Food and dairy powders are created by dehydrating perishable produce, such as milk, eggs, fruit and meat, in order to extend their shelf life and stabilise them for storage or transport. These powders are in high demand for use as ingredients and as food products in their own right, and are of great economic importance to the food and dairy industry worldwide. Today, the ability to control food and dairy powder quality is a source of key competitive advantage. By varying the dehydration process design, and by controlling the technological and thermodynamic parameters during dehydration, it is possible for manufacturers to engineer the biochemical, microbiological and physical characteristics of the food powder to meet their specific product requirements.

This book provides an overview of the existing, adapted or new techniques used to analyse safety and quality in modern food and dairy powders. Based on original research by the authors, the book uses 25 commercial dairy and non-dairy powders to illustrate a range of biochemical and physical methods used to evaluate and characterise powdered food products. Written from a practical perspective, each chapter focuses on a particular analytical technique, outlining the purpose, definition and principle of that method. The authors guide the reader through all of the instruments needed, the safety measures required, and the correct procedures to follow to ensure successful analysis. Instructions on accurate measurement and expression of results are included, and each chapter is richly illustrated with original data and worked examples.

Analytical Methods for Food and Dairy Powders is a unique step-by-step handbook, which will be required reading for anyone involved in the development and manufacture of powdered food products. Food and dairy scientists based in industry will find it essential for new product development and improved quality control, while researchers in the laboratory will especially value the new techniques it comprises.


We address the problem of maximizing the transport capacity of a wireless network, defined as the sum, over all transmitters, of the products of the transmission rate with a reward r(x), which is a function of the distance x separating the transmitter and its receiver. When r(x) = x, this product is measured in bps /spl times/ meters, and is the natural measure of the usefulness of a transmission in a multihop wireless ad hoc network. We first consider a single transmitter-receiver pair, and determine the optimal distance between the two that maximizes the rate-reward product, for reward functions of the form r(x) = x/sup /spl rho// and when the signal power decays with distance according to a power law. We then calculate the scheme that maximizes the transport capacity in a multiple access network consisting of a single receiver and a number of transmitters, each placed at a fixed distance from the receiver, and each with a fixed power constraint. We conclude by showing that when the per-transmitter power constraints are substituted with a single constraint on the sum of the powers, the maximum transport capacity and the power allocation scheme that achieves it can be found by solving a convex optimization problem.


Automated valuation models (AVM) are increasingly often used by institutional mortgage lenders and real estate agents to determine the value of real estate. Usually, AVM use hedonic models as a basis for appraisal. However, the results are often criticised by real estate professionals, as they lack transparency and comparability to traditional appraisal methods.Therefore, we provide an alternative approach for automated real estate valuation of self-used property in Austria: Instead of using pure hedonic models, we develop a statistically supported sales comparison approach. Therefore, in a first step we select comparable houses or flats in the surroundings of the valuation object; in a second step, we adjust the prices of these comparables using hedonic methods; finally, the market value is derived as a (inverse distance-weighted) mean of these comparables. The quality adjustment parameters are differentiated with respect to property characteristics, time and location, and thus provide a basis for structured valuation of the results.For our research, we have an extensive data set for Austrian single family homes and flats at our disposal. We apply generalized additive models (GAM) that take into account nonlinearity as well as discrete and continuous spatial heterogeneity. The results are shown in an interactive appraisal dashboard hosted by DataScience Service GmbH.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Annualized mortality rates of chronic hemodialysis (CHD) patients in their first 90 d of treatment range from 24 to 50%. Limited studies also show high hospitalization rates. It was hypothesized that a structured quality improvement program (RightStart), focused on medical needs and patient education and support, would improve outcomes for incident CHD patients.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
A total of 918 CHD incident patients were prospectively enrolled in a multicenter RightStart Program, and compared with a time-concurrent group of 1020 control patients from non-RightStart clinics. RightStart patients received 3 mo of intervention in management of anemia, dosage of dialysis, nutrition, and dialysis access and a comprehensive educational program. Outcomes were tracked for up to 12 mo.

RESULTS
At 3 mo, RightStart patients had higher albumin and hematocrit values. Dose of dialysis and permanent access placement were not statistically significantly different from control subjects. Compared with baseline, Mental Composite Score for RightStart patients improved significantly. Mean hospitalization days per patient year were reduced with RightStart versus control subjects. Mortality rates at 3, 6, and 12 mo were 20, 18, and 17 for RightStart patients versus 39, 33, and 30 deaths per 100 patient-years for control subjects, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
A structured program of prompt medical and educational strategies in incident CHD patients results in improved morbidity and mortality that last up to 1 yr.


By generalization of the methods presented in Part I of the study [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 12, 600 (1994)] to the four-dimensional (4D) Riemannian manifold case, the time-dependent behavior of light transmitting in a medium is investigated theoretically by the geodesic equation and curvature in a 4D manifold. In addition, the field equation is restudied, and the 4D conserved current of the optical fluid and its conservation equation are derived and applied to deduce the time-dependent general refractive index. On this basis the forces acting on the fluid are dynamically analyzed and the self-consistency analysis is given.


Background We performed an updated meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials testing memantine monotherapy for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods The meta-analysis included randomized controlled trials of memantine monotherapy for AD, omitting those in which patients were also administered a cholinesterase inhibitor. Cognitive function, activities of daily living, behavioral disturbances, global function, stage of dementia, drug discontinuation rate, and individual side effects were compared between memantine monotherapy and placebo groups. The primary outcomes were cognitive function and behavioral disturbances; the others were secondary outcomes. Results Nine studies including 2433 patients that met the study's inclusion criteria were identified. Memantine monotherapy significantly improved cognitive function [standardized mean difference (SMD)=−0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI)=−0.39 to −0.14, p=0.0001], behavioral disturbances (SMD=−0.12, 95% CI=−0.22 to −0.01, p=0.03), activities of daily living (SMD=−0.09, 95% CI=−0.19 to −0.00, p=0.05), global function assessment (SMD=−0.18, 95% CI=−0.27 to −0.09, p=0.0001), and stage of dementia (SMD=−0.23, 95% CI=−0.33 to −0.12, p=0.0001) scores. Memantine was superior to placebo in terms of discontinuation because of inefficacy [risk ratio (RR)=0.36, 95% CI=0.17¬ to 0.74, p=0.006, number needed to harm (NNH)=non significant]. Moreover, memantine was associated with less agitation compared with placebo (RR=0.68, 95% CI=0.49 to 0.94, p=0.02, NNH=non significant). There were no significant differences in the rate of discontinuation because of all causes, all adverse events, and individual side effects other than agitation between the memantine monotherapy and placebo groups. Conclusions Memantine monotherapy improved cognition, behavior, activities of daily living, global function, and stage of dementia and was well-tolerated by AD patients. However, the effect size in terms of efficacy outcomes was small and thus there is limited evidence of clinical benefit.


In the past fifteen years, the United States Supreme Court has decided three cases in which it tentatively began to explore what the United States Constitution has to say about issues that are popularly described as the "right to die." In this article, I suggest that the current state of constitutional analysis does not provide for an effective mechanism for securing an individual's "right to die," at least not without undervaluing a state's interest in the preservation of human life should a state choose to take such a position. In the article, I suggest that it is possible to adopt a means of balancing the competing interests of the individual and of the state in such a way as to do service to both of them. I propose that the Court adopt a balancing standard modeled generally on, but by no means identical to, the curent constitutional mechanism under which infringements on a woman's right to have an abortion during the period prior to fetal viability are judged. In other words, I propose the adoption of an undue bruden standard similar to that articulated in Casey. In the article I explain why the current state of affairs is deficient. Thereafter, I explore the undue burden standard I propose, explaining how it would address the deficiences in current law as well as cure many of the problems identified with the Casey standard itself. Finally, I apply the standard to several scenarios. I ultimately conclude that adopting the standard I propose is justified dispite the risks associated with it. I also conclude, however, that those risks do not warrant the maintenance of the standard in other areas, including with respect to abortion.


. Anti-haecceitists believe that all facts about specific individuals—such as the fact that Fred exists, or that Katie is tall—globally supervene on purely qualitative facts. Haecceitists deny that. The issue is not only of interest in itself, but receives additional importance from its intimate connection to the question of whether all fundamental facts are qualitative or whether they include facts about which specific individuals there are and how qualitative properties and relations are distributed over them. Those who think that all fundamental facts are qualitative are arguably committed to anti-haecceitism. The goal of this paper is to point out some problems for anti-haecceitism (and therefore for the thesis that all fundamental facts are qualitative). The article focuses on two common assumptions about possible worlds: (i) Sets of possible worlds are the bearers of objective physical chance. (ii) Counterfactual conditionals can be defined by appeal to a relation of closeness between possible worlds. The essay tries to show that absurd consequences ensue if either of these assumptions is combined with anti-haecceitism. Then it considers a natural response by the anti-haecceitist, which is to deny that worlds play the role described in (i) and (ii). Instead, the reply continues, we can introduce a new set of entities that are defined in terms of worlds and that behave the way worlds do on the haecceitist position. That allows the anti-haecceitist to formulate anti-haecceitist friendly versions of (i) and (ii) by replacing the appeal to possible worlds with reference to the newly introduced entities. This maneuver invites an obvious reply, however. If the new entities are the things that play the role we typically associate with worlds, as partially described by (i) and (ii), then it is natural to conclude that they really are the entities we talk about when we speak of worlds, so that haecceitism is true after all.


