Both classical probability theory and quantum theory lend themselves to a Bayesian interpretation where probabilities represent degrees of belief, and where the various rules for combining and updating probabilities are but algorithms for plausible reasoning in the face of uncertainty. I elucidate the differences and commonalities of these two theories, and argue that they are in fact the two only algorithms to satisfy certain basic consistency requirements. In order to arrive at this result I develop an over-arching framework for plausible reasoning that incorporates both classical probability and quantum theory as special cases. ∗email: firstname.lastname@example.com


In debates over the scope of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), one historical document has played an especially prominent role. This document is a short opinion by U.S. Attorney General William Bradford, issued in the summer of 1795, concerning the involvement of U.S. citizens in an attack by a French fleet on a British colony in Sierra Leone. Numerous academic articles, judicial opinions, and litigation briefs have invoked the Bradford opinion, for a variety of propositions, and the opinion was discussed by both sides in the oral argument before the Supreme Court in the first hearing in the pending ATS case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. Surprisingly, however, no one appears to have looked for the official records and correspondence concerning the Sierra Leone incident, other than the Bradford opinion itself. Based on research conducted in the archives of both the U.S. State Department and the British Foreign Office, this essay considers the broader diplomatic context of the Bradford opinion. The essay concludes that, when read in light of the complaints from the British government that Bradford was responding to, his opinion provides support for the extraterritorial application of the ATS, but only with respect to the conduct of U.S. citizens. It also concludes that the opinion does not provide support for aiding and abetting liability under the ATS, at least as that concept is typically invoked today. The two principal documents that Bradford was responding to in his opinion, which have not previously been considered in the scholarship on the ATS, are transcribed as an appendix to the essay.


Objectives: To investigate associations between objectively measured physical activity (PA) and myopia in children. Methods: Children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were asked to wear a uniaxial accelerometer for 7 days. Measures of counts per minute (cpm), minutes spent in moderate to vigorous activity (MVPA) and minutes of sedentary behaviour (msed) were derived from the accelerometer worn at age 12. Children were also examined, at age 10, using an autorefractor to estimate myopia. Social and parental factors were collected from pregnancy and physical measures of the child were recorded at age 12. Results: 4880 children had valid PA and autorefraction data. In minimally adjusted models (age and gender) myopic children were less active than the other children: β = −49.9 cpm (95% CI −73.5 to −26.4, p = <0.001). The myopic group spent less time in MVPA than the other children: β = −3.2 minutes MVPA (95% CI −5.2 to −1.1, p = 0.003) and more time sedentary: β = 15.8 minutes (95% CI 5.8 to 25.8, p = 0.002). The effect sizes were attenuated by adjustment for social and behavioural confounders although myopia status in the better (less myopic on autorefraction) eye remained strongly associated with cpm and MVPA but less so for sedentary behaviour: β = −36.8 cpm (95% CI –67.8 to −5.8, p = 0.02), β = −2.7 MVPA (95% CI −5.3 to −0.1, p = 0.04), β = 10.1 msed (95% CI –2.9 to 23.1, p = 0.13). Conclusion: Myopic children may be more at risk of having lower levels of PA than their non-myopic peers, although the difference was modest.


The palm oil industry plays a major role in the economic development of several tropical countries. In processing oil palm fruit for oil extraction, palm oil mills produce a considerable amount of solid wastes in the form of fibres, nut shells and empty fruit bunches (EFB). For every 100 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches processed there will be approximately 20 tonnes of nutshells, 7 tonnes of fibres
and 26 tonnes of empty bunches discharged from the mill. In order to prevent environmental pollution, disposal of the oil palm wastes needs prudent handling and consideration.
The composting process is currently viewed primarily as a waste management method to stabilise organic wastes. Composting is a management system that uses microbial activity to degrade raw organic material. The stabilised
end product (compost) is widely used as a soil amendment to improve soil structure and to provide plant nutrients. These beneficial uses of compost can improve healthy plant production, reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and
conserve natural resources. The main objective of this study is to develop an alternative technology for the production of compost from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), using a solid state biconversion technique (SSB), by selected microorganisms. SSB is a process whereby an insoluble substrate, with sufficient moisture, but not free water, can be converted to compost by different microorganisms. It is a simple and cost effective way of treating the organic waste, which requires no complex controls. Three efficient cellulolytic cultures Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma reesei and Phanerochaete chrysosporium were used as inoculum in this study. The strains used did not produce any toxic by-products during the bioconversion
processes and they were able to utilise lignin and grow on lignocellulosic materials. Shredded and partially dried EFB (280g) were allowed to compost for 8 weeks using ammonium sulfate as a source of nitrogen with the addition of single
and mixed culture innoculum of A.niger, T. resie and P.chrysosporium, and compared to the natural process as control. The composting process was carried out in 1 L flasks and the controlling parameters such as moisture content, temperature and aeration were optimised. The investigation showed that due to inoculation, the period of composting was reduced to four weeks compared to normal composting time of 24 - 32 weeks. In addition to this, the quality of the compost was improved and there was greater production of nitrate and ammoniacal nitrogen due to the accelerated decomposition. During four week period, the total carbon degraded to 54% with mixed culture showing a maximum decomposition, followed by P. chrysosporium 53.4%, A. niger 41%, T. reesie 34.6% and control 22.7%. A maximum increase of total nitrogen content of 92.1% was recorded with mixed culture followed by 77.4% with P.chrysosporium, 67.6% with A.niger, 64.7% with T. reesie and 39% with control. The CIN ratio of 47 in EFB compost improved to 11.34 with mixed culture, to between 12.32 - 18.67 with single cultures and to 26. 14 with control. There was a 60% reduction in the CIN ratio over the control. The addition of mixed culture is therefore shown to be more effective than single culture and natural composting (control). The SSB technique was found to be feasible technology with high potential for EFB conversion into compost. The compost prepared by such techniques was rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and humus content. The observations of this study will provide future guidelines for the production of non-hazardous environmental friendly organic fertilisers.


Purpose
This paper aims to draw on the trust-commitment theory and the framework of service-dominant marketing logic to investigate the potential effect of trust at both brand and service personnel level on consumers' value co-creation behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a consumer perspective to investigate and interpret consumers' value co-creation behaviour. The measurement scales were developed based on literature review and findings from focus group study. Survey interviews were undertaken in the USA and Hong Kong so as to test the potential moderator effect of country.

Findings
Effort-in-use and service co-design behaviour are two aspects of value cocreation behaviour. The findings provide theoretical expansion of the theory on value cocreation in two ways and suggest to discriminate the effect of consumer trust on and role in value cocreation behaviour at brand and service employee levels. Besides, the relationships among "trust in employee", "trust in brand", effort in use behaviour, service co-design behaviour, and customers' perceived value actually could be moderated by country factor.

Research limitations/implications
The study only focuses on the behavioural dimension of value cocreation behaviour but provides a number of suggestions on how to expand the domain of the measurement scale for value co-creation behaviour, cultural influences and customer perceived value and identifies several potential moderators such as reputation of the service brand and type of service for future research.

Practical implications
The findings provide important insights to service marketers on how to adopt appropriate service strategy, service operation, marketing communications and service training to facilitate consumers' value co-creation behaviour.

Originality/value
The present study represents the first attempt to investigate the potential impact of consumer trust at different levels on customers' value cocreation behaviour. It explains the connections between trust as an antecedent to value cocreation under different country contexts, thereby adding new knowledge in both domains.


Conventional solar cells absorb photons with energy above the bandgap of the active layer while sub-bandgap photons are unharvested. One way to overcome this loss is to capture the low energy light in the triplet state of a molecule capable of undergoing triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA), which pools the energy of two triplet states into one high energy singlet state that can then be utilized. This mechanism underlies the function of an organic intermediate band solar cell (IBSC). Here, we report a solid-state organic IBSC that shows enhanced photocurrent derived from TTA that converts sub-bandgap light into charge carriers. Femtosecond resolution transient absorption spectroscopy and delayed fluorescence spectroscopy provide evidence for the triplet sensitization and upconversion mechanisms, while external quantum efficiency measurements in the presence of a broadband background light demonstrate that sub-bandgap performance enhancements are achievable in this device. The solid-state architecture introduced in this work serves as an alternative to previously demonstrated solution-based IBSCs, and is a compelling model for future research efforts in this area.


Spectral transmittance signatures (expressed as absorbances) were studied as a potential indicator of photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic contributions to the canopy-absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). An analytical approach was made under laboratory conditions using synthetic canopies in an integrating sphere. This approach provided the basis for identifying spectral (absorbance-based) features and indices to estimate green (photosynthetic) and nongreen (structural and dead materials) contributions to canopy absorbance. A strong relationship was found between the amplitude of the first derivative of the absorbance (ARE) and green area, while the integrated absorbance in the PAR region (APAR) mainly responded to variations in total area. The ratio ARE/APAR was closely correlated to the fraction of photosynthetic area to total area (i.e., the canopy green fraction). Similarly, the ratio and normalized difference of the absorbances at 680 and 900 nm (ASR and ANDVI) closely tracked variations in the canopy green fraction. Subsequently, these indices were tested in field plots with contrasting structural characteristics. Under field conditions, ARE was a good indicator of green biomass. The indices ASR and ANDVI were also reliable indicators of green biomass but were affected by changes in sampling conditions. As in the lab study, ARE/APAR was a good indicator of canopy green fraction. Thus, ground-based measurements of canopy spectral transmittance provided a tool for determining the photosynthetic contribution to canopy-absorbed PAR by correcting for nonphotosynthetic canopy components. Moreover, ARE showed a strong correlation with conventional vegetation indices derived from spectral reflectance measurements. This technique could be a useful tool for plant ecophysiology studies and a field-validation method for remote-sensing studies.


