OBJECTIVES
The verteporfin photodynamic therapy (VPDT) cohort study aimed to answer five questions: (a) is VPDT in the NHS provided as in randomised trials?; (b) is 'outcome' the same in the nhs as in randomised trials?; (c) is 'outcome' the same for patients ineligible for randomised trials?; (d) is VPDT safe when provided in the NHS?; and (e) how effective and cost-effective is VPDT?

DESIGN
Treatment register.

SETTING
All hospitals providing VPDT in the NHS.

PARTICIPANTS
All patients attending VPDT clinics.

INTERVENTIONS
Infusion of verteporfin followed by infrared laser exposure is called VPDT, and is used to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The VPDT cohort study advised clinicians to follow patients every 3 months during treatment or active observation, retreating based on criteria used in the previous commercial 'TAP' (Treatment of Age-related macular degeneration with Photodynamic therapy) trials of VPDT.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome was logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution monocular best-corrected distance visual acuity (BCVA). Secondary outcomes were adverse reactions and events; morphological changes in treated nAMD (wet) lesions; and for a subset of patients, 6-monthly contrast sensitivity, generic and visual health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and resource use. Treated eyes were classified as eligible for the TAP trials (EFT), ineligible (IFT) or unclassifiable (UNC).

RESULTS
Forty-seven hospitals submitted data for 8323 treated eyes in 7748 patients; 4919 eyes in 4566 patients were treated more than 1 year before the last data submission or had completed treatment. Of 4043 eyes with nAMD in 4043 patients, 1227 were classified as EFT, 1187 as IFT and 1629 as UNC. HRQoL and resource use data were available for about 2000 patients. The mean number of treatments in years 1 and 2 was 2.3 and 0.4 respectively. About 50% of eyes completed treatment within 1 year. BCVA deterioration in year 1 did not differ between eligibility groups. EFT eyes lost 11.6 letters (95% confidence interval 10.1 to 13.0 letters) compared with 9.9 letters in VPDT-treated eyes in the TAP trials. EFT eyes had poorer BCVA at baseline than IFT and UNC eyes. Adverse reactions and events were reported for 1.4% of first visits - less frequently than those reported in the TAP trials. Associations between BCVA in the best-seeing eye with HRQoL and community health and social care resource use showed that the 11-letter difference in BCVA between VPDT and sham treatment in the TAP trials corresponded to differences in utility of 0.012 and health and social service costs of £60 and £92 in years 1 and 2, respectively. VPDT provided an incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) of £170,000 over 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS
VPDT was administered less frequently than in the TAP trials, with less than half of those treated followed up for > 1 year in routine clinical practice. Deterioration in BCVA over time in EFT eyes was similar to that in the TAP trials. The similar falls in BCVA after VPDT across the pre-defined TAP eligibility groups do not mean that the treatment is equally effective in these groups because deterioration in BCVA can be influenced by the parameters that determined group membership. Safety was no worse than in the TAP trials. The estimated cost per QALY was similar to the highest previous estimate. Although VPDT is no longer in use as monotherapy for neovascular AMD, its role as adjunctive treatment has not been fully explored. VPDT also has potential as monotherapy in the management of vascular malformations of the retina and choroid and with trials underway in neovascularisation due to myopia and polypoidal choroidopathy.

FUNDING
The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.


Patterned graded-refractive-index (GRIN) coatings that offer the controllability of far-field emission pattern and polarization properties of GaInN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are investigated. Compared with a planar reference LED, the light-output power of an LED with patterned GRIN coatings (GRIN LED) is enhanced by about 69%. Furthermore, the GRIN LED has bidirectional emission peaks at about 45° off-surface-normal and polarized light emission with the maximum polarization ratio occurring at the same angle, i.e. the intensity maximum and the polarization-ratio maximum coincide. The large off-surface-normal emission of the GRIN LED results from the strong light extraction through the sidewalls of the GRIN pillars, which is in good agreement with results predicted from ray-tracing simulations.


A groundbreaking prescription for health care reform--from a legendaryleader in innovation ...Our health care system is in critical condition. Each year, fewer Americans can afford it, fewer businesses can provide it, and fewer government programs can promise it for future generations. We need a cure, and we need it now. Harvard Business School's Clayton M. Christensen-whose bestselling The Innovator's Dilemma revolutionized the business world-presents The Innovator's Prescription, a comprehensive analysis of the strategies that will improvehealth care and make it affordable. Christensen applies the principles of disruptive innovation to the broken health care system with two pioneers in the field-Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang. Together, they examine arange of symptoms and offer proven solutions. YOU'LL DISCOVER HOW "Precision medicine" reduces costs and makes good on the promise of personalized care Disruptive business models improve quality, accessibility, and affordability by changing the way hospitals and doctors work Patient networks enable better treatment of chronic diseases Employers can change the roles they play in health care to compete effectively in the era of globalization Insurance and regulatory reforms stimulate disruption in health care


The role of a first line manager (FLM) in Swedish healthcare has gone through major changes, from a divided role involving both nursing work and supervision to a pure management role. Along with these changes, the experienced core work and meaning of work have been altered. This also means that conditions for work that could regenerate the invested resources of the FLMs have been altered as well. The aim of this study was to describe the ward managers' experiences of their professional role, their work and how they are handling their everyday practice. Furthermore, the aim has been to interpret these experiences through the lens of regenerative work. Five ward managers at a Swedish hospital setting were followed for approximately four years. The study has had an interactive and pragmatic approach. Data were collected through interviews, observations and a continuous dialogue forum (three years). Four themes are presented in this paper: from supervisor to manager; loyalty; talking about it and dialogue forum. These themes are then discussed in order to understand basic conditions for the regenerative work of the FLM. The most central finding is the importance for the FLMs to make sense of their world through narratives and that the organisation does not provide for this.


The characterisation of adrenoceptor subtypes has traditionally been achieved using pharmacological methods. However, in recent years molecular biology and biochemical methods have become increasingly popular. Transgenic technology has provided a merging of pharmacology and molecular biology, whereby molecular biology is used to identify and manipulate the gene of interest whilst pharmacology is used to investigate the functional consequences of these genetic manipulations. The process of subtyping a1-adrenoceptor subtypes is often made more complicated by a lack of reliable subtype selective drugs, in particular for the a1B-adrenoceptor, for which there are no such compounds. The a1B-adrenoceptor KO mouse created by Cavalli et al (1997) provides a unique environment in which to study a1-adrenoceptor subtypes. The study of these KO mice may provide a valuable insight into the functional role of individual a1-adrenoceptor subtypes. For this reason my project investigated the functional consequences of deleting the a1B-adrenoceptor using traditional pharmacological methods including radioligand binding and wire myography and the more recently developed method of confocal microscopy. In Chapter 2,1 describe the effects of deletion of the a1B-adrenoceptor from the brain and livers of WT and KO mice. Using five subtype selective ligands (prazosin, RS100329, (R)-A-61603, L765,314 and BMY7378), radioligand binding was used to characterise the a1-adrenoceptor subtypes in WT and KO brain and liver tissue. The WT brain was found to contain a heterogeneous population of a1-adrenoceptors, consisting of a1A- and a1B-adrenoceptors\ whilst the KO brain had a smaller receptor number compared to the WT and a pure population of a1A-adrenoceptors. In the WT liver (4 month old) a pure population of a1B-adrenoceptors was determined to be present, consistent with previous reports (Cavalli et al, 1997; Yang et al, 1998). The KO liver (4 month old) was unexpectedly found to contain a population of a1-adrenoceptors: characterised to be a1A-adrenoceptors. Preliminary results from studies of 3 month old KO livers revealed that there are negligible amounts of a1-adrenoceptors present at this age, whereas in 3 month old WT liver a1-adrenoceptor density is higher compared with 4 month old livers. This study demonstrates the loss (without apparent replacement) of the aiB-adrenoceptor from the KO brain and the substitution of the a1A- adrenoceptor to compensate for the loss of the a1B-adrenoceptor in the KO liver. This upregulation of the a1A-adrenoceptor appears to occur between 3 and 4 months of age. Chapter 3 describes a general pharmacological characterisation of the mouse carotid artery and a detailed investigation into the characterisation of the a1-adrenoceptor subtype mediating contraction in WT and KO carotid arteries. The general pharmacology of the carotid artery was studied using a number of vasoactive compounds. Chapter 4 describes a study investigating the effects which deletion of the a1B-adrenoceptor has on the structure of the adventitia of WT and KO carotid arteries. The number and density of adventitial cells in the KO carotid artery was found to be significantly smaller than in the WT carotid artery. The implications of this are not yet certain, but the a1B-adrenoceptor has been implicated in growth (Chen et al, 1995; Zhang and Faber, 2001) which may account for the observed differences in the KO carotid artery compared with the WT. The results presented in this thesis have gone some way to furthering our knowledge of the a1B-adrenoceptor and demonstrate that the effects of deleting the a1B-adrenoceptor depend not only on the tissue in which it is expressed, but also on the cell type. The merging of transgenic technologies with pharmacological techniques (pharmacogenomics) provides the pharmacologist with information which would not be possible with drugs alone and looks set to be a way forward in clarifying the confusing pharmacology arising from the use of inadequate drugs.


