Recently two review articles were published on the epidemiologic evidence for the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) (1, 2). We re-evaluated the original research articles to gain an insight into the existing discrepancies between the two reviews.

The meta-analysis by Boffetta et al (1) included two recently updated multicenter cohort studies, one done in Europe (3) and one in the United States (4), and six smaller cohort studies, in the Soviet Union, France, Canada, Germany, China, and Taiwan. The meta-analysis, as most individual studies do, clearly indicated that VCM workers are at an increased risk for angiosarcoma of the liver. This is such a rare tumor in the general population that no standardized mortality ratio (SMR) has been calculated for it. Had such a calculation been done, the SMR would have been excessively high. The SMR for liver cancer, other than angiosarcomas of the liver, was also elevated, giving an SMR of 1.35 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.04–1.77]. Two arguments are given for the proposition that these other liver cancers are related to VCM exposure. First, the excess correlates very well with the year of first employment, a measure corresponding with exposure intensity. Second, Boffetta and his colleagues argue that there seems to be a deficit of cirrhosis of the liver, which could indicate that benign proliferative processes turn malignant under exposure to VCM. These considerations can also be interpreted differently. First, if the liver cancers not coded as angiosarcoma are, in reality, angiosarcomas, they would follow the same time pattern as the deaths rightfully coded as angiosarcomas. Therefore, it is not surprising that the SMR values of liver cancers excluding the known angiosarcomas are strongly correlated with the year of first exposure. Thus the fact that the SMR values of other liver cancer deaths are strongly correlated with the year of first employment can also be interpreted as supporting the possibility that the increased SMR for other liver cancer mortality is caused by misdiagnoses of angiosarcoma cases. Second, the hypothesis that the cases with cirrhosis of the liver may have evolved into malignant liver cancer under the presence of VCM is purely speculative. There is no evidence in the literature to support such a change from benign neoplasia to malignant cancer. Liver cancer generally arises from the hepatocytes, whereas liver cirrhosis involves the connective tissue and fibrous cells, which are from a different histological origin. It is very unlikely that fibrous cells could be the origin of liver cancer.

The main results of the meta-analysis and the comments given by Boffetta et al (1), as well as the comments given by us in this letter, are displayed in table 1. In their meta-analysis, Boffetta and his colleagues statistically assessed the heterogeneity of the study-specific results, using a P-value of ³0.01. Because of the low power of the statistical tests for heterogeneity and the possibility of type II errors, experts recommend a significance level of 0.10 instead of the more traditional level of 0.05, or even 0.01 (5, 6). Furthermore, if there is no component of variability between studies, the results of methods based on fixed and random effects modeling are essentially identical (5, 7). When there is a component of variability between studies, the confidence interval for a summary estimate of effect size is wider when random effects modeling is used. Thus the null hypothesis of no effect will be more often accepted if based on the random effects model. In case of true homogeneity of study-specific results, fixed effects modeling is recommended, yielding smaller confidence intervals for the regression coefficients than random effects modeling (8). If residual heterogeneity exists, random effects modeling is appropriate. When the P-value of the test of heterogeneity was ≥0.01, Boffetta and his co-workers concluded that the study-specific results were adequately similar, and they conducted a meta-analysis based on random-effects modeling. As mentioned earlier, a significance level of 0.10 is recommended because of the low power of statistical tests for heterogeneity. Consequently, the meta-analysis, based on fixed and random effects modeling, had to be conducted differently. We have repeated the meta-analysis using the proposed modeling procedures (table 2).

Bosetti and his colleagues (2) published a review of the epidemiologic literature on occupational exposure to vinyl chloride and cancer risk. In this review only the two large multicompany studies in Europe and the United States were included, encompassing the mortality of over 22 000 VCM workers. From data on the two large cohort studies, Bosetti et al concluded that they "are reassuring in excluding any mortality from lung, laryngeal, soft tissue sarcoma, brain and lymphoid neoplasms, as well as cirrhosis. There appears to be a slight excess risk for liver cancer other than angiosarcomas, which is difficult to interpret since it is likely to be due in part to residual misclassification of angiosarcomas as liver cancers".

The disagreement between the two reviews lies with the interpretation of the data concerning the risk of soft-tissue sarcoma. Where Boffetta et al concluded that there may be an excess of soft-tissue sarcoma (two multicenter studies: SMR 2.41, 95% CI 1.45–3.99), Bosetti calculated an SMR for soft-tissue sarcoma (excluding cases with liver angiosarcoma) of 1.31 (95% CI 0.63–2.41) and interpreted these data as not supporting an excess related to industrial exposures. Because of misclassification of three out of six deaths in the European multicenter study and four out of twelve deaths in the North American study, the combined analysis of Bosetti et al on the presence of an excess of soft-tissue sarcoma should be correct. Nonetheless, the quantification of an overall meta-SMR (two multicenter studies and two individual studies) for the data of Boffetta et al, including the correct numbers for the two multicenter studies, results in an SMR of 1.69 (95% CI 1.01–2.83). Hence there still may be a small excess of soft-tissue sarcoma for VCM workers. The key issue is how the cases of soft-tissue sarcoma, which later turned out to be misdiagnosed cases of angiosarcoma, should be treated. According to classic epidemiologic principles, the comparability of health effect data between an exposed group and an unexposed group should never be compromised, and the quality and completeness of health data from the exposed group should be similar to that of the unexposed group. Only the deaths from soft-tissue sarcoma among the VCM workers were re-evaluated, and misdiagnoses were looked for only in this group but not in the unexposed group, the general population. According to this line of reasoning, the soft-tissue sarcoma deaths that later turned out to be angiosarcomas should still be treated as soft-tissue sarcomas. However, in the general population, angiosarcoma is almost nonexistent, and this cancer can almost be regarded as specific for VCM exposure. Since the prevalence of angiosarcoma among VCM workers is much higher than in other populations, the chances of mistakenly diagnosing angiosarcoma for a soft-tissue sarcoma is much higher for VCM workers than for the general population and, for practical purposes, only exists for VCM workers. Given that this chance is much higher for VCM workers, there is the likelihood that a true relationship between VCM and angiosarcoma may result in a spurious association between VCM exposure and soft-tissue sarcoma. If the prevalence of angiosarcoma would have been similar for the VCM workers and the general population, we would have agreed with Boffetta et al, and we would have argued not to change the diagnoses from the soft-tissue sarcoma deaths to angiosarcoma, following a better inspection of the cases. However, in this case, with a very large difference in the prevalence of angiosarcoma between the VCM workers and the general population, it is imperative to use the most correct causes of death, in accordance with Bosetti et al (2). Nevertheless, it is very difficult to make any definitive statement in this respect. The collection of additional data on the histological cell type of these soft-tissue sarcomas could help clarify this matter. Furthermore, this matter could be investigated in more detail in, for example, a small nested case–control study on soft-tissue sarcomas in these two cohorts. To conclude, in many meta-analyses, heterogeneity can and should be investigated to increase the clinical relevance of the conclusions drawn and the scientific understanding of the studies reviewed (9). Therefore, exploring sources of heterogeneity, by means of meta-regression analyses, is recommended.

This work, done by scientists from the Maastricht University, was financially supported by the European Council of Vinyl Chloride Manufacturers.


Two-way real-time video communication in wireless networks requires high bandwidth, low delay and error resiliency. This paper addresses these demands by proposing a system with the integration of Network Coding (NC), user cooperation using Randomized Distributed Space-time Coding (R-DSTC) and packet level Forward Error Correction (FEC) under a one-way delay constraint. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms both conventional direct transmission as well as R-DSTC based two-way cooperative transmission, and is most effective when the distance between the users is large.


Energy efficiency has been the driving force behind the design of communication protocols for battery-constrained wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The energy efficiency and the performance of the proposed protocol stacks, however, degrade dramatically in case the low-powered WSNS are subject to interference from high-power wireless systems such as WLANs. In this paper we propose COG-MAC, a novel cognitive medium access control scheme (MAC) for IEEE 802.15.4-compliant WSNS that minimizes the energy cost for multihop communications, by deriving energy-optimal packet lengths and single-hop transmission distances based on the experienced interference from IEEE 802.11 WLANs. We evaluate COG-MAC by deriving a detailed analytic model for its performance and by comparing it with previous access control schemes. Numerical and simulation results show that a significant decrease in packet transmission energy cost, up to 66%, can be achieved in a wide range of scenarios, particularly under severe WLAN interference. COG-MAC is, also, lightweight and shows high robustness against WLAN model estimation errors and is, therefore, an effective, implementable solution to reduce the WSN performance impairment when coexisting with WLANs.


Antigenic variation processes play a central role in parasite invasion and chronic infectious disease, and are likely to respond to host immune mechanisms and epidemiological characteristics. Whether changes in antigenic variation strategies lead to net positive or negative effects for parasite fitness is unclear. To improve our understanding of pathogen evolution, it is important to investigate the mechanisms by which pathogens regulate antigenic variant expression. This involves consideration of the complex interactions that occur between parasites and their hosts, and top-down and bottom-up factors that might drive changes in the genetic architecture of their antigenic archives.

