As the data protection with encryption becomes important day by day, the encryption processing using General Purpose computation on a Graphic Processing Unit (GPGPU) has been noticed as one of the methods to realize high-speed data protection technology. GPUs have evolved in recent years into powerful parallel computing devices, with a high cost-performance ratio. However, many factors affect GPU performance. In earlier work to gain higher AES performance using GPGPU in various ways, we obtained the following two technical viewpoints: (1) 16 Bytes/Thread is the best granularity (2) Extended key and substitution table stored in shared memory and plaintext stored in register are the best memory allocation style. However, AES is not the only cipher algorithm widely used in the real world. For this reason, this study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that these two findings are applicable to implementation of other symmetric block ciphers on two generation of GPU. In this study, we targeted five 128-bit symmetric block ciphers, AES, Camellia, CIPHERUNICORN-A, Hierocrypt-3, and SC2000, from an e-government recommended ciphers list by the CRYPTography Research and Evaluation Committees (CRYPTREC) in Japan. We evaluated the performance of these five symmetric block ciphers on the machine including a 4-core CPU and each GPU using three method: (A) throughput without data transfer, (B) throughput with data transfer and overlapping encryption processing on GPU, (C) throughput with data transfer and non-overlapping encryption processing on GPU. Results demonstrate that the throughput of implementation of SC2000 in method (A) on Tesla C2050 achieved extremely high 73.4 Gbps. Additionally, the throughput obtained using methods (B) and (C) deteriorated to 33.4 Gbps and 18.3 Gbps, respectively. Method (B) showed effective throughput with an approximately 4.7 times higher speed compared to that obtained when using 8 threads on a 4-core CPU.


The thesis proposes to address how the tradition of translating Chinese poetry
in the English speaking world developed in the early twentieth century and has
continued. Problems relating to this issue, such as the great change in poetics and
intellectual atmosphere since 1915 when Cathay appeared, its impact on the
translation of Chinese poetry, and the universe of discourse of the two cultures
involved, those of the Chinese and the English speaking world, as well as the
constraints of the target system on the translations, will also be discussed.
The introduction provides an overview of the poetics that valued traditional
metres at the turn of the century, and applies polysystem theory to explain the lack of
enthusiasm for translations of classical Chinese poetry before 1915. Chapter 2
discusses the constraints of language, the poetics and universe of discourse in the
target system, suggesting that these constraints handicapped the widespread transfer of
classical Chinese poetry before 1915.
Chapter 3 examines xing, the poetic device in Chinese poetry that emphasizes
the poet's spontaneous response to nature and the merging of scene and feeling. The
very nature of xing defies any attempt to make it explicit. The chapter is divided into
two parts, discussing xing in the encoding and decoding process respectively. Readerresponse
criticism and phenomenology are also incorporated in the discussions. The
chapter is followed by an analysis of various attempts to translate poems that are
presented with zing in Chapter 4, which shows that there is a tendency on the part of
some translators to add logical links between the scene and the feelings expressed.
Chapter 5 looks at the translation strategies of Arthur Waley, investigating
the traditions of translating classical Chinese poetry that he has helped to build up.
The kind of smooth grammatical lines he uses and the Chineseness he conveys have
had great influence on subsequent translators. Chapter 6 studies Ezra Pound, with
special focus on his innovative work Cathay, and his juxtaposition techniques.
Chapter 7 studies Kenneth Rexroth's translations of Du Fu, while Chapter 8
examines Gary Snyder's translations of Cold Mountain. The vehicle of translating
Chinese poetry in general-- language and poetics-- was close to that of modern
poetry in the target culture.
Chapter 9, the conclusion, asserts that various strategies are adopted for
various purposes. It tries to place the position of the translators discussed in a
polysystem context. In the target system, poems are appreciated more for their charm
than their being supposedly faithful to an original. The image of China created
through translators remains distant. To the reader in the West, China is always far out
"there," not here.


PETROVA, I., 2007. End-use quality of Bulgarian durum wheat. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 13: 161-169 A review of the quality of winter durum wheat, grown in Bulgaria during the past 20 years was made. The primary quality parameters associated with wheat milling performance, gluten strength, semolina colour, pasta mixing parameters, pasta colour and pasta cooking properties were examined. The position of Bulgarian durum wheat according to contemporary industrial requirements for durum wheat quality was clarified. Usually Bulgarian winter durum wheat has large grain with high-test weight and vitreousness, which is a prerequisite for its good milling performance. Durum wheat meets the requirements for protein accumulation in favourable conditions. The decline of protein content for the past several years is a problem, as protein content requirement is part of the sales agreements on durum wheat. The older Bulgarian varieties registered in 1980s possess gliadin band 42 and have weak gluten and low cooking potential. Since 1998 new generation durum of γ-45 electrophoretic type with stronger gluten and improved pasta-making quality has been bred. All registered durum wheat varieties in Bulgaria have lower yellow pigment levels and inferior pasta colour by the standards of today. The breeding varieties supported for registration in the 2003-2004 period have improved wheat, semolina and pasta yellowness. So the development of genetically improved varieties with higher technological suitability for pasta industry remains main quality priority in the Bulgarian durum-breeding program.


This paper presents my postdoctoral research, currently in progress. In modern China (late Qing and Republican era), the body and the spirit are used as concepts in a wide range of discourses: political essays, manifestos, thoughts on literature, or on aesthetics. They deal with issues of culturalism and identity: in some cases for example, China is described as a "spiritual culture", whereas the West is identified with its "material civilization". Furthermore, the "progressive" as well as the "conservative" modern Chinese authors, calling either for Westernization or a "reconstruction" of the Chinese tradition, all anyhow asserted the primacy of the "spirit". These distinctions, as well as the modern concept of "culture" were mainly imported from the West and Japan. Nevertheless, this "discourse of the spirit" also pursues a Chinese intellectual tradition of its own, such as "Neo-Confucianism" or "Consciousness Only" Buddhism. A further question would be to replace this Chinese modern discourse of the spirit in a global perspective: in modern times, some intellectuals in other countries facing modernization also developed a kind of "spiritualist" assertion of their renewed traditions and cultures.


This paper describes the application of a multiple step membrane train for the processing of ground and surface waters contaminated with ammonium sulfate. The key to the process is the unique ability of nanofiltration to separate mono and divalent ions such that the concentrated stream can be forwarded to an evaporator. The paper outlines the problems to be solved, the initial separation concept, the plant design, unique design features and the experience gained over a decade of operation. The process utilises microfiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis.


This book provides a foundation for the study of child abuse to include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. This book describes physical and behavioral indicators of abuse, theoretical explanations of child abuse, the characteristics of abusers, and responses to child abuse by the criminal justice system.


This thesis reports for the first time phreatomagmatic deposits and preserved Surtseyan tuff cones from the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. This research located the relicts of at least six, closely-spaced, Paleogene Surtseyan cones and associated bioclastic sediments within the Red Bluff Tuff Formation (RBT). The complete stratigraphic section was studied in detail by means of fieldwork (sampling, logging, sketching and recording main structural and textural features) as well as comprehensive laboratory work (marine faunal taxonomy, grain-size, componentry and vesicularity analyses). It was found that RBT consists of two parts: 1) the lower part represents volcanic aggradational processes that constructed tuff cones in a short period of time (years) and is composed of a bedded interval of explosively fragmented, vesicular glassy basaltic pyroclasts (ash and lapilli sizes) as well as feeder-dykes, pillow-lavas and pillow-sills and 2) the upper part represents the rapid denudation of these cones by shallow marine currents or gravity-flows reflecting the instability of the tephra-pile forming the cones, and a much later complete marine faunal colonization stage (e.g. corals, brachiopods, molluscs). Erosion could have occurred almost immediately after (or even during) the emplacement of the volcanic pile, similar to what has occurred at Surtla vent, a satellite submerged cone of the basaltic island volcano Surtsey, Iceland; the Waiareka-Deborah Volcanics Bridge Point, Aorere Point, and Lookout Bluff Surtseyan cones (Otago, New Zealand); and Marion and Prince Edward islands (Southwest Indian Ocean). By contrast, the entire faunal colonization and stabilization of a diverse marine community could have taken hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of years to reach their acme following the volcanic pulses. The structural, textural and compositional characteristics of RBT support a phreatomagmatic mode of fragmentation similar to that at Surtsey Volcano, Iceland. Although RBT represents an extremely interesting, rare, and novel example to study pre-historic submarine volcanism very little research has been done on this volcanic sequence. Because the RBT sequence characterizes one of the most complete marine bioclastic tuff cones described in the geologic record the present study fills a large gap in our knowledge of the eruption and faunal recovery phases of submarine volcanoes.


Losses take place along the entire food chain and they need to be analysed and monitored due to their impact on the development of the food sector. In addition to quantitative losses, irrational use of food contributes to the depletion of natural resources (e. g. water and energy) and poses a threat to the environment, constituting a barrier to sustainable development of the food sector. The aim of this study was to establish the causes and effects of food losses in food industry plants and to propose measures for their mitigation. The material for the study was data on losses gathered in six food industry plants located in Poland. The study was conducted on the basis of a survey. In the studied plants, 20 causes of losses were found. A fundamental role in food production is played by access to raw materials of appropriate quality. In any enterprise, the key factor responsible for the commission of errors is human. Food losses affect the food system and its balance in three dimensions: economic, social and environmental - due to the waste of resources used to produce food that is never eaten and due to greenhouse gas emissions. In summary, the risk of food losses must be prevented by eliminating any errors that may result in a product of inadequate quality characteristics.


