Agglomeration economies in production are positive impacts on productivity associated with an increasing concentration of firms or employment. In central cities these have been associated with major urban commuter rail projects which are said to increase agglomeration of this type and achieve agglomeration benefits. Where economic benefits associated with agglomeration economies are included in rail project evaluation (e.g. UK Cross Rail), they have substantially improved the performance of large rail projects compared to the use of conventional economic benefit methods. Yet much uncertainty surrounds the use of economic benefits associated with urban agglomeration effects in transport project impact appraisal. Only a few countries include them in their national guidelines and methods of estimation have been limited. This paper aims to better inform the debate regarding the validity of urban rail agglomeration benefits by developing new methods to estimate their value and comparing the benefits they provide with conventional methods. The various approaches are applied to a case study, the CBD of Melbourne, Australia where the agglomeration disbenefits of not increasing rail capacity in a city with an overloaded rail system are estimated. The paper presents the background to the theory of agglomeration and describes conventional approaches to their estimation. The study case study context is also described since this is the basis for the implementation of modelling estimates. The new estimation approaches are described which include the use of secondary data of city density and rail provision, transport modelling using commute trip suppression as a surrogate to employment impacts, a survey of employers to establish their view on employment suppression impacts of traffic congestion and the adoption of a computable General Equilibrium Model (ORANI) to estimate economic impacts of productivity shocks associated with rail capacity suppression. A series of short term and long term impact scenarios of the economic disbenefits of not providing higher capacity rail services is then developed using the alternative methodologies. Two measures are used to estimate agglomeration impacts: the potential CBD employment suppression and the change in CBD's accessibility. The agglomeration effects are estimated based on the impact on gross regional product of a 10% rail capacity constraint. Results show a surprisingly narrow range of employment suppression impacts resulting from alternative estimation methods. A 10% rail capacity restraint results in a 0.69%-1.07% employment suppression using travel demand modelling, a 0.84%-1.1% range from a survey of CBD employers and 1.06% range using analysis of secondary city data. The lower bound of short range estimates for all methods including those based on current methodologies (such as defined in the UK national guidelines) all provide remarkably close results (between -0.08% of GRP to -0.09% of GRP). However high range estimates for short run effects are much wider. Some (-0.13 to -0.16% of GRP) for employment suppression measures which are than higher than those estimated from conventional methods and those using the computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling approach. Long range estimates were far more diverse. CBD proximity based methods provided the lowest long term measures (-0.08 to -0.09 of GRP). These were from the conventional method and also the net effects of the CGE modelling. The latter included long term redistributional impacts of employment changes on the regional economy. Higher long term impacts results from the employment suppression based approaches (-0.13 to -0.25%) notably for the high end estimated based on secondary city data. A major finding of the study is that there is much consistency in employment impacts of transport capacity suppression on employment from alternative methods. In the short term there is also consistency in results regardless of alternative methods of estimation. However long term estimation methods have more diverse results. There are advantages in modelling these impacts using the CGE model since it can account for flow-on effects of employment changes in one region to another. This suggests that direct employment changes in one area are compensated for in another. It suggests short and long run effects are about similar after long range flow-on effects are accounted for.


OBJECTIVE
Exposure of the gingival sulcus and control of hemorrhage are prerequisites to the treatment of cervical lesions and improving the quality of impressions prior to fabricating indirect restorations. Gingival retraction cords saturated with different medicaments are widely used for this purpose. However, the long-term effects of the chemicals in gingival tissues are not clear. The purpose of this study was to compare the histopathologic effects of 2 different retraction solutions in gingival tissue.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
In this in vivo study, a solution of 10% aluminum chloride and a solution of 15.5% ferric sulfate were used as retraction medicament in dogs. The saturated cords were allowed to remain in the gingival sulcus of the dogs for 3 minutes. After the removal of the cords, gingival biopsies were taken at 30 minutes, 24 hours, 7 days, and 12 days. For all specimens, histologic evaluation was performed by light microscopy to determine the degree of epithelial loss, alteration of the connective tissue, and inflammation.

RESULTS
Histopathologic examination of gingival tissue revealed that the ferric sulfate solution caused significant changes in gingival tissues at the beginning. However, the tissue returned to its normal histologic appearance at the end of day 12.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study revealed that the biologic effects of ferric sulfate solution are more satisfactory than aluminum chloride solution. However, both medicaments are reliable and can be used in gingival retraction.


The non-methylable cytosine analogs, 5-azacytidine and zebularine, are widely used to inhibit DNA methyltransferase activity and reduce genomic DNA methylation. In this study, whole-genome bisulfite sequencing is used to construct maps of DNA methylation with single base pair resolution in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings treated with each demethylating agent. We find that both inhibitor treatments result in nearly indistinguishable patterns of genome-wide DNA methylation and that 5-azacytidine had a slightly greater demethylating effect across the genome at higher concentrations. Transcriptome analyses revealed a substantial number of up-regulated genes, with an overrepresentation of transposable element genes, in particular CACTA-like elements. This demonstrates that chemical demethylating agents have a disproportionately large effect on loci that are otherwise silenced by DNA methylation.


Individuals with autism tend to have difficulties with understanding social skills and when used inappropriately, social skills can hinder an individual's social network, employment, and have potential legal ramifications. Therefore, employing a research-based intervention such as social stories is crucial. Two adolescent students with autism were selected for this study due to inappropriate touching of their genitals. A multiple baseline across participants was used to measure the impact of the use of social stories on the participants' inappropriate touching of their own genitals. The use of this inexpensive intervention was successful and immediate. Both participants decreased their display of inappropriate sexual behavior throughout the study. A functional relationship was demonstrated and replicated with no overlapping data. The current study indicates that social stories may be useful for decreasing inappropriate touching and other maladaptive behaviors.


Background: In order to develop new and better laparoscopic bowel instruments, which reduces patient risks, the opinions and experience that surgeons have with current laparoscopic bowel grasper haptics is important. In this study we explored this by means of a questionnaire. Method: A total of 386 online- questionnaires, were sent to laparoscopic surgeons working in European hospitals. They were all members of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery and perform laparoscopic obesities or bowel surgery. Surgeons where divided into different age and experience groups. Results: A total of 174 completely filled out forms were analyzed. In total, 16% of the surgeons cannot prevent damage when they pinch too hard, although they (10%) might have seen or felt it. Seven percent of the respondents were not able to see or feel tissue slippage. Whereas 31% can see or feel slippage they cannot do anything to prevent it. Overall, most of the respondents would appreciate technical changes in the laparoscopic bowel graspers to reduce tissue damage. Of all the respondents, 79% maintain that it is necessary to have a new laparoscopic grasper with augmented feedback. The majority of the respondents (77%) would like to have tactile feedback as an indication of the level of pinch force. There are not many differences in the opinions of surgeons at different skill levels. Conclusion: From the results of the questionnaire and the other comments made by respondents it is evident that research and developments in the field of new laparoscopic graspers should continue.


Objective: To study the patterns of resistance to anti tuberculosis drugs in patients of drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis.
Study Design: Cross sectional analytical study.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pulmonology, PEMH Rawalpindi from Jul 2016 to Dec 2017.
Methodology: Four hundred and eighty eight (n=488) adult patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis based on clinical history or Chest X-ray findings suggestive of pulmonary TB were included in the study after full informed consent and using consecutive sampling. Patients were evaluated with examination of sputum or/and endobronchial washings for AFB smear, MTB GeneXpert/RIF assay and Culture for mycobacterium tuberculosis with drug susceptibility testing for first and second line anti TB drugs. Patients with resistance to any anti TB drug were classified as drug resistant tuberculosis cases and pattern of drug resistance documented.
Results: Overall 74 patients were found to have drug resistant tuberculosis. Treatment naive patients made up 48.6% of the drug resistant cases while 51.4% of the patients of drug resistant cases were previously treated cases. Among the drug resistant TB patients, 29 Patients (39.2% of the DR TB cases) were found to have MDR TB while 28 patients (37.8%) were found to have mono resistance tuberculosis. Resistance to INH was the commonest being present in 57 (77% of DR TB cases) patients which included 25 patients with mono INH resistance (89.3% of mono drug resistant cases). Fourteen patients (18.9% of DR TB) were found to have rifampicin resistance (RR-TB) on GeneXpert/RIF assay alone. Fluoroquinolone resistance was present in 22 patients (29.7% of the DR TB cases) while resistance to second line injectables was detected in three patients (4.1% of DR TB cases) including two patients diagnosed a XDR TB.
Conclusion: Drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis was frequent in previously treated as well as new patients of pulmonary tuberculosis. Drug susceptibility testing including molecular methods for detection of resistance to first line and second line drugs are essential for optimum management of these cases.


