The inclusion of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in taxable income would increase income and payroll tax receipts, but would also increase Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits by adding ESI to the OASDI earnings base. This study uses the Urban Institute's DYNASIM model to estimate the effects of including ESI premiums in taxable earnings on the level and distribution by age and income groups of income tax burdens, payroll tax burdens, and OASDI benefits. We find that the increased present value of OASDI benefits from including ESI in the wage base in 2014 offsets about 22 percent of increased income and payroll taxes, 57 percent of increased payroll taxes, and 72 percent of increased OASDI taxes. The overall distributions of taxes and benefits by income group follow the same pattern, with both taxes and benefits increasing as a share of income between the bottom and middle quintiles and then declining as a share of income for higher income taxpayers. But households in the bottom income quintiles receive a net benefit from including ESI in the tax base because their increase in OASDI benefits exceeds their increase in income and payroll taxes. Over a lifetime perspective, all earnings groups experience net tax increases, but workers in the middle of the earnings distribution experience the largest net tax increases as a share of lifetime earnings. Higher benefits offset a larger share of tax increases for lower than for higher income groups.


The use of neutrons for cancer treatments has stimulated the research for beam characterization in order to optimize the therapy procedures in Neutron Capture Therapy (Altieri, 2008). Several research laboratories have shown an increasing interest aimed at extending the applicability of Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dosimetry to radiotherapy with different types of radiation beams. In particular, ESR spectrometry provides absorbed dose measurements through the detection of the stable free radicals produced by ionizing radiations. The ESR dosimetric method has many advantages such as simple and rapid dose evaluation, the readout procedure is non-destructive, linear response of many organic and inorganic compounds (Baffa,2014). In this work we study the response of phenolic compounds with and without gadolinium addition for electron spin resonance (ESR) dosimetry exposed to a gamma and mixed (n, gamma) field mainly composed of thermal neutrons. The compound IRGANOX 1076 phenol gives a phenoxy radical stabilized by the presence of two bulky groups [3]. Moreover, its high molecular weight, the low volatility and the compatibility with the dosimeter binding material (paraffin) are advantages with respect to lower molecular weight phenols. In this work we report the ESR investigation of phenols pellets and thin films with and without Gd2O3 (5% by weight) exposed in the thermal column of the Triga Mark II reactor of LENA of Pavia. Thanks to their size, the phenolic films here presented are good devices for the dosimetry of beams with high dose gradient and which require accurate knowledge of the precise dose delivered. The choice of Gd as the additive nucleus has been made because we are interested in applications for mixed field (neutrons/photons) Gd-ESR dosimetry has an high neutron capture cross section and, furthermore, the high LET secondary particles release their energy entirely in the dosimeter. The low content of gadolinium guarantees a good tradeoff between the sensitivity to thermal neutrons. However, the use of gadolinium reduces or abolishes tissue equivalence because of its high atomic number (Marrale, 2015). The dosimetric features of these ESR dosimeters have been investigated. In particular, we analyzed the ESR spectra of these compounds and their dependence on microwave power and modulation amplitude, their response after gamma and neutron irradiations, the detection limits for both beam typologies, signal stability after irradiation. The results of ESR experiments are compared with Monte Carlo simulations aimed at obtaining information about the total dose measured by means of ESR dosimeters. [1] S. Altieri et al., App. Rad. Isot. ( ) – doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2008.05.007 [2] O. Baffa, A. Kinoshita, Rad. and env. Bioph. ( ) – doi: 10.1007/s00411-013-0509-2. [3] M. Marrale et al., Rad. Mes. ( ) – doi: doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2015.02.019.


The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture attempted to lower distortions in the global agricultural markets. However, the significant fall in commodity prices in late 1990s may have reduced the incentives for both developed and developing countries to better integrate into the world markets. This study analyzes price linkages and adjustment between developed and developing countries during the post-Uruguay Round period. Prices of two key commodity markets, long-grain rice and medium-hard wheat, are assembled for major exporters and producers. Results from the multivariate cointegration analysis suggest partial market integration between developed and developing countries in the post-Uruguay Round period. Developed countries are found to be price leaders in these two markets, and in most cases, the changes in their prices have relatively large impacts on those of the developing countries. The new entrants into world markets (Vietnam and Argentina) have faced considerable price adjustment due to changes in the developed countries' prices.


The hotel industry has experienced changes brought on by growth, customer expectations and the proliferation in the use of e-commerce and online distribution channels. Future hotel success depends on how effectively hotel revenue managers are able to manage all of the different booking channels to maximize hotel revenue. This study represents a new approach for hotels, the use of a Data Envelopment Analysis-Balanced Scorecard (DEA-BSC) model to measure efficiency of distribution channel mix as measured by balanced scorecard results. DEA-BSC was chosen for this study because while traditional business models typically focus on one performance measure like profit, DEA-BSC considers multiple metrics simultaneously (Zhu, 2014a). Inputs for this study included the percentage of rooms sold revenue of five distribution channels including C-Res/Voice, GDS, brand.com, OTAs, and property/relationship sales. Output was consolidated BSC average. Hotels (DMUs) for the study included fifty-three select service hotels managed by a hotel management company with hotels located throughout the United States. Findings indicated that the DEA-BSC model was able to use channel mix as inputs and consolidated BSC average as output to identify efficient (benchmark) hotels and inefficient hotels. Findings also provided measurement and direction regarding the gap between the hotels that were efficient vs. those that were not. The model could not provide information on whether one output was more effective than another in contributing to the success of a hotel (DMU), but findings generated by the DEA-BSC model provided each inefficient hotel (DMU) with benchmark comparison information to assist the inefficient hotel (DMU) to become efficient.


Background: The purpose of this study was to examine whether adolescents who have high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) co-existing with low levels of television (TV) viewing present a better metabolic risk profile compared to their low fit and high TV viewing counterparts. Subjects and methods: A total of 372 students (aged 12–15 years old) comprised the sample of this study. Anthropometric data (body mass index and waist circumference) was collected. CRF was calculated based upon the 20 metres shuttle run test. A questionnaire was used to estimate weekly TV viewing. Information about biological maturity and parental education was collected. Participants were then categorized into one of four category profiles according to the scores they achieved: low TV-Fit; high TV-Fit; low TV-Unfit and high TV-Unfit. Metabolic risk score (MRS) was calculated based on the sum of the Z-scores of all the metabolic variables analysed. Results: Logistic regression analyses indicated that the high TV-Unfit group was almost 3-times more likely to be assigned to the high MRS group (OR = 2.85, 95% CI = 1.08–7.50) compared to their low TV-Fit group counterparts. Conclusions: The data showed that the high TV-Unfit group was associated with an increased metabolic risk in adolescents after adjustment for gender, age, biological maturity and parental education.


Despite the fundamental role of deterrence in the theoretical justification for medical malpractice law, surprisingly little evidence has been put forth to date bearing on its existence and scope. Using data from the 1979 to 2005 National Hospital Discharge Surveys and drawing on an extensive set of variations in various tort measures (e.g., damage caps) and malpractice standard-of-care rules (Frakes 2012a), I estimate a small and statistically insignificant relationship between malpractice forces and two metrics of healthcare quality emphasized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: avoidable hospitalization rates (reflective of outpatient quality) and inpatient mortality rates for selected medical conditions. At most, the evidence implies an arguably modest degree of malpractice-induced deterrence. For instance, at one end of the 95% confidence interval, the lack of a non-economic damages cap (indicative of higher malpractice pressure) is associated with only a 4% decrease in avoidable hospitalizations.


Congress routinely enacts statutes mandating that federal agencies adopt specific regulations. For example, when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, it required the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt a regulation compelling energy companies to disclose payments they make to governmental entities. Although this disclosure regulation is specifically required by the Dodd-Frank Act, it is also a regulation subject to disapproval by Congress under a process outlined in a separate statute known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

In 2017, Congress passed a joint resolution disapproving the SEC's disclosure rule under the process authorized in the CRA. That resolution nullified the SEC's rule, but it did not amend the Dodd-Frank Act. It did, though, make relevant a provision in the CRA that prohibits an agency from adopting any regulation that is "substantially the same" as one that Congress has disapproved. As a result, the SEC still must issue a disclosure regulation, but it cannot issue one that is substantially the same as the old one. Although normally this might not pose a major problem to an agency, the Dodd-Frank Act not only requires a disclosure regulation, it also provides considerable detail about what must be included in that regulation.

The SEC faces what appears to be a conundrum. On the one hand, it must adopt a regulation that comports with the detailed provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. But on the other hand, it is prohibited under the CRA from adopting a regulation that is "substantially the same" as the old regulation. What is the agency to do? Earlier this year, the SEC announced a proposal for a new disclosure regulation that differs in several ways from the old one—but the proposed regulation would also appear in some respects to violate the Dodd-Frank Act's requirements for how the disclosure rule should be designed.

In this paper—originally submitted as a public comment on the SEC's proposed rule—I explain that the SEC need not violate the Dodd-Frank Act to comply with the CRA. The CRA conundrum can be readily solved. The CRA's choice of the imprecise word "substantially" invites the SEC to reconcile both statutes. The agency can do so by ensuring that those features of a new regulation that remain in the SEC's discretion are not substantially the same as in the old rule. After all, a statute such as the CRA can only impose an obligation on an agency over matters over which it has a choice. The SEC just needs to make sure that any re-issued rule is no longer substantially the same in terms of portions of the rule over which the agency can exercise its discretion.

