Taking Huaian as an example, the rural economic and environmental problems in economically underdeveloped areas are expounded. The results show that rural areas in economically underdeveloped areas confront with lagged economic development, serious environmental pollution and scarce shortage of equipments for treating environmental pollution. The causes of these economic and environmental problems are analyzed, including inadequate fiscal support from the local government; unscientific system for assessing government officers' performances; backward ideas in environmental protection and imperfect laws and regulations on environmental protection. Based on these causes, the strategy of employing the circular economy to promote the coordinated development of rural environment and economy in economically underdeveloped areas is put forward. The strategy covers transforming the way of agricultural production; adjusting agricultural production structure; positively collecting funds and increasing the input on handling rural environmental problems; strengthening the efforts on promotion and education , and forming the healthy habits of consumption; enforcing supervision and establishing a professional administration team for protecting rural environment; laying stress on rural technological innovation and strengthening the force of expansion; accelerating the path of industrialization and promoting the industrialization of villages and towns vigorously.


The clinical application of mass spectrometry imaging has developed into a sizable subdiscipline of proteomics and metabolomics because its seamless integration with pathology enables biomarkers and biomarker profiles to be determined that can aid patient and disease stratification (diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapy). Confident identification of the discriminating peaks remains a challenge owing to the presence of nontryptic protein fragments, large mass-to-charge ratio ions that are not efficiently fragmented via tandem mass spectrometry or a high density of isobaric species. A public database of identifications has been initiated to aid the clinical development and implementation of mass spectrometry imaging. The MSiMass list database ( www.maldi-msi.org/mass ) enables users to assign identities to the peaks observed in their experiments and provides the methods by which the identifications were obtained. In contrast with existing protein databases, this list is designed as a community effort without a formal review panel. In this concept, authors can freely enter data and can comment on existing entries. In such, the database itself is an experiment on sharing knowledge, and its ability to rapidly provide quality data will be evaluated in the future.


The Second Edition of the Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing – Te Mauri: Pimatisiwin by Te Rau Matatini occurs at a significant time of our indigenous history; as the Sioux nation at Standing Rock and indeed all indigenous people of Turtle Island and around the globe look to supporting the protection and security of our traditional beliefs and values. The Second Edition mirrors this indigenous commitment in articulating solidarity, self-determination, and hope. Authors highlight the importance of the indigenous voice and control with respect to the delivery of health services, in the design and implementation of health literacy and addiction programmes, and in creating novel approaches to residing in greater harmony with animals. Halting family violence remains a challenge but encouraging resilience with youth brings hope. The topic of sexuality and intimate relationships opens a dialogue about our enactment of indigenous death rituals when things are different.


Research on primary school children shows that the differences between L1-Dutch children on the one hand, and L2-Dutch children on the other, tend to become greater, which is a process in which the children's proficiency in Dutch plays a major role. In this paper it is shown that word knowledge is the main source of this Matthew-effect. The level of difficulty of ten different school texts is investigated with respect to the relative number of unknown words (lemmas) in these texts for DFL and DSL-speakers, who have an absolute receptive vocabulary size in Dutch of 7.000 and 4.000 words respectively. On the basis of a word frequency list in primary education, covering percentages (lemmas and types) are calculated for both groups, for ten texts on various school subjects (five on reading, five on science). The mean (lemma) coverage of the reading text was 89% for DFL-, and 84% for DSL-children; for the science texts these percentages were 85% for DFL-, and 78% for DSL-speakers. Comparing these outcomes with what is known about understanding texts and learning words from texts, it is shown that for the DFL-children, only two science texts were quite difficult. For the DSL-children, however, all the science texts, and two of the five reading texts were too difficult. They could only marginally understand what the text was about, and learning new words from the text was almost impossible, due to the high percentage of unknown words.


This working paper explores the question of target "time frame" and its implications for the generation and use of tradable emissions units. Under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreements, some countries have adopted continuous or multiple-year emissions targets, while others have taken on discontinuous or single-year targets, most notably for the year 2020. Countries relying solely on single-year targets present greater uncertainty with regard to their emissions pathways, and as examined here, raise concerns regarding both ambition and comparability with other targets. The use of tradable units to meet a single-year target or the issuance of units in years prior to the single-target year could reduce the cumulative mitigation outcome compared with both single-year targets without using tradable units, and multi-year targets (with or without using units). Single-year targets may also limit the ability to use domestic carbon market instruments, such as emissions trading schemes. Continuous multi-year targets provide greater comparability of targets; they provide certainty about cumulative global emissions; they allow an assessment of the progress towards meeting targets; they make countries less vulnerable to changes in climatic or economic conditions; and they are compatible with domestic and international carbon market instruments, which are key policy tools in many countries for achieving mitigation. Multi-year targets also support the notion of carbon budgets, which is gaining more widespread currency, as seen in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. ISSUES AND OPTIONS FOR SINGLE-YEAR PLEDGES SEI WP 2014-01


Dr. Stephen Devries from the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology and Northwestern University, Evanston, IL moderated the topic "The Mediterranean Diet" with Drs. Walter Willett from Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, and Linda Van Horn from Northwestern University School of Medicine, Evanston, IL. The discussion focused primarily on: 1) A description of the Mediterranean style-diet; 2) the difference between the Mediterranean diet and DASH; 3) the Mediterranean diet for prevention of cardiovascular disease; 4) the cardioprotective effects of fruits, vegetables and whole grains; 5) reducing the consumption of red meat; 6) grass-fed versus grain-fed beef; 7) the cardioprotective role of alcohol versus the adverse effect on cancers; 8) the Mediterranean diet and weight; 9) the role of health care professionals in counseling patients on nutrition. (Med Roundtable Gen Med Ed. 2012;1(1):42–49.) ©2012 FoxP2 Media, LLC


Abstract. Fires associated with land use and land cover changes release large amounts of aerosols and trace gases into the atmosphere. Although several inventories of biomass burning emissions cover Brazil, there are still considerable uncertainties and differences among them. While most fire emission inventories utilize the parameters of burned area, vegetation fuel load, emission factors, and other parameters to estimate the biomass burned and its associated emissions, several more recent inventories apply an alternative method based on fire radiative power (FRP) observations to estimate the amount of biomass burned and the corresponding emissions of trace gases and aerosols. The Brazilian Biomass Burning Emission Model (3BEM) and the Fire Inventory from NCAR (FINN) are examples of the first, while the Brazilian Biomass Burning Emission Model with FRP assimilation (3BEM_FRP) and the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) are examples of the latter. These four biomass burning emission inventories were used during the South American Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) field campaign. This paper analyzes and inter-compared them, focusing on eight regions in Brazil and the time period of 1 September–31 October 2012. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT550 nm) derived from measurements made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) operating on board the Terra and Aqua satellites is also applied to assess the inventories' consistency. The daily area-averaged pyrogenic carbon monoxide (CO) emission estimates exhibit significant linear correlations (r, p  >  0.05 level, Student t test) between 3BEM and FINN and between 3BEM_ FRP and GFAS, with values of 0.86 and 0.85, respectively. These results indicate that emission estimates in this region derived via similar methods tend to agree with one other. However, they differ more from the estimates derived via the alternative approach. The evaluation of MODIS AOT550 nm indicates that model simulation driven by 3BEM and FINN typically underestimate the smoke particle loading in the eastern region of Amazon forest, while 3BEM_FRP estimations to the area tend to overestimate fire emissions. The daily regional CO emission fluxes from 3BEM and FINN have linear correlation coefficients of 0.75–0.92, with typically 20–30 % higher emission fluxes in FINN. The daily regional CO emission fluxes from 3BEM_FRP and GFAS show linear correlation coefficients between 0.82 and 0.90, with a particularly strong correlation near the arc of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In this region, GFAS has a tendency to present higher CO emissions than 3BEM_FRP, while 3BEM_FRP yields more emissions in the area of soybean expansion east of the Amazon forest. Atmospheric aerosol optical thickness is simulated by using the emission inventories with two operational atmospheric chemistry transport models: the IFS from Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) and the Coupled Aerosol and Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (CCATT-BRAMS). Evaluation against MODIS observations shows a good representation of the general patterns of the AOT550 nm time series. However, the aerosol emissions from fires with particularly high biomass consumption still lead to an underestimation of the atmospheric aerosol load in both models.


In a seminal paper, Champsaur and Rochet (1989) showed that competing firms choose non-overlapping qualities so as to soften price competition at the cost of giving up profitable opportunities to price discriminate. In this paper we show that an arbitrarily small amount of search costs is enough to give rise to an equilibrium with overlapping qualities. In markets with search costs, competing firms face the monopolist's incentive to price discriminate, which induces them to offer the full quality range even if this forces them to compete head-to-head. Hence, even though search costs increase prices and reduce consumers surplus for given quality choices, search costs can also lead to lower prices and higher consumer surplus whenever they induce firms to offer broader and overlapping product lines. Our analysis also provides predictions regarding pricing by multi-product firms in markets with search costs under various retail market structures. Product choices and pricing by online bookstores motivate our findings.


