Background: As the Affordable Care Act transforms the practice of both public health and health care, it also provides opportunity for both to become more closely linked through improved integration and collaboration. Yet, while public health agencies are increasingly called to work with healthcare partners to address population health needs, both public health leaders and their healthcare counterparts may not be well equipped to answer that call. Although recent studies have begun exploring the collaborative strategies and capacity of public health system partners, there is still much to learn. The purpose of this study was to identify, through the perspective of senior public health and healthcare leaders, actionable strategies that might facilitate better integration or linkages between public health and healthcare organizations. Methods: Through semi-structured key informant interviews with senior healthcare and public health executives in one urban county, strategies were identified that public health and healthcare leaders might use to more effectively link population health programs and activities. Data were collected in 2013–2014; analysis was conducted in 2014. Results: Identified strategies include: focusing on targeted issues with shared interest; leveraging payers and business partners to expand support for integrated efforts; training and retraining the workforce for interdisciplinary, population health work; and developing and supporting a strong, neutral convening agency. Implications: As they employ these strategies to structure collaborative efforts, public health and healthcare leaders may improve linkages around population health programs and activities.


Testosterone affects ERK2 activity, which in turn regulates the subcellular localization and activity of a lipoxygenase involved in inflammation. Leukotrienes are lipid mediators that are produced by enzymes called lipoxygenases and are involved in chronic inflammatory diseases, such as asthma. One factor that regulates the activity of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) is its subcellular localization. In resting cells, 5-LO is found in the cytosol or inside the nucleus; in cells exposed to inflammatory or Ca2+-releasing stimuli, 5-LO moves to the nuclear envelope, where proteins that assist in leukotriene biosynthesis are located. Pergola et al. showed that more leukotriene B4 and other 5-LO products were produced in stimulated blood and neutrophils (the primary source of 5-LO products in the blood) from women compared with those from men. Gender differences in 5-LO activity were caused by differential subcellular localization. In neutrophils from females, 5-LO was located primarily in the cytoplasm in unstimulated cells and at the nuclear envelope in stimulated cells. In contrast, 5-LO in neutrophils from males displayed a cytoplasmic and nucleoplasmic distribution, which was not altered by stimulation. 5-LO rapidly translocated to the nuclear compartment in 5α-dihydrotestosterone (5α-DHT)–treated neutrophils from females, whereas 17β-estradiol and progesterone had no effect on 5-LO distribution in neutrophils from either females or males. More important, treatment of blood or neutrophils from females with 5α-DHT, but not with female sex hormones, suppressed 5-LO activity. In addition to subcellular localization, 5-LO activity is affected by phosphorylation by several kinases, including extracellular signal–regulated kinase 2 (ERK2). Treatment with ERK2 inhibitors caused the pre- and poststimulation distribution of 5-LO in neutrophils from males to resemble that in neutrophils from females and also blocked the 5α-DHT–induced redistribution of 5-LO to the nuclear compartment in neutrophils from females. As would be predicted, neutrophils from males displayed higher ERK2 activity, as measured by phosphorylation of the kinase and one of its substrates, Elk-1. The authors speculate that their data may help to explain some gender-related clinical findings, such as the higher incidence of severe asthma in female patients. C. Pergola, G. Dodt, A. Rossi, E. Neunhoeffer, B. Lawrenz, H. Northoff, B. Samuelsson, O. Rådmark, L. Sautebin, O. Werz, ERK-mediated regulation of leukotriene biosynthesis by androgens: A molecular basis for gender differences in inflammation and asthma. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 19881–19886 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Background To confirm the effectiveness of sivelestat, a clinical trial was conducted comparing sivelestat with conventional treatment in an open, nonrandomized, multicenter study of patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS)–associated acute lung injury. The primary endpoint was ventilator-free days (VFD). Methods This study adopted a "cluster entry" method to control for patient selection bias arising from the unblinded and nonrandomized clinical trial. Thus, all patients in the same hospital during the same entry period entered the same treatment arm, and entry periods did not overlap. In the primary analysis of VFD, adjusted mean VFD values were compared between groups using the inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW) method, based on propensity score, for control of confounding factors. Results There were 374 patients in the sivelestat group and 168 in the conventional therapy group. The primary analysis confirmed that sivelestat was effective (between-group difference of adjusted mean was 3.5 [2-sided 95% confidence interval, 1.3-5.8]; P =.0022). Conclusions In general, a study where all patients in the same cluster enter the same treatment arm has within-cluster correlations, which need to be considered in the study analysis. However, in analysis using the IPTW method, it is usual to use a robust variance estimator, the sandwich variance estimator, which is consistent regardless of whether the specification of within-cluster correlation structure is correct. Thus, in the analysis using the IPTW method, it was found that it was not necessary to adopt any other adjustment method for within-cluster correlation.


Freezing in ice-covered lakes causes dissolved gases to become supersaturated while at the same time removing gases trapped in the ablating ice cover. Analysis of N2, O2, and Ar in bubbles from Lake Hoare ice shows that, while O2 is approximately 2.4 times supersaturated in the water below the ice, only 11% of the O2 input to this lake is due to biological activity: 89% of the O2 is derived from meltwater inflow. Trapped bubbles in a subliming ice cover provide a natural "fluxmeter" for gas exchange: in Lake Hoare as much as 70% of the total gas loss may occur by advection through the ice cover, including approximately 75% of the N2, approximately 59% of the O2, and approximately 57% of the Ar losses. The remaining gas fractions are removed by respiration at the lower boundary (O2) and by molecular exchange with the atmosphere in the peripheral summer moat around the ice.


This research aims to obtain doses of the empty palm bunches of compost and ash of the boiler optimum for growth of soybean plant interposed in oil palm already produce in peat. This research conducted by using draft experimentally random group comprising nine of treatment and three of deut so acquired twenty seven units of the plot experiment. On the first of the plot unit experiment there were twenty plants and taken a sample of plants as many as five plant of the population of the plot at random to observation. Parameters used in this research is tall plant (cm), how many branches primary (strands), age flowering (day), the number pods, the number pods pithy, heavy dry 100 seeds of gram (g) and heavy dry of plot (g). The results showed that the high parameter, the number of primary branches of plants, flowering age, number of pods of pithy and dry weight of 100 seeds showed a different result is outcome real. However, on the parameter the number of pods and heavy dry of plot show a different outcome real. The best treatment in this research is treatment H ( 1,45 kg bunches of empty oil palm + 145 g ashes of the boilers + 2.9 g Trichoderma) of a plot that tends to increase high in plant, speed up the age of flowering, increase the number of pods and dry weight of the soybean plant. Key word : Empty Palm Bunches of Compost, Soybean, Peat Soi l , Boiler, Trichoderma


The theory and practice of team integration has changed fundamentally over the
last five years, driven by the growing demands of multi-cultural team working
and greater understanding of cultural issues and diversity in the internationalised
construction environment. According to the literature reviewed, the challenge to
the construction industry in both developed and developing countries is to
address its poor performance on people management by focusing on multicultural
team working. Different reports published by governing bodies in developed countries such as
the UK continue to highlight that clients need to improve their understanding of
how construction can best meet their business needs and help lead the process of
creating integrated teams. Consequently, there have been a number of empirical
studies on project teams, particularly focussing on measures of team success.
However, the consequences of transition from monoculture to multi-cultural
project teams remain largely unexplored in construction management research... cont'd.


Radiation thermometry involves the modelling of radiative heat transfer interactions between thermal radiation sources such as blackbodies and thermal radiation detectors such as pyrometers in order to deduce temperatures. When furnaces and heat-baths are modelled as blackbodies the corresponding effective emissivity becomes essential in order to adequately characterise non-ideal systems. Due to the complexity that is involved in such systems analytical formulae are generally only mathematically tractable for isothermal systems and simple geometries. Systems exhibiting more complex geometries and optical/thermal characteristics are then frequently only amenable to further analysis using stochastic based simulation techniques. One of the problems associated with stochastic techniques is that they suffer from a lack of independent verification and validation bench marks for non-isothermal conditions. In this paper we adopt a physical based modelling approach in order to independently determine the effective emissivity of a high temperature blackbody that exhibits a non-isothermal heat distribution by using a deterministic numerical simulation. We model the system in terms of a generalized Fredholm integral equation system and develop a numerical solution approach using a modified collocation method that may incorporate the zonal technique, and briefly contrast the merits of our approach with that of multi-parametric homotopy techniques that are based on the Adomian decomposition method.


