One of the most enduring debates in corporate law centers on why Delaware has become the dominant state in the market for corporate charters. Traditionally, two perspectives dominated the debate, the "race to the top" perspective that sees competition among states as driving legal rules toward efficiency and the "race to the bottom" perspective that sees competition among states as driving legal rules toward the interests of corporate managers. The two dominant perspectives have struggled to explain why approximately half of companies incorporate in Delaware, while the other half incorporate in their home states. Whether the choices are attributable to the quality of state law or to characteristics of the companies themselves or both has given rise to a large, but inconclusive empirical literature.This Article uses a large dataset of corporate financings to shed new light on this mystery and uncovers strong evidence that some of the strongest factors in incorporation choice are factors unrelated to either the quality of state law or the characteristics of individual companies. Instead, the data strongly suggest that demographic markers of sophistication, such as choice of law firm and headquarters location, predict the jurisdictional choice about as well as state law or the business attributes of companies. Companies with more demographic markers of sophistication tend to choose Delaware incorporation, and companies with fewer demographic markers of sophistication tend to choose home-state incorporation. The finding persists even when other attributes of the company are controlled for, such as its industry classification, the amount of money raised, or whether the company is public or private. Indeed, the sophistication factors arguably predict Delaware incorporation as well or better than any factors documented in the vast literature on state competition for corporate charters.The findings have important implications for the state "race-to-the-top" debate in corporate law. At a minimum the results in this Article make it clear that the choice of legal representation is an important missing variable in models of incorporation decisions. The fact that the choice of law firms drives the jurisdictional choice has far broader implications. If law firms drive the jurisdictional choice they may steer companies toward states that serve the law firms' own interests without regard to the quality of legal rules or the needs of the client. When the state chosen is Delaware, as it often is, there are few alternative jurisdictions that shareholders and managers can agree on. As a result, companies inadvertently fall into a "governance trap" from which reincorporation out of state is nearly impossible. This interpretation would suggest that Delaware's carefully calibrated positioning in the charter market has largely eliminated meaningful competition among the states for the quality of corporate law.


Osamu Tezuka has often been called the Walt Disney of Japan, but he was far more than that. Tezuka was Disney, Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Tim Burton and Carl Sagan, all rolled into one incredibly prolific package and he changed the face of Japanese culture forever. This lavishly packaged book reveals what made a shy doctor one of the key figures of 20th Century pop culture. Packed with stunning, never-before-seen images, it tells the story of Tezukas amazingly prolific life, and connects it to his manga and anime work. Tezuka created hundreds of characters, many known worldwide, drew over 150,000 pages of art and scripted dozens of movies; he created graphic biographies of Jesus, and the Buddha yet a huge amount remains untranslated into English. The book is accompanied by a DVD with a fly-on-the-wall documentary, "The Secrets of Creation", made in 1986 and never before translated or shown in the West.


This dissertation includes theoretical and applied components that address the effect of coatings on rates of mineral reactions that occur in acid mine drainage (AMD) environments. The two major projects investigated how diffusion-limited transport of reactants through pore spaces in coatings on mineral grains affects the reaction rate of the underlying mineral. The first project considered the growth of gypsum coatings on the surface of dissolving limestone in anoxic limestone drains (ALD), which reduces the neutralization rate of the dissolving limestone and the subsequent effectiveness of this treatment. The second project investigated the conditions where iron oxyhydroxide coatings form on oxidizing pyrite and the potential strategies to prevent 'runaway' AMD by reducing the rate of acid production to the point that the acid can be neutralized by the surrounding rocks. In both studies, experiments were conducted to measure reaction rates for the underlying minerals, as coatings grew thicker. These experimental data were fit to a diffusion model to estimate diffusion coefficients of reactants through pore spaces in coatings. These models are extrapolated to longer times to predict the behavior of the coated grains under field conditions. The experimental results indicate that management practices can be improved for ALDs and mine waste piles. For example, supersaturation with respect to gypsum, leading to coating formation, can be avoided by diluting the ALD feed solution or by replacing limestone with dolomite. AMD can be prevented if the rate of alkalinity


Abstract. The version 2 Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) dust layer detection method, which is based only on lidar measurements, misclassified about 43% dust layers (mainly dense dust layers) as cloud layers over the Taklamakan Desert. To address this problem, a new method was developed by combining the CALIPSO Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and passive Infrared Imaging Radiometer (IIR) measurements. This combined lidar and IR measurement (hereafter, CLIM) method uses the IIR tri-spectral IR brightness temperatures to discriminate between ice cloud and dense dust layers, and lidar measurements alone to detect thin dust and water cloud layers. The brightness temperature difference between 10.60 and 12.05 μm (BTD11−12) is typically negative for dense dust and generally positive for ice cloud, but it varies from negative to positive for thin dust layers, which the CALIPSO lidar correctly identifies. Results show that the CLIM method could significantly reduce misclassification rates to as low as ~7% for the active dust season of spring 2008 over the Taklamakan Desert. The CLIM method also revealed 18% more dust layers having greatly intensified backscatter between 1.8 and 4 km altitude over the source region compared to the CALIPSO version 2 data. These results allow a more accurate assessment of the effect of dust on climate.


Orange juice processors in Florida face stiff competition from Sao Paulo processors. The United States imposes a specific import tariff to protect domestic processors. Sao Paulo processors also export to the European Union, which imposes an ad valorem tariff on orange juice. Under oligopolistic competition with endogenous firm entry and exit, this paper analyzes how the changes in tariff policy and productivity impact the market structure in Florida and Sao Paulo; prices; quantities; and welfare in the United States, Brazil, and the European Union. Free trade and an increase in Sao Paulo productivity benefit U.S. and EU consumers and Sao Paulo processors. In contrast, U.S. tariff reduction adversely impacts Florida processors.


This volume focuses on a number of important problem areas and issues, such as vaccination, reproductive health and AIDS, equity and community health financing, self-care and the use and distribution of pharmaceuticals, that confront health professionals and health planners. Public health staff at different levels are involved in providing health education and primary health care and are confronted with difficulties related to the socio-cultural context in which they work as they implement health programs. "Anita Hardon" is professor of anthropology of care and health, University of Amsterdam and dean of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. "Pimpawun Boonmongkon" is assistant professor of Medical Anthropology at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. "Pieter Streefland" is senior research fellow at the Royal Tropical Institute, full professor of applied development sociology, and professor of master medical anthropology and sociology, University of Amsterdam. "Michael Lim Tan" is medical anthropologist and lecturer, University of the Philippines, and director of Health Action Information Network. "Thavitong Hongvivatana" is professor of medical social science and director of the Center for Health Policy Studies, Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. "Sjaak van der Geest" is professor of medical anthropology, University of Amsterdam. "Anneloes van Staa" is medical doctor and medical anthropologist, and lecturer, Institute of Health Policy and Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. "Corlien Varkevisser" is a medical sociologist-anthropologist professor emeritus in Health System Research, University of Amsterdam. "Cecilia Acuin," M.D., F.P.A.F.P, Department of Family Medicine of the De La Salle University in Manila. "Mushtaque Chowdhury" is visiting professor, Columbia University and deputy executive director of the research and evaluation division of BRAC in Bangladesh. "Abbas Bhuiya "is head of the Social and Behavioural Sciences Programme, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. "Luechai Sringeryuang" is associate professor of medical anthropology, Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. "Els van Dongen" is associate professor in medical anthropology, University of Amsterdam. "Trudie Gerrits" is a medical anthropologist and research fellow, Amsterdam School of Social Science Research.


The American physicist Robert Dicke (1916-1997) is primarily known for his important contributions to gravitation, cosmology, and microwave physics. Much less known is his work in geophysics and related areas of the earth sciences in which he engaged himself and several of his collaborators in the period from about 1957 to 1969. Much of Dicke's work in geophysics was motivated by his wish to obtain evidence in support of the non-Einstenian Brans-Dicke theory of gravitation. The idea of a decreasing gravitational constant, as entertained by Dicke and some other physicists (including Pascual Jordan), played some role in the process that transformed the static picture of the Earth to a dynamical picture. It is not by accident that Dicke appears as a minor actor in histories of the plate tectonic revolution in the 1960s.


Horst Biesold s Crying Hands treats a neglected aspect of the Holocaust: the fate of the deaf in Nazi Germany. His book covers a story that has remained almost unknown. In the United States, even in Germany, few are aware that during the Nazi era human beingsmen, women, and childrenwith impaired hearing were sterilized against their will, and even fewer know that many of the deaf were also murdered. --From the Foreword by Henry Friedlander When the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933, they wasted no time in implementing their radical policies, first by securing passage of the Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases. Among those designated by this law as congenitally disabled were deaf people. Horst Biesold s newly translated book examines this neglected aspect of Nazi racial hygiene through interviews with more than 1,000 deaf survivors of this brutal law that authorized forced sterilizations, abortions, and eventually murder. "Crying Hands"meticulously delineates the antecedents of Nazi eugenics, beginning with Social Darwinism (postulated in the mid-nineteenth century) and tracing the various sterilization laws later initiated throughout the world, including many passed and practiced in the United States. This exceptional scholarship is movingly paralleled by the human faces fixed to the numbing statistics, as in story after story those affected recount their irretrievable loss, pain, and misplaced shame imposed upon them by the Nazi regime. Through their stories, told to Biesold in German Sign Language, they have given voice to the countless others who died from the specious science practiced by the Third Reich. And now their own trails finally have been acknowledged."