During the Second World War, around 8,000 men from fifteen colonial territories fought for the British Empire in locally-raised naval volunteer forces. Their relatively small size has meant that up to now they have remained merely a footnote within the wider historiography of the war. Yet, if examined beyond their ambiguous wartime contribution and placed within the broader context of imperial history, they provide an important new lens for analysing the dynamics of imperialism during the twilight of the British Empire. Through a comparative analysis of three case studies: the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and East Asia - and by reconciling the 'official' record in the 'metropole' with 'subaltern' sources located in those regions, this thesis examines for the first time the political, social and cultural impact of these forces. It explores how they emerged out of a climate of 'imperial overstretch' as bulwarks for the preservation of British 'prestige'; how imperial ideology and racial discourses of power influenced naval recruitment, strategy and management, affecting colonial conceptions of identity, indigenous belief systems and ethnic relations; and how naval service, during both war and peacetime, influenced motivations, imperial sentiment, group cohesion and force discipline. This thesis will also assess the evolution of these part-time colonial volunteer forces into professional sovereign navies within the context of decolonisation. It will investigate the extent to which British hegemonic influence was maintained within post-colonial relationships. Issues of nationalisation, its utilisation as a tool for 'nation-building', and the impact of nationalist ideology and social engineering upon service efficiency and esprit de corps will also be examined. In the process this thesis furthers developments within the 'new naval history', by reconceptualising our understanding of navies as not merely organisations for the physical projection and maintenance of political and economic influence, but as human and cultural institutions, in which power was expressed as much in the ideas and relations they cultivated, as the barrels of their guns.


Microwave near-field testing is a promising nondestructive testing method because of its unique capability to interrogate metallic surfaces and multi-layer dielectric structures. Due to today's need for lighter, stronger, and more-durable materials, enhanced dielectrics are increasingly being used to replace or coat metals. Consequently, conventional testing methods, with their limited penetration, are no longer adequate, but microwave testing sensors transmit signals that can penetrate into dielectrics and so detect surface and subsurface anomalies. Due to the growing use of microwave near-field sensors for different daily life applications, there is an ongoing need to improve their performance. Recently, artificial engineered electromagnetic materials (metamaterials) have been utilized to demonstrate strong localization and enhancement of electrical fields around sensing elements in order to improve probes sensitivities. Metamaterials are being used to enhance sensors design at the hardware level for better anomaly and flaw detection. Currently, microwave sensors are being used to capture large and complex information, but doing so requires better integration of signal processing methods. Implementing artificial intelligence algorithms to process information collected by microwave sensors can address the challenge associated with information complexity or obscure pattern changes. To address this gap in microwave near-field evaluation, this study integrates machine learning techniques with microwave near-field testing. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that denotes a set of methods that can automatically detect patterns in data to build a learning model. The learned model is then used for decision making about unseen data. Employing machine learning techniques for building classification models, this work combines machine learning algorithms with microwave near-field testing. In particular, it aims to build machine learning models that enhance flaw and anomaly detection in microwave near-field testing. The trained machine models can be integrated or embedded in a portable device or rack mounted microwave near-field testing equipment. The value of this approach is confirmed through numerical simulations and laboratory measurements. vi


A palate with much of the dentition from Aragai, Lukeino Formation (6 Ma) Kenya, is the most complete known specimen of a Late Miocene procaviid hyracoid. It shares several features with Dendrohyrax. The specimen is as large as the western tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax dorsalis, but it is attributed to a new species. D. dorsalis ranges through the tropical forests of Central and Western Africa, from Uganda to Gambia. As such the presence of a similar species at Lukeino provides evidence of the humid forest nature of the palaeoenvironment in the Tugen Hills during the Late Miocene. The fossil hyracoid specimens from the Early Pliocene of Langebaanweg, South Africa, are close in morphology to, but somewhat larger than, the extant bush hyrax, Heterohyrax brucei, but have some derived characters found in Procavia capensis. The cheek teeth are brachyodont, the lower premolar row is complete with a well-developed p/1 and there is a long diastema between the second incisor and the first premolar, all features recalling Heterohyrax. However, the depth of the mandible, the hypsodonty of the lower incisor, and the length of the premolar row relative to the length of the molar row are similar to the condition in Procavia and attest to the onset of molar enlargement relative to the rest of the dentition. In the overall context of the Procaviidae, Procavia is the most derived genus, and the presence of a few Procavia-like features in the Langebaanweg fossils indicate that the species concerned was probably already evident on the Procavia lineage, but the presence of several plesiomorphic characters reveals that it is a primitive member of the lineage. These also reveal that the specimens do not belong to Procavia cf. antiqua into which they were previously tentatively classified by Hendey (1976) as they are somewhat more derived. The detailed systematic status of the large extinct hyracoid Gigantohyrax maguirei, Kitching, 1965, from Pliocene cave fillings at Makapansgat, South Africa, has not previously been satisfactorily demonstrated, even though it is clear that most authors have considered it to be a procaviid closely related to Procavia. Kitching (1965) compared it only to species of Procavia. Re-study of the original sample, as well as additional fossils (three partial skulls, isolated upper premolar, fragment of mandible with a premolar) reveal that Gigantohyrax shares many features with the genus Dendrohyrax, fewer with Heterohyrax and even fewer with Procavia. It is concluded that among the Procaviidae, Gigantohyrax is most closely related to Dendrohyrax. The new discoveries of Late Miocene and Pliocene procaviids in Kenya and South Africa, when added to recently described associated upper and lower dental elements of Meroehyrax bateae from the base of the Middle Miocene of Uganda, permit a reappraisal of procaviid phylogeny. It is concluded that procaviids probably descended from Saghatheriidae, and that Pliohyracidae did not give rise to procaviids as previously thought by some authors.


Activation of coagulation factor XI (FXI) may play a role in hemostasis. The primary substrate of activated FXI (FXIa) is FIX, leading to FX activation (FXa) and thrombin generation. However, recent studies suggest the hemostatic role of FXI may not be restricted to the activation of FIX. We explored whether FXI could interact with and inhibit the activity of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI). TFPI is an essential reversible inhibitor of activated factor X (FXa) and also inhibits the FVIIa-TF complex. We found that FXIa neutralized both endothelium- and platelet-derived TFPI by cleaving the protein between the Kunitz (K) 1 and K2 domains (Lys86/Thr87) and at the active sites of the K2 (Arg107/Gly108) and K3 (Arg199/Ala200) domains. Addition of FXIa to plasma was able to reverse the ability of TFPI to prolong TF-initiated clotting times in FXI- or FIX-deficient plasma, as well as FXa-initiated clotting times in FX-deficient plasma. Treatment of cultured endothelial cells with FXIa increased the generation of FXa and promoted TF-dependent fibrin formation in recalcified plasma. Together, these results suggest that the hemostatic role of FXIa may be attributed not only to activation of FIX but also to promoting the extrinsic pathway of thrombin generation through inactivation of TFPI.


Currently, there are no reported series on the outcome of patients treated for infection after shoulder instability surgery. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to review patients who were treated for infection after shoulder instability surgery at our institution between 1980 and 2001 to determine the functional outcome and organisms responsible for infection. During this period, six patients were treated for infection after shoulder instability surgery. Three patients had an early postoperative infection, presenting 6 weeks or less from the time of instability surgery. Three patients had a late infection, presenting 8 months or greater from the time of surgery. Each of the three patients with a late infection had a sinus leading to a retained nonabsorbable suture. None of the six patients have had recurrent shoulder instability. Three patients had a polymicrobial infection and three patients had single organisms. Infection may be acute or significantly delayed from the time of the instability procedure. Additionally, among patients with late infection, there should be a high degree of suspicion for a nidus of infection surrounding nonabsorbable sutures.


INTRODUCTION Many of the diluting monomers currently used in UV curable inkjet and 3D printing applications are under increased regulatory constraints due to new labeling requirements. It is very difficult to find regulation friendly replacements for these monomers that have equal diluency characteristics. The result is an unacceptable increase in formulation viscosity as these monomers are replaced. An alternative solution is to use lower viscosity oligomers in the formulation. In addition to low viscosity, the oligomers must provide the performance properties of the formulation. One of these properties is the ability to cure under low energy conditions, such as long wavelength LED lamps. This paper will explore various classes of low viscosity oligomers, and their cure response to low energy, long wavelength lamps.


Following the report of the Ministry of Transport and local authority committee on highway maintenance a programme of cooperative research between the transport and road research laboratory and the county surveyors' society was undertaken to study the organization and administration of work in highway authorities' maintenance organizations. The impending reorganization of local government gave added impetus to the research in order to produce guide-lines which might assist the new authorities in the setting-up of their highway maintenance organizations. This report describes the desirable principles of organization which emerged from surveys of highway maintenance departments in nineteen local authorities. An attempt has been made to relate the functions of the maintenance organization to the scope of the overall work-load of the highways department so that all available resources are more effectively employed. The principle of corporate management is used as a basis for proposals on organizational structure in which staffing should be determined by job-evaluation and the objective assessment of work-load. It is suggested that, for maximum effeciency, the structure should have short and direct lines of communication, and the report emphasises the use of modern methods of information transmission and control. Although the suggested structure relates primarily to the circumstances envisaged in the new non-metroplitan county authorities, it is believed that the underlying principles of effective management have a wider application. /Author/


The conversion of soluble, functional proteins into amyloid fibrils has been linked to the development of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. In the brains of patients with these disorders, the increasing presence of amyloid-containing plaques corresponds to neuronal cell death and the worsening of symptoms. However, protein amyloids are not merely confined to dying cells. Rather, some show a propensity to be transmitted to, and enter adjacent cells and induce the polymerization of the native monomer population. Whether this process is directly associated with toxicity or not is still highly debated. In this mini review, we will discuss structural polymorphisms of α-synuclein, as determined by super-resolution imaging techniques, and how these may be related to neuronal toxicity.