When is a person mature enough to vote? Would lowering the voting age compromise political processes? Would giving people the vote stir them to greater involvement? What would be the effect on other laws affecting youth? What are the Charter implications? The studies in this volume uncover a wide range of opinion about young people and their involvement in politics. The author point to the diversity of perceptions about the attitudes and attributes of youth, even among young people themselves. In considering the appropriate age for the vote, they cast light on the overall status of young Canadians in terms of rights, laws, institutions, and public opinion. Raymond Hudon and colleagues study political involvement by Quebecois youth. Patrice Garant investigates legal and Charter implications of lowering the voting age. Jon Pammett and John Myles argue that lowering the voting ages to 16 would be a "low-risk" initiative. All concur that generalizing about 16- to 18-year-olds is as difficult and questionable as making sweeping statements about any othe rage-defined sociological group.


The structural components of many machines remain in service far beyond their designed lifetimes. This is especially true in the field of aerospace structures, where aircraft, wind turbines, satellites, and other components are expected to be in service for decades. Therefore, a good maintenance system is desired, allowing these structures further service use, while maintaining efficiency and reliability from failures. The focus of this research paper is on developing an improved maintenance system, called structural health monitoring, using acoustic emission sensors and artificial neural networks to detect and analyze any damage well before any component failure occurs. To replicate a damaged component for this study, an experiment was performed, involving thin, flat panels of aluminum with a designed, initial crack. These panels were subjected to static loads that were increased until crack propagation occurred. Acoustic emission sensors, which detect energy released by growing cracks in the form of strain waves, were used to detect this propagation and transform the characteristics of the propagation into electrical signals. These complex signals were then analyzed through an artificial neural network system, which allowed for fast post-processing. A structural health monitoring system was found to be plausible, using real-time analysis of the aluminum panel, detecting and reporting any growing crack from a size larger than 0.05 inches, well before any failure occurred. This study proved that acoustic emission could make structural health monitoring a reality.


Resveratrol, a safe and multi-targeted agent, has been associated with suppression of survival, proliferation and metastasis of cancer, however, the underlying mechanisms for its anti-cancer activity, particularly on cellular signaling during cancer cell migration still remain poorly understood. We investigated the invasion response of two human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells (HCT116 and SW480) to resveratrol and studied the effect of specific pharmacological inhibitors, cytochalasin D (CytD) and focal adhesion kinase-inhibitor (FAK-I) on FAK, cell viability and migration in CRC. We found that resveratrol altered cell phenotype of both CRC cells, reduced cell viability and the results were comparable to FAK-I and CytD. These effects of resveratrol were associated with marked Sirt1 up-regulation, FAK down-regulation, inhibition of focal adhesion and potentiation of effects by combinatorial treatment of resveratrol and inhibitors. Interestingly, inhibition of FAK with FAK-I or treatment with CytD suppressed resveratrol-induced Sirt1 up-regulation and markedly down-regulated FAK expression. Resveratrol or combination treatment with inhibitors significantly activated caspase-3 and potentiated apoptosis. Moreover, resveratrol suppressed invasion and colony forming capacity, cell proliferation, β1-Integrin expression and activation of FAK of cells in alginate tumor microenvironment, similar to FAK-I or CytD. Finally, we demonstrated that resveratrol, FAK-I or CytD inhibited activation of NF-κB, suppressed NF-κB-dependent gene end-products involved in invasion, metastasis, and apoptosis; and these effects of resveratrol were potentiated by combination treatment with FAK-I or CytD. Our data illustrated that the anti-invasion effect of resveratrol by inhibition of FAK activity has a potential beneficial role in disease prevention and therapeutic management of CRC.


Agonistic interactions between animals are often settled by the use of repeated signals which advertise the resource–holding potential of the sender. According to the sequential assessment game this repetition increases the accuracy with which receivers may assess the signal, but under the cumulative assessment model the repeated performances accumulate to give a signal of stamina. These models may be distinguished by the temporal pattern of signalling they predict and by the decision rules used by the contestants. Hermit crabs engage in shell fights over possession of the gastropod shells that they inhabit. During these interactions the two roles of signaller and receiver may be examined separately because they are fixed for the duration of the encounter. Attackers rap their shell against that of the defender in a series of bouts whereas defenders remain tightly withdrawn into their shells for the duration of the contest. At the end of a fight the attacker may evict the defender from its shell or decide to give up without first effecting an eviction; the decision for defenders is either to maintain a grip on its shell or to release the shell and allow itself to be evicted. We manipulated fatigue levels separately for attackers and defenders, by varying the oxygen concentration of the water that they are held in prior to fighting, and examined the effects that this has on the likelihood of each decision and on the temporal pattern of rapping.We show that the vigour of rapping and the likelihood of eviction are reduced when the attacker is subjected to low oxygen but that this treatment has no effect on rates of eviction when applied to defenders. We conclude that defenders compare the vigour of rapping with an absolute threshold rather than with a relative threshold when making their decision. The data are compatible with the cumulative assessment model and with the idea that shell rapping signals the stamina of attackers, but do not fit the predictions of the sequential assessment game.


The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently requested briefing on joinder in inter partes reviews, in Proppant Express Investments, LLC v. Oren Technologies, LLC. Proppant initiates a rulemaking to formulate new rules on joinder of parties and claims in PTAB IPR proceedings. However, Proppant purports to substitute a "request for briefing" for the statutorily-required Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

This article compares Proppant to last year's decision by the Federal Circuit, Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, 872 F.3d 1290, 124 USPQ2d 1257 (Fed. Cir. 2017). Recall that in Aqua, the en banc Federal Circuit set aside a rule that the PTAB had promulgated by precedential decision, with none of the incidents for statutory rulemaking. Of the nine judges that reached the issue, seven agreed on a simple principle: "[t]he Patent Office cannot effect an end-run around [the APA] by conducting rulemaking through adjudication."

Today's article notes several remarkable features of Proppant:

• Proppant seems to be setting up near-identical facts, perhaps with an eye to setting up a challenge or rematch on the Federal Circuit's Aqua decision.

• The PTAB gave no notice of Proppant, other than a "nothing special" order in PTABE2E—no notice in the Federal Register (as required by statute), no notice via email to those that had signed up for notice via the PTAB's email list, no mention on the PTAB's "precedential and informative decisions" page, no mention on the "Patent Trial and Appeal Board Alerts" widget on the MyUSPTO web page. The only mechanism by which the public gained any notice was the Patently-O blog. A blog is not a substitute for a statutory requirement.

• The PTAB's procedural lapses could have been prevented had the PTO implemented suggestions it received in past notice-and-comment periods. Past notice-and-comment letters that could have improved PTO's regulatory process selectively "disappear" from the PTO's web site.

Today's article shows that lapses of administrative law are not confined to Gil Hyatt, or only by low-level examiners. Rather, the PTO has an equal-opportunity practice of neglecting the administrative law for all applicants and parties before PTAB proceedings.


The detrimental health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke are well researched and documented. Environmental tobacco smoke exposure has especially toxic effects on the respiratory health of young children. Children exposed to larger doses and for longer periods of time may suffer more severe consequences. Despite this compelling scientific data, evidence suggests that adults do not accurately recognize the risks of environmental tobacco smoke exposure. Therefore, children continue to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke in their home environments. Through clean air legislation in all 50 states, environmental tobacco smoke exposure is partially regulated in public places. This does not, however, protect children from threats of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in private residences. The purpose of this study was to describe how caregivers of rural-dwelling children perceive the children's risks associated with environmental tobacco smoke. Two aspects of the Health Belief Model, perceived susceptibility and perceived severity, were utilized in evaluating caregiver risk perceptions related to environmental tobacco smoke exposure. Data were selected from survey results gathered through the Environmental Risk Reduction through Nursing Intervention and Evaluation (ERRNIE) project. Survey results for rural, low-income caregivers (n = 31) residing in Gallatin County, Montana were included in this analysis. The scores reflected in the survey results indicate that knowledge regarding environmental tobacco smoke exposure risks is moderate in this population. Caregivers sense that environmental tobacco smoke may be harmful, but they do not report a high level of concern regarding the detrimental effects of environmental tobacco smoke exposure for their own children. Data from this study is consistent with other documented research suggesting that, despite available information, caregivers do not accurately perceive the true severity of environmental tobacco smoke exposure. The results of this descriptive study, nested within the larger ERRNIE project, indicate the need for further studies encompassing a larger sample size and an expanded geographic range. This study directs the focus of interventions at modifying risk perceptions of environmental tobacco smoke exposure to promote behavior change. Empowering caregivers with knowledge that may lead to behavior change is the key to enabling children to thrive in healthy environments.


