Basal-like breast cancers are generally negative for estrogen and progesterone receptor expression and HER-2 amplification ('triple negative' breast cancer, TNBC), and
express basal cytokeratins 5/6, and EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor). No targeted therapy options are currently approved for this subgroup of patients. The main aim of this study was to assess the potential role of selected inhibitors in TNBC, including the small molecule tyrosine kinases inhibitors of EGFR gefitinib and erlotinib, the monoclonal antibody against EGFR cetuximab, and the multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib.
Significantly higher EGFR expression was detected in TNBC compared to HER-2 positive breast cancer cell lines. EGF treatment stimulated phospho-EGFR which was inhibited by gefitinib. Sensitivity to gefitinib was associated with decreases in PMAPK and P-Akt, and G1 cell cycle arrest. Combined treatment with gefitinib and chemotherapy was more effective than either gefitinib or chemotherapy alone.
EGFR and P-EGFR expression were examined by immunohistochemistry in 101 breast tumours. Only 6 % were positive for EGFR and 3 % for P-EGFR. Sixteen of the tumours were triple negative, with 31 % and 6 % rates of positivity for EGFR and PEGFR, respectively.
It has been reported that dasatinib preferentially inhibits growth in TNBC cell lines compared to other breast cancer subtypes. A dasatinib-resistant variant of the triple
negative MDA-MB-231 cell line was established (231-DasB). A dose-dependent decrease in P-Src levels in response to dasatinib was observed in MDA-MB-231 but not in 231-DasB. Proteomic analysis identified 78 significantly altered proteins. Six proteins were uniquely altered in MDA-MB-231 and 9 proteins were uniquely altered in 231-DasB. ANXA1, which has been implicated in breast carcinogenesis previously, was significantly increased in the variant cell line in response to dasatinib. While ANXA1 siRNA knockdown decreased proliferation in MDA-MB-231, it did not significantly alter response to dasatinib.


Abstract: Pain assessment in elderly people with a communication
disability is a well-known problem. Objective: To
explore the feasibility of a new pain observation scale.
Study group: Fifteen nurses employed at eight wards in
one nursing home. Methods: We developed the
Rotterdam Elderly Pain Observation Scale (REPOS),
which includes 10 behavioral items scored as present (1)
or absent (0) after a 2-minutes observation. In addition,
pain level is rated on the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). A
REPOS score of ≥3 in combination with a NRS of ≥4
indicates pain. Fifteen nurses received a 2-hours
theoretical training, and performed paired bedside
observations with the trainer. After obtaining a sufficient
interrater agreement, nurses were asked to continue
REPOS observations. These data were examined after six
months. Results: All nurses reached sufficient interrater
agreement (kappa ≥ 0.61) within a median of 8 weeks
(range 4 to 10), after a median of 12 observations. The
next 6 months, in total 52 observations were completed
by seven nurses at five different wards. Combined
REPOS and NRS scores indicated pain in 22 (42%) of 52
observations. In most of these cases (77%) nurses took
action as indicated in the decision tree that comes with
the REPOS. Conclusions: The REPOS is feasible in daily
nursing practice provided training is given. The decision
tree was a useful guide for nurses to reflect on residents'
pain and take appropriate action.


Most computer defense systems crash the process that they protect as part of their response to an attack. Although recent research explores the feasibility of self-healing to automatically recover from an attack, self-healing faces some obstacles before it can protect legacy applications and COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) software. Besides the practical issue of not modifying source code, self-healing must know both when to engage and how to guide a repair.

Previous work on a self-healing system, STEM, left these challenges as future work. This paper improves STEM's capabilities along three lines to provide practical speculative execution for automated defense (SEAD). First, STEM is now applicable to COTS software: it does not require source code, and it imposes a roughly 73% performance penalty on Apache's normal operation. Second, we introduce repair policy to assist the healing process and improve the semantic correctness of the repair. Finally, STEM can create behavior profiles based on aspects of data and control flow.


Objectives:To determine the prevalence and mechanism of copying among ICU physicians using an electronic medical record. Design:Retrospective cohort study. Setting:Medical ICU of an urban, academic medical center. Patients:Two thousand sixty-eight progress notes of 135 patients generated by 62 residents and 11 attending physicians between August 1, 2009, and December 31, 2009. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:EIghty-two percent of all residents and 74% of all attending notes contained greater than or equal to 20% copied information (p = 0.001). Although residents authored more copied notes than attendings, residents copied less information between notes than attendings (55% vs. 61%, p < 0.001). Following greater than or equal to 1 day off, residents copied less often from their own prior notes compared to attendings (66% vs. 94%, p < 0.001). Of the copied information following a day off, there was no difference in the amount of information copied into notes of residents (59%) or attendings (61%, p = 0.17). In a regression model of attending notes, no patient factors were associated with copying. However, the levels of copying among attendings varied from 41% to 82% (p < 0.001). Conclusions:Copying among attendings and residents was common in this ICU-based cohort, with residents copying more frequently and attendings copying more information per note. The only factor that was independently associated with attending copying was the attending. Further studies should focus on further elucidating the factors influencing copying in the ICU and the effects of copying on patient outcomes.


This paper describes the use of a small but syntactically rich parsed corpus of English in probabilistic parsing. Software has been developed to extract probabilistic systemic-functional grammars (SFGs) from the Polytechnic of Wales Corpus in several formalisms, which could equally well be applied to other parsed corpora. To complement the large probabilistic grammar, we discuss progress in the provision of lexical resources, which range from corpus wordlists to a large lexical database supplemented with word frequencies and SFG categories. The lexicon and grammar resources may be used in a variety of probabilistic parsing programs, one of which is presented in some detail: The Realistic Annealing Parser. Compared to traditional rule-based methods, such parsers usually implement complex algorithms, and are relatively slow, but are more robust in providing analyses to unrestricted and even semi-grammatical English.


Abstract Sweepout from the water surface by gas (vapor or air) flow plays an important role in analyzing the mass and momentum transfer in the reactor downcomer of multidimensional geometry during a loss-of-coolant accident by decreasing the water level in the downcomer. The core water level will tend to decrease rapidly if a considerable amount of the entrained water stream and droplets pass through the break in lieu of flooding the reactor. The amount of entrained water is mostly determined by the interacting gas flow rate, the geometric condition, and the interfacial area between the gas and the water. The sweepout is observed to take place in three rather distinct regions: at the beginning of oscillation, at the full wave, and at the wave peak (droplet separation). The beginning of oscillation normally occurs as a result of the Helmholtz instability, which is defined in terms of the difference between the gas and the liquid velocities. The horizontal water surface is waved greatly before the gas flow reaches the critical point of droplet detachment. In the full-wave region, the droplets from the rough wave are swept into the gas flow and driven to the break. The water stream and droplets near the wave-peak region pass through the break at extremely high velocities. In view of these observations this paper investigates the relation between the gas flow rate and the amount of bypass as a function of time. The test facility was constructed in a 1/10 linear scaled-down model from the 1400-MW(electric) Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400), which has four direct vessel injection lines, four cold legs, and two hot legs. The air was injected through the three intact cold legs and passed through the broken cold leg. The sweepout was visualized from the acrylic test vessel. When the water level was located at the bottom of the break nozzle, the amount of bypass increased at the high Reynolds number of the gas. In the test the downcomer water level rapidly decreased for the initial minute. Then, given the Reynolds number of the gas, the sweepout hardly occurred as the water level approached the critical point 10 min into the test. So far, the experiment and the analysis for the sweepout have been limited to small annuli, flat plates, and T-junctions, which yielded the two-dimensional flow field. The current experimental results shed light on the flow mechanism and the semiempirical relations for the three-dimensional sweepout in a large-diameter annulus such as the reactor downcomer. The sweepout and entrainment are physically understood by visual inspection of flow in the downcomer. An engineering correlation is developed to predict the multidimensional sweepout and entrainment in the annular downcomer.


Naseem Amrohvi (1908-1987) although famous as a poet and elegy writer in the domain of Urdu language and literature, the extent of his scholarly and literary services embraces various forms and works. He was a person who was a journalist, translator, linguist, lexicographer, glossary writer, religious scholar and specially a creator of children's literature. He was the author and editor of more than 100 books. All his services were committed to the betterment of life and society within which he upheld very clear social values. His writings indicate that his vision was able to assess social details. Because of this poetry and prose presented a phenomenon of social action and social survey.

Naseem Amrohvi was a personality apart from other A©migrA© writers in the sense that he imbibed local traditions and affected it as well. After 1947 he was the first writer who published from Sindh, a bilingual Sindhi-Urdu journal Murad. In this journal he gave great importance to including those articles which could contribute to the positive thinking of society. His own articles which were carried, gave importance to the discussion of educational priorities of a downtrodden society. In the province of his adoption, he agitated against the trampling of women's rights. Naseem Sahab also wrote the history of Khairpur (Tarikh-i-Khairpur) in which he is seen not only as a historian, but also as a reformer, who pinpointed the factors which were weakening an already fragile social structure. It was the result of his mutual interaction with local literature and culture, that he received plaudits for his endeavours from the luminaries of Sindh, which is it by it self valuable.

