Renal biopsy has made a major contribution to the understanding and management of patients with lupus nephritis. In a 5-year retrospective study the renal morphology of 55 biopsies from 51 patients with lupus nephritis was classified according to World Health Organisation criteria. In addition, semi-quantitative activity and chronicity scores were documented. The findings were similar to series from other parts of the world. Of the biopsies reviewed, 6 were class II, 13 class III, 32 class IV and 4 class V. In situations of overlap, segmental proliferative features determined the class to which a biopsy specimen was assigned. Twenty-five of the patients, all WHO class IV, showed activity scores in the severe range. Most of the activity score features were common and easily recognised but necrotising angiitis was only seen in 1 patient. Haematoxylin bodies were difficult to document and the nature and value of the haematoxylin body is questioned.


This working paper documents the construction of a 1993-94 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Bangladesh. The SAM distinguishes 10 agricultural sectors —including two different kinds of rice technology — and 19 manufacturing sectors, out of 43 sectors in total. It also differentiates between twelve socio-economic groups, allowing detailed analysis of household welfare and poverty. The SAM has ten factors of production: one type of capital, one type of land and eight different types of labor which are disaggregated by both level of education and gender. The innovative feature of the SAM is that it separates out female and male labor value-added for each educational level and in eachsector of the economy, providing a base for gender-sensitive analyses of policy changes. The SAM is estimated with a cross-entropy approach, which makes efficient use of all available data in a framework that incorporates prior information and constraints.


In practice, lead time demand (LTD) can be non-standard: skewed, multi-modal or highly variable; factors that compromise the validity of the classic approaches for setting safety stock levels. Motivated by encountering this problem at our industry partner, we develop an approach for setting safety stock levels using the bootstrap, a widely-used statistical procedure. We extend prior research that has used the bootstrap for quantile estimation to address the multi-parameter estimation of safety stocks. We develop a multivariate central limit theorem for the bootstrap mean and bootstrap quantile -- components of the safety stock calculation -- highlighting why the generalization of these bootstrap methods is critical for inventory management. These results provide a theoretical underpinning for the bootstrap estimator of safety stock and permit the construction of confidence intervals for safety stock estimates, allowing decision makers to understand the reliability with which the desired service level will be achieved. Building on our theoretical results, and supported by numerical experiments, we provide insights on the behavior of the bootstrap for various LTD distributions, which our results demonstrate are critical when employing the bootstrap method. Implementation results with our industry partner indicate our approach is quite effective in setting safety stock levels.


Decision making, based on forward looking deliberation, assumes a cognitive representation of the causal relationships determining the consequences of behavioral choices. We refer to this perceived causal structure as the mental model which, of course, can — and in all complex environments — must differ from the actual decision situation. Mental modeling is thus one step in the possible recursive process of boundedly rational reasoning which precedes belief and goal formation and the search for satisficing behavioral options. How we cognitively perceive a choice task is usually not revealed by choice data. We discuss experimental methods trying to elicit more or less directly crucial aspects of mental modeling and how they might help to explain more reliably choice making. According to the few experimental studies challenging this inherently difficult task none of the experimental methods is without flaws. We nevertheless propagate using them.


We present two methods based on the analysis of Fabry-Perot interference for a detailed characterization of a 90° corner in a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide fabricated in a thin Si membrane. These methods are a means of identifying the critical waveguide elements in the process of improving photonic crystal devices. The effects of the elements forming the photonic crystal waveguide are identified and quantified by means of a stage-by-stage analysis. By Fourier transforming the transmission spectra we observe the amount of light that is back reflected inside the waveguide and based on the fringe contrast of the Fabry-Perot modulation we calculate the loss contribution of each waveguide element, such as the tapers and the 90° corner.


