Purpose: Our purpose is to identify challenges of talent management in the young generation of transition economies, based on a study of employee and employer obligations as elements of anticipatory psychological contracts (APC). We aim to analyze how APC differ between transitional and non-transitional countries and also if there are differences between transitional countries. Design/methodology/approach: We used a quantitative research design and conducted a survey using the PC Inventory among business students in Poland and Slovenia and the UK (as a control group). Findings: We found that APC in transitional countries differ significantly from the control group, with Polish and Slovenian APCs being more transactional and less relational than in the UK. Also, there are several differences between Poland and Slovenia, suggesting that CEE transitional countries cannot be considered a single region in this respect. Practical implications: We identified challenges related to talent management in transitional countries based on APC characteristics and proposed several ways in which employers and educators could help to build more realistic expectations and thus helping young talents with their transition from education to labor market. By increasing the understanding of APC employers can improve their talent management practices for the young talents. Originality/value: Our study offers unique insights into APC of the young generation in transitional countries, with regard to both employee and employer obligations. The three types of APC were studied along with particular dimensions of APC. We linked talent management to the APC characteristics. Based on our results, we propose that socio-economic context as well as national culture should be considered as antecedents of APC formation and given more attention in both psychological contract and talent management research.


Recently A. Schrijver derived new upper bounds for binary codes using semidefinite programming. In this paper we adapt this approach to codes on the unit sphere and we compute new upper bounds for the kissing number in several dimensions. In particular our computations give the (known) values for the cases n = 3, 4, 8, 24.


E-Community portal can be classifed as an extension of normal type of knowledge management system (KMS) development towards first class mentality. It servers varities of expects in term of capabilities and services especially for the benefits of community. Most of the community today are looking on this matter as a very important issue and try to search the best way to manage or organize this community system for sustain a high rate of continuous improvement. While e-community system (ECS) or portal is a system that related to the process of knowledge capture, re-use, searching and representation to the user in a variety of form. The role of system could be determined by looking on the issues on how knowledge can be applied at the right time in the faster ways that based on the simplest command or agent given to the system in order to get the relevant knowledge from the portal. Besides that, system also could be looked on how the best element of infrastructure requirement could be used for, in the benefits of users in order to stored and captured as well as presenting the knowledge portal. The paper presents the analysis of the ECS infrastructure requirement, and its system implementation in a community of practise (CoP) especially towards first class mentality development as well as discussing a variety issues that related to its involvement, so that it will help CoPs to increase their productivity and quality as well as to gain return on investment (ROI).


Worth already $2 billion worldwide, coaching of managers and executives within organisations is the fastest growing field within the consultancy world. As investing in coaching grows, so does the demand for its assessment by means of coach supervision increase. However, the literature and empirical studies on coaching supervision are few and outpaced by the development of coaching supervision practice in the race against time to claim that supervision is the most effective approach for continuous professional development. For coach supervision to be accepted as viable and relevant to the coaching community, supervision in coaching will need to be something different from supervision in therapeutic disciplines. Therefore, the overarching aim of the study was to describe the views and experiences of internal coaches, managers and supervisors with regards to coach supervision within an internal coaching context of a South African organisation and to develop a conceptual framework of coach supervision. Qualitative research with casing as a research design and grounded theory as research strategy was employed. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 13 research participants and detailed data was obtained. This was complemented with field notes, open-ended interviews, participant observation, and unsolicited documents. A computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) program, namely Atlas.ti, was used during the open, axial and selective coding phases. The key findings may be summarised as follows: there is value derived from internal coaching; confidentiality, safety and credibility are important considerations for internal coaching efficiency; communities of practice are valuable for internal coaches but are not self-organising; there are issues such as coaching versus mentoring; measuring and communicating the value of coaching, reward and recognition for internal coaches need to be addressed for long-term success; it is important to develop awareness and strategies to better manage ethical dilemmas within coach supervision for internal coaches; important contracts (both formally and informally) need to be identified and put in place within the coach supervision system; the role and purpose of coach supervision must be clear from the start; it is not conclusive whether internal or external placement of the coach supervision role in relationship to the organisation is more favourable; there are unique functions of coach supervision within an internal coaching context and there, are factors in the organisation, including organisational culture, that both support or hinder coach supervision. The SYSTEMIC supervision model was developed by integrating concrete constructs of the research participants with key scholarly constructs. It posits that coach supervision is an integral and necessary part of internal coaching within organisations and requires a systemic approach due to the multiparty environment and complexities. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za


In this work, we address the problem of tracking an acoustic source based on measured time differences of arrival (TDOA). The classical solution to this problem consists in using a detector, which estimates the TDOA for each microphone pair, and then applying a tracking algorithm, which integrates the "measured" TDOAs in time. Such a two-stage approach presumes 1) that TDOAs can be estimated reliably; and 2) that the errors in detection behave in a well-defined fashion. The presence of noise and reverberation, however, causes larger errors in the TDOA estimates and, thereby, ultimately lowers the tracking performance. We propose to counteract this effect by considering a multiple hypothesis filter, which propagates the TDOA estimation uncertainty to the tracking stage. That is achieved by considering multiple TDOA estimates and then integrating the resulting TDOA observations in the framework of a Gaussian mixture filter. Experimental results show that the proposed filter has a significantly lower angular error than a multiple hypothesis particle filter.


[1] The natural cosmogenic radionuclide 7Be (T1/2 = 53.4 d) is supplied to the surface ocean from the atmosphere and, in the Arctic Ocean, can be used as a tracer of the efficiency with which sea ice intercepts the atmospheric fluxes of chemical species and of the importance of ice as a transport mechanism for particulate matter and chemical species. Analyses of 7Be in samples of surface water, surface sea ice, water beneath the ice, sea ice sediments, and precipitation from the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean show that the fraction of sea ice coverage determines the amount of 7Be in the surface water. When sea ice coverage is 80%, the water column inventory drops to 58 ± 20 Bq m−2. The 7Be inventory in sea ice is 39 ± 23 Bq m−2, and mass balance calculations show that sea ice can intercept 30 ± 18% of the atmospheric flux of 7Be during the studied period. We suggest that other atmospherically transported contaminants should be similarly intercepted. 7Be in the ice also can be used to estimate that the annual transport and release of sediment to the ablation area of the Fram Strait is ∼500 g m−2, a value comparable to previously measured fluxes in sediment traps deployed in the area.


Dams As Aid brings together key issues in the aid/environment/development debate. Through her examination of dams, Usher sheds light on wider issues of the political economy of aid. Detailed analysis of dams and aid case studies are included, particularly on Nordic dams which provide most graphic illustrations, and these detailed case studies are located within a broad comparative and theoretical perspective.


A well-functioning United States electricity system, also known as "the grid," is fundamentally important to the American way of life. Nearly everyone involved—from users, to electricity generators, to transmitters, to regulators— recognizes this and agrees broadly that the system should be "resilient" to threats such as extreme weather, attack, and infrastructure failure. This idea— of promoting grid resiliency—has been central in many recent conversations surrounding the industry. It has been the subject of scientific and government reports. It was present in a proposed rulemaking from the Department of Energy to justify compensating the coal and nuclear industries for the resiliency attributes they provide the grid. While this rule was ultimately rejected, it led to resiliency as the subject of a lengthy action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which sought information—and received hundreds of comments— from large sectors of the industry about what they are doing to promote resiliency and how those efforts can best be supported by the Commission. What representatives of the industry do not agree on, however, is how to best achieve resiliency, or even more fundamentally, exactly what resiliency really means. This Note explores the emergence of the term resiliency within the context of federal electricity regulation. It details how it has emerged as a widely agreedupon solution to a still undefined problem. It also explores proposed themes for how it relates to, and might be distinguishable from, the well understood federal electricity regulatory frameworks of reliability and resource adequacy. If a specific technical problem is successfully connected to the concept of resiliency, this Note then argues that it could likely easily be housed conceptually and


For a graph $G$ whose degree sequence is $d_{1},..., d_{n}$, and for a positive integer $p$, let $e_{p}(G)=\sum_{i=1}^{n}d_{i}^{p}$. For a fixed graph $H$, let $t_{p}(n,H)$ denote the maximum value of $e_{p}(G)$ taken over all graphs with $n$ vertices that do not contain $H$ as a subgraph. Clearly, $t_{1}(n,H)$ is twice the Tur\'{a}n number of $H$. In this paper we consider the case $p>1$. For some graphs $H$ we obtain exact results, for some others we can obtain asymptotically tight upper and lower bounds, and many interesting cases remain open.


Instituto de Pesquisa Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Pacheco Leão 915, 22460030, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil. The present level of biodiversity depletion and loss makes quality datasets important for biodiversity conservation. However poor data quality is still critical and limits the usefulness of these datasets. Thereby, data quality assessments are important to ensure a responsible use of those datasets. The Brazilian National Centre for Flora Conservation was created with the objective of assessing the extinction risk of plant species, enabling conservation action planning. In this context, a dataset was created after the compilation of occurrence records of threatened species. The present study aims to assess quality of the dataset and records, and to test quality improvement after data cleaning efforts. We have used the five-component scheme for assessing dataset quality. Significance of the differences between expected and observed proportions were tested using the degree of confidence between them. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare errors between the original dataset and the cleaned out one. Results indicate poor quality, not only for dataset (p<0.10) but also for records (p<0,10). Only 54,306 records (22.30%) were considered of good quality. Logical inconsistencies in the dataset were present in 8,237 records (3.37%).