In the same discussion, however, they note that Robert Koch preferred plates poured by mixing bacterial inocula with melted gelatin rather than streaking material on the surface. Koch recommended media that were "firm, and where possible, ...transparent..." It appears that pour plates were the standard procedure for many years due largely to problems with surface contamination upon incubation. (It should be noted that, initially, agar "plates" were, indeed, sterilized flat glass plates, not Petrie dishes as we know today.)


We have examined the role of microbial communities on the surface of submersed macrophytes and in the underlying sediment for nitrification and denitrification in light and dark in NH4+‐enriched microcosm systems using isotope pairing and dilution techniques. Potamogeton pectinatus L. and intact sediment cores were collected in a shallow reservoir receiving treated municipal wastewater and containing dense submersed vegetation. Chambers containing P. pectinatus shoots, sediment, or both P. pectinatus shoots and sediment were exposed to 6 h of darkness, 6 h of light, and 6 h of darkness. 14NH4+ and 15NO3− were added at ambient concentrations of 15 and 5 mg N liter−1, respectively. NH4+ was primarily nitrified in the epiphytic microbial communities, and NO3− was denitrified in the underlying sediment. In chambers containing macrophytes, there was a net production of O2 and NO3− in light and a net consumption in dark, and nitrification was higher in light than in dark. In chambers with only sediment, there was always a net consumption of NO3−, and nitrification was similar in light and dark. The results show that submersed macrophytes can be important for the N metabolism in NH4+‐ rich freshwaters (e.g., wastewater treatment systems) by stimulating nitrification through providing surfaces for attached nitrifying bacteria and possibly also through diurnal changes in the water chemistry.


The realization of the European Union's climate change and energy goals is said to require a shift towards a sustainable, competitive as well as secure energy system. This shift entails considerable uncertainties as regards the behavior of the multitude of actors involved, which are exacerbated; it is argued, by the unpredictability of the decisions of regulators. Moreover, this unpredictability is increased by the proliferation of regulators at various levels of the governance system, often resulting in redundancies, i.e. duplications and overlaps in regulatory governance.
Such redundancies are usually considered inefficient and, hence, wasteful. A level of redundancy in regulators and the rules they enact and enforce may, however, be required in order for the multilevel system of regulatory governance to operate effectively and legitimately, for instance through increasing innovation and responsiveness. While overlap thus in principle provides for an alternative way through which EU climate change and energy goals can be achieved, it is not at all clear if and how one can analyze and design redundant regulatory systems in practice. Much of the existing work on redundancy is theoretical and abstracted from the subject matter of regulation, while also neglecting the strategic behavior of regulators as well as companies and consumers triggered by redundancy.
In this paper, the question is therefore asked under which conditions redundancies in regulatory governance can help to make experimentation with new roles, responsibilities and relationships easier and, ultimately, the shift towards a sustainable, competitive and secure energy system more attractive. By identifying such conditions, first in theory and then empirically in the case of both the preparation of codes for cross-border network issues and market integration and the development of transboundary energy infrastructure, the paper seeks to contribute to our knowledge about the design and functioning of novel institutional arrangements for multilevel regulatory governance.


Despite a vast empirical literature that assesses the impact of financial integration on the economy, evidence of substantial welfare gains from consumption risk sharing remains elusive. While maintaining the usual cross-country perspective of the literature, this paper explicitly accounts for household heterogeneity and thus relaxes three restrictive assumptions that have featured prominently in the past. By making use of international household-level data and a subjective measure of financial well-being, the analysis takes into account idiosyncratic shocks to the household, allows for a household-specific evaluation of labor income risk and facilitates explicit tests of the underlying insurance channels. Using two balanced panels of more than 17,000 and 31,000 households from up to 22 European countries over the periods 1994-2000 and 2004-2008, respectively, I first document a negative welfare effect arising from labor income risk. I then show that financial integration significantly mitigates this effect for the average household in the sample. Finally, I examine the underlying insurance channels and find that, during the 1990s, the benefits of financial integration occurred primarily in the form of better access to credit for households with only weak ties to the financial system. During the 2000s, however, the largest gains from financial integration emerged on the asset side and benefited in particular households that had already invested in financial markets.


Anyone hoping to improve teamwork, performance, and budgeting, training, and evaluation programs in their organization should look no further. Completely revised, Public Productivity Handbook, Second Edition defines the role of leadership, dimensions of employee commitment, and multiple employee-organization based relationships for effective internal and external connections. It's coverage of new and systematic management approaches and well-defined measurement systems provides guidance on correct utilization of human resources that ensure improvements in productivity and performance. The authors discuss such topics as citizen-driven government and performance, public sector values and productivity, privatization, and productivity barriers in the public sector.


ABSTRACT User authentication and data access are becoming two of the most common areas for web attacks. Most security vulnerabilities occur in areas of coding where Web security has lapsed. This paper describes the design and development of a Secure Authentication and Access Control System (SCAAS) implemented as a reusable library that provides data driven and encryption based authentication and access control for the use with ASP.NET applications. INTRODUCTION Web sites today face many threats to the confidentiality and integrity of the data used and the functionality provided by the application. This problem is compounded by the fact that Web developers are simply lack of either adequate knowledge and skills in writing secure Web application codes (Huang et al., 2005) or sufficient testing methodologies for the audit and control of Web development (Mansouir and Houri, 2006). Works in the design and implementation of security measures for Web applications are greatly in need. User authentication and data access are becoming two of the most common areas for web attacks when procedures such as single sign-on and authentication delegation have become practically indispensable for e-business environment (Paulus, 2001). These two types of on-line vulnerability can be counterattacked by securing user account database that opens the gate of the application and by encrypting SQL connection that leads to the data store. This paper describes the design and development of a Secure Authentication and Access Control System, herein referred to as SCAAS, implemented as a reusable library that provides data-driven and encryption-based authentication and access control for the use with ASP.NET applications. SCAAS employs Microsoft SQL Server to persist the security definitions that the SCAAS run-time system utilizes. The SCAAS database will be herein referred to as the SCAAS User Registry. The system also provides an ASP.NET based administration application that is used to maintain the data in the SCAAS User Registry. SCAAS COMPONENTS SCAAS consists of four major components. Their definition and functionalities are described as follows: SCAAS Framework This is the core of the SCAAS run-time application and a .NET library written in C#. Included in the namespace are four classes that make up the SCAAS Framework: SCAASManager, SCAASManagerHelper, SCAASDataProtector, and SCAASException. These classes will be further discussed in Section 3. SCAAS User Registry This is a Microsoft SQL database named UserAccounts that provides the basis for the SCAAS User Registry. The SCAAS Framework works closely with the UserAccounts database. Any connectivity between the SCAAS framework and the UserAccounts database is done securely with .NET enabled encryption and decryption procedures. The SCAAS User Registry can be updated through the SCAASAdmin ASP.net application included in the system. SCAAS Admin ASP.NET Application This is the ASP.NET application developed to update the SCAAS User Registry. This application utilizes the FormsAuthentication mode of the SCAAS Framework. Because of this, the application also serves as a good example of an implementation of the FormsAuthentication mode of the SCAAS framework. DPAPIClientWeb ASP.NET Application This is the utility application that is vital to get the SCAAS run-time to operate correctly. This ASP.NET application is used to generate encrypted connection strings used by both the SCAAS run-time as well as client applications that wish to use the SCAAS secure database connection management SCAAS API. THE SCASS FRAMEWORK The SCAAS framework is the core component of the SCAAS system and is based on Microsoft's Forms Authentication model for authentication and authorization of ASP.NET applications. Microsoft's Forms Authentication model is not a complete security solution but rather the bits and pieces required to be built upon. …


Relatively little is known about the distribution and diversity of marine mammals around offshore anthropogenic structures. We present results obtained from incidental sightings of marine mammals around oil and gas installations located 200 km off the Danish coast. A total of 131 sightings corresponding to about 288 animals were reported between May 2013 and May 2016. A total of seven marine mammal species were identified, five cetaceans: harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris), killer whale (Orcinus orca), pilot whales (Globicephala spp.) and two species of pinnipeds: harbour (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). The most sighted species were harbour porpoise (41%) and minke whale (31%). Relative counts and biodiversity of marine mammals observed around installations corresponded well with the expected distribution in the central North Sea. Several taxon-specific correlations were identified between number of sightings and environmental parameters (depth and latitude) or installation characteristics (installation aerial footprint). Furthermore, 85% of sightings were made during spring and summer and it is unclear whether the pattern observed reflected a natural seasonal occurrence of marine mammals in the area or an effect of reduced effort during autumn and winter. Despite the potential caveats, results obtained during this programme provide an insight into the relationship between marine mammals and oil and gas offshore installations in the North Sea.


To extend water, sanitation and hygiene services to all, technological innovations are required which take into account a diverse range of stakeholder perspectives. We report the experiences of an intervention which sought to build capacity in the assessment and introduction of technologies in Uganda, Ghana and Burkina Faso by developing the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF), a tool which culminates in a multi-stakeholder scoring workshop. The project also used Learning Alliances to build capacity around technology introduction. This paper explores how stakeholder attitudes changed through the project and evaluates the Learning Alliance approach. It finds that whilst the intervention did manage to connect stakeholders in a novel way, uptake of the TAF may be hampered by a lack of government involvement in the earliest stages of the project.


