In recent years there has been much debate in this country around the issue of race, and specifically around the role of 'black' children placed trans-racially for adoption. Little attention has been focused on the situation of mixed-race infants in their natural families. This study aims to explore the origins of racial identity development in mixed-race infants; consider how family relationships affect this development; study some of the effects of parents own identity development on the development of racial identity in children; and examine how parents and children negotiate racial cultural and gender differences within the family. The study was carried out in three phases; two intensive infant observations were conducted over several months; semi-structured interviews with five white mothers; and a second set of interviews was carried out with nine sets of parents, employing the 'life history' approach. The thesis considers the current debate around interracial families. This debate is then placed within the wider discussion on the development of racial awareness, preference and identity, and the role of racism in contemporary society. Theories of the genesis of prejudice are discussed, as are the studies which consider the racial preferences of children. The condition of mixed-race people as viewed by the marginal theorists is addressed, and the nature of interracial sexual partnerships. Previous studies have focused on racial awareness and preference. In order to focus on identity, the thesis discusses theories of identity development which encompass the sociological, cognitive and psychoanalytic perspectives. These theories were used as a basis for the first two phases of the study. These 'modernist' theories are critiqued, in the light of 'post-modernist' theories of race and identity on which the third phase is then based. These interviews concentrate on families' constructions of difference and identity. After discussing the methodologies of previous studies in the area a methodology is set out for this study. The first two phases were aimed at discovering causal links between mother's pasts, their parenting behaviour and their children's emerging racial identities. In the third part the method aimed at obtaining parents' life stories, establishing narrative rather than causal links. Stories were analyzed to confirm similarities and differences in how families deal with race and culture issues. The observations and interviews all showed that racial and cultural issues were significant in all the families, and formed part of the infants' milieu from a very early age. However these issues were dealt with very differently in various families. Some were concerned about 'race' and colour, while others were more focused on culture, religion or nationality. Conflict in some families became racialised, while in other families gender or cultural issues caused more difficulties. Racism was experienced by all the 'black' parents, but its effects were very variable. All the families felt that their children were in a process of developing positive 'mixed' identities. Qass was found to be a critical factor which influenced the way racial identity was constructed. The thesis concludes with a re-examination of the notions of 'race', 'identity' and 'development', and shows that the 'structural-developmental' model of identity development shared by social-work anti racist and psychoanalytic theory is too narrow and prescriptive, and should be replaced by a new theory of 'narrative identity' based on post-modernist insights. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPrERONE INTRODUCTION .................. 4 CHAPrERTWO THE INTERRACIAL DEBATE . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 8


Britain's self-made man was defined by taste, money, influence, and most importantly, middle-class rank in the early decades of the Industrial Revolution. During the mid-1700s, a change began to take place between the social classes, stripping the aristocracy of their role as Britain's foremost connoisseurs and trendsetters. The shift from aristocratic indulgences to those of the newly wealthy middle class stemmed from a number of factors. For one, the economy was changing during the 18th-century. An industrial environment, which often included factories and workers, was the new-found key to the financial success of self-made men. As David Kutcha explains, "late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century English aristocrats lost control of the meanings of consumption, as political, economic, and clothing reformers succeeded in portraying aristocratic men as prodigal parasites living off of a virtuous and industrious nation" (135). To prove that the individuals in England's highest social class were unworthy of their role as connoisseurs of taste, middle-class reformers attacked the aristocracy, declaring that the upper classes were unworthy of their status and were living off the successes provided by industry and self-made men.Portraiture created in Britain during the 18th- and 19th-centuries, particularly paintings by William Hogarth (1697-1764) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), exemplifies the myth of the self-made man, as well as the shift in social class dominance. Moreover, portraiture emphasizes the middle-class's adoption of aristocratic visual language, while in turn depicting men as wealthy industrials who benefit the national economy and define the manly character of England. Although middle-class reformers were determined to prove that the titled class was effeminate and parasitic, it was the aristocratic ideal of masculinity that the middling ranks adopted as their own. English artists Hogarth and Gainsborough were influential in addressing the tension produced by the shifting social lines of the Industrial Revolution. Bound to Britain's wealth for their own survival, both Hogarth and Gainsborough sought the patronage of the rising middle-class while sustaining their own notions of the self-made myth.


Aim

Determining how ecological processes vary across space is a major focus in ecology. Current methods that investigate such effects remain constrained by important limiting assumptions. Here we provide an extension to geographically weighted regression in which local regression and spatial weighting are used in combination. This method can be used to investigate non-stationarity and spatial-scale effects using any regression technique that can accommodate uneven weighting of observations, including machine learning.

Innovation

We extend the use of spatial weights to generalized linear models and boosted regression trees by using simulated data for which the results are known, and compare these local approaches with existing alternatives such as geographically weighted regression (GWR). The spatial weighting procedure (1) explained up to 80% deviance in simulated species richness, (2) optimized the normal distribution of model residuals when applied to generalized linear models versus GWR, and (3) detected nonlinear relationships and interactions between response variables and their predictors when applied to boosted regression trees. Predictor ranking changed with spatial scale, highlighting the scales at which different species–environment relationships need to be considered.

Main conclusions

GWR is useful for investigating spatially varying species–environment relationships. However, the use of local weights implemented in alternative modelling techniques can help detect nonlinear relationships and high-order interactions that were previously unassessed. Therefore, this method not only informs us how location and scale influence our perception of patterns and processes, it also offers a way to deal with different ecological interpretations that can emerge as different areas of spatial influence are considered during model fitting.


Commonsense question answering (CQA) aims to test if models can answer questions regarding commonsense knowledge that everyone knows. Prior works that incorporate external knowledge bases have shown promising results, but knowledge bases are expensive to construct and are often limited to a fixed set of relations. In this paper, we instead focus on better utilizing the implicit knowledge stored in pre-trained language models. While researchers have found that the knowledge embedded in pre-trained language models can be extracted by having them fill in the blanks of carefully designed prompts for relation extraction and text classification, it remains unclear if we can adopt this paradigm in CQA where the inputs and outputs take much more flexible forms. To this end, we investigate four translation methods that can translate natural questions into cloze-style sentences to better solicit commonsense knowledge from language models, including a syntactic-based model, an unsupervised neural model, and two supervised neural models. In addition, to combine the different translation methods, we propose to encourage consistency among model predictions on different translated questions with unlabeled data. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on three CQA datasets in zero-shot settings. We show that our methods are complementary to a knowledge base improved model, and combining them can lead to state-of-the-art zero-shot performance. Analyses also reveal distinct characteristics of the different cloze translation methods and provide insights on why combining them can lead to great improvements. Code/dataset is available at https://github.com/PlusLabNLP/zero_shot_cqa.


With the growth of cross-border business, the rather important but complex and controversial topic of interpretation and gap filling in international commercial contracts receives more and more attention.International legal instruments such as CISG, UNIDROIT Principles, PECL and DCFR provide rules in order to interpret international commercial contracts in a uniform way. However, while these instruments may bring together already existing national concepts, they must of course be understood beyond the domestic concepts and approaches as such.This book is an autonomous comparison across the above-mentioned international legal instruments, with a focus on the rules on interpretation and gap filling that provides the necessary theoretical background and case law to understand the rules in practice. Interpretation and Gap Filling in International Commercial Contracts examines the uniform and harmonised set of rules in their own right; without comparison to national laws, but in their own unique setting of international commercial contracts. It is a practical user guide for both scholars and practitioners.Dr Ayse Nihan Karadayi is a postdoctoral researcher on international contract law at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.


The science of climate change is a complex issue that presents challenges for regions, nations, local governments, and communities. This article describes a participatory action research project designed to develop new knowledge of how community members react to climate change and communication's role in strengthening local resilience. The project has grown organically from an initial study, undertaken by one researcher to examine communication of climate change at the local level, into an intersectoral, interagency study. Partners in the study are connected by one vision: to facilitate grassroots, upward planning of sustainable climate change adaptation led by local end-users, and to amplify the Pacific Island Countries perspective of climate change to the world. The study's theoretical framework draws upon literature from international development, communication, social science, and public policy. A qualitative case study examines whether the use of a reflexive, communicative approach can facilitate cross-sector interaction between climate scientists, policy makers, and local end-users to plan, implement and evaluate sustainable approaches to climate change. The case provides an example of applying participatory action research (PAR) as a way to communicate complex climate science by using specific context and evidence-based local experiences. The study demonstrates how the use of participatory action research has fostered the creation of horizontal and vertical multisector networks that have improved communication of climate science, and collaboration amongst all partners-including local end-users-and strengthened local advocacy in climate-related policy and planning decisions for the Pacific. This study demonstrates the potential of PAR as a method for reducing disconnect between science-policy-local interaction, and to build local and global intersectoral collaboration. Evidence-based research shows the linkages between theory and practice for organizations tasked with building community resilience. This innovative synthesis can aid in building PAR-led climate change adaptation across prevention, preparation and adaptation activities for potential climate elated hazards. Findings from this study are relevant to communities building resilience.