Abstract Background Rapid weight gain is common with antipsychotic medication. Lost confidence, low mood and medication non‐adherence often follow. Yet, the dynamic interactions between the physical and psychological consequences of weight gain, and implications for intervention, are unknown. Objectives We examined first‐person accounts of weight gain to identify preferences for weight change interventions. Design A qualitative design was used to explore patients' experiences of weight change in the context of psychosis. Method Semi‐structured interviews, analysed using grounded theory, were conducted with 10 patients with psychosis. Sample validation was conducted with peer researchers with lived experience of psychosis. Results Patients described that initially the extent and speed of weight gain was overshadowed by psychotic experiences and their treatment. This led to a shocking realisation of weight gain. The psychological impact of weight gain, most strikingly on the self‐concept, was profound. Loss of self‐worth and changed appearance amplified a sense of vulnerability. There were further consequences on mood, activity and psychotic experiences, such as voices commenting on appearance, that were additional obstacles in the challenging process of weight loss. Sedative effects of medication also contributed. Unsuccessful weight loss left little hope and few preferences for interventions. Early information about common weight gain trajectories and working with experts‐by‐experience were valued. Rebuilding self‐confidence, efficacy and worth may be a necessary first step. Conclusions The journey of weight gain in patients with psychosis is characterised by loss of self‐worth, agency and hope. There are multiple stages in the journey, each with different psychological reactions, that may need different treatment responses.


The effect of aging the M. longissimus dorsi of 13 impala at 4oC over a ten-day period was investigated. Large variation between animals was observed for the percentages drip and cooking loss as well as for the CIELab colour (L*, a*, b*) values. No trend could be observed for these physical characteristics over time. Means for all traits correspond to that reported in the literature for this species. Similarly, the tenderness of the muscle varied between the animals. However, the tenderness (as measured by a Warner Bratzler shear apparatus) of the muscle generally improved with time. The quadratic equation y = -0.0817x 2 + 0.4468x + 10.477 best described (R 2 = 0.32) this improvement in tenderness. The implications of this result is that fresh game meat producers can de-bone carcasses after 24 hours post mortem and leave the primal cuts to age in vacuum bags in the chiller, thereby utilizing the available chiller space more efficiently.


The role of businesses in the journey towards society\'s sustainability is very important, as businesses are an integral part of the society, it has the resources, it is fast and can make rapid changes, it knows how to unite the people inside the company for the goals it sets and works with efficiency in mind. Nevertheless, businesses might not have the professionals and the sustainability scientific knowledge to set the sustainability vision, goals and lead the way. Help and assistance is needed from the management scientists proposing user friendly management models, that are scientifically sound and based on the sustainability principles, but at the same time easily understood by the managers, that are business visionaries and business professionals, but not necessarily sustainability professionals and scientists. Based on the critical analysis of existing business sustainability management models and their advantages and disadvantages, an expanded and detailed business sustainability strategic management model is proposed, in which each step of the model is elaborated to make it as business management friendly as possible. The three sustainability dimensions (environmental, social and economic) are expanded in the model adding the political dimension, which is recognized as the overarching dimension, and political criteria are proposed to be used in the journey towards a sustainable society.


The Every Day Counts (EDC) initiative is a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) effort that acknowledges the need for sustainable practices. According to the FHWA Administrator, the initiative is "designed to identify and deploy innovation aimed at shortening project delivery, enhancing the safety of our roadways, and protecting the environment". The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in new concrete paving mixtures is an example of innovation that aligns well the goals of the EDC initiative. RCA used in new concrete paving mixtures can expedite construction schedules, reduce waste and associated hauling cost, conserve resources of virgin aggregates, and potentially reduce project costs. The Technology Deployment Plan presented herein is aimed at addressing the barriers that limit the use of RCA in new concrete paving mixtures. The Plan recognizes barriers grouped into three primary categories: compliance, quality, and production. In order to overcome these barriers, the Plan includes the creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) and four programs: Outreach and Communication, Training, Technical Support, and Demonstration Projects. Through coordinated efforts by the TWG, the tasks developed and carried out under each program will mark forward progress towards achieving a future where RCA is used as a commonly accepted alternative to virgin aggregates for new concrete paving mixtures.


Security of wired and wireless networks is the most challengeable in today's computer world. The aim of this study was to give brief introduction about viruses and worms, their creators and characteristics of algorithms used by viruses. Here wired and wireless network viruses are elaborated. Also viruses are compared with human immune system. On the basis of this comparison four guidelines are given to detect viruses so that more secure systems are made. While concluding this study it is found that the security is most challengeable, thus it is required to make more secure models which automatically detect viruses and prevent the system from its affect.


This resource contains the poem "Los cuatro muleros", a popular song recuperated by Federico Garcia Lorca, and its translation into English made by Emma Carr, a student of the University of Leeds, during the course of a Poetry Translation Workshop.

The three videos include the song "Los cuatro muleros" sung in an informal setting by the Spanish poet Juan Ramon Barat. There are also some comments about the poem's structure, origins, themes and impact of this "copla" featuring J.R. Barat and History Lecturer and poetry aficionado Juan Manzanares.

The best know version of the song is by Spanish singer Ana Belen and can be found in youtube.


In what is now the vicious circle of violence that pits 'terrorist' and 'counter-terrorist' is there a place for dialogue? Can dialogue feasibly restrict the spread and intensity of violence? More ambitiously perhaps, can it set in train a process that might bring healing to the deep wounds that that have been festering for decades? To explore these questions this paper begins by clarifying the nature and scope of the problem as it has unfolded over time. It delineates the scope and modalities of the conflict: its historical roots, the way it has manifested itself in the politics of the Muslim world, the interests of the United States and its allies, and the tensions that have accompanied the rise of substantial Muslim minorities in several Western countries. The paper then goes on to consider the efforts made thus far to bring the philosophy and method of dialogue to bear on the Islam-West divide, and its offshoot the terrorism-counterterrorism dynamic. Reflecting on the lessons to be drawn from these earlier endeavours, the paper sets out the new conceptual and practical innovations that should inform the dialogue agenda in the years ahead.


Background Neonatal mortality accounts for approximately 46% of global under-5 child mortality. The widespread access to mobile devices in low- and middle-income countries has enabled innovations, such as mobile virtual reality (VR), to be leveraged in simulation education for health care workers. Objective This study explores the feasibility and educational efficacy of using mobile VR for the precourse preparation of health care professionals in neonatal resuscitation training. Methods Health care professionals in obstetrics and newborn care units at 20 secondary and tertiary health care facilities in Lagos, Nigeria, and Busia, Western Kenya, who had not received training in Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) within the past 1 year were randomized to access the electronic HBB VR simulation and digitized HBB Provider's Guide (VR group) or the digitized HBB Provider's Guide only (control group). A sample size of 91 participants per group was calculated based on the main study protocol that was previously published. Participants were directed to use the electronic HBB VR simulation and digitized HBB Provider's Guide or the digitized HBB Provider's Guide alone for a minimum of 20 minutes. HBB knowledge and skills assessments were then conducted, which were immediately followed by a standard, in-person HBB training course that was led by study staff and used standard HBB evaluation tools and the Neonatalie Live manikin (Laerdal Medical). Results A total of 179 nurses and midwives participated (VR group: n=91; control group: n=88). The overall performance scores on the knowledge check (P=.29), bag and mask ventilation skills check (P=.34), and Objective Structured Clinical Examination A checklist (P=.43) were similar between groups, with low overall pass rates (6/178, 3.4% of participants). During the Objective Structured Clinical Examination A test, participants in the VR group performed better on the critical step of positioning the head and clearing the airway (VR group: 77/90, 86%; control group: 57/88, 65%; P=.002). The median percentage of ventilations that were performed via head tilt, as recorded by the Neonatalie Live manikin, was also numerically higher in the VR group (75%, IQR 9%-98%) than in the control group (62%, IQR 13%-97%), though not statistically significantly different (P=.35). Participants in the control group performed better on the identifying a helper and reviewing the emergency plan step (VR group: 7/90, 8%; control group: 16/88, 18%; P=.045) and the washing hands step (VR group: 20/90, 22%; control group: 32/88, 36%; P=.048). Conclusions The use of digital interventions, such as mobile VR simulations, may be a viable approach to precourse preparation in neonatal resuscitation training for health care professionals in low- and middle-income countries.


We study the spectra of diamagnetic rubidium Rydberg atoms in strong magnetic and weak electric parallel fields, in the $n$-mixing regime. Our emphasis is on isolated pairs of near-degenerate, opposite-parity, diamagnetic states that become mixed by the weak electric field. Such level pairs allow for the generation of nondegenerate states with large, tunable permanent electric dipole moments and large optical excitation cross sections from the atomic ground state. We investigate how the dipole moments and the zero-electric-field energy defects of these level pairs can be tuned using small variations of the electric and magnetic fields. Using calculations, we explore the abundance of such level pairs over wide spectral regions for several magnetic quantum numbers. Applications of polar, diamagnetic Rydberg states in Rydberg-atom interaction experiments are briefly discussed.


In September 1979, China's Fifth National People's Congress passed a policy that encouraged one-child families. Following this decision from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), campaigns were initiated to implement the One-Child Policy nationwide. This initiative constituted the most massive governmental attempt to control human fertility and reproduction in human history. These campaigns prioritized reproductive technologies for contraception [6], abortion [7], and sterilization [8] in gynecological and obstetric medicine, while downplaying technologies related to fertility treatment. In the late 1980s, one of the consequences was the reorientation of the rationality of governmental funding for research on human in vitro [9] fertilization [10] (IVF) and embryo transfer [11].