Even with detailed statutory provisions, such as the one in the Dodd-Frank Act, an agency nevertheless will still have some discretion available to it. It can exercise that discretion in a substantially different way even if by making available opportunities for waivers or by extending deadlines for compliance. The disapproval of a rule under the CRA simply does not relieve an agency from its obligation to produce a regulation that complies with other statutory obligations.


How can we encourage classroom teachers to view their classrooms as creative spaces? To understand that in order to foster and develop creativity and enhance engagement in the children within that space they may be required to shift gears and both' be' and do things differently? How indeedwhen the teaching examples and pedagogical practices provided for them by university educators are most often sadly lacking in both creativity and engagement. Researchers 1 assert that many education courses lack cohesion and in fact hinder pre-service teacher development and understanding. Fostering a culture of creative engagement within any classroom requires the development of a particular ethos or culturea composite of a set of common values and beliefs 2. This ethos is one that relies in large part on the interpersonal skills of the teacher influenced by their 'biographies, experiences and perceptions'3. Another important component impacting upon the creation of classroom culture is an ability to use humour and a willingness to change the traditional power relationships between student and teacher. If we are to encourage classroom teachers to explore the development of classrooms that encourage creativity and engagement, university educators must first be courageous enough to develop such spaces within their own university subjects. This paper explores just such a cultural change initiated within one university subject and charts the types of pedagogical decisions that were required to create this type of space. By first modelling good practice and then mentoring pre-service teachers through explicit discussion and the development of supportive classroom activities, many came to an increased understanding of what was possible in their own classroomsthey were able to use concept mapping to highlight and identify these connections. Search Terms: Creative Engagement, Pedagogy, Pre-service Teachers, Classroom Culture


We investigated coupled granular/continuous (CGC) perpendicular media consisting of a continuous multilayer for high thermal stability and a granular host layer to reduce noise. The addition of Co/Pt multilayers increased the nucleation field of the CoCr/sub 18/Pt/sub 12/ medium from 0 to -2000 Oe. Moreover, the moment decay was reduced from 4.8% to 0.1% per decade. Compared to Co/Pd multilayer media, the CGC medium had a 10 dB higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The granular host layer significantly improved the SNR in the high-density region over 10 kfc/mm. Compared to the CoCr/sub 20/Pt/sub 10/ medium, the CGC medium had a 3 dB higher SNR in the low-density region. The medium noise for the CGC medium increased with the recording density, while the noise for the CoCr/sub 20/Pt/sub 10/ medium remained constant from 10 to 20 kfc/mm. The approach using CGC medium improves both the SNR and the thermal stability.


Neurilemmomas or schwannomas are common spinal cord tumors and usually located intradural-extramedullary. Intramedullary schwannoma is a rare pathology and usually misdiagnosed as intramedullary glioma. We reported a case of cervicomedullary intramedullary cystic schwannoma. A-33-year-old female patient with 6 month history of sub-occipital neck pain with tingling and numbness affecting both upper limbs admitted to our department. Magnetic resonance imaging of the cervical spine showed cystic intramedullary mass. Patient operated with limited suboccipital craniectomy and removal of posterior arch of the atlas. The mass was intramedullary, soft, grayish white in color with mild vascularity. Near total excision was achieved and the patient has smooth postoperative course. Histopathological examination revealed cystic schwannoma.


This thesis argues that Sterne's fiction is an ambiguous representation with religious and libidinal subtexts of a struggle to give a coherent metaphysical account both of the significance of compassion for suffering and of causality. This implies that Sterne's fiction cannot be fully understood without reference to eighteenth-century arguments about the compatibility of belief in the power and goodness of God with the existence of evil otherwise known as the theodicy debate. This becomes clear when analysed with Slavoj 'i–ek's concept of the fetish: the lie which enables one to live with an unendurable truth.

The thesis is organised into six chapters. After setting Sterne's fiction in the context of contemporaneous theodicies, these examine in turn its theodictic features, its narrative procedures, its representations of mortality and class hierarchy, and its relationship to Sentimentalism. It shows that in each of these areas two of the major themes of contemporaneous theodicies are also fetishised subtexts in Sterne's fiction: the religious attachment to the Newtonian idea of a perfectly ordered cosmos and the anxiety that the unmanaged appetite for pleasure might provoke divine displeasure.

An array of concepts from 'i–ek identify the theodictic implications of the fictions – the author as the omniscient 'subject supposed to knowi?½; the 'Master-Signifier' that is meant to define the narrator's role but fails because of a repressed remainder that it cannot encompass; the mechanisms by which subjects interpret experiences as messages from the divine; the idea of language as a reality that can outlive the subject; and the theory that the prospect of rational social order can be psychologically unendurable.

Sterne's fiction highlights the fact that fiction often trades on the reader's need for comprehensible patterns of causality: its refusal to provide this is theodictic and this fact has hitherto received no extended critical attention.


Sustainable investing is an investment approach in line with the values of sustainable development and compliance with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria. The aim of the article is to propose a sustainable investing model (SIM) to support the decision-making of responsible individual investors. The proposed model aggregates economic indicators of investment decision-making, positive and negative ESG criteria, the market value of the stock, a systematic and unsystematic risk (expressed by the capital asset pricing model (CAPM)), thus widening the investment triangle by another peak—and that is sustainability. The research methodology is based on four key areas (environmental, social, corporate governance, and economic) associated with sustainable investments, stock market value, and risk. The research methodology of structural equation models is applied for the construction of the SIM. Mathematical equations are used to apply the SIM, which expresses values, the so-called factor scores. For the classification of sustainable investments, a classification scale is created that divides investments into three groups: above-average, average, and below-average. The SIM comprehensively evaluates individual ESG criteria and economic areas of sustainable investments, thus assisting the investor in deciding on sustainable investments of Czech joint-stock companies in the manufacturing industry, including benchmarking with other sustainable investments.


This chapter evaluates the efficacy of copper-silver ionization that is reported to be a useful tool to control growth of Legionella. Copper-silver ionization was tested over a period of 1 year as the first step in a multiple-barrier system controlling Legionella. In Germany, additions of silver and copper to drinking water need special approval of the Ministry of Health and are permitted only with substantial restrictions. Measurable effects in Legionella reduction can be achieved only at silver concentrations significantly exceeding the German standard of 10 μg/liter. Copper values exceeded national standards, preventing a short-term high dosing of silver. Concentrations of both metals vary depending on water flow. Silver cannot be analyzed directly with in the system, causing a considerable feedback delay. Legionella counts stayed above targeted values (working standard, Legionella counts <1 CFU/ml) . Reduction is not as efficacious as in hot water systems maintaining about 60№C. Long-term effects (e.g., development of heavy-metal resistance) of adding silver and copper are yet to be evaluated.


It is rare for countries to give up their currencies and thus their ability to influence such critical aspects of their economies as interest and exchange rates. Yet ten years ago a number of European countries did exactly that when they adopted the euro. Despite some dissent, there were a number of arguments in favor of this policy change: it would facilitate exchange of goods, money, and people by decreasing costs; it would increase trade; and it would enhance efficiency and competitiveness at the international level. A decade is an ideal time frame over which to evaluate the success of the euro and whether it has lived up to expectations. To that aim, Europe and the Euro looks at a number of important issues, including the effects of the euro on reform of goods and labor markets; its influence on business cycles and trade among members; and whether the single currency has induced convergence or divergence in the economic performance of member countries. While adoption of the euro may not have met the expectations of its most optimistic proponents, the benefits have been many, and there is reason to believe that the euro is robust enough to survive recent economic shocks. This volume is an essential reference on the first ten years of the euro and the workings of a monetary union.


The Yb:YAG and Yb:YAP crystals have been grown by Czochralski method. The absorption spectra and the fluorescence spectra of Yb:YAG and Yb:YAP crystals have been investigated. It is shown that the Yb:YAG crystal has better laser properties and smaller threshold power than Yb:YAP crystal. In addition, the absorption cross-section of the Yb:YAP crystal is 2.16 times of that of the Yb:YAG crystal, so laser diode pumped Yb:YAG lasing can be easily realized. Because YAP single crystal is anisotropic, it is provided with polarization characteristics.


A theory is developed for the propagation through a nonlinear medium of strong pump and amplified-spontaneous-emission pulses. The theory is based on a solution of the density matrix equations that aims at providing an adequate treatment of the nonlinear polarization of the material without addressing the Taylor expansion over the powers of intensity. The theory has been applied for modeling of three-photon absorption induced upconverted stimulated emission of organic molecules in solvents. Numerical results are presented for the organic chromophore 4-[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-N-(methyl)amino phenyl]-4′-(6-hydroxyhexyl sulfonyl) stilbene dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide. The results are in good agreement with available experimental results.


This textbook offers a fresh approach to the study of comparative politics and public policy. Instead of concentrating on why countries differ, Learning From Comparative Public Policy explores how countries can learn from each other about the success and failure of policy initiatives. With its theory and practise focus, the lively narrative analyzes the cultural and resources problems involved in importing policies, and the roles of institutions, regulators, think tanks and experts. In addition to explaining the key tenets of policy analysis, the internationally renowned author offers a wide variety of international case studies and useful boxes to highlight examples. Invaluable reading for students of public policy, for policy makers and practioners working in the public sector, it includes: Learning from comparison. Defining a problem and creating awareness. Where to look for lessons. Applying the policy model. The problems of importing models. Using terms to evaluate future consequences.