Convergent evolution describes the process of different populations acquiring similar phenotypes or genotypes. Complex organisms with large genomes only rarely and only under very strong selection converge to the same genotype. In contrast, independent virus populations with very small genomes often acquire identical mutations. Here we test the hypothesis of whether convergence in early HIV-1 infection is common enough to serve as an indicator for selection. To this end, we measure the number of convergent mutations in a well-studied dataset of full-length HIV-1 env genes sampled from HIV-1 infected individuals during early infection. We compare this data to a neutral model and find an excess of convergent mutations. Convergent mutations are not evenly distributed across the env gene, but more likely to occur in gp41, which suggests that convergent mutations provide a selective advantage and hence are positively selected. In contrast, mutations that are only found in an HIV-1 population of a single individual are significantly affected by purifying selection. Our analysis suggests that comparisons between convergent and private mutations with neutral models allow us to identify positive and negative selection in small viral genomes. Our results also show that selection significantly shapes HIV-1 populations even before the onset of the adaptive immune system.


Introduction:  According to the South African National Rehabilitation policy, achieving advanced outcomes such as community integration and productive activity, should be the focus of the rehabilitation services.  However, according to the literature, rehabilitation does not often progress beyond basic outcomes such as mobility and self-care.  The aim of this study was to describe the achievement of community integration and productive activity outcomes by a group of CVA survivors in the Western Cape Metro Health District. Methods : A descriptive study was carried out. Quantitative data were collected from 57 CVA survivors and caregivers. All these CVA survivors had received in-patient rehabilitation at the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre (WCRC). Data were collected by means of a medical and demographic questionnaire, the Barthel Index and the Outcome Levels according to Landrum et al.  Results: On discharge from in-patient rehabilitation seven (12%) stroke survivors were at level II ie they had achieved only the basic rehabilitation outcomes necessary to preserve long term physiological health, whereas 37 (65%) stroke survivors were discharged at an outcome level III ie  ready for residential integration, and 12 (21%) were at level IV ie community integration, and one (2%) at level V (productive activity).  Assessment at the time of the study showed a general improvement post discharge, with 21 participants (37%) improving by one or two outcome to achieve community integration and five (9%) achieving the outcome level of productive activity through informal income generating activities. Conclusion: Thirty three (58%) stroke survivors achieved community integration, while six (10%) progressed to employment.  One would like to see further progress to employment especially for those participants who were employed before the stroke.  Clinicians might be able to assist more stroke survivors to achieve this through using the outcome levels and incorporating the interventions to reach productive activity such as performing work and skills assessments, employer education and assistance with reasonable accommodations in rehabilitation goals. Key words: Cerebro vascular accident, outcome levels, productive activity


Quinone-hydroquinone pairs have been proposed as biologically-inspired, low-cost redox couples for organic electrolytes for electrical energy storage, particularly in aqueous redox flow batteries. In their oxidized form, quinones are electrophiles that can react with the nucleophilic water solvent resulting in loss of active electrolyte. Here we study two mechanisms of nucleophilic addition of water, one reversible and one irreversible, that limit quinone performance in practical flow batteries. Using a combination of density functional theory and semi-empirical calculations, we have quantified the source of the instability of quinones in water, and explored the relationships between chemical structure, electrochemical reduction potential, and decomposition or instability mechanisms. By combining these computational estimates with the experimental study of the aqueous stability of alizarin-derived quinones, quantitative thresholds for chemical stability of oxidized quinones were established. Finally, ∼140,000 prospective quinone pairs (over 1,000,000 calculations including decomposition products) were analyzed in a virtual screening using the learned design principles. Our conclusions suggest that numerous low reduction potential molecules are stable with respect to nucleophilic addition, but promising high reduction potential molecules are much rarer. This latter fact suggests the existence of a stability cliff for this family of quinone-based organic molecules, which challenges the development of all-quinone aqueous redox flow batteries.


This article provides a preview of Vega, a new scholarly publishing platform in development (set to be released in late 2017). With twenty-plus years of experience publishing scholarly multimedia in the journal Kairos, the author summarizes editorial practices for multimedia content in terms of the scholarly, social, and technical infrastructures required to sustain digital media-rich publishing venues. Vega is an outgrowth of those practices that aims to provide a stable platform for training editors, publishers, and authors in how to create, edit, and maintain the scholarly record.


In Latin America, environmental conflicts have their very own nature, characteristics and dynamics, hence the reason why we need to develop management processes and resolutions that are set within a framework of peace, i.e., a 'social peace' (Gaia). This, in turn, enables the right elements of justice to be put into place. The peace process is, as a result of this action, both solid and long-lasting. Conversely, we have seen how many environmental conflict resolutions have failed in their final objective in the past, i.e., in not achieving peace. A peacebuilding model for the environment (Gaia) should therefore contain elements of foundational support and action in environmental conflict resolution processes, so that they become sustainable over time, benefit all the parties involved, and provide access to natural resources in a sustainable manner.


Speaking of Art contains eleven of my interviews with artists (comprising just over a quarter of the book). It is the first time these extensive research-based interviews been made public in written form, and they have all been re-edited and re-contextualised for the medium of print.

The research nature of the work is two-fold. In each case I have conducted specific research, both primary and secondary, into the individual artist and his or her work, so as to inform the conversation – as evidenced by the interview content. However, my work also testifies to a developing research methodology that employs the conversational interview to produce new primary material, foregrounding the artist's voice. This dimension of my process has made a significant contribution to the expanding focus on 'the voice' in art practice and discourse.

The interviews published in Speaking of Art represent a small sample of my ongoing projects: I have conducted over 900 interviews in total, for a variety of contexts. From 1996–2009 I was principal interviewer for Audio Arts, one of the world's largest and most wide-ranging sound archives devoted to art and artists. The entire, unedited archive of my recordings was acquired by Tate between 2004–2009. Tate's 2012 conference Off the Record, at which I gave the keynote address, marked the digitisation of the whole Audio Arts archive – soon to be available online in the form of a stand-alone website to include 150 of my interviews.

In 2009 I won an IVCA (International Visual Communications Association) award for my series of online TV interviews with artists for The Art Newspaper in collaboration with Spike TV. My interviews have also been published in a wide range of journals and books including the recently republished Talking of Art 1 (Ridinghouse/Art Monthly, 2009; 2nd edition 2013).


Hermitian plus possibly non-Hermitian low rank matrices can be efficiently reduced into Hessenberg form. The resulting Hessenberg matrix can still be written as the sum of a Hermitian plus low rank matrix. In this paper we develop a new implicit multishift $QR$-algorithm for Hessenberg matrices, which are the sum of a Hermitian plus a possibly non-Hermitian low rank correction. The proposed algorithm exploits both the symmetry and low rank structure to obtain a $QR$-step involving only $\mathcal{O}(n)$ floating point operations instead of the standard $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ operations needed for performing a $QR$-step on a Hessenberg matrix. The algorithm is based on a suitable $\mathcal{O}(n)$ representation of the Hessenberg matrix. The low rank parts present in both the Hermitian and low rank part of the sum are compactly stored by a sequence of Givens transformations and a few vectors. Due to the new representation, we cannot apply classical deflation techniques for Hessenberg matrices. A new, efficient technique is developed to overcome this problem. Some numerical experiments based on matrices arising in applications are performed. The experiments illustrate effectiveness and accuracy of both the $QR$-algorithm and the newly developed deflation technique.


Abstract Additional material of the iconic giant amphipod Eurythenes was investigated. Recently, the species E. gryllus has been separated into 12 distinct species-level lineages of which several have been described as distinct species, based on both morphology and genetics. This study revealed three additional species-level lineages from unique sampling localities, showing that with minimal sampling effort, species diversity within Eurythenes can still increase. One species-level lineage was found in the Indian Ocean and another one in the Pacific, which was subsequently identified as E. thurstoni. In addition to the three species already reported from the Southern Ocean (E. maldoror, E. gryllus s.s. and E. andhakarae), a supplementary bathyal species was found in the Weddell Sea. E. gryllus was confirmed to be amphitropical including newly sampled localities around the Kerguelen Islands and additional samples from the Svalbard Archipelago. Building on new and earlier data, geographic and bathymetric distributions of the different species that have been discovered so far are presented here and several factors are evaluated for their likelihood of having triggered past speciation events in this scavenger. Topographic and hydrographical features are discussed but rejected as sufficient reasons for the distributional patterns observed. Bathymetric segregation is interpreted with regard to what is known about the ecology of the species. The previously reported genetic break around 3000 m persists in this new data-set for all species but one. This study underlines the need of processing all individuals sampled, since two or more sympatric species are found in different proportions, and that conclusions regarding diversity and distribution may drastically change when increasing sampling intensity and coverage. Finally, I suggest here that only a mere fraction of all Eurythenes species has yet been discovered and that a more complete knowledge of the ecology of the species is of paramount importance for interpreting their evolution.