The studies presented in this dissertation examine how the formation, differentiation, and activity of Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells can be affected by variations in the amount of a cognate antigen (Ag) that is present, the cell types by which it is expressed and/or presented, and whether Ag recognition occurs in an inflammatory environment. Recognition of a weakly immunostimulatory self-peptide was able to promote both thymic CD4+Foxp3+ Treg cell development and the formation of CD4+Foxp3+ Treg cells from CD4+Foxp3T cell precursors in the periphery. Despite promoting Treg cell formation, this weakly immunostimulatory self-Ag was unable to induce Treg cell activity during influenza virus infection. Conversely, when the same Ag was derived from an influenza virus, it drove Treg cells to proliferate and acquire a T-bet+CXCR3+ phenotype, and to suppress the accumulation of CD4+Foxp3and CD8+ effector T cells in the lungs of infected mice. Notably, when cognate Ag was expressed at high levels by antigen presenting cells, Treg cells also underwent substantial proliferation, but little or no differentiation into a Tbet+CXCR3+ phenotype occurred, and their ability to modulate an anti-viral immune response was impaired. This failure to promote the formation of T-bet+CXCR3+Foxp3+ Treg cells could be attributed in part to the presentation of the cognate Ag by B cells, and in part to their initial activation by a highly stimulatory Ag in a non-inflammatory environment. Interactions with cognate peptide:MHC complex in these contexts diminished the ability of Treg cells to differentiate upon subsequent exposure to cognate Ag when it was derived from virus and presented by dendritic cells in the lung-draining mediastinal lymph nodes. Collectively, these studies show that the mode of presentation of an Ag can critically affect the formation and activity of Foxp3+ Treg cells in vivo, and that the type of antigen presenting cell and inflammatory environment encountered during their initial activation can determine their ability to differentiate into novel effector phenotypes. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Immunology First Advisor Andrew J. Caton


International cooperation between national tax authorities through exchange of information is becoming even more important than it was before in combating tax evasion. In this chapter, the implementation of automatic exchange of information is discussed with a focus on cross border flows of personal data. First, we discuss the legal framework for the ex-change of information. Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, the Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) concluded to in relation to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the Agreement on Exchange of Information on Tax Matters and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), the EU Directive which obliges EU Member states to implement Common Reporting Standards, the OECD Country by Country Reporting (CbCR) Implementa-tion Package (part of BEPS Action plan 13) and the EU Directive and other initiatives on the automatic exchange of information on tax rulings will each be analyzed. Special attention will be given to the Japanese implementation of exchange of information. Second, we will discuss Tax-payer Identification Numbers (TINs) as these are deemed important in improving the effectiveness of the exchange of information. Third, we discuss protection of personal information in relation to the implementation of automatic exchange of information with a focus on cross border flows of personal data. (Less)


With the popularity of the network, the influence of web search activity on capital market has become a central issue in finance. Although a growing body of literature finds that the online search volume helps to explain stock trading activities, few studies take the impacts of market states into account. To fill up the gap, this study explores the influence of market states on the relationship between web search activity and capital market from the perspective of stock returns. The evidence shows that web search activity proxied by the weekly Google search volume drives stock returns in the regular and up market states, although investors exhibit the same behavior to search for information via the Internet across time. The results generally support the attention effect of online search activity on stock returns. However, the reluctance to buy stocks in the bearish market due to the fear of bearing substantial systematic risks may limit the attention effect and weaken the link between web search activity and stock returns.


The Model of Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry (MATCH) is used to simulate the transport of 222Rn using both European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) winds and National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (hereafter referred to as NCEP) reanalysis winds. These winds have the advantage of being based on observed winds but have the disadvantage that the subgrid-scale transport processes are not routinely archived. MATCH derives subgrid-scale mixing rates for the boundary layer using a nonlocal scheme and for moist convective mixing using one of two parameterizations (Tiedtke [1989] or Pan and Wu [1997]). This paper describes the ability of the model to recreate mixing rates of 222Rn using the forecast center winds. Radon 222 is a species with a continental crust source and a simple sink involving radioactive decay with an e-folding timescale of 5.5 days. This atmospheric constituent is therefore a good tracer for testing the vertical transport in the chemical transport model, as well as the horizontal transport from continental regions to remote oceanic regions. The various simulations of 222Rn are compared with observations as well as with each other, allowing an estimate of the uncertainty in transport due to uncertainties in the winds and subgrid-scale processes. The calculated vertical profiles over the western United States are somewhat similar to observed, and the upper tropospheric concentrations compare reasonably well in their spatial distribution with data collected during Tropospheric Ozone II (TROPOZ II), although the model values tend to be higher than observed values, especially in the upper troposphere. The model successfully simulates specific observed pollution events at Cape Grim. It has more difficulty at sites farther from continental source regions, although the model captures the seasonal structure of the pollution events at these sites (Macquarie Island, Amsterdam Island, Kerguelen Island, and Crozet Island). Inclusion of a moist convective mixing scheme in MATCH increases 222Rn concentrations in the upper troposphere by 50% compared to not having moist convective mixing, while surface concentrations do not appear to be very sensitive to moist convection. In addition, differences between the upper tropospheric concentrations of radon predicted using the ECMWF and NCEP winds can be 30% for large areas of the globe, due to either differences in the forecast center winds themselves or the moist convective mixing schemes used in conjunction with them. This has implications for model simulations of radiatively and chemically important trace species in the atmosphere.


Our aim in this Article is to advance understanding of private enforcement of statutory and administrative law in the United States and to raise questions that will be useful to those who are concerned with regulatory design in other countries. To that end, we briefly discuss aspects of American culture, history, and political institutions that reasonably can be thought to have contributed to the growth and subsequent development of private enforcement. We also set forth key elements of the general legal landscape in which decisions about private enforcement are made, aspects of which should be central to the choice of an enforcement strategy and, in the case of private enforcement, are critical to the efficacy of a private enforcement regime. We then turn to the business of institutional architecture, describing the considerations — both in favor of and against private enforcement — that should affect the choice of an enforcement strategy. We lay out choices to be made about elements of a private enforcement regime, attending to the general legal landscape in which the regime would operate, particularly court access, as well as how incentives for enforcement interact with the market for legal services, which has important implications for private enforcement activity. We situate these legislative choices about private enforcement in the context of institutions that shape them. Finally, we seek to demonstrate how general considerations play out by examining private enforcement in two policy areas: legislation proscribing discrimination in employment, and laws protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices.


Catholic social teaching is frequently cited in support of minimum-wage legislation. Yet the principle of subsidiarity—that a higher association should not interfere with the legitimate functioning of a subordinate association—although it would seem to be relevant, does not appear in just wage discussions. This article seeks to correct that omission by exploring the theoretical implications of the principle of subsidiarity for the just wage debate and whether it is legitimate to claim that Catholic social teaching provides unambiguous support for Federal minimumwage legislation in the United States. The article reviews Catholic teaching on just wages: their definition, the causes of unjust wages, and who bears responsibility for achieving justice in wages. It then examines the relevance of the concept of subsidiarity to just wages and shows how there are several levels below that of the Federal government where justice in wages could be pursued.


Eighteen essays by leading scholars in English, speech communication, educa-tion, and philosophy explore the vitality of the classical rhetorical tradition and its influence on both contemporary dis-course studies and the teaching of writing. Some of the essays investigate the-oretical and historical issues. Others show the bearing of classical rhetoric on contemporary problems in composition, thus blending theory and practice. Com-mon to the varied approaches and view-points expressed in this volume is one central theme: the 20th-century revival of rhetoric entails a recovery of the clas-sical tradition, with its marriage of a rich and fully articulated theory with an equally efficacious practice. A preface demonstrates the contribution of Ed-ward P. J.Corbett to the 20th-century re-vival, and a last chapter includes a bibli-ography of his works.


Prime ministers, the central figures in parliamentary government and the leaders of political parties, fill dominant roles in Canada's political history. Their importance is recognized in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada by the space devoted to them. Each political leader is presented by a notable Canadian scholar who, following the rigorous standards of research, writing, and critical judgement set by the DCB/DBC, has brought life and understanding to the careers of the individuals who have served in Canada's pre-eminent political office. Canada's Prime Ministers brings these well-written biographies together for the first time in order to provide readers with an opportunity to reflect on the striking variety of personalities who have succeeded in climbing the summit of Canada's public life and the different challenges they faced in their determination to stay there. What insights into the workings of our public life do the biographies of these fifteen leaders provide? Did these very different men have anything in common that determined their success? The DCB/DBC biographies make it clear that although there is no standard mould that shapes Canadian prime ministers, prime ministerial success depends on both .character and circumstance. The biographies suggest that one of the only commonalities between the prime ministers was an unstable mixture of personal ambition and a sense of obligation toward their country and their political party. Pragmatism in making policy and in devising strategies of survival, rather than principle or ideology, often seems the guiding determinant in the success of Canada's federal political leaders. For a Canadian prime minister there is usually no higher ground than the claim to be the defender of national unity against threats of disruption and disintegration. In addition to these themes, the DCB/DBC's fifteen biographies of Canada's prime ministers is also an important historical reference tool, providing details about personal lives, sketches of close associates, a narrative of major events, and an assessment of accomplishments and failures set against the backdrop of economic and demographic growth, the social crisis of depressions, and the impact of world events. Together, they recreate the political and social panorama stretching from the campaign for confederation in 1867 to the struggle to entrench the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the new Constitution of 1982. Told through the lives of Canada's leading politicians this is a remarkable, engrossing, documented account of modern Canadian history.


The Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequent health and economic crisis, have highlighted and accelerated longer-lasting trends. Among these, the transformations of public opinion and online political participation are of particular importance. Through the analysis of the role of social networks, and in particular of Facebook, in the communication flows among institutions, the media system and citizens, the essay identifies and problematises the existing tensions between, on the one hand, the possibilities offered by digital technologies in reinvigorating the institutions of democratic politics and, on the other hand, the top-down, authoritarian and manipulative drifts of the information society. The aim of the paper is to understand the relationships between politics, communication and technology using the current crisis as a test bed for theories and analytical perspectives developed in recent decades.