Apart from Naseem ul Lughat, Raees ul Lughat and Comprehensive Naseem ul Lughat, he compiled separate glossaries of the Urdu and Persian works of Allama Iqbal. These glossaries are more literary and nonpareil and make difficult philosophical concepts easy and accessible to the common man.

A great part of his life has been spent in lexicography. He used to make aware his reader of the mileu and society, in which the words breathed, along with their historical and cultural connotation. His lexicography was above giving abstract denotations of words. He kept in view the latest usage and idiom, and was illustrative of words, which is a work reflective of society.

In the poetic forms of Urdu, the elegy (marthia) form was already in its narrative style treating human right as factors. In these Naseem Amrohvi has potrayed human relations in such a manner that every character fulfils his aim and high purpose. In these elegies the characterization of the Mukhaddirat (ladies of the Holy Prophet PBUH's family) is most prominent. In this traditional art of elegy, he introduced the concept of women's rights. His short stories, literary tales, and children's literature was created in the manner of promoting social values and engaging in social criticism. He is an expel1 in presenting moralizing material in artistic fashion. Such moralizing is not of a didactic fashion, but like a true artist, these are imbued by him in the spirit of his creations. Whether it be poetry or prose, his endeavours appear everywhere as immersed in social values.


New quantitative models for water-rock interaction are needed that explicitly couple fluid flow and chemical reactions. One such model is based on the finite-difference method and is applicable to both one-and two-dimensional reactive flow. In applying the model, we find that ignoring the coupling between hydrodynamic dispersion and chemical reactions leads to incorrect predictions of the rates of reactions along fluid flow paths and, in cases, of which reactions will occur.


Background Haemorrhagic cystitis, a bladder inflammation, is considered a medical emergency. It is frequently associated with some drugs, radiotherapy (radic cystitis) of bladder, prostate and cervix cancer and viral infections.(1) Several treatment options are available, which are aluminium and potassium sulfate (alum), aminocaproic acid etc. Particularly, the alum acts as an astringent, leading to protein precipitation and vasoconstriction.(2) The main objective of this work is to gather relevant information lacking in other published articles. Purpose Characterisation of patients treated with alum; Data collection of the number of treatment days, treatment tolerability, adjuvant medication and possible causes for early treatment suspension. Materials and methods A descriptive, observational and transversal study was carried out in Portugal's major hospital centre (CHLN). Data was collected between November/2012 and September/2013 from medical prescriptions and interviews. The patients included were all under medically prescribed treatment with alum. Results Data was collected from nine patients (eight males) with a medium age of 74 years old, and diagnosis of rectal, bladder or prostate cancer. Radic cystitis was the only therapeutic indication. The number of treatment days had a medium value of 2. By doctor's decision one patient suspended the treatment. In five patients injectable butylscopolamine was administered in order to control bladder contractions, due to the drugs' administration. Although in one patient was reported pain during the drug administration, it was easily controlled with analgesics. Conclusions The alum therapy was effective in managing haemorrhagic cystitis, economic and well-tolerated without anaesthesia. There was an expectable variability in the treatment duration since it depends on the evolution of the health status. Among our hospitals, the alum therapy was established in adults and in oncologic disease nevertheless, some authors refer its use in paediatrics and cystitis of other different etiologic factors.(3) The determination of serum aluminium might be done to avoid possible toxicity, especially in long treatment. No conflict of interest.


Field-level networks have been one of the keys to modern automation systems. Be it in factory, process, or building automation, networks allow for horizontal and vertical integration of distributed devices and functions. This paper reviews the evolution of field-level networks comprising fieldbus systems, industrial Ethernet, and recent industrial wireless networks. The main focus is on demonstrating the continuity in the development of the three generations that ensured backward compatibility at the expense of radical innovation. Given the wide set of modern communication technologies, this paper then discusses how architectures for future automation networks might look. Particular emphasis is put on hybrid architectures for combined wired/wireless networks. A generic concept for integration of multiple wireless segments will be presented that supports seamless roaming for mobile nodes in industrial environment.


Art museums are currently discovering the power of mobile apps. This leads to a growing variety of available apps for museums and galleries. The artistic environment of these institutions necessitates an in-depth analysis of contextual factors that affect acceptance of such apps. In this paper, an iterative approach to develop well-accepted apps for interaction of visitors and artworks is presented. The first iteration includes a field study in a museum of modern arts. In the course of this study, a multiple method approach was applied to detect contextual enablers and constraints for acceptance of interactive tags that were implemented at the museum. The results of the field study indicate a need for further iterations in the development process that is conducted on the basis of early insitu and incontext user involvement.


This report describes a mechanism, called tribonucleation, for producing gas nuclei by making and breaking contact between solid bodies which are immersed in liquid. A metal ball was rolled inside a glass tube filled with liquid which contains dissolved gas. Formed nuclei may grow to visible bubbles depending on the dissolved gas concentration and pressure applied to the liquid. Unlike other possible mechanisms for forming bubbles, tribonucleation is capable of producing nuclei under relatively mild experimental conditions, such as may be encountered in vivo. The experiments show that viscosity and velocity of separation of surfaces are important determinants of whether or not nuclei will form.

bubble formation; decompression sickness

Submitted on August 20, 1969


In 1994 the state of Michigan implemented one of the most comprehensive school finance reforms undertaken to date in any of the states. Understanding the effects of the reform is thus of value in informing other potential reform initiatives. In addition, the reform and associated changes in the economic environment provide an opportunity to assess whether a simple general equilibrium model can be of value in framing the study of such reform initiatives. In this paper, we present and use such a model to derive predictions about the effects of the reform on housing prices and neighborhood demographic compositions. Broadly, our analysis implies that the effects of the reform and changes in the economic environment are likely to have been reflected primarily in housing prices and only modestly on neighborhood demographics. We find that evidence for the Detroit metropolitan area from the decade encompassing the reform is largely consistent with the predictions of the model. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: H42; H71; H73; I22


Human infants learn language while interacting with their environment in which their caregivers may describe the objects and actions they perform. Similar to human infants, artificial agents can learn language while interacting with their environment. In this work, first, we present a neural model that bidirectionally binds robot actions and their language descriptions in a simple object manipulation scenario. Building on our previous Paired Variational Autoencoders (PVAE) model, we demonstrate the superiority of the variational autoencoder over standard autoencoders by experimenting with cubes of different colours, and by enabling the production of alternative vocabularies. Additional experiments show that the model's channel-separated visual feature extraction module can cope with objects of different shapes. Next, we introduce PVAE-BERT, which equips the model with a pretrained large-scale language model, i.e., Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), enabling the model to go beyond comprehending only the predefined descriptions that the network has been trained on; the recognition of action descriptions generalises to unconstrained natural language as the model becomes capable of understanding unlimited variations of the same descriptions. Our experiments suggest that using a pretrained language model as the language encoder allows our approach to scale up for real-world scenarios with instructions from human users.


In recent years, reverse engineering technique is used in the field of archaeology to model the geometry of archaeological findings. Modelling of ancient objects is a demanding process due to fragility. In this paper a non destructive method which combines Computer Tomography and 3D Laser scanner for modelling metallic objects with composite geometry and thick walls in presented. Several ancient objects are modelled to verify the accuracy and the reliability of the proposed method and a characteristic example of a suspension head found in the Greek city of Dion is presented.


Throughout the developed world there are a growing number of people becoming obese. Advancing technology continues to make our jobs less physically demanding. I show that a person with a higher body mass index (BMI) does not choose a more sedentary job position. Job strenuousness is found by using principal component analysis. The three instrumental variables used for two-stage least squares are youth health, the number of restaurants per state per thousand residents, and an indicator variable if a person plays computer games at home. I reviewed 2SLS, JN2SLS and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and based on the testing results, I choose to use the efficient, consistent, and unbiased estimates of OLS. Taking into account the bias on BMI, the OLS results show the coefficient on BMI is not statistically significantly different from zero.


OBJECTIVE
To review the clinical features, computed tomographic (CT) appearance, and treatment outcomes in a case series of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) metastatic to the pancreas.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the records of 23 patients (15 men and 8 women) with RCC metastatic to the pancreas, detected by CT examination between 1986 and 1996. All patients had undergone a previous nephrectomy for RCC.

RESULTS
Isolated mild elevation in liver function test results (in 5 patients) or in serum amylase level (in 8 patients) was observed. New-onset diabetes was detected in 3 patients. The CT characteristics of the pancreatic metastases generally resembled those of primary RCC with well-defined margins and greater enhancement than normal pancreas with a central area of low attenuation. The mean interval between resection of the primary RCC and detection of the pancreatic metastases was 116 months (range, 1-295 months). In 18 patients (78%), the pancreatic metastases were diagnosed more than 5 years after nephrectomy. The pancreas was the initial metastatic site in 12 patients (52%). Survival was shortened with higher tumor grade (mean survival time of 41 months and 10 months in patients with grade 2 and 3, respectively). Surgical resection was carried out in 11 patients (7 distal and 3 total pancreatectomies and 1 distal pancreatectomy followed 4 years later by total pancreatectomy), with 8 patients alive at a mean follow-up of 4 years, 6 of whom remained free of recurrence. Overall, 12 patients (52%) were alive at a mean of 42 months after diagnosis of metastatic disease.

