The human body requires energy for numerous functions including, growth, thermogenesis, reproduction, cellular maintenance, and movement. In sports nutrition, energy availability (EA) is defined as the energy available to support these basic physiological functions and good health once the energy cost of exercise is deducted from energy intake (EI), relative to an athlete's fat-free mass (FFM). Low EA provides a unifying theory to link numerous disorders seen in both female and male athletes, described by the syndrome Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, and related to restricted energy intake, excessive exercise or a combination of both. These outcomes are incurred in different dose-response patterns relative to the reduction in EA below a "healthy" level of ∼45 kcal·kg FFM-1·day-1. Although EA estimates are being used to guide and monitor athletic practices, as well as support a diagnosis of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, problems associated with the measurement and interpretation of EA in the field should be explored. These include the lack of a universal protocol for the calculation of EA, the resources needed to achieve estimates of each of the components of the equation, and the residual errors in these estimates. The lack of a clear definition of the value for EA that is considered "low" reflects problems around its measurement, as well as differences between individuals and individual components of "normal"/"healthy" function. Finally, further investigation of nutrition and exercise behavior including within- and between-day energy spread and dietary characteristics is warranted since it may directly contribute to low EA or its secondary problems.


This article describes the parental alienation syndrome, its proposed characteristics and dynamics, and the methods used to document its presence. Research related to various tenets of the parental alienation syndrome is then reviewed. Finally, the syndrome's utility for mental health professionals and courts in explaining allegations of sexual abuse in situations of divorce is evaluated.


This collection of papers contributes to a wide and ongoing strand of interest in alternative learning technologies: how are digitally-enabled ways of working transforming organisations? In 'transformation' we look for radical change, rather than just doing the same at a different scale. And in organisations we centre on educational institutions – across the full range of schooling, training, further and higher education – while recognising that conventional boundaries are increasingly broken as different kinds of organisations invest in digitally-enabled learning.


The problem of computing a route for a mobile agent that incrementally fuses the data as it visits the nodes in a distributed sensor network is considered. The order of nodes visited along the route has a significant impact on the quality and cost of fused data, which, in turn, impacts the main objective of the sensor network, such as target classification or tracking. We present a simplified analytical model for a distributed sensor network and formulate the route computation problem in terms of maximizing an objective function, which is directly proportional to the received signal strength and inversely proportional to the path loss and energy consumption. We show this problem to be NP-complete and propose a genetic algorithm to compute an approximate solution by suitably employing a two-level encoding scheme and genetic operators tailored to the objective function. We present simulation results for networks with different node sizes and sensor distributions, which demonstrate the superior performance of our algorithm over two existing heuristics, namely, local closest first and global closest first methods.


This report specifically deals with air pollution, which was reported, by the World Health Organization (WHO), as the single largest environmental health risk globally in 2012 (WHO, 2014a). Air pollution from outdoor and household sources jointly account for more than 7 million deaths (3.7 million from ambient air pollution and 4.3 million from household air pollution). The following sections of this chapter present the objectives of, and key aspects of the institutional context for, this report followed by an examination of some of the major drivers of deteriorating ambient air quality in developing countries; air pollution sources and impacts; and the status of air quality management in developing countries. Chapter two presents the results of a desk-based portfolio review of World Bank projects that are relevant to reduction of air pollution. This is followed, in chapter three, by an examination of case studies of World Bank projects whose objectives include addressing ambient air pollution, highlighting good practices and lessons for future work of the Bank in supporting clients. Chapter four presents possible approaches for enhancing future Bank support in helping clients to improve air quality and reduce the associated adverse health outcomes. Chapter five presents overall conclusions and recommendations.


With the field of sex offender treatment is in its infancy, there is a tack of clarity concerning nearly all aspects of offending behaviour, from theoretical frameworks that explain why the offending occurs, to the effectiveness of different treatment techniques. This study sought to gain insight into workers' understandings of the phenomenon of child sexual offending, and how these understandings informed their responses to child sex offender treatment. Locating the 'sense making' of workers within the context of a four dimensional systematic integration model; personal, professional. organisational and social influences and impacts were also explored. Currently practicing with child sex offenders, participants came from both statutory and non-statutory organisations. Based on a case study methodology, semi structured interviews were utilised to identify, acknowledge and validate the experiences of these workers, who seemed to previously have been overlooked within the literature. Research findings revealed for the workers in the study 'practice' with child sexual offenders does not happen in isolation. The practice of the worker is significantly impacted by the organisational and professional context of the work, by social attitudes towards child sex offenders and by personal feelings and reactions of the worker towards child sex offenders. The results importantly also indicate the often little recognised area of the impact of the work environment on the personal lives of the workers. The results also demonstrated a clear need for further support, training and professional development for workers in this area. The results raise issues in relation to the type and duration of practice expertise required by workers entering this area of practice. This sharing of these 'sense making' experiences, understandings and responses provided a valuable and enlightening contribution to the emerging body of knowledge on child sex offenders, child sex offender treatment, and more importantly, those workers who practice at the coalface.


Contemporary research documents various psychological aspects of economic thought and decision-making. The main goal of our study is to analyze the role of the hindsight bias (Fischhoff [20]) and the anchoring bias (Tversky and Kahneman [53]) in perceiving economic and financial information, and, in particular, the gender differences in the degree of these biases. Hindsight bias denotes people's tendency to overestimate, in hindsight, how predictable an outcome was in foresight, while anchoring bias refers to people's tendency to form their estimates for different categories, starting from a particular available, and often irrelevant, value and insufficiently adjusting their final judgments from this starting value. We carry out an experiment involving a group of MBA students, asking them to recall a number of recent economic and financial indicators (stock and bond market index returns, rates of inflation, currency exchange rates, etc.). We for document that significant hindsight and anchoring bias are exhibited, on average, each of our experimental questions and by vast majority of the participants. Furthermore, we document that women are more strongly affected by both behavioral biases. Possible reasons for this difference and potential implications are discussed.


"Among the Believers" is V. S. Naipaul's classic account of his journeys through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia; 'the believers' are the Muslims he met on those journeys, young men and women battling to regain the original purity of their faith in the hope of restoring order to a chaotic world. It is a uniquely valuable insight into modern Islam, and the comforting simplifications of religious fanaticism. 'The edgy exactitude of Naipaul's writing is both effortlessly classical and yet at the same time brilliantly contemporary, as sharp and lucid as a spear of glass...He is inimitable, truly great and truly deserving of the Nobel' - "Observer".


The reaction of 3-(dimethylamino)-2,2-dimethyl-2H-azirine (1a) with 4,S-dihydro-7,8-dimethoxy-l,2-benzothiazepin-3-one 1,1-dioxide (4) in dioxane at room temperature gave the correspondingly substituted 4H-1,2,5- benzothiadiazecin-6-one 1,1-dioxide 5a in 64% yield (Scheme 2). The structure of this novel ten-membered ring-enlargement product was established by X-ray crystallography (Fig.). Under more vigorous conditions (refluxing dichloroethane), 5a was formed together with the isomeric 6a, both in low yield. The 3-(dimethylamino)-2H-azirines 1b and 1c reacted sluggishly to give the two isomeric ring-enlargement products of type 5 and 6 in yields of 24-29 % and 2-4 % , respectively (Table 1 ). Even less reactive is 2,2-dimethyl-3-(N-methyl-N-phenylamino)-2H-azirine (1d), which reacted with 4 in MeCN only at 65°. Under these conditions, besides numerous decomposition products, only traces of 5d and 6d were formed. No ring enlargement was observed with the sterically crowded 1e, which bears an isopropyl group at C(2).


Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given. (3 Nephi 1:13–14)


This article is based on an interview study of how 10 young male crime victims talk about violent events and actors involved. It focuses on how the young men present their identities as 'young men' who have been victims of violent crimes. In their narrations the men struggle with a cultural understanding that 'masculinity' is associated with strength and power, while 'victim' is associated with weakness and impotence. During the interviews the young men actualize several balancing acts in their presentation of themselves as men and victims in a delicate manner by use of specific word choice, manner of speaking, laughter, etc. The young men are negotiating a victim identity; they portray themselves by careful positioning as both victims and strong, active young men. By this discursive balancing of identities the young men present themselves as manly at the same time as they present themselves as victims. In collaboration with the interviewer the participants negotiate how they want to be known: as 'victim-worthy' young men, with associations to a 'hegemonic manliness'.


Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) uses sinusoidal drive fields to excite the magnetic nanoparticles. These time-varying magnetic fields form electric fields within the body, which in turn can cause peripheral nerve stimulation, also known as magnetostimulation. In this work, we propose a design for a human head-size magnetostimulation coil with a Rutherford cable winding. This design achieves 12-fold decrease in the voltages needed to generate a given magnetic field, facilitating the safety of human subject experiments. With electromagnetic simulations, we determine the electric field patterns on a human head model to determine the potential primary locations of magnetostimulation.