As a political doctrine nationalism has four distinctive features which make it unattractive from a liberal perspective. It promotes revisions of external state borders by secession and unification in order to create homogeneous nation-states; it militates against national and ethnic diversity within the given borders of a state; it regards national obligations as overriding other interests and identities of the nation's members; and it attributes a moral priority to compatriots which overrides obligations towards foreigners or foreign countries. The paper briefly examines each of these 'four ugly faces' of nationalism. Although liberal political theory may claim to have most consistently opposed these nationalist propositions, I argue that traditional liberalism is ill-equipped to reply to questions which involve the legitimacy of boundaries of political communities. This claim is substantiated by a more thorough examination of the question how state borders ought to be drawn. Consequentialist, deontological and liberal nationalist approaches are each divided against themselves on the question about whether and how to defend or reject a right to secession. The paper derives an alternative response from linking the legitimacy of secession to a theory of federation. In this view, secession may not only be justified in cases of persistent discrimination and inequality of individual citizenship, but also when fair terms of federation are violated. In multinational states, the claims of territorially concentrated groups to self-government can be generally satisfied by guaranteeing them collective rights to regional autonomy and special representation at the federal level. If, and as long as, the terms of federation are fair, minorities incur an obligation to maintain the unity of the federation in which they participate both as individual citizens and as distinct political communities within the larger polity.


Abstract. Plant functional type (PFT) distributions affect the results of biogenic emission modeling as well as O3 and particulate matter (PM) simulations using chemistry-transport models (CTMs). This paper analyzes the variations of both surface biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and O3 concentrations due to changes in the PFT distributions in the Seoul Metropolitan Areas, Korea. The Fifth-Generation NCAR/Pennsylvania State Meso-scale Model (MM5)/the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN)/the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE)/the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations were implemented over the Seoul Metropolitan Areas in Korea to predict surface O3 concentrations for the period of 1 May to 31 June 2008. Starting from a performance check of CTM predictions, we consecutively assessed the effects of PFT area deviations on the MEGAN BVOC and CTM O3 predictions, and we further considered the basis of geospatial and statistical analyses. The three PFT data sets considered were (1) the Korean PFT, developed with Korea-specific vegetation database; (2) the CDP PFT, adopted from the community data portal (CDP) of US National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States (NCAR); (3) MODIS PFT, reclassified from the NASA Terra and Aqua combined land cover products. Although the CMAQ performance check reveals that all of the three different PFT data sets are applicable choices for regulatory modeling practice, noticeable primary data (i.e., PFT and Leaf Area Index (LAI)) was observed to be missing in many geographic locations. Based on the assessed effect of such missing data on CMAQ O3 predictions, we found that this missing data can cause spatially increased bias in CMAQ O3. Thus, it must be resolved in the near future to obtain more accurate biogenic emission and chemistry transport modeling results. Comparisons of MEGAN biogenic emission results with the three different PFT data showed that broadleaf trees (BTs) are the most significant contributor, followed by needleleaf trees (NTs), shrub (SB), and herbaceous plants (HBs) to the total BVOCs. In addition, isoprene from BTs and terpene from NTs were recognized as significant primary and secondary BVOC species in terms of BVOC emissions distributions and O3-forming potentials in the study domain. A geographically weighted regression analysis with locally compensated ridge (LCR-GWR) with the different PFT data (δO3 vs. δPFTs) suggests that addition of BT, SB, and NT areas can contribute to O3 increase, whereas addition of an HB area contributes to O3 decrease in the domain. Assessment results of the simulated spatial and temporal changes of O3 distributions with the different PFT scenarios reveal that hourly and local impacts from the different PFT distributions on occasional inter-deviations of O3 are quite noticeable, reaching up to 13 ppb. The simulated maximum 1 h O3 inter-deviations between different PFT scenarios have an asymmetric diurnal distribution pattern (low in the early morning, rising during the day, peaking at 05:00 p.m., and decreasing during the night) in the study domain. Exponentially diverging hourly BVOC emissions and O3 concentrations with increasing ambient temperature suggest that the use of different PFT distribution data requires much caution when modeling (or forecasting) O3 air quality in complicated urban atmospheric conditions in terms of whether uncertainties in O3 prediction results are expected to be mild or severe.


The first issue of the Archives of Anesthesiology and Critical Care (AACC) appears on the website and reaches your hands after hard endeavors and labor of all concerned. It is a matter of immense pleasure that we could launch the first AACC after a long spell of almost eighty years ever since the first university of medicine came into being in the country. It took us some time to select a title for the journal as we intended to include the suggestions and aspirations of all, and again it entailed some time to select the editorial team and including experts in the field from both within the country and across the planet. The ultimate selection of the editorial team imparts a heterogeneous look to the journal which is what we should be proud of and that what we had been aiming at. While making the selection, inclusion had been our goal and not exclusion. Luckily, all accepted our humble invitation to be members of the editorial team and promised to help the newly launched journal through their active participation and critical insight. As the journal is still in its embryonic stage, researchers are most cordially invited to submit their valuable works so that we can tread this path without any hurdles and reach the heights of zenith which is our cherished goal. The intellectual stature of a researcher can be gauged and comprehended from his writings and published works and in this regard, only those researchers are remembered by generations to come whose publications have originality and scientific validity. Publications with such criteria and innovative thoughts have a colossal impact on our understanding of the intricacies of patient care. Redundant and duplicate publications may at times escape the eagles' eye of the reviewers and find their way into peer reviewed journals but would never be cited or reproduced by future researchers. This is how high standards are maintained and upheld. When you sow a seed, your responsibility as a gardener starts and the ultimate outcome of the sowed seed rests entirely on your shoulders and sustained watch. If the seed planted is well attended, watered and provided enrichments in the form of an adequate sunlight and fertilizers, the seed would turn out to be a flourishing plant and eventually blossom into a vigorous and healthy tree. On the contrary, if the sowed seed is left un-attended at any stage of its growth, it would either wither away in the soil or else would cease to grow into a blossomed tree and vanish away from the site. The same holds absolutely true for a new burgeoning specialty journal. If the core committee, the reviewers, section editors, associate editors and the chief editors impeccably perform their obligations with total devotion, the journal would go up the ladder and reach the highest peak in contemporary literature. However, if the responsibilities assigned to persons are not strictly adhered to or else tackled with non-chalantly, the journal would suffer an irrevocable insult and disappear from memories for all times to come. Reputed journals in all fields of medicine have been able to carve out a stature for themselves because of dedicated and elite personnel toiling day and night. I recall a maxim and I quote," It is the man behind the gun that matters and not the gun itself". It reflects that the journal counts and counts only and achieves an esteemed place for itself because of the dedicated team that is behind the scene and relentlessly working towards their targeted goal. A harvest to be reaped needs time and a colossal energy. This holds true for publications and under no circumstances should be circumvented or an iota of plagiarism brought in or permitted [1].Nobody is allowed to perform plagiarism with immunity [2]. A baleful aspect of the tragedy is when a writer copy pastes someone else's work in his own manuscript which by all means amounts to professional theft [3]. We all should serve as dedicated gardeners and gingerly watch the glacial growth of our plantation and take effective remedies if there is slight slackening of growth. With that enthusiasm in mind, we are sure that the JACC would achieve its destined place in the annals of contemporary literature. This stands guaranteed provided your help at every level is available to us as the guardians of this journal. Reviewers throughout the history of contemporary literature have played significant role in critically reviewing manuscripts with the sole and explicit purpose of permitting only those with a green signal for publication and having a tentative message for the readers. Thus reviewers are the backbone of our journal and for that matter help us in publishing scientific papers with the highest standards of vigor and validity, and at the same time enable us in rejecting those articles that are trivial and transfer no new message whatsoever. To help the journal in maintaining an acceptable standard, it is most prudent to select the hard task masters as referees having the necessary expertise to ensure smooth sailing of the titanic [4]. Again it is accepted by all and sundry that a great deal of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the referees [5]. This aspect has to be strictly followed and observed if the journal has to take gigantic leaps forward [6]. We cannot understand everything at once and we cannot begin directly from perfection [7], nevertheless, with the relentless efforts of our colleagues, we can carve out a place for our journal in the annals of contemporary literature. As each issue of the journal has to have an editorial and a research article, I would avail of this opportunity in requesting our distinguished members of the editorial board to send us their valuable submissions which would be fast accepted and would not be subjected to the long process of peer review as they would be coming from hard taskmasters and celebrities in the field and our subspecialties.


An investigation was conducted to obtain fuel-consumption curves for a single-cylinder engine with a Wright 1820-G and Pratt & Whitney 1340-H cylinder at varying speeds, manifold pressures, and air-fuel ratios. The 1340- H cylinder was tested at speeds from 1,200 to 2,400 r.p.m. and at manifold pressures from 21 to 38 inches of mercury absolute. Less than extensive tests were made of the 1820-G cylinder. The results of the tests showed that the minimum brake fuel consumption was obtained when the engines were operating at high torques and at speeds from 60 to 70 percent of the rated speed. The fuel consumption increased at an increasing rate as the torque was reduced; and, at 45 percent of maximum torque, the fuel consumption was 20 percent higher than at maximum torque when the engines were operating at 70 percent of rated speed. Minimum specific fuel consumption was obtained at the same air-fuel ratio regardless of compression ratio. No improvement in fuel consumption was obtained when mixtures leaner than an air-fuel ratio of 15.5 were used. The leanest mixture ratio on which the engine with the 1340-H cylinder would operate smoothly was 18.5 and the spark advance for maximum power with this mixture ratio was 50 degrees B.T.C. A method is discussed for reducing the amount of testing necessary to obtain curves for minimum brake fuel consumption.


