Global change, in particular changes in demographic patterns, in socioeconomic developments and in climate, significantly affects alpine tourism, especially ski tourism. In response, mainly technical means of adaptation in ski areas are being applied. After the analogue winter of 2006/07 the current kind of adaptation proofed to be not sustainable, neither in its effectiveness, nor in its ecological and economical future. To increase the adaptive capacity for long-term success in a sustainable way, additional adaptation measures are required, such as behavioural and mitigative strategies. In the coupled human-environment system of ski tourism sustainable adaptation also has to involve the customer more in adapting the demand side consumer behaviour to changing services of ski areas as opposed to maintaining the status quo as the only approach. Mitigational strategies in conjunction with demand side adaptation might lead to a potential new chance for suffering ski areas - a market of sustainable ski
tourism where a blended mix of adaptation strategies leads to win-win situations in ski tourism. In the research project SkiSustain we model the relation between global change, customer demand and supply side strategies to develop a vulnerability framework for ski tourism. It is meant to deliver a differentiated understanding of vulnerability and of sustainable adaptive capacity.


Background Diuretic-induced gout might occur only among those with a genetic predisposition to hyperuricaemia, as suggested by a recent study with 108 self-reported gout cases. Methods We examined the role of urate genes on the risk of diuretic-induced incident gout in 6850 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and in 4223 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). Two published genetic risk scores (GRSs) were calculated using urate-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms for 8 (GRS8) and 29 genes (GRS29). Results Our analyses included 727 and 354 confirmed incident gout cases in HPFS and NHS, respectively. The multivariate relative risk (RR) for diuretic use was 2.20 and 1.69 among those with GRS8 < and ≥ the median (p for interaction=0.27). The corresponding RRs using GRS29 were 2.19 and 1.88 (p for interaction=0.40). The lack of interaction persisted in NHS (all p values >0.20) and in our analyses limited to those with hypertension in both cohorts. SLC22A11 (OAT4) showed a significant interaction only among women but in the opposite direction to the recent study. Conclusions In these large prospective studies, individuals with a genetic predisposition for hyperuricaemia are not at a higher risk of developing diuretic-induced gout than those without.


My thesis consists of an examination of various types of place-name formations, as evidence of the linguistic contact and interaction which occurred between incoming Scandinavian speakers and the native population of northern Britain, in light of current theories of language contact. The first chapter analyses the nature of the relationship between Scandinavian and Celtic speakers in areas of primary settlement in Scotland, and considers how this relationship is likely to have affected the language and, more specifically, the toponymy in regions of secondary settlement such as the North-West of England, the South-West of Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The subsequent chapters examine four different types of place-name formation which are found chiefly in these secondary Scandinavian settlements: inversion-compound names, ǽrgi names, kirk- compound names and bý names. Each chapter looks at the nature and distribution of one of these groups, and investigates how language contact phenomena including bilingualism, lexical borrowing and substratum transfer may have influenced the form and development of such name-types. I have concluded that differing types of linguistic contact, occurring both in primary and secondary settlement areas, may account for the differing usage and distribution of the four categories of place-names. The inception of the inversion-compounds has been re-evaluated and it is argued that rather then having been coined by Scandinavians who were influenced by Celtic work-order, these names were instead created by Gaelic-speakers who had shifted to the Scandinavian language. It is also argued that the more widespread distribution of names in ǽrgi in comparison with the inversion names is not due to the two groups of names by coined by different groups of immigrants, nor because of the secondary dissemination of the element ǽrgi amongst non-Scandinavian speakers, as had previously been suggested. Rather, the disparity in distribution is likely to reflect the fact that the ǽrgi names result from the straightforward lexical transfer of a Gaelic element into the Scandinavian language, whereas the inversion names were created by a specific bilingual substrate element amongst the Scandinavian settlers. In the case of inversion-compounds with the initial kirk- it is argued that rather than representing partial translations of English cirice- or Gaelic cill- names, the names were coined as kirk- compounds within a Gaelic-Scandinavian context. The predominantly Scottish distribution of this toponymic group reflects secondary dissemination of the name-type amongst monolingual Gaelic-speakers in the South-West. In the case of names in bý, it is argued that this group do not represent a purely Danish wave of settlement throughout the Irish seaboard, as has previously been suggested. Rather, linguistic contact between Danes and Norwegians, and later English-speakers, led to the more widespread utilisation of this element.


Abstract Dolomite and calcite in Bavarian bentonites, southern Germany, were investigated using petrography, field-emission scanning electron microscopy and stable isotope geochemistry to explore the role of authigenic carbonate formation during bentonitization. Pedogenic, palustrine and groundwater carbonates were distinguished on the basis of X-ray diffraction, micromorphological and stable isotope analysis. The δ13CV-PDB and δ18OV-PDB values of dolomite range from -8.0‰ to -6.1‰ and -5.4‰ to -3.4‰, respectively. Calcites show a range from -11.9‰ to -8.1‰ for carbon and from -9.1‰ to -6.2‰ for oxygen. Carbon isotope compositions imply a C3-plantdominated carbon source and repeated wetting and drying cycles. The oxygen isotope data points to an evaporation and temperature controlled δ18OV-SMOW value of meteoric water of -7.0‰ to -4.8‰. A syngenetic to early diagenetic timing of dolomitization is indicated, suggesting both dolomite and bentonite formation in non-saline, non-arid and repeatedly partially-oxygenated and reducing soil and groundwater environments during pedogenesis.


OBJECTIVE
This study has aimed to know the criteria used by the Spanish medical practitioners/family doctors (MP/FD) when choosing an antimicrobial agent in their daily practice and to compare it with that existing one decade ago.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This is an observational, cross-sectional study performed with a structured personal interview to 450 MP/FDs randomly chosen with representativeness on the national level. The field work was made by specialized personnel in the last quarter of the year 2006. A 95.5% confidence interval margin was proposed, with a sample error = 4.7%, for maximum dispersion response (p=q=50).

RESULTS
The parameter considered most when choosing an antibiotic treatment (spontaneous response) is clinical efficacy (two out of every three doctors). Clinical efficacy is following by the dosage regime and tolerability/safety, which was the principal parameter expressed ten years ago. Following these are antibacterial spectrum, administration route, price and bacterial resistances. However, they considered that the latter significantly influence clinical efficacy and when they are not relativized with other parameters, the doctors state that they take them into account <<much/a lot>>. It seems that the opinion of the patient is usually considered and that the protocol, scientific information and expert's opinions are the principal sources of information considered when prescribing an antimicrobial agent. Amoxicillin/clavulanate is the antibiotic drug of choice in all upper and lower respiratory tract infections. There is overestimation of the bacterial etiology in throat infections and acute bronchitis and S. pyogenes to betalactamic antibiotics. It is concluded that knowledge of the Spanish MP/DF regarding antimicrobial therapy has improved in recent years and that clinical efficacy, related with bacterial eradication and not only with clinical remission, is the factor that should be considered when choosing an antibiotic.


This paper makes a case for examining late life frailty as a dynamic social phenomenon. There is increasing interest in the issue of late life frailty from biomedical researchers, but less so from researchers using the perspectives and methods of social gerontology given a concern that to focus on aspects of functional decline tacitly endorses negative views of ageing. This paper begins by introducing an example of the way frailty in older people is referred to in regional health policy initiatives in New Zealand, before discussing issues around the definition of frailty and its significance. It concludes by noting that, while the term frailty is problematic, social gerontology has a contribution to make in understanding processes of loss of capacity in later life and the social and institutional context within which that occurs, and thus has a contribution to make in policy planning and service delivery.


Abstract A number of interzonal models have been developed to calculate air flows and pollutant transport mechanisms in both single and multizone buildings. A recent development in multizone air-flow modeling, the COMIS model, has a number of capabilities that go beyond previous models, much as COMIS can be used as either a stand-alone air-flow model with input and output features or as an infiltration module for thermal building simulation programs. COMIS was designed during a 12 month workshop at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in 1988–1989. In 1990, the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency's Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems program created a working group on multizone air-flow modeling, which continued work on COMIS. The group's objectives were to study physical phenomena causing air flow and pollutant (e.g., moisture) transport in multizone buildings, develop numerical modules to be integrated in the previously designed multizone air flow modeling system, and evaluate the computer code. The working group supported by nine nations, officially finished in late 1997 with the release of IISiBat/COMIS 3.0, which contains the documented simulation program COMIS, the user interface IISiBat, and reports describing the evaluation exercise. This paper serves as an introduction for the other publications included in this Special Issue.


Over the years, thousands of engineering students and professionals relied on Digital Video Processing as the definitive, in-depth guide to digital image and video processing technology. Now, Dr. A. Murat Tekalp has completely revamped the first edition to reflect todays technologies, techniques, algorithms, and trends. Digital Video Processing, Second Edition, reflects important advances in image processing, computer vision, and video compression, including new applications such as digital cinema, ultra-high-resolution video, and 3D video. This edition offers rigorous, comprehensive, balanced, and quantitative coverage of image filtering, motion estimation, tracking, segmentation, video filtering, and compression. Now organized and presented as a true tutorial, it contains updated problem sets and new MATLAB projects in every chapter. Coverage includes Multi-dimensional signals/systems: transforms, sampling, and lattice conversion Digital images and video: human vision, analog/digital video, and video quality Image filtering: gradient estimation, edge detection, scaling, multi-resolution representations, enhancement, de-noising, and restoration Motion estimation: image formation; motion models; differential, matching, optimization, and transform-domain methods; and 3D motion and shape estimation Video segmentation: color and motion segmentation, change detection, shot boundary detection, video matting, video tracking, and performance evaluation Multi-frame filtering: motion-compensated filtering, multi-frame standards conversion, multi-frame noise filtering, restoration, and super-resolution Image compression: lossless compression, JPEG, wavelets, and JPEG2000 Video compression: early standards, ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HEVC, Scalable Video Compression, and stereo/multi-view approaches


This regular feature of the journal includes a discussion of recent trends in health care spending, employment, and prices. The statistics presented in this article are valuable in their own right and for understanding the relationship between the health care sector and the overall economy. In addition, they allow us to anticipate the direction and magnitude of health care cost changes prior to the availability of more comprehensive data.


