INTRODUCTION: Postpartum depression has been the object of extensive research both because of its high prevalence and its repercussions on the mother and the infant. OBJECTIVE:To compare women with and without depression in a sample of postpartum women randomly selected at a maternity in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. METHODS: A total of 245 women who gave birth at a private maternity hospital in Belo Horizonte were selected. A semi-structured interview was used for the collection of psychosocial and demographic data. Diagnosis of major depression was established using and a structured interview (Mini Neuropsychiatric Interview, MINI-Plus), based on criteria set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV). RESULTS: Of the total sample, 26.9% had a diagnosis of postpartum depression. No differences were observed in the social and demographic characteristics of depressed women (n = 66, 26,9%) and of those without depression (n = 179, 73,1%). Nevertheless, several clinical and psychosocial variables showed significant differences between the groups and were therefore associated with postpartum depression, namely previous history of depression, presence of stress or depressive/anxiety symptoms during pregnancy, postpartum complications affecting the mother or the infant, and lack of support and care in the postpartum period. CONCLUSION: The identification of factors associated with postpartum depression is important for an improved understanding of the pathophysiology of this disease and for the establishment of strategies aimed at prevention and early diagnosis.


Technologies developed to generate bio-based products are based on single feedstock types. While this approach is applicable for corn stover in the MidWest, for states such as California, with abundant but diverse feedstocks, technologies should be developed to accommodate multiple feedstock input to a single biorefinery. This project established the influence of mixing feedstocks on downstream sugar recovery and thereby fuel production for Imperial County as a case study. We relied on statistical approaches and developed a predictive model to identify optimal biomass concentrations and reaction types, temperatures, and times to maximize sugar yield and minimize furfural production.


For the understanding of the neural regulation of homeostasis, reproduction and behaviors, elucidation of structure and function of neuropeptides is inevitable. A classical technique for peptide purification is the separation of peptidic extract from nervous tissue by the high-performance liquid chromatography, which was followed by screening of fractions with biological or immunological assays. Although this approach requires relatively large amount of tissues for extraction and the screening is time- consuming, we have identified more than 15 kinds of bioactive neuropeptides in the nervous tissue of a marine snail, Thais clavigera. The purified peptides include TEP (Thais excitatory peptide)-1/-2, FRFamide, WWamide and others. The molecular cloning of precursor for each neuropeptide demonstrated that structurally related peptides are aligned in tandem on most of the precursor proteins. To identify the peptides on the precursors, we conducted the de novo sequencing of peptides with the nanoLC-Orbitrap-MS/MS analysis. It identified most of the neuropeptides found on the precursor proteins in the extract from 50 of Thais ganglia. Thus, this technique is suitable for the comprehensive identification of peptides from relatively small amount of tissues. However, several peptides that had been identified by the classical technique, such as APGWamide and leucokinin, were not identified, suggesting the limitation of this brand-new technique.


The unpredictability of Australia's climate poses real challenges for practices that were developed based on the relative predictability of a European climate. More recently, policy has been moving towards accepting drought as a reality, rejecting the notion that it is a natural disaster in favour of an approach based on risk management. However, the level of public debate during a drought event suggests that this policy approach has not been widely understood or accepted. Media reporting of drought rapidly adopts disaster-related language and the organisation of relief appeals reinforces the impression that drought is an aberration rather than a normal part of Australia's climate patterns. Beyond Drought provides a multi-disciplinary discussion aimed at increasing the level of understanding of drought's many facets and its impact on the environment, communities and the economy. It introduces a range of perspectives in order to emphasise the complexity of drought policy. The book cuts through the often emotional debate that occurs during a drought event, aiming to stimulate reasoned discussion about the best way that Australian farmers and the broader community can live with the vagaries of an uncertain climate.


Belarus holds a special position in Russian policy due to its geopolitical, military and transit significance. Russia's influence and position in the entire Eastern European region largely depend on how strong Russian influence in Belarus is. The process of Russian-Belarusian integration began in 1994, when Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power in Minsk.

At the time, Russia's policy towards Belarus was based on twomain assumptions. Firstly, the Kremlin supported Lukashenka's authoritarian regime. This allowed Russia to keep Belarus within its orbit of political influence and prevent other states from getting involved, since an undemocratic Belarus could not count on closer contacts with the West. Secondly, Russia heavily subsidised Belarus with cheap energy resources (way below the market price) and allowed the duty-free access of Belarusian goods to its market. Thus Belarus became a kind of 'sponsored authoritarianism' with a specific economic model, owing its existence to Russia's economic and political support. At the same time, Moscow's key objective in its policy towards Belarus was to make Minsk accept the Russian conditions concerning integration, which would in fact lead to Belarus' incorporation by the Russian Federation. However, Belarus managed to maintain its sovereignty, while Alyaksandr Lukashenka bandied the term 'integration' about in order to maintain the preferential model of his state's relations with Russia.

Russia's intention to alter the nature of these bilateral relations became evident when Vladimir Putin took power in 2000. However, Moscow faced Minsk's refusal to accept the Russian integration plan (which, among other measures, provided for the takeover of Belarusian economic assets by Russian companies). This forced Russia to use its main tool against Minsk: the supplies of cheap gas and oil that had been sustaining Belarus' archaic economy. The most serious crisis in Russian-Belarusian relations broke out at the beginning of 2007, following Moscow's decision to raise the energy resource prices. This decision marked the beginning of the application of market principles to settlements between Moscow and Minsk.

The key question this study is meant to answer concerns the consequences of the aforementioned decision by Russia for future Russian-Belarusian relations. Are they at a turning point? What are Russia's policy objectives? What results can come from the process of moving mutual relations onto an economic footing? What policy will replace Russia's 'sponsoring of Belarusian authoritarianism', which it has been implementing since 1994? Finally, what further measures will Russia undertake towards Belarus?

The current study consists of five chapters. The first chapter offers a brief presentation of Belarus' significance and position in Russian policy. The second analyses the development of Russian-Belarusian political relations, first of all the establishment of the Union State, Belarus' position in Russian domestic policy and Russia's influence on Belarusian policy. The third chapter presents bilateral economic relations, primarily energy issues. The fourth chapter describes the state and perspectives of military cooperation between the two states. The fifth chapter presents conclusions, where the author attempts to define the essence of the ongoing re-evaluation in Russian-Belarusian relations and to project their future model.


Health care providers of all professions depend on written information to communicate with those not co-present during various phases of patient care, thus making communications about patients of key importance to understanding what sorts of discourses are prevalent and valued in hospitals. While physicians' written discourse has enjoyed some attention, there has been very little research done on written nursing discourse, a critical component of patient care, from the perspective of organizational communication. For this pilot study of nurses' written communications, I examined 34 nurses' patient progress notes from computer-based in-patient records obtained from a local regional medical center. Because extensive use of the passive voice is a defining characteristic of medical discourse, I chose to focus my discourse analysis of nurses' notes on the frequency and function of its use.
Furthermore, an analysis of passive voice use is salient because the passive voice has for so long been an object of hotly contested debate in the fields of English composition and technical and organizational communications. Of 335 transitive verb phrases, with human agents, in the notes, I found that 48.96% were in the passive voice. Of the passive verbs, 85.98% of them refer to actions performed by the nurse writing the note, only 2.74% of them refer to patients' actions, and 10.37% of them refer to actions performed by other hospital personnel. The passive voice appears to serve the rhetorical function of deferring attention away from the agent, the nurse, and towards the patient or the materials being used to treat the patient, much as it is used in scientific writing. However, I also found that the passive voice is sometimes used inconsistently, and its use varies from nurse to nurse, even within the same unit. It is my hope that this pilot study, having revealed the inconsistency and complexity of passive voice use in nurses' notes, will lead to more, comprehensive studies of writing in the nursing discourse community.


Purpose: To compare rates of peripheral retinal changes in Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) participants with at least intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with control subjects without intermediate age-related changes (large drusen). Design: Cross-sectional evaluation of clinic-based patients enrolled in AREDS2 and a prospective study. Participants: Participants from prospective studies. Methods: The 200 pseudocolor and fundus autofluorescence (FAF) images were captured on the Optos 200 Tx Ultrawide-field device (Optos, Dunfermline, Scotland) by centering on the fovea and then steering superiorly and inferiorly. The montaged images were graded at a reading center with the images divided into 3 zones (zone 1 [posterior pole], zone 2 [midperiphery], and zone 3 [far periphery]) to document the presence of peripheral lesions. Main Outcome Measures: Peripheral retinal lesions: drusen, hypopigmentary/hyperpigmentary changes, reticular pseudodrusen, senile reticular pigmentary changes, cobblestone degeneration, and FAF abnormalities. Results: A total of 484 (951 eyes) AREDS2 participants with AMD (cases) and 89 (163 eyes) controls without AMD had gradable color and FAF images. In zones 2 and 3, neovascularization and geographic atrophy (GA) were present, ranging from 0.4% to 6% in eyes of cases, respectively, and GA was present in 1% of eyes of controls. Drusen were detected in 97%, 78%, and 64% of eyes of cases and 48%, 21%, and 9% of eyes of controls in zones 2 and 3 superior and 3 inferior, respectively (P < 0.001 for all). Peripheral reticular pseudodrusen were seen in 15%. Senile reticular pigmentary change was the predominant peripheral change seen in 48% of cases and 16% of controls in zone 2 (P < 0.001). Nonreticular pigment changes were less frequent in the periphery than in the posterior pole (46% vs. 76%) and negligible in controls. Conclusions: Peripheral retinal changes are more prevalent in eyes with AMD than in control eyes. Drusen are seen in a majority of eyes with AMD in both the mid and far periphery, whereas pigment changes and features of advanced AMD are less frequent. Age-related macular degeneration may be more than a "macular" condition but one that involves the entire retina. Future longitudinal studies of peripheral changes in AMD and their impact on visual function may contribute to understanding AMD pathogenesis. Ophthalmology 2016;-:1e9 Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American Academy of Ophthalmology


This article develops and applies a holistic approach to structure smartphone use. It builds on an understanding of the smartphone as a metamedium containing a multitude of "constituent media" that are applicable in an unprecedented range of contexts. We elaborate on the smartphone's structure and its uses from two theoretical venture points: an ecological understanding of the evolving media landscape within the metamedium and a mobile phone–centered perspective on differential uses and gratifications of the metamedium as a whole within different contexts. Gibson's affordance theory permits us to integrate these perspectives to account for smartphone structure and use in terms of niches that emerge out of embodiments and enactments of affordances in varying contexts of use.


