This article presents applications for the analysis of multilevel ordinal response data through the proportional odds model. Data are drawn from the public-use Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Results showed that gender, number of family risk characteristics, and age at kindergarten entry were associated with initial reading proficiency (0 to 5 scale). The number of family risks and age were associated with time-slopes. Three issues are highlighted: building multilevel ordinal models, interpretation of multilevel effects; and determination of predicted probabilities based on results of the multilevel proportional odds models.


About two billion people in the world do not own a financial account and there are many more who use financial services only occasionally. In the past, initiatives which address these problems of financial exclusion focused on the supply side of financial markets, in particular by increasing the branch network of banks and by offering cheap bank products. While this had the desired effect, recent evidence shows that improving the demand side of financial markets is also helpful. There are numerous initiatives and public policies to enhance financial education and to improve financial literacy. Microeconometric studies, often randomized controlled trials, show that financial literacy has a causal effect on financial inclusion; educated individuals understand the advantages of financial services better but also feel more confident about contacting providers. Cross-country evidence indicates that in poorer countries improved financial supply and demand are substitutes, i.e., they work independently of each other. In higher-income economies, however, these instruments are complements, i.e., it is useful to improve financial literacy in order to make better use of available financial services


BACKGROUND
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is common in parts of South Africa; rural residence is a frequently cited risk factor. We conducted a FAS school prevalence survey of an isolated rural community in a West Coast village of Western Cape Province, so obtaining the first directly measured rate, focusing specifically on a South African rural area, of FAS and partial FAS (PFAS).

METHODS
The study area (Aurora village), a community of about 2 500 people in a grain-producing region, has one primary school. All learners were eligible for study inclusion. Initial anthropometry screening was followed by a diagnostic stage entailing examination by a dysmorphologist for features of FAS, neurodevelopmental assessment, and an interview assessing maternal alcohol consumption.

RESULTS
Of 160 learners screened, 78 (49%) were screen-positive, of whom 63 (81%) were clinically assessed for FAS. The overall FAS/PFAS rate among the screened learners was 17.5% (95% confidence interval 12.0 - 24.2%), with 16 (10.0%) children having FAS and 12 (7.5%) PFAS. High rates of stunting, underweight and microcephaly were noted in all learners, especially those with FAS or PFAS. Five (18%) mothers of affected children were deceased by the time of assessment.

CONCLUSION
We describe very high rates of FAS/PFAS in an isolated rural part of the Western Cape that is not located in a viticultural region. Our study suggests that the prevalence of FAS may be very high in isolated communities, or in particular hot-spots. It adds to the growing evidence that FAS/PFAS is a significant, and underestimated, health problem in South Africa. Expanded screening and surveillance programmes, and preventive interventions, are urgently needed.


OF DISSERTATION CHARACTERIZATION OF JABBA, A RICIN-RESISTANT MUTANT OF LEISHMANIA DONOVANI The abundant cell-surface lipophosphoglycan (LPG) of Leishmania parasites plays a central role throughout the eukaryote's life cycle. A number of LPG-defective mutants and their complementing genes have been isolated and have proven invaluable in assessing the importance of LPG and related glycoconjugates in parasite virulence. While ricin agglutination selection protocols frequently result in lpgmutants, one L. donovani variant we isolated, named JABBA, was found to be lpg+. Procyclic (logarithmic) JABBA expresses significant amounts of a large-sized LPG, larger than observed from procyclic wild-type but similar in size to LPG from wild-type from metacyclic (stationary) phase. Structural analysis of the LPG from logarithmically-grown JABBA by capillary electrophoresis protocols revealed that it averaged 30 repeat units composed of the unsubstituted Gal(β1,4)Man(α1)-PO4 typical of wild-type L. donovani. Analysis of JABBA LPG caps indicated that 20% are the disaccharide Glc(β1,2)Man, trisaccharide Gal(β1,4)[Glc(β1,2)]Man, and tetrasaccharide Gal(β1,4)[Glc(β1,2)Man(α1,2)]Man in addition to wild-type Gal(β1,4)Man and Man(α1,2)Man and Gal(β1,4)[Man(α1,2)]Man terminating caps, These glucose containing isoforms were absent in stationary parasites. Consistent with these structural observations, analyses of the relevant glycosyltransferases in JABBA microsomes involved in LPG biosynthesis showed a twofold increase in elongating mannosylphosphoryltransferase activity and up-regulation of a β-glucosyltransferase activity. The β-glucosyltransferase in both JABBA and wild-type in vitro produced a β-glucosidase sensitive and β-galactosidase sensitive trisaccharide, indicative of the mannose of repeating units and caps being used in substrate, novel in comparison to other Leishmania species. Furthermore, the caps of JABBA LPG are cryptic in presentation as shown by the loss of binding by the lectins ricin, peanut agglutinin and concanavalin A and reduced accessibility of the terminal galactose residues to oxidation by galactose oxidase. These results indicate that LPG from JABBA is intriguingly similar to the larger LPG in wild-type parasites that arises following the differentiation of the non-infectious procyclic promastigotes to infectious, metacyclic forms, and has a unique βglucosyltransferase not active in vivo in wild-type parasites.


In this work the effects of plasmonics, nano-focusing, and orthogonalization of carrier and photon pathways are simultaneously explored by measuring the photocurrents in an elongated nano-scale solar cell with a silver nanoneedle inside. The silver nanoneedles formed the support of a conformally grown hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) n-i-p junction around it. A spherical morphology of the solar cell functions as a nano-lens, focusing incoming light directly on the silver nanoneedle. We found that plasmonics, geometric optics, and Fresnel reflections affect the nanostructured solar cell performance, depending strongly on light incidence angle and polarization. This provides valuable insight in solar cell processes in which novel concepts such as plasmonics, elongated nanostructures, and nano-lenses are used.


This Note examines federal securities law as a tool to deter and regulate illegal pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes are among the most prevalent forms of consumer fraud in the United States and they victimize thousands of individuals every year. The rise of the internet and social media has made it even easier for pyramid promoters to target potential recruits, often those who are already particularly vulnerable to consumer fraud. The federal securities laws have proven to be robust regulatory tools against pyramid schemes. However, the test used by federal courts to determine whether a scheme meets the definition of a security has produced uncertainty and inconsistency in the law. This Note proposes that when pyramid schemes are alleged, federal courts should apply a hybrid securities test that incorporates aspects of risk capital analysis. In so doing, courts will be better equipped to focus on the economic reality of pyramid schemes and to draw a more principled line between illegal pyramid fraud and legitimate enterprises.


Hereditary breast cancer, accounting for 5-10% of all breast cancer cases, is mainly caused to BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutations. Current eligibility for genetic testing is mostly based on clinical characteristics such as young age at diagnosis and positive family history. However, potential germline-mutation carriers may still be missed using these criteria. This thesis' primary aim was to identify clues in the tumor tissues themselves for underlying BRCA1/2 germline mutations that could help in selecting patients for genetic testing. We developed the most accurate and comprehensive immunohistochemistry (protein expression)-based prediction model to date for BRCA1/2-related breast cancer. The prediction model includes 14 predictors (age, mitotic activity index, cyclinD1, ERα, ERβ, FGFR2, FGFR3, FGFR4, GLUT1, IGFR, Ki67, MLH1, p120, and TOP2A) with excellent discriminative performance (AUC = 0.943). BRCA promoter methylation and germline mutations are thought to be mutually exclusive, a feature which could be exploited in clinical practice. From our experimental MS-MLPA study and a systematic review, we can conclude that BRCA methylation is indeed rare in BRCA1/2 germline mutation-related breast carcinomas (at least 0.0-5.3%), but methylation frequencies vary between CpG sites. However, the selected studies show large differences in methodology, quality, and risk of bias. The occurrence of BRCA methylation in breast or ovarian carcinomas from BRCA carriers may therefore be an underestimation. We also discovered many deregulated miRNAs in BRCA1/2-related breast carcinomas, which may be potentially specific to BRCA1/2-related breast carcinogenesis and to the chromosomal instability characteristic of these tumors. The second part of thesis was focused on the 'gen-ethical' aspects that should be taken into account for a responsible advancement of cancer research and clinical cancer care. In cancer research and modern pathology practice, large-scale DNA-sequencing techniques are increasingly being used, generating large amounts of potentially sensitive data with an increasing risk of unsolicited findings. We showed that many moral duties have been attributed to genomics researchers, related to disclosure, consent, privacy, and social responsibilities. However, awareness and concrete implementation of these duties in research practice is lagging behind. Moreover, we showed that ethical issues are present in every stage of the modern molecular pathology analysis procedure. These include issues related to consent, disclosure as well as future use of genetic data. Current molecular pathology guidelines are focused on technical issues and attention let alone consensus on ethical issues has been lagging behind. Pathologists should be encouraged to take responsibility for the adequate and responsible use of molecular analyses their laboratories perform. To conclude, this thesis shows that pathology may play a role in the early detection of BRCA1/2 germline mutation carriers among breast cancer patients. Technical advances alone are however not enough for the (responsible) advancement of personalized cancer care. It calls for an active role of researchers and pathologists, who should be aware of their moral duties and responsibilities with respect to participants, patients and society.


