The usefulness of accounting information to stock investors is measured through value relevance studies. Value relevance studies typically apply multiple regression analysis to investigate the ability of accounting variables to explain stock returns. This paper examines the statistical association between stock returns and income statement information. All analyses are conducted on a sample of Norwegian listed companies, based on accounting and stock market data provided by the Oslo Stock Exchange. The study starts out with a standard value relevance analysis where stock returns are regressed on aggregate accounting earnings. More complex analyses are then introduced; the earnings numbers are split into underlying components and the regression coefficients are allowed to be dependent on the sign of earnings. The more advanced analyses illustrate that traditional value relevance studies generally underestimate the usefulness of financial reporting. This paper suggests that the value relevance as measured by the explanatory power of regression analysis doubles if both the sign and the disaggregation effect are incorporated into the analysis. 1. Introduction One objective of financial reporting is to assist stock investors in predicting cash flow and estimating company value (Holthausen & Watts, 2001). Accounting information can be termed value relevant if it contains the variables used in a valuation model or assists in predicting those variables (Francis & Schipper, 1999). Thus, value relevance can be seen as a measure of accounting usefulness from the perspective of stock investors (Beisland, 2009). In practice, value relevance is typically measured as the statistical association between accounting information and stock prices or returns (Francis & Schipper, 1999). Lev (1 989) assesses the usefulness of accounting earnings by evaluating a large number of studies on the relationship between stock returns and accounting earnings. He finds that most studies report a remarkably low statistical association between stock returns and current earnings. More recent studies also find that earnings information often is able to explain less than 10% of the variation in stock return (Ali & Lee-Seok, 2000; Ball, Kothari, & Robin, 2000; Brimble & Hodgson, 2007) and some studies even report that the value relevance of earnings has been decreasing over time (S. Brown, Kin, & Lys, 1999; Francis & Schipper, 1999; Kim & Kross, 2005). However, several papers suggest that the seemingly low value relevance is a matter of mis-specification of statistical models. For instance, a number of empirical analyses have shown that the informational content of earnings is sign dependent (Basu, 1997; Hayn, 1995; Joos & Plesko, 2005). The return-earnings association is not constant across earnings levels and prior research (Francis, Schipper, & Vincent, 2003; Hayn, 1995) suggests that the return-earnings association improves if sign dependant earnings response coefficients are applied in the empirical analyses. Empirical studies have also documented that the value relevance of earnings may increase substantially as earnings are disaggregated into components (Barth, Beaver, Hand, & Landsman, 2005; Barth, Cram, & Nelson, 2001; Carnes, 2006; Ohlson & Penman, 1 992). This conclusion holds both as earnings are split into underlying line items (Carnes, 2006; Ohlson & Penman, 1992) and as earnings are split into cash flow and accrual items (Barth, et al., 2005; Rayburn, 1986). None of the above listed value relevance studies incorporate both the sign effect and the disaggregation effect simultaneously. In fact, most value relevance studies tend to ignore both effects. This study adds to existing research by showing that the sign effect and the disaggregation effect are incremental to each other, and none of the can be disregarded. Prior research which has failed to recognize that earnings components generally do not "add up" in valuation (Pope, 2005) has typically underestimated the usefulness of accounting information for stock investors. …


Coordinated bare nouns of the form N and N , as analysed here for Spanish, Portuguese and French, go against syntactic restrictions: as fully referential NPs in argument position, they also appear as pre-verbal subjects with singular count nouns. Bare coordination has been associated with lexicalisation and stereotypicality/naturalness, but it is also productive with less stereotypical combinations. My analysis reveals conditions for bare coordination: its elements have to belong to a shared semantic frame, either ontologically given or constructed in discourse. They usually share basic semantic traits (such as [± animate], [± human]). Bare coordination ex-presses a special relationship between the coordinated elements. Their reference is not necessarily definite, but can be derived from contextual clues, for example from a common hyperonym.


In this paper, an agent based intelligent energy management system is proposed to facilitate power trading among microgrids and allow customers to participate in demand response. The proposed intelligence uses demand response, and diversity in electricity consumption patterns of the customers and availability of power from distributed generators as the vital means in managing power in the system. A new priority index is proposed for customers participating in the market based on frequency and size of load participating in demand response. In order to validate the proposed method, a case study with two interconnected microgrids is simulated. Based on extensive simulation results of the system developed using Java Agent DEvelopment framework (JADE), it has been found that multi-agent based demand response is successful in reducing the system peak in addition to cost benefit for the customers with high priority index.


Public school students have been using the Internet to tease, bully, and ridicule their classmates, teachers, and schools. The Supreme Court has held that schools can punish students for some speech without violating the constitution, if it is uttered on school grounds during school hours. Courts, however, have been divided over when, if ever, schools may punish students for comparable off-campus cyberspeech. Because the Supreme Court has provided no direct guidance, this Note examines the Supreme Court's view of students' First Amendment rights on campus, the student-teacher relationship, and basic First Amendment principles to determine whether schools may punish students for off-campus cyberspeech that would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment. This Note concludes that although, in some circumstances, schools may punish students for off-campus cyberspeech that attacks their fellow students, it is unconstitutional for schools to do the same where the student speech targets teachers, administrators, or the school itself.


A Study of the sources of a Plutarchan Life may be excused on two grounds: first, a knowledge of the sources is important for a critical evaluation of the Life's historical worth; and second, such a study is instructive for the understanding of Plutarch's methods of composition, which, in its turn, helps considerably in the historical evaluation. For this second object the Titus is particularly well suited, since the problem, owing to the survival in large part of his main source, is infinitely simpler than in many of the other Lives, and it is on these grounds that the present study seeks to justify itself.


This conceptual and exploratory article aims to present a rationale for the engagement of citizens with the process and practice of, and research on new civic forms of entrepreneurship. We argue that this form of citizen engagement could enable a better alignment of entrepreneurial initiatives with economic, social and community priorities, and to address issues of global significance of local interest in uncertain environments. To this end, we posit that engaging citizens in the entrepreneurial process could facilitate agency at the collective level of people with their rights, duties and responsibilities, to identify, participate in and govern with existing institutions, in meaningful economic and social activity in defined spatial environments. Our normative understanding of entrepreneurial process involves the creation of business, social and public enterprises, the formation of which is led by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are of course citizens of specific nation states, but their endeavours do not necessarily warrant the participation of the wider community of citizens in the entrepreneurial process beyond their receiving function as users of goods and services. We consider whether pro-active engagement in a variety of ways, as nurtured in the practice of Citizen Science or Citizen Economics projects, could strengthen the profile and substance of entrepreneurship to resolve critical economic, social and environmental concerns of our times. We use the concept of the 'commons' and collective efficacy to argue for an understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation as a social good. We argue that Citizen Entrepreneurship (CE) is able to create new forms of collective organisation and governance, and derive economic and social value by addressing local issues arising from wide-spread phenomena such as climate change, ecological and environmental challenges, inequality, social polarisation, populism, migration and the gradual erosion of democratic institutions. To do so, citizens need to develop capabilities for engagement in the entrepreneurship process, especially when traditional public and market institutions fail to satisfy their existential needs. Indeed, active engagement could lead to the achievement of capabilities for well-being and fulfilling lives which go beyond the acquisition of skills and competencies necessary to pursue a vocation or a career. We refer to and interpret three examples of collective entrepreneurial activity in different urban environments in European countries as models of CE highlighting what we see as a growing trend in the entrepreneurial substance of the 'urban commons'. We work towards the creation of a conceptual model with which to develop an understanding of a unique formulation of entrepreneurship.


It has been fundamentally important and technologically challenging to elucidate the migration behavior of solute atoms in solvents, which can help to understand the growth of nanoparticles. Recently, ascribed to the booming development of start-of-the-art liquid environmental transmission electron microscopes (LETEMs), it has become possible to disclose, in situ, the phase segregation mechanism of elementary units in a solvent at the nanoscale. In addition, bombardment with an electron beam can induce a locally positive potential, with the application of low-conductive Si3N4 and water in LETEMs. Such merits can enable modification of the dynamic distribution and reductive behavior of the solute ions in water solutions. Herein we report the migration and segregation behaviors of Au atoms in a solvent during real time, by exploiting a charging effect in a dilute HAuCl4 water solution under electron irradiation. As a consequence, the growth kinetics of Au nanoparticles can be successfully controlled with an accelerated kinetics model. Through dynamically capturing the segregation behavior of the hydrated atoms, a resultant size-controlling mechanism is clarified with three cycles of nanoparticle growth behavior. A new insight is consequently gained into microscopically manipulating the hydrothermal synthesis of nanomaterials.