Product innovation and the trend toward globalization are two important dimensions driving business today, and a firm's global new product development (NPD) strategy is a primary determinant of performance. Succeeding in this competitive and complex market arena calls for corporate resources and strategies by which firms can effectively tackle the challenges and opportunities associated with international NPD. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and the entrepreneurial strategic posture (ESP) literature, the present study develops and tests a model that emphasizes the resources of the firm as primary determinants of competitive advantage and, thus, of superior performance through the strategic initiatives that these enable. In the study, global NPD programs are assessed in terms of three dimensions: (1) the organizational resources or behavioral environment of the firm relevant for international NPD—specifically, the global innovation culture of the firm and senior management involvement in the global NPD effort; (2) the global NPD strategies (i.e., global presence strategy and global product harmonization strategy) chosen for expanding and exploiting opportunities in international markets; and (3) global NPD program performance in terms of shorter- and longer-term outcome measures. These are modeled in antecedent terms, where the impact of the resources on performance is mediated by the NPD strategy of the firm. Based on data from 432 corporate global new product programs (North America and Europe, business-to-business, services and goods), a structural model testing for the hypothesized mediation effects was substantially supported. Specifically, having an organizational posture that, at once, values innovation plus globalization, as well as a senior management that is active in and supports the international NPD effort leads to strategic choices that are focused on making the firm truly global in terms of both market coverage and product offering. Further, the two strategies—global presence and global product harmonization—were found to be significant mediators of the firm's behavioral environment in terms of impact on performance of global NPD programs.


After decades of effort, the health outcomes in India are still poor. In addition to the slow socioeconomic development and sluggish progress in poverty eradication, the ongoing poor health status of individuals living in rural India is often attributed to an inefficient and largely dysfunctional public healthcare system. Although India has developed a huge network of public health facilities, the utilization of services at these facilities still remains abysmal. One of the factors underlying this situation is thought to be the poor availability of human resources in healthcare. Recognising the need to overhaul the system, the government launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), an initiative that aimed to increase health worker availability in public health facilities. It has been more than a decade since the launch of the NRHM, and the time is ripe to evaluate the extent to which health worker availability has improved in public health facilities, and how inequalities in the distribution of health workers in public facilities has changed. Related to this is an important question: What factors shape such distributional inequalities? The NRHM introduced new cadres to the public health system – a 2 nurse midwife at the sub-centres and a traditional medical doctor at the primary health centres. Thus, this study also investigated the effects associated with the implementation of these workers on healthcare utilization. This study largely uses quantitative tools and secondary data from the District Level Household Survey (DLHS) series. It finds that the overall health worker availability has improved slightly, but the availability of a few health worker cadres, such as male health workers, has deteriorated. The study also found that the distribution of health workers has become more unequal over the study period. While the inequality in the distribution of health workers within states remains considerably high, the inequality in the availability of health workers across states has increased. The study finds a mesh of complex factors affecting the availability and distribution of health workers across health facilities, which include the availability of basic amenities, physical infrastructure, work environments, family and personal choices, misuse of transfer, and deployment policies. It also finds that the utilization of health services is lower at those sub-centres run by a 2 ANM compared to those run by permanent ANMs. Evidence about the impact of a 2 ANM and AYUSH are inconclusive for most indicators. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that there is a need to further improve health worker availability at rural public health facilities. The emphasis should be on reducing the inequality not only across states, but also within states. Special efforts would be


Engaged scholarship is increasingly concerned with how community engagement might be institutionalized in the contemporary university. At the same time, it must be attentive to diverse academic approaches to knowledge and to the forms of engagement associated with them. Attention to this plurality is especially important in the humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS). Based on a multi-method study conducted in the Faculty of Arts at a large western Canadian research university, this paper maps the demographic positions (gender, rank, and discipline) and scholarly dispositions (stances adopted toward the production of knowledge and the role of the academic) of HASS faculty and contract instructors onto the range of ways they perceive and practice engagement. Against this backdrop, we present a qualitative case study of two pairs of faculty that fleshes out the complexities and possibilities of divergent dispositions and the forms and experiences of engagement with which they are associated. We assert that understanding differentiated starting points to knowledge production among HASS academics is an important pathway to the fuller recognition and flexible institutionalization of engagement in research universities.  Â


Abstract: A music dictionary for the Internet fulfils the same functions as printed music dictionaries. An earlier music dictionary is as useful as a new one if its information is correct. But the fact that an Internet dictionary can at any time be corrected according to modern practices makes it, if not timeless, at least more up to date. Furthermore, the possibilities of illustrating with picture and sound open a wide field of usefulness. Nevertheless the lexicographer has to be aware of the different needs of different user types in different user situations. The dictionary being discussed, Musikordbogen, has been designed for text reception rather than translation or text production. After the inception of the dictionary has been described, the way the possibilities of the Internet has influenced the concept and the content of the articles and the outer texts is discussed.


The present work provides a theoretical and applied reflection on bioethical responsibility towards current and particularly future generations. After having introduced interrelated key concepts, two partly opposite views will be substantiated by arguments grounded in various realities of human life. The resulting synthesis will aim at reaching the most profound source for man's real responsibility (Part I). For this purpose, an anthropologically guided path will ultimately lead to the reality of love (Part II). The subsequent applicative part will translate all insights gained to bioethical responsibility within the development and lifecycle of a new medicinal product. More specifically, focus will be laid on two key aspects therein, namely the performance of mandatory clinical trials in the paediatric population and safety monitoring of medicinal products. Overall, this work is intended as sound support to discover and to effectively realise one's own bioethical responsibility.


The Moravian-Silesian Region is one of the most polluted sites by dust particles in the Czech Republic. Therefore, atmospheric concentrations of heavy metals as cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, antimony, thallium, manganese, iron and zinc, were monitored at 10 localities in the region during summer of 2014. Heavy metals were monitored in 10 particle size classes from 18.3 nm to 9.93 μm. The percentage of the amount of heavy metals in the sum PM at all localities ranged from 0.2-2.5%. It was found that chromium, manganese, iron and zinc were mostly accumulated in dust particles with diameter greater than 1.6 μm. Lead, cadmium and antimony occur mainly in the class below 0.949 μm. These metals are more dangerous for human health, and can have potential carcinogenic effect. The influence of metallurgical industry evaluated on the basis of heavy metals in the individual particle size classes in the air within the Moravian-Silesian Region has not been unequivocally demonstrated.


Computing semantic relatedness of natural language texts requires access to vast amounts of common-sense and domain-specific world knowledge. We propose Explicit Semantic Analysis (ESA), a novel method that represents the meaning of texts in a high-dimensional space of concepts derived from crops. We use machine learning techniques to explicitly represent the meaning of any text as a weighted vector of crops-based concepts. Assessing the relatedness of texts in this space amounts to comparing the corresponding vectors using conventional metrics (e.g., cosine). Compared with the previous state of the art, using ESA results in substantial improvements in correlation of computed relatedness scores with human judgments: from r =0.56 to 0.75 for individual words and from r =0.60 to 0.72 for texts. Importantly, due to the use of natural concepts, the ESA model is easy to explain to human users. The proposed model showed enhanced precision and recall extraction values over other approaches.


ABSTRACT Injustice is at odds with social work's mandate to promote social justice, human rights and ethical responsibility. In nations such as the UK, Australia and the USA, ideologies of the far right exert strong influences on social policy. In this critical commentary, we argue that shifts from welfare states to privatisation, the return of the deserving and undeserving as 'strivers' and 'shrivers', 'lifters' and 'leaners', and policies that violate the human rights of refugees and other disenfranchised groups have activated moral outrage within the social work profession. Moral distress, ethical responsibilities and, for some, fears of complicity when unjust policies become practice, suggest that a moral response is required. A new form of online activism in a Third Space has emerged that juxtaposes traditional social work activism in ways that are responsive to social work's moral imperatives, and is a panacea for moral outrage within a global context. Such actions pose ethical complexities and are not without risk. Stéphane Hessel offers a framework to understand how peaceful civil disobedience and radical approaches are legitimate expressions of moral outrage that transcend indifference and despair. We explore the new social work activism emerging in the Third Space drawing from Hessel's philosophies.


This study focuses on the relationship between trade and relative prices of pollution intensive goods. Seminal to this idea is the transfer problem. It is based on the idea that environmental quality of two countries that engage in trade could be affected and this could also have possible environmental quality transfer effects in a third country (geographic neighbors or trade partners) and a result, terms of trade effects. The paper makes the case that whether the relative price of a pollutant would suffer during trade will depend on the kind of pollutant it is, distance between the countries involved, countries' marginal propensity to consume and substitutability of the good. The nature of the pollutant (whether it is spatially separable in production and or consumption) determines whether it can spillover to trade neighbors or whether it is transferable to a trade partner with ramifications to its relative price. The paper uses indirect utility functions and compensated demand functions to analyze the terms of trade effects.


