The main areas of research of this thesis are Interference Management and Link-Level Power Efficiency for Satellite Communications. The thesis is divided in two parts. Part I tackles the problem of interference environments in satellite communications, and interference mitigation strategies, not just in terms of avoidance of the interferers, but also in terms of actually exploiting the interference present in the system as a useful signal. The analysis follows a top-down approach across different levels of investigation, starting from system level consideration on interference management, down to link-level aspects and to intra-receiver design. Interference Management techniques are proposed at all the levels of investigation, with interesting results.

Part II is related to efficiency in the power domain, for instance in terms of required Input Back-off at the power amplifiers, which can be an issue for waveform based on linear modulations, due to their varying envelope. To cope with such aspects, an analysis is carried out to compare linear modulation with waveforms based on constant envelope modulations. It is shown that in some scenarios, constant envelope waveforms, even if at lower spectral efficiency, outperform linear modulation waveform in terms of energy efficiency.


Recent work has demonstrated substantial gains on many NLP tasks and benchmarks by pre-training on a large corpus of text followed by fine-tuning on a specific task. While typically task-agnostic in architecture, this method still requires task-specific fine-tuning datasets of thousands or tens of thousands of examples. By contrast, humans can generally perform a new language task from only a few examples or from simple instructions - something which current NLP systems still largely struggle to do. Here we show that scaling up language models greatly improves task-agnostic, few-shot performance, sometimes even reaching competitiveness with prior state-of-the-art fine-tuning approaches. Specifically, we train GPT-3, an autoregressive language model with 175 billion parameters, 10x more than any previous non-sparse language model, and test its performance in the few-shot setting. For all tasks, GPT-3 is applied without any gradient updates or fine-tuning, with tasks and few-shot demonstrations specified purely via text interaction with the model. GPT-3 achieves strong performance on many NLP datasets, including translation, question-answering, and cloze tasks, as well as several tasks that require on-the-fly reasoning or domain adaptation, such as unscrambling words, using a novel word in a sentence, or performing 3-digit arithmetic. At the same time, we also identify some datasets where GPT-3's few-shot learning still struggles, as well as some datasets where GPT-3 faces methodological issues related to training on large web corpora. Finally, we find that GPT-3 can generate samples of news articles which human evaluators have difficulty distinguishing from articles written by humans. We discuss broader societal impacts of this finding and of GPT-3 in general.


ABSTRACT Issues stemming from differences and similarities in cultural identities affect residents and workforces in care homes in Scotland, as they do across the United Kingdom. Theoretical guidance and policy drivers emphasise the importance of considering cultural diversity when planning or enacting person-centred care processes, regardless of where health or social care takes place. Nevertheless, there is a recognised worldwide dearth of research concerning the intersections of culture, dementia and long-term care. This being so, a recent research study found that inadequate understandings of issues stemming from cultural diversity could be seen to constrain person-centred care in some Scottish care homes. In addition, the study uncovered little-recognised socio-cultural phenomena which were observed to positively enhance person-centre care. This article will focus on that, and will lay out findings from the study which lead to the following broad assertion: there is a broad lack of understanding of the power, and potential utility, of shared identity and community as a bulwark against the erosion of personhood which is often associated with dementia. This article describes these findings in some detail, thereby providing fresh insights into how shared cultural identity, and the sense of community it may bring, bears upon the interactions between workers and residents with dementia in Scottish care homes. It then suggests how the school of 'person-centred care' may be developed through further research into these phenomena.


Better knowledge of the future impacts of climate change on snow cover and moun- tain river flows is of key importance in the development of strategies for successful management of water resources and natural hazards. The objective of the research presented here is to compare a new implementation of a grid-based hydrological model embedded in a model of land-surface climatology (the Joint UK Land Ex- change Scheme; JULES) with historical observational data on snow cover available in Slovakia and Austria over the past 30 years. The JULES model was driven with hourly output from the Hadley Centre regional climate model, which itself was driven using results from the ERA-40 reanalysis experiment (1961-2000). The results of sim- ulations for mountain regions in Austria and Slovakia are presented and evaluated against daily snow depth observations at 754 climate stations and daily MODIS snow cover products. The success with which the land-surface model reproduces observed snow cover data is evaluated.


This research was held to find out the effect and optimal percentage of fermented cassava waste – cassava leaf meal by Aspergillus niger (FOTDS) in the ration on final body weight, carcass percentage and feed conversion of broiler. The experiment used 120 broiler chick, were placed randomizely divided into six treatments and four replications.The treatments are R0 (control ration, without FOTDS), R1 (95% R0 + 5% FOTDS), R2 (90% R0+ 10% FOTDS), R3(85% R0 + 15% FOTDS), R4 (80% R0 + 20% FOTDS) and R5 ( 75% R0 + 25% FOTDS). The experiment was done using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and tested with Duncan Multiple Range. The result showed that using cassava-cassava leaf meal fermented by Aspergillus niger in broiler ration has no affect to final body weight, carcass percentage and feed conversion .It is concluced that FOTDS could used until 25% in broiler ration and has same effect with control ration (without FOTDS)


Our study on the cut-off effects in quenched light hadron spectroscopy and pion scattering length with the fixed point action is extended by results obtained at a lattice spacing a=0.102 fm in a box of size L=1.8 fm. The cut-off effects are small, but clearly seen as the resolution is increased from a=0.153 fm to a=0.102 fm. In the quark mass region where the errors are small and under control, our results on the APE plot lie close to the extrapolated numbers of the CP-PACS Collaboration.


Several approaches have been applied to groundwater exploration. In some instances positive results occur, but this is not always the case. This led hydrogeologists to look for a credible approach upon which they can rely during preliminary surveys for groundwater exploration. The development of remote sensing tools along with GIS methodologies gave rise to many new approaches. Most significant among these is the mapping of linear features (lineaments), which appear on satellite images. These features mainly reflect fracture traces, faults or lithologic boundaries and, therefore, are considered as major hydrogeologic parameters to be taken into account. The aim of this paper is to define an empirical relationship between lineament morphometric properties and the productivity of water wells. The three major properties of lineaments, i.e. frequency ( L f ), density ( L d ) and fault-lineaments ( F l ), were analysed using Landsat 7 ETM+ images and GIS techniques. The resultant maps were correlated with the location of water wells in 90 sites from different regions of Lebanon. The resulting output showed an obvious relationship between productive wells and their proximity to fault lineaments. The closer the location of water wells to a ault trace the higher the water productivity. However, this hypothesis can be preliminary utilized in surveys for groundwater exploration, notably in a terrain with intensive rock deformation like that in Lebanon.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the levels and correlates of maternal nutritional status.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional maternal weight, height, and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) data were correlated with sociodemographic data.

SETTING
Slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

SUBJECTS
Weight, height and MUAC were collected from a representative sample of 2417 nonpregnant mothers. Socioeconomic data such as age, education, religion and household economic status was collected from 2048 mothers; data on reproductive experiences such as number of pregnancies and number of children born alive now dead was available from 1314 mothers; and both sets of data from 1185 mothers.

METHODS
Using weight, height, MUAC and body mass index (BMI) data, the levels of maternal nutritional status were estimated. Bivariate and multivariate relationships of maternal nutritional status with socioeconomic and reproductive experiences variables were examined.

RESULTS
Mothers' mean weight, height, MUAC and BMI were 41.8 kg, 148.8 cm, 232.5 mm, and 18.8 respectively. In multivariate regression analyses, mothers' weight, BMI and MUAC were significantly positively correlated with mothers' years of schooling (P < 0.05) and household economic status (P < 0.01). Mothers' height was significantly positively correlated with years of schooling (P < 0.05), but not with household economic status. Maternal height and weight were significantly negatively correlated with number of child deaths (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest a possible inter-generational effect; thus, improvement of the nutritional status of girls of this generation would improve child survival in the next generation. This, however, will require complex and long-term planning. As an interim measure, shorter mothers should be targeted for appropriate antenatal and obstetric services.


The specified reflectance of a multilayer optical filter is formulated as a Fourier series. The coefficients are related via sample relations to the necessary refractive indices of the layers. The method is approximate but has the advantage of simplicity and efficiency, which makes it a useful design tool. The method is also useful as a companion to the exact methods of synthesis since it can provide the starting values for these exact methods. A versatile design example is solved to demonstrate the utility of the method. It is also shown that once a set of refractive indices is found, an infinite set of solutions can be found by simple scaling of the refractive indices.


Policymakers, industries, commentators and the media have widely criticized China for its failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights. In recent years, however, the discourse on intellectual property developments in China has slowly begun to change. Such a change is the most notable in the patent area. Today, China is already among the top five countries filing patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). In 2011, the number of PCT applications increased by 33.4% to 16,406, earning China the fourth spot, behind only the United States, Japan and Germany. Among all the applicants, ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies had the largest and third largest number of PCT applications, respectively. In the National Patent Development Strategy, the State Intellectual Property Office also set a target of having 2 million patent applications per year in China by 2015. In view of these major developments in the patent area, it is high time we rethink the accuracy and suitability of the traditional discourse on intellectual property developments in China. To help achieve this feat, this Article focuses on five key questions that I have been repeatedly asked in presentations or conferences exploring recent intellectual property developments in China. These questions cover issues ranging from patent quality to indigenous innovation policies to the changing educational environment. As the answers will suggest, the future of the Chinese intellectual property system is rather complex. This future reflects neither a rosy picture of China's "great leap forward" in the intellectual property arena nor a continuously gloomy picture of pirates and counterfeiters. Instead, the picture is dualistic and highly dynamic. It includes both yin and yang--the yin of continued massive piracy and counterfeiting and the yang of China's rise as a patent power.