The Spanish Government and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BIRF) signed a cooperation agreement in 1971 with the objective to upgrade the level of agricultural research by: a) restructuring the National Crop Research Institute (INIA) to create commodity oriented National Centers, b) changing research planning through the creation of National Commodity oriented Programs, and c) training of 200 scientists in international high quality laboratories in the priority areas of Research Centers. Total budget of the project was 28,2 million dollars (equivalent today to about 204 million euros), with BIRF supporting 12,7 million dollars as credit. The project successfully accomplished its main objectives and caused an important change in the quality and orientation of agricultural research that had an high impact from scientific and socio economic points of view. This was specially due to the training program, since the other achievements were loosed after the transfer of INIA regional Centers to the Autonomous Communities.


In the late nineteenth century American publishers began to answer a burgeoning demand for histories of classical music. Although some of the authors they contracted are well-known to scholars of music in the United States—most notably Edward MacDowell and John Knowles Paine—the books themselves have been neglected. The reason is that these histories are almost exclusively concerned with the European musical past; the United States is a marginal presence in their narratives. But much can be learned about American musical culture by looking more closely at the historiographical practices employed in these histories and the changes that took place in the books that succeeded them in the first half of the twentieth century. In particular, they shed light on the shifting transatlantic connections that shaped American attitudes toward classical music. Marked at first by an Anglo-American consensus bolstered by the social evolutionary theory of prominent Victorians, American classical music histories came to be variegated, a result of the influence of Central European emigres who fled Hitler's Germany and settled in North America. The most dramatic part of this transformation pertains to American attitudes toward the link between music and modernity. A case study, the American reception of Gustav Mahler, reveals why Americans began to see signs of cultural decline in classical music only in the 1930s, despite the precedent set by many pessimistic fin-de-siecle European writers.


Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) occurs in a minority of patients with adult Still's disease (ASD).1,2 It can be the diseases' first manifestation or be triggered by an infection or change in treatment.3 Two cases are presented. The first case is a 30-year-old woman with ASD, who came to the ER with a fever lasting for one week that did not improve with antibiotics, so she was admitted to the Rheumatology department. During admission, treatment with ceftriaxone and glucocorticoids (GC) mg/kg was started, and multiple complementary tests performed: blood culture positive for pneumococcus and positive serology for cytomegalovirus; analytically: hepatitis, elevated acute phase reactants (APR), hyperferritinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, thrombocytopenia, and anemia, in addition to splenomegaly in the computed tomography (CT). Despite treatment, evolution was unfavorable, with persistent thrombocytopenia and declining ESR. With these data, we decided to perform a bone marrow biopsy (BMB), observing hemophagocytic cells (HC), diagnosing MAS and initiating treatment with cyclosporine (CSP) 5 mg/kg/day and 60 GC mg/day, with progressive improvement. The second case is a 35-year-old woman who presented with fever, a sore throat, musculoskeletal pain, vomiting and rash for a week, diagnosed as the flu. Three days later she came to the ER because of persistent fever and rash, and the onset of lymphadenopathy, and was hospitalized. During admission, treatment was started with ceftriaxone and gentamicin; associated infection and autoimmunity was ruled out. Analytically she presented:


Thorium is a natural alpha-emitting element occurring in various ores and has numerous industrial applications. Routine monitoring of potentially exposed workers is generally achieved through radiobioassay (urine and faeces). The procedures currently used for analysing actinides such as thorium in urine require lengthy chemical separation associated with long counting times by alpha-spectrometry due to low activity levels. Thus, their main drawback is that they are time-consuming, which limits the frequency and flexibility of individual monitoring. In this context, this study developed new radiochemical procedures based on the use of tertbutylcalix[6]arenes bearing three carboxylic acid groups or three hydroxamic acid groups. These previous works demonstrated that these macrocyclic molecules immobilised on an inert solid support are excellent extractants for uranium, plutonium and americium. In this study, the authors investigated the thorium extraction by calix[6]arene columns. Experiments were performed on synthetic solutions and on real urine samples. The influence of various parameters, such as the thorium solution pH and the column flow rate on thorium extraction, was studied. The results showed that both calix[6]arenes are efficient to extract thorium. Thorium extraction is quantitative from pH = 2 for synthetic solution and from pH = 3 for real urine samples. This study has demonstrated that the column flow rate is a crucial parameter since its value must not be too high to achieve the steady-state complexation equilibrium. Finally, these results will be compared with those obtained for other actinides (U, Pu and Am) and the conditions of actinides' separation will be discussed.