CONCLUSIONS
The appearance of metastatic RCC lesions in the pancreas closely resembles the appearance of primary RCC on CT images. Pancreatic metastases from RCC are frequently detected many years after nephrectomy. Patient survival correlates with tumor grade. Histologic analysis of pancreatic masses in patients with a history of resected primary RCC is important since the prognosis for RCC metastatic to the pancreas is much better than that for primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma.


So far, tractable planning problems reported in the literature have been defined by syntactical restrictions. To better exploit the inherent structure in problems, however, it is probably necessary to study also structural restrictions on the state-transition graph. Such restrictions are typically computationally hard to test, though, since this graph is of exponential size. Hence, we take an intermediate approach, using a state-variable model for planning and restricting the state-transition graph implicitly by restricting the transition graph for each state variable in isolation. We identify three such restrictions which are tractable to test and we present a planning algorithm which is correct and runs in polynomial time under these restrictions.


INTRODUCTION Many psychology students are familiar with the 'Forer Test'. In the test, a personality evaluation is administered and every participant gets the same personality profile as a result (Forer, 1949; Carroll, 2005). Most participants consider the profile to be fairly accurate, thinking it is a personalized profile based on the test. This face validity is due to the generally positive nature of the profile (Leung, Su & Morris, 2001), the accepted authority of the evaluator and the belief that the analysis was unique to them (Hannay, Arisholm, Engvik & Sj0berg, 2010; Dickson & Kelly, 1985). The test is used to show the problems with relying only on face validity to judge a measurement instrument or evaluation. In this exercise we go beyond the traditional 'Forer Test' lesson. We administer the 'personality test' online, and analyze the actual results from test using legitimate, established social science methods to see if indeed the test does reveal patterns that indicate latent constructs. In this way, an interesting but limited demonstration of a psychological phenomenon is used as a starting point for illustrating more sophisticated concepts. In addition to describing the basic exercise, we illustrate how it can be used in different but related behavioral disciplines within business education. Specifically we describe the basic exercise, and illustrate how it was successfully used in undergraduate and graduate management and marketing courses. The paper begins with a description of the Forer test, its history and application. This is followed by a brief explanation of experiential exercises in general. A description of our exercise is presented next. After the basic exercise is presented, a specific implementation of the exercise will be examined in detail. The materials and procedures will be presented first, followed by the analysis methods and results. The presentation of the results in class and the ensuing discussion are explored next. The paper concludes with proposals of how to modify the exercise for different contexts. BACKGROUND--THE FORER TEST In 1949 Bertram R. Forer introduced "the fallacy of personal validation". Specifically he found that people had a tendency to accept vague, general descriptions of personality as very true for them even though the descriptions could apply to almost everyone. The personality evaluation given by Forer was as follows: "You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic" (Forer, 1949). Participants in Forer's test, performed in 1948, rated this passage as 4.26 on a scale of 0 to 5 with 4 indicating it was a 'good' assessment and 5 as 'excellent' (Forer, 1949; Hannay, Arisholm, Engvik & Sj0berg, 2010). The test has been repeated hundreds of times in the succeeding decades with the average remaining about 4.2 (Carroll, 2005). This phenomenon of individuals tendency to accept 'bogus' feedback as accurate is also known as the 'Barnum Effect' (Meehl, 1956; MacDonald & Standing, 2002). The Barnum effect was initially used in classrooms to illustrate gullibility and deception; however it later was used to teach ethics (Beins, 1993). …


Source determination of use-related residues on prehistoric stone tools is especially challenging, due to issues related to preservation, contamination and the contribution of residues from multiple sources. To increase confidence in this process, an analytical workflow was developed to include: (1) a sampling strategy that retains spatial information of the recovered residues and enables monitoring of environmental contamination; and (2) a sensitive and selective gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) procedure to quantify non-volatile low molecular weight lipids on stone artefacts. This workflow was applied to 14 stone artefacts excavated from deposits at Liang Bua, a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. These artefacts range in age between ∼14 000 and 1000 years old, and were preliminarily classified as either potentially showing traces of use (n = 7) or not (n = 7) using low magnification microscopy. Residues were sampled by direct solvent extraction off the surface of the artefacts. The aliquots were spiked with internal standards and derivatised. The trimethylsilyl derivatives of 40 saturated fatty acids, sterols, di- and tri-terpenoids and their analogues were quantified using optimised multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitions. Six of the potentially used artefacts contained sterols, phytosterols and terpenoids, either individually or in combination, whereas none of these compounds was commonly found on the seven artefacts preliminarily classified as unused. This suggests that these six artefacts may have been used as implements to process resources, and provides scope for further investigation. This workflow can also be adapted for the analysis of other archaeological objects.


The Faroe Islands north of Scotland has a disproportionally large number of road tunnels. In addition to 44 km of existing tunnels, two further undersea tunnels totalling 22 km will be completed by 2023. A further 30 km undersea crossing is planned, providing nearly 2 m of tunnel for each of the 50 000 inhabitants. This paper describes the country's recent, current and proposed subsea tunnelling projects. When eventually completed they will reduce journey times between the 18 major islands from up to a day to no more than a few hours' drive.


Objective: To describe the characteristics and outcome of patients who have a cardiac arrest at home compared with elsewhere out of hospital. Patients: Subjects were patients included in the Swedish cardiac arrest registry between 1990 and 1999. The registry covers about 60% of all ambulance organisations in Sweden. Methods: The study sample comprised patients reached by the ambulance crew and in whom resuscitation was attempted out of hospital. There was no age limit. Crew witnessed cases were excluded. The patients were divided into two groups: cardiac arrest at home and cardiac arrest elsewhere. Results: Among a study population of 24 630 patients the event took place at home in 16 150 (65.5%). Those in whom the arrest took place at home differed from the remainder in that they were older, were more often women, less often had a witnessed cardiac arrest, were less often exposed to bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), were less often found in ventricular fibrillation, and had a longer interval between collapse and call for ambulance, arrival of ambulance, start of CPR, and first defibrillation. Of patients in whom the arrest took place at home, 11.3% were admitted to hospital alive, v 19.4% in the elsewhere group (p < 0.0001); corresponding figures for survival after one month were 1.7% v 6.2% (p < 0.0001). The adjusted odds ratio for survival after one month (at home v not at home; considering age, sex, initial arrhythmia, bystander CPR, aetiology, and whether the arrest was witnessed) was 0.40 (95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.49; p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Sixty five per cent of out of hospital cardiac arrests in Sweden occur at home. The patients differed greatly from those with out of hospital cardiac arrests elsewhere, and fewer than 2% were alive after one month. Having an arrest at home was a strong independent predictor of adverse outcome. Further research is needed to identify the reasons for this.


This study examines whether Audit Quality has any impact or relationship with earnings response coefficients of companies in Nigeria. Pursuant to this objective, archival data were extracted from annual reports of 57 companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) between 2006 and 2011. Audit Quality was estimated using Audit Firm Size, Audit Fees, Auditor Tenure and Auditor Client Importance. Earnings Response Coefficients model was applied to measure unexpected earnings (UE) as the actual earnings disclosed minus a measure of investors' prior expectation of earnings scaled by the market price. The result of the test showed that Audit Quality exerts significant impact on the ERC of quoted companies in Nigeria. In order to improve the quality of audit and minimize earnings manipulations in Nigeria, we recommend that professional accountancy bodies, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and the National Assembly should issue authoritative codes for audit quality; companies should improve their earnings quality only through sales growth, cost control and cost reduction strategies; companies in Nigeria should present distinct statements of earnings quality while auditors should conduct earnings quality assessment and issue Integrated Audit Quality Assurance Report by adapting or adopting current best practices statutorily backed by earnings monitoring of companies in Nigeria.


The term 'in silico clinical trials indicates the use of individualised computer simulation in the development or regulatory evaluation of a medicinal product, medical device, or medical intervention. This review article summarises the research and technological roadmap developed by the Avicenna Support Action during an 18 month consensus process that involved 577 international experts from academia, the biomedical industry, the simulation industry, the regulatory world, etc. The roadmap documents early examples of in silico clinical trials, identifies relevant use cases for in silico clinical trial technologies over the entire development and assessment cycle for both pharmaceuticals and medical devices, identifies open challenges and barriers to a wider adoption and puts forward 36 recommendations for all relevant stakeholders to consider .


In recent years, Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) has been the subject of increasing interest. A woman, a member of the landholding elite, an educator, and a daughter who lived under the historical shadow of her father, Edgeworth's life is difficult to categorize. Ironically, these very aspects of Edgeworth's identity that once excluded her from literary and historical discussions now form the basis of current interest in her life and her writing. This collection of essays builds on existing scholarship to develop new perspectives about Edgeworth's place in English and Irish history, literary history, and women's history. These essays explore the ways in which Edgeworth's entire adult life was an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, an attempt to justify and preserve her own privileged position even as she acknowledged the tenuousness of that position and as she sought to claim other privileges denied her. Christopher Fauske is the assistant dean in the School of Arts & Science at Salem State College, Salem, Massachusetts. Heidi Kaufman is assistant Professor of English at the University of Delaware.