It is generally accepted that an abstract system is applied in South Africa with regard to the transfer of ownership. It is a characteristic of the abstract system that the different legal acts which form part of the process, namely the obligatory agreement, delivery of the thing concerned or registration, and the real agreement are separated from each other and that each has its own requirements. However, there is no certainty about the question as to whether or not this distinction stems from Roman law. The purpose of this article is to ascertain whether the distinction between the different legal acts existed in the vulgar law. It appears that the legal position in the vulgar law differs from South African law in that no distinction between the obligatory agreement and delivery of the thing existed. The conclusion of the sale, payment of the purchase price and the delivery of the merx took place simultaneously. It was considered to be one single act which also transferred ownership from one person to another. It furthermore appears that the intention of the parties to transfer ownership played a very important role. Yet, it was only the intention that existed at the time when the obligatory agreement was entered into, that mattered. Ownership did not pass by virtue of a separate meeting of the minds which could be abstracted from the obligatory agreement. Although certain formal requirements, the purpose of which were to enable the state to collect taxes, had been introduced in the vulgar law, writing and registration had not been regarded as formal requirements for the transfer of ownership in immovable property. Yet, the practice had been to draw written documents relating to the contract of sale, and to register them in municipal registers. This form of registration, however, is not tantamount to registration in the Deeds Registry. The conclusion is that an independent real agreement, which could be abstracted from the obligatory agreement was unknown to the vulgar law. There was no clear-cut distinction between the different legal acts such as that existing in South African law at present.


Telomere dysfunction promotes genomic instability and carcinogenesis via inappropriate end-to-end chromosomal rearrangements, or telomere fusions. Previous work indicates that the DNA Damage Response (DDR) factor 53BP1 promotes the fusion of telomeres rendered dysfunctional by loss of TRF2, but is dispensable for the fusion of telomeres lacking Pot1 or critically shortened (in telomerase-deficient mice). Here, we examine a role for 53BP1 at telomeres rendered dysfunctional by loss or catalytic inhibition of DNA-PKcs. Using mouse embryonic fibroblasts lacking 53BP1 and/or DNA-PKcs, we show that 53BP1 deficiency suppresses G1-generated telomere fusions that normally accumulate in DNA-PKcs-deficient fibroblasts with passage. Likewise, we find that 53BP1 promotes telomere fusions during the replicative phases of the cell cycle in cells treated with the specific DNA-PKcs inhibitor NU7026. However, telomere fusions are not fully abrogated in DNA-PKcs-inhibited 53BP1-deficient cells, but occur with a frequency approximately 10-fold lower than in control 53BP1-proficient cells. Treatment with PARP inhibitors or PARP1 depletion abrogates residual fusions, while Ligase IV depletion has no measurable effect, suggesting that PARP1-dependent alternative end-joining operates at low efficiency at 53BP1-deficient, DNA-PKcs-inhibited telomeres. Finally, we have also examined the requirement for DDR factors ATM, MDC1 or H2AX in this context. We find that ATM loss or inhibition has no measurable effect on the frequency of NU7026-induced fusions in wild-type MEFs. Moreover, analysis of MEFs lacking both ATM and 53BP1 indicates that ATM is also dispensable for telomere fusions via PARP-dependent end-joining. In contrast, loss of either MDC1 or H2AX abrogates telomere fusions in response to DNA-PKcs inhibition, suggesting that these factors operate upstream of both 53BP1-dependent and -independent telomere rejoining. Together, these experiments define a novel requirement for 53BP1 in the fusions of DNA-PKcs-deficient telomeres throughout the cell cycle and uncover a Ligase IV-independent, PARP1-dependent pathway that fuses telomeres at reduced efficiency in the absence of 53BP1.


The process of identifying and assigning the relationship between two bodies of text is referred to as stance classification. Given a headline and the corresponding body they are compared and their relationship is classified into one of the following two classes — unrelated or related where related is further divided into agree, disagree and discuss. In this article, data is collected from news articles which contains headlines and bodies. We call a headline and the corresponding body as a pair. Deep learning models are applied to these pairs. We applied bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model and multi-layered perceptron (MLP) model and obtained accuracies of 83.5% and 78% respectively. The accuracy calculation is based on a weighted scheme. The correctly classified unrelated pair has a score of 0.25. A pair correctly classified as related yields a score of one only if the the sub-relationships of agree, disagree and discuss are correctly identified; otherwise, the score is 0.25.


Field investigations of stratified alluvial deposits suggest that they can give rise to a hierarchy of permeability modes across scales, corresponding to a hierarchy of sedimentary unit types and thus may lead to enhanced plume spread in such media. In this work, we model the sedimentary architecture of the alluvium deposits in Fortymile Wash, Nevada, using a hierarchical transition probability geostatistical approach. The alluvial aquifer comprises a segment of the groundwater flow pathway from the potential high‐level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada to the downstream accessible environment and may be a natural barrier to radionuclide migration. Thus our main goal is to quantify the impact of spatial variability in the alluvium on solute transport. The alluvial aquifer is a gravel‐dominated braid‐belt deposit, having lower‐permeability paleosols interstratified with higher‐permeability gravel‐bar deposits. A three‐dimensional hierarchical hydrofacies model is developed through fusion of multiple geologic data types and sources. Markov chain models of transition probabilities are employed to represent complex patterns of spatial variability at each hierarchical level in a geostatistical fashion and to impose realistic constraints to such variations through conditioning on existing data. The link between the alluvium spatial variability and solute dispersion at different spatiotemporal scales is demonstrated using the stochastic‐Lagrangian transport theory. We show that the longitudinal macrodispersivity can be on the order of hundreds to thousands of meters, and it may not reach its asymptotic value until after 1,000 years of traveltime.


CONTEXT
HIV disproportionately affects homeless youth, and interventions to date have had minimal success in reducing sexual risk behaviors in this population. Few qualitative studies have been conducted to provide insight into the influence of homelessness-related factors on sexual risk behaviors.

METHODS
A qualitative study with a quantitative component was conducted with a nonprobability sample of 64 homeless youth aged 14-24; participants were recruited from a variety of venues in Houston between October 2013 and March 2014. Thirteen focus group discussions were conducted; thematic analysis was used to identify themes related to HIV risk.

RESULTS
Participants were predominantly black (75%), sheltered (67%) and aged 18 or older (77%). Youth discussed how the circumstances of their homelessness and the struggle to meet their immediate needs led to behaviors and experiences that put them at risk for HIV. Three themes emerged: Homeless youth frequently engage in risky sexual behavior, sometimes as a way to cope with stress; they often trade sex, either voluntarily or involuntarily, for such necessities as money or a place to sleep; and many experienced childhood sexual victimization or have been victimized since becoming homeless. Youth also described how stress, stigma and self-reliance contributed to their involvement in HIV risk behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS
HIV prevention methods that target stress and stigma while respecting youths' self-reliance may help reduce sexual risk behaviors. Further research is needed to determine suitable behavioral change techniques to address these potentially modifiable factors.


Photonic radio-frequency (RF) arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) based on spectral shaping and frequency-to-time mapping has received substantial attention. This technique, however, is critically constrained by the far-field condition which imposes strict limits on the complexity of the generated waveforms. The time bandwidth product (TBWP) decreases as the inverse of the RF bandwidth which limits one from exploiting the full TBWP available from modern pulse shapers. Here we introduce a new RF-AWG technique which we call near-field frequency-to-time mapping. This approach overcomes the previous restrictions by predistorting the amplitude and phase of the spectrally shaped optical signal to achieve high fidelity waveforms with radically increased TBWP in the near field region.


In an attempt to analyse the socio-economic transformations of the European Union, an increasing number of scholars have resorted to Polanyi's double movement thesis. In doing so, some scholars, by looking at the evidence of intensified marketisation of social relations, consider the EU disembedded; whereas others identify a re-embedding tendency in the recent surge of socio-environmental protection. The paper follows Lacher, Burawoy, Dale and Streeck's readings of Polanyi and argues that the exiting socio-environmental provisions do not re-embed the economy. Socio-environmental protection does not eclipse the neoliberal accumulation strategy which continues to propagate the disembedding tendency, because it fails to decommodify fictitious commodities. The EU is characterised by a heightened intensification of both disembedding and protective tendencies, which Polanyi contends is disruptive in nature. What emerges out of the dialectics between neoliberalisation and socio-environmental provisions is a decelerated rate of change, which, although it temporarily secures the habitation of man, prevents the inception of a synthesis that is capable of sublating the contradictions of the marketisation/protection binary. Moreover, we have a paradoxical situation wherein the socio-environmental measures, despite their protective invocation, are predicated on deepened commodification.


