Background: Laparoscopic surgery is the gold standard in developed countries.  Challenges indeveloping countries apart from the cost of instrumentation include a low acceptance level among patients. The consequent low volume of surgical cases debars cost reduction for surgery.
Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the knowledge level and perception of laparoscopic surgery in patients attending the surgical outpatient for the first time in a teaching hospital in Nigeria. We also determined probable factors which affect this.
Design of the study: This was a prospective study carried out on consenting new patients at the surgical out-patient clinic of the surgical out-patient clinic of a Nigerian Teaching Hospital. The questionnaire was administered to consenting patients through a face-to-face interview by nonmedical personnel who had been instructed by the investigators. Data collection was on clinic days within the period.
Results: A total of 370 persons were recruited in this study with a male: female ratio of 1:1.79. The age distribution was between 14years and 81 years with a mean age  of 44.19. 62.6% had no knowledge of laparoscopic surgery. 108(29.3%) and  260(70.7%) had positive and negative perception respectively. Only 44% of the patients with positive perception acquired information from appropriate hospital personnel. The longer the duration of perceived knowledge by the patients the higher the tendency to have the wrong perception. The level of education was a significant contributory factor to appropriate perception of laparoscopic surgery.
Conclusion: There is a need for public health education in the region to drive this relatively new frontier of surgery to improve our practice and encourage indigenous innovations.


Since their classic volume The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes was published in 1978, Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan have increasingly focused on the questions of how, in the modern world, nondemocratic regimes can be eroded and democratic regimes crafted. In Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, they break new ground in numerous areas. They reconceptualize the major types of modern nondemocratic regimes and point out for each type the available paths to democratic transition and the tasks of democratic consolidation. They argue that, although "nation-state" and "democracy" often have conflicting logics, multiple and complementary political identities are feasible under a common roof of state-guaranteed rights. They also illustrate how, without an effective state, there can be neither effective citizenship nor successful privatization. Further, they provide criteria and evidence for politicians and scholars alike to distinguish between democratic consolidation and pseudo-democratization, and they present conceptually driven survey data for the fourteen countries studied. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation contains the first systematic comparative analysis of the process of democratic consolidation in southern Europe and the southern cone of South America, and it is the first book to ground post-Communist Europe within the literature of comparative politics and democratic theory.


X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) has reached the stage where it is classified as a mature analytical technique. The theoretical principles are well understood. In addition modern instrumentation demonstrates enhanced generator and temperature stability. High sensitivity is possible even for light elements and effective matrix correction software is available to the modern day spectroscopist. Apart from its continued applications in research and development, XRF has become a routine process control tool.

X-ray Powder diffraction (XRD), on the other hand, has with minor exceptions as in the cement industry, largely remained a research tool, despite being an older analytical technique than XRF. XRD has progressed significantly in the past decade from a mainly qualitative technique for the identification of crystalline materials to a quantitative tool with the advance of more powerful software packages. This software has improved instrument control, but also quantification and structure determination using the Rietveld method. Consequently, XRD is rapidly entering the process control environment.

In this paper the authors demonstrate, with practical examples from different industrial applications, how combined XRF and XRD use can provide truly quantitative phase analyses. XRF is used to verify XRD data and visa versa.

The data obtained in this study clearly illustrate the value that can be added to either technique if XRF and XRD data are used together, and indicate some applications in routine process co.


The primary objective of this paper is to find whether or not the governance and institutions matter for enhancing Asias trade. In this study, we have performed a comprehensive empirical analysis of the linkages between governance and trade at the Asian subregional level. Our results indicate that all individual governance indicators except regulatory quality have significant impact on trade in Asia, of which government effectiveness is the most crucial for Asias trade promotion. One of the conclusions of this paper is that soft infrastructure such as the institutions and governance are important for enhancing Asias trade. In other words, good governance and institutions help unlock trade potential of a region (or a nation). Improved governance, particularly at the sectoral level, can carry huge payoffs at a time when Asia is planning to pursue a free trade for the entire region. Ignoring governance weaknesses can stultify economic returns to free trade. Therefore, more effective policy approaches toward improved governance are needed to complement the regional trade policy in Asia and beyond.


The Food and Agriculture Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis has been developing, as its major task, a global system of national food and agriculture models linked in a general equilibrium framework. The main objective is to analyze, over a 15- to 20-year horizon, the impact of national domestic and trade policies and of international agreements on the distribution of food and hunger in the world and on the pace of development in the LDCs. The United States, as a major exporter of food and feed grains, is a key link in the system. It can, through its aid, trade and domestic food policies, have a major influence, both intentional and unintentional, on the world food situation. Michigan State University (MSU) is collaborating with IIASA/FAP and the USDA in the development of simplified and detailed models of U.S. food and agriculture for linkage in the FAP global system.

This working paper presents some rough notes describing the demand side of the preliminary version of the simplified U.S. model. The supply side is based on the domestic supply component of the MSU Ag Model, which has been under development at MSU for several years on a grant from the John Deere Corporation and other contract research support. Detailed documentation of that model is in preparation at MSU; this paper limits its scope to the demand and price components developed for linkage to IIASA's system. The model presented here is preliminary in the sense that a great deal more testing and refinement are necessary in the context of the global system to enhance its usefulness.

The major contributors to the simplified U.S. model are Michael Abkin, Donald Mitchell, Eric Wailes and Chris Wolf of MSU, and David Watt of USDA. Dan Kauffman, Tracy Miller and Dave Zeitler have contributed at various stages of data collection and parameter estimation, and others contributing to the MSU Ag Model over the years are too numerous to mention here.


This study presents a digital architectural design tool named "Fuzzy Layout Planner" that helps architects create two dimensional sketchy footprints for their design. The purpose of the tool is to extend limits of early design thinking. It uses fuzzy modeling techniques to adapt the ambiguous design phase. There are several commands in this digital tool to generate and modify layouts. Users can create, move, combine sketchy bubbles to form bigger footprints and see them in action dynamically. The tool offers a manual creation process.


Abstract. The autonomous vehicles, such as wheeled robots and drones, efficiently contribute in the search and rescue operations. Specially for indoor environments, these autonomous vehicles rely on simultaneous localization and mapping approach (SLAM) to construct a map for the unknown environment and simultaneously to estimate the vehicle's position inside this map. The result of the scan matching process, which is a key step in many of SLAM approaches, has a fundamental role of the accuracy of the map construction. Typically, local and global scan matching approaches, that utilize laser scan rangefinder, suffer from accumulated errors as both approaches are sensitive to previous history. The reference key frame (RKF) algorithm reduces errors accumulation as it decreases the dependency on the accuracy of the previous history. However, the RKF algorithm still suffers; as most of the SLAM approaches, from scale shrinking problem during scanning corridors that exceed the maximum detection range of the laser scan rangefinder. The shrinking in long corridors comes from the unsuccessful estimation of the longitudinal movement from the implemented RKF algorithm and the unavailability of this information from external source as well. This paper proposes an improvement for the RKF algorithm. This is achieved by integrating the outcomes of the optical flow with the RKF algorithm using extended Kalman filter (EKF) to overcome the shrinking problem. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with the RKF, iterative closest point (ICP), and Hector SLAM in corridors that exceed the maximum detection range of the laser scan rangefinder.


: Nowadays globalization and modernization life style changing the people life style and dietery. Computers, televisions and mobile phones are also reduce the physical level activity of the human day life. It reduces the people health condition and economical level of our country. It also improves the poverty level in our country. Our country major issue is nutrition problem. World Bank Estimates India is the 2 nd country in the world by affected the malnutrition. It affects Preschool Children, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women, Socially deprived people etc. Our government also conducts lot of nutrition development program for public health awareness. But it will not reach the correct way to the people. Also the government could not get the accuracy value of malnutrition affected people. Here, non-invasive method for identifying the malnutrished person without breaking or puncturing the skin. Today finger print biometric is very important & very easy way to identify the true information from the appropriate people. Our government also emphasize the people to get AADHAAR card for getting the government plans beneficiary. So finger print is used to register the people's information. Here, the thumb impression is used to register the AADHAAR number and identify the people to detect the nutrition problem. The wireless technology is used to send the messages to the malnutrishion affected person through mobile.


Background Safety rules continue growing rapidly, as if constraining human behaviour was the unique avenue for reaching ultimate safety. Safety rules are essential for a safe system, but their multiplication can have counterproductive effects. Objective To monitor, in an anaesthesia ward, compliance with a process-oriented safety rule, and understand barriers and facilitators which help and hinder physicians from following guidelines. Methods The rule stipulated that the day before surgery anaesthetists had to record in the patient's file the drugs to be used for the anaesthesia (induction, maintenance, airway control). Compliance was assessed before introduction of the rule, immediately after, at 6 months and at 12 months. All medical staff were blinded to the protocol. Results 717 patient records were included. The results showed an initial compliance with policy, reaching 86% for some items (never 100%). Reduction began within 6 months and returned almost to initial levels within a year. One individual showed poor compliance throughout the study but even initially compliant doctors experienced a reduction. Compliance was higher for complex surgery but lower for unscheduled surgery and when job pressure was greater. Conclusions Compliance eroded over time. A major trigger of erosion seemed to be lack of continued compliance by a senior member of staff. Rules and procedures constitute fragile safety barriers, and it may be better to forego introducing a new safety rule if it is not considered as a priority by staff and is therefore vulnerable to sacrifice in case of conflict with competitive demands.