Steroid hormones are implicated in the determination and maintenance of regional depots of adipose tissue in humans. This review focuses on the effects of steroids (estrogens, androgens, progestins and glucocorticoids) on fat distribution during growth and maturation. General and specific relationships that link androgens with android (abdominal) adiposity and estrogens with gynoid (gluteofemoral) adiposity are covered as they apply across the lifespan. Supporting relationships on steroid hormones and adipose tissue morphology include: adipogenesis and adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia in puberty; regional adiposity in adults; aging and changes at menopause; regional differences in the cellular and metabolic characteristics of adipocytes, including lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity and lipolysis, and the effects of steroids on these processes. At least in part, the distribution of adipose tissue in men and women appears to be determined by sex steroids. This generalization does not, however, entirely hold in obesity. This is because the additional adipose mass sequesters and produces steroids by aromatization: steroid metabolism varies throughout the body. In obese women, androgen/estrogen balance can account for adipose tissue distribution: such obesity involves a greater tissue exposure to unbound androgens, notably testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, due to reduced levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). Although lower in obese relative to non-obese women, SHBG is lower still in android obese than in gynoid obese women, tissue exposure to unbound androgens being greater for android obese women. Androgen/estrogen balance is not reflected by adipose tissue distribution in obese men who, despite a lowered androgen/estrogen ratio, tend to be android. Although many investigators have implied that cortisol is related to the distribution of adipose tissue in men and women, especially in obesity, the literature lends uneven support. If cortisol is related to adipose tissue distribution in normal individuals, it is perhaps through the differentiation of adipocyte precursors during adolescence and the induction of abdominal adipose tissue LPL activity, possibly through interactive effects with progesterone in women. Further investigation of relationships between steroid hormones and regional adiposity will prove invaluable for clarifying the known associations of adipose tissue distribution with disease risk, and documenting changes during normal growth, maturation and aging.


A model for the thermal part of an ionization signal is presented that connects the ionization current to cylinder pressure and temperature in a spark ignited internal combustion engine. One strength of the model is that, after calibration, it has only two free parameters: burn angle and initial kernel temperature. By fitting the model to a measured ionization signal, it is possible to estimate both cylinder pressure and temperature, where the pressure is estimated with good accuracy. The model approach is validated on engine data. Cylinder pressure and ionization current data were collected on a Saab four-cylinder spark ignited engine for a variation in ignition timing and air-fuel ratio. The main result is that the parametrized ionization current model can be used to estimating combustion properties as pressure, temperature, and content of nitric oxides based on measured ionization currents. The current status of the model is suitable for off-line analysis of ionization currents and cylinder pressure. This ionization current model not only describes the connection between the ionization current and the combustion process, but also offers new possibilities for engine management system to control the internal combustion engine.


Originating on New York's Wall Street, the Occupy movement was "an international network of protests against social and economic inequality that began in [September] 2011 in response to the downturn of 2008" ( Thorson et al. 2013 , 427). Whilst there has been research on online activity in relation to Occupy, the scope of linguistic analysis to date has been somewhat narrow. Furthermore, the focus on new media has indirectly led to an absence of analysis of institutionally-endorsed traditional media texts. We adopt a mixed-method approach of corpus analysis and discourse analysis of national newspaper articles to answer questions such as 'Is Occupy associated with a semantic field of violence and aggression?' and 'Who is represented as having agency?' Our results indicate that, in our small corpus of media texts, Occupy and its supporters were predominantly portrayed negatively at the movement's height; even though protesters are reported to have been peaceful in their majority, the English-speaking media we analysed still aligns them with language suggestive of aggression, conflict and even violence.


Using a sample of 236 UK companies that went from public to private (PTP) company status during 1997 to 2005 and a control sample of similar firms not going private, we study, with logistic regression methodology, the impact of bankruptcy risk measured by their default probability, estimated using stock market data and option pricing models, on the going private decision. We also examine value gains to existing shareholders of target companies of PTP transactions. Fama-French 3 factor event study approach is used to estimate the abnormal returns around the announcement period. We find that going private companies have significantly higher default probability. They also have fewer growth opportunities, lower stock market valuation, poorer operating performance and larger pre-PTP management holding. These companies are usually small in size, suffer stock market neglect and are undervalued. Weak corporate governance factors increase the chances of going private. We report a cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of 15% for a 7 day announcement period for firms subject to going private. These returns are higher for target firms faced with higher bankruptcy risk suggesting a strong turnaround motivation for the PTP deal. Private equity firms sponsoring PTPs generate higher shareholder value gains when they acquire firms with poorer growth record, higher risk of bankruptcy and larger free cash flow suggesting they are not deterred by the risk of financial distress but consider it a value creating opportunity. High bankruptcy risk at going private increases the chance the target will end up in receivership.


This thesis excavates Antonio Negri's theorization of the distinction between 'the
material and formal constitution' (one which I distinguish throughout by way of
capitalization as 'the material constitution' and 'the formal Constitution' or, in the
shorthand contraction, 'c/Constitution'). In the first half of the thesis this is undertaken
by way of a theoretical line of inquiry (Chapter I-III) and in the second as a series of
concretized case studies drawn from contemporary Canadian constitutional
historiography (Chapters IV-VI).
The first chapter of this thesis (Chapter I) presents the October 1970 Front de liberation
de Quebec (FLQ) Crisis as an event which contains within itself, not unlike similar
events surrounding the kidnap and murder of Aldo Moro by the Brigate Rosse (BR) in
1978 Italy, the contours of a Negri-inspired entry into the subject matter. Chapter II
offers a more situated analysis of some of Negri's key texts on the c/Constitution from
the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties to further ground the conceptual experiment
underlying the thesis. Chapter III examines how Negri's thought is developed and
brought up to date in his English language collaboration with Michael Hardt. Here, a
significant detour will be taken through the critical literature responsive to Empire
(2000). This is done first in a contemporary Canadian analysis of the form of
sovereignty corresponding to 'Empire' (Chapter IV); second in a Canadian inquiry into
the form of collective subjectivity understood by the concept of 'the multitude' (Chapter
V); and, third in an Indigenous Canadian consideration of possible alternatives to the
Constitution of the State in the 'constitution of the common' (Chapter VI).


In fully cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) settings, the environments are highly stochastic due to the partial observability of each agent and the continuously changing policies of the other agents. To address the above issues, we integrate distributional RL and value function factorization methods by proposing a Distributional Value Function Factorization (DFAC) framework to generalize expected value function factorization methods to their DFAC variants. DFAC extends the individual utility functions from deterministic variables to random variables, and models the quantile function of the total return as a quantile mixture. To validate DFAC, we demonstrate DFAC's ability to factorize a simple two-step matrix game with stochastic rewards and perform experiments on all Super Hard tasks of StarCraft Multi-Agent Challenge, showing that DFAC is able to outperform expected value function factorization baselines.


Objective. The intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) is the most preferred method of reversible contraception in the world today. The Swedish Medical Products Agency currently recommends that women who had a copper IUCD inserted around age 40 do not need to have it extracted until one year after the menopause. Design. Retrospective study. Setting. Skövde Central Hospital, Sweden. Population. All 114 women receiving in‐patient treatment for pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) over five years between January 2001 and December 2005. Methods. Comparison between cases of tubo‐ovarian abscesses and salpingitis with focus on the effects of IUCDs used continually for >5 years after insertion. Main outcome measures. Age‐adjusted risk of PID within or after five years of use, microbiological findings in blood, intraabdominal pus, cervical secretions or on extracted IUCDs. Results. There were 31 cases of tubo‐ovarian abscesses, 63 of salpingitis, four of endometritis, and 16 of mild genital infection. When comparing women with the same IUCD > 5 years to women having the same IUCD ≤ 5 years, the risk of tubo‐ovarian abscess was higher than the risk of salpingitis (OR 19.7; 95% CI 4.5–87.2). The risk remained significant after adjustment for age, both on multiple regression analysis (OR 13.5; 95% CI 2.5–72.9) and in stratified analysis for the age group 35–50 years (OR 12.0; 95% CI 1.8–81.7). Blood or abdominal cultures from patients operated upon were positive in 47.7% of the sampled cases. Intestinal tract microbes and upper respiratory tract microbes were more common than sexually transmitted infection microbes. Conclusions. The current Medical Products Agency recommendation that a woman nearing the end of her reproductive phase can safely use the same IUCD for a period exceeding five years is challenged.


Abstract Detrital zircon and petrographic provenance analysis of Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) strata corroborate correlation of the fluvial Kaiparowits Formation in southern Utah with post-Castlegate strata of the Mesaverde Group in eastcentral Utah. Sandstone samples of the Kaiparowits Formation in the Kaiparowits Plateau and Mesaverde Group (Neslen, Bluecastle Tongue of Castlegate, Farrer, and Tuscher formations) in Gray Canyon north of Green River, Utah, contain six U-Pb detrital zircon age populations ranging in age from Archean to Late Cretaceous. Thrust-belt-derived sublitharenite and quartzarenite of the lower part of the Mesaverde Group (Neslen and Bluecastle) lack or have only rare Mesozoic grains, but contain abundant Archean, Proterozoic, and Paleozoic grains that record recycling of Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Jurassic sandstones exposed in uplifted thrust sheets to the west. South- and southwest-derived feldspathic litharenite of the Kaiparowits and Farrer formations contains Proterozoic grains and a diverse population of Mesozoic grain ages. Archean grains are rare to absent. Maximum depositional ages interpreted from young zircon grains in two Kaiparowits samples statistically overlap 40Ar/39Ar ages (76–74 Ma) from interbedded bentonitic tuffs and weighted mean ages of young grains from the Farrer Formation. Kolmogorov-Smirnoff statistics, in conjunction with young grain ages and detrital age spectra, corroborate petrographic evidence, which indicates that the Kaiparowits rivers were connected northward with a river system that deposited the Farrer Formation. The young grain ages, although imprecise, indicate that the uppermost Mesaverde Group strata of the Tuscher Formation are younger than the Kaiparowits Formation and record partitioning of the former foreland basin by Laramide uplifts.