Title of Thesis: The Inn, Restaurant and Tavern Business in Ancient Pompeii Sharon Marie Ruddell, Master of Arts, 1964 Thesis directed by: Dr. Wilhelmina F. Jashemski The number of public establishments in ancient Pompeii indicates that the inn, restaurant and tavern business was one of t..'l-J.e most extensive in the town. This thesis endeavors to. study each public inn and eating house in Pompeii, and to observe the general characteristics of ancient inns, restaurants and taverns as exemplified by the excavations of the city. The first chapter discusses the various types of ancient inns, restaurants and taverns, using the Pompeian establishments as specific examples. The general features of the inns and taverns are described and illustrated. Various aspects of tavern life are discussed in the second chapter. The epigraphical evidence yielded by the excavations at Pompeii provides vivid testimony to the life in the taverns of antiquity. This information, combined with the writings of the ancient authors, portrays much of the activity in the Pompeian inns and eating houses. In the third chapter, the rol·e of the public establishments in Pompeii's city life is discussed. Their locations and areas of concentration, as well as their commercial and social importance are considered. In the Appendix, each inn, restaurant and tavern that has been excavated and identified is described. A bibliography follows each description. Wherever possible, plans of various Pompeian establishments have been included throughout the paper.


Background & Objectives : Exposure to high temperatures is common among workers in warm environments leading to some undesirable effects. The aim of this study was to examine physiological responses to heat stress to determine the optimal index for direct measurement of physiological strain in workers of hot environments. Methods: In this study, 40 workers of melting and casting process were evaluated. Thermal stress was evaluated based on the WBGT index and physiological strain by measuring oral and tympanic temperature, urine temperature, heart rate, and recovery heart rate. Data was analyzed using SPSS v.16 software. Results : Heat stress exceeded the national and international recommended limits based on the WBGT index in 80% of cases of workstations. The correlations between heat strains including tympanic temperature, oral temperature, urine temperature, heart rate and heart rate recovery to heat stress index were significant, while tympanic temperature had a stronger association according to simple linear regression (P<0.01, R 2 =0.78). Conclusion : Tympanic temperature had a stronger correlation with the WBGT index among the investigated indices. Accordingly, tympanic temperature could be a useful indicator compared to other parameters for measuring physiological strain in warm workplaces due to the ease of measurement, noninvasive nature, acceptance by workers, and fast and non-interference in the measurement process.


This study evaluated the occurrence and incidence of phytophagous nematodes and identified the cereal cyst nematode species by morphological and molecular tools in the main cereal-growing areas in Niğde in 2018-2019. Phytophagous nematodes within twelve genera were detected in 95% of soil samples. The most common phytophagous nematodes in cereal soil were in the genera Heterodera, Ditylenchus, Merlinius, Pratylenchus, Aphelenchus, Aphelenchoides, Tylenchus, Helicotylenchus, Trophurus, Pratylenchoides, Filenchus and Xiphinema (in decreasing order of incidence). In particular, 75% of the soil samples from surveyed fields were infested with the cereal cyst nematodes (Heterodera spp.). Morphological characteristics of cysts and second-stage juveniles were calculated within the expected ranges for Heterodera filipjevi (Madzhidov, 1981) Stelter, 1984, however, two populations from Çamardı was determined as Heterodera latipons Franklin, 1969 (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae). Intraspecific variation was not observed within the populations of H. filipjevi which could be in the same genotypic group. In addition to the high incidence of these Heterodera spp., intensive cereal cropping systems with/without non-cereal rotations in wheat production areas of Niğde also resulted in high incidence of root lesion nematode, Pratylenchus species.


To provide an indication of the root causes of claims and other extra costs arising in the earthworks sector of highway construction a study has been carried out for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory by Mott, Hay and Anderson, Consulting Engineers. Records for ten contracts carried out between 1957 and 1977 have been analysed; these projects involved the construction of about 37km of major road at tender prices totalling more than 12 million pounds, and additional costs totalling 4.2 million pounds. The analyses show that extra costs arising from earthworks difficulties alone were not necessarily greater than those resulting from other types of difficulty; those from ground-related and pavement construction work also formed a significant part of total extra costs. Main areas that gave rise to the extra costs were planning of site investigation, interpretation of site investigation results, and overall project planning and management. (Author/TRRL)


Commercial Law This book sets out the law and practice relating to arbitrations which take place in France or under French procedural law, and highlights, whilst considering the various stages of the arbitral process in chronological order, (from formation of the arbitration agreement to the making of the award), the differences in the rules applicable respectively to "domestic" and "international" arbitration. It describes how the national courts may be called upon to support the arbitrations, and explains the rules which they apply if they are asked to recognize or enforce an award made in France, or if such an award is challenged before them. Further, it is shown that French law is more advantageous to the party seeking recognition or enforcement in France of a foreign award than are the relevant provisions of the New York Convention 1958; the underlying reasons for this situation are explained, and cases are reviewed where an award, which has been annulled in its country of origin, was nevertheless enforced in France, comparisons being drawn with other legal systems. The primary objective of this book is to show that French Arbitration law sustains and promotes a modern and efficient system for the resolution of disputes which is outside but supported by the state courts. This publication examines and discusses why and within what limits French law permits arbitration to flourish side by side with litigation in the courts. Furthermore it informs how the arbitral process in France works and explains the salient features of both domestic and international arbitration and the principles of French arbitration law. These principles and the way in which they are applied are the topics dealt with by this book. They are divided into four parts: Part 1: The concept and scope of arbitration Part 2: The arbitral process Part 3: The arbitral process Part 4: Satisfaction of awards by processes of execution.


How is it possible to increase homeowners' insulation activity? Answering this question is key to successful policies regarding energy-efficient buildings worldwide. In Germany, doubling today's insulation rate of about 1% is an important element for reaching the government's target of an 80% reduction in energy demand in the building sector by 2050.
This thesis uses an agent-based model analysis to improve the understanding of homeowners' insulation activity and to explore new approaches aiming at its increase in Germany. Two agent-based models were developed and utilized. The first model was developed mainly based on insights derived from a structured literature review. The second emerged from the previous one, incorporating the results of an online survey conducted among 275 homeowners.
The results indicate that homeowners' economic means have little influence on their decision to install insulation. Instead, their insulation decision-making is mostly affected by situational factors and their attitudes towards insulation. Situational factors, such as the condition of the building, are important because they initiate homeowners' individual decision-making processes on insulation. The simulation results show that improving homeowners' attitudes about insulation by providing information has a comparatively low potential for increasing their insulation activity. Out of the policy options this thesis explored, the introduction of an obligation to insulate the walls within one year after change of house ownership was found to have the greatest impact on homeowners' insulation activity.


Compliance with incoming new emission standards such as Euro6d and China6b will require new approaches to the design of thermally loaded automotive components e.g. turbochargers, exhaust valves and manifolds. However, the validation of those new designs and the need for a rapid market entry will require new temperature measurement technologies to provide accurate data across the entire component. A limited number of techniques are currently available, and all have limitations in the harsh operating conditions of turbomachinery. A new technique, called Thermal History Paint (THP), has been developed to overcome these limitations to enable accurate temperature profiles to be recorded in harsh environments. There are limited publications that cover the use of this technique and this paper demonstrates the capability of the THP through the implementation on turbocharger turbine wheels.
 A cooled, hollow radial turbine wheel was designed, manufactured via 3D printing and tested. A solid wheel of the same external dimensions was manufactured and tested under the same conditions to act as a baseline. The THP was used to measure the temperature profile of the blade surfaces and to quantify the effectiveness of the cooling. The paint exhibited good durability through the tests of both wheels in a hot gas rig at the University of Bath.
 Specific calibration data were generated for the test and the repeatability of the measurements was determined to be within 8K. Both the cooled and baseline wheels were measured at many locations and the THP recorded a significantly higher temperature on the baseline solid wheel. The measured temperature profiles were in good agreement with expectation and CFD simulations. The results enable the validation of thermal models and demonstrate the capability of the new measurement technique.


Recently, scholars in a variety of disciplines-including philosophy, film and media studies, and literary studies-have become interested in the aesthetics, definition, and ontology of the screenplay. To this end, this volume addresses the fundamental philosophical questions about the nature of the screenplay: What is a screenplay? Is the screenplay art-more specifically, literature? What kind of a thing is a screenplay? Nannicelli argues that the screenplay is a kind of artefact; as such, its boundaries are determined collectively by screenwriters, and its ontological nature is determined collectively by both writers and readers of screenplays. Any plausible philosophical account of the screenplay must be strictly constrained by our collective creative and appreciative practices, and must recognize that those practices indicate that at least some screenplays are artworks.


Geopolitical risks on pipeline gas imports, increasing natural gas demand and the need to ensure continuous power supply with ever increasing fluctuating renewable power generation require diversification of gas sources to ensure supply security. With the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade increasing every year and natural gas prices remaining relatively low, more and more countries are interested in investing in regasification infrastructure. Establishing a floating storage and regasification unit (fSrU) and importing LNG has several advantages: lower cost compared to an onshore terminal, flexibility in relocation and the availability of short-term contracts all of which help serve small markets. fSrUs can also be operated in standby mode or used as an LNG storage facility. Operating an fSrU as a storage facility while beneficial for small networks introduces the challenges of LNG weathering and managing of the boil-off gas (BOG). To investigate these challenges on operation, a mathematical model is developed to determine the boil-off rate (BOr) over various time frames. The initial BOr is 0.129% of the initial storage volume increased to 0.143% after 10 weeks. Subsequent use of aspen hySyS to determine the change in LNG composition determined that Wobbe Index (WI) of the LNG varied from 51.58 to 51.616 mj/Nm3 after 10 weeks of storage. an annual economic estimation of operating fSrU as a storage facility was carried out determining that the per unit price of gas obtained from regasified LNG is at least 42% lower than the current per unit price of gas in Ireland.