Acid Yellow 25 (AY25) is used in the textile industry for dyeing of natural and synthetic fibers, and is also used as a coloring agent in paints, inks, plastics, and leathers. Effluents from such industries are major sources of water pollution. Hence, it is important to find simple, efficient, and inexpensive ways to remove these dyes from wastewater. Here, we determined the suitability of chitin extracted from waste crab legs as an adsorbent for removing AY25 dye. The adsorption kinetics was modeled using pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intraparticle diffusion equations to determine the rate controlling step. Results showed that the pseudo-second order adsorption mechanism is predominant, and the overall rate of the dye adsorption process is therefore controlled by an adsorption reaction. Adsorption isotherms were analyzed by utilizing the Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) and Temkin isotherm models at 23℃, with data collected by using various initial dye concentrations with different chitin dosages. Our results show the highest correlation with the Langmuir model, consistent with the fact that chitin contains both a monolayer and homogeneous adsorption sites. Based on the D-R model, the adsorption of AY25 dye onto chitin is via chemisorption. Furthermore, we have concluded that the rate constants of both pseudo-second order adsorption and film diffusion are correlated to the initial dye concentrations and chitin dosages. In conclusion, chitin from waste crab legs is a very suitable adsorbent material that is capable of rapidly removing up to 95% of the initial concentration of AY25 dye at a pH of 2 and room temperature.


The introduction of Concurrent Engineering highlights the need for a link between the early stages of product design and assembly planning. This thesis presents aggregate assembly process planning as a novel methodology to provide this link. The theory behind the research is to bring all aspects of product development together to consider assembly planning at the conceptual stage of design. Decisions taken during the early design stage not only have the greatest influence on production times and costs, but also should ensure that a design is easy to manufacture and assemble. An automated computer-based system has been developed to implement the methodology. The system generates aggregate assembly process plans which give details of feasible sequences, assembly process times and costs, resource requirements, and factory loadings. The Aggregate Assembly Modelling and Planning (AAMP) system employs object-oriented modelling techniques to represent designs, process planning knowledge, and assembly resources. The minimum information requirements have been identified, and a product model encompassing this data has been developed. An innovative factor of this thesis is to employ Assembly Feature Connections (AFCs) within the product model to represent assembly connectivity. Detailed generic assembly process models, functioning with limited design data, are used to calculate assembly criteria. The introduction of a detailed resource model to represent assembly facilities enables the system to calculate accurate assembly times, dependent on which resources are used within a factory, or even which factory is employed. A new algorithm uses the structure of the product model, process constraints and assembly rules to efficiently generate accurate assembly sequences. Another new algorithm loads the assembly operations onto workstations, ensuring that the capability and capacity are available. The aggregate assembly process planning functionality has been tested using products from industry, and has yielded accurate results that prove to be both technically feasible and realistic. Industrial response has been extremely favourable. Specific comments on the usefulness and simplicity of such a comprehensive system gives encouragement to the concept that aggregate assembly process planning provides the required link between the early stages of product design and assembly planning.


Mummery + Schnelle is pleased to announce the opening of a group exhibition that asks how it might be possible to situate in the space of the present, references to the historicity of painting. Painting is a practice that allows for a critical dialogue with itself and its histories, but is this dialogue, as some would argue, a conservative and reactionary one, representing the regressive security of a return to pre-modern modes of representation, a resuscitation of old myths and visual tropes from the past? The Beholder's Share sets out to argue that this is not, necessarily, the case. Every painting contains the memory of painting, but a good painting possesses a consciousness of its genre that allows it to transcend it without parody or irony, reflecting a positive, reactivated sense of the tradition, not a received experience of the past. This re-activated sense of tradition is one that permits a critical consciousness of the present and enables an active exploration of the continued potential of painting.

All the works in The Beholder's Share are "studio paintings". Another aim of the exhibition is to ask what this term might be said to mean in today's world of globalized image networks. It posits that the studio is a condition, as well as a site, of working and its realities are not only what is observed there, but also the artist's visual and often bodily, or phenomenological, experience of the world and how it is put together.

If the studio is a place where the changing conditions of pictorial knowledge are tracked by the artist, then the art gallery is a place where they are reflected in the responses of the viewer to the works displayed there. A third aim of the The Beholder's Share is to address the position of the viewer and ask about the degree to which looking at a painting is, on the one hand a creative act and, on the other, what Ernst Gombrich called 'guided projection'. Has our perception of symbolic material changed significantly in our digitalized age and, if so, what are the implications for such an ancient medium as painting?

The Beholder's Share will feature work by gallery artists, Robert Bordo, Louise Hopkins, Merlin James, Carol Rhodes and Christopher Stevens, alongside artists whose work shares similar concerns, but who have not shown at Mummery + Schnelle before. Nogah Engler's allegorical paintings are powerful reflections on the Holocaust. Los Angeles based Tom LaDuke incorporates in his paintings images from film stills, models made in his studio and details taken from Old Master paintings. Julie Roberts, showing work in London for the first time in ten years, is represented by a painting from a series based on her research into the first female students at Glasgow School of Art. Research also underpins the work of David Schutter, whose set of five exhibited paintings are analyses and re-realizations of the surface of Jacob van Ruisdael's c. 1670-75 painting Haarlem Seen from the Northwestern Dunes.


Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plays a pivotal role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, and is the most promising disease-modifying target for AD. A succession of failures in Aβ-targeting clinical trials, however, has prompted questions on whether Aβ is the true cause of AD and a valid therapeutic target. Therefore, current therapeutic targets and intervention strategies must be reconsidered. In addition to Aβ, multiple pathological events such as tau hyperphosphorylation, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are involved in the disease pathogenesis and cause cross-talk between these pathological pathways, which synergistically drive disease progression. Increasing evidence also reveals that the pathogenesis varies at different stages of the disease. Therefore, targeting Aβ alone at all stages of the disease would not be sufficient to halt or reverse disease progression. In the light of the pathophysiologic similarities between the development of ischemic stroke and AD, we can formulate management strategies for AD from the successful practice of ischemic stroke management, namely the tertiary prevention strategy. These new perspectives of tertiary prevention target both Aβ and different pathological pathways of AD pathogenesis at different stages of the disease, and may represent a promising avenue for the effective prevention and treatment of AD.


The procurement of complex projects is often plagued by large cost overruns. One important reason for these additional costs are flaws in the initial design. If the project is procured with a price-only auction, sellers who spotted some of the flaws have no incentive to reveal them early. Each seller prefers to conceal his information until he is awarded the contract and then renegotiate when he is in a bilateral monopoly position with the buyer. We show that this gives rise to three inefficiencies: inefficient renegotiation, inefficient production and inefficient design. We derive the welfare optimal direct mechanism that implements the efficient allocation at the lowest possible cost to the buyer. The direct mechanism, however, imposes strong assumptions on the buyer's prior knowledge of possible flaws and their payoff consequences. Therefore, we also propose an indirect mechanism that implements the same allocation but does not require any such prior knowledge. The optimal direct and indirect mechanisms separate the improvement of the design and the selection of the seller who produces the good.


ABSTRACT The farmers of salaks, the snake fruits of Sibetan Village have encountered the price tumble during the harvest time. The bumper crops during the harvest while at the same time there is a steady demand on it, as well as that there has not been an effort to process the abundant crops into a preserved foods are considered to be the main factors that cause its price drop. Training and short course have been conducted to introduce the way how to process the fruits into dodol salak, a sticky cake made of the salak fruit as the main material, by conducting the lecturing and practicing method. The participants were members of family welfare organization (PKK) and the local housewives from Telutug of Sibetan village with the total number of 32 participants, and most of them are the farmers of salaks. The process of making the dodol salak comprises the following steps : the collection and selection of the fruits, peeling and coring the fruit, steaming, mashing the fruits into a pulp, the mixing with coconut milk, palm sugar and sticky rice floor in the bowl, mixing and boiling the mixture within 120 minutes, cooling down and then it is molded and wrapped. The result of the training shows that the participants were really enthusiastic, it could be seen by the abundant of questions raised either during the lecture, discussion as well as during the practice of making the dodol salak itself. It is expected that by introducing the way how to process the fruits into dodol will improve the skill and knowledge of the local people in general and especially for those of PKK members and the housewives. The food processing into dodol salak may bring about many advantages such as the diversification of the fruit processed-product, giving the added value to the fruit, to lengthen the storage time and to improve the appearance and quality of the product.