We consider a dynamic set of soft real-time applications using a set of shared resources. Each application can execute in different modes, each one associated with a level of Quality-of-Service (QoS). Resources, in their turn, have different modes, each one with a speed and a power consumption, and are managed by a Reservation-Based scheduler enabling a dynamic allocation of the fraction of resources (bandwidth) assigned to each application. To cope with dynamic changes of the application, we advocate an adaptive resource allocation policy organized in two nested feedback loops. The internal loop operates on the scheduling parameter to obtain a resource allocation that meets the temporal constraints of the applications. The external loop operates on the QoS level of the applications and on the power level of the resources to strike a good tradeoff between the global QoS and the energy consumption. This loop comes into play whenever the workload of the application exceeds the bounds that permit the internal loop to operate correctly, or whenever it decreases below a level that permit more aggressive choices for the QoS or substantial energy saving.


An active object-oriented knowledge base server can provide many desirable features for supporting a wide spectrum of advanced and complex database applications. Knowledge rules, which are used to define a variety of database tasks to be performed automatically on the occurrence of some events, often need much more sophisticated rule-specification and control mechanisms than the traditional priority-based mechanism to specify the control structural relationships and parallel execution properties among rules. The underlying object-oriented (OO) knowledge representation model must provide a means to model the structural relationships among data entities and the control structures among rules in a uniform fashion. The transaction execution model must provide a means to incorporate the execution of structured rules in a transaction framework. Also, a parallel implementation of an active knowledge base server is essential to achieve the needed efficiency in processing nested transactions and rules. In this paper, we present the architecture, implementation, and performance of a parallel active OO knowledge base server, which has the following features. First, the server is developed based on an extended OO knowledge representation model that models rules as objects and their control structural relationships as association types. This is analogous to the modeling of entities as objects and their structural relationships as association types. Thus, entities and rules, and their structures, can be uniformly modeled. Second, the server uses a graph-based transaction model that can naturally incorporate the control semantics of structured rules and guarantee the serializable execution of rules as subtransactions. Thus, the rule-execution model is uniformly integrated with that of transactions. Third, it uses an asynchronous parallel execution model to process the graph-based transactions and structured rules. This server, named OSAM*.KBMS/P, has been implemented on a shared-nothing multiprocessor system (nCUBE2) to verify and evaluate the proposed knowledge-representation model, graph-based transaction model, and asynchronous parallel-execution model.


JVRB, 5(2008), no. 15. - The full-body control of virtual characters is a promising technique for application fields such as Virtual Prototyping. However it is important to assess to what extent the user full-body behavior is modified when immersed in a virtual environment. In the present study we have measured reach durations for two types of task (controlling a simple rigid shape vs. a virtual character) and two types of viewpoint (1st person vs. 3rd person). The paper first describes the architecture of the motion capture approach retained for the on-line full-body reach experiment. We then present reach measurement results performed in a non-virtual environment. They show that the target height parameter leads to reach duration variation of ∓25% around the average duration for the highest and lowest targets. This characteristic is highly accentuated in the virtual world as analyzed in the discussion section. In particular, the discrepancy observed for the first person viewpoint modality suggests to adopt a third person viewpoint when controling the posture of a virtual character in a virtual environment.


Korea has experienced remarkable economic growth during the last four decades due to its trade-oriented development policy. Since the international trade of Korea is carried predominantly by sea transport, its ports play a pivotal role in national economic development. This impressive development in a short period of time has resulted in rapidly increasing seaborne cargoes. All the parties involved in port activities have made a significant effort to keep pace with the ever-growing export and import cargoes. Korean ports, however, still have a number of problems including insufficient port and terminal capacity, inefficient management and operation, and bureaucratic administration, all of which weaken the competitiveness of the country's products by adding heavy logistics costs. Th deal appropriately with these problems, the newly established public port authority, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, has launched a new port and terminal development plan to attract private capital into both existing and new facilities. As a consequence, this scheme has introduced new competition into the Korean port industry combined with some degree of privatisation. The motives for privatisation are complex and varied, but one key claim made is that the transformation of ownership from public to private improves economic efficiency. Economic theories and existing empirical studies, however, fail to establish clear-cut evidence supporting this claim. This phenomenon may reflect, to some extent, a paucity of performance indicators systematically applicable across enterprises and industries. It is essential, therefore, to have a systematic and pragmatic analytical framework to assess the process of privatisation and its results. With this context in mind, this thesis aims to critically review the characteristics of international port privatisation together with the economic theory of privatisation, to apply a new econometric technique for efficiency measurement to a port: the frontier model, and to assess the policy implications for the Korean government and port authority, paying particular reference to the privatisation strategy and its implementation within the nation's seaports and terminals. This research makes an original contribution to knowledge in three respects: firstly, port privatisation, in particular the Korean case has, for the first time, been scientifically investigated on the basis of the economic theory of privatisation; secondly, the industry was analysed through the application of a recently developed econometric efficiency measurement method based on the estimation of two frontier models (i.e. cross-sectional and panel models); and finally, the results of the research undoubtedly provide government, port authority and other interested parties with information and guidelines for implementing the policy of port privatisation. URI http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/446 Collections 01 Research Theses Main Collection Publisher University of Plymouth Commissioning body Faculty of Science and Technology Productive efficiency and privatisation: an evaluation of Korean ports policy 


Traditional cheeses represent by themselves high-quality productions that are expressions of a production system highly linked to the territory. Biodiversity factors rising from the natural system have been extensively studied, and their effect on the quality of dairy products has been scientifically shown. CoRFiLaC is among the main contributors to this field with many studies developed on traditional productions in different environments. The main goal of the chapter is to highlight through case studies the methods applied in scientific protocols in order to define, besides the identification of biodiversity factors affecting quality, and valorize health properties and safety aspects and to understand consumer reactions and intentions to purchase depending on specific characteristics of final products. The combination of research performed in every single aspect of traditional production is the real challenge and good strategy to valorize high-quality goods.


A 16-year-old girl had progressive neck pain and weakness in the left hand. MR images showed a dumbbell-shaped spinal tumor with a prominently enhancing intradural component and a minimally enhancing extradural component. Pathologic examination revealed a meningioma with an intradural transitional component and an extradural syncytial component. The tumor showed no significant cystic change or necrosis.


Context. Fomalhaut is a young (2 ± 1 × 10 8 years), nearby (7.7 pc), 2 Mstar that is suspected to harbor an infant planetary system, interspersed with one or more belts of dusty debris. Aims. We present far-infrared images obtained with the Herschel Space Observatory with an angular resolution between 5.7 �� and 36.7 �� at wave- lengths between 70 μm and 500 μm. The images show the main debris belt in great detail. Even at high spatial resolution, the belt appears smooth. The region in between the belt and the central star is not devoid of material; thermal emission is observed here as well. Also at the location of the star, excess emission is detected. We aim to construct a consistent image of the Fomalhaut system. Methods. We use a dynamical model together with radiative-transfer tools to derive the parameters of the debris disk. We include detailed models of the interaction of the dust grains with radiation, for both the radiation pressure and the temperature determination. Comparing these models to the spatially resolved temperature information contained in the images allows us to place strong constraints on the presence of grains that will be blown out of the system by radiation pressure. We use this to derive the dynamical parameters of the system. Results. The appearance of the belt points toward a remarkably active system in which dust grains are produced at a very high rate by a collisional cascade in a narrow region filled with dynamically excited planetesimals. Dust particles with sizes below the blow-out size are abundantly present. The equivalent of 2000 one-km-sized comets are destroyed every day, out of a cometary reservoir amounting to 110 Earth masses. From compar- ison of their scattering and thermal properties, we find evidence that the dust grains are fluffy aggregates, which indicates a cometary origin. The excess emission at the location of the star may be produced by hot dust with a range of temperatures, but may also be due to gaseous free-free emission from a stellar wind.