VOLUME 1: MULTIPARTY NEGOTIATION: AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORY AND PRACTICE Overview to the Field: Two-party and multiparty negotiations Part 1: Overview - Lawrence E. Susskind and Larry Crump Towards a Paradigm of Multiparty Negotiation What is Consensus? - Larry Crump and A. Ian Glendon Part 2: Coalition Behaviour - Lawrence E. Susskind and Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Lawrence E. Susskind Non-Cooperative Games A Method for Evaluating the Distribution of Power in a Committee System - John Nash A Theory of Coalitions in the Triad - L. S. Shapley and Martin Shubik General Introduction to the Theory of Games - Theodore Caplow Models of Coalition Behaviour: Game theoretic, social psychological, and political perspectives - Duncan R. Luce and Howard Raiffa Between Theoretical Elegance and Political Reality - Keith J. Murnighan Introduction: Exploring alliance formation - Michael Laver Sequencing to Build Coalitions: With whom should I talk first? - Stephen M. Walt Part 3: Process Management - James K. Sebenius Industrial Conflict and its Mediation The Mediation of Industrial Conflict: A note on the literature - Clark Kerr Mediated Negotiation in the Public Sector - Charles M. Rehmus Beyond Neutrality: The possibilities of activist mediation in public sector conflict - Lawrence Susskind and Connie Ozawa Theory and Practice of Dispute Resolution - John Forester and David Stilzel Strategic Issues in Structuring Multiparty Public Policy Negotiations - Lawrence Susskind and Jeffrey Cruikshank The Group and What Happens on the Way to Yes - Gerald W. Cormick Major Themes and Prescriptive Implications - Deborah G. Ancona, Raymond A. Friedman, and Deborah M. Kolb Confessions of a Public Dispute Mediator - Lawrence E. Susskind and Robert H. Mnookin Part 4: Obstacles to Reaching Agreement - Lawrence E. Susskind Mediating Public Disputes: A response to the skeptics Overcoming Obstacles to Successful Collaboration - Lawrence E. Susskind A Comparison of Consensus and Voting in Public Decision Making - Barbara Gray When Negotiations Fail: Causes of breakdown and tactics for breaking stalemates - Bernie Jones Implementing Consensus-Based Agreements - Bryan M. Downie What we have Learned about Teaching Multiparty Negotiation - William R. Potapchuk and Jarle Crocker VOLUME 2: THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PUBLIC DISPUTE RESOLUTION - Lawrence E. Susskind, Robert H. Mnookin, Lukasz Rozdeiczer, and Boyd Fuller Part 1: Introduction Introduction Part 2: Deliberative Democracy and Public Dispute Resolution Can Public Policy Dispute Resolution Meet the Challenges Set by Deliberative Democracy? The State of Democratic Theory - Lawrence Susskind Norms of Deliberation: An inductive study - Ian Shapiro Thinking about Empowered Participatory Governance - Jane Mansbridge Janette Hartz-Karp, Matthew Amengual, and John Gastil Dialogue as a Path to Public Judgment - Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright Collaborative Policymaking: Governance through dialogue - Daniel Yankelovich Part 3: Theory and Practice of Public Dispute Resolution - Judith E. Innes and David E. Booher The Evolution of Public Policy Dispute Resolution Choosing Appropriate Consensus Building Techniques and Strategies - Lawrence Susskind and Sarah McKearnan The Mediation Process - Susan Carpenter Mediating Science-Intensive Policy Disputes - Christopher W. Moore When Values Collide? - Lawrence Susskind and Connie Ozawa Dealing with Deep Value Differences - Lawrence Susskind and Patrick Field Cases - John Forester Social Capital Formation, Public-Building and Public Mediation: The Chelsea Charter consensus process Santa Fe Summit - Susan L. Podziba Could the Florida Election Dispute Have Been Mediated? Yes: Mediation would have produced a more legitimate outcome - David Lampe and Marshall Kaplan Part 4: Institutionalizing Public Dispute Resolution - Lawrence Susskind Negotiated Rulemaking Negotiating Regulations: A cure for Malaise Assessing Consensus: The promise and performance of negotiated rulemaking - Philip Harter When ADR Becomes the Law: A review of federal practice - Cary Coglianese Resolution of Local Land Use and Facility Sitting Disputes - Lawrence Susskind, Eileen Babbitt, and Phyllis Segal Mediating Land Use Disputes: Pros and Cons A Negotiation Credo for Controversial Siting Disputes - Lawrence Susskind, Mieke van der Wansem, Armando Ciccarelli Siting Noxious Facilities: A test of the facility siting credo - Lawrence Susskind Mediation - Howard Kunreuther, Kevin Fitzgerald & Thomas D. Aarts Part 5: Conclusions - John Nolan and Patricia Salkin Arguing, Bargaining and Getting Agreement VOLUME 3: COMPLEX LEGAL TRANSACTIONS - Lawrence Susskind Part 1: Introduction Introduction Part 2: Settling Complex Legal Disputes Organizations and Multiple Parties Toward a Functional Approach for Managing Complex Litigation - Robert Mnookin, Scott Peppet, and Andrew Tulumello When Litigation is Not the Only Way: Consensus building and mediation as public iInterest lawyering - Francis McGovern The Case for Settlement Counsel - Carrie Menkel-Meadow Part 3: Mass Torts and Class Action - William F. Coyne Jr. A Glass Half Full, a Glass Half Empty: The use of alternative dispute resolution in mass personal injury litigation Response to Deborah Hensler: A glass half full, a glass half empty: The use of alternative dispute resolution in mass personal injury litigation - Deborah Hensler Sweetheart and Blackmail Settlements in Class Actions: Reality and remedy - Kenneth Feinberg Texas Reporting From the Front Line - One Mediator's Experience with Mass Torts - Bruce Hay and David Rosenberg Part 4: Special Masters - Kenneth Feinberg Special Masters in Complex Cases: Extending the judiciary or reshaping adjudication Court-Appointed Masters as Mediators - Wayne Brazil Of End Games and Openings in Mass Tort Cases: Lessons from a special master - Lawrence Susskind Part 5: Cases - David Rosenberg Court-Appointed Special Masters in Complex Environmental Litigation: City of quincy v. metropolitan district commission Voluntary Interdistrict School Desegregation in St. Louis: The special master's tale - Timothy Little Asbestos: The private management of a public problem - D. Bruce la Pierre Meet the Chairman - Harry Wellington VOLUME 4: ORGANIZATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATION - Carrik Mollenkamp, Adam Levy, Joseph Menn, and Jeffrey Rothfeder Part 1: Introduction Introduction: Organizational and international negotiation: Analysis of the literature Part 2: Negotiation within Organizations Introduction and Theoretical Framework Macro Determinants of the Future of the Study of Negotiations in Organizations - Richard E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie The Concept of 'Coalition' in Organization Theory and Research - Thomas A. Kochan and Max H. Bazerman 57 Varieties: Has the ombudsman concept become diluted? - William B. Stevenson, Jone L. Pearce, and Lyman W. Porter The Manager is Always in the Middle - Carolyn Stieber The More the Merrier? Social Psychological Aspects of Multiparty Negotiations in Organizations - David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius Multiparty Negotiation in its Social Context - Roderick M. Krame Managing Conflict Effectively: Alternative dispute resolution and dispute system design - Jeffrey T. Polzer, Elizabeth A. Mannix, and Margaret A. Neale Part 3: Negotiation between Organizations - Cathy A. Costantino and Christina Sickles Merchant Developing a Theory of Collaboration Negotiating Inside Out: What are the best ways to relate internal ngotiations with external ones? - Barbara Gray Negotiation Between Organizations: A branching chain model - Roger Fisher When Should We Use Agents?: Direct vs. representative negotiation - Dean G. Pruitt International Joint Ventures: Economic and organizational perspectives - Jeffrey Z. Rubin and Frank E. A. Sander The Institutionalization and Evolutionary Dynamics of Inter-organizational Alliances and Networks - Kallyan Chatterjee and Barbara Gray Multiparty Negotiation and the Management of Complexity - Richard N. Osborn and John Hagedoorn Part 4: Diplomacy and Multilateral Conferences - Larry Crump What is Negotiation As it Looks to the Hard-Working Bureaucrat - Fred Charles Ikle Introduction: Conflict and Communication - Roger Fisher Intermediaries: Additional thoughts on third parties - John W. Burton International Mediation: Conflict resolution and power politics - Oran R. Young Introduction: Analyzing successful transfer effects in interactive conflict resolution - I. William Zartman and Saadia Touval Parallel Informal Negotiation: A new kind of international dialogue - Ronald J. Fisher Multistakeholder Dialogue at the Global Scale - Lawrence E. Susskind, Abram Chayes, and Janet Martinez Negotiation Linkage Dynamics: Consecutive and concurrent linkages - Lawrence E. Susskind, Boyd W. Fuller, Michele Ferenz, and David Fairman The Art of Preparing a Multilateral Conference - Larry Crump Multiparty Conferences - Klaus L. Aurisch Groups in Conference Diplomacy - Knut Midgaard and Arild Underdal Two's Company and More's a Crowd: The complexities of multilateral negotiation - Johan Kaufmann Understanding Multilateral Negotiations: Lessons and conclusions - I. William Zartman, William Zartman Negotiation in an Insecure World - Fen Osler Hampson Prt 5: Cases - Bertram I. Spector A Budge Negotiation Unity and Disunity in a Multiparty Major League Baseball Negotiation - David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius Taking the Heat in Kyoto: The 1997 Climate Change Conference - Larry Crump


In this work we developed rule-based algorithms for multiple-instance learning and one-class learning problems, namely, the mi-DS and OneClass-DS algorithms. Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL) is a variation of classical supervised learning where there is a need to classify bags (collection) of instances instead of single instances. The bag is labeled positive if at least one of its instances is positive, otherwise it is negative. One-class learning problem is also known as outlier or novelty detection problem. One-class classifiers are trained on data describing only one class and are used in situations where data from other classes are not available, and also for highly unbalanced data sets.
Extensive comparisons and statistical testing of the two algorithms show that they generate models that perform on par with other state-of-the-art algorithms.


Baled silage composition frequently differs from that of comparable conventional precision-chop silage. The lower final concentration of fermentation products in baled silage makes it more conducive to the activities of undesirable microorganisms. Silage additives can be used to encourage beneficial microbial activity and/or inhibit detrimental microbial activity. The experiment was organised in a 2 (chop treatments) × 6 (additive treatments) × 2 (stages of ensilage) factorial arrangement of treatments (n = 3 silos/treatment) to suggest additive treatments for use in baled silage production that would help create conditions more inhibitory to the activities of undesirable microorganisms and realise an outcome comparable to precision-chop silage. Chopping the herbage prior to ensiling, in the absence of an additive treatment, improved the silage fermentation. In the unchopped herbage, where the fermentation was poorer, the lactic acid bacterial inoculant resulted in an immediate increase (P < 0.001) in lactic acid concentration and a faster decline (P < 0.001) in pH with a subsequent reduction in butyric acid (P < 0.001) and ammonia-N (P < 0.01) concentrations. When sucrose was added in addition to the lactic acid bacterial inoculant, the combined treatment had a more pronounced effect on pH, butyric acid and ammonia-N values at the end of ensilage. The formic acid based additive and the antimicrobial mixture restricted the activities of undesirable microorganisms resulting in reduced concentrations of butyric acid (P < 0.001) and ammonia-N (P < 0.01). These additives offer a potential to create conditions in baled silage more inhibitory to the activities of undesirable microorganisms.