Helically symmetric flows are present in many technical devices such as wind turbine,
combustion chamber and marine propeller. The understanding of the nature of this
type of flow can be useful to describe such phenomena like a vortex breakdown. The
aim of this thesis is the analytical investigation of helically symmetric flows in terms
of conservation laws. After finding the conservation laws one is able to use the obtained
theoretical results in order to construct exact solutions of the analyzed system
of equations, furthermore the obtained divergence expressions are useful in numerics.
The introduction of a helical variable ξ = az + bφ, which is a twist of two cylindrical
variables z and φ, allows to consider not only the helically symmetric system of
equations, but also the two important limiting cases: the case of a plane flow and the
case of rotationally symmetric flow. The theoretical procedure to find the conservation
laws is called the direct construction method and is described in Anco, Bluman
& Cheviakov (2010). This method is based on two ideas: application of the Euler
operator and finding multipliers for the given system of equations. A Maple based
package called GeM is used for the calculation of the local conservation laws. In order
to obtain a global conservation law one has to integrate the local conserved quantities.
For this, direct numerical simulations with a code HELIX (Delbende, Rossi
& Daube 2012), which describes the dynamics of helically symmetric flows, were performed.
By the introduction of helical symmetry the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes
equations can be reduced to a two-dimensional problem. This numerical method is a
generalization of the vorticity/stream function formulation in a circular domain, with
finite differences in the radial direction and spectral decomposition along the azimuth.
Compared to a standard three-dimensional code, this allows to reach large Reynolds
numbers in feasible time.
For the analytical part of this work time dependent Euler and Navier-Stokes equations
written in three different formulations are considered: in primitive variables, in
stream function formulation and in vorticity formulation. Various new sets of conservation
laws for both inviscid and viscous flows, including families that involve arbitrary
functions, are derived. In particular, for inviscid flows, a family of conserved
quantities, that generalize helicity, is obtained.
The special case of two-component flows, with zero velocity component in the invariant
direction, is additionally considered, and special conserved quantities that hold
for such flows are computed. In particular, it is shown that the well-known infinite
set of generalized enstrophy conservation laws that holds for plane flows also holds
for the general two-component helically invariant flows and for axisymmetric twocomponent
flows.
For the integration of local conservation laws the time dependent Navier-Stokes and
Euler equations with three velocity components are considered. Using the integration
the global conservation could be investigated. The remaining set of conservation laws
for two-component flows could not be performed numerically due to the fundamental
equations of the code, which include all velocity components.
It should be noted that the analytical part of this dissertation were published in Kelbin,
Cheviakov & Oberlack (2013).


The two-volume Oxford Companion to American Politics is the first reference work to provide detailed, in-depth coverage of all aspects of American Politics. Top scholars of American Politics have written entries that surpass all previous reference material on the subject and provide scholars and students with ready access to sophisticated, comprehensive material. Long entries form the core of the book, covering such topics as climate change, terrorism, welfare policies, nuclear proliferation, voting behavior, and think tanks. Each of these entries include high-level scrutiny of the literature, history and future of the topic. The Companion also includes a number of entries from the 2001 Oxford Companion to Politics of the World, revised as necessary to bring coverage of such topics as foreign aid, and nuclear weapons up to date. In the current context of political gridlock, international tension, economic underperformance and social division, students of American politics need to focus on more than the inner workings of their own political institutions, important as that focus is. They also need to approach their work with as wide an understanding of our contemporary international and domestic economic, social and cultural conditions as it is possible for them quickly and easily to acquire. The Oxford Companion to American Politics has been designed precisely to meet the full range of those needs.


Three phases of excitatory glutamatergic synapse formation have been described for the mammalian central nervous system. First, there is a period with a slow rate of synapse formation, then a period with a rapid rate of synapse formation, and finally a maturation and pruning phase. Kayser et al. provide evidence in mice that the second phase of fast synapse formation involves EphB2, a receptor tyrosine kinase that is present on the nascent dendrites of the postsynaptic cell. In cortical neuron cultures or in slice preparations from triple-knockout (TKO) mice deficient for EphB1, EphB2, and EphB3, but not double knockouts (DKO) deficient for EphB1 and EphB3, the initial phase of synapse formation appears to proceed normally, but the rapid phase appears to be compromised. Further, the TKO cells exhibited decreased filopodial motility, despite having increased numbers of filopodia and decreased density of mature dendrites, a phenotype that was copied by RNA interference to reduce EphB2 in the postsynaptic cells. RNA interference experiments to decrease EphB2 or EphB2 rescue experiments at specific times during development of cultured neurons suggested that EphB2 may serve a key role in the rapid phase of synapse formation and contribute to maturation of the dendritic spine. In neurons in which EphB2 was knocked down, expression of a constitutively active form of the kinase PAK, which is downstream of EphB2 in the pathway that regulates the cytoskeleton and cell motility, restored filopodial motility but not synaptic density. In cells in which endogenous EphB2 was knocked down, expression of a kinase-defective mutant of EphB2 or a form that could not bind its ligand on the presynaptic neuron EphrinB did not restore synaptic density or filopodial motility. However, coexpression of the kinase-inactive form of EphB2 and PAK in the cells in which endogenous EphB2 was knocked down did restore both motility and synapse formation. Thus, forward signaling by EphB2 appears to control filopodial motility and the ability to find a presynaptic cell, whereas reverse signaling appears to allow a stable connection with the presynaptic cell, thereby promoting synapse formation. M. S. Kayser, M. J. Nolt, M. B. Dalva, EphB receptors couple dendritic filopodia motility to synapse formation. Neuron 59, 56-69 (2008). [PubMed]


Geoheritage and geoconservation are concerned with the preservation of Earth Science features, and are important endeavours globally, as reflected in various international and intra-national bodies set up for conservation, with agreements, conventions, and inter-governmental initiatives. Historically, the United Kingdom is considered the birthplace of the discipline of Geology, and with its history and its leadership role in the preservation of geological sites, it is also the birthplace of geoheritage and geoconservation; both endeavours are integral components of education, tourism, planning and environmental management. In addition, in Pan-Europe, and globally under the World Heritage Convention, inventory-based geoconservation has been adopted as a whole-of-government approach. Australia presents an internationally contrasting, and a nationally internally diverse history in the arena of geoconservation. Western Australia, for instance, generally lags the world trend in practicing geoconservation, while Tasmania is a leader in the arena of geoconservation. For this reason, an objective of this paper is to raise the consciousness of Western Australian scientists, planners, and land managers, who are outside the field of geology, to the issues of geoheritage and geoconservation. Geoheritage encompasses global, national, state-wide, and local features of geology, at all scales that are intrinsically important sites or culturally important sites offering information or insights into the evolution of the Earth; or into the history of science, or that can be used for research, teaching, or reference. As geoheritage focuses on features that are geological, the scope and scale of what constitutes Geology, such as its igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary, stratigraphic, structural, geochemical, palaeontologic, geomorphic, pedologic, and hydrologic attributes, needs to be defined - from there, all that is encompassed by this discipline will be involved in geoheritage, and potentially, geoconservation. Geoconservation is the preservation of Earth Science features for purposes of heritage, science, or education. While globally, and to some extent in Australia, there has been identification of sites of geoheritage importance, and development of inventory-based selection of such sites, currently there are no definitions and no framework that addresses the full breadth and scope of what constitutes geoheritage, nor adequate treatment of the matter of scale, both of which are important to identifying sites of significance. Geoconservation should encompass all important geological features from the regional scale to the individual crystal. The various scales useful for dealing with sites of geoheritage significance include regional, large, medium, small, fine, and very fine scales. While significance is noted in many works dealing with geoconservation, to date the various levels of significance, from international to local, have not been adequately addressed or defined. The level of importance attributed to a given feature of geoheritage significance is related to how frequent or common is the feature within a scale of reference, and/or how important is the feature to a given culture. Five levels of significance are recognised in this paper: International, National, State-wide, Regional, and Local.