Newly discovered xenoliths within Pliocene and Quaternary intermediate volcanic rocks from southern Peru permit examination of lithospheric processes by which thick crust (60–70 km) and high average elevations (3–4 km) resulted within the Altiplano, the second most extensive orogenic plateau on Earth. The most common petrographic groups of xenoliths studied here are igneous or meta-igneous rocks with radiogenic isotopic ratios consistent with recent derivation from asthenospheric mantle ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.704–0.709, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.5126–0.5129). A second group, consisting of felsic granulite xenoliths exhibiting more radiogenic compositions ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.711–0.782, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd = 0.5121–0.5126), is interpreted as supracrustal rocks that underwent metamorphism at ~9 kbar (~30–35 km paleodepth, assuming a mean crustal density of 2.8 g/cm 3 ) and ~750 °C. These rocks are correlated with nonmetamorphosed rocks of the Mitu Group and assigned a Mesozoic (Upper Triassic or younger) age based on detrital zircon U-Pb ages. A felsic granulite Sm-Nd garnet whole-rock isochron of 42 ± 2 Ma demonstrates that garnet growth took place in Eocene time. Monazite grains associated with quenched anatectic melt networks in the same rocks yield ion microprobe U-Pb ages ranging from 3.2 ± 0.2 to 4.4 ± 0.3 Ma (2σ). These disparate geochronologic data sets are reconciled by a model wherein Mesozoic cover rocks were transferred to >30 km depth beneath the plateau in the Eocene and progressively heated until at least Pliocene time. Isothermal decompression and partial melting ensued as these rocks were entrained as xenoliths in volcanic host magmas and transported toward the surface. Mafic granulites and peridotites from the same xenolith suite comprise the basement of the metasedimentary sequence, exhibiting isotopic characteristics of Central Andean crust. Calculated equilibrium pressures for these basement rocks are >11 kbar, suggesting that the basement-cover interface lies beneath the northernmost Altiplano at ~30–40 km below the surface. Together, these results indicate that crustal thickening under the northernmost Altiplano started earlier than major latest Oligocene and Miocene uplift episodes affecting the region and was coeval with a flat slab–related regional episode of deformation. Total shortening must have been at least 20% more than previous estimates in order to satisfy the basement to cover depth constraints provided by the xenolith data. Sedimentary rocks at >30 km paleodepth require that Andean basement thrusts decapitated earlier Triassic normal faults, trapping Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks below the main decollement. Magma loading from intense Cenozoic plutonism within the plateau probably played an additional role in transporting Mesozoic cover rocks to >30 km and thickening the crust beneath the northern Altiplano.


The aim of this paper is to explore the role of farmers in Italy who are involved in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), paying particular attention to sustainability in terms of its social, economic and environmental dimensions. Research is based upon a set of indicators linked to structural and economic aspects, and also to issues relating to employment. ANOVA and MANOVA models are used to highlight farm behaviors within SFSCs about sustainability.


This Dictionary provides entries on the history and economy of each constituent country of the region, as well as entries on any distinct territories, ethnic groups, religions, political parties, prime ministers, presidents, politicians, businesses, international organizations, multinationals and major NGOs with an impact on the region's political or economic affairs. The book reflects the unique perspective of the region, providing invaluable, specific information. Entries are concise and cross-referenced, providing contact details where appropriate. A Political and Economic Dictionary of Central and South-Eastern Europe is invaluable for anyone in need of concise information on politics and economics, and will be particularly useful to public and academic libraries, students, the media, teachers, businesses and all organizations or individuals requiring a reliable overview of this world region.


Adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is the main sensor and regulator of energy homeostasis in the body. As abnormal energy metabolism is a well documented pathological feature of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in patients and mouse models of ALS, we investigated AMPK as a possible therapeutic target to relieve disease phenotype in ALS mice.
Firstly, we examined AMPK signalling patterns across disease progression in SOD1G93a mice, as this mouse model is the most characterised and well understood mouse model of ALS. We observed increased AMPK activation in S0D1G93A spinal cords at symptom onset (post natal day (PND) 90) which also continued later into disease progression at PND 120. As AMPK can activate autophagy we investigated autophagy protein levels also. Similarly, we found elevated autophagy activity at PND 90.
Latrepirdine has recently been identified as a small molecular activator of AMPK. Therefore, we tested the effect of Latrepirdine treatment in primary motor neuron cells and found that it elevated AMPK activation when used at a sub-nanomolar concentration (0.1 nM). Additionally, in vivo, Latrepirdine treatment increased AMPK activation in spinal cords of S0D1G93A and TDP-43A3I5T mice when used at 1 pg/kg dose.
Furthermore, previous studies targeting AMPK in pre-conditioning treatment paradigms have proved to be neuroprotective. Transient AMPK activation is associated with pro-survival effects, while pro-longed AMPK activation can lead to cell death. Flere, we trialled Latrepirdine as a possible therapeutic agent in SOD 1G93A mice (n=24 animals per group; sex- and litter-matched), and found that 'pre-conditioning' treatment with Latrepirdine (1 pg/kg, i.p.) from PND 70 - PND 120 improved survival (p<0.01) and delayed the onset of motor function disabilities in these mice, particularly in males.
Moreover, we characterised AMPK signalling in another mouse model of ALS, TDP-43A315T mice. We investigated AMPK as a pharmalogical target in this mouse model using Latrepirdine as a 'pre-conditioning' treatment (1 pg/kg, i.p.) from PND 40 - PND 80 and found that this treatment regime increased lifespan significantly (p<0.05) also.
The work from this thesis shows that 'pre-conditioning' treatments using Latrepirdine may provide a possible therapeutic strategy to target AMPK in ALS. Additionally, as Latrepirdine significantly increased life span in two mouse models of ALS, this pharmalogical treatment strategy may be a possible therapeutic intervention in many sub-populations of ALS cases linked to various genetic mutations of the disease.


Global climate change has local implications. Focusing on datasets from the topographically-challenging Karnali river basin in Western Nepal, this research provides an overview of hydro-climatic parameters that have been observed during 1981–2012. The spatial and temporal variability of temperature and precipitation were analyzed in the basin considering the seven available climate stations and 20 precipitation stations distributed in the basin. The non-parametric Mann–Kendall test and Sen's method were used to study the trends in climate data. Results show that the average precipitation in the basin is heterogeneous, and more of the stations trend are decreasing. The precipitation shows decreasing trend by 4.91 mm/year, i.e., around 10% on average. Though the increasing trends were observed in both minimum and maximum temperature, maximum temperature trend is higher than the minimum temperature and the maximum temperature trend during the pre-monsoon season is significantly higher (0.08 °C/year). River discharge and precipitation observations were analyzed to understand the rainfall-runoff relationship. The peak discharge (August) is found to be a month late than the peak precipitation (July) over the basin. Although the annual precipitation in most of the stations shows a decreasing trend, there is constant river discharge during the period 1981–2010.


The study adopts a data reduction technique to examine the presence of any complex structure among a set of project management competency variables. A structured survey questionnaire was administered to 100 project managers to elicit relevant data, and this achieved a relatively high response rate of 54%. After satisfying all the necessary tests of reliability of the survey instrument, sample size adequacy and population matrix, the data was subjected to principal component analysis, resulting in the identification of six new thematic project management competency areas; and were explained in terms of human resource management and project control; construction innovation and communication; project financial resources management; project risk and quality management; business ethics and; physical resources and procurement management. These knowledge areas now form the basis for lateral project management training requirements in the context of the Ghanaian construction industry. The main contribution of the paper is manifested in the use of the principal component analysis, which has rigorously provided an understanding into the complex structure and the relationship between the various knowledge areas. The originality and value of the paper is embedded in the use of contextual-task and conceptual knowledge to expound the six uncorrelated empirical utility of the project management competencies.


As the video game industry grows, both developers and creative authors seek new ways to simplify the process of controlling story content using scripts. This paper describes a story model and its software implementation, ScriptEase II, designed to solve this game design bottleneck. ScriptEase II is the second generation of the ScriptEase system, whose goal was to enable game authors with no programming ability to generate scripting code from high-level game patterns. ScriptEase II differs from the original in two important ways. First, ScriptEase II uses game-dependent translators to generate scripts for any game engine. Second, ScriptEase II uses a drag-and-drop interface that simplifies the story component creation menus that grew cumbersome in the original ScriptEase. The feasibility of code generation has been validated using three different game engines and the advantages of the simple drag-and-drop interface have been validated by a user study.


While a large and growing literature has emerged which investigates the impact of the expansion of democracy on foreign policy and international politics, much of it has been characterized by insufficient attention to theoretical and conceptual clarity. To address such problems, this article is an exercise in concept clarification. It stresses that the democratic peace is a subset of the processes and results of integration, that it fits within an integration framework, and that it works according to processes already identified by integration theory which permits the synthesis of a number of `contending' explanations for the democratic peace. As part of this argument, the article also stresses the transparent nature of democracy, emphasizing the importance of the mutual perceptions of two democracies, that the other is clearly a democracy. Finally, this article reminds scholars that the focus of the democratic peace proposition is on war. While it is important to explore our theories in terms of their extension to other conflictual phenomena, we must be careful in specifying exactly what these relationships should look like.


Knowledge discovery in high-dimensional data is a challenging enterprise, but new visual analytic tools appear to offer users remarkable powers if they are ready to learn new concepts and interfaces. Our three-year effort to develop versions of the hierarchical clustering explorer (HCE) began with building an interactive tool for exploring clustering results. It expanded, based on user needs, to include other potent analytic and visualization tools for multivariate data, especially the rank-by-feature framework. Our own successes using HCE provided some testimonial evidence of its utility, but we felt it necessary to get beyond our subjective impressions. This paper presents an evaluation of the hierarchical clustering explorer (HCE) using three case studies and an e-mail user survey (n=57) to focus on skill acquisition with the novel concepts and interface for the rank-by-feature framework. Knowledgeable and motivated users in diverse fields provided multiple perspectives that refined our understanding of strengths and weaknesses. A user survey confirmed the benefits of HCE, but gave less guidance about improvements. Both evaluations suggested improved training methods


A crossflow model for pulsing flow in a trickle bed of large cross section is presented. The trickle bed is idealized as being made up of pulses and the trickling flow region surrounding these pulses. Assuming the macroscopic gas flow around the pulses to be irrotational and the pulses to contain only liquid, the model equations are derived. An analysis of the model and comparison with the experimental results of Christensen (1986) reveals that the irrotational flow model underestimates the pulse velocity for realistic pulse shapes. This can be attributed to the underestimation by the model of the drag exerted by the trickling region on the pulses. By dropping the irrotational flow assumption and viewing the model as semiempirical, a single parameter characterizing the magnitude of this drag is estimated from the pulse velocity data. When this estimated value for this parameter is employed, the model predicts the average pressure gradient data reasonably well.