This paper presents a new neural network structure and namely node-to-node-link neural network (N-N-LNN) and it is trained by real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) with average-bound crossover and wavelet mutation [1]. The N-N-LNN exhibits a node-to-node relationship in the hidden layer and the network parameters are variable. These characteristics make the network adaptive to the changes of the input environment, enabling it to tackle different input sets distributed in a large domain. Each input data set is effectively handled by a corresponding set of network parame-ters. The set of parameters is governed by other nodes. Thanks to these features, the proposed network exhibits better learning and generalization abilities. Industrial application of the proposed network to hand-written graffiti recognition will be presented to illustrate the merits of the network.


A compilation of key chapters from the top MK computer animation books available today - in the areas of motion capture, facial features, solid spaces, fluids, gases, biology, point-based graphics, and Maya. The chapters provide CG Animators with an excellent sampling of essential techniques that every 3D artist needs to create stunning and versatile images. Animators will be able to master myriad modeling, rendering, and texturing procedures with advice from MK's best and brightest authors. Learn hundreds of tips, tricks, shortcuts and more - all within the covers of one complete, inspiring reference. Divided into five parts (Introduction to Computer Animation and Technical Background, Motion Capture Techniques, Animating Substances, Alternate Methods, and Animating with MEL for MAYA), each one focusing on specific substances, tools, topics, and languages, this is a MUST-HAVE book for artists interested in proficiency with the top technology available today! Whether you're a programmer developing new animation functionality or an animator trying to get the most out of your current animation software, Computer Animation Complete: will help you work more efficiently and achieve better results. For programmers, this book provides a solid theoretical orientation and extensive practical instruction information you can put to work in any development or customization project. For animators, it provides crystal-clear guidance on determining which of your concepts can be realized using commercially available products, which demand custom programming, and what development strategies are likely to bring you the greatest success. Expert instruction from a variety of pace-setting computer graphics researchers.Provides in-depth coverage of established and emerging animation algorithms.For readers who lack a strong scientific background, introduces the necessary concepts from mathematics, biology, and physics.A variety of individual languages and substances are addressed, but addressed separately- enhancing your grasp of the field as a whole while providing you with the ability to identify and implement solutions by category.


Title of Document: NOVICE AND EXPERT COMPREHENSIVE REASONING ABOUT INFECTIOUS DISEASE Laura A. Cathcart, M.A., 2008 Directed By: Professor David Hammer, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Infectious disease has plagued humanity throughout history and the threat from infectious disease is still real. All healthcare providers and medical researchers need training that focuses on all components of infectious disease. Educators must help future healthcare professionals learn the value of comprehensive solutions to infectious disease problems. I have designed a case study based interview prompt to examine and describe the thought processes of novices and experts as they solve infectious disease problems. During the interviews both microbiology students (novices) and infectious disease professionals (experts) demonstrated comprehensive thinking about an infectious disease problem. This research is the first step in developing a methodology to identify comprehensive thinking about infectious disease problems. Further research will help educators to create classroom environments that encourage students to practice thinking comprehensively about infectious disease. NOVICE AND EXPERT COMPREHENSIVE REASONING ABOUT INFECTIOUS DISEASE


We present an affinity biosensing approach that exploits changes in dielectric properties of a polymer due to its specific, reversible binding with an analyte. The approach is demonstrated using a microsensor comprising a pair of thin-film capacitive electrodes sandwiching a solution of poly(acrylamide-ran-3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid), a synthetic polymer with specific affinity to glucose. Binding with glucose induces changes in the permittivity of the polymer, which can be measured capacitively for specific glucose detection, as confirmed by experimental results at physiologically relevant concentrations. The dielectric affinity biosensing approach holds the potential for practical applications such as long-term continuous glucose monitoring.


In 1990 I found myself locked in combat with a copy editor from Shakespeare Quarterly over the text of an article called "Women in the Audience of Cambridge Plays." (1) My typescript read thus: "Two years later, in 1615, [King] James paid a visit which was so successful that it prompted yet another visit in the same year." Wrong, said the copy editor, SQ uses the construction "visit that" rather than "visit which." In my mind's ear I heard my fourth-grade teacher's voice: "person who; thing which." For a human being, "who" or "whom"; for an inanimate object or an event, "which." Never, never "person that" or "thing that." Such a construction is only for people too stupid or too lazy to distinguish between human beings and things. The authority of my fourth-grade teacher was no match, however, for the authority of my copy editor, whose rules of engagement were simple and direct: "My way or the highway." I tried to explain my fourth-grade teacher's reasoning, and the hideousness of "a visit that was so successful that ..." When these arguments failed to work their magic I fell back on the claim of individual freedom and personal style. No dice. This was not my first encounter with editorial tyranny, for I am a veteran editor of Records of Early English Drama (REED). (2) One of my early battles was over an index entry for the Yorkshire city of Hull. The entertainers from Hull who visited King's College, Cambridge, in 1536-7, naturally ended up in REED: Cambridge (1989). I therefore made an entry for "Hull" in my draft index. Wrong, said the editors, we don't list the city as "Hull" but as "Kingston upon Hull." Just a minute, says I, I've looked up Hull on maps, been to Hull, know people from Hull. I've never known a native who calls the city anything but Hull. British Rail has Hull on its maps, and its trains stop at a station with a sign identifying "Hull." The conductor calls out "Hull" in a full Yorkshire accent as the train approaches the station. As early as 1817 J. C. Craggs published his Guide to Hull for curious visitors. In 1980 Oxford University Press published an authoritative account by Edward Gillett and Kenneth A. MacMahon, titled A History of Hull. Ergo, the name of the city is Hull. No dice. Since it was "My way or the highway," I had to agree to "Kingston upon Hull." The result? Say you want to look up "Hull" in REED: Cambridge. You naturally begin by consulting the index under "Hull." There you find "see Kingston upon Hull." You duly turn to "Kingston upon Hull" and are directed to page 734. There you find Kingston upon Hull in a discursive entry (not written by me) and are directed to "Patrons and Traveling Companies." There you find a single entry under Kingston upon Hull, which directs you to page 112, where you find: Item soluti mimis de Hull per manus Magistri Viceprepositi xijd Your Latin being weak, you turn to "Translations": Likewise paid to performers from Hull by the agency of master vice-provost 12 d So you start with Hull, are directed to Kingston upon Hull, and when you finally get to your goal you are back in Hull. In the course of my ineffectual protests I put the obvious question to the REED editorial staff: if the town was called Hull by Cambridge dons in 1536-37 and is still called Hull by all its residents and by Oxford University Press, isn't that good enough for REED? The answer: REED doesn't make up its own rules for place-names, but follows the lead of Eilert Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, published by Oxford University Press, most recently in 1981. (3) I admit to seeing a certain logic in REED's house style. As REED is a long-term project which has published and will continue to publish numerous collections over many years, rules had to be laid down from the beginning. The alternative would have been to work out one set of rules for the first collection, which happens to have been York (1979): these rules would naturally derive from the peculiarities of York documents, and perhaps from the personal inclinations of the York editors. …


Abstract The economic empowerment of women is emerging as a core focus of both economic development and gender equality programmes internationally. At the same time, there is increasing importance placed on measuring outcomes and quantifying progress towards gender and development goals. These trends raise significant questions around how well gender differences are understood, especially in economies dominated by the informal sector and characterised by a highly gendered division of labour, as is the case in many Pacific countries. How well do existing international and national indicators of gender equality reflect the experiences and aspirations of Pacific women and men? What do concepts such as gender equality and economic empowerment mean in this geographical context? How might local attitudes and practices be identified and measured? In this paper, we draw on Boaventura De Sousa Santos' call to recognise and value knowledges of the majority world that have been rendered either largely invisible or non-credible by mainstream development and human rights policy agendas. Reflecting on an action research project conducted with partner organisations in Fiji and the Solomon islands, we explore a more nuanced place-based approach to understanding and measuring gender equality and economic empowerment. This approach takes account of diverse economic practices, such as non-market transactions, and forms of non-cash exchange and unpaid labour, and recognises the imbalance in women's and men's household and care work.


Abstract The formative mechanisms of many geologic features attributed to the passage of turbidity currents are still obscure due to the difficulties in documenting the dynamics of turbidity currents in the field. Submarine channels and lobes have been extensively documented using seismic tools and outcrops. The actual morphodynamics of their emplacement remain, however, only poorly understood. In this paper we present experimental research that documents the morphodynamic and stratigraphic evolution of self-channelized subaqueous fans emplaced by turbidity currents. A large-scale facility is used to document the fan structure and internal stratigraphy that developed after repeated flow events. The fan surface tended to prograde and aggrade from event to event. Within this general pattern, the experiments exhibited the formation, migration, and abandonment of well-defined depocenters that tended to stack compensationally. These depocenters were typically characterized by one or more channels bounded by levees. The deposits of successive runs showed a tendency to cyclically expand–contract in the strike direction, and extend–backstep in the dip direction. The overall pattern of grain-size variation consisted of downstream fining. The sediment in the channels, however, tended to be coarser than in the levees bounding it. As the fan evolved from flow event to flow event, successively more of the sediment fed in bypassed the platform on which it developed. The evolution of morphologic and stratigraphic patterns observed in the experiments shows several key similarities with channelized fans at field scale.