Respiratory oxidases are transmembrane enzymes that catalyze the reduction of dioxygen to water in the final step of aerobic respiration. This process is linked to proton pumping across the membrane. Here, we developed a method to study the catalytic turnover of the quinol oxidase, cytochrome bo3 from E. coli at single-molecule level. Liposomes with reconstituted cytochrome bo3 were loaded with a pH-sensitive dye and changes in the dye fluorescence, associated with proton transfer and pumping, were monitored as a function of time. The single-molecule approach allowed us to determine the orientation of cytochrome bo3 in the membrane; in ?70 % of the protein-containing liposomes protons were released to the outside. Upon addition of substrate we observed the buildup of a ?pH (in the presence of the K+ ionophore valinomycin), which was stable over at least ?800 s. No rapid changes in ?pH (proton leaks) were observed during steady state proton pumping, which indicates that the free energy stored in the electrochemical gradient in E. coli is not dissipated or regulated through stochastic transmembrane proton leaks, as suggested from an earlier study (Li et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2015) 137, 16055–16063).


This Article has both positive and normative objectives. As a positive matter, it shows that the Roberts Court's campaign finance regulation jurisprudence can be best explained as a systematic effort to integrate that case law with the rest of the First Amendment, making the neutral principles refined in other social contexts govern this more politically salient one as well. It demonstrates that the typical Roberts Court majority in campaign finance cases follows precedent, doctrine, and traditional First Amendment theory, while the dissents tend to carve out exceptions at all these levels.As a normative matter it argues that following neutral principles is particularly important in the application of the First Amendment to campaign finance for three reasons. First, campaign finance disputes bear directly on the political process that determines substantive results across the entire legislative policy space, making the danger of political decision making particularly high. Second, the First Amendment itself reflects a distrust of government officials, and the more a constitutional provision reflects an economy of distrust, the more it requires judicial constraint, which adherence to neutral principles can provide. Third, given that politicians have much to gain from skewing campaign finance regulations in their favor and judges are appointed by politicians, neutral principles help avoid partisanship and the appearance of partisanship in judicial decision making. Finally, the Article confronts the most important arguments for departing from standard First Amendment principles in campaign finance and demonstrates that they have far-reaching implications because they would allow the legislature to regulate the press or even academics because of their disproportionate influence in politics. But it also shows that, even taken on their own terms, the proposals for judicial reform of First Amendment law in the campaign finance area are deeply flawed. In particular, the idea that the Constitution permits legislators to restrict the freedom of speech for fear it will distort their decision making has no basis in the Constitution. The Constitution provides no baseline for judging distortion, and indeed, its structure permits legislators to take into account the information generated by the First Amendment's spontaneous order of freedom rather than follow raw popular sentiment.


The aim of this paper is to shed some light on what fiscal sustainability actually means. In doing so, it looks in the literature for a definition of fiscal sustainability that not only is theoretically sound, but can also be used for setting fiscal targets in practice. Sustainability is defined in a rather standard way - fiscal policy is said to be sustainable if the present value of future primary surpluses equals the current level of debt. This definition enables various sustainability indicators to be constructed. A good indicator of fiscal sustainability should signal, with a sufficient lead, excessive debt accumulation. The paper introduces several sustainability indicators varying in how closely they are related to the sustainability definition (the infinite and finite horizon gaps), whether they take account of the future evolution of spending (the primary gap and the tax gap) and what target value of debt is set at the end of a finite horizon. While the indicators can be used for different time horizons - from one year to an infinite horizon, the paper is by and large focused on long-term sustainability. When combined with long-term projections the indicators gauge the resilience of public finances to population ageing. The indicators are used to assess the sustainability of Czech fiscal policy. The sustainable revenue ratio, enabling the future surge in age-related spending to be financed, is estimated at 48% of GDP in the Czech Republic. It is some 7 percentage points higher than the current revenue-to-GDP ratio. The sustainable primary balance stands at 0.4% of GDP. By observing this primary surplus, governments would stabilise the debt ratio in the long run. However, compliance with this target would require immediately raising taxes or cutting spending by almost 3.0% of GDP and containing any future spending pressures (projected at 7.3% of GDP) either by systemic reforms preventing age-related spending from rising or by annual discretionary spending cuts and tax increases.


Kathryn Sophia Belle's (formerly Kathryn T. Gines') publications engaged in this interview:2003 (Fanon/Sartre 50 yrs) "Sartre and Fanon Fifty Years Later: To Retain or Reject the Concept of Race," Sartre Studies International, Vol. 9, Issue 2 (2003): 55-67, https://doi.org/10.3167/135715503781800213.2010 (Convergences) "Sartre, Beauvoir, and the Race/Gender Analogy: A Case for Black Feminist Philosophy" in Convergences: Black Feminism and Continental Philosophy, pages 35-51. Eds. Maria Davidson, Kathryn T. Gines, Donna Dale Marcano. New York: SUNY, 2010.2011 (Wright/Legacy) "The Man Who Lived Underground: Jean-Paul Sartre and the Philosophical Legacy of Richard Wright," Sartre Studies International, Vol. 17, Issue 2 (2011): 42-59, https://doi.org/10.3167/ssi.2011.170204.2012 (Reflections) "Reflections on the Legacy and Future of Continental Philosophy with Regard to Critical Philosophy of Race," The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 50, Issue 2 (June 2012): 329-344, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2012.00109.x.


This present paper deals with the performance properties of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna that affected by varying the width to length ratio of patch. The analytically calculated dimensions provided good initial values of the rectangular patch antenna for further optimization using more accurate techniques. The design has been optimized at 70GHz for the investigated mesh density, boundary conditions and the port dimensions. A comparative study is done by taking different length to width ratio and all the antenna output parameters like Retunloss, VSWR, Gain and Radiation Patterns are presented.


Arm yourself to destroy UI and JavaScript bugs Expand your toolkit by learning to use Firebug to help you monitor, debug, develop and edit web pages on the fly Create your own Firebug extensions and learn about popular third-party extensions Covers JavaScript, AJAX, and CSS development Covers all of Firebug's features Clear explanations with easy-to-follow examples of HTML and JavaScript In Detail With the advent of RIA (Rich Internet Applications), most web pages are driven by a combination of JavaScript, AJAX, CSS, and so on. Web developers and designers find it hard to debug and fix the issues that crop up on the client side. Firebug is a wonderful toolkit to have in your arsenal for handling all such issues. This book covers all of Firebug's features and will help you utilize its capabilities with maximum efficiency. AJAX development and debugging is not one of the easiest tasks; this book explains step-by-step, how to develop and debug AJAX components in your web page in a very easy way, thereby increasing your productivity. Topics like performance tuning of the web page are covered in detail. This book discusses how to become more efficient in various aspects of web development by using Firebug. It is a very easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide that explains all the features of Firebug with concise and simple examples. With this book in hand, you will be able to deal with the painful areas of web development like JavaScript and AJAX debugging using Firebug. The book takes you from the basics of Web Development like editing HTML and CSS on the fly to advanced features like AJAX, JSON, Monitoring, and Performance Tuning of web pages. It assumes that you have some very basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript. For those of you with a sound knowledge of these technologies, this book can help you increase your productivity by using Firebug effectively, taking full advantage of its rich and powerful features and the console API. Towards the end, the book explains how to create your own powerful extensions for the Firebug community. This practical guide will equip you with the skills to edit, debug, and monitor web pages using Firebug What you will learn from this book Explore Firebug's tabs and their functions Understand how to use Firebug to inspect, edit, search, and play with the HTML source of the document Get to grips with useful tools and utilities provided by Firebug for CSS development Learn the command-line API and console API of Firebug and debugging JavaScript Modify the values of properties and constants of any DOM object using Firebug Discover various ways to analyze the performance of your web application on the browser Learn how to track XmlHttpRequest and Response as well as debugging AJAX calls Tips and tricks to experiment with the features that Firebug provides Explore Firebug extensions like YSlow, FireCookie, and Page Speed that are useful for development and Performance tuning Develop a Firebug extension and learn how to set up a development environment, file, and directory structure for it Approach A step-by-step description of each key feature is provided with the help of simple, easy-to-understand examples. There are plenty of useful screenshots in each chapter. Every chapter contains information as well as tips and tricks to draw your attention towards some useful information or reference. Each aspect of web development like CSS or JavaScript is handled independently so that you can refer to those modules in which you are interested. Who this book is written for This book is written for frontend web developers building software and pages using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX, who want to learn Firebug for the reasons outlined above. The book assumes that readers have a very basic knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. The examples in the book can be understood by someone who has just been introduced to web development.


This study examined the impacts of four promotional tactics—features, displays, features and display together, and temporary price reductions—in context of a conditional demand system for 12 beverages. The Rotterdam model with promotion effects specified through the Tintner-Ichimura-Basmann relationship was used in the empirical study. The estimated conditional-demand equations exhibited relatively strong own- and cross-promotional effects, indicating a relatively high level of competition for market share among the beverages studied.


From the Publisher:
This well-respected text is designed for the first course in probability and statistics taken by students majoring in Engineering and the Computing Sciences. The prerequisite is one year of calculus. The text offers a balanced presentation of applications and theory. The authors take care to develop the theoretical foundations for the statistical methods presented at a level that is accessible to students with only a calculus background. They explore the practical implications of the formal results to problem-solving so students gain an understanding of the logic behind the techniques as well as practice in using them. The examples,exercises,and applications were chosen specifically for students in engineering and computer science and include opportunities for real data analysis.


