this report details the archaeological research undertaken on this occasion. Employing a combination of reconnaissance and shovel testing procedures, the field team, consisting of four experienced advanced degree and current graduate student personnel, carefully examined land flanking either side of US-12 for a distance of 45 m from centerline. Although several parcels bordering the highway in private ownership could not be evaluated due to denial of access by current landowners, coverage of the 109 ha study area was quite thorough. In addition, interviews with cooperative area residents, together with a literature, documents, and site file search, provided information useful in assessing the potential impact of proposed construction activities on archaeological resources occurring here. Of the nine archaeological sites recorded by the survey team, only one was found through application of shovel testing procedures. The remaining eight sites represent surface observations of cultural material in plowed fields flanking the highway. In all but two instances, these sites represent no more than isolated occurrences of chert flakes without artifacts and/or fire-cracked rock in association. Intensive shovel testing about the loci of these finds failed to produce evidence of site integrity, i.e. cultural features or possible midden deposits occurring beneath the disturbed zone. In the cases of 20LE282 and 283, chert flakes were relatively more numerous and light scatters of FCR were noted in the general area. Unfortunately, both sites have been determined to lie just outside the limits of the MOOT project. Parenthetically, 20LE283 may be the same as previously recorded sites 20LE39 and 40; however, the provenience for these sites is such as to warrant our assignment of a new site number to 20LE283. In the final analysis, the data available to us from this seemingly rich archaeological zone of rolling hills flanked by numerous lakes, streams, and their adjacent wetlands strongly suggest that the likelihood of construction impacts on potentially significant archaeological resources in the MOOT project area is exceedingly remote. Part II documents the activity of architectur·al historians with the firm of Crumlish/Sporleder. Their study surveyed and listed all structures in the study area, historical and nonhistarical, and identified 47 sites with structures or elements which fall within the defined historical limits of 1810-1946. These sites were photo documented and carded. The Cambridge Historical Park was not surveyed. Of the 47 identified historical sites, two are potentially eligible to be nominated to the National Register, six to receive more study to determine potential eligibility for nomination to the National Register or State Register, and seven have been identiFied as possibly warranting further examination to record and document elements significant to the understanding of regional Michigan history.


An era of unregulated financial markets has resulted in a global financial disaster the likes of which has never before been seen. Central banks of all major countries, and the governments of these countries, are scrambling in uncharted waters to avoid a complete meltdown of the worlds' financial markets. More than a trillion dollars has been allocated to try to fix the mess.How did we get to this point? The unlikely culprit was residential mortgages in the United States. Regulatory bodies took no action while this market grew with increasing acceleration, increasing irresponsibility, and increasing greed. One of the great financial bubbles was created. Financial instruments were created, given an imprimatur by rating agencies, and sold the world over. These seemingly secure investments, backed by mortgages on residences in the United States, were purchased by millions of unwary investors, even the most sophisticated investors, and on an unparalleled international scale. The investment banks, anxious to ride a wave of profitability, created more and riskier investments as the bubble inflated. Part II of this article describes the mortgage landscape which predated the collapse.In 2006, the housing market peaked and began its crash, bringing with it all of the purchasers of the mortgage backed financial instruments.All the players in the residential housing market were devastated. Homeowners lost their homes. Mortgage lenders disappeared. Investment banks either went out of business, or merely survived thanks to government infusions of cash. Investors in the mortgage backed securities lost virtually all the value of their investment. And stock markets around the world crashed with a resounding thud, wiping out vast amounts of wealth.How did this happen. Where were the regulators? What are the weaknesses in our residential mortgage funding system? Part III of this article analyzes the mortgage market, its weaknesses, and its regulatory scheme. The causes of the problem, namely irresponsible borrowers, greedy lenders, unresponsive regulators, the overzealous mortgage backed securities market, the rush by foreign investors to place money in U.S. investments, the irresponsibility of the credit rating agencies, and the collusion of appraisers, are discussed and scrutinized.Part IV breaks down the new regulations and legislation enacted in the wake of the financial meltdown. Part V examines Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their ultimate decline, and resulting takeover by the federal government.Part VI discusses and analyzes the various lawsuits which have arisen from the mortgage meltdown.Finally, Part VII attempts to specify weaknesses in the residential mortgage funding system, and to propose elements which must be addressed in creating a more stable, yet responsive mortgage market in the future.