Int. J. Mag. Part. Imag. 6(2), Suppl. 1, 2020, Article ID: 2009063, DOI: 10.18416/IJMPI.2020.2009063


We developed an on–line experimental system for conducting hybrid experiments in real time. It combines a computer, which conducts vibration simulation and generates a control signal, and a hydraulic actuator, which conducts a vibration experiment driven by the control signal. This system compensates for actuator delay and thus enables experiments to be carried out in real time. We evaluated the stability of the experiments with respect to the mass of the structure under excitation, and we developed a new method for compensating actuator delay in order to increase the stability condition. In this method, the compensated control signal is generated from the simulation results by using not only displacement but also velocity and acceleration. This method provides a stability criterion (allowable ratio of mass of the structure under excitation to that of a numerical model) about three times larger than that from the current method.


Summary

1. Species traits have been frequently used in ecological studies in an attempt to develop a general ecological framework linking biological communities to habitat pressures. The trait approach offers a mechanistic alternative to traditional taxonomy-based descriptors. This review focuses on research employing traits as biomonitoring tools for freshwater ecosystems, although the lessons learned have wider application in the assessment of other ecosystem types.

2. We review the support from ecological theory to employ species traits for biomonitoring purposes (e.g. the habitat templet concept, landscape filtering hypothesis), and the subsequent studies that test the hypotheses arising from these theories, and apply this knowledge under real freshwater biomonitoring scenarios. We also include studies that deal with more specific issues such as trait trade-offs and trait syndromes.

3. We highlight the functional trait approach as one of the most promising tools emerging for biomonitoring freshwater ecosystems. Several technical issues are addressed and solutions are proposed. We discuss the need for: a broader unified trait biomonitoring tool; a more accurate understanding of the natural variation of community patterns of trait expression; approaches to diminish the effects of trait trade-offs and trait syndromes; additional life history and ecological requirement studies; and the detection of specific impacts under multiple stressor scenarios.

4. Synthesis and applications. This review provides biologists with the conceptual underpinning for the use of species traits as community descriptors and for freshwater biomonitoring and management. We expect that the functional trait approach will ultimately improve communication to managers and legislators of the importance of protecting freshwater ecosystem functions.


Fiscal Measures for Energy Sustainability Act 15/2012, modified by 16/2013 Act, established in Spain four new environmental taxes and extended the scope objective excise duties on mineral oils to tax the use of natural gas and coal as sources of electricity. One of the newly created taxes falls on all electric power producers, and has as tax base the turnover. The second one tax hydropower production and the other two fall on the nuclear industry. So, there are two new taxes in Spain on the production of electricity from nuclear sources. The first one is a tax on nuclear waste production; the second one is a tax on the storage of nuclear waste. However, these are not the only levies in the Spanish tax system affecting nuclear waste. At the State level there are already several charges on nuclear waste. At the regional level, on the other hand, two Autonomous Communities were taxing nuclear waste. The creation of these new State taxes will finish with the regional taxes, but the State will be oblige to compensate these regions for losing revenues. The purpose of this work is to carry out a critical analysis of the Spanish system of taxation on nuclear waste.


In order to overcome the limitations of the purely deductive approaches to query answering from ontologies, inductive (instance-based) methods have been proposed as efficient and noise-tolerant tools. In this paper we propose an original approach based on non-parametric learning: the Reduced Coulomb Energy Network classifier. The method requires a limited training effort (more than nearest neighbor yet less than kernel machines) but can turn out to be very effective in the classification phase.Casting retrieval as the problem of assessing class-memberships w.r.t. the query concepts, we propose an extension of classification algorithm using a Reduced Coulomb Energy Network based on an entropic similarity measure for OWL. Experimentally we show that the behavior of the classifier is comparable with the one of a standard reasoner and is often more efficient than with other inductive approaches. Moreover we show that new knowledge (not logically derivable) is induced.


This paper sheds new light on the economic logic of voluntary associations and the relationship between individual contribution and collective action. The aims are twofold. Firstly, we seek to explain how "team reasoning" (Bacharach et al. 2006) can deeply change the functioning of voluntary associations (which are considered to produce a public good) when some or all of the individual members group together to make collective decisions about their involvement or contribution, rather than deciding separately. Secondly, we seek to better understand the effects of heterogeneity of resources on individual involvement, in terms of both the budget constraints of individual members and their capacity to contribute differentiated non-monetary contributions to the association, in relation to the diversity of their personal abilities and preferences about the characteristics of the good produced. To this end, we use a model of voluntary association collectively producing a public good, where monetary contributions (compulsory fees plus voluntary donations) is combined with volunteering. We analyze the conditions for an association to offer profitable conditions to its members and the consequences that can be drawn in terms of its existence and size. We show that, at equilibrium, the level of voluntary contributions is ceteris paribus higher when individuals make their decisions on the basis of team-reasoning rather than individually. We analyze the role played by heterogeneity of incomes in the formation of teams within associations. We then introduce the concept of subjective quality into the basic model. The originality of the model is that we assume the public good to be characterized by at least two main components: quantity and quality. The quantity is considered here as a purely public component, insofar as all the members benefit equally from it. However, the quality of the public good is assumed to be a mixed (public and private) component. The agents can enjoy part of it in the same way, but there may be certain characteristics of quality that are difficult or impossible to measure objectively. Quality is always somewhat subjective, to the extent that perfect correspondence with the preferences of heterogeneous agents is unlikely to occur. In our model, the agents can contribute money and/or time and effort. The latter, which we call volunteering, allows them to influence the quality of the good (or service) provided according to their own preferences.


The time-dependence of molecular evolution, specifically over short timescales, has been shown to be a major confounding factor in the analysis of nucleotide changes between closely related strains or species. The assumption that selection works extremely quickly to purge all of the deleterious changes is at odds with the Nearly Neutral model of evolution, whereby the majority of changes are only mildly deleterious and therefore impose only a minor fitness cost so they are relatively rapidly purged only in populations with large effective population sizes. The aim of this project was to explore the patterns of nucleotide changes evident between the core genomes of nine E. coli and Shigella strains, with the latter having adopted a specific ecological niche in the recent evolutionary past. The Shigellae and E. coli show little difference in their extant genome compositions, in terms of nucleotide composition and genome size, however there are a markedly higher number of pseudogenes and insertion sequences present in the Shigella genomes. The polymorphism profiles of the core genomes reveal a time-dependency of dN/dS, Ti/Tv, +AT/+GC and the Metabolic cost of Amino acid changes, the nucleotide data showing a clear separation of the E. coli from the Shigellae, with the latter showing trends indicative of weaker purifying selection. Additionally these differences are evident when examining the nucleotide ratios (+AT/+GC & Ti/Tv) along the core genome, also revealing patterns of evolution associated with genome position. A simulation based approach reveals different projected nucleotide contents for the E. coli and Shigellae genomes further highlighting their different evolutionary paths as evident from the polymorphism profiles. The methods employed and developed in this study provide a useful and effective toolset for examining the evolution of bacterial genomes over short timescales, especially in light of the availability of multiple whole genome sequences for a given 'species'.


The estimation of age is an important activity and is commonly carried in medico legal area. Assessment of age is often required while administering justice to an individual. The times of eruption of temporary and permanent teeth are fairly constant and assessment of age of an individual by examination of teeth is an accepted method of age determination. The assessment of dental age is useful in the planning of orthodontic treatment, in paediatric dentistry, paediatric endocrinology and forensic medicine. It also adds important knowledge of growth and development to human biology. Various methods are used in orthodontics to evaluate the age of a patient. Chronological age is defined by birth date and skeletal age can be assessed, for example, by hand wrist ossification.


Evolving a large scale, highly variable systems is a challenging task. For such a system, evolution operations often require to update consistently both their implementation and its feature model. In this context, the evolution of the feature model closely follows the evolution of the system. The purpose of this work is to show that fine-grained feature changes can be used to guide the evolution of the highly variable system. In this paper, we present an approach to obtain finegrained feature model changes with its supporting tool "FMDiff". Our approach is tailored for Kconfig-based variability models and proposes a feature change classification detailing changes in features, their attributes and attribute values. We apply our approach to the Linux kernel feature model, extracting feature changes occurring in sixteen official releases. In contrast to previous studies we found that feature modifications are responsible for most of the changes. Then, by taking advantage of the multi-platform aspect of the Linux kernel, we observe the effects of a feature change across the different architecture-specific feature models of the kernel. We found that between 10 and 50% of feature changes impact all the architecture-specific feature models, offering a new perspective on studies of the evolution of the Linux feature model and development practices of its developers.


