This study tests two opposing views of institutional investors – monitoring versus expropriation – by investigating whether institutional ownership is positively or negatively related to future firm-specific stock price crash risk. We present robust evidence that institutional ownership is positively associated with future stock price crash risk. After further classifying institutional investors into transient, dedicated, and quasi-indexer types, we show that the overall positive relation between institutional ownership and future stock price crash risk is driven primarily by transient institutions, with dedicated institutions serving a monitoring role in reducing future stock price crash risk. We also find that institutional ownership by public pension funds (bank trusts, investment companies, and independent investment advisors) is significantly negatively (positively) associated with future crash risk. We also find that opaque financial reporting exacerbates the impact of institutional investors on future stock price crash risk. The findings in this study are shown inter alia to be robust to endogeneity concerns and alternative institutional investment metrics.


Recent advances in high dynamic range (HDR) capturing and display technologies attracted a lot of interest to HDR imaging. Many issues that are considered as being resolved for conventional low dynamic range (LDR) images pose new challenges in HDR context. One of such issues is human visual attention, which has important applications in image and video compression, camera and displays manufacturing, artistic content creation, and advertisement. However, the impact of HDR imaging on visual attention and on the performance of saliency models is not well understood. Therefore, in this paper, we address this problem by creating a publicly available dataset of 46 HDR and corresponding LDR images with varying regions of interests, scenes, and dynamic range. We conducted eye tracking experiments and obtained fixation density maps, which demonstrate a significant difference in the way HDR and LDR capture attention of the observers.


In his latest Commentary, Daniel Gros raises the fundamental question of what would happen if the proposed €45 billion aid package can't bring the Greek tragedy to a happy ending. While acknowledging that the Greek economy would collapse, he finds that the impact on the rest of the single currency zone should be minor and that the institutions of the euro area would probably be strengthened as a result of increase intolerance towards deficit violations and reduced inaccurate reporting.


Purpose We analyzed the responses of patients with locally advanced breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and NAC combined with neoadjuvant human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) targeted therapy (NCHTT). Methods We retrospectively reviewed 59 patients with HER2 amplified locally advanced breast cancer among patients who were treated surgically after neoadjuvant therapy at Samsung Medical Center between 2005 and 2009. Thirty-one patients received conventional NAC and 28 patients received NCHTT. Pathologic responses were assessed according to response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) guidelines. Results Pathologic complete response (pCR) was achieved in 13 out of 28 patients treated with NCHTT and in 6 out of 31 patients treated with NAC alone (46.4% vs. 19.4%, respectively, P = 0.049). Breast conserving surgery (BCS) was more frequently performed in the NCHTT group than in the NAC only group (71.4% vs. 19.4%, P < 0.001). The 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate was 100% in the NCHTT group and 76.4% in the NAC group (P = 0.014). Together, NCHTT, type of operation (BCS vs. mastectomy) and pathologic nodal status were significant prognostic factors for RFS in univariate analysis. Conclusion We found that NCHTT produced higher pCR rates than NAC alone in locally advanced breast cancer.


Objectives The Arabian Gulf region has limited epidemiological data related to sexually transmitted infections. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among general population women in Doha, Qatar. Methods Endocervical swabs were collected from healthy women attending primary healthcare centres in Doha, June–December 2008. The specimens were tested for C trachomatis by a commercially available PCR-based assay. Data on basic socio-demographic characteristics, medical history and sexual behaviour were obtained using self-administered questionnaires. The prevalence of C trachomatis and of background variables were stratified by nationality, Qatari nationals versus non-Qatari residents. Results A total of 377 women were enrolled in the study, out of whom 351 (37.9% Qataris, 62.1% non-Qataris) were tested for the presence of C trachomatis in their specimens. The mean age of participants was 41.2 years, and the vast majority (93%, 95% CI 90.3 to 95.7) were married. The mean age at sexual debut was significantly lower among Qatari women compared with non-Qatari women (19.2 vs 22.2 years, respectively p<0.001), but the mean number of reported lifetime sexual partners (1.1 partner) was nearly the same in both groups (p=0.110). The prevalence of C trachomatis infection was 5.3% among Qatari women and 5.5% among non-Qatari women, with no statistically significant difference between both groups (p=0.923). Conclusions The prevalence of C trachomatis among women was higher than expected, with no significant difference between Qatari nationals and expatriate residents. The higher prevalence may reflect, in part, the limited access to and use of chlamydia screening and management.


This article presents EXE, an effective bug-finding tool that automatically generates inputs that crash real code. Instead of running code on manually or randomly constructed input, EXE runs it on symbolic input initially allowed to be anything. As checked code runs, EXE tracks the constraints on each symbolic (i.e., input-derived) memory location. If a statement uses a symbolic value, EXE does not run it, but instead adds it as an input-constraint; all other statements run as usual. If code conditionally checks a symbolic expression, EXE forks execution, constraining the expression to be true on the true branch and false on the other. Because EXE reasons about all possible values on a path, it has much more power than a traditional runtime tool: (1) it can force execution down any feasible program path and (2) at dangerous operations (e.g., a pointer dereference), it detects if the current path constraints allow any value that causes a bug. When a path terminates or hits a bug, EXE automatically generates a test case by solving the current path constraints to find concrete values using its own co-designed constraint solver, STP. Because EXE's constraints have no approximations, feeding this concrete input to an uninstrumented version of the checked code will cause it to follow the same path and hit the same bug (assuming deterministic code).
 EXE works well on real code, finding bugs along with inputs that trigger them in: the BSD and Linux packet filter implementations, the dhcpd DHCP server, the pcre regular expression library, and three Linux file systems.


The paper studies how high leverage and crises can arise as a result of changes in the income distribution. Empirically, the periods 1920-1929 and 1983-2007 both exhibited a large increase in the income share of the rich, a large increase in leverage for the remainder, and an eventual financial and real crisis. The paper presents a theoretical model where these features arise endogenously as a result of a shift in bargaining powers over incomes. A financial crisis can reduce leverage if it is very large and not accompanied by a real contraction. But restoration of the lower income group's bargaining power is more effective.


We report on recent results on the spectral statistics of the discrete Anderson model in the localized phase. Our results show, in particular, that, for the discrete Anderson Hamiltonian with smoothly distributed random potential at sufficiently large coupling, the limit of the level spacing distribution is that of i.i.d. random variables distributed according to the density of states of the random Hamiltonian. This text is a contribution to the proceedings of the conference "Spectra of Random Operators and Related Topics" held at Kyoto University, 02-04/12/09 organized by N. Minami and N. Ueki.


The goal of this document is to provide a comparative analysis of the motivating drivers and strategies behind the internationalization strategies of Global Latinas operating in a diverse range of sectors. This document seeks to answer three main questions: first, about what lies behind the emergence of Global Latinas?; second, about which internationalization strategies?; and third, about which are the unique characteristics that differentiate these firms from multinational corporations from developed economies?


We consider stochastic dynamical systems defined on networks that exhibit the phenomenon of collective metastability—by this we mean network dynamics where none of the individual nodes' dynamics are metastable, but the configuration is metastable in its collective behavior. We will concentrate on the case of SDE with small white noise for concreteness. We also present some specific results relating to stochastic perturbations of the Kuramoto system of coupled nonlinear oscillators. Along the way, we show that there is a nonstandard spectral problem that appears in all of these calculations, and that the important features of this spectral problem is related to a certain homology group.


Based on a number of studies carried out; it has been identified that Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) systems are widely used as one of the preferred low carbon technologies in the UK. The use of these systems is due to their economic advantages and potential reduction of carbon footprint. However, a number of the studies have highlighted that the systems are either installed incorrectly or operated and controlled improperly and therefore result in poor performance. GSHP performance is affected by the temperature of the ground and when thermally saturated its efficiency reduces significantly. This paper investigates the potential to reduce the level of thermal saturation by rejecting heat via a Dry Air Cooler (DAC) when the ground and ambient temperatures favour this. DACs are often fitted to GSHP systems to reject heat during extreme conditions to protect the system, rather than improve performance. In this investigation, an empirical Transient System Simulation (TRNSYS) model has been developed and used to investigate the control algorithms so as to identify the optimal operation and control strategies for DAGS system for enhancing the system efficiency. Specifically, the paper investigates the effect of using a DAC in conjunction with a GSHP system. This includes investigating the (i) energy input into the GSHP system, (ii) ground temperatures and (iii) Coefficient of Performance (COP). The results show significant savings can be achieved.


One of the most important questions in corporate governance is how directors of public corporations can be motivated to serve the interests of the firm. Directors frequently hold only small stakes in the companies they manage. Moreover, a variety of legal rules and contractual arrangements insulate them from liability for business failures. Why then should we expect them to do a good job? Conventional corporate scholarship has great difficulty wrestling with this question, in large part because conventional scholarship usually adopts the economist's assumption that directors are rational actors motivated purely by self-interest. This homo economicus model of behavior may be fundamentally misleading when applied to corporate directors. The institution of the corporate board is premised on the expectation, and the experience, of director altruism, in the form of a sense of obligation to the firm and its shareholders. As a result, to properly understand the role and conduct of corporate directors, we must take into account the empirical phenomenon of altruism. One potential starting point for such a project can be found in the extensive evidence that has been developed over the past four decades on altruism among strangers in experimental games. This evidence demonstrates that altruistic behavior is in fact quite common. More important, it is predictable. A variety of factors can reliably increase, or decrease, the incidence of altruism observed in experimental games. These results may offer a foundation for building a model of human behavior that is both more accurate and more useful than the homo economicus model. They also carry important implications for how we select, educate, regulate, and compensate corporate directors.