This study reports data on a sample of Latino immigrant parents and their associated levels of parent involvement in Head Start. Parent involvement was defined and measured as parent behaviors supporting educational and developmental outcomes occurring in the home and community setting (home involvement), the school context (school involvement), and also the home-school relationship (home-school conferencing). Latino parents reported the highest levels of parent involvement at home, followed by home-school conferencing, and then school involvement. Differences in parents' comfort and ability to communicate with the school were found to significantly predict all three dimensions of parent involvement. Parent self efficacy was negatively related to levels of school based involvement and also parents' endorsement of the importance of a Latino identity. Communication and parent self efficacy were positively related. Overall, the results suggest that our understanding of factors that promote parent involvement for Latino preschool children is only emerging; moreover, results may differ from those obtained with samples of older Latino children and their parents. Implications of this study for the implementation of Head Start best practices, including promoting teacher-invited parent involvement and greater awareness and recognition of the amount of home involvement being provided by Latino families, are discussed in this paper.


Probability forecasts in complex environments can benefit from combining the estimates of large groups of forecasters ("judges"). But aggregating multiple opinions raises several challenges. First, human judges are notoriously incoherent when their forecasts involve logically complex events. Second, individual judges may have specialized knowledge, so different judges may produce forecasts for different events. Third, the credibility of individual judges might vary, and one would like to pay greater attention to more trustworthy forecasts. These considerations limit the value of simple aggregation methods like unweighted linear averaging. In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed for combining probabilistic assessments from a large pool of judges, with the goal of efficiently implementing the coherent approximation principle (CAP) while weighing judges by their credibility. Two measures of a judge's likely credibility are introduced and used in the algorithm to determine the judge's weight in aggregation. As a test of efficiency, the algorithm was applied to a data set of nearly half a million probability estimates of events related to the 2008 U.S. presidential election (∼16,000 judges). Compared with unweighted scalable CAP algorithms, the proposed weighting schemes significantly improved the stochastic accuracy with a comparable run time, demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of the weighting methods for aggregating large numbers and varieties of forecasts.


Abstract:Well over one hundred classical essay anthologies were published during the printing boom in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Ming dynasty China. These anthologies testify to a voracious appetite for "ancient-style prose" (guwen) among the expanding reading public, and their contents represent avaluable resource for studying the formation of taste during this crucial moment in literary history. But how are we to compare the contents of such a large group of anthologies, when each individual anthology contains at least a few hundred individual selections? How might such a method clarify or revise our understanding of Ming literary culture? This article describes how Gephi was used to compare the contents of thirty-four anthologies and visualize clusters of anthologies corresponding to distinct editorial strategies. The author argues that the synchronic and diachronic relationships among these clusters suggest a new way of narrating Ming literary history in terms of successive waves of alternative canon building, each wave representing a new critique of the civil service examination curriculum's overriding focus on model examination essays. He also shows that, whereas the Qin-Han and transdynastic canons were first promulgated in a mix of government and commercial anthologies, the xiaopin 小品 (informal essay) canon was purely the invention of early seventeenth-century commercial printers.


The dinoflagellate distribution in two Teratan-lower Haumurian (Coniacian-Campanian) sections at Ben More Stream and Kekerengu River (south Marlborough, New Zealand) is documented and discussed, and a new zonation scheme proposed. The Conosphaeridium striatoconum Zone of Wilson (1984) and the Odontochitina porifera Zone of Wilson (1984) are proposed as new Superzones. The C. striatoconum Superzone is subdivided into three new zones: Cymososphaeridium benmorense Interval Zone and Conosphaeridium abbreviatum Interval Zone. Four Australian dinoflagellate zones are recognized in the sections: Odontochitina porifera Interval Zone of Helby et al. (1987), Isabelidinium cretaceum Zone of Evans (1971), Nelsoniella aceras Zone of Evans (1971) and Satyrodinium haumuriense Zone of Marshall (1990). A correlation of the two sections with international stages based on key dinoflagellates and supported by previous work on inoceramid bivalves dates the sections as middle Coniacian to Campanian. The Teratan-Piripauan stage boundary can be placed in the uppermost Coniacian and the Piripauan-Haumurian stage boundary in the upper Santonian. Six new dinoflagellate species are present in the sections: Batiacasphaera kekerengensis n.sp., Batiacasphaera rugulata n.sp., Cymososphaeridium benmorense n.sp., Eucladinium kaikourense n.sp., Glaphyrocysta marlboroughensis n.sp. and Kleithriasphaeridium secatum n.sp.


Abstract This exploratory qualitative study investigates possible barriers to HIV preventive behaviour amongst Zulu-speaking, black adolescent males, aged 15–23, in township secondary schools in Durban, South Africa. Perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and practices concerning HIV prevention and transmission are elicited using semi-structured focus groups and mixed open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires. Thematic analysis of the data is used to identify possible barriers to protection. Issues specifically investigated are condom use and multiple sexual partners. Belief in the ability to choose uninfected girlfriends, a distrust of and misperceptions about condoms, the importance of trust to a sexual relationship, false optimism engendered by fast-spreading myths about cures, and skewed risk perception engendered by conspiracy theory narratives and overestimatlon of the severity of the epidemic were found to be possible barriers to protection amongst males and controlling the spread of HIV. A discussion of these barriers Is presented.


The work product doctrine emerged as a judicially created, practical solution to resolve problems inherent in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). While the FRCP famously sought to broaden discovery and increase parties' access to information, the rules infamously failed to prevent attorneys from discovering each other's work product. For policy reasons—primarily to keep some semblance of the adversarial system—the U.S. Supreme Court created work product qualified immunity to prevent attorneys from discovering their opponents' work, mental impressions, and legal strategies. At the end of the twentieth century, courts significantly extended the work product doctrine when they began to recognize document compilations—the groups of documents attorneys use to prepare their witnesses for depositions—as privileged work product. These courts found that attorneys' document selection and organization processes necessarily reveal their mental impressions about cases and are therefore shielded by the work product doctrine. This relatively new work product designation has led to a flood of litigation and prevented deposing attorneys from successfully examining their witnesses. More specifically, deposing attorneys cannot effectively test witness memory or credibility when the attorney does not know which documents the witness reviewed. Nowhere is this problem more apparent, or more problematic, than in the realm of 30(b)(6) depositions. FRCP 30(b)(6) governs the depositions of corporations. It requires corporations to choose a corporate designee who will bind the company as a whole through his or her testimony. Because corporate designees are frequently required to testify about vast amounts of information relating to the corporation, they almost always review document compilations to prepare for their depositions. In fact, their knowledge may be entirely secondhand, stemming completely from the documents reviewed rather than their own personal experiences. When parties shield these preparatory documents under the work product doctrine, they prevent the deposing attorney from learning the basis of the witness's testimony. This puts the examiner at a unique disadvantage. This Comment addresses the issue of document compilations in the context of 30(b)(6) depositions. It argues that 30(b)(6) document compilations are not work product at all. * J.D. Candidate, University of Washington School of Law, Class of 2019. I would like to thank the editorial staff of Washington Law Review for their support and suggestions. 17 Leonetti (3).docx (Do Not Delete) 4/4/2019 8:55 PM 482 WASHINGTON LAW REVIEW [Vol. 94:481


Scientific articles are retracted at increasing rates, with the highest rates among top journals. Here we show that a single retraction triggers citation losses through an author's prior body of work. Compared to closely-matched control papers, citations fall by an average of 6.9% per year for each prior publication. These chain reactions are sustained on authors' papers (a) published up to a decade earlier and (b) connected within the authors' own citation network by up to 4 degrees of separation from the retracted publication. Importantly, however, citation losses among prior work disappear when authors self-report the error. Our analyses and results span the range of scientific disciplines.


Purpose
To be utilized effectively in decision-making processes, management accounting (MA) information should fit the business context and at the same time reflect the roles, responsibilities and values of the actors taking part in the decision-making. This study aims to investigate the limitations for MA information utilization in decision-making. In particular, this study explores limitations stemming from the decision-making process structure and the involvement of several managerial actors.

Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study of an energy company and its customer company illustrates the current challenges in providing and integrating MA information into decision-making. The analysis is focused on the analytical and actor-based features of the decision-making and thus the limitations for MA information utilization. As a part of the broader research process, the researchers facilitated a meeting in the customer company, where the actors relevant to investment decisions discussed the current limitations in utilizing MA information.

Findings
Analytical and actor-based features may take different forms in the decision-making. Some relevant MA information may not be included in an organization's decision-making process structure that allows merely conventional, yet analytical, decision alternatives. At the same time, certain actors' viewpoints (such as sustainability metrics) can be excluded from the process without considering the logic behind the exclusion. This case study identifies the following limitations, largely related to insufficient actor-based features in the decision-making: managers may lack expertise in the use of MA tools, managerial interaction may lack reflection on taken-for-granted assumptions, different managers may appreciate different scope, content and timing of MA information and the process structure can ignore the required managerial viewpoints.

Research limitations/implications
This study demonstrates that both the decision-making process structure and the needs of the several actors involved may lead to limitations for MA information utilization. Although many limitations stemmed from the insufficient actor-based orientation in the case study, introducing new MA analyses and extending the validity of analytical approaches may also help overcome some of the limitations. Further research should address possibilities to integrate different actors' viewpoints with MA information already in the decision-making process structure, find ways to introduce MA information on unconventional decision alternatives and enable reflection among and about relevant actors with respect to decision-making. These means could lead to more effective utilization of MA information for decision-making and, consequently, economically viable decisions.

Originality/value
This study addresses the limitations in MA information utilization by combining the viewpoints of analytical decision-making processes and reflective actors, and thus unveils possibilities for enhancing MA practice.