Repertory grid technique plays a central role in the elicitation methodology of many well-reported knowledge acquisition tools or workbenches. However, the dependability of these systems is low where the technique breaks down or proves inadequate due to limited expressive power and other problems. The paper introduces an alternate approach based on Personal Construct Theory that elicits an expert's knowledge as a network of terms that constitutes a propositional formalism. An extended example is used to both highlight the difficulties encountered using repertory grids and illustrate how these are overcome using the proposed approach. The results of an empirical study are presented where an experienced clinician compared the knowledge structures that she constructed for a diagnostic task using each elicitation technique. Furthermore, although the network representation is amenable to inductive learning methods for generating production rules, an inference method is demonstrated which reveals the formalism's categorical reasoning potential. The authors conclude that it is more appropriate to classify such methods as either mediating or immediate rather than the knowledge structures they employ. The paper contributes to a better understanding of constructivist formalisms developed for knowledge acquisition. >


Crowd work has emerged as a new form of digital gainful employment that changes the nature of work. However, an increasing number of people perform certain tasks in the crowd and start to identify with this work. In this paper, we outline our research in progress which is concerned with the effects of work characteristics in crowd work that have impact on the individual's identification. Thus, we developed our research model and conducted an online survey amongst 434 crowd workers to ex-amine their perception of work and illustrate the antecedences of identification. Our expected contribution will increase the understanding of crowd work and extend prior research on self-determination theory (SDT) and work design. For practice, we provide important insights for platform providers to (re-) design work on platform in order to increase identification among their crowd. In addition, our findings can serve as common basis for future discussions on decent crowd work.


Caption: This composite image of the Antennae galaxies contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), optical data from Hubble (gold and brown), and infrared data from Spitzer (red). The X-ray image shows huge clouds of hot, interstellar gas that have been injected with rich deposits of elements from supernova explosions. This enriched gas, which includes elements such as oxygen, iron, magnesium and silicon, will be incorporated into new generations of stars and planets. The bright, point-like sources in the image are produced by material falling onto black holes and neutron stars that are remnants of the massive stars.


Background A computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system combined with a clinical decision support system can reduce duplication of medications and thus adverse drug reactions. However, without infrastructure that supports patients' integrated medication history across health care facilities nationwide, duplication of medication can still occur. In Taiwan, the National Health Insurance Administration has implemented a national medication repository and Web-based query system known as the PharmaCloud, which allows physicians to access their patients' medication records prescribed by different health care facilities across Taiwan. Objective This study aimed to develop a scalable, flexible, and thematic design-based clinical decision support (CDS) engine, which integrates a national medication repository to support CPOE systems in the detection of potential duplication of medication across health care facilities, as well as to analyze its impact on clinical encounters. Methods A CDS engine was developed that can download patients' up-to-date medication history from the PharmaCloud and support a CPOE system in the detection of potential duplicate medications. When prescribing a medication order using the CPOE system, a physician receives an alert if there is a potential duplicate medication. To investigate the impact of the CDS engine on clinical encounters in outpatient services, a clinical encounter log was created to collect information about time, prescribed drugs, and physicians' responses to handling the alerts for each encounter. Results The CDS engine was installed in a teaching affiliate hospital, and the clinical encounter log collected information for 3 months, during which a total of 178,300 prescriptions were prescribed in the outpatient departments. In all, 43,844/178,300 (24.59%) patients signed the PharmaCloud consent form allowing their physicians to access their medication history in the PharmaCloud. The rate of duplicate medication was 5.83% (1843/31,614) of prescriptions. When prescribing using the CDS engine, the median encounter time was 4.3 (IQR 2.3-7.3) min, longer than that without using the CDS engine (median 3.6, IQR 2.0-6.3 min). From the physicians' responses, we found that 42.06% (1908/4536) of the potential duplicate medications were recognized by the physicians and the medication orders were canceled. Conclusions The CDS engine could easily extend functions for detection of adverse drug reactions when more and more electronic health record systems are adopted. Moreover, the CDS engine can retrieve more updated and completed medication histories in the PharmaCloud, so it can have better performance for detection of duplicate medications. Although our CDS engine approach could enhance medication safety, it would make for a longer encounter time. This problem can be mitigated by careful evaluation of adopted solutions for implementation of the CDS engine. The successful key component of a CDS engine is the completeness of the patient's medication history, thus further research to assess the factors in increasing the PharmaCloud consent rate is required.


Author(s): Vigil-Hayes, Morgan Ashlee | Advisor(s): Belding, Elizabeth | Abstract: The Internet as a networked system has been rendered more complex than ever before as human endpoints are grafted into the system via increasingly pervasive and personalized networked devices. According to the United Nations, the Internet is a transnational enabler of a number of human rights, and as such, access to the Internet has been proclaimed to be a basic right unto itself. Unfortunately, even as networked devices have become ubiquitous, access to the Internet has not. In many cases, the reasons behind this digital divide involve contextual challenges such as limited infrastructure, limited economic viability, and rugged terrain. In this dissertation, we seek to ameliorate these challenges by designing data-driven, community-based network infrastructure.In order to extend Internet connectivity to communities located in some of the most challenging contexts, we start by understanding how Internet connectivity is used when communities receive initial Internet access. We do this by partnering with two ISPs (Internet service providers) that brought initial Internet connectivity to two geographic regions in Indian Country. The data we have collected from these two ISPs totals to 115 TB generated over a combined three years of partnerships. Our ISP collaborators serve a total of 1,300 subscribers who represent residents of 14 different Native American reservations representing 18 different tribes. The service areas of these ISPs include predominantly rural communities located on mountainous and forested terrain. Key findings from our analysis of data generated by these ISPs include: the prevalence of social media and streaming content, the locality of interest with respect to social media content, and the similarity of Web browsing preferences between households and the aggregate communities to which they belong. We augment our analysis of network traces collected from ISPs with analysis of data collected from some of the most prevalent social media platforms. One of our studies mines Instagram trace data collected from Instagram servers to better understand the relationship between network infrastructure capacity and social media usage patterns. We found that only a small percentage of content available to users over social media platforms is actually interacted with by users and that only a small portion of available bandwidth is needed to support interaction with this content. Moreover, in our analysis of the diffusion of content disseminated by Native American advocates on Twitter, we found that the rate of diffusion and the prevalence of content is tied to its media richness, and that richer content does not guarantee rapid diffusion or longevity in the network. Based on the results our analyses as well as findings in related work, we design four community-based network technologies that address the network challenges associated with rural and developing contexts.First, we introduce a social media content distribution system that operates over FM radio [200]. In order to provide content over a 1.2 Kbps technology (the Radio Broadcast Data System), we create a graph-based metric, the cumulative clustering coefficient, to filter content based on its total audience size and the diversity of its audience scope. We evaluate this delivery system used a trace-based simulation and we find that 81% of users received at least half of their content requests and 35.5% of the 1.1 million re- quested Instagram photos were transmitted to users. Next, we introduce FiDO [203], a community-based Web browsing agent and content delivery system that enables users from disconnected households to collect relevant content for themselves and members of their households opportunistically from content caches co-located with cellular base stations. We evaluate FiDO using a trace-driven simulation that combines Web tracescollected from one of our partner ISPs in addition to statistical models parameterized with census and transportation data. We find that an average of 80% of a household's cacheable Web files can be delivered opportunistically and when crawling the Web on behalf of disconnected households, FiDO is able to provide an average of 69 Web pages to each household (where 73% of a household's most browsed Web domains are repre- sented by the content collected on their behalf). We then describe some of the challenges associated with content creation and data collection in challenging contexts and intro- duce Open Development Kit (ODK) Submit and VillageShare for rural schools. ODK Submit is a smartphone-based platform that sits between data collection applications and the network interfaces of a devices [26]. It seeks to ease the burden of navigating heterogeneous network conditions for application developers, data collectors, and data processors. Principles from ODK Submit were incorporated into the publicly available ODK v. 2.0 tool suite as part of the Aggregate Tables Extensions suite [143]. In addition, we introduce VillageShare for rural schools, which enables schools in poorly-connected, rural areas to create and share culturally relevant curricula and empowers students to work collaboratively on "local cloud-based" projects despite their lack of access to net- work connectivity at home. We provide an evaluation of VillageShare that has been informed and parameterized by the deployment of Internet connectivity to rural schools over high-latency, low-bandwdith technology in South Africa.We conclude with an overview of our key findings as well as a discussion of future research directions inspired by the work in this dissertation.