Solute carrier (SLC) transporters mediate the uptake of biologically active compounds in the intestine. Reduced oxygenation (hypoxia) is an important factor influencing intestinal homeostasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the pathophysiological consequences of hypoxia on the expression and function of SLCs in human intestine. Hypoxia was induced in human intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) in vitro (0.2; 1% O2 or CoCl2). For human in vivo studies, duodenal biopsies and serum samples were obtained from individuals (n = 16) acutely exposed to 4,554 meters above sea levels. Expression of relevant targets was analyzed by quantitative PCR, Western blotting, or immunofluorescence. Serum levels of inflammatory mediators and nucleosides were determined by ELISA and LC/MS-MS, respectively. In the duodenum of volunteers exposed to high altitude we observed decreased mRNA levels of apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter (ASBT), concentrative nucleoside transporters 1/2 (CNT1/2), organic anion transporting polypeptide 2B1 (OATP2B1), organic cation transporter 2 (OCTN2), peptide transporter 1 (PEPT1), serotonin transporter (SERT), and higher levels of IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-17A. Serum levels of IL-10, IFN-γ, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), and serotonin were elevated, whereas the levels of uridine decreased upon exposure to hypoxia. Hypoxic IECs showed reduced levels of equilibrative nucleoside transporter 2 (ENT2), OCTN2, and SERT mRNAs in vitro, which was confirmed on the protein level and was accompanied by activation of ERK1/2, increase of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) proteins, and production of IL-8 mRNA. Costimulation with IFN-γ and IL-6 during hypoxia further decreased the expression of SERT, ENT2, and CNT2 in vitro. Reduced oxygen supply affects the expression pattern of duodenal SLCs that is accompanied by changes in serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines and biologically active compounds demonstrating that intestinal transport is affected during systemic exposure to hypoxia in humans.


In recent years, it has been suggested that mandibular malposition, resulting from either malocclusion or improper occlusal reconstruction, is associated with physical complaints, while all stress information is combined at the hypothalamus. In this study, we assessed the hypothalamic activation in a malocclusion model in healthy humans. Eight healthy subjects with normal occlusion participated in this study. Their hypothalamic activities during clenching in a mandibular retrusive position, which is one form of malocclusion, were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Individual analyses showed that clenching at the mandibular retrusive position significantly increased the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals in the hypothalamus in two of the subjects. The results suggest that depending on the individual, mandibular malposition affects the hypothalamus which responds by directly inducing stress. In the future, fMRI may serve as a useful tool for individual diagnosis, as sensitivity of the malocclusion depends on the individual response.


A directed graph can model any ordered relationship between objects. However, visualizing such graphs can be a challenging task. If the graph is undirected, a popular strategy is to choose a significant spanning tree, nominate a vertex as the root, for example the vertex whose distance from all other vertices is minimal, hang the significant spanning subtrees from this root and add in the remaining edges in some unobtrusive manner. In the directed case the spanning tree is a tree DAG (a directed graph without any undirected cycles) and not simply a directed tree with one appropriate root. It may have multiple sources (vertices with indegree equal to zero) that all warrant root status and so the undirected approach must be modified somewhat. In this paper, we present a method of drawing directed graphs that emphasizes a significant spanning tree. It can be considered a variation of the Sugiyama framework in that it combines two steps of the framework (leveling and crossing minimisation) by finding, in linear time, a leveling of the graph that is level planar with respect to some spanning tree and restricting the permutations of the vertices on each level to those that constitute a level planar embedding of this subgraph. The edges of the spanning tree will therefore not cross each other. Using the globally oriented Fiedler vector we choose permutations of the vertices on each level that reduce the number of crossings between the remaining edges.


Significant expansion of telemedicine technologies was made possible by the adoption of the necessary legal regulation and initiation of the national program "Healthcare". National research centers were assigned a mission to provide advisory and methodological support to the regional hospitals. The manuscript describes the experience of the National Research Center for Hematology in application of telemedicine technologies in order to improve the quality of specialized medical care. Progressive increase in the number of requests for telemedicine consultations was observed during the last 5 years, also due to the activities aimed at expansion of geographical coverage of telemedicine technologies and involvement of the regional doctors. In 2019 1380 requests were received from 80 regions of the Russian Federation. The largest number of requests came from the hospitals of the Central (28%) and Siberian (25%) Federal Districts. Distribution of consultations by aim, disease, regions of origin is presented in the manuscript. Telemedicine consultations significantly contribute to the implementation of precise diagnostics and monitoring of patients with blood disorders, shortening of the time of diagnosis, timely treatment initiation, help to organize correct patient referrals, ultimately reducing the risks of treatment failure, complications and lethal outcomes. Analysis of the data accumulated in the consulting National research center allows to assess the quality and effectiveness of medical care in the regional hospitals.


Background Birt–Hogg–Dubé (BHD) syndrome is an autosomal dominant multisystem disorder with skin (fibrofolliculomas or trichodiscomas), lung (cysts and pneumothorax) and kidney (renal cell carcinoma) tumours. Although colorectal neoplasia was reported initially to be part of the BHD phenotype, some recent studies have not confirmed this association. Methods A series of clinical and laboratory studies was undertaken to investigate possible relationships between colorectal neoplasia and the BHD gene (FLCN). The studies investigated whether individuals with familial colorectal cancer of unknown cause might have unsuspected germline FLCN mutations, looked for somatic FLCN C8 tract mutations in microsatellite unstable sporadic colorectal cancers, and assessed the risk of colorectal neoplasia and possible genotype–phenotype correlations in BHD patients. Results Although it was found previously that germline FLCN mutations can be detected in ∼5% of patients with familial renal cell carcinoma, germline FLCN mutations were not detected in 50 patients with familial non-syndromic colorectal cancer. Analysis of genotype-phenotype correlations for two recurrent FLCN mutations identified in a subset of 51 families with BHD demonstrated a significantly higher risk of colorectal neoplasia in c.1285dupC mutation (within the exon 11 C8 mononucleotide tract) carriers than in c.610delGCinsTA mutation carriers (χ2=5.78, p=0.016). Somatic frameshift mutations in the FLCN exon 11 C8 mononucleotide tract were detected in 23% of sporadic colorectal cancers with microsatellite instability, suggesting that FLCN inactivation might contribute to colorectal tumourigenesis. Conclusions These findings suggest that the previously reported clinical heterogeneity for colorectal neoplasia may reflect allelic heterogeneity and the risk of colorectal neoplasia in BHD syndrome requires further investigation.


Background: Recovering blood flow to a coronary stenosis may improve left ventricular (LV) function in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the reported data about evaluation of LV function post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in CAD was limited. Purpose of this study was to compare the LV function measured by ejection fraction (EF) and global longitudinal strain in patients with CAD underwent PCI, and to identify factors affecting the change of LV function.
Methods: Patients with CAD who underwent elective PCI were enrolled. Echocardiographic measurements of LV function by EF as well as by 2D speckle tracking to assess global longitudinal strain were performed in all patients within 24 hours pre- and post-PCI procedure. The LV global longitudinal peak strain average (GLPS-Avg) was calculated from 18 segments measurement.
Results: A total of 40 patients (55.9 ± 7.5 y.o.) were enrolled. Means of GLPS-Avg pre- and post-PCI were -12.41 ± 4.82% and -13.41 ± 4.94%, respectively. Means of EF pre- and post-PCI were 43.2 ± 11.0% and 45.6 ± 11.7%, respectively. The improvement of LV function was more significant statistically when it was measured by GLPS-Avg (p<0.0001) than that of EF (p<0.001). The improvement of GLPSAvg was correlated with target vessel revascularization involving non-left anterior descending artery (p=0.00, coefficient correlation=0.484).
Conclusions: Recovery of left ventricular function could be detected early post-revascularization of coronary artery disease by either ejection fraction or global longitudinal strain measurements; however the latter is more accurate. Improvement of GLPS is correlated moderately with target vessel revascularization involving non-left anterior descending artery.