This thesis examines the impact of universal child care on child development outcomes. Through the case of the Quebec Family Policy, one of the largest and most comprehensive child care policies enacted in North America, the six papers making up this thesis investigate the impact of universal child care on a variety of child outcomes, including cognitive, health, and behavioural, and demonstrate that the effects of this policy are complicated along a number of dimensions. Moving beyond average effects, this research instead considers heterogeneity to produce a more nuanced analysis of the effects of universal child care. This research contributes significantly to debates surrounding best practices in child care policies, and the ways in which child care fits into trends such as gender gaps in education and increasing rates of childhood obesity. The first paper analyzes reporting of negative impacts of the Quebec Family Policy, confirming the notion that universal child care programs weaken individual and family outcomes but suggesting that substantial heterogeneity exists in response to child care attendance. The next paper examines these heterogeneous effects of universal child care through a consideration of differential impact according to child ability levels. Analysis reveals that formal child care can indeed boost developmental outcomes for some children, thus connecting a study of universal child care to the large literature on targeted programs. In the third paper aspects of the health outcomes of universal child care are examined, presenting both a complex image of the impact of child care on Body Mass Index and an initial investigation of the mechanisms driving these outcomes. The fourth paper demonstrates substantial heterogeneity across subgroups defined by child gender, and suggests that the availability of subsidized child care changed home environments disproportionately according to child gender. An analysis of heterogeneity in policy impacts by child age is the subject of the sixth paper, revealing that affects to young children drive the reported negative effects of the policy. Finally, in the sixth paper a triple difference identification strategy is used to consider the differential effects of exposure to policy access.


Although the poleward flow of the Leeuwin Current off Western Australia is unique among eastern boundary currents in the southern hemisphere, the biological oceanography of this system is comparatively poorly known. In this short review, the findings of the various studies on larval fishes completed off Western Australia are collated, synthesized and related to the influence of the Leeuwin Current. The studies range from light-trap experiments focusing on tropical fish larvae off the north-western coast to studies on larvae of commercially significant temperate clupeiod species in the Great Australian Bight. Larval fish assemblages within the Leeuwin Current appear to be composed of a mixture of oceanic, slope, tropical and temperate coastal species, with strong seasonal variation in species composition. Ichthyoplankton studies in progress off Western Australia are reported on and aim to address gaps in the knowledge about the influence of the Leeuwin Current and its meso-scale features upon larval fishes.


WARNING: SERIOUS SKIN RASHES See full prescribing information for complete boxed warning.  Cases of life-threatening serious rashes, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, and/or rash-related death have been caused by lamotrigine. The rate of serious rash is greater in pediatric patients than in adults. Additional factors that may increase the risk of rash include:  coadministration with valproate.  exceeding recommended initial dose of LAMICTAL.  exceeding recommended dose escalation for LAMICTAL. (5.1)  Benign rashes are also caused by lamotrigine; however, it is not possible to predict which rashes will prove to be serious or life threatening. LAMICTAL should be discontinued at the first sign of rash, unless the rash is clearly not drug related. (5.1)


This study aimed at examining factors that determine Formation and Performance of Smal1 ScaLe Business Enterprises in Bungoma Town. In examining these factors, both Primary and secondary data were used. Data on the background of study area and some of the literature and Government policy guideline for instance were obtained through secondary data. The existing enterprises, their characteristics and factors behind their formation, and performance were obtained from primary data through sample surveys. From the baseline surveys done in the Town, it was established that the town had a great potential in the development of the entire spectrum of informal sector activities. This potentiality was explained by the steady increase in the towns population which meant an increased demand in some of the smali scale enterprise products in the town. The location of the town along the major transportation lines and the presence of Manufacturing Industries such as Nzioa, Panpaper and Mumias were also established as some of the factors that contributed to the existence of these activities in the town. The study also established that formation of 'I he study also established that formation of these enterprises in the town was a function of the entrepreneurs perception. Desire to create an independent form of earning for instance was among the factors behind formation of these enterprises. Perceived earnings among the various enterprises played also a major role in formation. Availability of operation capital, conducive working space, good marketing channels, availability of working tools were observed as some of the factors that could determine the performance of a given enterprise. Based on the above findings, the study has suggested some policy implication that could assist policy makers in creating an enabling environment towards the development of Small Scale Business Enterprises not only in Bungoma Town but also in other upcoming Towns.


Session Description: Efficiency is widely recognized as one of the most important concepts in economics and business, a generic definition from Knapp (1984) coins it as 'the allocation of scarce resources that maximizes the achievement of aims'. Organizations, hospitals, and health systems across the world have been implementing telehealth for their patients and employees with efficiency in mind. A variety of benefits and motivations for telehealth exist, this session explores the efficiencies realized (financial, clinical, operational, technical). Leading experts and senior leaders from UnitedHealth Group, Kaiser Permanente, and Cloudbreak Health join this exciting panel to discuss how telehealth has become a strategic asset and made breakthrough efficiency impacts and results in their own and partner/client organizations.


In the pursuit of superior portfolio returns, some portfolio managers have turned to market timing for the extra edge. There is, however, no consistent strategy that earns returns above the benchmark. For an asset class to provide higher return requires a shift in the economy such as from an expansion to a contraction. Since valid economic data is not available until long after the period under consideration, the National Bureau of Economic Research often dates the turning points of an economic cycle months after the event. The results of this study show that the portfolio manager must be able to recognize the transition from expansion to contraction within one month of the turning point and act accordingly. To attempt to identify the shift the authors establish a set of rules with respect to economic data and test them on a hypothetical portfolio. The result is an annual return less than that of the S&P 500 over the same period. How can an investor recognize the peak or trough so soon? Certainly not by using any data that is readily available. The idea that excess returns can be earned by market timing is obviously a fascinating one, but thus far, there has been no accurate method to consistently realize these returns.


Background. Little is known about how the views of the public are related to self-stigma among people with mental health problems. Despite increasing activity aimed at reducing mental illness stigma, there is little evidence to guide and inform specific anti-stigma campaign development and messages to be used in mass campaigns. A better understanding of the association between public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours and the internalization of stigma among people with mental health problems is needed. Method. This study links two large, international datasets to explore the association between public stigma in 14 European countries (Eurobarometer survey) and individual reports of self-stigma, perceived discrimination and empowerment among persons with mental illness ( n = 1835) residing in those countries [the Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy Networks (GAMIAN) study]. Results. Individuals with mental illness living in countries with less stigmatizing attitudes, higher rates of help-seeking and treatment utilization and better perceived access to information had lower rates of self-stigma and perceived discrimination and those living in countries where the public felt more comfortable talking to people with mental illness had less self-stigma and felt more empowered. Conclusions. Targeting the general public through mass anti-stigma interventions may lead to a virtuous cycle by disrupting the negative feedback engendered by public stigma, thereby reducing self-stigma among people with mental health problems. A combined approach involving knowledge, attitudes and behaviour is needed; mass interventions that facilitate disclosure and positive social contact may be the most effective. Improving availability of information about mental health issues and facilitating access to care and help-seeking also show promise with regard to stigma.


Medieval Georgia, in the Caucasus, produced a wealth of monuments to its rulers, of which little is known outside the former Soviet Union. This book examines the development of royal imagery in Georgia between the 9th and 13th centuries. Positioned between the Christian and Islamic worlds, Georgia provides an excellent case study for the investigation of issues regarding the relationship between art and power and the transmission of ideas between East and West. Byzantine, Persian, Armenian, Turkic and local traditions are shown to have influenced the image of power promoted by the Georgian rulers, and Eastmond bases his study on fine examples ranging from high relief stone carvings to sophisticated wall-painting cycles. Initially, the book traces the production and interpretation of royal imagery over five centuries, from the revivial of the Georgian monarchy in the 9th century to its culmination in the reign of Queen Tamar (1184-1213) on the eve of the Mongolian invasions. Eastmond highlights the ways in which the details and settings of each image of a ruler were very carefully designed to impress different audiences, allowing for the co-existence of contradictory portrayals. Specifically, the book concentrates on the five surviving images of Queen Tamar. These portraits provide untapped evidence of the ways in which artistic traditions were transformed by the need to legitimize the accession of a woman to power. Eastmond also challenges the typically held view that the role of patronage in the functioning and development of royal imagery was centrally controlled. He proposes instead that it was manipulated by members of the court to promote both local and royal interests. The text introduces a rarely seen body of important works and provides a model of interpretation that can be applied to the study of royal art elsewhere in the Byzantine and Western medieval worlds.


Industrial data set with 400 CC (continuous casting) steel slabs were analysed by a statistical method for revealing the real connections between the technological parameters, heat transfer model results and the precisely determined centerline segregation index. Because of the poor correlations a new model was developed in which the shrinkage and deformations of the shells of the slabs can also be taken into account. It has been proved that the stopping of liquid movement below about 30 % liquid ratio plays an important role in the centerline segregation formation. The conclusions of the calculations are in good accordance with the results of the metallographical analysis.


Despite the high efficiency of the perovskite solar cells and the ease of their fabrication process, the presence of hysteresis is still known as an important challenge of the perovskite solar cells. In this study, it is shown that this undesirable phenomenon can be considerably mitigated by adding Cs to the structure of CH3NH3PbI3. Although the exact reason of the hysteresis is still unknown, in this work, it is ascribed to the smaller radius of ionic migration of Cs, in comparison to organic cations such as CH3NH3 and improving the trap levels of perovskite.