Existing methods for visual recognition based on quantized local features can perform poorly when local features exist on transparent surfaces, such as glass or plastic objects. There are characteristic patterns to the local appearance of transparent objects, but they may not be well captured by distances to individual examples or by a local pattern codebook obtained by vector quantization. The appearance of a transparent patch is determined in part by the refraction of a background pattern through a transparent medium: the energy from the background usually dominates the patch appearance. We model transparent local patch appearance using an additive model of latent factors: background factors due to scene content, and factors which capture a local edge energy distribution characteristic of the refraction. We implement our method using a novel LDA-SIFT formulation which performs LDA prior to any vector quantization step; we discover latent topics which are characteristic of particular transparent patches and quantize the SIFT space into transparent visual words according to the latent topic dimensions. No knowledge of the background scene is required at test time; we show examples recognizing transparent glasses in a domestic environment.


Since its inception more than six decades ago, the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, (AMA Guides), has become internationally accepted as a global benchmark and is used in the United States, Canada, certain European countries, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Africa, as well as by the United Nations. When the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, adopted the terminology and conceptual framework of disablement developed by the World Health Organization, this paradigm shift let to an increase in the worldwide influence and use of the AMA Guides. In the United States, the AMA Guides is used primarily in state and federal workers' compensation systems and sometimes in automobile casualty and personal injury arenas. Most workers' compensation jurisdictions across Canada use the AMA Guides formally by statute or regulation, or they accept its use informally as a standard tool to rate impairment. In Australia, the AMA Guides is used in both federal and individual state or territory compensation schemes for personal injuries that arise from work, as well as motor vehicle accidents (a table presents uses of the AMA Guides in Australian jurisdictions). New Zealand uses the AMA Guides, Fourth Edition, and the ACC User Handbook to the AMA "Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment," Fourth Edition. The AMA Guides is used in Hong Kong to evaluate all types of damages for personal injury claims and also is referenced in Southern Africa, Europe, and countries in the Middle East.


Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis, Laminaceae) is used by people in many regions for relieving toothache, fevers, colds, hyperthyroidism, depression, mild insomnia, epilepsy, and headaches. This study investigated the antinociceptive effect of the essential oil of Melissa officinalis (MOEO) in various experimental models. The median lethal dose (LD50) of MOEO was estimated using the method of Lorke. The antinociceptive effect was assessed using chemical (formalin and acetic acid) and thermal (hot-plate) nociceptive tests in rats. In all experiments, MOEO was administered intraperitoneally at the doses of 10, 31.6, 100 and 316, 1000 mg/kg. In the acute toxicity test, the value of estimated LD50 for MOEO was 2250 mg/kg. MOEO at test doses (10, 31.6, 100, 316 and 1000 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly reduced in dose dependent manner (p < 0.05) the pain response in all tests. Naloxone failed to antagonize the antinociceptive effect of the essential oil in all tests. It seems that mechanism(s) other than opioid receptors is (are) involved in the analgesic effect of MOEO. This study reported the peripheral and central antinociceptive activity of the MOEO and rationalized the traditional use of the plant in the treatment of different painful conditions.


Heterogeneous networks with dense deployment of small cells can employ cognitive features to efficiently utilize the available spectrum resources. Spectrum sensing is the key enabler for cognitive radio to detect the unoccupied channels for data transmission. In order to deal with shadowing and multipath fading in sensing channels, cooperative spectrum sensing is designed to increase the accuracy of the sensed signal. In this paper, an optimized local decision rule is implemented for the case that the received data from primary users are possibly correlated due to the sensing channel impairments. Since the prior information is unavailable in the real systems, Neyman-Pearson criterion is used as the cost function. Then, a discrete iterative algorithm based on Gauss-Seidel process is applied to optimize the local cognitive user decision rules under a fixed fusion rule. This method with low complexity can minimize the cost using the golden section search method in a finite number of iterations. ROC curves are depicted using the achieved probability of detection and false alarm by numerical examples to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results also confirm the superiority of the proposed method compared to the conventional topologies and decision rules.


This book examines alternative ways of protecting patent rights using the law and economics framework of property and liability rules. Traditional compulsory licenses are compared with the most recent discussions on the choice between granting or denying injunctive relief for patents (ex post liability rules). The debate about strategic behaviour triggered by the patent system, especially in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in eBay v. MercExchange is discussed along with policy perspectives on both sides of the Atlantic. The problem of calculating the level of compensation, which is one of the most important critiques against the use of liability rules in patent law, is also examined in depth. The book concludes by suggesting that a coherent patent system could opt for property rules in general cases while leaving enough space for exceptions and limited liability rules. Curtailing exceptions and limitations to patent rights, including the use of patent liability rules, could otherwise risk stifling innovation and even contradicting the goals of patent law.


