Carbon dioxide is known to be the major contributor to the green-house effect;however, its annual increase in the atmosphere has slowed down markedly inrecent years. The methane (CH4) concentration in the atmosphere has morethan doubled over the last 300 years and is currently increasing at an annualrate of 0.8 to 1.0% per year [Dedysh , 2002].The arctic and sub-arctic zones of Siberia are considered to be among the mostactive atmospheric methane sources. The CH4 emission is controlled by thedegree of drowning, the temperature, the amount of organic matter, thevegetation and the methanogenesis and methanotrophic processes. As a ruleon the territory of Siberia the emission of modern biogenic methane, which isactive source of atmospheric methane occurred from the natural ecotopes[Galchenko, 2001]. A considerable amount of methane does not participate inthe contemporary biogeochemical cycle, since it is stocked in the permafrosttogether with living anaerobic microorganisms including methane-producingbacteria (Archaea). Methane production can occur at below-zero temperatures (down to 16.5oC) in permafrost depositions [Rivkina et al., 2006; Gilichinsky,2002; Wright et al., 1998]. We have carried out ourinvestigations in the two Siberian regions which are located in the permafrostzone. There are the Central Evenkia (forest ecosystem) and Lena Delta (tundraecosystem). The general aim is the estimation of microbial emission and theCH4 absorption of the cryogenic soils simultaneously using of the unifiedmethodology. We used the method of closed chambers (Wagner et al., 2003)for fixing the methane release with the surface of the soil during July andAugust.It was determined that from11.7 to 50.4 mg/m2/day of CH4 was risen with thesoil surface in the tundra ecosystem. The difference in the methane fluxesbetween of the polygon centre and rims was 1.7-2.8 times. The methane fluxvalue was from 8.9 to 34.7 mg/m2/day in the forest ecosystem and depended onthe amount of precipitations incoming from the atmosphere to the soil. Theobtained data permit to tell about the similarity of microbial processes ofmethane transformation, occurring in the mineral soil layer of the bothecosystems. The methane flux in tundra ecosystem was 2.2 times higher thanin the forest ecosystem.The presence of archaeabacteria was determined by the molecular geneticmethod. Methanogenic archaea belonging to the uncultivated Rice cluster II ofEuryarcheota was dominant in our samples and another big archaebacteriagroup belonged to the uncultivated Rice Cluster IV of Crenarcheota.


Traditional arguments against women as leaders suggest that women would not be extended the trust necessary for leadership and/or that women undermine their own bargaining position by extending too much trust to others. We examine data from a laboratory test in which pairs of subjects are given the task of negotiating a wage-labor agreement.  We first derive the optimal contract offer for principals and response by agents. We find that men and women do not reach different bargaining outcomes. We also find that women in authority are perceived as more trustworthy than men with authority, and women are no more or less trusting than men of their superiors or subordinates. The perceived trust is not rooted in differential wage terms but is based on the negotiation setting. Thus, women are likely to be extended the trust necessary to lead and are not likely to produce outcomes that are significantly different from men.


An image processing system capable of detecting vehicles within the vicinity of the ego vehicle for use in a surround view camera system (SVC) is presented in this thesis. Image processing based object detection can be challenging when working with fisheye cameras due the effect of changes in perspective of the object combined with image distortion. In the proposed system, several featurebased vehicle detection methods are used to augment an industry-standard AdaBoost classifier. These vehicle detection methods are deployed in image regions where they have been found to perform optimally, thus ensuring the increased field of view offered by the SVC system can be fully exploited for vehicle detection purposes. The Hough Circle Transform (HCT) is used to detect target vehicle wheels due to their circular appearance when the vehicle is situated laterally with respect to the ego vehicle. A novel approach entitled Wheel Arch Contour Detection (WACD) detects target vehicle wheels in regions to the front/rear of the ego vehicle where both AdaBoost and HCT based detection methods produce weaker detection rates. Ellipse Based Wheel Detection (EBWD) is also used in specific circumstances to ensure continued detection between the AdaBoost classification and the HCT based techniques as well as side views. Harris Corner/Optical Flow techniques are used as visual tracking techniques in the event of detection not occurring in a given frame. Kalman filter prediction provides additional support for visual tracking. Novel and robust testing methodologies have also been developed to ensure spatial accuracy across the entire field of view of the SVC system. Such methods quantify performance of the proposed detection methods as a function of spatial displacement of the ego vehicle. The proposed improvements are useful when developing detection algorithms involving automotive sensors. Thorough testing has been carried out using a large dataset of various driving environments and has proven the effectiveness of the proposed approaches across the entire SVC field of view. Declaration of Originality I hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted by me in pursuance of any other degree.


The epidemic scourge of rickets in the 19th century was caused by vitamin D deficiency due to inadequate sun exposure and resulted in growth retardation, muscle weakness, skeletal deformities, hypocalcemia, tetany, and seizures. The encouragement of sensible sun exposure and the fortification of milk with vitamin D resulted in almost complete eradication of the disease. Vitamin D (where D represents D2 or D3) is biologically inert and metabolized in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], the major circulating form of vitamin D that is used to determine vitamin D status. 25(OH)D is activated in the kidneys to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], which regulates calcium, phosphorus, and bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency has again become an epidemic in children, and rickets has become a global health issue. In addition to vitamin D deficiency, calcium deficiency and acquired and inherited disorders of vitamin D, calcium, and phosphorus metabolism cause rickets. This review summarizes the role of vitamin D in the prevention of rickets and its importance in the overall health and welfare of infants and children.


Development of interactive Decision Support Systems requires new approaches and numerical algorithms for solving Multiple Objective Optimization Problems. These algorithms must be robust and efficient and applicable to possibly a broad class of problems. This paper presents the new algorithm developed by the author. The algorithm consists of two steps: (a) reduction of the initial Multiple Objective Optimization Problem into a system of inequalities, and (b) solving this set of inequalities by the iterative procedure proposed by the author. Due to its generality, the algorithm applies to various Multiple Criteria Optimization Problems, including integer optimization problems. The author presents several variants of the algorithm as well as results of numerical experiments.


Delirium is a major complication that is frequently seen among geriatric patients and occurs during the postoperative period. Delirium is an acute-onset syndrome that is characterized by mental symptoms accompanying instability and fluctuations in the state of consciousness. The current hypothesis regarding the mechanism of delirium is a combination of an increase in the dopaminergic activity and decrease in cholinergic and GABAergic activity. There are many risk factors for the development of postoperative delirium; age and pain are among the most important ones. Although meperidine is a strong analgesic, it is not recommended for postoperative pain management since it may cause delirium. When patients were investigated for anesthesia technique, no difference was reported between general and regional anesthesia in terms of delirium during the studies with elective operations. The best treatment of delirium is to take preventive precautions. A decrease of 6.1% was detected in absolute risk of delirium with preventive precautions among geriatric patients. The medication that should be chosen for hyperactive delirium is haloperidol. Delirium increases mortality and the length of hospital stay. Increasing the awareness of healthcare providers and the implementation of suitable treatment methods in this regard provides great benefits for patients as well as having economical advantages.
Key words: geriatric patient, postoperative delirium


Background : In order to decrease the high rate of multiple gestation pregnancies following in vitro fertilization (IVF), elective transfer of a single embryo (eSET) in good prognosis patients has been proposed. The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the present efficacy of eSET policies and to investigate whether modifications to patient guidelines could better identify patients who should be targeted for eSET. Methods : De- identified patient records from a private fertility center were reviewed to identify patients who had undergone IVF from 2006 through 2012. Three analyses were undertaken : (1) Comparing the equivalency of pregnancy and live-birth rates between patients opting for single blastocyst transfer (eSBT) and double blastocyst transfer (eDBT), (2) Assessment of whether clinical factors associated with multiple gestation pregnancies could be identified by comparing multiple and singleton gestation cycles, and (3) Development of a predictive model for the probability of cycle failure among young patients, by examining patients younger than 35 who failed to achieve a live-birth and those who attained a live-birth. Results : No significant differences in pregnancy and live-birth rates were observed between the eSBT and eDBT groups, however, clinical equivalence was only demonstrated for pregnancy rates. Odds of multiple birth decreased as maternal age increased, whereas risk increased in cycles with a fertilization rate >80%, when embryos were transferred at the blastocyst stage, and when the second best embryo transferred was graded as good . The most relevant early predictors of cycle failure among young patients were a history of previous preterm or full-term live-birth, biochemical pregnancies and spontaneous abortions, day 3 follicle stimulating hormone level, antral follicle count, and number of follicles larger than 14mm on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration. Conclusions : While we are moving in the right direction towards clinical efficacy in eSET, addressing potential gaps in clinical guidelines could further increase acceptability of the procedure. In considering both clinical patient factors and embryo cohort characteristics, a more comprehensive profile of patients best suited for eSET could be developed that would increase the successfulness of the procedure, while simultaneously decreasing the high rate of multiple gestation pregnancies seen in IVF


Mobulid populations are declining on a global scale as a result of both targeted fisheries and indirect anthropogenic threats. In order to implement effective conservation strategies for species of this taxa, it is crucial that movement patterns at a range of spatiotemporal scales are defined. To gain insight into such patterns, we deployed a combination of acoustic (n = 21) and satellite (n = 12) tags on reef manta rays Mobula alfredi in the British Indian Ocean Territory Marine Protected Area (BIOT MPA) annually from 2013 through 2016. An extensive array of acoustic receivers (n = 52) were deployed across the archipelago to record the movements of mantas throughout the MPA. Data revealed large individual variation in horizontal movement patterns, ranging from high local site fidelity (<10 km) for up to 3 yr, to large-scale regional movements (>200 km) around the entire MPA. Depth time-series data recorded vertical movement patterns consistent with other epipelagic elasmobranch species, including oscillatory diving and deep dives to greater than 500 m. Though no individuals were directly recorded departing the MPA throughout the study, the gaps in detections and estimated travel speeds documented here indicate that movement of individuals outside of the BIOT MPA cannot be discounted. Collectively, our data suggests that, with effective enforcement, the current size of the BIOT MPA is providing substantial protection to its reef manta ray population. Characterization of movement patterns across ontogenetic classes, however, is required to fully characterize the spatial ecology of this species and ensure protection across all cohorts of the population.