The Church of Mary Tudor. Edited by Eamon Duffy and David Loades. Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700. (Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2006, Pp. xxxi, 348. $99.95.) Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor: The Achievement of Friar Bartolome Carranza. Edited by John Edwards and Ronald Truman. Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700. (Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2005, Pp. xxxx, 256. $94.95.) The Theology and Spirituality of Mary Tudor's Church. By William Wizeman, SJ. Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700. (Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2006, Pp. viii, 291. $99.95.) For those who study England, the most important general text on sixteenth-century religious history over the last forty years has been Arthur G. Dickens' The English Reformation. In this, Mary Tudor's reign is deemed a "failure, whether judged by her own objectives or by the interest of the nation." What doomed her were an inappropriate marriage, an unwarranted zeal for persecution, an uninspired clergy, and an ardent yet politically overwhelmed and underwhelming advisor, papal legate Reginald Pole. Dickens acknowledged in his 1989 edition that some of his "younger contemporaries" disagreed with his negative assessment. Some of them continue to challenge his position, as evidenced by three new books on Mary: The Church of Mary Tudor, Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor, and The Theology and Spirituality of Mary Tudor's Church. The Church of Mary Tudor, a collection of essays from among the best from the field of English Catholic history, is comprehensive, so much so that it reads almost like a monograph. Some contributors focus on the process by which Mary and her regime attempted to extirpate Protestantism, noting that they were more effective than previous historians have suggested. In Norwich Protestantism was easily erased, and without blood. In the universities Cardinal Pole had accomplished much in little time, a remarkable feat considering the attractiveness of Protestantism to freethinking youth. In addition, Mary picked able, active, and aggressive men for episcopal offices, the most significant of whom was Pole, the subject of some essays here. Thomas Mayer praises him for establishing a solid legal and administrative framework, and Eamon Duffy analyzes a sermon he gave in 1557, concluding that Pole was committed to preaching, yet keenly aware of die difficulty in removing Protestantism from London. Additional essays emphasize the culture of Marian Catfiolicism. A particularly strong piece on the Mass comes from Lucy Wooding, who notes that under Mary this sacrament was a "much more intricate and multi-faceted construct" than it had been before her father Henry VIII broke from Rome (257) . The humanist intellectual Thomas Watson, the subject of another essay, was no Thomist, and was not cleanly cut from the mold of late medieval Catholicism. Patrick Collinson's best work has been on Elizabeth, but his essay on the Marian persecution is superb. Simply put, the traditional view that Kent was one of the most Protestant regions in England, and mat the many martyrs who perished under Mary were assuredly Protestant, is going to have to be seriously reconsidered. The only weakness here is more along the lines of organization than content, as a few essays seem out of place (for instance, Spanish influence seems more closely related to process or culture than to Pole) . An additional essay or two on popular responses to Mary's reforms would not have hurt. In order to help secure Protestantism, Edward VI brought some of the most eminent continental reformers to England. In order to remove this Protestant influence, Mary followed suit and brought some of the Continent's great Roman Catholic intellectuals. Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor: The Achievement of Friar Bartolome Carranza examines the contributions of perhaps the key continental Catholic who advised Mary, Pole, and others who wanted to reestablish the faith. …


This paper investigates how positioning accuracy is affected in map-aided positioning systems, when a user's typical route is described by different probability distribution types. Probability distributions are introduced in an effort to better explain any reasonable route deviations from the user's center line of movement. The user route is assumed to be a-priori knowledge. Such knowledge can be extracted by utilizing information from environment maps and user mobility behaviour within the area of interest. In our research work, several probability distributions are tested along the center line of a user's route. The effect of the distribution width, radius ρ, on positioning accuracy is also investigated, by varying the value of ρ for both sides of the route. In this way, the allocated weight probability for locations at the proximity of the user's center line route can be controlled. Analysis suggests that the introduction of statistical distributions to describe the users movement around a straight path, leads to better positioning results, compared with the simplified approach where no map constraints are imposed. Best results have been observed when the distance ratio distribution was used.


While both public and private financial agencies supply asset markets with large quantities of information, they do not necessarily disclose all asset-related information to the general public. This observation leads us to ask what principles might govern the optimal disclosure policy for an asset manager or financial regulator. To investigate this question, we study the properties of a dynamic economy endowed with a risky asset, and with individuals that lack commitment. Information relating to future asset returns is available to society at zero cost. Legislation dictates whether this information is to be made public or not. Given the nature of our environment, nondisclosure is generally desirable. This result is overturned, however, when individuals are able to access hidden information - what we call undue diligence - at sufficiently low cost. Information disclosure is desirable, in other words, only in the event that individuals can easily discover it for themselves.


This thesis experimentally examines the use of different techniques for optical fibre transmission over ultra long haul distances. Its format firstly examines the use of dispersion management as a means of achieving long haul communications. Secondly, examining the use concatenated NOLMs for DM autosoliton ultra long haul propagation, by comparing their performance with a generic system without NOLMs. Thirdly, timing jitter in concatenated NOLM system is examined and compared to the generic system and lastly issues of OTDM amplitude non-uniformity from channel to channel in a saturable absorber, specifically a NOLM, are raised. Transmission at a rate of 40Gbit/s is studied in an all-Raman amplified standard fibre link with amplifier spacing of the order of 80km. We demonstrate in this thesis that the detrimental effects associated with high power Raman amplification can be minimized by dispersion map optimization. As a result, a transmission distance of 1600 km (2000km including dispersion compensating fibre) has been achieved in standard single mode fibre. The use of concatenated NOLMs to provide a stable propagation regime has been proposed theoretically. In this thesis, the observation experimentally of autosoliton propagation is shown for the first time in a dispersion managed optical transmission system. The system is based on a strong dispersion map with large amplifier spacing. Operation at transmission rates of 10, 40 and 80Gbit/s is demonstrated. With an insertion of a stabilizing element to the NOLM, the transmission of a 10 and 20Gbit/s data stream was extended and demonstrated experimentally. Error-free propagation over 100 and 20 thousand kilometres has been achieved at 10 and 20Gbit/s respectively, with terrestrial amplifier spacing. The monitor of timing jitter is of importance to all optical systems. Evolution of timing jitter in a DM autosoliton system has been studied in this thesis and analyzed at bit ranges from 10Gbit/s to 80Gbit/s. Non-linear guiding by in-line regenerators considerably changes the dynamics of jitter accumulation. As transmission systems require higher data rates, the use of OTDM will become more prolific. The dynamics of switching and transmission of an optical signal comprising individual OTDM channels of unequal amplitudes in a dispersion-managed link with in-line non-linear fibre loop mirrors is investigated.


The freshwater mussel, Velesunio angasi, was investigated as a possible biological monitor for the waterbodies around the uranium mining ventures in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory. The majority of the study centred around the Magela Creek system with comparative work on Nourlangie and Cooper creeks, and on the Finniss River. The mussel accumulates biologically available pollutants over time. Concentrations of fourteen elements (Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cd, Cu, Hg, Mg, Mn, Pb, S, Se, U, Zn) were determined in the soft parts of mussels collected from the field. Most of the elements were chosen because they are considered to be potential pollutants. In addition Ca and Mg were chosen for possible synergistic or antagonistic chemical relationships with other elements. The sampling strategy for these analyses was designed to (1) determine baseline data before mining operations commenced - ie natural levels of the elements in the soft parts of mussels; (2) identify differences in these levels in the mussel soft parts with differences in (a) location and time, (b) environmental conditions and (c) the biology of the mussels; (3) provide an estimate of the dietary intake by Aboriginal people of elements from mussels. Experiments were also undertaken to evaluate uptake and loss of some elements by mussel organs. under field conditions.


Alpine glaciers respond to climate imbalance by adjusting their mass and length. In turn, these changes modify the glacial and periglacial environment, leading to increased supraglacial debris cover, the development of glacial lakes and glacier fragmentation. In this research, we investigated the evolution of Lys Glacier (Monte Rosa Group), by studying length, area and volume changes, and evolution of its supraglacial debris cover and proglacial lakes by means of historical sources and high-resolution aerial and satellite orthophotos. Lys Glacier retreated almost continuously, by nearly 2 km, from its maximum Little Ice Age position. More recently, the glacier lost 11.91% of its area between 1975 and 2014 and underwent fragmentation in 2009. Over the same period, glacier fragmentation and tongue stagnation affected the formation and rapid growth of a series of ice-contact lakes and led to a non-linear debris cover evolution. The glacier was also subjected to strong volume losses, with more than 135 m thinning on the ablation tongue from 1991 to 2014. Analysis of the meteorological records (1927–present) from the closest weather station reveals a considerable increase in average annual temperatures by more than 1°C from the mean of 1971–1989 to the mean of 1990–2017.


INTRODUCTION
Erectile function after radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) is extensively discussed in literature. However, less is known about orgasm after RRP.

AIM
To analyze sexual function, in particularly orgasmic function, in men before and after RRP.

METHODS
Between 1977 and 2007 a RRP was performed in 1,021 men. All men were interviewed by their follow-up physician using a standardized interview about sexual function before and after RRP at regular intervals during a 2-year follow-up. The questions were related to sexual interest, sexual activity, spontaneous erections, and orgasmic function.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Sexual function, in particularly orgasmic function, before and after RRP. Factors potentially influencing orgasmic function, such as patients age, type of operation, pathological stage and continence status were analyzed for their predictive value. Results. Information about preoperative and postoperative sexual activity and spontaneous erection was available in 596 and 698 men, respectively. Additional questions were asked on sexual interest (N = 425) and orgasmic function (N = 458). Pre-operatively, sexual interest, sexual activity, spontaneous erections and orgasmic function were normal in 99%, 82.1%, 90.0% and 90% of men, respectively. After operation these values decreased to 97.2%, 67.3%, 29.4% and 66.8%, respectively. Orgasmic function was preserved in 141 of 192 men (73.4%) after a bilateral nerve sparing procedure, in 90 out of 127 men (70.9%) after a unilateral nerve-sparing procedure and in 75 of 139 men (54.0%) after non-nerve sparing technique. Postoperatively, orgasm was present in 123 (77.4%) men below the age of 60 years and in 183 (61.2%) men of 60 years and older (P < 0.0001). Orgasmic function was significantly affected by age >or=60 years, non-nerve sparing procedure and severe incontinence (more than two pads/day).