Bidirectional transformations (bx) are a mechanism for maintaining the consistency of two (or more) related sources of information, such as models in model-driven development, database schemas, or programs. Bx technologies have been developed for practical engineering purposes in many diverse fields. Different disciplines such as programming languages, graph transformations, software engineering, and databases have contributed to the concepts and theory of bx. However, so far, most efforts have been focused on the case where exactly two information sources must be kept consistent; the case of more than two has usually been considered as an afterthought. In many practical scenarios, it is essential to work with more than two information sources, but the community has hardly started to identify and address the research challenges that this brings. Driven by the practical needs and usage scenarios from industry, this Dagstuhl Seminar aimed to identify the challenges, issues and open research problems for multidirectional model transformations and synchronisations and sketch a road map for developing relevant concepts, theories and tools. The report contains an executive summary of the seminar, reports from its working groups, as well as descriptions of industrial and academic case studies that motivated the discussions. Seminar December 2–7, 2018 – http://www.dagstuhl.de/18491 2012 ACM Subject Classification Information systems → Extraction, transformation and loadingSoftware and its engineering → Synchronization


We previously demonstrated the therapeutic effects of MHC class II derived recombinant T cell receptor ligands (RTL), single-chain two domain complexes of the α1 and β1 domains of MHC class II molecules genetically linked with an immunodominant peptide, in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. In the current study, we produced a monomeric murine I-Aq-derived RTL construct covalently linked with bovine collagen type II peptide (bCII257–270) suitable for use in DBA/1LacJ mice that develop collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), an animal model of human rheumatoid arthritis, after immunization with bCII protein in CFA. In this study, we demonstrate that the I-Aq-derived RTLs reduced the incidence of the disease, suppressed the clinical and histological signs of CIA and induced long-term modulation of T cells specific for arthritogenic Ags. Our results showed that the I-Aq/bCII257–270 molecule could systemically reduce proinflammatory IL-17 and IFN-γ production and significantly increase anti-inflammatory IL-10, IL-13, and FoxP3 gene expression in splenocytes. Moreover, I-Aq/bCII257–270 molecule could also selectively inhibit IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-23 expression in local joint tissue. This is the first report demonstrating effective prevention of joint inflammation and clinical signs of CIA with an I-Aq-derived RTL, thus supporting the possible clinical use of this approach for treating rheumatoid arthritis in humans.


We have developed injection-seeded terahertz-wave parametric generator pumped by a microchip Nd:YAG laser. This generated high peak power, tunable, narrow-linewidth terahertz wave with injection seeding by an external cavity diode laser. We observed terahertz wave, peak power of more than 30 W, tunable range from 0.9 to 3.1 THz, linewidth of less than 10 GHz.


\Networked enterprises"are characterized by distributed teams of partner organizations, humans, computer applications, autonomous robots, and devices collaborating with each other in order to achieve higher productivity and to collaborate in joint projects or produce joint products that would have been impossible to develop without the contributions of multiple collaborators. In networked enterprises, special consideration must be paid to the IT systems which are in the position to integrate dierent applications across company boundaries as known from enterprise application integration. At the same time, high requirements are imposed on the employees within such alliances. The contribution of this paper is an architecture for legacy application integration in web-based portal systems, specically tailored to the requirements of networked enterprises and focusing on a user-centric approach, allowing the user to customize his workspace to his own needs. Following its presentation, the proposed architecture is validated by a prototypical implementation.


Cruise SO173¬1 SUBDUCTION¬II of the SFB¬574 was carried out in July 2003 using RV SONNE offshore Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Beyond other targets mound structures were observed using the GEOMAR deep towed multichannel seismic streamer. Besides a survey area offshore Nicaragua (Breitzke et al.) sites of mound structures off Costa Rica were revisited. Previous expeditions using RV SONNE and RV METEOR already studied Mound Culebra, a prominent mound structure of 150 m height, with multichannel and wide angle seismic profiling. This time multichannel deep towed seismic data as well as sidescan sonar data were recorded along 8 profiles which are offset by approximate 600 m. Additional lines with 1000 m offset cover the surrounding area where additional seafloor highs (additional mound structures) were identified from swath bathymetry. A BSR reflection is visible on all reflection seismic profiles with variable intensity. Within single fold seismic sections the BSR display becomes very weak underneath Mound Culebra, however final data processing has to proof if it can be traced continuously underneath the mound. ENE of Mound Culebra another seafloor high could be identified as a mound structure within seismic records. Again BSR patterns are clearly visible to both sides. An overview of the data and first results will be presented.


Abstract Mainly motivated by developing cost-effective vehicle anti-roll systems, hydraulically interconnected suspension has been studied in the past decade to replace anti-roll bars. It has been proved theoretically and practically that hydraulic suspensions have superior anti-roll ability over anti-roll bars, and therefore they have achieved commercial success in racing cars and luxury sports utility vehicles (SUVs). However, since vehicle is a highly coupled complex system, it is necessary to investigate/evaluate the hydraulic-suspension-fitted-vehicle's dynamic performance in other aspects, apart from anti-roll ability, such as ride comfort, lateral stability, etc. This paper presents an experimental investigation of a SUV fitted with a hydraulically interconnected suspension under a severe steady steering maneuver; the result is compared with a same type vehicle fitted with anti-roll bars. Furthermore, an insight of how the hydraulic suspension response to extreme maneuvers has been presented, which is of great interest to the optimization of the hydraulic suspension design. Real time simulations are used to assist the experiment to provide a complete picture of the hydraulic system response. The findings are discussed.


The nature of what has been termed "tolerance" and "intolerance" in the historiography of medieval Iberia has, while rarely defined, continued to provide much-employed organizing categories for the field. This paper reviews one focus of that historiography from the nineteenth into the twenty-first century: the relations among Muslims, Jews, and Christians, with respect to tolerance/intolerance and related categories (notably, convivencia). It analyzes, among other factors, the impact on this historiography of the intellectual, cultural, and political movements which have affected historians of medieval Iberia. It makes a case for the importance for specialists in the field to be keenly aware of these aspects of historiography at a time when medieval Spain is seen as offering a unique opportunity for testing theories of interfaith relations and social interaction


Doctors should no longer decide what information a patient should be given before agreeing to treatment, the UK Supreme Court has ruled in a historic judgment.1

The age of "medical paternalism" is over, and healthcare is now a partnership between patients and professionals, seven justices declared unanimously in the most important UK judgment on informed consent for 30 years.

The judgment sweeps away a ruling delivered by the United Kingdom's highest court 30 years ago in its previous incarnation as the House of Lords appellate committee. The court decided in the Sidaway case in 1985 that the "Bolam" test for clinical negligence—whether a doctor's actions would have been acceptable to a responsible body of medical opinion—applies to the information given as well as the treatment chosen and the method of carrying …


Abstract Aim The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in cases with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) in different lines of treatment. Method Retrospective analysis of T-DM1 results of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) positive 414 cases with mBC from 31 centers in Turkey. Findings Except 2, all of the cases were female with a median age of 47. T-DM1 had been used as second-line therapy in 37.7% of the cases and the median number of T-DM1 cycles was 9. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) times were different according to the line of treatment. The median OS was found as 43, 41, 46, 23 and 17 months for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th line, respectively (p = 0.032) while the median PFS was found as 37, 12, 8, 8 and 8 months, respectively (p = 0.0001). Treatment was well tolerated by the patients. The most common grade 3–4 adverse effects were thrombocytopenia (2.7%) and increased serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (2%). Discussion The best of our knowledge this is the largest real-life experience about the safety and efficacy of T-DM1 use in cases with mBC after progression of Her2 targeted treatment. This study suggests and supports that T-DM1 is more effective in earlier lines of treatment and is a reliable option for mBC.


Enterprise Systems Implementation Methodology (ESIM) is considered to be a critical factor for successful Enterprise Systems (ES) implementations. In spite of ESIM's potential and significance for practice, little attention has been paid to this object of study in ES literature. Current studies reveal contradictory findings regarding its potential value and provide a fragmented understanding of it. This paper, therefore, addresses the following research question: What characterizes an ESIM? and suggests that ESIM can be interpreted in terms of its characterizing aspects, i.e. formalized, relational and emergent. This interpretation provides guidance in assessing ESIM in practice and lays the groundwork for useful follow-on research. Since ESIM might be regarded as one of the latest interventions undertaken in an attempt to improve the quality of an ES product and the productivity and quality of an implementation process, this study retains valuable insights of prior works in Information Systems Development research.


This study aimed at better understanding of the characteristics of feeding and breeding practices smallholder farmers adopt in intensifying their dairy production. Use of hired labour for fodder gathering, growing of fodder crops and purchase of feeds increased with increasing intensification, but Bos taurus breeds did not respond to increasing feeding intensification while Bos indicus cattle responded, calving at earlier age and yielding more milk. Overall, first calving occurred at 32 months, but days open prolonged to 250 days with milk yield of 4 litres per day of calving interval. A principal component analysis extracted six feeding and breeding components, explaining 71.79% of the total variations in feeding and breeding practices for dairy intensification. The six components were labelled: non- intensified feeding and breeding; breeding decisions based-intensification; high external resource based-intensification; moderate resource based-intensification; resource poor based-intensification; and moderate external resource based-intensification. These characteristics points to some `evolutionary process? of intensification involving feeding and breeding decisions, depending on the risk-bearing capacity of the household. Intensification enhancing interventions for smallholders need be considered in the context of the household economy. Interventions on feeding and breeding have to be packaged together holistically if intensification is to enhance productivity. A selective intervention on only one of these is associated with low productivity levels, only contributing to sustaining family subsistence livelihoods


DISINFLATION, after an extended period of inflationary demand policy such as the United States has experienced, entails costs in a particular sense. The process inevitably leads the economy through several years of weaker "real" performance than that which can be expected for corresponding phases of the business cycle after an adjustment period. This cost of disinflation arises partly because, at the stage of the inflationary process at which the Western countries have arrived in recent decades, large payment commitments still continue to be denominated in the domestic currency. These commitments are made in anticipation of a further deterioration in the currency (whereas, in what is usually described as hyperinflation, the public has already largely turned away from using the domestic currency). Another important reason why in the present circumstances adjustment difficulties are inevitable is that, even if the authorities do have the determination to remain firmly on the disinflation course, it takes time to establish the credibility of that policy. Thus those who are convinced that policies are ill-conceived when based on an alleged long-run "Phillips trade-off" between inflation and unemployment should be aware of a short-term trade-off: avoidance of the long-run disaster, which continued and accelerating inflation would bring about, causes underutilization and other adjustment difficulties during a disinflationary transition period.