Soil freezing and thawing can have a significant impact on the winter hydrology of soil, and soil ice content is an important component of the winter hydrological cycle. However, transient soil ice contents have been difficult to quantify under field conditions. A sensible heat balance (SHB) method using a sequence of heat pulse probes (HPP) has the potential to measure in-situ soil ice content. Therefore, the objectives of this dissertation are to develop, to test, and to improve the SHB method for determining soil ice content. A series of numerical, field, and laboratory studies were conducted. The SHB method for soil ice content determination contains two important assumptions; negligible convective soil heat fluxes, and non-concurrent water evaporation and water fusion. A numerical study shows that these assumptions are acceptable for soil layers deeper than 12 mm, and the SHB method in theory can accurately estimate soil ice contents. However, when applied to an actual winter field, the in-situ soil ice contents determined with the SHB method are inaccurate. The inaccurate soil ice contents are associated with errors in soil thermal conductivity measured with the HPP. A sensitivity analysis shows that at least 20% accuracy of soil thermal conductivity is required to accurately estimate soil ice contents with the SHB method. In addition, the use of short time steps in the SHB method (e.g., 15 min) can improve soil ice content estimation. A numerical study was performed to understand the sensitivity of HPP measurement needle temperature changes to properties of partially frozen soil. The measurement needle temperature changes were sensitive to soil thermal conductivity and freezing characteristics but not to volumetric heat capacity. The HPP may not be able to determine volumetric heat capacity accurately when soil temperature is between -2°C and 0°C. The sensitivity analysis suggests that vi soil thermal conductivity and soil freezing characteristics are the best candidate parameters for determination by inverse analysis. The inverse analysis may improve the accuracy of soil thermal conductivity and soil ice content determination with the SHB method. A laboratory study was performed to further evaluate the SHB method for determining soil ice contents with soil column freezing and thawing. The SHB method accurately described the latent heat associated with soil freezing and thawing and provided reasonable transient soil ice content values at soil temperatures between -3°C and 0°C. The SHB method was not sensitive enough to determine soil ice content at temperatures below -3°C. Latent heat values are relatively large at temperatures between -3°C and 0°C but latent heat values are small at temperatures below -3°C. The soil ice contents during extended freezing periods at temperature below -3°C could be accurately estimated with change in volumetric heat capacity determined with the HPP. Thus, a combination of the SHB method and HPP volumetric heat capacity determination can be used to determine soil ice contents for a wide range of temperatures. The SHB method is a new approach that has some advantages compared to other methods for estimating transient soil freezing and thawing. This dissertation presents fundamental information on the SHB approach and provides guidance for further development of the SHB method.


Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) are a group of enzymes responsible for a significant proportion of bacterial resistance to β-lactam antibiotics by catalysing the hydrolysis of the β-lactam. The MBL from B. cereus BcII (569/H/9) forms both mono- and bi-nuclear species with native zinc and also with cobalt and cadmium ions. Which species is formed is controlled by the pH because some of the protein ligands used for metal-ion binding must lose a proton to form the metallo-enzyme from the apo-enzyme. The protonation states of the ligands that are used to bind various metal-ions in BcII have been determined using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) at different pH's maintained by different buffers. If a single equilibrium is established, by positive cooperative binding, between two metal-ions and the enzyme to form the bi-nuclear enzyme it requires the solution of a cubic equation to model the ITC data. At pH 5.2 and 5.6 the dominant species for all three metals is the mono-nuclear MBL, but only with the native mono-nuclear ZnBcII is the metal-bound water ionised. Compared with ZnBcII, fewer protons are released upon formation of mono-nuclear CoBcII and CdBcII which probably involves metal ion binding to the DCH site. For all three metal-ions, the number of metal-ions binding per molecule of enzyme increases from one to two as the pH is increased from pH 5.20 to 7.20. Only cadmium shows distinct sequential binding in the ITC outputs and the two cadmium ions bind independently and non-cooperatively, showing very distinct and different binding parameters. The apparent single ITC titration curves when two zinc- or cobalt-ions are bound to the β-lactamase are, in fact, not indicative of strong cooperative binding, but are best modelled by two sequential binding steps. The binuclear Cd2BcII is formed with the release of only two protons from the apo-enzyme and, at pH 7.2, probably has an unionised water bridging the two metal-ions, whereas in Zn2BcII and Co2BcII it is a bridged hydroxide-ion, giving rise to the release of three protons on formation of the binuclear enzyme.


This investigation was carried out for the purpose of determining the effectiveness of ailerons and tests were made on six model airfoils in the no. 1 wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The method consisted in measuring the rolling moments and aileron moments in the ordinary way. In addition to this the wing was allowed to spin freely about an axis in the direction of the air flow and the angular velocity measured. The results show that the thickness of the airfoil has very little effect on either the rolling moment or the hinge moment, although the resulting efficiency is somewhat higher for the tapered wings. The airfoil tapered in plan form, however, shows practically no falling off in the rolling moment at the critical angle of attack, whereas the wings of rectangular plan form show a marked dropping off in the rolling moment at this point. This indicates that it is possible to obtain good lateral control with small ailerons at low speed if the plan form is tapered. The rotational speed of the different airfoils is practically the same for all of the sections tested.


Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus is associated with HLA DR and DQ factors, but the primary risk alleles are difficult to identify because recombination events are rare in the DQ-DR region. The risk of HLA genotypes for type 1 diabetes was therefore studied in more than 420 incident new onset, population-based type 1 diabetes children and 340 age, sex and geographically matched controls from Sweden. A stepwise approach was used to analyse risk by relative and absolute risks, stratification analysis and the predispositional allele test. The strongest relative and absolute risks were observed for DQB1*02-DQA1*0501/DQB1*0302-DQA1*0301 heterozygotes (AR 1/46, P < 0.001) or the simultaneous presence of both DRB1*03 and DQB1*0302 (AR 1/52, P < 0.001). Stratification analysis showed that DQB1*0302 was more frequent among DRB1*04 patients than DRB1*04 controls (P < 0.001), while DRB1*03 was more frequent among both DQA1*0501 (P < 0.001) and DQB1*02 (P < 0.001) patients than respective controls. The predispositional allele test indicated that DRB1*03 (P < 0.001) would be the predominant risk factor on the DRB1*03-DQA1*0501-DQB1*02 haplotype. In contrast, although DQB1*0302 (P < 0.001) would be the predominant risk factor on the DRB1*04-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302 haplotype, the predispositional allele test also showed that DRB1*0401, but no other DRB1*04 subtype, had an additive risk to that of DQB1*0302 (P < 0.002). It is concluded that the association between type 1 diabetes and HLA is due to a complex interaction between DR and DQ since (1) DRB1*03 was more strongly associated with the disease than DQA1*0501-DQB1*02 and (2) DRB1*0401 had an additive effect to DQB1*0302. The data from this population-based investigation suggest an independent role of DR in the risk of developing type 1 diabetes, perhaps by providing diseases-promoting transcomplementation molecules.


A longstanding goal of reinforcement learning is to develop non-parametric representations of policies and value functions that support rapid learning without suffering from interference or the curse of dimensionality. We have developed a trajectory-based approach, in which policies and value functions are represented nonparametrically along trajectories. These trajectories, policies, and value functions are updated as the value function becomes more accurate or as a model of the task is updated. We have applied this approach to periodic tasks such as hopping and walking, which required handling discount factors and discontinuities in the task dynamics, and using function approximation to represent value functions at discontinuities. We also describe extensions of the approach to make the policies more robust to modeling error and sensor noise.


Every day thousands of people die from poverty-related causes. Many of these deaths could be avoided if appropriate medical treatments were available to the world's poor. Due to the current tructure of the international patent regime, they are not. Since the risks and costs associated with pharmaceutical innovation are extremely high, to incentivise research, inventor firms are granted a temporary monopoly over newly invented drugs. While allowing firms to make up for the costs of research, this has the morally perverse effect of raising the prices of pharmaceuticals to a level where they become unaffordable to the world's poor. To correct this grievous flaw, the paper proposes a concrete and realistic alternative scheme which, by rewarding medical innovators in proportion to the impact of their drugs on the global disease burden, would incentivise the production and selling of crucial drugs for the world's poor at prices accessible to them.


Samsung Electronic devices are one of the biggest technological innovation company currently, provides a new paradigm on how top to bottom incorporated companies nowadays function. Technologies have been modifying how value stores and markets work, so much so that how side to side, top to bottom incorporated components are considered nowadays are modifying, too. While the Samsung controls much of their value stores, they, too, delegate some of the stores to another. This business design allows them to develop on their proficiencies and, at the same time, to reduce deal costs, which allows them to fulfill the requirements of a very powerful technological innovation market. This study contains the financial analysis of the Samsung and its competitor Apple as well as the industry in which Samsung is performing, and it also contains the unique issues that Samsung is facing in these days. This study is beneficial to the academic readers and for a lot of firms, by this study, these firms can understand the issues that are impacting financial performance and position of different firms. This study provided help in commerce field, IT field, Business field and as well as professionals and the readers attaining the benefit to understand the market trends and the current performance of the multinational leader in electronics and mobile phone industry. Keywords: Samsung proficiencies, Apple competitor, Competitive analysis, Horizontal,   Vertical, DuPont, ratios analysis


Long at the center of the modernist project, from editing Eliot's The Waste Land to publishing Joyce, Pound has also been a provocateur and instigator of new movements, while initiating a new poetics. This is the first volume to summarize and analyze the multiple contexts of Pound's work, underlining the magnitude of his contribution and drawing on new archival, textual, and theoretical studies. Pound's political and economic ideas also receive attention. With its concentration on the contexts of history, sociology, aesthetics, and politics, the volume will provide a portrait of Pound's unusually international reach: an American-born, modern poet absorbing the cultures of England, France, Italy, and China. These essays situate Pound in the social and material realities of his time and will be invaluable for students and scholars of Pound and modernism.