The work presented in this thesis describes the influence of the endothelium on smooth muscle cells, and how the structure of the internal elastic lamina (IEL) affects this relationship in mesenteric and saphenous arteries. This was enabled by the study of functional and confocal microscopy dye transfer experiments. Normotensive (WKY) and hypertensive (SHR) rats of 12 weeks and 6 months of age were used to assess the effect of hypertension and ageing on endothelial and smooth muscle cell communication.
The endothelium-derived hyperpolarising factor (EDHF) response in mesenteric arteries was investigated using wire myography, and the involvement of myoendothelial gap junctions (MEGJs) was assessed using the putative gap junction inhibitor carbenoxolone. Carbenoxolone attenuated the EDHF response in the WKY, suggestive of the involvement of myoendothelial gap junctions in EDHF. In the saphenous artery, incubation with L-NAME and indomethacin abolished the relaxation to ACh, indicating that there was no EDHF response in this artery.
Dye transfer experiments using luminally loaded calcein-AM and the gap junction blocking peptides (GJi) 37,43Gap27 and 40Gap27 in mesenteric arteries demonstrated that the dye moved from endothelial cells to smooth muscle cells by means of gap junctional transfer in the WKY. In the SHR, calcein staining in the smooth muscle showed a significant reduction to that observed in the WKY at both age points (with endothelial cell staining remaining constant between strains), and GJi incubation did not reduce smooth muscle cell staining from that of the control. Dye transfer was correlated with the EDHF function of the vessels, and was consistent with the increasing evidence supporting the role of MEGJS in the EDHF response. No conclusive evidence could be obtained from saphenous artery imaging of dye transfer or fenestrae area due to its unsuitability for this approach. However, functional experiments illustrated this artery (reported to have a lack of MEGJs) to be devoid of an EDHF response, thereby making it a potential control artery for the mesenteric artery.
Differences in the organisation of elastin in the IEL were assessed by measurement of fenestrations in the IEL, which are the only points through which endothelial and smooth muscle cells can connect. In WKY, the fenestrae appeared to fuse with age, causing a parallel increase in fenestrae area and decrease in fenestrae number which was not apparent in the SHR due to the inability of fenestrae to fuse in this strain. The smaller fenestrae area in the 6 month old SHR is thought contribute to the reduced EDHF response compared with WKY.
Collectively, the results of this study imply that there is a relationship between the EDHF response and myoendothelial coupling within an artery. EDHF response and smooth muscle cell staining following luminal calcein-AM application were reduced in the 6 month old SHR compared with aged-matched WKY. The smaller fenestrae in the IEL of the 6 month old SHR is a possible explanation as to why there is reduced cellular coupling, as this would restrict the passage of substances or charge between the endothelium and smooth muscle, be it by gap-junctional transfer or by diffusion.


The article analyses how housing affordability is defined in Finnish housing policy. The data consists of laws, policy documents and expert interviews. Three theoretical approaches are identified: normative definitions, consumer choice and definition by housing tenure. Normative definitions that consider affordability as an intersection of household income, housing costs and housing standards are acknowledged, but not treated as policy objectives. Nevertheless, housing allowances are a practical implementation of this approach. The main aim of housing policy – increasing housing supply to support a balanced market – implies that the housing question is to be solved primarily by the market and, consequently, affordability is defined by consumer choice. Social rental housing is often explicitly referred to as "affordable". However, limiting the question to one tenure is problematic. The article recommends adopting a normative definition as well as better coordination of housing policy, which is now divided between different ministries.


The selection of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) , targets and indicators for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) can only be understood in the light of struggles to advance these rights amid a context of the growing reliance on indicators to measure progress. If the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) de‐politicized inherently polemical issues in SRHR, the (re)production of knowledge of rights in the SDGs poses a subtler, but just as serious, threat. Although rights, and SRHR in particular, are apparently taken into account, the apparent neutrality of these metrics obscures politics and ideology. There is a danger that over‐reliance on quantitative indicators obscures the structural challenges facing the advancement of SRHR, and therefore indicators should be coupled with qualitative information derived in context.


A signal from decaying dark matter (DM) can be unambiguously distinguished from spectral features of astrophysical or instrumental origin by studying its spatial distribution. We demonstrate this approach by examining the recent claim of Loewenstein and Kusenko regarding the possible DM origin of the 2.5 keV line in Chandra observations of the Milky Way satellite known as Willman 1. Our conservative strategy is to adopt, among reasonable mass estimates derived here and in the literature, a relatively large dark mass for Willman 1 and relatively small dark masses for the comparison objects. In light of the large uncertainty in the actual DM content of Willman 1, this strategy provides minimum exclusion limits on the DM origin of the reported signal. We analyse archival observations by XMM-Newton of M31 and Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) and Chandra observations of Sculptor dSph. By performing a conservative analysis of X-ray spectra, we show the absence of a DM decay line with parameters consistent with those of Loewenstein and Kusenko. For M31, the observations of the regions between 10 and 20 kpc from the centre, where the uncertainties in the DM distribution are minimal, make a strong exclusion at the level above 10 Sigma. The Fornax dSph provides a similar to 3.3 Sigma exclusion instead of a predicted 4 Sigma detection, and the Sculptor dSph provides a 3 Sigma exclusion instead of a predicted 2.5 Sigma detection. The observations of the central region of M31 (1-3 kpc off-centre) are inconsistent with having a DM decay line at more than 20 Sigma if one takes the most conservative among the best physically motivated models. The minimal estimate for the amount of DM in the central 40 kpc of M31 is provided by the model of Corbelli et al., assuming the stellar disc's mass to light ratio similar to 8 and almost constant DM density within a core of 28 kpc. Even in this case one gets an exclusion at 5.7 Sigma from central region of M31, whereas modelling all processed data from M31 and Fornax produces more than 14 Sigma exclusion. Therefore, despite possible systematic uncertainties, we exclude the possibility that the spectral feature at similar to 2.5 keV found in Loewenstein and Kusenko is a DM decay line. We conclude, however, that the search for DM decay line, although demanding prolonged (up to 1 Ms) observations of well-studied dSphs, M31 outskirts and other similar objects, is rather promising, as the nature of a possible signal can be checked. An (expected) non-observation of a DM decay signal in the planned observations of Willman 1 should not discourage further dedicated observations.


Various concepts appeared in the existing literature to evaluate the risk exposure of a financial or insurance firm/subsidiary/line of business due to the occurrence of some extreme scenarios. Many of those concepts, such as Marginal Expected Shortfall or Tail Conditional Expectation, are simply some conditional expectations that evaluate the risk in adverse scenarios and are useful for signaling to a decision-maker the poor performance of its risk portfolio or to identify which sub-portfolio is likely to exhibit a massive downside risk. We investigate the latter risk under the assumption that it is measured via a coherent risk measure, which obviously generalizes the idea of only taking the expectation of the downside risk. Multiple examples are given and our numerical illustrations show how the asymptotic approximations can be used in the capital allocation exercise. We have concluded that the expectation of the downside risk does not fairly take into account the individual risk contribution when allocating the VaR-based regulatory capital, and thus, more conservative risk measurements are recommended. Finally, we have found that more conservative risk measurements do not improve the fairness of the cost of capital allocation when the uncertainty with parameter estimation is present, even at a very high level.


In order to build networks for systems biology from the literature an UIMA based extraction workflow using various named entity recognition processes and different relation extraction methods has been composed. The Unstructured Information Management architecture (UIMA) is a Ja-va-based framework that allows assembling com-plicated workflows from a set of NLP components. The new system is processing scientific articles and is writing the open-access biological expression language (BEL) as output. BEL is a machine and human readable language with defined knowledge statements that can be used for knowledge representation, causal reasoning, and hypothesis generation. In order to curate the automatically derived BEL statements, our workflow integrates a curation interface that provides access to BEL statements generated by text mining and that integrates supporting information to facilitate manual curation. By using the semi-automated curation pipeline, expert time to model relevant causal relationships in BEL could be significantly reduced. In this paper the UIMA workflow and key features of the curation interface are described.


STUDY OBJECTIVE--The aim was to trace 84 cases of jaundice that occurred following accidental ingestion of methylene dianiline (MDA) in Epping in 1965, and to look at long term health effects. DESIGN--The original case notes of the cases were used to identify the patients. Subsequent tracing procedures included local general practitioners, the Central NHS Registry, electoral rolls, and company records. SETTING--This was a community based survey. MAIN RESULTS--The health status of 68 (81%) of the group was established with 18 deaths. Of the 50 cases known to be alive, 58% completed a health questionnaire. The causes of death were unremarkable except for one case of carcinoma of the biliary tract. Two surviving cases had suffered retinal pathology. Four other surviving cases had had a further, perhaps unrelated, episode of jaundice. CONCLUSIONS--Although the dose and route of administration in the epidemic differed from occupational exposure, this follow up study a generation on provides little, if any, evidence of long term health sequelae. Nevertheless, in the absence of well documented exposure and health effects data, such accidental poisonings with proven animal carcinogens warrant long term follow up. The identified cohort will be the subject of further study.


Cyclists might experience increased exposure to air pollution due to their active travel mode and to the proximity to traffic. Several local factors, like meteorology, road and traffic features, and bike lanes features, affect cyclists' exposure. This paper investigates the effect of the features of the bike lanes on cyclists' exposure to airborne fine and ultrafine particulate matter and black carbon in the mid-sized city of Piacenza, located in the middle of the Po Valley, Northern Italy. Monitoring campaigns were performed by means of portable instruments along a 40-min urban bike route with bike lanes, characterized by different distances from the traffic source (on-road cycle lane, separated cycle lane, green cycle path), during morning and evening workday rush hours. The proximity to traffic significantly affected cyclists' exposure to UFP and BC: exposure concentrations measured for the separated lane and for the green path were 1-2 times and 2-4 times lower for the on-road lane. Conversely, exposure concentrations to PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 particle mass were not influenced by traffic proximity, without any significant variation between on-road cycle lane, separated lane or green cycle path.