The new 51 700 seat Aviva Stadium build at Lansdowne Road and completed in early 2010 provides a world class sporting facility for the city of Dublin, Ireland. Due to the nature of the site and its surroundings a responsive architectural form was required which could be manipulated to optimise the design for a wide variety of design variables and constraints by accommodating these design changes quickly and easily. This naturally led project architects, Populous, to adopt a parametric approach to generate the form of the building envelope, whereby CAD models were defined using rules and relationships between objects rather than absolute coordinates in space. This architectural parametric model was then passed directly to the structural engineers, Buro Happold, which extended it to include the geometry of the structural members. This paper adds to the body of scientific knowledge by documenting the details of the parametric model created by the author for the structural engineers, including not only the generation of geometry, which incorporates design constraints and embraces structural engineering logic, but is also linked to structural analysis software to provide rapid feedback on the effects of design decisions on structural performance. Furthermore, since this is the first example of a project being designed and built using a single parametric model from architectural design right through to structural analysis, the advantages and challenges of adopting such an approach are discussed. Suggestions are made, based on the lessons learned, to assist those using parametric methods on live projects in the future.


Irrational use of Medicines is a global phenomenon. Rational use of drugs may be defined as: Patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses that meet their own individual requirements, for an adequate period of time, and the lowest cost to them and their community. Overuse, polypharmacy and incorrect use of drugs are the most common problems of drug use today. Irrational use of drugs may result due to various reasons at various levels including the prescribing errors and over the counter drugs. Irrational use of medicines may lead to serious negative health and economic consequences. Many irrational drug combinations are available in Indian market. Proper implementation of rational use of drugs will improve the quality of life and result in better community healthcare.


We consider a topological space with its subbase which induces a coding for each point. Every second-countable Hausdorff space has a subbase that is the union of countably many pairs of disjoint open subsets. A dyadic subbase is such a subbase with a fixed enumeration. If a dyadic subbase is given, then we obtain a domain representation of the given space. The properness and the strong properness of dyadic subbases have been studied, and it is known that every strongly proper dyadic subbase induces an admissible domain representation regardless of its enumeration. We show that every locally compact separable metric space has a strongly proper dyadic subbase.


The paper presents a first assessment of the effects of changes in the Norwegian student support system, implemented in 2002–2003. Data have been drawn from NSELF, the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund and from Statistics Norway (various years). Covering the period 2001–04, the data compare the number and composition of those receiving student support before and after the changes, as well as the level of government resources allocated to student support throughout the period. The findings reveal a considerable increase in the resources spent on student support and an increase in the number of student support recipients. The relative increase has been particularly strong among part‐time and mature‐age students. Both intended and unintended consequences of the changes in the student support system are discussed, in relation to current educational policy goals.


Much of the research on learning symbolic models of AI agents focuses on agents with stationary models. This assumption fails to hold in settings where the agent's capabilities may change as a result of learning, adaptation, or other post-deployment modifications. Efficient assessment of agents in such settings is critical for learning the true capabilities of an AI system and for ensuring its safe usage. In this work, we propose a novel approach to differentially assess black-box AI agents that have drifted from their previously known models. As a starting point, we consider the fully observable and deterministic setting. We leverage sparse observations of the drifted agent's current behavior and knowledge of its initial model to generate an active querying policy that selectively queries the agent and computes an updated model of its functionality. Empirical evaluation shows that our approach is much more efficient than re-learning the agent model from scratch. We also show that the cost of differential assessment using our method is proportional to the amount of drift in the agent's functionality.


Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Our aim was to determine whether inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression and generation of reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNI) by alveolar macrophages (AM) are increased in patients infected with M. tuberculosis. NO levels in the exhaled air of 19 active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and 14 control subjects were measured using a chemiluminescence NO analyser. The expression of iNOS on AM was studied by labelling AM with anti-mac iNOS polyclonal antibody analysed with a flow cytometer. The spontaneous generation of RNI by cultured AM was also measured. Data are presented as mean+/-SEM. The level of NO in exhaled air was higher in patients with active TB (16.2+/-1.2 parts per billion (ppb)) compared to control subjects (6.5+/-0.9 ppb), p<0.0001. Exhaled NO decreased with anti-TB treatment. Compared to control subjects (29.0+/-4.5 fluorescence intensity (FI)), iNOS expression on AM was upregulated in TB patients (86.3+/-12.5 FI) p<0.001 and the capacity for spontaneous generation of nitrite was enhanced. Nitrite production was inhibited by N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), a competitive inhibitor of iNOS. The expression of iNOS on AM was related to the concentration of exhaled NO (r=0.66, p<0.001) and the nitrite generation capacity of AM (r(s)=0.77, p<0.001). We conclude that the increase in exhaled nitric oxide observed in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis is due to an upregulation of inhaled NO synthase expression in alveolar macrophages which have an enhanced capacity for nitric oxide production.


The Central Italy earthquake sequence nominally began on 24 August 2016 with a M6.1 event on a normal fault that produced devastating effects in the town of Amatrice and several nearby villages and hamlets. A major international response was undertaken to record the effects of this disaster, including surface faulting, ground motions, landslides, and damage patterns to structures. This work targeted the development of high-value case histories useful to future research. Subsequent events in October 2016 exacerbated the damage in previously affected areas and caused damage to new areas in the north, particularly the relatively large town of Norcia. Additional reconnaissance after a M6.5 event on 30 October 2016 documented and mapped several large landslide features and increased damage states for structures in villages and hamlets throughout the region. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document and map these and other effects, and highlights valuable lessons learned regarding faulting and ground motions, engineering effects, and emergency response to this disaster.


Today's national-security state is increasingly highly concentrated, centralized, and consolidated across at least three dimensions: the public-private divide, the federal-state divide, and the political–civil servant divide within government agencies. Each of these dimensions of concentration, centralization, and consolidation has been individually examined. Yet notwithstanding careful study, there has been little appreciation of the potentially reinforcing effects of consolidation occurring along any two, let alone all three, of the relevant dimensions. That is to say, scholars and policymakers have generally zeroed in on only one dimension of consolidation at a time — and they have assessed the pros and cons of public-private, federal-state, or intra-agency consolidation against what they treat as an otherwise static backdrop. This Essay insists that we need to think more capaciously and systemically — to take stock of all of the moving parts and gauge how they work together. We need to do so for purposes of smarter, more careful institutional design that accounts for the multiple dimensions on which federal executive power has become concentrated and consolidated. What's more, we need to do so for reasons pertaining to constitutional separation of powers. The public-private, federal-state, and intra-agency lines of separation are each constitutionally salient. Even if the weakening or collapsing of any one of those lines of separation does not by itself rise to the level of a constitutional transgression, the weakening or collapsing of multiple lines of separation within a given substantive policy domain may well threaten our constitutional order. In short, this Essay proffers a multidimensional, aggregate-effects theory of constitutional structure. The sum total of individually minor incursions (on private, state, and bureaucratic autonomy) might constitute a major one as the President and her agency heads accumulate power along multiple dimensions, picking up bits and pieces from dragooned corporations, from co-opted states and municipalities, and from a defanged federal workforce effectively serving at the pleasure of the Administration.


Photobiomodulation using light in the red or near-infrared region is an innovative treatment strategy for a wide range of neurological and psychological conditions. Photobiomodulation can promote neurogenesis and elicit anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidative responses. Its therapeutic effects have been demonstrated in studies on neurological diseases, peripheral nerve injuries, pain relief and wound healing. We conducted a comprehensive literature review of the application of photobiomodulation in patients with central nervous system diseases in February 2019. The NCBI PubMed database, EMBASE database, Cochrane Library and ScienceDirect database were searched. We reviewed 95 papers and analyzed. Photobiomodulation has wide applicability in the treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, major depressive disorder, and other diseases. Our analysis provides preliminary evidence that PBM is an effective therapeutic tool for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. However, additional studies with adequate sample size are needed to optimize treatment parameters.


Ever since the first human embryonic stem cells were isolated, scientists have dreamed of using them to study intractable diseases. That dream, stem cell biologists say, is in the early days of becoming reality. There are still plenty of hurdles, but already researchers have shown that reprogrammed cells from patients with a handful of rare genetic disorders can provide new clues about how the diseases do their damage. In several cases, the cells have pointed toward promising new treatments. The turning point came with the 2006 discovery that adult cells could be reprogrammed to an embryolike state simply by adding a handful of genes to the cells. Already, dozens of labs around the world are making these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells from patients and coaxing the cells to become the tissues that are affected by a given disease, in essence creating "diseases in a dish."


Israel has been increasingly criticised for violating substantive democratic principles. The trigger was a series of decisions and initiatives. In July 2016, the Knesset adopted a stricter transparency law for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) financed from abroad, as well as a law empowering it to divest its members of their mandate. For weeks and months, government had made various suggestions for closer oversight of cultural and media institutions (for instance). There has also been repeated disapproval of Supreme Court judgements, which went hand in hand with calls for Parliament to be enabled to overrule its verdicts. These advances have had negative repercussions not just in Israel, but internationally as well.


This study focuses on appraisal and coping processes among military pilots during ejection episodes. A total of 49 ejection episodes were reported by 24 pilots from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and 24 pilots from the Swedish Air Force (SAF). Two clusters of coping strategies were identified- instrumental self-management and emotional self-management-and both forms of coping were clearly related to effective problem solving. The emotional self-management strategies suggest an effective block of disturbing thoughts and emotions. Good performance was associated with challenge appraisals and considerable use of instrumental self-management. Poor performance was associated with appraising the episodes as irrelevant or threatening. Ejections caused by technical malfunctions were handled more effectively psychologically than were ejections caused by human errors. Only minor differences were found between the Australian and Swedish samples.