Gilbert, James. Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 279 pp. $39. Like Tom Pendergast's Creating the Modern Man: American Magazines and Consumer Culture, 1900-1950, this book, by a University of Maryland history professor, tells us a great deal about die history of masculinity based on how it was constructed mosdy in a period's mass media. But while Pendergast only wrote about magazines, James Gilbert uses a series of case studies about major books, various magazine articles and one magazine {Playboy), the Rev. Billy Graham (seen on television and covered by news media), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (a play and a movie), "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (entertainment television), and others to illustrate masculinity issues in the 1950s and Gilbert's arguments about them. The book's stated purpose is to disprove a claimed widespread or deep-seated masculinity "panic" or "crisis" in the 1950s. A secondary purpose, which is most obvious in its second chapter and conclusion (called "Getting Used to Women"), is diat U.S. male anxiety is perpetual, not only predating the 1 950s but continuing until today and being manifested by Robert BIy and die mythopoetic men's movement, die Promise Keepers, the Million Man March, and so on. Other historians, meanwhile, have written extensively about the emasculating effects of the Industrial Revolution generally. That men in the 1950s weren't literally in a panic or crisis - those words suggest such things as fingernail chewing, chainsmoking, and the inability to concentrate with a lot of evening booze to try to prevent insomnnia - is relatively easy for Gilbert to demonstrate. But the book is necessary because the 1950s male panic thesis has been often argued and is too widely accepted even though it's obvious that historians heavily influenced by Freud use "panic" obliviously and not like the rest of us. The Introduction sets up the "panic" problem, followed by chapters on the history of supposed American masculinity crises; David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd; various other books and articles; Alfred Kinsey and his male sexuality study; the Rev. Billy Graham; television's Nelsons; and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Gilbert's ninth chapter, 'The Gender of High Culture," partially connects the dots between anti-intellectualism (but omits historian Richard Hofstadter), high culture, intellectuals, and masculinity and suggests why top sociologists, among others, wrote so many books about men supposedly panicking in die 1 950s. …


Web-based instruction (WBI), including both online courses and online degree programs, offer flexibility to students and instructors and are now typical in higher education programs. Researchers compared WBI to traditional instruction for teaching undergraduate students about students with disabilities. Forty-four students participated in this study. Half were enrolled in the Web-based section of the course; half were enrolled in the traditional section. Researchers measured students' achievement and opinions. For pretest and posttest scores, significant differences were found within groups; no significant differences were found between groups. Results indicated that the two groups of students began the course with similar knowledge and completed the course with similar knowledge gains. No significant differences in opinions were found between the two groups. Findings indicated that WBI is effective for disseminating special education course content to preservice teachers.


Plants are subjected to a variety of environmental stresses, which reduces and limits agricultural crop productivity. Environmental stresses that affect plants are of two types: biotic and abiotic stresses. Abiotic stress includes temperature, ultraviolet radiation, salinity, floods, drought, heavy metals, etc., which results in the loss of important crop plants globally, while biotic stress refers to damage caused by insects, herbivores, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, or weeds. Plants respond to all these environmental factors because the pants are fixed in a particular place. To cope with these stresses, a number of strategies have been developed by plants. They detect that the environmental stresses become activated and then generate the necessary cellular responses. Several investigations have been carried out to determine and understand plant assimilates partitioning and stress-tolerance plant genotype necessary for the understanding of the complexity of the response of a plant to biotic and abiotic stresses.


A series of pulsed laser polymerisation (PLP) experiments in conjunction with size exclusion chromatography (SEC) was carried out to investigate the effect of Lewis acids AlCl3 and ZnCl2 on the propagation rate constants at a variety of conditions. The Arrhenius parameters were obtained from kinetics data over a temperature range of ∼0–60 °C at 5 mol% Lewis acid loading in bulk methyl methacrylate (MMA). The results showed that the Lewis acids are excellent propagation catalysts with catalysis increasing with the charge on the metal ion. The Lewis acids AlCl3 and ZnCl2 enhanced the propagation rate by around 80% and 40% respectively at 5 mol% loading, reducing the activation energy for the propagation step by 5.8 kJ mol−1 and 2.2 kJ mol−1. Propagation rate coefficient enhancements of up to 100% were obtained when AlCl3 was used at a loading of 10 mol%. The presence of Lewis acid also affects the radical initiation process by complexing with the photoinitiator. This results in both catalysis of initiation and increased triplet lifetimes. These problems could be overcome through optimization of the initiator concentration and laser flashing rate to ensure that IUPAC quality criteria for PLP are met. Despite its strong influence to the kinetics of free radical polymerisation, limited evidence of stereocontrol was observed for both Lewis acids.


Modern-day shareholders influence corporate America more than ever before. From demanding greater accountability of executives to lobbying for a variety of social and environmental policies, shareholders today have the power to alter how American companies are run. Amazingly, a small group of individual shareholders wields unprecedented power to set corporate agendas and stands at the epicenter of our contemporary corporate governance ecosystem. In fact, the power of these individuals, known as "corporate gadflies," continues to rise.

Corporate gadflies present a puzzling reality. Although public corporations in the United States are increasingly owned by large institutional investors, much of their corporate governance agenda has been and is still dominated by a handful of individuals who own tiny slivers of most large companies. How does an economy with corporate equity in the trillions of dollars cede so such governance power to corporate gadflies? More importantly, should it? Surprisingly, scholars have paid little attention to the role of corporate gadflies in this ever-changing governance landscape.

This Article is the first to address the giant shadow that corporate gadflies cast on the corporate governance landscape in the United States. The Article makes three contributions to the literature. First, using a comprehensive dataset of all shareholder proposals submitted to the S&P 1500 companies from 2005 to 2018, it offers a detailed empirical account of both the growing power and influence that corporate gadflies wield over major corporate issues and of gadflies' power to set governance agendas. Second, the Article uses the context of corporate gadflies to elucidate a key governance debate over the role of large institutional investors in corporate governance. Specifically, the Article underscores the potential concerns raised by the activity of corporate gadflies and questions the current deference of institutional investors to these gadflies regarding the submission of shareholder proposals. Finally, the Article proposes policy reforms aimed at reframing the current discourse on shareholder proposals and potentially sparking a new line of inquiry regarding the role of investors in corporate governance.


This is a generic annotated data management plan (DMP) template for use in applications to funders other than RCUK, Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK. This may also be used when the funder does not require a data sharing plan to be submitted or for unfunded projects.This document (available in .pdf and .docx formats) was created using the DMPonline tool, which provides templates for structuring major research funders' DMPs. The document includes the guidance text provided in the tool, produced by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) and the University of Sheffield Library.Many research funders and organisations require DMPs, both during the bid-preparation stage and after funding has been secured. A DMP describes how you will collect, organise, manage, store, secure, backup, preserve, and where applicable, share your data. Each funder has slightly different guidelines and template structure, but the resulting DMP is generally expected to be two or three A4 pages in length. For further guidance see the DCC webpages on Data management Plans and How to Develop a Data Management and Sharing Plan. Check your funder's data sharing policy also.


The development of targeted therapy has promised a new era in cancer therapy by improving response rates and fewer side effects of the therapeutics on normal cells. As the involvement of EGFR was noticed in several epithelial tumors, this receptor was identified as a target for cancer therapy already in 1983. However, EGFR inhibition seems to have its own class of side effects such as skin toxicity and diarrhea. These side effects remarkably occur only in a subgroup of patients with remarkable severity. Interestingly, the occurrence of skin toxicity was in almost all studies correlated with drug response and survival rate in treated patients. In this study we aimed to analyze the genetic variations in EGFR signaling pathway in patients receiving EGFR inhibition therapy using a deep sequencing method. If variants could be identified which significantly predicted skin toxicity, analysis for such variants would be used as biomarkers for individual drug dosing. In addition, the relationship between variants and phenotypes might contribute to our understanding of the skin rash with EGFR inhibition therapy.
Thirty genes reflecting the EGFR downstream pathway (PI3K/Akt and Ras/MAPK) and other genes involved such as IL8 and its receptors were targeted for resequencing. The whole EGFR gene along with 2000 bp of its promoter region was one of the targets. The total size of the re-sequenced EGFR gene was 196300 base pairs. For the remaining 29 other genes involved or presumed to be involved in rash physiopathology, the exons along with about 500 bp of the respective promoter regions were selected. We studied DNA samples from 126 patients who had been treated with EGFR inhibitors and in whom the adverse effects were characterized in detail. Before deep sequencing analysis was performed, three major steps: library preparation, target enrichment and template preparation were performed. Deep sequencing was executed using Ion Torrent Personal Genomics Machine TM (PGM). Variant calling was done by Torrent Variant Caller software. Statistical analysis was performed to survey the association of the identified variants with skin toxicity, diarrhea and overall survival.
Total 1437 single nucleotide variations were identified. These variations were present in more than 50% of subjects. From all variants found, 45% had less than 1% minor allele frequency and 65% of the variations had less than 5% minor allele frequency. Average minor allele frequency was 8.79% in this study. Three hundred and seventeen SNPs (22%) were not listed in the dbSNP 138. Three SNPs in intron 1 of EGFR were found to be strongly associated with the presence of rash. Intron 1 of EGFR was already shown earlier to be an important regulatory region for EGFR transcription. Furthermore, an ERK2 variation was found to be associated with high levels of skin rash. Pathway-based analysis of rare variations suggested the PI3K pathway to be involved in rash etiology. In addition to this finding, rs3730089 in PIK3R1 was found to have an association with skin rash and also a trend towards the better survival was found in patients having this variation. These two findings suggest the involvement of PIK3R1 in EGFR inhibitor induced skin toxicity.
A number of deleterious variations in EGFR pathway were announced for the first time including EGFR P560T, MTOR R2152H, and MAPK1 D336S which can be causal rare variations in cancer pathology. Previously reported biomarker candidate variations for EGFR inhibition related skin toxicity such as intron 1 CA repeat, -216G/T, and -190C/A were not studied and the rs2227983 single amino acid substitution was not significantly associated with skin toxicity.