Nicotine vaccines are a new prevention and treatment method for smoking addiction. They are promoted as a method to cease smoking among those who smoke and possibly prevent this behaviour from taking place among those who do not smoke. However, offering these vaccines to adults, adolescents, and children will undoubtedly raise an ethical debate among policy-makers, health professionals, and the public. This paper discusses the possibility of using nicotine vaccines treat and prevent smoking among adults/children/adolescents through the lenses of two ethical theories: utilitarianism and deontology (Kantianism). From an utilitarian perspective, nicotine vaccines are good for society because they provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number of individuals. Authors perceive them as a healthy ethical choice to prevent and treat smoking. And, from the deontological perspective, nicotine vaccines are justified because individuals can prevent the harm of nicotine addiction by choosing vaccines or any other smoking prevention and treatment methods.


While there has been much research available on employee absenteeism, there has been very little research on employee lateness, or arriving at work after the scheduled starting time. Therefore, a study of employee lateness, or tardiness, was conducted with a sample of 181 factory workers. This study utilized The Steers and Rhodes Process Model of Attendance (1978).

Subject responses to a questionnaire provided information on 27 independent variables which were compared with tardiness frequency data obtained from company records for the previous nine month period. Tardiness for male (N = 115) and female (N = 66) samples were analyzed separately utilizing correlational and regression techniques.

In support of the model, for both the male and female sample, two variables were found to be significantly related to tardiness: (a) auto problems and (b) general transportation problems. For the male sample only, in support of the model, significant relationships were found between tardiness and two variables: (a) satisfaction with group and (b) group attitudes.

For the female sample only, in support of the model, significant relationships were found between tardiness and three variables: (a) satisfaction with group, (b) child care at departure time, and (c) age.

For the male sample, curvilinear relationships were found between tardiness and two variables, job involvement and supervisor enforcement. For the female sample, a curvilinear relationship was found for tardiness with perceived company policy against tardiness.

The relative importance of categories of the Steers and Rhodes Model was assessed and a best regression model was developed (Male: $R\sp2$ =.22, $p < .001$; Female: $R\sp2$ =.57, $p <.001).$ The Steers and Rhodes Model is considered appropriate as a theoretical framework to study tardiness.

For this study, it is speculated that attitudes may not have been stable over time and that a bonus policy may have decreased tardiness incidents.


Vertically-integrated 3D multiprocessors systems-on-chip (3D MPSoCs) provide the means to continue integrating more functionality within a unit area while enhancing manufacturing yields and runtime performance. However, 3D MPSoCs incur amplified thermal challenges that undermine the corresponding reliability. To address these issues, several advanced cooling technologies, alongside temperature-aware design-time optimizations and run-time management schemes have been proposed. In this paper, we provide an overall survey on the recent advances in temperature-aware 3D MPSoC considerations. We explore the recent advanced cooling strategies, thermal modeling frameworks, design-time optimizations and run-time thermal management schemes that are primarily targeted for 3D MPSoCs. Our aim of proposing this survey is to provide a global perspective, highlighting the advancements and drawbacks on the recent state-of-the-art.


Recent Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations present mounting evidence for the presence of exocometary gas released within Kuiper Belt analogs around nearby main-sequence stars. This represents a unique opportunity to study their ice reservoir at the younger ages when volatile delivery to planets is most likely to occur. We here present the detection of CO J = 2-1 emission colocated with dust emission from the cometary belt in the 440 Myr old Fomalhaut system. Through spectrospatial filtering, we achieve a 5.4σ detection and determine that the ring's sky-projected rotation axis matches that of the star. The CO mass derived ( ) is the lowest of any circumstellar disk detected to date and must be of exocometary origin. Using a steady-state model, we estimate the CO+CO2 mass fraction of exocomets around Fomalhaut to be between 4.6% and 76%, consistent with solar system comets and the two other belts known to host exocometary gas. This is the first indication of a similarity in cometary compositions across planetary systems that may be linked to their formation scenario and is consistent with direct interstellar medium inheritance. In addition, we find tentative evidence that % of the detected flux originates from a region near the eccentric belt's pericenter. If confirmed, the latter may be explained through a recent impact event or CO pericenter glow due to exocometary release within a steady-state collisional cascade. In the latter scenario, we show how the azimuthal dependence of the CO release rate leads to asymmetries in gas observations of eccentric exocometary belts.


Abstract Record linkage has become an important tool for increasing research opportunities in the social sciences. Surveys that perform record linkage to administrative records are often required to obtain informed consent from respondents prior to linkage. A major concern is that nonconsent could introduce biases in analyses based on the linked data. One straightforward strategy to overcome the missing data problem created by nonconsent is to match nonconsenters with statistically similar units in the target administrative database. To assess the effectiveness of statistical matching in this context, we use data from two German panel surveys that have been linked to an administrative database of the German Federal Employment Agency. We evaluate the statistical matching procedure under various artificial nonconsent scenarios and show that the method can be effective in reducing nonconsent biases in marginal distributions, but that biases in multivariate estimates can sometimes be worsened. We discuss the implications of these findings for survey practice and elaborate on some of the practical challenges of implementing the statistical matching procedure in the context of linkage nonconsent. The developed simulation design can act as a roadmap for other statistical agencies considering the proposed approach for their data.


The global economic and financial crisis is a challenge for all governments but in particular for federal states, as divided and/or shared territorial powers make federations susceptible to coordination problems in fiscal policy-making. This article is interested in the effects of the on-going crisis on federal relations. Three kinds of problems are evoked, which may become the cause of federal tensions and conflicts – opportunism of subgovernments, centralisation, and erosion of solidarity amongst members of the federation. Our analysis of fiscal policies and federal conflicts of eleven federations between 2007 and today reveals three kinds of coordination problems: shirking in the use of federal government grants, rent-seeking in equalisation payments, over-borrowing and over-spending. Our results show that shirking remained limited to few cases and occurred only in the first part of the crisis. However, rent-seeking and over-borrowing and -spending led to a reduction of solidarity amongst subgovernments, and increased regulation of fiscal discretion of the members of the federation. Subsequently, tensions in federal relations increased, though only in one case, this has challenged the federal order as such.


Overexposure to endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDCs) can result in serious health problems, yet they are commonly found in everyday items such as pesticides, personal care products, nutritional supplements, and plastics. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with other such agencies from around the world, have therefore man-dated that new approaches be designed to screen these products for the presence of EDCs. However, despite the presence of several types of extant EDC detection assays, there still exists a backlog approaching 87,000 chemicals currently awaiting screening. Autobioluminescent detection systems, which utilize cellular bioreporters capable of autonomously modulating bioluminescent signals without the need for external stimula- tion or investigator interaction, provide an attractive means for addressing this backlog because of their reduced performance costs and increased throughput relative to alterna- tive assay systems. This chapter reviews the variety of existing EDC detection assays and evaluates the performance of a representative autobioluminescent estrogen-responsive EDC bioreporter to provide an overview of how autobioluminescence can be used to improve EDC detection using in vitro assay systems.


Research has shown that students' science capital has a large impact on their science aspirations and their development of science identities. In this study, we apply the notion of science capital to chemistry education in order to investigate how students make use of science capital in the field of chemistry. We define chemistry capital as a person's resources that help him or her to succeed in the field of chemistry (e.g., parents know chemistry content, sharing chemistry-related activities at home,…). We interviewed 48 secondary school students in Germany and conducted a thematic analysis. It reveals the following. (i) Chemistry capital in the home environment is unevenly distributed. Students who do not have family members who can connect with the mainstream conception of chemistry tend to be concentrated in schools with the lowest entry requirements (Hauptschulen, lower secondary education). Chemistry capital, therefore, tends to be reproduced. (ii) In most cases, families' chemistry capital translates into students' individual chemistry capital. This shows up in a multitude of links between families' chemistry capital and students' individual chemistry capital. (iii) The German school structures tend to aggravate the existing inequalities: this tends to deprive the students from Hauptschulen of qualified chemistry teachers. (iv) In some exceptional cases, students acquire chemistry capital independently from their families' capital. They do so either by following chemistry-related YouTube channels or by developing a chemistry identity as part of a general learner identity. In order to reduce the existing inequalities, there is an urgent need to provide Hauptschulen in Germany with qualified teaching staff for chemistry. If this precondition is met, teaching approaches that focus on identity building and engaging students and their parents in a dialogue about chemistry could potentially be fruitful.


An expert introduction to Samsung's new mobile platform Bada is a new platform that runs on mass market phones and enables you to build cutting-edge applications for mobile devices. As an access layer, bada has all the advantages of native coding and provides the power of multi-tasking and multi-threading. This book serves as a complete introduction to the exciting capabilities of bada and shows you how bada offers commerce and business services with server-side support. The authors walk you through the complete set of platform APIs and detail the architecture of bada. Code fragments are featured throughout the book as well as examples that utilize all of the major APIs, from sensors to maps and from phonebook to billing. Introduces Samsung's new platform, bada Explains the bada framework, its APIs, and the bada architecture Walks you through how bada is a logically structured mobile platform that allows you to build exciting apps for mobile devices Features code fragments and numerous examples that address all the major APIs Discover how bada boasts the richest set of end-to-end service, commerce, and billing APIs with this book! Ben Morris is a freelance author and developer, specializing in mobile software including Symbian OS and mobile widgets.