OBJECTIVE Conflicting evidence exists on the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in the treatment of chronic ischemic leg ulcers. The aim of this trial was to investigate whether additional HBOT would benefit patients with diabetes and ischemic leg ulcers. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Patients with diabetes with an ischemic wound (n = 120) were randomized to standard care (SC) without or with HBOT (SC+HBOT). Primary outcomes were limb salvage and wound healing after 12 months, as well as time to wound healing. Other end points were amputation-free survival (AFS) and mortality. RESULTS Both groups contained 60 patients. Limb salvage was achieved in 47 patients in the SC group vs. 53 patients in the SC+HBOT group (risk difference [RD] 10% [95% CI −4 to 23]). After 12 months, 28 index wounds were healed in the SC group vs. 30 in the SC+HBOT group (RD 3% [95% CI −14 to 21]). AFS was achieved in 41 patients in the SC group and 49 patients in the SC+HBOT group (RD 13% [95% CI −2 to 28]). In the SC+HBOT group, 21 patients (35%) were unable to complete the HBOT protocol as planned. Those who did had significantly fewer major amputations and higher AFS (RD for AFS 26% [95% CI 10–38]). CONCLUSIONS Additional HBOT did not significantly improve complete wound healing or limb salvage in patients with diabetes and lower-limb ischemia.


Experiments were conducted in an irrigated, sandy loam soil to evaluate mulches and hill sizes as barriers to prevent the development of potato tuber blight caused by Phytophthora infestans. In mulching experiments, five treatments were applied to field plots of cv. Red LaSoda: 1, no mulch; 2, polyurethane spray foam in an 8-cm-diameter area immediately surrounding the plant stem; 3, black polyethylene film over the entire hill except near the stem; 4, a combination of treatments 2 and 3; and 5, a water-permeable, agricultural textile treated with copper hydroxide applied over the same hill area as in treatment 3. In 1998, the incidence of tuber blight in plots mulched with black film (treatments 3 and 4) averaged 32% compared with 56% in plots without this mulch (treatments 1 and 2). In 1999, incidence of tuber blight in plots with and without black film averaged 9 and 20%, respectively. Mulching the stem area with spray foam (treatments 2 and 3) did not reduce the incidence of blighted tubers when compared with the appropriate control. The copper-treated textile mulch (treatment 5) provided reductions in the incidence of tuber blight similar to those observed with the use of black polyethylene film. In a hill size experiment conducted once in 1998 and twice in 1999, three hill size treatments were established on cvs. Red LaSoda, Shepody, and Russet Burbank. Red LaSoda was the most susceptible and Russet Burbank the least susceptible to tuber blight. Comparison of blight incidence in tubers classified by depth in the hill revealed few differences among the hill size treatments, although over all treatments, tubers covered with more than 15 cm of soil had a lower incidence of blight (1 to 14%) than tubers with less soil cover (13 to 59%). Most tuber infections were apparently initiated in eyes and were not concentrated on a portion of the tuber such as the stolon (proximal) or distal end. The fact that black film and textile mulches reduced tuber infection indicates that inoculum of P. infestans can move from foliage to tubers through soil and that inoculum movement is not limited to large channels in the hill such as those created by the potato stems. The mulch treatments, however, provided only partial protection of tubers, limiting the practicality of such treatments to commercial producers. Hill size treatments had little effect on tuber blight incidence, indicating that adequate suppression of tuber infection in an environment conducive to late blight may be inseparably linked to adequate suppression of the foliar phase.


The anticancer effects of red wine have attracted considerable attention. Resveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans -stilbene) is a well-known polyphenolic compound of red wine with cancer chemopreventive activity. However, the basis for this activity is unclear. We studied leukotriene A(4) hydrolase (LTA(4)H) as a relevant target in pancreatic cancer. LTA(4)H knockdown limited the formation of leukotriene B(4) (LTB(4)), the enzymatic product of LTA(4)H, and suppressed anchorage-independent growth of pancreatic cancer cells. An in silico shape similarity algorithm predicted that LTA(4)H might be a potential target of resveratrol. In support of this idea, we found that resveratrol directly bound to LTA(4)H in vitro and in cells and suppressed proliferation and anchorage-independent growth of pancreatic cancer by inhibiting LTB(4) production and expression of the LTB(4) receptor 1 (BLT(1)). Notably, resveratrol exerted relatively stronger inhibitory effects than bestatin, an established inhibitor of LTA(4)H activity, and the inhibitory effects of resveratrol were reduced in cells where LTA(4)H was suppressed by shRNA-mediated knockdown. Importantly, resveratrol inhibited tumor formation in a xenograft mouse model of human pancreatic cancer by inhibiting LTA(4)H activity. Our findings identify LTA(4)H as a functionally important target for mediating the anticancer properties of resveratrol.


Security Engineering is a critical component of systems engineering. When complex and large systems are put together, one needs to ensure that the systems are secure. Security engineering methodologies include gathering the security requirements, specifying the security policies, designing the security model, identifying the security critical components of the system design, security verification and validation and security testing. Before installation, one needs to develop a concept of operation (CONOPS) as well as carry out certification and accreditation. Much of the previous work in security engineering has focused on end to end security. That is, the organization needs to ensure that the applications, database systems, operating systems and networks have to be secure. In addition, one needs to ensure security when the subsystems are composed to form a larger system. More recently with open systems and the Web, secure system development is taking a whole new direction. The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the United States (Information and Identity Assurance) has stated that "the Department of Defense's (DoD) policy, planning, and war fighting capabilities are heavily dependent on the information technology foundation provided by the Global Information Grid (GIG). However, the GIG was built for business efficiency instead of mission assurance against sophisticated adversaries who have demonstrated intent and proven their ability to use cyberspace as a tool for espionage and criminal theft of data. GIG mission assurance works to ensure the DoD is able to accomplish its critical missions when networks, services, or information are unavailable, degraded, or distrusted." To meet the needs of mission assurance challenges, President's (George W. Bush) cyber plan (CNCI) has listed the area of developing multipronged approaches to supply chain risk management as one of the priorities. CNCI states that the reality of global supply chains presents -
significant challenges in thwarting counterfeit, or maliciously designed hardware and software products. To overcome such challenges and support successful mission assurance we need to design flexible and secure systems whose components may be untrusted or faulty. We need to achieve the secure operation of mission critical systems constructed from untrusted, semitrusted and fully trusted components for successful mission assurance. This keynote address will discuss the developments in security engineering from requirements, to policy to model to design to verification to testing as well as developing CONOPS and conducting certification and accreditation. System evaluation, usability and metrics related issues will also be discussed. Finally we will discuss the changes that have to be made to security engineering to support the next generation of secure systems for mission critical applications.


Despite the relevance of geographical disparities in India, earnings inequality occurs mostly within states, but with a broad range of variability in its levels. We investigate the sources of such variability using RIF decompositions of the inequality gaps between most populous states and India. Our results point to substantial compositional effects associated with cross-state variability in the extent of high-skilled formal employment outside the farm and construction sectors, and along the degree of urbanization and some demographic factors. Cross-state differences in conditional earnings structures, however, turn out to be crucial, especially regarding the different degree of earnings stratification by caste in each state.


In this paper we present: 1. The available data on comparative gender inequality at the macroeconomic level and 2. Gender inequality measures at the microeconomic and case study level. We see that market openness has a significant effect on the narrowing of the human capital gender gap. Globalization and market openness stand as factors that improve both the human capital endowments of women and their economic position. But we also see that the effects of culture and religious beliefs are very different. While Catholicism has a statistically significant influence on the improvement of the human capital gender gap, Muslim and Buddhist religious beliefs have the opposite effect and increase human capital gender differences. In the second global era, some Catholic Latin American countries benefited from market openness in terms of the human capital and income gender gap, whereas we find the opposite impact in Buddhist and Muslim countries like China and South Korea where women's economic position has worsened both in terms of human capital and wage inequality.


The WAGASCI experiment being built at the J-PARC neutrino beam line will measure the ratio of cross sections from neutrinos interacting with a water and scintillator targets, in order to constrain neutrino cross sections, essential for the T2K neutrino oscillation measurements. A prototype Magnetised Iron Neutrino Detector (MIND), called Baby MIND, has been constructed at CERN and will act as a magnetic spectrometer behind the main WAGASCI target. Baby MIND will be installed inside the WAGASCI cavern at J-PARC in the beginning of 2018. Baby MIND will be able to measure the charge and momentum of the outgoing muon from neutrino charged current interactions, to enable full neutrino event reconstruction in WAGASCI. During the summer of 2017, Baby MIND was operated and characterised at the T9 test beam at CERN. Results from this test beam will be presented, including charge identification performance and momentum resolution for charged tracks. These results will be compared to the Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, simulations of charge-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) neutrino interactions in an active scintillator neutrino target, followed by the Baby MIND spectrometer, will be shown to demonstrate the capability of this detector set-up to perform cross-section measurements under different assumptions.