In this paper, a finite element modelling of permanent magnet micro actuator is presented. The later is coupled with a micro screw pump, which can be used in biomedical applications for the pumping of biological fluids such as blood (surgery of heart, blood treatment machines). The resolution of the electromagnetic problem is carried out in 2D magnetostatic assumption in Cartesian case. The characteristics evaluations concern the flow rate-pressure head of the micro screw pump for various rotation speed are also investigated using a developed coupled model with electromagnetic equations and fluid mechanic equations. The obtained results using a computer code implemented under MATLAB environment are confronted with the experimental results provided in the literature.


The Paris agenda on aid effectivess emphasises support for recipient-owned development strategies, increased use of national systems and more co-ordinated and predictable donor actions. Monitorable targets for such behaviour have been agreed, but the connections with expected development benefits are as yet unproven. Alternative views of the rationale for aid agencies, transaction costs and conditionality, in which there is rarely complete preference alignment and trust between donors and recipients, introduce further complications. Four additional policy measures are identified which cannot be managed easily within the Paris agenda: better international balancing of aid allocations; new instruments with longer commitment horizons; liquidity arrangements to enable 'scaling up' across several countries; and independent aid rating institutions linked to market-like sanctions. Copyright Overseas Development Institute, 2005.


Introduction Prostate cancer is now the third most frequent noncutaneous malignancy in Iranian men and the fifth most common cancer worldwide. Measurement of total serum prostate specific antigens (PSAs) has been one of the strongest predictors of biochemical progression and overall survival in determining the efficacy of definitive external beam radiation therapy in patients with localized prostate cancer. The aim of this research was to identify the 5-year biochemical progression-free survival (BFS) and related prognostic and predictive factors of localized prostate cancer patients who were treated with definitive external beam radiotherapy. Methods This study analyzed 192 localized prostate cancer patients from stage T1aN0M0 to stage T3N0M0; they were treated with definitive radiation therapy and followed up in the radiation-oncology ward of Shohada-e-Tajrish Hospital in Tehran (Iran) between 2006 and 2013. The 5-year BFS was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier estimate. For multivariate analysis, the Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the strengths of various factors for 5-year BFS. Results The follow-up period was between 14–81 months, with a median of 31 months. The median cumulative prostate dose in our series was 64 Gray (Gy) (range 62 to 78 Gy). The 5-year BFS for all patients was 65.1%, and 5-year BFS in low-risk, intermediate-risk and high-risk groups were 100%, 86.5%, and 54.9% respectively. Multivariate analysis found statistically significant relation between 5-year BFS and initial PSA>20, Gleason score 8–10, high risk group, TNM stage≥T2cN0M0, radiotherapy dose<70 Gy, radiotherapy with 2D technique and hormonal therapy in high-risk group (p=0.003, p=0.032, p=0.014, p=0.001, p=0.035, p=0.035, p=0.022 respectively). Conclusion Our seven years' experience of follow-up with PSA showed that PSA was the strongest predictor of biochemical progression survival in patients with prostate cancer who were treated with definitive external beam radiation therapy.


Understanding the molecular mechanisms governing protein-nucleic acid interactions is fundamental to many nuclear processes. However, how nucleic acid binding affects the conformation and dynamics of the substrate protein remains poorly understood. Here we use a combination of single molecule force spectroscopy AFM and biochemical assays to show that the binding of TG-rich ssDNA triggers a mechanical switch in the RRM1 domain of TDP-43, toggling between an entropic spring devoid of mechanical stability and a shock absorber bound-form that resists unfolding forces of ∼40 pN. The fraction of mechanically resistant proteins correlates with an increasing length of the TG n oligonucleotide, demonstrating that protein mechanical stability is a direct reporter of nucleic acid binding. Steered molecular dynamics simulations on related RNA oligonucleotides reveal that the increased mechanical stability fingerprinting the holo-form is likely to stem from a unique scenario whereby the nucleic acid acts as a "mechanical staple" that protects RRM1 from mechanical unfolding. Our approach highlights nucleic acid binding as an effective strategy to control protein nanomechanics.


Using data from the first four waves of the OCTO‐Twin study (twins 80 + years), the present study investigated the stability and change of genetic and environmental contributions to pulmonary function. Using a genetic simplex model, variance in peak expiratory flow (PEF) at each wave was decomposed into additive genetic and nonshared (specific) environmental factors. Additionally, this analysis distinguished the source of these influences, either from previous waves (transmissions) or from novel influences at each wave (innovations). At each time point (except wave 1), the genetic variance was due to genetic transmissions from prior time points. Conversely, the specific environmental variance in PEF at each time point was mainly due to environmental innovations. These results imply that genetic factors contribute to the stability of pulmonary function over time whereas environmental factors contribute to its change. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Oral traditions are historical sources of a special nature. Their special nature derives from the fact that they are "unwritten" sources couched in a form suitable for oral transmission, and that their preservation depends on the powers of memory of successive generations of human beings. In many parts of the world inhabited by peoples without writing, oral tradition forms the main available source for a reconstruction of the past.


Let k ≥ 1 be an integer. Let δ k (n) denote the maximum divisor of n which is co-prime to k. We study the error term of the general m-th Riesz mean of the arithmetical function δ k (n) for any positive integer m ≥ 1, namely the error term E m,k (x) where 1 m! n≤x δ k (n) 1 − n x m = M m,k (x) + E m,k (x). We establish a non-trivial upper bound for E m,k (x) , for any integer m ≥ 1.


The thesis explores the relationship between motor and academic skills. According to previous research, motor skills difficulties can affect academic outcomes. Furthermore, there is growing evidence supporting the relationship between the motor and academic areas. As part of this investigation a motor skills intervention was developed that aimed to make improvements in the performance of the reading, maths and motor skills of young children in mainstream education. The "Motor Skills Intervention for the Early Years" that was subsequently developed represented a new approach to intervention combining direct and indirect motor tasks resulting in a pragmatic, hybrid intervention.
The research involved 56 typically developing children (TDC) attending two English primary schools with a mean age of 58 months randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. Children were assessed in their motor and academic skills both before and after the intervention. The intervention was delivered for a period of 11 weeks with two weekly sessions for each school.
Preliminary findings appear to be promising, showing a large effect size for motor skills, and medium to smaller effects for reading and maths. The motor skills of manual dexterity and ball skills were significantly improved in children within the experimental group. Improving motor skills in TDC is important in its own right, due to its strong preventative role. Based on these findings, it is concluded that a hybrid approach to motor skills intervention can improve specific motor skills and yield small effects to academic skills within TDC. Future research from this study might include follow-up assessments to identify possible benefits on the academic areas of reading and maths in the long term. In addition, these findings can be used to inform future research and, if replicated with a larger sample, to inform educational policies for school-based interventions.


The multimedia information retrieval community has dedicated extensive research effort to the problem of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). However, these systems find their main limitation in the difficulty of creating pictorial queries. As a result, few systems offer the option of querying by visual examples, and rely on automatic concept detection and tagging techniques to provide support for searching visual content using textual queries.
 This paper proposes and studies a practical multimodal web search scenario, where CBIR fits intuitively to improve the retrieval of rich information queries. Many online articles contain useful know-how knowledge about computer applications. These articles tend to be richly illustrated by screenshots. We present a system to search for such software know-how articles that leverages the visual correspondences between screenshots. Users can naturally create pictorial queries simply by taking a screenshot of the application to retrieve a list of articles containing a matching screenshot.
 We build a prototype comprising 150k articles that are classified into walkthrough, book, gallery, and general categories, and provide a comprehensive evaluation of this system, focusing on technical (accuracy of CBIR techniques) and usability (perceived system usefulness) aspects. We also consider the study of added value features of such a visual-supported search, including the ability to perform cross-lingual queries. We find that the system is able to retrieve matching screenshots for a wide variety of programs, across language boundaries, and provide subjectively more useful results than keyword-based web and image search engines.


This study investigates the effect of methanol addition to low octane number gasoline, in terms of calorific value, octane number, compression ratio at knocking and engine performance. Locally produced gasoline (octane number = 87) was blended with five different percentages of methanol, namely 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% on volume basis. The properties of the respective fuel blends were first determined. Then they were tested in an engine. It was found that the octane number of gasoline increases continuously and linearly with methanol percentages in gasoline. Hence, methanol is an effective compound for increasing the value of the octane number of gasoline. Also, it was found that the engine performance improves as the percentage of methanol increases in the blend within the range studied.


The concept of Ambiguity designates those situations where the information available to the decision maker is insufficient to form a probabilistic view of the world. Thus, it has provided the motivation for departing from the Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) paradigm. Yet, the formalization of the concept is missing. This is a grave omission as it leaves non-expected utility models hanging on a shaky ground. In particular, it leaves unanswered basic questions such as: (1) Does Ambiguity exist?; (2) If so, which situations should be labeled as 'ambiguous'?; (3) Why should one depart from Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) in the presence of Ambiguity?; and (4) If so, what kind of behavior should emerge in the presence of Ambiguity? The present paper fills these gaps. Specifically, it identifies those information structures that are incompatible with SEU theory, and shows that their mathematical properties are the formal counterpart of the intuitive idea of insufficient information. These are used to give a formal definition of Ambiguity and, consequently, to distinguish between ambiguous and unambiguous situations. Finally, the paper shows that behavior not conforming to SEU theory must emerge in correspondence of insufficient information and identifies the class of non-EU models that emerge in the face of Ambiguity. The paper also proposes a new comparative definition of Ambiguity, and discusses its relation with some of the existing literature.