(2018) Nick Bostrom Future of Humanity Institute University of Oxford  [Working Paper, v. 3.46] [www.nickbostrom.com]   ABSTRACT  Scientific and technological progress might change people's capabilities or incentives in ways that would destabilize civilization. For example, advances in DIY biohacking tools might make it easy for anybody with basic training in biology to kill millions; novel military technologies could trigger arms races in which whoever strikes first has a decisive advantage; or some economically advantageous process may be invented that produces disastrous negative global externalities that are hard to regulate. This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default, i.e. unless it has exited the "semi-anarchic default condition". Several counterfactual historical and speculative future vulnerabilities are analyzed and arranged into a typology. A general ability to stabilize a vulnerable world would require greatly amplified capacities for preventive policing and global governance. The vulnerable world hypothesis thus offers a new perspective from which to evaluate the risk-benefit balance of developments towards ubiquitous surveillance or a unipolar world order.


This is a brief report of the local manifestation of the nation-wide influenza outbreak of December–January 1943–1944 as observed in an army camp near San Antonio, Texas. The examination of serums was initiated just prior to the local outbreak and was continued for two and one-half months thereafter. Serum specimens from 175 cases were collected from all clinical cases of nasopharyngitis, atypical pneumonia, lobar pneumonia, and influenza, at the onset of illness and at weekly intervals for two weeks thereafter. These serum specimens were examined for the following diseases with the technics noted:
1.
Influenza A and B by a modification of the Hirst test (1).
2.
Cold Hemagglutination (2).
3.
Ornithosis-lymphogranuloma venereum group
2
complement fixation test.
4.
Q fever by the complement fixation test.
The findings in this brief survey were as follows:
1.
This was an explosive outbreak of influenza A, one month in duration with 82 per cent of the 39 serologically positive cases occurring in the first two weeks.


Over the course of the Spring 2011 semester, a team of three student researchers, led by Dr. Ana Reyes of the University of Pennsylvania set out to explore the 3D immersive technologies currently in use by corporations, non-profit, government and academic organizations for organizational development and collaboration. During this first phase of the project, our team endeavored to identify organizations who are leading the way in the use of these technologies. Our hope was to tour the identified immersive workspaces, observe individuals or groups as they use these spaces and to interview key stakeholders such as the participants, the immersive project champions and organizational leaders and the vendors providing the solutions in order to identify best practices and key learnings from these early adopters. Our key objectives were as follows: • Identify corporate, academic, non-profit and government workplaces that are presently utilizing 3D immersive environments to meet organization development needs; • Understand why immersive technologies were chosen and how these organizations are using the 3D environments to accomplish their goals, and • Derive lessons and insights from this research for the purposes of designing 3D Learning Conferences and a potential 3D Organizational Dynamics Laboratory at Penn. This paper provides a high-level business and technology summary of each platform reviewed, along with team observations about their capabilities and the challenges that we faced in our own use of each one. Later, it describes in varying detail several organizational use cases provided by vendors and key stakeholders, the benefits they realized from using 3D tools and the key learnings they acquired through their use of the immersive workspaces for organizational development and collaboration purposes. The conclusion highlights several best practices gathered from our research with both user organizations and technology vendors and proposes additional areas for further exploration. Comments Working Paper #11-02 This working paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/od_working_papers/12 Using 3D Immersive Technologies for Organizational Development and Collaboration Stephanie Carmichael, MSOD Candidate Organizational Dynamics Graduate Studies


She Should Run is a campaign schools initiative organized by the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Canada Region. The campaign aims to launch non-partisan "campaign schools" where women can come to learn about the processes of running for public office. These campaign schools, which usually take the form of short conferences, follow the CWP's framework; they consist of various sessions and modules created specifically to support women entering the political sphere. The Canadian Parliamentary Review spoke with Laura Ross, Chair of the CWP Canada Region, to find out more about She Should Run.


The Framework for Machine Translation Evaluation (FEMTI), introduced by the ISLE Evaluation Working Group, contains guidelines for defining a quality model used to evaluate an MT system, in relation to the purpose and context of use of the system. In this paper, we report results from a recent experiment aimed at transferring knowledge from MT evaluation experts into the FEMTI guidelines, in particular, to populate relations denoting the influence of the context of use of a system on its evaluation. The results of this hands-on exercise carried out as part of a tutorial, are publicly available at http://www.issco.unige.ch/femti/.


Dendritic cells are stimulated by various ligands derived from foreign cells, detecting infection, and by ligands expressed by T cells. Hou and Parijs reported that exposure of immature dendritic cells in culture to either Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands--lipoteichoic acid (LTA), which binds TLR2; lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which binds TLR; or cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG), which binds TLR9--or to T cell costimulatory molecules CD40 ligand (CD40L) or TRANCE (tumor necrosis factor-related activation-induced cytokine) increased short-term cell survival. The abundance of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-XL was increased in response to each of these ligands and was required for the increased short-term viability of the cells (1 to 3 days). CpG also produced an increase in the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 that persisted throughout the time period (1 to 4 days). At longer time periods (past 3 days), cells exposed to LPS or LTA exhibited decreased viability, an increase in the abundance of the proapoptotic protein Bim, and a decrease in Bcl-2. Exposure to CpG did not result in decreased Bcl-2, and exposure to CD40L did not alter the abundance of either Bcl-2 or Bim. Thus, the balance of Bim and Bcl-2 may contribute to differences in the ability of the ligands to prolong the life-span of dendritic cells. In vitro, cells deficient in Bcl-2 activated T cells; however, in vivo, Bcl-2-deficient dendritic cells did not produce T cell responses that were as robust as those observed with wild-type dendritic cells. In addition, the abundance of Bcl-2-deficient dendritic cells in the spleen and lymph nodes was lower than that observed for wild-type dendritic cells. Finally, mice with Bcl-2-deficient dendritic cells showed an increase in spleen and lymph node dendritic cells when exposed to CD40-specific antibodies, but a decrease in lymphoid-associated dendritic cells when exposed to LPS. Thus, different dendritic cell-activating ligands appear to activate different pathways that govern the life-span of these cells (see Moser). W.-S. Hou, L. V. Parijs, A Bcl-2-dependent molecular timer regulates the lifespan and immunogenicity of dendritic cells. Nat. Immunol. 5, 583-589 (2004). [Online Journal] M. Moser, Balancing life and death. Nat. Immunol. 5, 559-560 (2004). [Online Journal]


If you prefer instructions that show you how rather than tell you why, then this visual reference is for you. Hundreds of succinctly captioned, step-by-step screen shots reveal how to accomplish more than 375 Excel 2007 tasks, including creating letters with Mail Merge, assigning formats to cells, editing multiple worksheets at once, and summarizing with PivotTables and PivotCharts. While high-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task, succinct explanations walk you through step by step so that you can digest these vital lessons in bite-sized modules.


Bill Buxton and I share a common belief that design leadership together with technical leadership drives innovation. Sketching, prototyping, and design are essential parts of the process we use to create new products. Bill Buxton brings design leadership and creativity to Microsoft. Through his thought-provoking personal examples he is inspiring others to better understand the role of design in their own companies--Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft"Informed design is essential." While it might seem that Bill Buxton is exaggerating or kidding with this bold assertion, neither is the case. In an impeccably argued and sumptuously illustrated book, design star Buxton convinces us that design simply must be integrated into the heart of business--Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of TorontoDesign is explained, with the means and manner for successes and failures illuminated by engaging stories, true examples and personal anecdotes. In Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton clarifies the processes and skills of design from sketching to experience modeling, in a lively and informative style that is rich with stories and full of his own heart and enthusiasm. At the start we are lost in mountain snows and northern seas, but by the end we are equipped with a deep understanding of the tools of creative design.--Bill Moggridge, Cofounder of IDEO and author of Designing Interactions"Like any secret society, the design community has its strange rituals and initiation procedures. Bill opens up the mysteries of the magical process of design, taking us through a land in which story-telling, orange squeezers, the Wizard of Oz, I-pods, avalanche avoidance, bicycle suspension sketching, and faking it are all points on the design pilgrim's journey. There are lots of ideas and techniques in this book to feed good design and transform the way we think about creating useful stuff". -Peter GabrielI love this book. There are very few resources available that see across and through all of the disciplines involved in developing great experiences. This is complex stuff and Buxton's work is both informed and insightful. He shares the work in an intimate manner that engages the reader and you will find yourself nodding with agreement, and smiling at the poignant relevance of his examples.--Alistair Hamilton, Symbol Technologies, NYBooks that have proposed bringing design into HCI are aplenty, though books that propose bringing software in to Design less common. Nevertheless, Bill manages to skilfully steer a course between the excesses of the two approaches and offers something truly in-between. It could be a real boon to the innovation business by bringing the best of both worlds: design and HCI. --Richard Harper, Microsoft Research, CambridgeThere is almost a fervor in the way that new products, with their rich and dynamic interfaces, are being released to the public-typically promising to make lives easier, solve the most difficult of problems, and maybe even make the world a better place. The reality is that few survive, much less deliver on their promise. The folly? An absence of design, and an over-reliance on technology alone as the solution.We need design. But design as described here depends on different skillsets-each essential, but on their own, none sufficient. In this rich ecology, designers are faced with new challenges-challenges that build on, rather than replace, existing skills and practice. Sketching User Experiences approaches design and design thinking as something distinct that needs to be better understood-by both designers and the people with whom they need to work- in order to achieve success with new products and systems. So while the focus is on design, the approach is holistic. Hence, the book speaks to designers, usability specialists, the HCI community, product managers, and business executives. There is an emphasis on balancing the back-end concern with usability and engineering excellence (getting the design right) with an up-front investment in sketching and ideation (getting the right design). Overall, the objective is to build the notion of informed design: molding emerging technology into a form that serves our society and reflects its values. Grounded in both practice and scientific research, Bill Buxton's engaging work aims to spark the imagination while encouraging the use of new techniques, breathing new life into user experience design.. Covers sketching and early prototyping design methods suitable for dynamic product capabilities: cell phones that communicate with each other and other embedded systems, "smart" appliances, and things you only imagine in your dreams;. Thorough coverage of the design sketching method which helps easily build experience prototypes-without the effort of engineering prototypes which are difficult to abandon;. Reaches out to a range of designers, including user interface designers, industrial designers, software engineers, usability engineers, product managers, and others;. Full of case studies, examples, exercises, and projects, and access to video clips (www.mkp.com/sketching) that demonstrate the principles and methods.About the AuthorTrained as a musician, Bill Buxton began using computers over thirty years ago in his art. This early experience, both in the studio an on stage, helped develop a deep appreciation of both the positive and negative aspects of technology and its impact. This increasingly drew him into both design and research, with a very strong emphasis on interaction and the human aspects of technology. He first came to prominence for his work at the University of Toronto on digital musical instruments and the novel interfaces that they employed. This work in the late 70s gained the attention of Xerox PARC, where Buxton participated in pioneering work in collaborative work, interaction techniques and ubiquitous computing. He then went on to become Chief Scientist of SGI and Alias|Wavefront, where he had the opportunity to work with some of the top film makers and industrial designers in the world. He is now a principal researcher at Microsoft Corp., where he splits his time between research and helping make design a fundamental pillar of the corporate culture. * Covers sketching and early prototyping design methods suitable for dynamic product capabilities: cell phones that communicate with each other and other embedded systems, "smart" appliances, and things you only imagine in your dreams;* Thorough coverage of the design sketching method which helps easily build experience prototypes-without the effort of engineering prototypes which are difficult to abandon;* Reaches out to a range of designers, including user interface designers, industrial designers, software engineers, usability engineers, product managers, and others;* Full of case studies, examples, exercises, and projects, and access to video clips that demonstrate the principles and methods.