Habitual fish consumption is associated with numerous health benefits; however, in Australia fish intake remains low. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of specific or general fish consumption recommendations on fish intake behavior over the duration of a 12-month clinical trial. Participants were randomized into a control group (general dietary advice), and two intervention groups (received dietetic advice to consume 180 g fish/wk), with one intervention group receiving LC omega-3 PUFA supplements. Dietary data was available for n = 117 at baseline, n = 85 at 3 months and n = 63 at 12 months. Total, fatty and lean fish intake (g/day) was calculated, and the change in fish intake between and within groups over the duration of the study was measured. Total fish consumption did not differ significantly between groups or within groups, however fatty fish intake was significantly greater in the intervention groups at three months (p = 0.004). The proportion of study participants complying with fish intake recommendations was also highest at the three month time point for both intervention groups. Overall, compliance to fish intake recommendations was highest at the three month time point and appeared to be influenced by dietetic intervention. Provision of fish may increase compliance in future studies, however if research is to be translated to practice, behavioral approaches are required to increase fish intake in the long term.


A 43 kDa phospholipase C-activating protein has been purified previously from turkey erythrocytes and shown to express immunological properties expected of that of the Gq family of G-protein alpha-subunits [Waldo, Boyer, Morris and Harden (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 14217-14225]. Internal amino acid sequence has now been obtained from this protein which shares 50-100% sequence identity with sequences encoded by mammalian G alpha 11 and G alpha q cDNAs. To identify the purified protein unambiguously, it was necessary to compare its amino acid sequence with the sequence encoded by avian G-protein alpha-subunit cDNA. As such, mouse G alpha q was used as a probe to screen turkey brain and fetal-turkey blood cDNA libraries. A full-length cDNA was identified that encodes avian G alpha 11, on the basis of its 96-98% amino acid identity with mammalian G alpha 11. All eight peptides sequenced from the turkey erythrocyte phospholipase C-activating protein are completely contained within the deduced amino acid sequence of the avian G alpha 11 cDNA. Expression of this cDNA in Sf9 cells by using a baculovirus expression system resulted in the production of a 43 kDa protein that reacts strongly with antisera to the Gq family of G-protein alpha-subunits and activated purified avian phospholipase C in an AlF4(-)-dependent manner. Taken together, these results unambiguously identify the protein purified from turkey erythrocytes, on the basis of its capacity to activate avian phospholipase C, as G alpha 11.


The textile industry is one of the most rapidly developing industries in Turkey. It generates a large amount of wastewater, with corresponding concerns about pollution. The main sources of pollution in wastewater are the dyeing and finishing processes. The dyestuffs and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) are the main refractory organics of concern in terms of meeting more stringent effluent standards of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and colour. In this study, wastewaters from textile dyeing factories in Bursa were characterized, and physical, chemical and biological treatability studies were carried out. In the physical and chemical studies, 60-80% COD, 80% suspended solids (SS) and 10-92% turbidity removal efficiencies were obtained. In the biological studies, 90% COD and 40% SS removal were obtained. The initial soluble inert COD of wastewater was determined by using comparison methods. The initial inert COD of wastewater and the microbial product concentration were determined as 37 mg/l and 13 mg/l, respectively.


In recent years vehicle radar and lidar sensors are widely used as sources of control signals for Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control and Collision Mitigation systems. These devices are operating in the millimeter wave and infrared range in which their performance may be degraded by adverse weather conditions. Currently available information regarding the signal interaction with fog, rain, snow and spray make clear that millimeter-wave radar sensors are far less affected by adverse weather conditions than infrared-based sensors. However, when automotive radar sensors are particularly designed for safety-oriented systems, the effects of critical issues (such as water film and heavy rains) on the sensor performance become of the uttermost importance. In this thesis, an analysis of the effects of water film and rain on millimeter-wave propagation have been presented. Based on the fundamental formulation of wave propagation and scattering in stratified as well as random media, physical parameters describing the wave interaction with the water film and rains have been studied and assessed. It has been shown that both significantly attenuate millimeter-wave signals, and may exert an adverse influence on detection performance of millimeter-wave radar sensors. Consequently, water-film and rain indicators have been derived from returned signals to convey for the first time wet-antenna and rain information to the radar sensor system, where they could be employed for monitoring the radar detection performance. Methods have also been worked out in detail for low-cost measurement of water-film and rain indicators in the radar system. Experimental investigations have been exhibited to be able to satisfactorily implement these indicators in production. Finally, techniques have been introduced to show how detection performance could be optimized. The presented findings emphasize the importance of identification of water film and rain and of being able to optimize detection performance in order to assure availability of automotive radar senors in adverse weather conditions. Results should also be significant for all kinds of millimeter-wave radar sensors where wave interactions with water film on the surface of the radar antenna or its protecting radome as well as with rains in the radar beams are the key issue.


Abstract Large productivity dispersion within narrowly defined sectors is widely documented. However, across studies, several statistics are used to assess dispersion and there is not enough discussion about differences among them. Using firm-level data for the textile and furniture sectors in Brazil over the 2003-2009 period, we estimated different TFP measures according to four methods: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS for short), the stochastic frontier model of Battese and Coelli (1988, 1992)(STCH for short), the control function approach of Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) (LP for short), and the corrected control function approach of Ackerberg et al. (2015) (ACF for short). Next, we calculated three dispersion statistics: Standard Deviation (SD); Coefficient of Variation (CV); and Interquartile Range (IQR). After confirming the existence of large productivity dispersion within the studied sectors, we analyzed if the dispersion is increasing or decreasing over time. For both sectors, SD and CV convey an increasing productivity dispersion message, but they do so at different rates (CV is seven times higher than SD). On the contrary, IQR suggests less productivity dispersion over time for textiles and mixed results for furnitures. Overall, in terms of characterizing the increasing productivity dispersion, the CV statistic combined with the ACF method define an upper bound while the IQR with LP method define a lower bound. Considering these results, the article underlines that there are non-trivial differences in the use of dispersion statistics. Thus, their use could not be interchangeable and should consider methodological issues, behavior in the tails of the firm productivity distribution, sample sizes and scenarios of divergence/convergence, among others.


The Nijmegen Questionnaire is commonly used by physiotherapists and other health professionals in the clinical and research settings. This outcome measure was developed by a group of researchers at the Nijmegen University in the Netherlands as a screening tool for the hyperventilation syndrome in the 1980s. However, the literature that supports the efficacy of its use is scarce. This paper examines the evidence in relation to the conceptual basis, validity, and reliability of the Nijmegen Questionnaire. A systematic review of the literature is carried out to identify studies that are related to the above measurement properties for the questionnaire. Studies identified are evaluated for their methodological qualities using the COSMIN checklist. The clinical utility of this instrument is also discussed. Issues associated with the development and validating process of this outcome measure are identified. There is also a lack of evidence in cultural validation given that the Nijmegen Questionnaire is developed in the Netherlands. While this is the only questionnaire currently available that is designed specifically for the screening of hyperventilation syndrome, administrators need to be aware of the issues identified in relation to validity and reliability when interpreting the results. Applying more robust validating processes to establish the efficacy of the Nijmegen Questionnaire appears to be a priority for researchers in order to improve the quality of health services for individuals suffering from hyperventilation syndrome


Female preferences for specific male phenotypes have been documented across a wide range of animal taxa, including numerous species where males contribute only gametes to offspring production. Yet, selective pressures maintaining such preferences are among the major unknowns of evolutionary biology. Theoretical studies suggest that preferences can evolve if they confer genetic benefits in terms of increased attractiveness of sons ("Fisherian" models) or overall fitness of offspring ("good genes" models). These two types of models predict, respectively, that male attractiveness is heritable and genetically correlated with fitness. In this meta‐analysis, we draw general conclusions from over two decades worth of empirical studies testing these predictions (90 studies on 55 species in total). We found evidence for heritability of male attractiveness. However, attractiveness showed no association with traits directly associated with fitness (life‐history traits). Interestingly, it did show a positive correlation with physiological traits, which include immunocompetence and condition. In conclusion, our results support "Fisherian" models of preference evolution, while providing equivocal evidence for "good genes." We pinpoint research directions that should stimulate progress in our understanding of the evolution of female choice.


Employee diversity may affect business performance both as a result of customer discrimination and as a result of how members of a group work with each other in teams. We test for both channels with data from more than 800 retail stores employing over 70,000 individuals, matched to Census data on the demographics of the community. We find little payoff to matching employee demographics to those of potential customers except when the customers do not speak English. Diversity of race or gender within the workplace does not predict sales or sales growth, although age diversity predicts low sales.


The work discussed in this thesis is aimed at examining the formation of freeze layers and refractory wear on water-cooling elements within direct smelting processes through the use of computational modelling techniques. The motivation of performing this work is to examine the cooling of regions of the Smelt Reduction Vessel of the HIsmelt process closer to the molten bath material. HIsmelt is a novel process for the production of pig iron which has been under development by Rio Tinto and is now being commercialised.