Increasing availability of pathogen genomic data offers new opportunities to understand the fundamental mechanisms of immune evasion and pathogen population dynamics during chronic infection. Motivated by the growing knowledge on the antigenic variation system of the sleeping sickness parasite, the African trypanosome, in this thesis, we present different models that analyze antigenic variation of this parasite at different biological scales, ranging from the within-host level, to between-host transmission, and finally the parasite genetics level.

First, we describe mechanistically how the structure of the antigenic archive impacts the parasite population dynamics within a single host, and how it interplays with other within-host processes, such as parasite density-dependent differentiation into transmission life-stages and specific host immune responses. Our analysis focuses first on a single parasitaemia peak and then on the dynamics of multiple peaks that rely on stochastic switching between groups of parasite variants. We show that the interplay between the two types of parasite control within the host: specific and general, depends on the modular structure of the parasite antigenic archive. Our modelling reveals that the degree of synchronization in stochastic variant emergence (antigenic block size) determines the relative dominance of general over specific control within a single peak, and can divide infection scenarios into stationary and oscillatory regimes. A requirement for multiple-peak dynamics is a critical switch rate between blocks of antigenic variants, which depends on host characteristics, such as the immune delay, and implies constraints on variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) archive genetic diversification.

Secondly, we study the interactions between the structure and function of the antigenic archive at the transmission level. By using nested modelling, we show that the genetic architecture of the archive has important consequences for pathogen fitness within and between hosts. We find host-dependent optimality criteria for the antigenic archive that arise as a result of typical trade-offs between parasite transmission and virulence. Our analysis suggests that different traits of the host population can select for different aspects of the antigenic archive, reinforcing the importance of host heterogeneity in the evolutionary dynamics of parasites.

Variant-specific host immune competence is likely to select for larger antigenic block sizes. Parasite tolerance and host life-span are likely to select for whole archive expansion as more archive blocks provide the parasite with a fitness advantage. Within-host carrying capacity, resulting from density-dependent parasite regulation, is likely to impact the evolution of between-block switch rates in the antigenic archive. Our study illustrates the importance of quantifying the links between parasite genetics and within-host dynamics, and suggests that host body size might play a significant role in the evolution of trypanosomes.

In Chapters 4 and 5 we consider the genetics behind trypanosome antigenic variation. Antigen switch rates are thought to depend on a range of genetic features, among which, the genetic identity between the switch-off and switch-on gene. The subfamily structure of the VSG archive is important in providing the conditions for this type of switching to occur. We develop a hidden Markov model to describe and estimate evolutionary processes generating clustered patterns of genetic identity between closely related gene sequences. Analysis of alignment data from high-identity VSG genes in the silent antigen gene archive of the African trypanosome identifies two scales of subfamily diversification: local clustering of sequence mismatches, a putative indicator of gene conversion events with other lower-identity donor genes in the archive, and the sparse scale of isolated mismatches, likely to arise from independent point mutations. In addition to quantifying the respective rates of these two processes, our method yields estimates for the gene conversion tract length distribution and the average diversity contributed locally by conversion events. Model fitting is conducted for a range of models using a Bayesian framework. We find that gene conversion events with lower-identity partners are at least 5 times less common than point mutations for VSG pairs, and the average imported conversion tract is short. However, due to the high frequency of mismatches in converted segments, the two processes have almost equal impact on the rate of sequence diversification between VSG sub-family members. We are able to disentangle the most likely locations of point mutations vs. conversions on each aligned gene pair.

Finally we model VSG archive diversification at the global scale, as a result of opposing evolutionary forces: point mutation, which induces diversification, and gene conversion, which promotes global homogenization. By adopting stochastic simulation and theoretical approaches such as population genetics and the diffusion approximation, we find how the stationary identity configuration of the archive depends on mutation and conversion parameters. By fitting the theoretical form of the distribution to the current VSG archive configuration, we estimate the global rates of gene conversion and point mutation. The relative dominance of mutation as an evolutionary force quantifies the high divergence propensity of VSG genes in response to host immune pressures.

The success of our models in describing realistic infection patterns and making predictions about the fitness consequences of the parasite antigenic archive illustrates the advantage of using integrative approaches that bridge between different biological scales. Even though quantifying the genetic signatures of antigenic variation remains a challenging task, cross-disciplinary analyses and mechanistic modelling of parasite genomic data can help in this direction, to better understand parasite evolution.


Roundabouts are safer than intersections because they reduce the number of potential conflicts between road users and lower the driving speed. In the Netherlands, replacing an intersection by a roundabout is estimated to reduce the number of severe casualties by approximately 46%. The traffic flow is usually better on roundabouts than on intersections, and exhaust emission and noise decrease, certainly when compared with signalized intersections. Roundabouts, however, take up more space. There has been discussion for a long time already about whether it is safer or less safe for cyclists and moped riders to have priority on roundabouts with separate bicycle tracks. Roundabouts with priority for cyclists appear to be less safe, but due to mobility reasons cyclists and moped riders generally have priority on Dutch urban roundabouts.


We compare three technological approaches for quarter-wave retarders within the context of polarimetric-imaging applications in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectrum. Performance of a commercial cadmium sulfide (CdS) crystalline waveplate, a multilayer meanderline structure, and a silicon (Si) form-birefringent retarder are evaluated under conditions of 8-12 μm broadband radiation emerging from an F/1 focusing objective. Metrics used for this comparison are the spectrally dependent axial ratio, retardance, and polarization-averaged power transmittance, which are averaged over the angular range of interest. These parameters correspond to the characteristics that would be observed at the focal-plane array (FPA) detector of an LWIR imaging polarimeter.


Delivering delay-sensitive data to a group of receivers with minimum latency is a fundamental problem for various distributed applications. In this paper, we study multicast routing with minimum end-to-end delay to the receivers. The delay to each receiver in a multicast tree consist of the time that the data spends in overlay links as well as the latency incurred at each overlay node, which has to send out a piece of data several times over a finite-capacity network connection. The latter portion of the delay, which is proportional to the degree of nodes in the tree, can be a significant portion of the total delay as we show in the paper. Yet, it is often ignored or only partially addressed by previous multicast algorithms. We formulate the actual delay to the receivers in a multicast tree and consider minimizing the average and the maximum delay in the tree. We show the NP-hardness of these problems and prove that they cannot be approximated in polynomial time to within any reasonable approximation ratio. We then present a number of efficient algorithms to build a multicast tree in which the average or the maximum delay is minimized. These algorithms cover a wide range of overlay sizes for both versions of our problem. The effectiveness of our algorithms is demonstrated through comprehensive experiments on different real-world datasets, and using various overlay network models. The results confirm that our algorithms can achieve much lower delays (up to 60% less) and up to orders of magnitude faster running times (i.e., supporting larger scales) than previous minimum-delay multicast approaches.


This paper examines the perceptions of practitioners of the new directions taken by NZICA with respect to its academic and professional programme requirements to obtain CA Institute membership. The "future viability of any professional body is dependent on continuously attracting new members, ideally the best and the brightest new tertiary graduates", and this is "undoubtedly the case for New Zealand's professional accounting body, the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA)" (Malthus & Fowler 2009, p. 26). In this study, the concurrent triangulation approach to mixed methods described by Creswell (2009) was used to collect data. This approach enabled the results of the two quantitative and qualitative databases to be integrated and compared. It was found that accounting practitioners felt the changes made by NZICA may devalue the brand, while the reduction in liberal papers would result in a narrower degree. Overall, accounting practitioners agreed that three to four years of tertiary accounting education was adequate, a broader four-year course would result in a better-rounded graduates. The reduction in the length of the tertiary programme caused concern that future graduates would be less mature. Accounting practitioners also felt that the changes would harm the credibility of NZICA internationally. However, some accounting practitioners did welcome the fact that the NZICA membership requirements will be more aligned with Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia. Accounting practitioners felt that the new technical modules would offer more flexibility. They believed that the four technical modules should repeat the material taught at university, as long as a balance was maintained between technical and practical skills. They also believed that the changes would result in an increased onus on the employer. Additionally, accounting practitioners agreed that on-the-job training should not replace a tertiary qualification in accounting. Accounting practitioners noted that on-the-job training replacing tertiary education meant that individuals who learn better through practical experience would be advantaged. However, if there was no tertiary education, then graduates would face a steep learning curve.


This paper presents a full-field dye concentration measurement technique that extends our experimental capabilities to the measurement of transient dye concentration fields within steady state flow fields under unsaturated on saturated conditions. Simple light absorption theory provides a basis for translating images into high resolution dye concentration fields. A series of dye pulse experiments that demonstrate the combined use of the full-field saturation and dye concentration techniques was conducted at four different degrees of saturation. Each of these experimental sequences was evaluated with respect to mass balance, the results being within 5% of the known dye mass input. An image windowing technique allowed us to see increased dispersion due to decreasing moisture content, tailing of concentration at the year of the dye pulse and slight velocity changes of the dispersive front due to changes in moisture content. The exceptional resolution of dye concentration in space and time provided by this laboratory technique allows systematic experimentation for examining basic processes affecting solute transport within saturated/unsaturated porous media. Future challenges for this work will be to use these techniques to analyze more complex systems involving heterogeneities, scaling laws, and detailed investigations of the relationship between transverse and longitudinal dispersion in unsaturated media.