Phosphoprotein P0 is a highly conserved ribosomal protein that forms the central scaffold of the large ribosomal subunit's "stalk complex", which is necessary for recruiting protein elongation factors to the ribosome. Evidence in the literature suggests that P0 may be involved in diseases such as malaria and systemic lupus erythematosus. We are interested in the possibility that the P0 of the "ciliated protozoa" Tetrahymena thermophila may be useful as a model system for vaccine research and drug development. In addition, the P0s of T. thermophila and other ciliated protozoans contain a 15 to 17 amino acid long insert, unique to the N-terminal region. This project sought to further characterize the T. thermophila P0 (TtP0) and its unique insert through structural and functional bioinformatics studies. In order to visualize the three-dimensional structure of TtP0, we created a homology model of the N-terminal region of TtP0 and its insert from available P0 structure and sequence data. When the insert was modeled "in-context" in the presence of a previously published crystal structure of the T. thermophila ribosomal RNA, we discovered a surprising association between the insert and a highly variable portion of the rRNA, termed expansion segment 7, or ES7. When we investigated if this association could occur in other ciliates, we found very little data for the ES7 sequence in other species, meaning that further analysis on the conservation of this association is not possible at this time. Still, the presence of an association in T. thermophila may indicate that the insert has a functional role unique to the ciliates, perhaps in the regulation of P0 function by phosphorylation. In addition, we also investigated whether the highly conserved nature of P0 meant that it could be useful for phylogenetic and evolutionary studies. By studying P0 sequences from ciliates and other closely related clades, we could determine if P0 provides any information on the early evolution of eukaryotic species. We collected P0 sequences representing all of the eukaryotic supergroups, and used them to create phylogenetic alignments and trees based on the whole molecules, as well as the individual functional domains. Overall, we found that the trees did not resolve very well at the basal branches, but terminal branches had much stronger support. The trees also successfully separated the ciliate P0 sequences into groups matching the previously established taxonomy for the ciliates. Finally, we found evidence that the N-terminal domain of P0, called the L10 region, is much more evolutionarily stable than the C-terminal 60S region. Thus, the variability of the 60S region appears to contribute to the diversity of ciliate and eukaryotic P0 sequences. Once additional P0 sequences become available for underrepresented clades, they could be used to provide stronger support for the weaker branches of the tree. Both studies provide a starting framework for further computational-based work on P0, such as homology modeling of P0s from other ciliates or simulations of insert phosphorylation. These studies may also serve as a starting point for in vitro or in vivo experiments on the protein and its ciliate-specific insert.


This report describes a general framework for and approach to assessing the vulnerability of forest-based communities to climate change and the potentially increased risks associated with such change. Communities that face relatively high levels of exposure to climate change and that are highly sensitive to changes in the composition and productivity of forests and to changes in forest disturbances (e.g., wildfire), or that have relatively low adaptive capacity (because of factors such as individual immobility, low economic diversity, remoteness, or lack of autonomy) will be vulnerable to climate change. This report identifies specific elements that should be considered in assessing vulnerability and outlines a series of steps that researchers or a community itself may follow to systematically determine sources of vulnerability to climate change. The first phase is to engage the community, develop a context for assessment, and obtain data on past and current climate and future climate scenarios. The second phase is to interpret what the anticipated climate changes may mean in terms of the surrounding forests and to determine the resulting social and economic impacts, including changes in local timber supply; employment and income effects; increases in the risk of wildfire; changes in the economic viability of local firms (because of structural change in global markets); changes in forest health, wildlife, fisheries, forest esthetics, water quality and quantity, traditional and cultural activities, and outdoor recreation opportunities; and increases in instability, volatility, and uncertainty in the local economy. The third phase is to measure the local capacity for adaptation. Many factors affect adaptive capacity, including wealth, mobility, education, social networks, trust, institutions, risk perceptions, and natural resource endowments. An important consideration is that the capacity to adapt exists both as a property of individual households and firms and as a general property of the community and the local economy. Therefore, an accurate portrayal of adaptive capacity requires measurement at different levels of aggregation. Adaptive capacity may also vary depending on whether it is assessed over the short term (where assets are fixed) or over the long term (where assets are variable). The framework presented in this document is a tool that communities can use to gather information that will help them identify where they are most vulnerable to climate change.


Bed sediment samples were collected along the 9.5 km long inlet channel of Chilika lagoon, east coast of India during low freshwater discharge and low rainfall condition. Distributions of bed sediment along with its texture were studied in detail. Bivariate plots between mean, sorting, skewness and kurtosis of sediments revealed definite grouping pattern. The study, through C-M plot, indicates that the prime factors for transportation of sediment within inlet channel of Chilika lagoon are rolling and bottom suspension during period of low discharge and low rainfall (November-June). Sustainable conservation and management of wetlands require information on its past, present and future.


We present the first near-IR milli-arcsecond-scale image of a post-AGB binary that is surrounded by hot circumbinary dust. A very rich interferometric data set in six spectral channels was acquired of IRAS08544-4431 with the new RAPID camera on the PIONIER beam combiner at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). A broadband image in the \textit{H} band was reconstructed by combining the data of all spectral channels using the SPARCO method. We spatially separate all the building blocks of the IRAS08544-4431 system in our milliarcsecond-resolution image. Our dissection reveals a dust sublimation front that is strikingly similar to that expected in early-stage protoplanetary disks, as well as an unexpected flux signal of $\sim$4\% from the secondary star. The energy output from this companion indicates the presence of a compact circum-companion accretion disk, which is likely the origin of the fast outflow detected in H$\alpha$. Our image provides the most detailed view into the heart of a dusty circumstellar disk to date. Our results demonstrate that binary evolution processes and circumstellar disk evolution can be studied in detail in space and over time.


Children are an essential but often overlooked bounty in the regulation of race, culture, and rights. This oversight is surprising given that children are both primary receivers and transmitters of race, ethnicity, culture, language, and values; and that the constitutional civil right to family autonomy recognizes the importance of children in the creation and perpetuation of moral values and, ultimately, to a diverse and critical polity. In light of the important social and political roles of children, the power of mothers to be recognized as mothers is crucial not only for hedonic and creative purposes but for the very perpetuation of culture. Nevertheless, we have in this country a long and continuing history of constructing the ideal of "mother" according to skin color, religion, culture, national origin, language, ethnicity, class, and marital status. Families headed by mothers who do not meet these norms are most vulnerable to coercive state intervention and regulation through the child welfare system. This intervention is in practice - and in theory - state-oriented, normative, and often punitive. Women who are compliant, English-speaking, not ethnically diverse, White, and middle class are most successful in the child welfare system; those who diverge from these norms are most likely to lose their motherhood. This Article illustrates an intersection of Latino families with the child welfare system and highlights the importance and vulnerability of language in this system. The article first rehearses the history and role of the child welfare system in the battle for racial, cultural, and political supremacy in this country. The article next discusses how this struggle relates to Latino families, illuminating the struggle through a brief case study of Maria, a Spanish-speaking grandmother of a child involved in the child welfare system in Las Vegas, Nevada, where approximately a quarter of the population is Latino. The article concludes with some lessons the case study illustrates about the child welfare system.


In recent decades, American courts have held that public hate speech, such as the Nazi march in Skokie, must be protected under the First Amendment because there is no principled way to distinguish that speech from other forms of political expression. Many American constitutional scholars take the same view. In this essay, which is a contribution to an international symposium on Extreme Speech and Democracy, I offer an alternative understanding of hate speech, public discourse, and freedom of expression. In Part I, I outline a general theory of the First Amendment. On this view, free speech is rooted in respect for the autonomy and dignity of human beings. But the same values that justify freedom of speech also give rise to other fundamental rights which are entitled to protection under the law. Speech that infringes these rights may be regulated by narrowly drawn laws, except in situations where the value of the speech is sufficient to justify the injuries it causes. Part II applies this approach to political hate speech like the Nazi march. I begin by arguing that this form of speech invades its targets' rights to personal security, personality, citizenship, and equality. The crucial question then becomes whether this form of speech nevertheless should be protected because of its political character. The answer to this question turns on our conception of political speech. After criticizing two of the leading theories in this area - Justice Holmes's vision of the marketplace of ideas and Robert C. Post's theory of public discourse - I argue that political speech is best understood as discourse among individuals who recognize one another as free and equal persons and members of the political community - a view that derives support from classic theorists such as Locke and Hegel as well as from contemporary theorists such as Meiklejohn and Habermas. By denying recognition to its targets, political hate speech violates the fundamental ground rules that should govern political debate. For these reasons, I contend that, in principle, this form of speech should not receive constitutional protection. Interpreting the First Amendment in this way would not only allow American law to reconcile the competing demands of free speech and human dignity, it would also bring that law into harmony with the approach to political hate speech that is taken by many other liberal democratic nations and the international community.