This paper explores the use of computer-based exams (CBEs) for undergraduate accounting. The primary objective of writing this paper was to establish whether CBEs should be integrated with paper-based exams as a summative assessment in undergraduate accounting modules. Professional accounting organisations and universities and colleges in Ireland were contacted to establish whether CBEs had been adopted and, if so, to take relevant lessons from their experience. The literature reviewed the experiences of students, academics, institutions and professional accounting organisations using CBEs worldwide. Findings from this desk-based research indicated an overall positive experience with CBEs. The professional accounting organisations are continuing to adopt CBEs as a method of assessment, with one professional accounting organisation adopting CBEs for examinations across their entire syllabus. In contrast, four of nine third level institutions in Ireland use CBEs. CBEs are not unique to professional accounting organisations. The adoption of CBEs in undergraduate accounting is an area that needs further exploration. This will help determine best practice to facilitate students who wish to pursue a career in accountancy, and support completion of the professional accounting exams. An area for further research is to interview academics to hear their reasons for not adopting CBEs, and to survey the student experience of CBEs for post-undergraduate and postprofessional accounting. 1 Hurley: Exploring the Use of Computer Based Exams for Undergraduate Accou Published by ARROW@TU Dublin, 2017 2


Background Of 9156 patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Denmark between 1970 and 1987 and diagnosed for the first time as having schizophrenia, 508 committed suicide. The purpose of the study was to identify risk factors for suicide among patients with schizophrenia, particularly factors relating to hospitalisation. Method From the cohort of all 9156 patients, the 508 who had committed suicide were individually matched to 10 controls from the same cohort, and data were analysed using conditional logistic regression. Results Suicide risk was particularly high during the first 5 days after discharge, and increased risk was also associated with multiple admissions during the previous year, previous suicide attempts, previous diagnosis of depression, male gender, and previous admissions to general hospitals for physical disorders. After adjusting for these factors, no effect was found for age. There was some evidence of an excess of suicides during temporary leave from the psychiatric department. Conclusions The findings suggest that preventive measures could be focused on the first period after discharge, when closer monitoring and better social support may be needed. This may also apply to patients on temporary leave during a period of admission.


This study addressed the issue of residents' perception of tourism in two Small Island developing states and sought to compare resident's support for tourism between a mature destination and a less developed destination. This was achieved using a linear model, based on previous work by Jurowski et al (1997). Another objective was to compare the findings with those of a previous study conducted in 1990. Employing ethnographic techniques, the research was carried out on the two peripheral communities of Speightstown and Charlotteville in the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Tobago, respectively. The first stage involved a pilot study which consisted of two focus group meetings. The outcome of these sessions provided useful information
for refining the draft questionnaire, which underwent further refinement after piloting on the streets. The second stage was the main survey of 420 residents conducted over 8 weeks using the questionnaire as an interview schedule. The findings suggest that there is widespread support for tourism development in both communities despite their varying levels of tourism sophistication and
residents' perceptions of negative consequences of tourism. This apparent paradox was explained by Social Exchange Theory. Key variables which influence support for
tourism were found to be personal and community benefits, socio-environmental impacts and community attachment. A proposed Caribbean Tourism Support Model was found to be more applicable in the Barbados context and this may suggest that several other factors influence tourism support in emerging destinations such as Tobago. This study makes a useful contribution to the body of knowledge on hosts' perceptions of tourism as it builds on previous research conducted in other countries while it provides empirical evidence of the applicability of established theories reported in the subject literature. Further, its significance is also derived not only from its use of consistent methodologies in each of the two study areas, but also in the fact that both surveys were conducted within the same timeframe. In this light, it may be considered pioneering research. Nonetheless, this study remains exploratory in nature indicating that further research is necessary in developing a deterministic
model of support for tourism development in a contemporary Caribbean context.