Fixed route transit systems provide a valuable transportation service for many of our citizens. As users depend on bus transit to access the essentials of life, maintaining transit service is a critical issue. Given the extent of nationwide bus transit systems and a high level of highway construction activities, it is common to find highway construction work areas encompassing and impacting established bus stop locations. However, there is little information available concerning best practices for safely managing the bus stop and transit riders while construction is underway. The objective of this study is to develop guidelines/recommendations for managing transit stops during adjacent highway construction operations, with a focus on safety and the customers. This guidance will serve as a planning tool and as a design and construction guide for Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) coordination for transit agencies, highway design engineers, and construction managers.


I. INTRODUCTION Whether to permit assisted suicide and euthanasia is among the most contentious legal and public policy questions in America today. The American public consciousness became galvanized on June 4, 1990, with the news that Dr. Jack Kevorkian had helped Janet Adkins, a fifty-four-year-old Alzheimer's patient, take her life.(1) It was later disclosed that Dr. Kevorkian had neither taken the medical history nor made an examination of Ms. Adkins, and that he had never consulted Ms. Adkins's primary care physician.(2) Dr. Kevorkian had simply agreed to meet Ms. Adkins in a Volkswagen van he had outfitted with a "suicide machine" consisting of three chemical solutions fed into an intravenous line needle. It took Dr. Kevorkian several attempts to insert the needle into Ms. Adkins, but he eventually succeeded.(3) Ms. Adkins then pressed a lever releasing lethal drugs into her body. While the media often uses the term "assisted suicide" to describe Dr. Kevorkian's practices, it is a misnomer. Dr. Kevorkian seeks to legalize not only the practice of aiding another in taking his or her life (assisting suicide), but also the practice of intentionally killing another person motivated by feelings of compassion or mercy (euthanasia). Indeed, in 1999 Dr. Kevorkian performed an act of euthanasia for a nationwide television audience on 60 Minutes, with the express desire of provoking debate over legalizing that practice too. (He was later convicted of second-degree murder after a trial in which he chose to act as his own counsel).(4) Since Ms. Adkins's death made national headlines, Dr. Kevorkian claims to have assisted more than 130 suicides.(5) While Dr. Kevorkian is perhaps the most notorious proponent of assisted suicide and euthanasia, he is hardly without allies. Derek Humphry, founder of The Hemlock Society, a group devoted to promoting the legalization of euthanasia, has praised Dr. Kevorkian for "breaking the medical taboo on euthanasia."(6) The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up his legal defense.(7) In 1984, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to give legal sanction to some forms of assisting suicide and euthanasia. The Dutch Supreme Court declared that although killing a patient remains a criminally punishable offense under the nation's Penal Code, physicians can claim an "emergency defense" under certain circumstances.(8) In a 1991 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Timothy Quill, a University of Rochester professor, defended his decision to prescribe barbiturates to a cancer patient even though she admitted that she might use them at some indefinite time in the future to kill herself.(9) A New York grand jury was convened but declined to bring an indictment for assisting suicide. The State's Board for Professional Medical Misconduct considered pressing disciplinary charges but declined, reasoning that Dr. Quill had written a prescription for drugs that had a legitimate medical use for his patient (as a sleeping aid for her insomnia) and that he could not have definitively known she would use the medication to kill herself. Ruling, in essence, that the evidence was too equivocal to conclude that Dr. Quill intended to cause the death of his patient, charges were dropped.(10) In 1992, a gynecology resident submitted an anonymous article to the Journal of the American Medical Association that sparked a long-running debate in the most prominent American medical journals. Entitled It's Over Debbie, the article described how the author administered a lethal injection to a terminal cancer patient (an act of euthanasia, not assisted suicide) that he had never met before after her demand to "get this over with."(11) After its publication in the early 1990s, The Hemlock Society's book, Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying,(12) rocketed to the New York Times' best-seller list. …


EXAMINING CHANGES IN COLLEGE COUNSELING CLIENTS' SYMPTOMOLOGY AND SEVERITY OVER AN EIGHT YEAR SPAN Caroline Lee Bertolet Old Dominion University, 2016 Chair: Dr. Alan Schwitzer The current college counseling literature has conflicting findings regarding the extent to which the severity of mental health symptoms has increased for college students. Some researchers claim that over time student's mental health symptoms have become more complex rather than more severe. This study examined archival data to analyze both the severity and complexity of symptoms in an eight year time span. The study also examined how disruptiveness and treatment demand have changed over the eight year period. The data were analyzed using multiple regression. The results of the study supported perspectives found in the current literature indicating little increase in severity of symptoms over time. The results did not indicate any significant change over time in complexity of problems and disruptiveness. There was a significant increase in treatment demand over time. Implications for the college counseling knowledgebase, college counseling directors and their institutions, college counseling professionals, and students are discussed. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are provided.


Community‐based restorative transitional justice is an important feature of peace consolidation, maximizing access to justice and facilitating reconciliation. Examining post‐conflict Sierra Leone as a case study, the author draws on existing justice practices in Sierra Leone as examples of restorative responses to war criminality. Specifically, the traditional reintegration of former male and female combatants and the emergence of a new project, 'Fambul Tok' are detailed. The author discusses and compares the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to point to gaps in transitional justice that call for community‐based restorative strategies.


A dearth of research exists exploring the career and work development of adult men and the influence of family-of-origin on that development. In this qualitative study, the researchers used a phenomenological approach to examine the career and work experiences of men whose parents have no education beyond high school and the influences of family on these experiences. We describe five constituents: (a) what work is like; (b) preparation/education; (c) who or what influenced them; (d) how to act at work; and (e)challenges/opportunities/choices; and one essence: mottos from father, which articulate the meaning of the experience of work and career and the family influence on the experience. In conclusion, we provide implications for counselors working with adult men whose parents lack post-secondary education. Keywords: first-generation, work, career, family influence, men


This chapter investigates how the non-linguistic knowledge stored in the conceptual level of FunGramKB interacts with the idiosyncratic linguistic knowledge stored in the other two levels, i.e. the lexical and the grammatical levels. It will be argued that the pivotal module of this knowledge base, the Ontology, and the conceptual information stored for the concepts building its taxonomy may be a good source to predict certain aspects of the different lexicalization patterns of the lexical units that lexicalize those concepts and the constructions in which they are subsumed. Consequently, the nature of this work is that of a cross-level analysis. At the same time, this work also analyzes how a verb-framed language like Spanish and a satellite-framed language like English draw different information from the same conceptual base.


One of research strategy employed by WHO Task Force is to develop male contraceptive method using substances from herbs that are assumed to contain active antifertility agent. One herb expected to act as male contraceptive is the Hibiscus rosa sinensis, 1, flower or commonly known as the red hibiscus. The purpose of this research. was to find the effect of administering Hibiscus rosa sinensis, L flower extract on the spermatogenetic process in ,Strain Al male mouse. The spermatogenetic parameters that were measured included the number of spermatogenetic cells in the testicles, sperm concentration in vas deferens, the testicle weight, and the tubulus seminiferus diameter. The subjects were 5 groups of mice that divided into 2 control groups (K1 and K2, placebo) and 3 treatment groups (E1, dose : 200 mg/kkbw; E2, dose : 2,50 mg/kkbw; and E3, dose : 300 mg/kkbw; The flower extract was administered orally once a day during one spermatogenetic cycle. The results showed that the administration of Hibiscus rosa sinensis, L flower extract at 250 mg/kkbw; can reduce the number of spermatogenetic cells-spermatogenium A cells, primary spermatocyte pakhiten, and spermatid-in the testicles. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the sperm concentration in vas deferens and the tubulus seminiferus diameter, especially at the dose of 300 mg/kkbw; The administration of Hibiscus rosa SINENSIS L flower extract at all treatment doses, however, did not affect the testicle weight.


Within many urban communities, there has been a steady decline in healthy living practices among minority families.  This decline is often due to the lack of health services and health knowledge of youth and adults (Shirley, Roark, & Lewis, 2012).  In order to better reach these particular audiences it has been suggested by scholars and practitioners to focus on community based programming. Partnerships formed through entities such as universities and community organizations have been shown to be quite successful in creating healthier families. This paper discusses one such program focused on increasing health knowledge of urban families. Activities offered included health screenings and healthy living programming for youth.  Program results showed that nearly 95% of youth found the activities informative and gave them ways to think about their health and the health of their families.


We show that we can efficiently achieve surface-emitting second-harmonic generation in vertical and horizontal cavities. The fundamental beam is coupled into the waveguide, which consists of III–V or II–VI semiconductor multilayers or asymmetric quantum-well domain structures. The generated second-harmonic radiation propagates along the growth direction of these layers (which is normal to the propagation direction of the fundamental beam). The quasi-phase matching is achieved when second-order susceptibility is modulated along the growth direction in these structures. By the proper design of these structures, the frequency doublers based on these structures together can cover the spectrum of 0.8–2.0 μm. If the pump power density is sufficiently large, the conversion efficiency approaches saturation. The saturation power per unit waveguide width is between ~0.9 and ~435 mW/μm. At such a power density, 72% conversion efficiency can be achieved. In addition, the proposed frequency doublers are, in principle, broadband.


Methyltransferases play a fundamental role in aminoglycoside resistance of Gram-negative bacteria, and some of its mechanisms were described in the past years, especially in Escherichia coli ; however, it remains unsolved for other resistant bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Despite hurdles to determine resistance acquisition, high-throughput approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics) have allowed data mining and analysis in a systemic way. Likewise, bioinformatics modelling of homologous genes or proteins has permitted to eluci-date the emerging resistance in this pathogen. P. aeruginosa is a bacterial resistance treat since practically all known resistance mechanisms can be described using this model, particularly RNA methyltransferases. The RNA methyltransferases perform methylation or demethylation of ribosomal RNA to allow or restrict the antibiotic resistance development. The Kgm and Kam methyltransferases families are found in P. aeruginosa and confer resistance to several aminoglycosides. Loss of native methylations may also confer a resistant phenotype. The P. aeruginosa RsmG has high structural homology with Thermus aquaticus protein. Today, molecular data will promote a new paradigm on antibiotic therapy for treatment against P. aeruginosa . This chapter provides an overview of what role P. aeruginosa' s methyltransferases play in antibiotic resistance, induced by methylation or demethylation in the ribosome.