CONCLUSIONS
After RRP, orgasmic function is still present in the majority of men. A non-nerve sparing operation, age, and severe urinary incontinence are risk factors for orgasmic dysfunction after RRP.


We study whether employment history can provide information about a worker's noncognitive skills—in particular about "work attitude," or the ability to work well and cooperatively with others. Our hypothesis is that, holding all else equal, a worker's frequent job changes can indicate poorer work attitude, and that this information can be transmitted in labor markets through employment histories. We provide support for this hypothesis across three studies that employ complementary field, lab and survey experiments. First, using a laboratory labor market in which the only valuable characteristic of workers is their reliability in cooperating with an employer's effort requests, we demonstrate that prior employment information allows employers to screen for such reliability and allows high-reliability workers to obtain better employment outcomes. Second, we conduct a field experiment in which we vary the frequency of job changes in fictitious job applicants' resumes. Those applicants with fewer job changes are more likely to receive callbacks from prospective employers. A third survey experiment with human resource professionals confirms that the resume manipulations in the field study create different perceptions of work attitude. Our work highlights the potential importance of job history as a signal of worker characteristics, and points to a cost for workers of frequent job changes.


OBJECT
Placement of instrumentation in the setting of a spinal infection has always been controversial. Although the use of allograft and autograft bone has been accepted as safe, demonstrations of the effectiveness of titanium have been speculative, based on several retrospective reviews. The authors' goal in this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of instrumentation in the setting of a spinal infection by retrospectively reviewing their cases over the last 4 years and searching the literature regarding instrumentation in patients with pyogenic spinal infections.

METHODS
The authors conducted a retrospective review of their cumulative data on spinal infections. Diagnosis was based on subjective and objective clinical findings, along with radiographic and laboratory evaluation of infection and mechanical stability. Patients with medically managed disease and those who did not receive instrumentation were eliminated from this review. Of 105 patients with spinal infections who were admitted to the neurosurgical service between January 2000 and June 2004, 30 underwent surgical debridement necessitating spinal instrumentation. There were 17 women and 13 men in this group ranging from 28 to 86 years of age. Follow-up duration ranged from 3 to 54 months. There was one death, which occurred 3 months postsurgery. In three patients a deep wound infection developed, necessitating intervention, and two patients experienced a graft expulsion. Twenty-nine patients went on to demonstrate adequate fusion based on follow-up neuroimaging studies.

CONCLUSIONS
The goal of neurosurgical intervention in the setting of spinal infection is to obtain an organism culture and the debridement of infection while maintaining neurological and mechanical stability. The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of radical debridement of infected bone and placement of instrumentation in patients with spinal infections.


Applying control-theoretic approaches to capacity provisioning and performance management of Web servers is gaining increasing popularity in the past several years. This paper presents a novel control-theoretic approach that is a combination of linear-parameter-varying (LPV) techniques and workload characterization using alpha-stable-model based stochastic envelopes. In particular, we parameterize a control-oriented Web-server model and resulting controller using scheduling variables that are workload-distribution parameters. By further applying an alpha-stable modeling technique to identify the load parameters and using them to online schedule the LPV model and controller, the presented solutions not only allow the system to adapt to load variations, but also show great promise in handling self-similar workloads. The proposed framework is applied to a Web-server CPU management problem, where the server CPU frequencies are dynamically tuned and implemented via the dynamic voltage scaling mechanism to achieve the target response time. Simulations using real Web-server traces are conducted to show the strength of the proposed approach.


The global urban population is expected to grow by 63 percent between 2014 and 2050 – compared to an overall global population growth of 32 percent during the same period. Megacities with over 20 million inhabitants will see the fastest increase in population – and at least 13 new megacities are expected by 2030, in addition to the 28 existing today. The fastest growing urban centres contain around a million inhabitants, and are located in the lower-middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. The anticipated growth of cities creates unprecedented sustainability challenges. Increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, education, healthcare, housing, transport and public service are testing the limits of city infrastructures. In 2015, 828 million people lived in temporary housing that lack basic services like sanitation and access to drinking water. Six million new people move to such housing every year, thus ever increasing the demand for services. Cities are responsible for 67 percent of the global energy demand and consume 40 percent of world's energy overall. Urban centres are responsible for 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. In addition, urban centers increasingly experience natural disasters. They can also witness social tension brought on by rising inequality and unemployment, air and water pollution, traffic congestion, and urban violence and crime. At the same time, urban centres offer tremendous opportunities for economic development. Eighty percent of the world's gross domestic product is generated in cities. Urban citizens earn on average three times the income of their rural counterparts. Cities have a concentration of universities and are critical venues of research and innovation, political activism and cultural exchange. People living in larger cities tend also to have a smaller energy footprint, require less road and communication infrastructure, consume fewer resources, and have higher productivity levels. For example, according to earlier research, a city of eight million has 15 percent more productivity, e.g. wages and patents produced per capita, and 15 percent fewer infrastructure needs, e.g. gas stations, electric wires and roads, than do will two cities of four million each. Smart Cities have emerged as one response to the challenges and opportunities created by rapid urbanization. The report "Smart Sustainable Cities – Reconnaissance Study" presents the results of a study, conducted by UNU-EGOV and funded by IDRC, that examined the thesis that Smart Cities advance sustainable development. The study analysed 876 scientific publications, recommendations from 51 think tank organizations and 119 concrete Smart City initiatives. Researchers also conducted several interviews with city managers, planners and researchers responsible for successful Smart City initiatives.


Objective: To evaluate the effect of different types of adjunctive support to stop smoking for individuals contacting telephone "quitlines," including call-back counselling, different counselling techniques and provision of self help materials. Data sources: This review includes quitline studies identified as part of Cochrane reviews of telephone counselling and self help materials for smoking cessation. We updated the searches for this review. Study selection: We included studies that were randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials of any quitline or related service with follow-up of at least six months. Data extraction: Data were extracted by one author and checked by a second. The cessation outcome was numbers quit at longest follow-up taking the strictest definition of abstinence available, and assuming participants lost to follow-up continued to smoke. Data synthesis: We identified 14 relevant studies. Eight studies (18 500 participants) comparing multiple call-backs to a single contact increased quitting in the intervention group (Mantel-Haenszel fixed effect odds ratio 1.41, 95% confidence interval 1.27 to 1.57). Two unpublished studies without sufficient data to include in the meta-analysis also reported positive effects. Three call-back trials compared two schedules of multiple calls. Two found a significant dose-response effect and one did not detect a difference. We did not find consistent differences in comparisons between counselling approaches (two trials) or between different types of self help materials supplied following quitline contact (three trials). Conclusions: Multiple call-back counselling improves long term cessation for smokers who contact quitline services. Offering more calls may improve success rates. We failed to detect an effect of the type of counselling or the type of self help materials supplied as adjuncts to quitline counselling.


In this paper we propose the following approach to the dimensioning of the radio part of the downlink in OFDMA networks. First, we use information theory to characterize the bit-rate in the channel from a base station to its mobile. It depends on the power and bandwidth allocated to this mobile. Then, we describe the resource (power and bandwidth) allocation problem and characterise feasible configurations of bit-rates of all users. As the key element, we propose some particular sufficient condition (in a multi-Erlang form) for a given configuration of bit-rates to be feasible. Finally, we consider an Erlang's loss model, in which streaming arrivals whose admission would lead to the violation of this sufficient condition are blocked and lost. In this model, the blocking probabilities can be calculated using Kaufman-Roberts algorithm. We propose it to evaluate the minimal density of base stations assuring acceptable blocking probabilities for a streaming traffic of a given load per surface unit. We validate this approach by comparison of the blocking probabilities to these simulated in the similar model in which the admission control is based on the original feasibility property (instead of its sufficient condition). Our sufficient bit-rate feasibility condition can also be used to dimension the network with respect to the elastic traffic.


Scholars generally agree that the Books of Chronicles are the products of certain Israelite (Levitical) groups in the Persian province of Jehud who struggled with the dissonance between their older historical and theological traditions on the one hand, and their present reality on the other hand. Within the totally different conditions under Persian rule (a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society) they had to find a new identity. The primary focus of this article is to examine the rhetorics of the intense struggle for a new identity presented to the reader in the Books of Chronicles. It is argued that this new identity represented a shift from a historically-defined identity that lasted from the monarchical period to the early post-exilic phase, to a cultic identity during the Persian era. The article also endeavours to relate the identity forming discourse of these biblical books to the present processes in post-apartheid South African society. The question is asked whether a similar shift can be observed in this modern situation.