In Of Gardens and Graves Suvir Kaul examines the disruption of everyday life in Kashmir in the years following the region's pervasive militarization in 1990. Kaul's autobiographical and analytical essays, which were prompted by his yearly visits to Kashmir, are a combination of political analysis, literary criticism, memoir, and journalistic observation. In them he explores Kashmir's pre- and post-Partition history, the effects of militarization, state repression, the suspension of civil rights on Kashmiris, and the challenge Kashmir represents to the practice of democracy in India. The volume also features translations of Kashmiri poetry written in these years of conflict. These poems constitute an archive of heightened feelings and desires that affectively interrogate official accounts of Kashmir while telling us much about those who face extraordinary political turbulence and violence. Of Gardens and Graves also contains a photo essay by Javed Dar, whose photographs work together with Kaul's essays and the poems to represent the interweaving of ordinary life, civic strife, and spectacular violence in Kashmir.


The research was carried out to determine the growth differences of rainbow trout in freshwater and seawater. Totally 480 individuals with initial mean weights of 88.08±0.91 g and 85.58±1.15 g were used in the experiment which was car- ried out in a freshwater facility of a commercial trout farm and the sea farm of Sinop Fisheries Faculty of the University of Ondokuz Mayis. The experiment was conducted for 90 days. At the end of the experiment, rainbow trouts grown in freshwater and seawater, reached final average weights of 295.56±5.65 g and 388.41±8.12 g and the daily growth rates were found as 2.61% and 3.37%, respectively. In spite of the lower temperature in seawater (6.9˚C in averange at the sea site while 8.4˚C at the freshwater site), the growth of fish reared in seawater was about 46% superior (1.46 times) to that of their contemporaries at the freshwater site. Consequently, it has been concluded that breeding of rainbow trout in sea cages is more advantageous than in freshwater facilities.


Detailed analysis on the tunable reflection based on electromagnetically induced transparency is presented. We adopt the configuration of a four-level atom driven by a bichromatic standing wave. The Maxwell–Liouville equations for the steady state are employed to describe the mechanics of the system and numerically solved using the parameters of Rb87 in a magneto-optical trap. The analytic solutions are also obtained, which lead to the conditions for getting the higher reflectivity. Theoretically, under such conditions, the reflectivity could be arranged as high as 90% with the coherence decay rate already considered. The controllability of the reflectivity provided by adjusting the intensities and detunings of the coupling fields (the two components of the bichromatic standing wave) is investigated as well. The result shows that the two coupling fields can impact the reflectivity differently. Such a feature allows us to control the reflectivity more flexibly.


A gel-polymer electrolyte (GPE) based on a zinc salt is prepared and investigated for possible applications in a rechargeable solid-state zinc battery. The GPE consists of polyacrylonitrile, propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, and zinc trifluoromethane sulfonate (zinc triflate, ZnTf). The composition of the GPE is optimized to contain minimum liquid constituents required for the gel formation with maximum specific conductivity $({\sigma} = 2.67\times10^{–3}\hspace{2mm}S\hspace{2mm}cm^{–1}\hspace{2mm}at\hspace{2mm} 27^o{C})$. The specific conductivity $(\sigma)$ variation with temperature follows an Arrhenius behavior with activation energies in the range of 0.12-0.31 eV for different compositions of the gel. Evidence from ac impedance and cyclic voltammetric studies using Zn/GPE/Zn cell indicate reversibility of $Zn/Zn^{2+}$ couple at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Temperature and time-dependent studies have been carried out to probe the interfacial behavior. Equivalent circuit analysis has been carried out to determine the values of interfacial resistance $(R_i)$ of the Zn/GPE that is a combination of the surface film resistance $(R_f)$ on the zinc surface and charge-transfer resistance $(R_{ct})$ of the electrochemical reaction. Cationic transport number measurements yield values of 0.56 at 27°C and 0.14 at 70°C. Several cells have been assembled and the charge-discharge behavior has been followed. Capacities of 98, 65, 47 and 33 mAh $g^{-1}$ of $MnO_2$ have been achieved at current densities of 10, 50, 100, and 200 $\muA/cm^2$ respectively. The charge-discharge studies show a consistent performance for 70 cycles with no significant change in the discharge behavior and capacity values at all current densities studied.


In 1994 the first democratic election took place in South Africa. Since then large initiatives have been undertaken on national level to redress the inequalities of the past. One of these areas where drastic transformation was needed, is the education system of the country. A National Qualifications Framework was created and Outcomes Based Education was used to implement a new curriculum. This required a total paradigm shift of teachers in terms of how they thought about education as well as changes in their teaching practice. The learning area Arts and Culture was included in the new curriculum to provide all learners with equal opportunities to take part in and enjoy the arts, cultural expression and conservation of heritage as a basic human right. The learning area however brought about unique problems for the teacher, as it is multidisciplinary and most teachers were not trained to facilitate it. Initially it was given to teachers who were specialists in one or the other of the arts disciplines, but these teachers progressively left the education system, and since then the learning area has fallen into the hands of nonspecialists. The Department of Education has launched various training opportunities to empower teachers, but without much success. Teachers remain inadequately qualified regarding subject knowledge and skills to bring the learning area to fruition and to reach the goals of the curriculum. In the process learners are deprived of important opportunities for experiences in the arts and teachers become increasingly demotivated. Thus, in South Africa there exists a dire need for effective in-service training and professional development of Arts and Culture teachers in order to empower them to take their place in the unlocking and transmission of the spiritual goods of the human race to our youth. This study investigates the true problems of Arts and Culture teachers in South Africa by placing the process of transformation in the education system after 1994 into context and viewing Outcomes Based Education, the learning area Arts and Culture and the development of teachers through the looking glass. Three forms of training for teachers are compared to try and find a possible best way to address these problems and to determine whether effective in-service training of Arts and Culture teachers leads to professional development, empowerment, a more positive vocational disposition and motivation. Training on a one-to-one basis lead by a specialist teacher emerges as the most effective alternative form of training.


BeamBand is a wrist-worn system that uses ultrasonic beamforming for hand gesture sensing. Using an array of small transducers, arranged on the wrist, we can ensem-ble acoustic wavefronts to project acoustic energy at spec-ified angles and focal lengths. This allows us to interro-gate the surface geometry of the hand with inaudible sound in a raster-scan-like manner, from multiple view-points. We use the resulting, characteristic reflections to recognize hand pose at 8 FPS. In our user study, we found that BeamBand supports a six-class hand gesture set at 94.6% accuracy. Even across sessions, when the sensor is removed and reworn later, accuracy remains high: 89.4%. We describe our software and hardware, and future ave-nues for integration into devices such as smartwatches and VR controllers.


This thesis deals with the structure of the no-wait job-shop problem as well as the derivation of fast approximation algorithms. These algorithms are based on a decomposition approach into a sequencing and a timetabling problem that was initially introduced by Macchiaroli et al. (1999). In the thesis the problems are derived from a mixed integer formulation of the original problem and proved to be NP-hard in the strong sense. After presenting a fast heuristic approach for the timetabling problem, the focus lies on the sequencing problem for which several local search algorithms are presented. The algorithms are tested on a wide variety of benchmark problems for the classical job-shop problem. Among the algorithms, the tabu search approach outperforms all other algorithms that can be found in the literature in objective value as well as computation time.


This publication concerns the fundamentals of the dynamics of masses interacting by gravitation. We start with the Maxwell analogy for gravitation or the Heaviside field, and we develop a model. This model ofdynamics, which we know takes in account the retardation of light, allow us to quantify the transfer of angularmovement point by point by the means of vectors, and to bring a simple, precise and detailed explanation to a largenumber of cosmic phenomena. And to all appearances, the theory completes gravitation into a wave theory.With this model the flatness of our solar system and our Milky way can be explained as being caused by an angularcollapse of the orbits, creating so a density increase of the disc. Also the halo is explained. The "missing mass" (darkmatter) problem is solved, and without harming the Keplerian motion law. The theory also explains the deviation of mass like in the Diabolo shape of rotary supernova having mass losses, and itdefines the angle of mass losses at 0° and at 35°16'.Some quantitative calculations describe in detail the relativistic attraction forces maintaining entire the fast rotatingstars, the tendency of distortion toward a toroid-like shape, and the description of the attraction fields outside of a rotaryblack hole. Qualitative considerations on the binary pulsars show the process of cannibalization, with the repulsion ofthe mass at the poles and to the equator, and this could also explain the origin of the spin-up and the spin-down process.The bursts of collapsing rotary stars are explained as well. The conditions for the repulsion of masses are alsoexplained, caused by important velocity differences between masses. Orbit chaos is better explained as well. Finally,the demonstration is made that gyrotation is related to the Relativity Theory.


Morse et al. (2011), henceforth MNS, interpret the data to suggest that more powerful CEOs ex post change their incentive contracts to put greater weight on performance measures that are ex-post more favorable. My paper points out a number of issues with their inference. First and most importantly, MNS do not control for the fact that not just the most powerful but almost all firms change their incentive contracts ex post. This is also consistent with an optimal contracting model. Nevertheless, the MNS specification attributes all explanatory power of the average incentive realignment to the cross-coefficient; that is, to more powerful CEOs. When the average level of ex post contract change is also controlled for, the MNS cross-coefficient (the additional change attributed to more powerful CEOs) declines by 55% and becomes insignificant. Second, newly-hired CEOs often receive large one-time startup packages. These firms should be broken out, because the MNS theory is not about newly-hired CEOs as new CEOs could not have rigged a previously-set compensation. Third, the results are sensitive to how industry performance is adjusted for. Fourth, the results are sensitive to the level of winsorization.