BACKGROUND:The health of children is of great importance, because the children of today will become the workers, civilians, parents and caregivers of tomorrow. The healthcare of children depends, among other things, on the healthcare system in a country, but also on the decisions the parents make when they look for healthcare for their child(ren). This is because children are often incapable of making their own healthcare decisions and are therefore a vulnerable group within our society. When choosing healthcare, the impression parents have on the quality of healthcare plays a large role in this. To this day, the surrounding literature does not make it clear which relative importance parents attach to factors regarding the quality of primary healthcare for their child. It is also unclear whether the scaling methods or the so-called Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) method is best to assess the importance of these factors. This is why this study is two-fold. On one hand, factors will be searched for that are of importance to the perception of parents regarding the quality of primary healthcare for their child. On the other hand, the most suitable assessment method will be investigated. METHOD: A mixed method study was performed. Factors were identified by studying literature and interviews that possibly influence the healthcare decisions of parents when they are looking for healthcare for their child(ren). Through literature and the conducted interviews, two surveys were devised that will measure which factors are of importance to the perception of parents regarding the primary healthcare for their child. The surveys consist of three parts, namely 1) previous experiences, 2) the importance of factors and 3) background questions. The importance of twenty factors was measured with a five-point scale in one of the surveys and the other with the Best-Worse Scaling (BWS) method. Which of these two methods is most suitable, in the context of this research, to measure the importance of factors was also investigated. A total of 138 respondents participated in this research in the period of December 17th 2016 to March 1st 2017. RESULTS: First of all, this research shows when looking at the importance of twenty factors that were measured with the surveys, parents find the factors: the healthcare provider is professional (BWS=167, mean= 3.85, SD= 0.40) and the healthcare provider takes child's health seriously (BWS=163, mean=3.74, SD=0.44) the most important when it comes to quality healthcare for their child. Contrary to the most important factors, there were also factors that Dutch parents deemed least important, namely: helped through the healthcare provider at the agreed upon time (BWS=-143, mean=2.92, SD=0.97), distance to the practice of the healthcare provider (BWS=-182, mean=2.95, SD=0.98) and opening hours (BWS=-202, mean=2.77, SD=0.89). The results of the practical research also showed that the opinions regarding the affordability (mean= 3.17, SD=1.03) of healthcare varies strongly among the respondents. The results of the five-point scale and Best-Worst Scaling also show that the Best-Worst Scaling method is more suitable than the five-point scale, as this method created a stronger discrimination. However, when comparing the results (ranking) of the five-point scale and the BWS method, no large differences were found. CONCLUSION: The main finding of this research is that factors oriented on the service, like waiting times and opening hours were deemed to be less important in the perception of parents than the professionalism and relationship with the healthcare provider, when evaluating the quality of primary care for their children. In addition, the results of the five point scale and BWS also show that the BWS-method is more suitable than the five-point scale, as this method created a stronger discrimination.


The aim of this study was to evaluate functional nerve recovery after reconstruction of a 1 em gap in the sciatic nerve of the rat, with a thin-walled biodegradable poly(DLLA-E-CL) nerve guide. To evaluate both motor and sensory nerve recovery, walking track analysis and electrostimulation tests were carried out after implantation periods ranging from 3 to 26 weeks post-operatively. The first signs of functional nerve recovery could already be observed after 5 weeks. From the histological analysis, it could be concluded that most of the thinwalled nerve guides had collapsed. Despite collapsing, functional nerve recovery was relatively good after 26 weeks (motor nerve recovery 54% and sensory nerve recovery 100%), probably due to guidance of the regenerating nerve fibers along the outside of the poly(DLLAe-CL) nerve guide. This thin-walled nerve guide should, therefore, be used in combination with mechanical


We present the basic concepts of experimental design, the types of goals it can address, and why it is such an important and useful tool for simulation. A well-designed experiment allows the analyst to examine many more factors than would otherwise be possible, while providing insights that could not be gleaned from trial-and-error approaches or by sampling factors one at a time. We focus on experiments that can cut down the sampling requirements of some classic designs by orders of magnitude, yet make it possible and practical to develop an understanding of a complex simulation model and gain insights into its behavior. Designs that we have found particularly useful for simulation experiments are illustrated using simple simulation models, and we provide links to other resources for those wishing to learn more. Ideally, this tutorial leaves you excited about experimental designs - and prepared to use them - in your upcoming simulation studies.


Abstract. In this study, 121 daily PM2.5 (aerosol particle with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) samples were collected from an urban site in Beijing in four months between April 2009 and January 2010 representing the four seasons. The samples were determined for various compositions, including elements, ions, and organic/elemental carbon. Various approaches, such as chemical mass balance, positive matrix factorization (PMF), trajectory clustering, and potential source contribution function (PSCF), were employed for characterizing aerosol speciation, identifying likely sources, and apportioning contributions from each likely source. Our results have shown distinctive seasonality for various aerosol speciations associated with PM2.5 in Beijing. Soil dust waxes in the spring and wanes in the summer. Regarding the secondary aerosol components, inorganic and organic species may behave in different manners. The former preferentially forms in the hot and humid summer via photochemical reactions, although their precursor gases, such as SO2 and NOx, are emitted much more in winter. The latter seems to favorably form in the cold and dry winter. Synoptic meteorological and climate conditions can overwhelm the emission pattern in the formation of secondary aerosols. The PMF model identified six main sources: soil dust, coal combustion, biomass burning, traffic and waste incineration emission, industrial pollution, and secondary inorganic aerosol. Each of these sources has an annual mean contribution of 16, 14, 13, 3, 28, and 26%, respectively, to PM2.5. However, the relative contributions of these identified sources significantly vary with changing seasons. The results of trajectory clustering and the PSCF method demonstrated that regional sources could be crucial contributors to PM pollution in Beijing. In conclusion, we have unraveled some complex aspects of the pollution sources and formation processes of PM2.5 in Beijing. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic study that comprehensively explores the chemical characterizations and source apportionments of PM2.5 aerosol speciation in Beijing by applying multiple approaches based on a completely seasonal perspective.


Abstract

Aim: To examine the distribution of adverse effects during receiving antiviral treatment (AVT) and neuropsychiatric symptoms and effects of a referral program for hepatitis C virus (HCV) carriers after 5 years.

Background: Although antiviral treatment (AVT) is successful for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, there is limited information regarding AVT in liver cancer endemic rural areas. In addition, many patients discontinue treatment because of intolerable adverse effects, including headache, poor appetite, and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Design: A community-based, prospective cohort study is used.

Methods: This study was a nurse-led health promotion program combined with a multidisciplinary approach for community adults with HCV carriers in southern Taiwan. Six hundred and forty two community adults with HCV carriers participated in this study between August 2011 and July 2016 in collaboration with a local hospital. Assessed parameters included distribution of adverse effects, healthrelated behaviors, number of treatment completion and decrease in HCV prevalence rate.

Results: The treatment completion and success rates were 76.2% and 75.5%, respectively, although 19% of the participants discontinued treatment because of adverse effects, especially for neuropsychiatric symptoms. During the 5-year follow-up, the prevalence of HCV infection significantly decreased from 20.8% to 11%. Many participants experienced adverse effects, involving six systems, such as influenzalike (80%), and neuropsychiatric symptoms (60.7%), including depressive mood, insomnia, instable emotions, memory degradation, anxiety, and suicide ideation.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the value of a nurse-led referral program for HCV carriers to receive AVT. Thus, healthcare providers should help rural adults overcome the adverse effects, especially for neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Relevance to clinical practice: The findings suggest that early detection of HCV infection and education of HCV carriers should be a routine part of all general health assessments in endemic areas.


School voucher programs (a.k.a. opportunity scholarships) are scholarship programs - frequently government funded - that pay for students to attend private schools of their choice. Many private school vouchers programs have been initiated around the world with the goal of increasing the academic performance of students. Voucher programs are often viewed as a way to increase achievement and satisfaction for individual students and families, while at the same time creating competitive pressures that encourage other schools in the area to improve. Countries like Chile and India have developed extensive school voucher programs. While many studies have been conducted on school vouchers, a meta-analysis of the international randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the achievement effects of vouchers has never been conducted. This study is a meta-analytic consolidation of the evidence from all RCTs evaluating the participant test score effects of school vouchers internationally. Our search process turned up 9,443 potential studies, 19 of which ultimately were included. These 19 studies represent 11 different voucher programs. A total of 262 effect sizes are included, with a two-stage consolidation of those estimates yielding a total of 44 drawn from the last year of the studies. We have included only math and reading outcomes as other subjects are rarely reported and are difficult to compare across countries. We also differentiate between English and reading outcomes and present English results as a subcomponent of the reading effects to account for the effect of local language in the international context. Our meta-analysis indicates overall positive and statistically significant achievement effects of school vouchers that vary by subject (math or reading), location (US v. non-US), and funding type (public or private). Generally, the impacts are larger (1) for reading than for math, (2) for programs outside the US relative to those within the US, and (3) for publicly-funded programs relative to privately-funded programs.


Global climate models predict increases over time in average temperature worldwide, with significant impacts on local patterns of temperature and precipitation. The extent to which such changes present a risk to food supplies, farmer livelihoods, and rural communities depends in part on the direction, magnitude, and rate of such changes, but equally importantly on the ability of the agricultural sector to adapt to changing patterns of yield and productivity, production cost, and resource availability. Study findings suggest that, while impacts are highly sensitive to uncertain climate projections, farmers have considerable flexibility to adapt to changes in local weather, resource conditions, and price signals by adjusting crops, rotations, and production practices. Such adaptation, using existing crop production technologies, can partially mitigate the impacts of climate change on national agricultural markets. Adaptive redistribution of production, however, may have significant implications for both regional land use and environmental quality.