Especially in the case of a chelating binding mode, it is necessary to find the optimal linker. The results obtained led to the conclusion that, despite the difficulties encountered during the design of a rigid linker, a fixed geometry could bring an enhancement in the affinity and a higher selectivity. The lectin LecA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an extremely interesting target, not only because of its biological relevance but also for its suitability to study the chelating multivalency effect. Furthermore, the affinity for LecA showed to be dependent on the geometry of the multivalent system and it seemed to be an optimal target to investigate the role of a rigid linker. This thesis covers the design and the synthesis of new rigid spacers used to form divalent systems. The spacer designs were based on a triazole-glucose repeating unit or on phenylene-ethynylene repeating unit. The inhibitors obtained were tested with LecA to evaluate a correlation between rigidity and affinity. The first spacer taken into account was based on a triazole-glucose repeating unit and in Chapter 2 the attempts to synthesize a suitable building block were described. The ideal building block required reproducible and high-yielding reactions. The successfully synthesized building block was used in Chapter 3 to synthesize rigid spacers. The strategy was based on the reiteration of three reactions: copper alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) and introduction of the azide moiety via a triflate. The spacers synthesized were characterized by a different number of units, ranging from 2 to 4. The galactoside ligands coupled to the spacers exhibited different degrees of freedom. Furthermore, a PEG-based divalent system was synthesized as a flexible reference to compare with the rigid systems. The divalent inhibitors obtained were evaluated with lectin LecA. In Chapter 4 a different spacer design is described. The repeating unit was based, this time, on a phenylene-ethynylene moiety. The syntheses of the building blocks is described. The strategy consisted of alternating Sonogashira reactions and silyl-protecting group removal. The spacers obtained contained two to five phenylene-ethynylene unit. The three-unit spacer was coupled to a galactoside ligand and its potency as a LecA inhibitor was determined. In the last chapter, Chapter 5, a new and faster strategy to build rigid spacers based on the triazole-glucose unit is described. To increase the solubility of the protected spacer a new building block containing a silyl group was synthesized. The three different length spacers, from two to four units, were coupled with galactose ligands with different aglycon chains. Their inhibitiory potencies were tested with LecA and, for some compounds, also the Kd values were determined by ITC in selected cases.


This article addresses the disruptive impact of big data technologies on jury selection. Jury selection requires personal information about potential jurors. Current selection practices, however, collect very little information about citizens, and litigants picking jury panels know even less. This data gap results in a jury selection system that: (1) fails to create a representative cross-section of the community; (2) encourages the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges; (3) results in an unacceptably high juror "no show" rate; and (4) disproportionately advantages those litigants who can afford to hire expensive jury consultants. Big data has the potential to remedy these existing limitations and inequities. Big data technologies offer a highly personalized, current, and targeted mechanism for locating citizens in a particular jurisdiction. Big data companies have been collecting public and quasi-public information about most American's consumer, financial, health, political, and personal interests for years. For courts, the availability of real-time, personally targeted data provides the potential for algorithmically-precise representative jury venires and more efficient jury summonsing practices. This collected personal data also can be quite revealing about attitudes, inclinations, and interests. For litigants, the available information could provide a wealth of insights once only available from expensive jury consultants. Big data has the potential to democratize information about jurors leading to less discriminatory jury selection practices. Big data information, thus, has the potential to revolutionize how jury pools are selected and jury panels are picked. Yet, adoption of big data technology carries real risks. Traditional jury roles and values, including the continued legitimacy of the jury system, itself, are at stake. Increased big data collection of personal information involves an invasion of privacy that could result in significant backlash against jury service. Affirmative targeting of jurors also presents thorny constitutional issues, as considerations of race, gender, or ethnicity could run into equal protection problems. Equalizing the availability of big data information about jurors, and making it a part of the jury selection system, raises practical, theoretical, and constitutional dilemmas all of which are addressed in this article.