Summary  Despite over 25 years of research into carbohydrates and mental function, findings have, if anything, become more divergent in recent years, and no clear mechanistic model that satisfactorily explains such variability has been produced. At best, there is some consensus that individuals with poor regulation of glucose, and who find the tests of cognitive performance particularly challenging, may benefit from some improvement in mental function after a specific dose of carbohydrate. Even then, this is mainly limited to hippocampally mediated verbal memory.

Recent developments in understanding the regulation of energy supply (principally glucose) for neuronal function suggest that it is too simplistic to assume that ingesting carbohydrates will inevitably improve cognitive function. There is a damping or buffering seen between glucose changes in blood and brain extracellular fluid, and even evidence for an acute dissociation of these glucose changes during task performance in specific brain regions. This may be mainly owing to the role of astrocytes, which are large, star-shaped cells within the central nervous system that can store glucose as glycogen, and when needed, release energy to neurones 'on demand'.

Variables such as age, effort, personality, glucoregulation, time of day, task demand, task domain, and nature and amount of the carbohydrate, can all affect the outcome. One factor that could be involved in all of these variables is the limbic–hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, which controls release of glucocorticoid hormones such as cortisol, and is believed to be a major route by which the brain regulates its energy supply. Moreover, rapidly absorbed carbohydrate provokes a greater cortisol release during stressful tasks and, like glucose, cortisol is known to have dose-dependent, and bidirectional, effects on cognitive function, especially memory. This process might help explain recent findings that carbohydrate-rich foods with lower glycaemic indices provide more benefit to mental function than high-glycaemic foods.

The challenge now is to identify characteristics of both susceptible individuals and the carbohydrate manipulations that can best predict improvements in selective cognitive functions. This should be aided by a better understanding of the regulation of energy supply to the brain, together with knowledge of the relevant nutritional, neuronal, physiological and psychological parameters that would consistently promote improvements in cognitive function by carbohydrates.


Whatever you want Richard Bandler, the man who taught Paul McKenna and inspired him to greatness, can help you get it. Full of simple, potent NLP exercises that will take you minutes to do but will make your life permanently better, this incredible book is a must for anybody who has ever wished for anything but not found a way to get it. Richard Bandler - the world-renowned co-creator of NLP who has helped millions around the world change their lives for the better - has written a simple and empowering book to help you get the life you want. He will help you become the master of your mind so that you make your mind up and don't allow it to make you up. Drawing on the proven, simple techniques he has developed over the past 35 years - techniques that Paul McKenna uses in his workshops - Bandler shows you how to move beyond the limitations that are holding you back, to discover what you want more of in your life and then to make it happen. He also includes a huge range of individual exercises to help you master different areas in your life, from getting over fears and phobias and breaking bad habits to making more money and bringing more happiness into your life. Bandler also offers a fascinating insight into why his techniques work and how he came to develop his life-changing NLP techniques. Whatever you want to change, whatever you want to achieve Richard Bandler will help you get it.


Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of pedal errors by younger and older drivers that relate to sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) accidents. Background: SUA during an accident is a serious issue that causes numerous critical injuries and deaths every year. Previous studies have indicated that the major factor in these accidents is pedal error; however, the characteristics that relate to SUA accidents in older drivers remain unclear. Method: Twenty younger drivers (YDs; 23.1 ± 0.22 years) and 20 older drivers (ODs; 68.9 ± 1.16 years) used either one or both feet to participate in six tasks that involved pressing accelerator or brake pedals in response to various visual stimuli. Results: Both the reaction times (RTs) and the pedal error rates of the YD and OD groups significantly increased with the difficulty of the task. Other than the simple reaction condition, we found that the pedal error rates were significantly higher for the OD group than for the YD group; the OD group also demonstrated longer RTs. Moreover, the rates of accelerator error were consistently two or three times higher than the rates of brake error in both the YD and OD groups. Conclusion: For the older population, the use of the left foot to operate the brake pedal and the right foot to operate the accelerator could decrease the accelerator error rate and may reduce the rate of SUA-related accidents that are caused by pedal error.


Abstract Silicification is an important mode of fossil preservation but the extent to which silicified material represents an unbiased sampling of the total fossil assemblage within a given rock sample remains poorly quantified. Here, we use paired analyses of thin sections and acid-extracted silicified specimens from the same samples to examine the biases introduced during silicification of Lower Triassic Virgin Limestone carbonates preserved in the Muddy Mountains of southern Nevada. Bivalves dominate most thin sections in the point count data, but rarely silicify completely enough to be recognized in residue. Echinoderms and gastropods are less abundant in thin section but dominate the residues. The abundances of these groups in thin section and residue are only weakly correlated. These findings suggest that although silicification generally captures relative trends in proportional abundance of higher taxa among samples, the silicification process can be taxonomically biased. Given the biases that can occur during silicification, it should not be assumed that silicified collections present a pristine picture of taxonomic or paleoecologic composition. Petrographic analysis has the potential to illuminate the reliability of paleontological data based on silicified collections.


The Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK and PI3K/PTEN/Akt/mTOR cascades are often activated by genetic alterations in upstream signaling molecules such as receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK). Certain components of these pathways, RAS, NF1, BRAF, MEK1, DUSP5, PP2A, PIK3CA, PIK3R1, PIK3R4, PIK3R5, IRS4, AKT, NFKB1, MTOR, PTEN, TSC1, and TSC2 may also be activated/inactivated by mutations or epigenetic silencing. Upstream mutations in one signaling pathway or even in downstream components of the same pathway can alter the sensitivity of the cells to certain small molecule inhibitors. These pathways have profound effects on proliferative, apoptotic and differentiation pathways. Dysregulation of components of these cascades can contribute to: resistance to other pathway inhibitors, chemotherapeutic drug resistance, premature aging as well as other diseases. This review will first describe these pathways and discuss how genetic mutations and epigenetic alterations can result in resistance to various inhibitors.


This paper gives an overview of the expected unintended (negative) consequences for power quality of several on-going developments in the power system. Four developments directly related to smart-grid technology are covered: microgrids; advanced voltage control; feeder reconfiguration; and demand-side management. Four developments indirectly related are also covered: new sources of electricity production; increased used of active power-electronic converters; shift from overhead lines to cables; and new types of lighting. The paper summarizes the discussions in an international working group and presents the main findings are recommendations.


This paper offers a non-technical overview of the issues involved when applying cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to hydropower, both in terms of new installations and changing existing regulatory structures. Our focus is on the conceptual and empirical problems of applying CBA to provide decision support in such cases. A large body of literature now exists on the social net values of generating electricity from moving water. The studies focusing values related to the ecological system include, but are not limited to, effects on climate, aesthetics, landscape, recreation and wildlife. Taken together, they confirm the view that the public invariably seems to place significant values on the integrity of the ecological system. It does, however, not seem possible to draw general conclusions from the literature on whether or not a given (dis)investment will pass a cost-benefit test; the end-result depends entirely on the specifics.


Extracted from text ... E
Successful executives
return to their tribal roots
22 Management Today July 2005
Ever wondered how some managers are
able to achieve the very best performance
from their staff - the kind of performance
that takes their company to unprecedented
heights - while disregarding traditional
management principles?
This is one of the current trends that
has fascinated management consultant
Ray Immelman, prompting him to investigate
how the executives of some companies
are able to get dedication, respect,
commitment and bottomline results from
their staff without getting crucified in the
process.
Immelman's deep understanding of
human behaviour with which he ..


In the search for novel bile acid (BA) biomarkers of liver organic anion-transporting polypeptides (OATPs), cynomolgus monkeys received oral rifampicin (RIF) at four dose levels (1, 3, 10, and 30 mg/kg) that generated plasma-free Cmax values (0.06, 0.66, 2.57, and 7.79 µM, respectively) spanning the reported in vitro IC50 values for OATP1B1 and OATP1B3 (≤1.7 μM). As expected, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of an OATP probe drug (i.v. 2H4-pitavastatin, 0.2 mg/kg) was increased 1.2-, 2.4-, 3.8-, and 4.5-fold, respectively. Plasma of RIF-dosed cynomolgus monkeys was subjected to a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method that supported the analysis of 30 different BAs. Monkey urine was profiled, and we also determined that the impact of RIF on BA renal clearance was minimal. Although sulfated BAs comprised only 1% of the plasma BA pool, a robust RIF dose response (maximal ≥50-fold increase in plasma AUC) was observed for the sulfates of five BAs [glycodeoxycholate (GDCA-S), glycochenodeoxycholate (GCDCA-S), taurochenodeoxycholate, deoxycholate (DCA-S), and taurodeoxycholate (TDCA-S)]. In vitro, RIF (≤100 μM) did not inhibit cynomolgus monkey liver cytosol-catalyzed BA sulfation and cynomolgus monkey hepatocyte-mediated uptake of representative sulfated BAs (GDCA-S, GCDCA-S, DCA-S, and TDCA-S) was sodium-independent and inhibited (≥70%) by RIF (5 μM); uptake of taurocholic acid was sensitive to sodium removal (74% decrease) and relatively refractory to RIF (≤21% inhibition). We concluded that sulfated BAs may serve as sensitive biomarkers of cynomolgus monkey OATPs and that exploration of their utility as circulating human OATP biomarkers is warranted.