The main scope of the paper is to investigate the proposition that rising income inequality results in systemic financial instability in developed countries. In particular, 33 OECD (Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development) countries are studied in a panel Vector Autoregression (VAR) framework analysis over 1995–2015. There is a growing literature on the effects of income inequality on financial crises. This study provides significant evidence in favour of a positive relationship between income inequality and financial fragility, when particular factors are controlled for. Complementary findings also suggest that (a) debt accumulation in the private sector significantly depends on credit expansion, (b) the debt levels of the private sector and households co‐move over time, and (c) financial deregulation significantly contributes to financial instability. Therefore, policymakers should take into account regulatory reforms that will promote institutional and financial innovations to restrict debt accumulation and render the financial system more robust to destabilising shocks.


In the Sierra de San Luis, Argentina, rare-metal (Be, Li, Nb, Ta, Sn) granitic pegmatites represent the extremes of fractional crystallization of syn-tectonic, meta- to peraluminous S-type granites. Nb-Ta-enriched pegmatites outcrop in an eastern belt, while Sn-enriched pegmatites occur in a parallel belt in the west. The Nb-Ta pegmatites show a clear internal fractionation, whereas the smaller Sn pegmatites are homogeneous. Columbite-tantalite is dispersed mainly in the wall zones of the Nb-Ta-enriched pegmatites, and shows a large variation of the degree of order between 25% and 84% (XRPD) with predominant intermediate degree of order (53 %). Heating treatment caused highly ordered structures, resulting in higher a values and lower c values. Disorder percentages obtained from Mossbauer spectroscopy and estimated by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) correlate with the cationic ordering obtained by XRPD. A compositional variation from ferrocolumbite in less fractionated pegmatites to manganotantalite in more fractionated pegmatites reveals an evolution in the Nb-Ta-enriched pegmatites. A direct relation between the composition and the degree of order could not be observed. Microscopic exsolved columbite-tantalite also appears along the borders of cassiterite from Sn-enriched pegmatites, and mainly corresponds to ferrocolumbite and manganotantalite with a distinct composition within single pegmatite bodies.


To state the obvious, we live in a world that is awash in information. Discoveries of new scientific information occur daily in the laboratories of the world. The Facebook accounts of millions of teenagers contain information about the love lives of their friends. Google traces the search information of its subscribers. Supermarkets use personalized discount cards to trace the purchasing preferences of their customers. The National Security Agency (NSA) has been building a one-million-square-foot data and supercomputing center in Utah, which is expected to intercept and store much of the world's Internet communication for decryption and analysis. States maintain driver, tax, and voter records. All of these records contain information that can yield profit for some and embarrassment for others. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution dictates access to and dissemination of this information, whereas the Fourth Amendment limits such access and dissemination. Additionally, common-law doctrines of privacy, publicity, and defamation apply to this information, as do copyright, patent, and trademark law. State and federal legislatures race to regulate the collection, storage, and dissemination of this data and information in the public interest. This Article will review recent developments in the constitutional treatment of access to data and information, will comment on an illustrative group of statutory and common-law developments, and will discuss a number of current noteworthy controversies.


BACKGROUND
In the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax, simple aspiration is technically easier to perform. A systematic review may better define the clinical effectiveness and safety of simple aspiration compared to intercostal tube drainage in the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

OBJECTIVES
To compare the clinically efficacy and safety of simple aspiration and intercostal tube drainage in the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2006), MEDLINE (1966 to August 2006), and EMBASE (1980 to August 2006). We searched Current Controlled Trials metaRegister of Clinical Trials (compiled by Current Science) (August 2006). We checked the reference lists of trials and contacted trial authors . We imposed no language restriction.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized controlled trials comparing simple aspiration with intercostal tube drainage in adults aged 18 and over with primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. No statistical methods were necessary because only one study met the inclusion criteria.

MAIN RESULTS
Of the 1239 publications obtained from the search strategy, we examined six studies. Five studies were excluded, and one study of 60 participants was eligible for inclusion. There was no difference in immediate success rate of simple aspiration when compared with intercostal tube drainage in the management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (relative risk (RR) = 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62 to 1.40). There was no significant difference in the early failure rate between the two interventions: RR 1.12 (95% CI 0.59 to 2.13). Simple aspiration reduced the proportion of patients hospitalized (RR = 0.52; 95% CI 0.36 to 0.75). There was no significant difference between the two interventions with regard to the following outcome measures: duration of hospitalization (weighted mean difference = 1.09; 95% CI 2.18 to 0.00); number of participants undergoing any procedure for lung pleurodesis within one year (RR = 0.95; 95% CI 0.41 to 2.22);and one year success rate (RR = 1.02; 95% CI 0.75 to 1.38).

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is no significant difference between simple aspiration and intercostal tube drainage with regard to: immediate success rate, early failure rate, duration of hospitalisation, one year success rate and number of patients requiring pleurodesis at one year. Simple aspiration is associated with a reduction in the per cent of patients hospitalized when compared with intercostal tube drainage.


The subject of this Ph.D. Thesis is Modelling Visitor Experience: A Case Study from World Heritage Sites, Thailand. The research is conducted in three historical parks in Thailand by using an inductive approach of Grounded Theory. This aims to propose a model of visitor experience of heritage. It focuses on experience consumption related to what, why and how visitors consume the heritage experience when they interact with the cultural heritage. The construction of experience, factors affecting experience consumption and patterns of experience consumption are explored in this thesis. It provides theoretical and methodological contribution to the knowledge in both tourism and management fields.
The opportunity to collect data for this study stems from the three historical sites in Thailand by which grounded theory approach allows for a wider variety of data collection methods. The research had been conducted in the historical sites for over six months during October 2003 March 2004. The results presented in this thesis are based on a survey of 60 cases of participant observations with ethnographic interview and 180 cases of observation with visitors visiting the historical sites, and 48 unstructured and semi-structured interviews with visitors who visited those sites. The results are also based on a number of supplementary data such as travel journals, visitor books, and interpreted photographs written and taken by visitors who visited to the sites. Survey instruments for this study consist of interview and observation guides that were developed accordingly to emergent concepts during the field survey. The contributions comprise four major themes. Firstly, the development of the 'Visitor Heritage
Experience Model' based on multiple sources of data conceptualised by a systematic analysis process. The model provides the insight of visitors' subjective interactions with the heritage when they were engaged in a consumption of experience. This study reveals the multi-dimensional nature of visitor experience which expands what has been reported in the literatures. It also explains the complex attributes of visitors' on-site experience in terms of process and components of experience construction. Secondly, the emergent of 'Interactive Experience Process' as a core of the proposed model, acknowledges the dynamic nature of on-site experience through a multi-phase experience process and multiplicity of visitors' experience consumption practices. Rather than acknowledging
the tourist typology, this study explores the extent to which the elements of experience hold in different contexts and types of consumption experiences. The emergent theory can be used as a substantive theory to apply for other case studies involving visitors' experience of place. Thirdly,
the findings of this study have significant implications for designing principles and practices of an effective and sustainable visitor management in cultural heritage sites. The development of the, Visitor Experience Management Framework' discusses the creative use of the heritage and visitor empowerment to provide interactive experience of heritage to visitors. It suggests the consideration of a paradigm shift and crucial elements of visitor experience management especially in sensitive cultural heritage sites. Finally, this study provides several conceptual and methodological research perspectives through the use of 'Grounded Theory Approach'. The applications of the grounded theory's systematic analysis process can be adopted by future consumer and management research.


Suppression of TGF-β signaling causes white adipose tissue to adopt properties characteristic of brown adipose tissue. White adipocytes serve as lipid reservoirs, whereas brown adipocytes are rich in mitochondria and catabolize lipids through a process involving the mitochondrial protein UCP-1, which uncouples fatty acid oxidation from ATP production to generate heat. White adipocytes can be induced in vitro to express a subset of brown fat–specific genes, an effect that could prove therapeutically useful in treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Yadav et al. examined the role of transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) and its transcriptional effector Smad3 in metabolic regulation. Compared with wild-type mice, Smad3–/– mice showed enhanced basal insulin sensitivity and increased insulin signaling and glucose uptake in white adipose tissue. They also gained less weight, showed better glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, and were protected from hepatic steatosis when fed a high-fat diet. Furthermore, Smad3–/– mice had reduced fat mass; smaller adipocytes; and lower circulating concentrations of triglyceride, white adipose tissue-derived hormones (leptin and resistin), and inflammatory cytokines. Smad3–/– white adipocytes had features reminiscent of brown adipocytes, such as the presence of UCP-1 and mRNAs encoding markers of brown adipogenesis. The production of heat by brown fat is important in thermoregulation, and Smad3–/– mice had higher basal body temperatures, could maintain a higher body temperature in the cold, and showed increased fatty acid oxidation. White adipocytes from Smad3–/– mice had higher numbers of mitochondria and, accordingly, showed higher mitochondrial activity, basal respiration rates, and oxygen consumption. In 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, Smad3 occupied the promoter of the gene encoding PGC-1α (a transcriptional coactivator that promotes mitochondrial biogenesis), and TGF-β treatment reduced the activity of a PGC-1α luciferase reporter in a Smad3-dependent fashion. Higher circulating TGF-β concentrations in humans correlated with greater adiposity, fasting insulin concentrations, and insulin resistance. TGF-β concentrations and phosphorylation of Smad3 in white adipose tissue were higher in two mouse models of obesity and diabetes, Lepob/ob mice and mice fed a high-fat diet. Treatment of Lepob/ob mice and mice on a high-fat diet with an antibody directed against TGF-β (1D11) reduced phosphorylation of Smad3 in white adipose tissue, decreased weight gain, improved glucose and insulin tolerance, and improved hepatic steatosis. Thus, suppression of TGF-β and Smad3 signaling causes white fat to adopt properties characteristic of brown fat and may be a viable strategy for treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The authors note that a related version of the TGF-β antibody 1D11 is under evaluation in clinical trials. H. Yadav, C. Quijano, A. K. Kamaraju, O. Gavrilova, R. Malek, W. Chen, P. Zerfas, D. Zhigang, E. C. Wright, C. Stuelten, P. Sun, S. Lonning, M. Skarulis, A. E. Sumner, T. Finkel, S. G. Rane, Protection from obesity and diabetes by blockade of TGF-β/Smad3 signaling. Cell Metab. 14, 67–79 (2011). [PubMed]