The American antitrust laws do not regulate the competitive conditions of other nations' economies. But they do regulate conduct, even when it occurs abroad, that harms domestic competition. It is well established that the Sherman Act reaches foreign conduct that was meant to produce and did in fact produce some substantial effect in the United States.This jurisdictional "effects" test is theoretically simple, but difficult to apply. One recurring problem is determining whether foreign victims injured abroad by cartels may bring damages claims in U.S. courts. Skirmishes over jurisdiction have featured prominently in many of the private suits that have followed the mid-1990s upsurge in government anticartel enforcement, and circuit courts have split over the proper interpretation of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA), a statute that was meant to provide, but has failed to deliver, clarity respecting the Sherman Act's extraterritorial reach. With the issue ripe for resolution, the Supreme Court in December 2003 granted certiorari in F. Hoffmann-LaRoche, Ltd v Empagran S.A., a case involving claims pressed by foreign victims of the global vitamins cartel.Resolution is, unfortunately, not what we got. The Court issued an opinion reversing the D.C. Circuit, but what the Court actually did cannot, on any fair reading, be understood as a reversal. Rather, the Court constructed a hypothetical--whether jurisdiction extends to claims of foreigners who suffer foreign harm "independent" from the domestic harm caused by a cartel--and refused to extend jurisdiction in such a situation.This Essay attempts, briefly, to sketch the opinion that the Court might have written in Empagran had it addressed the real jurisdictional issue, rather than a hypothetical orthogonal to the case. If we think more broadly about the purpose of our antitrust laws and our long-term interest in deterring cartels, it's clear that the effects test has been asked to bear too much weight. We need jurisdictional rules that encourage the spread of antitrust enforcement responsibility. Unfortunately, however, throughout the recent litigation over the meaning of the FTAIA, courts have focused on (and often botched) the narrow statutory interpretation questions while neglecting the broader enterprise of developing jurisdictional doctrines appropriate to a globalized economy that induces globalized cartels.The Empagran Court has gotten the jurisdiction question wrong--it has misapplied the effects test as codified in the FTAIA--but that the right answer does not have to mean what the Court fears it does. Rather, by reintroducing comity considerations into a "jurisdictional rule of reason," courts will no longer be obliged to distort the test for subject matter jurisdiction in order to conserve U.S. judicial resources, respect the autonomy of other nations, and promote the long-term development and convergence of antitrust regimes around the world.To that end this Essay proceeds in two parts. Part I examines how courts and Congress have approached extraterritorial application of antitrust law, and traces how subject matter jurisdiction has come to dominate the analysis and supplant other doctrines that should play a role, including and most importantly, comity.I argue that the Empagran decision, had it addressed the issues squarely, would have found jurisdiction under the effects test. However, a finding of jurisdiction, even when permitted by the effects test, does not always serve the policy interests of the United States. In Part II, I suggest that rather than do violence to the effects test, courts should reintroduce an expanded analysis that incorporates comity considerations as a second filter supplementing the effects test.


Third party applications work on top of existing platforms that host users' data. Although these apps access this data to provide users with specific services, they can also use it for monetization or profiling purposes. In practice, there is a significant gap between users' privacy expectations and the actual access levels of 3rd party apps, which are often over-privileged. Due to weaknesses in the existing privacy indicators, users are generally not well-informed on what data these apps get. Even more, we are witnessing the rise of inverse privacy: 3rd parties collect data that enables them to know information about users that users do not know, cannot remember, or cannot reach. In this paper, we describe our recent experiences with the design and evaluation of Data-Driven Privacy Indicators (DDPIs), an approach attempting to reduce the aforementioned privacy gap. DDPIs are realized through analyzing user's data by a trusted party (e.g., the app platform) and integrating the analysis results in the privacy indicator's interface. We discuss DDPIs in the context of 3rd party apps on cloud platforms, such as Google Drive and Dropbox. Specifically, we present our recent work on Far-reaching Insights, which show users the insights that apps can infer about them (e.g., their topics of interest, collaboration and activity patterns etc.). Then we present History-based insights, a novel privacy indicator which informs the user on what data is already accessible by an app vendor, based on previous app installations by the user or her collaborators. We further discuss future ideas on new DDPIs, and we outline the challenges facing the wide-scale deployment of such indicators.


This review is the second in a series of four papers emanating from a workshop entitled "Developmental Toxicology-New Directions," which was sponsored by the ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute's (HESI) Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Technical Committee. The present review analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of current developmental safety testing approaches in an effort to identify those strengths that should be retained in the future versus the weaknesses that should be eliminated. Workshop participants considered the following to be key strengths of current testing approaches: the integrated biology of pregnant animal models including pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes, the ability to detect low incidence malformations as well as maternally mediated toxicity, and the long history of use coupled with extensive historical data. A number of weaknesses were related to the resource-intensive nature of developmental toxicity testing (e.g., large number of animals, high costs, low throughput, the inability to keep pace with the demand for more toxicity data). Other weaknesses included the use of very high dose levels that often far exceed human exposure levels, the confounding influence of maternal toxicity, sparse understanding of basic developmental mechanisms and genetics of standard animal models relative to mouse or lower organisms, difficulties interpreting low incidence findings, and issues surrounding the interpretation of minor skeletal variations. An appreciation of these strengths and weaknesses is critical for the design of new approaches to developmental toxicity testing in the 21st century.


Influenza is an important cause of mortality in temperate countries, but there is substantial controversy as to the total direct and indirect mortality burden imposed by influenza viruses. The authors have extracted multiple-cause death data from public-use data files for the United States from 1979 to 2001. The current research reevaluates attribution of deaths to influenza, by use of an annualized regression approach: comparing measures of excess deaths with measures of influenza virus prevalence by subtype over entire influenza seasons and attributing deaths to influenza by a regression model. This approach is more conservative in its assumptions than is earlier work, which used weekly regression models, or models based on fitting baselines, but it produces results consistent with these other methods, supporting the conclusion that influenza is an important cause of seasonal excess deaths. The regression model attributes an annual average of 41,400 (95% confidence interval: 27,100, 55,700) deaths to influenza over the period 1979-2001. The study also uses regional death data to investigate the effects of cold weather on annualized excess deaths.


Can questions sent to Open-Educational-Resource (OER) websites such as Ask-An-Expert serve as indicators for students' interest in science? This issue was examined using an online questionnaire which included an equal number of questions about the topics "space" and "nutrition" randomly selected from three different sources: a 5th-grade science textbook, the "Ask-An-Expert" website, and questions collected from other students in the same age group. A sample of 113 5thgraders from two elementary schools were asked to rate their interest level in finding out the answer to these questions without knowledge of their source. Significant differences in students' interest level were found between questions: textbook questions were ranked lowest for both subjects, and questions from the open-resource were ranked high. This finding suggests that questions sent to an open-resource could be used as an indicator of students' interest in science. In addition, the high correlation of interests expressed by students from the two schools may point to a potential generalization of the findings. This study contributes by highlighting OER as a new and promising indicator of student interest, which may help bring "student voices" into mainstream science teaching to increase student interest in science.


The composer Irving Fine died in 1962 at the age of forty-seven cutting short the life of an important figure in twentieth-century American music. Since Fine's life was relatively short, his musical output is proportionally small and often goes unstudied. Fine's contribution to the choral genre is particularly small but offers a unique perspective of composing for choir. Fine's complete oeuvre includes music in many genres that can stylistically be divided into two categories; tonal-neoclassical and atonal-neoclassical. Fine's early instrumental compositions are decidedly tonal-neoclassical and ultimately become serially based, a style that characterizes most of his later works. While Fine's instrumental music developed towards atonality, his works for women's choir did not. The choral music for women's choir remained rooted in the tonal-neoclassical style of his early period. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that Irving Fine composed choral music for women's choir in an operative and nuanced style of choral writing that remained effectively tonally based and in the neoclassical style as understood and applied by Fine and his colleagues. This document places the selected choral works in context through a brief biography and discussion of neoclassicism as the term was understood during Fine's compositional period. The biography "Irving Fine: A Composer in His Time" by Phillip Ramey and information from the Irving Fine Collection at the Library of Congress are the primary sources of biographical information. The remainder of this paper is a detailed examination of Fine's treatment of musical form, harmony and character in his compositions for women's choir. Through this examination, Fine's music will be shown to function within criteria of tonal-neoclassicism as understood and practiced by Fine and his colleagues.