Human–wildlife conflicts create collateral damage when people attempt to control one problematic species and inadvertently kill others. I observed a collateral damage problem in southern Costa where people seeking to control common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) indiscriminately killed sympatric, non‐target bat species (e.g., by baiting bats with poisoned bananas). To learn about this phenomenon and its causes, I developed and implemented a questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior. In a sample of 504 men, 14 percent had individually killed 1–115 bats within the past 5 yr, 68 percent had killed bats as children, and 27 percent said that they would kill bats that they found roosting on their farms, even if they could not identify the species. Men who intended to indiscriminately kill bats thought that it would reduce disease transmission to livestock, whereas men who did not intend to kill bats thought that killing bats would reduce ecosystem functioning and/or damage nature. Ultimately, men were more likely to intend to indiscriminately kill bats if they knew less about bat natural history and/or had previously suffered vampire bats attacking their livestock. Men knew more about bat natural history and were less likely to harbor indiscriminate bat‐killing intentions if they had experienced some form of environmental education. My results suggest that environmental education will be most effective for bat conservation when combined with farmer support to ameliorate perceived livelihood risks associated with vampire bats.


During skill execution, performers have been shown to attend to different aspects of movement, the external effects of one's action, or to other environmental information. A variety of psychological mechanisms have been proposed to account for the differential outcomes when adopting each attentional strategy. However, there is limited information about the extent to which different attentional foci change the workload demands of task performance. To examine this, the current study administered the NASA-Task Load Index following a simulated shooting dual-task. Participants performed the primary shooting task alone (control), and also with a secondary task that directed attention towards an aspect of skill execution (skill-focused) and an unrelated environmental stimulus (extraneous focus). Primary and secondary task performances were significantly greater in the extraneous focus compared to the skill-focused dual-task. Also, workload was significantly lower during the extraneous focus compared to the skill-focused dual-task condition. Further analyses revealed that workload significantly mediated the effects of skill level on performance during the skill-focused and extraneous focus dual-tasks and various subscales of workload (i.e. temporal demand) contributed unique amounts of variance to this relationship. A discussion of the relationship between attention, workload and its subcomponents, skill level, and performance is presented.


We make a thorough comparison between different schemes of merging fixed-order tree-level matrix element generators with parton-shower models. We use the most basic benchmark of the O(alpha_S) correction to e+e- -> jets, where the simple kinematics allows us to study in detail the transition between the matrix-element and parton-shower regions. We find that the CKKW-based schemes give a reasonably smooth transition between these regions, although problems may occur if the parton shower used is not ordered in transverse momentum. However, the so-called Pseudo-Shower and MLM schemes turn out to have potentially serious problems due to different scale definitions in different regions of phase space, and due to sensitivity to the details in the initial conditions of the parton shower programs used. (Less)


Abstract Inclinometry with embedded probes is analyzed with a Stokes model of a solid body floating in a fluid with much smaller viscosity for a two-dimensional flow field. The assumption that such a probe behaves like a Lagrangian unit vector is only justified for probes embedded in a Newtonian fluid with lengths at least four times their width. A fluid with Glen-type rheology results in a slightly smaller rotation rate of the probe compared to Newtonian fluids.


A superior new replacement to traditional discounted cash flow valuation models Executives and corporate finance practitioners now have a more reliable discount rate to value companies and make important business and investment decisions. In today's market, it's free cash flow, cost of capital and return on invested capital that really matters, and now there's a superior tool to help analyze these metrics-Security Valuation and Risk Analysis. In this pioneering book, valuation authority Kenneth Hackel presents his next-generation methodology for placing a confident value on an enterprise and identifying discrepancies in value-a system that will provide even themost well-informed investor with an important competitive advantage. At the core of Security Valuation and Risk Analysis is Hackel's successful credit model fordetermining an accurate fair value and reliable discount rate for a company. Using free cash flow as the basis for evaluating return on invested capital is the most effective method for determining value. Hackel takes you step by step through years of compelling evidence thatshows how his method has earned outsized returns and helped turn around companies that were heading toward failure. Whether used for corporate portfolio strategy,acquisitions, or performance management, the tools presented in Security Valuation and Risk Analysis are unmatched in their accuracy and reliability. Reading through this informative book, you'll discover how to: Take advantage of early warning signs related to cash flow and credit metrics Estimate the cost of equity capital from which free cash flows are discounted Identify where management can free up resources by using a better definition of free cash flow Security Valuation and Risk Analysis provides acomplete education on cash flow and credit, from how traditional analysts value a company and spot market mispricing (and why many of those traditional methods are obsolete) to working with the most recent financial innovations, including derivatives, special purposeentities, pensions, and more. Security Valuation and Risk Analysis is youranswer to a credit market gone bad, from an expert who knows bad credit from good.


The paper uses the approach of "nested adaptive systems" to establish an operational definition of sustainable management for the Selwyn catchment of the South Island of New Zealand. The Selwyn River is an undammed alluvial river that is under intense pressure for groundwater abstraction and water quality effects from land use intensification in its catchment. It is also subject to large flow fluctuations. Different spatial scales were determined for sustainability analysis. Using the adaptive cycle of exploitation, accumulation, disturbance/release and reorganisation, critical variables for maintaining the resilience of the catchment in relation to land and water use pressures and the thresholds of these critical variables for management interventions to achieve sustainable systems were identified. Also crucial for sustainability was the maintenance of the linkages between the different spatial scales. For each issue, the findings from the sustainability analysis are compared with current management approaches which are primarily derived from responses to effects-based assessment of new development proposals. The sustainability analysis identifies the need for more comprehensive management approaches.


Currently, monitoring plays an important role in managing the Cloud computing environment. However, the Cloud computing owners and tenants often lack the management and monitoring tools to ensure the performance, robustness, dependability, and security. To address this limitation, this paper describes the development of a lightweight module-centralized and aspect-oriented monitoring framework. This framework performs end-to-end measurements at virtual and physical machine instances, software and Web service in the Cloud. It monitors the quality of service (QoS) parameters of the IaaS and SaaS layer in the forms of plug-in bundles. In addition, we discuss the manager-agent monitoring of entity objects and aspect-oriented Cloud service monitoring in detail. All the modules constitute the entire proposed framework to improve the performance in hybrid Clouds.


We consider a system of linear constraints over any finite Abelian group G of the following form: l_i(x_1,...,x_n) = l_{i,1}x_1 + ... + l_{i,n}x_n in A_i for i=1,...,N and each A_i is subset of G and l_{i,j} is an element of G and x_i's are Boolean variables. Our main result shows that the subset of the Boolean cube that satisfies these constraints has exponentially small correlation with the MOD-q boolean function, when the order of G and q are co-prime numbers. Our work extends the recent result of Chattopadhyay and Wigderson (FOCS'09) who obtain such a correlation bound for linear systems over cyclic groups whose order is a product of two distinct primes or has at most one prime factor. Our result also immediately yields the first exponential bounds on the size of boolean depth-four circuits of the form MAJ of AND of ANY_{O(1)} of MOD-m for computing the MOD-q function, when m,q are co-prime. No super-polynomial lower bounds were known for such circuits for computing any explicit function. This completely solves an open problem posed by Beigel and Maciel (Complexity'97).


Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect, causing an important rate of morbidity and mortality. Treatment of CHD requires surgical correction in a significant percentage of cases which exposes patients to cardiac and end organ injury. Cardiac surgical procedures often require the utilisation of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), a system that replaces heart and lungs function by diverting circulation into an external circuit. The use of CPB can initiate potent inflammatory responses, in addition a proportion of procedures require a period of aortic cross clamp during which the heart is rendered ischaemic and is exposed to injury. High O2 concentrations are used during cardiac procedures and when circulation is re-established to the heart which had adjusted metabolically to ischaemia, further injury is caused in a process known as ischaemic reperfusion injury (IRI).
Several strategies are in place in order to protect the heart during surgery, however injury is still caused, having detrimental effects in patients at short and long term.
Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a technique proposed as a potential cardioprotective measure. It consists of exposing a remote tissue bed to brief episodes of ischaemia prior to surgery in order to activate protective pathways that would act during CPB, ischaemia and reperfusion.
This study aimed to assess RIPC in paediatric patients requiring CHD surgical correction with a translational approach, integrating clinical outcome, marker analysis, cardiac function parameters and molecular mechanisms within the cardiac tissue.
A prospective, single blinded, randomized, controlled trial was conducted applying a RIPC protocol to randomised patients through episodes of limb ischaemia on the day before surgery which was repeated right before the surgery started, after anaesthesia induction.
Blood samples were obtained before surgery and at three post-operative time points from venous lines, additional pre and post-bypass blood samples were obtained from the right atrium. Myocardial tissue was resected during the ischaemic period of surgery. Echocardiographic images were obtained before the surgery started after anaesthetic induction and the day after surgery, images were stored for later off line analysis.
PICU surveillance data was collected including ventilation parameters, inotrope use, standard laboratory analysis and six hourly blood gas analysis.
Pre and post-operative quantitation of markers in blood specimens included cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), inflammatory mediators including interleukins IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumour necrosis factor (TNF-α), and the adhesion molecules ICAM-1 and VCAM-1; the renal marker Cystatin C and the cardiovascular markers asymmetric dymethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetric dymethylarginine (SDMA).
Nitric oxide (NO) metabolites and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) were measured before and after bypass.
Myocardial tissue was processed at baseline and after incubation at hyperoxic concentration during four hours in order to mimic surgical conditions. Expression of genes involved in IRI and RIPC pathways was analysed including heat shock proteins (HSPs), toll like receptors (TLRs), transcription factors nuclear factor κ-B (NF- κ-B) and hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). The participation of hydrogen sulfide enzymatic genes, apelin and its receptor were explored.
There was no significant difference according to group allocation in any of the echocardiographic parameters. There was a tendency for higher cTnI values and inotropic score in control patients post-operatively, however this was not statistically significant. BNP presented no significant difference according to group allocation.
Inflammatory parameters tended to be higher in the control group, however only TNF- α was significantly higher. There was no difference in levels of Cystatin C, NO metabolites, cGMP, ADMA or SDMA.
RIPC patients required shorter PICU stay, all other clinical and laboratory analysis presented no difference related to the intervention.
Gene expression analysis revealed interesting patterns before and after incubation. HSP-60 presented a lower expression at baseline in tissue corresponding to RIPC patients, no other differences were found.
This study provided with valuable descriptive information on previously known and newly explored parameters in the study population. Demographic characteristics and the presence of cyanosis before surgery influenced patterns of activity in several parameters, numerous indicators were linked to the degree of injury suffered by the myocardium.
RIPC did not reduce markers of cardiac injury or improved echocardiographic parameters and it did not have an effect on end organ function; some effects were seen in inflammatory responses and gene expression analysis. Nevertheless, an important clinical outcome indicator, PICU length of stay was reduced suggesting benefit from the intervention.
Larger studies with more statistical power could determine if the tendency of lower injury and inflammatory markers linked to RIPC is real. The present results mostly support findings of larger multicentre trials which have reported no cardiac benefit from RIPC in paediatric cardiac surgery.


The structure of a complex between a peptide inhibitor with the sequence N-acetyl-Thr-Ile-Nle-psi[CH2-NH]-Nle-Gln-Arg.amide (Nle, norleucine) with chemically synthesized HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus 1) protease was determined at 2.3 A resolution (R factor of 0.176). Despite the symmetric nature of the unliganded enzyme, the asymmetric inhibitor lies in a single orientation and makes extensive interactions at the interface between the two subunits of the homodimeric protein. Compared with the unliganded enzyme, the protein molecule underwent substantial changes, particularly in an extended region corresponding to the "flaps" (residues 35 to 57 in each chain), where backbone movements as large as 7 A are observed.


Increasingly, blogs are being used by educators in higher education for teaching and learning as they have numerous pedagogical benefits. This study describes and analyses the use of blogs as a private journal or e-portfolio for an assessment in a first year bachelor of business programme. Three hundred and fifty students answered an online questionnaire exploring their perceptions of blogs as an assessment tool, in particular ease of use and impact on learning and skills development. Students found numerous benefits of using blogs such as ease of submitting work, increased ownership of learning, and being able to check and improve their work on a regular basis. They also reported that the use of blogs provided flexibility in completing tasks, helped get feedback from lecturers, and increased the quality and quantity of their work. However, there was a lack of consensus on whether blog use improved writing ability of students, increased dialogue between students and lecturers or increased student interest in learning. The challenge for those contemplating using blogs for similar purposes is to ensure that students are provided with sufficient instructions, and constructive, timely feedback.


Quantum-statistical (Bose-Einstein) two-particle correlations are measured in pp collisions at √ s = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV, as well as in pPb and peripheral PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of 5.02 and 2.76 TeV, respectively, using the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Separate analyses are performed for same-sign unidentified charged particles as well as for same-sign pions and kaons identified via their energy loss in the silicon tracker. The characteristics of the one-, two-, and three-dimensional correlation functions are studied as functions of the pair average transverse momentum (kT) and the charged-particle multiplicity in the event. For all systems, the extracted correlation radii steadily increase with the event multiplicity, and decrease with increasing kT. The radii are in the range 1–5 fm, the largest values corresponding to very high multiplicity pPb interactions and to peripheral PbPb collisions with multiplicities similar to those seen in pPb data. It is also observed that the dependencies of the radii on multiplicity and kT largely factorize. At the same multiplicity, the radii are relatively independent of the colliding system and center-of-mass energy.


The development process is defined by variables. A successful developer identifies, monitors, understands, and attempts to control these variables. Most development projects require the developer to be prepared to negotiate with any number of parties, and much of the time, the tie-up or acquisition of the property is only the first step in a long process. For many projects, the discretionary approval process at the local level, commonly called entitlement, is the major consumer of time and resources. It is through this very process, however, that value is created. Gaining an understanding of the legal aspects of land-use regulation in general— and entitlement in particular—can help developers effectively identify and manage risk. This paper provides an overview of the procedural and legal underpinnings of the entitlement process in order to illustrate the risks involved. Several techniques for creating value and mitigating risk, as applied through the approvals process, are also discussed.


The aim of this research project was to identify the factors affecting the porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL.)-catalysed polytransesterification of a diester and a diol in organic solvents. It was hoped that by modifying reaction conditions a commercially acceptable polymer molecular weight (Mn) of 20,000 daltons might be attained. Exploratory investigations were carried out using 1,4-butanediolibis(2,2,2- trichloroethyl) adipate and glutarate systems in diethyl ether, with and without molecular sieves. It was found that molecular sieves promoted the reaction by reducing hydrolysis of the ester end-groups, resulting in polymer molecular weights between 1.2 and 2.2 times greater than those obtainable without molecular sieves. Investigations were then concentrated on the PPL-catalysed polytransesterification of 1,4-butanediol with divinyl adipate. The particular advantage of this system is that the reaction is irreversible. The effects of varying substrate concentration, mass of drying agent, reaction solvent, reaction temperature, mass of enzyme and also enzyme immobilisation on the 1,4-butanediolidivinyl adipate system were investigated. The highest molecular weight polymer obtained for the PPL-catalysed polytransesterification of 1,4-butanedial with divinyl adipate in diethyl ether was Mn -8,000. In higher boiling ether solvents molecular weights as high as Mn -9,200 were obtained for this system at elevated temperatures. It was found that the major factor limiting polymerisation was the low solubility of the polymer in the solvent which resulted in precipitation of the polymer onto the surface of the enzyme.


Ontic Structural Realists hold that structure is all there is, or at least all there is fundamentally. This thesis has proved to be puzzling: what exactly does it say about the relationship between objects and structures? In this paper I look at different ways of articulating ontic structural realism in terms of the relation between structures and objects. I show that objects cannot be reduced to structures, and argue that ontological dependence cannot be used to establish strong forms of structural realism. At the end I show how a weaker, but controversial, form of structural realism can be articulated on the basis of ontological dependence.


A panel of 9 experts, including neurologists, other headache specialists, and medical and pharmacy directors, from 4 health plans (1 integrated delivery network and 3 plans with commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business), convened to discuss cluster headache (CH). Topics covered included the current treatment landscape, treatment challenges, economic impact of disease, and gaps in care for patients with CH. One major challenge in the management of CH is that it is underrecognized and frequently misdiagnosed, leading to delays in and suboptimal treatment for patients who suffer from this painful and disabling condition. The management of CH is challenging due to the lack of a robust evidence base for preventive treatment, the adverse events (AEs) associated with conventional preventive treatments, the variability of response to acute treatments, and the challenging reimbursement landscape for well-accepted treatments (eg, oxygen). The lack of effective prevention for many patients may lead to the excessive use of acute therapies, often multiple times each day, which drives the cost of illness up significantly. The goal of the panel discussion was to discuss the role of gammaCore, the recently released first non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) therapy in the acute treatment of patients with episodic CH (eCH), in the management of CH. The panel reviewed current practices and formulated recommendations on incorporating a newly released therapy into CH management. The panel explored the role of traditional management strategies as well as that of gammaCore in the acute treatment of patients with eCH. Resources that may be useful in the treatment of patients with CH were also discussed.