When Baseball America's bimonthly newspaper polled its readers in 1999 to select the Minor League legend of the twentieth century, Joe Bauman was chosen as the number one legend. (1) If I had voted I would have stuffed the ballot box for Joe because he is my number one baseball hero. To boys like me who grew up in the late 1940s and early 1950s in western Oklahoma, he took on almost mythical status from the moment he arrived in my hometown to play baseball for three glorious semipro seasons. Like Paul Bunyan of the north woods, he seemed to be at least ten feet tall although he stood only six feet four and one-half inches and weighed 230 pounds. Bauman's legend lives in anyone who ever saw him swat a ball. You couldn't put a fence out there that he couldn't knock over. And he did it all without steroids, other muscle-enhancing drugs, or weight machines. (2) I was one of the lucky ones who got to watch him play for free, selling pop at the ballpark. When a panel of Baseball America experts in 1999 were asked to name the "most significant or spectacular feats in 100 years of Minor League baseball," Bauman's hitting 72 homers in 1954 for the Roswell, New Mexico, Rockets of the class C Longhorn League was second behind "Jackie Robinson signing a minor league contract with the Dodgers on October 3, 1945." (3) I've got a lot of respect for Jackie Robinson, but come on now--signing a contract to begin playing for Montreal, Quebec, way north of the Mason-Dixon line in the International League is simply nothing compared to hitting 72 dingers in a 138-game season in the hot dust storm fields of southeastern New Mexico and the panhandle of Texas. It was a sad day for me when Barry Bonds hit his 73rd home run of the season in 2001. Sitting before a television set in his Roswell home as Bonds hit number 73, Bauman watched the hit and later said, "It didn't bother me or anything. I just thought, 'There goes my record.'" (4) I gave a little cheer when I learned that Minor League baseball at its winter meetings in December 2004 had given its first Joe Bauman Award to Philadelphia Phillie prospect Ryan Howard, who led all Minor Leaguers during the 2004 season with 38 home runs. This award is to be given annually to the leading home run hitter each year in the minors and will be accompanied by a check for the handsome sum of $200 per homer. (5) Many authors have penned well-written articles about Bauman hitting those 72 homers in 1954 and his hitting 337 home runs during his nine seasons in the Minor Leagues. (6) However, only brief comments appeared in those articles about Bauman's baseball exploits during his "lost years," his eight seasons outside the Minor Leagues when he played sandlot, semipro, or service baseball. CAPITOL HILL Joe Bauman was born on April 17, 1922, in Welch, a tiny northeast Oklahoma community twenty-one miles down the road from Mickey Mantle's mining hometown of Commerce. Moving from Welch at a very young age, Joe grew up in the Capitol Hill area of southern Oklahoma City in a strictly run home with his mom, dad, and an older brother. Joe was raised by his dad to play baseball, but he also starred in basketball and football. He was a natural right-hander. His dad helped him learn to both hit and field as a lefty. Jack Baer, later a semipro teammate of Bauman's and the University of Oklahoma's baseball coach for many years, described Bauman's switch from right to left hand as one of the most amazing changes he had ever seen. (7) In the spring of 1939 Bauman was a sophomore and the starting first baseman for the Redskins of Oklahoma City's Capitol Hill High School, the leading athletic school in Oklahoma in that prewar era. In early May the team went to Stillwater, the home of Oklahoma A & M College, now Oklahoma State University. There the Redskins won the state's class A Interscholastic baseball title, the equivalent of a state championship since there were no statewide playoffs. …


This paper presents some interesting new applications in the field of analog signal processing focused on signal generation. A novel modifications of recently developed and studied family of active elements, called voltage differencing buffered amplifier (VDBA) and voltage differencing inverted buffered amplifier (VDIBA) are discussed. Our attention is focused on simple application of active elements like dual output VDBAs (DO-VDBAs) and fully balanced VDBAs (FB-VDBAs), where one or two z terminals and always voltage outputs of both polarities are present. The last modification of VDBA allows additional electronic control of voltage gain in frame of active element except standard transconductance control. Discussed active elements were used to build very simple multiphase oscillators with minimal complexity as a simple non-tunable alternative to classical conceptions utilizing lossy integrators in phase-shifted loop. Linearly tunable quadrature differential mode (balanced) oscillator or balanced simple triangle and square wave generator were chosen as other useful examples. Features of proposed circuits are discussed and selected examples verified and evaluated by computer simulations with appropriate low-voltage TSMC 0.18 m CMOS technology models.


The main intention of the work is to deepen the line of research that examines the relationship between the left-wing currents and the labor movement argentine during the 1930s. In particular, we will approach the study of the programs and trade union practices deployed the Communist Party in one of the economic sectors of greater relevance in the productive structure national: the meat industry. We seek to revise the trade union policies of the structures international, continental and national of the communism with the willingness to observe its impact on the trade union organization of workers from the meat. We face the investigation from a perspective of analysis that prioritizes give an account of the practices and strategies of workers in the workplace. The work of the workers in factories and enterprises is reviewed during the preparation and development of the strike in refrigerators in Avellaneda in 1932. The proposal to examine the relationship between left and labor movement translates here in the analysis of the trade union tactics of communism and its impact on the based trade organization during the strike in refrigerators in Avellaneda in 1932.


An exhibition is a place, a temporal limited territory, where notions, ideas, statements and concepts interact, work together or against each other, fight, make love and so on. As any other limited territory, the borders to its exteriority have gradually shifted in order to facilitate flow of desirable elements and simultaneously preventing undesirable elements from infiltration. An exhibition has no longer got four walls, a sovereign state no continuous outline.