Study Objectives: To examine the influence of maternal sleep quality and nocturnal sleep duration on risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in a multiethnic Asian population. Methods: A cohort of 686 women (376 Chinese, 186 Malay, and 124 Indian) with a singleton pregnancy attended a clinic visit at 26‐28 weeks of gestation as part of the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes mother‐offspring cohort study. Self‐reported sleep quality and sleep duration were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). GDM was diagnosed based on a 75‐g oral glucose tolerance test administered after an overnight fast (1999 WHO criteria). Multiple logistic regression was used to model separately the associations of poor sleep quality (PSQI score > 5) and short nocturnal sleep duration (<6 h) with GDM, adjusting for age, ethnicity, maternal education, body mass index, previous history of GDM, and anxiety (State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory score). Results: In the cohort 296 women (43.1%) had poor sleep quality and 77 women (11.2%) were categorized as short sleepers; 131 women (19.1%) were diagnosed with GDM. Poor sleep quality and short nocturnal sleep duration were independently associated with increased risk of GDM (poor sleep, adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11 to 2.76; short sleep, adjusted OR = 1.96, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.66). Conclusions: During pregnancy, Asian women with poor sleep quality or short nocturnal sleep duration exhibited abnormal glucose regulation. Treating sleep problems and improving sleep behavior in pregnancy could potentially reduce the risk and burden of GDM.


The number of new infections per day is a key quantity for effective epidemic management. It can be estimated by testing of random population samples. Without such direct epidemiological measurement, other approaches are required to infer whether the number of new cases is likely to be increasing or decreasing: for example, estimating the pathogen reproductive rate, R, using data gathered from the clinical response to the disease. For COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) such R estimation is heavily dependent on modelling assumptions, because the available clinical case data are opportunistic observational data subject to severe temporal confounding. Given this difficulty it is useful to reconstruct the time course of infections from the least compromised available data, using minimal prior assumptions. A Bayesian inverse problem approach applied to UK data on COVID-19 deaths and the disease duration distribution suggests that infections were in decline before full UK lockdown (24 March 2020), and that infections in Sweden started to decline only a day or two later.


A cultural studies textbook that deals with issues of methodology, as well as mapping out the history and theories and ideas in cultural studies. The book examines the work of Raymond Williams, Lacan and Hoggart, among Others, And Explores Notions Of Subculture, Psychoanalysis, Marxist thought, narrative, autobiography, fiction, subjectivity, language, history and representation. The book focuses on the past, present and future of cultural studies, with the aim of providing readers with a clear overview of the central ideas within the area, developing current debates and possible future avenues.


Rhodamine 6G (R6G) doped thin films composed of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and Pluronic P104 were spin cast onto glass microscope slides and characterized by ultraviolet–visible, steady-state, and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show that R6G aggregation within the film increases as the R6G concentration and P104 loading increases. These results suggest an approach for studying drug distributions (monomers, aggregates) within biodegradable polymer formulations.


Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust relate to prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing), stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations (e.g., mandatory quarantine). We further tested whether cross-societal variation in institutions and ecologies theorized to impact cooperation were associated with prosocial COVID-19 responses, including institutional quality, religiosity, and historical prevalence of pathogens. We found substantial variation across societies in prosocial COVID-19 responses, stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations. However, we found no consistent evidence to support the idea that cross-societal variation in cooperation and trust among strangers is associated with these outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These results were replicated with another independent cross-cultural COVID-19 dataset (N = 112,136), and in both snowball and representative samples. We discuss implications of our results, including challenging the assumption that managing the COVID-19 pandemic across societies is best modeled as a public goods dilemma.


The main theme of the thesis is a discussion of education and social change in the three East Asian societies over the post-war period. The thesis is divided into four sections. The first is a background study. In this section, the social and educational backgrounds of the respective societies are discussed. Special attention is paid to the stress on modernization as a common orientation in social developments. Major concepts and definitions of modernization are discussed and an attempt is made to study the modern development of these societies in the light of modernization theories. The second section is a discussion of education in technological societies. The concepts of industrial, post- industrial and technological societies are discussed in the light of the works of the major social theorists and futurologists. The development of technology and its relationships with education are outlined. Further, the social implications and problems of technological and scientific education are analysed. The third section is a discussion of education in rapidly changing societies. The acceleration of social change in modern societies is traced. Rapid changes in the educational scene of the respective societies are also outlined. The social implications and problems of the rapidity of change and the role and functions of education in face of rapid change are discussed. The fourth section is a discussion of the emergence of credentialism in modern societies and its manifestation in education. Negative aspects of diplomaism, excessive competition and examination systems are discussed. In conclusion, an overall review of the relationships between education and social development is made. There is an analysis of the fundamental educational problems of modem societies, and finally, in this context, a suggestion that the objectives of education should be reconsidered.


Is schizophrenia caused and ultimately guided by biology or do environmental factors such as culture and interaction style impact the course and even the onset of this disease? In this paper, the biological mechanisms of schizophrenia and the environmental influences on its behavioral and biological symptomology will be explored. Evidence will be provided that supports both the biological etiology of this mental illness as well as the strong influence of environmental factors, such as culture, on the severity, onset, and relapse rate of schizophrenia. It will be shown that even the structure and function of the schizophrenic brain is influenced by environmental factors, particularly social factors. The biocultural study of schizophrenia cross culturally is a fertile area and ideas for future research will be explored.


The major light-harvesting chlorophyll alb binding proteins of the photosynthetic apparatus are encoded by families of nuclear cab genes. The expression of most cab genes is tissue specific and photoregulated in angiosperms. In trans? genic tobacco plants, expression of the reporter gene (3-glucuronidase (GUS) is photoregulated and tissue specific from 5' upstream sequences of the rice cablR gene; deletion of sequences upstream from position -170 with respect to the transcription start site eliminates the enhanced and photoregulated expression in the transgenic plants. Using an in situ transient expression assay, we have determined that the sequence OCT-R, an octamer repeat that lies within the -269 to -170 region of cablR, is essential for photoregulated expression of the chimeric GUS gene in leaf cells of maize and rice but is not required for expression in illuminated tobacco leaves. Conversely, box III*- and G-box-like sequences found near OCT-R in cablR are necessary for high-level transient expression of the reporter gene in tobacco leaf tissue but are not required for transient expression in maize or rice leaves.


Abstract. Using measurements from the national network of 12 weather radar stations for the 11-year period 2000–2010, we investigate the large-scale spatio-temporal variability of precipitation over Sweden. These statistics provide useful information to evaluate regional climate models as well as for hydrology and energy applications. A strict quality control is applied to filter out noise and artifacts from the radar data. We focus on investigating four distinct aspects: the diurnal cycle of precipitation and its seasonality, the dominant timescale (diurnal versus seasonal) of variability, precipitation response to different wind directions, and the correlation of precipitation events with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO). When classified based on their intensity, moderate- to high-intensity events (precipitation > 0.34 mm/3 h) peak distinctly during late afternoon over the majority of radar stations in summer and during late night or early morning in winter. Precipitation variability is highest over the southwestern parts of Sweden. It is shown that the high-intensity events (precipitation > 1.7 mm/3 h) are positively correlated with NAO and AO (esp. over northern Sweden), while the low intensity events are negatively correlated (esp. over southeastern parts). It is further observed that southeasterly winds often lead to intense precipitation events over central and northern Sweden, while southwesterly winds contribute most to the total accumulated precipitation for all radar stations. Apart from its operational applications, the present study demonstrates the potential of the weather radar data set for studying climatic features of precipitation over Sweden.


Tayo is a French-lexified contact language spoken by the people of St-Louis, a village on the outskirts of Noumea, New Caledonia. The formation period of Tayo occurred between 1860 and 1880. Its first generation of monolingual speakers was born in the early years of the twentieth century. Some of this generation was still living in St-Louis towards the end of the twentieth century. Their speech, recorded chiefly during the late 1980s, provides evidence of early forms of the language that is relatively free of any decreolising influence. Research carried out to date on Tayo indicates that many of its structures depart radically from what has been considered a "typical" creole pattern; instead, they appear to more closely resemble structures in the substrate languages. This chapter presents a brief description of the sociohistorical background surrounding the formation of Tayo, and identifies and examines the structures that make up Tayo's tense-modality-aspect (TMA) system. The main features of the TMA systems of Tayo's major substrate languages, Cemuhi, Drubea and Xârâcuu, are then described in order to compare them with corresponding Tayo features and to identify congruent structures among the four languages. An explanation is offered for the presence of some substrate TMA features in Tayo and the absence of others.


The impetus to write this article stems from a special session at SEG's 2010 Annual Meeting on "Interaction between Academia and Industry." The session articulated important issues that both industry and academia involved with Earth sciences have to deal with and the panelists and authors of this paper decided to meet at two subsequent meetings in Houston in the spring of 2011 as an ad-hoc group. The group was engaged in the discussion because of the importance of the human resources issue. The group focused on the problem of a severe manpower shortage that is predicted in the Earth science field in the near future. This article summarizes the issue with data and possible solutions.