With the rapid advances of high-throughput technologies in the past decades, various kinds of omics data have been generated from many labs and accumulated in the public domain. These studies have been designed for different biological purposes, including the identification of differentially expressed genes, the selection of predictive biomarkers, etc. Effective meta-analysis of omics data from multiple studies can improve statistical power, accuracy and reproducibility of single study. This dissertation covered a few methods for differential expression (Chapter 2 and 3) and feature selection (Chapter 4) in the analysis of multiple omics studies.

In Chapter 2, we proposed a full Bayesian hierarchical model for RNA-seq meta-analysis by modeling count data, integrating information across genes and across studies, and modeling differential signals across studies via latent variables. A Dirichlet process mixture prior was further applied on the latent variables to provide categorization of detected biomarkers according to their differential expression patterns across studies. We used both simulations and a real application on multiple brain region HIV-1 transgenic rats to demonstrate improved sensitivity, accuracy and biological findings of our method. In Chapter 3, we extended the previous Bayesian model to jointly integrate transcriptomic data from the two platforms: microarray and RNA-seq.

In Chapter 4, we considered a general framework for variable screening with multiple omics studies and further proposed a novel two-step screening procedure for high-dimensional regression analysis in this framework. Compared to the one-step procedure and rank-based sure independence screening procedure, our procedure greatly reduced false negative errors while keeping a low false positive rate. Theoretically, we showed that our procedure possesses the sure screening property with weaker assumptions on signal strengths and allows the number of features to grow at an exponential rate of the sample size.

Public health significance:
The proposed methods are useful in detecting important biomarkers that are either differentially expressed or predictive of clinical outcomes. This is essential for searching for potential drug targets and understanding the disease mechanism. Such findings in basic science can be translated into preventive medicine or potential treatment for disease to promote human health and improve the global healthcare system.


The Angolan Presidential Decree n o 160/18, of July 3, implicitly seeks to generate a new perspective of curriculum management, defining the limits of autonomy to teachers as curricular agents. However, there are some dissonances between the norm and the practical reality on the ground. In this sense, the present article seeks to analyze the curricular autonomy of the teacher in the light of the referred legislation in order to verify if it guarantees the educational success of the students. In order to support our analysis, inspired by a qualitative approach, we have employed a literature review and document analysis. In general, it is clear that the need for greater teacher autonomy substantially revitalizes the collective process of construction of the teaching process and the context of the emerging school. However, in the Angolan case, although autonomy has been legally conferred on teachers, ignorance of the legal prerogative means that teachers simply comply with what is essential and limited themselves to a prescribed curriculum to the detriment of shared decision-making, calling into question the quality of the teaching and learning process.  Keywords: Curriculum Autonomy, Teaching, Quality of Teaching and Learning.


There is growing concern that the COVID-19 pandemic may have severe, adverse effects on the health care sector, a sector of the economy that historically has been somewhat shielded from the business cycle. In this paper, we study one aspect of this issue by estimating the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic on use of outpatient health services. We use 2010-2020 data from the Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet). Our findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with about a 67 percent decline in the total number of outpatient visits per provider by the week of April 12-18th, 2020 relative to the same week in prior years. Effects become apparent earlier in the pandemic for outpatient visits for non-flu symptoms, but we find negative effects on outpatient visits for flu symptoms as well.


I. INTRODUCTION The classic problem in political theory and institutional design is the simple question, "Who shall guard the guardians?" Especially when judicial power is an increasingly visible dimension of legitimate political authority, a challenge of comparable significance is, "Who shall appoint the judges?"--particularly the judges of the nation's highest court. For much of the country's history, Canadians have shown a surprising indifference to this question, despite the fact that our southern neighbours from their beginning established a check-and-balance mechanism for this important function. The fact that the use of that mechanism has been sporadically controversial has somehow always seemed to suggest only that the Americans had gotten the answer wrong, not that Canadians had somehow missed the question. But a new Canadian prime minister may have nudged the country beyond its indifference. Shortly after taking office in December 2003, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin spoke of the need to address a "democratic deficit," with the appointment of Supreme Court judges as one element of this larger problem. He promised to make the process more transparent and more accountable, and charged the House of Commons Justice Committee with conducting public hearings in order to come up with a set of recommendations or alternatives. The context of these comments was an anticipated retirement in 2006, but they became more pressing in the spring of 2004 when two Supreme Court justices unexpectedly announced their retirement. As if to demonstrate precisely what was at stake, the Supreme Court ended the term with several five-to-four decisions, including the clearest statement to date of the meaning of "freedom of religion" under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (1) The reduction of the Liberals to a weak minority position in the June election highlighted the anomaly of an unfettered Prime Ministerial discretion in making appointments; but when two new Supreme Court appointments were announced in August 2004, the "new" process involved only the most minimal of concessions. With that recent history as background, this paper will begin by identifying five important but easily overlooked differences between the American and Canadian judicial systems. From that point, it will describe the Supreme Court of Canada and its place in the Canadian judicial system, explain the appointed process for the Court and the way this process has changed in recent decades, identify the major challenges in devising a functional appointment process, and describe and discuss some of the proposals that have been made for change. II. THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN COURT STRUCTURES BRIEFLY COMPARED At first glance, the Canadian and American judicial systems--and specifically the place of the respective Supreme Courts within them--could scarcely be more similar. Viewed in a global context, this initial impression is fully justified. Both high courts operate within a federal system based upon the English common law, assuming generalist judges with explicit and effective guarantees of judicial independence; multi-judge panel appeal courts immediately below the highest court; and solo-judge trials (sometimes with juries) in the courts of first resort. These characteristics sharply differentiate them from the world's most common and most widely imitated judicial system, the continental European model. At the same time, however, the similarities do not run as deep as might at first be assumed, and several discontinuities are important: First: The United States Supreme Court is fully entrenched within the American Constitution; although Congress may make some constrained unilateral interventions regarding its jurisdiction and procedure, the basic elements of the Supreme Court and its practices are protected not only by a strong public opinion but also by a formal document that can only be altered through difficult formal procedures. …


Much of the industrialized world is undergoing a significant demographic shift, placing strain on public pension systems. Policymakers are responding with pension system reforms that put more weight on privately managed retirement funds. One concern with these changes is the effect on individual welfare if individuals invest suboptimally. Using micro-level data from the United States and Germany, we compare the optimal expected lifetime utility computed using a realistically calibrated model with the actual utility as reflected in empirical asset allocation choices. Through this analysis, we are able to identify the population subgroups with relatively large welfare losses. Our results should be helpful to public policymakers in designing programs to improve the performance of privately organized retirement systems.


To address the power and thermal problems of high-performance computing systems, the possibility of using advance cooling systems is explored to realize overall system power improvement that includes the cost of cooling power. Realistic system-level modeling that includes the electronic and refrigeration systems will expedite the analysis of the optimal operating temperature points, the amount of total power reduction at reduced temperatures, and the dependence of the refrigerated performance on the power profile of the electronics. Highly-efficient miniature-scale refrigeration system for electronic cooling is developed to experimentally demonstrate the amount of total power saving for processors at various operating conditions. A processor that dissipates 175.4W of maximum power with 30% electronic leakage power operating at 97i?½C is cooled using our refrigeration system. Measurements show that with a minimum refrigeration COP of 2.7, the processor operates with junction temperature <40i?½C and offers a 25% total system power reduction over the non-refrigerated design. Not only the measurement results validate our system-level model, but this experiment is the first demonstration of active cooling that lead to reduced total wall power. Furthermore, a model that captures different relations and parameters of multi-core processor and the refrigeration system is constructed based on the measured results. This model is used to present an energy-efficient workload scheduling that optimizes power efficiency under the actively cooled environment that can potentially be applied to large scale multi-core, multi-processor computing environment. Finally the proposed methodology is combined with the G/G/m-models to reduce both total power and response time degradation while meeting target SLA requirements.


Abstract Help with activities of daily living for people in the community is provided through formal services (public and private) and informal (often unpaid) care. This paper investigates how these systems interlock and who is at risk of unmet need. It begins by mapping differences between OECD countries in the balance between formal and informal care, before giving a detailed breakdown for the UK. New analysis of UK Family Resources Survey data for 2012/13 and 2013/14 suggests high levels of unmet need. We investigate who receives formal and informal care, and who receives neither, among the working-age and older populations. We find that while informal care fills some gaps left by the lack of availability of formal services (and vice versa), not all older or working-age disabled people are protected in these ways. Adults living alone and those with high but not the highest levels of difficulty are most likely to have unmet need. Means-tested public entitlements ameliorate but do not remove the increased risk among people in low-income households. The paper concludes that public policy needs to integrate its support for formal and informal modes of care, with particular attention to those groups most at risk of unmet need.


This papers proposes techniques for writing self-adjusting programs that can adjust to any change to their data (e.g., inputs, decisions made during the computation) etc. We show that the techniques are efficient by considering a number of applications including several sorting algorithms, and the Graham Scan, and the quick hull algorithm for computing convex hulls. We show that the techniques are flexible by showing that self-adjusting programs can be trivially transformed into a kinetic programs that maintain their property as their input move continuously. We show that the techniques are practical by implementing a Standard ML library for kinetic data structures and applying the library to kinetic convex hulls. We show that the kinetic programs written with the library are more than an order of magnitude faster than recomputing from scratch. These results rely on a combination of memoization and dynamic dependence graphs. We show that the combination is sound by presenting a semantics based on abstraction of memoization via an oracle.