The previous work performed in this are has been reviewed with particular focus on the refractory wear mechanisms as the solidification algorithms have been thoroughly implemented within the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) framework PHYSCIA used within this work. The governing equations along with the Finite Volume discretisations of these equations are set out within this thesis. Some comment is made about the solution methods used, and how boundary conditions are implemented. The Free-surface flow and Solidification governing relationships are also described as these are important for investigating the formation of freeze layers.

The implementation of the refractory wear mechanisms are discussed in some detail. The three mechanisms implemented are for the penetration of slag into the refractory, the corrosion of the refractory by this penetrated slag; and the erosion of the refractory by the bulk flow of slag within the furnace. To be able to reasonably predict refractory wear, it is necessary to make the properties of the materials within the system temperature dependent.

During the pilot plant trials at the HIsmelt® Research and Development facility, located in Kwinana Western Australia, accretions formed on the end of the solids injection lances. These accretions have been termed Elephant's Trunks. With the imminent construction of the Development Plant which injects the iron bearing feeds at an elevated temperature rather than at ambient temperatures used on the pilot plant, the formation of these pipe-like accretions under both the cold and hot injection conditions have been examined. This work provides confidence that the freeze layers predicted from the model will reflect those formed within the furnace.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the refractory wear mechanisms, data from experimental and the HIsmelt pilot plant have been modelled. Sections of refractory samples from an induction furnace test and a rotary slag test have been modelled. The results are in agreement with the profile and affected regions of the sectioned refractory test pieces. A part of the HIsmelt pilot plant Smelt Reduction Vessel (SRV) has been modelled for the period of campaign 8-1 & 8-2 (just over 20 days). The predicted wear is in agreement with the measurements taken after the vessel had been cooled.

To bring together freeze layer formation with the refractory wear mechanisms, a water-cooled element was modelled for the sloping slag section. The results show the growth of a small freeze layer that is consistent with the small freeze layer seen on the upper cooling panels of the pilot plant SRV. This model is an ideal tool to evaluate different water-cooling strategies for HIsmelt and other similar direct smelting processes.

This work has developed models that predict the formation of freeze layers and refractory wear within direct smelting processes. The models have focused on slag-refractory interactions and further work would be needed to extend the refractory wear models to account for metal-refractory interactions. To examine spalling, stress calculations could be performed to determine when this may occur.


Thinking on economic policy for development has undergone many shifts in response to the perceived weak results of earlier adjustment reforms. A new donor consensus has emerged based around the central themes of economic growth, good governance and social development. This article examines the logic behind this new aid paradigm, revealing a nuanced story with country circumstances playing a critical role and particular interventions varying in impact. For example, growth does not always lead to gains for the poor that match the national average; public expenditure needs to be targeted to achieve social development, but effective targeting is difficult; governance reform may be critical but there is no simple governance blueprint, and the corruption-growth association need not always be negative.


Target value design (TVD) is a management practice that is undertaken to deliver customer needs within agreed performance parameters. However, the norm in construction for many years has been the compilation of costing / estimation data after design is in place. This practice is evident in South Africa construction where the vicious cycle of design-estimate-construction-rework-estimate continues unabated. Thus, the need for this research stems from efforts to optimise the value delivered to clients without escalating project cost. The phenomenological research design for the study enabled the collection of data through face-to-face interviews of twenty-four construction professionals with a structured protocol. The study shows that aspects of TVD are already in use in South Africa, though not labelled as TVD. The concepts of TVD are not unknown in practical terms in South Africa. What is missing is the full implementation of the system so that the tide of cost overrun that is synonymous with projects will be reduced.


The WHO recommends exclusive breast-feeding and delaying the introduction of solid foods to an infant's diet until 6 months postpartum. However, in many countries, this recommendation is followed by few mothers, and earlier weaning onto solids is a commonly reported global practice. Therefore, this prospective, observational study aimed to assess compliance with the WHO recommendation and examine weaning practices, including the timing of weaning of infants, and to investigate the factors that predict weaning at # 12 weeks. From an initial sample of 539 pregnant women recruited from the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, Dublin, 401 eligible mothers were followed up at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Quantitative data were obtained on mothers' weaning practices using semi-structured questionnaires and a short dietary history of the infant's usual diet at 6 months. Only one mother (0·2%) complied with the WHO recommendation to exclusively breastfeed up to 6 months. Ninety-one (22·6%) infants were prematurely weaned onto solids at # 12 weeks with predictive factors after adjustment, including mothers' antenatal reporting that infants should be weaned onto solids at # 12 weeks, formula feeding at 12 weeks and mothers' reporting of the maternal grandmother as the principal source of advice on infant feeding. Mothers who weaned their infants at # 12 weeks were more likely to engage in other sub-optimal weaning practices, including the addition of non-recommended condiments to their infants' foods. Provision of professional advice and exploring antenatal maternal misperceptions are potential areas for targeted interventions to improve compliance with the recommended weaning practices.


This article reports on the findings of a study that investigated the impact of manipulating task performance conditions on listening task performance by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study was designed to explore the effects of changing complexity dimensions on listening task performance and to achieve two aims: to see how listening comprehension task performance was affected and to investigate possible overlaps between EFL learners' perceptions of task difficulty and hypothesized task complexity. A purposive sample of 54 first-year EFL learners randomly assigned to two parallel conversation classes in an English department of a major public university participated in the study and performed listening tasks in a language lab. The instruments used for data collection were seven tasks taken from a TOEFL Test Preparation Kit, each followed by listening comprehension questions and an item on the participants' personal perception of the difficulty of the task. During counter-balanced administrations, the tasks were manipulated for one of the four dimensions of task difficulty (adequacy, immediacy, perspective, and prior knowledge). The resulting data included the participants' perception of difficulty as well as their performance scores under less complex and more complex conditions. One-sample T-test and correlation analyses of the data revealed that for all of the four complexity dimensions, the hypothesized less complex task condition led to better learner performance. The correlation between learner-assigned difficulty score for the task at hand and theoretical task complexity level was significant only for the immediacy dimension (r=-0.67, p<.05). The results offer support for task complexity frameworks, raise doubts about learners' perceptions of tasks, and imply possibilities for task manipulation in language learning contexts.


The mass-adoption of both consumer and managed mobile devices in the enterprise has increased employee productivity but has also exposed the enterprise to new security risks. The latest mobile platforms were designed with security in mind—both teams of engineers attempted to build security features directly into the operating system to limit attacks from the outset. However, as the paper discusses, while these security provisions raise the bar, they may be insufficient to protect the enterprise assets that regularly find their way onto devices. Finally, complicating the security picture is the fact that virtually all of today's mobile devices operate in an ecosystem, much of it not controlled by the enterprise—they connect and synchronize out-of-the-box with third-party cloud services and computers whose security posture is potentially unknown and outside of the enterprise's control.


Background/Context Over the last three decades, considerable attention has been given to the social and educational conditions of Black males. Such observations have led to the accusation that Black males are "in crisis." Although such pronouncements call national attention to the needs of Black males, these discourses have helped to normalize and fasten in place an unchanging and reworked narrative for discussing or addressing the conditions of Black males. The intent of this article is to show how, for numerous decades, both the findings and theories used to make sense of Black males within the social science and education literature have helped to produce a common-sense narrative about all Black males. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this article is to trouble historical and contemporary beliefs about Black males and to help prompt new theories, research, and interventions that account for the complex needs of Black males' lives. This article historically documents the social science and educational literature about Black males from the 1930s to the present. Two interrelated questions guided this analysis: (1) What are the common and recycled discourses employed within and across historical periods to make sense of the social and educational conditions of Black males? (2) To what extent and in what ways have these discourses closed off the kinds of questions one can ask in the present to address the social and educational conditions of Black males? This article concludes with a discussion of how researchers and educators can begin to ask new questions about Black males that explore the complexities of Black males' lives, while also challenging the same old stories that pervade educational discourse. Research Design Historicizing of knowledge was the method used in this project. Historicizing of knowledge as a method of analysis examines how trajectories of the past help to shape how "ideas and events of the present are constructed," in the words of Thomas Popkewitz. Employing this historical approach, this study focused on the visibility and presentation of theories and explanations about Black males, both adults and youth, in social science and educational literature over subsequent decades—(a) 1930s—1950s, (b) 1960s—1970s, and (c) 1980s to the present—to assess their durability and how they were changed (i.e., nuanced), if at all, over time. Findings/Results The findings from this analysis illustrate that the populational reasoning of Black males has been framed around four recursive conceptual narratives—absent and wandering, impotent and powerless, soulful and adaptive, and endangered and in crisis—from the 1930s to the present. Conclusions/Recommendations What these findings illustrate is the necessity for educational theorists and practitioners to ask new questions beyond the populational reasoning that has consumed educational discourse about Black males. The first step is for researchers and practitioners to take notice of whether typical explanations or narratives of deficit and difference guide their questions about Black male achievement, and for researchers and educators to carefully examine the diversity of Black male experiences beyond the dominant tropes of pathology and difference that have persisted within educational discourse.