The synthesis of the NH2-MIL-101(Al) Metal–Organic Framework (MOF) with bis(hydrotris(pyrazolyl)borato)iron(II), [Fe(HB(pz)3)2], added to the reaction medium yielded [Fe(HB(pz)3)2]@NH2-MIL101(Al) encapsulation products, denoted as S@Ms, in the course of a 'bottle-around-the-ship' assembly. [Fe(HB(pz)3)2] is a spin-crossover (SCO) compound with a gradual spin transition at 290–440 K for the bulk material (repeated cycles), associated with a pronounced colour change from the red low spin (LS) state to the white high-spin (HS) state. The identity of S@Ms, with a maximum loading of the iron complex at ∼11 wt% (0.16 molecules per Al3OL3 moiety), was confirmed by PXRD and spectroscopic measurements. The entrapped complex, which is stable in air and cannot be removed by vacuum drying, is confined in the cages of the framework. N2 and CO2 gas adsorption measurements on the dry S@M composite with different iron complex loadings confirm the absence of most of the initial NH2-MIL-101(Al) porosity. The S@M composite material demonstrates a gradual thermally induced transition from the red low-spin (LS) state to the light yellow HS state, associated with the colour of the matrix, chiefly over the range 300–450 K, which is close to the 290–440 K temperature range for [Fe(HB(pz)3)2]. The thermally induced HS form of S@M does not return to the LS upon cooling to room temperature, and the metastable HS form relaxes only very slowly, which becomes noticeable only after weeks of storage. Rapid and almost complete relaxation and decrease of magnetic moment for up to ∼97% of the whole sweep could be triggered by the addition of n-hexane, as evidenced by the change of colour and magnetic measurements. Via mechanical stress akin to the action of capillary forces, the adsorbed liquid effectively amplifies the otherwise very weak 'matrix effect' by increasing the effective local pressure imposed on the transiting molecules, thus favouring even further the LS state. The immersion of the dried composites into practically any typical solvents, including MeOH, DMSO, DMF, iPrOH, BuOH, t-BuOH, THF, ethylacetate, CH2Cl2, CHCl3 CCl4, toluene, mesitylene, and cyclohexane, also induces a spin state change, which is evidenced by the change of colour. The effect is fully reversible: the metastable HS state could be reinstated upon drying the sample at elevated temperature and subsequent cooling. The materials were thoroughly characterized by AAS, PXRD, gas sorption analysis, IR spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and optical reflectivity measurements. Therefore, a novel MOF-based material with isolated SCO units is proposed, which demonstrates a salient relaxative 'solvent assisted matrix-effect' on metastable entrapped sites, potentially suitable for light-driven single-unit addressability.


Molecular discovery seeks to generate chemical species tailored to very specific needs. In this paper, we present ORGANIC , a framework based on Objective-Reinforced Generative Adversarial Networks (ORGAN), capable of producing a distribution over molecular space that matches with a certain set of desirable metrics. This methodology combines two successful techniques from the machine learning community: a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), to create non-repetitive sensible molecular species, and Reinforcement Learning (RL), to bias this generative distribution towards certain attributes. We explore several applications, from optimization of random physicochemical properties to candidates for drug discovery and organic photovoltaic material design.


Purpose of reviewA series of recent studies defy conventional wisdom by showing that natural killer (NK) cells exert a powerful and long-lasting influence on the immune response to whole organ allografts. The early activation of NK cells following transplantation is associated with killing of allogeneic target cells and release of immunomodulatory chemokines and cytokines, which can contribute to either rejection or tolerance. Here, we review findings describing NK cell receptors, potential mediators and mechanisms underlying the dual influence of NK cells in solid organ transplantation. Recent findingsNew studies show that NK cells can discriminate between self and foreign tissues and play a key role in the initiation and regulation of adaptive immune responses after solid organ transplantation. Depending upon the types of NK cell receptors engaged and the nature of cytokines released, early NK cell activation can promote either rejection or tolerance. SummarySolid organ transplantation is associated with the early activation of NK cells, which are then licensed to kill allogeneic target cells directly or via antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and release various chemokines and immunomodulatory cytokines. Depending upon the nature of NK cell subsets activated and their ability to kill allogeneic target cells and release certain types of cytokines, NK cells can promote the activation/expansion of pro-inflammatory Th1 cells or regulatory Th2/Treg cells thus tilting the balance of alloimmunity towards rejection or tolerance. An in-depth understanding of these mechanisms will be necessary in order to design therapies targeting NK cells in human transplantation.


The hemoprotein subunit (SiR-HP) of Escherichia coli NADPH-sulfite reductase contains one siroheme (high-spin Fe3+, D = 8 cm-1) and one oxidized Fe4S4 center per polypeptide. Christner et al. [Christner, J.A., Munck, E., Janick, P.A., & Siegel, L.M. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 2098-2101] have shown by Mossbauer spectroscopy that the two prosthetic groups of SiR-HP are magnetically exchange coupled in the oxidized enzyme, a result which indicates the presence of a chemical bridge between them. Photoreduction of SiR-HP in the presence of 5'-deazaflavin and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid causes the enzyme to accept up to 2.0 electrons. The two reducible centers in SiR-HP are reduced independently with a midpoint potential difference of 65 mV, the siroheme being more positive. The first electron added to SiR-HP results in loss of the g = 6.63, 5.24, and 1.98 set of EPR signals due to the ferriheme and production of an EPR-silent state. The second added electron results in the parallel appearance of three distinct types of EPR signal: a novel species with g = 2.53, 2.29, and 2.07 (0.63 spin per heme); two "S = 3/2 type" species with g = 5.23, 2.80, and ca. 2.0 and g = 4.82, 3.39, and ca. 2.0 (together account for 0.16 spin per heme); and a very small amount of a "classical" reduced Fe4S4 center signal with g = 2.04, 1.93, and 1.91 (0.03 spin per heme). The temperature dependences of the "g = 2.29" and "g = 1.93" signals are similar to each other and are like those seen with other Fe4S4 center proteins. Addition of small amounts of guanidinium sulfate (0.1 M) to SiR-HP causes the spectrum of fully reduced enzyme to show primarily the S = 3/2 type species (g = 4.88, 3.31, and 2.08; 0.84 spin per heme), although the enzyme remains fully active. Optical spectral changes followed as a function of enzyme reduction show that marked changes occur in the Fe2+ siroheme optical spectrum when the Fe4S4 center becomes reduced or oxidized. These results indicate that the prosthetic groups of SiR-HP remain coupled when the enzyme is reduced. It is suggested that the novel EPR signals result from exchange interaction between S = 1 or 2 ferroheme and S = 1/2 reduced Fe4S4.


This study examines the efficacy of virtual learning
by comparing the final grades of students enrolled at a
medium-sized community college in Virginia in either virtual,
hybrid, or face-to-face sections. Achievement data from the Spring
2008 semester to the Spring 2013 semester of students enrolled in
different sections of the same course taught by the same instructor
were compared to determine the relative efficacy of each course
modality. In many instances, students in face-to-face sections of
the developmental math courses analyzed earned significantly higher
final grades than students enrolled in the hybrid sections.
Students enrolled in hybrid sections had significantly higher final
grades than students in other sections of an English class and an
Accounting class. In a veterinary studies class that was analyzed,
students in the virtual sections earned significantly higher final
grades than students enrolled in the hybrid sections. Gender
differences were observed in the grade distributions from this
community college, with females generally outperforming males.
However, gender differences were not found to be significant
themselves in courses that were found to contain significant
differences in the achievement of students across modalities. The
one exception to this finding was when the data was aggregated
regardless of instructor, females enrolled in face-to-face sections
of the developmental math course MTH 3 outperformed males enrolled
in face-to-face sections. Although the number of students enrolled
in virtual sections of courses at this community college increased
steadily from 2008 to 2013 period of time, the grade distributions
within the virtual and hybrid courses remained consistent over the
timeframe.