Presents new principles for online monitoring in the context of multiprocessors (especially massively parallel processors) and then focuses on the effect of the aliasing probability on the error detection process. In the proposed test architecture, concurrent testing (or online monitoring) at the system level is accomplished by enforcing the run-time testing of the data and control dependences of the algorithm currently being executed on the parallel computer. In order to help in this process, each message contains both source and destination addresses. At each message source, the sequence of destination addresses of the outgoing messages is compressed on a block basis. At the same time, at each destination, the sequence of source addresses of all incoming messages is compressed, also on a block basis. Concurrent compression of the instructions executed by the PEs is also possible. As a result of this procedure, an image of the data dependences and of the control flow of the currently running algorithm is created. This image is compared, at the end of each computational block, with a reference image created at compilation time. The main results of this work are in proposing new principles for the online system-level testing of multiprocessor systems, based on signaturing and monitoring the data dependences together with the control dependences, and in providing an analytical model and analysis for the address compression process used for monitoring the data routing process. >


Chiral sulfoxides are in extremely high demand in nearly every sector of the chemical industry concerned with the design and development of new synthetic reagents, drugs, and functional materials. The primary objective of this review is to update readers on the latest developments from the past five years (2011-2016) in the preparation of optically active sulfoxides. Methodologies covered include catalytic asymmetric sulfoxidation using either chemical, enzymatic, or hybrid biocatalytic means; kinetic resolution involving oxidation to sulfones, reduction to sulfides, modification of side chains, and imidation to sulfoximines; as well as various other methods including nucleophilic displacement at the sulfur atom for the desymmetrization of achiral sulfoxides, enantioselective recognition and separation based on either metal-organic frameworks (MOF's) or host-guest chemistry, and the Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction. A second goal of this work concerns a critical discussion of the problem of the accurate determination of the stereochemical outcome of a reaction due to the self-disproportionation of enantiomers (SDE) phenomenon, particularly as it relates to chiral sulfoxides. The SDE is a little-appreciated phenomenon that can readily and spontaneously occur for scalemic samples when subjected to practically any physicochemical process. It has now been unequivocally demonstrated that ignorance in the SDE phenomenon inevitably leads to erroneous interpretation of the stereochemical outcome of catalytic enantioselective reactions, in particular, for the synthesis of chiral sulfoxides. It is hoped that this two-pronged approach to covering the chemistry of chiral sulfoxides will be appealing, engaging, and motivating for current research-active authors to respond to in their future publications in this exciting area of current research.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


The European Community Regulation on Chemicals (REACH) is supposed to be a modern and intelligent regulation. It entered into effect on June 1, 2007 and remains in its implementation phase. The modern and intelligent aspects primarily lie in the way in which self-responsible action on the part of the norm addressees should be linked with sovereign elements of the European Commission and the member states of the European Union. Especially given that many experiences have been collected since the beginning of the REACH implementation in 2007, it is worth focusing on some aspects in further detail now, especially with respect to the ambitious aims and expectations associated with this regulation.
"The purpose of this Regulation is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment, including the promotion of alternative methods for assessment of hazards of substances, as well as the free circulation of substances on the international market while enhancing competitiveness and innovation. […] This Regulation is based on the principle that it is for manufacturers, importers and downstream users to ensure that they manufacture, place on the market or use such substances that do not adversely affect human health or the environment. […]" (Article 1 REACH-Regulation). In order to contribute to better regulation – particularly within the European legislation – many means and procedures have been invented and established. The umbrella term under which all of these efforts can be merged is named Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). The work in hand applies some means of the RIA toolbox to study aspects of the REACH-Regulation in depth. Collectively, three papers focus on prerequisites for the regulation of risk communication in supply chains with respect to the REACH-Regulation. The considerations and results presented in this work have been acquired under the Responsive Regulation of Innovation Behavior for Sustainability research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)). According to the three papers, the structure of the work in hand has three parts, A, B and C.
"The European Community Regulation on Chemicals REACH (EC) No 1907/2006: Considerations on the relation between positions and downstream risk communication within supply chains from the perspective of game theory" is the title of the first paper which constitute part A. As the title already suggests, in this paper game theory is used as an RIA tool to study the way in which positions in a supply chain influence the shape of downstream risk communication. Under the research hypothesis "The respective position within a supply chain influences the form of downstream risk communication", it is shown that stable downstream risk communication in the form of equilibria emerges and that the quality of the emerging downstream risk communication is sensitive to the different positions in the supply chain that are analyzed here.
In order to change the viewing direction from downstream to upstream risk communication, part B contains a paper entitled "The European Community Regulation on Chemicals REACH (EC) No 1907/2006: Incentives for upstream risk communication within supply chains – considerations from the perspective of game theory". Again, game theory is used as an RIA tool to explore the hypothesis "There exists no incentive for upstream risk communication in compliance with REACH within the supply chain". The results from the equilibrium analysis demonstrate that the normative requirements set forth by REACH in this context could be met under certain conditions. Especially this paper derives its importance through the fact that elaborations on the functioning of upstream risk communication are difficult to find, in comparison to reflections on downstream risk communication. However, one key element of REACH is the implementation of risk communication that works in both directions, upstream and downstream.
Alongside game theory, the means of experimental economics are also appropriate in the context of RIA. Besides risk communication up and down the supply chain, self-responsible action on the part of norm addressees is another key element of REACH. Accordingly, part C of the work in hand addresses issues of self-responsible behavior on part of the norm addressees. Under the title "Smart regulation of downstream communication in a supply chain – experimental evidence", prerequisites and factors are studied that self-responsible behavior – in compliance with the normative requirements set forth by REACH – may help to happen. This is achieved by exploring the two hypotheses "If they are not sanctioned for non-compliant behavior, the actors will choose the form of downstream communication that brings them the highest cooperation gain possible, even if this form is not conformable to law" and "If non-compliant behavior is not sanctioned, the way of dividing the cooperation gain made through a form of downstream communication between two norm addressees is independent of whether this form is conformable to law". The results show that self-responsible norm-compliant behavior does not emerge automatically and reveal factors that seem to be crucial in this context. This third paper is jointly work together with Kilian Bizer, who contributed to this paper by interpreting the results through offering an explanation titled 'compensation for possible cognitive dissonances'.
All three papers presented in the parts A to C constitute the cumulative dissertation of Stephan Hensel, who is grateful to all persons who contributed to prepare this work in hand.


Treatment for breast cancer can result in reduced quality of life (QoL), psychological and physical well-being. Evidence suggests that exercise may be of therapeutic benefit for breast cancer patients. To date, however, no randomised controlled trial in the UK has examined the effects of aerobic exercise therapy upon QoL and associated outcomes in women who have completed breast cancer treatment. Furthermore no trial has included an exercise-placebo and a usual care group to control for possible attention effects arising from instructor-patient interaction. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to examine the effects of a supervised one-to-one aerobic exercise-therapy intervention upon QoL and associated outcomes in women who had completed treatment for breast cancer 12-36 months previously. Additional aims of the thesis were to provide detailed information about participants' adherence to the trial interventions and to examine the most effective methods of recruitment into the trial. A qualitative study was also included to explore the personal exercise experiences of participants who took part in the exercise therapy and exercise-placebo interventions.The sample consisted of 108 sedentary women who had been treated for breast cancer 12-36 months previously. The mean age of the participants was 51 years (age range 32-65years). The primary route of recruitment was via clinician invitation letters. Participants were randomised to one of three groups: exercise therapy (n=34), exercise-placebo (n=36) or usual care (n=38). The exercise therapy and exercise-placebo groups attended one-to-one supervised sessions three times a week for a period of eight weeks (24 sessions in total). The exercise therapy group participated in moderate intensity aerobic exercise and received exercise counselling designed to promote exercise participation. The exercise-placebo group participated in light flexibility, mobility and body conditioning exercises and did not receive exercise counselling.Repeated measures mixed analyses of covariance (controlling for baseline scores) revealed a significant mean difference of 9.8 units in the primary outcome (QoL), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G)-General scale, favouring exercise therapy at eight week follow-up relative to usual care. The exercise placebo group did not report similar statistical significant benefits. Significant differences favouring exercise therapy relative to usual care were found for FACT-B (breast cancer specific QoL), social/family well-being, functional well-being and breast specific concerns subscales. Outcomes including depression, physical self-worth and aerobic fitness improved significantly in the exercise therapy group compared to usual care. Adherence to both exercise interventions was excellent. The estimated trial recruitment rate based on clinician invitation was 28.6%.Findings from the qualitative study revealed participants perceived the exercise interventions had accelerated their psychological and physical recovery from breast cancer. A patient-centred approach mediated exercise enjoyment and adherence.This pioneering study demonstrated that exercise therapy was a safe, tolerable intervention that elicited short-term, clinically important benefits upon QoL in women treated for breast cancer. Future research should focus on sustaining QoL benefits through longer-term exercise participation and the feasibility of integrating exercise rehabilitation into mainstream breast cancer care.


This article introduces a model for cloud-aware enterprise governance with a focus on its semantic aspects. It considers the need for Business-IT/OT and Governance-Security alignments. The proposed model suggests the usage of ontologies as specific tools to address the governance of each IT/OT environment in a holistic way. The concrete utilization of ISO and NIST standards allows to correctly structure the ontological model: in fact, by using these wellknown international standards it is possible to significantly reduce terminological and conceptual inconsistencies already in the design phase of the ontology. This also brings a considerable advantage in the operational management phase of the company certifications, congruently aligned with the knowledge structured in this manner. The semantic support within the model suggests further possible applications in different departments of the company, with the aim of evaluating and managing projects in an optimal way, integrating different but important points of view of stakeholders.