This research aims at to analyse the pattern and rate of shoreline changes at the El-Arish area during the period 1984-2006, which represents the time at which the El-Arish harbour has affected along the coastline. Detecting salinity distribution of the ground water is the second objective of this study. The enhanced Landsat Thematic Mapper images utilised in this study were geometrically corrected. GIS techniques were used to produce vector maps for El-Arish coastline positions and estimate shoreline displacement during the last two decades. The measured shoreline changes derived from remote sensing data indicate accretion along the western coast of El-Arish harbour with +160 m/22 yr, at a rate of +8 m/yr. However, neighbour shore is suffering from erosion with -80 m/22 yr (-4 m/yr). Downdrift erosion occurred along the eastern coast of El-Arish harbour with -140 m/22 yr, at a rate of -7 m/yr. Physical and chemical properties of the El-Arish groundwater are analysed in 48 groundwater samples collected from pumping wells discharged from the Quaternary aquifer during July 2006. Assessment maps constructed by the integrated GIS techniques indicate that, eroded beach was observed at the area subjected high salinity ground water. Two main factors controlling salt water intrusion at El-Arish area are recognized, including the concentration of pumping wells which enhanced upward leakage of saline water from deeper formation and coastal erosion created by natural and human factors. This research indicates significant positive relationship between the groundwater salinity problem and coastal erosion at El-Arish area.


The objective of this research is to investigate the causal relationship between economic growth and tariff levels (i.e., levels of trade protection) in the United States. This research empirically examines the relationship between trade protectionism and economic growth using US tariff levels and GDP growth data for the period of 1821-2017. By employing Granger causality analysis, this research finds that, for the United States, GDP growth unidirectionally affects nominal tariff levels over the short term. Generalizing the results, this research provides empirical evidence that economic growth influences the level of trade protection in the United States. Economic conditions, at least in the United States, do in fact affect its trade policies, though US trade policies for either protectionism or liberalization have little impact on the nation's economic performance (one-way causation from economic growth to trade protectionism in the US). Lastly, this research provides important theoretical and policy implications regarding hegemonic stability theory and recent economic conflicts over tariffs (in March/April 2018 and thereafter) of the United States with China and the European Union.


IMPORTANCE
Patient-reported outcomes serving as benchmarks for recovery of pediatric burn survivors are lacking, and new approaches using longitudinal cohorts for monitoring their expected recovery based on statistical models are needed for patient management during the early years following the burn.

OBJECTIVE
To describe multidimensional patient-reported outcomes among pediatric burn survivors younger than 5 years to establish benchmarks using recovery curve methods.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective cohort study of pediatric burn survivors younger than 5 years at 12 burn centers. Age-matched nonburned reference groups were studied to define expected results in normal growth and development. The Burn Outcomes Questionnaire for children aged 0 to 5 years (BOQ0-5) was administered to parents of children who had burns and were younger than 5 years. Mixed models were used to generate 48-month recovery curves for each of the 10 BOQ0-5 domains. The study was conducted between January 1999 and December 2008.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The 10 BOQ0-5 domains including play, language, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, emotional behavior, family functioning, pain/itching, appearance, satisfaction with care, and worry/concern up to 48 months after burn injury.

RESULTS
A total of 336 pediatric burn survivors younger than 5 years (mean [SD] age, 2.0 [1.2] years; 58.4% male; 60.2% white, 18.6% black, and 12.0% Hispanic) and 285 age-matched nonburned controls (mean [SD] age, 2.4 [1.3] years; 51.1% male; 67.1% white, 8.9% black, and 15.0% Hispanic) completed the study. Predicted scores improved exponentially over time for 5 of the BOQ0-5 domains (predicted scores at 1 month vs 24 months: play, 48.6 vs 52.1 [P = .03]; language, 49.2 vs 54.4 [P < .001]; gross motor skills, 48.7 vs 53.0 [P = .002]; pain/itching, 15.8 vs 33.5 [P < .001]; and worry/concern, 31.6 vs 44.9 [P < .001]). Pediatric burn survivors had higher scores in language, emotional behavior, and family functioning domains compared with healthy children in later months.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
This study demonstrates significant deficits in multiple functional domains across pediatric burn survivors compared with controls. Recovery curves can be used to recognize deviation from the expected course and tailor care to patient needs.


This article studies the transformation of ethnic Asian media in the Canadian context and examines the role of media firms in the organization of Asian-language media by employing political economy and cultural studies perspectives. The analysis begins with the discussion of the body of knowledge related to ethnic media and Asians. It then investigates the role and limitations of ethnic media, not as a public sphere offering alternative views to the mainstream news and commentaries, but as a commodity, which is an advertising tool to target ethnic minorities and corporations. It also maps out the ways in which Canadian corporations and advertisers have commodified ethnic media. Finally, the article explores the overall socioeconomic impacts of ethnic media and the ethnic population on mass media marketing and its representation of Asian ethnicities.


ABSTRACT Drawing from the significance and implication that investors can use to properly comprehend the trend in market reaction from the new issuance of information, this study aims to investigate the market's reaction toward the announcement of Islamic bond or sukuk. The Islamic bond market provides not only an avenue for more dynamic capital trades and portfolio diversification but also functions as an engine that accelerates the growth of the Islamic capital market. This study specifically aims to investigate whether the announcements of sukuk issuance that carry any new information can create impact on the market's reactions. The overall sample time frame for this study is divided into three event windows; before, during and after the financial crisis in order to ascertain any unusual impact on the market's return during the 2007-2008 financial crises. The stock market return is measured via the FTSE and Bursa Malaysia's KLCI. In order to offer a more robust finding on the returns, this study re-measured the market return using Bursa Malaysia's FTSE EMAS Index as it is a better representation of the sample population. The data collected from Bursa Malaysia, Bloomberg and DataStream database will be then analysed using Brown and Warner's standard event study methodology of Brown and Warner (1985). Based on the 115 sukuk issuances between 2002 and 2013 (a period of 12 years), this study reveals that the effect of the announcement is significantly negative a day before and on the announcement date. On top of that, the result finds that there is a significantly positive reaction 30 days after the announcement of sukuk issuance which indicates that investors take a longer time to absorb the information from the sukuk announcement. The existence of a significantly positive reaction of stock markets during the financial crisis periods could be attributed to the conditions where the Islamic debt issuance might have sent an incredible signal about the financial position of the company, which have helped in solving the financial problem, especially during the economic downturn. However, the EMAS Index shows none of these significant results. The significant findings in this study (i.e., when uses the KLCI) are expecting to contribute clearer evidence and strategies concerning whether the information regarding sukuk can help investors to form a better investment strategy. Keywords: Sukuk; Islamic bond; Islamic finance; market reactions; stock market return


On the base of investigations of the anatomical structure of annual shoots of shrubby introduced species from the family Rosaceae (viz Exochorda Lindl., Kerria DC., Photinia Lindl., Prinsepia Royle, Rhodotypos Sieb. et Zucc. and Stephanandra Sieb. et Zucc), the relation between it and ability of these plants to endure the disadvantageous conditions of winter period in the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine was established. It has proved that the most inclined to the damages called "winter exsiccation" are shoots of R. kerrioides because of suction activity of the ice (which forms in the cortex) in consequence of their weak xylem. Also we have found that the weak periderm of the shoots of K. japonica, K. japonica ′Plena′, S. incisa and S. incisa ′Crispa′ could be the reason that causes its damages by the frost.


It has long been accepted that teachers' beliefs guide their classroom practices (Pajares, 1992; Fang, 1996; Woods, 1996; Borg, 2006). Yet, little is known about what teachers believe about digital technology integration, despite the attempts by mainstream education to incorporate it into language teaching, especially in the field of second language education. Using Borg's (2006) framework of language teacher cognition, this study investigated the beliefs of pre-service and in-service ESL teachers about the use of digital technology in the classroom, and the factors that influence those beliefs. Thirty-five Canadian pre-service and in-service ESL teachers completed an online survey and some were interviewed (n =10). The findings suggest that the participants generally hold positive attitudes about using digital technology in the classroom. These beliefs seem to be influenced by the participants' classroom practice, experiences with digital technology, technology-related training, context(s) in which such digital technology was used, and age.


One type of Internet services that have recently gained much attention are services that enable people around the world to communicate in real-time. Such services of real-time interaction are offered by applications most commonly referred to as distributed interactive applications. Concrete examples of distributed interactive applications are multiplayer online games, audio/video conferencing, and many virtual-reality applications linked to education, entertainment, military, etc. A time-dependent requirement generally applies to all distributed interactive applications that aim to support real-time interaction, and is usually in terms of a few hundred milliseconds. The latency requirements are manifested in terms of event-distribution, group membership management, group dynamics, etc., far exceeding the requirements of many other applications.


Marked interannual fluctuations in rainfall are a fundamental aspect of southern African climate. This study uses dry spell frequency (DSF) to assess spatial and temporal patterns in the con- sistency of rainfall during the mid-summer (DJF) season and their relationships to interannual drought occurrences in southern Africa. The Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis of Precipi- tation (CMAP) pentad data are used to identify dry spells, which are defined here as a pentad with mean daily rainfall less than 1 mm. It was found that DSFs over most of southern Africa are highest (lowest) during El Nino (La Nina) events and that their occurrence is associated with shifts in the loca- tion of the tropical-temperate-trough (TTT) systems that are the dominant rain-producing systems over much of southern Africa. The latter are tropical-extratropical cloudbands that link a tropical low over low latitude southern Africa with a westerly disturbance passing south of the landmass. A pre- ferred zone of occurrence of high DSFs, within which the interannual range is also highest, lies across the 20 to 25° S band in southern Africa and is identified as the drought corridor. This region often experiences half or more of the season under dry spells. In addition, a tendency during 1979 to 2002 towards an increasing frequency of heavier rainfall events was observed over Angola/Namibia in the west and Tanzania/Mozambique in the east. Only a small area in central southern Africa showed the reverse tendency.