As a result of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Illinois v. City of Milwaukee, federal common law, a new and potentially effective remedy, has been made available to parties seeking relief in water pollution cases in the federal courts. However, the possibility of non-sovereign parties using federal common law remedies to protect the waterways may be severely diminished as several federal courts have restricted such remedies to suits involving interstate waterways. This Note will examine the effect of these decisions on the ability of parties to initiate waterway pollution suits based on the federal common law and consider whether such decisions correctly interpret the intent of Illinois.


This paper reports a fuzzy expert system for the diagnosis of earthquake proof of gas pipelines with the aid of OPS83 tool. The fuzzy theory was employed to estimate seismic risk on the base rock, ground response and pipeline responses which were obtained by jointing the OPS tool with ERAUL (Earthquake Response Analysis of Underground Lifelines) computer program written by FORTRAN. The ERAUL developed by authors can analyse three dimensional behaviour of buried pipelines under seismic inputs such as wave propagation, ground settlement and crack in soft soil deposits, and buoyancy, settlement and lateral flow by liquefaction. Further, database related with gas buried pipes was created including pipe materials, size, strength and joint characteristics. Following interfaces convenient for users were introduced: (a) Digitizer can be used for obtaining input data about locations of pipeline network system, (b) Documents on input data, analytical procedure and results of diagnosis can be automatically created, and (c) Graphic display is easy to use about input and output data such as pipeline system, fuzzy membership functions and results of diagnosis. For an example study, middle pressure gas pipelines were diagnosed by the developed expert computer system with pipe configurations such as straight, bend, tee, valve and reducers buried in the ground of possible liquefaction and settlements.


Mq asT people, including most scholars, think the War on Poverty began with a formal declaration by Lyndon Johnson in 1964. In a sense this is true, for there was in fact no formal governmental decree before that time. Academic researchers have chosen to conduct their statistical analyses of poverty within this narrow time frame, producing books with titles like A Decade of Federal Antipoverty Programs (published in 1977), or Progress Against Poverty: A Review of the 1964-1974 Decade. And so persuasive has this scholarly conception of recent history been that public debate over the Reagan administration's domestic agenda has been based on the widespread assumption that only beginning in 1964 were great strides made toward the elimination, or at least the alleviation, of poverty in America.


A two-way relay channel is considered where two users exchange information via a common relay in two transmission phases using physical-layer network coding (PNC). We consider an optimal decoding strategy at the relay to decode the network coded sequence during the first transmission phase, which is approximately implemented using a list decoding (LD) algorithm. The algorithm jointly decodes the codewords transmitted by the two users and sorts the L most likely pair of sequences in the order of decreasing a-posteriori probabilities, based on which, estimates of the most likely network coded sequences and the decoding results are obtained. Using several examples, it is observed that a lower complexity alternative, that jointly decodes the two transmitted codewords, has a performance similar to the LD based decoding and offers a near-optimal performance in terms of the error rates corresponding to the XOR of the two decoded sequences. To analyze the error rate at the relay, an analytical approximation of the word-error rate using the joint decoding (JD) scheme is evaluated over an AWGN channel using an approach that remains valid for the general case of two users adopting different codebooks and using different power levels. We further extend our study to frequency selective channels where two decoding approaches at the relay are investigated, namely; a trellis based joint channel detector/physical-layer network coded sequence decoder (JCD/PNCD) which is shown to offer a near-optimal performance, and a reduced complexity channel detection based on a linear receiver with minimum mean squared error (MMSE) criterion which is particularly useful where the number of channel taps is large.


The response of grasslands to disturbance varies with the nature of the disturbance and the productivity of the landscape. In highly productive grasslands, competitive exclusion often results in decreased species richness and grazing may allow more species to coexist. Once widespread, grasslands dominated by Dichanthium sericeum (Queensland bluegrass) and Astrebla spp. (Mitchell grass) occur on fertile plains but have been reduced in extent by cultivation. We tested the effects of exclusion of livestock grazing on these grasslands by comparing the floristic composition of sites in a nature reserve with an adjacent stock reserve. In addition, sites that had been cultivated within the nature reserve were compared with those where grazing but no cultivation had occurred. To partition the effects of temporal variation from spatial variation we sampled sites in three different years (1998, 2002 and 2004). Some 194 taxa were recorded at the nature reserve and surrounding stock routes. Sampling time, the occurrence of past cultivation and livestock grazing all influenced species composition. Species richness varied greatly between sampling periods relating to highly variable rainfall and water availability on heavy clay soils. Native species richness was significantly lower at previously cultivated sites (13-22 years after cultivation), but was not significantly influenced by grazing exclusion. After 8 years it appears that reintroducing disturbance in the form of livestock grazing is not necessary to maintain plant species richness in the reserve. The highly variable climate (e.g. droughts) probably plays an important role in the coexistence of species by negating competitive exclusion and allowing interstitial species to persist.


This paper deals with the diachrony of the associated motion (AM) category in the Tacanan languages of the Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia and Peru. The category of AM consists of grammatical markers that attach to non-motion verbs and specify that the verb action (V) occurs against the background of a motion event (e.g., 'go and V', 'V while going', etc.). The AM systems of Tacanan languages are noteworthy for their remarkably high degree of complexity, reaching levels rarely found in languages of other parts of the word. This raises several questions, one of which is how they evolved historically. In this paper, I gather for the first time the information available on the AM systems of the five Tacanan languages (Araona, Cavinena, Ese Ejja, Reyesano and Tacana) and attempt to reconstruct their past. I first argue that between one and four AM markers can be reconstructed in Proto-Tacanan. Secondly, I argue that several AM markers that are not reconstructible have developed recently out of independent verbs of motion and I make the hypothesis that these have been directly copied into already well established AM paradigms.


We demonstrate that a firm's ability to innovate is predictable, persistent, and relatively simple to compute, and yet the stock market ignores the implications of past successes when valuing future innovation. We show that two firms that invest the exact same in research and development (R&D) can have quite divergent, but predictably divergent, future paths. Our approach is based on the simple premise that while future outcomes associated with R&D investment are uncertain, the past track records of firms may give insight into their potential for future success. We show that a long-short portfolio strategy that takes advantage of the information in past track records earns abnormal returns of roughly 11 percent per year. Importantly, these past track records also predict divergent future real outcomes in patents, patent citations, and new product innovations.


The current study investigates the impact of critical consciousness education on gender identity and perceptions of sexism. Students in women's studies and personality psychology courses completed measures of gender identification, gender identity content, and perceptions of sexism at the beginning and end of the semester. Results indicate that women's studies education changes how participants define what it means to be a woman while also leading to broader recognition of sexism. Further, mediation analyses indicate that changes in identity content mediates the relationship between course and perceptions of sexism. These results indicate the impact of critical consciousness-based education on perceptions of the self and society, in conjunction with a need for research that includes content-based analyses of identity as well as varied and diverse conceptions of gender oppression.


The Crotone Basin, located on a stack of nappes piled up during the late Paleogene-Neogene, formed in the late Neogene to Quaternary as a forearc basin of the Ionian arc-trench system. The process of slab rollback caused rapid trench migration, resulting in an extensionaltranstensional regime persisting most of the time in the forearc area.The late Neogene tectonic evolution was strongly influenced by a NW-directed fault system, interpreted as basement wrench faults leading to partitioning of the basin into separate sub-basins subject to differential subsidence and mutual displacements. Major sequences identified in the area are regarded as tectono-stratigraphic sequences (TSS). The first of them was laid down in the late Serravallian (?) - Tortonian - early Messinian, during the basin opening stage and is bounded at the top by an erosional unconformity, which may be correlated with the well-known intra-Messinian event of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis. The second TSS, of middle to late Messinian age, is characterized by strongly syntectonic deposits mostly derived from cannibalization of the lower Messiniansuccession, first infilling extensional troughs, then involved in an episode of sinistral transpression along the NW-trending fault system, which generated local overthrusts, sealed by a late Messinian erosional unconformity. The Messinian tectonics probably reflects the interplay between the processes linked to the kinematics of the Calabria block and those triggered by the Salinity Crisis. The erosional unconformity is overlain by widespread coarse fluvial conglomerates, which are the first onlapping term of the third TSS, represented by uppermost Messinian to lower Zanclean deposits, laid down in an extensional-transtensional regime. This TSS was closed by an important late Zanclean episode of dextral transpression along the NW-trending fault system, leading to inversion of the formerbasins, and limited SW-verging thrusts on fault-restraining bends.The unconformity sealing the structures has a clear expression in the northern, marginal part of the Crotone Basin and correlates downbasin with a conformable surface. The fourth TSS is characterized by a long-lasting phase dominated by extension-transtension, leading to high subsidence rate during the latest Zanclean to Early Pleistocene, and accommodating a thick succession of slope mudstones including clusters of diatomaceous bands mostly in the D. tamalis and D. brouweri Zones. In the northern part of the Crotone Basin two phases of drowning separated by an uplift pulse at ca. 2.55 Ma can be recognized, the second of which was a dramatic collapse, between 2.3 and 2.1 Ma. The fifth TSS is bounded at the base by an unconformity at the transition between «large» and «small» GephyrocapsaZones, i.e. at around 1.1-1.2 Ma, correlating basinwards with a conformable surface. The unconformity is erosional and locally angular in the marginal part of the basin, where it seals structures generated by a contractional event documented also elsewhere in the Calabria block. This event, which is accompanied by a strikeslip component, is inferred to be coeval to the Lower Pleistocene important transpressional episode along the Pollino shear system,which led to release of the Calabria block from the southern Apennines.The fifth TSS is characterized by resumed dextral transtension in the Middle Pleistocene along right-stepping NW-trending faults. This episode generated minor pull-apart sub-basins, showing spectacular growth structures in their infilling successions, which developed with shoaling trend up to inferred Marine Isotope Stages 9-8. The onset of shoaling trend was diachronous, being remarkably younger in the southern sub-basin. In the late Middle Pleistocene to Recent times extensional tectonics was dominating, accompanied by local gravity gliding towards the Ionian Sea, arguably triggered by increase in topographic gradient following hinterland uplift, and implying the activation of a linked, thin-skinned extensional and contractional NE- to NNE-directed fault system, with detachment surface possibly soling into Messinian evaporitic-mudstone deposits. It is concluded that the geologic evolution of the investigated forearc area was characterized by an alternation of long-lived stages of extension-transtension expressed by prolonged subsidence preceded by uplift pulses, and short-lived episodes of contraction-transpression.Major drowning episodes in the forearc area are thought to be coeval to the main phases of spreading in the Tyrrhenian basin.