Autobiography As Self-Discovery and Affirmation in James Weldon Johnson's Journey, Along This Way"It is the subject of a biography that commands attention, not the art nor craft that has gone into the writing of it."(Kramer, "Writing Writers' Lives," 3.)"There is no history: there is only biography"(Emerson, Journals VI A, 202.)The African-American minister, John Marrant, wrote in his Journal about two hundred years ago, that, often, deep experience is "beyond expression" (127.). In regular speech, one hears the cliche, "words cannot adequately express" and speakers grope and complain that "they are at a loss for words". The experience one has in reading autobiography, in general, often leaves one knowing that he or she has not read all, because for the writer, some of his or her experiences seem to be "beyond expression": and this is precisely the effect that James Weldon Johnson's autobiography, Along This Way, has upon the present reader. Yet, one must also realize that in the selection of Johnson's experiences, the lacunae may represent experiences beyond his own expression. He keeps silence on areas of his life that he considers sacred -- his intimate relationships, his family relationships, and his personal problems. Like other life writings, Johnson's autobiography is a literary occasion, as well as an historical act, giving validity to Albert E. Stone's observation that:[To read] another's life story...is to immerse oneself in human experience in all its interconnections and manifestations.... The autobiographer's whole consciousness remodels the past into a narrative shape which necessarily resembles chronicle, fiction, fable, dream and myth.... Autobiography is also and simultaneously "history" (3).Along This Way does all the above and speaks not only of its author, James Weldon Johnson, but, also, of his era and satisfies his need for artistic communication. Then, according to Arthur M. Clark, this type of artistic autobiography is based upon self discovery, where the writers objectify their realization and take pride in their artistic discovery. (23). Johnson really becomes the subject of the work, commands the attention that Kramer mentions in the quotation above and, simultaneously, his life also chronicles the history of the era as it relates to his life and interests.Early in the work, Johnson displays a consciousness about his future and the relationship of past, present, and future time. For example, during his sophomore year at Atlanta University, three of his closest friends were expelled after an incident of improper conduct (smoking and drinking off-campus). Johnson writes:I sometimes speculate on what might have happened had I not been called for baseball practice that Spring afternoon. Would I have gone with the Big Four? If I had, would I have stood out? Would I have tried to dissuade them, and if so, could I have succeeded? Or would I have followed along and be sent away too? Of course, I cannot answer any one of these questions, but I do know that I have been glad that I did not make myself liable for such punishment (83).As an emerging adult, Johnson felt no self-satisfaction that he was not one of the "guilty" ones. Indeed, he looked back at the occurrence with honesty, still not knowing himself and still not knowing how he would have reacted in the hour of temptation and peer pressure. Possibly, he could have saved his friends from themselves, but Johnson, recalling how unsure he was of himself then, states that uncertainty.The idea that in writing the autobiography the writer discovers himself seems particularly true for James Weldon Johnson who, at every stage of his adult life, had to make serious career choices from among equally attractive options. For example, upon his graduation from college, he had awaiting him, a job as the headmaster of his alma mater, the Staunton School, in Jacksonville and a scholarship to the Medical College of Harvard University! …


Phlyctema vagabunda syn. Neofabraea alba is a fungal pathogen that causes bull's eye rot (BER) of apples. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers complementary to the inter-transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA (ITS) and the β-tubulin gene region, and a TaqMan™ probe assay were developed to detect this pathogen. These assays were compared in quantitative PCR (qPCR) reactions for amplification of DNA extracted from several fungal species and from apple tissue. Although the ITS and the β-tubulin primers amplified all N. alba isolates, both primers also amplified a few other fungal species. The TaqMan™ probe used with published primers for N. alba only amplified N. alba isolates. The TaqMan™ assay resulted in the lowest crossing threshold (Ct) values for DNA extracted from apple fruit, leaves, and spores collected on cellophane from eight apple orchards. The TaqMan™ results were correlated with percentage BER (%BER) in a 400-apple sample harvested from the same orchards. The TaqMan™ probe assay was the most sensitive and specific qPCR protocol tested, and Ct values showed the best correlation with %BER.


In 2018, the Indonesian Government provided legal protection for the Sumatran Laughingthrush Garrulax bicolor. This species, endemic to the island of Sumatra, is now restricted to a few submontane and montane forests on the north and south of the island. Heavily trapped for the Indonesian songbird trade, populations are in serious decline. Calls to provide full protection for this species were made close to 15 years ago, and since that time, the Sumatran Laughingthrush has become very rare and categorised as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. While ex-situ conservation breeding programmes may help ensure this species does not go extinct, its continued survival in the wild will depend very much on effective law enforcement in Indonesia.


In this paper, we improve iterative greedy search algorithms in which atoms are selected serially over iterations, i.e., one-by-one over iterations. For serial atom selection, we devise two new schemes to select an atom from a set of potential atoms in each iteration. The two new schemes lead to two new algorithms. For both the algorithms, in each iteration, the set of potential atoms is found using a standard matched filter. In case of the first scheme, we propose an orthogonal projection strategy that selects an atom from the set of potential atoms. Then, for the second scheme, we propose a look-ahead strategy such that the selection of an atom in the current iteration has an effect on the future iterations. The use of look-ahead strategy requires a higher computational resource. To achieve a tradeoff between performance and complexity, we use the two new schemes in cascade and develop a third new algorithm. Through experimental evaluations, we compare the pro posed algorithms with existing greedy search and convex relaxation algorithms.


Humour can have both positive and negative effects on individuals, teams and organisations. Recent research has identified a humour styles model that separates humour usage into four psychological categories: self-enhancing humour, selfdefeating humour, affiliative humour and aggressive humour. This study replicates previously established bivariate relationships between the humour styles, social support, and wellbeing. Building on existing research, a multivariate framework is also investigated with each of the humour styles, looking at how social support factors into their relationship with wellbeing. Using a survey of 174 participants, two of the four humour styles were confirmed and support was found for the majority of the bivariate hypotheses, particularly regarding self-enhancing humour. Most significantly, both of the self-oriented humour styles were found to relate to wellbeing independently of social support. Implications of these findings are discussed for the workplace, with an emphasis on humour styles as an indicator of emotional wellbeing. It is suggested that the findings of this study support the theory of humour as a coping mechanism. Finally, as the existing theories of humour are argued to be insufficient, a contribution to the theoretical discussion of humour, introduced as reappraisal theory, is presented and discussed.


South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) are predictably preyed on by killer whales (Orcinus orca) at their breeding colonies in Peninsula Valdes, Argentina. Captures occur in shallow waters along the coastline. Killer whales strand in the surf where sea lion pups practice their swimming skills. Being slow and apparently unaware of danger (nonvigilant), pups are the most vulnerable prey (87% of captures). Adult sea lions escaped most attacks by increasing their swimming speed, changing directions swiftly, grouping, and hauling out of the water. In our observations, predator avoidance behaviours were contextual and based on the presence of killer whales and the degree of risk in the areas used by sea lions during their movements between rookeries. Swimming speed increased in sites where the risk of predation was highest and when killer whales were present. Vigilance and escape manoeuvres were recorded at these dangerous sites, characterized by deeper water and a sloping beach, which allowed the killer whales to strand or approach the coast safely. Predictability of the killer whales in space and time facilitates the South American sea lions in developing a reliable antipredation behaviour. Killer whales become more proficient at being predators, and adult sea lions become better at avoiding being preyed upon as they accumulate experience. The inexperience of the sea lion pups is the currency that sustains the killer whale's high rate of take.


Background: Donor reaction has the most negative impact on the blood donor return rate. Amelioration of some adverse events has the potential to improve return rate. This study was initiated with the aim to determine the frequency of various adverse reactions. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted over a period of 7 years and 1 month, from July 1, 2007, to August 31, 2014. The donor population analyzed consisted of 27,664 donors (26,557 males and 1107 females). Results: Only 195 donors (0.7%) suffered some adverse reactions. One hundred and fifty-eight (0.57% of the subjects) had mild reactions (agitation, sweating, giddiness, pallor, cold feeling, sense of weakness, nausea), and only 37 (0.13% with 10 females and 27 males) had more severe reactions (including vomiting, fainting, loss of consciousness, and convulsive syncope). Conclusions: Although the number of donors who developed adverse reactions during or immediately after the blood donation was very low, still it is very important to reduce risks to a minimum so that donor return rate could be maintained.


Objective To discuss the expression of interleukin-32 (IL-32) in glioma and its regulatory mechanism. Methods RT-PCR and Western blotting were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression levels of IL-32 in CHG-5 and U251 cell lines in vitro cultured for 3 d.And then, 10 ng/mL IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), TNF-β and interferon-gamma(IFN-γ) were put into U251 cell lines for 24 h,and RT-PCR was employed to detect the mRNA expression of IL-32; meanwhile,RT-PCR was also employed to detect the mRNA expression of IL-32 after the treatment of IL- 1 β,TNF-α and IFN-γ for different times,respectively. Results The mRNA expression of IL-32 in U251 cells was (6.41±1.12)-fold higher than that in CHG-5 cells (P<0.05);the protein expression level of IL-32 in U251 cells (0.95±0.42) was significantly higher than that in CHG-5 (0.28±0.13,P<0.05).IL-1β,TNF-α and IFN-γ markedly enhanced the IL-32 mRNA expression at 24 h after treatment as compared with that before treatment, and dose- and time-dependent manners of IL-32 mRNA expression were noted (P<0.05). Conclusion High expression of IL-32 is noted in glioma; IL-1β, TNF-α and IFN-γ can regulate the IL-32 mRNA expression with dose- and time-dependent manners.