In her innovative new book, Kalpana Ram reflects on the way spirit possession unsettles some of the foundational assumptions of modernity. What is a human subject under the varied conditions commonly associated with possession? What kind of subjectivity must already be in place to allow such a transformation to occur? How does it alter our understanding of memory and emotion if these assail us in the form of ghosts rather than as attributes of subjective experience? What does it mean to worship deities who are afflictive and capricious, yet bear an intimate relationship to justice? What is a ""human"" body if it can be taken over by a whole array of entities? What is agency if people can be ""claimed"" in this manner? What is gender if, while possessed, a woman is a woman no longer? Drawing on spirit possession among women and the rich traditions of subaltern religion in Tamil Nadu, South India, Ram concludes that the basis for constructing an alternative understanding of human agency need not rest on the usual requirements of a fully present consciousness or on the exercise of choice and planning. Instead of relegating possession, ghosts, and demons to the domain of the exotic, Ram uses spirit possession to illuminate ordinary experiences and relationships. In doing so, she uncovers fundamental instabilities that continue to haunt modern formulations of gender, human agency, and political emancipation. Fertile Disorder interrogates the modern assumptions about gender, agency, and subjectivity that underlie the social improvement projects circulating in Tamil Nadu, assumptions that directly shape people's lives. The book pays particular attention to projects of family planning, development, reform, and emancipation. Combining ethnography with philosophical argument, Ram fashions alternatives to standard post-modernist and post-structuralist formulations. Grounded in decades of fieldwork, ambitious and wide ranging, her work is conceived as a journey that makes incursions into the unfamiliar, then returns us to the familiar. She argues that magic is not a monopoly of any one culture, historical period, or social formation but inhabits modernity---not only in the places, such as cinema and sound recording, where it is commonly looked for, but in ""habit"" and in aspects of everyday life that have been largely overlooked and shunned.


Early modern chemotherapy made an enduring impact on the human body and on current practices of medical research. Contrary to the widespread myth that locates the origins of modern chemotherapy in the mind of man, this paper analyses its emergence from material assemblages comprising trypanosomes, dyestuffs, physicians, and nonhuman animals at the turn of the century. Anti-infective drugs were not the only bodies that arose from these complex meshworks – assemblages as bodies and bodies of assemblages shaped each other in "co-constitutive relationships" (Donna Haraway). Drawing on neo-materialist theory, this article cartographizes these productive assemblages on the basis of scientific papers by David Bruce and Paul Ehrlich/Kiyoshi Shiga. Finally, these texts are juxtaposed with an 1858 article by the missionary and physician David Livingstone to reflect on the contingency of the animal-human-relationship in medical science.


From early in his career, Seamus Heaney recognised the importance of translation might play in extending the reach of his literary project. His work in this field reflected a deep respect for poets and playwrights from near and distant cultures, and a grasp of the value that they might hold in illuminating affinities and differences between their worlds, their histories and ours. As with his own compositions, he started out close to home, tackling initially the great twelfth-century Ulster epic Buile Suibhne at a period in the early 1970s when the violence in Northern Ireland was at its most intense. Although its finished version appeared years later as Sweeney Astray (1983), the hours devoted to it were not wasted, since they clarified his thoughts on the 'contradictory awarenesses' that affected him deeply as an artist, his obligation to find ways to address the terrible actuality afflicting people in the North and his duty to follow where instinct and imagination led. Although until recently critics tended to view it as peripheral to the main event, translation – in conjunction with his own lyric-making – served as a valuablemeans to bring these conflicting pressures together 'into one drama, one holding field'. Incorporating poems, commentaries, recorded interviews, music and film, this presentation sets out to explore the diversity of Heaney's translations, and delves first into his work from Irish tradition. Subsequently, it considers his versions of classical and medieval authors (Sophocles, Virgil, the Beowulf poet and Dante), the impact of Polish writers (Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska), and late forays into French and Italian (Eugene Guillevic and Giovanni Pascoli). A Holding Field is jointly presented by Michael Parker (Oxford University/ Oxford Brookes University), Stephen Regan (Durham University) and Esther Armstrong (University of the Arts, London). On their last appearance at the National Library of Ireland in December 2014, they presented Noli Timere: Reflections on the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney to a sell-out audience. The event will include filmed contributions from Declan Kiberd, Heather O'Donoghue and Rachel Falconer.

Updated by Dr Esther Armstrong on 20 Jun 2019

This multi-modal, research lecture is ground breaking in addressing Heaney and his use of translation within his work. It was commissioned by the National Library of Ireland (2018) to complement the permament exhibit Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again – Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre, Westmoreland Street (opened 2017). The lecture A Holding Field will next show at the permanent museum Seamus Heaney Homeplace, Bellaghy on February 8th 2020.


Abstract. A sensor comprised of an electronic circuit and a hybrid single and dual heat pulse probe was constructed and tested along with a novel signal
processing procedure to determine changes in the effective dual-probe spacing radius over the time of measurement. The circuit utilized
a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller to control heat inputs into the soil medium in lieu of a variable resistor. The system was
designed for onboard signal processing and implemented USB, RS-232, and SDI-12 interfaces for machine-to-machine (M2M) exchange of data, thereby
enabling heat inputs to be adjusted to soil conditions and data availability shortly after the time of experiment. Signal processing was introduced
to provide a simplified single-probe model to determine thermal conductivity instead of reliance on late-time logarithmic curve fitting. Homomorphic
and derivative filters were used with a dual-probe model to detect changes in the effective probe spacing radius over the time of experiment to
compensate for physical changes in radius as well as model and experimental error. Theoretical constraints were developed for an efficient inverse
of the exponential integral on an embedded system. Application of the signal processing to experiments on sand and peat improved the estimates of
soil water content and bulk density compared to methods of curve fitting nominally used for heat pulse probe experiments. Applications of the
technology may be especially useful for soil and environmental conditions under which effective changes in probe spacing radius need to be detected and
compensated for over the time of experiment.


BACKGROUND
Renal cortical neoplasms have been reported after organ transplantation, but the level of risk as well as the histological features are poorly defined.

METHODS
A retrospective autopsy-based study was performed to evaluate renal neoplasms occurring in patients who underwent solid organ transplantation, died, and received an autopsy from 1981 to 1997 (383 liver, 125 heart, 52 lung, 39 heart/lung, 98 kidney, 4 bowel). Patients were divided into those with short (less than 101 days), medium (101 days to 5 years), and long-term survival (more than 5 years). The control group consisted of hospital autopsies on nontransplanted patients from the odd-numbered years, 1983 through 1997.

RESULTS
Renal cortical neoplasms were identified in 32/1325 of nontransplanted patients and 15/701 transplanted patients. In transplanted patients, neoplasms were identified in 14 native and 1 allograft kidney: 2/391 in short-term survivors, 3/234 in medium, and 10/76 in long term survivors. While transplant patients with short and medium length survival had no increased risk for neoplasms, patients with long-term survival showed a 9-fold increase in cortical neoplasms. Transplant patients with neoplasms averaged 47 years of age at death, significantly younger than the average age of 70 for nontransplanted control patients with renal neoplasms. The neoplasms in transplanted patients were all tubulopapillary, except for one clear cell neoplasm and ranged in size from 0.1 to 2 cm.

CONCLUSIONS
Long-term survivors of solid organ transplants have an 9-fold increased risk of developing tubulopapillary renal cortical neoplasms.


All medium to large companies have to deal with data being stored in a number of databases, spreadsheets and proprietary applications. Bringing all this data together into one system can be useful to analyzing the business; but can also be quite difficult to do. Integration Services is the next big bet in Microsoft's business intelligence lineup, providing you withi� true enterprise extract transform and load features (ETL).Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Servicesi� concentrates on providing you with real world solutions to real world problems, giving you a head start on various projects. If you are onlyi� evaluating Integration Services, you'll be able to focus on the early chapters with the option of drilling down into details in the later chapters where some of the more complex concepts will be discussed in detail. Thei� interesting sidebars peppered throughout the book provide insight into the processes, people and decisions that yielded the final IS product.


Molecularly imprinting technique was combined with magnetic nanoparticles to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymer-encapsulated particles for selective removal and efficient separation of estrogenic compounds from water. The core-shell-structured particles were successfully prepared by a novel 2-h ultrasonication-assisted synthesis in a mixture of water and organic solvent using dual-layer surfactant-modified magnetic particles as core, the most physiologically active estrogenic compound (17β-estradiol) as template, and widely adapted methacrylic acid as functional monomer. Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and magnetic separation were used to characterize the particles. High-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry was used for quantitative binding performance analysis at low-nanogram per milliliter levels. The particles exhibited satisfactory recognition of 17β-estradiol in water. They possessed great potential for rapid, cost-effective, and efficient separation of estrogenic compounds from aqueous environment with specificity. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers


The recent paper by Byrd&Lipton (2019), based on empirical observations, raises a major concern on the impact of importance weighting for the over-parameterized deep learning models. They observe that as long as the model can separate the training data, the impact of importance weighting diminishes as the training proceeds. Nevertheless, there lacks a rigorous characterization of this phenomenon. In this paper, we provide formal characterizations and theoretical justifications on the role of importance weighting with respect to the implicit bias of gradient descent and margin-based learning theory. We reveal both the optimization dynamics and generalization performance under deep learning models. Our work not only explains the various novel phenomenons observed for importance weighting in deep learning, but also extends to the studies where the weights are being optimized as part of the model, which applies to a number of topics under active research.