Addition of nitroalkanes to gasoline is shown to reduce the octane quality. The reduction in the Motor Octane Number (MON) is greater than the reduction in the Research Octane Number (RON). In other words addition of nitroalkanes causes an increase in octane sensitivity. The temperature of the compressed air/fuel mixture in the MON test is higher then in the RON test. Through chemical kinetic modelling, we are able to show how the temperature dependence of the reactions responsible for break-up of the nitroalkane molecule can lead to an increase in octane sensitivity. Results are presented from an Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine with a homogeneous charge in which the air intake temperature was varied. When the engine was operated on gasoline-like fuels containing nitroalkanes, it was observed that the combustion phasing was much more sensitive to the air intake temperature. This suggests a possible means of controlling combustion phasing for HCCI.


DATA MODELING THEORY AND PRACTICE is for practitioners and academics who have learned the conventions and rules of data modeling and are looking for a deeper understanding of the discipline. The coverage of theory includes a detailed review of the extensive literature on data modeling and logical database design, referencing nearly 500 publications, with a strong focus on their relevance to practice. The practice component incorporates the largest-ever study of data modeling practitioners, involving over 450 participants in interviews, surveys and data modeling tasks. The results challenge many longstanding held assumptions about data modeling and will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike. Graeme Simsion brings to the book the practical perspective and intellectual clarity that have made his Data Modeling Essentials a classic in the field. He begins with a question about the nature of data modeling (design or description), and uses it to illuminate such issues as the definition of data modeling, its philosophical underpinnings, inputs and deliverables, the necessary behaviors and skills, the role of creativity, product diversity, quality measures, personal styles, and the differences between experts and novices. Data Modeling Theory and Practice is essential reading for anyone involved in data modeling practice, research, or teaching.


This paper presents BigDAWG, a reference implementation of a new architecture for "Big Data" applications. Such applications not only call for large-scale analytics, but also for real-time streaming support, smaller analytics at interactive speeds, data visualization, and cross-storage-system queries. Guided by the principle that "one size does not fit all", we build on top of a variety of storage engines, each designed for a specialized use case. To illustrate the promise of this approach, we demonstrate its effectiveness on a hospital application using data from an intensive care unit (ICU). This complex application serves the needs of doctors and researchers and provides real-time support for streams of patient data. It showcases novel approaches for querying across multiple storage engines, data visualization, and scalable real-time analytics.


The book highlights the current practices and future trends in structural characterization of impurities and degradants. It begins with an overview of mass spectrometry techniques as related to the analysis of impurities and degradants, followed by studies involving characterization of process related impurities (including potential genotoxic impurities), and excipient related impurities in formulated products. Both general practitioners in pharmaceutical research and specialists in analytical chemistry field will benefit from this book that will detail step-by-step approaches and new strategies to solve challenging problems related to pharmaceutical research.


Laser peening (LP) is a process that has been mainly applied to metals. However, few studies have applied LP to ceramics. In this study, laser peening without coating (LPwC) was applied to silicon nitride reinforced with silicon carbide (Si3N4/SiC). Smooth, laser-peened, and shot-peened specimens were prepared, and the surface conditions, surface roughness, and residual stresses were investigated. The surface roughness increased after LP due to laser ablation. When the LP parameters such as power density and coverage were too high, cracks initiated on the surface. Further, when appropriate LP parameters were selected, a compressive residual stress of up to 230 MPa was introduced on the surface and the depth was about 50 μm. Although the magnitude of the surface residual stress of the laser-peened specimen was smaller than that of the shot-peened specimen, LP was able to introduce a deeper compressive residual stress.


Peak-dose levodopa (L-dopa)-induced dyskinesias (LIDs) are disabling side effects of long-term L-dopa therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD), affecting 45–85% of patients within a few years of treatment initiation. LIDs are a therapeutic challenge for neurologists as limited treatment options exist. Functional chemodenervation with botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A, Botox, Allergan), first-line treatment for cervical dystonia, may be considered a treatment strategy against this motor complication when predominantly affecting the cervical region. Although the pathophysiology of LID is distinct from that of CD, abnormal muscle contractions of antagonistic sets of muscles suggest a phenomenological overlap. We sought to determine the extent to which cervical intramuscular BTX-A injections can reduce cervicalpredominant LID in PD. Twelve consecutive L-dopa-treated PD patients with frequent and bothersome cervical-predominant LID, regardless of previous or concurrent antidyskinetic treatment, were invited to participate in this six-month double-blind, crossover clinical trial. Patients were randomized to receive standardized EMG-guided injections of BTX-A or equal-volume normal saline (placebo) into the sternocleidomastoid (25 U bilaterally), splenius capitis (50 U bilaterally, divided), and trapezius (25 U bilaterally) muscles from a blinded injector. The total BTX-A dose of 200 U (10:1 dilution) was selected as the average optimal dose used in cervical dystonia. Subjects were assessed always in their best ''on'' state, when maximal benefits and peak-dose LID were expected to occur. The timing for the greatest severity of LID was chosen at enrollment with patient and caregiver input, and all studyrelated assessments were carried out at the same time. Assessments occurred at 0, 1, 3 (crossover visit), 4, and 6 months after enrollment, with blinded injections administered at the 0and 3-month visits. Primary outcome measure was change in the Goetz dyskinesia rating scale (GDRS, 0– 4, higher is worse), modified for the cervical region, 1 month after each injection (1and 4-month study visits). The GDRS was obtained off-line by three blinded raters from randomized videotape sequences. Secondary outcomes included changes in the patient-reported clinical global impression of change (CGIC) and in the duration, severity, and pain of LID using items 32–34 of the UPDRS-IV. Nonparametric analyses to compare BTX-A with baseline and placebo groups were carried out with the Friedman or Wilcoxon ranked test, as appropriate. A two-point difference in the CGIC was prespecified as clinically significant. Institutional Review Board-approved informed consent was administered to all participating subjects. The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT00477802. From 12 eligible PD patients, 8 patients (4 men; 70.3 6 5.6 years; disease duration, 11.1 6 2.7 years; ''on'' UPDRS-III, 20.2; L-dopa-equivalent dose, 1375 6 601 mg) were randomized. Only 4 patients completed the 6-month study before it was voluntarily stopped due to safety concerns, namely excessive neck weakness (Supporting Information Fig. 1, Consort flow diagram). BTX-A was associated with improved GDRS scores for the resting but not action-induced dyskinesias (1.8 6 0.7 vs. 2.1 6 0.8, P 1⁄4 0.018; Table 1). There was a trend for reduction in ''on'' time with LID in the BTX-A group compared with baseline (UPDRS-IV, item 32, 1.7 6 1.0 vs. 2.5 6 1.0, P 1⁄4 0.16). CGIC in the BTX-A group ranged from mild worsening to marked improvement. Dyskinesias self-rated as moderately and severely disabling (UPDRS-IV, item 33, n 1⁄4 4/6) became either mildly (n 1⁄4 3/4) or not disabling with BTX-A. This intervention also converted moderately and severely painful dyskinesias (UPDRS-IV, item 34, n 1⁄4 4/6) into mildly or not painful dyskinesias (n 1⁄4 3/4). On average, the BTX-A group showed a one-point difference above placebo in the CGIC (mild improvement vs. unchanged, respectively), falling below the prespecified cutoff for clinical significance. Transient neck weakness was the most frequently reported adverse reaction (2 patients experiencing head drop and moderate dysphagia for 2 weeks). Only 1 subject requested BTX-A injections for ongoing poststudy management of his LID, which, uniquely, were exclusively restricted to the cervical region. Although BTX-A reduced cervical dyskinesia severity and pain, these benefits were outweighed by (1) the development of excessive neck weakness, leading to a larger-than-anticipated dropout rate and forcing a premature termination of the trial; and (2) the lack of a favorable effect on the actioninduced component of LID, which may be the most disabling component. This dichotomy of improvement on resting but not action-induced dyskinesias is similar to the antidyskinetic response reported for clozapine. Overall, the adverse risk-benefit ratio uncovered by the study's paradigm precludes recommending the use of BTX-A for treatment of cervical LID. We recognize that in considering any future role of BTXA for individual PD patients with focal LID, clinicians will have to balance the discouraging outcome of this truncated randomized clinical trial with the observation that a -----------------------------------------------------------Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. Allergan, Inc. had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.