This study investigates a farm in Dalarna which includes 16 ha of farmland and 1, 7 ha of
pasture. The purpose is to find out if it is possible to start an animal production in
Dalarna. The study is set only to compare spring lamb production with
nurse cow production.
There are two buildings on the farm that can be used for this purpose. One is an old
cowshed, and the other is an unused silo for silage with a roof on top. Both of the
buildings are compared to every alternative in the calculations. The study shows that you
have to construct as cheep as possible, and it is also very important that you use a
building that doesn't need a big investment. When it comes to the different productions, it tells us that a good spring lamb season pays better than organic nurse cow production.

NURSE COWS
The floor in the cowshed is to be destroyed, so that new boxes for the cows to lie in can
be made. Flat floors for the calves also need to be cased. The low roof makes it
impossible to keep the cows in a deep straw bed. The cows get fed outside on a hard
concrete surface.
In the silo, light and water needs to be installed, and an area for calves to hide in needs to be made. The cows get fed in the same way as mentioned above.
It is not profitable to reconstruct the cowshed, but to reconstruct the silo does make a
profit.

SPRING LAMBS
The spring lambs doesn't need the same amount of construction investments as the nurse
cows. The floor in the cowshed is to be destroyed so that a new flat floor, for a deep
straw bed, can be cased. The sheep will be fed outside, in the same way as the cows.
The silo will be reconstructed in a similar way as in the cow alternative.
Despite of the higher profit in the lamb production, the alternative to reconstruct the
cowshed is unprofitable. Although, putting them in the silo makes quite a profit.

MY OWN CONCLUSIONS
Even though the gross margin shows a negative figure for two of the four analyses, the
total business makes a profit with some help from EU subsidies. Many of the subsidies
that this farm is valid for, are not shown in the analyses.


In the last decade foreign currency indebtedness in Hungary has become a systemic financial problem, which also has a crippling impact on the real economy through its income and lending effects and has a significant constraining impact on economic policy. Besides the exchange rate the interest rate was also an important factor in determining the burden of households. Our research focuses on the causes and determinants of the pricing of Swiss franc denominated mortgage loans. In our consideration, basically four main price shocks affected the pricing of credit institutions: higher foreign currency rates and risk premia, deterioration of loan portfolio quality and the extra taxes imposed on banks. The question arises how these costs are related to the evolution of the interest rates and to what extent these cost shocks were passed on by banks to clients. Using a structural vector autoregressive model we found that the interest rates on housing loans were influenced by all of these cost shocks. Based on the findings of our empirical research, all four shocks had a profound impact on the interest rates on housing loans; in other words, bank sector cost shocks were indeed passed on to the interest rates applied by domestic banks.


Studies obtaining implicit measures of associations in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., Text Revision; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Axis I psychopathology are organized into three categories: (a) studies comparing groups having a disorder with controls, (b) experimental validity studies, and (c) incremental and predictive validity studies. In the first category, implicit measures of disorder-relevant associations were consistent with explicit beliefs for some disorders (e.g., specific phobia), but for other disorders evidence was either mixed (e.g., panic disorder) or inconsistent with explicit beliefs (e.g., pain disorder). For substance use disorders and overeating, expected positive and unexpected negative associations with craved substances were found consistently. Contrary to expectation, implicit measures of self-esteem were consistently positive for patients with depressive disorder, social phobia, and body dysmorphic disorder. In the second category, short-term manipulations of disorder-relevant states generally affected implicit measures as expected. Therapeutic interventions affected implicit measures for one type of specific phobia, social phobia, and panic disorder, but not for alcohol use disorders or obesity. In the third category, implicit measures had predictive value for certain psychopathological behaviors, sometimes moderated by the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., for alcohol and food, only when cognitive resources were limited). The strengths of implicit measures include (a) converging evidence for dysfunctional beliefs regarding certain disorders and consistent new insights for other disorders and (b) prediction of some psychopathological behaviors that explicit measures cannot explain. Weaknesses include (a) that findings were inconsistent for some disorders, raising doubts about the validity of the measures, and (b) that understanding of the concept "implicit" is incomplete.