Abstract Introduced populations of species pose one of the greatest threats to the persistence of native species. Documentation of distribution, range expansion and habitat use of introduced populations are key components of developing effective management strategies for the control and eradication of invasive species. In 2006 and 2007, we surveyed four islands in Biscayne National Park for nests to evaluate the presence of red-bellied squirrels (Sciurus aureogaster) and the distribution and index of dispersion of their nests in the Florida Keys archipelago within the Atlantic Ocean. Red-bellied squirrels were initially introduced to Elliott Key, Florida, USA in in 1938. We documented evidence of squirrels on two additional islands, Sands Key and Old Rhodes Key, which adds to concerns of spread of this introduced squirrel to areas with endangered endemic insular mammals. Squirrel nests were documented only in mixed-hardwood forest, and nests had a clumped distribution within this forest type. Range expansion was a chief concern to the National Park Service, as continued spread could result in squirrels exiting the park, and prompted management action. Understanding nest site selection and distribution was critical for developing an eradication strategy for the introduced population of red-bellied squirrels from south Florida.


Judges typically decide constitutional cases by referring to one or more legal precedents, rules, tests, principles, doctrines, or policies. This Article recommends supplementing this standard approach with fully legitimate and appropriate attention to what many cultures have long recognized as the four basic cardinal virtues of practical wisdom or reasonable prudence, courage or fortitude, temperance or reasonable self-restraint, and justice as the disposition to give everyone their due. The Article illustrates the legitimacy and usefulness of this supplementary approach, with judicial attention being paid either to government actors or to some broader public, in a range of important constitutional cases. Part of the justification for this Article's recommended approach is drawn directly from reflection on the case law, but the Article also draws upon philosophical discussions of the basic virtues from many cultures in order to address a number of possible critical concerns.


Aim To assess the content, validity, and reliability of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for life participation in kidney transplantation recipients. Background Life participation is the ability to participate in key activities of daily living including work, study, family, travel, hobbies, and recreational and social activities. It is an important outcome for kidney transplant recipients but is measured infrequently, inconsistently, and using instruments that may not be valid for this population. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL to April 2017 for all studies that measured and reported life participation in patients with kidney transplantation. Instruments measuring life participation were identified and reviewed for psychometric properties, content and general characteristics. Results In total, 252 studies were included in this review: 19 (8%) randomized controlled trials, 18 (7%) non-randomized trials and 215 (85%) observational studies. Across these studies, we identified 34 different measures that were used to assess life participation. The most frequently used instrument was the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) (162 [64%] studies) followed by KDQOL (25 [10%] studies) and EQ-5D (15 [6%] studies). Overall, there was little evidence supporting the use of these measures in the kidney transplantation population. There was some psychometric data available for only five of the measures including SF-36, KDQOL and EQ-5D. Psychometric properties examined in these measures were inconsistent and limited. Conclusions Although several scales have been used to measure life participation in kidney transplant recipients, there is insufficient evidence of validity to ensure an adequate representation of their experience. A well-validated but simple instrument for life participation is needed to improve the consistency and accuracy of measurement for a better understanding and management of this important patient-centred outcome.


Today's patent attorneys and counsel representing clients involved with software must be able to access reliable information on patent processes worldwide. Software Patents Worldwide is the only resource providing expert insights and how-to guidance on drafting patent claims in the world's key markets, which means you can practice with confidence and avoid errors - even in unfamiliar territory. A brand new resource, Software Patents Worldwide covers both mature and developing systems, enabling you to ask the right questions in each circumstance. This one-of-a-kind resource will help you answer key questions such as: What is the proper procedure for obtaining a software patent? How do we enforce our patents? Is it even worth obtaining a patent in this jurisdiction? How do the requirements of one jurisdiction compare to those of another? How is the country's Patent Act interpreted by local courts? And more Each chapter of Software Patents Worldwide follows the same outline, making it easy to find information quickly - and compare jurisdictions! Introduction to country/region Frequently Asked Questions regarding software patents in the country/region Introduction to the legal system of the country/region Court System Patent System Overview of the software industry in the country/region Legal Basis according to current Patent Act How the Patent Office Interprets the Patent Act Patent Examination Guidelines in general Specific Guidelines for software patents (if any) Specific Guidelines for business method patents (if any) Historical Development Fields of Technology - specific, noteworthy examples that demonstrate the scope of protection afforded to software patents in the country/region How to Draft a Software Patent for the Country/Region Claims Specification Drawings Examples Infringement and Enforcement Future Directions


We acknowledge the important comments of Forgiarini Jr et al. regarding our study: Evaluating the use of the Tobin index on mechanical ventilation weaning after general anesthesia 1. Forgiarini Jr et al. suggested paring patients according to the operatory risk determined by the classification of the American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA). Their justification was that the incidence of complications of high-risk patients could be higher and the predictive index of failure could be worse. However, patients in this study were divided into two groups according to the Tobin index and, therefore, this index was considered the study parameter and all other parameters were compared to it, including the ASA classification. Even with the important difference in elevated ASA score between both groups (10% of patients in group I were ASA III or IV versus 50% in group II), univariate logistic regression analysis did not detect statistically significant differences, indicating that this score did not affect the risk of extubation failure. Although the homogeneity of variances was verified by the Levene test and the normality by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, even a statistically significant difference among the parameters of the study population would not invalidate the results of the study, since it was the study parameter (Tobin index with a cutting point of < 80 c.L.-1min-1 or ≥ 80 c.L.-1min-1) that defined both groups of patients. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis identified three significant parameters for the development of post-extubation complications (age, weight, and smoking), of which age and weight were independent parameters. Aging is associated with reduction often subclinical in the functional capacity of the organs (emphysema, benign nephrosclerosis, coronary artery atheroma), which undoubtedly increase the risk of complications, including those associated with extubation. The risks of post-extubation complications in obese patients and smokers were adequately explored by Forgiarini Jr et al. and confirmed by the results of our study. To conclude, we would like to emphasize that the results of this study are a consequence of a strictly applied methodology and we thank Forgiarini Jr et al. for their carefully reading of our study, the explanations, and pertinent comments.


Factors influencing tourist behavior have been a focal point in tourism research for decades. Efforts to unveil the determinants that shape travel behavior stem not only from pure academic interest, but from practical business considerations (Pizam & Mansfeld, 1999). Destination personality, self-concept, and congruence between self-concept and destination personality (SC-DP congruence) are among the factors that are believed to influence tourist behavior. However, little research has been undertaken to understand the impact of these factors on tourist behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects destination personality, self-concept and SC-DP congruence on tourist behavior. A theoretical model that attempts to investigate the influence of destination personality, self-concept, and SC-DP congruence on tourist behavior was developed and tested empirically. Specifically, the model proposed that tourist behavior is affected by destination personality, self-concept, and SC-DP congruence. Particularly, self-concept consists of four aspects, including actual self-concept, ideal self-concept, social self-concept, and ideal social self-concept; hence SC-DP congruence also includes fours such facets. Furthermore, tourist involvement is examined to see whether it would moderate the relationship between SC-DP congruence and tourist behavior. Data were collected using an online panel survey in December 2008. A total of 663 usable responses were obtained. Pearson correlation, structural equation modeling (SEM), and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. For the SEM analysis, the sample was randomly split into two groups. One was used to test the model and the other was used for model validation. The findings suggested significant influences of destination personality, self-concept, and SC-DP congruence on tourist behavior. Findings of this study also showed that there are significant and positive relationships between destination personality and self-concept.


Commercial carriers are being confronted with a variety of decisions regarding long-term petroleum dependency and near-term state and federal policies aimed at increasing the use and content of biodiesel. The purpose of this study is to help members of the Iowa Motor Truck Association identify problems regarding the use of biodiesel blends in trucks. The participating trucking company provided two trucks that ran on similar routes, one truck using regular diesel fuel (B0) and the other one using a 2% biodiesel blend (B2). Complete mileage data and special maintenance concerns were recorded over a period of approximately one year. Iowa State University researchers analyzed and interpreted the field data in terms of fuel economy, variations in maintenance, and seasonal performance. Data acquired from July 2006 through May 2007 were analyzed. Special attention was paid to the concern of fuel filter plugging resulting from using B2. During the period of this study, the B0 truck accumulated approximately 160,000 miles and the B2 truck accumulated about 120,000 miles. Field results indicate that both fuels provided similar miles per gallon numbers, even for different trip lengths. The average miles per gallon were 6.0 for the B0 truck and 6.1 for the B2 truck. Overall, the fuel economies of the two engines using B0 and B2 were very similar. In addition, no fuel filter plugging incidents in the B2 truck were found, even during the winter months. The final data are encouraging in terms of using B2 as an alternative fuel for trucks.