A very simple cloud point extraction (CPE) methodology for the preconcentration of trace amounts of silver and magnesium as a prior step for their determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) has been developed. The method is based on the extraction of silver and magnesium at pH 10 by using non-ionic surfactant Triton X-114 and 4 methyl-3-((1-H-Indol-3-iyl) (phenyl) methyl)) -1-H-Indol (MPBIM) as a complexing agent. Several important variables that affect the CPE efficiency and FAAS signal were investigated and optimized. The calibration curves, using the preconcentration system, were linear in the range of 0.007-0.200 μg mL-1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. The lower limits of detection (3s) obtained in the optimal conditions were 1.47 ng mL-1 and 3.00 ng mL-1 for Mg2+ and Ag+ ions, respectively. The relative standard deviation for five replicate determinations of magnesium and silver at 0.133 μg mL-1 concentration level, were 1.17 and 0.97, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the ultra-trace determination of silver and magnesium in various water samples, blood serum, urine, and radiology film samples.


The partial molar volume, .hivin.V, and the partial sp. vol., .hivin.n, were estd. for more than 25 polyelectrolyte structures. The materials investigated by d. measurements in highly dild. aq. solns. (c < 10-2 monomol/L) included both synthetic polyelectrolytes and chem. modified natural polymers. Through a detailed anal., related to the chem. structure and macromol. parameters, a linear dependence between the copolymer compn. and the partial vols. could be identified for diallyldimethylammonium chloride/acrylamide copolymers. Additivity could also be shown for sodium cellulose sulfate having various degrees of substitution. For a homologous series of poly(vinylbenzyltrialkylammonium chloride)s, a linear correlation between the molar mass of the monomer unit and the partial molar volume was obtained. No influence of the d.p. was obsd. as long as the contour length exceeds the Debye length. The exptl. results were used to evaluate the general applicability of the additivity schemes of Durchschlag and Zipper, as well as Gianni and Lepori, to polyelectrolytes. Agreement between exptl. and calcd. partial vols. strongly depends on the chem. structures. In the case of the synthetic polycations, the deviations are in a similar range for both models though somewhat smaller for the Gianni/Lepori model. The use of the Durchschlag/Zipper model yields much better agreement for the anionic biopolymers with deviations generally less than 3%. The tendency of the empirical models is correct; however, the precision may be improved by regressing of parameters from the exptl. results. The new exptl. data may also be useful in polyelectrolyte characterization. [on SciFinder (R)]


In this paper, we present the project MACHS, a platform for the generation of serious games, i.e. courses in 3D environments for machine-tool training. The platform consists of two applications: an easy-to-use authoring tool for editing the courses and a 3D simulator for running them. In this paper, we describe the features and the functionalities of each part of the platform. We also describe the structure of the XML files designed for the storage of the information about courses, machines, cameras, interaction, etc. and how we use them to link the editor and the simulator.


China's protracted regional conflicts of 1967 and 1968 have long been understood as struggles between conservative and radical forces whose opposed interests were so deeply rooted in existing patterns of power and privilege that they defied the imposition of military control. This study of Nanjing, a key provincial capital that experienced prolonged factional conflict, yields a new explanation: the conflicts were prolonged precisely because they could not be characterized as pitting "conservatives" against "radicals", making it difficult for central officials, local military forces, or Mao Zedong to decide how to resolve them. Furthermore, Beijing officials, regional military forces, and local civilian cadres were themselves divided against one another, exacerbating and prolonging local conflicts. In competing for approval from central authorities, local factions adopted opportunistic and rapidly shifting political stances designed to portray their opponents as reactionary conservatives—charges that had no basis in fact.


Partial discharge (PD) measurements are an important technique for assessing the health of power apparatus. Previous published research by the authors has shown that an electro-optic system can be used for PD measurement of oil-filled power transformers. A PD signal generated within an oil-filled power transformer may reach a winding and then travel along the winding to the bushing core bar. The bushing, acting like a capacitor, can transfer the high frequency components of the partial discharge signal to its earthed tap point. Therefore, an effective PD current measurement can be implemented at the bushing tap by using a radio frequency current transducer around the bushing-tap earth connection. In addition, the use of an optical transmission technique not only improves the electrical noise immunity and provides the possibility of remote measurement but also realizes electrical isolation and enhances safety for operators. However, the bushing core bar can act as an aerial and in addition noise induced by the electro-optic modulation system may influence overall measurement sensitivity. This paper reports on a machine learning technique, namely the use of a support vector machine (SVM), to improve the detection sensitivity of the system. Comparison between the signal extraction performances of a passive hardware filter and the SVM technique has been assessed. The results obtained from the laboratory-based experiment have been analysed and indicate that the SVM approach provides better performance than the passive hardware filter and it can reliably detect discharge signals with apparent charge greater than 30 pC.


Marine researchers continue to create large quantities of benthic images e.g. using AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles). In order to quantify the size of sessile objects in the images, a pixel-to-centimetre ratio is required for each image, often indirectly provided through a geometric laser point (LP) pattern, projected onto the seafloor. Manual annotation of these LPs in all images is too time-consuming and thus infeasible for nowadays data volumes. Because of the technical evolution of camera rigs, the LP's geometrical layout and colour features vary for different expeditions and projects. This makes the application of one algorithm, tuned to a strictly defined LP pattern, also ineffective. Here we present the web-tool DELPHI, that efficiently learns the LP layout for one image transect / collection from just a small number of hand labelled LPs and applies this layout model to the rest of the data. The efficiency in adapting to new data allows to compute the LPs and the pixel-to-centimetre ratio fully automatic and with high accuracy. DELPHI is applied to two real-world examples and shows clear improvements regarding reduction of tuning effort for new LP patterns as well as increasing detection performance.


This investigation focused on topsoils (n = 122) and vertical profiles (n = 6) distributed over an area of 250 km2 in the eastern-central Peloritani Mountains, northeastern Sicily. Georeferenced concentration of 53 elements (including potentially harmful ones), determined by ICP-MS after an aqua regia leach, were used to produce geochemical maps by means of a GIS-aided spatial interpolation process. Results show that there are two distinct areas: the larger, located between the Fiumendinisi, Budali and Ali villages, and the other between C. Postlioni and Femmina Morta, which contain anomalous As (up to 727 mg/kg), Sb (up to 60 mg/kg), Ag (up to 1 mg/kg) and Au (up to 0.1 mg/kg) concentrations. Most of the investigated areas have high contamination levels for As, Zn, Sb, and Pb that exceed the threshold values (As = 20 mg/kg, Zn = 150 mg/kg, Sb = 10 mg/kg and Pb = 100 mg/kg) established for soils by the Italian Environmental Law (Decreto Legislativo 2006, number 152). The isotopic ratios of 206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/207Pb have been measured in selected soils on both leaches [using 1M HNO3–1.75M HCl (50:50)] and residues thereof. Soil leach reflects possible anthropogenic contamination, whereas soil residues indicate geogenic contributions. Results suggest that most of contamination in the soils is related to the presence of sulphide and sulphosalt rock-forming minerals in the surveyed area. The soil fraction contains a Pb value >1600 mg/kg and has ratios of 1.1695 for 206Pb/207Pb and 2.4606 for 208Pb/207Pb. Only one soil leach isotopic composition could reflect possible anthropogenic contamination. The correlation among As, Zn, Pb contents v. Pb isotopic signatures of 206Pb/207Pb indicates that surface and deep soils collected from profiles are dominated by geogenic compositions.


As social community, human needs to communicate with others. Speaking is one of the language skills that have important role in communication among human beings especially in verbal communication. Sex indicates different ways to speak clearly and different scores to achieve in learning process. Talking about sex and language, female can talk by using varieties of sentences and greater of words earlier than male, but there is another statement said that there are no differences between male and female in verbal measures among groups of preschoolers. Based
on that fact, this research was conducted.
The research was aimed to know if there are different scores between male and female students in learning speaking II subject at English Department of the
university Muhammadiah of Malang in academic year 20082009. In this study, the writer used Quantitative research because it involved analysis of numerical data. The researcher used the students' score to measure students' achievement in learning speaking subject.
The researcher chose proportional random sampling. In 20082009 academic year, English Department of the Muhammadiyah of Malang had 8 classes. The number of the population was 215 students. In this research, the sample was taken 37 % from the population it was about 80 students. In this study, the researcher got the data score from the lecturers who though Speaking II subject.
Based on the result, the Mean score of male students were 78.5750 and the Mean score of female students were 78.0500. The different Mean between male and female were 0.52500. From the result of Ttest computation, the t computation
was 0.327 and the t table was 2.02. The significance level 0.05 and degree of freedom (df) was 78. It can be seen that t computation between  t table and t table (2.02 < 0.327 < 2.02). It means there is no significant difference between males and female in learning Speaking, because the Mean difference was only 0.52500. TTest result is "there are not significant difference scores between male and female
students in learning Speaking II subject".