Air pollution due to shipping is a serious concern for coastal regions in Europe. Shipping emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) to air on the Baltic Sea are of similar magnitude (330 kt y−1) as the combined land-based NOX:::: NOX:emissions from Finland and Sweden in all emission sectors. Deposition of nitrogen compounds originating from shipping activities contribute to eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and coastal areas in the Baltic Sea region. For the North Sea and the Baltic Sea a nitrogen emission control area (NECA) will become effective in 2021; in accordance with the International Maritime 5 Organization (IMO) target of reducing NOX emissions from ships. Future scenarios for 2040 were designed to study the effect of enforced and planned regulation of ship emissions and the fuel efficiency development on air quality and nitrogen deposition. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was used to simulate the current and future air quality situation. The meteorological fields, the emissions from ship traffic and the emissions from land-based sources were considered at a grid resolution of 4× 4 km2 for the Baltic Sea region in nested CMAQ simulations. Model simulations for the present-day (2012) 10 air quality show that shipping emissions are the major contributor to atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations over the Baltic Sea. In the business as usual (BAU) scenario, with the introduction of the NECA, NOX emissions from ship traffic in the Baltic Sea are reduced by about 80 % in 2040. An approximate linear relationship was found between ship emissions of NOX and the simulated levels of annual average NO2 over the Baltic Sea in year 2040, when following different future shipping scenarios. The burden of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) over the Baltic Sea region is predicted to decrease by 35– 15 37 % between 2012 and 2040. The reduction of PM2.5 is larger over sea, where it drops by 50–60 % along the main shipping routes, and smaller over the coastal areas. The introduction of NECA is critical for reducing ship emissions of NOX to levels that are low enough to sustainably dampen ozone (O3) production in the Baltic Sea region. A second important effect of the NECA over the Baltic Sea region is the reduction of secondary formation of particulate nitrate. This lowers the ship-related PM2.5 by 72 % in 2040 compared to present-day, while it is reduced by only 48 % without implementation of the NECA. The 20 effect of a lower fuel efficiency development on the absolute ship contribution of air pollutants is limited. Still, the annual mean ship contributions in 2040 to NO2, sulphur dioxide and PM2.5 and daily maximum O3 is significantly higher if a slower fuel efficiency development is assumed. Nitrogen deposition to the seawater of the Baltic Sea decreases on average by 40–44 % between 2012 and 2040 in the simulations. The effect of the NECA on nitrogen deposition is most significant in the western


The only mine in Cornwall which until within the last few years was known to have yielded the oxyd of uranium, was that called Carharack, which was situated about two miles nearly south of St. Die. The crystals on a specimen from that mine in my possession are tabular, of a green colour and transparent, except such of them as are partially or wholly coated by a deposition of an ochreous substance, similar to that termed gossan by the miner. This substance also is interposed between an aggregated quartz tinged with iron, and the crystals; some of which are imbedded in it. It may therefore be termed, in regard to this specimen, the matrix of the crystals. On many of them have been deposited numerous minute cubes of a light green colour; which, as there is a considerable deposition of cubic arseniated iron in a cavity of the same specimen, I consider to be that substance rather than the oxyd of uranium: for though the latter sometimes takes a form so nearly approaching to the cube as that the eye cannot perceive any difference, yet such instances are certainly not very common. In 1805, I noticed some crystals of the oxyd of uranium on the refuse heaps of Tin Croft mine, which is at the foot of a granitic hill called Carnbrae near Redruth; the veins of that mine run partly through granite, partly through schist.* A further search enabled me to obtain several beautiful specimens containing many varieties in


The present-day detailed knowledge of the zonation and the chronostratigraphic ranges of the fossils of the Mediterranean Berriasian makes it possible to re-evaluate critically the factual evidence on which the correlation of the Boreal sequence with the Tethyan standard is based. It turns out that the evidence is still very meagre and that correlation by means of marine fossils is only possible for time-intervals in which the sea level was high. Some important results of this investigation are: 1) The Valanginian age of the upper Ryazanian: the base of the Tirnovella alpillensis Subzone is stratigraphically closest to, or even coinciding with, the boundary between the lower and the upper Ryazanian and to the base of the German 'Wealden' unit 4. 2) The correlation of the English Cinder Beds with the upper Tithonian Berriasella jacobi Subzone. 3) The time-equivalence of the jacobi Subzone with the lower part of the Canadian Buchia terebratuloides Zone and with at least a part, or even the whole of the underlying Buchia fischeriana Zone, and therefore also with the upper Volgian Taimyroceras taimyrense Zone and with at least the major part, or even the whole, of the Craspedites okensis Zone. 4) The lack of any evidence for the East-European Riasanites rjasanensis Zone being older than the Mediterranean Berriasella paramimouna Subzone or younger than the Berriasella picteti Subzone. 5) The correlation of the Buchia okensis Zone with the lower part of the Berriasella paramimouna Subzone, and possibly with a small part of the Dalmasiceras dalmasi Subzone, but also with an interval in the lower part of the upper Hectoroceras kochi Zone. 6) The entire Riasanites rjasanensis Zone falling within the upper part of the Hectoroceras kochi Zone. 7) The top of the Siberian Chetaites chetae Zone being stratigraphically closest to the top of the Mediterranean Pseudosubplanites grandis Subzone and to the top of the German 'Wealden' unit 1. As the author (Hoedemaeker, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984) has proposed to draw the base of the Valanginian at the base of the alpillensis Subzone and the top of the Tithonian at the top of the grandis Subzone, the above correlations imply that the Berriasian/ Valanginian boundary is stratigraphically closest to, or even coinciding with, the boundary between the lower and upper Ryazanian and that the Tithonian/Berriasian boundary, which is also the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary, is closest to, or even coinciding with, the top of the chetae Zone. The Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary correlates approximately with the base of 'Wealden' unit 2 in Germany, with the approximate base of the Royal faunicycle of the English Purbeck Beds, and with a level not far above the middle of the rock interval occupied by the North American Buchia terebratuloides Zone.


The class of fungicides acting as respiration inhibitors by binding to the Qo center of cyto-chrome b (QoIs) are in wide use for the management of apple scab caused by Venturia inaequalis. In order to assess responses of V. inaequalis populations to treatments with QoIs, sensitivities of isolates were determined for germinating conidia or for mycelial colonies developing from germinating conidia. Under both test conditions, inhibitory potencies of kresoxim-methyl and trifloxystrobin were largely equivalent. V. inaequalis populations treated with QoIs in a commercial and an experimental orchard both responded with significant shifts toward declining QoI sensitivities. However, the population responses were quantitative in nature, and highly resistant isolates indicative of a cytochrome b target site mutation were not detected. V. inaequalis populations from both orchards investigated also were fully resistant to sterol de-methylation-inhibiting fungicides (DMIs) such as fenarimol and myclobutanil, but isolate sensitivities to QoIs and DMIs were largely unrelated. Performance tests with kresoxim-methyl and trifloxystrobin at the experimental orchard diagnosed as DMI-resistant revealed that the quantitative shift toward declining QoI sensitivities did not constitute the status of practical QoI resistance. In contrast to these quantitative responses, emergence of qualitative QoI resistance was documented for V. inaequalis in an orchard in North Germany, which had been treated intensively with a total of 25 QoI applications over four consecutive seasons. Isolates retrieved from the orchard were highly resistant to both kresoxim-methyl and trifloxystrobin and were characterized as G143A cytochrome b mutants. The results indicated that the paths of QoI resistance can be both quantitative and qualitative in nature. A similar phenomenon has not been described before. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the quantitative phase of V. inaequalis population responses to QoIs might be succeeded by a quantitative selection of highly resistant G143A target-site mutants.


This study aims to examine the repeated effects of three sessions of vigorous interval training (VIT) in basketball, running-biking, and boxing on the physical self-perceptions (PSP) of obese adolescents participating in a dietary program. A sample of 24 obese adolescents performed the consecutive VIT sessions every week for 5 weeks. PSP were measured immediately after each training session. Analyses of covariance were used to examine changes in PSP. The results showed rapid and constant increases in PSP with significant differences according to sex, time, type of VIT, and an interaction of sex by time by type of VIT, mainly for basketball.


In 1891, thousands of Tennessee miners rose up against the use of convict labor by the state's coal companies, eventually engulfing five mountain communities in a rebellion against government authority. Propelled by the insurgent sensibilities of Populism and Gilded Age unionism, the miners initially sought to abolish the convict lease system through legal challenges and legislative lobbying. When nonviolent tactics failed to achieve reform, the predominantly white miners repeatedly seized control of the stockades and expelled the mostly black convicts from the mining districts. Insurrection hastened the demise of convict leasing in Tennessee, though at the cost of greatly weakening organized labor in the state's coal regions. Exhaustively researched and vividly written, A New South Rebellion brings to life the hopes that rural southerners invested in industrialization and the political tensions that could result when their aspirations were not met. Karin Shapiro skillfully analyzes the place of convict labor in southern economic development, the contested meanings of citizenship in late-nineteenth-century America, the weaknesses of Populist-era reform politics, and the fluidity of race relations during the early years of Jim Crow. |In 1891, Tennessee miners rose up against the use of convict labor by the state's coal companies. Karen Shapiro uses the "convict wars" to analyze the place of convict labor in southern economic development, bringing to life the hopes that rural southerners invested in industrialization and the political tensions that could result when their aspirations were not met.


Abstract Our intuitive concept of the relations between brain and mind is increasingly challenged by the scientific world view. Yet, although few neuroscientists openly endorse Cartesian dualism, careful reading reveals dualistic intuitions in prominent neuroscientific texts. Here, we present the "double-subject fallacy": treating the brain and the entire person as two independent subjects who can simultaneously occupy divergent psychological states and even have complex interactions with each other—as in "my brain knew before I did." Although at first, such writing may appear like harmless, or even cute, shorthand, a closer look suggests that it can be seriously misleading. Surprisingly, this confused writing appears in various cognitive-neuroscience texts, from prominent peer-reviewed articles to books intended for lay audience. Far from being merely metaphorical or figurative, this type of writing demonstrates that dualistic intuitions are still deeply rooted in contemporary thought, affecting even the most rigorous practitioners of the neuroscientific method. We discuss the origins of such writing and its effects on the scientific arena as well as demonstrate its relevance to the debate on legal and moral responsibility.