Air at high pressure has recently been encountered during ground investigation borehole drilling for the Thames Tideway project in London. The air was released from within the Upnor Formation (at the base of the Lambeth Group beds), which is at the top of the Lower Aquifer. Cavitation within the granular beds of the Lower Aquifer would have occurred as a consequence of drawdown from the extensive water extraction that began at the start of the nineteenth century, resulting in the water table dropping by almost 70 m. Estimated historical pore pressure profiles are postulated and the cavitation process that occurred, along with the subsequent pressurization of the air during recharge that has occurred in recent years, are discussed using behavioural concepts from unsaturated soil mechanics. The hypotheses are corroborated by a series of simple column experiments where the processes are modelled using analogous soils. Engineering implications of the presence of the pressurized air are discussed: besides the potential for borehole blow-out, another serious consideration is the depletion of oxygen from the trapped air by chemical reaction with the soil, increasing the risk of confined space hypoxia.


Political observers and presidents alike are preoccupied with the notion of presidential legacy. Speculation about how presidential actions will be viewed by future generations weighs heavily on the minds of chief executives as well as historians and analysts who seek to devise standards and techniques by which to measure the concept of legacy. To be sure, efforts to gauge presidential "greatness" not only vary significantly, but they often yield inconsistent results. One approach relies on expert judgments to evaluate presidential performance and to rate presidents against each other. Historians and other scholars will often rate past presidents based on a series of established criteria that may include the degree to which presidents pursue active legislative agendas, progress, and reform; possess wisdom, sagacity, administrative prowess; and are principled (Cronin and Genovese 2004). In 1996, the New York Times Magazine, aided by preeminent presidential historian Arthur Schlesigner Jr., commissioned a survey of historians about presidential performance. Respondents rated past presidents as "great," "near great," "average (high)", "average (low)," "below average," or "failure." The findings revealed that Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt (or FDR), and George Washington were the only presidents considered to be "great," while Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon were viewed as failures (Schlesinger, 1996, 48-49). A similar survey of 58 presidential historians and political scientists conducted in 1995 by the Chicago Tribune shows that the 10 best presidents in U.S. history have been Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Andrew Jackson, Dwight Eisenhower, and James Polk, while the 10 worst are Harding (worst), Buchanan, Pierce, Grant, A. Johnson, Millard Filmore, Nixon, John Tyler, Calvin Coolidge, and Hoover (Neal 1995). By 2000, a Wall Street Journal survey of 73 scholars of history, politics, and law showed that Ronald Reagan had entered the presidential pantheon of "top ten best" presidents, while Jimmy Carter was rated amongst the ten worst (Lindgren and Calabresi 2000). Expert judgments about presidential greatness often do not coincide with the assessments of the public at large. Consider that in a survey conducted by the Gallup organization (national random sample) in 2003, 13% of Americans rated John E Kennedy as the greatest American president, even though Kennedy consistently registers as average or above average at best in surveys of experts (Cronin and Genovese 2004). In fact, Kennedy routinely receives high marks from Americans in opinion surveys relative to his White House predecessors and successors, despite the fact that experts are less enthusiastic about his presidency. These observations suggests that the public's assessments of past presidential performance are worthy of study in their own right. How does the public evaluate the performance of past presidents? How do these assessments change over time? What factors help to explain the patterns we observe? Analysis of the available survey data on retrospective evaluations of past presidential performance help to advance answers to these questions. Presidential and Past Presidential Approval Americans are routinely surveyed about their impressions of incumbent presidential job performance. Scholars have shown that macrolevel presidential approval is dynamic and that it is influenced by social, political, and economic events (Erikson, MacKuen, and Stimson 2002). Polling organizations typically stop asking Americans to rate a president's job performance after presidential terms expire or as presidents otherwise depart the Oval Office. In recent years, polling organizations have occasionally queried respondents to provide retrospective assessments about the performance of former presidents. …


Sediment-hosted metallogeny results from sedimentary
basin fluid flow, which in turn, is controlled by the
evolving architecture of the basin. Understanding and
predicting the location of ore deposits therefore depends
on knowledge of the three-dimensional geometry of
the target basin through time (4-D basin architecture).
However, quantitative basin analysis is severely
handicapped in the absence of extensive seismic reflection
data from the target terranes, such as the Proterozoic
of northern Australia, host to a world-class base metal
endowment. Geological mapping and regional potential
field geophysical data, on the other hand, are widely
available, but their interpretation in terms of 4-D basin
architecture is not straightforward. GIS and geophysical
modelling were deployed to assist.
A GIS with 1:250 000-scale geological map and
geochemical data was designed and implemented for a
region in the McArthur Basin encompassing the giant
HYC Zn-Pb-Ag deposit. The GIS incorporates geological
attributes that encode depth information implicit in the
stratigraphic column. This data structure, in conjunction
with topological attributes, allows queries based on the
stratigraphic relationships of spatial elements.
An initial 3-D picture of the basin, relying solely
on surface geological data and measured stratigraphic
thicknesses, was developed by generation of layers
comprising 'predicted' structure contour values for any
given stratigraphic unit. This prediction is analogous
to calculation of the theoretical Bouguer gravity value
during reduction of gravity data. The predicted value
(for example, of basement depth) does not necessarily
indicate the true elevation of the surface being considered
at a given location; rather, it is a baseline for comparison.
Lateral variations from this baseline indicate departures
of basin shape from 'layer-cake' geometry. By this
mechanism, elements of the basin fill, lost due to
deformation and erosion following terminal deposition,
may be restored for comparative purposes.
The development of stratigraphic topology enables
automatic identification of the location and magnitude
of unconformities on geological maps. These indicate
areas and periods of uplift through the sedimentation
history of the basin, from which fluid flow may have been
topographically driven. Conversely, the distribution
of unconformities circumscribes regions of more
continuous sedimentation, where accommodation space
was developed more consistently.
Both gravity and magnetic data were forward
modelled in an extensive interlocking array of cross-sectional
2-D profiles. Several basin units are resolvable
from regional data using these methods. In particular, the
HYC-hosting upper McArthur Group is distinguishable
due to its carbonate-dominant composition, resulting in a
positive density contrast. These interpretations, initially
expressed as structure contours and isopachs (Leaman
1998), were interpolated into 3-D models of the present
disposition of basin units. These may be compared
directly with the basin unit depths and thicknesses
'predicted' from outcrop-derived data.
Residuals, after removal of 'predicted' or 'layer-cake'
McArthur Group thickness from the 'actual'
(geophysically interpreted) present thickness, directly
map the location and size of active sub-basins at the
time of the formation of HYC mineralisation. The subbasins
thus defined are congruent with indications
from unconformity distribution. HYC's situation at the
northeastern edge of one of these sub-basins is consistent
with topographic and bounding growth fault control
on the palaeohydrogeological regime that focused
mineralising fluids in the vicinity of the deposit. Other
sub-basin edges are indicated as sites of potential base
metal mineralisation.


Abstract The Alfvén ion cyclotron instability is studied for mirror-confined bi-Maxwellian highly anisotropic plasmas. In such plasmas the wave length of unstable modes is of the order of the plasma scale length. Another specific feature is that a typical ion can execute several bounce oscillations along the strongly non-uniform plasma during the time of the phase divergence between the wave and cyclotron rotation. Traditional approaches such as WKB method and local dispersion relation fail under these conditions. An integral equation for the modes is derived. The spatial distribution of the eigenmodes as well as the marginal stability conditions are found by numerical solution of this equation. The asymptotics of these results in the limit of infinitely large anisotropy are obtained analytically. It is found that the mirror-confined highly anisotropic plasma can be much more stable than it follows from the traditionally used scaling.


The purpose of this study is to explore and assess the development of education in the Anglophone Provinces of Cameroon, during British Administration under the League of Nations Mandate and the United Nations Trusteeship, 1919 to 1960. The introductory Chapter I provides an overview, nature, organisation and methodology of the study. In Chapter II, a historical background of the beginning of westernisation of the Cameroons is provided; it covers the period beginning with the arrival of European traders and missionaries to the end of German Administration in 1918. Although British Administration was only introduced in 1919, British influence, through its anti-slave trade activities at the Atlantic coast, the widespread use of "pidgin" English and the pro-British disposition of the natives was omnipresent and potent, between 1844 and 1918. The mistake of Germany in 1914-18 ultimately gave to Britain a slice of the territory which had been a bone of contention. Consequently, German educational system was replaced by that of the British. Chapter III provides a geographical and cultural framework within which the new system began operating in 1922. Throughout the text, these factors are shown to have impinged on the expansion and extension of education. -- In Chapter IV, the examination of the introduction of British colonial education policy is shown to have emerged only as a response to the recommendations from the studies of the state of education in West Africa by the Phelps-Stokes Commission in 1920-21. Although the Cameroon Province was not a British colony, the recommendations applied to it through its joint administration with Nigeria. Chapter V surveys the development of educational institutions. -- The educational system developed in the territory was a hybrid of government and voluntary agency schools, with the Missionary Societies bearing a greater burden; the same partnership also existed with regard to teacher training institutions, examined in Chapter VI. The status of the teacher, except for the government teacher, was synonymous with penury and poverty. In Chapter VII, the curriculum and methods of teaching in these schools are examined. As revealed in it, the primary school curriculum was influenced by the philosophy of education for the Negroes in the South of the United States, that of teacher training institution was determined largely by the primary school curriculum, and that of the secondary and the trade school was determined by School Certificate examinations of London and Cambridge Universities and the London City and Guilds Examinations respectively. -- The examination of educational finance in Chapter VIII shows the main sources to have been government grants-in-aid, school fees and education rates and contributions from the home boards of Missionary Societies. In mass and cultural education, Chapter IX reveals that it lagged behind formal education except in the plantations of the Cameroons Development Corporation. Outside the C.D.C. plantations, literacy was characterised by laissez-faire. There was emphasis on community, leadership and citizenship education. Chapter X is a summary and conclusion of the study. The development of education in the Anglophone Provinces during British Administration was largely determined by the mandate and trusteeship system of the League of Nations and the United Nations; it was overshadowed by the joint administration with Nigeria. The relative balance in the lopsided educational development between Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons, where a replica of the British education system was firmly established by 1960, was ensured by the Missionary Societies.