A unique small‐scale 3‐D mooring array has been designed consisting of five parallel lines, 100 m long and 4 m apart, and holding up to 550 high‐resolution temperature sensors. It is built for quantitative studies on the evolution of stratified turbulence by internal wave breaking in geophysical flows at scales which go beyond that of a laboratory. Here we present measurements from above a steep slope of Mount Josephine, NE Atlantic where internal wave breaking occurs regularly. Vertical and horizontal coherence spectra show an aspect ratio of 0.25–0.5 near the buoyancy frequency, evidencing anisotropy. At higher frequencies, the transition to isotropy (aspect ratio of 1) is found within the inertial subrange. Above the continuous turbulence spectrum in this subrange, isolated peaks are visible that locally increase the spectral width, in contrast with open ocean spectra. Their energy levels are found to be proportional to the tidal energy level.


A system biology approach was used to gain insight into tick biology and interactions between vector and pathogen. Rhipicephalus annulatus is one of the main vectors of Babesia bigemina which has a massive impact on animal health. It is vital to obtain more information about this relationship, to better understand tick and pathogen biology, pathogen transmission dynamics, and new potential control approaches. In ticks, salivary glands (SGs) play a key role during pathogen infection and transmission. RNA sequencing obtained from uninfected and B. bigemina infected SGs obtained from fed female ticks resulted in 6823 and 6475 unigenes, respectively. From these, 360 unigenes were found to be differentially expressed (p < 0.05). Reversed phase liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry identified a total of 3679 tick proteins. Among them 406 were differently represented in response to Babesia infection. The omics data obtained suggested that Babesia infection lead to a reduction in the levels of mRNA and proteins (n = 237 transcripts, n = 212 proteins) when compared to uninfected controls. Integrated transcriptomics and proteomics datasets suggested a key role for stress response and apoptosis pathways in response to infection. Thus, six genes coding for GP80, death-associated protein kinase (DAPK-1), bax inhibitor-1 related (BI-1), heat shock protein (HSP), heat shock transcription factor (PHSTF), and queuine trna-ribosyltransferase (QtRibosyl) were selected and RNA interference (RNAi) performed. Gene silencing was obtained for all genes except phstf. Knockdown of gp80, dapk-1, and bi-1 led to a significant increase in Babesia infection levels while hsp and QtRibosyl knockdown resulted in a non-significant decrease of infection levels when compared to the respective controls. Gene knockdown did not affect tick survival, but engorged female weight and egg production were affected in the gp80, dapk-1, and QtRibosyl-silenced groups in comparison to controls. These results advanced our understanding of tick–Babesia molecular interactions, and suggested new tick antigens as putative targets for vaccination to control tick infestations and pathogen infection/transmission.


Inferences derived from large multiple alignments of biological sequences are critical to many areas of biology, including evolution, genomics, biochemistry, and structural biology. However, the complexity of the alignment problem imposes the use of approximate solutions. The most common is the progressive algorithm, which starts by aligning the most similar sequences, incorporating the remaining ones following the order imposed by a guide-tree. We developed and validated on protein sequences a regressive algorithm that works the other way around, aligning first the most dissimilar sequences. Our algorithm produces more accurate alignments than non-regressive methods, especially on datasets larger than 10,000 sequences. By design, it can run any existing alignment method in linear time thus allowing the scale-up required for extremely large genomic analyses. One Sentence Summary Initiating alignments with the most dissimilar sequences allows slow and accurate methods to be used on large datasets


Colleges and universities have long recognized the need to address inequities affecting students from underrepresented or underserved groups. Despite efforts undertaken by dedicated individuals, large-scale, national change in this area has not been realized. In this article, we address two major factors underlying this disappointing result—the structures of isolation common in our institutions of higher learning, and the inadequate addressing of our own implicit biases—and offer a model of systemic collaboration aimed at ameliorating these problems so that colleges and universities throughout the nation can achieve the equity goals that have proved so elusive for so many of them.


Imperative programming allows users to implement their deep neural networks (DNNs) easily and has become an essential part of recent deep learning (DL) frameworks. Recently, several systems have been proposed to combine the usability of imperative programming with the optimized performance of symbolic graph execution. Such systems convert imperative Python DL programs to optimized symbolic graphs and execute them. However, they cannot fully support the usability of imperative programming. For example, if an imperative DL program contains a Python feature with no corresponding symbolic representation (e.g., third-party library calls or unsupported dynamic control flows) they fail to execute the program. To overcome this limitation, we propose Terra, an imperative-symbolic co-execution system that can handle any imperative DL programs while achieving the optimized performance of symbolic graph execution. To achieve this, Terra builds a symbolic graph by decoupling DL operations from Python features. Then, Terra conducts the imperative execution to support all Python features, while delegating the decoupled operations to the symbolic execution. We evaluated the performance improvement and coverage of Terra with ten imperative DL programs for several DNN architectures. The results show that Terra can speed up the execution of all ten imperative DL programs, whereas AutoGraph, one of the state-of-the-art systems, fails to execute five of them.


Investigating ritual in Greece from cross-disciplinary and transhistorical perspectives, Greek Ritual Poetics offers novel readings of the pivotal role of ritual in Greek traditions by exploring a broad spectrum of texts, art, and social practices. This collection of essays written by an international group of leading scholars in a number of disciplines presents a variety of methodological approaches to secular and religious rituals, and to the narrative and conceptual strategies of their reenactment and manipulation in literary, pictorial, and social discourses. Addressing understudied aspects of Greek ritual and societies, this book will prove significant for classicists, anthropologists, Byzantinists, art historians, neohellenists, and comparatists interested in the interaction between ritual, aesthetics, and cultural communicative systems.


This paper examines the disparity in learning outcomes between two cohorts of children of the same age (12 years old) but seven years apart using data from Young Lives Ethiopia. Learning outcomes are measured by the differences in mathematics, common reading and receptive vocabulary tests. By applying simple statistical tests, we particularly looked at whether the level of learning outcomes declined or improved over the seven years period of time. We found a substantial and statistically significant difference in mathematics and reading scores between the two cohorts showing a decline from the older to the younger cohort. In the case of mathematics test, for example, the percentage of correct scores declined from 54.42% in 2006 to 37.17% in 2013. The 17.25 percentage point difference is significant at P<0.01. This decline was mainly driven by those children who were living in rural areas; whose caregivers had received little or no education; whose households' wealth tercile was at the bottom; and/or who were in government primary schools. Though the percentage of receptive vocabulary score showed a slight increase from the older to the younger cohort, a rising inequality was observed at intra-cohort level. These findings point out that there is a need to halt the deterioration of learning outcomes and rising inequalities early in life as these may result in different form of inequalities if left unchecked. The paper also proposes further research to identify the in-school and out-of-school factors that might contribute to the declining levels of learning outcomes and widening learning inequalities.


Methamphetamine (MA) is a potent psychostimulant with a high addictive capacity, which induces many deleterious effects on the brain. Chronic MA abuse leads to cognitive dysfunction and motor impairment. MA affects many cells in the brain, but the effects on astrocytes of repeated MA exposure is not well understood. In this report, we used Gene chip array to analyze the changes in the gene expression profile of primary human astrocytes treated with MA for 3 days. Range of genes were found to be differentially regulated, with a large number of genes significantly downregulated, including NEK2, TTK, TOP2A, and CCNE2. Gene ontology and pathway analysis showed a highly significant clustering of genes involved in cell cycle progression and DNA replication. Further pathway analysis showed that the genes downregulated by multiple MA treatment were critical for G2/M phase progression and G1/S transition. Cell cycle analysis of SVG astrocytes showed a significant reduction in the percentage of cell in the G2/M phase with a concomitant increase in G1 percentage. This was consistent with the gene array and validation data, which showed that repeated MA treatment downregulated the genes associated with cell cycle regulation. This is a novel finding, which explains the effect of MA treatment on astrocytes and has clear implication in neuroinflammation among the drug abusers.


The carry trade is a zero net investment strategy that borrows in low yielding currencies and subsequently invests in high yielding currencies. It has been identified as highly profitable FX strategy delivering significantly excess returns with high Sharpe ratios. This work shows that these excess returns are compensation for bearing FX variance and crash risk. Additionally, factor risks that affect foreign money changes, foreign inflation changes, as well as changes to a newly developed Carry Trade Activity Index and the VIX index, as a proxy for global risk aversion, make up the carry trade risk anatomy.
Furthermore, this study investigates an efficient parametric portfolio policy model to improve the return distribution of the currency carry trade investment strategy. This is done by modeling the optimal weight as a function of the carry trade's risk characteristics. Especially, when using global FX option-implied variance risk, as well as global consumer price inflation and commodity prices as background risk factors, the model delivers extremely-efficient out-of-sample results with annualized mean returns of up to 8.4% from 2007 to 2015, accompanied with a low standard deviation, positively skewed returns and leading to Sharpe ratios around unity, including transaction costs.
The last part examines the relationship between currency option's implied skewness and its future realized skewness, where the difference is known as the skewness risk premium (SRP). The SRP indicates whether investors pay a premium to be insured against future crash risk. Past investigations about implied and realized skewness within currency markets showed that both measures are loosely connected or even exhibit a negative relationship that cannot be rationalized by no-arbitrage arguments. It will be shown that this phenomenon can be explained in terms of investor's position-induced demand pressure and FX momentum effects. In order to exploit the disconnection of skewness, a simple skew swap trading strategy proposed by Schneider and Trojani (2015) have been set up. The resulting skew swap returns are relatively high, but the return distribution is extremely fat-tailed. To appropriately compare different skew swap strategy returns, this paper proposes a Higher Moment Sharpe Ratio that also takes higher moments into account.