Schunk, Hanson, and Cox (1987) investigated the effects of peer-model attributes on children's self-efficacy (i.e., perceived capabilities) and skill. Children enrolled in below-grade-level classes for mathematics instruction observed either one or three same-sex peers demonstrating rapid ( mastery model ) or gradual ( coping model ) acquisition of fraction skills, after which they received instruction. Observing a single coping model, multiple coping models, or multiple mastery models led to higher self-efficacy for learning, more rapid problem-solving during the instructional sessions, and higher posttest self-efficacy and skill than did observing a single mastery model. Children who observed coping models (single or multiple) judged themselves similar in competence to the models; children who observed mastery-models judged themselves less competent than the models.


The impact of multipath interference (MPI) in all-Raman multispan dispersion-compensated links operating at 42.67 Gb/s was studied. D+/D- and D+/D-/D+ compensation schemes were considered using different fiber sets. Optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalties due to MPI were calculated for several backward-pumped system configurations, imposing system target OSNR levels suitable for intensity modulation with direct detection (IMDD) and differential phase-shift keying (DPSK). The analysis in this paper confirmed that the D+/D-/D+ OSNR penalty is typically much less than that of the D+/D- scheme. The authors then estimated the increase due to MPI in the number of spans required to satisfy a target OSNR for a given total link length, taking into account Kerr nonlinearities. It turned out that such an increase can be very significant (up to 15%-20%) with the D+/D- scheme and lower but nonnegligible (5%-10%) with the D+/D-/D+ schemes. The analysis confirms that, to substantially curtail the span increase, both forward and backward pumping should be adopted, as recent experimental results have shown. Finally, at the lower OSNR levels required by DPSK with respect to IMDD, the impact of MPI was shown to be smaller across all configurations


Clear, direct and guaranteed, the perfect exposure method looks at the way professionals work, and lays out the decisions and sequences with absolute clarity, while incorporating the latest, powerful post-processing techniques. Chosing the exposure for a photograph is infinitely complex and one of photography's most absorbing paradoxes because it affects everything in the image and its effect on the viewer. Understanding how and why exposure works is essential, not only because it helps you to decide what is instinctively "right," but this book will give you confidence in that decision--an invaluable skill for every single photographer. Full of beautiful photographs taken by Michael Freeman, this book will arm you with the tools you need for perfect exposure of your photographs. * Written by world-renowned expert photographer and author Michael Freeman* Ground-breaking exposure system for digital age photography* Uses clear examples from real photo assignments within-depth explanations* Foolproof flow charts enable quick and easy comprehension


Automatic speech recognition (ASR), audio quality, and loudness are key performance indicators (KPIs) in smart speakers. To improve all these KPIs, audio dynamics processing is a crucial component in related systems. Unfortunately, single-band and existing multiband dynamics processing (MBDP) schemes fail to maximize bass and loudness but even produce unwanted peaks, distortions, and nonlinear echo so that an optimized ASR performance cannot be achieved. It has been a goal in both industry and academia to find a better audio dynamics processing for mitigating these problems. To provide such a desired solution, this paper proposes a novel reconfigurable multitask MBDP scheme through a global optimization framework. Through extensive testing, we show the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed scheme in terms of bass and loudness maximization, distortion and nonlinear echo reduction, browning-out prevention, and significant ASR performance improvement.


Standard linguistic analysis of syntax uses the T-model. This model
requires the ordering: D-structure $>$ S-structure $>$ LF,
where D-structure is the deep structure,
S-structure is the surface structure, and LF is logical form.
Between each of these representations there is movement which alters
the order of the constituent words; movement is achieved using the principles
and parameters of syntactic theory. Psychological analysis of sentence
production is usually either serial or connectionist. Psychological serial
models do not accommodate the T-model immediately so that here a new model
called the P-model is introduced. The P-model is different from previous
linguistic and psychological models. Here it is argued that the LF
representation should be replaced by a variant
of Frege's three qualities (sense, reference, and force),
called the Frege representation or F-representation.
In the F-representation the order of elements is not necessarily the same as
that in LF and it is suggested that the correct ordering is:
F-representation $>$ D-structure $>$ S-structure.
This ordering appears to lead to a more natural
view of sentence production and processing. Within this framework movement
originates as the outcome of emphasis applied to the sentence. The
requirement that the F-representation precedes the D-structure needs a picture
of the particular principles and parameters which pertain to movement of words
between representations. In general this would imply that there is a
preferred or optimal ordering of the symbolic string in the F-representation.
The standard ordering is retained because the general way of producing
such an optimal ordering is unclear. In this case it is possible to produce
an analysis of movement between LF and D-structure similar to the usual
analysis of movement between S-structure and LF.
It is suggested that a maximal amount of information about
a language's grammar and lexicon is stored,
because of the necessity of analyzing corrupted data.


Gender-based violence has been regarded as one of the major social public health concerns affecting women from all walks of life across the world. Moreover, the incidence of the problem increases enormously in regions which are facing humanitarian emergencies. In order to respond to the problem of violence against women living in a displacement camp in Myanmar, the United Nations Population Fund started a new initiative to develop a network of male volunteers to prevent violence and adequately respond to assist the victims. To conclude, the problem of gender based violence cannot be eliminated unless men are actively involved in the drive. The current strategy of developing a network of men and involving them to counter this menace is quite an effective approach and the program managers from different parts of the world should aim to take a leaf out of it and replicate the same in their settings for a better and a favorable outcome.


Porous cobalt sulfide (Co9S8) nanostructures with tunable morphology, but identical crystal phase and composition, have been directly nucleated over carbon fiber and evaluated as electrodes for asymmetric hybrid supercapacitors. As the morphology is changed from two-dimensional (2D) nanoflakes to 3D octahedra, dramatic changes in supercapacitor performance are observed. In three-electrode configuration, the binder-free Co9S8 2D nanoflake electrodes show a high specific capacitance of 1056 F g−1 at 5 mV s−1vs. 88 F g−1 for the 3D electrodes. As sulfides are known to have low operating potential, for the first time, asymmetric hybrid supercapacitors are constructed from Co9S8 nanostructures and activated carbon (AC), providing an operation potential from 0 to 1.6 V. At a constant current density of 1 A g−1, the 2D Co9S8, nanoflake//AC asymmetric hybrid supercapacitor exhibits a gravimetric cell capacitance of 82.9 F g−1, which is much higher than that of an AC//AC symmetric capacitor (44.8 F g−1). Moreover, the asymmetric hybrid supercapacitor shows an excellent energy density of 31.4 W h kg−1 at a power density of 200 W Kg−1 and an excellent cycling stability with a capacitance retention of ∼90% after 5000 cycles.


For a regular cardinal $\kappa$, a formula of the modal $\mu$-calculus is $\kappa$-continuous in a variable x if, on every model, its interpretation as a unary function of x is monotone and preserves unions of $\kappa$-directed sets. We define the fragment $C_{\aleph_1}(x)$ of the modal $\mu$-calculus and prove that all the formulas in this fragment are $\aleph_1$-continuous. For each formula $\phi(x)$ of the modal $\mu$-calculus, we construct a formula $\psi(x) \in C_{\aleph_1 }(x)$ such that $\phi(x)$ is $\kappa$-continuous, for some $\kappa$, if and only if $\phi(x)$ is equivalent to $\psi(x)$. Consequently, we prove that (i) the problem whether a formula is $\kappa$-continuous for some $\kappa$ is decidable, (ii) up to equivalence, there are only two fragments determined by continuity at some regular cardinal: the fragment $C_{\aleph_0}(x)$ studied by Fontaine and the fragment $C_{\aleph_1}(x)$. We apply our considerations to the problem of characterizing closure ordinals of formulas of the modal $\mu$-calculus. An ordinal $\alpha$ is the closure ordinal of a formula $\phi(x)$ if its interpretation on every model converges to its least fixed-point in at most $\alpha$ steps and if there is a model where the convergence occurs exactly in $\alpha$ steps. We prove that $\omega_1$, the least uncountable ordinal, is such a closure ordinal. Moreover we prove that closure ordinals are closed under ordinal sum. Thus, any formal expression built from 0, 1, $\omega$, $\omega_1$ by using the binary operator symbol + gives rise to a closure ordinal.


: The authors report herein the findings of a prospective study including a total of 26 patients presenting with distal aortic dissection and treated by prosthetic repair of the descending portion of the thoracic aorta. The patients were subdivided into two groups, with Group One comprising 15 patients having the blood flow directed into the true channel and Group Two composed of eleven patients subjected to directing blood flow into the both channels. Twelve (80%) Group One patients were found to have thrombosis of the false channel and an increase in the true channel's diameter. Five (45%) Group Two patients in the remote period developed dilatation of the abdominal aorta requiring distal prosthetic repair in three of them. A further two patients intraoperatively received uncoated stentgrafts (Djumbodies Dissection System, Saint Come Chirurgie, France) inserted into the distal portion of the thoracoabdominal aorta in order to provide adequate perfusion of the visceral branches. It was shown that local prosthetic repair of the descending thoracic aorta is appropriate only in case of the blood flow directed into the true lumen and expansion of the compressed true channel of the aorta distal to the reconstruction site by means of stenting resulted in better haemodynamic outcomes.