Pre-school education is significant for successful completion of primary school education and also increases participation. Provision of early cognitive and non-cognitive stimulation to children is therefore essential as it enhances school readiness and improves physical and healthy growth. It reduces engagement in high risk behaviors. Quality of pre-school education especially from demographic groups thatare socially and economically disadvantaged is therefore crucial. The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges experienced by teachers and parents in providing non-formal pre-school education in Kibera slums. The objectives of this study are: to find out the possible challenges faced by pre-school teachers in non-formal pre-school centres in Kibera slums and to find out the ways in which the challenges faced by pre-school teachers in non-formal pre-school centres would be averted. The study will be guided by human capital development theory of Becker (1994). The study will adopt an exploratory research design that will utilize qualitative technique to enable the researcher obtain relevant data from sampled centres and respondents. Thirty non-formal pre-schools will be sampled using purposive technique. This will be 50% of the targeted population of sixty non-formal pre-schools. From each sampled pre-school, one teacher will be purposefully sampled. One non-formal pre-school will be randomly sampled from-the selected pre-schools for focus group discussion. Nine parents will be purposefully sampled from the sampled pre-schooL The instruments to be used in data collection will be questionnaires for teachers and focus group discussion for parents. Classroom observation schedule will also be used. Piloting will be done in one non-formal pre-school that will be randomly sampled within Kibera slums. Data collected by questionnaires, Focus group discussions and observation schedule will be analyzed qualitatively using themes.


A set $D\subseteq V$ of vertices is said to be a (connected) distance $k$-dominating set of $G$ if the distance between each vertex $u\in V-D$ and $D$ is at most $k$ (and $D$ induces a connected graph in $G$). The minimum cardinality of a (connected) distance $k$-dominating set in $G$ is the (connected) distance $k$-domination number of $G$, denoted by $\gamma_k(G)$ ($\gamma_k^c(G)$, respectively). The set $D$ is defined to be a total $k$-dominating set of $G$ if every vertex in $V$ is within distance $k$ from some vertex of $D$ other than itself. The minimum cardinality among all total $k$-dominating sets of $G$ is called the total $k$-domination number of $G$ and is denoted by $\gamma_k^t(G)$. For $x\in X\subseteq V$, if $N^k[x]-N^k[X-x]\neq\emptyset$, the vertex $x$ is said to be $k$-irredundant in $X$ . A set $X$ containing only $k$-irredundant vertices is called $k$-irredundant . The $k$-irredundance number of $G$ , denoted by $ir_k(G)$, is the minimum cardinality taken over all maximal $k$-irredundant sets of vertices of $G$. In this paper we establish lower bounds for the distance $k$-irredundance number of graphs and trees. More precisely, we prove that ${5k+1\over 2}ir_k(G)\geq \gamma_k^c(G)+2k$ for each connected graph $G$ and $(2k+1)ir_k(T)\geq\gamma_k^c(T)+2k\geq |V|+2k-kn_1(T)$ for each tree $T=(V,E)$ with $n_1(T)$ leaves. A class of examples shows that the latter bound is sharp. The second inequality generalizes a result of Meierling and Volkmann and Cyman, Lemanska and Raczek regarding $\gamma_k$ and the first generalizes a result of Favaron and Kratsch regarding $ir_1$. Furthermore, we shall show that $\gamma_k^c(G)\leq{3k+1\over2}\gamma_k^t(G)-2k$ for each connected graph $G$, thereby generalizing a result of Favaron and Kratsch regarding $k=1$.


Abstract This study investigated the ability of neonatal larvae of the root-feeding weevil, Sitona lepidus Gyllenhal, to locate white clover Trifolium repens L. (Fabaceae) roots growing in soil and to distinguish them from the roots of other species of clover and a co-occurring grass species. Choice experiments used a combination of invasive techniques and the novel technique of high resolution X-ray microtomography to non-invasively track larval movement in the soil towards plant roots. Burrowing distances towards roots of different plant species were also examined. Newly hatched S. lepidus recognized T. repens roots and moved preferentially towards them when given a choice of roots of subterranean clover, Trifolium subterraneum L. (Fabaceae), strawberry clover Trifolium fragiferum L. (Fabaceae), or perennial ryegrass Lolium perenneL. (Poaceae). Larvae recognized T. repens roots, whether released in groups of five or singly, when released 25 mm (meso-scale recognition) or 60 mm (macro-scale recognition) away from plant roots. There was no statistically significant difference in movement rates of larvae.


From the ACS blog: "In the Issue Brief, the five authors analyze the major elements of the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 ("VRAA"), bipartisan legislation that seeks to remedy some of the damage inflicted by last summer's Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder. The Issue Brief examines the VRAA's new coverage formula for preclearance, the expansion of the Section 3 bail-in remedy, the revision to the preliminary injunction standard for voting rights cases, and the provisions mandating public notice of changes to voting laws and procedures. The scholars conclude that these measures are valid exercises of congressional power and that the VRAA appropriately responds to the constitutional standards articulated by the Court in Shelby County and other relevant cases."


Soils rarely have sufficient nutrient for crops to reach their potential yield. Applying organic fertilizers without prior knowledge of their properties may cause yield decline under low application or pollute the environment with excessive application. Under‐ standing the nutrient variability and release pattern of organic fertilizers is crucial to supply plants with sufficient nutrients to achieve optimum productivity, while also rebuilding soil fertility and ensuring protection of environmental and natural resour‐ ces. This chapter presents the authors' experiences with different organic amend‐ ments under Hawaii's tropical conditions, rather than an intensive literature review. For meat and bone meal by‐products (tankage), batch‐to‐batch variability, nutrient content/ release pattern and quality, and plant growth response to the liquid fertilizer pro‐ duced from tankage were evaluated. For animal livestock, dairy manure (DM) and chicken manure (CM) quality, changes in soil properties, and crop biomass produc‐ tion and root distributions were evaluated. For seaweed, an established bio‐security protocol, nutrient, especially potassium (K) variability, and plant growth and yield response were evaluated in different tropical soils.


[1] The weathering of meteorites found on Mars involves chemical and physical processes that can provide clues to climate conditions at the location of their discovery. Beginning on sol 1961, the Opportunity rover encountered three large iron meteorites within a few hundred meters of each other. In order of discovery, these rocks have been assigned the unofficial names Block Island, Shelter Island, and Mackinac Island. Each rock presents a unique but complimentary set of features that increase our understanding of weathering processes at Meridiani Planum. Significant morphologic characteristics interpretable as weathering features include (1) a large pit in Block Island, lined with delicate iron protrusions suggestive of inclusion removal by corrosive interaction; (2) differentially eroded kamacite and taenite lamellae in Block Island and Shelter Island, providing relative timing through crosscutting relationships with deposition of (3) an iron oxide–rich dark coating; (4) regmaglypted surfaces testifying to regions of minimal surface modification, with other regions in the same meteorites exhibiting (5) large-scale, cavernous weathering (in Shelter Island and Mackinac Island). We conclude that the current size of the rocks is approximate to their original postfall contours. Their morphology thus likely results from a combination of atmospheric interaction and postfall weathering effects. Among our specific findings is evidence supporting (1) at least one possible episode of aqueous acidic exposure for Block Island; (2) ripple migration over portions of the meteorites; (3) a minimum of two separate episodes of wind abrasion; alternating with (4) at least one episode of coating-forming chemical alteration, most likely at subzero temperatures.


By the end of the 20th century the once great modern European empires had gone - well, almost! Today, scattered around the world, there are small territories, remnants of empire that for one reason and another have eschewed independence and retain links of various kinds with the former imperial power. This edited collection focuses primarily on those territories in the Caribbean and Pacific which retain these 'colonial' ties. The issues affecting them such as constitutional reform, the maintenance of good governance, economic development, and the risks of economic vulnerability are important concerns for all territories both independent and non-independent. However, the ways in which these issues are addressed are somewhat different in small sub-national jurisdictions because of the particular regimes in place and the tensions inherent between the territories and their respective metropoles. The book brings together academics, policy-makers, constitutional lawyers, and civil servants to provide an insight into the complexities, contradictions, challenges and opportunities that help to define the non-independent territories of the Caribbean and Pacific, and their long-standing but sometimes awkward ties with their metropolitan powers.


Hydrophilic luminescent lanthanide polymers poly-[MVPS]2[Ln(NO3)5] (Ln = Sm (P1), Eu (P2), Tb (P3)) were designed and characterized. Benefiting from the methylation process of poly(4-vinylpyridinium-co-styrene) (PVPS), we switch the hydrophobicity of PVPS and further functionalize it by incorporating lanthanide luminophores into the chelate anion part to construct stable ionic polymer networks (P1–P3) by means of the anion–cation cooperative Coulombic interactions. These lanthanide polymers exhibit characteristic yellow, red and green emissions respectively which originate from the lanthanides Sm3+, Eu3+ and Tb3+. Furthermore, the chromatic colours of poly-[MVPS]2[Tb(NO3)5]/poly-[MVPS]2[Eu(NO3)5] (P3/P2) are readily modulated over a wide spectral emission from red over yellow to green. The energy transfer mechanism from the donor Tb3+ to the acceptor Eu3+ in the mixtures is further demonstrated. Interestingly, the straightforward reversible colorimetric water-responsive properties presented here offer a rapid approach to the broad-spectral colour tuning of water sensor materials. Therefore, these lanthanide-containing ionic polymers can be predicted to be utilized as promising candidates of reversible colorimetric components in the fabrication of UV-pumped sensors for water.


Guide developed for Dr. Verna's Intro to U.S. History Since 1877 class. Contains resources for the study of U.S. History from Reconstruction (1865) until the 1970s.