Aim. The aim of this research was to systematically review computer-based, behaviour change (BC) interventions
during pregnancy and their design components in order to determine their best application within the context of the
OptiBIRTH intervention.
Design. A systematic literature review was undertaken using the Cochrane collaboration guidelines for systematic
reviews of health promotion and public health interventions. Literature searches were conducted in: Ovid
MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, PsycINFO, from database inception to June 2015. Cochrane Risk of
Bias criteria was applied to assess the methodological quality and a taxonomy of BC techniques was used to appraise
the interventions.
PICO. Participants included healthy pregnant women who were ≥18 years old. The types of intervention used were
computer-based interventions designed to facilitate a BC approach in a sample of pregnant women. The comparison was
routine antenatal care. The primary outcome included improved health behaviour(s), as an indicator of the intention
behind the intervention design.
Results. A total of 343 papers were identified through database-searching and hand-searching methods; 80 duplicates were
removed. From the remaining 263 papers, 244 did not explicitly address the subject under review. Therefore, 19 full-text
articles were assessed for eligibility; 16 did not meet eligibility criteria and were excluded at this stage. This resulted in a
total of three studies being selected for inclusion in this review (Jackson et al, 2011; Tzilos et al, 2011; Tsoh et al, 2010).
The computer-based interventions were designed to bring about BC in relation to alcohol consumption, smoking or diet
and exercise during pregnancy. Interventions delivered varied between two types: purely computer delivered (Tzilos et
al, 2011) or a combination of both computer plus face-to-face input (Jackson et al, 2011; Tsoh et al, 2010). Techniques
used included motivational interviewing, problem-solving cognitive dissonance and goal setting. Types of measurement
outcomes varied but were all self-reported behavioural outcomes. Statistically significant improvements in behavioural
outcomes were seen in the interventions by Jackson et al (2011) and Tsoh et al (2010), but not Tzilos et al (2011). The
GRADE analysis identified that all studies combined lacked blinding and relied on self-reported data therefore increasing
risk of bias.
Conclusion. This systematic review reports on the best available evidence and theory to design an online component of a
complex intervention for use in an RCT to enhance women's shared decision-making experience about vaginal births after
caesarean (VBAC). The review reports the differences between the observed BC approach and that of a decision-making
approach: BC techniques are applied when a predetermined, directional goal is evidentially understood by the clinicians as
being focused on a more healthy option. As a result, techniques designed to create dissonance are considered appropriate.
Shared decision-making, however, is conceptually different, in that the goal is to facilitate a woman in discovering the
best direction of travel for her as a person. Therefore, the authors argue that it is crucial for healthcare professionals
designing complex healthcare interventions (either BC techniques or shared decision-making) to ensure that a person's selfdetermination
is respected through having access to relevant and understandable information and healthcare professionals
who understand a woman's motivation. However, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions from three studies and there
is a requirement for further research.


Cepstral analysis has been widely used in audio and speech processing applications because of its ability to reveal periodicities in a signal. The presence of cyclic prefix (CP) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals induces periodicities. Motivated by this, the paper focuses on cepstral analysis of OFDM signal. The distributions of cepstral coefficients are derived for two scenarios of noise only and OFDM signal in noise. It is shown that the OFDM cepstrum is significantly different from the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) cepstrum and can be used to detect OFDM waveforms. It is also shown that the cepstrum of OFDM is rich in features and can be used to estimate OFDM parameters such as number of subcarriers and length of the CP in an OFDM symbol. These OFDM waveform parameters can be used to automatically recognize or classify different OFDM waveforms, which are important for cognitive radios, coexistence of heterogeneous networks and signal intelligence. Two schemes are proposed to detect OFDM based primary user (PU) signals in cognitive radio systems. The distributions of the test statistics under the two hypotheses are established. Neyman-Pearson detection strategy is employed. Algorithms for estimating the number of subcarriers and the length of the CP are proposed and their performances studied through simulations. Later the proposed schemes are extended to cooperative sensing scenario with multiple secondary users (SUs) and it is shown that the collaboration between them significantly improve the performance of the proposed cepstrum based detection and estimation schemes.


Pain management program is essential and required the program to prevent the adverse event, drug misadventure, and pain killer medications related death at health care institutions. One of the tools to evaluate the performance and drug safety of the pain management program. It is the assessment of ten directions of medication safety including patient information, medication information, communication process of medicines, drug packaging and labeling, drug devices, work environment and staffing management, competency and education, patient or family education, and quality and risk management. The new tools as self-assessment of pain management medication safety and modified of former the United States of America and Canada Institution Safe Medication Practice (ISMP) ten elements with additional to the health care institution demographic information and according to the pharmacy law and regulations in Saudi Arabia. This new method can assess the hospital's pain management implementation and detect the gap problems implementation, risk of the patient safety level of pain management. The tool had a scoring scale system of acceptable or risk level or need improvement with the annual application. The tool is first self-assessment tool of pain management medication in Saudi Arabia. The tool is highly recommended to apply at all government and private hospitals in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Key words: Pain Management, Safety, Medications, Self-Assessment, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia.


This article explores contemporary cultural geographies and underlying histories of change on private land in post-apartheid South Africa. Its focus is the expansion of wildlife-based tourism and related forms of commodified wilderness consumption in KwaZulu-Natal province. The article explores the social and economic processes occurring on game farms in a region known as the Midlands. Here nature is being culturally (re)constructed on former farmlands to create new landscapes shaped by the demands of wildlife-based tourism. In pursuit of these 'third nature' dreams, spaces often need to be physically changed as well as discursively repositioned through marketing. Yet this is not an unchallenged process: the presence of 'farm dwellers' living on privately owned land disrupts smooth progress to a refashioned wilderness landscape. The article identifies various strategies employed by landowners in order to minimise the presence of farm dwellers on their land. In the current context, the involvement of the state on private land adds a further layer of complexity. Land reform policies and programmes serve as a mesh through which these contestations are filtered. While their effects are often ambiguous, land claims in particular serve to challenge the 'third nature' dream of landowners.


Although it is heartening to see wealth inequality being taken seriously, key concepts are often muddled, including the distinction between income and wealth, what is included in "wealth", and facts about wealth distributions. This chapter highlights issues that arise in making ideas and facts about wealth inequality precise, and employs newly-available data to take a fresh look at wealth and wealth inequality in a comparative perspective. The composition of wealth is similar across countries, with housing wealth being the key asset. Wealth is considerably more unequally distributed than income, and it is distinctively so in the United States. Extending definitions to include pension wealth however reduces inequality substantially. Analysis also sheds light on life-cycle patterns and the role of inheritance. Discussion of the joint distributions of income and wealth suggests that interactions between increasing top income shares and the concentration of wealth and income from wealth towards the top is critical.


Conventional wisdom states that the statutory split of payroll taxa- tion between firms and workers is of no macroeconomic relevance, because the tax incidence is fully determined by the market structure. This pa- per breaks with this view by establishing a theoretical link between the statutory split and the average volatility of prices and wages. It is shown that shifting taxation towards workers significantly reduces the volatility in nominal variables without entailing long-run redistribution. The gain in stability of prices and wages reduces inefficiencies in the equilibrium allocation of the stochastic model and thereby reduces welfare costs of business cycle fluctuations. In a standard DSGE model, welfare costs un- der the full taxation of firms are 11.25% larger than under the full taxation of workers.


Postexercise protein ingestion increases whole body and muscle protein anabolism in adults. No study has specifically investigated the combined effects of exercise and protein ingestion on protein metabolism in healthy, physically active children. Under 24-h dietary control, 13 (seven males, six females) active children (∼ 11 yr old; 39.3 ± 5.9 kg) consumed an oral dose of [(15)N]glycine prior to performing a bout of exercise. Immediately after exercise, participants consumed isoenergetic mixed macronutrient beverages containing a variable amount of protein [0, 0.75, and 1.5 g/100 ml for control (CON), low protein (LP), and high protein (HP), respectively] according to fluid losses. Whole body nitrogen turnover (Q), protein synthesis (S), protein breakdown (B), and protein balance (WBPB) were measured throughout exercise and the early acute recovery period (9 h combined) as well as over 24 h. Postexercise protein intake from the beverage was ∼ 0.18 and ∼ 0.32 g/kg body mass for LP and HP, respectively. Q, S, and B were significantly greater (main effect time, all P < 0.001) over 9 h compared with 24 h with no differences between conditions. WBPB was also greater over 9 h compared with 24 h in all conditions (main effect time, P < 0.001). Over 9 h, WBPB was greater in HP (P < 0.05) than LP and CON with a trend (P = 0.075) toward LP being greater than CON. WBPB was positive over 9 h for all conditions but only over 24 h for HP. Postexercise protein ingestion acutely increases net protein balance in healthy children early in recovery in a dose-dependent manner with larger protein intakes (∼ 0.32 g/kg) required to sustain a net anabolic environment over an entire 24 h period.


Abstract The aim of the current study is to analyze the relationships of Emotional Intelligence (EI) dimension and Personality (P) traits of individual towards Team Performance (TP). The current study analyses the effect of Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1995) and personality (Big Five personality; Gosling et al., 2003) traits for Air India employees' Team Performance. This study has used a simple random sampling method with a sample size of one hundred and twenty five employees from Air India. The Current study uses Smart PLS based Structural Equation Modeling approach and the results shows that Personality and Emotional Intelligence affects the team performance by 72.080% which is a considerable effect and this concludes that EI is a vital factor and it is considered as work place glue of individual personality and team performance of the contemporary organization..