Common characteristics among people who seek out high risk situations are tendencies towards high risk propensity and sensation seeking. Although research indicates that these tendencies can in some ways be positive for dealing with high risk situations, they also have a negative side. Thus positive relationships have been demonstrated between high sensation seeking and negative risk taking such as alcohol and drug abuse, careless driving and dangerous handling of weapons. However, the distinction between maladaptive and adaptive risk taking has been insufficiently studied both within civil and military settings. Findings from previous studies indicate that peoples inclination towards risk behavior is a rather complex phenomenon related to situation, demographic factors, traits as well as beliefs. In this paper we focus on how several of these aspects are related to each other and particularly how they are related to different dimensions of risk propensity, among a sample of Swedish military personnel. Questionnaire data were gathered from two military groups (N = 169) under contract for international missions. Preliminary results show that impulsivity and safety values constitute important explanatory factors of individual variations in risk propensity and sensation seeking. Individuals with a higher degree of risk propensity and sensation seeking tendencies seem to be characterized by a lack of deliberation as well as a skeptical attitude towards safety issues. Furthermore, different 'risk profiles' could be identified based on variations in risk propensity, impulsivity and safety values. The results highlight relevant aspects for identifying maladaptive as well as adaptive risk takers. The implications should be of interest for recruiting processes and educational communication for all professions where risks are salient and the consequences of individual mistakes are costly.


Funding was provided by the Institute for Quality Improvement in Long Term Health Care for placement of a ward clerk at a busy nursing unit in a Texas nursing home. The purpose of funding the study was to establish a demonstration study to determine if the placement of the ward clerk would effectively reduce the amount of time the charge nurse was required to allocate to various forms of paperwork. Staff/resident ratios are frequently below optimum in Texas nursing homes. Nursing task time dedicated to compliance with corporate, state, and federal regulations is time that detracts, appreciably, from resident care. Detailed logs kept of nursing activities prior to placement of the ward clerk and after six months of the clerk's employment were compared for differences in utilization of time for the charge nurse. Types and frequencies of resident incidents were compared for the six-month time periods before and after the ward clerk was hired. Comparison of figures revealed that the charge nurse was actually able to spend 62% more time with the residents and 60% more time involved with staff supervision than previously. A decrease in 28.6% of charting time was realized, as well as a 42% reduction in the amount of time the charge nurse was involved with phone calls. An overall reduction of 48.5% of total incidents was achieved during the period of time under study. The Impact of a Unit Clerk on Nurse Effectiveness in A Texas Long Term Care Facility


Introduction Despite improved survival with new molecules, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) remains the only curative option for multiple myeloma (MM). Myeloablation with autologous HSCT (autoHSCT) followed by nonmyeloablative (NMA) alloHSCT has reduced the high nonrelapse mortality (NRM) rates associated with myeloablative alloHSCT, but randomized trials comparing NMA alloHSCT with standard therapy have yielded conflicting results. Factors affecting long-term outcomes have not been clearly defined. We sought to identify factors associated with outcomes in a large single-center cohort of 93 tandem transplant recipients.

Methods We conducted a prospective phase II trial in Durie-Salmon (DS) stage II/III newly diagnosed MM patients <65 years with a 6/6 sibling donor, characterized by outpatient alloHSCT and complete immunosuppression withdrawal by day +100. Following induction therapy, patients received autoHSCT followed 3 months later by an outpatient NMA alloHSCT. Conditioning regimen consisted of fludarabine (30 mg/m2 x 5 days) and cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2 x 5 days), followed by donor G-CSF mobilized stem cells (target dose: ≥4 x 10^6 CD34+/kg). GVHD prophylaxis included tacrolimus (day -10 to +50, taper by +100) and mycophenolate mofetil 1000 mg BID (day +1 to +50). Probabilities of overall and progression-free survival (OS and PFS), relapse, NRM and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) incidences were estimated taking competing risks into account when appropriate. Regression analysis using Cox and Fine & Gray models were used to determine factors influencing outcomes. Severity of chronic GVHD was assessed by the proportion of alive patients on systemic immunosuppression.

Results From 2001 to 2010, 93 patients received tandem HSCT from a matched sibling donor; median age was 52 years (range 39-64) and DS stage III present in 76%. All but 6 patients received a single line of induction therapy. Median time from diagnosis to autoHSCT and from auto- to alloHSCT were 7 (range 3-57) and 4 (range 2-13) months, respectively. At least partial remission (PR) status was obtained in 84% patients before tandem HSCT. After a median follow-up of 7 years, cumulative incidences of grade II-IV acute and extensive chronic GVHD were 9% (95%CI: 4-15) and 85% (75-91) respectively. Cumulative incidences of NRM and progression were 10% (95%CI: 3-22) and 47% (37-58; [Fig. 1][1]). Probability of 10-year OS and PFS were 64% (50-74; [Fig. 2][2]) and 44% (31-56; [Fig. 1][1]) respectively. In multivariate analysis, at least stable disease (SD) status before alloHSCT was a significant protective factor for progression incidence and PFS (respectively, HR 0.18, CI: 0.05-0.64, and HR 0.12, CI: 0.04-0.36). Extensive chronic GVHD as time-dependent variable was also protective for PFS (HR 0.39, CI: 0.19-0.80). The most significant protective factor for OS was at least SD status before alloHSCT (HR 0.15, CI: 0.04-0.56). The association between chronic GVHD and OS did not reach statistical significance. In survivors, the probability of being on systemic immunosuppressive treatment for GVHD was 39% (CI: 27-52) at 5 years and 15% (CI: 4-42) at 10 years.

![Figure][3]

Figure 1(left) shows stacked cumulative incidence of transplant failure by either progression (light grey) or nonrelapse mortality (dark grey).

![Figure][3]

Figure 2 (right) shows the probability of overall survival with 95% confidence interval.

Conclusions We report a very high PFS of 44% at 10 years in a large cohort of 93 NMA alloHSCT recipients. Despite the high incidence of chronic GVHD, we observed a low NRM of 10% and an acceptable prevalence of immunosuppressive therapy of 15% at 10 years. Chronic extensive GVHD and achievement of disease control before HSCT were both associated with better PFS. Patients with progressive disease do not seem to benefit from NMA alloHSCT and efforts to reduce chronic

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: #F1
 [2]: #F2
 [3]: pending:yes


INTRODUCTION Offenses against children are viewed in U.S. society as the most heinous of all crimes. An especially dim view is taken toward the sexual and physical victimization of children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2006) reported the victimization rate (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as neglect) for American Indian children to be 15.9 per 1,000 American Indian children. This compares with 10.7 out of 1,000 Caucasian children becoming victims of abuse and/or neglect. When compared to non-Indian children, American Indian children are at especially high risk for abuse and/or neglect. The issue of jurisdiction on Indian reservations is at the heart of child abuse investigations and prosecutions. Frequently there is confusion as to which governmental entity is in charge of the investigation and prosecution, which can lead to two major concerns. The first is that tribal, county, state, and federal agencies will all become involved, leading to turf wars and harmful repeated interviewing of the child victim. The second concern is when a referral of child abuse is made to a governmental agency that does not have jurisdiction and the matter is not passed on to the appropriate authorities. Thus, the possible abuse case falls through the cracks and is not investigated at all. Therefore, child abuse referrals on reservations are particularly susceptible to both over-investigation and under-investigation due to jurisdictional ambiguity. JURISDICTIONAL ISSUES When it comes to investigating and prosecuting offenses against children, the Federal government may become responsible, depending on the where the offense was committed, what type of offense was perpetrated, and the race of the victim and the perpetrator. Sex offenses have become one of the fastest growing crimes handled by investigators, prosecutors, and courts in the Federal criminal justice system. To illustrate this point, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported 1,658 investigations and 537 arrests in matters involving child sexual abuse between 2003 and 2006. During this same time period, the FBI investigated 134 allegations of child physical abuse and made 39 arrests. The physical and sexual abuse of children constituted 30% of all FBI investigations in Indian Country during this time frame (FBI Congressional Testimony, 2006). Indian Country is defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 1151 as: (a) all land within the limits of any Indian reservation under the jurisdiction of the United States Government, notwithstanding the issuance of any patent, and, including rights-of-way running through the reservation, (b) all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States whether within the original or subsequently acquired territory thereof, and whether within or without the limits of a State, and (c) all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished, including rights-of-way running through the same. According to 2007 estimates from the United States Census, American Indians are the largest minority in South Dakota, comprising 8.3% of the state's population. In actual numbers, there are 67,941 American Indians living in South Dakota, a state whose population is 796,214. It is difficult to obtain an actual count of American Indians living on South Dakota reservations. According to the South Dakota Tribal Government Relations Office (2004), 94,036 enrolled tribal members live on reservations in South Dakota. This figure does not take into account the Native Americans living on reservations that are not enrolled members. Many Native American individuals and families periodically move on and off the reservation. Factors pushing them away from the reservation are employment and education opportunities in more urban areas. They tend to be pulled back to their home reservation due to strong family ties and lack of emotional support off the reservation. …


The algebraic eigenvalue problem occurring in a variety of problems
in the Natural, Engineering and Social Sciences areas can with some
advantage be solved by matrix methods. However, these problems become more
difficult to handle when the matrices involved are large and sparse because
the storage and manipulations of these types of matrices have to be achieved
in such ways that firstly, no storage is wasted by retaining the zero
elements of the matrix and secondly, saving valuable computer time by not
operating on the zero elements when unnecessary. For this purpose, we have
previously developed a software package on the storage and manipulation of
sparse matrices, which consists of basic matrix operations
(i.e. addition, multiplication, etc.) and the solution of linear systems
by iterative methods. However, in that work we encountered a great deal of
difficulty in handling the operations which generate non-zero elements
during processes such as the Gaussian elimination process. [Continues.]