Previous research has shown that the positive effect of imageability upon recall is confined to abstract items. In Experiment I it was found that imageability would affect the recall of concrete items if subjects were instructed to use imagery in their memorizing. This suggested that imagery is not usually employed in remembering concrete items. In Experiment II subjects were asked to categorize items on the basis of their meaning. A majority showed sorting related to the concreteness of the items, but very few showed sorting related to imageability. In Experiment III it was found that the concreteness of an item correlated with the time taken to produce a free associate to it, but that its imageability did not. It was concluded that concreteness is a feature of lexical organization, and not a measure of the image-arousing quality of verbal material.


Accurate and fast power control is perhaps the most important aspect in W-CDMA, in particular on the uplink. This thesis describes the work earned out to evaluate and enhance the link-level performance of closed-loop power control (CLPC) for the UMTS-FDD uplink. Factors that influence the performance of the CLPC scheme amongst others include the round-trip delay, UE (User Equipment) speed, dynamic range of the handset, the level of diversity available at the receiver and the accuracy of SIR (Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio) estimation and channel estimation. The above-mentioned performance improvement is obtained by focussing on the SIR measurement aspect of the power control scheme, and to this end, two new signal quality estimation techniques are proposed and evaluated. Based on the two algorithms, a further comparison is made to investigate the effects of SIR measurement before and after RAKE combining of the signal. Firstly, an improved Eb/N0 estimator is proposed and its performance evaluated both in a stationary (Gaussian) as well as a Rayleigh channel. The improvement in the estimator's performance is obtained by the addition of a smoothing filter to an existing algorithm. The improved algorithm, based on maximum likelihood estimation, is shown to improve the performance of CLPC with an average gain of 0.25 dB (i.e. the average gain for a range of UE speeds) in the power control error (PCE) in a narrowband channel, over the performance without the filter; the algorithm would also offer gains in the wideband channel when the SIR measurement is done before RAKE-combining of the signal. The second algorithm is a traffic-based SIR measurement scheme, so-called because it uses a dedicated traffic channel for the SIR measurement, and hence specific to UMTS-FDD. Again, using the standard deviation of the PCE as the performance metric, it is shown that this scheme achieves gains in the PCE of up to 1.4dB (1.15dB on average) for the 4.75-12.2kbps speech service and up to 2.75dB (2.5dB on average) for 144kbps data, both in UMTS Vehicular environments. The gains achieved are with respect to the performance obtainable with the SIR measurement technique proposed by 3GPP (using dedicated pilot symbols), and they translate to improvements in the CDMA capacity at system-level. Furthermore, the algorithm, which currently assumes perfect blind rate detection, provides a higher improvement in the performance of CLPC for higher data rates (as the figures exemplify), which is an additional advantage since higher data-rate users cause more interference to the network by transmitting higher powers. Results obtained using the PCE performance metric also indicate that the higher path diversity available in W-CDMA (compared to narrowband systems) does not necessarily convert to improved system performance, especially when combining weak taps in the channel, i.e. the performance either stays the same or somewhat degrades. Finally, using the uncoded bit error rate (BER) as the performance metric, two further SIR measurement techniques, both based on variations of the two algorithms discussed earlier, are proposed and compared. The Pre-RAKE scheme, in which the SIR measurement is carried out before RAKE combining of the signal vs. the Post-RAKE scheme where the measurement is carried out after, are compared. The overestimation problem that occurs with the Pre-RAKE scheme is highlighted; hence, it is concluded that Post-RAKE schemes offer superior performance over their Pre-RAKE counterparts. The work has highlighted several issues that need careful consideration as far as SIR measurement is concerned, whether it be for power control or any other radio resource management technique; the overestimation problem which occurs for low SIR values as well as the issue of the number of symbols available for the measurement, can contribute significantly to the SIR measurement error, degrading the performance of CLPC in turn. In addition, it is also useful to have an idea of how much the true SIR can vary within the duration of measurement. Last but not least, the little or no improvement in performance obtained when combining weak taps is attributed to the performance and robustness of the channel estimation algorithms employed; they tend to add more noise than signal power to the RAKE-combined signal when used to combine paths with low Eb/N0 values. The SIR measurement algorithms proposed and discussed in this thesis can be implemented directly in UMTS receivers. On the other hand, the knowledge and information contained herein and the logical approaches considered can lead to the development of new ideas as well as new algorithms.


Summary: Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi. Enniatins are a group of cyclohexadepsipeptides made of three hydroxyisovaleric acid molecules and alternating amino acids mostly valine, leucine and isoleucine. Enniatins have been associated with mainly cereal and cereal-based products, but also with nuts and some dried fruits. There is no evidence that high concentrations of enniatins in food commodities are not harmful for human and animal health in the long term. Therefore, methods to reduce enniatin content in food by transforming them into less toxic compounds are of crucial importance. Decontamination strategies for mycotoxin contaminated food or feed involve physical and chemical treatments which are to some extent successful but also pose some disadvantages like limited efficacy and possible losses of the sensorial and nutritive value. Therefore, intensive work has been done in the field of biodegradation of mycotoxins in food. Within that framework, the main objective of this study was to find microorganisms (bacteria, yeast or fungi) able to degrade enniatins into less toxic compounds. The strategy used involved a random search of such microorganisms followed by their classification. Due to the high quantity of mycotoxins that are involved in such studies resulting in great expense, the first objective of this study was to purify enniatins from fungal extract. Therefore two strains of F. tricinctum (DSM 23357 and O32) were tested for enniatin production in solid white bean medium. Enniatins were extracted every 3 days. A short method for the detection and quantification of enniatins A, A1, B and B1 in the fungal crude extracts was established and validated using HPLC-DAD. For both studied strains, enniatin concentrations increased until 24 days with 614 g/kg and 479g/kg for F. tricinctum O32 and DSM 23357 respectively. Throughout the 30 cultures days F. tricinctum O32 produced about two times more enniatins than the strain DSM 23357. As a result F. tricinctum O32 was used for the large scale production of enniatins over 30 days on solid white bean medium. Enniatin in the fungal crude extract were separated using flash chromatography and recrystallization. 3.18 g enniatins mixture/kg of white bean medium with a purity of 96.25% and containing about 77% enniatin B, 17% enniatin B1, 6% enniatin A1 and 0.3% enniatin A was obtained.

The second part of this study involved the search for microorganisms having the ability to degrade enniatins. For this purpose, microorganisms were first isolated from several sources (grains, nuts, water, soil, cereal based-products, juice) based on their ability to grow on a minimal medium (MM) containing enniatin as the unique carbon source. Wash fluid from several materials were mixed with MM containing enniatins (final concentration 1 mg/ml) and incubated for 7 days at 20°C. The cultures were diluted 25-times in MM with enniatins (final concentration 1 mg/ml) and incubated for further 21 days at 20°C. In total 114 bacteria or yeast-like microorganisms and 34 fungi were isolated. The major sources of bacteria were water, grains and nuts from which 38, 35, 20 and 7 bacteria were isolated respectively. Whereas the majority of fungi originated from nuts (16), grains (10) and soil (3) samples. 20 bacteria and 10 fungi were not able to be cultivated and after a second selection using single culture in MM containing (final concentration 1 mg/ml), 6 bacteria and 1 fungus did not grow anymore. Then 88 bacteria (and yeast-like microorganisms) and 23 fungi were screened for their property to break down enniatins into new compounds using HPLC-DAD (as described previously) in MM and in a minimal medium containing a limited amount of glucose and tryptone (MMGP). The results showed that enniatin concentrations were reduced in all the tested samples (enniatin A was mostly reduced than enniatin B). The HPLC-UV chromatograms of a bacterium (K4) and two fungi (F18 and F20) produced new signals compared to those of the controls. K4 and F18 originated from wheat field soil sample, whereas F20 was isolated form hazelnuts sample. These samples were further analyzed using LC-MS, differential metabolic profiling (Noise reduction, chromatogram alignment, normalization) and the mass of enniatins products were deduced and confirmed using extracted ions chromatograms and the corresponding mass spectra. Four enniatin products were identified using this technique; they were probably the products of hydrolysis of either an ester or an amide bond in the ring structure of enniatins, leading to the opening of the ring and therefore probably producing less toxic compounds. The molecular masses of the protonated ions of enniatins degradation products were 658, 672, 686 and 700 for enniatin B, B1, A1 and A respectively.
Finally the identification of the pure cultures responsible for enniatin degradation was carried out using phenotypic (visual and microscopic), biochemical (for the bacterium only, gram test, catalase, sulfide-indole-motility, starch hydrolysis, citrate, urease tests…) and molecular characteristics of the microorganisms. The bacterium was preliminary identified as Bacillus sp. and the sequence of the 16S rRNA gene analysis enabled the species identification of the bacterium K4 as Bacillus licheniformis. Based on morphological characteristics (visual and microscopic observations, spore size, conidia, conidiophores, presence or absence of septae…), fungi F18 and F20 were identified as Acremonium sp. and Clonostachys sp. respectively. The sequence of the ITS1, 5.8S RNA subunit and ITS2 of the DNA revealed that F18 and F20 were Acremonium strictum and Clonostachys rosea.