PURPOSE
Deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) for treatment of left breast cancer is a technique that is rapidly gaining acceptance due to the possibility of reducing heart dose, particularly dose to the left anterior descending coronary artery. We report on the treatment of twenty patients using AlignRT (VisionRT, London, UK) to monitor breath hold.

METHODS
Patients were simulated with a breath hold and free breathing CT scan. A treatment plan was created on each scan in the XiO treatment planning system (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden). Plans consisted of two parent tangent fields and 1-2 reduced fields per side. The maximum point dose and volume receiving 30 Gy (V30) to the heart from each plan is compared. Patients were set-up using an AlignRT reference surface generated from the breath hold scan with a 3 mm / 3 degree tolerance. Patient position was evaluated by comparing boney landmarks, breast tissue, and heart position on port images prior to the first treatment, then once per week. We examine the number of port images retaken as compared to free breathing set-ups.

RESULTS
For DIBH plans the maximum heart dose was reduced by an average of 39% and the V30 was reduced by an average of 78%. For 16 patients that had completed treatment at this time the number of retaken port images was 9.6%, which is in line with 8.5% of retaken port images previously reported for our free breathing patients.

CONCLUSION
Patients were generally able to complete each of the 4-6 fields in one breath hold per field. The number of port images was comparable to free breathing treatments. Treatment of left sided breast patients using DIBH is an effective way to reduce heart dose without impactful change in treatment time.


The First Great Awakening in eighteenth-century America challenged the institutional structures and raised the consciousness of colonial Americans. These revivals gave rise to the practice of itinerancy in which ministers and laypeople left their own communities to preach across the countryside. In Contested Boundaries , Timothy D. Hall argues that the Awakening was largely defined by the ensuing debate over itinerancy. Drawing on recent scholarship in cultural and social anthropology, cultural studies, and eighteenth-century religion, he reveals at the center of this debate the itinerant preacher as a catalyst for dramatic change in the religious practice and social order of the New World.

This book expands our understanding of evangelical itinerancy in the 1740s by viewing it within the context of Britain's expanding commercial empire. As pro- and anti-revivalists tried to shape a burgeoning transatlantic consumer society, the itinerancy of the Great Awakening appears here as a forceful challenge to contemporary assumptions about the place of individuals within their social world and the role of educated leaders as regulators of communication, order, and change. The most celebrated of these itinerants was George Whitefield, an English minister who made unprecedented tours through the colonies. According to Hall, the activities of the itinerants, including Whitefield, encouraged in the colonists an openness beyond local boundaries to an expanding array of choices for belief and behavior in an increasingly mobile and pluralistic society. In the process, it forged a new model of the church and its social world.

As a response to and a source of dynamic social change, itinerancy in Hall's powerful account provides a prism for viewing anew the worldly and otherworldly transformations of colonial society. Contested Boundaries will be of interest to students and scholars of colonial American history, religious studies, and cultural and social anthropology.


Abstract The implications of insects' vision for territorial defense have been relatively little studied in the field. In the dragonfly Perithemis tenera Say we investigated whether either the angle at which an intruder was viewed by a territorial resident or the background against which it was viewed affected the detection of that intruder. Residents detected intruders at a greater distance if the intruders were directly in front of them; they also detected more intruders in front of them than from other angles. Intruders viewed against distant vegetation were detected more readily than were intruders against near vegetation. Residents detected more intruders viewed against distant vegetation than viewed against near vegetation; however, more intruders than expected were detected against near vegetation. The probability of detecting intruders depends on the angle at which they are viewed and the background behind them. Hence, there may be selection on territorial residents to adjust their orientation and space use to enhance their view of their territory and intruders.


IN 1995, PRODUCTION WAS UNDERWAY of an animated film based on one of Sweden's most beloved children's book characters, Pippi Langstrump, which occasioned a Stockholm newspaper to tell readers that the completed film would "sjalvklart" [naturally] go "ut pa den internationella arenan" [into the international arena]. That conclusion made the Swedish company that was one of the producers of the film issue a caution. Swedes should not expect a heroine who reminded diem of the little girl in the original editions of author Astrid Lindgren's books, warned Svensk Filmindustri, because an international Pippi would also have to appeal to audiences in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States (Giertta). In their desire to have the film attract viewers beyond Sweden's borders, the producers of the animated Pippi Langstrump (Pippi Long-stocking) were trying to mitigate a phenomenon called the cultural discount, first named and discussed by two Canadian economists in a 1988 study of the international trade in television programs. Addressing the issue of the reluctance of American audiences to accept programming from abroad, Colin Hoskins and Rolf Mirus stressed that a television show, unlike many other export products, is not "culturally neutral" (503). Consequently, it faces barriers abroad because "a particular programme rooted in one culture, and thus attractive in that environment, will have a diminished appeal elsewhere as viewers find it difficult to identify with the style, values, beliefs, institutions and behavioural patterns of the material in question" (Hoskins and Mirus 500). The two economists considered the cultural discount as influential in shaping the international flow of cultural products as factors such as production costs and size of home markets. (1) With the cultural discount concept in mind, this paper examines newspaper articles and reviews, trade journals, film databases, and theater attendance statistics to discuss how the producers of Pippi Langstrump consciously sought to disengage their main character from some of her cultural roots and how that attempt was viewed by critics in Sweden and in one of the intended foreign markets, the United States. Moreover, the production and response to Pippi are compared with those of an earlier animated film based on another children's book character, Pelle Svanslos (Peter-No-Tail). As will be seen, both films gave rise to a discussion of Swedishness that located the Swedish-made productions in an animated-film market dominated by American producers and influences. In a broader sense, the cases of Pelle and Pippi highlight the challenges for film producers in smaller countries who try to balance the expectations of the domestic market against hopes for success abroad. As indicated above, both Pippi Langstrump and Pelle Svanslos are popular children's book characters in Sweden, and both have a long history. Pelle, the kitten without a tail whose adventures unfold in the university town of Uppsala, was created by Gosta Knutsson in the late 1930s, while Astrid Lindgren's mischievous Pippi made her debut in the mid-1940s. All but one of Knutsson's books about Pelle were written between 1939 and 1951, and Lindgren's three books about Pippi appeared in the 1945-48 period, so both characters were quite old when the animated-film versions of them were introduced in 1981 and 1997, respectively. In both cases, however, the two authors' creations have attracted new readers down through the generations. Knutsson's books have been reissued several times since the 1950s, with the latest editions appearing in 2011, and Lindgren's first Pippi book has gone through some thirty' editions, the latest ones appearing in 2012. (2) For anyone producing an animated film about the two characters, the fact that prospective audiences were already familiar with them was clearly a boon (although the familiarity also meant that those going to the theater arrived there widi preconceived notions about the look and behavior of Pelle and Pippi). …


In 1954, Bernhard Bischoff published an article that revolutionised scholarly attitudes towards the Canterbury School of Archbishop Theodore (c. 602–690) and Abbot Hadrian (c. 630x37–709). This school is described with the utmost respect by Bede (c. 672-735). Yet scholars knew little about its character until the re-discovery, by Bischoff, of a series of biblical glosses whose origins could be traced back to the School's teaching activity. Bischoff (and later Michael Lapidge) viewed these glosses as evidence of Canterbury's literalist approach to exegetical study and its focus on Greek rather than Latin patristic sources. In the sixty-four years since Bischoff published his article, scholars have been reluctant to challenge his initial conclusions. The present thesis will examine sections of the Canterbury glosses that have thus far evaded analysis to prove that Canterbury's teaching style was far more nuanced than has previously been thought.