In the present study we demonstrated that TLQP-21, a biologically active peptide derived from the processing of the larger pro-VGF granin, plays a role in mammotrophic cell differentiation. We used an established in vitro model, the GH3 cell line, which upon treatment with epidermal growth factor develops a mammotrophic phenotype consisting of induction of prolactin expression and secretion, and inhibition of growth hormone. Here we determined for the first time that during mammotrophic differentiation, epidermal growth factor also induces Vgf gene expression and increases VGF protein precursor processing and peptide secretion. After this initial observation we set out to determine the specific role of the VGF encoded TLQP-21 peptide on this model. TLQP-21 induced a trophic effect on GH3 cells and increased prolactin expression and its own gene transcription without affecting growth hormone expression. TLQP-21 was also able to induce a significant rise of cytoplasmic calcium, as measured by Fura2AM, due to the release from a thapsigargin-sensitive store. TLQP-21-dependent rise in cytoplasmic calcium was, at least in part, dependent on the activation of phospholipase followed by phosphorylation of PKC and ERK. Taken together, the present results demonstrate that TLQP-21 contributes to differentiation of the GH3 cell line toward a mammotrophic phenotype and suggest that it may exert a neuroendocrine role in vivo on lactotroph cells in the pituitary gland.


From education to health to criminal justice, government regulation and policy decisions have important effects on social and individual experiences. New data science tools applied to data created by government agencies have the potential to enhance these meaningful decisions. However, certain institutional barriers limit the realization of this potential. First, we need to provide systematic training of government employees in data analytics. Second we need a careful rethinking of the rules and technical systems that protect data in order to expand access to linked individual-level data across agencies and jurisdictions, while maintaining privacy. Here, we describe a program that has been run for the last three years by the University of Maryland, New York University, and the University of Chicago, with partners such as Ohio State University, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis, and the University of Missouri. The program—which trains government employees on how to perform applied data analysis with confidential individual-level data generated through administrative processes, and extensive project-focused work—provides both online and onsite training components. Training takes place in a secure environment. The aim is to help agencies tackle important policy problems by using modern computational and data analysis methods and tools. We have found that this program accelerates the technical and analytical development of public sector employees. As such, it demonstrates the potential value of working with individual-level data across agency and jurisdictional lines. We plan to build on this initial success by creating a larger community of academic institutions, government agencies, and foundations that can work together to increase the capacity of governments to make more efficient and effective decisions.Keywords: training programs, evidence-based policy, confidential data, administrative data research facility, government data


Regulatory T (T reg) cells are critical regulators of immune tolerance. Most T reg cells are defined based on expression of CD4, CD25, and the transcription factor, FoxP3. However, these markers have proven problematic for uniquely defining this specialized T cell subset in humans. We found that the IL-7 receptor (CD127) is down-regulated on a subset of CD4+ T cells in peripheral blood. We demonstrate that the majority of these cells are FoxP3+, including those that express low levels or no CD25. A combination of CD4, CD25, and CD127 resulted in a highly purified population of T reg cells accounting for significantly more cells that previously identified based on other cell surface markers. These cells were highly suppressive in functional suppressor assays. In fact, cells separated based solely on CD4 and CD127 expression were anergic and, although representing at least three times the number of cells (including both CD25+CD4+ and CD25−CD4+ T cell subsets), were as suppressive as the "classic" CD4+CD25hi T reg cell subset. Finally, we show that CD127 can be used to quantitate T reg cell subsets in individuals with type 1 diabetes supporting the use of CD127 as a biomarker for human T reg cells.


Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is a facultative gram-negative bacterium which has been associated with severe oral and nonoral infections. This study examined its occurrence in the oral cavities of 10 normal juveniles, 11 normal adults, 10 juvenile periodontitis patients, and 12 adult periodontitis patients. Four deep periodontal pockets and two normal periodontal sites were sampled in the diseased patients, and six normal periodontal sites were sampled in the healthy individuals. In all subjects samples were obtained from the cheek, tongue, and saliva. Samples from a total of 172 normal periodontal sites, 83 deep periodontal pockets, 42 cheek mucosae, 42 tongue dorsa, and 42 salivas were examined. Isolation was performed by using a medium for selective isolation of A. actinomycetemcomitans (Trypticase soy agar [BBL Microbiology Systems] supplemented with 10% serum and 75 mug of bacitracin per ml). The carrier rates were 20% for normal juveniles, 36% for normal adults, 50% for adult periodontitis patients, and 90% for juvenile periodontitis patients. A. actinomycetemcomitans was on average recovered in about fivefold-higher numbers from infected deep periodontal pockets than from infected normal subgingival areas. Samples of periodontal pockets generally contained 100-fold-more cells of A. actinomycetemcomitans than did samples of the cheek, tongue, and saliva. A. actinomycetemcomitans is commonly isolated from patients with juvenile periodontitis, often isolated from patients with adult periodontitis, and occasionally isolated from normal juveniles and adults. Its primary oral ecological niche appears to be dental plaque and periodontal pockets.


Kidneys are organs that receive a large amount of blood, approximately 20% of the heart blood flow. Many renal diseases have an important vascular component, some systemic diseases, such as hypertension, are vascularly mediated through the juxtaglomerular component. The study has been carried out on a number of 25 cats and 18 dogs, inside the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, sedated and awake as well as with different renal, hepatic and heart diseases. The resistance index and pulsatility index have been appreciated in renal level from the renal arteries, interlobar arteries and arcuate arteries, with superior specificity in pathologic conditions (diagnosis and prognosis) .


Some people are less susceptible to a hyperactive inflammatory response due to a polymorphism in the E3 ubiquitin ligase HECTD2. Pathogen infection triggers the innate immune system to release large amounts of proinflammatory cytokines that can have deadly consequences, such as pulmonary edema, shock, and organ failure. The E3 SUMO ligase PIAS1 [protein inhibitor of activated STAT1 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 1)] limits JAK (Janus kinase)–STAT and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling to prevent an excessive response. Coon et al. found that the E3 ubiquitin ligase HECTD2 ubiquitylated and mediated the degradation of PIAS1, thus contributing to lung inflammation in bacteria-infected mice. Overexpressing HECTD2 in HEK293T cells increased NF-κB reporter activity, either basally or in response to stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, a major component of gram-negative bacterial membranes) or the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor or interferon-γ. Mapping analyses indicated a HECTD2-binding site in PIAS1 and a consensus motif for glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β)–specific phosphorylation within PIAS1. Indeed, in response to LPS, GSK3β phosphorylated PIAS1, creating a phosphodegron (phosphorylation-dependent degradation motif) that was recognized by HECTD2. Mutating this phosphorylation or binding site in PIAS1 prevented HECTD2 binding in vitro and increased PIAS1 stability when expressed in cells. Analysis of human single nucleotide polymorphism and population databases identified a naturally occurring polymorphism in HECTD2 (HECTD2-A19P) that was associated with decreased incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome. In vitro, HECTD2-A19P polyubiquitylated PIAS1; however, in cells, HECTD2-A19P mislocalized to the cytosol, preventing its binding and ubiquitylation of PIAS1 in the nucleus. Mice either infected with lentivirus-encoded HECTD2-A19P or injected with a small-molecule inhibitor of HECTD2 (BC-1382) had increased abundance of PIAS1 and reduced lung inflammation in response to LPS injection or Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. The findings suggest that some people are less susceptible to a hyperactive inflammatory response due to a polymorphism in HECTD2 and that pharmacologically targeting HECTD2 may have some therapeutic benefit to control the immune response in patients. T. A. Coon, A. C. McKelvey, T. Lear, S. Rajbhandari, S. R. Dunn, W. Connelly, J. Y. Zhao, S. Han, Y. Liu, N. M. Weathington, B. J. McVerry, Y. Zhang, B. B. Chen, The proinflammatory role of HECTD2 in innate immunity and experimental lung injury. Sci. Transl. Med. 7, 295ra109 (2015). [Abstract]


Diffusion-based models of grating formation in photopolymers have been proposed in which the rate of monomer polymerization (removal) is directly proportional to the illuminating intensity inside the medium. However, based on photochemical considerations, the rate of polymerization is proportional in the steady state to the square root of the interference intensity. Recently it was shown that, by introducing a nonlocal response function into the one-dimensional diffusion equation that governs holographic grating formation in photopolymers, one can deduce both high-frequency and low-frequency cutoffs in the spatial-frequency response of photopolymer materials. Here the first-order nonlocal coupled diffusion equations are derived for the case of a general relationship between the rate of polymerization and the exposing intensity. Assuming a two-harmonic monomer expansion, the resultant analytic solutions are then used to fit experimental growth curves for gratings fabricated with different spatial frequencies. Various material parameters, including monomer diffusion constant D and nonlocal variance σ, are estimated.