This research aimed to understand hotel managers' attitudes toward the provision of healthy meals. The study deployed a mailing survey to assess the managers' perceptions. A closed-ended questionnaire was developed evaluating the role of healthy food choices in Mediterranean resort hotels. The findings showed that (1) atmosphere in the restaurant, (2) appealing display of food, and (3) eating habits and lifestyle were more important than personal health when selecting a meal. In addition, this study suggested that the managers were not ready to promote healthy eating because their customers would have been critical of this new service concept


The ever-increasing use of the Web as a channel of distribution within the tourism industry naturally leads to a situation where its effectiveness needs to be examined and justified. While there is a growing realisation of the need to assess the effectiveness of a Destination Management Systems (DMS) based websites, research into this area in the tourism domain has been quite limited and narrow in focus. This situation is further compounded by the fact that currently there is little in the way of appropriate models and techniques in place to manage a DMS based websites effectively and that there is a general lack of consensus when it comes to defining and understanding its standards and concepts. This thesis describes a methodology for the development and evaluation of a comprehensive set of weighted dimensions and criteria for measuring the effectiveness of DMS based websites. Ultimately, from a DMS perspective, website effectiveness depends on how well a website performs with respect to the related business goals. The scope of the research was limited to assessing the impact of DMS effectiveness on the accommodation sector.

This research began by employing a Delphi study to generate, validate and prioritise a comprehensive set of dimensions and criteria for measuring the effectiveness of a DMS. The Delphi study successfully identified a total of 12 dimensions and 105 criteria required to assess DMS based websites effectiveness. These components were incorporated into a comprehensive evaluation framework applied specifically to evaluate the effectiveness of a DMS based websites using a diverse range of approaches and perspectives. The evaluation phase of the research took place over an eight month period and concentrated on testing this framework using VisitScotland.com as a test bed. The outcomes from the evaluation phase successfully demonstrated that the framework provides DMS management with a comprehensive method to measure and manage the effectiveness of their Web presence by not only identifying areas of the website and website strategy that needed attention but also by providing advice and suggestions on how to improve these areas.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to examine the feasibility of running and evaluating a compassion-focused therapy (CFT) group adapted for acute inpatient settings, characterized by unpredictable lengths of admission, presentations, and diagnoses.

DESIGN AND METHODS
This pilot project used a mixed methods design to assess the impact of offering CFT-informed group sessions on an acute inpatient unit. Pre- and post-session ratings of distress and calmness, and ratings of understanding and helpfulness, were gathered from participants over a 6-month period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four participants to gather their experience of the group.

RESULTS
Fifty-seven complete sets of rating measures were generated from 82 participants recruited for the study (attrition rate 30%), from a total pool of 93 inpatients attending group sessions. Pre- to post-CFT session data highlighted a significant decrease in distress ratings and a significant increase in calmness ratings. A thematic analysis of four interviews identified themes relating to understanding compassion, experience of positive affect, and the experience of common humanity.

CONCLUSIONS
This is the first attempt to explore the effects of a CFT-informed approach in acute mental health settings. These groups were well received by staff and patients, with some therapeutic impact despite being comparatively short and set against the background of a busy inpatient ward. These groups can be open and transdiagnostic, with stand-alone topics and practices having positive impacts on distress and calmness. Future studies need to focus on adapting content and pacing for this group of people based on ongoing feedback from participants.


"In the second half of the 1990s, a series of developments led to a renewed academic and policy interest in the intersection of macroeconomic policy and poverty issues in developing countries. The focus of that work was domestic macroeconomic policies. This paper, however, focuses on the international dimension and discusses the links between global macroeconomic conditions and poverty in developing countries since the 1960s. Of course, when analyzing policy impacts, both domestic and international aspects must be considered. However, debates about domestic policies, macro or otherwise, and their impacts on poverty cannot provide an accurate analysis of developing countries' alternatives and predicaments if they ignore the role, in many cases overwhelming, of external factors. That is the story this paper tries to tell. The objectives here are to present an overview of trends and cycles in the world economy, to summarize the events of the last half century in view of the current concerns about the likely economic slowdown in the United States and other industrialized economies, and to assess the possible repercussions on the rest of the world. The hope is that the paper will serve as background material for developing countries to better characterize potential scenarios and properly define policy options for the coming years, which look like they will be far less benign than the recent past." from Author's Abstract


Three cases of slowly progressive speech and language disturbance were studied at various points post onset (three, five and 15 years respectively). Language, neuropsychological and brain imaging (computer tomography and positron emission tomography) evaluations were completed on all three patients. The data suggest that the syndrome of "progressive aphasia": 1) does not involve a uniform symptom complex; 2) does not necessarily develop into a full blown dementia syndrome; 3) varies greatly in rate of progression from case to case; 4) is associated with normal brain structure (on computer tomography); and 5) is associated with abnormal left temporal lobe metabolism as measured by fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET). One patient had histological findings consistent with Alzheimer's disease at necropsy.


Blood cells can be sorted in microfluidic devices not only based on their sizes and deformability, but also based on their adhesive properties. In particular, white blood cells have been shown to be sorted out by using adhesive micropatterns made from stripes that are tilted in regard to the direction of shear flow. Here we use adhesive dynamics simulations for round cells to quantitatively investigate this effect and to predict the optimal tilt angle. We then apply our method to predict optimal sorting conditions for malaria-infected red blood cells, which like white blood cells also adhere to and roll on adhesive substrates.


Study Design. Retrospective study. Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate associations between spine surgeon demographics and the rate at which elective spine fusion is performed. Summary of Background Data. Rapidly increasing rates of elective spinal fusion in the United States have given rise to important questions about what factors may drive spine surgeon decision making. Methods. Publicly available spine surgeon practice pattern data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were reviewed retrospectively. Fusion rate was defined as the number of fusion procedures performed on Medicare beneficiaries by a surgeon per total number of unique Medicare beneficiaries seen. Inclusion criteria were neurological or orthopedic spine surgeons who performed 11 or more separate spine fusion procedures on Medicare patients between 2011 and 2013 as defined by this database. Demographic information was collected from public record. The increased probability of a surgeon performing spine fusion was assessed using a relative risk (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). Results. A total of 3979 spine surgeons who practice in the United States and performed spine fusion on 171,676 Medicare patients from 2011 to 2013 met the inclusion criteria. The average rate of spine fusion for surgeons in this database was 7.5%. Surgeons with higher fusion rates practiced in an academic versus private setting (RR = 1.44, 95% CI [1.35–1.53]; P < 0.0001), were more likely neurological versus orthopedic surgeons (RR = 1.10, 95% CI [1.05–1.15]; P < 0.0001), and practiced in the West versus Midwest, South, and Northeast region of the United States (RR = 1.20, 95% CI [1.14–1.27]; P < 0.0001). Number of years in practice was significantly associated negatively with fusion rate (P < 0.0001). Conclusion. Significant variation in the rate of spine fusion based on practice type, training, region, and experience suggests poor consensus on indications for this procedure. Knowledge of these relationships may help identify underlying reasons for variations in surgical care and improve surgical outcomes. Level of Evidence: 3


We review the legal and regulatory framework covering alternative ('peer-to-peer' or 'marketplace') lending platforms in the US, China, the UK and more briefly other countries. The main regulatory concerns are (i) enforcing consumer credit rules for unsecured personal lending; and (ii) protection of uninformed retail investors from mis-selling and platform failure. Alternative lending was first established with little regulatory oversight, but there has been substantial reregulation – first in the US via the 2008 SEC decision that platform investments are securities; subsequently in the UK, China and other countries. We anticipate further reregulation to protect retail investors, limiting the funding of loans from the 'crowd'. Promoting credit supply through alternative lending platforms requires also institutional investor participation and embracing the use of technology in platform regulation ('RegTech').