To assess the relation between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke throughout life and lung cancer in lifetime nonsmokers, the authors conducted in-person interviews with 41 male and 69 female never-smoking lung cancer cases and 117 male and 187 female never-smoking controls between 1983 and 1990 as part of a hospital-based case-control study of tobacco-related cancers. Cases had newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed primary carcinoma of the lung. Controls were matched to cases on age (+/- 5 years), sex, race, hospital, and year of interview. Subjects were asked about environmental tobacco smoke exposure in childhood, in adulthood at home, in different jobs, and in transportation and social situations. In addition to amount smoked by family members in the subject's presence, subjects were asked to rate the intensity of each exposure, and married subjects were asked whether their spouse smoked in the bedroom. Several independent indicators of exposure to smoking by spouses were strongly correlated, thereby increasing confidence in the classification of exposure status. The reproducibility of environmental tobacco smoke variables was good for qualitative measures (yes/no), in agreement with previous studies. There were few associations of exposure in specific settings with lung cancer. Males whose wives smoked had odds ratio of 1.60 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-3.82) and females whose husbands smoked had an odds ratio of 1.08 (95% CI 0.60-1.94). While this study had limited sample size, the pattern of odds ratios shows little indication of an association of environmental tobacco smoke with lung cancer in nonsmokers.


The Talent Management System or the HiPPS (High Performance and Potential System) was developed by the Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC) for 10 years since 2003 in Thailand. The purposes of this mixed methods research were 1) to develop of the causal relationship models of the effective talent management, 2) to investigate the percent of predict in each group, and 3) to study the current situation and to investigate strategies to improve the talent management to ensure continuity in government administration. The data were collected from five rating-scale questionnaires which the total -item correlation had been .2-.7. and ? is .835-.909. The sample size were 109 talents, 96 coaches, and 100 human resource (HR) staffs who are responsible for the HiPPS system. Data was analyzed by LISREL and content analysis from 9-19 key persons in each 5 group such as executives, coaches, talents, HR staffs and former talents groups. The results indicated that 1) the causal relationship model of effective talent management for all groups were consistent with an empirical data at a strong level, 2) the person and work environment factors had positive effect and could be predicted in all groups regarding effective talent management for 48 percent in the talent group, 83 percent in the coaching group and 66 percent in the HR staff group, 3) the person and work environmental factors that influence the effective talent management, found that there are seven factors that impact in a positive way and two factors, such as positive attitudes toward the talent management, and organization commitment were a major factor that impacted directly positive influence on effective talent management, and 4) the problems of the effective talent management were 4.1) the executives didn't understand HiPPS or often change their executives, 4.2) the talents could not rotate as individual development plan and low effective coach system, 4.3) the talent development plan didn't clear and not support from organization. So, strategies of effective improvement should organize for administrative procedure as talent identifying, talent development, talent monitoring and evaluating, talent rewarding and performance management to share knowledge and innovation for continuing of public sector development.


The records of the State protected cultural heritage objects in the preserved ethnographic villages of Lithuania; the survey records on their assessment; the guidelines on their potential use are considered to comprise a very significant part in the field of culturologic assessment. It is closely related to the needs and demands of the currently developed agricultural produce in these villages and the prevailing public services infrastructure as well as the social environment. When working out the issues related to the future heritage preservation and possibilities for the adaptation of these historic ethno culture-oriented rural settlements, the most decisive appeared the economic potential of the population in those villages. The state and conditions of the heritage objects in these ethnographic villages reflect not only the cultural attitude and provisions of the local communities, but the unregulated changes of the social economic environment. The related project was carried out in 2012 called 'The assessment of the state and conditions of the prioritized ethnographic villages as well as the relics and objects of the immovable cultural heritage in those villages, by means of the analysis of the historical development and photo-fixation of the valuable objects and by the studies of the social environment of the local population' (Inventory... 2011). There was made an attempt to find out the current conditions of functioning of the prioritized preserved ethnographic villages, to determine the measures for protection as well as the prospects for future development. Based on the 'Inventory of the criteria for selecting the prioritized ethnographic villages' (Inventory… 2011) compiled from 38 villages which are included into the List of the Folk Art Valuables on Architecture, there were selected 10 prioritized villages. The assessment of the state and conditions of the immovable cultural heritage objects and social environment was performed in the following ethnographic villages of Salos, S. Katinautiskes, Kretuonos, Mikalajunai, Kasetos, Ziogeliai, Zervynos, Darguziai, Ciziunai ir Skirvytele. From the total number of 386 farmsteads, the detailed research study was performed in 188 farms. The findings of the study clarified the changes in the planned and spatial structure, the current state of the heritage objects of urbanism and architecture, the compositional characteristics in the landscape as well as the needs of the local communities and economic potentials for further protection of the ethno-architectural heritage. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.9.4.7546


This paper examines the effect of family ownership and control on executive compensation in listed firms during the period 2003-2008. The descriptive statistics show that CEOs in non-family-controlled firms have a significantly higher share of variable compensation than CEOs in family-controlled firms, they also receive remuneration in stock options relatively more often. The econometric analysis shows that family control and ownership concentration reduce CEO compensation whereas multiple-class shares increase the level of compensation. In line with the findings of previous research, firm size and performance are positively related to CEO compensation.


Journal of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Pathology and Surgery Vol 4, No 4, winter 2016 Received: Sep 30, 2015 Accepted: Dec 30, 2015 douction: Canal length measurement is essential for proper endodontic treatment. Any error or miscalculation in working length determination, particularly in curved canals, can result in complications during or after root canal therapy. Digital radiography has enabled accurate measurement of curved canal length. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of calibration of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital system for file length measurement Materials and methods: In this in vitro study, 45extracted molar teeth were divided into three groups of 15 with respect to the angle and radius of canal curvature. A 5-mm piece of orthodontic wire was placed on the lateral surface of the roots. Digital radiographs were taken after insertion of the endodontic file by the CMOS digital system. Two observers measured the file length with and without using the calibration tool of digital measurement software. The correlation between observers was evaluated and data were analyzed using the paired t-test with 95% confidence interval. Results: The overall agreement between the observers was satisfactory. There was no significant difference between the mean values of calibrated measurement and true file length with respect to canal curvature (P>0.05). However, there was a significant difference between the mean values of uncalibrated measurement and true file length with respect to canal curvature (P<0.05). Conclusion: The calibrated measurement of file length was more accurate than the uncalibrated file length measurement.


Aging populations challenge public libraries to adapt their materials, services and programming to maximize the wellbeing and functional capacity of older adults and enhance their social participation and security. For older adult patrons using public library spaces and services, the capacity to which the public library has been able to deliver on these qualities remains unclear. In the past, libraries and library staff have been critiqued for narrowly interpreting the needs of older adults, concentrating on aging as a loss or deficit. To understand the current state of Canadian urban public library services for older adults, publically accessible texts, documents and reports made available on five public library systems' websites were analyzed. This analysis uncovered certain gaps in adherence to key guidelines in the Canadian Library Association's Guidelines on Library and Information Services for Older Adults and revealed a lack of integration of older adults' own ideas and feedback for their programs and events. The incorporation of a critical gerontology approach throughout the analysis begins to elucidate this study's findings and calls for the questioning of current conceptualizations of older adults and the library services created for them. Public libraries are uniquely poised to engage with older adults and the addition of a critical gerontology lens in library practice and research will aid in the refocusing of resources and policies to more responsively support older adults' evolving needs.


BACKGROUND: Leprosy, being a chronic infectious disease with profound social stigma, remains associated with high psychological mortidity. PURPOSES: To find out the pattern of psychiatric morbidity in leprosy patients and the relationship of various factors with the morbidity. METHODS: Ninty patients attending leprosy clinic were randomly chosen for the study group alongwith 40 patients suffering from acute skin problem other than leprosy as control group. The socio-demographic data were recorded in semi-structural proforma; all patients were given Goldbery Health Questioneaire (GHQ). Patients having GHQ score >2 was assessed by Disability Assessent Questionaire (DAQ). The psychiatric diagnoses was made according to ICD-10 by W ho0 and physical deformity by W ho 0 Disability Scale. FINDINGS: The mean GHQ score of the study grant was 3.44 and that of control group was 1.62. The mean DAQ score was 45.13. Psychiatric disorder was seen in 44.4% and 7.5% of study group and control group respectively. The psychiatric illness was generalised anoxidy disorder (GAD) (27.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Leprosis highly associated with psychiatric mobidity. LIMITATIONS: The findings can not be generalised due to small sample size and clinic-based data.


Network EducationWare (NEW) is an integrated collection of open-source software for synchronous Internet communication, where a class is simultaneously taught to local students and distributed over the Internet. In order to scale use of NEW to multiple courses, we have developed a Web portal that provides coordinated access to each major function. We describe the way this portal works with the NEW client and server software to reduce effort and enhance effectiveness of online course management. The resulting system provides a simple, low-cost means of tending teaching and learning over the Internet. The portal webpages and other NEW software are available at no cost for any academic activity.