AUXIN BINDING PROTEIN 1 mediates rapid auxin responses in roots and leaves. Two receptors have been identified for the plant hormone auxin. One, the TIR1 signaling system, mediates auxin's transcriptional responses. The other is AUXIN BINDING PROTEIN 1 (ABP1), the function of which has been elusive because it is encoded by an essential gene. ABP1 exists in two pools; the majority is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and a smaller pool is secreted and interacts with cell surface proteins to associate with the plasma membrane. Two groups, Xu et al. and Robert et al., report that ABP1 mediates the rapid effects of auxin in Arabidopsis leaf epidermal cells and root epidermal cells (see commentary by Pietra and Grebe). In plant leaves, the pavement cells form an interdigitated pattern resembling a jigsaw puzzle. This pattern involves the guanosine triphosphatases ROP2 (or ROP4), which organizes the actin cytoskeleton in the lobe of the extending cell, and ROP6, which organizes the microtubule cytoskeleton in the indentating adjacent cell. Xu et al. found that the addition of a synthetic auxin (NAA) promoted interdigitation, whereas mutants with compromised auxin production had reduced interdigitation and resembled plants with reduced function of both of the functionally redundant guanosine triphosphatases ROP2 and ROP4. NAA rapidly, within 30 seconds, increased the amount of active ROP2 or ROP6 and promoted the redistribution of their downstream effectors, RIC4 and RIC1. These NAA-mediated responses required ABP1 and were compromised in plants with a weak allele, abp1-5, that fails to bind auxin effectively or in plants in which ABP1 was knocked down. In vivo auxin signaling involves the polarized transport of auxin, which is mediated by the auxin transporter PIN1. PIN1 was preferentially localized to the lobe tips, and this distribution was disrupted in plants with reduced ABP1, which exhibited increased internalized PIN1. Thus, auxin acting through ABP1 promotes PIN1 accumulation at the lobe tips and stimulates ROP2 and ROP6 signaling in adjacent cells to promote the appropriate cytoskeletal reorganizations necessary for interdigitation. In plant roots, the polarized distribution of PIN1 creates a gradient of auxin activity, which is necessary for root elongation and initiation. Robert et al. found that, in root, auxin rapidly inhibited the internalization of green fluorescent protein (GFP)–tagged PIN1 that occurred in response to brefeldin A (BFA) and that this process was rapid and did not involve TIR1 or transcription or translation. Knockdown of ABP1 resulted in reduced PIN1 internalization, and roots exhibited a general reduction in endocytosis, based on monitoring the trafficking of an endocytic tracer. Introduction of a gain-of-function mutant of ABP1, lacking the ER retention signal and thus causing increased abundance of ABP1 at the cell surface, produced auxin-related phenotypes and increased PIN1 internalization in response to BFA. The increased PIN1 internalization in the ABP1 gain-of-function roots was blocked by the addition of a synthetic auxin, suggesting that auxin inhibits ABP1's activity in promoting internalization. Natural or synthetic auxins inhibited transferrin internalization in protoplasts transfected with the human transferrin receptor and, in root cells, decreased the association of a GFP-tagged clathrin light chain with the plasma membrane, indicating that auxin inhibited clathrin-mediated endocytosis. In transfected cells, inhibitors of clathrin function blocked ABP1-mediated PIN1 internalization and, in plants in which ABP1 activity was reduced, less clathrin was associated with the plasma membrane. Thus, the evidence suggests that auxin acts through ABP1 at the cell surface to stabilize PIN1 at the plasma membrane by inhibiting clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Together these two studies reveal functions for the auxin receptor ABP1 and provide mechanisms by which the rapid effects of auxin are mediated to regulate polarity and morphogenesis. T. Xu, M. Wen, S. Nagawa, Y. Fu, J.-G. Chen, M.-J. Wu, C. Perrot-Rechenmann, J. Friml, A. M. Jones, Z. Yang, Cell surface- and Rho GTPase-based auxin signaling controls cellular interdigitation in Arabidopsis. Cell 143, 99–110 (2010). [PubMed] S. Robert, J. Kleine-Vehn, E. Barbez, M. Sauer, T. Paciorek, P. Baster, S. Vanneste, J. Zhang, S. Simon, M. Čovanová, K. Hayashi, P. Dhonukshe, Z. Yang, S. Y. Bednarek, A. M. Jones, C. Luschnig, F. Aniento, E. Zažímalová, J. Friml, ABP1 mediates auxin inhibition of clathrin-dependent endocytosis in Arabidopsis. Cell 143, 111–121 (2010). [PubMed] S. Pietra, M. Grebe, Auxin paves the way for planar morphogenesis. Cell 143, 29–31 (2010). [PubMed]


Biotic stresses including diseases [leaf, stem and stripe rusts], arthropods [greenbug (GB), Hessian fly (Hf), Russian wheat aphid (RWA), and wheat curl mite (WCM)] and their transmitted viral diseases significantly affect grain yield and end-use quality of hard winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the U.S. Great Plains. Many genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been identified for seedling or adult plant resistance to these stresses. Molecular markers for these genes or QTL have been identified using mapping or cloning. This study summarizes the markers associated with various effective genes including genes or QTL conferring resistances to arthropods, such as GB (7), RWA (4), Hf (9), and WCM (4) and diseases including leaf, stem and stripe rusts (26) and Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) (2); genes or QTL for end-use quality traits such as high (3) and low (13) molecular weight glutenin subunits, gliadin (3), polyphenol oxidase (2), granule-bound starch synthase (3), puroindoline (2), and pre-harvesting sprouting (1); genes on wheat-rye (Secale cereale L.) chromosomal translocations of 1AL.1RS and 1BL.1RS; and genes controlling plant height (12), photoperiod sensitivity (1), and vernalization (2). A subset of the markers was validated using a set of diverse wheat lines developed by breeding programs in the Great Plains. These analyses showed that most markers are diagnostic in only limited genetic backgrounds. However, some markers developed from the gene sequences or alien fragments are highly diagnostic across various backgrounds, such as those marking or linked to Rht-B1, Rht-D1, Ppd-D1, Glu-D1, Glu-A1, and 1AL.1RS. Knowledge of both genotype and phenotype of advanced breeding lines could help Page 2 of 63 Crop Science Accepted paper, posted 02/21/2014. doi:10.2135/cropsci2013.08.0564


SYNOPSIS We examine whether and how the addition of mandatory paragraphs that highlight Key/Critical audit matters (KAMs) in the auditor's report affects users' information acquisition process using eye-tracking technology. We experimentally manipulate the presence of KAMs, their number (one or three KAMs), and their format with the inclusion of an overview of audit procedures performed to address each KAM. We find that KAMs have attention directing impact, in that participants access KAM-related disclosures more rapidly and pay relatively more attention to them when KAMs are communicated in the auditor's report. However, when exposed to an auditor's report with several KAMs, participants devote less attention to the remaining parts of the financial statements. Depending on the relevance of the information for the decision task users are less attentive to, our results have direct policy implications as they underline the potential costs and benefits associated with KAMs.


With a r ecent major enhancement of the facilities for computer aided engineering on the Loughborough campus all underg r aduate students in the Department of Design and Technology have ac c ess to a powerful range of software tools running on sophisticated hardware. As designers, dealing with a variety of technological projects it is essenti a l that students in Design and Techno l ogy are introduced to these facilities and are made aware of the advant a ges and limitations of this type of resource. Through learning about how to use these design tools during project work, students have the opportunity to assess the capabilities of the software and to exercise discrim i nation when it comes to s electing which resource to use for a particular application .


ABSTRACT Government intervention in the housing market in response to the 2007–2010 mortgage crisis was driven in part by research showing that foreclosures lower neighboring housing values and thus increase neighbors' risk of foreclosure. Researchers have consistently identified a negative spillover effect of foreclosures on nearby housing values, but the magnitude of the effect varies widely across studies. Although this variation is due, in part, to differences in the geographic region, time period, and empirical strategy of prior research, we argue that the spillover effect on nearby housing prices exhibits hyper-local variation, which may be obscured by models that aggregate spillover effect estimates within existing geographic units. In this article, we employ geographically weighted regression to capture the extent of spatial and temporal variation of foreclosure spillover effects in three Ohio metropolitan statistical areas. We find extensive heterogeneity of foreclosure spillover effect estimates over time and across space, suggesting that such spillovers perhaps should not be thought of as universal phenomena. These findings raise the possibility that policies and programs designed to intervene in the housing market should analyze and use local variation in the negative externalities of foreclosure to best target scarce resources within and across communities.


This paper analyses the human resource management (HRM) practices involved in the implementation of a process innovation approach to product development (concurrent engineering (CE)) in the Australian subsidiary of a multinational firm engaged in military defence electronics. According to the research literature, almost all aspects of managing product development under a CE approach are linked to people management. Yet in this particular case, other than project team structure, the prescriptive HRM dimensions of CE were conspicuously absent in the implementation process. This absence is explained by the play of power and politics involving stakeholders analysed over an 18 month period. The implications of this analysis for understanding the embedded, interdependent and political nature of HRM and process innovation are addressed.


The distribution of genetic variation within and among plant populations is influenced by both contemporary and historical factors. I used isozyme analysis of band phenotypes to examine genetic structure in the rare prairie forb Silene regia. Relationships between current-day population size, isolation, and phenotypic variation were assessed for 18 populations in two regions with differing postglacial history. Western populations from unglaciated southern Missouri and Arkansas were more genetically diverse based on the Shannon-Weaver index (H) and a polymorphic index than were more eastern populations. These differences may be due to loss of variation with repeated founding of new populations in previously glaciated sites in Indiana and Ohio. Within the western region, population size was not significantly correlated with genetic variation. In the east, size was correlated with Shannon-Weaver diversity. There was no relationship between variation and isolation in either region, but eastern populations were slightly more differentiated. Greater among-population differentiation and the demonstrated connection between population size and variation in the eastern sites may reflect lower levels of interpopulation gene flow in the fragmented remnant prairies of Indiana and Ohio.