The crises in Southeast and East Asia have started a new round of debate on the benefits and disadvantages of globalisation. We have to askwhether the crises in Asia were the result of failures in national economic policy or whether they were the consequence of ill-constructed global financial markets. It can be concluded that the crises were caused by a number of factors, both internal and external, but that the decisive shifts came from actors on international financial markets as well as from the IMF, whose activities fuelled the crises. To avoid a repetition, a number of options are discussed, including the introduction of a currency regime between the major players in the world economy as well as unilateral measures to defend developing countries? economies against volatile international financial markets.


Developments in health, science and technology have long provided fertile analytical ground for social science disciplines. This book focuses on the critical and enduring importance of core concepts in anthropology and sociology for interrogating and keeping pace with developments in the life sciences. The authors consider how transformations in medical and scientific knowledge serve to reanimate older controversies, giving new life to debates about relations between society, culture, knowledge and individuals. They reflect on the particular legacies and ongoing relevance of concepts such as 'culture', 'society', 'magic', 'production', 'kinship', 'exchange' and 'the body'. The chapters draw on the work of key historical and contemporary figures across the social sciences and include a range of illustrative case studies to explore topics such as transplant medicine, genetic counselling, cancer therapy, reproductive health and addiction. Of particular interest to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, and science and technology studies, this volume will also be a valuable resource for those working in the fields of health and medicine.


Dysregulation of the receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) HER2 and c-Met correlate well with poor breast cancer (BC) prognosis and invasive aggressive profile. c-Met amplification proved to be the HER2-dependent tumors9 inevitable escape mechanism from the anticancer effects of targeted therapies including trastuzumab, cetuximab, and small-molecule RTK inhibitors like lapatinib, gefitinib, and erlotinib. Dual HER2-Met inhibition is highly expected to be effective and less likely to develop resistance. This study reports the novel dual HER2-Met inhibitory molecular mechanism for the extra virgin olive oil-derived phenolic secoiridoid (-)-oleocanthal (OC). OC showed typical type-I binding mode at c-Met ATP kinase domain. OC aldehydes, ester, and phenol groups showed critical interactions with the critical activation loop ASP1222/TYR1230 and the hinge region PRO1158/MET1160. In addition, OC overlapped two out of the three lapatinib critical interactions at the HER2 kinase domain, the hinge region MET801 and PHE864; besides, OC uniquely targeted the hinge region9s THR862 and SER783, justifying unique binding mode. OC showed low-µM level inhibitory activities against both c-Met and HER2 kinases in cell-free Z-LYTE assays. In vitro, OC induced dose- and time-dependent inhibition of the proliferation and migrations of several BC cells including BT-474, SK-BR-3, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, MDA-MB-468 at low μM IC50 dose range. This effect was associated with selective blockade of HER2 and Met receptors activation in response to their natural ligands HGF and EGF, respectively, confirmed by Western blotting, flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry studies. OC potently induced autophagy via the upregulation of LCA/B, Atg-3, Atg-7, Atg-16L within 6-12 h of SKBR-3 cells treatment. OC had no effect on the viability of the nontumorigenic human MCF-12A mammary epithelial and neuronal Schwann RSC 96 cells. In vivo, 5-10 mg/kg oral or ip dose range of OC potently inhibited 65-90% of the growth of the HER2-dependent BT-474 and the c-Met-dependent MDA-MB-231 BC cells in female athymic nude mice xenograft models. Orally, 10 mg/kg dose of OC prevented over 90% of local and regional recurrences of both tumor phenotypes after primary tumor surgical excision in orthotopic xenograft mice models. This was further confirmed by significant reductions of Ki-67, CD31, pHER2 and p-c-Met levels in treated animal tumors by IHC studies. OC is a novel dual c-Met-HER2 inhibitory dietary supplement lead with excellent potential for translational use to prevent and control breast malignancies with aberrant c-Met or HER2 activities. Supported by NCI Award R15CA167475 and Louisiana Board of Regents ITRS Award LEQSF (2017-20)-RD-B-07. Citation Format: Abu Bakar Siddique, Hassan Ebrahim, Mohamed Mohyeldin, Seetharama D. Jois, Khalid A. El Sayed. The olive-based oleocanthal as a dual HER2-MET inhibitor for the control of breast cancer recurrence [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2683.