Key words:
Glioma; Interleukin 32; Expression


Software engineering is the computer science discipline concerned with developing computer software. However, software engineering does not only include the technical perspective of producing software. It also involves management issues, such as planning, controlling, and monitoring a software project. A project typically embraces a structured set of activities, which are performed in a pre-determined sequence. The initial activity is generally the process of planning the project, which according to some is one of the most important and crucial efforts in order to achieve pre-defined objectives. Other states the opposite and claim that too much planning may obstruct development creativity. Current thesis explores the planning paradigm and the significance of planning efforts in the Swedish software industry. Contemporary literatures on software project planning are reviewed and presented. Moreover, the result of an empirical study, examining the relationship between project planning and project success, is presented.


European economic integration fascinates and inspires for the way it brought peace to a continent torn by violent and long-standing rivalries. The lessons from Europe, however, cannot be applied directly as the degree of the European Union's supranationality is unthinkable elsewhere. This paper discusses how Europe overcame the specific problem of overlapping free trade agreements (FTAs) with the Pan-European Cumulation System which instituted common rules of origin, regional cumulation of value, and completed the full matrix of bilateral FTAs. After this, Europe had what can be thought of as a "customs union" for rules of origin.


With the evolution of the surrounding world market, engineers have to propose innovations in products and processes. Industrial innovation frequently results from an improved understanding of basic physics. In this paper, an approach to accelerate inventive preliminary design is presented. This method combines the main advantages of CBR (Case Based Reasoning) and TRIZ (Russian acronym for Theory of Solving Inventive Problem) to transfer physics to industrial technology. Based on this synergy, interactive web-based environments are developed. These systems are intended not only to enhance students to become familiar with basic physics, but also to support students in building meaningful links between basic physics and industrial technologies. The evaluation was conducted in a "Special Project Design" course requiring students to design a robot that could carry out several functions. Robotics, an interdisciplinary engineering subject, has been a recurring theme in engineering education. Project-based learning provides opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. With project-based learning approaches, planning activities and investigations play a critical role in the project process. Through the web-based environments, students can explore the essence of basic physics, design technologies, and the integration of mechatronics. Further, web-based reasoning and meaningful learning modules are developed to scaffold creative design and to enhance student participation, motivation, and learning effectiveness. Quantitative and qualitative methods such as questionnaires and interviews were used to evaluate the effects of the developed system. Findings showed that inquiry modules were able to facilitate investigation and planning activities in product design stages. The responses obtained were very encouraging. Students in the course were appreciative of these on-going changes and indicated that these were indeed helping them to develop their engineering thinking and design skills, increasing their motivation to study.


Postpartum women are at high risk for unintended pregnancies and subsequent adverse perinatal outcomes often due to insufficient pregnancy intervals. There is a high burden of unmet family planning need caused by factors including inadequate education on post- partum contraception, limited access to healthcare professional in the immediate postpartum period, and lack of access to contraceptive options. This chapter will discuss the different contraceptive methods that can be utilized and their respective efficacies, venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk, and impact on lactation. Tubal ligation, lactation amenor- rhea, barrier methods, the copper intrauterine device (IUD), and progestin-only pills (POP) have no clinically significant impact on VTE risk or lactation for the majority of women postpartum. Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) injection, implants, and levonorgestrel (LNG) IUDs are considered to have no impact on breastfeeding based on limited clinical evidence. Contraceptive methods that contain estrogens may increase a woman ' s risk for VTE in the peri-partum period and should be deferred approximately 30 days postpartum. Sterilization and long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC), includ- ing IUDs and contraceptive arm implants, have been proven to be the most reliable and cost-effective methods, which also have high rates of patient satisfaction and continuation. Women have a range of safe contraceptive choices they can use to prevent pregnancy or to space their pregnancies. Health care systems should empower women to become edu- cated about and gain access to postpartum contraception so as to address unintended pregnancy disparities among this group of women. Above all, counseling should be patient-centered when choosing the right method for the woman.


Background: Esophageal candidiasis is associated with conditions that cause an immune depression. It is a defining disease for AIDS, is observed in poorly controlled diabetics, in patients with renal or hepatic failure, in patients with cancer and in subjects using medications causing immunosuppression or broad spectrum antimicrobials. Aim: To report the features of 10 immunocompetent patients with esophageal candidiasis. Patients and methods: Six males and four females aged between 48 and 82 years, without conditions associated with immunosuppression, in whom an esophageal candidiasis was found on an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Delayed skin hypersensitivity to eight antigens, Iymphocyte subpopulations, yeast phagocytosis and neutrophil chemotaxis were measured. Results: Six patients had a low CD4 Iymphocyte count and seven had a low CD8 count. Seven patients were anergic on skin hypersensitivity challenge. Yeast phagocytosis was abnormal in one patient and neutrophil chemotaxis was abnormal in two. Humoral immunity was normal in all subjects. All patients were treated with oral fluconazole in doses of 150 mg/day for 14 days, with complete resolution of candidiasis in all. Conclusions: Patients with esophageal candidiasis, have frequent alterations of cellular immunity, that must be diagnosed and treated (Rev Med Chile 2004; 132: 1389-94). (Key Words: Candidiasis, esophageal; Immunity, cellular; Immunocompetence)


Objective: The study aims to investigate the psychosocial health status of patients with pulmonary diseases in Jordan. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using 230 patients diagnosed with lung diseases from six major hospitals in Jordan used to collect data in regards to depressive symptoms, psychological distress, coping, life satisfaction, and perceived social support. Data were collected from Jan 2013 to May 2013. Results: About 50% of the patients reported moderate levels of ability to effectively cope with life situations, life satisfaction, psychological distress, and perceived social support from family, friends and others. About 29% of the patients reported that they had moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms had significant and negative correlation with life satisfaction and perceived social support (r = ﹣0.21 to ﹣0.39, p β = 2.72, p = 0.007), marital status (β = 2.63, p = 0.009), and life satisfaction (β = ﹣4.54, p ≤ 0.001) were the significant predictors of depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Health professionals need to screening for psychological disturbances for their patients. There should be integration between early detection of psychological disturbances and implementation of effective treatment plans.


The most important documents associated with the birth of Estonian statehood (the decision of the Estonian Provincial Assembly from 15 November 1917, the Estonian Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Tartu) contain the concept of self-determination. For the first time in the twentieth century, the right to self-determination was written into an international agreement in Tartu on 2 February 1920. Article II of the peace treaty acknowledged that Estonia's "birth certificate" was written out on the basis of legislation enacted by the Soviet regime, with which the Estonian side agreed. This treaty did not raise the right to self-determination to the level of international law. The peace treaties concluded between Soviet Russia and its other neighbours, which similarly employed the concept of self-determination, also did not manage to achieve this. How was the question of self-determination manifested in contacts between Estonia and the USA in 1918–19? The USA has not been selected randomly here and there are two reasons for this. First of all, Ants Piip, the author of the peace treaty and the foremost expert on international law in Estonia, was forced to admit that he did not understand the behaviour of the USA. The attitude of the Americans was "particularly anomalous", even though Woodrow Wilson was considered an exponent of the "right to self-determination". He, nevertheless, was not the author of the idea of self-determination.
The concept of self-determination was used in at least three different meanings in 1917–19. Firstly, the most widely known form of self-determination in Eastern Europe and consequently also in Estonia was connected primarily to ethnic nationality. As such, the concept of self-determination and the debate surrounding it were employed altogether earlier than when Wilson used it. It was complicated to differentiate between linguistic-ethnic-cultural self-determination on the one hand and the Leninist or rather the Communist Party's notion derived from it but connected with class membership on the other hand. The third variety proffered by Wilson envisioned territorial-state self-determination partially founded on cultural identity. Wilson was concerned with the opportunities for people, but also the people as the citizenry or population, to choose the democratic system of government for themselves. Self-determination was more a democratic whole for Wilson shaped on the basis of people's common interests, originating from the interests of the people, or "self-government". For him, self-determination meant the opportunity for people or nations of their own accord to choose for themselves the democratic way of government. The USA expressed friendship and loyalty to the Russian state and people. The de jure recognition that the USA gave to the Baltic States remained conditional. This derived primarily from the vision of Russia's right to self-determination. Thereat the Russian people and its democratic representative body were expected to reach an agreement concerning the future status of its peripheral regions. The knowledge that Russia had supported the northern states during the American Civil War but did not directly intervene in American internal affairs held the Americans back from helping in any way to dismember Russia. Wilson's opposition to Russia's dismemberment was also opposition to the plans of Japan and also partially of Great Britain. Unfortunately, all this contradicted his internationalism, new diplomacy and ultimately even his slogan of self-determination and his plans for creating the League of Nations.
Estonian politicians used the concept of self-determination in their communication with the USA, even though they gave it more of a national-ethnic meaning as was done elsewhere in Eastern Europe. This was dangerously similar to the Leninist approach. The Estonian viewpoint nevertheless suited the USA administration more than the Leninist notion of self-determination, which contradicted Wilson's standpoint a great deal more. Since the concept of self-determination did not become part of international law, the legal status of Estonia and other countries like it remained conditional between the two world wars, at least in the eyes of the Americans.