SUMMARY
The Sonora Margin cold seeps present on the seafloor a patchiness pattern of white microbial mats surrounded by polychaete and gastropod beds. These surface assemblages are fuelled by abundant organic inputs sedimenting from the water column and upward-flowing seep fluids. Elevated microbial density was observed in the underlying sediments. A previous study on the same samples identified anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) as the potential dominant archaeal process in these Sonora Margin sediments, probably catalysed by three clades of archaeal anaerobic methanotrophs (ANME-1, ANME-2 and ANME-3) associated with bacterial syntrophs. In this study, molecular surveys and microscopic observations investigating the diversity of Bacteria involved in AOM process, as well as the environmental parameters affecting the composition and the morphologies of AOM consortia in the Sonora Margin sediments were carried out. Two groups of Bacteria were identified within the AOM consortia, the Desulfosarcina/Desulfococcus SEEP SRB-1a group and a Desulfobulbus-related group. These bacteria showed different niche distributions, association specificities and consortia architectures, depending on sediment surface communities, geochemical parameters and ANME-associated phylogeny. Therefore, the syntrophic AOM process appears to depend on sulphate-reducing bacteria with different ecological niches and/or metabolisms, in a biofilm-like organic matrix.


Rather than view translation as a compromise at best, a failure at worst, and always derivative and secondary, I explore the practice of literary translation as one of engagement: with the text, with the Other, and with the world. I will discuss the nature of this engagement as dynamic, electric, life-affirming, an encounter and a dialogue that offers an opportunity for both unification and separateness, freedom and intimacy. From this perspective of the personal, I will reach into the realm of the "political," the broader context within which translators work—the power differentials, the objective material conditions—and the specifics of my own translating relationship: between Latin American Spanish and North American English. My understanding of that relationship—which could be framed as the theory behind my practice—influences what I want to translate—passionate engagement—and how I translate: how I approach the object of desire. I will read from and discuss several of my most recent translations, texts that in themselves explore questions of language and power: the power of language to subvert, and the dis-harmonious and unequal association of languages and cultures in this "globalized" world, where issues of separateness and unification are often a matter of survival.


I isolate the effect of the choice of foreign currency on the loan performance of firms borrowing in different currencies in crisis times. I use a novel micro-level dataset from Hungary to decompose the factors contributing to the worse loan performance of foreign currency borrowers compared to local currency debtors. I find that foreign currency denomination can worsen loan performance considerably, while selection also contributes significantly to the default differences. On the one hand, per se less creditworthy firms borrowed in foreign currency and during the crisis the foreign currency shocks further weakened their loan performances. On the other hand, more creditworthy firms that were also well-prepared for the currency risks also borrowed in foreign currency. My results suggest that not the institution of foreign currency lending per se that should be blamed for the bad loan performance of foreign currency borrowers, instead one should consider the characteristics of the borrowers.


TRPP2 channels decrease endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ concentration and thereby sensitivity to apoptosis involving Ca2+ release from this store. Ca2+ released from intracellular stores can contribute to cell death by apoptosis. Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels conduct calcium, leading Wegierski et al. to investigate the role in apoptosis of TRPP2 channels found in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). When TRPP2 channels were heterologously expressed in Xenopus oocytes, they could not be detected in the plasma membrane; rather, they appeared to localize to the ER because the oocytes showed a decrease in the amplitude of Cl– currents activated by Ca2+ release from the ER. When TRPP2 channels were expressed in transfected human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells, immunofluorescence analysis indicated that they localized to the ER, and Ca2+ imaging of these cells showed a smaller Ca2+ signal after stimulation of purinergic G protein–coupled receptors (reflecting Ca2+ release from the ER). Moreover, experiments with the calcium ionophore ionomycin in HEK293 cells, and the ER calcium pump inhibitor thapsigargin in HeLa cells stably expressing TRPP2, indicated that TRPP2 decreased ER Ca2+ content. Indeed, experiments with an ER-targeted Ca2+ sensor indicated that [Ca2+]ER was decreased in HeLa cells expressing TRPP2. Consistent with this, the increase in mitochondrial [Ca2+] after stimulation of Ca2+ release from the ER was diminished. In contrast, TRPP2 knockdown [in Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells] led to increased Ca2+ signals in response to ATP or ionomycin. The effects of TRPP2 on ER Ca2+ content appeared to result from an increase in the passive ER Ca2+ leak rather than decreased accumulation. TRPP2 knockdown sensitized MDCK cells to ceramide-induced apoptosis, an effect that the authors postulate may be pertinent to the enhanced apoptosis associated with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that can result from TRPP2 mutation. T. Wegierski, D. Steffl, C. Kopp, R. Tauber, B. Buchholz, R. Nitschke, E. W. Kuehn, G. Walz, M. Köttgen, TRPP2 channels regulate apoptosis through the Ca2+ concentration in the endoplasmic reticulum. EMBO J. 28, 490–499 (2009). [PubMed]


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: There is growing evidence to support a role of urinary bacteria in the development of calcium stone disease; however, the mechanisms by which urinary bacteria may influence calcium stone formation remain to be elucidated. Both osteopontin (OPN) and zinc (Zn) have been shown to play a role in calcium oxalate (CaOx) urolithiasis and have also been demonstrated to be involved in bacterial pathogenesis. We aimed to examine the effect of non-urease producing bacteria isolated from a urinary tract infection, as well as both OPN and Zn, on the adherence of calcium oxalate crystals to renal epithelial cells. METHODS: HEK293 and MDCK renal epithelial cells were grown to 90% confluence on culture plates. Cells were exposed to a non-urease producing strain of Escherichia coli (UTI89) for 20 minutes at 37C (103 CFU). The cells were then incubated with CaOx crystal suspension (0.5mg/mL) in artificial urine with or without the addition of OPN (0.1 &mgr;g/ml) or zinc chloride (500 &mgr;g/L), for 20 minutes at 37C. Unattached crystals were washed free with culture media. The adherence of calcium oxalate crystals was determined with birefringence microscopy and quantified by pixel intensity with MatLab. RESULTS: Microscopy following treatment exposure revealed live cells in all treatment groups, and bacterial rods visible in groups treated with UTI89. In the MDCK cells, exposure to UTI89 significantly increased crystal adherence (p<0.001, FIgure 1). Exposure to OPN and Zn were noted to have opposite effects in UTI89 treated cells, resulting in attenuated and enhanced crystal adherence respectively (p<0.001, Figure 1). Similar trends were observed in the HEK293 cells; however, these results did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that non-urease producing E. coli impacts CaOx crystal adherence, and both Zn and OPN may have a novel role in this process. While Zn and OPN have previously been shown to be involved in both CaOx urolithiasis and bacterial pathogenesis; further investigation is required in order to delineate the potential mechanisms by which urinary pathogens alter crystal adherence, and the precise role that both Zn and OPN may play in this process. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: AUA Urology Care Foundation Research Scholar Award


In this paper, we consider the problem of designing Differentially Private (DP) algorithms for Stochastic Convex Optimization (SCO) on heavy-tailed data. The irregularity of such data violates some key assumptions used in almost all existing DP-SCO and DP-ERM methods, resulting in failure to provide the DP guarantees. To better understand this type of challenges, we provide in this paper a comprehensive study of DP-SCO under various settings. First, we consider the case where the loss function is strongly convex and smooth. For this case, we propose a method based on the sample-and-aggregate framework, which has an excess population risk of $\tilde{O}(\frac{d^3}{n\epsilon^4})$ (after omitting other factors), where $n$ is the sample size and $d$ is the dimensionality of the data. Then, we show that with some additional assumptions on the loss functions, it is possible to reduce the \textit{expected} excess population risk to $\tilde{O}(\frac{ d^2}{ n\epsilon^2 })$. To lift these additional conditions, we also provide a gradient smoothing and trimming based scheme to achieve excess population risks of $\tilde{O}(\frac{ d^2}{n\epsilon^2})$ and $\tilde{O}(\frac{d^\frac{2}{3}}{(n\epsilon^2)^\frac{1}{3}})$ for strongly convex and general convex loss functions, respectively, \textit{with high probability}. Experiments suggest that our algorithms can effectively deal with the challenges caused by data irregularity.