This second annual report to the Texas Water Development Board includes data collected from July, 1973 to April, 1974 by the University of Texas Marine Science Institute at Port Aransas, Texas. It includes hydrographic, zooplanktonic, phytoplanktonic and benthic data collected at thirty sites in the Corpus Christi Bay complex (Figures 1 and 2). These sites are described in our first annual report (Holland, et al., 1973a). The basic aim for this year's research was to maintain the sampling program and to simultaneously begin the analysis of data from the first nineteen months of collections (October, 1972 - April, 1974). A great deal of effort has gone into the computer techniques needed to implement the various methods for data analysis. Several different data analysis techniques have been explored; these will be reviewed in the appropriate section. In this report, we wish to present data collected during the second ten months of the study period, discuss various analytical techniques and present preliminary discussions of observations made during the first two years of this study. Information found in the first annual report will not be repeated except for the species lists and bibliographies, which have been updated. Data collected during the period covered by this report, has, as was the first year's data, been stored in the TWDB'S Coastal Data System (CDC), a computer operative storage and retrieval system. The system operates on a Univac 1106 computer system which is located at the TWDB in Austin, Texas.


Penis anatomy is used to discriminate species of gastropods belonging to the family Cochliopidae; however, this characteristic may be affected by the presence of parasites. To evaluate the possible effect of parasites on penis length and number of papillae in Heleobia parchappii, 195 males were collected from the Nahuel Rucá Lagoon, Argentina. Male snails were only infected by trematode digeneans (total prevalence 45.13%). Three out of 9 species of digeneans registered showed prevalence values higher than 10%: Microphallus szidati, M. simillimus, and Notocotylidae sp. 1. The penis length of non-parasitized males and those parasitized by M. szidati and M. similimus increased with increased snail length; however, this increase was lower in infected snails. In the case of snails infected with Notocotylidae sp. 1, no relationship between shell length and penis length was apparent. Differences in the life cycles of these 3 digeneans could explain the null or lower penis growth rate in relation to host body growth. In contrast, no change was observed in the number of penial papillae of H. parchappii when these snails were infected by larval digeneans compared to those that were not infected. This indicates that penial papillae may be a more stable characteristic than penis length to discriminate between species within the Cochliopidae. The study of penial papillae should be central in the taxonomy and identification of new species within the Cochliopidae, as well as in previously described species.


Objectives To investigate associations of parent-reported sleep characteristics with adiposity levels in a biethnic sample of young children. Design A cross-sectional observational study. Setting The Born in Bradford 1000 study, UK. Participants Children aged approximately 18 months (n=209; 40.2% South Asian; 59.8% white) and 36 months (n=162; 40.7% South Asian; 59.3% white). Primary and secondary outcome measures Children's body mass index (BMI) z-score, sum of two-skinfolds (triceps and subscapular) and waist circumference. Adjusted regression was used to quantify associations of sleep parameters with adiposity stratified by ethnicity and age group. The results are beta coefficients (95% CIs) and unless otherwise stated represent the difference in outcomes for every 1-hour difference in sleep parameters. Results The average sleep onset time was markedly later in South Asian (21:26±68 min) than white children (19:41±48 min). Later sleep onset was associated with lower BMI z-score (−0.3 (−0.5 to −0.0)) and sum of two-skinfolds (−1.5 mm (−2.8 mm to −0.2 mm)) in white children aged 18 months and higher BMI z-score in South Asian children aged 36 months (0.3 (0.0–0.5)). Longer sleep duration on weekends than weekdays was associated with higher BMI z-score (0.4 (0.1–0.8)) and waist circumference (1.2 cm (0.3–2.2 cm)) in South Asian children aged 18 months, and later sleep onset on weekends than weekdays was associated with larger sum of two-skinfolds (1.7 mm (0.3–3.1 mm)) and waist circumference (1.8 cm (0.6–2.9 cm)). Going to sleep ≥20 min later on weekends than weekdays was associated with lower waist circumference in white children aged 18 months (−1.7 cm (−3.2 cm to −0.1 cm)). Conclusions Sleep timing is associated with total and central adiposity in young children but associations differ by age group and ethnicity. Sleep onset times and regular sleep schedules may be important for obesity prevention.


This study assessed test-retest reliability and relative validity of the Short Diet Questionnaire (SDQ) and usability of an online 24 h recall among 232 participants (62 years ± 9.1; 49.6% female) from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Participants were asked to complete four 24 h dietary recalls (24HRs) using the Automated Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24-Canada-2014), two SDQ administrations (prior to recalls one and four), and the System Usability Scale (SUS) for ASA24. For the SDQ administrations, Intraclass Correlation Coefficients ranged from 0.49 to 0.57 for nutrients and 0.35 to 0.72 for food groups. Mean intakes estimated from the SDQ were lower compared than those from the 24HRs. For nutrients, correlation coefficients were highest for fiber, calcium, and vitamin D (45–64 years: 0.59, 0.50, 0.51; >65 years: 0.29, 0.38, 0.49, p < 0.01); Kappas ranged from 0.14 to 0.37 in those 45–64 years and 0.17 to 0.32 in participants >65 years. Among the 70% who completed all recalls independently, the SUS indicated poor usability, though the majority reported feeling confident using ASA24. Overall, the SDQ captures intake with varying test-retest reliability and accuracy by nutrient and age. Further research is needed to inform use of a more comprehensive dietary measure in the CLSA.


Previous empirical work has shown that the self-employed are generally more satisfied than salaried workers. This paper contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, using French data from the ECHP and British data from the BHPS, we investigate the domains over which this differential operates. We show that, after controlling for occupation, self-employed workers are generally more satisfied with working conditions and pay, but less satisfied than employees with respect to job security. We then consider the differences between the firstand second-generation self-employed. The first-generation self-employed (those whose parents were not self-employed) are more satisfied overall than are the second-generation self-employed. We argue that this finding is consistent with the self-employed partly comparing their labor market outcomes with those of their parents, as well as parental transfers which loosen the self-employment participation constraint. This result is found in both pooled and panel analysis.


Elevated temperatures can decrease the ratio of anthocyanins to soluble solids in red-skinned berries, and warming trends in grape production regions have raised concern about color to alcohol balance in wines produced from fruit with altered ratios. This study investigated the effect of a foliar reflective film on the ratio of anthocyanins to soluble solids in deficit-irrigated Merlot grapevines over a 5-year period. Vines were irrigated to provide 90 or 35% of estimated water demand (DI90 and DI35, respectively) and were either sprayed with a kaolin-based reflective film or left unsprayed using a replicated, split-plot design. During the 2008–2010 seasons, crop load was adjusted in half of the vines within each subplot by removing 50% of clusters prior to bloom. Regardless of crop load, the reflective film increased the ratio of anthocyanins to soluble solids in DI90 and DI35 when the concentration of soluble solids was 18 to 24%. The reflective film did not alleviate the decrease in yield or titratable acidity associated with water deficit, and it had no influence on yield per vine. However, it reduced the number of berries per cluster, especially in DI35-irrigated grapes. In DI90-irrigated vines, decreased berry number per cluster was associated with increased berry fresh weight and anthocyanin content per berry. Cluster removal influenced berry composition at harvest only under DI35 irrigation. The ratio of anthocyanins to soluble solids during ripening was higher in DI35-irrigated plants than in those under DI90 irrigation. Taken together, foliar reflective film combined with deficit irrigation increased the ratio of anthocyanins to soluble solids under arid conditions with high solar radiation.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to adopt an approach/avoidance coping framework to examine the relationships of job search co-rumination (i.e. engaging in repeated and excessive conversations with a friend about job search problems) and job search talk avoidance (i.e. persistently seeking to escape conversations about the job search) on job search intensity and job search procrastination.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors surveyed 196 new labor market entrants (i.e. graduating students) at two points in time during their last semester in college.

Findings

The authors found that job search co-rumination is positively related to job search intensity, while job search talk avoidance is positively related to job search procrastination. Interestingly, though, the expected negative relationships between job search co-rumination and job search procrastination and between job search talk avoidance and job search intensity were not significant.

Practical implications

This study has implications for both job seekers and career counselors. For job seekers, understanding how their communication patterns influence their behaviors (and ultimately their success) can help them to see the benefits of a balanced approach to sharing about their job search. Furthermore, career centers could organize either job search mentoring or peer group programs to help job seekers navigate the intricacies of the job search process.

Originality/value

This study contributes to understanding whether and how talking (or not) with others (i.e. friends and relatives) about one's job search influences one's job search behaviors, such as intensity and procrastination.


This paper describes the increase in Mode I fracture properties (stress intensity factor and energy release rate) of a thermosetting polymer EPON 862 and its nanographene reinforced counterpart. Low (0.1 and 0.5) weight percent nano-graphene platelets (NGP) were mechanically dispersed in EPON 862 and compact tension (CT) fracture experiments were conducted at quasi-static strain rates. Significant enhancement in fracture toughness (190%), and energy release rate (570%), was observed for nano-graphene reinforced matrix for only 0.5 wt% of graphene platelets. Fractography analysis of the fracture surface using SEM was performed to qualitatively visualize and understand the mechanism(s) responsible for the enhancement in these properties. Evidence of crack deflection (i.e., crack tilting and/or twisting) leading to increased surface roughness, graphene platelet pullout, and plastic deformation of the matrix caused by filler-matrix debonding corroborated by the presence of voids on the surface from SEM. AFM was employed to quantify the magnitude of surface roughness changes between the NGP reinforced and unreinforced fracture specimens, and correlate surface roughness changes to increased fracture toughness. Mode I Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) experiments were carried out to measure the delamination fracture toughness of carbon fiber reinforced laminates with NGP reinforced epoxy matrices. An enhancement of 42% in the fracture toughness was obtained for only 0.1 wt% NGP matrix laminates and a higher resistance behavior (Rcurve) to crack propagation was observed for the NGP matrix laminates in comparison to the baseline matrix counterparts.