The use of machine learning algorithms frequently involves careful tuning of learning parameters and model hyperparameters. Unfortunately, this tuning is often a "black art" requiring expert experience, rules of thumb, or sometimes brute-force search. There is therefore great appeal for automatic approaches that can optimize the performance of any given learning algorithm to the problem at hand. In this work, we consider this problem through the framework of Bayesian optimization, in which a learning algorithm's generalization performance is modeled as a sample from a Gaussian process (GP). We show that certain choices for the nature of the GP, such as the type of kernel and the treatment of its hyperparameters, can play a crucial role in obtaining a good optimizer that can achieve expertlevel performance. We describe new algorithms that take into account the variable cost (duration) of learning algorithm experiments and that can leverage the presence of multiple cores for parallel experimentation. We show that these proposed algorithms improve on previous automatic procedures and can reach or surpass human expert-level optimization for many algorithms including latent Dirichlet allocation, structured SVMs and convolutional neural networks.


This study is the initial part of a doctoral dissertation research conducted with the aim at designing a learning model in teaching speaking according to the needs of faculty and students. The learning model is designed based on curriculum of Indonesian Language Education and Literature study program, IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro, Unirow Tuban, and Unisda Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia. The development of this model is done to improve the students speaking skills. Research and development are the steps consist of a needs analysis, document analysis, design models, development models and experimental models. Needs analysis was conducted by researchers to the students of the first semester and three teachers' and the head of study program of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro, Unirow Tuban and Unisda lamongan to get information related to the needs of students and faculty to model of learning speaking. Needs analysis and  documents analysis were collected through questionnaires, interviews, and discussions with students and academics. Document and needs analysis in this study a syllabus, lesson plan (RPP) and the model used for this study. This research was carried out by following the nature of the procedures of research and development covering the steps of (1) an exploratory study, (2) the stage of development, (3) the testing phase models, (4) dissemination (Borg and Gall (1983) and Sukmadinata (2008)). The results of the analysis of questionnaires, and interviews revealed that lecturers need guidelines for the implementation of learning speaking. Learning model strategies wite that foster self-confidence in speaking is needed by students'. Keywords : Model, Learning, Speaking.


Discourses and practices of anticipation occupy a hypertrophic
space in contexts where uncontrolled industrial growth has inflicted grave
damage on peoples and territories, even triggering environmental disasters.
This article explores the use of nonhuman species as anticipatory devices in
a petrochemical terminal in Sicily, focusing on public representations of three
species: scavenger bacteria that play a cleansing role and underline citizens'
moral responsibility to secure their best possible futures through bioscience;
migrating flamingos that breed under the petrochemical chimneys, raising
the possibility of hopefulness by highlighting ecosystem resilience; and fish
affected by spina bifida, which reveal human health status in advance, communicating
the need to live in preparation for potential diseases. The analysis
reveals the highly contentious character of these anticipatory devices and the
contested ideas about possible futures they imply, thus shedding light on the
ecological frictions that have repercussions locally and globally, in discourse
and social practice.


Theological and Philosophical Responses to Syncretism: Beyond the Mirage of Pure Religion by Patrik Fridlund and Mika Vahakangas (eds.) elaborates the consequences of admitting the unavoidable syncretic nature of religions in theology and philosophy of religion.


The thrust of this paper is to access how factors in social inequality impact on learning process among primary school children in Athi-River district.  The objectives of the study were three fold, namely i)  to identify types of social inequality and challenge,ii) document access to education by primary school pupils and  iii)  determine the state of retention of learners  in schools.  The study was premised on the Reference Theory by Matron (1936) which stipulates that people often identify with social and cultural group to which they belong.   A descriptive survey design was adopted to guide the study. A combination of purposive and stratified sampling techniques were applied to select  256 subjects comprising of 48 parents, 72 teachers , 120 pupils and 2 quality assurance and standards officers (QASOs) to participate in the study.  Questionnaires for teachers and pupils, focused group discussion for parents and interview guidelines for QASOs were the main research instruments used to collect data.  The major findings were that poverty, family background (orphans) poor infrastructure, poor pupil-teacher ratio, level of parental education and poor housing were the major social inequality factors in the community.  It was also evident that although   accessibility to school was good, the schools were not enough for all school-age going children.   The conclusion was that the negative impacts of social inequality on education of pupils include poor academic performance, lateness to school, dropping out of school, early marriages, early employment and drug abuse. The study recommended that employing   more teachers, improving school feeding programs and infrastructure were some of the measures meant to reduce the negative impacts of social inequality in schooling in the study locale of Athi-River District, Machakos County, Kenya.[278  words]. Keywords : Social inequality, Access, Retention, Completion rate, primary schools, Athi-River District, Machakos County, Kenya.


Political identities reflect social inequalities and are rewritten at every historical conjuncture with symbolic materials, arguments and states of consciousness that prevail. Languages that use a human group in this context are vehicles for such reconstruction and act simultaneously as a reflection and a mental space where tensions generated by the socio-political struggle are crystallized. In this dual role, languages are powerful catalysts for group emotions. They incorporate these emotions into to socio-communicative dynamism and express them as a complement to other systems of social semiosis. Furthermore, language is quite a malleable material that infiltrates social practices, shapes ideological enunciation and lends itself to political manipulation, triggered by the media. However, for political manipulation to exist, certain conditions for the receptivity of such messages must also exist. The breeding ground of emotions has to be rich enough and respond to external stimuli in an intelligible way. Under these assumptions, we consider three interdependent objectives: (a) to make a provisional balance of academic research on the so-called phenomenon of blaverisme, (b) to consider the problems in the method inherent to understanding the conflict and (c) to analyze the historical and cultural substrate of fear towards the other and fear of linguistic impersonation, emotions, in our opinion, that are the genesis of Valencian anti-Catalanism.


The aim of this dissertation was twofold. First, to explore how counterfactuals embedded in narratives modulate updating processes as a consequence of their dual meaning. In two behavioral experiments (Chapter 1), participants responded to test probes following a factual or counterfactual text. The experiments confirmed that the realistic meaning of counterfactuals (an implicit negation) prevented readers to updating the situation model, whereas the alternative meaning of counterfactuals was activated to some degree exactly like a factual meaning. A new experiment with EEG (Chapter 2) clearly showed specific brain signatures of the dual meaning and updating processes in counterfactuals: N400 (in the ERP analyses) and gamma band power modulation (in the time-frequency analyses).
The second focus of this dissertation was to test whether counterfactuals activate embodied representations. A set of 3 behavioral experiments with an Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect paradigm (Chapter 3) revealed an interaction between the meaning of transfer sentences and the direction of finger motions, demonstrating that action-related sentences (either counterfactual or factual) and motor actions share processes in the brain. Finally, in the last experiment (Chapter 4), in an event-related fMRI study participants read factual and counterfactual sentences describing actions with different degrees of effort. The results showed that high-effort sentences elicited more activation than low-effort sentences in the left inferior parietal lobule and other motor areas, independently of their counterfactual or factual format. In addition, counterfactuals showed specific activation in frontal regions related to the additional processes demanded by their dual meaning.


In the present study, a corpus of more than 18,000 online dating ads (downloaded from Craigslist.com, ~ 1.4 million words) is used to investigate differences in language use between men and women in the online dating context. Few studies have investigated gender differences in written texts, Newman, Groom et al. (2008), Mulac and Lundell (1994) and Koppel, Argamon et al. (2002) being the notable exceptions. These papers, however, differ remarkably in methodology and results. In the dataset studied here, regression analysis reveals marked differences the use of linguistic features such as emoticons or abbreviations. Writer gender and addressee gender emerge as predictors of variation. Schultz, p.2


ABSTRACT This article presents and empirically evaluates an analytical experiment in which we seek to translate individual-level explanations of differences in political participation to an organizational level. Utilizing the Civic Voluntarism Model, we analyse the consequences of voluntary associations' politically valuable 'resources', 'motivation', and 'recruitment networks'. Using data from a survey of ethnic associations in Stockholm, Sweden, results suggest that the overall logic of how associational-level political participation is encouraged resembles corresponding mechanisms on the individual level. We conclude that both our theoretical argument and empirical findings merit further analyses of civil society actors' political participation with the approach taken in this study.


The study aimed at analysing causes that influence the achievement of Tanzania Police Force to Prevent crime, assessing the indicators which show the success in the prevention of crime, to examine the methods used by Tanzania Police Force to combat crime, and to determine the challenges that Tanzania Police Force face. The methodologies used to collect data were both qualitative and quantitative nature, about 75 respondents were interviewed. In general the findings in the first objective recognized that, community Policing and government assistance, spirit of commitment to some police officers and good administrative system of the Force, were analysed as the causes that influence achievement to prevent crime. Also the findings in objective two picked out the indicators which show the success in the prevention of crime as, public trust and confidence over the Force, reduction of fear of crime, material and moral support from the community and number of crime reported, Likewise the findings in objective three reveal the methods used by Tanzania Police Force to combat crime which are, Community Policing, Police operations, the use of Forensic science, the use of field force unit, the use of ant robbery section, and the use of diplomacy, and education to the community. Furthermore in objective four the findings show the challenges that Tanzania Police Force face which are, insufficient resources, negative perception by the public, poor forensic capacity, discriminatory environment of Tanzania`s law, poor accountability of Police Human Resource Department, and corruption. The government, Police and community at large should together participate in the process of crime prevention because crime is the threat to public and individual safety.