The Israeli EITC program is based on individual incomes, unlike the EITC programs in the US and the UK, which supplement low-income families' earnings according to the combined family income. Using a large administrative panel dataset of tax and benefit records, and the natural experiment created by the gradual implementation of the program, we find that the absence of interdependence between spouses' benefits curtails the negative employment effects that were found for married women in the US and the UK. We find that an increase of NIS 100 in the monthly EITC amount is associated with a reduction of 0.6 percentage points in the probability of an eligible person to stop working, and that EITC eligibility is associated on average with a reduction of 1- 1.5 percentage points in exits from employment, about 20-25 percent of the exit rate among the relevant populations. We also find that spousal collection of an EITC has no negative effect on employment, except among ultraorthodox women and young (ages 23-35) mothers to newborns (ages 0-2) that are not eligible for the EITC themselves. Finally, we find that the EITC has the largest positive effect on the employment of ultraorthodox men - a population characterized by low employment rates – and on older women (55+ years old). These findings stress the importance of EITC programs' design in balancing employment-encouragement and precise targeting of social expenditure for reducing poverty among low-income families.


This paper studies connections between the preprojective repre- sentations of a valued quiver, the (+)-admissible sequences of vertices, and the Weyl group by associating to each preprojective representation a canonical (+)-admissible sequence. A (+)-admissible sequence is the canonical sequence of some preprojective representation if and only if the product of simple re- flections associated to the vertices of the sequence is a reduced word in the Weyl group. As a consequence, for any Coxeter element of the Weyl group as- sociated to an indecomposable symmetrizable generalized Cartan matrix, the group is infinite if and only if the powers of the element are reduced words. The latter strengthens known results of Howlett, Fomin-Zelevinsky, and the authors.


We introduce Scallop, an accurate, reference-based transcript assembler for RNA-seq data. Scallop significantly improves reconstruction of multi-exon and lowly expressed transcripts. On 10 human samples aligned with STAR, Scallop produces (on average) 35.7% and 37.5% more correct multi-exon transcripts than two leading transcript assemblers, StringTie [1] and TransComb [2], respectively. For transcripts expressed at low levels in the same samples, Scallop assembles 65.2% and 50.2% more correct multi-exon transcripts than StringTie and TransComb, respectively. Scallop obtains this improvement through a novel algorithm that we prove preserves all phasing paths from reads (including paired-end reads), while also producing a parsimonious set of transcripts and minimizing coverage deviation.


Curved magnetic filters are often used for the removal of macroparticles from cathodic arc plasmas. This study addresses the need to further reduce losses and improving plasma throughput. The central figure of merit is the system coefficient Kappa defined as filtered ion current normalized by the plasma-producing arc current. The coefficient Kappa is investigated as a function of DC and pulsed magnetic field operation, magnetic field strength, external electric bias, and arc amplitude. It increases with positive filter bias but saturates at about 15 V for relatively low magnetic field ({approx}10 mT), whereas stronger magnetic fields lead to higher Kappa with saturation at about 25 V. Further increase of positive bias reduces Kappa. These findings are true for both pulsed and DC filters. Bias of pulsed filters has been realized using the voltage drop across a self-bias resistor, eliminating the need for a separate bias circuit. Almost 100 A of filtered copper ions have been obtained in pulse d mode, corresponding to Kappa approximately equal to 0.04. The results are interpreted by a simplified potential trough model.


A study has been carried out at the University of Edinburgh in order to examine how physics students' abilities and attitudes towards study change during their time at university. This is a large topic with numerous possible avenues of research, as a result the field has been narrowed for this thesis in order to focus on three main subject areas; how students adapt during the transition from school to university, how students attitudes towards studying physics change during an undergraduate degree and, finally, student data handling skills in the undergraduate laboratory with links to whether student perceptions of their data handling skills are consistent with their ability. It has been found that students may face difficulties going from school to university study. Students potentially face gaps in their prior learning due to differences in school leaving qualification syllabi, which is compounded by instructors having expectations of student ability that are higher than student actual ability. It has been seen that students become less positive in their attitudes towards study over the course of their first year of instruction, potentially due to a drop in confidence. In the subject area of attitudes towards study, longitudinal studies have been carried out in order to examine the expert-like thinking of students. Results gathered are suggestive of a selection effect with the most expert-like thinkers possessing levels of expert thinking similar to those of physics instructors, even when initially entering the degree program. Investigation of student laboratory work has shown that there is a large gap between student estimations of their own ability and the reality of such skills. This has been demonstrated by contrasting the results of surveys examining student perceptions towards practical work with data gathered from a data handling diagnostic test that has been designed and implemented as part of this thesis.


Recent analysis of Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) echelle spectra suggests ~30% variations in the D/H abundance ratio along the line of sight to the nearby (69 pc) hot white dwarf (WD) G191-B2B (Vidal-Madjar et al.). Variations in the D/H ratio on such short length scales imply nonuniform production/destruction of deuterium and an inefficient mixing of gas in the local interstellar medium (LISM). We reinvestigate the question of the spatial variation of the local D/H abundance using both archival GHRS spectra and new echelle spectra of G191-B2B obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The STIS spectra were obtained in the high-resolution (E140H) mode and cover the wavelength region ranging from 1140 to 1700 Å. Our analysis uses stratified line-blanketed non-LTE model atmosphere calculations to determine the shape of the intrinsic WD Lyα profile and to estimate the WD photospheric contamination of the interstellar lines. Although three velocity components were reported previously toward G191-B2B, we deduce only two velocity components. The first component is at vhel ~ 8.6 km s-1, and the second is at vhel ~ 19.3 km s-1, which we identify with the local interstellar cloud (LIC). From the STIS data, we derive D/H = 1.60 × 10-5 for the LIC component and D/H > 1.26 × 10-5 for the 8.6 km s-1 component (uncertainties denote 2 σ or 95% confidence limits). The derived D/H values in both components are consistent with (D/H)LIC = (1.5 ± 0.1) × 10-5, which was determined by Linsky in 1998. The STIS data provide no evidence for local or component-to-component variation in the D/H ratio. Our reanalysis of the GHRS data gives essentially the same results as Vidal-Madjar et al., despite using two velocity components for the profile fitting (vs. three by Vidal-Madjar et al.) and a more physically realistic WD Lyα profile for G191-B2B. The GHRS data indicate a component-to-component variation as well as a variation of the D/H ratio in the LISM, neither of which are supported by the newer STIS data. The D I absorption in the GHRS spectrum is shallower than in the STIS spectrum. The most probable cause for this difference in the two data sets is the characterization of the background due to scattered light in the GHRS and STIS spectrographs. The D/H ratios derived are sensitive to the background-subtraction procedures employed. The two-dimensional MAMA detectors of STIS measure both the spatial and wavelength dependences of scattered light, allowing more accurate scattered-light corrections than was possible with GHRS.


ABSTRACT Phylogenetic relationships among the diverse Cretaceous sauropods of East Asia have long been controversial. Debate has centered on whether there is any evidence for an endemic clade of Asian species ("Euhelopodidae") and on the placement of these taxa within the context of higher sauropod phylogeny. While most Cretaceous sauropod taxa from Asia are recognized as part of Somphospondyli, recent discoveries have suggested Brachiosauridae may have dispersed into Asia as well. We present new fossils and analyses bearing on these issues. Additional material of the holotype individual of Erketu ellisoni recovered on a subsequent visit to the type locality expands the character data available for this unique sauropod. Associated sauropod dorsal and caudal vertebrae were collected from the same horizon, at a location approximately 2 km from the holotype excavation. The dorsal vertebra exhibits synapomorphies suggesting a representative of Titanosauria co-occurred with Erketu ellisoni. These new specimens, as well as recent discoveries of contemporary Asian sauropod taxa, allow a basis for phylogenetic reappraisal of Erketu and related taxa. Phylogenetic results support a sister group relationship between the Asian Cretaceous sauropods Erketu and Qiaowanlong. Although Qiaowanlong was described as a brachiosaurid, it joins Erketu on the somphospondylian side of the Brachiosauridae-Somphospondyli divergence, erasing the evidence for the dispersal of Brachiosauridae into Asia.


OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of physician-documented sexual histories in female adolescents who presented to an emergency department (ED) with symptoms suggestive of a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Our secondary objectives were to determine if physician-documented sexual history is associated with increased STI testing and to compare the concordance of physician-elicited sexual histories with patient-documented sexual histories by using confidential questionnaires. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of a prospective study of female adolescents who presented to a pediatric ED with chief complaints of lower abdominal pain and/or genitourinary complaints. Patient charts were abstracted for the presence or absence of documented sexual histories and demographics. A subset of patients completed a questionnaire pertaining to sexual health. RESULTS: The study population comprised 327 patients; 269 (82%) patients had a physician-documented sexual history, of which 204 (76%) reported being sexually active to the physician. Patient age (odds ratio [OR]: 2.6 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3–5.3]) and black race (OR: 2.0 [95% CI: 1.1–3.7]) were associated with physician-documented sexual history. The documentation of a sexual history was associated with increased STI testing (OR: 3.9 [95% CI: 2.0–7.6]). In the patients (n = 109) who completed the questionnaire, physician-elicited sexual histories were highly concordant with patient-documented sexual histories on questionnaire (Spearman r = 0.90; P < .001). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that ED physicians should obtain sexual histories from symptomatic patients, because it may increase STI testing and subsequent detection. In future studies factors should be evaluated that affect physicians' willingness to assess sexual history in the ED patient.