* An earlier version was presented at "International Multidisciplinary Congress of Eurasia," held at Rome, Italy, August 23-25, 2017. 1 Corresponding to: Işıl Işık, Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Yeditepe University, Ataşehir, İstanbul 34755 Turkey. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com 2 Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, İstiklal Campus, Merkez, Burdur 15300 Turkey. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com To cite this article: Işık, I., & Ergün, N. (2018). Determining the relation between Turkish middle-school students' Internet addiction and perceived social support from family. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2018.5.3.0003 Abstract The purpose of this study is to determine the relation between middle-school students' Internet Addiction levels and their perceived social support from family. The study has been conducted in the cross-sectional descriptive design, and data were collected from 3,391 students in the 5th-8th grades at 23 middle schools under the Directorate of National Education in the city of Burdur and its central villages. A personal information form, the Internet Addiction Scale, and the Social Support Received from the Family Scale have been used for collecting data. After making the necessary explanations to the students, an informed consent form was sent to their parents/legal guardians; students who returned these forms were included in the study. The quantities, percentages, averages, and standard deviations, which are among descriptive statistical methods, have been used in evaluating the data. Pearson's correlation and regression analysis were applied over the study's continuous variables. Of the students in the study, 4.6% were observed to have Internet addiction at a pathological level. The factors influencing Internet addiction have been determined as: lack of social support received from family, being male, low school success, having a high weekly allowance, being in higher grades, and being online frequently. The rate of internet addiction is higher in this group and found to relate to the perceived support from family.


Introduction: Cryptococcosis is a fungal infection predominantly caused by Cryptococcus neoformans. The prevalent genotype VNI of C. neoformans has a two-fold higher risk of fatality in cryptococcosis coinfected with HIV patients. Objective: We have isolated 49 C. neoformans from cryptococcosis patents during Apr 2010 to Jun 2015 from different samples. About 26 of these isolates were molecular typed to identify the prevalent molecular types from Western Maharashtra, India. Methods: Out of 47 clinical cryptococcal isolates from suspected cryptococcosis 26 were further subjected to genotyping by Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method using 8 different house-keeping loci. All 28 DNA sequences were deposited in Genbank under the following accession numbers MF580727 to MF580754. Results: The phylogenetic tree was made to determine the relatedness between the isolates. About 26 C. neoformans var grubii isolates were divided into two genotypes VNI (%) and VNII (%). The 2 allele numbers for CAP59, SOD1, and URA5, 3 for LAC1 and PLB1 and 4 for GPD1 and IGS1 per gene loci were noted. Based on these allelic polymorphism genotypes were sub-typed into seven sequence types including three novel Sequence types (STs) from the Western part of India. Conclusions: Intra-species variation was observed among the isolates from this region of India. The molecular epidemiology from the current study suggests that there is a need to look for an environmental source for these novel STs.


The Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) is a three-mirror Mersenne-Schmidt telescope with a 3.5 m primary mirror that is designed for deep, wide-area sky surveys. The SST design incorporates a camera with charge-coupled devices (CCDs) on a curved substrate to match the telescope's inherent field curvature, capturing a large field-of-view (6 square degree) with good optical performance across the focal surface. The unique design enables a compact mount construction for agile pointing, contributing to survey efficiency. However, the optical properties make the focus and alignment challenging due to an inherently small depth of focus and the additional degrees of freedom that result from having a powered tertiary mirror. Adding to the challenge, the optical focus and alignment of the mirrors must be accomplished without a dedicated wavefront sensor. Procedures created or adapted for use at the SST have enabled a successful campaign for focus and alignment, based on a five-step iterative process to (1) position the tertiary mirror along the optical axis to reduce defocus; (2) reduce spherical aberration by a coordinate move of the tertiary and secondary mirrors; (3) measure the higher order aberrations including astigmatism and coma; (4) associate the measured aberrations with the predictions of optical ray-tracing analysis; and (5) apply the mirror corrections and repeat steps 1-4 until optimal performance is achieved (Woods et al. 2013). A set of predicted mirror motions are used to maintain system performance across changes in telescope elevation pointing and in temperature conditions, both nightly and seasonally. This paper will provide an overview of the alignment procedure developed for the SST and will report on the focus performance through the telescope's second year, including lessons learned over the course of operation.


Objectives: Dominant professional and academic discourses position children who have experienced domestic violence as passive observers of abuse, 'wounded' by the things they have seen (Overlien 2013). Challenging this representation of children, this paper explores how children represent embodied and spatial experience of violence, including a consideration of how children use their material experiences to produce resistant embodied agency. Method This paper is based on interviews with 107 children, in 4 European countries (Italy, Greece, Spain and the UK), focused on their experiences of coping and of maintaining a sense of agency, in families where domestic violence occurs. These interviews included use of photo-elicitation, free drawing, and guided drawing - including family drawing and spatial mapping (Bridger, 2013; Gabb and Singh, 2014), to facilitate young people's expression of difficult to articulate experiences. The interviews were analysed using Denzin's Interpretive Interactionism. Results: Visual methods facilitated children's critical reflections on their experiences of embodiment, and how they used spaces and places within and outside the violent home environment. Three themes are considered: children's experiences of displacement and disruption (the un-homing of the home), their accounts of creating safe spaces within their home, and use of space as a form of escape and resistance to abuse and control. Conclusions and Implications Findings suggest that children are capable and active agents, resourceful and inventive in their capacity to use, produce and construct physical, embodied and relational spaces for security, comfort and healing during and after living within violent and volatile contexts. The practical applications of these findings are considered.


This paper reviews research on community efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We conducted a systematic search of the relevant literature, and supplemented our findings with an analysis of review papers previously published on the topic. The results indicate that there have been no peer-reviewed experimental evaluations of community-wide interventions to reduce greenhouse gases involving electricity, refrigeration, or food. The lack of findings limits the conclusions which can be made about the efficacy of these efforts. As a result, we are not accumulating effective interventions, and some communities may be implementing strategies that are not effective. We advocate for the funding of experimental evaluations of multi-sector community interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such interventions would attempt to engage every sector of the community in identifying and implementing policies and practices to reduce emissions. Comprehensive multi-sector interventions are likely to have synergistic effects, such that the total impact is greater than the sum of the impact of the individual components. We describe the value of interrupted time-series designs as an alternative to randomized trials, because these designs confer particular advantages for the evaluation of strategies in entire communities.


Rapid and extensive biliary excretion of [D-penicillamine]enkephalin (DPDPE) in rats as the unchanged peptide suggests that multiple transport proteins may be involved in the hepatobiliary disposition of this zwitterionic peptide. Although DPDPE is a P-gp substrate, the role of other transport proteins in the hepatic clearance of DPDPE has not been established. Furthermore, the ability of various experimental approaches to quantitate the contribution of a specific hepatic uptake or excretion process when multiple transport systems are involved has not been addressed. H-DPDPE uptake in suspended Wistar rat hepatocytes was primarily (>95%) due to temperature-dependent transport mechanisms; similar results were obtained in suspended hepatocytes from Mrp2-deficient (TR) rats. Pharmacokinetic modeling revealed that saturable and linear processes were involved in H-DPDPE uptake in hepatocytes. The use of transport modulators suggested that hepatic uptake of H-DPDPE was mediated by Oatp1a1, Oatp1a4, and likely Oatp1b2. Accumulation of H-DPDPE in sandwich-cultured (SC) hepatocytes was rapid; uptake of H-DPDPE in SC rat hepatocytes from control and TR rats was similar. However, the biliary excretion index and biliary clearance decreased by 83 and 85%, respectively, in TR SC rat hepatocytes indicating that DPDPE is an Mrp2 substrate. Rate constants for uptake and excretion of H-DPDPE in SC rat hepatocytes were determined by pharmacokinetic modeling; data were consistent with basolateral excretion of H-DPDPE from the hepatocyte. These results demonstrate the complexities of hepatobiliary disposition when multiple transport mechanisms are involved for a given This article has not been copyedited and formatted. The final version may differ from this version. DMD Fast Forward. Published on November 4, 2004 as DOI: 10.1124/dmd.104.001420 at A PE T Jornals on July 6, 2017 dm d.aspurnals.org D ow nladed from


The key resource in efficient production is the management input used to coordinate the land, labour and capital. Yet, our understanding of this resource is still somewhat limited, especially the factors involved in improving the managerial ability of farmers. This paper summarises three tests developed to help assess managers, and uses the data collected through random surveys of all types of farmers to explain the origins of managerial ability. Survey data on the competencies farmers' believe are important in successful management is reviewed, and finally a computer based teaching package to develop the important competencies is outlined. The tests developed cover managerial style, the locus of control, and aptitude.


The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) mandated utilizing the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) approach for all new bridges initiated in the United States after October 1, 2007. As a result, there has been a progressive move among state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) toward an increased use of the LRFD in geotechnical design practices. For the above reasons, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) sponsored three research projects: TR-573, TR-583 and TR-584. The research information is summarized in the project web site (http://srg.cce.iastate.edu/lrfd/). Two reports of total four volumes have been published. Report volume I by Roling et al. (2010) described the development of a user-friendly and electronic database (PILOT). Report volume II by Ng et al. (2011) summarized the 10 full-scale field tests conducted throughout Iowa and data analyses. This report presents the development of regionally calibrated LRFD resistance factors for bridge pile foundations in Iowa based on reliability theory, focusing on the strength limit states and incorporating the construction control aspects and soil setup into the design process. The calibration framework was selected to follow the guidelines provided by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), taking into consideration the current local practices. The resistance factors were developed for general and in-house static analysis methods used for the design of pile foundations as well as for dynamic analysis methods and dynamic formulas used for construction control. The following notable benefits to the bridge foundation design were attained in this project: 1) comprehensive design tables and charts were developed to facilitate the implementation of the LRFD approach, ensuring uniform reliability and consistency in the design and construction processes of bridge pile foundations; 2) the results showed a substantial gain in the factored capacity compared to the 2008 AASHTO-LRFD recommendations; and 3) contribution to the existing knowledge, thereby advancing the foundation design and construction practices in Iowa and the nation.