The decisions that doctors make are formed in part through the ways in which medical care is organized. Given that the structure of a situation affects people's actions in the context of medical care, it is a matter of moral concern in any attempt to create cultures of safety in a medical environment, Physicians bring their unique strengths and weaknesses to their work, but they exercise them within structures that shape the decisions they make. An illness and death in a pediatric intensive care unit illustrates how such structures can affect medical care and why the organization of care is therefore a matter of moral concern. As a sociologist with training in qualitative research methods, I have studied aspects of contemporary health care by observing encounters between mentally ill homeless persons and outreach workers; the physical settings of emergency shelters, soup kitchens, and the streets; the professional disciplines involved in community psychiatry; and the mental health institutions that constitute the environment of those encounters. (1) I have also learned about health care relationships and the context of those relationships, which I will call "the structure of the situation," from personal experience with my son, Jesse, who died in 1995 from complications of a liver transplant. The latter experience, coupled with my background in social science research and theory, has given me some insight into high-intensity medical care and the ethical concerns related to the organization of that care. The approach I will take here--combining a highly personal story with analysis of it--is somewhat unconventional and deserves some explanation. I had already written a memoir about my son, followed by a series of articles that directly addressed themes implicit in the book, before writing this article. (2) In those other texts, I avoided wearing my social science hat, putting it on at odd moments as "happened" naturally and unobtrusively. One series of events during my son's 1995 hospitalization, however, seemed to call for a more focused analysis. I acknowledge that engaging in such an analysis represents, in part, another way for me to try to make meaning out of my son's death, not in the sense of rendering his death acceptable or as serving a greater good, but in the sense of finding that, the irrevocable having happened, meaning, for myself or others or both, might still be gleaned from it. In this case, I hope that the events of one evening on a pediatric intensive care unit in the mid-1990s may yield some lessons regarding the organization of critical-care practice today. Jesse Jesse Harlan-Rowe was born in 1975. As an infant he had hydrocephalus, his ventricles, the spaces in the brain that produce cerebrospinal fluid to cushion the brain from the otherwise jarring blows of walking, sitting, and standing, did not drain their excess fluid into his blood, and became engorged. The standard intervention for hydrocephalus: is placement of a shunt through the skull at the back of the head into one of the ventricles. A plastic tube connected to the shunt under the skin is then threaded down to the abdominal cavity, where it drains off the excess cerebrospinal fluid. Without such intervention or in the absence of spontaneous remission, the head becomes enlarged, as the brain is squeezed and choked. The child may die at an early age. Jesse had three operations for hydrocephalus in the first year and a half of his life and was in remission for the rest of it. He had no other serious physical problems until 1991, when he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an intestinal disease characterized by ulcerations of the colon, rectal bleeding and cramping, and diarrhea. In 1992, he was diagnosed with a mild case of sclerosing cholangitis, a scarring and narrowing of the bile ducts going into the liver. A year later, he had an operation to correct his ulcerative colitis. At that time he was diagnosed with early stage cirrhosis of the liver. …


Poverty, food insecurity, biodiversity and habitat loss are persistent global challenges that are further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. These challenges are particularly hard felt in the tropical landscapes of the global South where tensions between local socio-economic and international environmental commitments are pervasive. Due to the apparent failure of sectorial approaches to address such challenges, more holistic strategies are being increasingly promoted. Integrated landscape approaches are one such example; essentially a governance strategy that engages multiple stakeholders to reconcile societal and environmental objectives at the landscape scale to identify trade-offs and potential synergies for more sustainable and equitable land management. Integrated landscape approaches have been widely endorsed in the international and national policy arena, within academia, and in the discourse surrounding conservation and development funding. However, despite strong scientific theories and concepts, the implementation, and particularly evaluation and reporting, of integrated landscape approaches in the tropics remains poorly developed.The COLANDS initiative represents an explicit attempt to contribute towards the evidence base by operationalizing integrated landscape approaches in Ghana, Zambia and Indonesia. In this regard we aim to provide regular, honest reporting of progress. This book details the experiences of researchers engaged in these landscape-scale initiatives across the first two years of implementation.With dedicated chapters on current progress, biodiversity, methods and evaluation the book provides useful tools and resources for research and implementation. Furthermore, we consider the complex socio-political challenges associated with landscape approaches with chapters focussed on how to effectively engaging stakeholders and understanding the national policy environment. We then provide profiles of the sites in each of the three countries and describe the historical context, current status and potential for more integrated landscape governance. This book explores the techniques and strategies that can be deployed to improve the governance and management of land and natural resources and better reconcile conservation and development objectives in tropical landscapes undergoing rapid change.ContentsForeword
Acknowledgments
Author bios
Executive Summary
Introduction and backgroundJames Reed, Mirjam Ros-Tonen and Terry Sunderland
Integrated landscape approaches in the tropicsJames Reed, Amy Ickowitz, Colas Chervier, Houria Djoudi, Kaala B Moombe, Mirjam Ros-Tonen, Malaika Yanou, Elizabeth L Yuliani and Terry Sunderland
The role of biodiversity in integrated landscape approachesJoli R Borah, Yves Laumonier, Eric RC Bayala, Houria Djoudi, Davison Gumbo, Kaala B Moombe, Elizabeth L Yuliani and Mathurin Zida
Engaging multiple stakeholders to reconcile climate, conservation and development objectives in tropical landscapesJames Reed, Jos Barlow, Rachel Carmenta, Josh van Vianen and Terry Sunderland
Theories of change and monitoring and evaluation types for landscape approachesColas Chervier, Marie-Gabrielle Piketty and James Reed
A methods toolbox for integrated landscape approachesJames Reed, Joli R Borah, Colas Chervier, James Langston, Moira Moeliono, Alida O'Connor, Elizabeth L Yuliani and Terry Sunderland
Potential for integration? An assessment of national environment and development policiesAlida O'Connor, Houria Djoudi, Moira Moeliono, Kaala B Moombe and Freddie S Siangulube
Context for landscape approach implementation in the Western Wildlife Corridor Landscape (Northern Ghana)Eric RC Bayala, Houria Djoudi, Mirjam Ros-Tonen and Mathurin Zida
Understanding landscape dynamics: A case study from Kalomo DistrictKaala B Moombe, Freddie S Siangulube, Bravedo M Mwaanga, Tiza I Mfuni, Malaika P Yanou, Davison J Gumbo, Rays C Mwansa and Gilbert Juunza
Kapuas Hulu: A background analysis to implementing an integrated landscape approachAugusta M Anandi, Elizabeth L Yuliani, Moira Moeliono, Yves Laumonier and Sari Narulita
Conclusion and the way forwardTerry Sunderland, James Reed and Mirjam Ros-Tonen


Proposed changes to the Competition Act 89 of 1998 through the Competition Amendment Bill B31 of 2008 (the Bill) are an effort to criminalise anti-competitive behaviour. This has been tipped as the best solution for putting a final nail into the coffin for anti-trust conduct in the wake of the bread, scrap metal and pharmaceutical cartels. Blanket annoyance for cartel activity had been aroused by the startling revelations in the Competition Commission v Tiger Brands Ltd & Anor Case no 15/CR/Feb07.


Numerical predictions and model test results of the wave induced bending moments in a 9,400 TEU post-Panamax container vessel are presented for two regular wave scenarios. Different numerical procedures have been applied: a linear and non-linear time-domain strip theory and a direct calculation (CFD) solving the Navier-Stokes equations with the free surface captured by a volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. In all procedures the flexibility of the hull girder is modelled as a non-uniform Timoshenko beam. It is observed that the non-linear models agree well with the model tests and as there is no occurrence of severe slamming in the cases considered, the inexpensive non-linear strip theory is as accurate as the direct CFD calculation method. In a comparison with the results using the rigid body assumption, the increase in the vertical bending moment (VBM) amidships due to the flexibility of the hull girder is found to be approximately 7% (peak-to-peak amplitude) in general. The non-linear responses, however, contain over-harmonic frequencies which may coincide with the natural frequency of the two-node vertical bending mode inducing resonance. In that case the hull girder flexibility causes the responses to increase as much as 22% (peak-to-peak amplitude) in one of the present cases.


The objective of this study is the comparison of driving behaviour of elderly drivers before and after an unexpected incident, by applying a large driving simulator experiment. More specifically, the impact of the presence of a brain disorder (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and Mild Cognitive Impairment), and the mobile phone use while driving is investigated. The driving behaviour was examined in terms of lateral position and mean driving speed. The driving task included driving in rural road, while various unexpected incidents were scheduled to occur. 125 elderly participants went through the whole experimental procedure. The General Linear Mixed Models indicated that all three diseases and the use of mobile phone were found to significantly affect the model regarding the driving speed before and after the incident. Analysing the lateral control measure it was observed that only PD out of the three examined diseases had a significant impact on the model.


In a context of intense media competition and a contemporary culture of talk,traditional TV news has devised ways to make news more interactive and closerto the TV audience. In British TV news programmes, the live exchange betweennews presenter and correspondent has been identified as a key site for discoursein a dialogic mode (Montgomery 2007; Tolson 2006). This study adopts aparticipation framework approach to analyse the live exchanges in a corpus ofBBC evening news programmes over time. Findings indicate that while the frequencyof live exchanges is sustained, they become shorter and less interactive,at the same time as other strategies are adopted to give the impression of extensive,immediate reporting. What emerges is an overriding concern with givingthe appearance of "liveness", sacrificing the interactive format of the traditionallive exchange. The "token interactivity" which results may not encourage thekind of audience participation that facilitates understanding and retention.


Among the purposes of a tax system, it is generally accepted that one role is to implement a society's conception of distributive justice. Indeed, if justice is, as John Rawls famously declared, "the first virtue of social institutions," distributive justice may properly be regarded as the first or sovereign virtue of a society's tax system – to which a virtuous sovereign should properly attend.This article reviews Ronald Dworkin's theory of distributive justice as equality of resources and its implications for redistributive taxation. Part II examines the theory itself in contrast to other prominent theories of distributive justice, arguing that Dworkin's approach provides a more compelling conception of distributive justice than welfare-based theories that do not take rights and responsibilities seriously, Rawlsian theory which is insufficiently attentive to individual rights and responsibilities, and classical libertarianism which fails to take equality seriously. Part III considers the implications of Dworkin's theory for redistributive taxation, addressing both the kinds of taxes that a virtuous sovereign should collect for this purpose and key features in the design of these taxes. Building on Dworkin's theory, the article argues that progressive income and inheritance taxes are essential elements of a just tax system.