A coagulant protein from seeds of Moringa concanensis was isolated and purified using CM-Sepharose column chromatography. The column matrix was equilibrated with ammonium acetate buffer and maximum protein was eluted at 0.8 M NaCl. The molecular mass of the purified protein was identified as 14 kDa and its pI value was around 9.5. The purified coagulant protein retained 90% coagulation activity even after incubation at 90 °C for 3 h. The purified protein does not release organic content to the water. This paper suggests that coagulant protein from M. concanenesis can be used in drinking water treatment.


This study explores in an adolescent sample hypotheses about child sexual abuse perpetration drawn from contemporary theories that implicate insecure attachment and adolescent social development. Specifically, three 13- to 18-year-old adolescent male samples (sex offenders with child victims, sex offenders with peer/adult victims, and nonsex delinquent youth) were compared in a cross-sectional design. Participants completed a computer-administered self-report questionnaire and a semistructured attachment style interview. Attachment style was coded by two independent raters blind to study hypotheses and group membership. The results indicated an indirect effect for attachment style. Attachment anxiety affected involvement with peers and interpersonal adequacy. Feelings of interpersonal inadequacy, combined with oversexualization and positive attitudes toward others distinguished sex offenders with child victims from nonsex delinquents and from sex offenders with peer/adult victims. These data provide a preliminary model of sexual abuse perpetration consistent with contemporary theories. Attachment anxiety with a lack of misanthropic attitudes toward others appears to lead to isolation from peers and feelings of interpersonal inadequacy. Individuals with this constellation of factors may turn to children to meet their intimacy and sexual needs, both of which seem to be exaggerated compared with other troubled youth.


Background: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the bedrock of most economies of the world. Due to global competition, SMEs are making significant investments in information technology (IT) to improve their business processes. However, a study of extant literature on the subject of IT governance in SMEs has highlighted the fact that the implementation of structural controls to enable effective IT governance is often difficult, resulting in project failures and loss of income. Objectives: This paper seeks to examine ways by which SMEs can successfully adapt a suitable IT governance framework to manage its IT investments. Method: A content analysis of extant literature was done in this paper. The Technology–Organisation–Environment theory forms the theoretical basis of the proposed key pillars for an SME to evaluate its capability to embark on an IT governance initiative in order to obtain the desired results. Results: From the content analysis of relevant literature, the paper proposed three key pillars which should be in place before an SME adapts any IT governance framework to manage its IT investments. The key pillars are considered an important link between strategic IT governance plans and measurable successful outcomes. Conclusion: It was concluded that an SME would be better positioned for successful IT governance if it were to conduct a careful analysis of the components of these key pillars before embarking on the implementation of any IT governance framework.


Monoamine oxidase (mao) inhibitors are antidepressants with potentially severe side-effects. For this reason, the registration of this drug was suspended for some time when safer alternatives became available. However, mao inhibitors can be very effective in cases where depression has proved to be treatment resistant. Consequently, last year tranylcypromine was re-registered for use in the Netherlands. Since mao inhibitors have been used only sporadically in the Netherlands over the last few years, health professionals have only limited knowledge about the side-effects. On the basis of a recent case, we discuss the two most important side-effects of using mao inhibitors, namely hypertension and orthostatic hypotension. We discuss the possible causes and suggest ways on which these two side-effects can be prevented, or treated, should they arise.


Some of the most dramatic new discoveries in Asia Minor have been made at Gordion, the Phrygian capital that controlled much of central Asia Minor for close to two centuries. The most famous ruler of the kingdom was Midas, who regularly negotiated with Greeks in the west and Assyrians in the east during his reign. Excavations have been conducted at Gordion over the course of the last 60 years, all under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In spite of the economic and political importance of Gordion and the Phrygians, the site is consistently omitted from courses in Old World archaeology, primarily because Gordion lies too far to the west for many Near Eastern archaeologists, and too far to the east for classical archaeologists. Moreover, there is no book that offers a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the material culture of Gordion during the Phrygian period, a gap that will be filled by this volume. The chapters cover all aspects of Gordion's Phrygian settlement topography from the arrival of the Phrygians in the tenth century B.C. through the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., focusing on the site's changing topography and the consistently fluctuating interaction between the inhabitants and the landscape. A reexamination of the material culture of Phrygian Gordion is particularly timely, given the dramatic recent changes in the site's chronology, wherein the dates of many discoveries have changed by as much as a century. The authors are among the leading experts in Near Eastern archaeology, historic preservation, paleobotany, and ancient furniture, and their articles highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Gordion project. A significant component of the book is a new color phase plan of the site that succinctly presents the topography in diachronic perspective. University Museum Monograph, 136


ABSTRACT Though careful consideration has been placed towards genetic characterization of tubercle bacillus isolates causing disease in humans, those causing disease predominantly among wild and domesticated mammals have received less attention. In contrast to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, whose host range is largely specific to humans, M. bovis and "M bovis-like" organisms infect a broad range of animal species beyond their most prominent host in cattle. To determine whether strains of variable genomic content are associated with distinct distributions of disease, the DNA contents of M. bovis or M. bovis-like isolates from a variety of hosts were investigated via Affymetrix GeneChip. Consistent with previous genomic analysis of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTC), large sequence polymorphisms of putative diagnostic and biological consequence were able to unambiguously distinguish interrogated isolates. The distribution of deleted regions indicates organisms genomically removed from M. bovis and also points to structured genomic variability within M. bovis. Certain genomic profiles spanned a variety of hosts but were clustered by geography, while others associated primarily with host type. In contrast to the prevailing assumption that M. bovis has broad host capacity, genomic profiles suggest that distinct MTC lineages differentially infect a variety of mammals. From this, a phylogenetic stratification of genotypes offers a predictive framework upon which to base future genetic and phenotypic studies of the MTC.


Introduction: General aviation missions related to furtherance of business potentially carry higher risk (operations in adverse weather, at night, for longer distances) than those undertaken for recreation. The study herein was undertaken to determine fatal accident rates, proportions, and risk factors/causes. Method: The National Transportation Safety Board aviation accident database was queried for accidents (1996–2015). Annual fleet times were from the general aviation annual activity survey. Statistical analyses used Poisson distributions, proportion testing, and Cohen's Kappa tests. Results: The fatal accident rate for business operations was threeto six-fold lower than the rate for recreational flights with a decline evident between 1996 and 2015. However, a higher proportion of business-related accidents were fatal (33%) compared with recreational flight mishaps (22%). Business-related, fatal accidents were over-represented for operations of longer flight distance, non-daylight hours, and degraded visibility. The most frequent accident cause categories were a deficiency in pilot skills/experience/systems knowledge (45%) and violation of the federal aviation regulations (e.g. departure into instrument conditions without an instrument flight plan, flight into known/forecast icing) (26%). Conclusion: Despite the fatal accident rate declining for business-related missions, the proportion of fatal mishaps was higher than that for recreational flights. Practical application: Towards enhancing safety (a) flight reviews should discuss alternate flight planning to circumvent the hazards of night operations, adverse weather, and fatigue, (b) pilots should be encouraged to participate in additional training, e.g. the FAAST program, and (c) pilots should avail themselves of aviation training devices for maintaining instrument proficiency.


Early linkage and retention in HIV clinical care is essential for optimal disease management, promotion of health, and receipt of secondary prevention messages to decrease onward transmission of HIV. Youth, specifically racial/ethnic minority young men who have sex with men (YMSM), continue to acquire new HIV infections and have been shown to be less likely to engage in regular HIV care and adhere to scheduled medical visits. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the characteristics of participants and program delivery that were associated with early linkage and retention in HIV care among HIV-infected YMSM of color enrolled in an outreach, linkage, and retention study. Of the 334 patients included in the linkage analysis, 72% were linked to care within 30 days of diagnosis, 81% within 60 days, and 87% within 90 days. While no patient-level characteristics were associated with early linkage, having the person who provided the positive HIV test result refer the patient to HIV care (p=0.048), specifically calling to make the appointment (p=0.009), was associated with earlier linkage. Retention of Latino participants (96.2%) was significantly higher than for the African-American (79.9%) youth (p=0.006). Overall, 221 participants had at least 1 year of possible follow-up and 82.8% of these participants were retained at 1 year. While unique challenges exist in the care of adolescents infected with HIV from identification to engagement and retention in clinical care, programs that are responsive and dedicated to the needs of these youth can be successful in retaining them in care.


Central Eastern Asia, foremost the area bordering northern China and Mongolia, has been thought to be the geographic region where Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) have originated. However recent fossil analyses pointed to their origin in southern China. Moreover, whereas analyses of fossils dated the species' origin as ∼1.2–1.6 million years ago (Mya), molecular analyses yielded ∼0.5–2.9 Mya. Here, to study the geographic origin of the Norway rat and its spread across the globe we analyzed new and all published mitochondrial DNA cytochrome-b (cyt-b; N = 156) and D-loop (N = 212) sequences representing wild rats from four continents and select inbred strains. Our results are consistent with an origin of the Norway rat in southern China ∼1.3 Mya, subsequent prehistoric differentiation and spread in China and Asia from an initially weakly structured ancestral population, followed by further spread and differentiation across the globe during historic times. The recent spreading occurred mostly from derived European populations rather than from archaic Asian populations. We trace laboratory strains to wild lineages from Europe and North America and these represent a subset of the diversity of the rat; leaving Asian lineages largely untapped as a resource for biomedical models. By studying rats from Europe we made the observation that mtDNA diversity cannot be interpreted without consideration of pest control and, possibly, the evolution of rodenticide resistance. However, demographic models explored by forward-time simulations cannot fully explain the low mtDNA diversity of European rats and lack of haplotype sharing with their source from Asia. Comprehensive nuclear marker analyses of a larger sample of Norway rats representing the world are needed to better resolve the evolutionary history of wild rats and of laboratory rats, as well as to better understand the evolution of anticoagulant resistance.