ABSTRACT This paper starts from the premise that the politicization of Europe is indicative of a new structuring conflict that involves a set of processes which put the national political community under strain. This structuring conflict has been emerging long before the Euro and refugee crises. However, these crises may have reinforced and potentially reshaped public conflicts within and across countries. Therefore, the paper traces the politicization of Europe during national election campaigns in fifteen countries from the early 2000s up to 2017. The analysis focuses on the way the multiple crises have affected the level of politicization, its driving forces, and the location of European issues in the political space. Overall, the results indicate a substantive increase in politicization, but they also point to strong region and crisis-specific varieties which should be considered in scholarly discussions on the relative impact of domestic conflicts on the future course of European integration.


An Inquiry into the Purposes of Speculative Fiction-Fantasy and Truth. By Graham Dunstan Martin. Studies in Comparative Literature 58. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. xxii + 284 pp. This Inquiry argues that the best imaginative narratives of any era challenge prevailing modes of thought. Martin uses the term "ultrafiction" to define such narratives, which are nonrealistic and include literary modes that are not commonly considered together, such as fairy tales and science fiction. The author not only condemns the undervaluing of such fiction by most literary critics and theorists but also claims that "if a theory produces boring results, then it can not possibly be true" (146, 150). In accordance with these principles, Martin generally disparages realistic fiction as well as exclusively metafictional works produced in the wake of the French nouveau roman. Literary critics singled out include Todorov and Frye, who are blamed for focusing too narrowly on purely literary and textual features of imaginative works and for sealing them off from real human experience. For Martin, "speculative fiction" (ultrafiction) imagines scenarios that transcend normal reality, but such works always reflect the real world and encourage readers to consider psychic, philosophical, and metaphysical truths or assumptions that we normally pass over without reflection. Such fiction remains forever ambiguous in its meaning and capable of endless and multiple interpretation. It is not limited to science fiction (SF) and modern works of heroic fantasy (FF) but includes religious and other myths, folktales, and fairy tales as well as later revisions of such archaic narratives. Given such a wide scope, Martins choice of texts is necessarily eclectic and partial, although he focuses on writers and works that may be relatively unfamiliar to many readers: "I do not wish to offer you the customary parade of the usual masters, such as Tolkien, Borges, Mary Shelley or Ursula LeGuin" (xx), he explains. Borges and LeGuin are frequently alluded to and given a few pages of sustained analysis in the penultimate chapter, but otherwise Martins subjects are a miscellany of works, including Genesis, Plato's Laws, the 1001 Nights, Perraults "Bluebeard" and its revisions, Kieslowskis film Le double vie de Veronique, and the work of Stanislav Lem. Martin's career as a lecturer in French literature at Edinburgh has determined his focus on the French fabulists Jules Supervielle and Michel Tournier, the latter of whom he regards as "probably France's most important living writer," one who "works quite deliberately with myth and the fantastic" (118). The work, which contains thirteen chapters and an afterword, begins with a preface, "The Train in the Mind," in which Professor Roger Cardinal (University of Kent) notes that the world exceeds our ability to comprehend it linguistically and yet "our linguistic potency exceeds the dimensions of our material experience . . . and its propensity to deviate from enshrined notions of objective truth is staggering" (xiii). This paradoxical combination of ultimate uncertainty and mystery with endless linguistic fabrication is the domain of ultrafiction, which Martin defines in his foreword and further justifies in "Why Fantasy?" (chapter 1). Chapter 2 examines a wide variety of Bluebeard narratives from Charles Perrault to Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, and the Grimm brothers, and chapter 3 similarly summarizes and then exfoliates "Le Grand Louis" (Tall Louis), a folktale collected in Jean Markales Contes populaires de toute la France, with literary and speculative excursions on the significance of the number three and the motif of the transformational chase (AT 313, 314). After considering various interpretations of Sheherazade's situation in chapter 4, Martin discusses possible origins of the double figure (ch. 5) and some examples in Kipling and Kieslowski (ch. 6). Chapter 7 considers fantasy narratives by Supervielle ("Les suites d'une course" ["The Sequel to a Horse-Race"]) and Tournier ("La fugue du petit Poucet" ["Little Thumbkin Runs Away"], "La Famille Adam," and "La Mere Noel") together with a discussion of Tournier's own remarks on fiction in Le vent paraclet. …


The only comprehensive guide to every Internet topic-from ActiveX to XBRL The definitive, three-volume Internet Encyclopedia covers every aspect of the Internet for professionals. This up-to-date compendium offers a broad perspective on the Internet as a business tool, an IT platform, and a medium for communications and commerce. It presents leading-edge theory and recent developments as described by global experts from such prestigious institutions as Stanford University and Harvard University, and such leading corporations as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Available in print or in subscription-based online format, it's the only resource that offers complete, up-to-the-moment coverage of fast-moving Internet technology. Key features include:* Detailed cross-referencing and extensive references to additional reading* More than 200 articles vigorously peer-reviewed by more than 800 academics and practitioners from around the world* More than 1,000 illustrations and tables for in-depth understanding of complex subjects* Eleven major subject categories that address key issues in design, utilization, and management of Internet-based systems


In air quality forecasting systems, failure to consider the considerably large anthropogenic heat emissions generated daily in the Beijing megacity by intensive human activities is one of the major causes of model failure. In this paper, we employ the nested air quality prediction model system coupled with the weather research and forecasting model and an urban canopy model to integrate anthropogenic heat emissions over Beijing into the modeling system and exhaustively evaluate their potential effects on air quality forecast by analyzing the wind field, boundary layer structure (height and atmospheric circulation), and surface and vertical distribution of pollutants. Consequently, the effects of anthropogenic heat on the boundary layer structure, greatly pronounced in urban areas, exhibited substantial variability at different levels depending on the time. The effects were evident during both daytime and night, but played a more prominent singular role in the night in the absence of solar short-wave radiation. Basically, anthropogenic heat acts not only by directly inducing the ascent of a warm air mass from the low parts of the atmosphere over urban areas to the top of the boundary layer, but also by indirectly driving wind convergence and inducing the descent of a cooled air mass from a high altitude to the boundary layer through a complex atmospheric circulation process. Incorporating anthropogenic heat emissions into the modeling system was effective in improving predictions by reducing the normalized mean bias by 20%–30% (for wind speed) and root mean square error by 361–558 m (for boundary layer height) and by 10–23 µg m–3 (for surface PM10), with a significant reduction in the underestimation of ozone concentration by approximately 20 ppb at urban sites. This paper is expected to provide new insights into the improvement of model accuracy for air quality forecasts over megacities.


Minke whales were recorded in the central North Sea in an area characterised by frontal features and high productivity northeast of the Dogger Bank (4677 km2). Survey efforts were carried out from 28 March to 2 July 2007, at a finer scale than in earlier studies in the region, using 2 vessels as platforms of opportunity and a dedicated line-transect survey vessel following distance sampling methods. The high density of whales indicated that this offshore bank slope is an important spring habitat for minke whales in the North Sea. In total, 77 sightings of minke whales comprising 130 individuals were recorded. The peak density of minke whales was estimated to be 0.029 whales km–2 (minimum estimate, 95% CI: 0.012 to 0.070) in May. During peak abundance, the minke whales temporarily congregated in the area, suggesting that the whales were taking advantage of the local spring abundance of sandeels. The density found was higher than previous studies have suggested for the central North Sea. The results correspond to recent observations of minke whale redistribution within the North Sea, and these may be related to a decline in sandeel availability elsewhere in the North Sea. Offshore banks that aggregate prey may therefore become increasingly important feeding habitats for minke whales and other top predators in the North Sea. The observed habitat preference of minke whales along this offshore bank appeared to be similar to that observed in coastal areas, and this suggests some degree of generality regarding the preference for this type of habitat


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is now said to be at epidemic proportions.1 Although symptoms and heart failure are two of the main reasons that patients with AF suffer from reduced quality of life, thromboembolic complications, particularly stroke, remain the major determinant of significant morbidity and mortality.2 Importantly, the risk of thromboembolism (TE) is completely irrespective of symptoms, and hence the sad fact that people continue to present with catastrophic stroke in AF with no prior history of its detection.3 Appropriate anticoagulation is imperative to reduce the TE/stroke risk. Numerous large scale studies have demonstrated the benefit of appropriate anticoagulation, specifically using coumadin analogues such as warfarin.4 However, despite recognition by all members of the medical community that this risk needs to be addressed, there is still systematic underuse of anticoagulation5 with the rather depressing statistic that as few as 35% may receive warfarin where it is indicated. In the past this may have been because there was some uncertainty in physicians' minds about which patients benefit most, and where the risk of bleeding complications with warfarin might outweigh the benefits. This risk is usefully assessed using scoring systems such as the CHA2DS2VASc score6 and HAS BLED score.7 Most of the data available suggest that it is the vast majority of patients with AF who would benefit from formal anticoagulation with warfarin, and only those at very low risk of TE/stroke do not need warfarin and probably need nothing at all.