Background More US adolescents use e-cigarettes than smoke cigarettes. Research suggests flavoured e-cigarettes appeal to youth, but little is known about perceptions of and reasons for attraction to specific flavours. Methods A national sample of adolescents (n=1125) ages 13–17 participated in a phone survey from November 2014 to June 2015. We randomly assigned adolescents to respond to survey items about 1 of 5 e-cigarette flavours (tobacco, alcohol, menthol, candy or fruit) and used regression analysis to examine the impact of flavour on interest in trying e-cigarettes and harm beliefs. Results Adolescents were more likely to report interest in trying an e-cigarette offered by a friend if it were flavoured like menthol (OR=4.00, 95% CI 1.46 to 10.97), candy (OR=4.53, 95% CI 1.67 to 12.31) or fruit (OR=6.49, 95% CI 2.48 to 17.01) compared with tobacco. Adolescents believed that fruit-flavoured e-cigarettes were less harmful to health than tobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes (p<0.05). Perceived harm mediated the relationship between some flavours and interest in trying e-cigarettes. A minority of adolescents believed that e-cigarettes did not have nicotine (14.6%) or did not know whether they had nicotine (3.6%); these beliefs did not vary by flavour. Discussion Candy-flavoured, fruit-flavoured and menthol-flavoured e-cigarettes appeal to adolescents more than tobacco-flavoured or alcohol-flavoured e-cigarettes. This appeal is only partially explained by beliefs about reduced harm. Given adolescents' interest in trying e-cigarettes with certain flavours, policymakers should consider restricting advertisements promoting flavoured products in media that reach large numbers of young people. Future research should examine other reasons for the appeal of individual flavours, such as novelty and perceived luxury.


A new purple quail-like (q-lp) mutant found from the plain silkworm strain 932VR has pigment dots on the epidermis similar to the pigment mutant quail (q). In addition, q-lp mutant larvae are inactive, consume little and grow slowly, with a high death rate and other developmental abnormalities. Pigmentation of the silkworm epidermis consists of melanin, ommochrome and pteridine. Silkworm development is regulated by ecdysone and juvenile hormone. In this study, we performed RNA-Seq on the epidermis of the q-lp mutant in the 4th instar during molting, with 932VR serving as the control. The results showed 515 differentially expressed genes, of which 234 were upregulated and 281 downregulated in q-lp. BLASTGO analysis indicated that the downregulated genes mainly encode protein-binding proteins, membrane components, oxidation/reduction enzymes, and proteolytic enzymes, whereas the upregulated genes largely encode cuticle structural constituents, membrane components, transport related proteins, and protein-binding proteins. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to verify the accuracy of the RNA-Seq data, focusing on key genes for biosynthesis of the three pigments and chitin as well as genes encoding cuticular proteins and several related nuclear receptors, which are thought to play key roles in the q-lp mutant. We drew three conclusions based on the results: 1) melanin, ommochrome and pteridine pigments are all increased in the q-lp mutant; 2) more cuticle proteins are expressed in q-lp than in 932VR, and the number of upregulated cuticular genes is significantly greater than downregulated genes; 3) the downstream pathway regulated by ecdysone is blocked in the q-lp mutant. Our research findings lay the foundation for further research on the developmental changes responsible for the q-lp mutant.


Removal of acid gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is normally carried out by aqueous solutions of alkanolamines. The traditional amines used for acid gas removal include; mono-ethanolamine (MEA), di-ethanolamine (DEA) and N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). There is a need to investigate new solvents to minimize the carbon emissions since the traditional amines have low CO2 loading capacity and require high energy for regeneration. Recently, a new class of amines, sterically hindered amines is identified as one of the potential solvent for acid gas removal due to their relatively higher CO2 absorption capacity, low heat of regeneration and higher values of rate constant. One of the identified solvent that has potential for commercialization is sterically hindered amine known as 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propoanol (AMP). The investigation of thermophysical properties of this solvent is essential in the design and optimization for smooth operation of acid gas removal process. The density, viscosity, surface tension and refractive index are the most important physical properties for this purpose which is presented in this paper. These properties of aqueous solutions of 2-amino-2-methyl-1propanol (AMP) are investigated over the industrially important temperature range of 298.15 K to 333.15 K. The thermal analysis of aqueous solutions was also carried out using TGA (Thermal gravity analyzer) with the heating rate of 10 °C·min under nitrogen (N2) environment in order to investigate the thermal stability of the solvent. All the investigated properties are correlated as a function of temperature for ease of usage in the design of acid gas removal system. The correlated and measured data are in good agreement.


This paper proposes a method for empirically mapping psychological personality traits to economic preferences. Careful modelling of random components of decision making is crucial to establishing the long supposed but empirically elusive link between economic and psychological systems for understanding differences in individuals' behavior. I use factor analysis to extract information on individuals' cognitive ability and personality and embed it within a Random Preference Model to estimate distributions of risk and time preferences, of their individual-level stability, and of people's propensity to make mistakes. I explain up to 50% of the variation in both average risk and time preferences and in individuals' capacity to make consistent rational choices using four factors related to cognitive ability and three of the Big Five personality traits. True differences in desired outcomes are related to differences in personality whereas actual mistakes in decisions are related to cognitive skill.


The Diamond Creek drainage is one of the major watershed systems of the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico. The purposes of this study were to catalog the vascular plants of a portion of this drainage area, describe the vegetation zones, locate any threatened, endangered, or sensitive plant species, and assess plant regeneration in areas that have been burned. The study area is located in the eastern portion of the Gila National Forest along the Black Range in the northwest corner of Sierra County. It covers approximately 5600 hectares (14000 acres) and ranges in elevation from 2250 to 3000 m (7400 to 9850 ft). Collected from the upper main Diamond Creek drainage area were 348 species including an additional six infraspecific taxa. The five largest families (by number of species and infraspecific taxa) in the study area were the Asteraceae (58), Poaceae (52), Fabaceae (24), Rosaceae (19) , and Cyperaceae (17). The study area can be classified as Montane Coniferous Forest with most of the study area dominated by Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca. This overall vegetation type is fractured by narrow canyons, open meadows, perennial and intermittent streams, and rock outcrops. Three sensitive plant species were located in the study area: Erigeron scopulinus, Senecio sacramentanus, and Draba mogollonica. Two fires have occurred in the study area in recent times. These burned areas are primarily covered by shrubs including Quercus gambelii, Robinia neomexicana var. neomexicana, and Populus tremuloides.


ABSTRACT Palingenesis, or regeneration from decay, is variously invoked by eighteenth- to early-nineteenth-century natural philosophy, psychology, mythography, and literature. Its currency derives from the Swiss scientist Charles Bonnet's Palingénésie philosophique (1769), which conceives of natural history as repeated renewal after epochal catastrophes. Johann Gottfried Herder's Über die seelenwanderung (1782) develops an idea of "natural palingenesis" as the internal "rebirth" of selfhood within memory despite physiological decay. Pierre-Simon Ballanche's fragmentary magnum opus Essais de palingénésie sociale (1827–29) turned to political upheaval, locating the French Revolution within a process by which expiatory suffering gives birth to a new social order. Other writers looked back to alchemical experiments, which Robert Southey reviewed in Omniana (1812) under the heading "Spectral Flowers," and still other writers explored the palingenetic properties of resurrected bodies and ghosts. In the light of this not altogether unified discourse, this article will consider the more discontented, skeptical strain within Shelley's poetry, where beautiful idealisms of progressivist transformation do not entirely overcome the fact of death, decay, degeneration, and loss that is their substrata.


Present generation cellular networks provide different services to the mobile users. The movement of the users is highly dependent on individual characteristics. To offer an uninterrupted service to the mobile users, continuous tracking of its location is very important. This can be achieved by the proper location management schemes. In this paper, a prediction-based location management scheme for locating a mobile station is proposed. A multilayer neural network model for mobile movement prediction is designed to predict the future movement of a mobile host. The model is trained with the data obtained from the past movement pattern of a mobile host. The prediction method is found to give satisfactory results.


In 2011, the United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DOD) named cyberspace a new operational domain. The cyberspace domain provides critical capabilities that enable the U.S. Military to conduct operations in all domains (Land, Sea, Air, Space, and Cyberspace). The U.S. Cyber Command and the Military Services are working to integrate the cyberspace domain with the other operational domains in order to conduct military command and control (C2) and achieve national security objectives. To effectively integrate cyberspace operations, DOD requires situational awareness of the Mission, Network, and Adversary based on analysis of operational data in order to make timely and effective decisions. However, the DOD's current capability to use data to make operational decisions does not meet mission needs within critical operational timelines. This paper discusses the data driven decision-making capabilities necessary to effectively conduct cyberspace operations and enable operations in all domains.