Systemic inflammation is a hallmark of trauma, sepsis and various severe infectious diseases. Severe systemic inflammation can lead to inflammatory complications. The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) are seen after trauma and in sepsis and are accompanied by a high mortality and morbitidy. These complications are mediated by a hyperactive immune system. On the other hand, immune suppression is frequently seen following systemic inflammation. This leads to susceptibility to infections, or an inability to contain or clear infections. Increased pathogen load might lead to hyperactivation of the immune system and therefore result in tissue damage and organ failure. It has been established that neutrophils play an important role in tissue damage due to immune activation. However, the role of neutrophils in immune suppression following systemic inflammation is unclear. Neutrophils have long been considered to be a homogenous population of short-lived innate immune cells. In this thesis we show that, by using an in vivo labeling technique, neutrophils have a circulating half- life almost 10x longer than previously reported. We used a human model of endotoxemia to study the effects of systemic inflammation on the neutrophil population. Circulating neutrophil phenotypes between human endotoxemia and trauma were strikingly similar. In systemic inflammation multiple neutrophil populations appear in the circulation. Hypersegmented neutrophils are capable of suppressing T-cell responses and banded neutrophils show decreased phagocytosis of bacteria. This shows that multiple functionally different neutrophil populations exist in inflammation. In addition, immune suppression by neutrophils can be achieved by multiple mechanisms. Firstly, release of immature neutrophil forms results in downregulation of their anti-microbial functions. Secondly, neutrophils are capable of directly suppressing T-cell responses by creating an immunological synapse and direct delivery of hydroperoxide. In systemic inflammation all neutrophil populations are primed (pre-activated) for the release of extracellular ROS. This shows that to a certain extent that these neutrophils are still capable of tissue damage. Limiting systemic inflammation might limit both neutrophil mediated tissue damage and neutrophil mediated immune suppression. Neutrophil-endothelial interactions are necessary for neutrophil migration to tissues. In inflammation, fibrinogen behaves as an acute phase protein and increases to suprafysiological concentrations. These concentrations are not needed for normal coagulation. In vitro studies showed acute phase concentrations of fibrinogen were able to limit neutrophil adhesion to vascular endothelium and activation. For limiting in vivo inflammation we studied C1-esterase inhibitor (C1inh). C1inh was able to limit systemic inflammation following LPS administration in humans. Therefore we conclude that neutrophils display dual roles in inflammation, contributing to tissue damage and immune suppression. Limiting systemic inflammation might limit inflammatory complications attributable to tissue damage and immune suppression. Acute phase proteins such as fibrinogen and C1inh might be promising interventions to achieve this.


Purpose: The aim of the article is a multi-criteria assessment of the quality of institutions in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Central Asia, which in the early 1990s introduced a market system in their economies. The analysis was carried out taking into account the division of 28 analysed countries into two groups current EU members and those that do not belong to this group. Design/Methodology/Approach: The economies under studies were analysed by selected 8 dimensions quality of institutions. Data from 1995, 2004 and 2018 were collected and compared, taking into consideration the EU members and other countries. The economies were compared and classified using the Vector Measure Construction Method (VMCM). Findings: The effects of introducing major transformation reforms turned out to be different in the analysed countries. The initial conditions for the transformation and the timing of reforms seem to have influenced them. Also accession to the EU had a significant impact on the improvement of the quality of institutions in the EU member states. It has led to a large stratification of two groups of countries – the EU members and other analysed countries. Practical Implications: VMCM method is dedicated to the study of complex economic processes. These approach allows for making rankings, classifications of objects and the analysis of the change dynamics. The performed assessment of the quality of institutions may be helpful for the governments of the surveyed countries and constitute a justification for a change in institutional policy, or may support the decisions of investors looking for an appropriate country of location. Originality/Value: Due to the advantages of VMCM, applying it to the analysis and comparison of the quality of institutions in the surveyed countries allowed for taking into account the multidimensionality of the problem and its better, in-depth assessment.


It is generally acknowledged that using germanium as a wetting film for silver nanolayers decreases the surface roughness of the metal. However, germanium atoms also tend to segregate towards the surface of silver films, increasing ohmic losses in the structure. Here we propose an Au/Ge/Ag based structure where the segregation of germanium in silver is inhibited. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that for the Au/Ge/Ag system, the surface concentration of germanium drops by an order of magnitude relative to multilayers containing only one type of metal (Ag or Au). We have also observed that the time-dependent decrease in the reflectivity due to localized surface plasmon excitation is less prominent in the case of the Au/Ge/Ag structure than in the case of Ag/Ge/Ag. We provide XPS as well as optical reflectometry results to support that claim.


Carbon dioxide, water vapour, and energy fluxes vary spatially and temporally within forested environments. However, it is not clear to what extent they vary as a result of variability in the spatial distribution of biomass and elevation. The following study presents a new methodology for extracting changes in the structural characteristics of vegetation and elevation within footprint areas, for direct comparison with eddy covariance (EC) CO2 flux concentrations. The purpose was to determine whether within-site canopy structure and local elevation influenced CO2 fluxes in a mature jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) forest located in Saskatchewan, Canada. Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) was used to extract tree height, canopy depth, foliage cover, and elevation within 30 min flux footprints. Within-footprint mean structural components and elevation were related to 30 min mean net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and gross ecosystem production (GEP). NEP and GEP were modeled using multiple regressio...


This paper assesses the effect of two stylized and antithetic non-monetary incentive schemes on students' effort. We collect data from a field experiment where incentives are exogenously imposed, performance is monitored and individual characteristics are observed. Students are randomly assigned to a tournament scheme that fosters competition between coupled students, a cooperative scheme that promotes information sharing and collaboration between students and a control treatment in which students can neither compete, nor cooperate. In line with theoretical predictions, we find that competition induces higher effort with respect to cooperation and cooperation does not increase effort with respect to the baseline. However, this is true only for men, while women do not seem to react to non-monetary incentives.


The roles library professionals play in bibliographic information systems are constantly evolving with the changing information environment and demanding users. In terms of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) (1998), the new paradigm relating to the bibliographic universe is driving new requirements for data preparation and that represents a dramatic change in how cataloguers think; in other words, in their mental models (Rose, 2012: 129). Therefore, a study of the cataloguers' mental models of the bibliographic universe was carried out to investigate whether the FRBR structure would be confirmed by mental models of cataloguers. Our method for elicitation of mental models is based on concept mapping, which is well suited for representing mental models of individuals (Jackson & Trochim, 2002: 312). The findings of our study show that on average cataloguers' mental models resemble the FRBR conceptual model.


In this article we review the state-of-the-art of metallorganic-based molecular rectification with an emphasis on our research in five-coordinate FeIII-containing surfactants. We place rectification in the broader context of molecular electronics, and include the description of methodology used in electrode|LB film|electrode assemblies, concluding with an outlook on future directions for metallosurfactants.


Recent analysis of John Milton's first tract justifying King Charles I's trial and execution in 1649 has highlighted its rational argumentation and secular foundation. This essay examines Milton's use of biblical, classical, and national historical types of the regicide to exhort his readers to view the king as a tyrant, his death as a biblically and historically warranted punishment, and the current moment as a providential occasion to establish a godly English commonwealth. A rational and revolutionary applied typology is at work in the Tenure, demonstrating Milton's radical deployment of scripture in a heated political controversy with the Presbyterian opponents of the regicide.


Abstract Utilizing "teachable moments" within daily situations to impart knowledge and transmit values is a type of informal education. In a structured camp environment, such teachable moments may be integrated into the educational curriculum. "Jewish teachable moments" may be used to address Judaism and Jewish Peoplehood holistically, as the educators and counselors guide the campers through the Jewish summer camp environment. This article examines the Jewish Teachable Moments method through a case study conducted at a Reform movement affiliated camp in Texas. Theoretical and pedagogical implications of the Jewish Teachable Moments method are discussed.


Decision making in health care involves consideration of a complex set of diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic uncertainties. Medical therapies have side effects, surgical interventions may lead to complications, and diagnostic tests can produce misleading results. Furthermore, patient values and service costs must be considered. Decisions in clinical and health policy require careful weighing of risks and benefits and are commonly a trade-off of competing objectives: maximizing quality of life vs maximizing life expectancy vs minimizing the resources required. This text takes a proactive, systematic and rational approach to medical decision making. It covers decision trees, Bayesian revision, receiver operating characteristic curves, and cost-effectiveness analysis; as well as advanced topics such as Markov models, microsimulation, probabilistic sensitivity analysis and value of information analysis. It provides an essential resource for trainees and researchers involved in medical decision modelling, evidence-based medicine, clinical epidemiology, comparative effectiveness, public health, health economics, and health technology assessment.