The Exploit is that rare thing: a book with a clear grasp of how networks operate that also understands the political implications of this emerging form of power. It cuts through the nonsense about how 'free' and 'democratic' networks supposedly are, and it offers a rich analysis of how network protocols create a new kind of control. Essential reading for all theorists, artists, activists, techheads, and hackers of the Net. McKenzie Wark, author of A Hacker Manifesto The network has become the core organizational structure for postmodern politics, culture, and life, replacing the modern eras hierarchical systems. From peer-to-peer file sharing and massive multiplayer online games to contagion vectors of digital or biological viruses and global affiliations of terrorist organizations, the network form has become so invasive that nearly every aspect of contemporary society can be located within it. Borrowing their title from the hacker term for a program that takes advantage of a flaw in a network system, Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker challenge the widespread assumption that networks are inherently egalitarian. Instead, they contend that there exist new modes of control entirely native to networks, modes that are at once highly centralized and dispersed, corporate and subversive. In this provocative book-length essay, Galloway and Thacker argue that a whole new topology must be invented to resist and reshape the network form, one that is as asymmetrical in relationship to networks as the network is in relation to hierarchy. Alexander R. Galloway is associate professor of culture and communications at New York University and the author of Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (Minnesota, 2006) and Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization. Eugene Thacker is associate professor of new media at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the author of Biomedia (Minnesota, 2004) and The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture.


abnormal function of the gastrointestinal tract, hepatobiliary system, and pancreas. It is published 12 times a year (monthly) by the publishes original articles pertaining to all aspects of research involving normal or AJP-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology


Background: In addition to its mortality and morbidity burden, obesity may also affect functioning and well-being. This presentation explores the relationship between obesity and quality of life in adolescents from different ethnic groups. Methods: Adolescent's height and weight were measured by trained field workers, and weight status categorised according to the International Obesity Task Force body mass index cut-off points. The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL-2) - a utility-based instrument suitable for estimating adults quality of life within an economic evaluation was modified for adolescent use and adjusted for adolescents in each country using the time trade-off method. The AQoL-2 was completed by 15,481 adolescents from Australia (3,059), New Zealand (Pacific 2,478, Maori 832, Asian 436, European 442), Fiji (Indigenous 2,507, Indian 3,457) and Tonga 2,024. Summary and dimension (physical, social, mental, coping, pain and sensory) quality of life scores were calculated. Results: The mean quality of life scores ranged from Tongans (0.49) to Australians (0.80) Relative to their healthy weight peers, overweight and obese adolescents from the Australian (p=<0.001), Pacific (p=<0.001) and Maori (p=<0.016) ethnic groups experienced significant lower quality of life. For all other ethnic groups, there was no significant relationship between body size categories and quality of life scores. Australian adolescents experienced the greatest utility loss attributable to obesity (loss=0.06). Fijian adolescents (both Indo-Fijians and Indigenous Fijians) showed the least variability in quality of life due to overweight and obesity. For groups experiencing a significant quality of life loss due to obesity, the greatest losses were in the coping dimension (for Australian and Pacific adolescents) and the social dimension (for Maori adolescents). Conclusions: The impact of obesity on quality of life varies substantially by ethnic group within the Pacific. Obesity is associated with a significant loss in quality of life


The fundamental tension in statistical disclosure control (SDC) of microdata is the trade-off between the protection of individual respondents and the release of enough information for statistical inferences. We consider microdata that include key variables that contain identifying information and target variables that include sensitive information. Releasing the original data may expose some individuals in the sample to high risk of disclosure; deleting key variables is a common approach, but this loses information for some statistical analysis. This paper proposes selective multiple imputation of key variables (SMIKe) as an alternative SDC technique between those two extremes, and applies SMIKe to categorical key variables and continuous nonkey variables in the context of the general location model. Keys of sensitive cases and a mixing set of selected nonsensitive cases are multiply imputed from their posterior predictive distributions, and each set of imputed keys is released to the public with the rest of the data. The size of mixing set can be used to control the trade-off between information loss and protection. Data analysis is conducted using multiple imputation methods with some necessary correction in the case of SMIKe. Simulation studies and an application of SMIKe to the 1995 Health and Ways of Living Survey in Alameda County are also presented.


AIM
This paper is a report of a literature review conducted to analyse data from published studies reporting nursing interventions targeted at older attendees of emergency departments (EDs), and to provide a critical appraisal of the evidence concerning their effectiveness.

BACKGROUND
Attendance at hospital EDs by older persons presents opportunities for targeted interventions to address actual and potential problems associated with or in addition to the presenting problem. The evidence concerning the effectiveness of such interventions is mixed.

DATA SOURCES
Studies were retrieved from a systematic search of published works indexed in CINAHL, MEDLINE (PubMed), Science Direct and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL).

METHODS
A systematic review of effectiveness was conducted using the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care guidelines and a narrative synthesis approach for data handling and presentation. The review period was 1992 to 31 August 2008.

RESULTS
Nursing assessment and referral interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing service use and improving physical function, but have failed to demonstrate statistically significant effects on predicted patient and/or health systems outcomes.

CONCLUSION
The evidence of the effectiveness of gerontologically informed nursing assessment and referral interventions in EDs must be accepted with caution, as not all studies demonstrated effectiveness in predicted patient and/or health systems outcomes, and the testing of complex social interventions in randomized clinical trials is inherently problematic. Further evidence of the effectiveness of nursing interventions is required, and such evidence might be usefully demonstrated using pragmatic, as opposed to explanatory, trials.


In 1999, the British House of Lords issued a landmark decision abrogating Augusto Pinochet's immunity under international law as a former head of state, declaring him subject to extradition for the crime of torture.1 The former Chilean dictator was eventually declared too ill to stand trial and returned to Chile. Still, the Law Lords' decision was hailed as a major breakthrough by the international human rights community, and spawned a campaign to bring heads of state and other leaders accused of human rights abuses to trial in foreign courts. The Pinochet decision brought to the fore the tension between the increasingly broad reach of international human rights law and the fundamental international law principle of sovereign equality.2 Criticism of the decision ranged from the basic notion that this was an impermissible abrogation of Chile's sovereignty, to the more nuanced argument that international prosecution of former dictators would detract from certain nations' abilities to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy. This year, the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"), in Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Belgium, had the opportunity to consider a similar issue-whether Belgium could bring Congo's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Yerodia, to trial in its courts for alleged "crimes against humanity."3 The ICJ denied Belgium's claim on the IMAGE FORMULA4 specific ground that incumbent Ministers for Foreign Affairs are immune from criminal suit abroad, notwithstanding allegations of having committed "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity."4 By clarifying that the Pinochet precedent does not extend by force of logic to incumbent officials, Congo v. Belgium has already had a real world impact-causing the Belgian Court of Appeals to dismiss the prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes, which had been brought under the same statute that authorized the Yerodia prosecution.5 It may also have a broader effect. The main holding of Congo v. Belgium is technically consistent with Pinochet, insofar as the ICJ ruled on the immunity of incumbent rather than former officials. The reasoning of the ICJ, however, is in serious tension with that of the Law Lords, and the opinion could even be read as a rejection of Pinochet. Insofar as Pinochet was considered by many to represent a sea change in the international law on official immunity, the ICJ opinion casts doubt on this belief. This development will consider the impact of the Congo v. Belgium decision on the Pinochet precedent and the law on official immunity for serious international crimes. Part I will briefly review the legal bases for the Pinochet decision. Part II will lay out the legal bases of the majority opinion in Congo v. Belgium, and examine what of Pinochet survives that opinion. Part III will examine the main Congo v. Belgium concurrence and highlight its attempt to salvage the Pinochet precedent-an attempt which throws into relief the fact that Pinochet has, in fact, been undercut. I. PINOCHET In October 1998, a Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant against Augusto Pinochet for acts of torture, hostage taking, and other conduct carried out during his reign of power in Chile, invoking universal jurisdiction as a basis for its action. Pinochet, who had entered Britain for back surgery in September 1998, was arrested by British authorities pursuant to the Spanish warrant. Pinochet's challenge to this action eventually reached the House of Lords, where a majority of the Law Lords found that, despite his status as a former head of state, Pinochet was not entitled to immunity from arrest and extradition on the specific charges of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.6 IMAGE FORMULA7 In order to reach the issue of whether Pinochet enjoyed immunity under British law, the Law Lords had to first interpret the relevant international law. …


Many recent works on knowledge distillation have provided ways to transfer the knowledge of a trained network for improving the learning process of a new one, but finding a good technique for knowledge distillation is still an open problem. In this paper, we provide a new perspective based on a decision boundary, which is one of the most important component of a classifier. The generalization performance of a classifier is closely related to the adequacy of its decision boundary, so a good classifier bears a good decision boundary. Therefore, transferring information closely related to the decision boundary can be a good attempt for knowledge distillation. To realize this goal, we utilize an adversarial attack to discover samples supporting a decision boundary. Based on this idea, to transfer more accurate information about the decision boundary, the proposed algorithm trains a student classifier based on the adversarial samples supporting the decision boundary. Experiments show that the proposed method indeed improves knowledge distillation and achieves the state-of-the-arts performance.