Active DNA demethylation is crucial for epigenetic control, but the underlying enzymatic mechanisms are incompletely understood. REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1 (ROS1) is a 5-methylcytosine (5-meC) DNA glycosylase/lyase that initiates DNA demethylation in plants through a base excision repair process. The enzyme binds DNA nonspecifically and slides along the substrate in search of 5-meC. In this work, we have used homology modelling and biochemical analysis to gain insight into the mechanism of target location and recognition by ROS1. We have found that three putative helix-intercalating residues (Q607, R903 and M905) are required for processing of 5-meC:G pairs, but dispensable for excision of mismatched 5-meC. Mutant proteins Q607A, R903A and M905G retain the capacity to process an abasic site opposite G, thus suggesting that all three residues play a critical role in early steps of the base extrusion process and likely contribute to destabilization of 5meC:G pairs. While R903 and M905 are not essential for DNA binding, mutation of Q607 abrogates stable binding to both methylated and nonmethylated DNA. However, the mutant protein Q607A can form stable complexes with DNA substrates containing blocked ends, which suggests that Q607 intercalates into the helix and inhibits sliding. Altogether, our results suggest that ROS1 uses three predicted helixinvading residues to actively interrogate DNA in search for 5-meC.


Objective To determine the effectiveness of an adjuvanted monovalent vaccine against pandemic influenza A/H1N1 among people with underlying chronic diseases. Design Historical cohort study. Setting Mandatory national reporting systems, 2 November 2009 to 31 January 2010, Denmark. Participants 388 069 people under 65 years of age with a diagnosis in the past five years of at least one underlying disease expected to increase the risk of severe illness after influenza. Main outcome measures Laboratory confirmed H1N1 infection and influenza related hospital admission with laboratory confirmed H1N1 infection. Estimates of vaccine effectiveness were adjusted for age and underlying disease. Results The effectiveness of pandemic vaccine against confirmed H1N1 infection 14 days after one dose of vaccine was 49% (95% confidence interval 10% to 71%). The effectiveness of vaccine against admission to hospital for confirmed H1N1 infection was 44% (−19% to 73%). Conclusions The adjuvanted monovalent vaccine against pandemic influenza A/H1N1 was offered late in the 2009-10 influenza season. Among chronically ill people, this vaccine offered protection against laboratory confirmed H1N1 infection but only offered non-significant protection against influenza related hospital admissions confirmed as H1N1 infection. This finding is of public health relevance because the population of chronically ill people is a major target group for pandemic vaccinations and because of the delayed availability of pandemic vaccines in a forthcoming pandemic.


The article deals with the problems of the history of early Protestant art in Livonia (contemporary Latvia) during the 16th and first half of 17th centuries. The short survey on historical background of the approaching Reformation includes the political and economic contradictions among  German (Teutonic) Order, the Archbishop of Riga, the Protestant clergy, the local nobility and the citizenry. The change in the people's world outlook succeeded the new expressive approach in the traditional iconology of tombstones, reliefs and stone sculpture that emerged simultaneously, or immediately after, the iconoclasm in Livonia (1521- 1523). The Livonian War and battles against Tsar Ivan, the Terrible of Russia weakened the military resistance of the former mosaic of feudal states. The territory of Livonia was occupied by the Swedish and Polish armies, which did not hesitate to institute the political division of the country under the slogan of confessional polarisation. Part of contemporary Estonia became a Swedish province, but part of contemporary Latvia was subordinated to the King of Poland. Under Polish rule, the processes of confessionalization were instituted and, for about 40 years, the Nordic part of contemporary Latvia, which was called Livland, experienced the politics of an aggressive Counter-Reformation. This resulted in the appearance of a new iconography, new topics and genres. Indirect inspiration from Italian art can be perceived in the memorial monuments of the nobility and new genres – wall graves and wall epitaphs – appeared. The confessional and political instability  provoked a kind of stagnation in the birth of new forms of art inspired by early Protestant ideology, but it also stimulated an increase in the secret language of symbols, iconographic variations and metaphoric expression.


This paper presents the technical details of the software package SDT in the R computing and graphics environment, implementing a convex quadratic program that was recently proposed in the literature on self-determination theory of human motivation. Three main features are addressed, with their accompanying code for computation in R: first, the application of the quadratic program and corresponding code for the analysis of the extent of motivation internalization or externalization; second, for exploring the simplex structure assumption of motivation; and third, for adjusting the confounded scoring protocol, called the self-determination or relative autonomy index, to account for the mixture of internal motivation and external motivation. We describe the functions of the R package SDT. The computations are demonstrated with example data accompanying the package, so researchers can run the methodology on their own datasets.


Sensorineural hearing loss, characterized by damage to sensory hair cells and/or associated nerve fibers is a leading cause of hearing disorders throughout the world. To date, treatment options are limited and there is no cure for damaged inner ear cells. Because the inner ear is a tiny organ housed in bone deep within the skull, access to the inner ear is limited, making delivery of therapeutic agents difficult. In recent years scientists have investigated a number of growth factors that have the potential to regulate survival or recovery of auditory neurons. Coinciding with the focus on molecules that may restore function are efforts to develop novel delivery methods. Researchers have been investigating the use of mini osmotic pumps, viral vectors and stem cells as a means of providing direct application of growth factors to the inner ear. This review summarizes recent findings regarding the molecules that may be useful for restoring damaged spiral ganglion neurons, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various delivery systems.


Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a biologically heterogeneous illness with a variable clinical course. Loss of chromosomal material on chromosome 13 at cytoband 13q14 is the most frequent genetic abnormality in CLL, but the molecular aberrations underlying del13q14 in CLL remain incompletely characterized. We analyzed 171 CLL cases for loss of heterozygosity and subchromosomal copy loss on chromosome 13 in DNA from fluorescence-activated cell sorting–sorted CD19 + cells and paired buccal cells using the Affymetrix XbaI 50k SNP array platform. The resulting high-resolution genomic maps, together with array-based measurements of expression levels of RNA in CLL cases with and without del13q14 and quantitative PCR–based expression analysis of selected genes, support the following conclusions: (a) del13q14 is heterogeneous and composed of multiple subtypes, with deletion of Rb or the miR15a/miR16 loci serving as anatomic landmarks, respectively; (b) del13q14 type Ia deletions are relatively uniform in length and extend from breakpoints close to the miR15a/miR16 cluster to a newly identified telomeric breakpoint cluster at the f50.2 to 50.5 Mb physical position; (c) LATS2 RNA levels are f2.6-fold to 2.8-fold lower in cases with del13q14 type I that do not delete Rb, as opposed to del13q14 type II or all other CLL cases; (d) PHLPP RNA is absent in f50% of CLL cases with del13q14; and (e) f15% of CLL cases display marked reductions in miR15a/miR16 expression that are often but not invariably associated with bi-allelic miR15a/miR16 loss. These data should aid future investigations into biological differences imparted on CLL by different del13q14 subtypes.


Problem statement: The aim of this research is an endeavor to examine the relationship between Management Information System (MIS) and Total Quality Management (TQM) at Missan Oil Company in Iraq. Approach: The quantitative method used the questionnaire-survey and structural equation modeling (SEM).A total of 250 questionnaires was distributed and a high rate of return (87.6%) has been achieved. After initial data screening, 201 responses were utilised to analysis the final data. Results: MIS indicators, namely system quality, information quality, use MIS, user satisfaction and net benefits are directly linked with the TQM. Conclusion/Recommendations: Findings of this study are useful for the Iraqi oil sector to enhance the application of TQM through the use of appropriate MIS indicators.


When a working set fits into memory, the overhead imposed by the buffer pool renders traditional databases non-competitive with in-memory designs that sacrifice the benefits of a buffer pool. However, despite the large memory available with modern hardware, data skew, shifting workloads, and complex mixed workloads make it difficult to guarantee that a working set will fit in memory. Hence, some recent work has focused on enabling in-memory databases to protect performance when the working data set almost fits in memory. Contrary to those prior efforts, we enable buffer pool designs to match in-memory performance while supporting the "big data" workloads that continue to require secondary storage, thus providing the best of both worlds. We introduce here a novel buffer pool design that adapts pointer swizzling for references between system objects (as opposed to application objects), and uses it to practically eliminate buffer pool overheads for memoryresident data. Our implementation and experimental evaluation demonstrate that we achieve graceful performance degradation when the working set grows to exceed the buffer pool size, and graceful improvement when the working set shrinks towards and below the memory and buffer pool sizes.


In consistency-based diagnosis (CBD), abnormal behavior is sorted out based on deviation from a normal behavior specification. Probabilities have been added to CBD for quantifying uncertainty on, e.g., the behavior of faulty components. While resulting in more complete models, the requirement of such uncertainty parameters goes in opposition to the original CBD motivation. The conflict measure stands closer to CBD by computing solutions without the need of priors on candidates, however, its results might not be suitable when only partial observations are available. In this paper, we propose a method called the diagnostic coefficient, which better solves the partial observability case, while needing the same parameters as the conflict measure. The diagnostic coefficient is based on the idea that observations are conflicting if the observed outputs are discrepant with respect to alternative outputs that could have been observed. We report experiments with logical circuits where the diagnostic coefficient shows promising results compared to the conflict measure under various settings with missing observations.