I. INTRODUCTION Throughout the United States, school districts are struggling to educate their students in the face of drug problems, violence, and deteriorated home situations that permeate the lives of large numbers of today's teenagers.1 Many parents likewise face a daunting battle in helping their children attain an education that will enable those children to move beyond what their parents achieved financially.2 Additionally, recent economic downturns mean states have even less money to spend on education, forcing the quality of education in some already inadequate schools to fall further.3 Meanwhile, studies show that American children have fallen behind many of their foreign counterparts in academic evaluations. In light of these issues, many parents and schools are exploring alternative methods of educating students. Perhaps the best-known initiative is the school voucher movement in Cleveland, which the Supreme Court recently upheld.4 Charter schools, too, are becoming more popular with parents dissatisfied with their children's public school educations.5 Additionally, parents are becoming more likely to teach their children at home.6 Legislators and others interested in traditional public schools cite smaller class sizes and higher teacher salaries as ways of promoting achievement.7 One recently revived possibility for improving secondary education is the creation of single-sex classes and schools.8 Proponents argue that single-sex education decreases classroom discrimination, improves educational experiences for both boys and girls, and gives parents more choices from which to select the system of education that works best for their children.9 Proponents also believe that separating students by sex could increase the options available to poor and minority children, whose parents may not otherwise be able to afford the single-sex education traditionally offered only in private schools.10 Opponents contend that single-sex education presents the same legal issue as did Brown v. Board of Education: state-endorsed segregation of students.11 Segregation by gender, in opponents' eyes, threatens to erase the gains women have made over the past century.12 Opponents fear that men who have attended a single-sex school, and thereby have lacked contact with talented women, will be unable to recognize such women as equals. Likewise, girls in a singlesex environment and girls dealing with boys from a single-sex environment may find themselves limited to stereotypical gender roles.13 Before states and school districts can begin to address the social desirability of single-sex education, the legality and constitutional legitimacy of such programs must be resolved. Current Title IX regulations place limits on the ability of schools to restrict student access to classes on the basis of sex.14 Any state-sponsored sex discrimination also raises Equal Protection questions under the Fourteenth Amendment.15 While single-sex schools are permissible under the current regulations interpreting Title IX, school districts nervous about expensive lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the schools often avoid them.16 While the constitutionality of single-sex programs has been addressed by multiple commentators, several important issues have been neglected. Single-sex schools have received the bulk of the scholarly attention. Single-sex classes are either lumped under the heading of single-sex education or not addressed at all.17 This Note details the strengths of single-sex classes. It then goes a step beyond establishing that single-sex programs in secondary schools can be constitutional to recommending steps that local governments and districts should take to comply with the mandates established by the Supreme Court in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan and United States v. Virginia. The remainder of this Note will proceed as follows. Part II describes the legislative and regulatory position of single-sex education. …


Off-road driving describes a driving task undertaken on a surface other than an engineered durable roadway surface such as concrete or asphalt. This may include activities such as driving on beaches, dirt roads, or traversing open country with no designated roadways. It is both a popular pastime and a necessary undertaking for drivers worldwide. Indeed it is conservatively estimated that globally more than 50% of government controlled and managed roadways are unsealed. As with conventional driving, crashes and fatalities occur in off-road driving. Despite this, the study of these common driving environments has been limited (Stevens & Salmon, 2016). A notable aspect of recent fatal crashes in beach driving has been the identified role of inexperienced drivers in causing the crash. This paper presents the results of an exploratory off-road naturalistic driving study which utilised Verbal Protocol Analysis to assess situation awareness in novice and expert drivers. The findings revealed important differences between the novice and expert drivers relating to the information used, the strategies adopted, and the general driving approach. The implications for offroad driving such as beach driving are discussed.


Ischaemia-induced tissue injury has wide-ranging clinical implications including myocardial infarction, stroke, compartment syndrome, ischaemic renal failure and replantation and revascularization. However, the restoration of blood flow produces a 'second hit' phenomenon, the effect of which is greater than the initial ischaemic event and characterizes ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Some examples of potential settings of IR injury include: following thrombolytic therapy for stroke, invasive cardiovascular procedures, solid organ transplantation, and major trauma resuscitation. Pathophysiological events of IR injury are the result of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, microvascular vasoconstriction, and ultimately endothelial cell-neutrophil adhesion with subsequent neutrophil infiltration of the affected tissue. Initially thought to increase the amount of free radical oxygen in the system, hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) has demonstrated a protective effect on tissues by influencing the same mechanisms responsible for IR injury. Consequently, HBO has tremendous therapeutic value. We review the biochemical mechanisms of ischaemia-reperfusion injury and the effects of HBO following ischaemia-reperfusion.


Abstract To date, transcatheter valve implantation is limited to the replacement of pulmonary and aortic valves. The aim of this study was to analyze a valved stent for minimally invasive implantation in the mitral position. A self-expanding mitral valved stent was designed for transapical implantation. Thirty pigs underwent off-pump mitral valved stent implantation with follow-up times of 60 minutes (n = 17) and seven days (n = 13). Transesophageal echocardiography and computed tomography were used to evaluate stent function and positioning. After valved stent deployment, accurate adjustment of the intra-annular position reduced paravalvular leakage in all animals. Accurate positioning was established in all but five animals. The average mean transvalvular gradient across the mitral valve and the left ventricular outflow tract recorded immediately after deployment, six hours and one week were 1.85 ± 0.95 mmHg, 3.45 ± 1.65 mmHg, 4.15 ± 2.3 mmHg and 1.35 ± 1.35 mmHg, 1.45 ± 0.7 mmHg, 1.9 ± 0.65 mmHg, respectively. No valved stent migration, embolization, systolic anterior movement or left ventricular outflow tract obstruction was observed. The mitral valved stent can be deployed in a reproducible manner to achieve reliable stent stability, minimal gradients across the left ventricular outflow tract and adequate stent function in acute and short term experimental settings.


Anticholinergics, specifically antimuscarinic agents, are the most common medications prescribed for overactive bladder (OAB). The most common side effects of these agents are dry mouth and constipation, although other more concerning effects include changes in blood pressure, pulse rate, or heart rhythm when treatment is initiated. Herbal treatments are an increasingly popular alternative for treating OAB. A 2002 survey of US adults aged ≥ 18 years conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that 74.6% of those with OAB had used some form of complementary and alternative medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world's population presently uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Women were more likely than men to use complementary and alternative medicine. The authors review the most commonly used herbal medications for OAB.


A new topological model of camera network coverage, based on a weighted hypergraph representation, is introduced. The model's theoretical basis is the coverage strength model, presented in previous work and summarized here. Optimal distribution of task processing is approximated by adapting a local search heuristic for parallel machine scheduling to this hypergraph model. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate its effectiveness.


Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering book series publishes books on scientific, engineering, and technological developments in this interesting field that borders on so many disciplines and has so many practical applications: human-like biomechanics, industrial robotics, mobile robotics, service and social robotics, humanoid robotics, mechatronics, intelligent control, industrial process control, power systems control, industrial and office automation, unmanned aviation systems, teleoperation systems, energy systems, transportation systems, driverless cars, human-robot interaction, computer and control engineering, but also computational intelligence, neural networks, fuzzy systems, genetic algorithms, neurofuzzy systems and control, nonlinear dynamics and control, and of course adaptive, complex and selforganizing systems. This wide range of topics, approaches, perspectives and applications is reflected in a large readership of researchers and practitioners in various fields, as well as graduate students who want to learn more on a given subject. The series has received an enthusiastic acceptance by the scientific and engineering community, and is continuously receiving an increasing number of high-quality proposals from both academia and industry. The current Series Editor is Professor S.G. Tzafestas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He is assisted by an Editorial Advisory Board who help to select the most interesting and cutting edge manuscripts for the series. Springer and Professor Tzafestas welcome book ideas from authors. Potential authors who wish to submit a book proposal should contact Thomas Ditzinger (email@example.com) Indexed by SCOPUS, Google Scholar and SpringerLink.