The paper analyses quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) policy and activities in mandatory schooling at national level in Sweden. Two studies are reported: a textual analysis of national policy documents concerning QAE, and an interview study conducted with national policy brokers. Questions addressed are: What are the characteristics of Swedish QAE activities? What European and international ideas on QAE are considered relevant to Swedish national policy? To what degree is international QAE policy disseminated across the Swedish school system? And, does Sweden influence international QAE policy in any way? QAE activities are analysed in relation to the European Union's and international organisations' efforts to influence national education policy. Results show that Sweden was historically early equipped with means to control quality in schooling. By the end of the 1990s, there was a marked increase in national regulations, increasing the number of QAE activities directed at Swedish schooling. The development of QAE in Sweden, therefore, has been related to a shift in governing policies and practices towards governing by objectives and results; and national QAE policies have successively strengthened this governing doctrine. Finally, Swedish national brokers maintain an image of doing quite well on QAE policy and practice compared to other European countries.


Aim Cities represent an ideal study system for assessing how intensive land-use change and biotic interchange have altered beta diversity at broad geographic extents. Here we test the hypothesis that floras in cities located in disparate regions of the globe are being homogenized by species classified as invasive (naturalized species that have spread over a large area) or as a European archaeophyte (species introduced into Europe beforead 1500 from the Mediterranean Basin). We also test the prediction that the global influences of European activities (colonization, agriculture, commerce) have supported this outcome. Location One hundred and ten cities world-wide. Methods We examined the richness and composition of urban floras among European (n = 85) and non-European cities (n = 25) for species classified as native or non-native, or further classified as European archaeophyte or invasive. We modelled how geographic, climatic and anthropogenic factors were related to compositional similarity between European and non-European cities. Results We found that most plants in the cities we examined, particularly nonEuropean cities, were native and unique to each city. Non-native species were similarly unique, but occurred in much lower proportions relative to natives. Although European archaeophytes and invasive species also occurred in lower proportions, they had similar compositions among cities. European archaeophytes were most prevalent in European cities, but were most similar among nonEuropean cities. Contrasting European and non-European cities, geography and climate were most relevant for native and invasive species, whereas climate and agriculture were most relevant for European archaeophytes. Main conclusions Cities in disparate regions of the globe retain regionally distinct native and non-native plant assemblages, while invasive species, and especially European archaeophytes, were associated with lower beta diversity among cities. These findings suggest that intensive land-use change and biotic interchange, shaped through European influences, have had a world-wide effect on the beta diversity of urban plant assemblages.


Nephrology has a long tradition in the Czech Republic. The first acute dialysis was performed in 1955, a chronic dialysis programme started in the early 60ies, and a transplantation programme in 1966. This was reflected by many important international meetings held in Prague: The 2nd Congress of the International Society of Nephrology (1963), 17th Congress of the European Dialysis and Transplantation Association (1980) and the 15th Congress of the European Society of Artificial Organs (1988). More recently, the 17th and 25th meetings of the International Society of Blood Purification (1999 and 2007), 11th ANCA and Vasculitis Workshop (2003), 7th European Peritoneal Dialysis Meeting (2005), 13th Congress of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (2007) and finally, this year, the 48th Congress of ERA-EDTA.


A powerful work of moral and political philosophy.The idea which I shall present here came to me more or less out of the blue. I was on a train some five years ago, on my way to spend a day at Headingley and I was reading a book about the death camp at Sobibor... The particular, not very appropriate, conjunction involved for me in this train journey... had the effect of fixing my thoughts on one of the more dreadful features of human coexistence, when in the shape of a simple five-word phrase the idea occurred to me. In The Contract of Mutual Indifference, Norman Geras discusses a central aspect of the experience of the Holocaust with a view to exploring its most important contemporary implications. In a bold and powerful synthesis of memorial, literary record, historical reflection and political theory, he focuses on the figure of the bystander--the bystander to the destruction of the Jews of Europe and the bystander to more recent atrocities--to consider the moral consequences of looking on without active response at persecution and great suffering. Geras argues that the tragedy of European Jewry, so widely pondered by historians, social scientists, psychologists, theologians and others, has not yet found its proper reflection within political philosophy. Attempting to fill the gap, he adapts an old idea from within that tradition of enquiry, the idea of the social contract, to the task of thinking about the triangular relation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders, and draws a somber conclusion from it. Geras goes on to ask how far this conclusion may be offset by the hypothesis of a universal duty to bring aid. The Contract of Mutual Indifference is an original and challenging work, aimed at the complacent abstraction of much contemporary theory. It is supplemented by three shorter essays on the implications of the Jewish catastrophe for conceptions of human nature and progress and for certain types of Marxist explanation.


This paper describes the development of an autonomous mobile inspection system (AMIS) for detecting hidden voids in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carrier triplex bonding layers. The triplex layer is the secondary barrier to prevent gas leaking from a Mark III type membrane LNG carrier tank. The triplex layer is composed of three composite layers: (1) a flexible secondary barrier (FSB), (2) an urethane-based bonding layer and (3) a resin-based rigid secondary barrier (RSB). During the installation of the triplex layers, air voids can be formed in the bonding layer, and gas leaking through these hidden voids can lead to failure of tightness of secondary barrier and reduction of ship's longevity. To prevent such accidents, the triplex layers are manually inspected 4 times during installation by triplex layer installer, manager of LNG tank, independent quality manager, and buyer. These manual inspections are very time consuming and labor intensive, because the voids invisible from the surface are only detected by rubbing a metal stick to the triplex layer surfaces. In this study, AMIS and void detection algorithms are developed to automatically detect and quantify the hidden voids in the triplex layers right after their installation. AMIS carries a thermography camera with multiple halogen lamps, and thermal images taken from the triplex layers are processed by a developed void detection algorithm. First, an amplitude image is obtained from raw thermal images after compensating uneven heating caused by halogen lamps. Second, binary imaging and noise canceling are performed to detect hidden voids. Third, only the voids, which are larger than 8 mm in diameter, are visualized according to the current void detection guideline. Finally, the effectiveness of the AMIS and void visualization algorithm are verified through multiple laboratory tests. The uniqueness of this study includes: (1) An autonomous inspection system is developed for real-time inspection of triplex during its installation, significantly saving the inspection cost and time; (2) A suite of new image processing techniques are developed, overcoming shortcomings of existing thermography NDT techniques; (3) The sizes as well as the locations of the hidden voids are quantified with high accuracy, reliability, and inspection speed. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/71


This article extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer traveling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved. (JEL F10, F30)


Please cite this article as: Linda A.O, G. Ouma and P. Omondi, 2017. Changes in Rainfall and Surface Temperature Over Lower Jubba, Somalia. J. clim. chang. sustain. Vol 1, issue 2, pp. 38-50. https://doi.org/10.20987/jccs.1.08.2017 Climate is changing at an alarming rate threatening the critical pillars for environmental, social and economic development. Signals of climate change seems to be quite real for many African communities. Somalia, is one the countries of the GHA that has faced unique climate variability and climate change challenges, within severe conflict environment and lack of a stable government for many years. The objective of this study was to understand the past and present rainfall and temperature patterns over Lower Jubba. Rainfall data used extended from 1981-2015, while those of temperature 1981-2012. The study for rainfall concentrated within the two main rainfall seasons namely Gu and Deyr. Temperature data were however analysed for all the four seasons, June to August, December to February, September to November, and March to May. The data were subjected to various trend analysis methods that included time series plots of the graph of the specific rainfall and temperature observations. Two statistical approaches namely linear regression and Man-Kendal non-parametric statistics were employed in testing the significance of the slope of the rainfall and temperature time series for specific seasons. Evidences from tend analyses showed increasing trends in both minimum and maximum temperatures at all locations and all seasons, which is consistent with patterns that have been delineated in many parts of the Greater Horn of Africa. IPCC among many other past studies have linked global temperature increase worldwide to climate change induced global warming. Due to limitation in the length of temperature data used in this study, it be would be difficult to attribute the observed trends in temperature records entirely to climate change. The results from rainfall showed that most of the trends observed were not statistically significant. Few significant trends that were delineated at some locations were not spatially consistent over large areas. The most dominant characteristics of rainfall time series were high degree of interannual variability with recurrences in high/low value extremes that are often associated with floods/droughts. Some of these extremes occurred during El Nino /La Nina years. Results are consistent with those from some past studies in the region. The results from the study can be used in the planning and risk management of all climate sensitive socio-economic development activities in Somalia, especially in the development of strategy for sustainable community livelihoods and development in Lower Jubba.


Dark Horse is proud to mark its 25th Anniversary of manga publishing with a new project from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices is a handbook designed to provide libraries, booksellers, and fans with a concise and informed overview of manga - its history, genres, and challenges. What sets this book apart among manga guides is its expert panel of contributors - not only scholars of the medium, but veterans of the manga industry itself who've worked from both the North American and Japanese sides of the field. CBLDF Presents Manga is an insider's view on this dynamic and influential field!