In April 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada released the most important decision on personal jurisdiction in over twenty years. The Van Breda decision was intended to clarify, once and for all, the application of the "real and substantial connection" test to ex juris defendants. The Supreme Court in Van Breda adopted an approach to the real and substantial connection test that relied on the plaintiff fitting himself within one of four presumptive factors in order to establish jurisdiction: (a) The defendant is domiciled or resident in the province; (b) The defendant carries on business in the province; (c) The tort was committed in the province; (d) A contract connected with the dispute was made in the province. The Court also left open the possibility of creating additional presumptive factors in the future. The presumptive factors approach was intended to re-orient the jurisdictional test toward objective factual connections between the forum and the cause of action and to establish a simple and predictable framework for courts to use in making jurisdictional determinations. In this Article, I comprehensively examine the new presumptive factors approach to jurisdiction adopted by the Supreme Court in Van Breda with a view to exposing its shortcomings. I argue that this approach to jurisdiction - while simple and predictable on its face - will actually complicate jurisdictional determinations for the foreseeable future. Litigants will try to find creative ways to fit themselves within one of these four factors. And courts will spend years unpacking and defining the contours of the four presumptive factors. I also argue that the Court in Van Breda failed to provide meaningful guidance on how all pieces of the jurisdictional puzzle fit together. Among the outstanding questions: How does the real and substantial connection test work in non-tort cases? How do the traditional jurisdictional bases of consent and presence fit into the jurisdictional mix? Can the forum of necessity doctrine be reconciled with the real and substantial connection test? How does the test apply to the enforcement of foreign judgments? The Court simply left these hard questions until later. In short, while the Court in Van Breda was on the right track, it got derailed - which may ultimately mean another twenty years until the outstanding jurisdictional issues are sorted out.


Synchronisation deals with the distribution of time and/or frequency across a network of nodes dispersed in an area, in order to align their clocks with respect to time and/or frequency. It remains an important requirement in telecommunication networks, especially in Time Division Duplexing (TDD) systems such as Ultra Wideband (UWB) and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) systems. This thesis explores three different research areas related to clock synchronisation in communication networks; namely algorithm development and implementation, managing Packet Delay Variation (PDV), and coping with the failure of a master node. The first area proposes a higher-layer synchronisation algorithm in order to meet the specific requirements of a UWB network that is based on the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) standard. At up to 480 Mbps data rate, UWB is an attractive technology for multimedia streaming. Higher-layer synchronisation is needed in order to facilitate synchronised playback at the receivers and prevent distortion, but no algorithm is defined in the ECMA-368 standard. In this research area, a higher-layer synchronisation algorithm is developed for an ECMA-368 UWB network. Network simulations and FPGA implementation are used to show that the new algorithm satisfies the requirements of the network. The next research area looks at how PDV can be managed when Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is implemented in an existing Ethernet network. Existing literature indicates that the performance of a PDV filtering algorithm usually depends on the delay profile of the network in which it is applied. In this research area, a new samplemode PDV filter is proposed which is independent of the shape of the delay profile. Numerical simulations show that the sample-mode filtering algorithm is able to match or out-perform the existing sample minimum, mean, and maximum filters, at different levels of network load. Finally, the thesis considers the problem of dealing with master failures in a PTP network for a DECT audio application. It describes the existing master redundancy techniques and shows why they are unsuitable for the specific application. Then a new alternate master cluster technique is proposed along with an alternative BMCA to suit the application under consideration. Network simulations are used to show how this technique leads to a reduction in the total time to recover from a master failure.


This article is aimed at representing the approaches of legal theory to the interaction between law and politics and to depict the main national features of the relationship between law and politics. The analysis is based on the adoption of methodology of fundamental work of Mauro Zamboni "Law and Politics". The adoption of methodology was used only partially, while seeking to identify and clarify the features of static, dynamic and epistemological aspects of the relationship of law and politics in Lithuania. Researchers have faced the problem of a diverse approach to the definitions of law and politics, and it has been resolved by focusing only to the researches representing the standpoint of legal theories. The analysis has led to the findings that there are reasonable grounds to assume that legal content (referring to the "static" aspect of law and politics) in Lithuania is flexible to outgoing politics. This implication is based on 1) the noticeable disproportion of legal regulation in different areas of social life, 2) law-making priority areas determined mostly by the choice of political actors will and 3) through changed execution of legal norms, prefering the forms which could be more cost effective (alternative dispute resolutions) and more suitable for changing social environment. What concerns the "dynamic" aspect of the relation between law and politics, it is implicated that there are backings for both open and closed law making, but at the same time more open legislative features are observed than the closed ones. This tendency is identified in the legislative process, where the help out of non-legal world is applied (using sociology) and the persistence of politicians to access and use the institutes of citizens' legislative initiative (iniciatives for referendums or other legislative initiatives, the right to petition, etc.) is obvious. The reflection of "epistemological" aspect of the relationship between law and politics in Lithuanian legal discipline reflects the general trend of international scientific community of law. It is considered to step back from the autonomous legal discipline concepts and in this way the appropriate conditions for incorporation of different categories from other scientific fields are created. On the other hand, a reserved cautious attitude of both researchers and research institutions on the conjunction of law and political science is observed. The interaction between law and economics and business or public relations is still prioritized.


Benthic invertebrate assessments can be used to gauge the impact of urban wetweather flows in receiving waters. Experiences from Cemagref in France have shown that standardized benthic indices (e.g. Oligochaete Index of Sediment Bioindication IOBS) can be used to reliably determine the ecological status of urban streams and can be incorporated into the new European Water Framework Directive. The Canadian studies on streams and stormwater ponds using chemical analyses, benthic toxicity testing and benthic community structure comparisons have shown that toxicity was more likely to occur in deeper ponds where fine sediments from urban runoff accumulated. A more comprehensive evaluation of wet-weather flow impacts could be obtained by combining approaches from both countries.


Nine out of ten Japanese claim some affiliation with Shinto, but in the West the religion remains the least studied of the major Asian spiritual traditions. It is so interlaced with Japanese cultural values and practices that scholarly studies usually focus on only one of its dimensions: Shinto as a "nature religion," an "imperial state religion," a "primal religion," or a "folk amalgam of practices and beliefs." Thomas Kasulis' fresh approach to Shinto explains with clarity and economy how these different aspects interrelate. As a philosopher of religion, he first analyzes the experiential aspect of Shinto spirituality underlying its various ideas and practices. Second, as a historian of Japanese thought, he sketches several major developments in Shinto doctrines and institutions from prehistory to the present, showing how its interactions with Buddhism, Confucianism, and nationalism influenced its expression in different times and contexts. In Shinto's idiosyncratic history, Kasulis finds the explicit interplay between two forms of spirituality: the "existential" and the "essentialist." Although the dynamic between the two is particularly striking and accessible in the study of Shinto, he concludes that a similar dynamic may be found in the history of other religions as well. Two decades ago, Kasulis' Zen Action/Zen Person brought an innovative understanding to the ideas and practices of Zen Buddhism, an understanding influential in the ensuing decades of philosophical Zen studies. Shinto: The Way Home promises to do the same for future Shinto studies.


The importance of ensuring food safety through the reduction of chemical residues in our food supply cannot be overemphasized. Food safety remains a major challenge confronting contemporary society. To ensure wholesomeness of food of animal origin, the level of drug residues must be below the maximum residue limits (MRLs) set by World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This calls for cost effective and efficient analytical methods for both quality assurance and monitoring. Diminazene aceturate is one of the few treatment drugs for animal trypanosomosis in the market. Because of its wide use in food producing animals, unwanted residues may be a risk to consumers. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) for determination of diminazene residues in edible animal tissues after extraction in 0.1 M borax pH 9.7 is described. The assay has advantages of speed, high throughput and lower cost of analysis compared to the other conventional methods. The assay uses rabbit anti-diminazene polyclonal antibodies bound on a 96-well microtiter plate. Horseradish peroxidase-labeled diminazene and diminazene in a test sample were allowed to compete overnight at 4 o C for the limited number of antibodies bound on the microtiter plate. After six washes with buffer, enzyme activity was determined by adding tetramethyl-benzidine and hydrogen peroxide as substrate. The assay detection limits for diminazene were 2.4 ng/g in muscle, 2.5 ng/g in liver and 2.2 ng/g in kidney while limits of quantification were 7.2 ng/g, 7.5 ng/g and 6.6 ng/g respectively. The recoveries for muscle liver and kidney spiked with 5 ng/g were 78%, 77% and 80% respectively while for 1,000 ng/g were 74%, 76.% and 84% respectively. The within-and between assay coefficients of variation (CV) were 2.4% and 15.5% respectively while assay specificity was above 99.9%. It is concluded that as a result of the good recoveries, high specificity and repeatability, the method could be used in the determination and monitoring of diminazene residues in tissues. These activities aimed at ensuring the safety of food of animal origin could play a major role in enhancing consumer confidence in these products which are very essential for health.