Over the years, various garments have become increasingly popular collectible items as they grant insight into the cultures in which they were made. Collectors who love the sand, sun, and surf will delight in this extraordinary guide to handsome Hawaiian clothing. Filled with over 460 beautiful photos, this book gives a historical account of Hawai'i's fashion industry and its effect on the Western world. Unique island designs, exotic fabrics, and traditional garments--including the holoku and mu'umu'u--are all included within this spectacular display of Hawaiian paradise. Generations of tourists to Hawai'i will enjoy the explanations of clothing designs unique to the islands, and designers will find this an invaluable and inspiring reference tool.


Schizophrenia and related disorders include a variety of psychotic disorders in the major classification systems, ICD-10 and DSM-IV, with only partial concordance between the two systems. They both rely on demonstrated reliability, but which disorders are the most valid still has to be determined. Particularly for the ICD-10 disorders, only few studies examining external validity have appeared. Disorders of uncertain validity include 'schizo-affective disorders' which in ICD-10 contain the DSM-IV psychotic mood disorders with first-rank symptoms or bizarre delusions; ICD-10 'schizotypal disorder' which in DSM-IV is a personality disorder; the ICD-10 'acute and transient psychotic disorders' and the DSM-IV 'brief psychotic disorder'. Concerning diagnostic criteria, the reliability and validity of Schneiderian first-rank symptoms, 'bizarre' delusions and the Bleulerian 'negative' symptoms have been questioned. Validity studies in these areas are needed before it will be possible to provide major reconstructions for future diagnostic systems. One may hope that, eventually, one common worldwide psychiatric classification will be available.


Although research on the economic value of IT has predominantly focused on firm-level impacts, recent studies have begun incorporating industry-level variables to examine their impact on the value a firm obtains from its IT investments. This trend originated in the aim to offer better contextualized explanations for the differences in value firms obtained from their IT investments across different industries. We present a multi-level model of IT value, in which industry-level and firm-level factors jointly determine the value a firm obtains from its IT investments. By using a hierarchical linear model to examine industry to firm interactions we are able to control for violations of statistical assumptions that are likely to bias cross-level estimates obtained using conventional methods. Our analysis reveals that all of the industry factors we looked at had significant interaction effects with the link between firmlevel IT and performance. Specifically, industry concentration, industry growth, and industry outsourcing significantly impact firm-level IT value. More interestingly we find these industry-level IT impacts manifest not only as mean differences between industries, but also as significant interactions with firm-level effects. Initial results from this research-in-progress suggest a multilevel perspective could enrich our understanding of the relationship between IT and firm performance.


As Pakistan is currently facing a severe shortage of irrigation water, this paper analyzes the determinants of water scarcity and its impact on the yield of cereal crops (wheat, maize and rice), household income, food security and poverty levels by employing the propensity-score-matching approach. This study is based on a comprehensive set of cross-sectional data collected from 950 farmers from all four major provinces in Pakistan. The empirical analysis indicated that farmers with a water-scarcity problem have lower yield and household income, and are food insecure. Poverty levels were higher: in the range of 7–12% for a household facing a water-scarcity problem. The policy implications of the study are that the public and private sector in Pakistan needs to invest in irrigation water management to maintain the productivity of cereal crops which is important for household food security and poverty reduction.


The UK Government has ambitious targets for CO2 emissions reductions, particularly for the domestic housing stock. One technology that is expected to contribute significantly is heat pumps, both air and ground source. However, recent field trial results suggest that heat pumps in the UK are not delivering to performance expectations. This paper looks at the implications of these results for the UK housing stock's future CO2 emissions. The English Housing Condition Survey dataset is used as the basis for a Monte Carlo simulation in order to model CO2 emissions and energy consumption for the whole of English housing stock out to 2050. The results suggest that, given the current UK electricity grid CO2 emission factor, in the short term poor heat pump performance could lead to a rise in emissions where natural gas boilers are displaced. In the longer term, heat pumps can realise emissions reductions when installed at high penetration levels when combined with a grid decarbonisation strategy. Until grid decarbonisation occurs, an alternative phased strategy is proposed that includes phased replacement of resistive electric heating, first in households in fuel poverty and then the remainder of properties with this heating type. Following this phased strategy, real emissions savings are possible along with a potential reduction in fuel poverty.


Introduction: Native vegetation and regulations relating to its management have a minimal economic effect on agriculture in New South Wales (NSW). The state produces between $10 and $16 billion in agricultural output per year, dependent largely on rainfall and commodity prices. When rainfall is good and commodity prices are high, output is high. Less rainfall and lower commodity prices means agricultural production in the state is of far lower value. A study by the Australian Bureau of Resource and Agricultural Economics (ABARE) found that vegetation density was the least important influence of all factors measured on farm productivity. Part of the reason for this is that native vegetation has both positive and negative economic impacts on farms. While vegetation can reduce production area and make use of machinery less efficient, it can also provide shade and shelter, reduce erosion and increase land values through amenity.ABARE studies suggest that a strong majority of landholders support native vegetation management regulations. Such regulations are an issue for a small minority of landholders in particular parts of NSW. Conservation of native vegetation brings benefit to the community through improved biodiversity and environmental conservation. Existing regulations support these benefits and minimal cost to the vast majority of landholders. Where particular landholders are heavily affected and community gains from conservation on their land are large, existing regulations may not provide incentive for compensation and some policy change may be required. This is unlikely to be the case across most of NSW.


This is an updated and expanded second edition of the seminal book first published by Thames & Hudson in 2004, featuring 107 new illustrations and over 100 new pages, and completely updated throughout (including all reference sections). It introduces students to the key theoretical approaches to modern and contemporary art, enabling them to understand the many voices of current approaches to the subject. A flexible year-by-year structure and extensive cross-referencing allows teachers and students to pursue a chronological approach, and/or to study the currents of art since 1900 by medium, theme, country or region. It contains more than 120 essays (including fifteen new essays), each focusing on a crucial event in the history of art from 1900 to the present. The new essays cover subjects such as the De Stijl movement, the use of mannequins and the automaton in Dada, and modernist graphic design between the wars, as well as discussions of the global emergence of Chinese artists in recent years, the influence of gaming and social network technologies, and the impact of the market on current art practice. Text boxes provide further information on key figures and issues. A new final chapter is devoted to the first decade of the 21st century. Four introductions set out and explain the different methods of art history at work in the book. There are two roundtable discussions between the authors one at mid-century, the other at the close of the book. All reference material has been updated.


The modern struggle against fat cuts deeply and pervasively into American culture. Dieting, weight consciousness, and widespread hostility toward obesity form one of the fundamental themes of modern life. Fat History explores the meaning of fat in contemporary Western society and illustrates how progressive changes, such as growth in consumer culture, increasing equality for women, and the refocusing of women's sexual and maternal roles have influenced today's obsession with fat. Brought up-to-date with a new preface and filled with narrative anecdotes, Fat History explores fat's transformation from a symbol of health and well-being to a sign of moral, psychological, and physical disorder.


Background: As the sophistication of functional reconstruction procedures continues to increase, so does the need for valid, precise, and reliable instruments to assess their clinical results. The authors compare two tests for spatial resolution and two for cutaneous pressure threshold in an adult patient cohort having undergone microsurgical digital nerve repair after traumatic transection. Methods: Patients who underwent epineural coaptation after digital nerve transection at the authors' institution between June of 2006 and December of 2011 were asked to participate in a follow-up examination assessing spatial resolution (two-point discrimination and grating orientation test) and cutaneous pressure threshold (Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test and pressure-specifying sensory device). Interinstrument correlations were conducted and critically elucidated. Results: Eighty-one patients (26 female and 55 male patients; median age, 42 years; interquartile range, 23 years) were examined with a mean follow-up period of 3.5 ± 1.4 years. Although all tests could differentiate between the healthy and operated fingers, poor to moderate correlations were found between two-point discrimination and grating orientation test (&rgr;operated = 0.483, p < 0.0001; &rgr;healthy = 0.350, p < 0.0001), and between Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test and Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing (&rgr;operated = 0.287, p = 0.01; &;healthy = 0.382, p < 0.001), indicating that they measure different properties. Altogether, the grating orientation test proved superior to two-point discrimination, whereas Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing was superior to Semmes-Weinstein monofilament testing. Conclusions: Thoughtful use of test instruments is advisable when assessing sensibility of the hand. This study suggests including Pressure-Specified Sensory Device testing to assess cutaneous pressure threshold and the grating orientation test to assess spatial resolution in clinical, routine test batteries. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic, III.