Much has been written about how automation will change the legal profession as a whole, less so about how automation might affect women in legal practice. This paper briefly maps the likely changes that legal tech (legal technology) will bring to the provision of legal services, and explores how these changes might affect the barriers to advancement that women face in the profession. It determines that, while the use of legal tech may improve women's work/life balance and overall job satisfaction by bringing about more flexible working hours, positive changes to the billing hours' system, and fairer hiring and promotion mechanisms, an unfettered inclusion of legal tech might lead to increased working hours for less wages, increased competition for case files among associates, and the perpetuation of existing gender biases when using algorithms in the hiring and promotion process. Finally, the paper makes several recommendations on how law societies, bar associations and other relevant regulatory bodies could ensure that legal tech promotes rather than hinders Equality & Diversity in the legal profession. It proposes that: (1) detailed data on men and women lawyers should be collected to better inform equality and diversity policies; (2) law firms should be required to report on their progress in pursuing equality and diversity; (3) management techniques to promote work/life balance and more flexible pricing systems should be encouraged; (4) female entrepreneurship in legal tech should be promoted; and, (5) technological due process procedures should be required when using algorithms in law firm management to ensure fairness, accuracy and accountability.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is nothing but a rule based mimicry of our life form that will only ensnare those of us who buy into its illogical premises. The reality of the world is not what we see nor is it the physical objects whose behavior is described by the classic physics that has developed since the time of Newton to dominate our thinking. In this paper I will outline the next step in the evolution of our thinking process and thereby eliminate the threat that AI poses. This step replaces objects with events which give context to both the qualia we experience and the objective world we believe that explains their appearance. The framework of the event oriented world view is now complete. In the next step we will conceive of reality as a form of action, where action is the material of events. In this presentation I will show how the record of events normally drafted as a block universe can be expanded to include both the physical and mental aspects of our existence. The resulting Cognitive Action Theory will be shown to be a superset of quantum theory and quantum theory will be shown to be a mental projection of properties ascribed to the interior of matter. We believe to be seeing such matter from the outside. Unfortunately this interior is always beyond the grasp of our sense and therefore a theoretical construct that is a changeable creation of our minds. The next evolutionary step in our understanding of ourselves is to recognize the "I" as a loop in time. To confuse a robot, who undoubtedly possesses the same primitive consciousness as all material, with the timeline of our own existence is simply to confuse the tool with the creator and director of the tool. It is the agenda behind the tool not the tool of artificial intelligence that may succeed in enslaving us, and unless we fail to recognize the true source of this danger they may actually succeed. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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In this work, a natural zeolite, modified and loaded with iron (NZ-A-Fe) as a heterogeneous catalyst, was characterized for its suitability as a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) material for treatment of aromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater. Adsorption and oxidation processes were analyzed. Batch adsorption tests for benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) aqueous concentrated solutions were performed at neutral pH. Kinetic adsorption was described with the pseudo-second-order model. Experiments were performed using a stirred batch reactor with near 11 mM initial BTX concentration applying NZ-A-Fe as solid catalyst and H2O2 as an oxidant. BTX removal reached 80% in 600 min in these experimental conditions. Catalytic oxidation was described with a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. No significant iron leaching was detected during all the experiences. These investigations show that coupling adsorption with catalytic oxidation with this novel system is a promising procedure to simultaneously remove BTX from moderately concentrated aqueous solution at neutral pH in groundwater.


Introduction: Oral squamous cell carcinoma accounts for up to 50% of malignant tumors in Asian countries and is very common in India, Pakistan, and Taiwan. Currently, the most effective way of combating oral cancer is by early diagnosis followed by adequate treatment. As visualization is the principal strategy used to assess the patient's lesions at risk of malignant transformation, any procedure which highlights such lesions aids the clinician. Aim: The present study was carried out to compare the usefulness and validity of clinical examination, chemiluminescence, and toluidine blue in assessing the precancer. Materials and Methods: The study sample consisted of 100 subjects, 50 each of oral leukoplakia and oral submucous fibrosis. Evaluation of suspicious lesion was carried out by clinical examination, chemiluminescence, toluidine blue with the gold standard of histopathological diagnosis. The chemiluminescent and toluidine blue examination were evaluated by two observers who are unaware of the clinical examination. Results: Chemiluminescence was found to be better than toluidine blue and clinical examination by both the observers (P < 0.05). Chemiluminescence was found to be better in visualization of leukoplakic lesions by both the observers (kappa >0.900). The visualization, exact extent, borders, and surface texture of lesions were revealed accurate by chemiluminescence followed by toluidine blue and clinical evaluation (P < 0.05). The sensitivity and specificity was more reliable for chemiluminescence (75 and 54.7%) than the toluidine blue (57.4 and 44.1%). Our observations suggest that the mild and severe dysplasia of the lesions were well appreciated by chemiluminescence. Conclusion: Chemiluminescence and toluidine blue cannot be compared with histopathology as these are adjunctive aids in early diagnosis of oral precancer and cancer. Hence their adjunctive value is of great importance to be used as a chair-side investigation and for mass screening of oral cancer.


Data visualization algorithms and feature selection techniques are both widely used in bioinformatics but as distinct analytical approaches. Until now there has been no method of measuring feature saliency while training a data visualization model. We derive a generative topographic mapping (GTM) based data visualization approach which estimates feature saliency simultaneously with the training of the visualization model. The approach not only provides a better projection by modeling irrelevant features with a separate noise model but also gives feature saliency values which help the user to assess the significance of each feature. We compare the quality of projection obtained using the new approach with the projections from traditional GTM and self-organizing maps (SOM) algorithms. The results obtained on a synthetic and a real-life chemoinformatics dataset demonstrate that the proposed approach successfully identifies feature significance and provides coherent (compact) projections


We suggest an approach to the resolution of context-dependent lexical and syntactic ambiguity in a framework of ontology population from natural language texts. We show that a set of maximally determined ontology instances can be represented as a Scott information system with an entailment relation as a collection of information connections. Moreover, consistent primary lexical instances form FCA-concepts. These representations are used to justify the correctness of lexical disambiguation and to define syntactic ambiguity and its resolution. This information system generates a multi-agent system in which agents resolve the ambiguity of both types.


Serum triglyceride levels were significantly higher in 34 patients with gout (42 mg. per 100 ml.) in comparison to the levels in 28 healthy men over 35 years of age (100 mg. per 100 ml.). There was no significant predictive relation between levels of serum uric acid and triglycerides in either group. No significant difference in serum cholesterol levels nor lipoprotein profile was apparent between the two groups. The patients with gout had been selected to exclude any manifestations of atherosclerosis or other disease known to be associated with abnormalities in circulating lipids. The results provide support for possible linkage of genetic factors influencing uric acid and triglyceride metabolism. The presence of hypertriglyceridemia in gout may be correlated with the increased incidence of arteriosclerosis.


This book seeks to increase knowledge and understanding of disputes between same-sex partners, and the use of mediation by same-sex partners and surrounding issues in selected jurisdictions in the European Union. The jurisdictions analysed are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy. The study investigates the sources of dispute between same-sex partners; looks at manner in which intra-family disputes are resolved through mediation and other dispute resolution mechanisms and analyses selected issues regarding mediation on:power imbalances; mediatory role and style; compulsory mediation; involvement of children. The research which led to this book and the book itself represent key activities developed within the project Litigious Love: Same-Sex Couples and Mediation in the EU which has received funding by the DG Civil Justice of the European Commission.


In this paper, we present a novel Brillouin fiber-ring laser utilizing an unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (UMZI) as coupling device. The laser is pumped by a distributed-feedback laser diode and shows continuous-wave and single-frequency operation. Frequency-dependent transmission characteristics of the UMZI make it possible for the pump wave to pass through the laser-ring cavity with no resonance effect for stable pump operation, while the Brillouin laser signal still resonates in a high-finesse cavity. Single and multiple longitudinal mode operations are observed according to the relative location between longitudinal modes and Brillouin gain-curve center. A stable single-frequency operation is achieved using a simple stabilizing feedback loop based on dithering and autotracking techniques. Using this simple stabilizing feedback loop, the laser-intensity fluctuation is highly suppressed and remains below 4%. The Brillouin output converted from the pump power of 26.4 mW is about 3.18 mW, and the linewidth is measured to be below 1 kHz.


Freshness of results is important in modern web search. Failing to recognize the temporal aspect of a query can negatively affect the user experience, and make the search engine appear stale. While freshness and relevance can be closely related for some topics (e.g., news queries), they are more independent in others (e.g., time insensitive queries). Therefore, optimizing one criterion does not necessarily improve the other, and can even do harm in some cases. We propose a machine-learning framework for simultaneously optimizing freshness and relevance, in which the trade-off is automatically adaptive to query temporal characteristics. We start by illustrating different temporal characteristics of queries, and the features that can be used for capturing these properties. We then introduce our supervised framework that leverages the temporal profile of queries (inferred from pseudo-feedback documents) along with the other ranking features to improve both freshness and relevance of search results. Our experiments on a large archival web corpus demonstrate the efficacy of our techniques.


Interest in the potential benefits of exercise and fitness programs has led many corporations to invest in such for their employees. Fitness program directors need to better understand factors that affect employees' decisions to participate. The purpose of this study was to examine whether male and female participants and nonparticipants differed in their conceptual and institutional motives for involvement in a corporate exercise program. The Exercise Program Survey was developed and administered randomly to 310 employees of a metropolitan insurance company. Participants scored items associated with enhancing fitness, reducing stress and learning to relax as more important than nonparticipants did. Participants also indicated that the institutional motive structure was more important, thus emphasizing the need for appropriate times, places, and availability of instruction. Women felt more strongly than men that weight control, fitness, stress reduction, relaxation, and smoking cessation activities were n...


Envy is the religion of the mediocre. It comforts them, it responds to the worries that gnaw at them and finally it rots their souls, allowing them to justify their meanings and their greed until they believe these to be virtues.—Carlos Ruiz Zafón "The niche of envy" is a cross-disciplinary attempt to capture and understand the complex and self-conscious emotion of envy as unfolded within social relationships and cultural settings. One of our main interests concerns how children come to understand envy in ontogenesis. Accordingly, we review existing theoretical approaches to understanding envy and introduce preliminary data about children's understanding of envy. This paper consists of three sections. In the first section, we define envy by introducing the conditions and components that form part of it. We emphasize the fact that envy is a complex and embodied emotion, which embraces a triadic relationship, social comparison, and inequality. In this section, we also introduce social conditions that may facilitate envy and its consequences, such as hostility and aggression. The second section deals with coping strategies for envy. Here, we integrate research from different disciplines, e.g., socio-cultural, psychological, and anthropological research. Finally, in the third section, we introduce a cross-cultural and developmental view of how envy is embodied. We briefly address and offer a critique of Klein's psychoanalytic view and present recent results from our cross-cultural studies of the ontogenesis of understanding envy.