A new scale to assess pro-bullying attitudes, the Pro-Bullying Attitude Scale (PAS) was evaluated in 259 voluntarily recruited male juvenile delinquents in Russia. Exploratory factor analysis gave a two-factor solution: Callous Dominance (CD) and Manipulativeness/ Impulsiveness (MI). The subjects were divided into three groups (low, intermediate, high) according to their scores on PAS and its two factors. Low and high group Ss were compared and results indicated higher delinquent and aggressive behavior among high group Ss as assessed by the Youth Self Report (YSR) and violent behavior as assessed by the Antisocial Behavior Checklist (ABC), as well as higher scores on the personality trait Novelty seeking and lower on Cooperativeness as assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (Cloninger et al., 1994). High PAS and CD groups displayed significantly higher scores on psychopathy traits as assessed by the Childhood Psychopathy Scale (Lynam, 1997) significantly related to registered violent crime. Probullying attitudes are discussed as a link between personality and psychopathy on the one hand and antisocial and violent behavior on the other. The PAS is also discussed in terms of usefulness in identifying high-risk individuals for violent behavior among incarcerated delinquents and in preventing violence and bullying tendencies in juvenile forensic institutions.


This paper explores the adaptability of buildings in Japan from the perspective of three distinct practice typologies: large general contractors, large architectural design firms, and small design ateliers. The paper illustrates the cultivation of adaptability in Japan revealing a maturing of concepts into current innovations, trends, priorities, and obstacles in relation to adaptability in design. The paper contextualizes the situation by reviewing the evolution of residential development in support of building adaptability, and the ways in which these policies and concepts have shaped practice and transcended residential design. This evolution is then explored through non-residential case studies undertaken by the three practice types, and supported through a review of critical themes emerging from the interviews. The importance of particular physical characteristics are examined including storey height, location of services, planning modules and structural spacing/spans. The interviews expose the critical relationship between adaptability and different social variables - the state of the market, the role of planning regulations and other legal frameworks; as well as, the misconceptions and variations in the perceptions on the role and meaning adaptability has in practice. The paper is concluded by revealing the lessons learnt, including the unfolding of dependencies outside the 'black box' of adaptability (e.g. practice culture, material and, stakeholder mindsets) and the requirement of effective communication of concepts to allow an informed conversation between professionals and with clients and users. Like many other philosophical design concepts in complex processes, adaptability benefits from a mutual understanding, good relationships, communication, integration, and shared goals amongst team members.


— The present approach deals with the identification of Emotions and classification of Emotional patterns at Phrase-level with respect to Positive and Negative Orientation. The proposed approach considers emotion triggered terms, its co-occurrence terms and also associated sentences for recognizing emotions. The proposed approach uses Part of Speech Tagging and Emotion Actifiers for classification. Here sentence patterns are broken into phrases and Neuro-Fuzzy model is used to classify which results in 16 patterns of emotional phrases. Suitable intensities are assigned for capturing the degree of emotion contents that exist in semantics of patterns. These emotional phrases are assigned weights which supports in deciding the Positive and Negative Orientation of emotions. The approach uses web documents for experimental purpose and the proposed classification approach performs well and achieves good F-Scores.


Migrant labourers, free from rural bondage, are now bonded to other sources of debt, contracted from the agro-industry or construction sectors. The flows of migration in the brick-making and sugar cane sectors in Tamil Nadu, where bondage coexists with many public welfare schemes, illustrate the persistence and renewal of this phenomenon. The welfare schemes play the role of a safety net, but also contribute to low wages, and impunity on the part of employers. Alliances between capital and the state, through the politicisation of employers, are instrumental in the continuation of all forms of labour exploitation. When workers resist, employers tighten working conditions and start recruiting migrants from North India. And even if these forms of lab


This chapter shows results obtained from analyzing samples of vegetables taken at the farm gate and from selling points in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. Microbiological data are based on a total of about 1,500 vegetable samples taken from different sampling points along the vegetable distribution chain – farm gates – and from different categories of sellers in Accra, Tamale and Kumasi. Fecal coliforms and helminth eggs were mainly used as the fecal contamination indicator organisms. For chemical contaminants, heavy metals and pesticides in irrigation water and vegetables were analyzed, while estrogens were used as an example for emerging contaminants.


Most research on focal epilepsy focuses on mechanisms of seizure generation in the primary epileptic focus (EF). However, neurological deficits that are not directly linked to seizure activity and that may persist after focus removal are frequent. The recruitment of remote brain regions of an epileptic network (EN) is recognized as a possible cause, but a profound lack of experimental evidence exists concerning their recruitment and the type of pathological activities they exhibit. We studied the development of epileptic activities at the large-scale in male mice of the kainate model of unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy using high-density surface EEG and multiple-site intracortical recordings. We show that, along with focal spikes and fast ripples that remain localized to the injected hippocampus (i.e., the EF), a subpopulation of spikes that propagate across the brain progressively emerges even before the expression of seizures. The spatiotemporal propagation of these generalized spikes (GSs) is highly stable within and across animals, defining a large-scale EN comprising both hippocampal regions and frontal cortices. Interestingly, GSs are often concomitant with muscular twitches. In addition, while fast ripples are, as expected, highly frequent in the EF, they also emerge in remote cortical regions and in particular in frontal regions where GSs propagate. Finally, we demonstrate that these remote interictal activities are dependent on the focus in the early phase of the disease but continue to be expressed after focus silencing at later stages. Our results provide evidence that neuronal networks outside the initial focus are progressively altered during epileptogenesis. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT It has long been held that the epileptic focus is responsible for triggering seizures and driving interictal activities. However, focal epilepsies are associated with heterogeneous symptoms, calling into question the concept of a strictly focal disease. Using the mouse model of hippocampal sclerosis, this work demonstrates that focal epilepsy leads to the development of pathological activities specific to the epileptic condition, notably fast ripples, that appear outside of the primary epileptic focus. Whereas these activities are dependent on the focus early in the disease, focus silencing fails to control them in the chronic stage. Thus, dynamical changes specific to the epileptic condition are built up outside of the epileptic focus along with disease progression, which provides supporting evidence for network alterations in focal epilepsy.


Little is known about Southern ground-hornbill (SGH) population ecology outside of large, formally protected areas where the largest declines in numbers have been recorded. The SGH has started re-colonising, establishing group territories and breeding successfully in the Limpopo Valley on the northern border of South Africa, following localised extinction from the 1950s to the 1970s. A group of SGH was monitored over a period of 14 months by means of radio telemetry across privately owned land in order to investigate their seasonal habitat movements in this semi-arid, predominantly livestock-based environment. We also investigated seasonal fluctuations in invertebrate prevalence, as an indication of food availability and its influence on seasonal SGH group movements and foraging activity patterns. There was a clear increase in food availability during the summer rainfall period allowing the group to forage over a wider area, whilst winter foraging remained localised within their range. Kernel home range analysis indicated a marked difference in size between the summer (13 409 ha) and winter (5280 ha) home ranges, with an overall home range of 19 372 ha, which is approximately double that of home ranges recorded that fall within formally and informally protected reserves. In this article, we proposed that food availability is the driving force for home range size and seasonal activity patterns in a semi-arid livestock-ranching habitat. Conservation implications: The Limpopo Valley SGH population is one of the most significant outside protected areas in South Africa. This population is especially vulnerable to threats such as poisoning, persecution for window breaking and drought, as shown by their near extirpation from the area. Conservation efforts need to focus on awareness amongst local farmers, provision of artificial nests and continued monitoring of groups.


In this memo we address the issue of how to apply water vapour radiometer estimates of atmospheric phase to visibility data. We consider the impact of smoothing the radiometer data over a period of time to reduce the noise in the w.v.r. estimate, and applying a multiplicative factor to decrease the impact of the w.v.r. estimate when the phase fluctuation amplitude is small compared with the radiometer noise. We find that when fast-switching is taken into account, for fully three-dimensional turbulence, and r.m.s. path length fluctuations of order 75 "m, the optimal smoothing timescale is 11 seconds. This timescale decreases to around 3 seconds as the thickness of the turbulence layer becomes small compared with the baseline length. These values are found to decrease as the r.m.s. fluctuations increase. A multiplicative factor is required to modify the w.v.r. correction term for fluctuations less than » 50 "m, where the noise in the radiometer becomes comparable to fluctuations at the site.


Package leaflets (PLs) have been legally required to accompany medicines in the EU since 1999. Despite the best intentions and efforts, however, they are generally not well-received by the public for whom they are intended. This paper picks up on the challenges that medical regulatory writers face in producing quality PLs using the official PL template when research indicates that patients would prefer a more personalised genre that incorporated their experiences and knowledge. This paper advocates greater inclusion of patients' perspectives, as this is currently achievable given the current legislation. The paper also notes the tantalising prospect of replacing the template with a set of recommendations that draws on knowledge of what works best for patients.


1. A reflex leg movement mediated by the prothoracic ganglion of Schistocerca is completely inhibited under most normal conditions but disinhibited if the ganglion is isolated from the C.N.S. 2. Progressive lesions to the C.N.S. give progressive disinhibition. The main inhibitory areas are the metathoracic, suboesophageal and mesothoracic ganglia. 3. The left and right sides of the thoracic ganglia are to some extent independent in both the transmission and reception of inhibitory signals. There is probably negative feedback between the reflex systems of the two sides of the prothoracic ganglion. 4. The inhibitory influence of a ganglion on the reflex appears to be proportional to its level of activity and to the amount of signal it is transmitting to the prothoracic ganglion. It is not constant, and is probably not mediated by a limited number of specific inhibitory tracts. 5. The general occurrence of similar mechanisms in animal nervous systems is suggested and discussed.