Eucalyptus globulus is a major plantation forestry species in southern Australia.
Commercial E. globulus seedlots have high viability (95%) and uniform
germination, which is completed within 5-6 days. However commercial nurseries
have reported delays in germination with seedling emergence spread over five to
ten weeks. According to growers and seed suppliers the problem is not restricted
to particular seedlots and occurs in most nurseries. Observations have suggested
that a brief period of desiccation or high temperature between sowing and
germination may lead to the delays, but no clear cause has been established.
Further, there is nothing in the literature to indicate either cause or possible
management strategies. According to the ISTA guidelines the germination period
of E. globulus is 5-14 days under laboratory conditions and in the field,
germination should occur before 26 days. The aim of the present project was to
establish the factors responsible for this apparent induction of previously
unreported secondary dormancy in E. globulus seed and to provide a basis for
commercial management of the problem.


This chapter looks at the Arab uprisings and their outcomes, approaching them from the perspective of the peoples of the region. The Arab uprisings are conceived of as popular uprisings against aged and mostly despotic governments, which have long silenced popular dissent. Ultimately, the Arab uprisings demonstrate the weakness of traditional international relations, with its focus on states and power, by showing how much the people matter. Even if the Arab uprisings have not yet delivered on popular expectations, and the Arab world continues to be subject to external interference and persistent authoritarian rule, they are part of a process of global protest and change, facilitated by new media and technology, which challenges the dominant international relations theories.


Repeating copolymers of (dT-dC)n.(dA-dG)n sequences (TC.AGn) can assume a hinged DNA structure (H-DNA) which is composed of triple-stranded and single-stranded regions. A model for the formation of H-DNA is proposed, based on two-dimensional gel electrophoretic analysis of DNA's with different lengths of (TC.AG)n copolymers. In this model, H-DNA formation is initiated at a small denaturation bubble in the interior of the copolymer, which allows the duplexes on either side to rotate slightly and to fold back, in order to make the first base triplet. This nucleation establishes which of several nonequivalent H-DNA conformations is to be assumed by any DNA molecule, thereby trapping each molecule in one of several metastable conformers that are not freely interconvertible. Subsequently, the acceptor region spools up single-stranded polypyrimidines as they are released by progressive denaturation of the donor region; both the spooling and the denaturation result in relaxation of negative supercoils in the rest of the DNA molecule. From the model, it can be predicted that the levels of supercoiling of the DNA determine which half of the (dT-dC)n repeat is to become the donated third strand.


Background Biomechanical analyses suggest that the loss of neuromuscular control is associated with noncontact anterior cruciate ligament sprains; however, previous research has not explored the link between neurocognitive function and unintentional knee injuries. Purpose To determine if athletes who suffer a noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury demonstrate decreased baseline neurocognitive performance when compared with matched controls. Study Design Case control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods The baseline scores from a computerized neurocognitive test battery (ImPACT) were analyzed to compare verbal memory, visual memory, processing speed, and reaction time. Eighty intercollegiate athletes who, subsequent to testing, experienced noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries, were matched with 80 controls based on height, weight, age, gender, sport, position, and years of experience at the collegiate level. Results Statistical differences were found between the noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury group and the matched controls on all 4 neurocognitive subtests. Noncontact anterior cruciate ligament—injured athletes demonstrated significantly slower reaction time (F1,158 = 9.66, P = .002) and processing speed (F1,158 = 12.04, P = .001) and performed worse on visual (F1,158 = 19.16, P = .000) and verbal memory (F 1,158 = 4.08, P = .045) composite scores when compared with controls. Conclusion Neurocognitive differences may be associated with the loss of neuromuscular control and coordination errors, predisposing certain intercollegiate athletes to noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries.


The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has successfully operated onboard the Terra spacecraft for more than 12 years and the Aqua spacecraft for more than ten years. It has 20 reflective solar bands covering the visible (VIS), near infrared (NIR), and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral regions. They are calibrated on orbit using regularly scheduled solar diffuser measurements and lunar observations. In recent years, observations over selected ground targets are also used to monitor detector responses at different angles of incidence. This paper provides a brief description of MODIS on-orbit calibration and characterization methodologies and examines the calibration stability of the VIS, NIR, and SWIR spectral bands over the entire missions of both instruments. Results obtained from four different vicarious approaches (deserts, Dome Concordia, deep convective cloud, and simultaneous nadir overpass) show that Terra MODIS VIS and NIR spectral bands have a wavelength-dependent drift in reflectance with a drop up to 8% in the shortest wavelength region. All four approaches have a relative agreement to within 2.0% with an uncertainty of less than 1.5% for most bands. It is anticipated that the improvements made in the MODIS Collection 6, with additional corrections based on the desert reflectance trending results, will significantly reduce, if not completely remove, some of the trending drifts identified in the Collection-5 data product.


Consumers of movies, videos, and television programmes enjoy sharing the experience with groups of family and friends. Group consumption or co-viewing of audiovisual entertainment helps make co-exposure to advertisements fairly common across media vehicles and technologies. Research in marketing and psychology has consistently shown that the presence of, and/or the interactions with, others affects cognition. Therefore, co-exposure should sway advertising effects. Still, most media planning assumes that the value of reach and frequency for advertisers does not change over social contexts. The present study investigates co-exposure to programme 'promos' as an antecedent of individual consumption of the advertised programmes on people meter panel data. Our findings support and extend those reported in the sparse experimental literature, provide the basis for a theoretical model of social context of exposure, and point to possible research directions for practitioners and academics.


The aim of this study was to understand the role of the intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions present in paracetamol hydrochloride monohydrated salt. Paracetamol hydrochloride monohydrate salt (PRA-HCl) and paracetamol (form I) were investigated via vibrational (FT-IR and FT-Raman) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) to gain insight into the hydrogen bond patterns present in these crystalline materials. Two different density functionals, wB97X-D and M062X, were used for the comparison of the results. The geometrical parameters of PRA-HCl and form I obtained using these functional were compared with the crystallographic data, which proved the existence of intra-molecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonds. The C10O2 group of form I forms an intramolecular hydrogen bond, while the O1–H18 group of PRA-HCl forms an intermolecular hydrogen bond with a chloride ion (Cl−), resulting in the elongation of the bond length and shift to a lower wavenumber for the O1–H18 group. To examine the potency of hydrogen bonding, quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) calculations were performed and the results suggested that O1–H18⋯Cl22 is a strong intermolecular hydrogen bond. The chemical reactivity parameters reveal that the PRA-HCl and PRA-OXA cocrystals are more reactive and softer (low HOMO–LUMO energy gap) in comparison to paracetamol (form I).


BACKGROUND Migration selectivity is thought to shape the health profiles of Mexican immigrants. OBJECTIVE This study examines how the experience of Mexican migration to the United States affects the health process and the quality of life in old age by age at migration, specific to sex. METHODS We use 20 years of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to estimate the proportion of life spent disability-free prior to death across eight subgroups by sex, nativity, and age at migration among Mexican-origin elderly in the United States. RESULTS Female migrants are at a significant disadvantage in terms of IADL disability-free life expectancy relative to US-born women, particularly late-life migrants. Conversely, mid- and late-life male migrants exhibit an advantage in ADL disability-free life expectancy compared to their US-born counterparts. CONCLUSIONS Foreign-born Mexican elders are not a homogeneous group. This issue merits special attention in the development of community-based long-term care programs in order to appropriately target the specific needs of different subgroups of older Mexican individuals entering their last decades of life. CONTRIBUTION This study contributes to immigrant health literature by providing a more comprehensive documentation of nativity differentials, by distinguishing subgroups of Mexican elderly by sex, nativity, and age at migration.


Abstract Lumped parameter approaches for modeling the cardiovascular system typically have many parameters of which many are not identifiable. The conventional approach is to only identify a small subset of parameters to match measured data, and to set the remaining parameters at population values. These values are often based on animal data or the "average human" response. The problem, is that setting many parameters at nominal fixed values, may introduce dynamics that are not present in a specific patient. As parameter numbers and model complexity increase, more clinical data is required for validation and the model limitations are harder to quantify. This paper considers the modeling and the parameter identification simultaneously, and creates models that are one to one with the measurements. That is, every input parameter into the model is uniquely optimized to capture the clinical data and no parameters are set at population values. The result is a geometrical characterization of a previously developed six chamber heart model, and a completely patient specific approach to cardiac diagnosis in critical care. In addition, simplified sub-structures of the six chamber model are created to provide very fast and accurate parameter identification from arbitrary starting points and with no prior knowledge on the parameters. Furthermore, by utilizing continuous information from the arterial/pulmonary pressure waveforms and the end-diastolic time, it is shown that only the stroke volumes of the ventricles are required for adequate cardiac diagnosis. This reduced data set is more practical for an intensive care unit as the maximum and minimum volumes are no longer needed, which was a requirement in prior work. The simplified models can also act as a bridge to identifying more sophisticated cardiac models, by providing a generating set of waveforms that the complex models can match to. Most importantly, this approach does not have any predefined assumptions on patient dynamics other than the basic model structure, and is thus suitable for improving cardiovascular management in critical care by optimizing therapy for individual patients.