This research aims to examine the scientific study related to fingerprint patterns and brains lobes. Generally, this method is used to find and develop the inborn potential and personality especially of children. Every person is having inborn potential and personality, which will help us to analyze strength and weakness. The present work is based only on the analysis and used as a reference for scientific research in the field of Galtian and statistical study conducted based on the fingerprint processing. Human brain is divided into two parts, left hemispheres and right hemispheres. Fingers of right hand represent the functions of left brain and fingers of left hand represent the functions of right brain. Human brain is divided into 10 lobes and each lobe is related with each finger. Each lobe represents different intelligences. A detailed analysis of the fingerprint would help the researchers to find the inborn talents. It will provide them the most appropriate learning habits from young age and improve learning ability effectively. The vital factor of an individual's intelligence is determined by neural network connection of brain cells. Cognitive science is the scientific study that will help you to know about yourself.


The survival and development of single-positive thymocytes in the thymus requires activation of NF-κB signaling by the cytokine TNF. Canonical activation of the transcription factor nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) requires phosphorylation of the inhibitor of κB (IκB) protein by the IκB kinases (IKK1 and IKK2), which results in degradation of IκB, releasing the NF-κB dimers to translocate to the nucleus. The development of thymocytes (T cell precursors) in the thymus requires NF-κB activity at various stages, which is thought to depend on signals from the T cell receptor (TCR). However, the multiprotein CBM complex through which the TCR normally activates NF-κB is not required for thymocyte development, suggesting that the TCR activates NF-κB in another way or that another receptor activates NF-κB. Webb et al. generated mice lacking IKK1 and IKK2 specifically in T cells and found that the earliest stages of thymocyte development were unaffected. However, the development of CD4 or CD8 single-positive (SP) thymocytes from double-positive (DP) cells was blocked. IKK1/2-deficient SP thymocytes were more sensitive than their wild-type counterparts to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–induced apoptosis in vitro. Blocking TNF signaling with a neutralizing antibody or knocking out TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) prevented IKK1/2-deficient SP thymocytes from undergoing apoptosis in vivo. The expression of particular NF-κB target genes, such as those encoding the inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), protects many cell types from TNF-induced apoptosis. RNA sequencing analysis showed the TNF-induced expression of these genes was reduced in IKK1/2-deficient thymocytes. Together, these data suggest that NF-κB activation by TNF is required for the survival and development of SP thymocytes in the thymus. L. V. Webb, S. C. Ley, B. Seddon, TNF activation of NF-κB is essential for development of single-positive thymocytes. J. Exp. Med. 213, 1399–1407 (2016). [PubMed]


In this study, the effects of filler characteristics and composite preparation methods on the morphology, mechanical property, electrical conductivity, and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of the polypropylene/polycarbonate (70/30, wt%)/hybrid conductive filler composites were investigated. Nickel-coated carbon fiber (NCCF) was used as main filler and TiO2, multi-walled carbon nanotube, and graphite were used as second fillers in the composites. The pultruded NCCF/polypropylene composite was used in the preparation of the polypropylene/polycarbonate/NCCF/second filler composites. The electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of the polypropylene/polycarbonate/NCCF/second filler composites were compared with the type of second filler. The superior value of electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness was observed to be 51.6 dB (decibel) when the hybrid fillers such as NCCF (5.2 vol% or 20 wt%) and TiO2 (1.2 vol% or 5 wt%) were added in the polypropylene/polycarbonate (70/30) composite. The electrical properties of the polypropylene/polycarbonate (70/30)/NCCF/TiO2 composites was compared with the composite preparation methods, which were injection molding and screw extrusion. The results suggested that fiber length of the NCCF affected significantly to the electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of the polypropylene/polycarbonate (70/30)/NCCF/TiO2 composites.


There is no national study examining the rate of enrollment of students with disabilities in charter schools. We examined whether students with disabilities were significantly less likely to enroll in charter schools as compared to non-charter public schools accounting for state level variation using data for the entire national population. We utilized data from the Civil Rights Data Collection under the U.S. Department of Education for the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 academic years. These nationwide and contemporary data provided school-level numbers of students with disabilities receiving special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and charter school status. We performed hierarchical linear modeling to examine for differences in the percentages of students with disabilities under IDEA between charter and non-charter schools, which revealed significantly less students with disabilities enrolled in charter schools at the national and state level. Additionally, we identified and ranked states according to the degree of discrepancy in the percentages of students with disabilities under IDEA between charter and non-charter schools.


: The family Epipsocidae is defined, with the addition of one character not previously used. The genus Di- rnidistriata Li and Mockford is removed from Epipsocidae and tentatively placed in the family Dolabellopsocidae. The genus Parepipsocus Badonnel remains unplaceable to family. Eleven genera are recognized within Epipsocidae. Bertkauia Kolbe, which had been synonymized with Epipsocus, is recognized as a valid genus. Definitions of genera based on the type species and seemingly close relatives result in 38 new combinations. Epipsocus Hagen, which previously held most of the species, now serves a dual function, with 15 species in the strict sense and 15 species 'ilacertae sedis' retained in it, pending further investigation. Goja Navhs, previously with 2 species, now contains 10, with 8 transferred from Epip- socus. Mesepipsocus Badonnel, previously with 5 species, receives 24 more from Epipsocus and 1 from Dicropsocus. Eight species are transferred from Epipsocus to Epipsocopsis Badonnel. Notable consistency in geographic distributions of gen- era results &om these transfers. Some evolutionary trends within the family are discussed. Epipsocus delicatus (Hagen) and E. cornpletus Banks, which had been assigned by recent authors to the genus Pseudocaecilius Enderlein (Family Pseudocaeciliidae), are returned to the Epipsocidae and assigned to Epipsocopsis. A lectotype is designated for E. delicatus.


Thyroid glands play a critical role in fetal brain development during pregnancy and in the regulation of growth and metabolic function after development. Thyroid dysfunction has become a common clinical problem nowadays and the incidence is increasing each year. However, the ideal approach for adequate diagnosis and management of thyroid dysfunction still becomes a debate among endocrinologists. Several guidelines for thyroid dysfunction management have been established by various group of experts, mostly focused on thyroid nodules. Subclinical hyperthyroidism (SH) and subclinical hypothyroidism is considered as a laboratory than a clinical diagnosis. In order to achieve compliance with accepted protocols, an appropriate interpretive reports should be an integral part of the investigation of both SH and subclinical hypothyroidism. The medications of anthytiroid drugs, radioactive iodine, and surgery are considered as treatments for SH. Whereas oral levothyroxine treatment is chosen as a therapy for subclinical hypothyroidism. Taken together, diagnosis and management of both SH and hypothyroidism need regular monitoring of thyroid function. Even though expert panels already released various guidelines for the diagnosis and management of thyroid dysfunction, each patient should be assessed individually to determine the most suitable treatment. Until adequate data are available, clinical judgment was combined with patient's preferences to improve best practice.


Recombinant proteins are gaining in importance for therapeutic applications. The proteins are expressed in stable cell lines, within which recombinant DNA has incorporated into the host cells genome. Identification and isolation of extremely high producers from transfected cell populations is a tedious and time-consuming effort. We proposed two different approaches for the establishment of recombinant cell lines: affinity cell sorting and microinjection. Even with the help of single cell sorting and analysis systems (flow cytometry) rarely more than thousand different cell clones, stably expressing a desired gene can be evaluated. We are considering a new approach in which polyclonal cell populations will be established which co-express a protein of interest and an epitope-tagged cell surface receptor. A microbead fixed antibody specific to the epitope tag is hoped to assist in the isolation of rare, but highly productive cells from large suspensions of transfected cells. For this reason we have also developed an efficient method for the bulk transfection of CHO cells. On the side of vector-development for this approach, we have chosen to investigate the utility of a mouse serotonin 5-HT3 receptor as a cell surface marker. This receptor can be expressed at very high levels (up to 1 x 107 receptors per cell) in heterologous systems. The receptor is detectable on the cell surface by means of fluorescent ligands, which allows the determination of transfection efficiencies in suspension cultures. A Flag-tag was fused to the amino terminal end of the receptor without adverse effects on receptor function or ligand binding. Only 5 % of receptor DNA in the transfection cocktail was sufficient to detect positive cells in a population. The specific interaction of the epitope-tagged receptor with the cognate antibody fixed to microbeads was tested in comparison to non-transfected control cells using laser scanning confocal microscopy. A 80% enrichment of cells expressing GFP and the 5-HT3 receptor was achieved in 30 minutes. We have investigated microinjection as a gene transfer method for the establishment of recombinant mammalian cell lines. The conditions for the injection of plasmid DNA into either the nucleus or the cytoplasm of CHO-DG44 cells were established using pMYK-EGFP, an expression vector with the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene under the control of the murine CMV promoter and the puromycin resistance gene for selection. To estimate plasmid copy number during microinjection, it was first necessary to determine the injection volume by fluorescence quantification of injected FITC-dextran. For microinjection into the cytoplasm the volume ranged from 200 to 350 fl and for nuclear microinjection it was about 180 fl. We then investigated the impact of DNA concentration and injection pressure on transient EGFP transient expression following microinjection into the cytoplasm or nucleus. As a general rule, we observed that concentration of the DNA solution injected into the cells was the most important parameter regardless of the pressure or the volume of injection. Recombinant cell lines expressing intracellular EGFP were established following microinjection into the nucleus and the cytoplasm with linear and circular DNA. Selection with puromycin, clonal expansion, and cell banking were completed within three to four weeks post-microinjection. In parallel, recombinant cell lines were established after calcium-phosphate transfection with linear and circular DNA. The number of plasmid copies integrated was determined by Southern blot and the number and localization of integration sites was determined by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). Growth of the cells and stability of EGFP expression were investigated by cultivation over a two-month period. This approach presents several advantages over other DNA delivery methods such as control of the quantity and localization of DNA delivered into the cell and speed of recovery of recombinant cell lines. This approach may be relevant for the establishment of recombinant cell lines from cells that are not easily transfected by classical methods.