Novel techniques of data mining and time series analyses allow the development of new methods to analyze information relating to the health status of the swine population in near real-time. A swine health monitoring system based on the reporting of clinical events detected at farm level has been in operation in Northeastern Spain since 2012. This initiative was supported by swine stakeholders and veterinary practitioners of the Catalonia, Aragon, and Navarra regions. The system aims to evidence the occurrence of endemic diseases in near real-time by gathering data from practitioners that visited swine farms in these regions. Practitioners volunteered to report data on clinical events detected during their visits using a web application. The system allowed collection, transfer and storage of data on different clinical signs, analysis, and modeling of the diverse clinical events detected, and provision of reproducible reports with updated results. The information enables the industry to quantify the occurrence of endemic diseases on swine farms, better recognize their spatiotemporal distribution, determine factors that influence their presence and take more efficient prevention and control measures at region, county, and farm level. This study assesses the functionality of this monitoring tool by evaluating the target population coverage, the spatiotemporal patterns of clinical signs and presumptive diagnoses reported by practitioners over more than 6 years, and describes the information provided by this system in near real-time. Between January 2012 and March 2018, the system achieved a coverage of 33 of the 62 existing counties in the three study regions. Twenty-five percent of the target swine population farms reported one or more clinical events to the system. During the study period 10,654 clinical events comprising 14,971 clinical signs from 1,693 farms were reported. The most frequent clinical signs detected in these farms were respiratory, followed by digestive, neurological, locomotor, reproductive, and dermatological signs. Respiratory disorders were mainly associated with microorganisms of the porcine respiratory disease complex. Digestive signs were mainly related to colibacilosis and clostridiosis, neurological signs to Glässer's disease and streptococcosis, reproductive signs to PRRS, locomotor to streptococcosis and Glässer's disease, and dermatological signs to exudative epidermitis.


Genetic improvement uses artificial intelligence to automatically improve software with respect to non-functional properties (AI for SE). In this paper, we propose the use of existing software engineering best practice to enhance Genetic Improvement (SE for AI). We conjecture that existing Regression Test Selection (RTS) techniques (which have been proven to be efficient and effective) can and should be used as a core component of the GI search process for maximising its effectiveness. To assess our idea, we have carried out a thorough empirical study assessing the use of both dynamic and static RTS techniques with GI to improve seven real-world software programs. The results of our empirical evaluation show that incorporation of RTS within GI significantly speeds up the whole GI process, making it up to 78% faster on our benchmark set, being still able to produce valid software improvements. Our findings are significant in that they can save hours to days of computational time, and can facilitate the uptake of GI in an industrial setting, by significantly reducing the time for the developer to receive feedback from such an automated technique. Therefore, we recommend the use of RTS in future test-based automated software improvement work. Finally, we hope this successful application of SE for AI will encourage other researchers to investigate further applications in this area.


Serum androgen levels decline with aging in normal males, such that a significant number of men over 60 yr of age will have a mean serum total testosterone (T) level near the low end of the normal adult range. It is not known whether lower T levels in older men have an effect on androgen-responsive organ systems, such as muscle, bone, bone marrow, and prostate, nor are there data to evaluate the relative benefits and risks of T supplementation in older men. We assessed the physiological and biochemical effects of T therapy in 13 healthy men, 57-76 yr old, who had low or borderline low serum T levels (< or = 13.9 nmol/L). Intramuscular testosterone enanthate (TE; 100 mg weekly) and placebo injections were given for 3 months each. Before treatment and at the end of both 3-month treatment regimens, lean body mass, body fat, biochemical parameters of bone turnover, hematological parameters, lipoprotein profiles, and prostate parameters [such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA)] were evaluated. Serum T levels rose in all subjects with TE treatment, such that the lowest level of T during a week's period was 19.7 +/- 0.7 nmol/L (mean +/- SE). After 3 months of TE treatment, lean body mass was significantly increased, and urinary hydroxyproline excretion was significantly depressed. With TE treatment, there was a significant increase in hematocrit, a decline in total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and a sustained increase in serum PSA levels. Placebo treatment led to no significant changes in any of these parameters. We conclude that short term (3 months) TE supplementation to healthy older men who have serum T levels near or below the lower limit of normal for young adult men results in an increase in lean body mass and possibly a decline in bone resorption, as assessed by urinary hydroxyproline excretion, with some effect on serum lipoproteins, hematological parameters, and PSA. The sustained stimulation of PSA and the increase in hematocrit that occur with physiological TE supplementation suggest that older men should be screened carefully and followed periodically throughout T therapy.


This chapter provides an introduction to Description Logics as a formal language for representing knowledge and reasoning about it. It first gives a short overview of the ideas underlying Description Logics. Then it introduces syntax and semantics, covering the basic constructors that are used in systems or have been introduced in the literature, and the way these constructors can be used to build knowledge bases. Finally, it defines the typical inference problems, shows how they are interrelated, and describes different approaches for effectively solving these problems. Some of the topics that are only briefly mentioned in this chapter will be treated in more detail in subsequent chapters.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
AKI is a major clinical problem and predictor of outcome in hospitalized patients. In 2013, the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) group published the third consensus AKI definition and classification system after the Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss of Kidney Function, and End-Stage Kidney Disease (RIFLE) and the Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) working group systems. It is unclear which system achieves optimal prognostication in hospital patients.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
A retrospective observational study using hospital laboratory, admission, and discharge databases was performed that included adult patients admitted to a teaching hospital in Tokyo, Japan between April 1, 2008, and October 31, 2011. AKI occurring during each hospital stay was identified, and discriminative ability of each AKI classification system based on serum creatinine for the prediction of hospital mortality was assessed. The receiver operating characteristic curve, a graphical measure of test performance, and the area under the curve were used to evaluate how classifications preformed on the study population.

RESULTS
In total, 49,518 admissions were studied, of which 11.0% were diagnosed with RIFLE criteria and 11.6% were diagnosed with KDIGO criteria, but only 4.8% were diagnosed with AKIN criteria. Overall hospital mortality was 3.0%. AKI staging and hospital mortality were closely correlated in all systems. Discrimination for hospital mortality was similar for RIFLE and KDIGO criteria (area under the curve=0.77 versus 0.78; P=0.02), whereas AKIN discrimination was inferior (area under the curve=0.69 versus RIFLE [P<0.001] versus KDIGO [P<0.001]).

CONCLUSION
Among hospital patients, KDIGO and RIFLE criteria achieved similar discrimination, but the discrimination of AKIN was inferior.


The process of coalition formation following the 2017 Bundestag election was the most difficult in German post-war history. For the first time, Germany saw negotiations fail, a minority government being discussed as a real possibility, and the federal president involved as formateur in coalition politics. The aim of this contribution is to explain why government formation was so intricate after the 2017 election. To this end, we trace patterns of party politics and the development of the German party system since 2013. We then study general patterns of government formation at the regional and national levels since the 1990s and evaluate whether these have changed with the advent of the right-wing populist party, Alternative for Germany. Our analysis of the 2017–2018 government formation is based on a novel expert survey of the policy profiles of German parties on various issue dimensions, conducted in 2017. The results show that the continuation of the incumbent coalition government of Christian and Social Democrats was the most likely outcome, and that the Social Democrats were indeed able to enforce a surpassing share of their policy positions in the final negotiation rounds.


Approximately 120 years after its description, this is the first thorough systematic review of the agamid genus Xenagama. Currently, the genus includes two extraordinary species, characterized by strongly discoidal tails. Both species are only known from a few localities in north-eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia and are represented by a small number of specimens in museum collections. Morphological and mitochondrial (16S) DNA sequence data revealed that Xenagama batillifera is a complex of two cryptic species and the reassignment of Acanthocercus zonurus to the genus Xenagama is supported by morphological analyses. Herein, we describe specimens previously recognized as a geographic variant of X. batillifera as a new species and compare it to other whorl-tailed lizards of the genera Xenagama and Acanthocercus from the Horn of Africa, underscoring the significance of this poorly known but important region for agamid evolution. Among other features, the new species is characterized by possessing heterogeneous body scalation, no nuchal crest and no tufts of elongated scales around the ear. Similar to Xenagama batillifera or Xenagama taylori, and distinct to other African agamid lizards, the tail is shorter than the body and head, but the tail base is less discoidal than in X. batillifera or especially X. taylori and gradually merges into the terminal filament. The discoidal part of the tail is arranged in whorls with one scale ring each, whereas the filament is not distinctly whorled.


Demographics are widely used in marketing to characterize different types of customers. However, in practice, demographic information such as age, gender, and location is usually unavailable due to privacy and other reasons. In this paper, we aim to harness the power of big data to automatically infer users' demographics based on their daily mobile communication patterns. Our study is based on a real-world large mobile network of more than 7,000,000 users and over 1,000,000,000 communication records (CALL and SMS). We discover several interesting social strategies that mobile users frequently use to maintain their social connections. First, young people are very active in broadening their social circles, while seniors tend to keep close but more stable connections. Second, female users put more attention on cross-generation interactions than male users, though interactions between male and female users are frequent. Third, a persistent same-gender triadic pattern over one's lifetime is discovered for the first time, while more complex opposite-gender triadic patterns are only exhibited among young people. We further study to what extent users' demographics can be inferred from their mobile communications. As a special case, we formalize a problem of double dependent-variable prediction-inferring user gender and age simultaneously. We propose the WhoAmI method, a Double Dependent-Variable Factor Graph Model, to address this problem by considering not only the effects of features on gender/age, but also the interrelation between gender and age. Our experiments show that the proposed WhoAmI method significantly improves the prediction accuracy by up to 10% compared with several alternative methods.


Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is March 1913, and the grand old city of Moscow is stirring herself to meet the beginning of spring. Change is in the air, and nowhere more so than at 22 Lipka Street, the home of English printer Frank Reid. One day Frank's wife Nellie takes the train back to England, with no explanation, leaving him with their three young children. Into his life comes Lisa Ivanovna, a country girl, untroubled to the point of seeming simple. But is she? And why has Frank's accountant Selwyn, gone to such lengths to bring them together? And who is the passionate Volodya, who breaks into the press at night? Frank sees, but only dimly, that he is a rational man in Moscow, a city where love, and friendship, power and politics, are at their most unfathomable.


We present a new primal-dual interior-point algorithm for linear programming problems with equality and inequality constraints. The inequality constraints are initially removed from the problem and selectively added only if they become active during the solution process. After adding an inequality, the algorithm continues with a series of corrector steps to restore centrality and feasibility. We show that the algorithm converges to an optimal solution at which all inequalities are satisfied regardless of whether they are added to the problem or not. We also establish conditions under which the complexity of the algorithm is polynomial in the problem dimension.


Different concepts often evoke various emotions, positive or negative. The emotions can be related to the understanding and the meaning of the concepts. Two such concepts dealing with femininity are girl ('flicka') and chick ('tjej') and the aim of this study is to linguistically investigate the meaning of these concepts in order to understand the emotions they evoke. The emotions relating to these concepts may have to do with changes over time and therefore I will also study how these concepts have changed over five decades. Theoretically I employ a socio-cultural perspective where language and society are seen as related, and how we use language is seen as a way of constructing society. Methodologically my study is in the field of corpus linguistics, since I use large computerized textcollections for the study of meaning. Meaning in this context is defined as something that is revealed in language use, more specifically, in frequency-based language patterns such as collocations, adjective attributes and lexical relations in relation to the two concepts. My conclusions are that the two concepts flicka and tjej are used very differently through the years. Flicka has decreased in importance – both quantitatively (less used) and qualitatively (in fewer different contexts/about fewer topics). Flicka is also related to more negative attributes, and is used in passive roles. At the same time tjej has increased in importance quantitatively (used more) and qualitatively (more contexts/subjects). Tjej is also at the same time used in relation to positive attributes and in active roles. The changes in usage of flicka and tjej can be seen as interrelated in that there seems to be a matter of a division of labour between the two concepts. Flicka and tjej are used in different contexts and with different functions, which could explain the different emotions towards the concepts.


Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international system in place since the end of World War II has been struggling to find answers to new problems and questions of international responsibility. In his response to "The Politics of Rescue," Winston argues that the real dilemma facing the international system is not a question of what form intervention will take, but rather a question of the existence of political will to act on the humanitarian impulse. While acknowledging the political ramifications of intervention, he argues that once a state can no longer care for its people, the responsibility falls to the international community, with the goal of intervention being the restoration of state capacity. Winston calls for the establishment of the international equivalent of a 911 emergency call number to provide an institutionalized response to such crises, with the risks and costs shared equally among the international community.


Objectives Plastic intravenous containers can be categorised as flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC), flexible non-PVC and semirigid plastic. The characteristics of the container may have an effect on the total volume of fluid delivered, thus impacting the amount of drug a patient receives, but these have been insufficiently studied. This work was an open-label analytical study quantifying the average of the residual volumes for three different types of plastic intravenous containers following infusion under simulated conditions that mimic clinical practice. Methods A total of 280 containers of three different types (seven different brands) were tested. Containers were also separated according to container volume size (50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 ml). Each container size was tested 10 times under non-vented conditions. Results The flexible PVC containers were consistently found to have the lowest mean residual volume of all and were significantly different from the semirigid containers whatever the container size (p<0.05). The flexible non-PVC containers had less residual volume than the semirigid containers for most sizes. Mean residual volumes for the flexible PVC and non-PVC containers were below 5 ml whereas the vast majority of residual volumes for the semirigid containers were above 5 ml. Conclusion The residual volume after gravity drainage differed significantly from one container type to another. High amounts of residual volume in a container may potentially lead to medication errors by which a patient receives suboptimal therapy due to incomplete administration of the drug. This should be taken into consideration when admixing drugs for intravenous infusion.


Successful navigation depends on one's ability to use different visuospatial cues both to maintain a sense of orientation and to recover from disorientation. Although researchers debate the extent to which organisms integrate geometry (e.g., distance/length) with features (e.g., color), there is general consensus that even human children use geometry when reorienting in an enclosed three-dimensional environment (Cheng & Newcombe, 2005). Yet questions remain about which geometric properties support navigational processes such as reorientation. One recent proposal is that geometric properties are neurally dissociable (Spelke, Lee, & Izard, 2010) such that children reorient by relying on distance (i.e., spatial extent from the self to a boundary), not properties of the space itself (e.g., relative wall length; Lee, Sovrano, & Spelke, 2012). However, existing work confounds individual geometric properties (distance/length) with the global shape of the surrounding space. Here we address the impact of this confound. As in previous research, we used fragmented spaces to isolate distance and length. In Experiment 1, distance was available in a rectangular layout whereas length was available in a square layout. Children (Mage = 3.7 years) were better at reorienting using distance than length (p < .05) and were only above chance at localizing a target when using distance (p < .05), replicating Lee and colleagues. In Experiment 2, we dissociated distance/length from global shape by adding appendages to the ends of the walls and preventing perceptual completion. Children (Mage = 3.9 years) were now above chance at using length (p < .05) to localize a target, with no difference between length and distance conditions (p > .3). These findings demonstrate that human children are capable of using different geometric properties for the purpose of reorientation and suggest that a distance advantage, when it exists, may be a consequence of the overall shape of the environment. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Osteoporosis is a multi-factorial disorder in which nutrition and lifestyle play an important role. There were two main reasons for doing this study. The purpose of the first part of the study was to determine the prevalence of nutritional and lifestyle factors related to bone health in a group of senior citizens from the Manawatu who were over the age of 70 years. This was followed by an intervention trial in which the purpose was to assess the impact of a single serve of a high-calcium milk on bone resorption using two ingestion strategies. Calcium, magnesium and zinc intakes were below currently recommended levels in many of the study participants. Some of the participants and particularly those in rest homes received very little sunlight exposure and low dietary vitamin D. Participants spent an average of around 3.5 hours/day in physical activity. Weight-bearing activities such as walking, gardening and certain sports were common in this group. Institutionalised women were most compromised by nutrition and lifestyle. Dietary supplementation may therefore benefit many in this group. Of the 52 participants in the diet and lifestyle study, a group of 28 women and 14 men volunteered to take part in an intervention trial, which was approved by the Massey University Human Ethics Committee. The mean calcium intake of trial participants was only 70% of the current US recommended adequate intake (AI). Each person consumed a supplementary serve of 250mls of high calcium milk (640mg Ca), every evening for two weeks. Half consumed a whole dose one hour before bedtime (single serve group), whilst the rest consumed the milk in three divided doses of 80mls every hour before bedtime (divided dose group). Free deoxypyridinoline (Dpd), a biochemical marker of bone resorption, was measured in urine that was collected overnight on two consecutive days before and after two weeks of milk intervention. In the single serve group Dpd was 4.15 ± 1.99 at the start and 3.94 ± 2.15 mmol/mmol creatinine after two weeks (NS). In the divided dose group Dpd was 4.25 ± 2.21 at the start and 4.79 ± 2.27 mmol/mmol creatinine after two weeks (NS). In conclusion, a supplementary serve of milk in this group of elderly people did not produce significant changes in urinary Dpd, whether the milk was consumed as the whole amount or in divided doses.


This dissertation critically examines the concerns of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in relation to the methodological presuppositions in the works of Jon Sobrino, SJ. In the context of the poor of El Salvador, Sobrino formulates his Christology through the Jesus of history who preached the liberating praxis of the kingdom of God. By focusing on a low Christology, Sobrino intends to correct that high Christology, often favoured in comfortable places, that tends to ignore the truly historical and kenotic aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation. The study highlights the view that all theology is contextual and hermeneutical, thus the Christ of faith does not exist in a transtemporal vacuum but arises out of the dialectic interplay between revelation and history. When context and historical setting is afforded its rightful place in theological method, then we can understand Sobrino's contention that the Church of the poor is the ecclesial setting for Christology in Latin America, a view which the Congregation rejects. The study also investigates Sobrino's claims that the dogmatic formulas of the early Councils are "dangerous" and offers some plausible suggestions as to why Sobrino uses such strong language. The final issue to be discussed will be Sobrino's contention that the conciliar dogmatics represent a "hellenization of Christianity," a view which the Congregation also rejects. In each of these issues raised by the Congregation, the intention of the study is to illustrate that the positions of the two parties should be viewed as complementary and not mutually exclusive, so that a constructive dialogue Liberation as Contextual Crossroad 4 might be set in place and so lead us further into the mystery of the


Quorum sensing (QS) is a density-dependent gene regulation signalling mechanism utilized by bacteria to enable the simultaneous expression of bacterial phenotypes in a given population. Several QS mechanisms and different classes of signalling molecules, including acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), have now been identified in numerous bacterial species. AHL production by clinical and laboratory isolates of Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni has been investigated in this study.