We present an implementation of stable inductive logic programming (stable-ILP) [Sei97], a cross-disciplinary concept bridging machine learning and non-monotonic reasoning. In a deductive capacity, stable models give meaning to logic programs containing negative assertions and cycles of dependencies. In stable-ILP, we employ these models to represent the current state specified by (possibly) negative extensional and intensional (EDB and IDB) database rules. Additionally, the computed state then serves as the domain background knowledge for a top-down ILP learner. In this paper, we discuss the architecture of the two constituent computation engines and their symbiotic interaction in computer system INDED (pronounced "indeed"). We introduce the notion of negation as failure-to-learn and provide a real world source of negatively recursive rules (those of the form p ~- -~p) by explicating scenarios that foster induction of such rules. Last, we briefly mention current work using INDED in data mining.


Title of dissertation: ANALYSIS, VALIDATION, PREDICTION AND FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF ROTOR BLADE LOADS IN AN UNSTEADY MANEUVER Abhishek Abhishek, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Inderjit Chopra Department of Aerospace Engineering This study predicts, analyzes, and isolates the mechanisms of main rotor airloads, structural loads, and swashplate servo loads in a severe unsteady maneuver. The objective is, to develop a comprehensive transient rotor analysis for predicting maneuver loads. The main rotor structural loads encountered during unsteady maneuvers are important to size different critical components of the rotor system, particularly for advanced combat helicopters. These include the blade structural loads, control/pitch-link loads, and swashplate servo loads. Accurate and consistent prediction of maneuver loads is necessary to reduce the risks and costs associated with use of prior flight test data as a basis for design. The mechanism of rotor loads in different level flight regimes is well understood – transonic shock in high speed flight, inter-twinning of blade tip vortices below the rotor disk at low speed transonic flight, and two dynamic stall cycles on retreating blade during high altitude dynamic stall flight. All these physical phenomena can occur simultaneously during a maneuver. The goal is to understand the key mechanisms involved in maneuver and model them accurately. To achieve this, the aerodynamics and structural dynamics of UH60A rotor in unsteady maneuvering flight is studied separately. For identification of prediction deficiencies in each, first, the measured lift, drag, pitching moment and damper force from the UH-60A Flight Test Program for UTTAS pull-up maneuver (C11029: 2.16g pull-up maneuver) are used to obtain an accurate set of deformations. A multibody finite element blade model, developed for this purpose, is used to perform measured airloads analysis. Next, the resultant blade deformations are used to predict the airloads using lifting-line and RANS CFD aerodynamic models. Both lifting-line as well as CFD analyses predict all three stall cycles with prescribed deformations. From the airloads predicted using prescribed deformations, it is established that the advancing blade transonic stall, observed from revolution 12 onwards, is a twist stall triggered by 5/rev elastic twist deformation resulting in shock induced flow separation. The 5/rev elastic twist is triggered by the two retreating blade stalls from previous revolution, which are separated by 1/5 rev. The accurate prediction of both stall cycles on retreating blade holds the key to prediction of advancing blade stall. In analysis, advancing blade stall is triggered by a correct combination of control angles and 5/rev elastic twist. Some discrepancies are observed in higher harmonics of predicted torsion moment, which are not resolved by using measured airloads. The structural model and the aerodynamic models are coupled together to predict blade loads for the maneuver. The structural model is refined to include a three degrees of freedom swashplate model to calculate servo loads and to study the effect of swashplate dynamics on rotor loads. Lifting-line coupled analysis, though of low fidelity, is ideally suited to isolate the effects of free wake and dynamic stall. It is concluded that the UTTAS maneuver is almost entirely dominated by stall with little or no wake induced effect on blade loads, even though the wake cuts through the disk twice during the maneuver. At the peak of the maneuver, almost 75% of the operating envelope of a typical airfoil lies beyond stall. The peak-to-peak structural loads prediction from the lifting-line analysis show an under-prediction of 10%–20% in flap and chord bending moments and 50% in torsion loads. The errors stem from the prediction of 4 and 5/rev stall loads. Swashplate dynamics appears to have a significant impact on the servo loads unlike in level flight – with more than 50% variation in peak loads. The coupled analysis using CFD/CSD tight coupling shows considerable improvements in the predicted results by using a CFD model over a traditional liftingline approach. In particular, the coupled CFD/CSD simulation is able to correctly predict the magnitude and phasing of the two dynamic stall cycles on the retreating side of the rotor disk during the maneuver. Further it shows significant improvement in the predicted peak-to-peak structural loads. The advancing blade stall is not predicted by either of the analyses. CFD/CSD analysis is not able to predict the advancing blade stall due to less satisfactory prediction of retreating blade dynamics stall cycles which are sensitive to the grid refinements and turbulence modeling. Analysis, Validation, Prediction And Fundamental Understanding Of Rotor Blade Loads In An Unsteady Maneuver by Abhishek Abhishek Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor Inderjit Chopra, Chair/Advisor Dr. Anubhav Datta Professor James Baeder Professor Roberto Celi Professor Sung Lee Professor Howard Elman, Dean's Representative c © Copyright by Abhishek Abhishek 2010


The unceasing advance of techno science, specifically biotechnology, has open a world full of new possibilities, not without risks. The article's purpose is to analyze the ecological and social conflicts that the introduction of biotechnology has generated in Latin America and to elucidate which are the relevant actors and fields where biotechnological development would not be transformed into a technocracy, but rather a place for public engagement, where biotechnology could be a possibility "appropriated" by society. To carry out this task it is necessary to identify which is the real situation, the risks, the institutional discourses and the fields where the different actors could interact, so that bioethics would operate not only as a mediator, but also hermeneutically. This reflection would not situate Bioethics only in an academic field, but it should create or look for mechanisms for the generation of bioethical praxis.


Compensation for parameter dispersion is a significant challenge for control of inhomogeneous quantum ensembles. In this paper, we present the systematic methodology of sampling-based learning control (SLC) for simultaneously steering the members of inhomogeneous quantum ensembles to the same desired state. The SLC method is employed for optimal control of the state-to-state transition probability for inhomogeneous quantum ensembles of spins as well as � -type atomic systems. The procedure involves the steps of (i) training and (ii) testing. In the training step, a generalized system is constructed by sampling members according to the distribution of inhomogeneous parameters drawn from the ensemble. A gradient flow based learning and optimization algorithm is adopted to find an optimal control for the generalized system. In the process of testing, a number of additional ensemble members are randomly selected to evaluate the control performance. Numerical results are presented, showing the effectiveness of the SLC method.


Background: Endotracheal-suctioning (ETS) is a procedure that may constitute a risk factor for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) by increasing microbial colonization of the lower airway. Unsafe ETS practices have been observed worldwide during recent years. Because of adverse reactions, practioners need to take all necessary precautions to ensure patient safety and a high quality of nursing care. The aim of the present study was to evaluate critical-care nurses' performance in relation to current recommendations in their daily practice prior to, during and post ETS events. Methods: A structured, non-participatory, observational study (n=40) was conducted using a 25-item best-practice information sheet to assess critical-care nurses' ETS practices in a mixed medical-surgical intensive-care unit. One- sample- and independent-samples t -tests were used to compare critical-care nurses' ETS performance against current recommendations within different ICU experience groups. Results: The quality of observed ETS practices was significantly lower than the required quality of care ( p <0.001). The most significant discrepancies were observed in ETS practices related to infection-control practices. Conclusion: Critical-care nurses are currently not following current ETS recommendations. Significant discrepancies, which may constitute a risk factor for VAP by increasing microbial colonization of the lower airway, were identified. Unsafe ETS practices may jeopardize patient safety, and thus the quality of nursing care. Educational interventions, clinical guidelines and adequate support need to be provided to critical-care nurses to assess and improve their professional capabilities and current practice. Regular auditing and prompt feedback would be beneficial.


We are interested in how to design reinforcement learning agents that provably reduce the sample complexity for learning new tasks by transferring knowledge from previously-solved ones. The availability of solutions to related problems poses a fundamental trade-off: whether to seek policies that are expected to achieve high (yet sub-optimal) performance in the new task immediately or whether to seek information to quickly identify an optimal solution, potentially at the cost of poor initial behavior. In this work, we focus on the second objective when the agent has access to a generative model of state-action pairs. First, given a set of solved tasks containing an approximation of the target one, we design an algorithm that quickly identifies an accurate solution by seeking the state-action pairs that are most informative for this purpose. We derive PAC bounds on its sample complexity which clearly demonstrate the benefits of using this kind of prior knowledge. Then, we show how to learn these approximate tasks sequentially by reducing our transfer setting to a hidden Markov model and employing spectral methods to recover its parameters. Finally, we empirically verify our theoretical findings in simple simulated domains.


An in situ domino process has been developed to be highly efficient for direct and mild conversion of various hexose sugars to the biofuel 2,5-dimethylfuran in almost quantitative yields, without separation of unstable intermediates at 120 °C in n-butanol, by using polymethylhydrosiloxane and hydrophobic Pd/C as a H-donor and a bifunctional catalyst, respectively. Among the cascade reactions, the hydrosilylation process was confirmed by deuterium-labeling and kinetic studies to be favorable for sugar dehydration and exclusively acts on deoxygenation of in situ formed intermediates including furanic alcohols and aldehydes to DMF via a hydride transfer process that was facilitated by an alcoholic solvent. The catalytic system is more selective than the H2-participated counterpart, and could be scaled up with only 0.04 mol% catalyst loading, giving DMF in a comparable yield of 85%. Moreover, Pd(0) was demonstrated to be the active species for deoxygenation, and the heterogeneous catalyst exhibited good recyclability with little elemental leaching.