Background Bladder training (Wallace et al. 2004), prompted voiding (Eustice et al. 2002), timed voiding (Ostaszkiewicz et al. 2004a) and habit retraining (Ostaszkiewicz et al. 2004b) are common behavioural interventions used for the management of urinary incontinence in institutional, clinic and
community settings.
What is known
• There is limited evidence that bladder training may be useful, and suggestive evidence that prompted voiding may be useful in the short term for managing urinary incontinence in adults, while there is insufficient evidence on habit retraining and timed voiding.This study has compared and contrasted the four Cochrane systematic reviews to provide a synopsis using metastudy techniques. Metastudytechniques were developed for the review and synthesis of qualitative
research, and comprise selection and appraisal of primary research, meta theory, meta methods and meta data analysis (Paterson et al., 2001).Metastudy techniques are useful for revisiting the theory underpinning interventions, their design, methods and outcomes with a view to generating new ideas for research and future directions for empirical
study. They may also be useful for the synopsis, descriptive comparison and contrast of systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of the study was to compare and contrast four Cochrane systematic reviews on behavioural interventions, including bladder training and voiding programmes, for the management of urinary incontinence in adults. The purpose being to compare and contrast under-pinning theory,
definitions, study designs, interventions and outcomes to inform current clinical practice, generate new ideas and identify future directions for research.
Methods
Metastudy techniques used for the synthesis of qualitative studies comprise five stages; selection and appraisal of primary research, metatheory, meta-method, meta-data analysis and meta-synthesis. These allow discursive comparison and contrast across studies and in this case the
systematic reviews to provide a narrative synopsis. The study was undertaken in 2005-2006. Findings relate to historical and theoretical constructs, methods, outcomes, clinical effectiveness, adherence, feasibility and sustainability.
Findings Historical Context
Bladder training: one of the earliest to evolve in the mid to late 1970's aimed at people who are cognitively and physically able Prompted voiding: came later and was targeted at people with cognitive and physical impairments by care staff and common in institutional settings
Habit retraining: evolved at a similar time as bladder training aimed at people with impaired cognitive and physical abilities by motivated staff
Timed voiding: also came later and aimed at people with cognitive and physical impairments by care staff and common in institutional settings
Populations and InterventionsBladder training Included:10 trials, n = 1366 mainly women. Excluded: 26
trials, not relevant
Prompted voiding Included: 5 trials, n = 355 elderly, mainly women.
Excluded: 1 trial awaiting data from author
Habit retraining Included: 3 trials, n= 337 Excluded: 57 studies, not
RCTs or did not fulfil criteria
Timed voiding Included: 2 trials, n = 298 Excluded: 56 studies, not RCTS
Theoretical Foundations
All are conservative therapies
Their therapeutic focus is on a programme of voiding
Client cooperation for toileting is a prerequisite
They differ from one another in their overall aim, pattern of toileting involved and degree of participation by client or caregiver. In practice timed voiding and habit retraining are used in situations where the client is not always cooperative, although client cooperation is optimal for
success
Terminology Conundrum
There is a need to re-conceptualise the theory underpinning bladder training, prompted voiding, habit retraining and timed voiding in relation to their mutual exclusivity. Standardisation of terminology, definitions and the components of
interventions is required. Operational overlap was found in relation to terminology, definitions and intervention components in the trials and studies reviewed across the
systematic reviews. Consequently there was difficulty in whether to include or exclude studies from reviews.
Clarification was sought from lead investigators in relation to the operational terms used and intervention components.
Possible reasons for the overlap in terminology, operational definitions and intervention components or lack of clarity, may be due to The studies being undertaken before standardisation of terms available; Operational terms varied in the studies reviewed although they stated bladder training, prompted voiding, habit retraining and timed voiding were used; Or they stated they were used but insufficient detail was reported in the written account to confirm this.
There is a need to explore cognitive mechanisms underlying bladder training and the voiding programmes, for example the potential role of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Recent trials comprise more complex interventions, with bladder training and voiding programs combined with cognitive techniques, exercise, dietary and lifestyle advice, which reflect evolving custom and practice and have implications for future trial designs.
Conclusion
This study has provided a novel approach using the framework and metastudy techniques developed for qualitative studies. It has provided an accessible discursive comparison and contrast of these four Cochrane systematic
reviews and synopsis. The theoretical approaches underpinning bladder training and voiding programmes, their components and suitability for specific patients need to be re-considered when designing future research studies.
Frequency of urinary incontinence is the most commonly cited outcome measure in randomised controlled trials on bladder training and voiding programmes, with limited or no data are available on other health outcomes, change in dependency status, quality of life or cost effectiveness included in
trials and the systematic reviews and need to feature in future research.
The theory under-pinning bladder training and voiding programmes for the management of urinary incontinence needs to be re-visited, the research design and interventions, outcomes and long term follow up also need to be considered in future research.


Volitional suppression of responses to distracting external stimuli enables us to achieve our goals. This volitional inhibition of a specific behavior is supposed to be mainly mediated by the cerebral cortex. However, recent evidence supports the involvement of the cerebellum in this process. It is currently not known whether different parts of the cerebellar cortex play differential or synergistic roles in the planning and execution of this behavior. Here, we measured Purkinje cell (PC) responses in the medial and lateral cerebellum in two rhesus macaques during pro- and anti-saccade tasks. During an antisaccade trial, non-human primates (NHPs) were instructed to make a saccadic eye movement away from a target, rather than toward it, as in prosaccade trials. Our data show that the cerebellum plays an important role not only during the execution of the saccades but also during the volitional inhibition of eye movements toward the target. Simple spike (SS) modulation during the instruction and execution periods of pro- and anti-saccades was prominent in PCs of both the medial and lateral cerebellum. However, only the SS activity in the lateral cerebellar cortex contained information about stimulus identity and showed a strong reciprocal interaction with complex spikes (CSs). Moreover, the SS activity of different PC groups modulated bidirectionally in both of regions, but the PCs that showed facilitating and suppressive activity were predominantly associated with instruction and execution, respectively. These findings show that different cerebellar regions and PC groups contribute to goal-directed behavior and volitional inhibition, but with different propensities, highlighting the rich repertoire of the cerebellar control in executive functions.


We apply our recently developed information-theoretic measures for the characterisation and comparison of protein–protein interaction networks. These measures are used to quantify topological network features via macroscopic statistical properties. Network differences are assessed based on these macroscopic properties as opposed to microscopic overlap, homology information or motif occurrences. We present the results of a large–scale analysis of protein–protein interaction networks. Precise null models are used in our analyses, allowing for reliable interpretation of the results. By quantifying the methodological biases of the experimental data, we can define an information threshold above which networks may be deemed to comprise consistent macroscopic topological properties, despite their small microscopic overlaps. Based on this rationale, data from yeast–two–hybrid methods are sufficiently consistent to allow for intra–species comparisons (between different experiments) and inter–species comparisons, while data from affinity–purification mass–spectrometry methods show large differences even within intra–species comparisons.


Abstract:Putin's regime is, and always has been, a kleptocracy. It is time to end the fiction that Putin's Russia is an equal member of the club of democratic nations. Stop providing Putin with democratic credentials that he uses against his critics in Russia. Stop pretending that a dialogue with Russia is taking place when in reality there is no common language with this Kremlin regime. You cannot treat Putin's police state according to the same rules as Germany or Canada because the Russian people do not enjoy the same rights and the same voice as Germans or Canadians.


. During the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, a series of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the period 7–17 March 2012 caused geomagnetic storms that strongly affected high-latitude ionosphere in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. GPS phase scintillation was observed at northern and southern high latitudes by arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTMs) and geodetic-quality GPS receivers sampling at 1 Hz. Mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time (MLT), the scintillation was observed in the ionospheric cusp, the tongue of ionization fragmented into patches, sun-aligned arcs in the polar cap, and nightside auroral oval and subauroral latitudes. Complementing a companion paper (Prikryl et al., 2015a) that focuses on the high-latitude ionospheric response to variable solar wind in the North American sector, interhemispheric comparison reveals commonalities as well as differences and asymmetries between the northern and southern high latitudes, as a conse-quence of the coupling between the solar wind and magnetosphere. The interhemispheric asymmetries are caused by the dawn–dusk component of the interplanetary magnetic field controlling the MLT of the cusp entry of the storm-enhanced density plasma into the polar cap and the orientation relative to the noon–midnight meridian of the tongue of ionization.


Data obtained from the first flight test of a ram jet utilizing a magnesium slurry fuel are presented. The ram jet accelerated from a Mach number of 1.75 to a Mach number of 3.48 in 15.5 seconds. During this period a maximum values of air specific impulse and gross thrust coefficient were calculated to be 151 seconds and 0.658, respectively. The rocket gas generator used as a fuel-pumping system operated successfully.