OF DISSERTATION THE EFFECT OF FLUID PERIODIZATION ON ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES IN AMERICAN FOOTBALL PLAYERS For decades strength and conditioning professionals have been seeking optimal training volumes and intensities to yield maximum performance outcomes without the onset of injury. Unfortunately, current studies apply experimental training techniques without considering the individuals' response to the imposed training load. Due to the vast genetic variability and extraneous environmental factors that affect one's ability to recover, results from such studies are controversial and inconclusive. Athlete monitoring systems offer an objective assessment that is purported to evaluate an individual's physiological readiness to adapt to an overload stimulus and thus allow for daily manipulations in training loads (i.e., fluid periodization). However, little is known about the efficacy of this technology to enhance training outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of fluid periodization on performance outcomes in American football players. Sixty-one Division 1 collegiate American football players (Age: 19.7 ± 0.9 yr; Height: 1.88 ± 0.3 m; Mass: 107.3 ± 11.1 kg) participated in this study and were stratified into experimental (n=33) and control (n=28) groups. Performance outcomes were measured prior to and following the summer training program. Physiological readiness parameters (heart rate variability and direct current brain wave potential outcomes) were measured daily in the experimental group only with Omegawave technology prior to training sessions and adjustments in training volumes or intensity were made based upon physiological readiness outcomes. The control group trained according to the daily prescribed workout. The findings from this study indicate that the experimental group significantly improved in vertical jump, vertical power, aerobic efficiency and broad jump (P < 0.01) compared to the control group. Additionally, significant improvements and effect sizes between groups were noted for fat-free mass (relative improvement: 54%, effect size: 0.30), vertical jump (relative improvement: 157%, effect size: 1.02), vertical power (relative improvement: 94%, effect size: 0.86), broad jump (relative improvement: effect size: 592%, 0.81), triple broad jump (relative improvement: 338%, effect size: 0.63), aerobic efficiency (relative improvement: 154%, effect size: 1.02), and medicine ball overhead throw (relative improvement: 50%, effect size: 0.26). In addition, the experimental group achieved these improvements with less core (-9.5%) and accessory (-13.2%) training volume (P < 0.01). In conclusion, fluid periodization produced greater improvements in performance outcomes at a reduced training load compared to a similar unmodified periodization scheme. These findings highlight the importance of modifying training parameters based upon the daily physiological state of the athlete.


Recent developments in monetary economics stress the nature of monetary injections, emphasizing that they have implications for the relationship between money and prices. In contrast, traditional approaches posit stable money demand functions that are independent of how money is injected. The former approach implies that certain proportionality relations between money and prices need not obtain. This permits the two approaches to be empirically distinguished, but only if an appropriate "experiment" is conducted. The colonial period is one such experiment. Colonial evidence suggests that the nature of injections is crucial to the effect on prices of changes in the money supply.


In 2009, the New York Legislature imposed more stringent requirements on the State's Department of Education when it amended section 2590-h of article 52-A of the Education Law. Now, as a precondition to closing or significantly changing the use of a school, the Chancellor, who heads the Department of Education, must prepare an impact statement detailing the ramifications of the proposal on students and the community. The Chancellor is also required to hold a joint public hearing where affected community members can present comments or concerns. In 2010, community members affected by proposed school closures in New York City successfully challenged the Department of Education's compliance with section 2590-h. Although the appellate court affirmed the decision, it left the applicable standard of review a question. This Comment argues that section 2590-h calls for meaningful community involvement and the court should therefore apply a strict standard in reviewing the Department of Education's compliance.


This thesis examines the spatial distributions of bus stop amenities from the perspectives of transportation equity to determine whether they are being located in areas where they are needed the most as well as to analyze their amenities or lack thereof and the effect they might have on ridership. While much of the prior literature regarding bus ridership examined how the location of transit stops, scheduling, pollution and the urban built environment affect ridership, there is little to no research on how bus stop amenities can affect ridership. It can be expected that a bus stop with poor amenities will have less ridership than that of one with proper amenities. Bus stop amenities can consist of benches, shelter, proper signage, garbage cans, appropriate sidewalks and ramps, and proper lighting. However, bus stop amenities are not consistent throughout the service area, as some bus stops may have a shelter with a bench while others may have only a simple pole with sign. Greensboro, Kansas City and Seattle are used as case studies for this research. Data was collected from each city's regional transit authority, encompassing the amount of riders at each bus stop and their amenities over a one-year period. In addition, the socioeconomic characteristics of residents by block group are taken from census block group data. After the thorough examination of the spatial as well as the statistical analyses, this thesis suggest a fair distribution of bus stops and their associated amenities in areas of the transportation disadvantaged with few exceptions. This research concludes that better amenities increases ridership and the most important amenity that factors in with higher ridership is shelter.


Faith in Reading tells the remarkable story of the unlikely origins of our modern media culture. In the early nineteenth century, a few visionary entrepreneurs decided the time was right to launch a true mass media in America. Though these entrepreneurs were savvy businessmen, their publishing enterprises were not commercial businesses but nonprofit religious organizations. These organizations believed it was possible - through new technology, national organization, and the grace of God - to place the same printed message into the hands of every man, woman, and child in America. Determined to combat ignorance, apathy, and infidelity with the written word, these organizations ended up giving birth to the American mass media.


This new book investigates communist rule in East Germany from its establishment as a sphere of Soviet influence after World War II to its rapid collapse after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using newly available archive material, the early chapters trace the emergence of the GDR out of the Soviet zone of occupation. Later chapters cover the dramatic episodes of the 1953 uprising against Soviet dominance and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The subsequent stabilisation of the GDR and the establishment of an uneasy compromise between the ruling elites and the population in the later 1960s and 1970s are explained with reference to a range of internal social, economic and political factors. The disintegration of the regime in 1989 is explained in the light of : * The chronic weakness of Gorbachev's Soviet Union. * The bravery of the protestors. * The enduring appeal of West Germany's social market economy. * Political pluralism. This clear and comprehensive survey marshals secondary and original primary sources in order to give a unique insight into the GDR's struggles and achievements.


Background: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is a poorly understood condition in which patients report symptoms following perceived exposure to weak electromagnetic fields (EMFs) such as those produced by mobile phones or visual display units. Little is known about the aetiology of the condition although experimental data suggest that EMFs are an unlikely causal agent. In this systematic review we assessed the efficacy of any treatment for people reporting EHS. Methods: Twelve literature databases were examined to identify relevant studies. We also hand-searched conference proceedings and examined the reference sections of reviews and other papers. Only clinical trials that compared the efficacy of a potential treatment for EHS against a control condition were included in the review. Results: Nine controlled clinical trials were identified, examining the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (4 studies), visual display unit screen filters (2 studies), 'shielding' EMF emitters (1 study), supplementary antioxidant therapy (1 study) and acupuncture (1 study). The quality of these studies was limited. Nevertheless, their results suggest that cognitive behavioural therapy is more effective than providing no treatment. None of the other therapies have had their efficacy adequately demonstrated. Conclusions: The evidence base concerning treatment options for EHS is limited and more research is needed before any definitive clinical recommendations can be made. However, the best evidence currently available suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy is effective for patients who report being hypersensitive to weak EMFs.


Wetland water chemistry, i.e. the concentrations of macro ions in the water, encompasses an important component of the ecological character of a wetland. Of these ions, nutrients play a very active role because they are exchanged between living organisms and the environment via cycling processes involving plants, animals and microbes in the ecosystem. Because many wetlands in agricultural or densely populated parts of the earth are subject to enlarged nutrient inputs, their ecological character may be affected. At the same time, nutrients are processed and retained from the through-flowing water. The present article summarises these aspects of water quality in wetlands and reflects on the development of guidance for managers of wetlands listed as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention. Protection of the water-chemistry characteristics as part of the ecological character of the wetland, consequences of nutrient loading and opportunities for nutrient retention and their limitations are critically evaluated.


In this paper, we consider both theoretical and practical aspects of robust NI-PE (noninteractive polynomial evaluation with detection of cheaters). First, we give a necessary condition of adversary structures for which perfectly robust NI-PE with small communication complexity exists. More precisely, we show that for any positive integers n, m and d > 1, an n-player access structure U , and an n-player adversary structure T , there exists a U-participating NI-PE scheme for m-variate polynomials over a finite field F with T -private inputs such that 1. perfectly robust (i.e., successful cheating probability 2 = 0), 2. any polynomial of degree d can be evaluated, 3. the total size of shares of the output for some participating set is o(m)× log |F|, only if T is of type Qd+1 for U , meaning that no d + 1 sets in T cover any set in U . Second, we give constructions of perfectly robust NI-PE schemes against threshold adversary and general adversary, respectively. All the proposed schemes ensure perfect robustness against Qd+1 adversary, and computability of arbitrary polynomial of degree d. Third, we show that efficient robust NI-PE schemes against general adversary can be constructed by allowing cheaters very small chance of successful cheating. Namely, we construct two robust NI-PE schemes with 2 = 1/|F| and the total size for shares of the output is only three times larger compared to the perfectly robust NI-PE scheme against threshold adversary.


This study developed models to solve problems of optimisation, production, and consumption in waste management based on methods of system analysis. Mathematical models of the problems of optimisation and sustainable waste management in deterministic conditions and in a fuzzy environment were formulated. The income from production was maximised considering environmental standards that apply to the field of macroeconomics and microeconomics. The proposed approach used MANAGER software to formalise and solve the problem of revenue optimisation with production waste management to optimise the production of oil products with waste management at a specific technological facility of the Atyrau oil refinery in Kazakhstan. Based on the combined application of the principles of maximin and Pareto optimality, a formulation of the problem of production optimisation with waste management was obtained and a heuristic algorithm for solving the formulated fuzzy optimisation problem with waste management was developed.


Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) estimates of gross primary production (GPP) were validated using field-based estimates of net primary production from the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program across the eastern USA. A total of 54 969 MODIS pixels and co-located FIA plots were analysed to validate MODIS GPP estimates. We used a data resolution of individual MODIS pixels and co-located FIA plots, and used detailed pixel- and plot-specific attributes by applying screening variables (SVs) to assess conditions under which MODIS GPP was most strongly validated. Eight SVs were used to test six hypotheses about the conditions under which MODIS GPP would be most strongly validated. The six hypotheses addressed were (1) MODIS pixel quality checks, (2) FIA plot quality checks, (3) land-cover classification comparability of co-located MODIS pixels and FIA plots, (4) FIA plot homogeneity, (5) FIA plot tree density and (6) MODIS seasonal variation. SVs were assessed in terms of trade-off between improved relations and reduced number of samples. MODIS seasonal variation and FIA plot tree density were the two most efficient SVs, followed by basic quality checks for each data set. Sequential application of SVs indicated that combined usage of five of the eight SVs provided an efficient data set of 17 090 co-located MODIS pixels and FIA plots, which raised the Pearson correlation coefficient from 0.01 for the Complete data set of 54 969 plots to 0.48 for this screened subset of 17 090 plots. The screened subset of plots exhibited good representation of the Complete data set in terms of species abundance, plot distribution and mean productivity. We conclude that the application of SVs provides a useful approach to ensure compatibility of two data sets for broad-scale forest carbon budget analysis and monitoring.


As the availability of unstructured data on the web continues to increase, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop machine learning methods that rely less on human annotated training data. In this thesis, we present methods for learning from weakly labeled data. We present a unifying framework to understand weakly labeled data in terms of bias and noise and identify methods that are well suited to learning from certain types of weak labels. To compensate for the tremendous sizes of weakly labeled datasets, we leverage computationally efficient and statistically consistent spectral methods. Using these methods, we present results from four diverse, real-world applications coupled with a unifying simulation environment. This allows us to make general observations that would not be apparent when examining any one application on its own. These contributions allow us to significantly improve prediction when labeled data is available, and they also make learning tractable when the cost of acquiring annotated data is prohibitively high.


Objective: To construct a burn model of early and midterm human Foetal Skin (hFS) in vitro, to observe its morphological and histological changes after transplantation, and to examine the expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) and Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinases (TIMPs), and further to analyse their roles in foetal wound healing preliminarily.
Methods: hFS harvested from aborted foetuses (gestational age 14-24 weeks) was transplanted into the backs of nude mice. Four weeks later, a burn wound was made in the transplanted foetal skin with a thermostatic electrical scald apparatus. To examine the role of exogenous mature immune cells, human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (hPBMCs) were injected into the subcutaneous layer of transplanted hFS. The histological characteristics and the expression of MMP-2, MMP-7, MMP-9, and TIMP-1 were examined during the wound-healing process above.
Results: The transplanted foetal skin survived on the backs of mice, the burn wounds healed rapidly and without scarring, and skin appendages regenerated after the epidermis were repaired. Injection of hPBMCs prolonged the burn wound-healing process and caused obvious scarring. MMP-2 expression was observed in the surviving grafts, but MMP-7 expression was not observed throughout the normal growth process after transplantation. MMP-7 expression was observed around the burn wound, but MMP-2 expression was observed only in surviving follicles. MMP-9 expression was observed in the cytoplasm of deep epithelial cells of skin appendages. TIMP-1 expression level was slightly lower than that of MMP-9, although its pattern of expression was similar to that of MMP-9. Injection of exogenous mature immune cells (hPBMCs) into the burn injury changed the patterns of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 expression.
Conclusion: Our method for constructing an early or midterm hFS burn model is simple and reliable. HFS maintains the ability for scarless wound healing and regeneration when transplanted into nude mice. This new animal model may be suitable for investigating the mechanisms responsible for hFS wound healing. Injection of hPBMCs prolonged burn wound healing and caused the formation of scars in the wound. MMPs and TIMPs expression might be important factors for scarless wound healing.


This book has three main aims: the first is to show that what separates the USA from other countries is not crime rates but lethal violence. Crimes like burglary and theft are a part of modern urban life worldwide; shootings and stabbings are not - they are particularly American. Why is this so? Secondly , the book seeks to clarify the causes of violence by looking at the proximate causes of deadly violence - guns, violence in the media, drugs and the tradition of lethal violence are all examined. The concluding section of the book concerns the prevention of lethal violence as a priority issue. The authors discuss a range of anti-violence alternatives from change in the criminal law to social and physical environmental factors and social values and attitudes.


Injured or diseased peripheral nerves are often accessible to molecules in the circulatory system that can interfere with nerve repair and regeneration. Deposition of fibrin (converted from blood-derived fibrinogen) in such regions correlates with inhibition of nerve remyelination. Akassoglou et al. report that when the mouse sciatic nerve is damaged, fibrin promotes Schwann cell proliferation rather than differentiation, thereby inhibiting myelin production. Absence of fibrin in mice accelerated Schwann cell differentiation to a myelinating, nonproliferating state. Treatment of cultured Schwann cells with fibrin activated mitogen-activation protein kinase and also inhibited expression of myelin and fibronectin, an extracellular matrix protein that stimulates Schwann cell differentiation. The authors propose that fibrin-induced proliferation may be required to accommodate regenerating, elongating axons. Subsequent degradation of fibrin would then allow Schwann cells to differentiate and produce new myelin. K. Akassoglou, W.-M. Yu, P. Akpinar, S. Strickland, Fibrin inhibits peripheral nerve remyelination by regulating Schwann cell differentiation. Neuron 33, 861-875 (2002). [Online Journal]


This study investigated whether four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) moderated caffeine effects on vigilance and performance in a double-blind and crossover total sleep deprivation (TSD) protocol in 37 subjects. In caffeine (2 × 2.5 mg/kg/24 h) or placebo-controlled condition, subjects performed a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and reported sleepiness every six hours (Karolinska sleepiness scale (KSS)) during TSD. EEG was also analyzed during the 09:15 PVT. Carriers of the TNF-α SNP A allele appear to be more sensitive than homozygote G/G genotype to an attenuating effect of caffeine on PVT lapses during sleep deprivation only because they seem more degraded, but they do not perform better as a result. The A allele carriers of COMT were also more degraded and sensitive to caffeine than G/G genotype after 20 h of sleep deprivation, but not after 26 and 32 h. Regarding PVT reaction time, ADORA2A influences the TSD effect but not caffeine, and PER3 modulates only the caffeine effect. Higher EEG theta activity related to sleep deprivation was observed in mutated TNF-α, PER3, and COMT carriers, in the placebo condition particularly. In conclusion, there are genetic influences on neurobehavioral impairments related to TSD that appear to be attenuated by caffeine administration. (NCT03859882).


Emergent behavior that appears at a given level of organization may be characterized as arising from an organizationally lower level in such a way that it transcends a mere increase in the behavioral degree of complexity. It is therefore to be distinguished from systems exhibiting chaotic behavior, for example, which are deterministic but unpredictable because of an exponential dependence on initial conditions. In emergent phenomena, higher-levels of organization are not determined by lower-levels of organization; or, more colloquially, emergent behavior is often said to be "greater than the sum of the parts". The concept plays an especially important but contentious role in the biological sciences. This essay is intended to demystify at least some aspects of the mystery of emergence.


Unmasked phohate groups of phosphotyrosine-containing molecules carry two negative charges at physiological pH, which compromise their (passive) cellular uptake. Also, these phosphate groups are often cleaved off by phosphatases. Together, these ultimately limit the pharmacological efficacy of the phosphotyrosine-containing compounds. To address these drawbacks, we herein present the application of the aryloxy triester phosphoramidate prodrug technology, a monophosphate prodrug technology, to the phosphotyrosine-containing compound ISS-610-Met, an analogue of the anticancer STAT3 dimerization inhibitor ISS-610. Our data shows that the generated ISS-610-Met prodrugs exhibited enhanced pharmacological activity and inhibition of STAT3 downstream signaling compared to the parent compound ISS-610-Met and the known STAT3 dimerization inhibitor ISS-610. These encouraging results provide a compelling proof of concept for the potential of the aryloxy triester phosphoramidate prodrug technology in the discovery of novel therapeutics that contain phosphotyrosine and its phospho mimics.


INTUITION: All people have a natural capacity for intuition, but many times social conditioning and formal education works against it. People are taught to ignore their instincts rather than to understand and use them as a foundation for individual growth and development - and in the process they undermine the very roots of the innate wisdom that is meant to flower into intuition. This book provides many specific exercises and meditations designed to nourish and support each individual's natural intuitive gifts.


In the middle of 1990s, a new trend appeared in the Polish jurisprudence, namely biojurisprudence. In his scholarly works, Roman Tokarczyk defined the need for having a fresh look at the world dominated by technological progress and thus created the basis for a new branch of the codified law – biolaw. By drawing attention to the problems caused by biotechnological revolution whose eugenic extremities might lead to materialization of the Frankenstein myth, Tokarczyk expressed the need of giving up the traditional understanding of law and developing its new framework. In its perspective vision, biojurisprudence concentrates the views of ethicists, philosophers, theologians and even theoreticians of law thus becoming a branch of science that touches upon the most current needs.


This article introduces an energy-based model that is adversarial regarding data: it minimizes the energy for a given data distribution (the positive samples) while maximizing the energy for another given data distribution (the negative or unlabeled samples). The model is especially instantiated with autoencoders where the energy, represented by the reconstruction error, provides a general distance measure for unknown data. The resulting neural network thus learns to reconstruct data from the first distribution while crushing data from the second distribution. This solution can handle different problems such as Positive and Unlabeled (PU) learning or covariate shift, especially with imbalanced data. Using autoencoders allows handling a large variety of data, such as images, text or even dialogues. Our experiments show the flexibility of the proposed approach in dealing with different types of data in different settings: images with CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 (not-in-training setting), text with Amazon reviews (PU learning) and dialogues with Facebook bAbI (next response classification and dialogue completion).