Topographic distributions and laminar pattern of cortico-cortical projections from the primary auditory field (AI), anterior auditory field (AAF), dorsoposterior field (DP), ventroposterior field (VP), dorsal field (D) and ventral field (V) were studied in relation to tonotopic maps in combined anatomical, electrophysiological and 2-deoxyfluoro-D-glucose (2DG) experiments. Distributions of axons were examined by means of retrogradely-transported fluorescent tracer Fast Blue (FB) injected in the primary (AI) and anterior (AAF) auditory field. Injections of fluorescent tracer were placed in electrophysiologically-identified locations of AI and AAF. Neurons in AAF, DP, VP and V project to AI in the ipsilateral hemisphere. This area also receives projections from AI, AAF and D from the contralateral hemisphere. In AI, DP and VP, neurons are connected with AAF in the ipsilateral hemisphere and AI and AAF in the opposite hemisphere. In all cases, patches of labeling are distributed along 2DG bands oriented parallel to the isofrequency line. Substantial numbers of retrogradedly labeled neurons with similar best frequencies (BFs) were observed in the ipsilateral and moderate to scant numbers in the contralateral hemisphere. In general, regions near the injection sites receive more densely-labeled projections than do more distant targets. In both hemispheres, the supragranular layer III contains the greatest concentration of cortico-cortical cells bodies; the granular and infragranular layer V contains a somewhat lower concentration.


Question: Community ecologists are often confronted with
multiple possible partitions of a single set of records of
species composition and/or abundances from several sites.
Different methods of numerical classification produce different
results, and the question is which of them, and how many
clusters, should be selected for interpretation. We demonstrate
a new method for identifying the optimal partition from a
series of partitions of the same set of sites, based on number
of species with high fidelity to clusters in a partition
(faithful species). Methods: The new method, OptimClass, has
two variants. OptimClass 1 searches the partition with the
maximum number of faithful species across all clusters, while
OptimClass 2 searches the partition with the maximum number of
clusters that contain at least a preselected minimum number of
faithful species. Faithful species are determined based on the
P value of the Fisher's exact test, as a measure of fidelity.
OptimClass was tested on three vegetation datasets that varied
in species richness and internal heterogeneity, using several
classification algorithms, resemblance measures and cover
transformations. Results: Results from both variants of
OptimClass depended on the preselected threshold P value for
faithful species: higher P gave higher probability that a
partition with more clusters was selected as optimal. Good
partitions, in terms of OptimClass criteria, involved flexible
beta clustering, and also ordinal clustering. Good partitions
were also obtained with TWINSPAN when the required number of
clusters was small, or UPGMA when the required number of
clusters was large. Poor partitions usually resulted from
classifications that used resemblance measures and cover
transformations emphasizing differences in species cover; this
is not unexpected because OptimClass uses a
presence/absence-based fidelity measure. Conclusions: If the
aim of a classification is to obtain clusters rich in faithful
species, which can be subsequently used as diagnostic species
for identification of community types, OptimClass is a suitable
method for simultaneous choice of the optimal classification
algorithm and optimal number of clusters. It can be computed in
the JUICE program.


Abstract. Expanded clay concrete is a perspective structural material because of its lightweight, heat and sound insulating properties. However, due to its brittleness and low strength to flexure and compression it cannot be used in load bearing structures. Adding basalt fiber in concrete increases mechanical properties. The research work presents an experimental study of the mechanical behavior of structural expanded clay basalt fiber concrete. The main purpose of this study was to test the effect of chopped basalt fiber in expanded clay concrete to improve its strength. An experimental characterization of mechanical behavior by compressive and flexural tests was achieved. Dispersed chopped basalt fiber was used as reinforcement of specimens with sizes of 100×100×100 mm and 100×100×400 mm. Mathematical models for determining the compressive strength and the flexural strength of the expanded clay concrete depending on the proportion of basalt fiber and the curing period are developed. The finite element analysis was done by using ANSYS software, a model was developed to validate the different results obtained experimentally. The experimental results show that high percent of basalt fiber in the expanded clay concrete gives higher strength. In effect, an influence directly on the failure mode was observed on expanded clay concrete without basalt fiber and then read by the value of strength and ultimate deformation.


Abstract This article explores the formation of a tranimal, hippopotamus alter-ego. Confronting transgender with transpecies, the author claims that his hippopotamus "identity" allowed him to (verbally) escape, all at once, several sets of categorization that govern human bodies ("gender," "sexuality," age). He starts with an account of how his metaphorical hippo-self is collectively produced and performed, distinguishing the subjective, the intersubjective and the social. The article then investigates the politics of equating transgender and transpecies, critically examining the question of the inclusion of "xenogenders" in the trans political movement. Finally, the author returns to the magical power of metaphors, arguing that metaphors do materialize insofar as the flesh does not remain unchanged by them. Analogizing his hippo-self to a "cut" as theorized by Eva Hayward – a regeneration of the boundaries of the self – he offers a final crossing to the world of fiction by showing how the His Dark Materials trilogy outlines an aesthetics of porosity, which suggests that the self is, as much as a novel, a work of fiction.


Abstract What are the effects of international intervention on the rule of law after civil war? Rule of law requires not only that state authorities abide by legal limits on their power, but also that citizens rely on state laws and institutions to adjudicate disputes. Using an original survey and list experiment in Liberia, I show that exposure to the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) increased citizens' reliance on state over nonstate authorities to resolve the most serious incidents of crime and violence, and increased nonstate authorities' reliance on legal over illegal mechanisms of dispute resolution. I use multiple identification strategies to support a causal interpretation of these results, including an instrumental variables strategy that leverages plausibly exogenous variation in the distribution of UNMIL personnel induced by the killing of seven peacekeepers in neighboring Côte d'Ivoire. My results are still detectable two years later, even in communities that report no further exposure to peacekeepers. I also find that exposure to UNMIL did not mitigate and may in fact have exacerbated citizens' perceptions of state corruption and bias in the short term, but that these apparently adverse effects dissipated over time. I conclude by discussing implications of these complex but overall beneficial effects.


Security measures are a critical piece of the game development process because they not only affect the players ability to safely access and enjoy a game but a publishers ability to profit from it. Protecting Games: A Security Handbook for Game Developers and Publishers provides IT and game security professionals with the solutions and tools they need to solve numerous game security problems, and an understanding of security principles that can be applied to game projects to prevent security issues. The book covers longstanding issues such as piracy and cheating and also new concerns like gambling, privacy, and protecting children. Security issues are addressed at the technical, business, operational, and design levels, with both technical and non-technical countermeasures and solutions discussed. And case studies are presented as realworld examples of the types of security concerns games and game developers face. You can easily jump to the key topics that are of interest to you, or work your way through the book. Protecting Games: A Security Handbook for Game Developers and Publishers makes understanding and resolving game security issues less intimidating, and provides practical security solutions that can be applied right away.


Examining the Effects of Wastewater Infrastructure on Puget Sound Near-shore Water Quality Across a Gradient of Urbanization Daniele J. Spirandelli Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Marina Alberti Urban Design and Planning As shorelines develop, wastewater infrastructure systems are designed to simultaneously support urban development and protect human and ecosystem health from sewage contamination. The ability to effectively manage coastlines in an urban setting depends on understanding the interactions between human and biophysical systems, and to incorporate that information into policy and planning decisions that support regional water quality goals. Past research has linked the contamination of coastal and estuarine ecosystems to upland land use, as well as centralized and decentralized wastewater systems. Missing from this research is an evaluation of how urban development relates to alternative wastewater infrastructures and the links between coastal water quality, wastewater infrastructure and patterns of urbanization. My research sought to systematically assess alternative wastewater infrastructures across an urban gradient and to assess the relationships between wastewater disposal type, land use-cover pattern, and near-shore water quality. I evaluate the spatial characteristics of parcels with sewers vs. onsite septics in sub-watersheds and link wastewater type to urban patterns to answer two questions: (1) How are alternative wastewater infrastructures spatially distributed across an urban gradient? (2) How do different wastewater infrastructures relate to land-use and land-cover patterns? At a larger landscape-scale, I relate indicators of near-shore water quality to wastewater infrastructure and land use-land cover patterns to address a third question: (3) How does near-shore water quality relate to wastewater infrastructure and urban development patterns? This research relies on a three-part approach that uses quantitative measures of wastewater patterns, landscape characteristics, and microbial conditions for shellfish growing areas. To answer the first question, I quantify and compare spatial measures of parcels on two types of wastewater systems. I address the second question by relating land-use and land-cover pattern (composition and configuration) to wastewater type (septic vs. sewer). I answer the third question by combining spatial information about land-use, land-cover and wastewater in nearshore basins to assess how these factors influence water quality in shellfish growing areas. The results from the study in the Puget Sound support previous findings that suburban sub-basins with moderate amounts of development contain significantly higher counts and densities of residential parcels with onsite-septics than urban or rural counterparts. However, I did not find septic density to be a significant predictor of fecal coliform (FC) in shellfish growing areas; the number of septics was only moderately related to FC. The total amount of high intensity urban land cover was the single best predictor of near-shore water quality. I found significant associations between wastewater treatment type and the composition and configuration of land cover. On average, Puget Sound basins with 20% of their area or more covered by high urban land cover are more likely to be dominated by parcels on a sewer system.