The transcription factor Sox2 acts as a pattern recognition receptor for cytosolic bacterial DNA in neutrophils. Neutrophils are immune cells that are the first responders at sites of infection, where they secrete antimicrobial factors, as well as cytokines and chemokines that recruit other immune cell types. Neutrophils contain membrane-bound Toll-like receptors (TLRs) with which to detect pathogens, but whether they have cytosolic sensors of microbial nucleic acids is unclear. Xia et al. found by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining that the transcription factor Sox2 was present in mouse neutrophils but not in other immune cell types. Subcellular fractionation assays showed that the transcription factor was predominantly cytosolic. When infected with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, mice with Sox2-deficient neutrophils exhibited increased mortality and bacterial burden compared with mice with normal neutrophils, and the mice with Sox2-deficient neutrophils had decreased amounts of proinflammatory cytokines in their serum. L. monocytogenes DNA is detected by cytosolic proteins that function as nucleic acid sensors in myeloid immune cells; however, genetic deletion of known DNA sensors in neutrophils did not block their production of proinflammatory cytokines in response to this pathogen. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of Sox2-binding sequences in L. monocytogenes DNA, and double-stranded DNA matching these sequences ("matched" DNA) immunoprecipitated Sox2 from neutrophil lysates. Yeast two-hybrid analysis identified the adaptor protein TAB2 as a binding partner of Sox2, and immunofluorescence analysis showed that Sox2 associated with TAB2 and the kinase TAK1 in neutrophils transfected with matched, but not unmatched, L. monocytogenes DNA. Activation of the TAB2-TAK1 complex, which stimulates inflammatory NF-κB signaling, required the dimerization of Sox2. Knockdown of TAB2 or TAK1 in neutrophils blocked the expression of genes encoding inflammatory cytokines in response to L. monocytogenes DNA. Compared with control mice, mice with neutrophils that were deficient in either TAB2 or TAK1 were more susceptible to death in response to infection with L. monocytogenes. Together, these data suggest that the transcription factor Sox2 acts as a sequence-specific detector of bacterial DNA in neutrophils to stimulate the production of proinflammatory cytokines as part of the innate immune response (see commentary by Mankan and Hornung). P. Xia, S. Wang, B. Ye, Y. Du, G. Huang, P. Zhu, Z. Fan, Sox2 functions as a sequence-specific DNA sensor in neutrophils to initiate innate immunity against microbial infection. Nat. Immunol. 16, 366–375 (2015). [PubMed] A. K. Mankan, V. Hornung, Sox2 as a servant of two masters. Nat. Immunol. 16, 335–336 (2015). [PubMed]


Objective: This paper investigates the hypothesis that focal seizures can be predicted using scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Our first aim is to learn features that distinguish between the interictal and preictal regions. The second aim is to define a prediction horizon in which the prediction is as accurate and as early as possible, clearly two competing objectives. Methods: Convolutional filters on the wavelet transformation of the EEG signal are used to define and learn quantitative signatures for each period: interictal, preictal, and ictal. The optimal seizure prediction horizon is also learned from the data as opposed to making an a priori assumption. Results: Computational solutions to the optimization problem indicate a 10-min seizure prediction horizon. This result is verified by measuring Kullback–Leibler divergence on the distributions of the automatically extracted features. Conclusion: The results on the EEG database of 204 recordings demonstrate that (i) the preictal phase transition occurs approximately ten minutes before seizure onset, and (ii) the prediction results on the test set are promising, with a sensitivity of 87.8% and a low false prediction rate of 0.142 FP/h. Our results significantly outperform a random predictor and other seizure prediction algorithms. Significance: We demonstrate that a robust set of features can be learned from scalp EEG that characterize the preictal state of focal seizures.


Two of the cornerstones of science advancement are rigor in designing and performing scientific research and the ability to reproduce biomedical research findings. The application of rigor ensures robust and unbiased experimental design, methodology, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of results. When a result can be reproduced by multiple scientists, it validates the original results and readiness to progress to the next phase of research. This is especially important for clinical trials in humans, which are built on studies that have demonstrated a particular effect or outcome independently results, and sinking the ship.


This thesis explores the achievement of the contemporary Irish poet John Montague, concentrating on his major works published from the fifties to the nineties. Montague's themes comprise not only Ireland and history, but also love, family, environment, the power and limits of poetry, the addressing of death and boyhood memories. Through close analysis of single poems and main sequences, the study attends to aesthetic, intertextual, psychological, historical and biographical issues. Its particular emphasis is on how Montague's language opens up ways of considering such issues. My readings try, therefore, to re-enact the subtle becoming and shifting that take place in individual poems and in his work as a whole. In order to illuminate the processes at work in Montague's poetry, the chapters of the thesis are split into some that discuss themes and others that focus on volumes. Chapter one shows how Montague's concern with poetry surfaces in his work. It draws on poems from various stages in his career; the thesis also returns in subsequent chapters to Montague's addressing of poetry. The second chapter outlines Montague's concern with exile and land in Forms of Exile and Poisoned Lands, and with family and love in A Chosen Light and Tides. Chapter three argues that Montague uses the journey as a structural device throughout The Rough Field. The fourth chapter concentrates on Montague's treatment of his family: the father in The Rough Field, A Slow Dance and The Dead Kingdom and the mother in A Slow Dance and The Dead Kingdom, which is read as the climax of Montague's return to family members. The fifth chapter analyses his main love-sequence. The Great Cloak, examines how his re-contextualisation's of poems and use of pictorial illustration affect the reading of some love poems, and considers two love poems from Smashing the Piano. The sixth chapter demonstrates how Montague develops old and new themes in Mount Eagle and discusses how a net of crossings constitutes the collection's structural centre. The final chapter explores how in Time in Armagh Montague refines his transformation of autobiographical material into art. The analysis of Border Sick Call locates a concern with poetry itself in the late writing and brings out the sequence's shifting between the mysterious and familiar. "But in what country have we been?" is its final line, helping to define the general concern of the thesis, which is to explore the riches of the "country" mapped by Montague's poetry.


Object identities appear stable despite noisy and constantly changing visual input, but it is unclear what mechanisms underlie such continuous perception. We have previously shown (Fischer & Whitney, 2014; Liberman et al., 2014) that observers experience serial dependence in the perception of orientation as well as face identity. This effect persists up to 15 seconds back in time and provides evidence for an object-selective continuity field. In the current study, we asked whether the continuity field promotes the perception of an object's stable identity when it is temporarily occluded. While the subject fixated on a centered point, we presented an oriented Gabor patch that traveled from left to right; midway through its trajectory, it moved behind an occluder also centered on the screen. The Gabor could travel either in a straight and continuous trajectory (expected) or in a discontinuous trajectory (unexpected) behind the occluder. Both the Gabor disappearing behind the occluder (first Gabor) as well as the Gabor coming out (second Gabor) had randomly generated orientations. After the second Gabor was no longer on-screen, subjects adjusted a bar by rotating it to match the second Gabor's orientation. Using this response, we tested whether the perceived orientation of the second Gabor was serially dependent on (i.e., captured by) the orientation of the first Gabor. We found that it was: the reported orientation of the second Gabor was pulled toward the orientation of the first Gabor. Importantly, this effect was significantly heightened when the Gabor followed the expected, continuous trajectory while it was occluded compared to the unexpected, discontinuous trajectory. This result suggests that sequential dependence in orientation perception takes advantage of expectations about a stable world, helping to maintain perceived object continuity despite interrupted visibility. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Abstract—Farmers who are living in flood-prone areas such as coasts are exposed to storm surges increased due to climate change. Crop cultivation is the most important economic activity of farmers, and in the time of flooding, agricultural lands are subject to inundation. Additionally, overflow saline water causes more severe damage outcomes than riverine flooding. Agricultural crops are more vulnerable to salinity than other land uses for which the economic damages may continue for a number of years even after flooding and affect farmers' decision-making for the following year. Therefore, it is essential to assess what extent the agricultural areas are flooded and how much the associated flood damage to each individual farmer is. To address these questions, we integrated farmers' decisionmaking at farm-scale with flood risk management. The integrated model includes identification of hazard scenarios, failure analysis of structural measures, derivation of hydraulic parameters for the inundated areas and analysis of the economic damages experienced by each farmer. The present study has two aims; firstly, it attempts to investigate the flooded cropland and potential crop damages for the whole area. Secondly, it compares them among farmers' field for three flood scenarios, which differ in breach locations of the flood protection structure. To achieve its goal, the spatial distribution of fields and cultivated crops of farmers were fed into the flood risk model, and a 100-year storm surge hydrograph was selected as the flood event. The study area was Pellworm Island that is located in the German Wadden Sea National Park and surrounded by North Sea. Due to high salt content in seawater of North Sea, crops cultivated in the agricultural areas of Pellworm Island are 100% destroyed by storm surges which were taken into account in developing of depthdamage curve for analysis of consequences. As a result, inundated croplands and economic damages to crops were estimated in the whole Island which was further compared for six selected farmers under three flood scenarios. The results demonstrate the significance and the flexibility of the proposed model in flood risk assessment of flood-prone areas by integrating flood risk management and decisionmaking.