For a better treatment of coronary artery disease in a catheterization lab, detection of the relative contributions of the epicardial stenosis (ES) and concomitant microvascular disease (MVD) is important. To diagnose ES, fractional flow reserve (FFR), the hyperemic stenosis resistance index (hSRv) and to diagnose MVD, hyperemic microvascular resistance index (hMRv) have been tested in cath labs. However, for concurrent assessment of ES and MVD, functional parameter utilizing flow and pressure values, pressure drop coefficient (CDP) and combined functional and anatomical parameter, lesion flow coefficient (LFC) are defined. To test the ability of CDP and LFC to account for ES and MVD, they were correlated with the hSRv and hMRv. We hypothesize that CDP and LFC will have a better combined correlation with hSRv and hMRv.Simultaneous pressure and flow readings were obtained in 11 Yorkshire swine. Single and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted between the FFR, CDP and LFC vs hSRv and hMRv. The correlation coefficient (r) was used to check the strength of correlation.The individual correlation between hSRv and hMRV with CDP (r = 0.90; r = 0.78) and LFC (r = 0.89; r = 0.95) was stronger compared to FFR (r = 0.63; r = 0.32). The combined correlation between hSRv and hMRv with CDP (r = 0.95) and LFC (r = 0.95) increased from the individual correlation. Therefore, we conclude that CDP and LFC can diagnose ES and MVD concurrently and might prove to be improved diagnostic parameters than FFR.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


The vegetative anatomy and morphology of 142 species of the angraecoid orchids (Angraecinae + Aerangidinae) and 18 species of Aeridinae were examined using light and scanning electron microscopy. Leafless members of Vandeae were of particular interest because of their unique growth habit. Leafy and leafless members of Angraecinae and Aerangidinae were examined and compared with specimens of Aeridinae. Vandeae were homogeneous in both leaf and root anatomy. A foliar hypodermis and fibre bundles were generally absent. Stegmata with spherical silica bodies were found associated with sclerenchyma and restricted to leaves in almost all specimens examined. Distinct inner tangential wall thickenings of the endovelamen occurred in several vandaceous genera. Exodermal proliferations and aeration units commonly occurred in both leafy and leafless Vandeae. Cladistic analyses of Angraecinae and Aerangidinae with members of Aeridinae and Polystachyinae as outgroups using 26 structural characters resulted in 20 000+ equally parsimonious trees. Vandeae formed the only well-supported clade in bootstrap analyses and were characterized by having a monopodial growth habit, spherical stegmata, loss of mucilage, and loss of tilosomes. © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2006, 151, 165–218.


Background: The Integrating Orange Project promotes production and consumption of orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) to address vitamin A deficiency among rural populations of Zambia since 2011. Objective: This study assessed household production and consumption of OFSP and identified factors associated with consumption thereof in Integrating Orange Project areas in Chipata district, Zambia. Methods: Respondents of 295 randomly selected households were interviewed using a structured questionnaire during the sweet potato harvest season. Associations between OFSP consumption and household factors were assessed using χ2 tests. Results: Frequency of OFSP consumption was categorized as ≥4 days during the last 7 days (30.2%), 1 to 3 days during the last 7 days (49.5%), eats OFSP but not during the last 7 days (7.1%), and never (13.2%). In total, 60.3% of households planted OFSP, and 40.0% bought OFSP, mostly from farmers within the community. Orange-fleshed sweet potato consumption was associated with the presence of children aged less than 5 years in the household (P = .018), production of OFSP (P < .001), purchasing of OFSP (P < .001), and respondent having knowledge on health benefits of OFSP (P = .014). Age and sex of the household head and household size had no association with OFSP consumption (P > .05). Conclusion: A high percentage of households consumed OFSP during the harvesting season in Integrating Orange Project areas. Programs promoting OFSP consumption should thus focus on OFSP production and sensitizing households on nutritional benefits of OFSP and target households with children aged less than 5 years as entry point.


In arid and semi-arid regions freshwater resources have become scarcer with increasing demands from socio-economic development and population growth. Until recently, water research and management has mainly focused on blue water but ignored green water. Furthermore, in data poor regions hydrological flows under natural conditions are poorly characterised but are a prerequisite to inform future water resources management. Here we report on spatial and temporal patterns of both blue and green water flows that can be expected under natural conditions as simulated by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the Heihe river basin, the second largest inland river basin in Northwest China. Calibration and validation at two hydrological stations show good performance of the SWAT model in modelling hydrological processes. The total green and blue water flows were 22.05–25.51 billion m 3 in the 2000s for the Heihe river basin. Blue water flows are larger in upstream sub-basins than in downstream sub-basins mainly due to high precipitation and a large amount of snow and melting water in upstream. Green water flows are distributed more homogeneously among different sub-basins. The green water coefficient was 87%–89% in the 2000s for the entire river basin, varying from around 80%–90% in up- and mid-stream sub-basins to above 90% in downstream sub-basins. This is much higher than reported green water coefficients in many other river basins. The spatial patterns of green water coefficients were closely linked to dominant land covers (e.g. snow cover upstream and desert downstream) and climate conditions (e.g. high precipitation upstream and low precipitation downstream). There are no clear consistent historical trends of change in green and blue water flows and the green water coefficient at both the river basin and sub-basin levels. This study provides insights into green and blue water endowments under natural conditions for the entire Heihe river basin at the sub-basin level. The results are helpful to benchmark the natural flows of water in the basin as part of improved water resources management in the inland river basins of China.


The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes conducted by three rehabilitation centres for delinquents. In these centres, the delinquents undergo programmes which aimed to give guidance and help the delinquents change their unwanted behaviour. Questionnaires and interview were used as instruments. The questionnaires used are adapted from the research done by Azizi (1999). Alpha Cronbach is used to test the reliability of this research. It showed that the overall Alpha value for the whole programme is 0.91. The Alpha value for the Academic, Vocational, Co-Curriculum, Religious Knowledge and Counseling Programme are 0.91, 0.89, 0.91, 0.92 dan 0.92 respectively. To ensure reliability of the research, interviews were conducted with the officers and the adolescents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the respondents' demographic factor and the effectiveness of the programmes. The sample consists of 184 respondents which were chosen at simplified random. The variables used in the research are the Academic, Vocational, Co-Curriculum, Religious Knowledge and Counseling Programme. The data was analyzed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science). Findings have shown that Vocational, Religious Knowledge and Counseling Programme to be less effective compared with the Academic and Co-Curriculum Programme. To test the hypothesis, inferential statistics such as the t- test was used. The results of the research showed that there is no significant difference in the way the academic programme was carried out in these two schools, namely Sekolah Henry Gurney and Sekolah Tunas Bakti. There are significant differences between the vocational, co-curriculum, religious knowledge and counseling programmes in these two schools.


Finite-Element Sea-ice Ocean circulation Model (FESOM) uses unstructured triangular meshes and is employed either as standing-alone global ocean model or as part of FESOM-ECHAM5/6 coupled setup. Several examples pertaining to studies focused on polar oceans will be given to characterize the potential of FESOM and also to indicate typical difficulties related to the strongly variable resolution.

Brief intercomparison of FESOM to a global cell-vertex finite-volume setup is presented. While it is more numerically efficient than the finite-element setup of FESOM, it requires special measures to maintain stable performance because of its too large velocity space. Most effective stabilization is provided by either computing the momentum advection on scalar (median-dual) control volumes, or making use of the vector-invariant form. Both approaches effectively trim the nonlinear term in the momentum equation to the size of scalar space.


The innate immune system provides the primary vertebrate defence system against pathogen invasion, but it is energetically costly and can have immune pathological effects. A previous study in sticklebacks found that intermediate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) diversity correlated with a lower leukocyte coping capacity (LCC), compared to individuals with fewer, or many, MHC alleles. The organization of the MHC genes in mammals, however, differs to the highly duplicated MHC genes in sticklebacks by having far fewer loci. Using European badgers (Meles meles), we therefore investigated whether innate immune activity, estimated functionally as the ability of an individual's leukocytes to produce a respiratory burst, was influenced by MHC diversity. We also investigated whether LCC was influenced by factors such as age-class, sex, body condition, season, year, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, and intensity of infection with five different pathogens. We found that LCC was not associated with specific MHC haplotypes, MHC alleles, or MHC diversity, indicating that the innate immune system did not compensate for the adaptive immune system even when there were susceptible MHC alleles/haplotypes, or when the MHC diversity was low. We also identified a seasonal and annual variation of LCC. This temporal variation of innate immunity was potentially due to physiological trade-offs or temporal variation in pathogen infections. The innate immunity, estimated as LCC, does not compensate for MHC diversity suggests that the immune system may function differently between vertebrates with different MHC organizations, with implications for the evolution of immune systems in different taxa.


This study focuses on parental rearing practices as predictors of gender identity among late adolescents. A convenience sample of Lithuanian adolescents, aged 16 to 18, (N = 1298, 785 girls and 513 boys) was used in the study. The participants filled-in a questionnaire, which consisted of three dimensions of gender identity, proposed by Egan and Perry (2001)—gender typicality, gender contentedness and felt pressure, and the Lithuanian version of the EMBU (Arrindell et al.; 1994 Arrindell, 1999), which measured mothers' and fathers; parenting styles. Gender contentedness and felt pressure were found to be higher for boys than for girls. Sixteen-year-olds felt more pressure to conform to gender norms than eighteen-year-olds. The results indicated that parental emotional warmth correlated with adolescents' gender contentedness, whereas rejection and overprotection – with felt pressure. Both parents' rejection and mothers' overprotection were related to lower gender typicality. In addition, felt pressure for boys was positively related to mother's overprotection, and felt pressure for girls was positively related to higher father's overprotection and mother's rejection.


The compressible Reynolds Equation (RE) is typically integrated within a fully-coupled dynamical foil-air bearings (FABs)-rotor system via spatial discretisation transformation e.g. Finite Difference (FD), Finite Element (FE). An alternative way of integrating the RE is through Galerkin Reduction (GR). The motivation for using GR is the computational benefit coming from the drastic condensation of the problem due to the elimination of the two-dimensional grid used for the air film in FD or FE. This paper presents a novel application of arbitrary-order GR to both nonlinear and linearised analyses of rotor systems supported by single-pad FABs with variable radial clearance (preload). Simulations using FD gave close correlation with those using GR for all preloads, with discrepancies increasing as the preload approaches the nominal clearance (c). The simulations show that the preload has to exceed a certain level in order to delay the onset of instability speed (OIS), and significant delay in OIS and suppression of sub-synchronous vibration is possible when the preload is comparable to c. Experimental validation is provided.