LINUS is an abbreviation o f Literacy and Numeracy Screening. The program has been
implemented by the Ministry o f Education (MOE) under the National Key Result Area (NKRA)
mandate since 2010 to ensure students master literacy and numeracy. In discovering the
implementation o f the LINUS Program, this descriptive-correlational study was intended to seek
how school heads influence the success o f LINUS program, thus the variables to be measured
were several attributes o f the school heads - awareness, commitment and leadership styles.
School heads were selected because they are directly responsible for the main leadership o f the
schools. The approach taken in this research was largely quantitative. A lot o f information have
been collected within a short period o f time by using quantitative techniques. The questionnaires
have been tested through a pilot test involving 20 respondents who had been selected at random
among the school heads who were attending courses at Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB) while the
respondents were those who attended meeting at PPD Gombak. All the school heads o f primary
schools in Gombak district have been randomly selected as the respondents in this study. The
analysis from this study shows that most o f the school heads were committed with the LINUS
program based on the check list o f commitment, a moderate awareness o f LINUS program by the
school heads in Gombak district and a moderate level o f commitment o f LINUS program by the
school heads. Meanwhile for leadership style, the school heads can be marked between the
M iddle-of-the-Road and the Team style. Data for school performance shows that 65.2% (43
schools) have achieved the KPI, meanwhile 34.8% (23 schools) did not achieved the KPI. In
addition, the data shows that there was a moderate and significant relationship between school
heads' awareness and school heads' commitment (r = 0.554, p-value = 0.000) and there was no
statistically significant association between school heads' leadership and school performance
(%(1) = 1.898, p-value = 0.168). Accordingly, all o f the proposed recommendations can be
presented to the Ministry o f Education (MOE) to help school heads, especially in providing
appropriate recommendations for the problems involving LINUS program to benefit the students.


This dissertation investigates aspects of sovereign credit risk in advanced and emerging economies. It consists of two chapters. Chapter 1 studies the determinants of sovereign credit default swap (CDS) spreads for 16 advanced economies during the recent financial crisis. We document that the state of the world financial system, and since the beginning of the crisis, the state of a country's domestic financial system, have strong explanatory power for the behavior of CDS spreads. Furthermore, the magnitude of this effect depends on the relative importance of a country's financial system pre-crisis. Our results suggest the presence of a private-to-public risk transfer through which market participants incorporate their expectations about the potential burden of government intervention. Chapter 2 studies the extent to which macro-economic variables govern the dynamics of emerging market sovereign CDS spreads. In this chapter, I propose a structural model of sovereign credit risk based on a country's access to international capital flows through exports, imports and international reserves. The joint dynamics of the sovereign's repayment capacity and the amount of outstanding debt determine the level of default risk and thus the sovereign CDS spread. I implement the model for a sample of six emerging economies for a period covering the recent financial crisis. A calibrated version of the model captures the widening of sovereign spreads during the crisis and provides a good fit for their time-series dynamics. Lastly, I find that the market-implied level of country liabilities is on average 13% larger than the reported level of debt. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Finance First Advisor Urban J. Jermann Second Advisor Karen K. Lewis Third Advisor Stephan Dieckmann


The attractant response of Ips confusus to frass produced by male beetles boring in ponderosa pine can be reproduced, in a laboratory bioassay, by a combination of compound I with either compound II or compound III, all isolated from frass. The same response by both sexes was elicited by mixtures of synthesized compounds. Compound I is (—)-2-methyl-6- methylene7-octen-4-ol; compound II, (+)-cis- verbenol; and compound III, (+)-2-methyl-6-methylene-2,7-octadien-4-ol.


Blast injury are common in war, terrorism, cooking, gas explosion etc. but cell phone blast injury are late and increasingly common injuries these days. It can involve different organs with short term and long term effect including "ripple effect". Present case a 7 year old boy suffered spontaneously cell phone blast causing head injury and left ear complete loss and amputated left hand fingers. NCCT head revealed multiple hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic contusions are seen in left temporal lobe. Patient was managed conservatively. Cell phone blast is more common in Asian countries where non brand batteries with low pricing are commonly used in low income groups. During the last years, terrorist have used cellular phone to remotely activate bombs. People also need education regarding handling cell phone. Present case is only rarest case of Cell phone blast causing internal cerebral injury.


Abstract Background: Rigorous reviews of available information, from a range of resources, are required to support medical and health educators in their decision making. Aim: The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of a review of theoretical frameworks specifically as a supplement to reviews that focus on a synthesis of the empirical evidence alone. Establishing a shared understanding of theory as a concept is highlighted as a challenge and some practical strategies to achieving this are presented. This article also introduces the concept of theoretical quality, arguing that a critique of how theory is applied should complement the methodological appraisal of the literature in a review. Method: We illustrate the challenge of establishing a shared meaning of theory through reference to experiences of an on-going review of this kind conducted in the field of interprofessional education (IPE) and use a high scoring paper selected in this review to illustrate how theoretical quality can be assessed. Findings: In reaching a shared understanding of theory as a concept, practical strategies that promote experiential and practical ways of knowing are required in addition to more propositional ways of sharing knowledge. Concepts of parsimony, testability, operational adequacy and empirical adequacy are explored as concepts that establish theoretical quality. Conclusions: Reviews of theoretical frameworks used in medical education are required to inform educational practice. Review teams should make time and effort to reach a shared understanding of the term theory. Theory reviews, and reviews more widely, should add an assessment of theory application to the protocol of their review method.


Objective:To investigate the clinical efficacy of adjuvant interferon alfa-2b (IFN&agr;-2b) therapy on recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with postoperative viral hepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Background:Despite most individual trials have failed to meet their primary endpoint, recent pooled-data meta-analyses suggest that adjuvant IFN therapy may significantly reduce the incidence of recurrence in curatively ablated HCC. Methods:Patients with curative resection of viral hepatitis-related HCC were eligible, and were stratified by underlying viral etiology and randomly allocated to receive either 53 weeks of adjuvant IFN&agr;-2b treatment or observation alone. The primary endpoint of this study was RFS. Results:A total of 268 patients were enrolled with 133 in the IFN&agr;-2b arm and 135 in the control arm. Eighty percent of them were hepatitis B surface antigen seropositive. At a median follow-up of 63.8 months, 154 (57.5%) patients had tumor recurrence and 84 (31.3%) were deceased. The cumulative 5-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates of intent-to-treat cohort were 44.2% and 73.9%, respectively. The median RFS in the IFN&agr;-2b and control arms were 42.2 (95% confidence interval [CI], 28.1–87.1) and 48.6 (95% CI, 25.5 to infinity) months, respectively (P = 0.828, log-rank test). Adjuvant IFN&agr;-2b treatment was associated with a significantly higher incidence of leucopenia and thrombocytopenia. Thirty-four (24.8%) of treated patients required dose reduction, and 5 (3.8%) of these patients subsequently withdrew from therapy because of excessive toxicity. Adjuvant IFN&agr;-2b only temporarily suppressed viral replication during treatment period. Conclusions:In this study, adjuvant IFN&agr;-2b did not reduce the postoperative recurrence of viral hepatitis-related HCC. More potent antiviral therapy deserves to be explored for this patient population. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov and carries the identifier NCT00149565.


Previous reports of glial cell activity may reflect the pharmacological approaches used and not endogenous activity. In the past 20 years, glial cells have been elevated from being considered as passive elements during neuronal transmission. By eliciting astroglial calcium rises, so-called gliotransmitters such as glutamate, ATP, or D-serine can be released and the activity of neighboring neurons modulated. However, this emerging picture has been challenged. Agulhon et al. (see the Perspective by Kirchhoff) reexamined these questions using two previously characterized mouse models. Calcium elevations induced selectively in astrocytes caused no change in multiple measures of synaptic activity. Furthermore, in mutant mice unable to elevate intracellular calcium, all synaptic measures were at wild-type levels. Astrocytic calcium signaling activity was thus not tied to the release of gliotransmitters and did not affect synaptic transmission or short- and long-term synaptic plasticity. C. Agulhon, T. A. Fiacco, K. D. McCarthy, Hippocampal short- and long-term plasticity are not modulated by astrocyte Ca2+ signaling. Science 327, 1250–1254 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text] F. Kirchhoff, Questionable calcium. Science 327, 1212–1213 (2010). [Summary] [Full Text]


The kringle modules of apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)] of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] are highly homologous with kringle 4 of plasminogen (75-94%) and like the latter are autonomous structural and functional units. Apo(a) contains 14-37 kringle 4 (KIV) repeats distributed into 10 classes (1-10). Lp(a) binds lysine-Sepharose via a lysine binding site (LBS) located in KIV-10 (88% homology with plasminogen K4). However, the W72R substitution that occurs in rhesus monkeys and occasionally in humans leads to impaired lysine binding capacity of KIV-10 and Lp(a). The foregoing has been investigated by determining the structures of KIV-10/M66 (M66 variant) in its unliganded and ligand [epsilon-aminocaproic acid (EACA)] bound modes and the structure of recombinant KIV-10/M66R72 (the W72R mutant). In addition, the EACA liganded structure of a sequence polymorph (M66T in about 42-50% of the human population) was reexamined (KIV-10/T66/EACA). The KIV-10/M66, KIV-10/M66/EACA, and KIV-10/T66/EACA molecular structures are highly isostructural, indicating that the LBS of the kringles is preformed anticipating ligand binding. A displacement of three water molecules from the EACA binding groove and a movement of R35 bringing the guanidinium group close to the carboxylate of EACA to assist R71 in stabilizing the anionic group of the ligand are the only changes accompanying ligand binding. Both EACA structures were in the embedded binding mode utilizing all three binding centers (anionic, hydrophobic, cationic) like plasminogen kringles 1 and 4. The KIV-10/T66/EACA structure determined in this work differs from one previously reported [Mikol, V., Lo Grasso, P. V. and, Boettcher, B. R. (1996) J. Mol. Biol. 256, 751-761], which crystallized in a different crystal system and displayed an unbound binding mode, where only the amino group of EACA interacted with the anionic center of the LBS. The remainder of the ligand extended into solvent perpendicular to the kringle surface, leaving the hydrophobic pocket and the cationic center of the LBS unoccupied. The structure of recombinant KIV-10/M66R72 shows that R72 extends along the ligand binding groove parallel to the expected position of EACA toward the anionic center (D55/D57) and makes a salt bridge with D57. Thus, the R72 side chain mimics ligand binding, and loss of binding ability is the result of steric blockage of the LBS by R72 physically occupying part of the site. The rhesus monkey lysine binding impairment is compared with that of chimpanzee where KIV-10 has been shown to have a D57N mutation instead.