The objective of this research is to assess the global economic and greenhouse gas emission impacts of banning GMO crops. This is done by modeling two counterfac-tual scenarios and evaluating them apart and in combination using a well-know Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, GTAP-BIO. The first scenario models the impact of a global GMO ban. The second scenario models the impact of increased GMO penetration. The focus is on the price and welfare impacts, and land use change greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with GMO technologies. Much of the prior work on the economic impacts of GMO technology has relied on a combination of partial equilibrium analysis and econometric techniques. However, CGE model-ling is a way of analyzing economy-wide impacts that take into account the linkages in the global economy. Here the goal is to contribute to the literature on the benefits of GMO technology by estimating the impacts on price, supply and welfare. Food price impacts range from an increase of 0.27% to 2.2%, depending on the region. Total welfare losses associated with loss of GMO technology total up to $9.75 bil-lion. The loss of GMO traits as an intensification technology has not only economic impacts, but also environmental ones. The full environmental analysis of GMO is not undertaken here. Rather we model the land use change owing to the loss of GMO traits and calculate the associated increase in GHG emissions. We predict a substan-tial increase in GHG emissions if GMO technology is banned.


The skills required of the researcher undertaking qualitative interviews are considerable. A range of writers discuss the importance of a conversational approach, avoiding inhibiting interviews, a skilled approach to asking follow-up questions and strong listening skills. These questioning and listening skills are of crucial importance in the context of semi-structured, exploratory interviews where themes are emergent. Whilst it could be argued that these skills are a natural part of any conversation, if the qualitative researcher fails to pay sufficient attention to how language is used and ask adroit follow-up questions they may fail to gather rich and meaningful data. This paper explores the usefulness of the application of the NLP meta-model to qualitative interviews, drawing on the experience of a researcher undertaking doctoral research and applying this approach to semi-structured interviews. The main conclusions are that (1) The NLP model is an eclectic model and as such draws on the mode 1 knowledge of academics and the mode 2 knowledge of professional practitioners, or 'praxis' (the connecting of learning to 'real life' situations); (2) the good qualitative researcher remains conscious of the importance of skilled questioning, as well as the danger of colluding with or influencing participants. The NLP 'meta-questioning' model provides the researcher with a 'tool' for critical questioning, as well as a set of underpinning principles (i.e. the operating principles) as a possible way of ensuring questioning remains rigorous and, where appropriate, challenging; (3) Subsequently the model may provide a reference point against which to consider data. Whilst the model is traditionally applied to individuals, it could be argued that specific concepts and techniques could usefully be applied to whole organisations or systems.


China's new Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), over two decades in the making, was finally enacted on August 30, 2007 and on August 1, 2008 will replace the disparate and ineffective competition regime currently in place. Legislators invited the input of a wide array of domestic and foreign legal experts and business interests, as well as Chinese government agencies of all levels. While the new law borrows much of its wording from the competition law of the European Union and United States, it also retains unmistakably Chinese characteristics. In addition to unifying existing prohibitions against a range of abusive trade practices, the AML consolidates the enforcement apparatus and strengthens the regulatory framework for both public and private domestic monopolistic acts. The new system reflects a range of divergent policy goals that combine protectionist sentiment with the desire to promote competition even at significant political cost. While the AML may lead to genuine progress, it could also easily serve as a means of perpetuating discriminatory treatment and an ineffective weapon against abuses by State-owned enterprises, administrators and trade unions. The prospects for effective and equitable enforcement of the new system will require the time to develop a body of jurisprudence on competition law, the fortitude to combat regional administrative abuses and the passage of sound implementing measures to fill in gaps in the upcoming law. The AML has achieved the initial goal of establishing a solid foundation for Chinese competition policy, but fulfilling the promise of this historic step will only be possible through a massive and continued effort by a great many dedicated people over the course of many years. However, considering the economic progress and governmental reform China has achieved over the last generation, the demonstration of such will and capability are well within its reach.


This is the eighth volume of the Cato Supreme Court Review, the nation's first in-depth critique of the Supreme Court term just ended. We release this journal every year on September 17, Constitution Day, about two and a half months after the previous term concludes and two weeks before the next one begins (though this year we will already have had the Citizens United campaign finance case reargument in early September). We are proud of the speed with which we publish this tome — authors of articles about the lastdecided cases have little more than a month to provide us full drafts — and of its accessibility, at least insofar as the Court's opinions allow for that. This is not a typical law review, after all, whose prolix submissions use more space for obscure footnotes than for article text. Instead, this is a book about law intended for everyone from lawyers and judges to educated laymen and interested citizens. And we are happy to confess our biases: We approach our subject matter from a classical Madisonian perspective, with a focus on individual liberty, property rights, and federalism, and a vision of a government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. We also try to maintain a strict separation of politics (or policy) and law; just because something is good policy doesn't mean it's legal, and vice versa. Similarly, certain decisions must necessarily be left to the political process: We aim to be governed by laws, not lawyers, so just as a good lawyer will present all plausibly legal options to his client, a good public official will recognize that the ultimate buck stops with him.


We have analyzed the phenotypic characteristics and IgH gene rearrangements in a panel of EBV-transformed B lineage cell lines from human fetal liver and bone marrow. Some lines contained only populations of immature, Ig- Be cells, while others contained mixed populations of mature and immature B cells. The majority of identifiable IgH rearrangements involved joining of the most JH- proximal D segment, DQ52, to various JH segments, implying that DQ52 is a preferred target for initial DJH rearrangements. Three other rearrangements involving VH-related sequences were also characterized. Two involved VHDJH joining using VH3 genes, although one of these had a very unusual DJH structure. The third consisted of inverted 3' signal sequences and flanking regions of a VH4 gene appended to a JH. The mechanisms by which the later rearrangement could have occurred and its potential physiological significance are discussed.


Detectability of Singularly Perturbed Systems A form of detectability, known as the input-output-to-state stability property, for singularly perturbed systems is examined in this work. This work extends the result of Christofides & Teel [5] wherein they presented a notion of total stability for input-to-state stability with respect to singular perturbations. Analyzing singularly perturbed systems with outputs we show that if the boundary layer system is uniformly globally asymptotically stable and the reduced system is input-output-to-state stable with respect to disturbances, then these properties continue to hold, up to an arbitrarily small offset, for initial conditions in an arbitrarily large compact set and sufficiently small singular perturbation parameter over the time interval for which disturbances, their derivatives, and outputs remain in an arbitrarily large compact set. An application of the result is presented where we analyze the stability of a circuit with a nonlinear element through the measurement of only one of the variables of interest.


We propose a method to integrate more interactivity into automatic hyperparameter optimization systems to leverage the user's prior knowledge on parameter distribution. In our method, the user continuously observes automatic optimization's progress and dynamically specifies where to search in the parameter space. We present a prototype implementation of an interactive dashboard for an optimizer to show our method's feasibility. The interactive dashboard's main feature is "paintable timeline" where the user can not only observe the past parameter values tested as in standard timeline but also specify the range of future parameters to be tested with simple painting operations. We show three examples where user intervention might improve the performance of automatic optimizations. We run a user study with experts and the results show that, with prior knowledge about parameter distribution of the target problem, interactive optimization can reach better results compared to fully automatic optimization.


A 44-year-old woman was referred to our medical out door for control and management of acute abdominal pain in left hypochondrium in a patient who had Adenomyosis diagnosed by a Gynacologist. On examination patient was in sinus rhythm with auscultatory findings of Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis. She had soft rumbling mid diastolic murmur with presystolic accentuation and loud S1.Opening snap and loud pulmonary component of S2 was heard. Her Total WBC count was 15000 except this all her blood investigations were normal. She was complaining about left hypochondrium pain. Mild Splenomegaly was seen. So we carried out ECG, ASO Titre, Blood culture, chest x-ray and Transthoracic Echocardiography which showed rheumatic Mitral Stenosis without vegetations. Sonography of abdomen suspected Splenic Infarct. MRI Abdomen was carried out where diagnosis of Splenic Infarction with reduction of splenic blood flow on contrast was seen. But a clot in Heart was seen. We carried out Trans oesophageal Echocardiography which showed LAA clot. Thus the final diagnosis was made.


The segregation of bacteria, inorganic solutes, and total organic carbon between liquid water and ice during winter ice formation on lakes can significantly influence the concentration and survival of microorganisms in icy systems and their roles in biogeochemical processes. Our study quantifies the distributions of bacteria and solutes between liquid and solid water phases during progressive freezing. We simulated lake ice formation in mesocosm experiments using water from perennially (Antarctica) and seasonally (Alaska and Montana, United States) ice‐covered lakes. We then computed concentration factors and effective segregation coefficients, which are parameters describing the incorporation of bacteria and solutes into ice. Experimental results revealed that, contrary to major ions, bacteria were readily incorporated into ice and did not concentrate in the liquid phase. The organic matter incorporated into the ice was labile, amino acid‐like material, differing from the humic‐like compounds that remained in the liquid phase. Results from a control mesocosm experiment (dead bacterial cells) indicated that viability of bacterial cells did not influence the incorporation of free bacterial cells into ice, but did have a role in the formation and incorporation of bacterial aggregates. Together, these findings demonstrate that bacteria, unlike other solutes, were preferentially incorporated into lake ice during our freezing experiments, a process controlled mainly by the initial solute concentration of the liquid water source, regardless of cell viability.