This dissertation presents an effort to implement nonlinear dynamic tools adapted
from chaos theory in financial applications. Chaos theory might be useful in
explaining the dynamics of financial markets, since chaotic models are capable of
exhibiting behaviour similar to that observed in empirical financial data.
In this context, the scope of this research is to provide an insight into the role that
nonlinearities and, in particular, chaos theory may play in explaining the dynamics of
financial markets.
From a theoretical point of view, the basic features of chaos theory, as well as, the
rationales for bringing chaos theory to the attention of financial researchers are
discussed. Empirically, the fundamental issue of determining whether chaos can be
observed in financial time series is addressed.
Regarding the latter, empirical literature has been controversial. A quite exhaustive
analysis of the existing literature is provided, revealing the inadequacies in terms of
methodology and the testing framework adopted, so far.
A new "multiple testing" methodology is developed combining methods and
techniques from the fields of both Natural Sciences and the Economics, most of which
have not been applied to financial data before. A serious effort has been made to fill,
as much as possible, the gap which results from the lack of a proper statistical
framework for the chaotic methods. To achieve this the bootstrap methodology is
adopted. The empirical part of this work focuses on the comparison of two markets
with different levels of maturity; the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), an emerging
market, and London Stock Exchange (LSE). Our aim is to determine whether
structural differences exist in these markets in terms of chaotic dynamics.
In the empirical level we find nonlinearities in both markets by the use of the BDS
test. R/S analysis reveals fractality and long term memory for the ASE series only.
Chaotic methods, such as the correlation dimension (and related methods and
techniques) and the largest Lyapunov exponent estimation, cannot rule out a chaotic
explanation for the ASE market, but no such indication could be found for the LSE market. Noise filtering by the SVD method does not alter these findings. Alternative
techniques based on nonlinear nearest neighbour forecasting methods, such as the
"piecewise polynomial approximation" and the "simplex" methods, support our
aforementioned conclusion concerning the ASE series.
In all, our results suggest that, although nonlinearities are present, chaos is not a
widespread phenomenon in financial markets and it is more likely to exist in less
developed markets such as the ASE. Even then, chaos is strongly mixed with noise
and the existence of low-dimensional chaos is highly unlikely. Finally, short-term
forecasts trying to exploit the dependencies found in both markets seem to be of no
economic importance after accounting for transaction costs, a result which supports
further our conclusions about the limited scope and practical implications of chaos in
Finance.


This article is part of the special cluster titled Parties and Democratic Linkage in Post-Communist Europe, guest edited by Lori Thorlakson, and will be published in the August 2018 issue of EEPS Have Eastern European democracies developed patterns of accountability similar to those existent in their established counterparts? While most accounts of convergence are confined to the world of programmatic reasoning and policy representation, we use a unique data set to cover the wealth of instrumental and emotional modes of linkage building. We apply advanced techniques of model-based cluster analysis to establish a linkage-based typology of political parties. In the East, the contrast of programmatic and clientelistic parties is most essential in the absence of strong regional subdivisions. In the West, the structure of linkage building is characterized by an all-encompassing divide that separates mainstream and challenger parties. Parties in Southern Europe form a distinct Mediterranean type of "machine politics." The results for affluent post-industrial societies both support and contradict premises of the cartel party hypothesis. For third-wave democracies in the East, our results suggest the persistence of legacies of pre-communist and communist rule against the weight of cumulative democratic experience. In sum, patterns of accountability remained markedly different in the two regions on the eve of the economic crisis in 2008–2009.


Background: Complex nasal reconstruction has reached a high level of sophistication, emphasizing the need to replace nasal tissues with other similar tissues. We aimed to describe a series of patients who underwent complex nasal reconstruction secondary to oncologic resection or trauma. Methods: Patients simultaneously presenting with mucosa, cartilaginous support, and nasal skin defects were considered to have complex nasal defects and were eligible for reconstruction. The type of reconstruction was established according to the location and size of the defect; however, the procedure always included simultaneous reconstruction of the mucosa, cartilaginous support, and nasal skin. Results: Ten patients underwent complex reconstruction of the nose, including 8 men with a mean age of 53 years. Mucosal reconstruction was performed using a contralateral chondromucosal septal flap, ipsilateral mucosa, or cutaneous malar somersault flap. Cartilaginous support was per formed with septal and conchal cartilage grafts and cutaneous coverage with a frontal paramedian flap. There were no cases of hematoma, necrosis, or infection. Patients who underwent mucosa reconstruction with mucosal flaps reported normal breathing, unlike those who underwent reconstruction with a dermal-fat somersault flap and reported air flow obstruction. Conclusions: Reconstruction of complex nasal defects is challenging for plastic surgeons. Replacing the nasal tissue with similar tissue promotes the best possible aesthetic and functional results and is associated with a low incidence of complications.


Selected data collected for travelers to China from 1998 through November 2007 by the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network were used to provide an evidence base for prioritizing recommendations for Olympic and other future travelers to China. Respiratory illness and injuries were common among patients seen during their travel; acute diarrhea and dog bites were common among those seen after travel. Tropical and parasitic diseases were rare. Pre-travel consultation for China travelers should be individualized according to these findings.


OBJECTIVES
The use of barrier membranes in guided bone regeneration (GBR) procedures for the treatment of alveolar bone defects is common practice. The objective of this study was to test whether a synthetic bioresorbable polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel membrane could result in a similar amount of vertical bone fill as a standard collagen membrane, both combined with a membrane supporting material.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study enrolled 37 patients requiring implant treatment with an expected osseous defect in the posterior maxilla or mandible. After raising a mucoperiosteal flap, the implant sites were prepared and dental implants placed. The defect height was then measured and defects <3 mm were excluded from the study. Defects were grafted with bovine bone mineral and randomly covered with either a collagen membrane (control group, 18 patients) or a PEG hydrogel membrane (test group, 19 patients), which is applied as a liquid. After a healing period of 6 months, surgical re-entry was performed and the change in vertical bone height from baseline evaluated.

RESULTS
Well-vascularized hard tissue was apparent at all sites and the regenerated bone was similar to the surrounding native bone. Mean vertical defect fill after 6 months was 5.63+/-1.84 mm at test sites and 4.25+/-1.16 mm at control sites, and the mean defect fills were 94.9% and 96.4% at test and control sites, respectively. More soft tissue complications were observed with the PEG membrane (e.g., delayed or incomplete wound healing) but all sites recovered uneventfully.

CONCLUSIONS
The new PEG hydrogel membrane was as successful as a standard collagen membrane in the treatment of bony dehiscence defects around dental implants with simplified clinical handling.


Historically, the SEC has allowed public companies to exclude from their proxy materials shareholder proposals for the nomination of directors by shareholders. This rule has allowed the nomination of directors to remain under the control of the board of directors and its nominating committee. However, under amended Rule 14a-8(i)(8), shareholders will now be able to include proposals on proxy access in a public company's proxy materials. Public companies can now expect to receive such proposals for inclusion in their proxy materials for the 2012 proxy season. When voting on proxy access proposals, shareholders need to understand that proxy access is a fundamentally flawed tool of accountability. That is, it is a very inefficient means to promote good corporate governance in a public company. As argued in this article, it is expected that proxy access will lead to increased error in the nomination of directors as decision-making is moved from the board of directors to shareholders who will make their nominations based on significantly less information and a shifting of the potential for certain opportunistic behavior, such as the extracting of private benefits from the corporation, from an independent board and nominating committee to certain shareholders who, unlike directors, are not subject to fiduciary duties. Such an argument also makes the case for the SEC not to waste its resources on revisiting the idea of mandatory proxy access.


As the first full-length study of conspiracy theories in the Middle East, "The Hidden Hand" reveals how such theories play a powerful role in the political life of the region. Placing conspiracy theories in their historical context, Daniel Pipes shows how the idea of the conspiracy has come to suffuse life in the Middle East, from the most private family conversations to the highest and most public levels of politics. Pipes then looks at conspiracies and their strength as a partial explanation for much of the region's problems, including its record of political extremism, its culture of violence, and its lack of modernization. Concluding with speculations about the future of conspiracy theories, Pipes provides a key to understanding the often complicated political culture of the Middle East.


Cities use a variety of metrics to evaluate and compare their performance. With the introduction of ISO 37120, which contains over 100 indicators for measuring a city's quality of life and sustainability, it is now possible to consistently measure and compare cities, assuming they adhere to the standard. The goal of this research is to develop theories, embodied in software, to perform longitudinal analysis (i.e., how and why a city's indicators change over time) and transversal analysis (i.e., how and why cities differ from each other), in order to discover the root causes of differences. The first phase of this project focuses on the creation of standard representations of city knowledge (i.e., Vocabularies and Ontologies) that can be used to represent indicators and their supporting data and publish them on the Semantic Web. The second phase focuses on the development of consistency axioms that automate the determination of whether a city's indicators and supporting data are consistent with the ISO 37120 definitions, and whether they are longitudinally and transversally consistent. The third phase focuses on the development of diagnostic algorithms that identify the root causes of longitudinal and transversal differences. Due to the heterogeneity of the supporting data, the applicability of classical diagnostic techniques is limited.


An inserted metal (IM) layer (such as Pt, Ru, or Cr) is typically fabricated between Cr2O3 and the ferromagnet in magnetoelectric switched antiferromagnet/ferromagnet exchange-biased thin film systems. The IM layer is used as a "spacer layer" to prevent oxidization of Co and enhance the blocking temperature. In this work, we found that the magnetic properties of these thin film systems vary depending on the type of IM, and they could be reproduced by bilayers or multilayers of Co and IM thin films. We also found that the IM layer was spin-polarized by the Co ferromagnetic layer based on X-ray magnetic circular dichroism data. These results suggest that the IM does not work separately as a "spacer layer", but rather it is an integral component of Co-based stacked ferromagnetic films in magnetoelectric switched Cr2O3/ferromagnet exchange-biased systems. Furthermore, we found that some stacked ferromagnetic films easily exhibit a low unidirectional anisotropy energy (Jk), which may be a good way to decrease the magnetoelectric switching energy of antiferromagnets for practical device applications.


Increasingly, arts-based interventions are being implemented as a means of engaging young offenders, resulting in a public debate over the value of such projects. Whilst there is evidence that many Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) throughout England and Wales endorse such approaches, the processes by which they may benefit young people and have the potential to change attitudes to offending remain under-theorized. In this article we examine a YOT-related creative writing project that embraces an offender-based restorative justice model that depends on a reparative mind-set. We argue that such arts-based projects are complex and potentially far-reaching in their effects.