This article is concerned with the correlation between credibility and the concept of sovereignty in international law and their relationship to truth. Empirically, the authors focus on the credibility assessment informing the refugee determination procedure operated by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The authors do not provide a rationalized explanation of credibility assessment in terms of a legal procedure turning on probative models of evidence. Instead, the authors attempt to draw out a concurrent phenomenon of credibility assessment, which tests the truth of what it means to be human. This is a political question that requires a consideration of the tension between personal sovereignty and territorial sovereignty and the process of political subjectivization that conditions that tension.


To respond to the increasing need to feed the world's population, standing at 7.1–7.2 billion in 2013 and predicted to reach over 9 billion by 2050, as well as an ever greater demand for a balanced and healthy diet, there is a continuing need to produce improved new cultivated varieties of crop plants. Land available for crop production is limited and has stayed at 660 million hectares for the past 50 years. Much of the world's best soils are already in use and others are protected, for example, for environmental concerns. The demand for food brings marginal lands into play for which stress-tolerant crops need to be developed. Climate variation is yet another challenge breeders have to respond to. In short, more food, fibre, fuel and forage need to be produced per unit of land, and time is of the essence. The strategies used to meet these demands are increasingly based on our knowledge of relevant science, particularly genetics and reproductive biology. Success is gained by a multidisciplinary understanding and the deployment of relevant science and technology.

Key Concepts

Plant breeders must have access to genetic variation in crop species.
Plant breeders must be equipped with the tools to respond quickly to new demands by developing accelerated breeding techniques and the ability to screen for traits of interest rapidly among progeny.
Yield and yield stability remain the top priorities for breeders.
Increasing production of plant products is essential for food, feed and fibre for the increasing World population.
Breeders must be visionary in planning for requirements in the future, at least 7–20 years ahead, as this is the timescale from initiating the breeding programme to release cultivars.

Keywords:

crossing;
sexual reproduction;
selection;
multiplication;
varieties;
cultivars;
plant breeding;
plant improvement;
genetic variation


This thesis discusses the creation and history of Hardeman County in the state of Texas. The period of the Texas Republic was one of uncertain and unstable government, and the Red River Municipality thus created in 1835 remained as such for only two years. It was realized by the government that such large political subdivisions would not be easily administered, and by 1837 these municipalities were further divided into counties. The vast territory encompassed by the original boundaries of the Red River Municipality yielded thirty-five counties between 1837 and 1891, including Hardeman. The population of the newly created county was made up entirely of transient pioneers and roving bands of cowboys and cattlemen. The official census did not list a record of any population until 1880, when fifty people were shown as residents.


Only rarely does a Civil War diarist combine detailed observations of events with an intelligent understanding of their significance. John Campbell, a newspaperman before the war, left such a legacy. A politically aware Union soldier with strong moral and abolitionist beliefs, Campbell recorded not only his own reflections on wartime matters but also those of his comrades and the southerners soldiers, civilians, and slaves that he encountered. Campbell served in the Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry from 1861 to 1864. He participated in the war's major theaters and saw early action at Island No. 10, Iuka, and Corinth. His diary is especially valuable because he viewed the war as both a field-commissioned officer able to make intelligent comments about combat and as a former enlisted man with a feel for the soldier's life. He was present during Grant's campaign at Vicksburg and depicted the bloody failure of the May 22 storming of Confederate fortifications in unsparing terms; he then went on to fight at Chattanooga and took Gen. William T. Sherman to task for his poor leadership at Missionary Ridge. The Union Must Stand contains more than Campbell's journal. Editors Mark Grimsley and Todd Miller have written an introduction that provides background information and places the diary in the context of current debate over the ideological commitments of Civil War soldiers. An appendix reproduces fifteen of Campbell's letters to his hometown newspaper, in which he shared his impressions of both war and slavery.With its unique point of view, valuable insights into the conduct of various campaigns, and some of the most vivid depictions of Civil War combat ever set to paper, Campbell's diary offers both a wealth of new primary material for historians and exciting reading for enthusiasts. Combining a journalist's accuracy with a zealot's idealism, it makes a forceful statement about why one man went to war. The Editors: Mark Grimsley is an associate professor of history at the Ohio State University and the author of The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865. Todd D. Miller is a history teacher and an independent researcher for Time-Life Books' Civil War series. He lives in Ashland, Ohio. "


The effects of state tax policy on economic growth, entrepreneur ship, and employment remain controversial. Using a framework that in prior research generated significant, negative, and robust effects of taxes on growth, we find that neither tax revenues nor top income tax rates bear stable relationships to economic growth or employment across states and over time. While the rate of firm formation is negatively affected by top income tax rates, the effects are small in economic terms. Our results are inconsistent with the view that cuts in top state income tax rates will automatically or necessarily generate growth.


The 'law of nations' that colonial powers invoked to claim the South China Sea islands was based not on international convention or custom but on their own municipal laws on guano concession. It provides that states have the exclusive right to assert title over distant islands where their respective citizens have engaged in economic activities. It was applied selectively to advance colonial and maritime interests and to suppress the claim of China. In their own records, the United States and United Kingdom acknowledged China's prior and exclusive economic activities on the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands, and consolidation of title over the Paracel Islands. The records were ignored and subsequently revised, thereby excluding China from availing of the rule. The Japanese peace treaties formalized China's exclusion by relegating its claim to the same category as the claims that emerged from recent acts of occupation, and subjecting it to resolution by convention.


Famed for their high-concept catwalk shows and extravagant collections, the radical Dutch design duo Viktor & Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm over the last 15 years. This sumptuously produced book is the most comprehensive exploration of Viktor & Rolf's work to date, and includes an essay by the fashion historian Caroline Evans, an interview with the designers, a detailed biography and perceptive texts on each collection. Particular attention is given to signature looks from such collections as 'Atomic Bomb' and 'Russian Doll', which showcase the duo's unique blend of cool irony and surreal beauty. Featuring style shots by some of the world's most celebrated photographers, catwalk images, behind-the-scenes snapshots and portraits, The House of Viktor & Rolf is a stunning tribute to two of the most original designers in haute couture.


Are ownership incentive policies inevitably accompanied by detrimental inflationary effects?
To address this issue, we develop a theoretical model in which owners of new housing benefit from a homeownership subsidy or a rental investment incentive. We show that while both incentives increase the price of the new housing, they reduce old housing prices and have an ambiguous impact on the average housing price. These effects result from residential spillovers from the old housing market to the new housing market. We test these findings empirically by exploiting a 2014 French reform in the metropolitan area of Lyon which intensified both incentives. Difference-in-difference estimates confirm our theoretical predictions: two years after the reform, the price of new housing increased by 30% and the price of old housing decreased by 7%. Taking both markets together, the overall effect is non-significant. The share of new housing transactions increased by 25%.


Abstract Periodontal bone loss results from bacterial infection and the associated host response. The ligand for the receptor activator of NF- κ B (RANKL) induces the differentiation of osteoclasts, resulting in periodontal bone loss. The role of osteocytes in periodontal bone loss was investigated in this study. Transgenic mice expressing RANKL under the control of dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1) were infected with Porphyromonas gingivalis- Fusobacterium nucleatum bacteria (Pg-Fn) to induce periodontitis, and type 1 diabetes was induced in groups of mice. Control (DMP1Cre −− .RANKL f/f ) mice with periodontal infection showed increases in bone loss, osteoclast counts, eroded bone surfaces, and RANKL expression compared to experimental (DMP1-Cre ++ .RANKL f/f ) mice. RANKL deletion from osteocytes resulted in less periodontal bone loss. Diabetes enhanced periodontal bone loss in the control mice. The diabetic control (DMP1Cre −− .RANKL f/f ) mice had more bone loss than the non-diabetic control (DMP1-Cre −− .RANKL f/f ) mice. In the experimental (DMP1-Cre ++ .RANKL f/f ) mice, diabetes had no influence. This study demonstrated, for the first time, the essential role of osteocytes in periodontal bone loss. ABSTRACT Periodontal bone loss results from bacterial infection and the associated host response. The ligand for the receptor activator of NF- κ B (RANKL) induces the differentiation of osteoclasts, resulting in periodontal bone loss. The role of osteocytes in periodontal bone loss was investigated in this study. Transgenic mice expressing RANKL under the control of dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1) were infected with Porphyromonas gingivalis- Fusobacterium nucleatum bacteria (Pg-Fn) to induce periodontitis, and type 1 diabetes was induced in groups of mice. Control (DMP1  Cre − .RANKL f/f ) mice with periodontal infection showed increases in bone loss, osteoclast counts, eroded bone surfaces, and RANKL expression compared to experimental (DMP1-Cre + .RANKL f/f ) mice. RANKL deletion from osteocytes resulted in less periodontal bone loss. Diabetes enhanced periodontal bone loss in the control mice. The diabetic control (DMP1  Cre − .RANKL f/f ) mice had more bone loss than the non-diabetic control (DMP1  Cre − .RANKL f/f ) mice. In the experimental (DMP1-Cre + .RANKL f/f ) mice, diabetes had no influence. This study demonstrated, for the first time, the essential role of osteocytes in


This study investigates the impact of class attendance and the use of optional
formative assessment tasks on student performance. We hypothesise that a positive
relationship exists between students' attendance rates and their success on
assessment tasks. We also hypothesise a positive relationship between the extent to
which students use formative assessment tasks (in the form of on-line multiplechoice
question sets) and their success on summative assessment tasks. The question
of whether attendance and the use of formative assessment have a complementary
or substitutional impact on results is also investigated. The results indicate that after
controlling for other factors likely to affect student performance, attendance at class
and use of on-line formative assessment tasks do affect student performance.
However, there is no further synergistic performance improvement to be achieved
from both being a good attendee and a high user of the self-assessment quizzes.Further, attendance and self-assessment opportunities do not act as substitutes for
each other. That is, students cannot compensate for poor attendance by making
greater use of the self- assessment opportunities and vice versa.