Background. Laparoscopic skills training and evaluation outside the operating room is important for all surgeons learning new skills. To study feasibility, a video box trainer tracking 4-dimensional (4D) metrics was evaluated as a laparoscopic training tool. Method. Simball Box is a video box trainer with authentic surgical instruments and camera with video recording, equipped with 4D motion analysis registered through trocars using machine vision technology. Residents attending a 3-day laparoscopy course were evaluated performing a laparoscopic surgical knot at start, middle, and end. Metrics were obtained. Feedback data were presented in reference to expert/tutorial performance. Results. Ten right-handed residents were included. Median time (range) to finish the task was 359 (253-418), 129 (95-166), and 95 (52-156) seconds; 655%, 236%, and 174% of tutorial performance, with significance pre-/midcourse (P < .0001), pre-/postcourse (P < .0001), and mid-/postcourse (P = .0050). Combined median total instrument motion decreased pre-/midcourse from 1208 (845-1751) to 522 cm (411-810 cm); P = .042 to 405 cm (246-864 cm) postcourse; pre-/postcourse P < .0001; 673%, 291%, 225% of tutorial performance. Total angular distance in radians (range) was 150 (87-251), 65 (42-116), and 50 (33-136) with significance pre-/midcourse (P = .022) and pre-/postcourse (P = .0002). Right-handed average speed (cm/s) increased: 1.94 (1.11-2.27) pre-, 2.39 (1.56-2.83) mid-, 2.60 (1.67-3.19) postcourse with significance pre-/midcourse (P = .022) and pre-/postcourse (P = .002). Average acceleration (mm/s2) and motion smoothness (µm/s3) failed to show any difference. Conclusion. For laparoscopic training and as a promising evaluation device, Simball Box obtained metrics mirroring progression well.


A decision tool is introduced that is particularly useful for examining environmental alternative management strategies from numerous decision-making viewpoints or by multiple decision-makers. A spreadsheet implementation of the decision tool is described. Assuming an additive value function, the method quickly computes the possible range of value from the most optimistic to the most pessimistic (best to worst) for any hierarchical arrangement of the multiple attributes or criteria. The method, applied after commensurate attribute values or scores have been determined for each alternative, does not require one to specify or determine explicit weight factors for the attributes. The importance order of the attributes at any level in the hierarchy can be changed and the function value range computed again by means of a simple iterative algorithm. This solution method makes it easy to determine the result of modifying priorities in portions of the hierarchical architecture without recalculating the contributions of unaffected branches. The method is well suited to problems involving multiple stakeholders since multiple decision problem structures or priorities can be considered simultaneously. An example addressing the issue of determining a rangeland health index is given.


Taxonomic distinctness is a newer biodiversity measure that emphasizes the average taxonomic relatedness between species in a community. We examined whether species richness (SR) and taxonomic distinctness (TD) were significantly related and whether they showed similar environmental relationships in regional data sets for various groups of freshwater organisms, ranging from lake mollusks and fishes to stream diatoms and invertebrates. We found that the relationship between SR and TD varied widely, ranging from significantly negative through nonsignificant to significantly positive. In general, SR and TD were related to different environmental gradients, although the particular environmental variables accounting for biodiversity patterns varied among data sets and, more importantly, even between different data sets for the same organism groups. SR and TD can provide complementary views of the variability of biodiversity. These findings thus underline the importance of considering a set of different measures in the assessment of community‐level biodiversity, as well as considering this variability when determining anthropogenic effects in freshwater ecosystems.


For iterative decoding of multiple antenna systems concatenated with an outer error correcting code, it is important to use an a posteriori probability detector for the MIMO detection to achieve near capacity performance. To avoid full APP detection, we propose a reduced complexity detector based on breadth first algorithms. Although these algorithms are sub-optimal, we show that they can provide a good list of candidates for the APP calculation. Furthermore, by exploiting the a priori information delivered from the outer decoder, it is possible to decrease the MIMO detector complexity at each iteration. Using simulation results, we will compare the performance of the proposed detectors with the list sphere detector.


Polycrystalline samples of Nd(18)Li(8)Fe(5)O(39) and Nd(18)Li(8)Co(4)O(39) have been synthesized using a solid-state method and studied by a combination of neutron diffraction, direct and alternating current magnetometry, and, in the case of Nd(18)Li(8)Fe(5)O(39), Mossbauer spectroscopy. Both compounds adopt a cubic structure (space group Pm3n, a(0) approximately 11.9 A) based on intersecting 111 chains made up of alternating octahedral and trigonal-prismatic coordination sites. The Fe(4+) cations in Nd(18)Li(8)Fe(5)O(39) are found on only the smaller of the two distinct octahedral sites in the structure; Fe(3+) and Li(+) are disordered over the larger octahedral site and the trigonal-prismatic site. The Nd(3+) cations occupy sites between the chains. The smaller octahedral site is fully occupied by cobalt in Nd(18)Li(8)Co(4)O(39), with 25% of the larger octahedral sites being vacant; Li(+) is only found on the prismatic sites. Nd(18)Li(8)Fe(5)O(39) shows spin-glass-like behavior with a spin-freezing temperature of 5.75 K, whereas Nd(18)Li(8)Co(4)O(39) appears to order antiferromagnetically at 2.3 K. In both cases, the magnetic coupling involves the Nd(3+) sublattice.


This article investigates the applicability of Western models of business-government relations to the postcommunist context. Given the absence of a business-government relationship over the forty years of communism, it seems perfectly plausible that postcommunist countries should produce a historically unprecedented form of business-government relations and a new type of
capitalist democracy. On the other hand, these countries have for several years been unequivocally regarded as capitalist democracies so it also seems possible that a literature developed for Western capitalist democracies should be useful in the postcommunist context. This article argues that, in spite of their assertions to the contrary, postcommunist studies propose no new concepts or variables for the study of business-government relations. Moreover, a detailed case study of Poland demonstrates the applicability of Western models to a postcommunist context. The confrontation between Western models and postcommunist data does not "stretch" the models but, in some important respects, actually clarifies them.


A photoneutron source has been designed and realized at the Beam Test Facility (BTF) of the electron/positron collider DaΦne, in the National Laboratory of Frascati, near Rome (Italy). Neutrons are produced sending high energy electrons to impinge on an optimized Tungsten target. This source could be suitably used for calibration of neutron detectors as well as for material and nuclear science investigations. Moreover photoneutron processes are encountered in many physics domains: from accelerator to reactor physics, mainly related to neutron shielding issues in high Z materials, used for gamma shielding. This work presents the Monte Carlo simulations performed with different codes (FLUKA and MCNPX) to estimate the neutron rate and energy spectrum, obtained when 510 MeV electrons are sent against the designed target. Finally, the comparison of the Monte Carlo predictions of neutron and photon fluences around the target with the experimental values is discussed.


In this study, we formulate a stochastic dynamic framework for pest control over the growing season taking into account forecasts of weather conditions and pest infestation expectations. Using stochastic envelope theorem and stochastic comparative dynamics, we analytically show how the stochastic correlation between the prediction errors should affect optimal pesticide usage path. As a case study, we apply the analytical results of the paper for pesticide use in the Palouse region of Washington where pea aphid is the primary threat for lentil production. By stochastic dynamic programming, our simulation shows the optimal dimethoate usage path, which illustrates our findings in the analytical part.


Web resources allow a learner to have more opportunities for study at any time and any place. It is still difficult, however, for learners to choose the right study materials to match their desired learning. A competence-based system for recommending study materials from the Web (COSREW) is proposed, based on the learner's competences. COSREW generates a list of learning paths, and extracts search terms from the competence statements on the chosen learning path. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate COSREW's recommendations. The first explored the differences between search engines and the qualities of the study material links in helping learners achieve their competences. The second experiment explored the differences between search keywords, and the third experiment compared COSREW with freely- browsing learning modes. The results showed that the Web is currently not a good resource for a pedagogically informed competence-based system, since Web pages predominantly comprise text-based subject matter content with little support for learning competence or capability.


OBJECTIVE
Laryngotracheal trauma is a rare but clinically important injury. Complications are frequent. Early recognition, accurate evaluation and proper treatment is vital. In order to learn from our past experience and refine our management, we reviewed our cases

METHODS
Fifteen patients with external laryngotracheal injuries were analyzed retrospectively. The outcome was assessed both in terms of voice and airway, on short term and long term basis.

RESULTS
Commonest cause of injury was cut throat injuries followed by road traffic accidents. The main presenting symptoms and signs were hoarseness, haemoptysis, odynophagia and stridor. Major laryngeal injuries (10 cases) outnumbered minor injuries (5 cases). A good association exists between the symptoms of haemoptysis and stridor at presentation and severity of the injury. Sites of laryngeal injury included; thyroid cartilage, mixed soft tissue and cartilaginous injuries, thyrohyoid membrane, aryepiglottic fold and cricothyroid membrane. Ten patients presented within 24 hours of the injury. Out come (airway and voice) was good in 12 patients whereas it was poor in 3 patients. Poor results were seen in patients who had delayed surgical intervention.

CONCLUSION
The presence of stridor and haemoptysis are suggestive of major injury. Early surgical intervention is recommended for all major injuries to ensure a good outcome.


We have obtained transgenic mice in which an erythropoietin-SV40 virus T antigen fusion gene is homologously recombined into the native Epo locus. This gene is expressed in a tissue-specific manner closely resembling that of the native Epo gene. Immunohistochemical detection of SV40 T antigen has been used to characterize the hepatic cell populations expressing the transgene. In mice stimulated by anaemia or hypobaric hypoxia, SV40 T antigen was demonstrated in two liver cell populations: a subset of hepatocytes and a nonparenchymal cell type. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural characterization of these cells by light and electron microscopy showed the nonparenchymal cell type to be the Ito cells, which lie in a persinusoidal position within the space of Disse. We therefore conclude that Ito cells are the nonhepatocytic source of liver Epo production. These cells show many similarities to the Epo-producing fibroblastoid interstitial cells of the kidney.