We propose a highly efficient framework for kernel multi-class models with a large and structured set of classes. Kernel parameters are learned automatically by maximizing the cross-validation log likelihood, and predictive probabilities are estimated. We demonstrate our approach on large scale text classification tasks with hierarchical class structure, achieving state-of-the-art results in an order of magnitude less time than previous work.


The key biophysical impacts associated with projected climate change in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB)
include: declines in pasture productivity, reduced forage quality, livestock heat stress, greater problems with some pests and
weeds, more frequent droughts, more intense rainfall events, and greater risks of soil degradation. The most arid and least
productive rangelands in theMDBregion may be the most severely impacted by climate change, while the more productive
eastern and northern grazing lands in theMDBmay provide some opportunities for slight increases in production. In order to
continue to thrive in the future, livestock industries need to anticipate these changes, prepare for uncertainty, and develop
adaptation strategies now. While climate change will have direct effects on livestock, the dominant influences on grazing
enterprises in the MDB will be through changes in plant growth and the timing, quantity and quality of forage availability.
Climate change will involve a complex mix of responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, rising temperatures,
changes in rainfall and other weather factors, and broader issues related to how people collectively and individually respond
to these changes. Enhancing the ability of individuals to respond to a changing climate will occur through building adaptive
capacity. We have, via secondary data, selected from the Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey, built a
national composite index of generic adaptive capacity of rural households. This approach expresses adaptive capacity as an
emergent property of the diverse forms of human, social, natural, physical and financial capital from which livelihoods are
derived. Human capital was rated as 'high' across the majority of theMDBcompared with the rest of Australia, while social,
physical and financial capital were rated as 'moderate' to 'low'. The resultant measure of adaptive capacity, made up of the
five capitals, was 'low' in the northern and central-west regions of the MDB and higher in the central and eastern parts
possibly indicating a greater propensity to adapt to climate change in these regions.


Composite materials are being extensively used in aerospace and automotive industry. The demand for composite materials is increasing due to their superior properties such as high strength to weight ratio, good corrosion resistance and high stiffness. Post machining operations such as drilling, orthogonal cutting, turning are necessary for composite materials to meet the dimensional and functional requirements. Drilling is a major process in manufacturing of holes, required for assembling the components in industrial applications. Drilling of holes in composites leads to a drilling-induced damage called delamination.
The researchers have tried to reduce the drilling-induced damage by minimizing the operating variables and tool design. However, the research on delamination analysis using finite element method (FEM) is limited. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on machining of composites which mainly focuses on conventional methods like turning, milling, trimming and drilling and also on simulation methods including discrete element method and finite element method. A brief and in depth review
for drilling of composites using finite element method is delivered, which provides a knowledge on damage of the composites caused during drilling and orthogonal cutting. Comparison of experimental and simulation results shows an overall vision on machining of CFRP using FEM tools.