This article applies frontier production function analysis to small farms in Nicaragua during 1998-2005 (Battese and Coelli, 1988). The objective of this study is to estimate an average function that will provide a picture of the shape of the organic fertilizer technology of an average firm (in our case, agricultural production units). Furthermore I present a best-practice of organic fertilizer against which the efficiency of the firms within the primary sector can be measured (Coelli, T: 1995). The results show an average of technical efficiency acceptable which the makers of public policy in Nicaragua must considerer for the future. It is imperative if we consider an economy activity indexes that have increased during this period.


This paper explains how changing technology, especially the rising adoption of encryption, is shifting law enforcement and national security lawful access to far greater emphasis on stored records, notably records stored in the cloud. The major and growing reliance on surveillance access to stored records results from the following changes: (1) Encryption. Adoption of strong encryption is becoming much more common for data and voice communications, via virtual private networks, encrypted webmail, SSL web sessions, and encrypted Voice over IP voice communications. (2) Declining effectiveness of traditional wiretaps. Traditional wiretap techniques at the ISP or local telephone network increasingly encounter these encrypted communications, blocking the effectiveness of the traditional techniques. (3) New importance of the cloud. Government access to communications thus increasingly relies on a new and limited set of methods, notably featuring access to stored records in the cloud. (4) The "haves" and "have-nots." The first three changes create a new division between the "haves" and "have-nots" when it comes to government access to communications. The "have-nots" become increasingly dependent, for access to communications, on cooperation from the "have" jurisdictions. Part 1 of the paper describes the changing technology of wiretaps and government access. Part 2 documents the growing adoption of strong encryption in a wide and growing range of settings of interest to government agencies. Part 3 explains how these technological trends create a major shift from real-time intercepts to stored records, especially in the cloud.


In its June 2017 Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC) Report, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Postal Service asked a world-renowned expert on postal economics, Professor John Panzar, to create a theoretical model of the modern parcel-delivery market. Panzar's 60-page white paper, appended to the RARC Report, presents in detail a mathematical model of Amazon's optimal dispatch strategy for last-mile parcel delivery as a function of different rates charged for such delivery by the Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS. Panzar says that his model "reveals conditions under which the rates offered by the [Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS] are low enough to deter [Amazon] from operating its own delivery vans." As if promoting the creeping expropriation of a private industry, Panzar's analysis recommends that a state-owned enterprise cut its prices so far as to deter competitive entry by a more efficient and highly innovative private firm. However, Panzar's stylized mathematical model rests on unreliable economic assumptions and offers no useful information about last-mile parcel delivery in the real world. His static model fails to account for Amazon's broader strategic goals, such as those motivating its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017. Panzar's normative conclusions emphasize benefits to the Postal Service and unsolicited benefits to Amazon (as well as UPS and FedEx) but neglect potential harm to consumers of postal products. Moreover, his recommendation that the Postal Service deter Amazon's entry into last-mile delivery would exceed the powers that Congress delegated to the Postal Service. If implemented, that recommendation would potentially violate antitrust law. In short, Panzar's analysis is not a reliable or useful guide for either the Postal Service's managerial decisions or its regulatory oversight.


The internet is currently the most versatile medium of communication. It remains true to its heritage having been designed by the US military to withstand a nuclear attack. At conception it was designed to route around censorship and controls. It however, now functions in the civilian world in which laws and regulation are the norm. The Australian High Court attempted to put in place regulations and principles on on-line Defamation in Dow Jones v Gutnick (Gutnick). However the borderless nature of the internet has brought to the fore, the complexities involved in developing internet legal principles. This is in a world still fraught with inherently different legal systems, with one foot placed on globalisation and the other clinging on to sovereignty. A clash between free speech and reputation was the result of Gutnick and a renewed offensive is in the offing. The pertinent question explored in this discourse is whether the defamation principles reiterated and established by the High Court of Australia in Gutnick will survive.


The effectiveness of virtual environments (VEs) has often been linked to the sense of presence reported by users of those VEs. (Presence is defined as the subjective experience of being in one place or environment, even when one is physically situated in another.) We believe that presence is a normal awareness phenomenon that requires directed attention and is based in the interaction between sensory stimulation, environmental factors that encourage involvement and enable immersion, and internal tendencies to become involved. Factors believed to underlie presence were described in the premier issue of Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. We used these factors and others as the basis for a presence questionnaire (PQ) to measure presence in VEs. In addition we developed an immersive tendencies questionnaire (ITQ) to measure differences in the tendencies of individuals to experience presence. These questionnaires are being used to evaluate relationships among reported presence and other research variables. Combined results from four experiments lead to the following conclusions: the PQ and ITQ are internally consistent measures with high reliability; there is a weak but consistent positive relation between presence and task performance in VEs; individual tendencies as measured by the ITQ predict presence as measured by the PQ; and individuals who report more simulator sickness symptoms in VE report less presence than those who report fewer symptoms.


Objective Few studies on elders' suicide and depression have integrated social and community factors in their explicative models. Most of the studied variables used are focused on individual and based on psychopathological models. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-environmental factors on death ideations, using data from the European SHARE cohort. Method Social support components and death ideations have been studied, together with known individual risk factors, within a sample of 11,425 European participants in the SHARE study, aged over 64. The item evaluating death ideations was extracted from the EURO-D12 questionnaire. Results The high prevalence of death ideations (6.9% for men and 13.0% for women) confirmed that elders' death ideations, as it is known to be linked to suicidal behaviors, is a major public health issue. Bivariate analyses revealed a strong association between community participation and death ideations. This association was no longer significant while adjusting for depressive symptomatology. The logistic model identified that factors significantly associated with death ideations, when adjusted for the other factors were: having multiple depressive symptoms (OR = 1.64 per symptom) being aged, especially over 84 (OR = 1.58), being retired for fewer than five years (OR = 1.46), being widowed (OR = 1.35) and having a long-term illness (OR = 1.28). Conclusions Although social and community participation is associated to death ideations, this link becomes non-significant in a regression model taking into account other factors. It is important to notice that depressive symptoms, which are obviously closely related to death ideations, take the greatest part in the association among all associated factors. Our results suggest that, consistently with the literature, while addressing death ideation or suicide prevention, professionals have to consider first the secondary prevention of depressive symptomatology. Strategies targeting social isolation and community participation should be considered as part of primary prevention policies.


The operation of an intracavity frequency shifted feedback (FSF) laser exhibits a remarkable range of properties, some of which have been described previously. Here we report a more complete analysis of the dependence of the output power upon pump-laser power, based on simulations with an extended rate equation model and the use of phase space analysis. The effect of FSF is discussed in detail. The simulation of the operation of a titanium-sapphire laser with FSF reveals five separate regimes of operation, a superset of those observed in experiment. We predict the thresholds for each of these regimes for FSF-lasers with titanium-sapphire or neodymium doped crystals as gain medium.


We analyze plasma ion observations from the Solar Wind Around Pluto instrument on New Horizons as it traveled back through the dusk flank of the Jovian magnetotail from ~600 to more than 2500 Jovian radii behind the planet. We find that at all distances, light ions (mostly protons) dominate the heavy ions (S and O) that are far more abundant in the near Jupiter plasma disk and that were expected to be the primary ions filling the Jovian magnetotail. This key new observation might indicate that heavy ions are confined closer to the equator than the spacecraft trajectory or a substantial addition of light ions via reconnection and/or mixing along the magnetopause boundary. However, because we find no evidence for acceleration of the tail plasma with distance, a more likely explanation seems to be that the heavy ions are preferentially released down the dawn flank of the magnetotail. Perhaps, this occurs as a part of the process where flux tubes, after expanding as they rotate across the near-tail region, need to pull back inward in order to fit within the dawnside of the magnetopause. A second major finding of this study is that there are two dominant periods of the plasma structures in the Jovian magnetotail: 3.53 (0.18 full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and 5.35 (0.38 FWHM) days. Remarkably, the first of these is identical within the errors to Europa's orbital period (3.55 days). Both of these results should provide important new fodder for Jovian magnetospheric theories and lead to a better understanding of Jupiter's magnetosphere.