Laboratory, blood and urine E.coli isolates were analysed via three reporter strain bioassays for putative AHL production. The initial results indicated that the E.coli blood isolates produced a compound(s) capable of activating one of the bioassays. Subsequent analysis by thin layer chromatography and mass spectroscopy suggested that this active compound may have been a cyclic dipeptide, although the apparent inability to isolate subsequent samples of this active compound has prevented confirmation of this finding. All of the C. jejuni isolates tested induced activity in the Agrobacterium liquid culture bioassay, in a growth-dependant manner, indicating the possible presence of an exogenous AHL. Comparative analysis of the genome sequenced C. jejuni strain, NCTC 11 168-GS and its clinical counterpart, C. jejuni NCTC 11168-0, has indicated that these variants respond differently to changes in the levels of dissolved oxygen and toxic oxygen derivatives and as a consequence produce different levels of the active compound. FIPLC separation and HPLC-mass spectroscopy has indicated that this active compound may be N-hexadecanoylhomoserine lactone, providing preliminary evidence of a previously unidentified AHL-mediated QS mechanism within the Epsilon Prozeobacteria class.


This paper aims to investigate the evolution of economic theories that explain firms' internationalization and the development of foreign direct investments. Arguments are intended to show that theoretical approaches in this field are rooted in the period of classical theories of the international trade. Theoretic fundamentals regarding the internationalization of the firm comprise of the literature review, mentioning the main theoretical trends based of which present understanding on transnational companies is formulated. Conclusions show that as the complexity of larger companies' activity increases, the need for a new theoretical development to explain the relationships among different economic actors appears. Also, the evolution of the economic theories shows that a single theory cannot explain by itself the complexity of the present and especially of the future economic environment.


An enzyme involved in gluconeogenesis inhibits HIF activity through a noncatalytic mechanism. When oxygen is limiting, cells adjust their metabolism through the transcription factors hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs). Loss of function of VHL, a protein necessary to maintain the low abundance of HIFs under normoxic conditions, results in constitutively active HIFs and contributes to some forms of cancer, in particular clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC). Li et al. found through metabolomic analysis that primary human ccRCCs had higher glucose metabolism but lower gluconeogenesis than matched normal kidney tissue. The tumors universally had reduced or undetectable amounts of the enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase 1 (FBP1). Knockdown of endogenous FBP1 enhanced the proliferation of HK-2 cells, a proximal tubule cell line. Ectopic expression of FBP1 (to amounts similar to those in HK-2 cells) in a ccRCC line inhibited tumor growth when xenografted in mice and inhibited anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent growth in culture. Ectopic expression of FBP1 in ccRCC cells reduced glycolysis and the amount of NADPH, effects that were suppressed by reintroduction of VHL, indicating that these effects of FBP1 depended on the aberrantly stabilized HIF proteins. Ectopic expression of FBP1 in ccRCC cells inhibited HIF transcriptional activity, and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis of these cells showed that both HIF-1α and FBP1 were present on the HIF target gene promoters. Expression of an FBP1 point mutant that lacks catalytic activity, but not one with a nuclear export sequence, inhibited HIF target gene expression, reduced cell proliferation, and altered glucose metabolism. Coimmunoprecipitation and glutathione-S-transferase pull-down experiments with HIF proteins and FBP1 showed that a region in the N-terminal domain of FBP1 and the HIF inhibitory domain interacted. Thus, FBP1 functions as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting HIF activity to block protumorigenic changes in cellular metabolism. B. Li, B. Qiu, D. S. M. Lee, Z. E. Walton, J. D. Ochocki, L. K. Mathew, A. Mancuso, T. P. F. Gade, B. Keith, I. Nissim, M. C. Simon, Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase opposes renal carcinoma progression. Nature 513, 251–255 (2014). [PubMed]


This paper investigates the tactile possibilities of human interaction with synthetic biomorphic surfaces through an interdisciplinary collaboration between arts, materials science, mechanical, and electronics engineering. We created a breathing wall (BRALL) composed of nine silicone-based tiles that feel like flesh, breathe, emit sound, and respond to touch by pneumatic activation that is enabled by soft robotics technology. We believe combining a flesh-like material with soft motion and tactile responsiveness brings us a step closer to replicating/imitating organic life. We also question the potential of interacting with synthetic structures and what the social and cognitive implications of such


Introduction Man's inhumanity for man still knows no boundaries, as we continue as a species as a whole to engage in war. According to Kohn's Dictionary of Wars [1], of over 3,700 years of recorded history, there have been a total of 3,010 wars. One is hard pressed to actually find a period of time in which here has not been an active conflict in the globe. The world has experienced two world wars: WWI (1914–1918) and WWII (1939–1945). The total number of military casualties in WWI was over 37 million, while WWII so far, has been the deadliest military conflict in history with over 60 million people killed accounting for slightly over 2.5 % of the world's population. Material and methods The purpose of this study is to review contemporary wars and their contributions to vascular injury management. It is precisely wartime contributions that have led to the more precise identification and management of these injuries resulting in countless lives and extremities saved. However, surgeons dealing with vascular injuries have faced a tough and arduous road. Their journey was initiated by surgical mavericks which undaunted, pressed on against all odds guided by William Stewart Halsted's classic statement in 1912: ''One of the chief fascinations in surgery is the management of wounded vessels.'' Conclusion Contemporary wars of the XX–XXI centuries gave birth, defined and advanced the field of vascular injury management.


Child's dress of black & tan woven cotton check/plaid. Full-length, with high, rounded collar. Set in black taffeta full-length sleeves with wide cuffs of the black/tan check, secured with two mother of pearl buttons each. Natural waist. Hem with wide band of ruffled black taffeta and a plain band of black taffeta running slightly above hem. Patch pocket at right hip composed of plaid panels formed as a "vest", with black taffeta ruffle filling in center, and three non-functioning circular mother of pearl buttons on slight curve following edge of "vest" front non-functioning opening. Center back opening with 9 circular mother of pearl buttons and hook & loop at neckline.


The authors report a strong field effect observed at room temperature in epitaxially synthesized, as opposed to exfoliated, graphene. The graphene formed on the silicon face of a 4H silicon carbide substrate was photolithographically patterned into isolated active regions for the semimetal graphene-based transistors. Gold electrodes and a polymer dielectric were used in the top-gate transistors. The demonstration of a field effect mobility of 535cm2∕Vs was attributed to the transistor geometry that maximizes conductance modulation, although the mobility is lower than observed in exfoliated graphene possibly due to grain boundaries caused by the rough morphology of the substrate surface.


Nesprins comprise a family of multi-isomeric scaffolding proteins that bind to lamin A/C, emerin and SUN1/2 at the nuclear envelope (NE) to form the linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (LINC) complex. Mutations in nesprin-1 and -2 contribute to Emery–Dreifuss muscular dystrophy and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Following mutation screening in Syne-1 and -2 genes in 218 DCM patients and 210 healthy controls, we identified 7 patients harbouring three novel nesprin-1 mutations (R434Q, S566C, N591K) in the C-terminus of nesprin-1α, an evolutionarily conserved region containing the lamin and emerin binding domains. To explore roles of nesprin-1 in the pathogenesis of DCM, overexpression of GFP-tagged wildtype and nesprin-1α mutant constructs was performed. Nesprin-1α localised to the NE in all transfected cells, however, cells transfected with the S566C construct showed significantly increased numbers of convoluted nuc lei. Immunofluorescence demonstrated lamin A/C was mislocalised by the S566C mutant construct and SUN2 was mislocalised by all mutants. GST pull-down showed all nesprin-1 mutants had significantly reduced binding affinity to lamin A. Furthermore, GFP tagged nesprin-1 KASH and three mutants dramatically increased the amount of pERK compared with GFP alone and nesprin-1 WT in transfected myoblasts. In addition, WB showed significant up-regulation of ERK activity in both EDMD-DCM patient cells and nesprin-1 KASH knockout mice hearts, suggesting that nesprin-1 mutations can deregulate ERK signalling in the heart. These data suggest the nesprin mutants disrupt the LINC, uncoupling the NE from the cytoskeleton and leading to aberrant activation of mechanotransduction signalling; processes that may underlie the mechanism of cardiomyopathy.


The Chinese state does not allow rural collectives to sell land, but takes land from them and makes it available on the urban property market. While rural land rights are thus easily obliterated, the newly created urban rights in what used to be rural land enjoy legal protection. The state justifies these land takings by the need for urbanization and economic growth. The takings have resulted in an impressive contribution of the construction and property sector to state revenue and GDP growth, but also in unfairness toward peasants evicted from their land and homes. The example discussed here shows that certain economic theories of property rights are consistent with discrimination and should therefore be rejected. A further conclusion is that we must reconsider the claim that property rights are desirable because they serve economic growth. The discussion here contributes to an understanding of property in terms of dignity, rather than wealth.