The floating gate (FG) potential VFG in a non–volatile flash memory (NVM) device is the main parameter controlling the behavior of the cell. A common technique to model VFG is based on the calculation of the coupling coefficients between all the terminals [1]. To this purpose, the capacitance between the control gate (CG) and the FG, separated by an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) dielectric layer, must be accurately modeled. In this work a physical model of the ONO capacitance is presented. This model is based on a structuredecomposition approach and on the principle of Gauss law integration along electrical field lines between the CG and the FG [2]. Moreover, most compact models used in industry consider fringing or corner capacitances as fitting parameters, which is not appropriate when technology scalability must be taken into account. The physical–level model presented in this work supports accurate modeling of cell layout scalability as well as process variations.


A laser can be understood as a thermodynamic engine converting heat to a coherent single mode field close to Carnot efficiency. To achieve lasing, spectral shaping of the excitation light is used to generate a higher effective temperature on the pump than on the gain transition. Here, using a toy model of a quantum well structure with two suitably designed tunnel-coupled wells kept at different temperatures, we predict that lasing can also occur on an actual spatial temperature gradient between the pump and gain regions. Gain and narrow band laser emission require a sufficiently large temperature gradient and resonator quality. Lasing appears concurrent with amplified heat flow between the reservoirs and points to a new form of stimulated solid state cooling. In addition, such a mechanism could reduce intrinsic heating and thus extend the operating regime of quantum cascade lasers by substituting phonon emission driven injection by a phonon absorption step.


The Indonesian throughflow (ITF) impacts heat and buoyancy transport from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, influencing air‐sea heat exchange and Indo‐Pacific climate. Nearly 80% of the total 15 sverdrups (1 Sv = 106 m3/s) of ITF water moves through the Makassar Strait in the western Indonesian seas, with ~20% of total ITF transport subsequently entering the Indian Ocean through the Lombok Strait. During the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM), buoyant South China Sea (SCS) waters obstruct southward surface ITF transport in the Makassar Strait, likely impacting surface variability throughout the Lombok Strait. Here we present two subannually resolved, multicentury records of coral‐reconstructed sea surface salinity (SSS) from the northern (110 years) and southern Lombok Strait (193 years). Differences in boreal winter (January–March) SSS variability between the two sites suggest the influence of multiple source waters. Instrumental and reconstructed temperature‐salinity (T‐S) relationships indicate that SCS surface waters dominate the northern Lombok Strait, while Indian Ocean surface waters instead dominate the southern Lombok Strait before 1960. These dissimilarities are likely due to changes in monsoon‐driven surface water advection. At the northern site, the EAWM consistently influences SSS variability. The EAWM influence at the southern site, however, reverses in direction (inverse to direct) coincidentally with a transition from a positive (strong) to negative (weak) EAWM state in 1960. Our records collectively reveal that changes in the strength and state of the EAWM impact Lombok Strait surface water circulation, likely interacting with southward ITF transport and thus Indo‐Pacific climate.


Purpose: To screen for keratoconus and potential associated risk factors in a tertiary student population sample. Population and Methods: This cross sectional study included 1234 students attending An-Najah National University (Nablus, West Bank, Palestine), that were randomly selected from a total of 20,000 university students. 634 (51.3%) student participants responded by completing a self-administered questionnaire and were assessed by means of corneal topography. Following initial evaluation, participants were referred for Pentacam evaluation if they demonstrated either a mean keratometry of more than 45 diopters, corneal astigmatism of more than 2 diopters and/or if asymmetric topographic patterns were present. Pentacam images were analyzed by an experienced ophthalmologist based on a number of indices and the participants were classified as normal, keratoconus suspects, and keratoconus patients. Results: A total of 620 participants (mean age, 20.1±1.6 years) were included in this study, 379 (61.1%) were females and 241 (38.9%) were males. Nine subjects were diagnosed with keratoconus, demonstrating a prevalence of 1.5%. 52 (8.4%) participants showed at least one abnormal pentacam index, and were considered as KC suspects. Conclusion: Keratoconus is a prevalent disease among the tertiary Palestinian student population. This may be related to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The results of this study signal the need for public health outreach and intervention for keratoconus.