Rural Colorado Drug Courts: A Program Evaluation of Two Different Modalities by Art Kleinschmidt MA, Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies, 2005 MBA, Southeastern Louisiana University, 1998 BA, Southeastern Louisiana University, 1989 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy General Educational Psychology Walden University May 2017 Abstract According to the Colorado Judicial Branch, 78 problem-solving courts operate in the 20 judicial districts in Colorado. The Summit County and Eagle County drug court programs are located in Colorado's Fifth Judicial District and have not been previously studied. Evaluating treatment programs for effectiveness contributes to social change because it ensures individuals in need of treatment are receiving the proper services. The Eagle County drug court program had 117 participants and the Summit County drug court program had 33 participants. The Summit County Drug Court used 2 cognitive behavioral therapies: moral reconation therapy and strategies for self-improvement and change. The Eagle County Drug Court used the new Planting Seeds: A Client-Centered Approach to Addiction Treatment program in conjunction with mandatory 12-step support group participation as the basis for their treatment intervention. All participants in both groups completed a preand posttest Level of Service Inventory-Revised assessment, which measured the risk of recidivism, and the Adult Substance Use SurveyRevised to assess the severity of their substance use disorder. The data were analyzed using an analysis of covariance and a linear mixed-effects model; posttest Level of Service Inventory-Revised scores served as the dependent variable. Results indicated that successfully completing treatment significantly lowered the risk of recidivism, and that the Eagle County participants were more likely than the Summit County participants to successfully complete treatment. This study contributes to social change by advancing a new intervention that assists in keeping individuals who are in need of services in treatment longer, which in turn lowers their risk to reoffend.According to the Colorado Judicial Branch, 78 problem-solving courts operate in the 20 judicial districts in Colorado. The Summit County and Eagle County drug court programs are located in Colorado's Fifth Judicial District and have not been previously studied. Evaluating treatment programs for effectiveness contributes to social change because it ensures individuals in need of treatment are receiving the proper services. The Eagle County drug court program had 117 participants and the Summit County drug court program had 33 participants. The Summit County Drug Court used 2 cognitive behavioral therapies: moral reconation therapy and strategies for self-improvement and change. The Eagle County Drug Court used the new Planting Seeds: A Client-Centered Approach to Addiction Treatment program in conjunction with mandatory 12-step support group participation as the basis for their treatment intervention. All participants in both groups completed a preand posttest Level of Service Inventory-Revised assessment, which measured the risk of recidivism, and the Adult Substance Use SurveyRevised to assess the severity of their substance use disorder. The data were analyzed using an analysis of covariance and a linear mixed-effects model; posttest Level of Service Inventory-Revised scores served as the dependent variable. Results indicated that successfully completing treatment significantly lowered the risk of recidivism, and that the Eagle County participants were more likely than the Summit County participants to successfully complete treatment. This study contributes to social change by advancing a new intervention that assists in keeping individuals who are in need of services in treatment longer, which in turn lowers their risk to reoffend. Rural Colorado Drug Courts: A Program Evaluation of Two Different Modalities by Art Kleinschmidt MA, Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies, 2005 MBA, Southeastern Louisiana University, 1998 BA, Southeastern Louisiana University, 1989 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Psychology Walden University May 2017


Giant bamboo plantations are currently being established in the Southern Africa region and can be considered as potential lignocellulosic feedstock for the production of second generation bioethanol. In this study, giant bamboo internodal material was subjected to sulphur dioxide (SO2) impregnated steam pretreatment prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. The effect of temperature, residence time, and acidity on the overall sugar recovery and byproduct formation was studied using response surface response technology according to a central composite experimental design (CCD) at a fixed SO2 concentration of 2.5% (w/w liquid) after impregnation. The results showed that pretreatment conditions with combined severity factor (CSF) values and enzyme dosages greater than 1.72 and 30 FPU/g water insoluble solid, respectively, were required to obtain an efficient glucan digestibility and a good overall glucose recovery. Up to 81.2% of the sugar in the raw material was recovered for a CSF of 2.25. However, considering overall sugar yield and byproducts concentration, the pretreated material obtained with a CSF of 1.62 can be considered as the most appropriate for SSF experiments using a xylose‐utilizing yeast. At these conditions, it could be possible to obtain up to 247 L of ethanol per dry ton of giant bamboo considering hexose and pentose sugars fermentation. This amount could be increased up to 292 L of ethanol per dry ton of giant bamboo with the maximum sugar yield obtained (CSF = 2.25) if the microorganism possesses robust fermentative characteristics as well as a high resistance to pretreatment by‐products. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2011


The study of the origin and dispersion processes associated with airborne pollen grains are important to understand due to their impacts on health. In this context, a Hirst-type spore trap was utilized over the period 2015–2018 to monitor ambient pollen grains at Saclay, France, a receptor site influenced by both clean air masses originating from the Atlantic Ocean and polluted air masses under anticyclonic conditions. The objective of this work was to use ZeFir (a user-friendly, software tool recently-developed to investigate the geographical origin and point sources of atmospheric pollution) as a method to analyse total and allergenic airborne pollen grain concentrations. Strong interannual variability was exhibited for the total pollen grains concentrations and it was determined that this was mainly driven by Betulaceae pollen, with a general increasing trend displayed. The start of the pollen season was seen to be triggered by particular synoptic conditions after a period of dormancy and two maximums were displayed, one in April and a second in June. Results from the ZeFir tool, fed with on-site hourly meteorological and pollen measurements, demonstrate that the dominant pollen grains inputs to Saclay are favoured by non-prevailing winds originating from East and North in association with dry air, moderate winds, mild temperature and enhanced insolation.


Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have emerged to use different technologies to promote safety, convenience, and efficiency of transportation networks. Many applications of ITS depend on the availability of the real-time positioning of the vehicles in the network. In this research, the two open challenges in the field of vehicle localization for ITS are introduced and addressed. First, in order to have safe and efficient transportation systems, the locations of the vehicles need to be available everywhere in a network. Conventional localization techniques mostly rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology which cannot meet the accuracy requirements for all applications in all situations. This work advances the study of vehicle positioning in ITS by introducing an integrated positioning framework which uses several resources including GPS, vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-tovehicle communications, radio-frequency identification, and dead reckoning. These technologies are used to provide more reliable and accurate location information. The suggested framework fills the gap between the accuracy of the current vehicle localization techniques and the required one for many ITS applications. Second, different ITS applications have different localization accuracy and latency requirements. A smart positioning algorithm is proposed which enable us to change the positioning accuracy delivered by the algorithm based on different applications. The algorithm utilizes only the most effective resources to achieve the required accuracy, even if more resources are available. In this way, the complexity of the system and the running time decrease while the desired accuracy is obtained. The adjective Smart is selected because the algorithm smartly selects the most effective connection which has the most contribution to vehicle positioning when a connection needs to be added. On the other hand, when a connection should be removed, the algorithm smartly selects the least effective one which has the least contribution to the position estimation. This study also provides an overview about the positioning requirements for different ITS applications. A close-to-real-world scenario has been developed and simulated in MATLAB to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms. The simulation results show that the vehicle can acquire accurate location in different environments using the suggested Integrated framework. Moreover, the advantages of the proposed Smart algorithm in terms of accuracy and running time are presented through a series of comprehensive simulations.


The core Budget Papers outline the Government's strategic direction, priorities and plans for the financial year, its fiscal and economic policies and performance, and major expense and revenue initiatives.


Abstract Introduction: This chapter addresses chemical aspects of occupational health and marine oil-spill response and is restricted to exposures to crude oil in its various forms. Thus in-situ burning of oil is included, but ancillary chemicals such as surfactants or bioremediation agents are not. The content of this chapter is largely based on the literature published after 1985, the date of a comprehensive review conducted by Politzer et al. [1985] for the American Petroleum Institute, and on a review carried out for the Marine Spill Response Corporation early in 1993 [Holliday and Park, 1993]. Concern about health and safety is a normal part of every oil spill. In general, safety is easier to understand and address than are concerns about exposure to crude oil and other chemicals which might be used in the response. At one level, human exposure can be addressed through the enforcement of very conservative requirements for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). In the real world, however, conditions at a spill site make the use of such equipment inconvenient or even hazardous, and so the goal becomes to balance the risk from exposure with the appropriate level of PPE. While oil-spill cleanup is a comparatively new aspect of occupational-health practice, and dates from the formalization of response measures by companies and national and international agencies (something that occurred over the last 30 years), exposure to crude oil itself is a "mature" occupational-health matter. Workers have been exposed, both by inhalation and dermally, to the effects of crude oil for the past century. The exposure of response workers during the early phases of the oil-spill response can be likened to that experienced by oil-well-drilling crews and, to a lesser extent, by oil-well-maintenance personnel or fighters of oil-well fires. In contrast, exposures in the later stages of the cleanup are less clearly related to occupations within the oil industry. The crude oil will have been altered by weathering, and exposure to cleanup chemicals (e.g., dispersants, bioremediation agents) will become relatively more prominent. Such substances are beyond the scope of this chapter, and in any event, few data are available on the compositions or mammalian toxicity of dispersants. Although there are frequent references to toxicity in connection with dispersants, these invariably seem to refer to ecotoxicity. Human hazard does not appear to be an issue. For example, in a recently published paper entitled, "Effectiveness and safety of biosurfactants as agents of oil spill response" [Lepo et al., 1997], "safety" refers to possible toxicity to crustaceans and fish.