Tetraspanins are a family of membrane‐organizing proteins that mediate diverse functions. Little is known of their expression or function in myeloid cells. Here, expression of CD9, CD53, CD63, and CD81, tetraspanins that have been implicated in HIV‐1 pathogenesis, were characterized in normal monocyte subsets, in MDM, and in HIV‐1‐infected donors. We show that tetraspanins are expressed differentially by monocyte subsets, with higher CD9 and CD63 and lower CD53 and CD81 levels on CD14++CD16− monocytes compared with CD14++CD16+ and CD14+CD16++ subsets. Maturation of monocytes resulted in increased CD9 expression and apparent relocation of CD63 and CD53 from surface to intracellular membranes. Expression was modulated by cytokines, and CD9 was a marker of anti‐inflammatory and CD53 a marker of proinflammatory MDM. Tetraspanin expression on monocyte subsets from HIV‐1‐infected donors receiving antiretroviral therapy was unchanged compared with that in uninfected donors. However, CD53 expression was inversely correlated with viral load in HIV‐1‐infected donors not on therapy. This study is the first to comprehensively characterize tetraspanin expression on monocyte subsets and macrophages in health and during HIV‐1 infection. It demonstrates regulation of tetraspanin expression by cytokines, and CD53 expression as a novel correlate of a proinflammatory phenotype. This paper characterizes tetraspanins in myeloid cells and shows that tetraspanins are expressed differentially in monocyte subsets and are modified in inflammatory conditions.


This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part is the result of thorough historical research into the development and content of the discussion of Hannah Arendt's book 'Eichmann in Jerusalem' between 1963 and 1967, in three countries: the US, West Germany and France. This part corrects and enhances the historiography of the controversy on several important points. The second part looks specifically at the participation of fifteen historian-reviewers in the debate. These fifteen texts were analysed with help of the pragma-dialectical argumentation theory and method. The first result of this is a structured presentation of the precise differences of opinion between Arendt and the fifteen reviewers, and of the arguments that keep recurring in their discussion. Secondly, these textual analyses provide insight into the procedural problems that can occur in a heated discussion of the Holocaust, as well as the ways that discussants attempt to overcome these obstacles. These results are starting points for further research into the problematic nature of so-called Holocaust controversies, especially for research into the participation of historians in these notoriously difficult discussions.


We have developed a symbolic verification method for testing discrete chemical process control systems including process equipment and control system software and hardware. The method automatically determines if the system behaves as specified by safety and operability requirements. The method consists of: 1) a system model describing the process and its software, 2) assertions expressing user-supplied questions about the system behavior and 3) a model checker testing if the system model satisfies the assertions and supplying a counterexample if an error exists. The assertions are expressed using temporal logic operators for reasoning about occurrence of events in time. This verification method symbolically inspects the elements of the model. Compared with our previous explicit state enumeration method (Moon, 1991), this symbolic method can handle larger systems and be more complete in its system description. The method has been tested on an alarm system to uncover discrete event sequencing errors.


A comprehensive eco system for scientific computing with Python used to be quite a challenge to install on a computer, especially for newcomers. This problem is more or less solved today. There are several options for getting easy access to Python and the most important packages for scientific computations, so the biggest issue for a newcomer is to make a proper choice. An overview of the possibilities together with my own recommendations appears next.


1. The development of Western welfare states falls into three phases:

? The post-war settlement: stable and sustained expansion during the three post-war decades;
? Challenges from shifts in labour markets, economic globalisation, population ageing, family and household patterns and other factors. These have called the continued viability of the settlement into question from the later 1970s onwards; and
? Recent moves toward a new settlement.

2. The post-war settlement rested on confidence that state welfare, combined with neo-Keynesian economic management supported economic progress and enhanced social stability. New approaches from the 1970s onwards inspired by monetarism saw extensive welfare states as a damaging economic burden, implying that the welfare state should be seen as obsolete. The welfare settlement that is currently emerging argues that a welfare state centred on social investment can again contribute to economic and social objectives in a virtuous spiral of growth and justice.

3. Policy documents from EU and OECD set out a combined economic and social case for the social investment model. These arguments stress the importance of enhancing employment opportunities in a more flexible and dynamic labour market. The view that government should intervene through education and a benefit system that encourages entry into paid work and supports movement between jobs has tended to predominate over endorsement of de-regulation and benefit cut backs as the best route to greater labour market flexibility.

4. The new welfare state settlement has been successfully established, against the loose monetarist argument that welfare spending is simply a burden on economic progress. Different variants are pursued in national contexts that vary according to welfare state traditions and policy-making frameworks. In most cases there is more emphasis on activation through benefit reform and programmes for high-risk groups than on investment in human capital and research and development. The outcomes in terms of equality of outcome and opportunity vary, just as they did in traditional welfare states.

5. Nordic countries, exemplified by Sweden, are most successful in combining growth and social cohesion. The UK is much more successful in the former area than in the latter. The Nordic model is expensive and depends on high taxes. More generally, European welfare state settlements have developed in specific politico-economic contexts which are hard to replicate elsewhere.

6. East Asian societies have generally achieved high levels of investment in human capital and research and development leading to high growth; Europe may have much to learn from East Asia in stimulating such investment, while the European tradition of achieving social cohesion through welfare state spending may be relevant to East Asian futures.


Peroxy radical (HO 2 +ΣRO 2 ) measurements, using the PEroxy Radical Chemical Amplification (PERCA) technique at the North Atlantic Marine Boundary Layer EXperiment (NAMBLEX) at Mace Head in summer 2002, are presented and put into the context of marine, boundary-layer chemistry. A suite of other chemical parameters (NO, NO 2 , NO 3 , CO, CH 4 , O 3 , VOCs, peroxides), photolysis frequencies and meteorological measurements, are used to present a detailed analysis of the role of peroxy radicals in tropospheric oxidation cycles and ozone formation. Under the range of conditions encountered the peroxy radical daily maxima varied from 10 to 40 pptv. The diurnal cycles showed an asymmetric shape typically shifted to the afternoon. Using a box model based on the master chemical mechanism the average model measurement agreement was 2.5 across the campaign. The addition of halogen oxides to the model increases the level of model/measurement agreement, apparently by respeciation of HO x . A good correlation exists between j (HCHO).[HCHO] and the peroxy radicals indicative of the importance of HCHO in the remote atmosphere as a HO x source, particularly in the afternoon. The peroxy radicals showed a strong dependence on [NO 2 ] with a break point at 0.1 ppbv, where the radicals increased concomitantly with the reactive VOC loading, this is a lower value than seen at representative urban campaigns. The HO 2 /(HO 2 +ΣRO 2 ) ratios are dependent on [NO x ] ranging between 0.2 and 0.6, with the ratio increasing linearly with NO x . Significant night-time levels of peroxy radicals were measured up to 25 pptv. The contribution of ozone-alkenes and NO 3 -alkene chemistry to night-time peroxy radical production was shown to be on average 59 and 41%. The campaign mean net ozone production rate was 0.11±0.3 ppbv h -1 . The ozone production rate was strongly dependent on [NO] having linear sensitivity (dln(P(O 3 ))/dln(NO)=1.0). The results imply that the N(O 3 ) (the in-situ net photochemical rate of ozone production/destruction) will be strongly sensitive in the marine boundary layer to small changes in [NO] which has ramifications for changing NO x loadings in the European continental boundary layer.


Teaching health law is incredibly rewarding and stimulating, but it is also very challenging. This is partly because there is no coherent body of health law, just as there is no uniform system of health care delivery and financing in the United States. This is also because health law is always evolving. Health law students need an adequate foundation in the patchwork of laws that govern the current system, but they also need to be prepared for the dynamic character of health law and to become familiar with the enduring policy debates that make future change inevitable. This is most vividly illustrated by the uncertainty ushered in by the 2016 elections, which not only made repeal of the ACA a realistic possibility, but renewed momentum for a dramatic rollback of longstanding Medicaid entitlements and funding – a rollback that would strike at the heart of the health care safety net. Professors of health law are, of course, thinking about the legal, policy and human implications of this. But they must also confront the challenge of teaching health law in the midst of this uncertainty. This makes the St. Louis University Law Journal Teaching Issue on Health Law a particularly timely resource.
My contribution to this issue offers one approach to teaching students about the health care safety net, by focusing on a book I have considered a valuable teaching supplement for fifteen years: Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America. In this book, investigative journalist Laurie Kaye Abraham chronicles the health care experiences of an economically disadvantaged family in Chicago from May 1989 to April 1990. Abraham takes readers on a journey that touches almost every part of the safety net, revealing myriad challenges the poor face in getting care—from coverage gaps, to bureaucratic impediments to access, to social determinants of health. Abraham also makes a complex and vast subject digestible. Students become so invested in the family's experiences that it makes them want to devour the technical statutes and regulations governing health care finance and delivery that would otherwise seem tedious or difficult to grasp. This foundation not only helps students better understand the goals and design of various health reforms, including the ACA, it also helps students evaluate whether such reforms are effective at removing access barriers and promoting health. One may wonder how valuable this book is today in light of the significant insurance expansions enacted since the late 1990s. But this Essay shows how the book's lessons are timeless and its narrative force is as compelling as ever. The book also serves as a powerful cautionary tale in the face of attempts to repeal the ACA and rollback Medicaid – a vivid reminder of what lies ahead if we choose retrenchment.