But why still the underuse? There are several reasons that are put forward for this. Some patients genuinely are intolerant. This may be because of side-effects, lifestyle issues, problems with phlebotomy and other factors that preclude the use of warfarin.8 Fall risk is an issue that predominantly affects the …


[1] Subvisual cirrus clouds that are defined as those whose optical thickness is less than ∼0.3 are found in ∼50% of global observations. Passive remote-sensing instruments, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), generally fail to detect these optically thin clouds. The launch of NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite provides an unprecedented ability to detect thin cloud layers globally. Also, the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) provides accurate measurements of top-of-atmosphere radiation. By using CERES, MODIS, and CALIPSO measurements in a synergistic manner, a quantitative assessment of the influence of subvisual clouds on the Earth's shortwave (SW) radiation is accomplished. The difference between clear-sky radiation flux and the flux obtained with the presence of subvisual clouds clearly shows the cooling effect of subvisual clouds in the SW. The subvisual clouds increase the diurnal mean reflected SW flux by ∼2.5 W m−2. The subvisual clouds' effect on outgoing longwave radiation is also studied using a radiative-transfer model. The model results show that a layer of subvisual clouds having optical thickness of 0.1 can have a warming effect of ∼15 W m−2. These clouds can also affect the polarization of the reflected SW radiation and the accuracy of aerosol retrieval with satellite measurements. This work demonstrates that the study of subvisual clouds is necessary for an accurate and detailed understanding of Earth-atmosphere radiation.


What do these scenarios have in common: a professional tennis player returning a serve, a woman evaluating a first date across the table, a naval officer assessing a threat to his ship, and a comedian about to reveal a punch line?In this counterintuitive and insightful work, author Frank Partnoy weaves together findings from hundreds of scientific studies and interviews with wide-ranging experts to craft a picture of effective decision-making that runs counter to our brutally fast-paced world. Even as technology exerts new pressures to speed up our lives, it turns out that the choices we make--unconsciously and consciously, in time frames varying from milliseconds to years--benefit profoundly from delay. As this winning and provocative book reveals, taking control of time and slowing down our responses yields better results in almost every arena of life ... even when time seems to be of the essence.The procrastinator in all of us will delight in Partnoy's accounts of celebrity "delay specialists," from Warren Buffett to Chris Evert to Steve Kroft, underscoring the myriad ways in which delaying our reactions to everyday choices--large and small--can improve the quality of our lives.


Efficiency increasing and cost reduction are key concepts in the development of the photovoltaic field and one of the factors responsible for power loss in single bandgap solar cells is that, for photons with energy higher than the band gap, the excess energy is lost by thermalization. One way to overcome this limit is to introduce the multijunction concept, where the device has more than one bandgap [1]. In this framework, silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) embedded in a dielectric matrix were proposed as absorbers in all-Si multi-junction solar cells thanks to the quantum confinement capability of the Si NCs, that allows a better match with the solar spectrum [2,3]. SiC as a dielectric matrix is considered promising thanks to its better conduction properties and lower barrier to the Si NCs with respect to e.g. SiO2 [1]. Current-Atomic Force Microscopy (c-AFM) is widely used to determine the local electrical properties of semiconducting thin films at the nanoscale [4]. A conductive probe is put in contact with the surface and the current flowing between the tip and the sample is measured at constant bias [4]. In the present contribution c-AFM has been used to characterize features related to Si NC clusters in SiC on a local scale, giving a fundamental insight on their properties at microscopical level.


Is long-run economic growth exogenous? To address this question, we show that the empirical framework of Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) can be extended to test any growth model that admits a balanced growth path, and we use that framework both to revisit variants of the Solow growth model and to evaluate simple alternative models of endogenous growth. To allow for the possibility that economies in our sample are not on their balanced growth paths, we also study the cross-sectional behavior of total-factor-productivity growth, which we estimate using alternative measures of labor's share. Our broad conclusion, based on both model estimation and growth accounting, is that long-run growth is significantly correlated with behavioral variables such as the savings rate, and that this correlation is not easily explained by models in which growth is treated as the exogenous variable. Hence, future empirical studies should focus on models that exhibit endogenous growth.


National guidance regarding the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) advocates anticoagulating newly diagnosed patients for three months, followed by consideration of indefinite anticoagulation to reduce the risk of recurrent VTE in certain clinical situations. (NICE Clinical Guideline CG144, issued June 2012.) There is recent evidence that although deep vein thromboses (DVT) and pulmonary emboli (PE) are manifestations of the same disease, their patterns of recurrence and hence future morbidity and mortality risk are different. (Baglin, T. et al. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2010; 8(11):2436-2442.) We undertook a retrospective case-note review of 416 patients diagnosed with a VTE event within our institution between January 2010 and January 2011 to assess risk and pattern of VTE recurrence. 35 patients (8.4%) had a recurrent VTE event in the 3 years following diagnosis. Median time to recurrence was 12 months (mean 16.5, SD 10.5). None of the patients were anticoagulated at the time of recurrence and no patients died as a result of their thromboembolic event. The majority of patients with recurrent VTE in our study presented as a further DVT and as such, could be considered at lower risk of associated morbidity and mortality compared to those presenting with PE. Clinicians should consider the likely presentation of any further VTE recurrence as part of their assessment before advocating indefinite anticoagulation in these patients, particularly as the introduction of new oral anticoagulant drugs is likely to make the logistics of prescribing lifelong anticoagulation less complex.


We perceive objects in the world as stable despite their constantly changing image properties due to factors like occlusion, visual noise, and eye movements. Recent results demonstrate that perception of low-level stimulus features and even more complex perception of human identity are biased towards recent percepts (Fisher & Whitney, 2014; Liberman, Fisher & Whitney, 2014). This effect is often called serial dependence. However, the existence of serial dependence in high-level evaluations such as attractiveness remains unclear. Here, we tested the existence of serial dependence in perception of attractiveness of objects and humans. In experiment one, we presented a random series of images of oranges drawn from a linear morph varying from ripe (attractive) to moldy (unattractive). Participants were asked to report the attractiveness of the oranges in each trial using a Likert scale. Results showed that attractiveness evaluations were systematically biased toward the attractiveness of the oranges seen up to several seconds prior, which suggests the existence of serial dependence in aesthetic judgments. In a second experiment, we extended the experiment to facial attractiveness, a task humans perform on a daily basis. In particular, we also wanted to test whether sequential dependence of attractiveness only holds for images of varying attractiveness of the same face or also for images of different faces. In an online survey, we presented forty-six subjects with a random series of television screenshots featuring female actresses. Each subject reported the facial attractiveness of the actress for each screenshot using a Likert scale. Results show serial dependence predominantly for two sequential images of the same television anchor. This result suggests that serial dependence of attractiveness may be modulated by identity perception. The perceived attractiveness for one person is sequentially dependent--stable over time, whereas for different people we are sensitive to differing levels of attractiveness. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


This thesis deals with credit risk modeling and related mathematical issues. In particular we study first-passage models for credit risk, where obligors default upon first passage of a "credit quality" process to zero. The first passage problem for correlated Brownian motion is a mathematical structure which arises quite naturally in such models, in particular the seminal multivariate Black-Cox model. In general this problem is analytically intractable, however in two dimensions analytic results are available. In addition to correcting mistakes in several published formulae, we derive an exact simulation scheme for sampling the passage times. Our algorithm exploits several interesting properties of planar Brownian motion and conformal local martingales. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel multivariate framework for credit risk. We allow for both stochastic trend and volatility in credit qualities, with dependence introduced by letting these quantities be driven by systematic factors common to all obligors. Exploiting a conditional independence structure we are able to express the proportion of defaults in an asymptotically large portfolio as a path functional of the systematic factors. The functional in question returns crossing probabilities of time-changed Brownian motion to continuous barriers, and is typically not available in closed form. As such the distribution of portfolio losses is in general analytically intractable. As such we devise a scheme for simulating approximate losses and demonstrate almost sure convergence of this approximation. We show that the model calibrates well, across both tranches and maturities, to market quotes for CDX index tranches. In particular we are able to calibrate to data from 2006, as well as more recent "distressed" data from 2008.


Recommender systems have become the cornerstone of electronic marketplaces that sell products from competing sellers. Similar to traditional advertising, recommender systems can introduce consumers to new products and increase the market size which benefits sellers. The informative role of recommender systems in electronic marketplaces seems attractive to sellers because sellers do not pay the marketplaces for receiving recommendations. We show that in a marketplace that deploys a recommender system helping consumers discover the product that provides them the highest expected net utility, the sellers do not necessarily benefit from the "free" exposure provided by the recommender system. The impacts of the recommender system are the result of a subtle interaction between advertising effect and competition effect. The advertising effect causes sellers to advertise less on their own and the competition effect causes them to decrease prices in the presence of a recommender system. Essentially, sellers "pay" in the form of more intense price competition because of the recommender system. Furthermore, the competition effect is exacerbated by the advertising effect because the recommender system alters a seller's own strategies related to advertising intensity and price from being strategic substitutes in the absence of the recommender system to being strategic complements in the presence of the recommender system. As a result of these two effects, we find that sellers are more likely to benefit from the recommender system only when it has a high precision. The results do not change qualitatively whether sellers use targeted advertising or uniform advertising. However, we find that a recommender system that benefits sellers when sellers do not employ targeted advertising may actually hurt sellers when sellers adopt targeted advertising with a high precision. On the other hand, in the electronic marketplace with the recommender system, an increase in sellers' targeting precision beyond a threshold softens price competition, increases seller profits, and reduces consumer surplus.