Heterogeneous parallel systems are becoming mainstream computing platforms nowadays. One of the main challenges the development community is currently facing is how to fully exploit the available computational power when porting existing programs or developing new ones with available techniques. In this direction, several design space exploration methods have been presented and extensively adopted. However, defining the feasible design space of a dynamic dataflow program still remains an open issue. This paper proposes a novel methodology for defining such a space through a serial execution. Homotopy theoretic methods are used to demonstrate how the design space of a program can be reconstructed from its serial execution trajectory. Moreover, the concept of dependencies graph of a dataflow program defined in the literature is extended with the definition of two new kinds of dependencies - the Guard Enable and Disable - and the 3-tuple notion needed to represent them.


Henri Labrouste is one of the few nineteenth-century architects consistently lionized as a precursor of modern architecture throughout the twentieth century and into our own time. The two magisterial glass-and-iron reading rooms he built in Paris gave form to the idea of the modern library as a collective civic space. His influence was both immediate and long-lasting, not only on the development of the modern library but also on the exploration of new paradigms of space, materials and luminosity in places of great public assembly. Published to accompany the first exhibition devoted to Labrouste in the United States--and the first anywhere in the world in nearly 40 years--this publication presents nearly 225 works in all media, including drawings, watercolors, vintage and modern photographs, film stills and architectural models. Essays by a range of international architecture scholars explore Labrouste's work and legacy through a variety of approaches.


From the early days of the Republic, Congress and the federal courts grappled with the government's rights to own or use patents it issued. Courts rejected the British "Crown Rights" rule that allowed the sovereign to practice whatever patents it issued. Instead, the federal government was conceptualized as a legal person on par with any other persons with regard to issued patents. But, this simple rule presented challenges as complexities arose in three intertwined patent rights scenarios. The first involved inventions by government employees. The second revolved around government and government contractor use of patents held by private citizens. And the third involved inventions by federal contractors and their employees arising under federal funding. While these three scenarios seem quite distinct today, nineteenth and early twentieth century courts often treated them as overlapping. The confusion was not resolved until the mid-twentieth century when a combination of executive branch and Congressional legislation set the roots of current government patent policy. This Article reviews the history in detail and illuminates current government patent policy debate occurring through such seemingly diverse cases as Stanford v. Roche and Zoltek Corp. v. United States.


A remarkable personal and professional chronicle by one of today's leading physicists, this is a collection of Chen Ning Yang's personally selected papers supplemented by his insightful commentaries. Including previously unpublished or hard-to-find works, this volume contains Yang's important papers on statistical physics, nuclear forces, and particle physics. Among them are his seminal work with T D Lee on the nonconservation of parity, for which they won the Nobel Prize, and his work with R L Mills, which led to modern gauge theories with their exciting prospects for the broad unification of field theories. The commentaries were written especially for this volume and provide a fascinating account of Yang's development as a physicist as well as a look at many important physicists of the 20th century. They trace the development of Yang's interests and ideas from his graduate school days to the present, showing how he worked with his colleagues and how their physics came into being. Together, the papers and commentaries in this unique collection comprise a powerful personal statement, shedding light on both the intellectual development of a great physicist and on the nature of scientific inquiry.


The sorptive behaviour of radioactive waste on Armenian zeolites, natural, irradiated, chemically treated and heated at high temperatures was studied and their capacity for the separation and enrichment of radionuclides was evaluated. The influence of temperature, acidity, basicity, specific activity, electron and gamma irradiation on sorption have been studied. The chemical analysis of exchanged samples was carried out and the cation exchange capacity was determined. Absorption properties of mono-cationic forms of different clinoptilolite samples were studied depending on type of guest cation and contact time. By means of model experiments the laboratory plant for absorption of metal cations from solutions in dynamic regime was designed and developed. This plant was used for experiments of radioactive waste removal from the Armenian nuclear reactor.


Democratization is a phenomenon which we have seen in many parts of the world. This thesis investigates the democratic processes in Taiwan and South Korea and looks at the reasons why Singapore did not democratize. It does so by comparing four theories of democratization. The first theory is the Modernization theory, in which economic development cause democracy. The Second is the Transition theory, in which deliberate elite decisions matter. The third used theory is the Structural theory, in which class struggles are emphasized. The final theory is the International Factors, which basically is an approach that looks at what international factors can help account for the occurred development. The method used is the Structured, Focused Comparison. Further, it is also a literature study, where the material analyzed is material written by renowned scholars within the field of democratization. This study finds that not any of these theories can explain democratization, but that they are all important factors when it comes to democratization, and can be used rather as tools than frameworks. However, it does acknowledge the need for all theories, but also argues for another set of factors that works as a compliment to the already established theories, such as legitimacy, in which the author argues that perhaps Singapore does not have to democratize because their rule seems to be legitimate by Singaporean people. It further builds to some extent on the current debate in democratization studies about universalism and sequentialism, where the author argues in favor of the universalists by showing why there are no preconditions.


Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a novel method for patients with severe aortic stenosis at high surgical risk. Although short- and medium-term outcomes after TAVI are encouraging, long-term data on valve function and clinical outcomes are limited. Hence, our case can make a contribution to literature. An 80-year-old patient with severe aortic stenosis underwent TAVI in our clinic in October 2015. After 5 months, she admitted to our emergency department with severe dyspnea. Her symptoms were started within 2 days and getting worse day by day. Echocardiography revealed us a severe aortic regurgitation due to dislocation of the valve to the left ventricular outflow tract side. After diagnosis, aortic regurgitation was treated by valve-in-valve technique. TAVI may provide an alternative therapeutic approach to ineligible or poor surgical candidates of degenerative aortic stenosis. However, this technique also has some complications such as mortality, atrioventricular (AV) block, stroke, and coronary obstruction. Valve embolization is an another rare complication of this procedure and usually can be prevented by careful preprocedure annulus measurements, stable lead positioning for rapid pacing, optimal valve positioning, full balloon inflation at the time of valve deployment, and complete balloon deflation before stopping rapid pacing. At this point, our case became important for the complication literature with its time, about 5 months. Because it is the more recently used technique, we need much more time to detect the usefulness and complications of TAVI and learn how to avoid these complications.


The lack of water mostly in the arid regions of the world has triggered water users to store water in different container materials. The situation is more pronounced in countries having epileptic power supply since pumping of groundwater whenever needed could not be guaranteed due to poor power supply. However, most water users bothered not about the quality of the water during storage. Hence, this paper investigated the chemistry of stored water especially in the arid regions which are usually known to have high solar heating during the dry season. In order to achieve this aim, two sources of potable water (tap and borehole water) were stored in twelve water storage containers (six for each water source) for a period of six weeks. The containers include black plastic tank, blue plastic tank, green plastic tank, coated steel metal tank, uncoated steel metal tank and clay pot. However, the water quality parameters examined were temperature, colour, total solids, dissolved oxygen (DO), chlorine content, pH, total hardness, and total heterotrophic bacteria (THB) which were all analyzed at a sampling frequency of seven days interval. Results showed that the colour of both water sources stored in uncoated steel metal tanks stretched from 5 TCU – 20 TCU, which indicates that the colour of water stored in these tanks were above the limit set by WHO (15 TCU) during certain period of storage. Similarly, values/concentrations of pH and THB in all the storage containers were found to exceed the limits set by WHO standard during certain periods (weeks) of retention for both water sources. This is because the pH value ranged from 5.8 - 8.7 while THB concentration ranged from 2.0A—102 CFU/100ml - 1.56A—104 CFU/100ml which are contrary to their allowable permissible limits (6.5 - 8.5 and 0.00 CFU/100ml - 1.0A—104 CFU/100ml respectively). Nevertheless, the remaining water quality parameters were within the WHO permissible limits in all the storage vessels during the retention period. Hence, it was concluded that most water quality parameters of potable water stored in hygienic condition remain fresh during the first week of storage thereafter, the quality cannot be guaranteed.


From an adaptive perspective, context construction is construable as a way of handling variation in the external environment. As such, it is as part of the action selection process, which is governed by adaptive values. This contribution examines in what way context results from the intervention of such values. By contrast with more mainstream approaches, which tend to favour a personal level of analysis, this project views context in terms of perceptual and conceptual categorization, attention selection and decision making. The underlying assumptions are drawn mainly from Damasio's model of decision making (Damasio 1994) and Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (Edelman 1989, 1992), both of which are concerned with how the brain – as a selective system – handles contextual change.