Forest transitions (FT) occur when socioeconomic development leads to a shift from net deforestation to reforestation; these dynamics have been observed in multiple countries across the globe, including the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Starting in the 1950s, Puerto Rico transitioned from an agrarian to a manufacturing and service economy reliant on food imports, leading to extensive reforestation. In recent years, however, net reforestation has leveled off. Here we examine the drivers of forest transition in Puerto Rico from 1977 to 2000 at two subnational, nested spatial scales (municipality and barrio) and over two time periods (1977-1991 and 1991-2000). This study builds on previous work by considering the social and biophysical factors that influence both reforestation and deforestation at multiple spatial and temporal scales. By doing so within one analysis, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the relative importance of various social and biophysical factors for forest transitions and the scales at which they are manifest. Biophysical factors considered in these analyses included slope, soil quality, and land-cover in the surrounding landscape. We also considered per capita income, population density, and the extent of protected areas as potential factors associated with forest change. Our results show that, in the 1977-1991 period, biophysical factors that exhibit variation at municipality scales (~100 km²) were more important predictors of forest change than socioeconomic factors. In this period, forest dynamics were driven primarily by abandonment of less productive, steep agricultural land in the western, central part of the island. These factors had less predictive power at the smaller barrio scale (~10 km²) relative to the larger municipality scale during this time period. The relative importance of socioeconomic variables for deforestation, however, increased over time as development pressures on available land increased. From 1991-2000, changes in forest cover reflected influences from multiple factors, including increasing population densities, land development pressure from suburbanization, and the presence of protected areas. In contrast to the 1977-1991 period, drivers of deforestation and reforestation over this second interval were similar for the two spatial scales of analyses. Generally, our results suggest that although broader socioeconomic changes in a given region may drive the demand for land, biophysical factors ultimately mediate where development occurs. Although economic development may initially result in reforestation due to rural to urban migration and the abandonment of agricultural lands, increased economic development may lead to deforestation through increased suburbanization pressures.


Identifying the factors that influence electricity demand in the continental United States and mathematically characterizing them are important for developing electricity consumption projections. The price elasticity of demand is especially important, since the electricity price effects of policy implementation can be substantial and the demand response to policy-induced changes in prices can significantly affect the cost of policy compliance. This paper estimates electricity demand functions with particular attention paid to the demand stickiness that is imposed by the capital-intensive nature of electricity consumption and to regional, seasonal, and sectoral variation. The analysis uses a partial adjustment model of electricity demand that is estimated in a fixed-effects OLS framework. This model formulation allows for the price elasticity to be expressed in both its short-run and long-run forms. Price elasticities are found to be broadly consistent with the existing literature, but with important regional, seasonal, and sectoral differences.


The 2007 Minnesota Next Generation Energy Act established goals for reducing statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% by 2015, 30% by 2025, and 80% by 2050, relative to 2005 levels. This report investigates strategies for meeting those reductions in Minnesota's transportation sector, which produces approximately 24% of total state GHG emissions. The study focuses on three types of emission-reduction strategies: those that improve vehicle fuel economy, those that reduce the number of vehicle-miles traveled, and others that decrease the carbon content of fuel. The researchers used a quantitative model to test the effectiveness of specific strategies for GHG emission reduction from transportation in Minnesota. Modeled scenario outcomes depend strongly on input assumptions, and lead to the following three main conclusions: 1. Meeting state goals will require all three types of policies. For example, Minnesota could adopt a GHG emissions standard, a low-carbon fuel standard, and comprehensive transit and Smart Growth policies. 2. Technologies are available today to substantially improve fuel economy and vehicle GHG emissions. Requiring these technologies could save Minnesota consumers money and better insulate them from oil price volatility. 3. Changes in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) have a strong impact on whether the goals can be met, and increases in VMT can offset GHG reductions. Overall, the research indicates that the goals can be met, but achieving them requires consistent and concerted action beginning immediately.


Abstract Variations in clay mineral assemblages, changes in Kübler index (KI), and the chemical composition of chlorites are used to identify source areas in the lacustrine materials in the Lower Cretaceous Leza Limestone Formation of the Cameros Basin, northern Spain. This formation has fairly homogeneous lithological characteristics and facies associations which do not allow for identification and characterization of local source areas. The Arnedillo lithosome of the Leza Limestone Formation contains a clay mineral association (Mg-chlorite, illite and smectite) indicative of its provenance. Chlorite composition and illite KI values indicate that these minerals were formed at temperatures higher than those reached by the Leza Formation which indicates its detrital origin. The similarity in the Mg-chlorite composition between the Arnedillo lithosome and the Keuper sediments of the area indicates that these materials acted as a local source area. This implies that Triassic sediments were exposed, at least locally, at the time of deposition of the Leza Formation. The presence of smectite in the Leza Formation is related to a retrograde diagenesis event that altered the Mg-chlorites in some samples.


Reactions of electron-poor dicyanomethylene compounds with N,N'-diraylacetamidines and imidazole derivatives have bee investigated with special emphasis on the reaction mechanism.
It could be shown that the compounds react by Michael-Addition-Elimination sequence to the observed spiro-compounds or the observed azepine derivatives.
In case of the reaction of 2-dicyanomethylene-1,3-indandion with 2-Methylimidazoles the corresponding products were created by the substitution of one cyano group.
All synthezised products may have use as active ingredient in medical products.
Furthermore, in case of fluoren derivatives, the spiro compounds can probably used in NLO-applications after methylation of the amino group.


This paper proposes wavelet-based moving object segmentation using change detection and background registration technique. The inter-frame difference for detecting change was calculated by using high frequency coefficients in wavelet subbands. The background was constructed with low frequency wavelet coefficients which were the approximated version of the original image. Combining detected changes and constructed backgrounds, we propose an efficient moving object segmentation algorithm. Our experimental results show that our proposed method obtains accurate video object planes (VOPs) in a video sequence.


In this paper, a multiband printed antenna has been proposed. The antenna structure is inspired from that of the classical multi-cavity magnetron resonator. The antenna structure is composed of a slot annular ring structure etched on the ground plane of a substrate. The outer circle of the annular ring is loaded with radially arranged small trapezoidal slots. While on the other side of the substrate, the antenna is fed with a 50-Ohm microstrip line. A parametric study has been conducted to explore the effect of the different antenna dimensions on its performance. The results show that the proposed antenna offers triple band resonant responses with considerable frequency ratios of f3/f2, and f2/f1. Measured results of the input reflection coefficient responses of a fabricated prototype are found to agree well with the theoretical findings. The antenna has an input reflection coefficient response enables it to serve the 2.4/5.2 GHz WLAN and the 3.5/4.5 GHz WiMax applications. Besides, the antenna offers reasonable radiation characteristic with acceptable values of the gain throughout the four resonant bands.


In this article a formal model of associative learning is presented that incorporates representational and computational mechanisms that, as a coherent corpus, empower it to make accurate predictions of a wide variety of phenomena that, so far, have eluded a unified account in learning theory. In particular, the Double Error Dynamic Asymptote (DDA) model introduces: (a) a fully connected network architecture in which stimuli are represented as temporally clustered elements that associate to each other, so that elements of one cluster engender activity on other clusters, which naturally implements neutral stimuli associations and mediated learning; (b) a predictor error term within the traditional error correction rule (the double error), which reduces the rate of learning for expected predictors; (c) a revaluation associability rate that operates on the assumption that the outcome predictiveness is tracked over time so that prolonged uncertainty is learned, reducing the levels of attention to initially surprising outcomes; and critically (d) a biologically plausible variable asymptote, which encapsulates the principle of Hebbian learning, leading to stronger associations for similar levels of cluster activity. The outputs of a set of simulations of the DDA model are presented along with empirical results from the literature. Finally, the predictive scope of the model is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).


The managerial implications of the service-dominant logic (SDL) of marketing are discussed in this article. In 2004, Vargo and Lusch outlined the SDL. That same year, the American Marketing Association (AMA) released a new definition of marketing based on the SDL. Because services are intimately tied to service providers (i.e., people), this paper focuses on how different types of people customers, managers, scholars, and students – influence the SDL. Explained first is how these four groups contribute to defining marketing under the SDL. Then, the challenges employees will face as their firms adopt the SDL are discussed; managers at these firms must answer many difficult questions about how to structure their organizations. Third, the competitive dynamics of the SDL are examined; specifically, this article discusses how evolving market conditions will force the SDL to change. Last, propositions are offered that explain how the SDL is likely to change in the future.