Since a high intake of fruits and vegetables is inversely related to the incidence of several degenerative diseases, the importance of a balanced diet in relation to human health has received increased consumer attention worldwide. Strawberries (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) are a rich source of a wide variety of nutritive compounds such as sugars, vitamins, and minerals, as well as non-nutritive, bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, anthocyanins and phenolic acids. All of these compounds exert a synergistic and cumulative effect on human health promotion and in disease prevention. Strawberry phenolics are indeed able (i) to detoxify free radicals blocking their production, (ii) to modulate the expression of genes involved in metabolism, cell survival and proliferation and antioxidant defense, and (iii) to protect and repair DNA damage. The overall objective of the present review is to update and discuss the key findings, from recent in vivo studies, on the effects of strawberries on human health. Particular attention will be paid to the molecular mechanisms proposed to explain the health effects of polyphenols against the most common diseases related to oxidative stress driven pathologies, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, obesity and neurodegenerative diseases, and inflammation.


Purpose: The application of pan-cancer next-generation sequencing panels in the clinical setting has facilitated the identification of low frequency somatic mutations and the testing of new therapies in solid tumors using the "basket trial" scheme. However, little consideration has been given to the relevance of nonsynonymous germline variants, which are likely to be uncovered in tumors and germline and which may be relevant to prognostication and prediction of treatment response. Experimental Design: We analyzed matched tumor and normal DNA from 34 melanoma patients using an Ion Torrent cancer-associated gene panel. We elected to study the germline variant Q472H in the kinase insert domain receptor (KDR), which was identified in 35% of melanoma patients in both a pilot and an independent 1,223 patient cohort. Using patient-derived melanoma cell lines and human samples, we assessed proliferation, invasion, VEGF levels, and angiogenesis by analyzing tumor microvessel density (MVD) using anti-CD34 antibody. Results: Serum VEGF levels and tumor MVD were significantly higher in Q472H versus KDR wild-type (WD) patients. Primary cultures derived from melanomas harboring the KDR variant were more proliferative and invasive than KDR wild type. Finally, using a VEGFR2 antibody, we showed that KDR Q472H cells were sensitive to targeted inhibition of VEGFR2, an effect that was not observed in KDR WT cells. Conclusions: Our data support the integration of germline analysis into personalized treatment decision-making and suggest that patients with germline KDR variant might benefit from antiangiogenesis treatment. Clin Cancer Res; 22(10); 2377–85. ©2015 AACR.


This report describes the development of an application which allows a user to program a robot in a virtual environment by the use of hand motions and gestures. The application is inspired by the use of robot lead-through programming which is an easy and hands-on approach for programming robots, but instead of performing it online which creates loss in productivity the strength from offline programming where the user operates in a virtual environment is used as well. Thus, this is a method which saves on the economy and prevents contamination of the environment. To convey hand gesture information into the application which will be implemented for RobotStudio, a Kinect sensor is used for entering the data into the virtual environment. Similar work has been performed before where, by using hand movements, a physical robot's movement can be manipulated, but for virtual robots not so much. The results could simplify the process of programming robots and supports the work towards Human-Robot Collaboration as it allows people to interact and communicate with robots, a major focus of this work. The application was developed in the programming language C# and has two different functions that interact with each other, one for the Kinect and its tracking and the other for installing the application in RobotStudio and implementing the calculated data into the robot. The Kinect's functionality is utilized through three simple hand gestures to jog and create targets for the robot: open, closed and "lasso". A prototype of this application was completed which through motions allowed the user to teach a virtual robot desired tasks by moving it to different positions and saving them by doing hand gestures. The prototype could be applied to both one-armed robots as well as to a two-armed robot such as ABB's YuMi. The robot's orientation while running was too complicated to be developed and implemented in time and became the application's main bottleneck, but remained as one of several other suggestions for further work in this project.


In side-channel analysis attacks, on-die localized EM monitoring enable high bandwidth measurements of only a relevant part of the Integrated Circuit (IC). This can lead to improved attacks compared to cases where only power consumption is measured. Combined with profiled attacks which utilize a training phase to create precise models of the information leakage, the attacks can become even more powerful. In contrast, localized EM measurements can cause difficulties in applying the learned models as the probe should be identically positioned for both the training and the attack even when the setup was used otherwise in between. Even small differences in the probe position can lead to significant differences in the recorded signals. In this paper we present an automated system to precisely and efficiently reposition the probe when performing repeated measurements. Based on the training IC, we train a machine learning system to return the position of the probe for a given measurement. By taking a small number of measurements on the IC under attack, we can then obtain the coordinates of the measurements and map it to correct the coordinate system. As the target for our practical analyses, we use an STM32L0 ARM-M0+ microcontroller with integrated hardware AES.


Pseudoperonospora cubensis is an obligate pathogen and causative agent of cucurbit downy mildew. To help advance our understanding of the pathogenicity of P. cubensis, we used RNA-Seq to improve the quality of its reference genome sequence. We also characterized the RNA-Seq dataset to inventory transcript isoforms and infer alternative splicing during different stages of its development. Almost half of the original gene annotations were improved and nearly 4,000 previously unannotated genes were identified. We also demonstrated that approximately 24% of the expressed genome and nearly 55% of the intron-containing genes from P. cubensis had evidence for alternative splicing. Our analyses revealed that intron retention is the predominant alternative splicing type in P. cubensis, with alternative 5'- and alternative 3'-splice sites occurring at lower frequencies. Representatives of the newly identified genes and predicted alternatively spliced transcripts were experimentally validated. The results presented herein highlight the utility of RNA-Seq for improving draft genome annotations and, through this approach, we demonstrate that alternative splicing occurs more frequently than previously predicted. In total, the current study provides evidence that alternative splicing plays a key role in transcriptome regulation and proteome diversification in plant-pathogenic oomycetes.


The 350 km long Austrian Danube River is characterized by a natural sequence of constrained and alluvial sections. Its hydromorphological character has been changed severely by systematic channelization since the mid-19 th century and hydropower plant construction since the 1950s. An ecological assessment of the Danube River, especially regarding the fish fauna, clearly shows the present deficits compared with the Leitbild (high ecological status) according to the Water Framework Directive of the EU. Intensive human uses constrain implementing comprehensive rehabilitation programs to achieve a good ecological status. Since approx. 80 % of the river length can be provisionally classified as heavily modified water bodies due to chains of impoundments, an adapted Leitbild approach for the development as well as the evaluation of mitigation measures has to be elaborated to achieve a good ecological potential. The range of Leitbild-specific rehabilitation measures is generally restricted within impoundments, in particular in alluvial sections. The most favourable opportunities are present at the heads of reservoirs, where dynamic hydromorphological conditions remain. In constrained sections, rehabilitation measures mainly involve improving the riparian zones, small-scale widenings and mitigating the river continuum both at tributary confluences and in the main channel. In alluvial sections the main focus is on re-establishing lateral and longitudinal connectivity as well as fluvial dynamics. Against this background the present paper describes various types of rehabilitation measures deduced from historical references of alluvial Danube river sections.


For the last fifteen years the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Roma Tre, has been working on the famous Villa Adriana in Tivoli, studying its ruins and its ancient paths, in order to better understand how the villa was originally laid out. In this paper, we will talk about one of these studies, which reconnect previous works and creates a new GIS based map of Villa Adriana. The goal of this study is to create a cultural heritage evaluation. In order to achieve this aim, we have created a multimedia guide with text, drawings, 3D reconstructions and augmented reality. This work can be summarized in five steps; first of all, a new georeferenced plan was created. This drawing is based on an orthophoto and brings together all existing surveys (from historical drawings to recent surveys). In this new work we show the current status of the ruins and the original layout of Villa Adriana according to the most recent study. The second step was a 3D survey, with extensive use of photogrammetry to verify and upgrade drawings. The next and third step involved creating the Database, within which to store, edit, analyze, share, and display linked data relating to both ancient and contemporary buildings and pathways. This GIS is based on the new plan and gathers together different orders of information: original function, paving, the old paths of each original user (Hadrian, his wife Sabina, the retinue, guests and servants) as well as the ancient system of underground tunnels. It collects all the existing data relating to Villa Adriana relevant to solving the "what/where" question. The fourth step was to create a complete 3D model of Villa Adriana. The 3D reconstruction started from the existing surveys, the documentation of recent excavation and the input of the hypothetical reconstruction of lost or buried buildings. Finally we created a multimedia guide, based on a mobile app, which took information from the database to show, in real time, during the tour, where you are and what you can see around you. With this app it's possible to read information about the villa's original layout, or you can access information about the ancient users (their lives and paths). You can also see 3D reconstructions of the buildings around you.


Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) and simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF) are two process options for production of ethanol from lignocellulosic substrates that
are superior to separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF). The principal benefits of performing the enzymatic hydrolysis together with the fermentation, instead of in a separate step after the hydrolysis as
SHF does, are the reduced end-product inhibition of the enzymatic hydrolysis, and the reduced investment costs. The principal drawbacks, on the other hand, are the need to find favorable conditions (e.g. temperature and pH) for both the enzymatic hydrolysis and the fermentation and the difficulty to recycle the fermenting organism and the enzymes.
In order to enhance the efficiency of the lignocellulose-to-ethanol conversion, optimization of the hydrolysis (also called saccharification) process step to achieve an optimal conversion of crystalline domains of
cellulose is crucial. Towards this end, a few existing models with respect to the kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis are analyzed and compared for biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic substrates. The work is focused on selecting, enhancing and redeveloping an appropriate model for enzymatic hydrolysis.
Therefore, a few models are simulated and fitted to a set of experimental data, which are taken from literature, in order to compare the accuracy and the applicability of the models. Based on this, a new kinetic
model for enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic substrates is also proposed and analyzed.


Following the Russian aggression against Ukraine, major sanctions have been imposed by Western countries, most notably with the aim of limiting Russia's access to hard international currency. However, Russia remains the world's first exporter of oil and ga s, and at current energy prices this provides large hard currency revenues. As the war continues, European governments are under increased pressure to scale - up their energy sanctions, following measures taken by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canad a and Australia. This piece argues that given the inelasticity of Russia's oil and gas supply, for Europe the most efficient way to sanction Russian energy would not be an embargo, but the introduction of an import tariff that can be used flexibly to control the degree of economic pressure on Russia.


When new technologies become available, it is not only essential that firms have the correct investment incentives, but often also that consumers make the proper usage decisions. This paper studies investment and usage in a shared ATM network. Because all banks coordinate their ATM investment decisions, there is no strategic but only a pure cost-saving incentive to invest. At the same time, because retail fees for cash withdrawals are regulated to zero at both branches and ATMs, consumers may not have the proper incentives to substitute their transactions from branches to the available ATMs. We develop an empirical model of coordinated investment and cash withdrawal demand, where banks choose the number of ATMs and consumers decide whether to withdraw cash at ATMs or branches. We find that banks substantially underinvested in the shared ATM network and thus provided too little geographic coverage. This contrasts with earlier findings of strategic overinvestment in networks with partial incompatibility. Furthermore, we find that consumer usage of the available ATM network is too low because of the zero retail fees for cash withdrawals at branches. A direct promotion of investment (through subsidies or other means) can improve welfare, but the introduction of retail fees on cash withdrawals at branches would be more effective, even if this does not encourage investment per se.


Although the importance both of skills in medical writing in English and of an understanding of ethics in medical publishing is increasingly recognised, these subjects are not comprehensively taught to Japanese medical doctors and students. Limited resources, teaching staff, and time prevent most Japanese medical schools from implementing standard educational programmes on these topics. To address this, we developed two brief but intensive programmes of lectures and group-based workshops, each incorporating both medical writing skills and publication ethics; one was for Japanese postgraduate medical students, the other for faculty development. The main topics in the programme for postgraduate students were the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, and oral and poster presentation skills. The programme emphasised the importance of medical writing skills and of issues, such as authorship and conflict of interest. The faculty development programme covered handling communications with editors and reviewers after manuscript submission, as well as ethical misconduct issues. We believe these programmes provide a unique and effective means of enhancing awareness of publication ethics and improving medical writing skills among professionals in Japanese healthcare institutions.


This exploratory study investigated young children's beliefs and opinions about computers by actively involving children in the research project. Fifty two children, four to six years old, were asked a set of questions about their favourite activities and their opinions on computer use before and after a seven month computer intervention implemented by the researcher and two more teachers. Results are differentiated in terms of intervention and non-intervention group and children's computer access at home and at school. Findings suggest that young children like using computers very much but not more than other popular activities. More positive opinions and attitudes for children in the intervention group and less positive attitudes for children who used computers only at home were identified. Implications for further research and for both teachers and parents are highlighted.


The large amount of space offered by personal cloud storage services (e.g., Dropbox and OneDrive), together with the possibility of synchronizing devices seamlessly, keep attracting customers to the cloud. Despite the high public interest, little information about system design and actual implications on performance is available when selecting a cloud storage service. Systematic benchmarks to assist in comparing services and understanding the effects of design choices are still lacking. This paper proposes a methodology to understand and benchmark personal cloud storage services. Our methodology unveils their architecture and capabilities. Moreover, by means of repeatable and customizable tests, it allows the measurement of performance metrics under different workloads. The effectiveness of the methodology is shown in a case study in which 11 services are compared under the same conditions. Our case study reveals interesting differences in design choices. Their implications are assessed in a series of benchmarks. Results show no clear winner, with all services having potential for improving performance. In some scenarios, the synchronization of the same files can take 20 times longer. In other cases, we observe a wastage of twice as much network capacity, questioning the design of some services. Our methodology and results are thus useful both as benchmarks and as guidelines for system design.


Radicalization of youth leading to violent extremism in the form of terrorism is an urgent problem considering the rise of young people joining extremist groups of different ideologies. Previous research on the impact of counter-terrorism polices has highlighted negative outcomes such as stigmatizing minority groups. Drawing on qualitative research conducted under the PROTON project (2016–2019) by CREA-UB on the social and ethical impact of counter-terrorism policies in six EU countries, the present article presents and discusses the ways in which actions characterized by creating spaces for dialogue at the grassroots level are contributing to prevent youth violent radicalization. The results highlight four core elements underlying these spaces for dialogue: providing guidance to be safe in the exploration of extremist messages and violent radicalization; the rejection of violence; that dialogue is egalitarian; and that relationships are built on trust so that adolescents and young adults feel confident to raise their doubts. If taken into account, these elements can serve to elaborate dialogic evidence-based policies. The policies which include a dialogue between the scientific evidence and the people affected by them once implemented, achieve positive social impact.


A study of the causative agents of enteritis in domestic rabbits from 44 different accessions is described. In descending order of frequency, the organisms most commonly demonstrated were intestinal and hepatic coccidia (Eimeria species), Escherichia coli, Clostridium spp., Salmonella, Bacillus piliformis, and rotavirus. The species of Eimeria identified included those moderately pathogenic and coccidia of low pathogenicity. Using seven antisera against known enterpathogenic strains of E. coli, only one strain, O15, was identified in three cases. Clostridium perfringens or C. spiroforme was demonstrated in the intestinal contents in 11 cases, and lesions compatible with clostridial enteropathy were identified on gross and histopathology. In a serological survey, over 50% of 200 fryer rabbits submitted to Ontario abattoirs and of animals from commercial rabbitries had detectable antibody to rotavirus, indicating the widespread distribution of rotaviral infections in this species. In the cases of enteritis studied, two or more potentially pathogenic organisms were frequently identified, emphasizing that several different organisms may be acting in concert to produce clinical disease.


Quantum computing is a computational paradigm with the potential to outperform classical methods for a variety of problems. Proposed recently, the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is considered as one of the leading candidates for demonstrating quantum advantage in the near term. QAOA is a variational hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for approximately solving combinatorial optimization problems. The quality of the solution obtained by QAOA for a given problem instance depends on the performance of the classical optimizer used to optimize the variational parameters. In this paper, we formulate the problem of finding optimal QAOA parameters as a learning task in which the knowledge gained from solving training instances can be leveraged to find high-quality solutions for unseen test instances. To this end, we develop two machine-learning-based approaches. Our first approach adopts a reinforcement learning (RL) framework to learn a policy network to optimize QAOA circuits. Our second approach adopts a kernel density estimation (KDE) technique to learn a generative model of optimal QAOA parameters. In both approaches, the training procedure is performed on small-sized problem instances that can be simulated on a classical computer; yet the learned RL policy and the generative model can be used to efficiently solve larger problems. Extensive simulations using the IBM Qiskit Aer quantum circuit simulator demonstrate that our proposed RL- and KDE-based approaches reduce the optimality gap by factors up to 30.15 when compared with other commonly used off-the-shelf optimizers.


This book documents the remnants of the rich Buddhist cultural heritage of Cambodia after centuries of wars and destruction culminating with the genocide and cultural annihilation of the Khmer Rouge. The most important mural paintings of Cambodia are examined after discussion of Buddhist art in general, the function of murals, the architecture of the monuments hosting them, the painting techniques and narrative systems. Detailed study of paintings illustrating episodes of the Buddha's life and of the ten Jatakas follows, ending with in-depth analysis of the Epic of Rama in Cambodia (Reamker). Paintings on scroll canvas (Prah Bot) are also reviewed. The second part of this book includes the description of 70 viharas with mural paintings that the authors were able to visit over a period of four years.


The psalms of lamentation depict a situation in which waves of anguish threaten to engulf the righteous. Surrounded by hostile forces, voices of distress implore Yahweh to intervene in a transformative and restorative manner. The supplicant bemoans the fact that the adversaries have hidden snares in his path in an attempt to bring about his downfall. It should therefore come as no surprise that in the psalms of lamentation snares symbolise containment and subsequent separation from Yahweh and the religious community. Psalm 142 can be regarded as a case in point. Drawing on the most recent assumptions related to image schema research, this contribution argues that the container image schema serves as the underlying structure of the psalmist's metaphorical reference to the hidden snare and the experience of being led out of prison. In addition, the exploration elucidates the link between the container image schema and the path image schema in Psalm 142. The investigation illustrates how the poet's bodily experience of containment and motion along a path allows for the conceptualisation of and reasoning about particular abstract domains.