There is an increased interest in personalised products worldwide, particularly in the children's reading and children's publishing industry. This growing interest mirrors the rise of technologies that facilitate the personalisation of generic products such as cosmetics, clothes or household items, and broader socio-cultural and economic phenomena like increased urbanisation, globalisation, and multiculturalism in the 21st century. With the rising popularity of personalised reading experiences, the responsibilities of children's publishers are growing beyond those of traditional publishing houses: they are also data owners, responsible for the privacy and confidentiality of children's data. Because it is so easy for individual data points to lead to pattern recognition and user profiling, which can result in positive innovation and more refined end-products, the personalised publishing industry faces significant design, moral, financial, educational, and ethical challenges. A solution to the challenges of personal data management in the publishing industry that complies with forthcoming regulations like General Data Protection Regulation is required. HAT technology, a user-owned private data account solution, offers children's publishers a long-term and sustainable means of addressing the predictable future challenges facing this sector. A child's private data account (which could be a HAT Private Microserver Data Account) could hold their personal data-at-rest in a containerised, self-owned database. This would give the child, or his/her trustee, the legal right and ability to integrate their personal data within that database with services on the Internet. This solution emulates physical life; by using HAT Private Microserver Data Accounts (PMDAs), children and their guardians would be able to own their personal database in the same way they own physical assets, and share the data within it on terms they control. Children's personal data, once it has been collected by corporations, becomes ensnared in a web of complex legal and technical challenges if it is ever reused, consolidated, or organised. This paper suggests a straightforward means of effectively leveraging this valuable resource, both economically and technically, to improve the reading experiences of children.


This study explores the perceived quality of working life (QWL) in Croatia and in two groups of EU countries: the EU17, which comprises established market economies of Western Europe, and the EU10, which consists of ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The analysis draws upon the database of the Fifth European Working Conditions Survey, the fieldwork for which was carried out in 2010. The number of participants was 24,424 in the EU17, 10,948 in the EU10, and 1,100 in the Croatian sample. Four dimensions have been constructed to measure the QWL: (1) economic security, (2) social relations at work, (3) meaningfulness of work, and (4) autonomy and participation in making decisions. The results show that the CEE countries lag behind the Western European countries, in particular in economic security. In a hierarchical cluster analysis the two groups are bundled together in separate clusters, indicating that a pronounced East-West divide in quality of working life continues to exist. Croatia, although with relatively high ratings on social relations, clusters together with the other transitional countries.


A model compound set that contains a series of fan-shaped chromophores using 2,3,8-trifunctionalized indenoquinoxaline units as the major building block of their π-framework was synthesized and characterized for their two- and three-photon absorption properties in the femtosecond regime based on two-photon-excited fluorescence and Z-scan techniques. The experimental results show that these dendritic fluorophores manifest strong and wide-dispersed two- and three-photon absorption bands within the near-infrared region, which indicates that 2,3,8-trifunctionalized indenoquinoxaline units are favorable building moieties for the construction of highly active multi-photon dyes. The maximum values of two- and three-photon absorption cross-sections for the largest dendron (i.e. compound D4) are ≈24 800 GM and 6 × 10−78 cm6 s2, respectively. A nearly linear ascending relationship between π-structural expansion and nonlinear absorption is observed for these compounds, implying that the currently utilized structural arrangement does not exert deleterious or cooperative effects on the multi-photon absorption properties of this model system. In addition, a representative dendritic structure is selected to demonstrate efficient optical power-limiting against femtosecond laser pulses at 790 nm.


In "Welsh Poetry Since 1945," a masterly assessment of Welsh poetry between 1945 and 1970 published more than thirty years ago, the then-young literary critic Dafydd Glyn Jones described the impact the Penyberth incident--the "Burning of the Bombing School"--had made on Welsh literature up to that time. Penyberth in North Wales's Llyn peninsula and the heartland of Welsh-speaking Wales, was where the British War Ministry had decided, in the teeth of local and national opposition, to build a testing ground for its Air Force pilots in preparation for the impending European war. On September 8, 1936, three leaders of the Welsh Nationalist Party--an academic, a schoolmaster, and a minister of religion--took it upon themselves to block the government's plans by setting the place on fire; they each received sentences of nine months in prison for their pains. That most unexpected blow for freedom and dignity signaled a new phase in Welsh national consciousness, when those who were committed to Wales were challenged for the first time in the modern era to act radically in order to preserve their culture and their way of life. In response to that incident, the poet Robert Williams Parry in his sonnet "Cymru 1937" ("Wales 1937") had voiced an almost existential plea calling on his contemporaries, whether pious or secular, to do something rather than to lament impotently on the demise of their nation: O'r Llanfair sydd ar y Bryn neu Lanfair Mathafarn Chwyth ef i'r synagog neu chwyth ef i'r dafarn. (Llwyd 129) "From the Llanfair on the Hill" the burial place of the Methodist revivalist and hymnist Williams Pantycelyn, "or Llanfair Mathafarn," the Anglesey abode of his eighteenth-century contemporary, the dissolute poetic genius Goronwy Owen, "blow him to the synagogue or blow him to the tavern" (my own translation). "This wind," wrote Dafydd Glyn Jones, "has blown through Welsh poetry ever since, and--thanks largely to the powerful voices of the two Christian poets, Saunders Lewis and D. Gwenallt Jones, against whom the still small voices of Marxism and Humanism had no earthly chance,--it has blown, almost without veering, from Llanfair ar y Bryn" (47). Even in 1971 this, in the world of literature, was a most unusual situation. The twentieth century had seen the progressive secularization of Welsh life, not least among its intelligentsia. The University of Wales, its first constituent College having been established in 1872, had taken its earliest strides at the exact time when Darwinism and other humanist ideologies had undermined, to an increasing extent, the older values and orthodoxies. If the liberal theology that became so pervasive among a section of the religious leaders at the turn of the century had been, for some, a means of preserving the integrity of Christian faith in the context of the modern age, for others it was all too easy to pass beyond liberal Protestantism altogether into a full-blown secular humanism. If Christianity was merely humanism with a pious tinge, what reason was there to stay Christian at all? Just as this was occurring among the intelligentsia, the great phalanx of the working class, and not just in the industrial south, was also traveling in a secular direction under the influence of socialism and the labor movement. By the first decade of the century, the older individualism was being superseded by a class-based politics that prized workers' rights much higher than religious faith; the people's utopia became a much more potent symbol than the Kingdom of God. Following the deep tragedy of the First World War, the feeling was that the new Wales would be a secular Wales with religion having been banished to the past. And so it was, a fact exemplified during the 1930s by the poets and the novelists of the Anglo-Welsh: Rhys Davies, Idris Davies, and Dylan Thomas. It was also true of the most creative artists who wrote in Welsh: T. H. Parry-Williams and Robert Williams Parry being cases in point. …


Healthcare data warehousing presents unique challenges. The industry is rife with often incompatible medical standards and coding schemes that require careful translation. Healthcare data comes from many sources and is delivered in many forms, including published books, individual spreadsheets, and several tape or data formats. Results derived from a healthcare data warehouse must be delivered in accessible form to diverse stakeholders, including healthcare regulators, physicians, hospital administrators, consumers, community activists, and members of the popular press. The industry's widely decentralized and largely autonomous data collection efforts make data quality a significant challenge. Finally, the sensitivity of healthcare data makes privacy and security issues paramount. Healthcare data warehousing will make rigorous, quantitative information available to healthcare decision makers. The authors describe a fully functional healthcare data warehouse used to produce several reports for communities throughout Florida. Building on this work, they're actively pursuing a research agenda to enhance technical data warehousing capabilities while investigating innovative community and clinical healthcare applications.


Modulation of plasma membrane interaction with the underlying cytoskeleton in cells occurs during numerous cell processes including cell movement and endocytosis. Raucher et al. suggest that the membrane lipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) may be an important regulator of this interaction. By representing overall interactions (cytoskeleton with plasma membrane proteins and/or lipids) with an energy term (membrane tension) that was determined using optical tweezers, the authors show that when membrane PIP2 levels were decreased, membrane tension was reduced. PIP2 levels were reduced in cells by either overexpressing pleckstrin homology domains that sequestered the membrane lipid, by overexpressing a PIP2-specific phosphatase, or by stimulating surface receptors that stimulated the hydrolysis of PIP2. The authors speculate that changes in PIP2 could affect direct interactions between PIP2 and cytoskeletal proteins or could alter actin polymerization. Raucher, D., Stauffer, T., Chen, W., Shen, K., Guo, S., York, J.D., Sheetz, M.P., and Meyer, T. (2000) Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate functions as a second messenger that regulates cytoskeleton-plasma membrane adhesion. Cell 100: 221-228. [Online Journal]


Lung-resident memory T cell memory depends on reseeding from the circulating effector memory pool. See the Focus by Borges da Silva and Jameson. Getting the lung to remember flu After influenza infection, some memory T cells enter the lung and become resident memory T cells (TRM). Although TRM play an important role in conferring protection against subsequent flu infections, TRM in the lung do not persist. Understanding how to improve TRM persistence is a longstanding goal in flu vaccination. Using a mouse model of flu, Slütter et al. report that TRM in the lung are prone to die and need to be constantly replenished from the circulating pool of memory T cells. Because circulating memory T cells wane with time, the lung eventually runs out of TRM. Given that immune cell infiltration can interfere with breathing, the lung may have evolved to limit immune cell residence. Lung-resident memory CD8 T cells (TRM) induced by influenza A virus (IAV) that are pivotal for providing subtype-transcending protection against IAV infection (heterosubtypic immunity) are not maintained long term, causing gradual loss of protection. The short-lived nature of lung TRM contrasts sharply with long-term maintenance of TRM induced by localized infections in the skin and in other tissues. We show that the decline in lung TRM is determined by an imbalance between apoptosis and lung recruitment and conversion to TRM of circulating memory cells. We show that circulating effector memory cells (TEM) rather than central memory cells (TCM) are the precursors for conversion to lung TRM. Time-dependent changes in expression of genes critical for lymphocyte trafficking and TRM differentiation, in concert with enrichment of TCM, diminish the capacity of circulating memory CD8 T cells to form TRM with time, explaining why IAV-induced TRM are not stably maintained. Systemic booster immunization, through increasing the number of circulating TEM, increases lung TRM, providing a potential new avenue to enhance IAV vaccines.