Under low oxygen conditions, hypoxia inducible transcription factors (HIFs) regulate processes such as vascular tone, metabolism, and neoangiogenesis to adapt to the stressful condition. However, under normal oxygen tension, these factors are hydroxylated, a modification that signals ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of HIFs by the 26S proteasome complex. This pathway to destruction involves direct association between HIF and the tumor suppressor protein von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), which itself is associated with an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex called VBC/Cul-2. VHL and VBC/Cul-2 are known to shuttle between the nucleus and cytoplasm. Groulx and Lee report that oxygen-dependent destruction of HIF-1α requires shuttling of VHL. VHL engaged in a constitutive shuttle that was insensitive to oxygen conditions or to the expression levels of HIF-1α. When cells were shifted to normal oxygen conditions, HIF-1α accumulated in the nucleus where VHL mediated HIF-1α ubiquitination. This modification in the nucleus was required for HIF-1α export, as observed by cell fractionation and immunofluorescence. VHL was only associated with ubiquitinated HIF-1α in the nucleus. The authors propose that VHL serves not only to bring a substrate into association with a ubiquitin ligase under hypoxic conditions, but its nuclear-cytoplasmic dynamic is critical for substrate export and final destruction. I. Groulx, S. Lee, Oxygen-dependent ubiquitin and degradation of hypoxia-inducible factor require nuclear-cytoplasmic trafficking of the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22, 5319-5336 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


SAXS experiments on isothermally crystallized polyethylene reveal a clear temperature dependence of the crystalline-amorphous structure over a broad range of temperatures below the crystallization temperature. This phenomenon is analyzed using SAXS in combination with dilatometry, which allows for a quantitative determination of structure parameters. Reversible surface melting is shown to be the process responsible for the phenomenon. The thickness of the amorphous layers reflects a local equilibrium within the kinetically controlled amorphous-crystalline superstructure. Existing models which try to explain this behavior are reviewed and compared to the experimental results. After a slight modification is introduced to the theoretical considerations, the data can be adequately represented by a model which describes the amorphous layers as an entanglement network. To the deformations caused by surface melting the network responds with forces opposing further crystallization, thus leading to a temperature-dependent equilibrium.


Let M and L be elliptic differential operators of orders 2m and 2/, respectively, with m S. The existence and uniqueness of a solution to the abstract mixed initial and boundary value problem Mu(t) + Lu(t) = 0, u(0) = u0 was established for u0 given in the domain of the infinitesimal generator of a strongly-continuous semi-group. The purpose of this paper is to show that this semi-group is holomorphic and then obtain differentiability results for the solution and convergence of this solution to the initial function u0 as 110.


Hammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley. Raymond Chandler 234 In 1941 Howard Haycraft wrote a literary history called Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story. In it he celebrated what he termed the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and he singled out certain people as masters of the "classic detective story"--Christie, Sayers, and Bentley, among others. In December 1944, in an essay in the Atlantic Monthly called. "The Simple Art of Murder," Raymond Chandler issued a broadside against Haycraft's primarily British tradition. This narrative form, Chandler claimed, fails to provide, among other things, "lively characters, sharp dialogue, a sense of pace and an acute use of observed detail" (225). The murders in these stories are implausibly motivated, the plots completely artificial, and the characters pathetically two-dimensional, "puppets and cardboard lovers and papier mache villains and detectives of exquisite and impossible gentility" (232). The authors of this fiction are ignorant of the "facts of life" (228), "too little aware of what goes on i n the world" (231). As the last quotes suggest, Chandler is accusing the writers of Haycraft's Golden Age of failing to be true to the real world: "if the writers of this fiction wrote about the kind of murders that happen," he says, "they would also have to write about the authentic flavor of life as it is lived" (231). Chandler goes on to single out Dashiell Hammett as the person who rescued the genre by bringing it back to the real world. Hammett, he says, "tried to write realistic mystery fiction" (233). John Cawelti, a leading critic of detective fiction, qualifies Chandler's claims, insisting that Hammett's novels are not necessarily more realistic. Rather, they "embody a powerful vision of life in the hard-boiled detective formula" (163). Another critic remarks that Hammett "adapted to the genre a new and more exciting set of literary conventions better suited to the time and place" (Porter 130). While I grant that Chandler's arguments are partisan and naive, and that Hammett's "realism" is every bit as conventional as Christie's, [1] I would like to take Chandler at his word and to investigate the "real world" of Hammett's fiction and, by extension, the world of American detective fiction. By looking closely at Hammett's fiction, especially Red Harvest, his first novel (1929), I propose to demonstrate that his "powerful vision of life" derives in large part from his subversion of basic frames of intelligibility, including the frame that allows the art of fiction, language itself. Chandler uses the synecdoche "mean streets" to define Hammett's world, and various critics have characterized those streets in some detail. [2] The world "implied in Hammett's works, and fully articulated in Chandler and MacDonald," says George Grella, "is an urban chaos, devoid of spiritual and moral values, pervaded by viciousness and random savagely" (110). The world of Red Harvest is representative. The novel takes place in a western mining town named Personville, which has been owned for 40 years by an industrial capitalist: "Elihu Willson was Personville, and he was almost the whole state" (9). Willson controls congressmen, city officials, and the police, but at the opening of the novel, his control of the town is in jeopardy. In order to break a strike by the mineworkers, he called in thugs connected with the mob. After brutally suppressing the strike, the gangsters refused to leave and took over the town, occupying its offices and businesses. At the time of the Continental Op's arrival, an uneasy pea ce prevails in a thoroughly corrupt town, as rival gangster factions run different operations. The police are bought off casually; they even supply getaway cars for criminals. At one point in the narrative, criminals are let out of jail in order to commit a midday bank robbery; they later use their incarceration as an unimpeachable alibi. …