CONTEXT
The relationship of platelet function testing measurements with outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) initially managed medically without revascularization is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To characterize the differences and evaluate clinical outcomes associated with platelet reactivity among patients with ACS treated with clopidogrel or prasugrel.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
Patients with medically managed unstable angina or non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction were enrolled in the TRILOGY ACS trial (2008 to 2011) comparing clopidogrel vs prasugrel. Of 9326 participants, 27.5% were included in a platelet function substudy: 1286 treated with prasugrel and 1278 treated with clopidogrel.

INTERVENTIONS
Aspirin with either prasugrel (10 or 5 mg/d) or clopidogrel (75 mg/d); those 75 years or older and younger than 75 years but who weighed less than 60 kg received a 5-mg prasugrel maintenance dose.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Platelet reactivity, measured in P2Y12 reaction units (PRUs), was performed at baseline, at 2 hours, and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 months after randomization. The primary efficacy end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke through 30 months.

RESULTS
Among participants younger than 75 years and weighing 60 kg or more, the median PRU values at 30 days were 64 (interquartile range [IQR], 33-128) in the prasugrel group vs 200 (IQR, 141-260) in the clopidogrel group (P < .001), a difference that persisted through all subsequent time points. For participants younger than 75 years and weighing less than 60 kg, the median 30-day PRU values were 139 (IQR, 86-203) for the prasugrel group vs 209 (IQR, 148-283) for the clopidogrel group (P < .001), and for participants 75 years or older, the median PRU values were 164 (IQR, 105-216) for the prasugrel group vs 222 (IQR, 148-268) for the clopidogrel group (P < .001). At 30 months the rate of the primary efficacy end point was 17.2% (160 events) in the prasugrel group vs 18.9% (180 events) in the clopidogrel group (P = .29). There were no significant differences in the continuous distributions of 30-day PRU values for participants with a primary efficacy end point event after 30 days (n = 214) compared with participants without an event (n = 1794; P = .07) and no significant relationship between the occurence of the primary efficacy end point and continuous PRU values (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for increase of 60 PRUs, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.96-1.11; P = .44). Similar findings were observed with 30-day PRU cut points used to define high on-treatment platelet reactivity-PRU more than 208 (adjusted HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.89-1.52, P = .28) and PRU more than 230 (adjusted HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.90-1.61; P = .21).

CONCLUSIONS
Among patients with ACS without ST-segment elevation and initially managed without revascularization, prasugrel was associated with lower platelet reactivity than clopidogrel, irrespective of age, weight, and dose. Among those in the platelet substudy, no significant differences existed between prasugrel vs clopidogrel in the occurence of the primary efficacy end point through 30 months and no significant association existed between platelet reactivity and occurrence of ischemic outcomes.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00699998.


As per article 41 of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council may adopt sanctions to prevent States or individuals and entities from threatening international peace and security. States and regional organizations, such as the European Union, may as well adopt unilateral sanctions.  The frequent use of targeted sanctions, especially in the fight against terrorism, has caused progressive concerns of potential human rights abuses, especially violations of the principle of due process. One of the least analysed topics, in this context, is the problem of wrongfully listed individuals and entities, and their right to a fair compensation for the damage suffered. This issue has become the object of an evolutionary jurisprudence of European courts. Furthermore, the Security Council has recently adopted resolution no. 2253, which specifically analyses, for the first time, the issue of wrongfully listed individuals and entities.


BACKGROUND
Recent studies have expanded the functions of vitamin D to a possible role in pulmonary function. Our objective was to examine the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D), serum parathyroid hormone, and pulmonary function in older women.

METHODS
We examined the relationship of serum 25(OH)D and parathyroid hormone with pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV(1)], forced vital capacity [FVC], and FEV(1)/FVC ratio) in a cross-sectional study of 646 moderately to severely disabled women, 65 years or more, living in the community in Baltimore, Maryland, who participated in the Women's Health and Aging Study I.

RESULTS
Overall, median (25th, 75th percentile) serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were 19.9 (14.7, 26.7) ng/mL. Serum 25(OH)D was positively associated with FEV(1) (p = .03), FVC (p = .18), and FEV(1)/FVC (p = .04) in multivariable linear regression models adjusting for age, race, education, smoking, height, physical activity, cognition, interleukin-6, chronic diseases, and other potential confounders. In the same models, serum parathyroid hormone was not significantly associated with FEV(1), FVC, or FEV(1)/FVC.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the idea that vitamin D deficiency is independently associated with poor pulmonary function in older disabled women.


The current rise of neurodevelopmental disorders poses a critical need to detect risk early in order to rapidly intervene. One of the tools pediatricians use to track development is the standard growth chart. The growth charts are somewhat limited in predicting possible neurodevelopmental issues. They rely on linear models and assumptions of normality for physical growth data – obscuring key statistical information about possible neurodevelopmental risk in growth data that actually has accelerated, non-linear rates-of-change and variability encompassing skewed distributions. Here, we use new analytics to profile growth data from 36 newborn babies that were tracked longitudinally for 5 months. By switching to incremental (velocity-based) growth charts and combining these dynamic changes with underlying fluctuations in motor performance – as the transition from spontaneous random noise to a systematic signal – we demonstrate a method to detect very early stunting in the development of voluntary neuromotor control and to flag risk of neurodevelopmental derail.


The responses of sedimentary systems to rifting at continental margins are three-dimensional and involve the mixing of various sediment sources through tectonic drivers and sediment response. Such sedimentary responses have not been well studied along magma-poor, hyperextended margins where the crust is stretched and thinned to ≤10 km. The asymmetric Mauleon Basin of the western Pyrenees is the product of such magma-poor hyperextension resulting from lateral rift propagation from the Bay of Biscay during Cretaceous time. After rifting, limited shortening during Cenozoic Pyrenean inversion uplifted the basin, resulting in preservation of outcrops of rift basin fill, upper and lower crustal sections, serpentinized lithospheric mantle, and basic rift-fault relationships. In this study ~5800 new zircon U-Pb ages were obtained from prerift, synrift, and postrift strata; the ages constrain the proximal to distal evolution of the Mauleon Basin and define a general model for sediment routing during rifting. Zircon U-Pb analyses from lower crustal granulites indicate that granulite plutons crystallized at 279 ± 2 and 274 ± 2 Ma, and paragneissic granulites yielded zircon rim ages of ca. 295 Ma. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages from western Pyrenean prerift strata show age modes of ca. 615 and ca. 1000 Ma, suggesting continual recycling and/or well-mixed Gondwanan-sourced sediments throughout the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic; additional Paleozoic age components (ca. 300 and ca. 480 Ma) are also observed. The variation of detrital zircon U-Pb ages in synrift and postrift strata illustrates that during rifting, provenance varied spatially and temporally, and sediment routing switched from being regionally, to locally, and then back to regionally derived within individual structurally controlled subbasins.


Multinational pharmaceutical corporations are searching for means to broaden their capacity for drug development while decreasing costs. Pharmaceutical firms in India and China are increasingly forging partnerships with these corporations to gain revenue and to develop their own expertise. These relationships largely appear to be symbiotic. As a result of the movement of research to their countries, Indian and Chinese scientists are rapidly developing the ability to innovate and create their own intellectual property. Several firms in India and China are performing advanced R&D and are moving into the highest-value segments of the pharmaceutical global value chain.


Style-based investment strategies have flourished in the United States. Recently, international style-based strategies have also been increasing. In addition, many investment professionals have advocated diversified style-based portfolios, that is, portfolios holding both growth and value funds. In practice, however, it is not clear that style-based diversification works well to increase return and decrease risk. The authors' empirical analysis strongly suggests that style-based diversification in the U.S. is not ideal. They find that a well-constructed, genuinely style-neutral core portfolio will likely generate higher long-term risk-adjusted performance in the U.S. than comparable growth and value portfolios. Internationally, the results are not as clear. Although international style-based portfolios outperformed core funds, the relatively new and changing style environment, coupled with the strong growth bias of international core funds, suggests that these historical results may not be indicative of future results.


We live today under the empire of image. After oral and written words, image acquires an unprecedented relevance. It dramatically determines our life, both our way of seeing the world and of performing our individual and collective existence. Our aim is to present a video installation – Body-image – followed by a discussion where, taking images of the body as a case-study, questions related to the actual epistemological value of image will be discussed. Body-image was created in 2011 by the Centre for Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon in the context of a research project entitled "Image in Science and Art". It shows images of the body produced by Science and Art since the 19 century up until today. It is structured in three moments – Body-landscape, Body-fragment, and Bodyalgorithm – accompanying the most crucial technical and technological transformations occurred in that period. The first is marked by drawing; the second by photography and X-ray; the third by digitalization.