Die Dissertation von
Kunping Zhu

Stability Analysis and Stabilization of Fuzzy State Space Models

(ISBN-10: 3-8322-5552-4, ISBN-13: 978-3-8322-5552-7) wurde parallel im
 Shaker Verlag veroffentlicht

Abstract:
 Fuzzy control has achieved numerous successful industrial applications. However, stability analysis for fuzzy control systems remains a difficult problem, and most of the critical comments on fuzzy control are due to the lack of a general method for its stability analysis. Although significant research efforts have been made in the literature, appropriate tools for this issue have yet to be found. This thesis focuses on the problem of stability of fuzzy control systems. Both linguistic fuzzy models and T-S fuzzy models are discussed. The main work of this thesis can be summarized as follows: (1). A necessary and sufficient condition for the global stability of linguistic fuzzy models is given by means of congruence of fuzzy relational matrices. (2). A hyperellipsoid-based approach is proposed for stability analysis and control synthesis of a class of T-S (affine) fuzzy models with support-bounded fuzzy sets in the rule base. (3). Approaches of BMI-based fuzzy controller designs are proposed for the stabilization of T-S fuzzy models. (4). For the general T-S type fuzzy systems with norm-bounded uncertainties and time-varying delays, sufficient robust stabilization conditions are presented by employing the PDC-based fuzzy state feedback controllers. On stability analysis of T-S fuzzy models, most reported results based on the method of common quadratic Lyapunov functions require that each subsystem of the fuzzy models be stable in order to guarantee the stability of the overall systems. This restriction is overcome in our results by means of employing the structural information in the fuzzy rules.


On 2 and 3 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, devastating large portions of the Irawaddy Delta and creating the potential for a massive humanitarian crisis. Yet, the government of Myanmar rejected aid from some countries, limited the amount of aid entering the country to a fraction of what was needed and strictly controlled how that aid was distributed. The United Nations and many governments criticized Myanmar's response to the cyclone as inadequate and inhumane, and senior politicians from a number of countries discussed whether the situation justified invoking the "responsibility to protect." This paper explores several questions, including: 1) can an inadequate response to a natural disaster constitute an ongoing crime against humanity and thus act as the trigger for the responsibility to protect?; 2) should the responsibility to protect have been invoked by the international community in response to Cyclone Nargis?; and 3) what would countries have been obligated to do if it was invoked? In particular, assuming that the invocation of the responsibility to protect would have been based on a finding that crimes against humanity were being committed by the government of Myanmar, would the international community be obligated to investigate and potentially prosecute the underlying violations of international criminal law? If so, what venues exist for the investigation and prosecution of these potential crimes? Finally, the paper attempts to assess the successes and failures of the responsibility to protect since its acceptance by the member states of the UN at the 2005 World Summit.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors in the gastrointestinal tract.
This work considers the pharmacological response in GIST patients treated with imatinib by two different angles: the genetic and somatic point of view.
We analyzed polymorphisms influence on treatment outcome, keeping in consideration SNPs in genes involved in drug transport and folate pathway.
Naturally, all these intriguing results cannot be considered as the only main mechanism in imatinib response. GIST mainly depends by oncogenic gain of function mutations in tyrosin kinase receptor genes, KIT or PDGFRA, and the mutational status of these two genes or acquisition of secondary mutation is considered the main player in GIST development and progression. To this purpose we analyzed the secondary mutations to better understand how these are involved in imatinib resistance. In our analysis we considered both imatinib and the second line treatment, sunitinib, in a subset of progressive patients.
KIT/PDGFRA mutation analysis is an important tool for physicians, as specific mutations may guide therapeutic choices. Currently, the only adaptations in treatment strategy include imatinib starting dose of 800 mg/daily in KIT exon-9-mutated GISTs.
In the attempt to individualize treatment, genetic polymorphisms represent a novelty in the definition of biomarkers of imatinib response in addition to the use of tumor genotype. Accumulating data indicate a contributing role of pharmacokinetics in imatinib efficacy, as well as initial response, time to progression and acquired resistance. At the same time it is becoming evident that genetic host factors may contribute to the observed pharmacokinetic inter-patient variability. Genetic polymorphisms in transporters and metabolism may affect the activity or stability of the encoded enzymes. Thus, integrating pharmacogenetic data of imatinib transporters and metabolizing genes, whose interplay has yet to be fully unraveled, has the potential to provide further insight into imatinib response/resistance mechanisms.


This article focuses on the use of statistics in policy and evaluation research and the need to present statistical information in a form that is meaningful to mixed audiences. Three guidelines for formulating and presenting meaningful statistics are outlined. Understandability ensures that knowledge of statistical methods is not required for comprehending the information presented. Interpretability ensures that statistical information can be explained using familiar, non-abstract units. Comparability ensures that the magnitudes of different estimates can be directly compared within and across studies. Examples for improving popular effect size estimates from linear and non-linear models are included, and a general approach to presenting statistical information meaningfully for consumers of policy and evaluation research is explained.


The inappropriate or under-use of spectrum offers new perspective for a secondary usage of spectrum between heterogeneous radio access technologies. This spectrum sharing can be achieved at the expense of an appropriate management of the co-channel interference between the different radio access technologies. This paper proposes an extended dynamic channel allocation (eDCA) scheme for providing distributed and real non SIR (signal to interference ratio) based spectrum sharing. The trunking gain performance of eDCA is analyzed and compared to simple fixed channel allocation (FCA), FCA with channel borrowing and DCA for FDMA based systems. Sensitivity analysis of the performance is provided. In particular, results show that careful inter-radio access technologies reuse frequency distance coordination is required between heterogeneous radio systems to ensure that pooling frequencies results in gain to the systems. The appropriate capacity management relies on the activation of the right strategy in the right traffic load condition


Objectives Infertility is an important medical and social problem that has an impact on well-being. A significant development in the last 10 years in the study of human infertility has been the discovery that oxidative sperm DNA damage has a critical role in the etiology of poor semen quality and male infertility. Selenium (Se) is an essential element for normal testicular development, spermatogenesis, and spermatozoa motility and function. The predominant biochemical action of Se in both humans and animals is to serve as an antioxidant via the Se-dependent enzyme glutathione peroxidase and thus protect cellular membranes and organelles from peroxidative damage. We explored the efficacy of Se in combination with vitamin E for improving semen parameters and pregnancy rates in infertile men. Materials and methods The study included 690 infertile men with idiopathic asthenoteratospermia who received supplemental daily Se (200 μg) in combination with vitamin E (400 units) for at least 100 days. The mean age of cases was 28.5 years (range 20–45), and the median age was 30 years. These cases had presented with male factor infertility (primary or secondary) for at least 1 year. The longest and shortest duration of infertility was 10 years and 1 year, respectively. The median time of diagnosis of infertility was 1 year with a mean of 2.5 years. Results We observed 52.6% (362 cases) total improvement in sperm motility, morphology, or both, and 10.8% (75 cases) spontaneous pregnancy in comparison with no treatment (95% confidence interval: 3.08 to 5.52). No response to treatment occurred in 253 cases (36.6%) after 14 weeks of combination therapy. Mean difference between semen analyses of cases before and after treatment was 4.3% with a standard deviation of 4.29. On the basis of paired t-test results, combination therapy with oral Se and vitamin E was effective for treatment of asthenospermia or asthenoteratospermia or induction of spontaneous pregnancy (P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions Supplemental Se and vitamin E may improve semen quality and have beneficial and protective effects, especially on sperm motility. We advocate their use for the treatment of idiopathic male infertility diagnosed with asthenoteratospermia or asthenospermia in semen analysis.


Hindcasting has become a generally accepted method of producing long time series of environmental events from which environmental design criteria can be developed. The need for reliable hindcasts has stimulated research into both descriptive and dynamic models of severe storms and the response of the ocean to those storms. Hindcast models can also usefully describe features of the mesoscale ocean circulation such as the Loop Current and its eddies in the Gulf of Mexico. In this review, we examine the hindcast philosophy with illustrations of models for winds, waves, and currents. Areas needing further research are highlighted. These areas include low frequency wind spectra, frictional dissipation of waves in shallow water, hurricane driven currents over the shelf break, and extremes in the mesoscale ocean circulation. The response of a structure generally depends on some combination of environmental criteria. Joint distributions of the oceanographic parameters can be developed from hindcasts, but it is difficult to determine the relative importance of the parameters in generating the response. The most direct way to develop combined criteria is through integration of their effects on sample structures. A number of groups have now developed implementations of this concept, which fortunately seem to give similar results.


Urban renewal is usually hard to be arranged because of the high costs of integrating landowners. Local governments were often approved additional building bulk (ABB) as a key incentive for encouraging implementers to arrange urban renewal projects. It is thought that the more ABB are given, the more activeness the implementers will be. At the same time, urban renewal projects would be accelerated because of the extra floor areas arisen by ABB. However, ABB was criticized for its increasing public good burdens and leads to bad urban development. It is important to clarify the effects of approving ABB so as to evaluate the role that ABB plays in proceeding urban renewal. In this study, ABB is tried to be examined with the period between the urban renewal outline schemes were approved and the urban renewal plans were applied to local authorities in Taipei City. Besides, whether urban renewal implementers are benefited by ABB will also be checked so as to analyze the relationships between ABB and implementers.