In this paper we propose research on how semantic web technologies can be used to mine the web, for information extraction. We also examine how new unsupervised processes can aid in extracting precise and useful information from semantic data, thus reducing the problem of information overload .The Semantic Web adds structure to the meaningful content of Web pages; hence information is given a welldefined meaning; which is both human readable as well as machine-processable. This enables the development of automated intelligent systems, allowing machines to comprehend the semantics of documents and data. Here we propose techniques for automating the process of search, analysis and categorization of semantic data, further we examine how these techniques can aid in improving the efficiency of already existing information retrieval technologies by implementing reporting functionalities, which is highlighted in the future work and challenges.


"But what about me?" "Is it possible to go one day without dealing with the survivor's issues?" "Will we ever make love again?" "Will the survivor love me in the end?" "How do I know if I should throw in the towel?" Based on in-depth interviews and her workshops for partners across the country, Laura Davis offers practical advice and encouragement to all partners-girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, and lovers-trying to support the survivors in their lives while tending to their own needs along the way. She shows couples how to deepen compassion, improve communication, and develop an understanding of healing as a shared activity. Addressing partners' most important questions, Allies in Healing covers: * The Basics-answers common questions about sexual abuse. * Allies in Healing-introduces key concepts of working and growing together. * My Needs and Feelings-teaches partners to recognize, value, and express their own needs. * Dealing with Crisis-includes strategies for handling suicidal feelings, regression, and hopelessness. * Intimacy and Communication-offers practical advice on dealing with distancing, control, trust, and fighting. * Sex-provides guidelines for coping with flashbacks, lack of desire, differences in sexual needs, and frustration. * Family lssues-suggests a range of ideas for interacting with the survivor's family. * Partners' Stories-explores the struggles, triumphs, and courage of eight partners.


The adverse immune responses to implantable biomedical devices is a general problem with important consequences for the functionality of implants. Immunomodulatory soft hydrogel-based interfaces between the implant and the host can attenuate these reactions. Moreover, encapsulation of the patient's own immune cells into these interfaces can lead to the personalisation of implants from the immune reaction point of view. Herein, we described a co-crosslinkable composite hydrogel (composed of gelatin and hyaluronic acid), which could be used for the encapsulation of macrophages in the presence of an anti-inflammatory phenotype-fixing cytokine cocktail. To mimick the incoming immune cells on the coating surface in vivo, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were seeded on the hydrogels. The encapsulation of monocytic cells into the composite hydrogels in the presence of cytokine cocktails at 5× or 10× concentrations led to the spreading of the encapsulated cells instead of the formation of clusters. Moreover, the secretion of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-1RA and CCL-18 was significantly increased. The attachment of PBMC to the surface of the hydrogel is dependent on the hydrogel composition and also significantly increased in the presence of the cytokine cocktail together with the number of CD68+ cells on the hydrogel surface. Our study demonstrates that the delivery of a polarisation cocktail with biocompatible hydrogels can control the initial response by the incoming immune cells. This effect can be improved by the encapsulation of autologous monocytes that are also polarised by the cytokine cocktail and secrete additional anti-inflammatory cytokines. This interface can fine tune the initial immune response to an implanted biomaterial in a personalised manner.


Alcohol-induced blackouts, or periods of anterograde amnesia without loss of consciousness, were a diagnostic indicator in Jellinek's (1952) theory of alcoholism and have been correlated with alcohol use problems (Campbell & Hodgins, 1993; Goodwin, Crane, & Guze, 1969; Ryback, 1970; Tarter & Schneider, 1976). Other findings suggest that blackouts are a warning sign of problem drinking, but not a predictor of alcohol use disorders (Anthenelli, Klein, Tsuang, Smith, & Schuckit, 1994). Most published research on blackouts focuses on cognitive deficits among older alcohol-dependent adults, yet recent research indicates prevalence rates for blackouts as high as 50% among college students (White, Jamieson-Drake, & Swartzwelder, 2002). In addition, young adults who reported experiencing a blackout were later told that they had vandalized property, driven a car, or engaged in other risky behaviors without remembering (Buelow & Koeppel, 1995). Despite their high prevalence and associated negative consequences, relatively little is known about alcohol-induced blackouts or their neural, social, and behavioral correlates among non-dependent populations. The current research explored individual variation in memory functioning under sober and intoxicated conditions and alcohol's effects on neural activation during memory processes.


Multiculturalism has been officially celebrated and endorsed in Australia since the 1970s; however, institutional practices are in sharp contrast to this rhetoric. Notably, the educational setting still favors monolingualism in English as the identity associated with success. The chapter will explore the subtle and not so subtle challenges to the overt display of a multicultural, multilingual identity in Australia. The focus will be on the experiences and perceptions of the second generation of Spanish speakers in Australia as reported by themselves and their parents. The chapter will also explore the social context in which Spanish-speaking children and adolescents are classified and valued by members of the host society and the Spanish-speaking community. For example, the effect of teacher's perceptions of the adequacy of the children's level of English, advice to parents to only speak English with children, and other practices that delegitimize the value of being a bilingual will be addressed. Their influence on the maintenance and use of Spanish in Australia by the second generation of Spanish speakers will also be evaluated and correlated with a chronology of the official rhetoric toward minorities.


This article explores the relationship between the domestic position of Jewish bourgeois housewives and the larger Swedish, urban landscape at the beginning of the twentieth century. Examining the interior décor, shopping patterns, urban places, and the social, cultural and religious aspects of the domestic spheres of Irene Strauss and Jeannette Ettlinger, this article argues that they consciously used public spaces to establish their individual practices of Jewishness. By entering the gendered space of the Jewish home, accessible through private letters and receipts, this article portrays the bourgeois women as actors with social and economic power. They produced public spaces that communicated either cultural integration or orthodox distinctiveness, thereby constructing diverse strategies for Swedish belonging. These strategies demonstrate the growing religious, social and cultural diversity within the Jewish community in Stockholm during the three last decades before the Second World War.


Association analysis to identify genes and alleles underlying quantitative genetic variation is growing in value as the density of genotypic data increases. Association panels are often chosen to maximize molecular and phenotypic diversity, but traits measured at harvest require restricted phenology to obtain data on plants that mature within a comparable interval. The objective of this study was to characterize a set of inbred lines that will mature reliably in the upper midwestern United States for the purpose of assessing traits relevant to grain and stover yield as well as stover quality. A total of 1411 lines from the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, our program, and contributed by collaborators were grown in observation plots. A set of 627 lines were chosen based on flowering within the desired interval, production of viable seed, agronomic suitability, uniformity, and pedigree information. Flowering time ranged from 944 to 1645 growing degree days (GDD). Genotypic data for the 627 lines was obtained using a 1536 Illumina Golden-Gate assay. The panel offers deep replication of most Midwest dent alleles. There is a lesser representation of tropical alleles relative to other association panels but includes some Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM)-derived lines and early flowering lines of tropical origin. The information described in this manuscript is anticipated to facilitate the use of this material for association genetic studies.


Abstract
We decompose broad-based measures of accruals into firm-specific and related-firm components. We find that the negative relation between accruals and future firm performance is almost entirely attributable to the firm-specific component. Standard risk-based explanations are hard to reconcile with this fact. To the extent expected returns have a common component spanning related firms, a risk-based explanation would suggest a stronger negative relation between accruals and future firm performance when related firms are also growing. Instead, the attenuation we document is more likely attributable to suboptimal investment decisions, which the stock market and analysts do not incorporate in a timely manner.


Produced in the UK on a zero-budget, the filmmakers spent two years contacting and interviewing journalists, organisers and critics of the corrupt industrial practices highlighted by, but not limited to, the Leveson Inquiry in 2011. While the phone hacking scandal illuminated the depth and breadth of the cavalier flouting of legality and integrity in British journalism, there are larger implications and connections to ideology, entertainment, and political economy at work in this crisis. The Fourth Estate is the result of an examination of these connections at work.

In the wake of the Leveson report the media's focus has quickly diverted from a brief period of self-examination to business as usual. This opportunity for serious consideration of the true, entrenched causes and effects of the UK's inadequate media must not go unexplored, and the recent press scandals must not be framed in terms of the "bad apple" soundbites we're so often fed.

Examining the people and practices of the media industries, The Fourth Estate illuminates not only specific incidences of corruption by press groups, but how the wider business as a whole, including the film and entertainment industries, has a huge amount to answer for in the state of the political economy of the west. There's no business like show business…


Abstract Many conventional daylighting design tools are limited in that each simulation represents only one time of year and time of day (or a single, theoretical overcast sky condition). Since daylight is so variable – due to the movement of the sun, changing seasons, and diverse weather conditions – one moment is hardly representative of the overall quality of the daylighting design, which is why climate-based, dynamic performance metrics like Daylight Autonomy (DA) and Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) are so needed. Going one step further, the annual variation in performance (condensed to a percentage by DA and UDI) is also valuable information, as is the ability to link this data to spatial visualizations and renderings. Trying to realize this combination of analytical needs using existing tools would become an overly time-consuming and tedious process. The challenge is to provide all information necessary to early design stage decision-making in a manageable form, while retaining the continuity of annual data. This paper introduces a climate data simplification method based on a splitting of the year into 56 periods, over which weather conditions are "averaged" and simulated using Perez's ASRCCIE sky model, while information on sun penetration is provided at a greater resolution. The graphical output of the produced data in the form of "Temporal Maps" will be shown to be visually, and even numerically, comparable to reference case maps created using short time step calculations and based on illuminance data generated by Daysim.