In a recent letter [M. Cromer, M. C. Villet, G. H. Fredrickson, and L. G. Leal, "Shear banding in polymer solutions," Phys. Fluids25, 051703 (2013)], we showed the existence of a steady shear-banded velocity profile for a model polymer solution with an underlying monotonic constitutive curve. The driving mechanism is the coupling of the polymer stress to an inhomogeneous concentration profile. To further understand this phenomenon, in this paper we investigate the underlying linear instability as well as probe the model parameters and their effect on transient and steady state solutions. The linear stability analysis of the steady, base homogeneous model shows that, in opposition to diffusion, the polymer concentration moves up stress gradients in a shear flow creating a critical balance such that, for a range of parameters, an instability occurs that drives the system away from homogeneity. The simulation of the full nonlinear equations in planar one-dimensional shear reveals a window within which the linear instability manifests itself as a shear-banded flow. Unlike the case for a nonmonotonic constitutive curve for which two bands are predicted, there is no apparent selection process for a monotonic curve that sets the number of bands in planar shear. Thus, we find the possibility of greater than two bands, the number of which is determined by the ratio of the polymer correlation length to the channel width. In addition to steady shear banding, transient phenomena are also probed revealing a complicated band transition (i.e., number of bands changing in time) as well as elastic recoil in a Taylor-Couette cell, each of which have been observed in experiment. Finally, as we showed in our letter, a nonlinear subcritical instability exists resulting in multiple steady states depending upon the wall ramp speed. Here, we show that this phenomenon can occur for realistic parameter values, in particular those obtained for a particular polymer solution that has shown this multiple steady state behavior experimentally.


Abstract As a logical progression of a deductive climate theory, this paper addresses three interconnected climatic features: the humidity profile, the atmospheric water transport and the ocean stratification—taking as given the thermal field previously determined. The theory invokes the maximization of the entropy production, which propels the tropospheric temperature and specific humidity to their updraft values, yielding moist-adiabatic lapse rate and bi-modal relative humidity in the vertical.With the humidity profile known, the atmospheric water transport at mid-latitudes can be linked to the thermal field, which then determines the ocean salinity range. The deduced density ratio across the thermocline however is quite larger than unity, suggesting considerable static stability. The model deductions, while crude, are consistent with observations, which underscore the internal control of the hydrological cycle and ocean stratification by energy balances, with significant implications on climate changes. Doubling the atmospheric CO2, for example, only slightly perturbs the energy balance and with it the global precipitation and the high relative humidity near the surface. The warming would however more strongly enhance the atmospheric water transport to accentuate the zonal-mean E-P pattern and ocean salinity contrast.


Objective To determine the type and nature of traditional eye medicine (TEM), their sources and use and practices related to self-medication for ophthalmic diseases in a rural Indian population. Methods A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in 25 randomly selected clusters of Rural Gurgaon, Haryana, India as part of CORE (Cornea Opacity Rural Epidemiological) study. In addition to comprehensive ophthalmic examination, health-seeking behavior and use of self-medication and TEM was assessed in the adult population using a semi-structured questionnaire. Physical verification of available ophthalmic medications in the enumerated households was conducted by the study team. Descriptive statistics were computed along with multivariable logistic regression analysis to determine associated factors for use of self-medication and TEM. Results Of the 2160 participants interviewed, 396 (18.2%) reported using ophthalmic medications without consulting an ophthalmologist, mainly for symptoms like watering (37.1%), redness (27.7%), itching (19.2%) and infection (13.6%). On physical verification of available eye drops that were being used without prescription, 26.4% participants were practicing self-medication. Steroid, expired/unlabeled and indigenous eye drops were being used by 151(26.5%), 120(21.1%) and 75 (13.2%) participants respectively. Additionally, 25.7% (529) participants resorted to home remedies like 'kajal'(61.4%), honey (31.4%), ghee (11.7%) and rose water (9.1%). Conclusion Use of TEM is prevalent in this population. The rampant use of steroid eye drops without prescription along with use of expired or unlabelled eye drops warrants greater emphasis on safe eye care practices in this population. Public awareness and regulatory legislations must be implemented to decrease harmful effects arising due to such practices.


A sprinkler irrigation system was tested to assess its efficacy for volatilizing organic chemicals in pumped groundwater. In field tests involving the analysis of more than 250 samples collected from beneath a spray irrigation system, removal rates of ethylene dibromide (EDB), 1,1,2-trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1,1trichloroethane (TCA), and carbon tetrachloride (CT) in samplers placed 0.5 m above the ground exceeded 95% in the vast majority of cases, and approached 100% for the more volatile chemicals. As predicted by Henry's Law, CT, TCA, and TCE were significantly more volatile than EDB. Removal efficiencies of conventionally designed sprinkler irrigation systems were enhanced by using small aperture nozzles with impact pads designed to produce thin films of water. Droplet sizes produced by the various nozzle aper tures and impact pad designs were measured using a phase, Doppler particle analyzer and found to be one factor controlling volatilization. As predicted by the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, higher air temperatures appear to be associated with slightly increased volatilization. Using specialized stratified water droplet collectors, it was determined that longer droplet trajectories increased volatilization.


A nest of Granatina ianthinogaster was found on II April 1970 in a low thorny bush, in long grass by the roadside, at mile 30 from Nairobi, Kenya, on the road to Ololkisaili: a generally dry area of grass and acacia thorn. A male bird was seen entering the thorny bush carrying a guineafowl feather and emerging later without it. The nest contained five eggs which were not examined. On 18 April 1970 the nest contained small chicks and on 25 April 1970 nestlings, which were examined, one of these had a brown rump and tail and the other four had purple rumps. Field notes were made of plumage and gape patterns. On returning later the same afternoon the area around the nest had been trampled by cattle and the bush almost flattened. A search revealed a rather mangled nest but fortunately the five nestlings appeared unhurt and they were taken in the hope that they could be hand-reared. It was suspected that the odd nestling was Vidua fischeri and, as the bird was raised to three months old, identification was confirmed.


The Platreef in the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex comprises pyroxenites and gabbros that contain enormous quantities of Ni, Cu and platinum-group elements (PGE) concentrated from a larger volume of magma than represented by the Platreef itself. Chill zones and cross-cutting relationships between the Platreef pyroxenites and hanging wall norites show that the Platreef was originally a relatively thin, sill-like, intrusion or sill network without an overlying magma column. Lower Zone cumulates pre-date the Platreef and show depletion in Ni and Cu compared with similar rocks elsewhere in the Bushveld, suggesting that they interacted with sulphides in a sub-chamber or conduit. In order to overcome the mass balance paradox imposed by the absence of an overlying magma a new model for the development of the Platreef is proposed whereby Ni, Cu and PGE were concentrated in conduits that fed magma chambers of the Lower Zone and that these sulphides were transported by a later magma into the Platreef.


Given the prevalence of relationship breakdown, and the unequivocal association with poor outcomes, ways in which to improve relationship satisfaction are of great importance. Derived from in-depth interviews with 112 individuals in a couple relationship, this study aims to explore and understand different beliefs and perceived capabilities toward improving couple relationships. Adopting an iterative, holistic approach to the thematic analysis, the findings initially emerged through people describing their current level of relationship satisfaction. By placing people's meanings and interpretations within their own realities of their relationship "state," participants were further distinguished by whether they held a more "developmental" or "nondevelopmental" relationship perspective. Relative to those with a "nondevelopmental" perspective, the "developmental" group perceived relationship change as positive, believed they had control to alter the course of their relationship for the better, recognized the importance of the relationship future, and saw the potential benefits of formal relationship support. The "developmental" group was more motivated to address relationship improvement and was aware of what made their own relationship endure. While contextualizing the research within its limitations and alongside previous research, the implications are centered on fostering a more "developmental" perspective by increasing knowledge and awareness about relationships, through a universal early intervention approach.


The partitioning of water distribution systems (WDS) into segments and district metered areas (DMAs) provides various management benefits for system operators [1,2]. These benefits include, for instance, improved pressure management, more efficient leakage control and effective isolation of network parts in cases of pipe breakages or equipment failures. All this, in turn, increases system reliability and resilience [3]. Identification of network segments depends mainly on the distribution and location of valves in a given WDS. In general, valves are used for controlling flow conditions (i.e., pressure and flow) and for isolating a failure area due to pipe breakage/equipment failure or contamination events. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to identify network segments (i.e., sets of pipes and nodes) that belong to an individual valve or a set of valves. The methodology is developed based on the basic network topological matrices (i.e., node-link connectivity matrix, valves topological matrix) [2]. In comparison to other existing methods, the proposed methodology has able to produce all segments for a given WDS in single network run without introducing pseudo valves, pipes and auxiliary valve matrix [2,3,4] or performing hydraulic analysis. Additionally, it is very simple for computer coding and does not require the user to have extensive programming knowledge. Figure 1 shows the steps for the methodology and segmentation results obtained on a simple network under a hypothetical pipe failure scenario (i.e., burst pipe p2). The methodology has been further validated and demonstrated on the well-known C-Town network [5]. The results show that the approach is capable of identifying both regular segment valves association and unintentionally isolated segments [4] in an accurate and efficient way. A regular segment is a part of the network (i.e., nodes and pipes) that contains the failure element to be isolated from the rest of the network (e.g., pipe failure), which needs to be repaired or fully replaced. While an unintentionally isolated segment is the portion of the network that is separated from water source(s) as a consequence of isolating a regular segment (as shown in Figure 1). Due to its generic nature and relative simplicity, the proposed methodology has the ability to create network segments in an automated way from network input data, e.g., by reading and automatically processing the relevant data from the EPANET2.0 input file. The methodology proposed, therefore, lends itself naturally to tackling practical problems, such as determining strategic and optimal location for isolation and PRV valves, WDS reliability, and response approaches to network failure events.