Oceanographic processes shape coral reefs worldwide by redistributing inorganic nutrients and particulate resources over depth. Deep-water upwelling occurs frequently in coral reef ecosystems, but its impact on coral nutrition remains unclear. This study investigated the influence of upwelling on the trophic ecology of three common reef-building corals (Galaxea fascicularis, Pachyseris speciosa and Pocillopora verrucosa) from different reef depths (shallow reef, 10 m, vs. deep reef, 30 m) and reef exposures (oceanic rim vs. Inner Sea) across > 250 km of the Maldives archipelago, Indian Ocean. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ C and δ N) of coral hosts, their symbionts and particulate organic matter (POM) were used to characterize coral trophic strategies. Across the Maldives, consistent mean δ N values were recorded in hosts (5.5‰) and symbionts (5.2‰) of the three coral species from shallow and deep reefs of oceanic and Inner Sea reef exposures. Coral hosts, symbionts and POM from both depths had δ N values that were consistent with the isotopic signature of a deep-water nitrate source transported to surface waters via upwelling. In contrast, a wide range of δ C values (~10‰) revealed different trophic strategies and isotopic niches among the coral species. Different mean δ C values of G. fascicularis indicated greater symbiont autotrophy in corals from shallow (-15.5‰) compared to deep reefs (-17.6‰). Conversely, the mean δ C values of P. speciosa (-15.1‰) and P. verrucosa (-17.7‰) were not affected by reef depth. These corals maintained consistent trophic strategies over depth, with P. speciosa relying more on autotrophy compared to P. verrucosa. Despite different reef exposure to oceanic waters, coral host and POM δ N and δ C values did not differ between oceanic and Inner Sea reef exposures. Nutritional resources appear to be homogenous in the central Maldives due to atoll-wide water circulation. However, species-specific trophic strategies resulted in diverse patterns of δ C values over depth. Because heterotrophic feeding has been linked to coral host survival through coral bleaching events, understanding the trophic ecology of corals within the reef assemblage can provide insight into species resilience under ocean warming conditions. As a member of the typically competitive Pocilloporidae family, the dependence of P. verrucosa on heterotrophy may help this coral be a future "winner" under sustained ocean warming. A plain language summary is available for this article.


Recognizing the importance of English Language education for the national development of Qatar, this study addresses the critical need to understand the learning processes of English language teachers and how they make sense out of professional development (PD) opportunities. The study is premised on the argument that to improve effectiveness of educational reforms, to understand how PD influences classroom teaching and in the end student learning, the experiences of teachers as the central actors in this chain of events need first to be documented. Only through a fuller grasp of how teachers experience PD and how they connect it to their teaching will the goals of systemic educational improvement be realized. The study contributes, therefore, to understanding the role that PD opportunities play in creating a learning environment for students and helping a nation achieve its educational goals. Background Applying phenomenongraphic research methods (Marton, 1983, 1986) developed in two previous national studies in Chile and Turkey, the study funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (NPRP 7-1330-2-483) investigated the connections that occur in the thinking of teachers as they 'travel' from PD opportunities to classroom teaching (cf., Freeman, 2016). The study's logic model challenges a linear, transmission model of teacher learning (cf., Desimone, 2009), which would posit that the best way to evaluate PD opportunities is to measure congruence between a PD provider's learning objectives, what teachers report they learned, and observed evidence of teachers' implementing the objectives. Instead, the study's logic model assumes the importance of a larger question, which is the impact at a systemic-level of PD. The starting point for understanding the impact of PD at a systemic-level should be teachers' evolving perceptions of the nature of the opportunities provided, what they learned, and how they use that learning as part of their teaching. Method Specifically the study investigated what professional development opportunities were publicly available, how teachers participated in these opportunities, and how they reported using what they learned. In the first stage, data gathered from professional development providers in Qatar was used to create an inventory of 150 events offered during the three-year period from 2012 to 2015. The inventory provided insight into the Qatar PD system as seen from the providers' perspective. The second stage investigated teachers' perspectives on the Qatar PD system during the same period as the provider inventory and its influence on the teachers' thinking. Teachers' perceptions were gathered through an electronic survey sent to all government school English language teachers, with a 72% response rate (n = 676). The survey asked closed-ended questions about respondent demographics, whether the respondent had participated in any PD during the 2012-2015 period, and if so, how many events. For each event a respondent indicated, they were asked to describe the event, tell what they learned, and how they used what they learned. The responses to these open-ended questions were analyzed using grounded coding schemes developed for each question. This paper focuses on what can be understood using this survey data about how teachers made meaning from their PD opportunities. Subsequent to the survey, a sub-sample of 54 survey respondents completed five days of teaching logs describing what they taught each day and what they saw as connections to the professional development they described in the survey. Lastly, 10 teachers were observed in their classrooms to examine relations with the survey and teaching log data. Findings The inventory provided significant insights into the system for providing PD in the country, and the possibly implicit messages created when different types of providers routinely offer different types of PD. For example categorization of offerings by the education ministry suggest that it prioritizes PD related to general policies and regulation whereas extra-governmental providers offered more sessions directly targeting English language teaching and learning. From the providers' perspective, the system also seems to emphasize teaching methodologies, with approximately half of the 150 events offered pertaining to ELT skills, general teaching methodologies, and/or teaching literacy. Findings from the survey indicate the salience of PD in the professional lives of Qatar English teachers. In the survey, 89% of teachers reported participating in professional development during the three-year period, providing perceptions about 2038 total PD events. Of those who participated, 97% reported that they were able to use what they learned in their teaching. This finding runs counter to conventional narratives in policy and research that portray teachers as being resistant to PD or only attending because they have to. It also raises the question of how teachers understand usefulness and application. The open-ended questions that asked teachers to describe an event, tell what they learned from it, and how they used that understanding in their teaching, were analyzed using measures of both frequency and likelihood of co-occurrence. These findings suggest the existence across both teachers and events of salient topics (e.g., curriculum standards), which may function as a type of "coin of the realm," in other words, topics the teachers felt they needed to recognize. A picture also emerges of a PD system that prompts Qatari English teachers to think about their general role as teachers separately from their role as language teachers. With regard to the latter role, teachers reported focusing on the particulars of teaching more than on how that teaching impacts students and their learning. The study breaks new ground in understanding professional development from the perspectives of policy and practice. Rather than 'learning and then applying' PD content as conventional models of professional development suggest, the study documents how teachers take up what they find meaningful in PD events and transform that uptake into knowledge and practices that they see as viable in their teaching contexts. References Desimone, L. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers» professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38 (3), 181-199. Freeman, D. (2016). Educating second language teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marton, F. (1983). Beyond individual differences. Educational Psychology, 3(3–4), 289–303. Marton, F. (1986). Phenomenography—a research approach to investigating different understandings of reality. Journal of Thought, 28–49.


One of the aims of the DynVect project was to set up a network of European entomologists working on #Culicoides#, the vectors of bluetongue virus, to create a platform for discussion, data sharing and data analysis. The first task consisted in describing the surveillance systems in place in each country. For this, a questionnaire was sent to 9 countries: Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands. Between 1 and 9 institutes per country were involved in the surveillance. The first country to set up a surveillance system was Spain (in 2000), followed by other southern countries (Italy and France). A second wave of countries set up surveillance systems in 2006, with the arrival of bluetongue in northern Europe. All countries currently continue the surveillance except Germany (which stopped the surveillance in mid 2008). All countries shared common aims: defining "vector-free" periods and describing the diversity and dynamics of species. Except in Italy, all surveillance protocols evolved over the years, for example from covering specific regions to the entire country, and/or with an increasing number of traps. Surveillance systems vary between countries in terms of i) number of traps per country (5 - 300), ii) types of traps used (OVI, CDC, BG, Rieb, Rothamsted suction trap), although currently all countries use OVI traps except for Spain, iii) trapping frequency (day and night, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), iv) number of collection nights (mainly 1 night trapping, except Belgium with 2 consecutive nights and Germany with 7 consecutive days), v) trap location within farm (inside or outside buildings or both according to the season), vi) the level to which species are identified (Group, Complex or species) and vii) the definition of the vector-free period. Following this descriptive phase, participants discussed the data which could be shared and the associated aims as well as the database structure which should be used. This was fruitful and lead to the sharing of #Culicoides# data from 7 countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, England), thus allowing, for the first time ever at that scale, to map #Culicoides# distribution, and to further analyze and model the dynamics and distribution of #Culicoides# in Europe. (Texte integral)


[1] We present here a fully coupled global aerosol and chemistry model for the troposphere. The model is used to assess the interactions between aerosols and chemical oxidants in the troposphere, including (1) the conversion from gas-phase oxidants into the condensed phase during the formation of aerosols, (2) the heterogeneous reactions occurring on the surface of aerosols, and (3) the effect of aerosols on ultraviolet radiation and photolysis rates. The present study uses the global three-dimensional chemical/transport model, Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers, version 2 (MOZART-2), in which aerosols are coupled with the model. The model accounts for the presence of sulfate, soot, primary organic carbon, ammonium nitrate, secondary organic carbon, sea salt, and mineral dust particles. The simulated global distributions of the aerosols are analyzed and evaluated using satellite measurements (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)) and surface measurements. The results suggest that in northern continental regions the tropospheric aerosol loading is highest in Europe, North America, and east Asia. Sulfate, organic carbon, black carbon, and ammonium nitrate are major contributions for the high aerosol loading in these regions. Aerosol loading is also high in the Amazon and in Africa. In these areas the aerosols consist primarily of organic carbon and black carbon. Over the southern high-latitude ocean (around 60°S), high concentrations of sea-salt aerosol are predicted. The concentration of mineral dust is highest over the Sahara and, as a result of transport, spread out into adjacent regions. The model and MODIS show similar geographical distributions of aerosol particles. However, the model overestimates the sulfate and carbonaceous aerosol in the eastern United States, Europe, and east Asia. In the region where aerosol loading is high, aerosols have important impacts on tropospheric ozone and other oxidants. The model suggests that heterogeneous reactions of HO2 and CH2O on sulfate have an important impact on HOx (OH + HO2) concentrations, while the heterogeneous reaction of O3 on soot has a minor effect on O3 concentrations in the lower troposphere. The heterogeneous reactions on dust have very important impacts on HOx and O3 in the region of dust mobilization, where the reduction of HOx and O3 concentrations can reach a maximum of 30% and 20%, respectively, over the Sahara desert. Dust, organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate aerosols have important impacts on photolysis rates. For example, the photodissociation frequencies of ozone and nitrogen dioxide are reduced by 20% at the surface in the Sahara, in the Amazon, and in eastern Asia, leading to 5–20% reduction in the concentration of HOx and to a few percent change in the O3 abundance in these regions.