Real world systems are normally considered as hierarchically organized, for example, we see those as hierarchies of systems including subsystems. Examples on this can be seen in organizations where people act in environments and carry within themselves their own internal subsystem of thinking processes. Another example relates to robotics where robots may be seen as hierarchical constructions, both physically and logically. As in the case of human actors, we can see robots as autonomous entities that need to perform internal reasoning and planning to conform well to the environment in which they act. Furthermore, actions on different levels are often inherently parallel and may be more or less independent. Object-Oriented (OO) technologies have proved to be appropriate tools in software development. Programming these kinds of hierarchical concurrent systems should therefore be gained by suitable Object-Oriented software support that reflects system level-dependent behavior. For instance, actions in a robot control system should relate to real time, while a robotOs planning system actions relate to simulated time. However, existing OO software support mainly reflects one-level sequential systems which only by exhaustive work may conform to such hierarchically organized systems. Existing architectural design proposals that address hierarchical compositions often cover ways of collecting objects, but do normally not address issues such as concurrency and different time semantics. We have developed concepts and software support to meet the need for modeling and implementing hierarchically organized systems with concurrent level-dependent autonomous entities. We have approached the problem from two directions, i.e., on one hand from a conceptual and principle perspective, and on the other hand from a software engineering perspective. Concepts and principles are mainly treated in the context of the, so called, Model-Orientated Programming project. Model-Orientation (MO), can be seen as an extension to Object-Orientation to support concurrent models especially. We use the term model for a software representation of an autonomous entity. A model may define its own view upon matters such as time and communication, and may furthermore include further models to represent hierarchical system compositions. Within the project of Model-Oriented Programming we also develop programming language elements relating to the developed concepts. Software engineering aspects are mainly studied within the project of Hierarchical Concurrent Systems. A developed Java-based framework especially reflects hierarchical properties of systems. A general concept of timebase may be specified as either based on a real time or a simulated time concept. This implies that software of one hierarchical level may act in real-time in a control system, while an internal hierarchical level may reason about future state based on a simulated time axis. Furthermore, within the framework we also regard communication, distribution and process management as hierarchical level-dependent properties. This impels ways of software components to flexibly adjust themselves to the context they are intended to act within. Our approach, based on investigations on both modeling and implementation, has been experimented on in several case studies. Those show that encapsulating our concepts and solutions within well defined software units provide software that is both flexible and scalable. (Less)


After the Holocaust, the empty, silent spaces of bombed-out synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish districts were all that was left in many German and Polish cities with prewar histories rich in the sights and sounds of Jewish life. What happened to this scarred landscape after the war, and how have Germans, Poles, and Jews encountered these ruins over the past sixty years? In the postwar period, city officials swept away many sites, despite protests from Jewish leaders. But in the late 1970s church groups, local residents, political dissidents, and tourists demanded the preservation of the few ruins still standing. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, this desire to preserve and restore has grown stronger. In one of the most striking and little-studied shifts in postwar European history, the traces of a long-neglected Jewish past have gradually been recovered, thanks to the rise of heritage tourism, nostalgia for ruins, international discussions about the Holocaust, and a pervasive longing for cosmopolitanism in a globalizing world. Examining this transformation from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Michael Meng finds no divided memory along West-East lines, but rather a shared memory of tensions and paradoxes that crosses borders throughout Central Europe. His narrative reveals the changing dynamics of the local and the transnational, as Germans, Poles, Americans, and Israelis confront a built environment that is inevitably altered with the passage of time. Shattered Spaces exemplifies urban history at its best, uncovering a surprising and moving postwar story of broad contemporary interest.


Objective To explore the situation and prevention of lower respiratory tract hospital infection. Methods Through the diagnosis, symptomatic with appropriate antibiotics. Results Most of them were Achronic lung disease and fungal infection. Conclusion Patients should pay attention to the basis of disease treatment, supportive care and rehabilitation to strengthen the immune system and redule the incidence of complications. An appropriate length of hospital stay rational use of antibiotics can and reduce the respiratory ward of the main measures of lower respiratory tract infection.

Key words:
Lower respiratory tract infection; Clinical analysis


This article critically assesses the effectiveness of third-country nationals' social rights protection in the EU following the adoption of Directive 2011/98/EU ('the Single Permit Directive'). This instrument establishes a single permit for work and residence and sets up a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State. This article argues that despite being an important instrument allowing for a better protection of social rights of third-country nationals, the directive still reveals significant inconsistencies. First, due to difficult negotiations at the Council, the final text of the directive maintains the fragmented approach to legal immigration, excluding several categories of third-country nationals from its personal scope. Second, it also allows Member States the opportunity to impose important restrictions on social rights while implementing the directive. Finally, these restrictions can have considerable implications for the integration of immigrants in the host Member State. Accordingly, the argument is advanced that in reality the protection of third-country workers' social rights in the EU still largely depends on the Member States' political will.


The recent decline in the number of graduates in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has significant implications for the nation's economic and societal well-being (PCAST, 2012). Because university faculty members' interactions with students—both in and out of the classroom—have a significant impact on student recruitment and retention and because faculty beliefs have a significant impact on faculty practices (Astin & Astin, 1992), we have interviewed university faculty members in order to examine their perceptions of successful STEM students. Here, we report faculty members' perceptions of the characteristics of successful tertiary STEM students, as well as their perceptions of the major obstacle to student success in STEM courses and programs of study. While faculty perceptions of the characteristics of successful STEM students generally align with the research literature, faculty did not mention experiences or instructional strategies they could implement in their classrooms to help students develop these characteristics. The results of the current study could inform the design of faculty professional development to ensure that faculty are aware of the various ways they can support student success in STEM fields.


Phenotypic variability in smooth muscle cells accounts, in large part, for the incredible functional diversity required of the involuntary hollow organs of the body (i.e., respiratory passages, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, urogenital tract, etc.). In all instances coordination of smooth muscle cell responses, that is, contraction and relaxation, is critical to normal organ function. While numerous biological mechanisms exist for coordinating smooth muscle cell responses, intercellular communication through gap junctions represents a common denominator present in all organ systems. In this report, we review the evidence documenting the presence and functional significance of myocyte gap junctions to physiologically distinct organ systems, and furthermore, provide some examples of their putative roles in organ pathology. Finally, we advance the thesis that despite their ubiquity and heterogeneous expression, gap junctions are nonetheless potentially attractive therapeutic targets for the treatment of certain smooth muscle disorders. Their therapeutic efficacy will necessarily hinge on the existence of connexin isoform-selective junctional effects. The overall rationale for targeting the intercellular pathway is therefore analogous to strategies that target other ubiquitously expressed ion channels, such as calcium or potassium channels. Such strategies have proved efficacious for the treatment of a wide range of human smooth muscle disorders including hypertension, urinary incontinence and sexual function.


Abstract From a local high-resolution base catalog at Parkfield, California, 5076 earthquakes ( M  0.2 to 6) are used to study the comparative performance of a correlation detector and standard energy detector on the sparse regional network of continuously operating stations. Eighty-six percent of the events detected by a standard energy detector can also be detected by cross correlation. Correlation detection is able to find additional events by lowering the detection threshold by about 1 unit beyond what standard processing detects for Parkfield, a factor of 10 increase in number of events such as those predicted by Gutenberg–Richter. Most event separation distances for events that correlate at Parkfield are less than 1 km. The distribution of magnitude differences for events that correlate at Parkfield is not distinguishable from the input magnitude distribution. More robust measures to quantify reduction in detection threshold are introduced. Detection magnitude threshold reduction of about 1 unit holds for large-scale application to the 18,886 events in China and 5,076 events in Parkfield with false-alarm rates of a few percent. Large and small events are seen to correlate well enough for detection. Two examples are shown with magnitude differences as large as 2.3 and 3.3 units. The correlation detector also finds two cases of buried aftershocks in the coda of mainshocks that were previously unreported in the Annual Bulletin of Chinese Earthquakes (ABCE).


During football games neuromuscular fatigue occuring following eccentric movements such as sprint, jump and run that occur during games. To avoid injury, overtraining and performance decreases, it is important to know when players are recovered. The aim of the pilotstudy was to investigate physiological changes that occur during football matches and if they affect the recovery pattern after several games in professional football players. The method was divided into two sub-studies in which 12 professional footballers, in substudy 1 performed counter movement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ) from 40 cm and fill out a recovery form for muscle soreness 36 hours before, 12-16 and 60-64 hours after 11 different competetive games. Blood samples were taken on the players in connection with one match to examine the activity of muscle enzyme creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) of the players. In study 2 received nine professional players carry the same explosive jump that in sub-study 1 but then one hour before, 30 minutes and 50 hours for 3 different friendly games. The results were very varying. The main findings were that the trends in perceived muscle soreness after all matches were raised. Muscle enzymes CK and LDH were both elevated 16 hours after the match and was not back at baseline after 64 hours. The contact time in the jumping mat was higher than baseline in all three matches in the sub-study 2, 30 minutes after the match and it was not back to baseline in two of the matches after 50 hours. Conclusion: The results show trends that the recovery may vary in different matches. The results in the increased trend in muscle soreness and increased enzyme activity in the blood indicate that the players are not recovered 64 hours after the match. The increased contact time in hopes carpet in substudy 2 indicate that the function of the stretch-shortening cycle of the lower extremity are not recovered 50 hours after the match. Further studies are required to draw any major conclusions.