Abstract. Despite the potential of isotope measurements to improve our understanding of the global atmospheric molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) cycle, few H 2 isotope data have been published so far. Now, within the EUROpean network for atmospheric HYDRogen Observations and Studies project (EUROHYDROS), weekly to monthly air samples from six locations in a global sampling network have been analysed for H 2 mixing ratio ( m (H 2 )) and the stable isotopic composition of the H 2 (δ(D,H 2 ), hereafter referred to as δD). The time series thus obtained now cover one to five years for all stations. This is the largest set of ground station observations of δD so far. Annual average δD values are higher at the Southern Hemisphere (SH) than at the Northern Hemisphere (NH) stations; the maximum is observed at Neumayer (Antarctica), and the minimum at the non-arctic NH stations. The maximum seasonal differences in δD range from ≈18 ‰ at Neumayer to ≈45 ‰ at Schauinsland (Southern Germany); in general, seasonal variability is largest at the NH stations. The timing of minima and maxima differs per station as well. In Alert (Arctic Canada), the variations in δD and m (H 2 ) can be approximated as simple harmonic functions with a ≈5-month relative phase shift. This out-of-phase seasonal behaviour of δD and m (H 2 ) can also be detected, but delayed and with a ≈6-month relative phase shift, at Mace Head and Cape Verde. However, no seasonal δD cycle could be observed at Schauinsland, which likely reflects the larger influence of local sources and sinks at this continental station. At the two SH stations, no seasonal cycle could be detected in the δD data. If it is assumed that the sink processes are the main drivers of the observed seasonality in m (H 2 ) and δD on the NH, the relative seasonal variations can be used to estimate the relative sink strength of the two major sinks, deposition to soils and atmospheric oxidation by the hydroxyl (OH) radical. For the NH coastal and marine stations this analysis suggests that the relative contribution of soil uptake to the total annual H 2 removal increases with latitude.


Introduction: Road traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of increased morbidity and
mortality in Mangalore City. As per statistics for road traffic accidents collected from Mangalore traffic
police for a period of 2 years i.e. 2015 and 2016, there were 327 fatal accidents, 2847 non-fatal
accidents, 2653 vehicular accidents, 3245 cases of drunken driving and 3,88,525 cases of traffic rules
violations. This alarmingly high incidence of road traffic accidents in a small coastal town motivated us to
conduct this study.
Methodology: This questionnaire based study was conducted on 400 randomly picked
participants including traffic police persons, commuters, and drivers (bus, auto, car, and bike). The
questionnaire contained both open ended and closed ended questions. Opinions and suggestions
received from the participants for various questions were compiled in MS excel sheet and were analyzed
using SPSS version 17.0 programme. Institutional Ethics Committee Clearance was obtained before
starting the study.
Results & Discussion: The data collected from the participants was listed in form of tables and
graphs. The study showed that public is well aware of traffic rules and regulations; and the traffic police is
well aware of their responsibilities. In spite of this and the fact that, Mangalore, being a modern and
educated city with good infrastructure and well-informed residents, the cases of accidents and traffic
violations are quite high. The results of this study list the opinions and suggestions of residents and police
regarding increasing accidents and suggestions to control them. The results and suggestions obtained by
this study can be used further to spread more awareness among police and public along with familiarizing
them with expectations of the other stakeholders. We hope that in long run this exercise can result in
increasing awareness, improving the road infrastructure of the city and thus reducing road traffic
accidents.


The objective of this study was to compare forest soil bulk density values obtained through conventional sampling methods such as the volumetric ring (VR: diameter 5 cm, length 10 cm) and paraffin sealed clod (PSC), with a variation of the VR, where rectangular boxes (RB) of four different dimensions were used. Sampling transects were established on a machine operating trail located in a beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) stand in Northern Iran. At each transect, three soil samples were collected at three different locations. Samples from different methods were spaced by a 50 cm distance to avoid direct interactions. The soil class of our study area was Combisols according to the WRB classification with a clay texture. Soil bulk density differed significantly between the three sampling methods. The lowest values were obtained with the RB (average 1.25 g cm), followed by the VR (average 1.40 g cm), and lastly the PSC (average 1.52 g cm). The values obtained with four variations of the RB method ranged from 1.22 to 1.28 g cm and were not found significantly different. When soil bulk density was calculated after the removal of the weight and volume of roots included in the samples, the values were determined to be higher than before but with the same range of magnitude. The lowest coefficient of variation was found for RB4 (CV=2.3%), while the highest values were observed for VR and RB1 (CV=5.7%).


To coincide with emerging arts and health practices, University College London
Museums & Collections and University College London Hospitals Arts partnered
to create a pilot project, entitled "Heritage in Hospitals", which sought to assess
whether handling museum objects has a positive impact on patient wellbeing.
Quantitative data from 32 sessions conducted with patients in May through July
(inclusive) of 2008 demonstrated, on average, an increase in self-reported
measures of life satisfaction and health status after handling museum objects.
Constant comparative analysis of the qualitative data collected from the sessions
revealed two major recurring themes: "impersonal/educational" and "personal/
reminiscence". The first theme included instances where handling museum
objects allowed patients to access truths about the objects ascertainable solely
through touch (such as gauging weight, texture, temperature, and spatial relation
to the body), to verify what was seen, to facilitate an intimate and imaginative
connection with the museum objects and their origins, to investigate and explore
the objects, to permit an interaction with the "rare" and "museum-worthy", and to
assist with aesthetic appreciation. The second theme illustrated the project's
potential to assist with counselling on issues of illness, death, loss and mourning,
and to help restore dignity, respect and a sense of identity (particularly among
elderly patients) by providing a springboard for reminiscing and the telling of life
stories in a highly institutionalized setting. This paper contextualizes the project,
explores the implications of the project's methodology and its findings, and
provides questions for future research.


The performance of a radar receiver is greatly dependent on the presence of noise. The receiver should achieve the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) and the maximum probability of the target detection. The CFAR receivers are usually used in radar applications for the radar signal processing in case of unknown or time-varying background noise statistics, especially in cases when clutter or jamming signals are above the receiver threshold. CFAR automatically adjusts the threshold to prevent the threshold crossings. The paper deals with a software-based implementation of CFAR. The softwarebased CFAR processing was tested on various types of processors and processing times were compared. The best results were achieved using the dual-core AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+ using SSE2 instructions for processing.


Purpose: To investigate the direct effect and therapeutic consequences of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeting therapy on expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and Bcl2 in preclinical models and clinical tumor samples. Experimental design: Archived xenograft tumors from two preclinical models (UACC812 and MCF7/HER2-18) treated with ER and HER2-targeting therapies and also HER2+ clinical breast cancer specimens collected in a lapatinib neoadjuvant trial (baseline and week 2 posttreatment) were used. Expression levels of ER and Bcl2 were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. The effects of Bcl2 and ER inhibition, by ABT-737 and fulvestrant, respectively, were tested in parental versus lapatinib-resistant UACC812 cells in vitro. Results: Expression of ER and Bcl2 was significantly increased in xenograft tumors with acquired resistance to anti-HER2 therapy compared with untreated tumors in both preclinical models (UACC812: ER P = 0.0014; Bcl2 P < 0.001 and MCF7/HER2-18: ER P = 0.0007; Bcl2 P = 0.0306). In the neoadjuvant clinical study, lapatinib treatment for 2 weeks was associated with parallel upregulation of ER and Bcl2 (Spearman coefficient: 0.70; P = 0.0002). Importantly, 18% of tumors originally ER-negative (ER−) converted to ER+ upon anti-HER2 therapy. In ER−/HER2+ MCF7/HER2-18 xenografts, ER reexpression was primarily observed in tumors responding to potent combination of anti-HER2 drugs. Estrogen deprivation added to this anti-HER2 regimen significantly delayed tumor progression (P = 0.018). In the UACC812 cells, fulvestrant, but not ABT-737, was able to completely inhibit anti–HER2-resistant growth (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: HER2 inhibition can enhance or restore ER expression with parallel Bcl2 upregulation, representing an ER-dependent survival mechanism potentially leading to anti-HER2 resistance. Clin Cancer Res; 21(17); 3995–4003. ©2015 AACR.


Improvements to local public transport are increasingly seen as a catalyst to achieving the development objectives of regional, national and European-level strategic policy. The provision of an integrated and accessible public transport network is considered an essential requirement to cater for the growth of our city regions, to tackle the increasing pressures of traffic congestion and to promote a more dynamic and socially inclusive society. A combination of different elements is necessary for the constraints that continue to hinder the development of attractive and efficient urban and regional public transport networks to be overcome.uEast Lancashire is typical of a European sub-region. Its location on the periphery of a majorregional centre makes it comparable to similar city regions throughout the UK and Europe. The role of an integrated transit system for East Lancashire is comprehensively recognised in regional and local policy documents as an essential element for securing the region's future prosperity and development. Journeys which involve interchange represent the area of travel by public transport where the greatest number of barriers exist that prohibit service contemplation and use. The significance of a high quality interchange environment in achieving an integrated public transport system conducive to the development of 'seamless' public transport journeys is therefore paramount. A comprehensive study was undertaken across East Lancashire that involved detailed research to identify the range of physical, commercial, institutional and conceptual barriers to public transport use that prevent such 'seamless' journeys from being realised. Three classifications of interchange type representative of the different interchange journeysundertaken by East Lancashire residents were then defined. These includedbus-bus interchanges centred at local hubs of the regional transit network; bus-rail interchanges at peripheral commuter locations; and multi-modalinterchange opportunities at the centre of the regional public transport system. Through understanding the requirements of the passenger at different stages of the interchange journey and appreciating the variable significance of barriers to travel, a series of different packages of measures were identified for implementation at each type of interchange facility. These packages aimed to highlight the necessary requirements with respect to designing for interchange, over and beyond the high quality physical environment that has become accepted as a standard prerequisite for network planning. The range of measures identified included a combined approach to infrastructure and passenger information provision, together with examination of modal synergy and interchange layout. The classification of differentinterchange types allowed the specific tailoring of requirements to target identified user groups felt to be at most risk from negative attitudes towards the use of public transport for undertaking such journeys. Bespoke measures and information strategies were assembled for three different interchange locations across East Lancashire representative of the three different interchange types identified. Pilot testing of some of the information material was also carried out to further refine outputs, maximising value for potential users. A series of implementation strategies were also compiled, outlining task and funding requirements in the short, medium and long term. The findings of the study demonstrate that whilst improvements to the standard of infrastructure and quality of service are required as standard, 'softer' elements of the journey should not be overlooked. The range of initiatives outlined to facilitate smoother transition between services at these locations may be used as a benchmark for the necessary requirements at similar public transport interchanges on a European-wide level. Informing the traveller and making the convenience and understanding of public transport use more comparable to that of the car are both essential for negative perceptions and behaviour towards public transport to be radically altered. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.