A critical angle method was used to measure the index of refraction of a solid medium when an air gap between the prism and the medium is present. The gap effect was analyzed both numerically and experimentally. Since the total internal reflection is severely disturbed by the large gap, determination of the critical angle and the resulting refractive index becomes ambiguous and inaccurate. By using an index matching fluid, we could determine the index of refraction with an uncertainty of ${\pm}2{\times}1^{-3}$ even when the gap is as large as 1 ${\mu}m$ .


Objective: To develop a spatial analysis-driven enhanced description of the patients treated at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center (SCC) at Washington University School of Medicine, to better address cancer disparities impacting our community by tailoring the resources offered at SCC to the needs of our patients. Background: The race and ethnicity breakdown of the self-defined catchment area (CA) at NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers serves as a benchmark for the demographic proportion seeking treatment at the institution as well as clinical trial (CT) enrollment. To meet the goals set by this benchmark, institutions must have a thorough understanding of the population treated at their institution. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore patient data provides additional context beyond the traditionally reported race and ethnic descriptors. Further, incorporating Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs), as identified by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and rural status into the GIS is an important and comprehensive method to provide a richer understanding of the patient population we serve. This understanding can be used to tailor resources offered by the center, establish a more appropriate CT portfolio, and may provide insight into disparate trends not readily apparent. Methods: The database of patients (n=8,691) was obtained from the SCC cancer registry and includes those seen at SCC for the first time in 2015 who met the NCI9s Data Table Three reporting criteria. Spatial data on MUAs were downloaded from HRSA website for use in the GIS at SCC. Rural status was defined using Census-designated, ZIP code-level rural-urban commuting area (RUCA) codes, where rural >= 7. The patient addresses were geocoded and spatial analyses performed using ArcGIS Desktop. Results: Of the patients in the database, 84.8% were geocoded to address-level specificity. Of those, 67% live in catchment area, and 25.9% live in an MUA. Exploring the percent of total patients by race and MUA, 4.1% are African American patients living in an MUA and 21.4% are white patients living in an MUA. A significantly higher proportion of patients who are African American live in an MUA (31.3%), compared to white patients who live in an MUA (25.2%, p Conclusions: As health disparities for rural patients continue to be revealed, including and beyond proximity to adequate health care, we have greater responsibility to understand this aspect of our patient population and surrounding communities, to minimize the impact of these disparities. White patients living in an MUA have not previously been represented in Comprehensive Cancer Center data reporting as having health disparities. This spatial analysis approach acknowledges this disparity and ensures that health disparities of this group will be represented in future policy priorities and CT portfolio decisions. Additionally, these results highlight the burden of intersectionality of race and geographic disparities on health, particularly in our African American patients. We continue to refine GIS approaches to expand on these results. Future applications of spatial analysis to understand patient populations and health disparities include: inform policy decisions, outreach, and clinical trial portfolio, explore known cancer disparities as it relates to MUAs (such as prostate cancer in African American men, by MUA status), review staging at diagnosis by MUA status, and possibly include in the electronic health record for use by clinical staff. Understanding the MUA and rural status of Comprehensive Cancer Center patients provides a richer description that will benefit both the patient and the community as a whole, and subsequently the potential impact on reducing cancer disparities. Citation Format: Christine M. Marx, Jessica L. Thein, Graham A. Colditz. Using spatial analysis to identify the impact of medically underserved areas within and beyond the catchment area of a Comprehensive Cancer Center [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A21.


On the 8th centenary of the birth of St. Clare (1193-1993) scholars have focussed their attentation on the evangelical life and the founding activity of this Saint in accordance with their specific expertise. The author of this study directs his attentation to the Clarian legislation, a field, which has not yet, even today, been sufficiently explored. He elaborates on the problems evoked by such legislation in the juridical context of its origins and its evolution. He demonstrates that such legislation must be understood primarily within its evaluation of juridical order: without this juridical attention to the Clarian legislation one cannot understand neither the evangelical experience of St. Clare nor her initiative as a foundress of a new and autonomous monastic Order. In the systematic organisation of his study, the author treats the Clarian legislation in its relation to: (a) the profession of obedience» made by St. Clare; (b) the «regulare propositum» of St. Clare; (c) the dispositions of Lateran Council IV (1215); and (d) the institution of monastic religion».


&NA; Increased nutritional requirements are now recognized as the typical sequellae of head injury. Whether similar nutritional demands routinely accompany nontraumatic, disabling brain diseases is uncertain. Experience with patients suffering from head injury indicates that clinical criteria for differentiating the severity of neurological impairments categorize rather poorly the levels of nutritional need. Based on available data, "nutritional risk" can only be assigned to broad patient categories. Head‐injured patients seem to be at nutritional risk and, by virtue of increased caloric and protein requirements, may benefit, in terms of reduced mortality, from early, intensive nutritional intervention. Because the nutritional risk cannot be established, the indications for aggressive nutritional support in the noninjured patient are even less clear than those for the trauma patient. Parenteral nutrition is often required to meet the goals of nutritional support because inadequacies in gastrointestinal function frequently mitigate successful enteral nutrition. Selective nutritional therapies involving the branched chain amino acids may reduce the attrition of the body cell mass seen in head injury patients. Furthermore, improvements in energy nutrient utilization in other than head‐injured patients have been suggested when fat is provided in addition to glucose as a caloric source. When clinically feasible, enteral nutrition offers significant economic and physiological benefits over parenteral nutrition. In this regard, increasing attention has been focused on newer techniques of enteral access. These include percutaneous gastrostomies and nasally inserted small bore feeding tubes. The latter achieve duodenal intubation with a high success rate, and they offer the prospects of improved feeding tolerance and reduced tracheobronchial aspiration by allowing the administration of nutrients distal to the pylorus. Hence, many of the advantages of jejunostomy access are achieved without the need for an abdominal operative procedure. (Neurosurgery 16:707‐713, 1985)


Purpose: The article aims at assessing the possibility of organizing high-tech production in the Russian forest industry. Structure/Methodology/Approach: To switch to high-tech and resource-saving technologies in the production of sleepers, it is necessary to assess the influence of a few factors: the cost of production of innovative products, the demand for innovative products, the lifetime of innovative products. To assess the demand, we have used an expert survey. Results: The cost of producing railroad sleepers from modified wood has been established. The use of cheaper softwood wood as raw material (birch, aspen, alder, poplar, etc.) which makes it possible to reduce the cost of production of the sleepers is a competitive advantage of the innovative technology. Practical implications: It has been established that in the future we should expect an increase in demand for the sleepers made of modified wood, especially in the European part of Russia. Originality/Value. The main contribution of this study is the rationale for the transition to the concept of environmental savings in the Russian forest industry. The use of modified wood in the production of sleepers is economically viable and can be an alternative when diversifying production.


This paper analyses the manifestations of and contestations to the
migration management paradigm in North and Central America. I pay special
attention to the understudied Central American Isthmus countries. I argue that
migration management is not only an important response to increasing transnational
migration but it also shapes the institutional arrangements of a new regional mobility
regime. This regime is characterised by multilateralisation and tends to establish new
forms of social control on mobile populations. Informed by studies of neoliberal
governmentality and international government, recent research has criticised the
concept of migration management as marked by a depoliticising language that tends
to 'teach' technocratic western standards of migration governance to the countries
and former 'imperial subjects' of the global South. Somewhat neglected in this recent
wave of critical research, however, has been the interest expressed by the countries
of the global South in adopting this migration management paradigm. I argue that
Costa Rica is an appropriate case to demonstrate such interests. A second omission
in recent research is a failure to reveal contestations to migration management
discourses and practices. I claim that it is predominantly the strategies of 'escape' of
migrants and local border societies that challenge migration management and force
its actors to adopt flexible strategies of control. I draw on the multi-level and multiactor
framework of ethnographic regime analysis in order to analyse both the
institutional arrangements of migration management and the actors, practices and
strategies of what I call the 'power of migration'. In doing so I focus empirically on the
Regional Conference on Migration in North and Central America (RCM), the new
migration law in Costa Rica as well as the dynamics at the Costa Rican northern
border region. I show that migration management can be analysed as part of broader
social and state transformation processes of the Central American countries and is
therefore a contested field.