The opioid addiction epidemic is the most overwhelming public health crisis our country has faced. It is now creating a legal crisis, as the its poisonous fruits spill over into the criminal, tort, and family courts. The epidemic costs the U.S. economy about $500 billion every year, and the pressure is crippling our legal systems. This Article is an attempt to relieve some of that pressure, by advocating for a comprehensive public health campaign based upon a new model of addiction. Research shows that the prevalent "moral choice" model of addiction has facilitated stigma and discouraged treatment, by viewing affected individuals as blameworthy, different in kind, and hopeless. Even when programs are accessible, which they often are not, individuals will not seek treatment because they fear adopting the label of "addict." In this Article, I affirmatively reject the moral choice model, identifying it as an obstacle to mitigating the opioid epidemic. In its place, I offer a model of addiction that more closely tracks its complex disease etiology, while humanizing people with addiction, removing stigma, and encouraging treatment. I refer to this model as the "integrated disease model," or IDM, as it explains addiction as a neuro-genetic phenomenon, but does not locate addiction entirely in the brain. Rather, it places addiction on equal footing with other chronic diseases, such as lung cancer or diabetes, each of which has significant genetic, behavioral, and environmental causes. This Article will explain 1) how the moral choice model leads to no treatment and poor treatment, 2) how the law has furthered stigma through the criminalization of addiction, 3) and why we need to fund a comprehensive public health campaign based upon findings from neuro-genetics and public health. The IDM emphasizes the biological continuum of genetic risk factors to which we are all susceptible, the neurological networks that are impaired once the addiction has taken hold, and finally, the incredible power of evidence-based treatments. Explaining addiction in this way – as a treatable, complex disease — has been shown to reduce stigma and encourage treatment.


Full realization of the potential advantages of the synoptic coverage provided by Landsat will require the development and use of data analysis techniques which take into account the large variation and diversity of patterns found over many Landsat scenes. Stratification of the scene into units which are internally homogeneous is recommended as a first step in the analysis of data for whole or multiple frames of Landsat data. The use of clustering as an objective and efficient method of dividing scenes into areas which are spectrally similar (strata) is discussed and initial results, including classification performances and comparisons of spectral strata with major physical factors, are presented.


In this paper, the fluorescence behaviour of nano colloids of ZnO has been studied as a function of the excitation wavelength. We have found that excitation at the tail of the absorption band gives rise to an emission that shifts with the change of the excitation wavelength. The excitation wavelength dependent shift of the fluorescence maximum is measured to be between 60 and 100 nm. This kind of excitation wavelength dependent fluorescence behaviour, which may appear to be in violation of Kasha's rule of excitation wavelength independence of the emission spectrum, has been observed for nano ZnO colloids prepared by two different chemical routes and different capping agents. It is shown that the existence of a distribution of energetically different molecules in the ground state coupled with a low rate of the excited state relaxation processes, namely, solvation and energy transfer, are responsible for the excitation wavelength dependent fluorescence behaviour of the systems.


Background: Suicide is the leading cause of death among adolescents in South Korea. Negative influences of the abuse of energy drinks on mental health problems have emerged. Aims: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between energy drink consumption, depression and suicide ideation. Methods: We analyzed the data of 26,346 boys and 26,966 girls who participated in the 2015 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. The independent variable was the frequency of energy drink consumption per week. Experience of depression and suicide ideation were considered as the dependent variables. Multiple logistic regression was performed. Results: An association was found between energy drink intake per week and depressive mood. Moreover, the most frequent energy drink intake (three times or more per week) group showed the highest association with depressive mood (odds ratios (ORs); boys: ORs = 1.40, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25–1.56; girls: ORs = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.44–1.79) and suicide ideation (boys: ORs = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.27–1.69; girls: ORs = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.20–1.55). Conclusion: We observed that consumption of excessive amounts of energy drinks is associated with depression and suicide ideation. Therefore, appropriate regulation or education is needed to prevent adolescents from experiencing adverse outcomes.


In a two-phase immersion cooling system, boiling on the spreader surface has been experimentally found to be non-uniform, and it is highly related to the surface temperature and the heat transfer coefficient. An experimentally obtained temperature-dependent boiling heat transfer coefficient has been applied to a numerical model to investigate the spreader's cooling performance. It is found that the surface temperature distribution becomes less uniform with higher input power. But it is more uniform when the thickness is increased. By defining the characteristic temperatures that represent different boiling regimes on the surface, the fraction of the surface area that has reached the critical heat flux has been numerically calculated, showing that increasing the thickness from 1 mm to 6 mm decreases the critical heat flux reached area by 23% at saturation liquid temperatures. Therefore, on the thicker spreader, more of the surface is utilized for nucleate boiling while localized hot regions that lead to surface dry-out are avoided. At a base temperature of 90 oC, the optimal thickness is found to be 4 mm, beyond which no significant improvement in heat removal can be obtained. Lower coolant temperatures can further increase the heat removal; it is reduced from an 18% improvement in the input power for the 1 mm case to only 3% in the 6 mm case for a coolant temperature drop of 24 oC. Therefore, a trade-off exists between the cost of maintaining the low liquid temperature and the increased heat removal capacity.


Abstract Compensational stacking, the tendency for sediment transport systems to preferentially fill topographic lows through deposition, is a concept widely used in the interpretation of the stratigraphic record. We propose a metric to quantify the degree of compensation by comparing observed stacking patterns in subsiding basins to what would be expected from uncorrelated random stacking. This method uses the rate of decay of spatial variability in sedimentation between picked depositional horizons with increasing vertical stratigraphic averaging distance. We present data from six sedimentary basins where this decay can be measured. The depositional environments range from river deltas to deep-water minibasins, and scales range from meters to 1.5 km in thickness. The decrease in standard deviation of sedimentation divided by subsidence with increasing vertical averaging distance is well described by a power law in each study basin. We term the exponent in this power law the compensation index, κ; its value is 0.5 for uncorrelated random stacking and 1.0 for perfect compensational stacking. Values less than 0.5 indicate anti-compensation, i.e., a tendency of depositional units to stack on top of one another. Parameters controlling the magnitude of κ include the frequency of system-scale avulsions and the temporal variability in deposition rates. Data describing the decay in the standard deviation of sedimentation/subsidence from the six studied basins collapse approximately onto a single power-law trend with κ = 0.75 when the measurement window is standardized by the mean channel depth of each system. Channel depth thus emerges as a fundamental length scale in stratigraphic architecture across environments. Although further study will likely reveal measurable variability in κ between depositional environments, the overall power-law collapse presented here suggests that a stacking behavior midway between purely random and perfect compensation is a good starting point in quantitatively estimating the stratigraphic arrangement of sedimentary deposits.


Development of electric drive tends to the use of Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) for their advantages and green technology issues. The SRM takes significant place in development for its simplicity, robust construction, and low cost. Sensorless method can be applied to drive SRM, it is less expansive but has more complexity and limitation. On the other hand, although sensor-based rotor position detection needs a hardware assembled on the shaft, some advantages can be obtained. In this paper, a control strategy for SRM drive with rotary encoder based rotor position detection is proposed, core of the strategy implements digital signal controller. The problem associated with wide range speed and standstill operation can be overcome by this strategy. This is also capable to vary the time to turn the switches on and off by software. The analysis was verified by simulations and experiments.


Using an instrument that was recently developed at the National Water Research Institute, the concentration of frazil in flowing water was measured under laboratory conditions for both fresh water and sea water and under natural conditions in the Beauharnois Canal. Experimental data and their analysis are reported in this paper.


In this paper we analyze empirically the influence of firms' endogenous competences in the existence, quality and results of the linkages between firms and different types of agents. Using survey data from 170 firms belonging to the steel making and automotive production networks in Argentina, we show that the level of endogenous competences influences the linkages' quality, objectives and results. Higher level of competences generates more virtuous linkages and influences the objectives that firms are after when interacting. Without certain minimum competences, firms only relate commercially and do not form links aimed to exchange knowledge or innovate. Better standing in terms of competences positively affects the probability of being involved in technological transfer agreements and cooperation agreements aimed at innovation. Being involved in useful interations requires previous competences, defining a vicious circle that calls for public intervention and policy implementation.


Omnidirectional treadmill systems are an effective platform that allows unconstrained locomotion possibilities to a user for effective VR exploration. There are two most common problems associated with Omnidirectional treadmill systems. First one is the mechanical design of it. The second one is controlling algorithm that controls the treadmill. This thesis focuses on the second problem and presents an algorithm which measures important parameters for controlling the direction and speed of omnidirectional treadmills. The primary objective is to collect skeleton data from Kinect Sensor(RGBD) and measure speed, acceleration and orientation vectors of lower body joints. From these measurements, it is possible to calculate the control parameters for omnidirectional treadmills. Using these parameters, the treadmill will try and compensate user motion, to keep the user close to the platform center. Another objective is to validate the parameters found from the algorithm and determine the accuracy of the algorithm using Kinect camera. Also, this article explores whether the kinect can be a viable replacement for current motion capture systems used for this purpose. Usage of Kinect camera can make VR experience non-invasive and low-cost.


OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether spinal osteoarthritis (OA) is responsible for the common finding that lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) is greater when measured in the anteroposterior plane than when measured in the lateral plane. METHODS: We studied lateral spine radiographs from 63 women who attended a hospital outpatient department for bone density measurement and who also underwent lumbar spine radiography. Osteoarthritis was assessed using both the Kellgren and Lawrence scale and a scoring system for osteophytosis. Bone density was measured in the anteroposterior and lateral planes using a Hologic QDR-2000 instrument. RESULTS: The mean anteroposterior BMD (0.92 g/cm2) was significantly greater than the lateral BMD (0.59 g/cm2) (p < 0.01), and the difference between antero-posterior and lateral measurements was significantly associated with both increasing Kellgren and Lawrence score and osteophyte score, even after adjustment for age. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that spinal OA is a major cause of the difference between anteroposterior and lateral BMD and that lateral BMD may provide a more accurate representation of true vertebral body bone density in patients with OA of the lumbar spine.


The conventional assumption in economics of crime is that criminal justice system actors behave like social planners, choosing punishment levels to equate the marginal benefits and costs from society's perspective. This paper presents empirical evidence suggesting in practice, punishment is based on a much narrower objective function, leading to over-incarceration. The costs and benefits of various punishment options are reflected at different government levels in the US. The 1996 California Juvenile Justice Realignment can be used as a natural experiment: it shifted the costs of juvenile corrections from states to counties, keeping overall costs and responsibilities unchanged. Moving the cost of incarceration from state to counties resulted in a discontinuous drop in the number of juveniles being sent to state facilities, but no change in juvenile arrests. This indicates that when costs and benefits of incarceration are not borne by the same agency, there is excess incarceration: not only is there more demand for prison than when costs are fully internalized; but there are no gains in terms of crime reduction from this extra incarceration.


Coordination of autonomous robot groups is an active research area and much recent work has focused on modeling and control issues related to coordination. Robot groups can coordinate in many different ways. Some robot groups may execute coordination in which group members move in a scattered manner like the bees of a beehive or coordination of the group may require a more strict formation like the swallows. The shape formation is very important for the coordination of autonomous mobile robot groups because it increases the capability of a robot group by increasing the competence and the security of the group. The shape formation is applicable in many tasks like formation flight, flocking and schooling, transportation systems, searchand-rescue operations, competitive games, reconnaissance and surveillance. This thesis develops a flexible shape formation control method for autonomous mobile robots. There are different approaches in the literature for shape formation of mobile robots. Proposed method is different from these existing approaches by being applicable to complex formation curves as well as different number of robots and heterogeneous groups. It consists of two phases. In the first phase, shape formation is controlled by using potential fields generated from implicit polynomial representations and in the second phase, the control for keeping the desired shape is designed using elliptical Fourier descriptors. In this shape formation method, coordination between the robots is modeled using virtual linear springs between each robot and its nearest two neighbors. The success of the proposed method is shown through simulations on groups of different numbers of point-particle robots. Proposed method is then extended to non-holonomic mobile robots by using the desired positions in point particle model as references for the non-holonomic robots. The method is also implemented with real non-holonomic robots with a bird-eye-view camera.


Over the past few decades, universities have been asked to become ever more involved in the development of their regions and countries, through knowledge dissemination, contribution to policy debates or even by becoming leaders in stakeholder coalitions. However, as has been often pointed out, for universities to have an impact on regional fortunes it is necessary to have an appropriate innovation ecosystem, which is often lacking in less developed regions. We approach this issue by discussing the three interrelated dimensions of knowledge supply, demand, and translational activities, through two case studies of university–business engagement in Wales. We also distinguish between narrow forms of engagement, based strictly on the commercialisation of knowledge, and contrast them with broader forms of engagement. Finally, we discuss the practical and normative challenges associated with these interactions, such as the danger of appropriation of public resources by private organisations.


Fisheries support livelihood of over half a billion of people globally. Many of these people live in coastal regions of developing countries; and have limited capacity to adapt and build resilience in the face of climate change.  This research assesses the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of fishers in four coastal communities, Komenda, Elmina, Cape coast and Morree, in Ghana. Structured questionnaire based on selected indicators that serve as proxy for components of the vulnerability were administered randomly to 237 fishers through face-to-face survey.  Descriptive statistics was used to determine the socio-demographic characteristics profile of fishermen and how it will affect their susceptibility to climate change. There were slight differences in the socio-demographic characteristics of the four communities, probably because of their similar physical locations and occupation. A theoretically-derived vulnerability index was used to determine their vulnerability which was based on the components of vulnerability identified from 1IPCC and capital assets identified from sustainable livelihood framework. The vulnerability index score in Morre was found to be the highest (0.64) while that of Elimina was the lowest (0.30). The size and activities in Elmina and Moree artisanal landing site did not play any role in the vulnerability of fishers in these communities rather better access to basic amenities and livelihood strategies affected their vulnerability. Since vulnerability and adaptations are highly specific to a particular people or location, this study will be used to examine the fishers' vulnerability to climate change and to target adaptation interventions in these communities.


Combining video and performance-oriented text, this genre-bending o-pei-la is a multispecies enactment of experimental natural history. Our players consider the golden treasure snail (金寶螺; kim-po-le; Pomacea canaliculata and relatives; golden apple snail), first imported to Taiwan from Argentina in 1979 for an imagined escargot industry, but now a major pest of rice agriculture in Taiwan and across Asia. Whereas farmers in the Green Revolution's legacy use poison to exterminate snails, a new generation of friendly farmers (友善小農; youshan xiaonong) in Taiwan's Yilan County hand-pick snails and attempt to learn enough about their lives to insert farming as one among many multispecies life ways within the paddy. Drawing on a variety of knowledge sources, including personal experience, international science, social media, traditional calendars, and local understandings of ghosts and deities, these farmers construct an experimental natural history of both new and old paddy-field denizens. Their experiments self-consciously intersect with the investigations made by other species of the paddy field. Our article offers an ethnography of both kinds of experiments, human and nonhuman. Video and text together show the performative features of cross-species acquaintance. In the process, we contribute to debates about radical alterity, showing how anthropologists can do more than sort for difference: we can identify vernacular patches of practice that mix and juxtapose many ontological alternatives.


Solution-processable thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)-assisted materials have been identified as promising materials for future applications as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) owing to their numerous advantageous such as easy fabrication, large area applications, low cost, and state-of-the-art performance. Herein, two new carbazole-dendronized TADF emitters, namely, TB2CZ-ACTRZ and TB14CZ-ACTRZ, were designed and synthesized. Two different-sized carbazole dendron wedges were utilized as the encapsulating groups for the TADF core via methylene groups. The influence of the encapsulated dendrons on the thermal, optical, electrochemical, and OLED device performances of both dendritic molecules was studied in detail. The photophysical studies of TB2CZ-ACTRZ and TB14CZ-ACTRZ disclosed their extremely small singlet–triplet energy gaps (ΔEST) of 79 and 134 meV, respectively. Consequently, the solution-processed non-doped OLEDs without any hole injection/transport layers featuring TB2CZ-ACTRZ and TB14CZ-ACTRZ as the TADF emitters demonstrated the maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 9.5 and 8.1%, respectively, while the device fabricated with their simple emissive core ACTRZ had an EQE of only 1.2%. These results clearly demonstrated that the development of multifunctional TADF dendritic emitters is an extremely worthwhile objective for the realization of highly efficient solution-processable non-doped OLEDs with simple device architectures.


Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC-Is) are agents that have demonstrated anticancer activity in vivo and in vitro, leading to clinical trials evaluating their efficacy in multiple cancer types. Only two HDAC-Is are currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, vorinostat and romidepsin, both with indications for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Romidepsin has an additional approval in peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Promising clinical trial results in other cancer types will likely lead to expanded use of these and other HDAC-Is. To provide care for patients receiving these agents, oncology nurses should be knowledgeable about the emerging role of HDAC-Is. This article reviews the mechanism of action of HDAC-Is, currently approved therapies, and nursing management of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.


From the colonial through the antebellum era, enslaved women in the US used lethal force as the ultimate form of resistance. By amplifying their voices and experiences, Brooding over Bloody Revenge strongly challenges assumptions that enslaved women only participated in covert, non-violent forms of resistance, when in fact they consistently seized justice for themselves and organized toward revolt. Nikki M. Taylor expertly reveals how women killed for deeply personal instances of injustice committed by their owners. The stories presented, which span centuries and legal contexts, demonstrate that these acts of lethal force were carefully pre-meditated. Enslaved women planned how and when their enslavers would die, what weapons and accomplices were necessary, and how to evade capture in the aftermath. Original and compelling, Brooding Over Bloody Revenge presents a window into the lives and philosophies of enslaved women who had their own ideas about justice and how to achieve it.