Thanks to the advances in the fields of robotics and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), the autonomous vehicles of the future are gradually becoming a reality. As autonomous vehicles will have to behave safely in presence of other vehicles, pedestrians and other fixed and moving objects, one of the most important things they need to do is to effectively perceive both their motion and the environment around them. In this thesis, we first investigated how bio-inspired visual sensors, called Local Motion Sensors (LMSs), giving 1-D optic flow using a few pixels based on the findings on the fly's visual system, could be used to improve automatic parking maneuvers. For this purpose, we developed a low computational-cost method for detecting and tracking a parking spot in real time using only 1-D OF measurements around the vehicle together with the vehicle's longitudinal velocity and steering angle. Highly simplified 2-D parking simulations were first performed using Matlab/Simulink software, then some preliminary experiments were carried out using a vehicle equipped with two 6-pixel LMSs. As the main challenge for visual sensors is to correctly operate in high-dynamic-range lighting conditions, we also dealt here with a novel bio-inspired auto-adaptive silicon retina designed and developed by our laboratory in collaboration with the Center of Particle Physics of Marseille (CPPM). We successfully tested this silicon retina, showing that the novel pixel, called M2APix, which stands for Michaelis-Menten Auto-Adaptive Pixel, can auto-adapt in a 7-decade range and respond appropriately to step changes up to 3 decades, while keeping sensitivity to contrasts as low as 2%. We subsequently developed and tested a novel optic flow sensor based on this auto-adaptive retina and a new robust method for computing the optic flow, which provides several advantages to previously developed optic flow sensors such as its robustness to light levels, textures and vibrations that can be found while operating on the road. To test the performances of this novel sensor and show how it can be used for robotic and automotive applications such as visual odometry, we constructed a car-like robot, called BioCarBot, which estimates its velocity and steering angle by means of an extended Kalman filter (EKF) using only the optic flow measurements delivered by two downward-facing sensors of this kind. Indoor and outdoor experiments were successfully carried out in a 7-decade light level range and using various textures, showing promising perspectives of these sensors for odometry-based applications.


On 19 June 1976, at a meeting of China's police chiefs, the last remaining senior supporter of the radical 'Gang of Four' within China's security system, Deputy Minister Shi Yizhi, attempted to set the agenda for the coming year by posing the question: 'Who are our enemies, who are our friends?' At the time, he could hardly have known that the answer the police chiefs would give to that question would be as emphatic as it was unwelcome. By October, Shi, like all active supporters of the 'Gang of Four', was being 'entertained' by the security forces in far less salubrious surrounds than the plush meeting rooms of the Public Security Ministry compound. The radical exemplars of friend/enemy politics no longer needed to pose their Maoist question, for 'the enemy' now led them collectively off history's stage. Ironically, Shi Yizhi's 'last major remark' was merely a verbatim repetition of Mao Zedong's first: the friend-enemy proposition, built into this 'question of the first importance for the revolution', was initially uttered by Mao in 1925-1926, then later reproduced on the first line of the first page of the first volume of Mao Zedong's Selected Works, and thus became Mao's opening revolutionary gambit. These two interrogative speech events, Mao's and Shi's, therefore, stand as bookends at either end of that radical experiment that became known as revolutionary China.


OBJECTIVES
To assess safety and determine effects of IV administration of formaldehyde on hemostatic variables in healthy horses.

ANIMALS
7 healthy adult horses.

PROCEDURE
Clinical signs and results of CBC, serum biochemical analyses, and coagulation testing including template bleeding time (TBT) and activated clotting time (ACT) were compared in horses given a dose of 0.37% formaldehyde or lactated Ringer's solution (LRS), IV, in a 2-way crossover design. In a subsequent experiment, horses received an infusion of 0.74% formaldehyde or LRS. In another experiment, horses were treated with aspirin to impair platelet responses prior to infusion of formaldehyde or LRS.

RESULTS
Significant differences were not detected in any variable measured between horses when given formaldehyde or any other treatment. Infusion of higher doses of formaldehyde resulted in adverse effects including muscle fasciculations, tachycardia, tachypnea, serous ocular and nasal discharge, agitation, and restlessness.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Intravenous infusion of formaldehyde at doses that do not induce adverse reactions did not have a detectable effect on measured hemostatic variables in healthy horses.


The present study investigates the potential of the Largest Lyapunov Exponent (LLE) for the quantification of AF complexity as a marker of antitachycardia pacing (ATP) effectiveness in a biophysical model of the human atria. From ongoing simulated atrial fibrillation, 20 transmembrane potential maps were used as initial conditions for a rapid pacing from the septum area (at pacing cycle length as a percentage of the AF cycle length). The LLE was separately computed during AF and ATP for the transmembrane potential time series recorded at a single site in the right atrial posterior wall. The averaged results over all 20 simulations show that the LLE decreases during ATP relative to AF. These results suggest that LLE may serve as an indicator of AF complexity and also as a discriminating metric in automatic assessment of AF capture during ATP.


Crowdsourced data are now seen as a potential source of high-resolution observations in the atmospheric sciences. In this paper we investigate a potential data source, wind observations obtained using anemometers connected to handheld smartphones. The aim of this paper is twofold: to assess the quality of raw and height-extrapolated wind measurements from the handheld anemometer against professional-grade surface synoptic observation (SYNOP) stations, and to use these data of opportunity to infer a more accurate estimation of terrain roughness lengths. Roughness lengths are essential in numerical weather prediction; however, they are often poorly determined. Roughness lengths are also necessary when correcting near-surface wind observations for height offsets. For the analysis we performed a series of field experiments measuring wind profiles using handheld anemometers at roughly 2 m above ground. These raw measurements were then extrapolated to 10-m height using roughness lengths from three different sources. The extrapolation enabled us to compare the quality of roughness lengths estimated from smartphone measurements with those from traditional sources, as well as to assess the quality of these wind measurements against the professional-grade stations. We find that the handheld wind measurements are comparable in quality to wind measurements from SYNOP stations at 10-m height and that for some cases the handheld measurements can be more representative than SYNOP stations only about a kilometer away. To determine the roughness lengths, we examine a method that is based on the turbulent intensity derived from the high-frequency signal of the smartphone wind measurements. Under certain circumstances, the roughness lengths obtained with the approach presented here are superior to traditional sources.


Engineers and researchers have devotedly sought to improve and develop the design of lower limb orthosis in the last few decades to enhance the mobility, strength, and endurance of impaired individuals. The achievements in design are impressive, but a myriad of design challenges are still appended in making these designs biomechanically user-friendly and commercially viable. Individuals with weak quadriceps have limited orthotic option to allow independent ambulation. Knee–ankle–foot orthosis (KAFO) are typically prescribed. KAFOs lock the knee in full extension to provide knee stability during walking and keep locked throughout the gait cycle. Locked knee in the swing phase leads to an abnormal gait pattern and causes hip hiking of the braced leg, circumduction and contralateral foot vaulting. Stance control orthosis is designed to release the knee during the swing phase to allow free knee motion and keep the knee locked in full extension during stance. The gait pattern of users then becomes more natural by overcoming the limitations of KAFO. This article analyses designs of various stance control orthosis and prototype with electromechanical actuation mechanism and discusses the design challenges.


This paper investigates the use of statistical linearization to improve iterative non-linear least squares estimators. In particular, we look at improving long range stereo by filtering feature tracks from sequences of stereo pairs. A novel filter called the Iterated Sigma Point Kalman Filter (ISPKF) is developed from first principles; this filter is shown to achieve superior performance in terms of efficiency and accuracy when compared to the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), and Gauss-Newton filter. We also compare the ISPKF to the optimal Batch filter and to a Gauss-Newton Smoothing filter. For the long range stereo problem the ISPKF comes closest to matching the performance of the full batch MLE estimator. Further, the ISPKF is demonstrated on real data in the context of modeling environment structure from long range stereo data.


This paper investigates the impact of unemployment on the propensity to start a family. Unemployment is accompanied by bad occupational prospects and impending economic deprivation, placing the well-being of a future family at risk. I analyze unemployment at the intersection of state-dependence and the reduced opportunity costs of parenthood, distinguishing between men and women across a set of welfare states. Using micro-data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), I apply event history methods to analyze longitudinal samples of first-birth transitions in France, Finland, Germany, and the UK (1994-2001). The results highlight spurious negative effects of unemployment on family formation among men, which can be attributed to the lack of breadwinner capabilities in the inability to financially support a family. Women, in contrast, show positive effects of unemployment on the propensity to have a first child in all countries except France. These effects prevail even after controlling for labour market and income-related factors. The findings are pronounced in Germany and the UK where work-family conflicts are the cause of high opportunity costs of motherhood, and the gender-specific division of labour is still highly traditional. Particularly among women with a moderate and low level of education, unemployment clearly increases the likelihood to have a first child.


Drawing on explanatory pluralism this cross-disciplinary theoretical study asks whether excessive compulsive online gaming can be called an addiction on the basis of what is known about the disorder. This article discusses the concept of addiction; the social seating of the problems and it reviews, recent scientific literature on criteria used for diagnosing addictions. In addition, contributions by brain science are discussed. The study unfolds different dimensions of the problem and concludes by stating that research indicate that there indeed seems to be a type of problematic online gaming behavior, which bears similarities to such an extent with the essence of the concept and the phenomenon of addiction that it can beneficially lend itself and be compared to it. The authors suggest that this behavioral addiction may differ from drug addictions in magnitude, but not in kind. In addition, the authors find a possible solution for conceptualizing behavioral addictions by a general de-medicalization of the concept of addiction.