Biblical laws are found mainly in the Pentateuch (i.e., the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). The laws are linked to the figure of Moses, who is depicted as having received them directly from God in order to transmit them to the people of Israel during the years in the Wilderness after being released from slavery in Egypt. Biblical laws are thus presented as being of divine origin. Their authority was further bolstered by a tradition that they were included in covenants (i.e., formal agreements made between God and the people as recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy). Similar claims of divine origin were not made for other ancient Near Eastern laws; their authority flowed from kings, who issued the laws, although these kings might also be seen as having been placed on their thrones through the favor of the gods. The biblical law collections are unlike other ancient Near Eastern "codes" in that they include sacral laws (i.e., governing cult, worship, and ritual, as well as secular laws: namely, governing civil, and criminal behaviors). This mingling of sacral and secular categories is the likely reason both for the many terms used to denote the laws, as well as for the unexpected number of formulations in which they are presented. The formulations used in biblical law can be classified as "casuistic" or "non-casuistic." They are not equally distributed in the books of the Pentateuch nor are they equally used with secular and sacral laws. While there are similarities in content between secular laws found in the Hebrew Bible and laws found in the ancient Near Eastern law "codes," the latter do not exhibit a comparable variety in the numbers of law terms and formulations. The Hebrew Bible tended to "blur" the differences between the law terms and their formulations, ultimately to the point of subsuming them all under the law term torah ("teaching") to describe the totality of the divinely given laws in the Pentateuch. Biblical studies in general and Pentateuchal studies in particular are challenged by the fact that manuscripts contemporary with the events described have not survived the ravages the time. Scholars must therefore rely on looking for "clues" within the texts themselves (e.g., the laws cited by the prophets, the reform of Josiah, the teaching of torah by Ezra, and evidence for customs and customary laws found in books of the Hebrew Bible outside of the Pentateuch).


The United States has taken the lead in efforts to end international human trafficking - the movement of peoples from one country to another, usually involving fraud, for the purpose of exploiting their labor. Examples that have captured the headlines include the 300 Chinese immigrants that were smuggled to the United States on the ship Golden Venture and the young Mexican women smuggled by the Cadena family to Florida where they were forced into prostitution and confined in trailers. The public's understanding of human trafficking is comprised of terrible stories like these, which the media covers in dramatic, but usually short-lived bursts. The more complicated, long-term story of how policy on trafficking has evolved has been largely ignored. In "The War on Human Trafficking", Anthony M. DeStefano covers a decade of reporting on the policy battles that have surrounded efforts to abolish such practices, helping readers to understand the forced labor of immigrants as a major global human rights story. DeStefano details the events leading up to the creation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the federal law that first addressed the phenomenon of trafficking in persons. He assesses the effectiveness of the 2000 law and its progeny, showing the difficulties encountered by federal prosecutors in building criminal cases against traffickers. The book also describes the tensions created as the Bush Administration tried to use the trafficking laws to attack prostitution and shows how the American response to these criminal activities was impacted by the events of September 11th and the War in Iraq. Parsing politics from practice, this important book gets beyond sensational stories of sexual servitude to show that human trafficking has a much broader scope and is inextricable from the powerful economic conditions that impel immigrants to put themselves at risk.


The distribution of the cell adhesion molecule BEN in the developing chick inner ear is described. BEN is first detected in the otic placode at stage 11. As the placode begins to invaginate, BEN becomes concentrated in a ventromedial region extending from the anterior to the posterior end of the otic pit. BEN expression levels increase in this region as the pit closes to form the otocyst, and distinct boundaries become defined along the dorsal and ventral edges of the ventromedial band of BEN expression. BEN expression also becomes concentrated dorsally within the otic epithelium as the pit closes and is observed in the condensing otic ganglion. By stage 22, the ventromedial band of BEN expression splits into two distinct regions, a small caudal patch within which the posterior crista will develop, and a larger anterior patch. By stage 26, this larger anterior patch of cells expressing BEN becomes subdivided into five separate areas corresponding to the regions within which the anterior crista, the lateral crista, the utricle, the saccule, and both the basilar papilla and lagenar macula form. Hair cells only develop within these regions defined by BEN distribution. The data suggest that the ventromedial patch of BEN expression observed from stage 11 onwards defines a single sensory competent zone from which all sensory organs of the inner ear develop. BEN immunoreactivity in the inner ear declines after stage 38. In response to noise exposure, upregulation of BEN expression is mainly detected in regions of the posthatch papilla where the damage is severe and regenerating hair cells are not observed. The regenerating hair and supporting cells do not express BEN, highlighting a molecular difference between the processes of development and regeneration. J. Comp. Neurol. 434:275–288, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Starting our search for in vitro alternative methods to screen for steroidogenesis toxicity, we focused on the effects of (suggested) endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) on cytochrome P450 17 (CYP17) enzyme activity. CYP17 is responsible for conversion of progestagens to dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), the main precursor for androgens and estrogens, important for (fetal) sexual functioning and development. We developed a new assay to screen for effects on CYP17 activity using porcine adrenal cortex microsomes (PACMs) and compared this with the well-known H295R steroidogenesis assay. Also, effects of selected compounds on CYP19 (aromatase) activity in the H295R assay as well as human placental microsomes were assessed. 28 (suggested) EDCs were screened. The PACM assay showed to be an effective, rapid tool for screening of direct interaction of EDCs with CYP17. Furthermore, we discovered that CYP17 activity is regulated differently from CYP19. The addition of a specific and validated CYP17 assay to an EDC screening battery would be of added value on top of the existing steroidogenesis assays that mainly consider effects on the CYP19 enzyme. We further investigated a specific class of suggested EDCs: the conazole fungicide, some of which have been shown to affect male fertility parameters in vitro and in vivo. Ten conazole fungicides were selected and tested for potential in vitro (anti-)androgenic effects using the murine MA-10 cell line as well as an androgen receptor (AR) activity reporter assay. Exposure of MA-10 cells to six of these conazoles resulted in a decrease in basal testosterone (T) secretion. Nine of the tested conazole fungicides showed an inhibition of T-induced AR activation. Thus, several of the tested conazole fungicides showed distinct in vitro anti-androgenic effects in the performed assays. These effects are a result of two mechanisms, i.e. inhibition of T secretion and AR antagonism, suggesting that these compounds are potential testicular toxicants in vivo. Subsequently, the effects of two bisphenol analogues, two perfluorinated compounds, and two phthalates on ABC efflux transporters in the blood-testis barrier (BTB) were studied. Bisphenol A (BPA), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), as well as perfluorooctane-sulfonic acid (PFOS) inhibited breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) activity. BPA and PFOA showed to be substrates for BCRP. TBBPA, PFOA, and PFOS also showed inhibition of multidrug resistance proteins 1 and 4 (MRP1/4) and P-glycoprotein. In MA-10 cells, BPA and TBBPA concentration-dependently increased T secretion. For TBBPA, this could be blocked by inhibition of MRPs, generating the hypothesis that transporter-mediated efflux of T precursors is inhibited by TBBPA resulting in a higher availability of precursors for T production. This research indicates that, in EDC risk assessment, ABC efflux transporters present in the BTB are of toxicological and clinical relevance for testicular toxicity and should be taken into account. Next, effects of these several (structural) bisphenol analogues on AR and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activity modulation were tested, as well as testicular steroidogenesis in MA-10 cells. BPA, bisphenol F (BPF), and TBBPA, but not bisphenol S (BPS) showed differential inhibition of AR as well as GR activity. BPF and BPS exposure of MA-10 cells mainly resulted in higher levels of progestagens that are formed at the beginning of the steroidogenic pathway, whereas TBBPA shows a distinct profile more directed towards the endpoint of testicular steroidogenesis, i.e. T and other androgens production. Furthermore, full steroid profiling of the in vitro MA-10 cell model shows the presence of a more fetal-like, testicular-specific steroidogenesis pathway. This so-called "backdoor pathway" renders the MA-10 assay added value on top of the H295R steroidogenesis assay for tissue-specific questions related to EDC screening.


We provide a general theoretical analysis of expected out-of-sample utility, also referred to as decision-theoretic classification, for non-decomposable binary classification metrics such as F-measure and Jaccard coefficient. Our key result is that the expected out-of-sample utility for many performance metrics is provably optimized by a classifier which is equivalent to a signed thresholding of the conditional probability of the positive class. Our analysis bridges a gap in the literature on binary classification, revealed in light of recent results for non-decomposable metrics in population utility maximization style classification. Our results identify checkable properties of a performance metric which are sufficient to guarantee a probability ranking principle. We propose consistent estimators for optimal expected out-of-sample classification. As a consequence of the probability ranking principle, computational requirements can be reduced from exponential to cubic complexity in the general case, and further reduced to quadratic complexity in special cases. We provide empirical results on simulated and benchmark datasets evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithms for decision-theoretic classification and comparing them to baseline and state-of-the-art methods in population utility maximization for non-decomposable metrics.


We conducted a Campbell systematic review to examine the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing (POP) in reducing crime and disorder. After an exhaustive search strategy that identified more than 5,500 articles and reports, we found only ten methodologically rigorous evaluations that met our inclusion criteria. Using meta-analytic techniques, we found an overall modest but statistically significant impact of POP on crime and disorder. We also report on our analysis of pre/post comparison studies. Although these studies are less methodologically rigorous, they are more numerous. The results of these studies indicate an overwhelmingly positive impact from POP.