Premiere Elements is geared to newbie filmmakers and hobbyists, students, business users, and home users who want professional-looking videos, but don't want or need the advanced power of classic Adobe Premiere Pro. With Premiere Elements 2 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide, readers can start from the beginning to get a tour of the software, or look up specific tasks to learn just what they need to know. This task-based, visual reference guide uses step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots to show readers how to start a project; capture and import video; work with clips and the timeline; add transitions, titles, and effects; and output finished video to DVD. Newly updated to cover Premiere Elements 2, it details the hottest new features, including the new customizable DVD menu templates, the Storyboard View, Effect Thumbnails and Preview, Docking Workspaces, and more! In addition to offering hundreds of eye-catching effects and transitions, Premiere Elements 2 can automatically transfer footage from DV camcorders, digital cameras, and even digital cell phones, directly into the timeline and automatically readjust clips during editing. Both beginning users, who want a thorough introduction to the technology, and more advanced users, who are looking for a convenient reference, will find what they need here - in straightforward language and through readily accessible examples.


We recently reported the development of nonhomologous random recombination (NRR) as a method for nucleic acid diversification and applied NRR to the evolution of DNA aptamers. Here, we describe a modified method, protein NRR, that enables proteins to access diversity previously difficult or impossible to generate. We investigated the structural plasticity of protein folds and the ability of helical motifs to function in different contexts by applying protein NRR and in vivo selection to the evolution of chorismate mutase (CM) enzymes. Functional CM mutants evolved using protein NRR contained many insertions, deletions, and rearrangements. The distribution of these changes was not random but clustered in certain regions of the protein. Topologically rearranged but functional enzymes also emerged from these studies, indicating that multiple connectivities can accommodate a functional CM active site and demonstrating the ability to generate new domain connectivities through protein NRR. Protein NRR was also used to randomly recombine CM and fumarase, an unrelated but also alpha-helical protein. Whereas the resulting library contained fumarase fragments in many contexts before functional selection, library members surviving selection for CM activity invariably contained a CM core with fumarase sequences found only at the termini or in one loop. These results imply that internal helical fragments cannot be swapped between these proteins without the loss of nearly all CM activity. Our findings suggest that protein NRR will be useful in probing the functional requirements of enzymes and in the creation of new protein topologies.


It's not just rap music. Hip-hop has transformed theater, dance, performance, poetry, literature, fashion, design, photography, painting, and film, to become one of the most far-reaching and transformative arts movements of the past two decades.American Book Award-winning journalist Jeff Chang, author of the acclaimed Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, assembles some of the most innovative and provocative voices in hip-hop to assess the most important cultural movement of our time. It's an incisive look at hip-hop arts in the voices of the pioneers, innovators, and mavericks.With an introductory survey essay by Chang, the anthology includes: Greg Tate, Mark Anthony Neal, Brian "B+" Cross, and Vijay Prashad examining hip-hop aesthetics in the wake of multiculturalism. Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal discussing gender relations in hip-hop. Hip-hop novelists Danyel Smith and Adam Mansbach on "street lit" and "lit hop". Actor, playwright, and performance artist Danny Hoch on how hip-hop defined the aesthetics of a generation. Rock Steady Crew b-boy-turned-celebrated visual artist DOZE on the uses and limits of a "hip-hop" identity. Award-winning writer Raquel Cepeda on West African cosmology and "the flash of the spirit" in hip-hop arts. Pioneer dancer POPMASTER FABEL's history of hip-hop dance, and acclaimed choreographer Rennie Harris on hip-hop's transformation of global dance theatre. Bill Adler's history of hip-hop photography, including photos by Glen E. Friedman, Janette Beckman, and Joe Conzo. Poetry and prose from Watts Prophet Father Amde Hamilton and Def Poetry Jam veterans Staceyann Chin, Suheir Hammad, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Kevin Coval. Roundtable discussions and essays presenting hip-hop in theatre, graphic design, documentary film and video, photography, and the visual arts. "Total Chaos is Jeff Chang at his best: fierce and unwavering in his commitment to document the hip-hop explosion. In beginning to define a hip-hop aesthetic, this gathering of artists, pioneers, and thinkers illuminates the special truth that hip-hop speaks to youth around the globe." (Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation)


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To determine the symptom experience and a sentinel symptom and to describe the relationship of participant characteristics with symptom clusters.

DESIGN
Prospective, correlational study.

SETTING
Clinical sites in five U.S. states.

SAMPLE
196 women six months to five years after non-small cell lung cancer diagnosis.

METHODS
Symptoms were measured during the past day and past four weeks. Symptom clusters were described using a novel dummy coding approach.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Symptom occurrence and severity, demographic and clinical characteristics, health status factors, and meaning of illness.

FINDINGS
About 98% of women experienced three or more symptoms in the past day. The most common symptoms reported by more than 80% of the women were fatigue, shortness of breath, anorexia, cough, and pain, with fatigue and shortness of breath rated as most severe. Sleep problems, concentration problems, and weight loss also were reported during the past four weeks. A five-symptom cluster including fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, pain, and anorexia was reported by 64% of women. Pain was identified as a sentinel symptom for that cluster.

CONCLUSIONS
Most women experienced at least three symptoms in the past day, and a five-symptom cluster occurred frequently and continued post-treatment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Women who participated in the study were, on average, two years postdiagnosis, but most experienced three or more symptoms well past treatment; therefore, vigilant ongoing clinical assessment of these women is essential. A co-occurring sentinel symptom used as a clinical indicator for the presence of a symptom cluster may be useful for clinical assessment.


Artificial periodic structures (metamaterials and photonic crystals) with feature sizes smaller than the wavelength can be capable of supporting backward waves and producing negative refraction. However, backward waves may only exist if the lattice cell size is a sufficiently large fraction of the vacuum wavelength and/or the Bloch wavelength. Explicit lower bounds for the cell size are established and imply, in particular, a limit on the optical resolution of negative-index lenses. A key tool in the analysis is Fourier decomposition of Bloch waves and related eigenfrequency estimates. Numerical examples and a detailed exposition of the mechanism of backward waves are included.


Composed of tens of thousands of tiny devices with very limited resources ("motes"), sensor networks are subject to novel systems problems and constraints. The large number of motes in a sensor network means that there will often be some failing nodes; networks must be easy to repopulate. Often there is no feasible method to recharge motes, so energy is a precious resource. Once deployed, a network must be reprogrammable although physically unreachable, and this reprogramming can be a significant energy cost.We present Maté, a tiny communication-centric virtual machine designed for sensor networks. Maté's high-level interface allows complex programs to be very short (under 100 bytes), reducing the energy cost of transmitting new programs. Code is broken up into small capsules of 24 instructions, which can self-replicate through the network. Packet sending and reception capsules enable the deployment of ad-hoc routing and data aggregation algorithms. Maté's concise, high-level program representation simplifies programming and allows large networks to be frequently reprogrammed in an energy-efficient manner; in addition, its safe execution environment suggests a use of virtual machines to provide the user/kernel boundary on motes that have no hardware protection mechanisms.


The basal ganglia (BG) are impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD), but it remains unclear which nuclei are impaired during the performance of motor tasks in early‐stage PD. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine which nuclei function abnormally, and whether cortical structures are also affected by early‐stage PD. The study also determined if cerebellar hyperactivity is found early in the course of PD. Blood oxygenation level dependent activation was compared between 14 early‐stage drug‐naïve PD patients and 14 controls performing two precision grip force tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T. The grip tasks used in this study were chosen because both tasks are known to provide robust activation in BG nuclei, and the two tasks were similar except that the 2‐s task required more switching between contraction and relaxation than the 4‐s task. The 4‐s task revealed that PD patients were hypoactive relative to controls only in putamen and external globus pallidus, and thalamus. In the 2‐s task, PD patients were hypoactive throughout all BG nuclei, thalamus, M1, and supplementary motor area. There were no differences in cerebellar activation between groups during either task. Regions of interest analysis revealed that the hypoactivity observed in PD patients during the 2‐s task became more pronounced over time as patients performed the task. This suggests that a motor task that requires switching can accentuate abnormal activity throughout all BG nuclei of early‐stage, drug‐naive PD, and that the abnormal activity becomes more pronounced with repeated task performance in these patients. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The present research aims to explore falls and injury prevention interventions for older people, with focused investigations of different but complementary aspects of fall and injury prevention. The research was carried out using quantitative and qualitative methodologies: a Cochrane Overview of Reviews of falls prevention interventions; a focused quantitative assessment of shock absorbing flooring in a hospital setting for those with different risks of fracture, as a sub-analysis of a pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial (The HIP-HOP Flooring study); and a qualitative examination of the relationship between falls and injury prevention interventions and the resulting psychosocial effects for care home residents and staff. The Overview identified two Cochrane systematic reviews which included rate of falls and number of fallers as outcomes. Intervention comparisons were assessed to determine whether the quality of evidence was of a high enough standard for the Overview authors to have confidence in the estimate of effect. Comparisons within two (of a possible nine) single intervention categories, exercise and medication, as well as comparisons in the multiple and multifactorial interventions categories reached this standard and reduced the rate of falls or the number of fallers. Focusing on a specific fall and injury prevention intervention, the assessment of the effect of shock absorbent flooring for hospital patients according to their fracture risk was part of a larger pilot cluster randomised trial. As a pilot, the study informed the methodology and organisation required for a full trial. Tentative findings indicate that more people fell on the shock absorbing flooring than on the control flooring, but sustained less injuries. Additionally, more falls and injuries were sustained by people with an intermediate fracture risk, although again this finding was a little tenuous due to missing data. The interview study presents the experiential aspects of using interventions for fall and injury prevention for care staff and residents in a care home setting. Through this exploration, the study revealed some of the dynamics of the relationship that the carers have with residents concerning the interventions themselves. This also uncovered a much deeper, complex process that the residents were undergoing through the changes that have taken place in their lives, as they move from independent adults in their own homes to semi-dependent adults in a care home. The overall discussion reviews the findings of the studies and highlights that there is still much research to be done around fall and injury prevention interventions in order to not only evaluate the effectiveness and efficacy of interventions, but also to assess the usefulness of the interventions and acceptability on a practical level.