Over the last couple of decades' energy has become the central focus of the modern economy. Energy security and efficiency has become a priority for the national strategic needs. The access to energy is very critical to the wealth, life style and image of every country. The effect of globalization, population increase and rising consumer demands across developed and developing countries have resulted in an exponential increase in energy consumption. This has significantly increased the gap between energy production and demand over the last several decades. Fundamental breakthrough in clean energy research is needed to solve the problem of such magnitude. Innovations in materials and processing technology provide significant opportunities for transitioning from fossil based sources to clean energy sources such as nuclear, wind and solar energy.
Renewable energy sources like solar and wind provides time-varying, somewhat unpredictable energy supply, which must be captured and stored until demanded. Success of these technologies relies on development of efficient energy storage materials that can be utilized in smart batteries and capacitors. Fuel cells offer another alternative clean energy but would probably require further research in bringing down the cost for mass market. Rechargeable batteries are most promising, fulfilling the criteria of low cost, high energy density and safety issues. Secondary lithium ion batteries are very much successful in large scale portable electronic applications from its first commercialization since 1990. But the limited lithium resources and increase in market price on demand, make sodium ion battery (NIB) of its best alternative
because of its high abundance and having almost similar structural and electrochemical properties to lithium ion battery.Usually transition metal oxides (NaMO2, M=Co, Mn) phosphates (NaFePO4) used as cathode material and insertion type (hard carbon), conversion type (oxide, sulfide based) and alloy type (Na3Sn, Na3Sb) are used as anodes s in NIB. Among them, Fe2O3 is of main interest due to its high theoretical capacity (~1007 mAhg-1) and high abundance. Nano-structured Fe2O3 was prepared by precipitation method which shows initial discharge capacity at 419 mAhg-1 at 20 mAg-1. But these conversion type anode materials have material issues during cycling such as pulverization for Na+ insertion and de-insertion in charge-discharge cycles resulting low capacity and low cycling performance. In this work we studied synthesis and electrochemical performance of carbon-coated Fe2O3 using conducting p-pitch as source of carbon. To further enhance its electrochemical performance, 3D electrode architecture based anodes ware prepared using 3D carbon fiber mats where the porous conducting carbon matrix act as a buffer during volume change. It shows the reversible capacity of 725 mAhg-1 with stable capacity retention. The material was characterized by XRD, RAMAN, SEM, TEM and electrochemical performance was analyzed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies.
Thus, preparing the material in nano-scale, improving conductivity of active material through carbon coating and 3D electrode architecture improve electrochemical performance in presence of porous conducting carbon network and accommodating volume changes for Na+ insertion and de-insertion during charge-discharge cycles.


Market-based mechanisms that limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be divided into two types: quantity control (e.g., cap-and-trade) and price control (e.g., carbon tax or fee). To some extent, a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program would produce similar effects: Both are estimated to increase the price of fossil fuels, which would ultimately be borne by consumers, particularly households. Although there are multiple tools available to policymakers that could control GHG emissions—including existing statutory authorities—this report focuses on a carbon tax approach and how it compares to its more frequently discussed counterpart: cap-and-trade. If policymakers had perfect information regarding the market, either a price (carbon tax) or quantity control (cap-and-trade system) instrument could be designed to achieve the same outcome. Because this market ideal does not exist, preference for a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade program ultimately depends on which variable one wants to control—emissions or costs. Although there are several design mechanisms that could blur the distinction, the gap between price control and quantity control can never be completely overcome. A carbon tax has several potential advantages. With a fixed price ceiling on emissions (or their inputs—e.g., fossil fuels), a tax approach would not cause additional volatility in energy prices. A set price would provide industry with better information to guide investment decisions: e.g., efficiency improvements, equipment upgrades. Economists often highlight a relative economic efficiency advantage of a carbon tax, but this potential advantage rests on assumptions—about the expected costs and benefits of climate change mitigation—that are uncertain and controversial. Some contend that a carbon tax may provide implementation advantages: greater transparency, reduced administrative burden, and relative ease of modification. The primary disadvantage of a carbon tax is that it would yield uncertain emission control. Some argue that the potential for irreversible climate change impacts necessitates the emissions certainty that is only available with a quantity-based instrument (e.g., cap-and-trade). Although it may present implementation challenges, policymakers could devise a tax program that allows some short-term emission fluctuations, while progressing toward a long-term emission reduction objective. Proponents argue that short-term emission fluctuations would be preferable to the price volatility that might be expected with a cap-and-trade system. Although a carbon tax could possibly face more political obstacles than a cap-and-trade program, some of these obstacles may be based on misunderstandings of the differences between the two approaches or on assumptions that the tax would be set too low to be effective. Carbon tax proponents could possibly address these issues to some degree, but there remains considerable political momentum for a cap-and-trade program.


The molecular mechanisms driving the conserved metazoan developmental shift referred to as the mid-blastula transition (MBT) remain mysterious. Typically, cleavage divisions give way to longer asynchronous cell cycles with the acquisition of a gap phase. In Drosophila, rapid synchronous nuclear divisions must pause at the MBT to allow the formation of a cellular blastoderm through a special form of cytokinesis termed cellularization. Drosophila Fragile X mental retardation protein (dFMRP; FMR1), a transcript-specific translational regulator, is required for cellularization. The role of FMRP has been most extensively studied in the nervous system because the loss of FMRP activity in neurons causes the misexpression of specific mRNAs required for synaptic plasticity, resulting in mental retardation and autism in humans. Here, we show that in the early embryo dFMRP associates specifically with Caprin, another transcript-specific translational regulator implicated in synaptic plasticity, and with eIF4G, a key regulator of translational initiation. dFMRP and Caprin collaborate to control the cell cycle at the MBT by directly mediating the normal repression of maternal Cyclin B mRNA and the activation of zygotic frühstart mRNA. These findings identify two new targets of dFMRP regulation and implicate conserved translational regulatory mechanisms in processes as diverse as learning, memory and early embryonic development.


Scheduling pipeline-parallel programs, defined as a graph of stages that communicate explicitly through queues, is challenging. When the application is regular and the underlying architecture can guarantee predictable execution times, several techniques exist to compute highly optimized static schedules. However, these schedules do not admit run-time load balancing, so variability introduced by the application or the underlying hardware causes load imbalance, hindering performance. On the other hand, existing schemes for dynamic fine-grain load balancing (such as task-stealing) do not work well on pipeline-parallel programs: they cannot guarantee memory footprint bounds, and do not adequately schedule complex graphs or graphs with ordered queues. We present a scheduler implementation for pipeline-parallel programs that performs fine-grain dynamic load balancing efficiently. Specifically, we implement the first real runtime for GRAMPS, a recently proposed programming model that focuses on supporting irregular pipeline and data-parallel applications (in contrast to classical stream programming models and schedulers, which require programs to be regular). Task-stealing with per-stage queues and queuing policies, coupled with a backpressure mechanism, allow us to maintain strict footprint bounds, and a buffer management scheme based on packet-stealing allows low-overhead and locality-aware dynamic allocation of queue data. We evaluate our runtime on a multi-core SMP and find that it provides low-overhead scheduling of irregular workloads while maintaining locality. We also show that the GRAMPS scheduler outperforms several other commonly used scheduling approaches. Specifically, while a typical task-stealing scheduler performs on par with GRAMPS on simple graphs, it does significantly worse on complex ones, a canonical GPGPU scheduler cannot exploit pipeline parallelism and suffers from large memory footprints, and a typical static, streaming scheduler achieves somewhat better locality, but suffers significant load imbalance on a general-purpose multi-core due to fine-grain architecture variability (e.g., cache misses and SMT).


The Tbx4 transcription factor is crucial for normal hindlimb and vascular development, yet little is known about how its highly conserved expression patterns are generated. We have used comparative genomics and functional scanning in transgenic mice to identify a dispersed group of enhancers controlling Tbx4 expression in different tissues. Two independent enhancers control hindlimb expression, one located upstream and one downstream of the Tbx4 coding exons. These two enhancers, hindlimb enhancer A and hindlimb enhancer B (HLEA and HLEB), differ in their primary sequence, in their precise patterns of activity within the hindlimb, and in their degree of sequence conservation across animals. HLEB is highly conserved from fish to mammals. Although Tbx4 expression and hindlimb development occur at different axial levels in fish and mammals, HLEB cloned from either fish or mouse is capable of driving expression at the appropriate position of hindlimb development in mouse embryos. HLEA is highly conserved only in mammals. Deletion of HLEA from the endogenous mouse locus reduces expression of Tbx4 in the hindlimb during embryogenesis, bypasses the embryonic lethality of Tbx4-null mutations, and produces viable, fertile mice with characteristic changes in the size of bones in the hindlimb but not the forelimb. We speculate that dual hindlimb enhancers provide a flexible genomic mechanism for altering the strength and location of Tbx4 expression during normal development, making it possible to separately modify the size of forelimb and hindlimb bones during vertebrate evolution.


The aim of this study was to determine preservice mathematics teachers' personal figural concepts and hierarchical classifications about quadrilaterals and to investigate the relationships between them. The participants were 57 preservice primary mathematics teachers in their senior year at a state university in Turkey. The preservice mathematics teachers were administered a questionnaire that consisted of 13 questions extracted from studies on the descriptions and images of quadrilaterals, identification of quadrilateral families among given images, and identification and classification of the relationships between quadrilaterals. The results showed that the preservice mathematics teachers' knowledge of quadrilaterals learnt at primary-secondary school level and prototypical images were dominant in their personal figural concepts. Also, the teachers didn't use the hierarchical definitions of quadrilaterals and were not able to establish relationships among quadrilaterals due to the effect of prototypical images in choosing a family category among the given images. On the other hand, the majority of the participants gave correct answers to the questions about the dual relationships among quadrilaterals. The study concluded that although the preservice teachers possessed formal definitions of quadrilaterals, their prototypical images affected their personal figural concepts.


Creating loss in one optical resonator can initiate lasing in its coupled partner Lasing is based on the process of optical gain. Once this gain provided through external pumping surpasses the loss in a resonator, lasing sets in and a coherent beam of laser light is emitted. Thus, loss is a natural adversary of lasing, at least in common lasers. A striking amendment to this rule is reported on page 328 of this issue by Peng et al. (1), who report an onset of lasing in a pair of coupled resonators when the total loss of the system is increased.