This paper concerns the Stokes flow of an incompressible viscous fluid past a swarm of porous nanocylindrical particles enclosing a solid cylindrical core with Kuwabara boundary condition. An aggregate of porous nanocylindrical particles is considered as a hydro-dynamically equivalent to a solid cylindrical core with concentric porous cylindrical shell. The Brinkman equation inside the porous cylindrical shell and the Stokes equation outside the porous cylindrical shell in their stream function formulations are used. Explicit expressions for the stream functions in both regions have been investigated. The drag force acting at each nanoporous cylindrical particle in a cell is evaluated. Also, we solved the same problem by using Happel boundary condition on the hypothetical cell. In certain limiting cases, drag force converges to pre-existing analytical results, such as the drag on a porous circular cylinder and the drag on a solid cylinder in Kuwabara's cell or Happel's cell. Representative results are then discussed and compared for both cases and presented in graphical form by using Mathematica software.


In this paper we present the results of two small scale, pilot studies which explore the use of a small hand-held monitor used for measuring the relative levels of the digestive enzyme, Amylase, in the saliva of a population of adolescent children with intellectual disabilities, who experienced a music concert. Our hypothesis was that experiencing the concert would significantly reduce the levels of stress in each individual and thus promote an increased level of wellbeing. The study also focussed on exploring the extent
to which salivary amylase activity (SAA) can be measured and used as an indicator of relative changes in levels of stress and ultimately, to see the extent to which such measurements could give 'voice' to individuals with intellectual disability. In the event, our hypothesis was not supported in that participants did not display decreased levels of SAA to a level of significance. However, further analysis and triangulation of the initial results through the case notes of each individual suggested that in fact the SAA measures were accurate and that the expectation that all participants would respond in an identical fashion, had been un-realistic.


Questions as to the use of pressurized aerosol inhalers were asked of 130 persons presenting for routine pulmonary function studies who had used such a device in the previous year. After spirometry was conducted the subjects used the inhaler; they were unaware that their technique of use was being observed. Only 10.8% performed correctly all 11 maneuvers suggested for the proper use of the inhalers, and 24.7% failed to perform more than 5 satisfactorily. There were significant differences in performance according to referral diagnosis (chronic obstructive lung disease v. asthma) and regularity of use of inhalers.


Since 2007, Solidarites International is actively supporting Burmese refugees living in Mae La temporary Shelters (Thailand – Tak) in order to satisfy their basics needs in terms of Water Hygiene and Sanitation minimum standards. The camp was created in 1984 but the lack of an efficient waste and sludge management system led to the contamination of soils and aquifers. This largely impacted the health of both Burmese displaced people and Thai people in the surrounding villages.
Despite being a context of emergency, Solidarites International chose to implement a combined system of watertight latrines and Sludge Treatment Unit (STU), d. The STU was built in an area close to Mae La camp and transforms sludge into a bio-fertilizer.


Detecting segments of interest from an input sequence is a challenging problem which often requires not only good knowledge of individual target segments, but also contextual understanding of the entire input sequence and the relationships between the target segments. To address this problem, we propose the Sequence-to-Segment Network (S$^2$N), a novel end-to-end sequential encoder-decoder architecture. S$^2$N first encodes the input into a sequence of hidden states that progressively capture both local and holistic information. It then employs a novel decoding architecture, called Segment Detection Unit (SDU), that integrates the decoder state and encoder hidden states to detect segments sequentially. During training, we formulate the assignment of predicted segments to ground truth as bipartite matching and use the Earth Mover's Distance to calculate the localization errors. We experiment with S$^2$N on temporal action proposal generation and video summarization and show that S$^2$N achieves state-of-the-art performance on both tasks.


The reaction of the methylidyne radical (CH) with acetaldehyde (CH(3)CHO) is studied at room temperature and at a pressure of 4 Torr (533.3 Pa) using a multiplexed photoionization mass spectrometer coupled to the tunable vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The CH radicals are generated by 248 nm multiphoton photolysis of CHBr(3) and react with acetaldehyde in an excess of helium and nitrogen gas flow. Five reaction exit channels are observed corresponding to elimination of methylene (CH(2)), elimination of a formyl radical (HCO), elimination of carbon monoxide (CO), elimination of a methyl radical (CH(3)), and elimination of a hydrogen atom. Analysis of the photoionization yields versus photon energy for the reaction of CH and CD radicals with acetaldehyde and CH radical with partially deuterated acetaldehyde (CD(3)CHO) provides fine details about the reaction mechanism. The CH(2) elimination channel is found to preferentially form the acetyl radical by removal of the aldehydic hydrogen. The insertion of the CH radical into a C-H bond of the methyl group of acetaldehyde is likely to lead to a C(3)H(5)O reaction intermediate that can isomerize by β-hydrogen transfer of the aldehydic hydrogen atom and dissociate to form acrolein + H or ketene + CH(3), which are observed directly. Cycloaddition of the radical onto the carbonyl group is likely to lead to the formation of the observed products, methylketene, methyleneoxirane, and acrolein.


In this paper, we propose a new consensus clustering algorithm, which is based on an existing clustering paradigm, called enhanced splitting merging awareness tactics (E-SMART). The problem of determining the number of clusters, which affects many state-of-theart consensus clustering algorithms, is addressed by the proposed CoCE-SMART algorithm. The idea behind CoCE-SMART is that SMART is used repeatedly to one dataset, resulting in different clustering results, which might have different numbers of clusters. These SMART clustering results can be combined by clustering the centroids of all clusters as the estimate of real number of clusters can be determined from the SMART clustering results. Three benchmark datasets are utilised to assess the proposed algorithm. The experimental results strongly indicate that the proposed CoCE-SMART algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art consensus clustering algorithms.


Wind power counts for roughly 3 % of the global electricity production. In the chase to produce greener power, much attention lies on getting more electricity from the wind, extraction of kinetic energy, with help of wind turbines. Wind turbines have been used for electricity production since 1887 and have since then developed into more efficient designs and become significantly bigger and with a higher efficiency.The operational conditions change considerably over the rotor length. Inner sections are typically exposed to more complex operational conditions than the outer sections. However, the outer blade sections have a much larger impact on the power and load generation. Especially here the demand for good aerodynamic performance is large.Airfoils have to be identified and investigated on mid/outer sections of a 7.0 MW rotor with 165 m diameter. Blade performance criteria were determined and investigations like sensitivity analysis were made. With the use of XFLR5 (XFoil) and Qblade, the airfoils were made into a blade and tested with the blade element momentum theory. This simulation gave detailed information regarding performance and operational loads depending on the different airfoils used. These results were then validated in a professional aero-elastic code (Flex5), simulating steady state, turbulent and wind shear conditions.The best airfoils to use from this reports airfoil catalogue are the NACA 63-6XX and NACA 64-6XX. With the implementation of these airfoils, blade design 2 and 3 have a very high performance coefficient compared to large commercial HAWT rotors.


Depth filters used in multistage filter systems adeptly clean the intake air of gas turbines, preventing damage and increasing performance. However, estimation of their service life is based on empirical data and/or standardized testing procedures, e.g., ISO 16890. By applying standardized synthetic test dusts at constant reference humidity, these testing procedures do not reflect application-typical loading conditions. Based on a direct comparison with field data, the influence of temporary exposure to high relative humidity on differential pressure and particle deposit structure is investigated. The results indicate that simulating humidity variations of the ambient atmosphere during filter tests leads to particle deposits, which more accurately reflect the actual behavior during operation.


The lack of cross-border risk sharing in the banking sector, which constitutes the dominant source of funding for European firms and households, is one of the biggest barriers to better integrated financial markets in Europe. In this policy brief, we emphasize the potential of the securitization market for bank-based financial integration. In order to effectively increase cross-border risk sharing through securitization in the EU, we suggest a two-pronged strategy: First, it entails further improving the existing regulatory framework in order to reduce barriers to a thriving securitization market. And second, explicit incentives for risk sharing and securitization in Europe should enter EU regulation and EU programs. Our suggestions are practical in that they build on adaptations of existing regulation and programs instead of devising new ones. Specifically, we make the case for linking the countercyclical capital buffer to a measure of geographic diversification as a way to strengthen incentives for risk sharing. Furthermore, we argue that pertinent changes to the terms and conditions of subsidies to securitized SME loans within the existing SME Initiative will help create cross-border investment opportunities in a strategically import sector of the European economy.


This thesis examines the problem of having an intelligent agent reasoning about interaction with users in real-time decision making environments. Our work is motivated by the models of Fleming and Cheng, which reason about interaction sensitive to both expected quality of decision (following interaction) and cost of bothering users. In particular, we are interested in dynamic, time critical scenarios. This leads first of all to a novel process known as strategy regeneration, whereby the parameter values representing the users and the task at hand are refreshed periodically, in order to make effective decisions about which users to interact with, for the best decision making. We also introduce two new parameters that are modeled: each user's lack of expertise (with the task at hand) and the level of criticality of each task. These factors are then integrated into the process of reasoning about interaction to choose the best overall strategy, deciding which users to ask to resolve the current task. We illustrate the value of our framework for the application of decision making in hospital emergency room scenarios and offer validation of the approach, both through examples and from simulations. To sum up, we provide a framework for reasoning about interaction with users through user modeling for dynamic environments. In addition, we present some insights into how to improve the process of hospital emergency room decision making.