ABSTRACT Young mixed hardwood forest communities that colonized abandoned croplands during the late 19th century in northern Florida were typically winter burned annually after pine saplings could survive fire. Hardwood trees persisted as coppice that grew from root crowns within grassy undergrowth. This plant community changed little thereafter, except for the continued growth of pine trees. An 8.64-ha tract of this community was inventoried in 1966, from which fire was permanently excluded thereafter. This tract, called NB66, was reinventoried in 2010 to document maturation of the plant community and to identify the contributing causes that controlled ecological development. Hardwood coppice that was released from fire grew to form a nearly continuous canopy averaging 19.7 m high after 44 years. Many older pines died and disintegrated without causing canopy gaps. Prior to 19th century plantation agriculture, the original vegetation consisted of shortleaf pine-oak-hickory (SPOH) woodland, which intergraded with longleaf pine savanna on sandier soils. These species occur at NB66 but the forest remains dominated by native offsite species, which are aggressively reproducing. These offsite species formerly occurred in less elevated landscape positions in association with magnolia-beech and bottomland hardwood forests. Frequently burned old-field pineland adjacent to NB66 has remained stable indicating that no factors other than fire exclusion caused release of hardwoods from their "fire trap." There was no trend toward recovery of the original SPOH community, and forest development is postulated on the basis of mesophication processes. Recruitment of new species—both woody and herbaceous—since 1966 was modest; most remain uncommon.


The infrared absorption spectra of many metal ammine complexes of differing stabilities and steric configurations have been studied in the frequency range 4000 to 400 cm-1. The use of deuteration techniques has provided a direct means of identifying the nitrogen-hydrogen vibrations, and by com-paring the spectra of the ammines with those of simple molecules whose frequency assignments are definitely known, it has been possible to assign all the observed absorption bands to fundamental vibrations of the molecule. The metal-nitrogen vibration frequencies proved difficult to detect as the absorption bands produced were extremely weak, but these frequencies have now been identified for several of the more stable ammines, the assignment being confirmed by comparison with the Raman spectra of the same compounds. The variations in the absorption frequencies found for the ammines have been compared with their stabilities and it has been shown that with few exceptions the two properties show similar trends. The metal-nitrogen stretching frequencies are directly related to the strength of bonding of the ammonia group, and the effect of other substituents in the molecule on this bond has been examined. In this way it has been shown that some groups weaken the bonding of an ammonia molecule in the trans position, and this may contribute to the increased ease of substitution of the group. Other ligands where an almost complete frequency assignment of the absorption bands has been made include the nitro group and ethylene, the same method being used as for the metal ammines, i.e. comparison of the spectra of the complexes with those of simple molecules. Insufficient compounds of this type have been examined to observe any regularities in the spectra obtained. A preliminary study has also been made of ethylenediamine complexes.


It would no doubt surprise many readers of contemporary Equal Protection scholarship to hear intent doctrine described as one of the major racial justice victories of the Brown v. Board of Education era. Instead, under the account familiar to most contemporary readers, the institutionalization of intent was a conservative development, marking a turn away from racial justice concerns in the mid- to late 1970s.Drawing on archival and other historical source materials, this Article contends that the former account in fact represents the true genesis of intent doctrine in Equal Protection jurisprudence. During the Plessy v. Ferguson era, restrictive doctrines barred racial justice advocates from challenging laws based on their invidious intent. Intent doctrine arose in the aftermath of Brown as a response by progressive actors to the ways that these Plessy era doctrines allowed rampant Southern evasion of Brown's desegregation mandate.Understanding this progressive history of intent doctrine has important implications. There are strong reasons to believe that these early progressive struggles to establish intent-based invalidation helped facilitate the 1970s-era conservative turn in intent doctrine that progressive scholars today decry. Thus, although the normative valence of intent doctrine shifted from progressive to conservative in the early to mid-1970s, progressive and moderate Justices on the Court were slow to realign their own doctrinal preferences. As a result, the Court's progressive wing rarely resisted — and at times aided — the conservative doctrinal developments of the mid- to late 1970s.The long history of intent therefore may help us to better understand the genesis of a phenomenon that scholars have long observed: the realignment of Equal Protection doctrine away from racial justice aims. And the long history of intent suggests that it is not only politics, but also doctrine, that plays a key role. Thus, while changes in popular sentiment serve as the backdrop to shifts in the Court's normative orientation, it is the cooptation of progressive doctrine that renders such shifts familiar and unobjectionable to the Court.


In just two years, genome editing with the CRISPR-associated endonuclease Cas9 has transformed genetic analysis in conventional and emerging model organisms. The efficiency of this method varies among systems and continues to be optimized. Numerous strategies have been reported for editing the C. elegans genome. To date, these strategies do not provide a simple, rapid and inexpensive means to introduce and isolate arbitrary point mutants. Here, we report a strategy with all three of these desirable properties. It utilizes oligonucleotides as donor templates for homology-dependent repair and visible markers that are edited in parallel that markedly reduce the number of animals that must be molecularly screened in order to isolate mutants that lack visible phenotypes.


This guide is designed to help you find all kinds of resources pertaining to philosophy. From databases, open web resources to print sources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and classic texts, this guide is a great starting point.


This article considers the role of one actor that is in the ascendancy in the development sector, namely the multinational management consulting organization. Drawing on science and technology studies concepts, we argue that such consultants are increasing and important, yet relatively invisible intermediaries and mediators in the development sphere that justify critical examination. Empirically, we draw on secondary data relating to the shape and nature of consulting in the development sector and focus specifically on a report by a multinational consulting organization to illustrate our argument. Our discussion argues that consultants can be treated both as intermediaries, relays in a network of development provision, and as highly political mediators that seek to expand and stabilize their position in the development network and, in so doing, actively shape what we take development to be. Overall, we suggest that understanding the ways in which such actors engage in the development sphere are important to current and future discussions and developments in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D).


Introduction: Interval timing requires cognitive resources such as attention, longterm memory, and working memory. Unfortunately, these functions deteriorate with aging. Changes in time perception are reported in healthy aging, in addition to several different neuropsychiatric disorders. Although age-related changes in time perception have been amply described in the literature, the actual underlying mechanisms remain controversial. Materials and Method: This study included a total of 33 young (mean age = 23.31 years) and 33 old (mean age = 67.63 years) individuals who performed a time bisection task with a range of 1.25-2.5 seconds. The experimental design was strictly controlled to minimize the effects of age-related declines in cognitive functions. An additional psychometric measurement related to the subjective passage of time was also assessed. Results: A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted with the bisection point, Weber ratio, and difference limen as the dependent variables. The young and old participants showed similar time bisection performances (p ≥ 0.05). However, the verbal expression of the subjects indicated that time generally passes faster for old individuals whereas old participants expected the next hour to pass slower for them than did their younger counterparts (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: It was demonstrated that the perception of time is preserved with aging in the supra-second range when cognitive demands are minimized by reducing task complexity.


Media Streaming is getting popular and feasible because of the higher network bandwidth. The supported media formats also increase rapidly. The end user on the streaming client side seldom realizes that the reason certain media content can not be rendered on the computers is due to the lack of the corresponding decoder. As a result, the ability to determine the media contents that streaming client can support and how to negotiate with streaming servers for compatible media format will ease the use of streaming. This paper proposes a solution based on Microsoft DirectShow which can test if the specified media format, for example, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 transport stream etc, is supported. By obtaining this information, streaming servers can trans-code media contents to the specified media format that the streaming clients supported. Also, this information can be used to offer other streaming mechanism such as UPnP.


Distributional semantic models derive computational representations of word meaning from the patterns of co-occurrence of words in text. Such models have been a success story of computational linguistics, being able to provide reliable estimates of semantic relatedness for the many semantic tasks requiring them. However, distributional models extract meaning information exclusively from text, which is an extremely impoverished basis compared to the rich perceptual sources that ground human semantic knowledge. We address the lack of perceptual grounding of distributional models by exploiting computer vision techniques that automatically identify discrete "visual words" in images, so that the distributional representation of a word can be extended to also encompass its co-occurrence with the visual words of images it is associated with. We propose a flexible architecture to integrate text- and image-based distributional information, and we show in a set of empirical tests that our integrated model is superior to the purely text-based approach, and it provides somewhat complementary semantic information with respect to the latter.


This paper criticizes the realistic approach to international relations. Due to the essence of the main categories of realism (such as state, sovereignty, nation), the realism paradigm is presented as non-optimal and defective, and it is explained by interpretation of the social contract. Following the latter interpretation, the social contract does not eliminate anarchy completely and anarchy can still appear at the international level. Because of the globalization processes, the world has grown tiny and the states are closely interrelated, this means that in the 21st century for an individual international anarchy is as dangerous as anarchy on the state level. For this reason the national state becomes a source of insecurity for the individual and, therefore, the transformation of the state becomes a necessity. This paper supports the statement that the international order should be organized by creating global and unified governance. The European Union has introduced a most impressive integration project, which has the potential to establish a political unity not only in Europe, but also in the whole world. Since a sudden transition from one status (national state system) to another (supranational global governance) is hardly possible and the consequences are unpredictable, a gradual transition is recommended and it is more in favour by the EU. In other words, the EU integration process is a strategy aimed at "destruction" of the national state, which seeks full compliance with the terms of the social contract and the complete elimination of the anarchy. This strategy might be a new task or function of Europe.