Antiretrovirals face formidable obstacles for wide-scale prevention of HIV infection. Compelling new evidence showing that oral antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) can prevent heterosexual HIV transmission has recently burst upon us. The HPTN 052 randomized study confirmed earlier observational data that, if the HIV-positive partner in a discordant couple took ARVs, transmission to the HIV-negative partner was virtually eliminated, at least for more than 2 years (1). Two randomized studies found that taking ARVs by the HIV-negative partner in a discordant couple (preexposure prophylaxis or PrEP) also reduced transmission substantially (2). These results have ignited enthusiasm for ARVs as a breakthrough for HIV prevention. Indeed, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Michel Sidebe has described it as "game changing" (3).


Formaldehyde is one of the exogenous free radicals. During formaldehyde exposure, there will be morefree radical or reactive oxygen compound formed through electron transport chain. Excessive reactiveoxygen compound triggers the process of lipid peroxide reaction in the membrane of spermatozoa cell. Theaims of this study were to find out that formaldehyde exposure caused abnormalities in the number of thenumber of spermatogonium type A, spermatogonium type Pachytene, 7th spermatid and 16th spermatid inspermatogenesis process.This study was experimentally and randomly pretested-posttested- with controlgroup design. The samples of this study were adult male mice strain Balb-C (age 2-3 months) with thefollowing criteria: body weight between 22-25 grams and healthy. Randomly, 48 mice were divided intothree groups, were control group, the first treatment group and the second treatment group. Prior to thetreatment, were taken a half from each group for the pre-test, by preparing microscopic preparation testicleand examination was performed to the total spermatogenic cells. The rests of the mice were used as posttestexamination after 35 days treatment. On the 36th day, all the rest mice were necropsied for microscopictesticle preparation. The result of this study showed that the formaldehyde exposure caused significantlydecrease in the number of spermatogenic cells (p<0,05), the average of type A spermatogonium cells atcontrol group, 1st treatment group and 2nd treatment group were 39,90±0,51; 20,42±0,72; 15,65±0,88respectively; spermatogonium type Pachytene were 48,47±1,28; 32,60±3,06; 23,14±3,16 respectively; 7thspermatid were 97,47±5,28; 39,98±4,28; 30,36±2,96 respectively and16th spermatid were 73,08±4,05;21,70±1,70; 16,38±1 respectively.It can be concluded that the formaldehyde exposure decreased the amountof spermatogenic cells. The result of this study is expected to be used as the baseline for further study inorder to measure formaldehyde content as a free radical in testicle .


Closure has value in mass litigation. Defendants often insist on it as a condition of settlement, and plaintiffs who can deliver it may be able to command a premium. But in multidistrict litigation (MDL), which currently makes up over one-third of the federal docket, closure depends on individual claimants deciding to participate in a global settlement. Accordingly, MDL settlement designers often include terms designed to encourage claimants to opt in to the settlement and discourage them from continuing to litigate. Some of these terms have been criticized as unduly coercive and as benefiting the negotiating parties — the defendant and the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs — at claimants' expense. But closure strategies vary widely and operate on claimants in complex ways. This Article examines closure provisions in recent publicly available MDL settlements. It creates a taxonomy of closure strategies, exploring how they work to ensure claimant participation and how they affect claimant choice and welfare. And it closes with a call for MDL judges to take a more active role in supervising and evaluating the terms of global settlements in MDLs.


In this paper, we develop a sliding mode control architecture to control lung volume and minute ventilation in the presence of modelling system uncertainties. Since the applied input pressure to the lungs is, in general, nonnegative and cannot be arbitrarily large, as not to damage the lungs, a sliding mode control with bounded nonnegative control inputs is proposed. The controller only uses output information (i.e., the total volume of the lungs) and automatically adjusts the applied input pressure so that the system is able to track a given reference signal in the presence of parameter uncertainty (i.e., modelling uncertainty of the lung resistances and lung compliances) and system disturbances. Controllers for both matched and unmatched uncertainties are presented. Specifically, a Lyapunov-based approach is presented for the stability analysis of the system and the proposed control framework is applied to a two-compartment lung model to show the efficacy of the proposed control method.


Effect of preventive home visits by a nurse on the outcomes of frail elderly people in the community: a randomized controlled trial. Abstract Background: Timely recognition and prevention of health problems among elderly people have been shown to improve their health. In this randomized controlled trial the authors examined the impact of preventive home visits by a nurse compared with usual care on the outcomes of frail elderly people living in the community. Methods: A screening questionnaire identified eligible participants (those aged 70 years or more at risk of sudden deterioration in health). Those randomly assigned to the visiting nurse group were assessed and followed up in their homes for 14 months. The primary outcome measure was the combined rate of deaths and admissions to an institution, and the secondary outcome measure the rate of health services utilization, during the 14 months; these rates were determined through a medical chart audit by a research nurse who was blind to group allocation. Results: The questionnaire was mailed to 415 elderly people, of whom 369 (88.9%) responded. Of these, 198 (53.7%) were eligible, and 142 consented to participate and were randomly assigned to either the visiting nurse group (73) or the usual care group (69). The combined rate of deaths and admissions to an institution was 10.0% in the visiting nurse group and 5.8% in the usual care group (p = 0.52). The rate of health services utilization did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. Influenza and pneumonia vaccination rates were significantly higher in the visiting nurse group (90.1% and 81.9%) than in the usual care group (53.0% and 0%) (p < 0.001). Interpretation: The trial failed to show any effect of a visiting nurse other than vastly improved vaccination coverage.


The book, made up of three parts, covers a wide spectrum of political economy issues on post-apartheid South Africa. Although the text is mainly descriptive, to explain various areas of the political economy of post-apartheid South Africa, the first and the last parts provide illuminating insights on the kind of society that is emerging during the twenty-one years of democracy in the country. The book discusses important aspects of the political history of apartheid South Africa and the evolution of post-apartheid society, including an important recap of the history of southern Africa before colonialism. The text is a comprehensive description of numerous political economy phenomena since South Africa gained its political independence and covers some important themes that have not been discussed in detail in other publications on post-apartheid South Africa. The book also updates earlier work of the author on policy and law making, land and agriculture, education and training as well as on poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa thereby providing a wide-ranging overview of the socio-economic development approaches followed by the successive post-apartheid administrations. Interestingly, three chapters focus on various aspects of the post-apartheid South African economy: economic policies, economic empowerment and industrial development. Through the lens of the notion of democratic developmental state and taking apartheid colonialism as a point of departure, the book suggests that, so far, post-apartheid South Africa has mixed socio-economic progress. The author's extensive experience in the South African government ensures that the book has policy relevance while it is also theoretically sound. The text is useful for anyone who wants to understand the totality of the policies and legislation as well as the political economy interventions pursued since 1994 by the South African Government.


In this paper, the recent Austrian, French, Swiss, and Turkish legislative drafts, proposals and pre-proposals concerning tortious liability are analysed against the background of the Principles of European Tort Law (PETL). We address three issues in particular. First, we deal with the use of the concepts of 'danger' and 'increased danger' as founding principles for both fault-based liability and strict or semi-strict liability for dangerous activities and objects. We argue that the legislative use of general clauses - or standards - rather than a more or less fixed set of rules for strict liability is not to be preferred.

Secondly, we address the virtual division of tort law into two systems of tort law, one for natural persons acting without a specific professional role, and one for legal persons, corporations and organisations. It seems that all the drafts, proposals and principles implicitly or explicitly adhere to this bipolar structure of tort law.

Finally, we turn to the question what the drafts, proposals and principles learn us about the goals of tort law as perceived by the draftsmen and how these goals are actually served in the drafts.


ABSTRACT Sphaeropsis sapinea is the causal agent of Sphaeropsis tip blight disease of pines. Past surveys of diseased and symptomless Austrian and Scots pines revealed that latent infections of symptomless shoots by S. sapinea are common. The role of these latent infections in the tip blight disease is unknown. A sampling technique and nested-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol were developed to detect latent S. sapinea in symptomless pine shoots. The sampling protocol was designed to be minimally destructive to the shoot so it could be preserved for further studies. The primers that were developed were specific for S. sapinea DNA and did not amplify DNA from any of 13 other endophytic fungal species that were commonly isolated from symptomless pine shoots. The PCR primers also amplified DNA of Botryosphaeria obtusa, which was, however, rare in symptomless Austrian pine tissues. The protocol detected as little as 0.93 pg of S. sapinea DNA in terminal bud samples and 10.4 pg of DNA in bark samples. Correlation (chi-square) analyses indicated that the nested-PCR protocol detected latent S. sapinea infections in both bud and bark samples with an efficiency that was statistically equivalent to isolating the fungus from the tissue. The nested-PCR protocol will make it possible to more quickly identify latent S. sapinea infections in symptomless pine shoots and should be useful in future studies of the latency phenomenon.