Task oriented dialogue systems rely heavily on specialized dialogue state tracking (DST) modules for dynamically predicting user intent throughout the conversation. State-of-the-art DST models are typically trained in a supervised manner from manual annotations at the turn level. However, these annotations are costly to obtain, which makes it difficult to create accurate dialogue systems for new domains. To address these limitations, we propose a method, based on reinforcement learning, for transferring DST models to new domains without turn-level supervision. Across several domains, our experiments show that this method quickly adapts off-the-shelf models to new domains and performs on par with models trained with turn-level supervision. We also show our method can improve models trained using turn-level supervision by subsequent fine-tuning optimization toward dialog-level rewards.


Isocarbacyclin is a valuable synthetic target that has been recognized as a potential neuroprotective agent against ischemic stroke. Herein we describe a step-economical synthesis of isocarbacyclin in an enantioselective fashion. The synthetic route utilizes a palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling of a pentadienyl dienoate, a rhodium-catalyzed diene-diene [2+2+1] cycloaddition, and a ruthenium-catalyzed cross-metathesis reaction. The metathesis reaction is particularly valuable since it allows for late-stage diversification; as a result other analogues were synthesized from the same building block. Another new synthetic route will be described that was designed to use the same combination of metal-catalyzed reactions for the synthesis of a tricyclic isocarbacyclin analogue. Instead of completing the tricyclic analogue, a novel cyclization was discovered. During the course of our synthesis of isocarbacyclin analogues, we discovered a decarboxylation reaction of a pentadienyl dienoate that did not require an anion stabilizing group. This novel decarboxylative coupling reaction, optimization, mechanistic evaluation, and substrate scope will also be described in detail.


For many years in developing countries, including Poland, there was an argument that the economy is not mature enough to take the social and environmental issues into account, and companies must first of all fight for survival. However, economic situation stabilizing after the crisis (started in 2007) suggests that companies that want to gain a high position in the market should invest in innovative solutions and rethink the economic model to a more socially responsible one. In this situation, more common criticism of unethical behaviour, in particular criticism of destructive greed and short-sightedness of entrepreneurs should be considered as a positive phenomenon. An example of how far social norms lost their significance can be observed in the cases of Enron, Lehman Brothers, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen, and, in Poland, Amber Gold. These events led to a broad public discussion about moral issues, in particular about the qualifications of market actors' behaviour and consequences of these behaviours for consumers. Many entrepreneurs have recognized these principles, especially those embedded in consumer behaviour. This metamorphosis involves consumers considering other attributes of a product than just hedonistic ones. All benefits associated with the use of goods are no longer the main value for many consumers. Quite a few consumers are willing to pay more for goods, which are, for example, produced with respect for the environment. They pay more CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 128 attention to production which is harmless to the environment than to the one which creates a threat to human society. These avant-garde requirements combine the care for the environment with social sensitivity, and the lack of their respect may result in ostracism from consumers. These expectations caused that, over recent years, there has been an increased interest in the concept of socially responsible business. Therefore, effective communication is the key to overcoming a gap between openness of consumers to information on corporate social responsibility on the one hand, and their actual purchasing behaviour, on the other. The aim of this paper is to show that the future of any business depends on its customers who are increasingly interested in finding out how it behaves. This is a clear signal for conducting business activities that only socially responsible companies inspire consumer confidence. Therefore, it is vital to develop appropriate relations between consumers and business and to share the common values and norms which favour the formation of trust between them.


When giving a gift, someone other than the final consumer makes the consumption choice. Thus there is a possibility that the gift will not match the preferences of the receiver, i.e., the gift will represent a wise use of the money given the gift-giver's tastes but not necessarily a wise use of money given the recipient's tastes. In other words, gift-giving can result in a deadweight loss. This paper examines the issue of the deadweight loss of gift-giving. In particular it attempts to resolve and clarify the discrepancy between Waldfogel's (1993) finding of a deadweight loss from gift-giving and Solnick and Hemenway's (1996) finding of a deadweight gain from gift-giving. It also builds on some of the concerns raised by Ruffle and Tykocinski (2000). To accomplish this, the deadweight loss of gift-giving is estimated based on data collected from a survey of undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.


Objective: We assessed a blood-based signature, which previously demonstrated high accuracy at stratifying individuals with high or low neocortical β-amyloid burden (NAB), to determine whether it could also identify individuals at risk of progression to Alzheimer disease (AD) within 54 months. Methods: We generated the blood-based signature for 585 healthy controls (HCs) and 74 participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study who underwent clinical reclassification (blinded to biomarker findings) at 54-month follow-up. The individuals were split into estimated high and low NAB groups based on a cutoff of 1.5 standardized uptake value ratio. We assessed the predictive accuracy of the high and low NAB groupings based on progression to mild cognitive impairment or AD according to clinical reclassification at 54-month follow-up. Results: Twelve percent of HCs with estimated high NAB progressed in comparison to 5% of HCs with estimated low NAB (odds ratio = 2.4). Forty percent of the participants with MCI who had estimated high NAB progressed in comparison to 5% of the participants with MCI who had estimated low NAB (odds ratio = 12.3). These ratios are in line with those reported for Pittsburgh compound B–PET results. Individuals with estimated high NAB had faster rates of memory decline than those with estimated low NAB. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a simple blood-based signature not only provides estimates of NAB but also predicts cognitive decline and disease progression, identifying individuals at risk of progressing toward AD at the prodromal and preclinical stages.


The 2006 IEEE International Test Conference (ITC) focused on the theme "Getting More Out of Test." This means ensuring product quality and reliability as cost efficiently as possible. In today's market environment, it also means taking test beyond its traditional role of separating good products from bad. The three articles in this special section, all written by well-received ITC 2006 authors, address ways to get more out of test. The first two articles provide specific examples of techniques for addressing the newly important diagnosis and debugging functions of test. The third article addresses test decision making more generally, and specifically suggests that exploring the psychology that underlies the decisions made by designers, DFT engineers, and test engineers could eventually help to get more out of test.


In this paper, we study the discrete logarithm problem in finite fields related to pairing-based curves. We start with a precise analysis of the state-of-the-art algorithms for computing discrete logarithms that are suitable for finite fields related to pairing-friendly constructions. To improve upon these algorithms, we extend the Special Number Field Sieve to compute discrete logarithms in Fpn , where p has an adequate sparse representation. Our improved algorithm works for the whole range of applicability of the Number Field Sieve.


The paper suggests a combination of both modern, high-input technologies and
low-input technologies in a context based technology development approach. These technologies are: improved maize varieties; row planting; legumes in the cropping system; reduced tillage practices and weed control. Although some adaptations are needed, none of the innovations in the program failed the test of appropriateness completely. According to the findings Open Pollinated Varieties (OPV\'s), although intensively promoted, were only preferred by 35% of the farmers while hybrid seed was preferred by 59% of the farmers. The majority of farmers (63%) indicated that they do plant maize in rows with a
mechanised planter; despite high labour costs 59% of farmers still control weeds by hand and 61% of the respondents do realise the economic advantage of reduced tillage practices but still does not implement the practices. The strong linkages between all role players and active farmer participation are probably the most important reasons for the fact that farmers are still enthusiastic and eager to continue with the program. Keywords : Appropriateness, modern technology, low-input technology, linkages, farmer participation. South African Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 37 2008: pp. 132-142


Leading US scholar of constitutional interpretation Michael Paulsen has developed an interesting theory of religious freedom called "The Priority of God." Paulsen distinguishes, first of all, a liberal conception of religious freedom, according to which it is widely assumed that religious truth exists in a society and the state is tolerant towards various faiths and other traditions. The US, however, has developed in the direction of a modern conception of religious freedom, which no longer recognises religious truth although the state remains tolerant. Moreover, still according to Paulsen, several European countries have adopted a postmodern conception of religious freedom. This conception does not only no longer recognise religious truth, but also implies a considerably less tolerant state, as secularism becomes the established "religion." This view paradoxically resembles the preliberal stance of religious intolerance out of the conviction that religious truth exists. In response to such developments, the current article makes a case for the classical liberal position with respect to religious freedom. A liberal religious freedom conception forms the best guarantee that societal institutions will be able to fulfil their constitutional functions of a check on the government and as "seedbeds of virtue."


Boundary objects (BOs) are abstract or physical artifacts that exist in the liminal spaces between adjacent communities of people. The theory of BOs was originally introduced by Star and Griesemer in a study on information practices at the Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology but has since been adapted in a broad range of research contexts in a large number of disciplines including the various branches of information science. The aim of this review article is to present an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art of information science research informed by the theory of BOs, critically discuss the notion, and propose a structured overview of how the notion has been applied in the study of information.