Across the world, universities are more numerous today than at any other time in history, yet at the same time there is unparalleled confusion about their purpose and skepticism about their value. Based on an extensive literature review, a survey of the academic landscape and discussions with academics as well as employers, this reflective piece highlights the importance of academic skills development with regard to students' success at university, and illustrates the link between academic skills, employability and professional success. The article was prompted by the current discussion around universities' struggle to provide students with the necessary skills to succeed after graduation. The article argues that the differentiation between academic skills on the one hand and employability skills on the other is no longer relevant or appropriate in the 21st century knowledge economy, and invites universities to enhance their curricula with additional, mandatory skills development modules. It provides an innovative suggestion on how to link academic skills and employability in curriculum development, based on the existing academic literature around the scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as research into employability skills. The importance of academic skills on students' professional success can never be overstated. The article offers an innovative approach to linking academic skills, employability and professional success. It adds fuel to the discussion around employability from the perspective of industry practitioners. While this paper has been written specifically with undergraduate business degrees in mind, the principles and practices it outlines can also be applied to other academic disciplines.


This essay concerns the unequal distribution of epistemic capital in the academic field of World Literature and calls for an epistemic shift: a broadening of our theoretical canon and the epistemologies through which we read and interpret world literature. First, this epistemic inequality is discussed through a sociological examination of the "world republic of literary theory," addressing the limits of circulation of literary epistemologies. The current situation, it is argued, creates an "intellectual captivity," the ethical and political implications of which are demonstrated through a close reading of the acts of reading world literature performed by scholars at the center of the field. A few possible solutions are then suggested, drawing on recent developments in anthropology, allowing for a redistribution of epistemic capital within the discipline of World Literature: awareness of positionality, reflexivity as method, promotion of marginal scholarship, and a focus on "points of interaction."


T he Bush administration has made some unwise recent moves that undermine the process by which scientists provide advice to the U.S. government. The applicable current law (the Federal Advisory Committee Act), which requires these advisory bodies to "… be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and … not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest," is more than empty boilerplate. Those of us who have served on these committees, or who have been the recipients of their advice, know that a variety of perspectives is key to a successful advisory panel. The national system of advisory committees plays a vital role in developing and guiding the federal government's science policy. It is the primary mechanism for government agencies to harness the wisdom and expertise of the scientific community in shaping the national agenda for both research and regulation. For many federal agencies, particularly those focusing on medicine and health, advisory committees are chartered to address the most challenging and contentious scientific issues. They are challenging because of the inevitable uncertainty in applying the results of many different types of laboratory and epidemiological studies involving human beings to clinical medicine and public health decisions and regulations. And they are contentious because of the conflicts in values, both moral and economic, that arise in setting federal health and science policy.

According to the Washington Post , a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesperson asserted Secretary Tommy Thompson's prerogative to hear preferentially from experts who share the president's philosophical sensibilities. Here is what the secretary has done:

1) To avoid getting advice that is discordant with the administration's political agenda, the secretary disbanded the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee and DHHS's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing, both of which were attempting to craft solutions to the complex problems accompanying genetic testing and research; solutions that apparently conflicted with the religious views of certain political constituencies.

2) To ensure that the department would get no unwanted advice from its environmental health advisory committees, the secretary has stacked them with scientists long affiliated with polluting industries. Fifteen of the 18 members of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) have been replaced, many with scientists that have long been associated with the chemical or petroleum industries, often in leadership positions of organizations opposing public health and environmental regulation. Similarly, the secretary has appointed industry-supported scientists to DHHS's Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, threatening a planned review by the committee of whether the Centers for Disease Control's definition of "elevated blood lead levels" in children is sufficiently protective.

Sadly, the secretary has it wrong. Scientific advisory committees do not exist to tell the secretary what he wants to hear but to help the secretary, and the nation, address complex issues. Every administration advances its agenda by making political appointments of scientists and managers to direct its agencies. But disbanding and stacking these public committees out of fear that they may offer advice that conflicts with administration policies devalues the entire federal advisory committee structure and the work of dedicated scientists who are willing to participate in these efforts. Previous administrations have recognized this and have generally worked hard to ensure balance. To cite one example, scientists employed by Exxon, Monsanto, DuPont, General Motors, and the Chemical Industry Institute of Technology have long served on the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board, along with others from the World Wildlife Fund and the American Lung Association. Although deliberations of environmental health advisory committees have not always reached consensus, the differences expressed make important contributions to the agencies' work.

Instead of grappling with scientific ambiguity and shaping public policy using the best available evidence (the fundamental principle underlying public health and environmental regulation), we can now expect these committees to emphasize the uncertainties of health and environmental risks, supporting the administration's antiregulatory views. And in those areas where there are deeply held conflicts in values, we can expect only silence. Regulatory paralysis appears to be the goal here, rather than the application of honest balanced science.


Late Mesoproterozoic mafic magmatism in the southwestern U.S. diabase province is expressed as diabase dikes, sills, sheets, and flows. Previous radiometric ages range from 1140 Ma to 1040 Ma. We used high-precision thermal ionization mass spectrometry to date baddeleyite in diabase from four localities in Arizona to obtain 206 Pb/ 238 U dates of 1080 ± 2 Ma, 1080 ± 3 Ma, 1088 ± 3 Ma, and 1094 ± 2 Ma. We also obtained single-crystal laser-ablation and ion microprobe ages on zircons from two localities in New Mexico that indicate a wider geographic extent of this diabase province. The samples have SiO 2 ranging from 46.6 to 50.1 wt%, Mg# from 67 to 83, and e Nd ranging from +4.7 to -1.4. A compilation of previously published ages of silicic rocks in the same age range suggests that mantle-derived magma induced crustal anatexis resulting in silicic magmatism, and this bimodal event forms a large igneous province that stretches 1500 km from east to west and 500–1000 km from north to south. Because some of the ca. 1.1 Ga plutonism extends outside the United States into northern Mexico, we suggest renaming this event as the Southwestern Laurentia large igneous province (SWLLIP). Magmatism in the province from 1094 to 1080 Ma occurred largely after the end of the Grenville orogeny. Two models that are not mutually exclusive are proposed: (1) lithospheric delamination following the Grenville collision; and (2) arrival of a mantle plume beneath south-central Laurentia, which spread beneath the lithosphere, with a northward-heading portion causing Keweenawan magmatism (at the boundary with the Superior craton), and a southward-heading portion creating the Southwestern Laurentia large igneous province. Other large igneous provinces have been previously correlated to these events, but the 1075 Ma Warakurna large igneous province in Australia is too young, and the 1110 Ma events in the Amazonian Congo and Kalahari cratons are too old.


The main protease (3CL Mpro) from SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, is an essential enzyme for viral replication. 3CL Mpro possesses an unusual catalytic dyad composed of Cys145 and His41 residues. A critical question in the field has been what the protonation states of the ionizable residues in the substrate-binding active-site cavity are; resolving this point would help understand the catalytic details of the enzyme and inform rational drug development against this pernicious virus. Here, we present the room-temperature neutron structure of 3CL Mpro, which allowed direct determination of hydrogen atom positions and, hence, protonation states in the protease. We observe that the catalytic site natively adopts a zwitterionic reactive form in which Cys145 is in the negatively charged thiolate state and His41 is doubly protonated and positively charged, instead of the neutral unreactive state usually envisaged. The neutron structure also identified the protonation states, and thus electrical charges, of all other amino acid residues and revealed intricate hydrogen-bonding networks in the active-site cavity and at the dimer interface. The fine atomic details present in this structure were made possible by the unique scattering properties of the neutron, which is an ideal probe for locating hydrogen positions and experimentally determining protonation states at near-physiological temperature. Our observations provide critical information for structure-assisted and computational drug design, allowing precise tailoring of inhibitors to the enzyme's electrostatic environment.


Water-based copolymer dispersions were prepared using methyl methacrylate (MMA), ethyl acrylate (EA) (MMA/EA = 1:2), and a series of nonionic polymerizable surfactants, i.e., "surfmers" based on poly(ethylene glycol)-(meth)acrylates. The latexes were compared with the behavior of a conventionally stabilized (nonionic nonylphenol ethoxylate, NP100 with 84 ethylene oxide units) dispersion with the same MMA-EA composition (PMMAEA). A number of techniques were employed in order to characterize structure, dynamics, and film formation properties: solution/solid-state NMR, dynamic/static light scattering (DLS/SLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile/shear mode dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surfmers were found to be miscible with the MMA-EA copolymer at room temperature, with 46-85 mol % of the reacted surfmer detected at the particle surfaces, and the remaining part buried in the particle bulk. In contrast, the NP100 surfactant formed a separate interphase between the copolymer particles with no mixing detected at room temperature or at 90 degrees C. For a 4.0% dry weight concentration, NP100 phase separated and further crystallized at room temperature over a period of several months. Composition fluctuations related to a limited blockiness on a length scale above approximately 2 nm were detected for PMMAEA particles, whereas the surfmer particles were found to be homogeneous also below this limit. On a particle-particle level, the dispersions tended to form colloidal crystals unless hindered by a broadened particle size distribution or, in the case of PMMAEA, by the action of NP100. Finally, a surface roughness (Rq) master plot was constructed for data above the glass transition temperature (Tg) from Tg + 11 degrees C to Tg + 57 degrees C and compared with the complex shear modulus over 11 frequency decades. Shift factors from the 2 methods obeyed the same Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) temperature dependence, thus connecting the long-time surface flattening process to the rheological behavior of the copolymer.


Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful machine learning prediction models on graph-structured data. However, GNNs lack rigorous uncertainty estimates, limiting their reliable deployment in settings where the cost of errors is significant. We propose conformalized GNN (CF-GNN), extending conformal prediction (CP) to graph-based models for guaranteed uncertainty estimates. Given an entity in the graph, CF-GNN produces a prediction set/interval that provably contains the true label with pre-defined coverage probability (e.g. 90%). We establish a permutation invariance condition that enables the validity of CP on graph data and provide an exact characterization of the test-time coverage. Moreover, besides valid coverage, it is crucial to reduce the prediction set size/interval length for practical use. We observe a key connection between non-conformity scores and network structures, which motivates us to develop a topology-aware output correction model that learns to update the prediction and produces more efficient prediction sets/intervals. Extensive experiments show that CF-GNN achieves any pre-defined target marginal coverage while significantly reducing the prediction set/interval size by up to 74% over the baselines. It also empirically achieves satisfactory conditional coverage over various raw and network features.


Thermal engineering has long been left out of the concurrent engineering environment dominated by CAD (computer aided design) and FEM (finite element method) software. Current tools attempt to force the thermal design process into an environment primarily created to support structural analysis, which results in inappropriate thermal models. As a result, many thermal engineers either build models "by hand" or use geometric user interfaces that are separate from and have little useful connection, if any, to CAD and FEM


Motivated by the dual aims of strengthening the Middle East Peace Process and contributing to Palestinian state-building, the European Union and its member states have been the biggest donors of financial assistance to the Palestinians. This CEPS Policy Brief finds, however, that these efforts have not achieved the desired change, as the EU failed to develop a coherent strategy to address Israel's violations of international humanitarian law and it has accepted practices that undermine its political objectives. Hence, the author, Brigitte Herremans, argues that the aid has not contributed to a strong Palestinian government that can contribute to the security of both Palestinian and Israeli civilians. She calls upon the EU and its member states to take more measures to ensure that aid is received by people in need and that illegal practices on the part of Israel do not hamper its effectiveness.


Compared to vision, audition has been considered to be the dominant sensory modality for temporal processing. Nevertheless, recent research suggests the opposite, such that the apparent inferiority of visual information in tempo judgements might be due to the lack of ecological validity of experimental stimuli, and reliable visual movements may have the potential to alter the temporal location of perceived auditory inputs. To explore the role of audition and vision in overall time perception, audiovisual stimuli with various degrees of temporal congruence were developed in the current study. We investigated which sensory modality weighs more in holistic tempo judgements with conflicting audiovisual information, and whether biological motion (point-light displays of dancers) rather than auditory cues (rhythmic beats) dominate judgements of tempo. A bisection experiment found that participants relied more on visual tempo compared to auditory tempo in overall tempo judgements. For fast tempi (150 to 180 BPM), participants judged 'fast' significantly more often with visual cues regardless of the auditory tempo, whereas for slow tempi (60 to 90 BPM), they did so significantly less often. Our results support the notion that visual stimuli with higher ecological validity have the potential to drive up or down the holistic perception of tempo.


The region of Campos Gerais, in the State of Parana, is considered a distinct dairy farming center. Whole-plant corn silage is a very common regional practice as complementary feeding strategy for dairy cows and the optimization of its use is considered essential in order to reduce production costs. Grain digestibility plays a major role in this process and it is influenced by the hybrid, field conditions, point of harvest and grinding level. The identification of mechanical properties of plant materials, and the quantification of the force required to fragment those materials are relevant parameters for the design of new machinery, able to fulfill such demand. The aim of this study was to quantify the amount of force necessary to fragment corn grains by compression for eleven hybrids commonly planted in the region. For the evaluation purpose, grains harvested at dry stage were employed. Testing equipment consisted of a load cell, a hydraulic system with constant speed, and a V-shaped tip. Results showed that the force of rupture was different for each hybrid, even for those in the same grain texture class ("dent" and/or "flint"). The amount of force necessary was directly proportional to the quantity of corneous endosperm in the grain.


Engaging individuals to proactively manage their health is a hallmark of patient-centered care. Despite advances with health technology, there remains scant information using patient web portals that involve informal caregivers (family and friends) in health care. An accountable care organization recently introduced a patient web portal whereby family and friend caregivers can access patient health records. Oftentimes, informal caregivers are the principal caregivers for chronically ill patients. We recently constructed a secure patient online portal (POP) that allows family and friends to access health information with the patient's permission. This feature is called a "care circle". It consists of individuals that have access to medical information through a web portal. Preliminary results show that the majority of proxy members would regularly use the web portal to help coordinate health care. Medical groups, including accountable care organizations and medical homes may consider offering web portals that engage family and friends to help promote continuity of care and adherence to clinical treatment.


This paper discusses a series of foundation investigations conducted on concrete dams by Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The paper focuses on investigative techniques, equipment, appropriate material property tests and lessons learned. Four specific investigations will be discussed. Dams investigated include three concrete gravity dams and an arch dam. Drilling equipment used includes high speed, low torque pneumatic drills; low speed, high torque hydraulic drills; and double and triple core barrels of various lengths and sizes. Drilling conditions at dams are often quite difficult due to poor access and limited drilling space. Great care must be taken during the coring operations to insure the minimum of mechanical breakages in both the concrete and the foundation material and particularly at the interface of the two. Inspection of the completed boreholes and all available foundation drains by borehole cameras has provided invaluable information on the condition of the concrete, interface and foundation material(s). Appropriate material property tests of both the concrete and foundation materials include measuring the unit weights, unconfined compression tests with measurement of the modulus of elasticity, direct shear testing of joints and fractures, triaxial tests of both intact and fractured specimens, direct tensile tests and splitting tensile tests. Intact interface samples may be tested by direct tensile tests, triaxial compression tests and direct shear tests. Mechanically broken or unbonded interface samples may be tested by triaxial and direct shear tests.


A basic problem in the development of an intelligent vehicle/highway system (IVHS), or an autonomous mobile robot system (AMRS) is to find suitable input controls which can be used to drive the vehicle between any two configurations. In this paper a trajectory generation problem for a four-wheel-steering tractor/semi-trailer system is investigated, and it is shown that this nonholonomic constraint problem can be converted into one of finding fitting-functions satisfying certain necessary boundary conditions. Proposals for control laws are presented and simulation results for a lane change manoeuvre are given.


Mechanised labour and games with a purpose are the two most popular human computation genres, frequently employed to support research activities in fields as diverse as natural language processing, semantic web or databases. Research projects typically rely on either one or the other of these genres, and therefore there is a general lack of understanding of how these two genres compare and whether and how they could be used together to offset their respective weaknesses. This paper addresses these open questions. It first identifies the differences between the two genres, primarily in terms of cost, speed and result quality, based on existing studies in the literature. Secondly, it reports on a comparative study which involves performing the same task through both genres and comparing the results. The study's findings demonstrate that the two genres are highly complementary, which not only makes them suitable for different types of projects, but also opens new opportunities for building cross-genre human computation solutions that exploit the strengths of both genres simultaneously.


Abstract This paper discusses the problem of degrammaticalization, that is, the exceptions to the unidirectionality of grammaticalization. After analyzing the criteria that allow us to distinguish between various instances of counter-directional change, two principles underlying degrammaticalization are identified; one is related to the type of language and the other to the type of target structures in which degrammaticalization occurs. Firstly, the targets of degrammaticalization are usually closed-class parts of speech with an abstract semantic component. Secondly, the languages in which counter-directional grammatical changes occur turn out to be deprived of an elaborate fusional morphology. These findings may also have an impact on the theoretical conception of grammaticalization, some of whose definitional properties are discussed. The paper ends with a discussion of a more controversial point, namely, counter-directional changes by folk etymology rather than by etymology proper.


Strenuous exercise is known to induce oxidative stress leading to the generation of free radicals. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of lycopene, an antioxidant nutrient, at a relatively low dose (2·6 mg/kg per d) and a relatively high dose (7·8 mg/kg per d) on the antioxidant status of blood and skeletal muscle tissues in rats after exhaustive exercise. Rats were divided into six groups: sedentary control (C); sedentary control with low-dose lycopene (CLL); sedentary control with high-dose lycopene (CHL); exhaustive exercise (E); exhaustive exercise with low-dose lycopene (ELL); exhaustive exercise with high-dose lycopene (EHL). After 30 d, the rats in the three C groups were killed without exercise, but the rats in the three E groups were killed immediately after an exhaustive running test on a motorised treadmill. The results showed that xanthine oxidase (XO) activities of plasma and muscle, and muscular myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in group E were significantly increased compared with group C. Compared with group E, the elevations of XO and MPO activities of muscle were significantly decreased in group EHL. The malondialdehyde concentrations of plasma and tissues in group E were significantly increased by 72 and 114 %, respectively, compared with those in group C. However, this phenomenon was prevented in rats of the ELL and EHL groups. There was no significant difference in the GSH concentrations of erythrocytes in each group; however, exhaustive exercise resulted in a significant decrease in the GSH content of muscle. In conclusion, these results suggested that lycopene protected muscle tissue from oxidative stress after exhaustive exercise.