We study decentralized college admissions with uncertain student preferences. Colleges strategically admit students likely to be overlooked by competitors. Highly ranked students may receive fewer admissions or have a higher chance of receiving no admissions than those ranked below. When students' attributes are multidimensional, colleges avoid head-on competition by placing excessive weight on school-specific attributes such as essays. Restricting the number of applications or wait-listing alleviates enrollment uncertainty, but the outcomes are inefficient and unfair. A centralized matching via Gale and Shapley's deferred acceptance algorithm attains efficiency and fairness but may make some colleges worse off than under decentralized matching.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and evaluate the prioritization and categorization method (PCM), which facilitates the active participation of process stakeholders (managers, owners, customers) in process assessments. Stakeholders evaluate processes in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and relevance against certain contextual business and industry factors. This collective evaluation serves as a foundation for the management decision-making process regarding process improvement and redesign. Design/methodology/approach: The PCM is examined based on a case study at Ericsson. In total, 55 stakeholders, representing different organizational levels and functions, assessed eight core processes. Follow-up interviews and feedback after the evaluation sessions were collected for triangulation purpose. Findings: The PCM helps Ericsson evaluate its processes within business context and industry environments. The results show that, to realize seamless end-to-end processes in the eight assessed processes, Ericsson has to make a greater effort to improve its process structures, governance and culture for fulfilling the needs of future business. Ericsson Steering Group is satisfied with the insights provided and has decided to train more stakeholders to use PCM. Research limitations/implications: This research is based on a single case within a specific organizational setting. The results may not be necessary generalizable to other business and industry settings. Organizations need to configure PCM in consideration of their own processes and business contingencies to explore and fulfil their process improvement purposes. Originality/value: This paper presents a new context-aware, easy-to-use and holistic method for business process management (BPM), the PCM. The method requires the active engagement of stakeholders, it focusses on developing dynamic BPM capabilities and fully embeds organizational contingencies and contextual factors in the decision-making regarding BPM. This paper contributes a novel method to explorative BPM.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

The present study investigated the effects of non-motorized voluntary running on experimental metastasis of B16BL/6 melanoma and spontaneous metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) in male C57BL/6 mice. After 9 weeks of running, mice (n = 30 per group) received an intravenous injection of B16BL/6 cells or a subcutaneous injection of LLC cells, and then they continued with their running activities. Experiments were terminated 2 weeks after the intravenous injection of B16BL/6 cells or 2 weeks after surgical removal of the primary tumor from mice subcutaneously injected with LLC cells. Mice in the running group ran an average of 4-6 km/day for the duration of the experiment. Voluntary running reduced body weight compared with sedentary controls, but there were no differences in the number and size of lung metastases between groups with either model. Voluntary running significantly reduced plasma insulin and leptin levels and increased adiponectin level in mice with and without LLC compared with their respective sedentary controls. Having LLC significantly increased plasma concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB), PDGF-AB and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) in mice. Voluntary running significantly increased plasma PDGF-BB and PDGF-AB, but not VEGF and MCP-1, in mice with LLC compared with their sedentary counterparts. In summary, non-motorized voluntary running was favorable to body weight and the expression of related adipokines, but at 4-6 km/day it did not affect either experimental or spontaneous metastasis in mice.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 595. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-595


This paper deals with knowledge flows and collaboration between firms in the regional innovation system of southern Sweden. It focuses on industries which draw on different types of knowledge bases. The aim is to analyse how the functional and spatial organisation of knowledge interdependencies among firms and other actors vary between different types of industries which are part of the same regional innovation system. We argue that knowledge sourcing and exchange in geographical proximity is especially important for industries that rely on a synthetic or symbolic knowledge base, since the interpretation of the knowledge they deal with tend to differ between places. This is less the case for industries drawing on an analytical knowledge base, which rely more on scientific knowledge that is codified, abstract and universal, and therefore less sensitive to geographical distance. Thus, geographic clustering of firms in analytical industries builds on other rationale than the need of proximity for knowledge sourcing and exchange. To analyse these assumptions empirically, we draw on data from three case studies of firm clusters in the region of southern Sweden: (1) the life science cluster represents an analytical (science) based industry, (2) the food cluster includes mainly synthetic (engineering) based industries, and (3) the moving media cluster is considered as symbolic (artistic) based. Knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange in each of the cases are explored and compared using social network analysis in association with a dataset gathered through interviews with firm representatives.


This paper estimates a simple model of the Federal Reserve's "reaction function" - that is, the relationship between economic developments and the fed's response to them. We focus on how this estimated reaction function has changed over time. Such changes are not surprising given compositional changes in the Federal Open Market Committee, and we consider three subsamples delineated by the terms of recent fed Chairmen. We find that the estimated reaction functions for each period vary in ways that seem broadly consistent with the success or failure during the period at controlling inflation. These results suggest that a Taylor-rule framework is a useful way to summarize key elements of monetary policy.


Summary HERMES is a project to promote better "Harmonised education and training in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists". The first aim of the project was to develop a European core syllabus listing core competencies that all respiratory specialists should possess. This report presents the resulting consensus-based document. A total of 50 experts in respiratory medicine from 29 countries took part in its development. Moreover, over 400 qualified respiratory physicians and over 100 trainees provided further feedback throughout the project. Competencies were identified and ranked through a three-round Delphi consensus process. Some 229 competencies were selected and split into nine sections and 51 modules. Of these, 14 were ranked as optional, 215 as mandatory. Items were further ranked into three different levels, according to the level of knowledge and competence expected. The Delphi process proved an effective tool for creating expert consensus and to enable "group" ownership of the project outcomes.


Evolutionary Economic Thought explores the theoretical roots of the evolutionary approach, and in so doing, demonstrates how it fits squarely into the theoretical mainstream. Focusing on the institutions of evolutionary change and the processes – such as competition – that generate change, this book takes account of important European contributions to the discipline, hitherto overshadowed by the American paradigm. As such, the book serves to broaden the current discourse. Whilst evolutionary economics itself is a well-researched and widely documented field, this book will be credited with establishing a history of evolutionary economic thought.


New digital media platforms (e.g. social networking sites, web pages and text messaging) have dramatically changed interpersonal communication and present novel opportunities for health interventions. Due to the high uptake and use of digital media among young people, advances in digital media provide potential new opportunities in delivering health interventions to this audience to reduce sexually transmissible infection (STI) risk. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of sexual health interventions delivered via new digital media to young people (aged 13-24 years). A systematic search was conducted of seven databases for peer-reviewed literature published between January 2010 and April 2017 that evaluated a sexual health intervention delivered to young people (aged 13-24 years). Of 2017 papers reviewed, 25 met the inclusion criteria and were assessed. Sixteen studies used web-based platforms to deliver their intervention. A large proportion of studies (11/25) specifically focused on HIV prevention. Seven studies found a statistically significant effect of the intervention on knowledge levels regarding the prevention HIV and other STI, as well as general sexual health knowledge, but only one-fifth of interventions evaluating intentions to use condoms reported significant effects due to the intervention. Nine studies focused on individuals from an African American background. Although new media has the capacity to expand efficiencies and coverage, the technology itself does not guarantee success. It is essential that interventions using new digital media have high-quality, evidence-based content that engages with individual participants.


Introduction: Anaemia is one of the public health problems in developing countries. It is an indirect cause of maternal morbidity and mortality.
Objective: The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Medical Facilities within Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State.
Methods: Two hundred and two pregnant women were purposively selected for the survey. The pregnant women were selected from General hospital, Cynic specialist hospital, Primary Health Centre and St. Victoria specialist hospital all in Ekwulobia. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire and biochemical analysis. Data were collected on background information, personal data, socio-economic and environmental factors. Blood samples were collected from the antecubital vein to determine the Hemoglobin concentration of the respondents using automated analyzer.
Results: The finding revealed that 36.2% women were anaemic. About 33.7% were mildly anaemic while 2.5% were moderately anaemic. The result revealed 43.3%, 34.8% and 28.8% of pregnant women in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trimester respectively had their hemoglobin concentration less than 11 g/dl (mild anaemia). About 3.3% and 2.5% of pregnant women in their 2nd and 3rd trimesters respectively had moderate anaemia (less than 9 g/dl). There was a relationship (p<0.05) between the women's haemoglobin concentration and education (p=0.008), occupation (p=0.027) and birth spacing (p=0.036).
Conclusion: The prevalence of anaemia in the pregnant women was high indicating a public health problem.