Sexually selected male weaponry is widespread in nature. Despite being model systems for the study of male aggression in Western science and for cricket fights in Chinese culture, field crickets (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Gryllinae) are not known to possess sexually dimorphic weaponry. In a wild population of the fall field cricket, Gryllus pennsylvanicus, we report sexual dimorphism in head size as well as the size of mouthparts, both of which are used when aggressive contests between males escalate to physical combat. Male G. pennsylvanicus have larger heads, maxillae and mandibles than females when controlling for pronotum length. We conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that relatively larger weaponry conveys an advantage to males in aggressive contests. Pairs of males were selected for differences in head size and consequently were different in the size of maxillae and mandibles. In the first experiment, males were closely matched for body size (pronotum length), and in the second, they were matched for body mass. Males with proportionately larger weaponry won more fights and increasing differences in weaponry size between males increased the fighting success of the male with the larger weaponry. This was particularly true when contests escalated to grappling, the most intense level of aggression. However, neither contest duration nor intensity was related to weaponry size as predicted by models of contest settlement. These results are the first evidence that the size of the head capsule and mouthparts are under positive selection via male-male competition in field crickets, and validate 800-year-old Chinese traditional knowledge.


BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION The particular exploration of new ways of interactions between society and Information Communication Technologies (ICT) with a focus on the Humanities has the potential to become a key success factor for the values and competitiveness of the Nordic region, having in mind recent EU and regional political discussions in the field of Digital Humanities (European Commission, 2016; Vetenskapsradet's Radet for forskningens infrastrukturer, 2014). Digital Humanities (DH) is a diverse and still emerging field that lies at the intersection of ICT and Humanities, which is being continually formulated by scholars and practitioners in a range of disciplines (see, for example, Svensson & Goldberg, 2015; Gardiner & Musto, 2015; Schreibman, Siemens, & Unsworth, 2016). The following are examples of current areas of fields and topics: text-analytic techniques, categorization, data mining; Social Network Analysis (SNA) and bibliometrics; metadata and tagging; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); multimedia and interactive games; visualisation; media. DARIAH-EU (http://dariah.eu), is Europe's largest initiative on DH, comprising over 300 researchers in 18 countries, thereby opening up opportunities for international collaboration and projects. Of Nordic countries, Denmark is the full partner with four universities, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and University of Southern Denmark. Danish DARIAH activities are facilitated by the national DH Infrastructure DIGHUMLAB, hosted at the DARIAH-DK coordinating institution, Aarhus University. Sweden's first university, Linnaeus University, joined in May 2016 as a collaborative partner. Finland (University of Helsinki) and Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) have taken action to join by the end of 2016 also, as collaborative partners. The idea of forming the Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU has been recently brought forward by Mike Mertens, the Head of DARIAH-EU. It was met by enthusiasm among the representatives of the listed universities, who would at this panel like to present and discuss possible joint opportunities and challenges in Nordic DH. With its tradition in supporting the Humanities research and development, Nordic countries may serve as a bastion for (Digital) Humanities. The Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU may pay the way forward towards reaching that aim. CURRENT EFFORTS (PROJECTS, R&D AND EDUCATION) Koraljka Golub and Marcelo Milrad will present and analyse the cross-sector and cross-disciplinary Digital Humanities Initiative at Linnaeus University along the axes of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Their long-term vision is to create a leading education in this field and to establish a leading research regional centre that combines in novel ways already existing expertise from different departments and faculties working in close collaboration and co-creation with people and different organizations (both public and private sector) from the surrounding society. Marianne Ping Huang will present the Danish DIGHUMLAB, with specific focus on the DARIAH-related activities with the national DH research infrastructure, which is now bidding for its second period on the DK road map for research infrastructures. The presentation will include a presentation of the Danish participation for DH and open cross sectorial innovation with DARIAH Humanities at Scale (2015-2017) and how this intersects with Aarhus being European Capital of Culture 2017. Mikko Tolonen and Ines Matres will present the ongoing development at the University of Helsinki (and in Finland) regarding digital humanities. This includes the recently launched Heldig (digital humanities centre https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/helsinki-digital-humanities) and how it can relate to collaboration in Dariah. Matres will also discuss a survey about Finnish needs about networking within Dariah that she has been mapping before Vaxjo conference. Andreas Bergsland will discuss the role of digital humanities (DH) at NTNU, a technology and science university with an explicit mission of public humanities. He will present several ongoing initiatives: the ARTEC interdisciplinary task force, DH projects in linguistics, print and sound cultures, digital storytelling and performance, archives, and pedagogy. Bergsland will conclude by reflecting on the opportunities and challenges of promoting critical, sustainable, ethical, and interdisciplinary DH at NTNU in partnership with academic and nonacademic actors and local and global networks such as DARIAH. PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES Major opportunities in DH in Nordic countries lie in the collaborative democratic tradition that supports re- combining already existing expertise and resources encompassing 1) different universities, 2) various disciplines, and 3) the wider community through input from related public and private sectors. These points serve to unite and consolidate already existing expertise in order to create new constellations for collaboration leading to new knowledge and products (expertise, education, research, public and relevant commercial services). Possibilities to collaborate across Nordic countries can take place at a number of levels, including joint research and innovation, education efforts, expertise and experience exchange, bringing in international views to address more regional challenges. Ensuing important value for the general public could be a (re)-affirmation of the value of humanities in particular, and academic practices in general. Challenges would be discussed in terms of the emerging job market, the low number of students pursuing carriers in humanities at the Master level (e.g., in Sweden), and the fact that DH as a field is still in its infancy, leading to it being quite difficult to get funding and grants to carry out long-term research that sustain our efforts over time. Not the least, epistemological, conceptual and terminological differences in approaches by the different disciplines and sectors may present further challenges and therefore may require additional resources to reach an understanding. Further, while there is a strong collaborative spirit across Nordic countries, there will certainly be administrative issues with cross-university collaboration as the current working structures are based on individual units. REFERENCES European Commission. (2016). Horizon 2020: Social Sciences & Humanities . Available at https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/area/social-sciences-humanities Gardiner, E. and Musto, R. G. (2015). The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vetenskapsradet's Radet for forskningens infrastrukturer. (2014). Omradesoverikt for forskningens infrastrukturer . Available at http://www.vr.se/download/18.2302fa711489c4798d4a35fa/1411461229423/Samtliga+omraden+infrastruktur.pdf Schreibman, S., Siemens, R., and Unsworth, J. (2016). A New Companion to Digital Humanities. (2nd ed.). Malden, MA; Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Svensson, P., and Goldberg, D. T. (Eds.). (2015). Between Humanities and the Digital . Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press.


Purpose: T cells influence outcome in follicular lymphoma, but their contributions seem to be modified by therapy. Their impact in patients receiving rituximab without chemotherapy is unknown. Experimental Design: Using flow cytometry, we evaluated the T cells in tumors and/or blood in a total of 250 follicular lymphoma patients included in two Nordic Lymphoma Group randomized trials that compared single rituximab with IFN-α2a–rituximab combinations. Results: In univariate analysis, higher levels of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells in both tumors and blood correlated with superior treatment responses, and in multivariate analysis, tumor-CD3+ (P = 0.011) and blood-CD4+ (P = 0.029) cells were independent. CD4+ cells were favorable regardless of treatment arm, but CD8+ cells were favorable only in patients treated with single rituximab, because IFN-α2a improved responses especially in patients with low CD8+ cell levels. Higher levels of blood-CD3+ (P = 0.003) and blood-CD4+ (P = 0.046) cells predicted longer overall survival, and higher levels of blood-CD8+ cells longer times to next treatment (P = 0.046). Conclusions: We conclude that therapeutic effects of rituximab are augmented by tumor-associated T cells for rapid responses and by systemic T cells for sustained responses. CD4+ and CD8+ cells are both favorable in patients treated with rituximab. IFN-α2a abrogates the negative impact of few CD8+ cells. Clin Cancer Res; 17(12); 4136–44. ©2011 AACR.


Abstract This article analyzes which role the Atlantic Alliance plays in the Arctic and whether it can contribute to the security and territorial integrity of its members in the region. In a dramatic change from the cold war era, the Arctic is no longer at the center of a conflict between two hostile superpowers. But what can a basically military organization such as NATO – though with proven political functions – contribute to stabilizing the Arctic region if its major challenges are non-military? With regional challenges resulting mostly from globalization and climate change, it is open to question whether a military alliance such as NATO has the will and the capability to cope with them. We might thus need to look also at individual members' interests and abilities besides searching for joint alliance action. If we find NATO not up to the challenges, which alternative institutions offer themselves for coping with the political conflicts and controversies in the Polar region?


Access control operates under the assumption that it is possible to correctly encode and predict all subjects' needs and rights. However, in human-centric pervasive domains, such as health care, it is hard if not impossible to encode all emergencies and exceptions, but also to imagine a priori all the permissible requests. Break-glass is an approach that em- bodies the idea that under certain conditions it is possible for a subject to break-the-glass and explicitly override the denied request. Current break-glass models make this decision without considering and investigating what the reasons for issuing the denial are, and they have a fixed decision procedure to determine whether the override is permitted. Furthermore, they do not explicitly represent and reason over conflicting and missing information about subjects and the context; which in human-centric pervasive domains is a norm rather than an anomaly. This paper presents a novel break-glass model, Rumpole, that structures a break-glass policy by establishing why the access was denied. It uses Belnap's four-valued logic to represent conflicting and missing (unknown) information, allowing the policy to make a more informed decision when faced with missing or inconsistent knowledge. The model also provides a declarative query language that is used to specify an explicit break-glass decision procedure, rather than having an implicitly hard-coded one. This allows a policy writer to further condition and restrict when and how break-glass access is permitted.