The implications of early experience for children's brain development, behavior, and psychological functioning have long absorbed caregivers, researchers, and clinicians. The 1989 fall of Romania's Ceausescu regime left approximately 170,000 children in 700 overcrowded, impoverished institutions across Romania, and prompted the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of institutionalization on children's well-being. "Romania's Abandoned Children," the authoritative account of this landmark study, documents the devastating toll paid by children who are deprived of responsive care, social interaction, stimulation, and psychological comfort.Launched in 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) was a rigorously controlled investigation of foster care as an alternative to institutionalization. Researchers included 136 abandoned infants and toddlers in the study and randomly assigned half of them to foster care created specifically for the project. The other half stayed in Romanian institutions, where conditions remained substandard. Over a twelve-year span, both groups were assessed for physical growth, cognitive functioning, brain development, and social behavior. Data from a third group of children raised by their birth families were collected for comparison.The study found that the institutionalized children were severely impaired in IQ and manifested a variety of social and emotional disorders, as well as changes in brain development. However, the earlier an institutionalized child was placed into foster care, the better the recovery. Combining scientific, historical, and personal narratives in a gripping, often heartbreaking, account, "Romania's Abandoned Children "highlights the urgency of efforts to help the millions of parentless children living in institutions throughout the world.


Botryllus schlosseri (Subphylum Tunicata: Class Ascidiacea) is a nonindigenous ascidian species of global and national interest, which has extensive populations along the south coast of insular Newfoundland. Economically, this species has been of concern to industry, management, and policymakers because non-indigenous ascidian species have been a severe and costly nuisance for bivalve aquaculture. Ecologically, the presence of this temperate-adapted species in Newfoundland represents an expansion of its global range into subarctic waters. Thus, I aimed to describe the population dynamics of B. schlosseri in Arnold's Cove, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, by determining the temporal and spatial patterns of recruitment and the seasonal cycle of colony abundance. In addition, I aimed to compile a checklist of extant indigenous and non-indigenous ascidian species of eastern Canada with an emphasis on species from Newfoundland and Labrador. -- Artificial plates were used to determine recruitment rates among three sites, depths (1.0, 2.5, and 4.0 m from the water surface), and substrate types (aluminum, PVC, and wood in 2010; only PVC in 2011), in Arnold's Cove. Concurrently, density and cover of colonies were determined from the analysis of high-definition video surveys of a belt transect of wharf pilings. Seasonal biomass production was estimated from carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratios and dry weight per unit area of dissected tissue subsamples. -- The seasonal window for recruitment was from early August to mid-October. Recruitment rates were greater near the water surface than at other depths, and on PVC in comparison to aluminum and wood substrates. Maximum recruitment rates on PVC at 1.0 m were 29.3 and 43.5 m⁻²d⁻¹ in September of 2010 and 2011, respectively, coincident with maximum seasonal seawater temperatures of 16-17°C. Colonies were present year-round on pilings. In the upper subtidal zone, monthly mean cover ranged from an annual minimum of 0.6% in May to a maximum of 2.8% in October. Colony size and biomass, though not C:N ratios, had a significant seasonal signal. -- These findings suggest that recruitment was predominantly constrained by seawater temperature within the short productive season, and that the population was sustained from one year to the next because of high cover of overwintering colonies. The efficacy of utilising PVC to track recruitment of Botryllus schlosseri, and perhaps other closely related ascidian species is supported by my data. Future management of B. schlosseri should target mitigation efforts before the annual onset of sexual reproduction and recruitment in July and within the upper 3-4 m of the water column.


The starting point of this chapter is that investment law partly borrows and partly diverges from pre-existing regimes of international law, and an interpreter of an investment protection treaty is required to determine the degree of similarity and difference so as to elaborate the ordinary meaning of both particular terms and broader structures. Since investment law may be viewed as a normative progeny of multiple regimes of international law, the interpreter may plausibly rely on different approaches, with importantly different implications for the meaning and operation of particular elements of investment law. The argument will be made in three steps. First, in order to situate investment protection law within the broader international legal order, one might draw upon multiple legal techniques from established legal regimes. The models of direct rights, beneficiary rights, and agency will be suggested as the most plausible, relying on techniques drawn from, respectively, the law of human rights, law of treaties on third parties, and diplomatic protection (section II). A firm position regarding the legally most plausible model will not be taken. Instead, the implications of relying on the techniques of those regimes will be spelled out, applying across different branches of international law. The second step of the argument will apply the different perspectives identified earlier to aspects of interpretation and law-making in investment protection law (section III). Thirdly, certain elements of the law of State responsibility will be considered, again from the three different perspectives identified before (section IV). The concluding section will briefly and tentatively suggest further scope for operation of analogy, particularly regarding the imposition of obligations on investors. The overall thesis is that the conceptual perspective of plausibly different readings of the genealogy of foundational structures of investment law is very important, but needs to be applied with subtlety: sometimes all the perspectives point in the same direction; sometimes they do not; sometimes they do but for very different reasons; and, in any event, a diligent application of such traditional techniques of legal reasoning as interpretation, resolution of conflicts, and analogies is just as important for reaching the right legal result.


In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a new adaptive routing algorithm based on lexicographical optimization applicable to all-optical multi-wavelength networks. Such an algorithm appeared in [1] for IP packet routing. But because of its time complexity and the peculiarities of all-optical networks, we can't apply it directly in all-optical networks. Here we develop a new approach that addresses routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) under conditions where the signal is optical end-to-end, with no wavelength conversion. The algorithm is particularly designed to enable highly dynamic RWA anticipated in burst-mode and customercontrolled networks. We also anticipate the need to constrain end-to-end routing based on other factors including link performance, transient effects in switches and amplifiers, and other physical layer factors.


With an explosion of popularity of online photo sharing, we can trivially collect a huge number of photo streams for any interesting topics such as scuba diving as an outdoor recreational activity class. Obviously, the retrieved photo streams are neither aligned nor calibrated since they are taken in different temporal, spatial, and personal perspectives. However, at the same time, they are likely to share common storylines that consist of sequences of events and activities frequently recurred within the topic. In this paper, as a first technical step to detect such collective storylines, we propose an approach to jointly aligning and segmenting uncalibrated multiple photo streams. The alignment task discovers the matched images between different photo streams, and the image segmentation task parses each image into multiple meaningful regions to facilitate the image understanding. We close a loop between the two tasks so that solving one task helps enhance the performance of the other in a mutually rewarding way. To this end, we design a scalable message-passing based optimization framework to jointly achieve both tasks for the whole input image set at once. With evaluation on the new Flickr dataset of 15 outdoor activities that consist of 1.5 millions of images of 13 thousands of photo streams, our empirical results show that the proposed algorithms are more successful than other candidate methods for both tasks.


OBJECTIVE:
Safe consumption sites enable use of preobtained drugs in hygienic settings where trained staff are available to respond to overdoses and connect individuals with health and social services. This study examined efforts to advance policies to establish safe consumption sites in the United States, where no sanctioned sites exist.

METHODS:
Between April and July 2018, the authors conducted 25 telephone interviews with a purposive sample of key informants in five communities considering safe consumption site implementation. Participants included organizers and advocates, government officials, and personnel with social service and health organizations. Interview notes were analyzed by using hybrid inductive-deductive coding.

RESULTS:
Key strategies for organizing support for safe consumption sites included involving people who use drugs, engaging diverse partners, supporting allies in related causes, and using various tactics to garner support from policy makers. Major barriers to adoption included identifying the right locations, uncertainty about the federal response, mistrust arising from racial injustice in drug policy, and financing. Participants identified facilitators of progress toward safe consumption site adoption, such as building on existing harm reduction programs, securing political champions, and exposing community officials to programs operating internationally.

CONCLUSIONS:
A window of opportunity may be opening to advance policy related to safe consumption sites; whether sanctioned sites become part of the broader policy strategy for addressing drug use and overdose in the United States will depend on the experiences of the first sites. Organizing around this issue may facilitate engagement among people who use drugs in broader conversations about drug policy.


Degradation of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) into small molecular complexes is often observed in the physiological environment; however, how this process influences renal clearance of inorganic NPs is largely unknown. By systematically comparing renal clearance of degradable luminescent glutathione coated copper NPs (GS-CuNPs) and their dissociated products, Cu(II)-glutathione disulfide (GSSG) complexes (Cu(II)-GSSG), we found that GS-CuNPs were eliminated through the urinary system surprisingly faster and accumulated in the liver much less than their smaller dissociation counterparts. With assistance of radiochemistry and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, we found that the observed "nano size" effect in enhancing renal clearance is attributed to the fact that GS-CuNPs are more resistant to serum protein adsorption than Cu(II)-GSSG. In addition, since dissociation of GS-CuNPs follows zero-order chemical kinetics, their renal clearance and biodistribution also depend on initial injection doses and their dissociation processes. Quantitative understanding of size effect and other factors involved in renal clearance and biodistribution of degradable inorganic NPs will lay down a foundation for further development of renal-clearable inorganic NPs with minimized nanotoxicity.