lymphomas (EITCL) are a recognised complication of coeliac disease (CD). A recent survey confirmed that non-Hodgkin lymphomas, although rare, are the main cause of mortality in CD. The mechanisms favouring the development of EITCL in CD patients but not in other chronic inflammatory bowel diseases remain elusive, but mounting evidence points to a profound disturbance in intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) homeostasis, leading to the emergence of lymphoid malignancies. A link between IELs and EITCL was first advocated in 1988 by Spencer et al who observed that most EITCL expressed the CD103 IEL marker. Two complementary observations suggested that EITCL derive from a reactive T cell population present in the intestine of CD patients: thus the same T cell clonal rearrangement was detected by Murray et al in EITCL and in the adjacent non-tumoral flat mucosa, and by Ashton-Key et al in non-lymphomatous ulcers of ulcerative jejunitis and in lymphomas, which later developed in these patients. Recent work in refractory sprue (RS) provided a missing link between IELs and lymphomas in CD. RS is a coeliac-like enteropathy, primary or secondary resistant to a strict gluten free diet (GFD). Several conditions underlie villous atrophy resistant to GFD (Cellier et al, in preparation) but the majority of RS complicate CD and are associated with massive expansion of IELs with normal cytology but clonal T cell receptor γ (TCRγ) rearrangements and abnormal phenotype. 8 The malignant nature of IELs in RS was demonstrated by the frequent association of RS with ulcerative jejunitis (30%), and the outset of EITCL sharing the same clonality and phenotype after several months or years in approximately 20% of cases. 9 10 RS can thus be regarded as a "cryptic or low grade T cell lymphoma" derived from IELs, and draws a link between IEL hyperplasia, characteristic of CD, and EITCL. In some CD patients however, EITCL develop directly without this first intermediary step. The report of seven new patients by Farstad and colleagues in this issue of Gut, four with RS without overt high grade lymphomas and three with EITCL associated with TCRγ clonal rearrangement (3/3) and phenotypically abnormal IELs (1/3) away from the tumour, concurs with previous work in RS and EITCL, and highlights two novel findings [see page 372]. One concerns the phenotype of IELs. Cellier et al initially reported that IELs in RS contained intracellular CD3e+ but did not express surface CD3e, CD8, or TCR. Herein, in 2/4 cases of RS, IELs expressed a TCRβ chain. These results are in keeping with previous reports, 9 and our unpublished results, showing TCRβ chain expression in 2/20 patients. Interestingly, flow cytometry in one patient studied herein as in our two cases, showed that TCRβ chains remain exclusively intracellular. Farstad et al also suggest that the lack of CD8 is not a constant feature of abnormal IELs in RS and EITCL. Using flow cytometry, we detected weak CD8 expression in a fraction of abnormal IELs in 30% of RS patients but only one and two of 20 cases were positive for CD8 by immunohistochemistry on fixed and frozen tissue sections, respectively (unpublished data). Daum et al in a recent report observed one case of CD8+ (CD56+) EITCL with CD8+ clonal IELs away from the tumour but concluded that clonality in EITCL and RS is generally associated with loss of CD8 and/or βF1 expression. Taken together, these data indicate that the phenotype of IELs in RS is very similar to that reported in EITCL, with the majority of cases being CD3+ βF1-CD8-CD4−, but with some cases being CD8+ or βF1+; rare cases are positive for both markers. 6 These results emphasise the need to combine phenotype and molecular biology studies to investigate patients suspected of having RS or EITCL. They also support the idea that RS and EITCL share a common origin from IELs deprived of surface CD3-TCR complexes by a mechanism to be deciphered. A second issue raised by Farstad and colleagues concerns the predictive value of CD30 expression. The outcome of RS is variable and not easily predictable. A small number of patients respond to therapy, mainly corticoids and parenteral nutrition, and can be maintained symptom free for years on a GFD in spite of persistent monoclonal IELs, as illustrated in patient Nos 1 and 2 described by Farstad et al. In contrast, some patients develop high grade lymphomas while in others abnormal IELs do not form tumours but disseminate to lamina propria, blood, and eventually to other organs. Furthermore, some patients who do not develop lymphomas, rapidly die from untractable malabsorption. In the two latter cases, classical chemotherapy is ineffective or even deleterious because the abnormal lymphocytes divide too slowly to be efficiently destroyed by drugs interfering with cell proliferation. Discovery of prognosis markers would thus be useful to adjust therapy. Farstad et al suggest that CD30 allows the early detection of overt lymphoma. Firstly, they detected some CD30+ blastlike IELs and lamina propria cells away from the tumours in their three cases of EITCL. Secondly, in one patient with RS without overt lymphoma, the rapidly fatal outcome was associated with the presence of 25% CD30+ blast-like IELs. No CD30+ IELs were however observed in another RS patient with rapid severe outcome, whereas a third patient with some CD30+ IELs was improved by parenteral nutrition and a GFD. Finally, the patient with many CD30+ IELs did not benefit from one attempted cure of CHOP. These observations illustrate the difficulties in predicting outcome and in propounding an appropriate treatment in RS patients. Apart from CD30, other immunohistochemical markers may help to detect transformation from low to high grade proliferation, such as proliferation markers or p53 detected by Murray et al on small lymphocytes in the bowel adjacent to EITCL. Nevertheless, as in patient No 3 reported by Farstad et al, none of these markers may be useful in predicting untractable malabsorption in the absence of overt lymphoma. Functional analysis of abnormal IELs in RS may identify criteria predictive of their aggressiveness for the mucosa or new targets for therapy, a pressing need given the lack of current efficient treatment for severely sick RS patients and the poor prognosis of EITCL. Insight into the mechanism(s) disturbing IEL homeostasis in CD may help to decipher the links between inflammation and lymphoid malignancies and to design treatments able to prevent or cure these rare but most severe complications of CD.


Pattini goddess, virgin, wife, and mother; folk deity of Sinhala Buddhists and Jains; and assimilated goddess of the Hindu pantheon has been worshiped in Sri Lanka and South India for fifteen hundred years or more, as she still is today. This long-awaited book is the culmination of Gananath Obeyesekere's comprehensive study of the Pattini cult and its historical, sociological, and psychoanalytical role in the culture of South Asia. A well-known anthropologist and a native of Sri Lanka, Obeyesekere displays his impeccable scholarship and a stunning range of theoretical perspectives in this work, the most detailed analysis of a single religious complex in South Asian ethnography (and possibly in all of anthropology)."


Virtual worlds like Second Life offer players opportunities to earn real-world income through their activities in the game. It will not be long before governments begin to establish policies and regulations regarding the income generated by players of these game environments. This paper examines the issue of taxes in virtual world games. Two alternative places for recognizing income could be established by regulators: 1) at the point when in-game transactions take place; or 2) when players convert game assets into real-world currency. We argue for realization of income, and therefore taxation, at the exchange. We expect that burdensome policies such as requiring game operators to monitor and report taxable activities to the authorities will dissuade game play and likely result in the collapse of these vibrant economies. Therefore, our recommendation is that the IRS should establish specific rules that inform players about how they should calculate income and work with game operators to inform participants of both the rules and consequences for non-compliance.


After first assessing the state of ballistic missile proliferation in the Middle East, South Asia, and Northeast Asia, Dennis Gormley identifies the factors shaping the spread of cruise missiles in these regions. He includes the specialized knowledge needed for missile development, narrative messages about reasons for acquiring cruise missiles, and international norms of state behavior about missile nonproliferation policy and defense doctrine. He argues that cruise missiles are not destined to supplant ballistic missiles, but rather join them, because when employed together, they severely test even the best missile defenses. He then addresses the policy adjustments needed to staunch the spread of cruise missiles, or, barring that, cope militarily with the dual threat of cruise and ballistic missiles. This book explains the systems and their impact on national security.


This is the fully revised classic on employing asset allocation techniques to grow real wealth. A global leader and preeminent expert in asset allocation, David Darst delivers his masterwork on the topic. In a fully updated and expanded second edition of "The Art of Asset Allocation", Morgan Stanley's Chief Investment Strategist covers the historic market events, instruments, asset classes, and economic forces that investors need to be aware of as they create asset-building portfolios. He then explains how to use modern asset allocation concepts and tools to augment returns and control risks in a wide range of financial market environments. This completely revised edition shows how to achieve asset balance with the author's proven methods, decades of expertise, relevant charts, practical tools, and astute analyses.Known as the king of asset allocation, Darst brings his expertise to bear to provide complete asset class descriptions, identifying historical risk, return, and correlation characteristics for all major asset classes. Using actual data, he explains the differences between tactical and strategic asset allocation, outlines clear rebalancing guidelines, and includes an annotated guide to both traditional and Internet-based information sources. Praise for the first edition: 'You want to be a better investor, a better client, or a better advisor? Devour this book now!' - James J. Cramer. 'David Darst is the expert on Asset Allocation. He has chosen to share his decades of practical experience in "The Art of Asset Allocation", to the benefit of professional and individual investors alike' - Seth A. Klarman.


Background: Lack of farmers' knowledge, illegal production and import, and economical situation are the main reasons for non-authorized usage. In this study, one of the major center of cucumber cultivation at south west of Iran, Darreh shahr City in Ilam Province were studied for non-authorized pesticides usage, which health authorities and national standard organization do not recommend. Methods: A reliable, rapid and accurate method based on spiked calibration curves and modified QuEChERS sample preparation was developed for determination of 7 non-authorized pesticides. During 2014 fifty cucumber samples were collected and analyzed by gas chromatography Electron Capture Detector (GC/ECD). For overcoming matrix effects, calibration curve was prepared by spiked samples. Results: Method was validated with related parameters. The recovery of pesticides at five concentration levels (n=3) was in the range of 81.02-91.66%. The method was proved repeatable with RSD lower than 20%. The limits of quantification for all pesticides were 10 ng/g. Conclusion: There are some pesticides which are legally used with identified MRL in cucumber, but for better protection farmers used another pesticides which are not permitted by health authorities, consequently are harmful for consumers. Related fields inspections showed that some specific pesticides were applied for this purpose, such as α-endosulfan, β-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH and phosalone that was found in three cucumber samples (6%).