Theory of Mind (ToM) and Executive Functioning (EF) are two pillars of human social cognition often studied in conjunction, but rarely considered together beyond childhood. Adults routinely undertake ToM activities of higher levels, such as those that require reasoning recursively through other individuals' presumed reasoning about others (e.g., she believes that he believes that this is difficult to grasp). The possibility of links between EF and these special kinds of representations, termed second-order ToM, is explored for the first time in the work presented herein, and documented in two ways. First, the research plan and hypotheses at the basis of this dissertation were informed in large part by a meta-analytic review of the extant literature linking EF to second-order ToM (Study 1). We employed multilevel modelling techniques to estimate the pooled effect size of over 80 correlation coefficients, extracted from both school-age children and adult samples (N = 2584). While the developmental literature provided evidence of second-order ToM-EF linkage in children, the adult findings were weaker and more difficult to interpret for a variety of methodological reasons. Hence, in Studies 2 and 3, we introduced a new age-adapted methodological paradigm, and conducted an extensive mapping of the adult capacity for second-order ToM reasoning in relation to EF. Across the two studies, we found that individual differences in both working memory and cognitive flexibility correlated with second-order ToM performance, irrespective of variance accounted for by factors
such as verbal ability (Study 2) and non-verbal ability (Study 3). In Study 3 we explored the relation between second-order ToM and EF with greater specificity. We replicated the findings of Study 2 and found that the manipulation component of working memory (but not the storage component) and the task-switching component of cognitive flexibility (but not the set-shifting component) were central to the relation. The broader theoretical implications of our findings were then discussed, along with suggestions for potential ways forward in the study of the relation between second-order ToM and EF in adulthood.


Bilingual teaching (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has long been established within the German school system. Whereas it is widely used to enhance the students' use of a foreign language by providing authentic settings, its advantages for the teacher have not been investigated so far. The use of a foreign language within the CLIL classroom resulting in linguistic stumbling blocks is a great challenge for the learners. Consequently on the part of the learners a stronger reflection on the language use of the foreign and mother tongue and a higher demand of explanations occurs. The learning process is carried out in smaller steps. It is hypothesized that conversation analysis of the bilingual classroom discourse can give an insight into cognitive processes which cannot be gained by teaching in the mother tongue. This thesis describes a qualitative study which focused on the analysis of the classroom discourse within modular bilingual teaching. A teaching sequence on the Neutralization Reaction has been developed and carried out in three different learning groups. The analysis has been carried out by audio taping and concept maps. The findings of this first teaching cycle were subsequently used in second to alter the teaching sequence. The new sequence was carried in three different learning groups. Especially interruptions in the flow of speech, changes in the language use and repetitive speech patterns give rise to conclusions about the processing of abstract concepts. The study mainly focused on the learners' use of the chemical shorthand. The following conclusions could be drawn from this study: Bilingual teaching is a capable tool for the diagnosis of the students' cognitive abilities In the phases when the foreign language is used the students undergo a deeper reflection of their language usage concerning their possibilities to express their chemical reasoning. Students tend to reason on the level of concrete operations and phenomena. For their reasoning they take into account the materials which are directly available to them. The students do not use the chemical shorthand as a universal method to express chemical information, thus contents cannot always be transferred between the languages aided by formulae. This results in a simultaneous use of both languages. It could be shown that pictorial imagination is an important strategy for the understanding of the symbolic and model level. Bilingual modular teaching can be introduced at different levels of ability when adequate scaffolding is provided.


With billions of computers in existence, cyberspace, 'the virtual world created when they are connected,' is said to be the new medium of power. Computer hackers operating from anywhere can enter cyberspace and take control of other people's computers, stealing their information, corrupting their workings, and shutting them down. Modern societies and militaries, both pervaded by computers, are supposedly at risk. As Conquest in Cyberspace explains, however, information systems and information itself are too easily conflated, and persistent mastery over the former is difficult to achieve.


The majority of studies of agent decision making in environments with multiple auctions assume homogeneity in the rules of the auctions. However, online markets are much more fragmented, and products are often for sale in a variety of venues with different rules. We present a conceptual approach to designing e xible trading agents that is broad enough to encompass both multiple types of auctions and a variety of user preferences. The generalizations described lead to natural representations of the agent's decision task as either a Markov decision processes or an extensive form game, depending upon the form of the market model.


ABSTRACT Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted considerable interest due to their unique physical, chemical, optical and electrical properties opening avenues for a large number of industrial applications. They have shown potential as fire retardant additives in polymers, reducing heat release rate and increasing time to ignition in a number of polymers. Relevant work on the types, properties and applications has been reviewed particularly considering their application in fire situations. There are concerns over the health risks associated with CNTs and many papers have likened CNTs to the health problems associated with asbestos. There are contradictions relating to the toxicity of CNTs with some papers reporting that they are toxic while others state the opposite. Directly comparing various studies is difficult because CNTs come in many combinations of size, type, purity levels and source. CNTs can potentially be released from polymers during the combustion process where human exposure may occur. While this review has shed some light regarding issues relating to toxicity under different fire scenarios much more thorough work is needed to investigate toxicity of CNTs and their evolution from CNT–polymer nanocomposites in order to reach firm conclusions.


Background Self-help for social phobia has not received controlled empirical evaluation. Aims To evaluate the efficacy of pure self-help through written materials for severe social phobia and self-help augmented by five group sessions with a therapist. These conditions were compared with a waiting-list control and standard, therapist-led group therapy. Method Participants with severe generalised social phobia (n=224) were randomised to one of four conditions. Assessment included diagnoses, symptoms and life interference at pretreatment, 12 weeks and at 24 weeks. Results A larger percentage of patients no longer had a diagnosis of social phobia at post-intervention in the pure self-help group than in the waiting-list group, although this percentage decreased slightly over the next 3 months. Symptoms of social anxiety and life interference did not differ significantly between these groups. Augmented self-help was better than waiting list on all measures and did not differ significantly from group treatment. Conclusions Self-help augmented by therapist assistance shows promise as a less resource-intensive method for the management of social phobia. Pure self-help shows limited efficacy for this disorder.


OBJECTIVES
A survey of US schools of public health was undertaken in 1996 and 1997 to obtain a general picture of public health ethics curricula.

METHODS
An explanatory letter with a list of questions for discussion was sent to the deans of the accredited US schools of public health. The deans were asked that at least 1 individual at their school who "is most knowledgeable about ethics curricula" review the list of questions and complete an ethics survey contact form.

RESULTS
Ethics instruction was required for all students at only 1 (4%) of the 24 schools surveyed, while 7 schools required ethics instruction for some students. Two of the schools had no ethics courses. Ethics instruction was required for all MPH students at 9 (38%) of the schools and for all doctoral students at 4 (17%) of the schools. Most of the schools (19 of 24, or 79%) offered short courses, seminar series, or invited lectures on ethical topics, and 23 (96%) included lectures on ethics topics in other courses such as health law.

CONCLUSIONS
Training programs at US schools of public health vary greatly in how much attention is given to ethics instruction. Model curricula in public health ethics should be developed to help fill this gap.


Since common energetic materials are not easily compatible with existing additive manufacturing techniques, the Energetic Materials department of TNO in the Netherlands worked closely together with the Additive Manufacturing and Material Solutions groups of TNO to develop new types of energetic material that can be processed in standard 3D printers, aiming at better performance and greater flexibility in the manufacturing of energetic products. This contribution gives an overview of potential applications for additive manufacturing of energetic materials, ranging from rocket propellants to explosives, gun propellants, and other applications. The paper then briefly describes TNO's research efforts since 2013 into AM of energetic materials. Next, the work performed on additive manufacturing of gun propellants, using stereolithography, is described in more detail, including the results of the material development and characterization, and performance test results, including test firings with a 30 mm gun. The paper concludes with an overview of the current status of the research at TNO, as well as a definition of the next steps to be taken and a vision of the future of additive manufacturing of energetic materials.


Specialists in the humanities and social sciences often construct models of the realities they work with; these models are usually expressed in natural language, as thesauri, or by similarly informal means. Conceptual modelling, a more formalised approach, has been used in other fields for some time, and we hypothesised that its usage in the cultural heritage field would allow specialists to create better and more powerful models. With this aim, in 2011 we launched an education program on conceptual modelling for cultural heritage. After five years and numerous experiences, we report here that specialists in cultural heritage with no previous exposure to modelling systematically learn the necessary techniques and show themselves able to develop rich models. Experience also shows that satisfaction about the approach is very high.


Most economic models consider sleeping as a pre-determined and homogeneous constraint on individuals' time allocation neglecting its potential effects on health and human capital. Several medical studies provide evidence of important associations between sleep deprivation and health outcomes suggesting a large impact on health care systems and individual productivity. Yet, there is little causal analysis of the effects of sleep duration. This paper uses a spatial regression discontinuity design to identify the effects of sleep on health status, weight, and cognitive abilities. Our results suggest that delaying morning work schedules and school start times may have non-negligible effects on health.


Nickel-based alloy can be found in different industrial applications especially in
aircraft engines and hot end components of various types of gas turbines with its high
strength, strong corrosion resistance and excellent thermal fatigue properties and
thermal stability compared to conventional materials. However, nickel-based alloy is
one of the extremely difficult-to-cut materials. During the machining process, the
interaction between the tool and the workpiece causes severe plastic deformation and
intense friction at the tool-workpiece interface. Because of the increasing demands in
industries, any improvement of conventional machining processes or any other
deployment of additional technique is directly related to higher productivity.
Thermal-assisted machining (TAM) has become an effective alternative to the
conventional machining of these difficult-to-cut materials. Various types of heating
methods and the beneficial effects on machining of nickel-based alloys are discussed
in this chapter. Finally, TAM was proven as an efficient technique to increase the
machinability of nickel-based alloys in terms of tool life, surface roughness and cutting
force.