Tantura F is the first wreck excavated so far in the eastern Mediterranean dated to the beginning of the 8th century AD (the local early Islamic period), based on 14C and pottery analysis. Among the finds were the remains of about 30 ceramic vessels, two anchors, food remnants, fish‐bones, a needle, a spoon and a glass vessel. Tantura F was c.15 m long and 5 m wide, and hull remains comprise keel, frames, planks, stringers, mast‐step, and other internal components. Construction features clearly indicate frame‐based construction, considerably earlier than it is generally thought to have been first employed. © 2006 The Authors


From the smiling, sentimental mothers portrayed in 1930s radio barn dance posters, to the sexual shockwaves generated by Elvis Presley, to the female superstars redefining contemporary country music, gender roles and imagery have profoundly influenced the ways country music is made and enjoyed. Proper male and female roles have influenced the kinds of sounds and images that could be included in country music; preconceptions of gender have helped to determine the songs and artists audiences would buy or reject; and gender has shaped the identities listeners made for themselves in relation to the music they revered. This interdisciplinary collection of essays is the first book-length effort to examine how gender conventions, both masculine and feminine, have structured the creation and marketing of country music. The essays explore the uses of gender in creating the personas of stars as diverse as Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, and Shania Twain. The authors also examine how deeply conventions have influenced the institutions and everyday experiences that give country music its image: the popular and fan press, the country music industry in Nashville, and the line dance crazes that created the dance hall boom of the 1990s. From Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue," from Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" to Loretta Lynn's ode to birth control, "The Pill," A Boy Named Sue demonstrates the role gender played in the development of country music and its current prominence.


Many pediatric diseases are linked to underlying immune dysfunction that produces problematic responses to common infectious challenges and other conditions. During childhood, immune dysfunction manifests as: 1) increased susceptibility to certain infections, 2) misregulated inflammation with tissue damage, fatigue and secondary infections, 3) autoimmune disease and 4) allergic conditions. Both environmental and genetic risk factors contribute to a variety of pediatric immune-related illnesses. Ironically, the environmental risk factors are usually considered as one large continuum of equivalent chemical, physical and emotional factors spanning the entirety of a child's development. But the reality is that some prenatal and neonatal environmental factors are most likely to cause the underlying pediatric immune dysfunction necessary for inflammatory, autoimmune and allergic disease. In contrast, other childhood environmental factors are usually triggers that activate or challenge the dysfunctional immune system leading directly to disease. Exposure to these triggers represents a final step in the overall disease process. Knowledge of both the causative agents for immune dysfunction as well as the triggering factors is important. However, viewing these prenatal and childhood factors as one continuum of risk is not always helpful. These distinct groups of environmental factors need to be recognized separately if prevention of immune dysfunction and management of immune-based diseases are to be optimized. This mini-review provides a unifying hypothesis concerning causative environmental factors vs triggering events for several important pediatric diseases. Improved recognition of these different steps should help pediatricians to better address these diseases.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) can implicitly learn rich distributions over images, audio, and data which are hard to model with an explicit likelihood. We present a practical Bayesian formulation for unsupervised and semi-supervised learning with GANs. Within this framework, we use stochastic gradient Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to marginalize the weights of the generator and discriminator networks. The resulting approach is straightforward and obtains good performance without any standard interventions such as feature matching or mini-batch discrimination. By exploring an expressive posterior over the parameters of the generator, the Bayesian GAN avoids mode-collapse, produces interpretable and diverse candidate samples, and provides state-of-the-art quantitative results for semi-supervised learning on benchmarks including SVHN, CelebA, and CIFAR-10, outperforming DCGAN, Wasserstein GANs, and DCGAN ensembles.


Abstract Raman lidar is a loading candidate for providing the detailed space-and time-resolved measurements of water vapor needed by a variety of atmospheric studies. Simultaneous measurements of atmospheric watervapor are described using two collocated Raman lidar systems. These lidar systems, developed at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and Sandia National Laboratories, acquired approximately 12 hours of simultaneous water vapor data during three nights in November 1992 while the systems were collocated at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Although these lidar systems differ substantially in their design, measured water vapor profiles agreed within 0.159 g Kg−1 between altitudes of 1 and 5 km. Comparisons with coincident radiosondes showed all instruments agreed within 0.2 g kg−1 in this same altitude range. Both lidars also clearly showed the advection of water vapor in the middle troposphere and the pronounced increase in water vapor in the nocturnal boundary layer that occurred during one night.


Zombie is an endurance management framework that enables a variety of error correction mechanisms to extend the lifetimes of memories that suffer from bit failures caused by wearout, such as phase-change memory (PCM). Zombie supports both single-level cell (SLC) and multi-level cell (MLC) variants. It extends the lifetime of blocks in working memory pages (primary blocks) by pairing them with spare blocks, i.e., working blocks in pages that have been disabled due to exhaustion of a single block's error correction resources, which would be 'dead' otherwise. Spare blocks adaptively provide error correction resources to primary blocks as failures accumulate over time. This reduces the waste caused by early block failures, making working blocks in discarded pages a useful resource. Even though we use PCM as the target technology, Zombie applies to any memory technology that suffers stuck-at cell failures. This paper describes the Zombie framework, a combination of two new error correction mechanisms (ZombieXOR for SLC and ZombieMLC for MLC) and the extension of two previously proposed SLC mechanisms (ZombieECP and ZombieERC). The result is a 58% to 92% improvement in endurance for Zombie SLC memory and an even more impressive 11x to 17x improvement for ZombieMLC, both with performance overheads of only 0.1% when memories using prior error correction mechanisms reach end of life.


Objective: the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of training and the consequences of detraining, comparing an aerobic training (AT) protocol with a resistance training (RT) in people with type-II Diabetes Mellitus (DMII). Methods: a total of 30 individuals participated in the study, with ages ranging from 45 to 50 years, all diagnosed with DMII and not currently receiving pharmacological treatment. Participants were divided at random into an AT group (65% of their maximum aerobic capacity) and a RT group (1 x 2 x 3 protocol at 65% of 1RM). Measurements were taken of weight, body mass index, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, triglycerides, glycaemia in a fasted state and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA 1C ) at the beginning and at the end of the 6-week training period, and after a further 6 weeks of detraining. Results: the results show that both physical training protocols are capable of inducing significant modifications in lipid profile, glycaemia in a fasted state and levels of HbA 1C ; however, after stopping the training programme only the RT group maintained the benefits of the reduction in LDL-C, HbA 1C and the increase in HDL-C. Conclusions: resistance exercise in individuals with DMII has an important influence on health and their effects could be maintained even if the training program is interrupted short-term.


research is available on the range of help and support grandparents and older grandchildren provide to each other or of the importance and quality of this relationship. Through individual and group interviews, this study explored the relationship between grandparents and teenage grandchildren, looking at the ways teenage grandchildren and their grandparents say that they relate to each other, how they care and provide support and how the relationship changes over time. The research also considered how this relationship might be influenced by family, gender, ethnicity or mobility.


Latest developments in the digital sphere offered new opportunities and challenges to the humanists. Equipped with new digital methods of text analysis, scholars in various fields of humanities are now trying to make sense of huge corpora of literary and historical texts. Perhaps the most prominent of such attempts is the work of Franco Moretti and his abstract models for literary history that trace long-term patterns in English fiction. Inspired by Moretti's approach, I seek to develop abstract models for the analysis of pre-modern Arabic historical literature, relying mainly on various textmining techniques that are being developed at the intersection of statistics, linguistics and computer science. At the moment, I concentrate primarily on biographical collections, a genre that includes several hundred multi-volume titles (The largest collection — al-Dhahabī's "History of Islam" — covers 700 years and contains about 30,000 biographies). Working with the corpus of 10 biographical collections (about 125 printed volumes; 45,000 biographical accounts), I am developing an analytical tool that can be later used to study other biographical collections — ideally, all of them together. In the long run I hope that the results of my work will pave the way to the development of analytical tools for other genres of pre-modern Arabic literature such as chronicles, ḥadīth collections, interpretations of the Qur'ān, compendia of legal decisions, etc. Working with my biographical collections I look primarily into such kinds of biographical data as "descriptive names" (nisbas), dates, toponyms, and, since recently, rather loosely defined linguistic formulae and wording patterns. The analysis of different combinations of these data allows one to trace various social, religious and cultural patterns in time and space. I am particularly interested in how the Islamic world changed over the period of 640-1300 CE: how cultural centers were shifting; how different social, professional and religious groups were replacing and displacing each other; how different regions were connected with each other and how these connections changed over time. The results of my analysis will be presented in the form of graphs and geographical maps.


This study focused on hurtful messages daughters-in-law (DILs, N = 132) reported receiving from mothers-in-law (MILs). Results reveal various hurtful message types: under- and overinvolvement, personal attacks, and hurt communicated to or through a third party. Grounded in attribution theory, we examined DILs' attributions for MILs' hurtful messages and their perceived agreement with their husbands' reasoning for the message. Our findings illuminate distress-maintaining and relationship-enhancing attribution biases for MILs' behaviors, such that DILs who were less satisfied with their MILs tended to make more internal attributions for MIL hurtful behaviors, and more satisfied DILs tended to make more external attributions. The degree to which a DIL believed she and her husband interpreted his mother's behavior similarly was also important and positively predicted marital satisfaction. Findings addto the growing portrait of in-law communication, offering directions for hurtful messages and attribution theorizing in the in-law context.


The chapter discusses the so-called Hungarian reduplicating particle verb construction that has generated some interest in the pertinent generative literature on Hungarian. This literature is divided over whether reduplicating particles can bear plural morphology in the presence of a third person plural oblique associate or not: some accept and some reject the resulting agreeing reduplicating particle verb construction , thus creating a par excellence context of data inconsistency. The chapter offers a detailed and critical overview of the literature, and presents some novel arguments in an effort to find a paraconsistent solution to this problem within the framework of the p-model of Kertesz and Rakosi (2012). This solution rests and on the claim that the plural and the non-plural reduplicating particle verb constructions are radically different in their grammar, since the particle only acts as a pronominal in the case of the former construction type. The pronominal use of the particle is a marked option, rendering the agreeing reduplicating particle verb construction a marked phenomenon of Hungarian grammar.