We describe a new multicore fiber (MCF) having seven single-mode cores arranged in a hexagonal array, exhibiting low crosstalk among them and low loss across the C- and L-band. In order to spatially multiplex and demultiplex optical signals in and out of the MCF, we designed and fabricated a tapered MCF connector (TMC) with ultralow crosstalk and loss for space-division-multiplexing (SDM) transmission. The key crosstalk properties of MCF, including wavelength and distance dependence crosstalk characteristics, and statistical distribution of crosstalk over time, are measured and discussed. Using the MCF and TMC, we experimentally demonstrate a record transmission capacity of 112 Tb/s over a 76.8 km MCF using SDM and dense wavelength division multiplexing. Each core of the MCF carries 160 107 Gb/s polarization-division multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (PDM-QPSK) channels on a 50 GHz grid in the C- and L-band, resulting in an aggregate spectral efficiency of 14 b/s/Hz. The system impact of the intercore crosstalk on a 107 Gb/s PDM-QPSK signal is further investigated by transmitting it through the center core while the six outer cores carry same-wavelength 107 Gb/s signals. The system implication of the core-to-core crosstalk on ultralong-haul transmission is also discussed.


ABSTRACT: We evaluated the influence of preestablished plant species distance, direction, and identity on antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata Pursh) seedling establishment and biomass production. Antelope bitterbrush seeds were planted 10- and 20-cm away from the base of three preestablished plant species. We monitored seedling establishment and growth during and after two growing seasons. Sowing antelope bitterbrush seeds 20-cm away from preestablished plant bases yielded 1.59 times greater seedling establishment than seeds sown 10-cm away, suggesting that established plants interfere with bitterbrush recruitment. Antelope bitterbrush seedling survival after 2 y of growth was greater than 96% for all treatments, suggesting that early growth phases were the primary bottlenecks to establishment. Antelope bitterbrush forage production decreased with proximity to preestablished plants. After 2 y of growth, antelope bitterbrush biomass was almost 3 times greater for plants grown without preestablished plant neighbors or with a preestablished grass (Elymus elymoides Raf.) than with preestablished forb species (Dalea candida Michx. ex Willd. or Gaillardia aristata Pursh). Inoculating preestablished plants with soil from native sites or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi did not influence antelope bitterbrush establishment or growth. We suggest that plant trait complementarity and spatial relationships can be used to design seeding strategies to increase antelope bitterbrush establishment and forage production.


Research for development (R4D) praxis (theory-informed practical action) can be underpinned by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which, it is claimed, provide opportunities for knowledge working and sharing. Such a framing implicitly or explicitly constructs a boundary around knowledge as reified, or commodified – or at least able to be stabilized for a period of time (first-order knowledge). In contrast 'third-generation knowledge' emphasizes the social nature of learning and knowledge-making; this reframes knowledge as a negotiated social practice, thus constructing a different system boundary. This paper offers critical reflections on the use of a wiki as a data repository and mediating technical platform as part of innovating in R4D praxis. A sustainable social learning process was sought that fostered an emergent community of practice among biophysical and social researchers acting for the first time as R4D co-researchers . Over time the technologically mediated element of the learning system was judged to have failed. This inquiry asks: How can learning system design cultivate learning opportunities and respond to learning challenges in an online environment to support R4D practice? Confining critical reflection to the online learning experience alone ignores the wider context in which knowledge work took place; therefore the institutional setting is also considered .


LiBH4-Ca(BH4)2 composites were prepared by ball milling. Their crystal structures and phase composition were investigated using synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement, and their ionic conductivity was measured using impedance spectroscopy. The materials were found to form a physical mixture. The composites were composed of -Ca(BH4)2, -Ca(BH4)2 and orthorhombic LiBH4, and the relative phase quantities of the Ca(BH4)2 polymorphs varied significantly with LiBH4 content. The formation of small amounts of orthorhombic CaH2 and cubic CaH2 in a CaF2-like structure was observed upon heat treatment. Concurrent formation of elemental boron may also occur. The ionic conductivity of the composites was measured using impedance spectroscopy, and was found to be lower than that of ball milled LiBH4. Electronic band structure calculations indicate that cubic CaH2 with hydrogen defects is electronically conducting. Its formation along with the possible precipitation of boron therefore has an effect on the measured conductivity of the LiBH4-Ca(BH4)2 composites and may increase the risk of an internal short-circuit in the cells.


Recent conversation-analytic research has examined the projective aspects of multimodal interaction within and between turn-sequences (Streeck 2009a) as well as affectivity or emotive involvement in conversational storytelling (Selting 2010). Taking a perspective on face-to-face interaction as sequentially organized, multimodal, and embedded in various semiotic systems, this study examines how the projection of particular affective stances emerges in naturally-occurring interactional storytelling. Through close analysis of video-recorded data of a conversation between an American man and a Japanese woman, the chapter aims to shed light on this relatively underexplored area of talk between L1 and L2 speakers by elucidating the "crescendo" or build-up of projective linguistic and paralinguistic resources used in the co-construction of intersubjectivity and "humorous" affect within the activity of storytelling.


On of the very important things in human life is home safety. Home Safety refers to the awareness of risks and potential dangers in and around home which may cause bodily harm, or even death. Awareness and vigilance is indispensable in preventing the threatening risks and potential dangers. Therefore, people needs a timely warning information about gas leak for prevention of home safety threatening risks and potential dangers. This warning information will allow people, users, or residents to reduce the risks and potential dangers caused by gas leak, especially when they are away from home. This paper describes the development of system technology regarding the gas leak detector which integrates the MQ2 gas sensor, Arduino Uno R3 Microcontroller and the Sim900 SMS Gateway.


The main problem of the dehydrated jackfruit developed by the Visayas State University (VSU) is that it develops browning after one to two months even if the product is packed in a good packaging material. This study was conducted to determine the effects of variety and sulfite in controlling browning within 4 months of storage of dehydrated jackfruit pulp. Two recommended jackfruit varieties (AES Jak 1 andAES Jak 2) and two levels of sulfite (0.1 and 0.2% w/w) were used in the study. Treatments were laid out in CRD with three replications. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and HSD was used to test the significance between treatments. Different parameters on physico-chemical properties and functional components of the product were investigated at 0, 2 and 4 months of storage. Results revealed that utilization of AES Jak 1 variety and either 0.1 or 0.2% w/w sulfite can be used in dehydrated jackfruit processing with least browning during storage. Correlation analysis showed that as pH and TTA increase, DB decreases which indicates that pH and TTAcan be used as control in minimizing browning. The weak correlation of TP and TC on DB implies that browning of stored dehydrated jackfruit is caused by non-enzymatic reaction.


Negative feedback of JAK-STAT signaling prevents somatic stem cells from outcompeting germline stem cells in the fly testis. Stem cell niches regulate the self-renewal, specification, and differentiation of stem cells. In the testis of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, two populations of stem cells (germline stem cells, or GSCs, and somatic cyst progenitor cells, or CPCs) are maintained by direct contact with the hub, a cluster of somatic cells that acts as the stem cell niche. GSC and CPC self-renewal depends on signaling through the Janus kinase–signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway in response to hub production of the JAK-STAT ligand Unpaired (Upd). As GSC and CPC daughter cells are displaced from the hub, they differentiate to form spermatogonia. Issigonis et al. report that the suppressor of cytokine signaling 36E (SOCS36E), an inhibitor of the JAK-STAT pathway that is itself transcriptionally activated by JAK-STAT signaling, is specifically required in CPCs to prevent them from displacing GSCs at the hub. In wild-type testes, a large portion of each GSC cell contacts the hub, whereas only a small portion of each CPC contacts the hub. In testes from socs36e mutants, the number of GSCs was reduced relative to wild type, and the number of CPCs was unchanged, but a larger portion of each CPC contacted the hub. The abundance of βPS-integrin at sites of CPC-hub contact increased in socs36e mutants, and organism-wide inactivation of one copy of the gene encoding talin, a cytoskeletal protein required for integrin-mediated adhesion, prevented CPCs from displacing GSCs at the hub in the mutants. Thus, negative feedback of JAK-STAT signaling affects the balance between GSCs and CPCs at the hub by regulating competition between the two stem cell populations, perhaps by modulating integrin-mediated adhesion. In a related study, Sheng et al. report that JAK-STAT signaling not only is important for the maintenance of stem cells in the fly testis but also is required to establish the stem cell population—and that this population of stem cells is established in the embryo soon after hub formation. M. Issigonis, N. Tulina, M. de Cuevas, C. Brawley, L. Sandler, E. Matunis, JAK-STAT signal inhibition regulates competition in the Drosophila testis stem cell niche. Science 326, 153–156 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text] X. R. Sheng, T. Posenau, J. J. Gumulak-Smith, E. Matunis, M. Van Doren, M. Wawersik, Jak-STAT regulation of male germline stem cell establishment during Drosophila embryogenesis. Dev. Biol. 334, 335–344 (2009). [PubMed]


Syncope, defined as a transient loss of consciousness due to transient global cerebral hypoperfusion, characterized by rapid onset, short duration, and spontaneous complete recovery, is a frequent symptom and can be attributed to different causes.1

The most common aetiology of syncope is a neurally mediated reflex that consists of a transient failure of the cardiovascular mechanisms that normally control haemodynamic stability. This reflex is usually triggered by different stimuli (afferent pathways), leading to sudden withdrawal of sympathetic activity and to an increase in parasympathetic nerve tone (efferent pathways), causing vasodilatation, with consequent hypotension, and bradycardia.