Two-photon excitation fluorescence is a powerful technique commonly used for biological imaging. However, the low absorption cross section of this non-linear process is a critical issue for performing biomolecular spectroscopy at the single molecule level. Enhancing the two-photon fluorescence signal would greatly improve the effectiveness of this technique, yet current methods struggle with medium enhancement factors and/or high background noise. Here, we show that the two-photon fluorescence signal from single Alexa Fluor 488 molecules can be enhanced up to 10 times by using a 3 µm diameter latex sphere while adding almost no photoluminescence background. We report a full characterization of the two-photon fluorescence enhancement by a single microsphere using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. This opens new routes to enhance non-linear optical signals and extend biophotonic applications.


Multipoint optical fluence measurements can potentially be used to detect coagulation-induced changes in optical propagation during interstitial laser thermal therapy. Estimating the dimensions of coagulation using on-line optical monitoring, which is applicable to treatments where the tip of the source fibre is not precharred, may be limited by the accuracy of the placement of optical sensors with respect to source fibres. A strategy has been developed to determine accurately the position of a four-sensor linear array, prior to treatment, using optical fluence data obtained from the sensors for low-power (⩽0.5 W) irradiation. A minimum of four sensors in an array was required in order to develop a mathematical formulation for position determination that did not require tissue optical properties or laser power as input. Optical propagation was based on diffusion theory for homogeneous tissues in spherical geometry. Low input laser power is needed to ensure that there are no thermally induced changes in tissue optical properties not accounted for in the mathematical description. Experimental evaluation was performed in a tissue-equivalent liquid phantom using 0.5 W of 805 nm optical energy and a translatable isotropic optical sensor. For sensor locations with 2 mm spacing, placement accuracy of 0.67 mm was achieved. The accuracy improved to 0.13 mm as the sensor spacing increased to 5 mm.


Nonadherence to prescribed preventive medication is common in asthma. We wanted to assess whether the combination of a beta 2-bronchodilator with an anti-inflammatory treatment in the same metered-dose inhaler (MDI) with a regular dosing schedule might improve compliance. A double-blind study was used to compare use (two actuations four times daily for 12 weeks) of 2 mg nedocromil sodium (n = 101) with a combination of 2 mg nedocromil sodium and 100 micrograms salbutamol (n = 100) in mild-to-moderate asthma patients (mean age 42 +/- 14 yrs; 98 males and 103 females). Compliance was measured using the electronic Nebulizer Chronolog (NC) device, change in MDI canister weight, patient questionnaire and physician assessment. The mean +/- SD number of actuations per day for nedocromil sodium and the combination during the primary period of assessment (Weeks 11-12) was 4.2 +/- 2.6 and 4.6 +/- 2.5 (NC), 5.3 +/- 2.1 and 5.3 +/- 2.0 (canister weight), and 7.5 +/- 1.3 and 7.4 +/- 1.3 (questionnaire), respectively. Physician assessment rated compliance as "good" to "excellent". The first and final days of the period were not used in the NC analysis to exclude part-days of treatment and drug-dumping (repeated actuations without inhalation), and may account for the difference between NC and canister weight results. The mean number of two-actuation doses per day determined from the NC was 2.1 +/- 1.3 for nedocromil sodium and 2.4 +/- 2.1 for the combination. Thirty five percent (nedocromil sodium) and 34% (combination) of the patients were compliant (6-10 actuations per day for > or = 60% of the days). We conclude that compliance is poor in asthma, electronic recording revealed the dumping phenomenon and, in this study, the combination of an inhaled beta 2-bronchodilator with a preventive treatment did not improve compliance over a three month period in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma.


This study investigated the impact of single stenosed (SS) and double stenosed (DS) of renal artery branches using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. A 3D abdominal aorta with renal artery branches model was constructed using MIMICS software. Some modification of SS and DS are applied at right and left renal artery branches, respectively. Numerical analysis of both stenosed cases with the condition of normal blood pressure (NBP) and high blood pressure (HBP) are performed using CFD solver in software ANSYS-18. The results of velocity, pressure and wall shear stress of SS and DS renal artery branches with the condition of NBP and HBP are compared with respect to the blood flow behavior. The results concluded that DS-NBP showed the highest value for velocity magnitude. Meanwhile for pressure and wall shear stress value, DS-HBP showed the highest value for both results, respectively. The present study demonstrates the fundamental aspects of haemodynamics of blood flow behavior in idealized abdominal aorta with stenosed renal branches subjected to the normal and high pressure conditions of DS and SS cases of renal artery branches


The purpose of this single-case study was to evaluate the effects of a peertutoring intervention on the text production skills of three third graders with severe learning and speech difficulties. All tutees were initially able to produce only very short stories. During the course of the treatment, higher performing classmates taught them how to apply a graphic organizing strategy (story mapping) to help them plan their texts more systematically. The intervention, which was comprised of between five and seven 45-minute sessions, led to dramatic increases in the number of words that the tutees wrote while producing short stories. Study results provide clear evidence of the effectiveness of teaching students with learning and speech disabilities the use of story maps through peer tutoring. The article ends with a discussion of the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for future research.


Australia, witb its lengthy coastline, vast maritime jurisdiction and multiple offshore territories, undoubtedly fits the description of a maritime nation: but it was not until the issue of Australia's Oceans Policy in 1998 Ihat a comprehensive statement of Australia's maritime challenges and priorities emerged at the Federal Government level. The Oceans Policy arliculated a diverse array of challenges and priorities relating to Australia's maritime interests, including the conservation of marine biological diversity, the maintenance of ecologically sustainable fisheries, the prevention of marine pollution, the development of lhe offshore petroleum and minerals industry, the definition or Australia's maritime juridiction and the protection of Australia's national interests both within and beyond Australian maritime jurisdiction. In addition to these fundamental maritime challenges and priorities, the Oceans Policy highlighted some emerging challenges, such as improving and disseminating our knowledge or the role of the oceans in climate change and developing, using and exporting Australia's ocean energy resourees. To tackle all these challenges and priorities in a balanced and effective manner, the Oceans Policy identified the need ror integrated ocean planning and management, and nominated specific responses for particular sectors of ocean activity. Thirteen years on from the Oceans Policy, it is timely to reassess some key maritime challenges and priorities identified in that document to determine their relevance to the current strategic and political envi· ronment for Australia and the Asia·Paeific region. This chapter will examine a selection or these maritime challenges and priorities, their applicability to Australia's current geostrategic circumstances and some recent developments in responding to them.


TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. The coronavirus crisis: a tragedy and an opportunity - 2. Demanding governments' accountability - 3. The conditions for legitimate restrictions on freedom of religion or belief - 4. The significance of equality and State's neutrality for the protection of religious freedom - 5. Advantages of dialogue and cooperation between State and religion - 6. Support and doubts in the reaction of religious communities to governmental measures - 7. Final remarks.
ABASTRACT: This article explores peculiarities of the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to other health crisis experienced in the past. Each character is thoroughly examined in the article. The article focuses on four thematic areas: the legal regulation of the fight against coronavirus; the equality of treatment of religious freedom in relation to other fundamental rights; the cooperation between the State and religious communities; and the reactions of religious communities to governmental measures. The article argues that rather than raising new questions, COVD-19 has forced us to deal with familiar questions under unprecedented circumstances. In this frame, time has played a central role as a factor to be taken into account to scrutinize the legitimacy of measures introducing severe limitations to fundamental rights and freedoms. Finally, the article claims that from a legal perspective, the experience of the past months reveals that, especially in times of crisis, we need a scrupulous respect for the requirements of the rule of law, including a strict accountability and transparency from governments, and putting especial emphasis on the protection of fundamental rights, among which is freedom of religion or belief.


Properly managed sanitation systems and improved wastewater treatment are important for safeguarding environment and enhancing sustainable livelihoods in vast areas of South and Southeast Asian countries. Recovering nutrients and energy from organic waste and wastewater is an effective option for improving environmental and health security, rehabilitating agricultural soils and improving energy and food access for the poor in these countries. This study addressed the technical potentials and investment climate for wider adoption of resources recovery and reuse (RRR) technologies in this region. Reviewing results and technical calculations indicated poor sanitation in India and Nepal in contrast to high levels of sanitation in Sri Lanka. However, despite comparatively higher levels of fecal sludge and wastewater treatment in Sri Lanka than the remaining countries, levels of waste treatment and recycling are much lower than their potential level in all countries of the region. Lack of financial resources, lack of awareness on hazardous impacts of poor sanitation, poor governance and high corruption levels in the system are pointed out as key barriers for wider implementation of waste and wastewater treatment and recycling technologies. Improving regulatory frameworks and governmental support through establishing subsidy programs, raising the awareness of population on environmental safeguarding, improving the skill capacity and technologies as well as ensuring quality standards can enhance wider implementation of RRR options.