The suspension of face-to-face teaching, due to the COVID-19 social distancing regulations, raised serious concerns about the impacts on children's academic learning. Because the implementation of distance education in Germany was entirely the responsibility of individual schools, and because the home learning environments varied across households, school children had very different learning conditions during the pandemic. This fact raises questions whether the conditions of distance learning has impacted children's development of basic number skills. In this paper, descriptive information on children's home learning conditions and teachers' distance teaching approaches during the pandemic, socio-cultural capital, and basic number skills of 484 third and fourth grade students (51.2% girls) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) are assessed. The data revealed risk factors such as not having a tablet/laptop, lack of access to the internet, or a learning environment with siblings without an adult family member present. A negative association was found between multiple risk factors (at-risk levels) in home learning and basic number skills. This link was partially mediated by socio-cultural capital and moderated by teachers' distance teaching approach. Children whose teachers applied a more personalized teaching approach showed fewer negative relations between at-risk levels and basic number skills. While no evidence was observed for positive effects of videoconferencing, school-based emergency classes, or private tutoring on basic number skills, children whose learning was supported by learning management systems showed better skills than their peers. The findings highlight the differential impact of home-based learning conditions during the pandemic and provide practical implications for realization of distance teaching.


The main purpose of this action research was to investigate if using music and movement activities
would lessen the problem behaviors displayed by eleven (11) preschool students ages 4-5 years old in
a private preschool in the Philippines. Problem behaviors are behaviors that are considered as
disruptive or can cause harm to other children or may be a hindrance to their learning. The students
were exposed to researcher-adapted music and movement activities for five (5) weeks based on
observed target problem behaviors. Quantitative data were collected through the use of a researchermade
checklist and qualitative data through observations. Paired t-test results determined that there
was a significant difference in the decrease of children's problem behaviors during free play when
music and movement activities were implemented. This also has been confirmed by the observations
with the children which also showed the improvement in their behaviors during free play –
specifically for destroying, grabbing and not knowing when to share toys and materials. The data also
showed the effectiveness of the intervention in lessening the problem behaviors in other learning
periods aside from free play, validating the role of using music and movement activities in lessening
children's problem behaviors.


Introduction Informal caregivers provide the majority of care to individuals with chronic health conditions, benefiting the care recipient and reducing use of formal care services. However, providing informal care negatively impacts the mental health of many caregivers. E-mental health interventions have emerged as a way to provide accessible mental healthcare to caregivers. Much attention has been given to reviewing the effectiveness and efficacy of such interventions, however, factors related to implementation have received less consideration. Therefore, this mixed-methods systematic review will aim to examine factors associated with the effectiveness and implementation of e-mental health interventions for caregivers. Methods and analysis Eligible studies published since 1 January 2007 will be searched for in several electronic databases (CINAHL Plus with Full Text, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science), clinical trial registries and OpenGrey, with all screening steps conducted by two independent reviewers. Studies will be included if they focus on the implementation or effectiveness of e-mental health interventions designed for informal adult caregivers of adults with cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pragmatic randomised controlled trials quantitatively reporting on caregiver anxiety, depression, psychological distress or stress will be used for a qualitative comparative analysis to identify combinations of conditions that result in effective interventions. Qualitative and quantitative data on implementation of e-mental health interventions for caregivers will be integrated in a thematic synthesis to identify barriers and facilitators to implementation. These results will inform future development and implementation planning of e-mental health interventions for caregivers. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required for this study as no primary data will be collected. Results will be disseminated in the form of a scientific publication and presentations at academic conferences and plain language summaries for various stakeholders. PROSPERO registration number CRD42020155727.


This introduction begins a special issue on Military Service in the Life Course: Implications for Later-Life Health and Well-Being. It highlights the pressing need for a lifespan approach to the effects of military service that considers positive and negative effects. The first two articles focus on Vietnam veterans. Park et al. examine how captivity stressors, mental health, and individuals' background characteristics were related to mental health 30 years after repatriation. Pless Kaiser et al. examine current health among women veterans in relation to warzone stress, and considered whether posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms mediated the effects of warzone stress on mental and physical health. In contrast, Jahn et al. examine a diverse group of veterans, drawing on theories of posttraumatic growth to explore whether the combination of combat exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in early life affect coping with cancer in later life. Finally, Settersten, Jr., et al. examine how World War II veterans appraised specific dimensions of military service after the war and over 40 years later, as well as later-life reflections on the role of military service in their life course. In sum, these articles illustrate how the impact of potentially traumatic experiences in early life can reverberate throughout life, particularly their long-term effects (positive as well as negative) on physical and mental health. With the growing number of veterans in societies today, these articles reveal that some, but not all, may well carry their burdens of military service long after they have laid down their weapons.


The stock of sovereign debt is typically measured at face value. Defined as the undiscounted sum of future principal repayments, face values are misleading when debts are issued with different contractual forms or maturities. In this paper, we construct alternative measures of the stock of external sovereign debt for 100 developing countries from 1979 through 2006 that correct for differences in contractual form and maturity. We show that our alternative measures: (1) paint a very different quantitative, and in some cases also qualitative, picture of the stock of developing country external sovereign debt; (2) often invert rankings of indebtedness across countries, which historically defined eligibility for debt forgiveness; (3) indicate that the empirical performance of the benchmark quantitative model of sovereign debt deteriorates by roughly 50% once model-consistent measures of debt are used; (4) show how the spread of aggregation clauses in debt contracts that award creditors voting power in proportion to the contractual face value may introduce inefficiencies into the process of restructuring sovereign debts; and (5) illustrate how countries have manipulated their debt issuance to meet fiscal targets written in terms of face values.


Abstract. This study investigates the impacts of fire emission, convection, various climate conditions and transport pathways on the interannual variation of carbon monoxide (CO) in the tropical upper troposphere (UT), by evaluating the field correlation between these fields using multi-satellite observations and principle component analysis, and the transport pathway auto-identification method developed in our previous study. The rotated empirical orthogonal function (REOF) and singular value decomposition (SVD) methods are used to identify the dominant modes of CO interannual variation in the tropical UT and to study the coupled relationship between UT CO and its governing factors. Both REOF and SVD results confirm that Indonesia is the most significant land region that affects the interannual variation of CO in the tropical UT, and El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant climate condition that affects the relationships between surface CO emission, convection and UT CO. In addition, our results also show that the impact of El Nino on the anomalous CO pattern in the tropical UT varies strongly, primarily due to different anomalous emission and convection patterns associated with different El Nino events. In contrast, the anomalous CO pattern in the tropical UT during La Nina period appears to be less variable among different events. Transport pathway analysis suggests that the average CO transported by the "local convection" pathway (ΔCOlocal) accounts for the differences of UT CO between different ENSO phases over the tropical continents during biomass burning season. ΔCOlocal is generally higher over Indonesia–Australia and lower over South America during El Nino years than during La Nina years. The other pathway ("advection within the lower troposphere followed by convective vertical transport") occurs more frequently over the west-central Pacific during El Nino years than during La Nina years, which may account for the UT CO differences over this region between different ENSO phases.


An innovative readout channel, based on analog amplitude modulation of the signals recorded by each sensing site, is developed for high-density CMOS-based microelectrode arrays. A single amplification stage simultaneously records the neural activity acquired from several sensors. A theoretical analysis has demonstrated that a major physical limitation of the readout architecture relates to the summation of the thermal noise of each recorded signal at the input node of the front-end amplification stage. After implementation of the proposed readout architecture in a UMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology, it has been shown that the maximum number of sensors which can simultaneously be recorded depends on the electrical characteristics of the recorded extracellular voltages, which depend on the experimental setup. Considering a typical case encountered during electrophysiological experiments, the maximum number of sensors which can simultaneously be recorded is approximately in the range of 5–10.


The use of in-line inspection tools is today a standard procedure regarding the maintenance of high pressure pipelines. Inspection tools utilizing ultrasound technology have been successfully used for more than 20 years now and have proven themselves regarding their reliability, measurement accuracy and robustness of the data collected. Over the years, the capabilities of this class of tools have been extended and today a large variety of special tool configurations are available to address the multitude of inspection requirements the pipeline industry has. This paper will provide an overview of some of these special configurations of high resolution ultrasonic tools that have been developed based on customer needs. Examples will be shown from a variety of case studies, describing the added value that the use of these tools provide. The effect of increased resolution and measurement accuracy will be discussed and its impact on integrity assessment. The examples covered include combination tools for metal loss and crack inspection, special configurations for the use in a high wax content environment, and finally the inspection for pitting and small localized corrosion features.