This paper introduces a method of prioritizing orbital debris for future active debris removal missions, based on the evaluation of the total collision probability of each cataloged debris. The United States Space Surveillance Network actively monitors, tracks, and catalogs space debris orbiting Earth. The catalog is updated routinely, and is available to the public in the form of two-line element data. The total collision probability of a debris is defined as the overall probability of the debris colliding with any other debris in a given time window. The proposed method uses the two-line element data pertaining to each debris in the catalog to project the future state of the debris, i.e., the classical orbital elements, at predefined time steps for a given time window. The effects of orbital perturbations are considered wherever applicable. The relative distances between all debris are estimated in each time step, and pairwise collision probabilities are calculated for any two debris objects in the catalog. To obtain the total collision probability for a debris, the pairwise collision probabilities pertaining to the debris are summed. Further, for every debris object the trend in the total collision probability as the time window progresses is quantified, and debris objects are ranked based on their chance of collision in the time window. The outcome of the study is compared with target debris proposed in other studies.


The Triassic period is generally viewed as the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs. For paleontologists, however, it also marks the rise of the world's first modern land ecosystems.

Over the past three decades, extensive, worldwide fieldwork has led to the discovery of many new species of Triassic animals and plants, suggesting that faunal and floral changes already began in the Middle Triassic and were more protracted than previously thought. The Late Triassic is a pivotal time in the evolution of life on land, with many of the major groups of present-day vertebrates and insects first appearing in the fossil record. This book provides the first detailed overview of life on land during the Triassic period for advanced students and researchers. Noted vertebrate paleontologists Hans-Dieter Sues and Nicholas C. Fraser also review the biotic changes of this period and their possible causes.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined epidemiologic factors affecting mortality from pneumococcal pneumonia in 1995 through 1997.

METHODS
Persons residing in a surveillance area who had community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization and Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from a sterile site were included in the analysis. Factors affecting mortality were evaluated in univariate and multivariate analyses. The number of deaths from pneumococcal pneumonia requiring hospitalization in the United States in 1996 was estimated.

RESULTS
Of 5837 cases, 12% were fatal. Increased mortality was associated with older age, underlying disease. Asian race, and residence in Toronto/Peel, Ontario. When these factors were controlled for, increased mortality was not associated with resistance to penicillin or cefotaxime. However, when deaths during the first 4 hospital days were excluded, mortality was significantly associated with penicillin minimum inhibitory concentrations of 4.0 or higher and cefotaxime minimum inhibitory concentrations of 2.0 or higher. In 1996, about 7000 to 12,500 deaths occurred in the United States from pneumococcal pneumonia requiring hospitalization.

CONCLUSIONS
Older age and underlying disease remain the most important factors influencing death from pneumococcal pneumonia. Mortality was not elevated in most infections with beta-lactam-resistant pneumococci.


Non-timber Forest Products are the major source of livelihood support for rural communities in Nepal. A case study was performed to determine the potentiality of income generation through Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the Sallipatan Trishakti community forest of Bajhang district, Nepal from February to April 2020. The Questionnaire surveys, key informant surveys, focus group discussions and forest resource inventory have been used for the data collection. A total of 37 species of NTFPs from 31 families were identified out of which only five species were found to have high market potential. Xanthoxylum armatum (Timur), Phyllanthus emblica (Amala), and Cinnamomum tamala (Tejpat) were found in good frequency and have a good market but the yearly earnings and the number of households involved were low. Bergenia ciliate (Pakhanbed), Valeriana jatamansi (Sugandhawal), and Rhododendron arboretum (Lali gurans) were present in high density in the forest and have high market value but locals didn't prefer and market them due to lack of knowledge and processing technology. Pinus roxburghii, Myrica esculenta, Among the total respondents, 59% collect NTFPs for household purposes, 30% for selling purposes, and 11% for traditional uses. Swertia chirayita, Rhododendron arboretum, Cinnamomum tamala, Drepanostachyum sps., Asparagous racemous and Taxus wallichiana would have the potentiality for small scale business from the community forest if they were promoted and managed properly.


The company is one of the most ingenious inventions of our time. With limited liability for its investors, enabling capital to be (in theory) put to its most efficient use, the company has become the backbone of our economies. But must this all-important component of our market economies be equated with environmental degradation to the extent that we risk dangerous loss of biodiversity and passing the tipping point of climate change? In my opinion it must not. We need to find out how to make the necessary changes. We have a moral imperative for action. Climate change is a case in point for the necessity of working towards a sustainable development; towards the achievement of economic development and social justice within the non-negotiable ecological limits of our planet. According to even the most conservative estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, business as usual will most probably lead to climate change of a magnitude to which we cannot adapt, or to which we can only adapt to at extremely high costs. Runaway climate change involves a high risk of severe environmental, social and economic consequences, and the challenge of climate change needs to be dealt with on all those levels, both in terms of mitigating as much as possible, and adapting to that which cannot be avoided. Climate change is not the only crisis we face. There is a convergence of crises. We have the financial crises; the loss of biodiversity threatening the stability of our ecosystems; the peaking of fossil energy sources and the harsh brutality of tens of thousands of people dying every day for poverty-related reasons. In the aftermath of one financial crisis and furious effort to try to avoid a new full-blown crisis, the attention of the world leaders is on stimulating growth and getting back onto a track of business as usual. Getting back on track with economic growth and business as usual is a postponement of the necessary focus on dealing with climate change and other overriding environmental concerns - a postponement that may turn out to be highly detrimental to our chances of achieving a sustainable global society; financially, socially and environmentally. This paper discusses the role of companies and the role of the law regulating companies as a response the challenges the convergence of crises poses, and presents tentative results of research carried out in the international research project 'Sustainable Companies'.


Watershed-scale management efforts to improve conservation of water resources in agricultural watersheds depend upon the effectiveness of integrated multiple agricultural best management practices (BMPs). To more comprehensively assess the effectiveness of combined BMPs on water quality requires large-scale, long-term (>10 year) studies measuring key water quality parameters. One such suite of critical water quality parameters includes water clarity, total suspended solids (TSS), and total dissolved solids (TDS). To address this, Beasley Lake, a 25 ha (62 ac) oxbow lake located in a 915 ha (2,261 ac) watershed of intensive row crop agricultural activity, was studied. The lake was sediment impaired when monitoring was initiated in 1995 and was a candidate to assess the effectiveness of watershed-wide BMPs on lake water clarity (as Secchi depth), TSS concentrations, and TDS. A variety of BMPs within row crop fields, at field edges throughout the watershed, and enrollment of 112 ha (277 ac) into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) between 1997 to 2006 focused on reducing soil erosion and concomitant sediment runoff. Selected parameters were measured approximately biweekly from 1996 to 2009. During this 14-year period, changes in row crop management and BMP implementations and alterations were observed and recorded in conjunction with targeted water quality parameters. While annual improvement in water quality occurred, distinct seasonal effects were noticeable. Observed changes in water clarity and TSS concentrations were greatest during spring and least in winter in association with increased BMPs, vegetated buffer strips west of the lake, and CRP north of the lake. Observed decreases in TDS concentrations were greatest during summer and fall in association with implemented CRP north of the lake. Reductions in spring TSS by >60% often directly increased spring water clarity by >100%. Results of this study indicate clear improvement in lake water quality with watershed-wide implementation of integrated multiple agricultural BMPs, and these improvements, manifested most strongly during spring, will assist to promote a healthy, sustainable lake ecosystem.


Author(s): Freeman, Elizabeth | Abstract: In Beside You in Time Elizabeth Freeman expands biopolitical and queer theory by outlining a temporal view of the long nineteenth century. Drawing on Foucauldian notions of discipline as a regime that yoked the human body to time, Freeman shows how time became a social and sensory means by which people assembled into groups in ways that resisted disciplinary forces. She tracks temporalized bodies across many entangled regimes—religion, secularity, race, historiography, health, and sexuality—and examines how those bodies act in relation to those regimes. In analyses of the use of rhythmic dance by the Shakers; African American slave narratives; literature by Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, Herman Melville, and others; and how Catholic sacraments conjoined people across historical boundaries, Freeman makes the case for the body as an instrument of what she calls queer hypersociality. As a mode of being in which bodies are connected to others and their histories across and throughout time, queer hypersociality, Freeman contends, provides the means for subjugated bodies to escape disciplinary regimes of time and to create new social worlds.


Esophageal carcinomas often have a poor prognosis due to early lymph node metastasis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is strongly associated with the acquisition of cancer metastasis and invasion. However, there is no established treatment to eliminate the EMT of cancer cells. Iron is an essential element for both normal and cancer cells in humans. Recently, iron depletion has been discovered to suppress tumor growth. Therefore, we hypothesized that decreased iron conditions would regulate EMT phenotypes, as well as suppressing tumor growth. The human TE esophageal cancer cell lines and OE19 were used in our study. Decreased iron conditions were made using an iron-depletion diet in mice and the iron chelator deferasirox for cell studies. Migration and invasion abilities of cells were measured using migration, invasion, and sphere-formation assays. Esophageal subcutaneous tumor growth was suppressed in decreased iron conditions. In vitro study showed that decreased iron conditions inhibited esophageal cancer cell proliferation as well as migration and invasion abilities, with downregulation of N-cadherin expression. Also, migration and invasion abilities were suppressed by inhibiting expression of N-cadherin. In conclusion, decreased iron conditions revealed a profound anticancer effect by the suppression of tumor growth and the inhibition of migration and invasion abilities via N-cadherin.