Background: In a resource constraint nation like India, nurses play an important role in bridging the epilepsy treatment gap. They are not only caregivers but also opinion leaders. So this study has been undertaken to study the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding epilepsy among the nursing staff. Material and Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted among 213 staff nurses in South India for a period of four months using a 50 item questionnaire. Results: In our study very few nurses (8%) had never witnessed an epileptic seizure .Most of them believed to have insufficient experience in taking care of such patients (86%) and were also reluctant to take care of them (28%). Certain negative beliefs like epileptics are sinners, contagious and under the influence of supernatural power were still prevailing among them. They practiced administration of oxygen and giving a metallic object in the hands of the patient during an epileptic seizure. Half of them had average to poor knowledge, attitude and practice regarding epilepsy. Conclusion: The study findings show that knowledge, attitude and practice regarding epilepsy is low. This calls for urgent need to include practical as well as theoritical aspects of epilepsy care in the nursing curriculum and at the same time address the misconceptions linked to it.


The assumptions that underlie software development often go unrecorded and form part of the implicit rationale on which design and implementation decisions are based. These assumptions can fail at any time, with serious consequences. This paper presents a lightweight approach to assumption management (AM) designed to suit agile development.


Heavy metals are major toxic pollutants with severe health effects on humans. They are released into the environment from a variety of industrial activities. Alisma plantago aquatica (APA) was used as adsorbent to remove Cd(II), Pb (II), Zn(II) Cr(III) and Cu(II) from aqueous solution. The batch kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption was influenced by initial pH, concentration and temperature. Adsorption isotherm models like Langmuir and Freundlich were used to analyse the equilibrium data. Temperature change in the range 20–50°C affected the adsorption capacity. Enthalpy data revealed that the adsorption is endothermic in nature. Equilibrium is described by Langmuir isotherm. Isotherm studies have been used to determine the thermodynamic parameters of the process. The adsorption kinetic data was fitted with second order kinetic model than first order model. FTIR analysis of alisma plantago aquatica revealed the presence of hydroxyl, carboxyl and carbonyl groups which are participating in the adsorp...


Due to the emergence of numerous flexible electronic devices, the design and fabrication of flexible power sources with high energy density have attracted great attention in the field. Among various energy storage technologies, flexible rechargeable batteries are the most promising, because of their unique features including high flexibility, high specific energy density, light weight properties, etc. To achieve the flexible battery concept, the flexibility of each component is considered a key property in addition to required electrochemical capacity and stability. In this review, recent advances in different kinds of flexible rechargeable batteries are discussed, including lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, lithium–air (Li–air) batteries, zinc–air batteries (ZABs), and sodium–ion batteries (SIBs). Based on the macro-shapes and micro-structures, flexible batteries are outlined into one-, two-, and three-dimensional. Further, sub-classification is performed within each type according to the role of materials in various batteries such as anodes, cathodes, electrolytes, and other components. It is important to note that the design for flexibility is also influenced by the assembly process of all of material components. Thus, this review focuses not only on the selection and preparation of battery materials, but also on the complete battery assembly process. Since some experimental data for flexible batteries are still limited by today's technology, performance simulations have also been included to predict and describe the battery performance. Finally, key challenges and perspectives for advanced flexible battery technologies are provided as general guidance for future research.