The clinical presentation of neurally mediated syncope is not usually uniform; however, it may manifest with different patterns. In some patients, it is initiated by clear adrenergic stimuli such as fear, pain, emotional distress, or medical instrumentation, whereas in others it develops after prolonged orthostatism, hypovolaemia, or carotid sinus stimuli. There are also many patients in whom reflex syncope develops without any apparent recognizable trigger. On the other hand, some patients complain of typical vegetative prodrome, whereas others develop sudden syncope without any warning symptom. In addition, although both mechanisms, hypotension and bradycardia, are, by definition, always present, the predominance of one or the other leads to the characteristic patterns of vasodepressor, mixed, or cardioinhibitory reflex syncope.2 Although all these situations share a common underlying mechanism, i.e. hypotension and bradycardia triggered by some afferent stimuli, these differences have a great impact on the diagnostic process and in therapeutic decisions. Whereas a syncopal episode in a young patient, with clear triggers and prodrome, is easy to diagnose and manage, sudden episodes, without recognizable triggers, particularly …

*Corresponding author. Tel: +34 932746166, Fax: +34 932746002, Email: 11193amm{at}comb.es; amoya{at}comb.es


Real-valued word representations have transformed NLP applications; popular examples are word2vec and GloVe, recognized for their ability to capture linguistic regularities. In this paper, we demonstrate a {\em very simple}, and yet counter-intuitive, postprocessing technique -- eliminate the common mean vector and a few top dominating directions from the word vectors -- that renders off-the-shelf representations {\em even stronger}. The postprocessing is empirically validated on a variety of lexical-level intrinsic tasks (word similarity, concept categorization, word analogy) and sentence-level tasks (semantic textural similarity and { text classification}) on multiple datasets and with a variety of representation methods and hyperparameter choices in multiple languages; in each case, the processed representations are consistently better than the original ones.


Security in the Internet of Things is a current hot topic and it may comprise different aspects such as confidentiality and integrity of personal data, as well as the authentication and the authorization to access smart objects that are spreading more and more in our every-day lives. In this work we focus on MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport), a message-based communication protocol explicitly designed for low-power machine-to-machine communications and based on the publish-subscribe paradigm. First of all, we provide an accurate analysis of some of the most recent security solutions and improvements of MQTT found in the literature. Secondly, we describe in detail a novel secure solution, called MQTT-Auth, to protect specific topics in MQTT. This solution is based on the AugPAKE security algorithm for guaranteeing confidentiality, and onto two tokens which permit to authenticate the usage of a topic and to guarantee authorization in accessing a topic respectively. MQTT-Auth can also be easily extended to a hierarchical structure of topics and entities. Finally, we compare MQTT-Auth with some solutions for securing MQTT being present in the relevant literature, and we provide some details on how MQTT-Auth has been implemented and successfully tested.


OBJECTIVES--To calculate age adjusted mortality ratios for suicide by women in the first year after childbirth and during pregnancy, and to identify characteristics of postnatal suicide in childbearing women. DESIGN--Retrospective study based on population data for England and Wales from 1973 to 1984. SUBJECTS--Women aged 15-44 who committed suicide in the year after childbirth or during pregnancy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Observed to expected mortality ratios for the total postnatal sample, for five year age groups, for unmarried mothers, and for suicide after stillbirth; observed to expected mortality ratios for all suicides during pregnancy and for five year age groups; the timing of suicides in relation to delivery; and the frequency of the various methods of suicide. RESULTS--The standardised mortality ratio for postnatal suicide was calculated to be 0.17--that is, the actual total was only one sixth of that expected. The low ratio was not found after stillbirth, which was associated with a rate six times that in all women after childbirth. The low ratio was less pronounced, but still present, in teenage mothers and in unmarried mothers. Women who committed suicide after childbirth most often did so in the first month, and there was a tendency to use violent methods. The standardised mortality ratio for suicide during pregnancy was calculated to be 0.05 of all pregnant women. Teenagers were at substantially increased risk. CONCLUSIONS--Women in the first year after childbirth and during pregnancy have a low risk of suicide despite their high rate of psychiatric morbidity. Underreporting of maternal suicides is unlikely to explain the findings, though it may affect their magnitude. Motherhood seems to protect against suicide. Concern for dependants may be an important focus for suicide prevention in clinical practice.


The aim of this study was to apply a fast and efficient protocol for monitoring levels of Legionella contamination in high-risk water systems using molecular techniques and culture methods. Forty-nine water samples from a public building were analyzed by a culture method (BCYE agar) and a specific semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The first 30 analyses using plate counts were positive in 28% of hot water and 8% of cold water samples. The analysis by PCR, obtained within 24 h of collection, revealed the presence of DNA in 100 and 54% respectively. Only four PCR results coincided with the cultures. A second survey (19 samples) was performed 1 year later. Semi-nested PCR revealed that 53% of the samples were positive; however, plate counts yielded no positive results. The 16S rRNA sequence comparison between the first and second samplings showed 100% homology. In conclusion, the study of the design of the building9s water system, the use of a fast screening semi-nested PCR and a culture method for the detection of Legionella allowed accurate assessment of the contamination, thus contributing to the early implementation of measures to eliminate the presence of the bacteria in water systems and consequently reduce a latent public health risk.


Various forms of IT sourcing used by audit clients create issues of concern for external auditors. This article investigates the nature and basic characteristics of service‐oriented architecture (SOA), a modern information system architecture strategy, to ascertain whether the use of SOA by a service consumer audit client would have an impact on the activities typically performed by the external auditor. It was found that SOA presents a complete shift in the way IT application functionality is constructed and integrated and inevitably effects changes in the accounting system and the related internal controls of the SOA service consumer. As a result SOA has a significant impact on the activities performed during the audit process and introduces various SOA‐related aspects that need to be considered by the external auditor of a SOA service consumer.


INTRODUCTION
Few studies report on validation of body composition changes using the four-compartment model (4C), and no such studies are available in strength training. Here we present such a validation study for the determination of body fat and fat-free mass changes in bodybuilders, who used exercise and androgenic-anabolic steroids.

METHODS
The study was carried out with 27 male bodybuilders in a cross-sectional study. Fifteen of these subjects also participated in an intervention program where body composition changes were measured. The 4C model served as the gold standard. The alternative mechanistic methods were underwater weighing (uww), deuterium dilution (dil), three-compartment model incorporating total body water (3Cw), three-compartment model incorporating bone mineral content (3Cb), and descriptive methods, namely dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), prediction equations based on body mass index (BMI), skinfold measurement, and bioimpedance analyses.

RESULTS
From the cross-sectional study, it appeared that biases and errors of most mechanistic methods were small (maximal 0.5% BF and 3.4%BF, respectively; exception 3Cb model). The 3Cw model had the lowest error (0.9%BF). The descriptive methods had small biases (exception BMI) but relatively large errors (range: 5.5-8%). Results on body composition changes (intervention study) were comparable with the results from the cross-sectional study.

CONCLUSIONS
Using the 4C model as the standard for determination of body fat and fat-free mass, this study revealed that apart from the prediction equation based on BMI and the 3Cb model, all methods gave acceptable group mean values. When accurate measurements on body composition and/or body composition changes on an individual level are needed, only the 3Cw model could serve as an alternative for the 4C method.


Melamine-formaldehyde resin (MFR) microparticles with average diameters of 1.06 $\mu $m were synthesized with PEG-20000 as the particle-forming agent. Palladium nanoparticles were entrapped in and adsorbed on the MFR microparticles, consecutively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the morphologies of MFR microparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transition electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the palladium nanoparticles entrapped in the MFR microparticles dispersed much more homogeneously than those adsorbed on the MFR microparticles. Mizoroki--Heck reaction catalysis results demonstrated that the entrapped palladium catalyst had similar catalytic activity with the adsorbed palladium catalyst. Moreover, this novel entrapped palladium catalyst could be reused at least for 10 times without obvious loss of initial activities and with only 6.5% of overall palladium leaching.


Among the information provided by high energy neutrinos, a promising possibility is to analyze the effects of a Violation of Equivalence Principle (VEP) on neutrino oscillations. We analyze the recently released IceCube data on atmospheric neutrino fluxes under the assumption of a VEP and obtain updated constraints on the parameter space with the benchmark choice that neutrinos with different masses couple with different strengths to the gravitational field. In this case we find that the VEP parameters times the local gravitational potential at Earth can be constrained at the level of 10-27. We show that the constraints from atmospheric neutrinos strongly depend on the assumption that the neutrino eigenstates interacting diagonally with the gravitational field coincide with the mass eigenstates, which is not a priori justified: this is particularly clear in the case that the basis of diagonal gravitational interaction coincide with the flavor basis, which cannot be constrained by the observation of atmospheric neutrinos. Finally, we quantitatively study the effect of a VEP on the flavor composition of the astrophysical neutrinos, stressing again the interplay with the basis in which the VEP is diagonal: we find that for some choices of such basis the flavor ratio measured by IceCube can significantly change.