Many nations invite foreigners to work within their borders, but few welcome them. Those countries that do receive a torrent of immigrants create pressures that analysts expect to intensify as population growth and social unrest mount in the less developed countries of the world. "Immigration and Entrepreneurship," now in paperback, offers a comparative analysis of worldwide immigration issues while focusing more specifically on the emerging influence of entrepreneurship as a potent factor in the economic and social integration of immigrants. In linking the common immigrant and settler experiences with the upsurge in self-employment, the contributors to this volume use California as their base of comparison. The state has both a huge and varied immigrant population and an entrepreneurial economy that has facilitated the formation of immigrant-owned firms. The Los Angeles riots of the nineties indicated the volatility of the mix. Aided by ethnic and familial networks, such firms have served as a route of economic advancement. "Immigration and Entrepreneurship" offers a comparative perspective unique in the literature of immigration by broaching the topic from both global and local perspectives. Whereas most studies examine the experience of a single group or groups in a particular destination economy, this volume emphasizes variations in the way different nations receive immigrants as causes of differences in immigrant behavior. Among the innovative themes discussed by a range of international scholars are the entrepreneurial efforts and tensions in the garment industry in Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin; Koreans' enterprise and identities in Los Angeles and Japan; and U.S. immigration policies. The result is a genuinely global methodology.


Academic) This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay focuses on idiosyncratic volatility as a primary arbitrage cost for short sellers. Previous studies document (i) negative abnormal returns for high relative short interest (RSI) stocks, and (ii) positive abnormal returns for low RSI stocks. We examine whether these market inefficiencies can be explained by arbitrage limitations, especially firms' idiosyncratic risk. Consistent with limits to arbitrage hypothesis, we document an abnormal return of -1.74% per month for high RSI stocks (>=95 th percentile) with high idiosyncratic volatility. However, for similar level of high RSI, abnormal returns are economically and statistically insignificant for stocks with low idiosyncratic volatility. For stocks with low RSI, the returns are positively related to idiosyncratic volatility. These results imply that idiosyncratic risk is a potential reason for the inability of arbitrageurs to extract returns from high and low RSI portfolios. The second essay investigates market efficiency in the absence of limits to arbitrage on short selling. Theoretical predictions and empirical results are ambiguous about the effect of short sale constraints on security prices. Since these constraints cannot be eliminated in equity markets, we use trades from futures markets where there is no distinction between short and long positions. With no external constraints on short positions, we document a weekend effect in futures markets which is a result of asymmetric risk between long and short positions around weekends. The premium is higher in periods of high volatility when short sellers are unwilling to accept higher levels of risk. On the other hand, riskiness of long positions does not seem to have a similar impact on prices. The third essay studies investor behaviors that generate mispricing by examining relationship between stock price and future returns. Based on traditional finance theory, valuation should not depend on nominal stock prices. However, recent literature documents that preference of retail investors for low price stocks results in their overvaluation. Motivated by this preference, we re-examine the relationship between stock price and expected return for the entire U.S. stock market. We find that stock price and expected returns are positively related if price is not confounded with size. Results in this paper show that, controlled for size, high price stocks significantly outperform low price stocks by an abnormal 0.40% per month. This return premium is attributed to individual investors' preference for low price stocks. Consistent with costly arbitrage, the return differential between high and low price stocks is highest for the stocks which are difficulty to arbitrage. The results are robust to price cut-off of $5, and in different subperiods. Three Essays on Market Efficiency and Limits to Arbitrage


Typical tailings disposal systems in the Western Australian Goldfields consist of tailings paddock facilities, where tailings are discharged either from a single outlet or from spigots around a ring dyke. Upstream raising and central decanting of supernatant water is common practice.
Potential evaporation in this region is high, at around 2 m per year, with summer months accounting for more than half of the evaporation. This presents a challenge in maintaining a steady rate of water recovery from the facility's pond throughout the year, especially if large shallow ponds are formed. This generates a variable fresh water demand that may not be easy to satisfy if availability of a constant source is limited.
Dewatering tailings prior to disposal may prove a good alternative since, if correctly designed, a reasonably steady flow with consistent reduced water content can be expected from the thickeners or filters. Nonetheless, there is a perception that dewatering could add significant capital expenditure and complexity to the project.
The current development of both thickening and filtration technologies, along with the increased number of technology providers, has reduced the capital and operating cost significantly over the last few years.
This, combined with the benefit of improving water recovery, can make thickening and filtration options viable for gold processing plants handling relatively low throughputs.
As a case study, an evaluation of alternative tailings water recovery systems for a gold mine project in the Goldfields region was undertaken. The objective was to determine the optimal tailings water management strategy for the project. The most important aspects evaluated were capital costs and water supply.
This paper presents the conclusions of the evaluation and incorporates additional aspects such as landform development, closure and environmental impacts.


This thesis describes and characterizes a setup to conduct experiments combining the fields of cold atoms and nanophotonics. Furthermore, a series of numerical simulations is employed to deepen of atom transport under experimentally realistic conditions. The study of cold atoms is usually fundamental in nature and a very clean approach to investigate the laws of physics. High purity samples of atoms are cooled down to millikelvins or microkelvins. The potential landscape for the atoms can be carefully controlled using lasers and/or magnetic fields. Since the atoms' responses to electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields are known with very high fidelity, any deviations to the state the atoms are prepared in can be precisely measured. Nanophotonics is the study of light close to or beyond the diffraction limit. In this region the field-like nature of light starts to play a role. By confining light in sub-wavelength-sized structures, high peak intensities can be achieved, giving rise to exciting non-linear optics phenomena. The strong field gradient that can be created allows, for instance, precise spectroscopy measurements, phase-sensitive sub-wavelength microscopy, as well as producing highly receptive sensing devices. Combining cold atoms and nanophotonics creates strong synergy effects. It gives access to strong coupling of light and matter. The scalability of nanophotonics now extends to atomic physics. Atoms can be trapped, coupled and manipulated at very small length scales, and in large numbers. Moreover, the potential landscape for atoms is highly customizable. The rubidium isotope 87 is used in this setup. A cloud of rubidium atoms is gathered and cooled in a two dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT). Since the atoms are only cooled in two dimensions, they are free to escape in the third dimension and load a following three dimensional MOT. The atoms are now cooled further, compressed and loaded into an optical dipole trap. This dipole trap transports the atoms close to a sample inside the vacuum chamber. A moving optical lattice, or optical conveyor belt, brings the atoms then close to the sample surface. Now experiments can be conducted, studying the interaction of cold atoms and strongly confined light. The atom transport down to the sample surface shows some unexpected behaviour: the atoms seem to spread through the optical lattice during transport. A combination of microscopic and macroscopic numerical simulations, including genetic algorithms, are used to deepen our understanding of the underlying physics. This also allows us to get access to experimental variables that cannot be directly obtained.


Numerous human diseases are associated with the chronic expression of misfolded and aggregation-prone proteins. The expansion of polyglutamine residues in unrelated proteins is associated with the early onset of neurodegenerative disease. To understand how the presence of misfolded proteins leads to cellular dysfunction, we employed Caenorhabditis elegans polyglutamine aggregation models. Here, we find that polyglutamine expansions disrupted the global balance of protein folding quality control, resulting in the loss of function of diverse metastable proteins with destabilizing temperature-sensitive mutations. In turn, these proteins, although innocuous under normal physiological conditions, enhanced the aggregation of polyglutamine proteins. Thus, weak folding mutations throughout the genome can function as modifiers of polyglutamine phenotypes and toxicity.


Eating disorders have demonstrated the most extreme rise in prevalence out of all the mental illnesses since 1990 (Lozano et al., 2012). However, research has largely neglected to investigate cross-cultural effects on disordered eating, and thus, findings may only apply to Western samples. Only two known prior studies have investigated effects of social media on disordered eating cross-culturally. This research helps fill a substantial research gap by examining social media effects on body image concerns in a culturally diverse sample of Australian undergraduate women (N= 185). The effect of a ten-minute Facebook exposure on women's body dissatisfaction and appearance comparison tendencies will be investigated, while considering a possible moderating effect of ethnicity. Utilizing a pre-/post-exposure pseudo-experimental design, it was predicted that Asian Australian participants (n=92) would experience a ten-minute Facebook exposure differently than European Australian participants (n=93). Regression analyses revealed that, in general, the brief Facebook exposure pseudo-experimentally increased body image concerns for the European Australians, but the Asian Australians remained seemingly unaffected. Interestingly, the groups significantly differed in the amount of appearance comparisons to different groups; i.e. the European Australians reported significantly more appearance comparisons made on Facebook to celebrities than the Asian Australians. These findings reinforce and extend the central tenets of the Tripartite Influence Model, and suggest necessary future directions for research on social media and disordered eating across diverse populations.


This paper provides an analysis of Robert Boyle's most detailed discussion of the Baconian method of natural history. In a long letter to Henry Oldenburg dated 13 June 1666 and in ancillary manuscript material, Boyle spells out the method or 'Designe' by which he believes experimental programs in natural philosophy should be written up. The 'Designe' is enormously important in giving a clear statement of the precise contours of Boyle's Baconian methodology and providing a key to understanding the rationale, composition and format for many of his published histories. Works such as New Experiments and Considerations Touching Cold, Memoirs for the Natural History of Human Blood and even his more speculative writings such as An Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities are best understood in terms of Boyle's overall method as articulated in his "Designe about Natural History".