Chromium nitride coating is now the norm for improving the wear resistance of high-performance mechanical components. Even so, to prevent the seizure issue between the contacting interfaces, the prerequisites are oil or solid lubricants which would however lose the lubricating functionality at elevated temperatures due to breakdown or degradation. In this research, we utilize a Cr2O3 nanolayer formed on modified Cr(W)N coating to prevent the adhesive seizure for steel-based components. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses show that the chromium oxide can be generated at 200-400 °C. At 400 °C, the Cr2O3 nanolayer is in situ formed and maintains a consistent thickness of 2.2 nm due to the oxide renewal during the heating-sliding operation. The in situ, renewable oxide nanolayer provides a novel approach to the technically unsolved seizure problem occurring in high-performance machines operated at elevated temperatures.


We are presenting the results of our observations on the functioning of relatives in the spoken language, trying to demonstrate that dislocation is not a decisive factor of their restrictive vs non-restrictive status, nor of grammatical vs discursive. Besides certain examples from authors dealing with spoken language, syntax of dislocation and relative clauses, the investigated corpus has been C-ORAL-ROM. We have been able to notice that the opposition dislocated vs non-dislocated, which is the rule in the written language, and has well determined marks, obliges us to question not only the validity of these categories in spoken language, but also of the non-restrictive category ("propositions relatives explicatives" in French). We consider that classification and description of relative clauses should be seen as gradation rather than opposition. The following gradual categories have been observed on our oral corpus: compulsory restrictive clauses (2), fuzzy constructions (3) and quasiindependent structures (4 and 5). These independent structures were found in monological paratactic constructions (4) and in dialogic ones (5). As they are used without a relative word or they belong to different speech turns, we called these last categories "inferential relatives". All these lead to a more permissive definition of relative clauses, which should be a gradual one.


Abstract An engineering scaling process is applied to the solid breeder ITER TBM designs in accordance with the testing objectives of validating the design tools and the database, and evaluating blanket performance under prototypical operating conditions. The goal of scaling is to ensure that changes in structural response and performance caused by changes in size and operating conditions do not reduce the usefulness of the tests. Initially, constitutive equations are applied to lay out the basic operating and design parameters that dominate blanket phenomena. The suitability of these similarity criteria for the TBM design is then confirmed by comparing finite element predictions of prototype and scale model responses. The TBM design also takes into account the need to check the codes and data for future design use. Specifically, predictability of tritium production and nuclear heating rates in a complex geometry, tritium release and permeation characteristics under fusion environments belong to this category. We conclude that this engineering scaling design process has maximized the value of ITER testing.


In this paper, we analyze a single server queueing system
$C_k/C_m/1$.
 We construct a general solution space of vector product-forms for steady-state probability and express it in terms of singularities and vectors of the fundamental matrix polynomial
 $\textbf{Q}(\omega)$. It is shown that there is a strong relation between the singularities of
$\textbf{Q}(\omega)$ and the roots of the characteristic polynomial
involving the Laplace transforms of the inter-arrival and service
times distributions. Thus, some steady-state probabilities may be
written as a linear combination of vectors derived in expression
of these roots. In this paper, we focus on solving a set of
equations of matrix polynomials in the case of multiple roots. As
a result, we give a
 closed-form solution of unboundary steady-state
 probabilities of $C_k/C_m/1$, thereupon
considerably reducing the computational complexity of solving a
complicated problem in a general queueing model.


From the Publisher:
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Studio Techniques is the definitive guide to mastering the most essential features of Photoshop. Experienced Photoshop instructor Ben Willmore provides lessons that will help all users truly understand this popular image editing software.

The text starts out with basic Photoshop techniques and moves on to more complex tasks and features, including layers, resolution, line art scanning, compositing, color correction, and displaying images on the Web. With these concepts and skills explained in a `technobabble-free' way, readers will master even the most complex Photoshop concepts. This is not a special effects cookbook or a primer on digital design; rather, this reader-friendly book is designed to boost users' productivity by showing how and why to use certain Photoshop tools.


The recent discovery of Triassic tetrapod fossils in the Picket Wire Canyonlands of southeastern Colorado necessitates large-scale modification of the currently accepted stratigraphy of the area. The bone-bearing strata lie stratigraphically above a thick (∼80 meter [m]) eolianite historically identified as the Middle Jurassic Entrada Sandstone. The identifiable fossils include teeth and bone fragments of Late Triassic tetrapods, including metoposaurs, phytosaurs, and aetosaurs, recovered from thin (m-scale) discontinuous channels of limestone-pebble conglomerate deposited in a high-energy fluvial environment. Metoposaur bones consist of characteristically textured dermal bone fragments of the skull and pectoral elements, as well as a tooth. Phytosaur fossils consist of type C and B teeth, skull and jaw fragments, and some osteoderms. Aetosaurs are represented by several distinctive osteoderms, including some with evidence of prominent eminences and anterior bars. All identifiable tetrapods pertain to taxa known only from strata of Late Triassic age elsewhere, but none constrains the age of the fossil assemblage more precisely, although the assemblage is similar to lower Chinle Group assemblages of Carnian age (Otischalkian–Adamanian). The two most reasonable solutions to the discovery of Late Triassic index fossils stratigraphically above "Jurassic" beds are that the Triassic strata of this area have been mistakenly correlated with the Middle Jurassic Entrada Sandstone, or else the fossils are reworked into dramatically younger (Middle to Upper Jurassic) beds. The conglomerates are lithologically dissimilar from other Jurassic units regionally, but similar to Upper Triassic conglomerates of Wyoming (Gartra Formation) and New Mexico (Cobert Canyon Bed). Therefore, we consider the fossils to be in Upper Triassic strata. New lithostratigraphic data, including a composite measured section from the Picket Wire Canyonlands—as well as analysis and correlation of newly measured sections and others in the literature from south-central Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico—suggest that the eolianite below the bone-bearing horizon and the finer clastic strata directly beneath the eolianite are best correlated to the Red Draw Member of the Jelm Formation. We correlate the bone-bearing conglomerates with the Cobert Canyon Bed at the base of the Chinle Group, described by previous authors as limestone and lithic-pebble conglomerate underlying the Travesser Formation in northern New Mexico. The gypsiferous and clastic strata overlying the conglomerates and below the Morrison Formation, ∼30 m higher in Picket Wire Canyon, are referred to the Middle Jurassic Ralston Creek (= Bell Ranch) Formation, a correlative of the Summerville Formation. These correlations extend the known distribution of Jelm Formation strata southeastward from north-central Colorado and south-central Wyoming and highlight the need for a major, modern restudy of this unit.


Contemporary early childhood teacher education is situated in a knowledge and policy environment where on the one hand preservice educators have the opportunity to connect with unlimited knowledge sources and, on the other, are expected to conform to standardized outcomes. This situation is compounded by increasingly inequitable learning outcomes for children in many countries. In this paper, we argue that this context demands different ways of teaching and learning in early childhood teacher education and that in order to address increasing inequity, preservice educators must experience a transformative university curriculum. This paper uses the example of an arts topic, with a particular focus on music, to examine ways of positioning preservice educators that open up, rather than restrict opportunities to reconceptualize early childhood curriculum. The authors examine data from curriculum documents and student reflections in order to discuss the intended (planned), enacted (implemented) and experienced university curriculum.


Background Sufficient physical activity is important for solid organ transplant recipients (heart, lung, liver, kidney). However, recipients do not meet the recommended amount or required type of physical activity. The perceived barriers to and facilitators of physical activity in this population are largely unknown. Methods Semi-structured in depth interviews were conducted with solid organ transplant recipients in order to explore experienced barriers and facilitators. Qualitative methodology with thematic line-by-line analysis was used for analysis, and derived themes were classified into personal and environmental factors. Results The most important indicated barriers were physical limitations, insufficient energy level, fear, and comorbidities. The most frequently mentioned facilitators included motivation, coping, consequences of (in)activity, routine/habit, goals/goal priority, and responsibility for the transplanted organ. Neutral factors acting as a barrier or facilitator were self-efficacy and expertise of personnel. A comparison of barriers and facilitators between transplant recipient groups yielded no overt differences. Conclusion Several personal and environmental factors were indicated that should be considered in intervention development to increase physical activity behavior in solid organ transplant recipients.


Purpose: The main objective of this article is to present an up-to-date review of new product forecasting techniques. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of forecasting journals was carried out using the ISI-Web of Knowledge database. Several articles were retrieved and examined, and forecasting techniques relevant to this study were selected and assessed. Findings: The strengths, weaknesses and applications of the main forecasting models are discussed to examine trends and set future challenges. Research limitations/implications: A theoretical reference framework for forecasting techniques classified into judgmental, consumer/market research, cause-effect and artificial intelligence is proposed. Future research can assess these models qualitatively. Practical implications: Companies are currently motivated to launch new products and thus attract new customers to expand their market share. In order to reduce uncertainty and risk, many companies go to extra lengths to forecast sales accurately using several techniques. Originality/value: This article outlines new lines of research on the improvement of new product performance which will aid managers in decision making and allow companies to sustain their competitive advantages in this challenging world.


Climate risk brings about a new type of financial risk that standard approaches to risk management are not adequate to handle. Amidst the growing concern about climate change, financial supervisors and risk managers are concerned with the risk of a disorderly low-carbon transition. We develop a model to compute i) the valuation adjustment of corporate bonds, depending both on climate transition risk scenarios and on companies' shares of revenues across low/high-carbon activities, and ii) the corresponding adjustments of an investor's Expected Shortfall and probability of default. Implications for central banks' climate financial risk management include that climate stress test exercises should allow for a wide enough set of scenarios in order to limit the underestimation of losses.