Theodor Adorno was no stranger to controversy. In The Jargon of Authenticity he gives full expression to his hostility to the language employed by certain existentialist thinkers such as Martin Heidegger. With his customary alertness to the uses and abuses of language, he calls into question the jargon, or 'aura', as his colleague Walter Benjamin described it, which clouded existentialists' thought. He argued that its use undermined the very message for meaning and liberation that it sought to make authentic. Moreover, such language - claiming to address the issue of freedom - signally failed to reveal the lack of freedom inherent in the capitalist context in which it was written. Instead, along with the jargon of the advertising jingle, it attributed value to the satisfaction of immediate desire. Alerting his readers to the connection between ideology and language, Adorno's frank and open challenge to directness, and the avoidance of language that 'gives itself over either to the market, to balderdash, or to the predominating vulgarity', is as timely today as it ever has been.


The success of the wavelet transfonn in the compression of still images has prompted an expanding effort to exercise this transfonn in the compression of video. Most existing video compression methods incorporate techniques from still image compression, such techniques being abundant, well defined and successful. This dissertation commences with a thorough review and comparison of wavelet still image compression techniques. Thereafter an examination of wavelet video compression techniques is presented. Currently, the most effective video compression system is the nCT based framework, thus a comparison between these and the wavelet techniques is also given. Based on this review, this dissertation then presents a new, low-complexity, wavelet video compression scheme. Noting from a complexity study that the generation of temporally decorrelated, residual frames represents a significant computational burden, this scheme uses the simplest such technique; difference frames. ill the case of local motion, these difference frames exhibit strong spatial clustering of significant coefficients. A simple spatial syntax is created by splitting the difference frame into tiles. Advantage of the spatial clustering may then be taken by adaptive bit allocation between the tiles. This is the central idea of the method. ill order to minimize the total distortion of the frame, the scheme uses the new p-domain ratedistortion estimation scheme with global numerical optimization to predict the optimal distribution of bits between tiles. Thereafter each tile is independently wavelet triinsfonned and compressed using the SPIRT technique. Throughout the design process computational efficiency was the design imperative, thus leading to a real-time, software only, video compression scheme. The scheme is finally compared to both the current video compression standards and the leading wavelet schemes from the literature in terms of computational complexity visual quality. It is found that for local motion scenes the proposed algorithm executes approximately an order of magnitude faster than these methods, and presents · output of similar quality. This algorithm is found to be suitable for implementation in mobile and embedded devices due to its moderate memory and computational requirements.


PV only generates electricity during daylight hours and primarily generates over summer. In the UK, the carbon intensity of grid electricity is higher during the daytime and over winter. This work investigates whether the grid electricity displaced by PV is high or low carbon compared to the annual mean carbon intensity using carbon factors at higher temporal resolutions (half-hourly and daily).

UK policy for carbon reporting requires savings to be calculated using the annual mean carbon intensity of grid electricity. This work offers an insight into whether this technique is appropriate.
Using half hourly data on the generating plant supplying the grid from November 2008 to May 2010, carbon factors for grid electricity at half-hourly and daily resolution have been derived using technology specific generation emission factors.

Applying these factors to generation data from PV systems installed on schools, it is possible to assess the variation in the carbon savings from displacing grid electricity with PV generation using carbon factors with different time resolutions.

The data has been analyzed for a period of 363 to 370 days and so cannot account for inter-year variations in the relationship between PV generation and carbon intensity of the electricity grid. This analysis suggests that PV displaces more carbon intensive electricity using half-hourly carbon factors than using daily factors but less compared with annual ones.

A similar methodology could provide useful insights on other variable renewable and demand-side technologies and in other countries where PV performance and grid behavior are different.


An estimated 2 billion people do not have access to waste collection services, and 3 billion do not have access to controlled waste disposal. This lack of services and infrastructure has a detrimental impact on public health and the environment with waste being dumped or burnt in communities. With waste levels projected to double in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) by 2025 there are significant challenges facing municipalities who already lack the basic resources needed to manage waste. The United Nations acknowledged the problems of poor sanitation and waste management in the Sustainable Development Goals which sets targets to address these challenges, including the target by 2030 to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, reuse and recycling. Jos, the capital of Plateau state in Nigeria, shares the waste management challenges facing cities in LEDCs. The population of Jos is projected to increase from 1.3 million in 2007 to 2.7 million in 2025, with much of the population living in densely populated areas that lack basic sanitation and controlled disposal of waste. This thesis presents the results of a detailed investigation into the current waste management system in Jos with a focus on low income areas. Through the adoption of mixed methods the thesis identifies how waste is currently being managed and establishes the challenges to sustainable waste management. The existing waste management system was found to be grossly inadequate with 64 communal collection containers being used to collect waste for the entire city, this equates to 20,313 citizens per container. The system leads to most residents disposing of their waste through open dumping in public space and water bodies, and open burning, with impacts to public health and the environment. Key challenges identified include the lack of suitable resources, political interference, poor governance, overlapping responsibilities of agencies, lack of waste awareness amongst the public, and poor infrastructure. 13 recommendations are presented to help develop an improved waste management system in the study area. Despite reduction and reuse being the priorities of the waste hierarchy there is a paucity of research on the potential of waste prevention within LEDCs especially low income areas. With waste levels projected to increase, waste prevention interventions could play an important role. Following waste analysis and a review of waste prevention initiatives adopted globally, a shortlist of options suitable for the study area was developed. This shortlist was assessed using Ketso and SWOT analysis facilitated in focus groups representing the waste industry and the community. Community composting was identified as waste prevention intervention with the most potential due to 65.2% of the waste stream in the study area being biodegradable, and only 5.2% of the community currently composting. Benefits of this approach would be less pressure on the waste collection system, reductions in waste being indiscriminately dumped, increased awareness of waste issues, and compost production that could be utilised in the community.


Abstract:Jean-Claude Pinson's notion of la poéthique seeks to rearticulate ways in which poetry can be seen as a style of life. This essay calls on the writings of Charles Baudelaire as a test case for the possibility of building an ethics or even a politics of human solidarity on the basis of irony. While some may point to the stylized life of the dandy entrenched in a world of art for art's sake, and others may indicate the deliberately apolitical or even reactionary nature of some of his texts, I argue that Baudelaire is an inaugural figure for the rethinking of the relationship between poetry and style of life that emerges most fully in the contemporary theory of our own time. Baudelaire suggests ways to bridge the ethical and the political by embracing, rather than refusing, the irony on which Richard Rorty claims one can build only a private mode of living.


Sound Musicianship is a book for music educators and musicians about musicianship—about musical skills, abilities, habits, sensibilities and understandings. Musicianship is explored as a form of craftsmanship. Like most crafts, music requires a balance of theoretical knowledge and practical skills that contribute to a highly tuned ability to appreciate and express music. In particular, the book explores general trends that influence musicianship in the twenty-first century, such as an increased reliance on digital media, greater awareness of the neurological basis for musical behaviour, a renewed interest in connections between bodily movements and musical expression, and increased cultural plurality resulting from more frequent travel, increased levels of migration and ubiquitous telecommunications.

The book has a deliberate focus on the developmental aspects of musicianship, which will benefit those hoping to advance their own music learning or that of others. It includes a diverse range of views and perspectives on musicianship and is organised into five sections. The first four sections explore the implications of music understood as sound, experience, motion and culture, respectively. In these sections, leading researchers and thinkers outline important issues and debates that are relevant to developing the crafts of music making and they share insights into recent trends and understandings. The final section of the book looks at educational considerations and provides a series of case studies that document innovative approaches to developing musicianship.

Readers will encounter some new, interesting and thought-provoking ideas within these pages. As we move further into the twenty-first century—with all the opportunities and challenges for music making it brings—the requirement to review our concepts of musicianship training will intensify, and the definition of a "sound basis" for a contemporary musicianship will evolve. This book is intended to help stimulate and inform that evolutionary process.


Does one have an obligation to keep one's promises? I answer this question by distinguishing between two broad conceptions of promising. On the normativized conception of promising, a promise is made when an agent validly offers to undertake an obligation to the promisee to perform some act (i.e., give up a liberty-right in relation to her) and the promisee validly accepts the offer. Keeping such promises is morally obligatory by definition. On the nonnormativized conception, the nature of promising does not conceptually entail any connection with the obligation to keep promises. A promise might be understood, for example, as an assertion that one will do something along with special assurance that one will do so and an invitation to rely on that assurance. A particularly attractive and relevant non-normativized account of promising takes promising simply to be giving one's word concerning one's future conduct. So understood, it is plausible—as a substantive matter—that one has an obligation to (1) alert the promisee, if one realizes that he will not perform the promised action, (2) apologize and compensate the promisee, if one does not perform the action, but one has no obligation to perform the promised action.


In a pair of 1997 electoral decisions, the Supreme Court decided that Minnesota could prohibit fusion candidacies in the interest of maintaining a strong two-party system, but that Georgia could not create two new majority- minority congressional districts because the redistricting process had been impermissibly infected by race. In this Article, Professor Smith argues that these two decisions unavoidably conflict. While the fusion case reaffirmed the states' interest in maintaining a strong two-party system, the racial gerrymandering case severely undercut the states' ability to achieve this interest in jurisdictions where the major parties are racially stratified. He demonstrates that blacks operating in a third party could constitutionally obtain the creation of majority-black congressional districts, a result that the Court has denied them when they act within one of the major parties. Professor Smith argues that such an anomaly encourages black exit from the two-party system. He argues that the Court's failure to insist on an injury to voting in the racial gerrymandering case makes it impossible for the Court to fashion relief that is consistent with states' interest in two-party stability.