From the Publisher:
This book will show you how to combine the power of Photoshop 7 and Illustrator 10 to take your creative and production skills to new heights. Find out the best way to use them in tandem, with a seamless workflow, for stunning results in your print and web output. The book looks at how the programs work together to help you create great graphics with practical demonstrations of projects you are likely to encounter in your work. You'll learn advanced techniques for working with layer blending modes, the latest tools and new file formats such as SVG, along with color management, animation, printing, web-publishing, and integration with other programs. This book is not for Photoshop and Illustator novices - it's called 'Advanced' because it aims to take your basic skills to the next level and teach you how to create the finest graphics you find in the world around you. The book looks at how the programs can serve each other and you: Adobe has worked hard to make these two applications function more efficiently together - this book will help you to reap the rewards of their labor. Book Info Tutorial offers a practical design project for readers to complete while encouraging experimentation with the tools. Softcover. From the Publisher The aim of this book is to show how Photoshop 7 and illustrator 10 can work together as part of a team; this means looking at their strengths and weaknesses and how they compliment one another. Part 1 is shorter than Part 2 and contains an analysis of each application; how each one performs certain tasks and where the crossover lies. Many functions can be acheived in both and there is a certain amount of personal choice involved - we evaluate thebenefits of each one and which may be suited to certain tasks: we want you to find the right balance to maintain a long and happy marriage! In Part 2, we look at the practical applications of each one through a series of projects that detail step-by-step how they may be used in conjunction with each other. The tutorials are backed up with theory and additional information to help you make an informed choice when deciding the workflow that fits you best. We hope to help you make the best use of your skills and talents, so you can go further and achieve more...


While many businesses are becoming greener, development corporations may have the greatest incentive to integrate environmental values into their everyday business practices. With the effects of urbanization, suburbanization, and sprawl, cities are increasingly requiring environmental mitigation measures for approval of new development. In response, some development corporations may become greenwashed to obtain discretionary land use approvals to build their proposed developments. Others may build greener developments to meet the market demand from environmentally conscious buyers. An increasing number of developers, however, adopt environmentally responsible business practices for, at least in significant part, altruistic reasons. A prime example of this phenomenon is Playa Vista, the more than 1000-acre development in Los Angeles that is currently the largest urban infill project in the country. Playa Vista serves as a useful case study for exploring how developers' inclusion of various stakeholders - particularly environmentalists - may signal a paradigm shift in how development occurs.


Martha K. Huggins [1] AT THE TURN OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM, VISIBLE STATE-SPONSORED ATROCITIES in Brazil may seem to be only a pale reflection of the ethnic and political cleansing and other large-scale, often genocidal, violence in places such as Guatemala, East Timor, Rwanda, the Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya. The extent and scope of violence in these countries -- with its raw brutality, military context, and state and overt paramilitary state-sponsored murder and mistreatment of civilians -- make contemporary peacetime violence in Brazil, or even during its 21-year military dictatorship (1964 to 1985), appear to be much less noteworthy and significant. Yet, that assumption suggests the questionable moral thesis that smaller numbers or a lower percentage of victims out of the total Brazilian population reduce the significance of this and similar situations of state-permitted or encouraged violence. Whether defensible or not, the validity of such a proposition cannot be considered without examining the extent and nature of violence in Brazil, where interpersonal violence is prevalent and dramati c, although disguised because it is ethnically and class selective as well as geographically focused. To indicate the extent of violence in Brazil, in Sao Paulo alone (the largest city in South America), between 1984 and 1996 there were 69,700 homicides -- over 10,000 more deaths than known U.S. casualties during the entire Vietnam War. Between 1979 and 1997, the homicide rate in Brazil increased from 11.5 murders per one hundred thousand population to 25.4. This 18-year period spans the six years before the military left power through the 12 years after formal democratic government had returned. Between 1979 and 1997, Brazil's population increased 65%, but its homicide rate went up 120% (Folha, 1999b: 3-1). In contrast to Brazil's 1997 homicide rate of 25.4, the corresponding U.S. homicide rate was 10.1 per 100,000 population (Internet: www.IABD.org), which then steeply declined in 1998 to 6.3 (Internet: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.homicide/hmrt.htm). By the 1990s, Brazil's homicide rate approached that of countries recently riven by militarized internal conflict. In the 1990s, Brazil had the fifth highest murder rate in the world, following Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, and Jamaica (Buvinic et al., 1999), with the latter also a country under nonmilitary but militarized social control. Selective Violence Although Brazil's countrywide homicide rate [2] is already high by most international comparisons, the homicide rates in some of its districts and for some population sectors are equal to or even higher than Latin American countries still involved in internal guerrilla and military conflict. For example, Colombia -- formally democratic, yet in a militarized drug and guerrilla war with large regions of the country under military, paramilitary, or guerrilla control -- had a homicide rate in the early 1990s of 89.5 murders per 100,000 population (ibid.), clearly higher than Brazil's 1997 countrywide rate of 25.4 (NEV, 2000). Yet the overall homicide rate was lower than the 1998 rates for Sao Paulo City's Diadema district (140), where the auto industry has been downsizing amid slums and poverty, and the city's poor Embu district (97.32) (Folha, 1999b: 3-3). Colombia's rate was also lower than the cities of Recife (105) in Brazil's impoverished northeast, and Vitoria (103), in Espirito Santo state east of Rio (NE V, 2000). Indeed, Diadema's homicide rate is closer today to Guatemala's and El Salvador's national murder rates (150) in the late 1980s (Buvinic et al., 1999), when those countries were experiencing intense internal guerrilla and counterinsurgency conflict. Brazil's pattern of urban violence is clearly most dramatic for selected regions and segments of the population. In 1997, the country's two largest cities, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, ranked third and fourth after Recife and Vitoria, with 65. …


The Bioversity International Transit Center (ITC) for banana hosts more than 1500 accessions largely covering the genetic diversity of the genus Musa. Its objective is to conserve this genetic diversity and to supply plant materials to users worldwide. All the Musa accessions must be tested for virus presence and, if infected, virus elimination must be attempted, to enable the supply of virus-free plant material. An international collaborative effort launched under the auspices of Bioversity International (2007–2013) finally led to the implementation of a two-step process to test the accessions. The first step, called pre-indexing, involved only molecular tests and was designed as a pre-screen of new germplasm lines or existing accessions to reduce the need for post-entry virus therapy and repeated virus indexing. The second step, called full indexing, was performed on either older existing accessions or newer accessions which tested negative during pre-indexing, and involved molecular tests, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and symptom observation. In total, 270 germplasm lines (434 samples) were pre-indexed; while full indexing was carried out on 243 accessions (68 of which had been pre-indexed). A significant proportion of the samples tested during pre-indexing was infected with at least one virus (68%), showing the utility of this early pre-screening step. Banana streak OL virus and Banana mild mosaic virus were the most commonly detected viruses during both pre- and full indexing. For 22 accessions, viral particles were observed by TEM in full indexing while the molecular tests were negative, underlining the importance of combining various detection techniques. After full indexing, viruses were not detected in 166 accessions, which were then released for international distribution from the ITC. This publication exemplifies how the practical application of diagnostic protocols can raise fundamental questions related to their appropriate use in routine practice and the need for their continuous monitoring and improvement after their first publication.


The lack of progress over the past decade in reducing the tax gap, particularly the failure to reduce the rate of noncompliance among the self-employed, demonstrates the need for innovative approaches. Recent increases in information reporting likely will have an impact in some areas, but the elephant in the room is the cash economy. Given the limitations of standard deterrence techniques, prospect theory has much to offer in improving tax compliance among small business owners for whom information reporting or withholding is not feasible.A number of economists and psychologists have found that prospect theory is a relevant predictor of taxpayer behavior. In the context of framing, the theory predicts that taxpayers claiming a refund tend to view the outcome as a gain, and thus will demonstrate risk aversion, making them more likely to comply. On the other hand, taxpayers facing a balance due, generally framed as a loss, tend to be risk-seeking, making them more likely to evade. This behavior has been confirmed by numerous empirical studies involving laboratory subjects, and by studies of IRS compliance data covering hundreds of thousands of actual taxpayers.Thus far, the legal community has made little use of this empirical evidence. To fill this gap, this Article proposes a novel approach to target small business noncompliance that relies on the demonstrated connection between tax compliance and the presence of a tax refund. I propose that tax for small business owners be collected on a presumptive basis (what I call "presumptive collection") throughout the year based on principles used in presumptive tax regimes employed by other countries, which impute income based on external factors rather than relying on self-reporting. However, unlike true presumptive taxes, presumptive collection would collect tax on a presumptive basis, but the regular income tax would ultimately apply to determine a small business owner's final tax liability at year-end, analogous to withholding. Because individuals are more likely to comply if they find themselves facing a refund at the time of filing, the goal of presumptive collection would be to increase the number of small business owners that will face such a frame at year-end.Although not every type of small business would be amenable to presumptive collection, it could be an important additional tool for reducing tax evasion that is targeted at specific industries. If presumptive collection could be applied to groups of identifiable cash businesses that are currently able to avoid information reporting, then policymakers could make significant gains in reducing small business tax evasion.


Abstract:It is generally agreed that environmental factors trigger the onset and cause flares of inflammatory bowel disease. Although we have learned much about genetic susceptibility factors of inflammatory bowel disease in recent years, our knowledge on these environmental factors is limited. The sum of all environmental factors a human is exposed to during lifetime has been termed the exposome. The challenge of investigating the exposome is discussed in this overview. The environmental exposure of a subject causes changes in the intestinal microbiota and subsequently changes the epigenetic imprinting of the mucosa and the associated immune system. Some relevant environmental factors have been investigated in recent years in inflammatory bowel disease and other (auto)inflammatory disease. These factors can be categorized in air pollution, diet, drugs, stress, infections, water pollution, food additives, and lifestyle. Examples from those categories and their potential pathophysiological mechanism are discussed.