The demand for energy has been growing worldwide, especially in India partly due to the rapid population growth and urbanization of the country. To meet the ever-increasing energy requirement while maintaining an ecological balance is a challenging task. However, the energy industry-induced effect on population and urbanization has not been addressed before. Therefore, this study investigates the linkages between energy, population, and urbanization. The study also aims to find the quantifiable indicators for the population growth and rate of urbanization due to the expanding energy industry. The integrated framework uses a multi-temporal Landsat data to analyze the urbanization pattern, a census data for changes in population growth, night time light (NTL) data as an indicator for economic development and energy production and consumption data for energy index. Multi-attribute model is used to calculate a unified metric, termed as the energy–population–urbanization (EPU) nexus index. The proposed approach is demonstrated in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Dadri power plant located in Uttar Pradesh, India. Landsat and NTL data clearly shows the urbanization pattern, economic development, and electrification in the study area. A comparative analysis based on various multi-attribute decision model assessment techniques suggests that the average value of EPU nexus index is 0.529, which significantly large compared to other studies and require special attention by policymakers because large EPU index indicates stronger correlation among energy, population, and urbanization. The authors believe that it would help the policymakers in planning and development of future energy projects, policies, and long-term strategies as India is expanding its energy industry.


Deformation in the brittle (seismic) mode is characteristic of the upper parts of fault systems, while at lower levels displacements are predominántly ductile (aseismic). It is suggested that the geometry and products of ductile and brittle displacements can be examined in eroded Precambrian faults. The Ikertôq shear belt in western Greenland is cited as an example of how, due to uplift and erosion, all the deformation products which occur through the vertical extent of fault systems, and the geometry of deformation processes associated with the formation of these products, can be observed at the present erosion level in a Precambrian shear belt. It is argued that this circumstance allows the use of Precambrian faults to infer the various deformation processes occurring in modern, highly active, fault systems.


This article examines the securitization of delegitimization as a national security threat in Israel. The article contains three elements. First, theoretically, it analyzes legitimacy as a national security asset and delegitimization as a risk to ontological security. Second, it traces the Israeli response to delegitimization, providing an empirically rich account of this approach. Finally, it seeks to provide an assessment, albeit preliminary, of the effectiveness of the Israeli response. It concludes by discussing policy implications, emphasizing the benefits and counterproductive outcomes of an otherwise successful securitization process. Although Israel has had success curbing delegitimization with regard to political elites at the state level, it continues to lose ground with both the grassroots and Western liberal audiences.


In this research, I analyze the collective and historical processes, which create the necessary conditions for the practice of gender discrimination to persist in one of the biggest public media intuitions in Poland, namely in the Polish Television (TVP). Through extensive ethnographic research and in-depth interviews, I documented how an oppressive organizational structure, first created during communism and today maintained through political parallelism (Dobek Ostrowska, 2011), became part of TVP's organizational culture. This culture has significant consequences for women's career prospects, as top power positions in public media in Poland remain associated with politics and masculinity. Herein, I first examine the oppressive organizational structure of TVP, as experienced by its employees; and next I argue that the resulting organizational culture, imposes unequal work demands on women in the organization and leads, even the female senior managers in TVP, to engage in defending the status quo by resisting women who violate the existing gender order by reaching for the "forbidden" top positions in the organization (Rudman, et. all. 2012).


Because of the general trend of increasing costs of public transport operation and higher subsidies (in some cases accompanied by falling patronage) the ECMT initiated a study of subsidisation and sought the help of TRRL. The study, which involved 18 countries, was concerned with the aims of subsidy, the sources and conditions attached to subsidy, trends in subsidies and the effect of subsidies on patronage, fares, service levels, costs and productivity. The qualitative information concerning the aims of subsidy was analysed in relation to the likelihood of achieving such aims, with particular reference to current experience of attempts to switch car drivers to public transport. The quantitative information on trends referred to the countries as a whole and covered the period 1965 to 1977; these data were supplemented by data from 59 cities in 7 countries collected in the course of a TRRL sponsored study of travel demand factors. The relationships between patronage and fares and service levels, and between subsidies and various operating factors, including costs and productivity, were studied using regression analysis. The general conclusion reached was that although the major part of the subsidy paid was reflected in reduced fares and improved service levels there may well have been some leakage into higher unit costs and manning levels.(a) (TRRL)


Computational complexity and time-consuming iteration of simulation for tuning of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is a common drawback in many types of existing methods. This paper aims to propose a new method for achieving an optimal design for PID gains parameters with the least number of simulation runs. To achieve this purpose, we combine polynomial regression and Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) in order to Design and Analyze of Computer Experiments (DACE). In this method, the LHS is performed three times to design the associated sample points for different usage that includes training sample points to fit polynomial regression as a common surrogate model; validating sample points to scale standardized residuals; grid search sample points for investigating optimal point over whole design space. To show the flexibility and applicability of the proposed method, we serve a numerical case in the tuning of PID controller for linear speed control of Direct Current (DC) motor. Four different polynomial regression fit input/output (I/O) data over separately four model's performances that includes Integral-Square-Error (ISE), Integral-Absolute-error (IAE), Integral-Time-Square-Error (ITSE), and Integral-Time-Absolute-Error (ITAE). Comparison of the result with two existing approaches such as traditional Zeigler-Nichols method and Taguchi-Gray Relational Analysis (Taguchi-GRA) confirms the reliability and superiority of the proposed method.


Chaerephon pumilus, the little free-tailed bat, (family: Molossidae) has a distribution throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and the eastern region of Madagascar. The vast geographical distribution of this species is accompanied by considerable phenotypic variation, which may conceal cryptic species. The cytochrome b (845 nucleotides) and D-loop (314 nucleotides) regions of the mitochondrial DNA were sequenced to assess phylogenetic relationships within C. pumilus (southern Africa) and in relation to Chaerephon species from Madagascar (C. pumilus, C. leucogaster). Samples were obtained from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and localities in Swaziland. The cytochrome b sample (n = 11) comprised four haplotypes, with a haplotype diversity of 0.6727, whilst the D-loop (n = 34) dataset comprised 13 haplotypes with a haplotype diversity of 0.8342. Neighbour joining, maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses revealed congruent tree structures for both mtDNA regions. All Chaerephon taxa in this study formed a monophyletic clade with respect to the outgroup Mops midas. Chaerephon pumilus from the eastern side of Madagascar formed a well-supported monophyletic group, sister to a clade comprising C. pumilus (southern Africa) and C. leucogaster, and is suggested to comprise a separate species. Southern African C. pumilus formed two paraphyletic clades, A and B, separated by a genetic distance of 0.9 %. Chaerephon leucogaster formed a monophyletic group nested within southern African C. pumilus, suggesting conspecificity. However, the well-characterized morphology of C. leucogaster lends support to its specific status, and suggests the possible existence of cryptic species among southern African C. pumilus. Population genetic analysis suggests that two C. pumilus (southern African) clades have been expanding, one for between 2432 and 4639 years, and the other for the 11156 to 21280 years. A combined cytochrome b analysis, trimmed to 343 nucleotides, was carried out on the data from this study and that of Jacobs et al. (2004), also on southern African C. pumilus. Haplotypes from the Jacobs et al. (2004) study, which also identified two 0.9 % divergent clades (lightand dark-winged) were found to be identical or very similar to haplotypes from this study and were interspersed among southern African C. pumilus haplotypes in phylogenetic analyses. Chaerephon pumilus haplotypes from Zambia and Tanzania were found to be more closely related to those from southern Africa and to C. leucogaster than to C. pumilus (Madagascar), further indicating that this may be a separate species. Haplotypes from the light-winged clade of Jacobs et al. (2004) were identical to those of dark-winged samples from this study, suggesting that wing shade may not be diagnostic of the two clades.


We consider optimal monetary and fiscal policies in a New Keynesian model of a small open economy with sticky prices and wages. In this benchmark setting monetary policy is all we need - analytical results demonstrate that variations in government spending should play no role in the stabilization of shocks. In extensions we show, firstly, that this is even true when allowing for inflation inertia through backward-looking rule-of-thumb price and wage-setting, as long as there in no discrepancy between the private and social evaluation of the marginal rate of substitution between consumption and leisure. Secondly, the optimal neutrality of government spending is robust to the issuance of public debt. In the presence of debt government spending will deviate from the optimal steady-state but only to the extent required to cover the deficit, not to provide any additional macroeconomic stabilization. However, unlike government spending variations in tax rates can play a complementary role to monetary policy, as they change relative prices rather than demand.


Abstract During the last decade, radical clowning has become an increasingly popular tactic among participants in the global justice movement in the western world. In order to discuss how radical clowns differ from conventional clowns and what they have in common, radical clowning can be interpreted through the lenses of clown theory and the four concepts of play, otherness, incompetence, and ridicule. Ethnographic data from the Swedish anti-militarist network Ofog reveals how play and otherness contribute to radical clowns' attempts to communicate nonviolent values, negotiate space, and recognize the human in the other. The findings demonstrate one way that humor can be rebellious and challenge established relations of power.