Circadian rhythms are endogenously generated daily oscillations in physiology found in all kingdoms of life. Experimental studies have shown that the fitness of Synechococcus elongatus, a photosynthetic microorganism, is severely affected in non-24h environments. However, it has been difficult to study the effects of clock-environment mismatch on cellular physiology because such measurements require the precise determination of both clock state and growth rates in the same cell. Here, we designed a microscopy platform that allows us to expose cyanobacterial cells to pulses of light and dark while quantitatively measuring their growth, division rate, and circadian clock state over many days. Our measurements reveal that decreased fitness can result from a catastrophic growth arrest caused by unexpected darkness in a small subset of cells with incorrect clock times corresponding to the subjective morning. We find that the clock generates rhythms in the instantaneous growth rate of the cell, and that time of darkness vulnerability coincides with the time of most rapid growth. Thus, the clock mediates a fundamental trade-off between growth and starvation tolerance in cycling environments. By measuring the response of the circadian rhythm to dark pulses of varying lengths, we constrain a mathematical model of a population's fitness under arbitrary light/dark schedules. This model predicts that the circadian clock is only advantageous in highly regular cycling environments with frequencies sufficiently close to the natural frequency of the clock.


Shoepe, TC, Ramirez, DA, and Almstedt, HC. Elastic band prediction equations for combined free-weight and elastic band bench presses and squats. J Strength Cond Res 24(1): 195-200, 2010-Elastic bands added to traditional free-weight techniques have become a part of suggested training routines in recent years. Because of the variable loading patterns of elastic bands (i.e., greater stretch produces greater resistance), it is necessary to quantify the exact loading patterns of bands to identify the volume and intensity of training. The purpose of this study was to determine the length vs. tension properties of multiple sizes of a set of commonly used elastic bands to quantify the resistance that would be applied to free-weight plus elastic bench presses (BP) and squats (SQ). Five elastic bands of varying thickness were affixed to an overhead support beam. Dumbbells of varying weights were progressively added to the free end while the linear deformation was recorded with each subsequent weight increment. The resistance was plotted as a factor of linear deformation, and best-fit nonlinear logarithmic regression equations were then matched to the data. For both the BP and SQ loading conditions and all band thicknesses tested, R2 values were greater than 0.9623. These data suggest that differences in load exist as a result of the thickness of the elastic band, attachment technique, and type of exercise being performed. Facilities should adopt their own form of loading quantification to match their unique set of circumstances when acquiring, researching, and implementing elastic band and free-weight exercises into the training programs.


Context: Spectroscopic imaging can be helpful to identify metabolite changes in a normal appearing brain parenchyma after MR imaging in patients with lung cancer. Aims: To detect metabolic changes in the cerebellar and cerebral normal appearing white matter with single-voxel H-MR spectroscopy (MRS) in patients with lung cancer.
Methods and material: MRS was performed in the Cerebellar White Matter (CWM) and Parietal White Matter (PWM) of patients with lung cancer (n=38; age range: 44-82 y; mean age: 66.1 ± 8.7) and an agematched control group (n=32; age range: 42-80 y; mean age: 62.9 ± 8). Biopsies of lung masses showed 25 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and 13 Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC). NAA/Cr, NAA/Cho and Cho/Cr ratios were calculated. Statistical analysis used: The unpaired-t test was used for the assessment of metabolite ratio differences between patients and control subjects. Mann-Whitney U test was used among SCLC, NSCLC, and control group for the evaluation of metabolite ratio differences.
Results: The Cho/Cr ratios in the CWM were significantly lower in the patients compared to controls (p=0.03). The Cho/Cr ratio of patients with SCLC was significantly lower in PWM than both NSCLC (p=0.02) and control group (p=0.03).
Conclusion: Decreased Cho/Cr ratio possibly represents increased uptake of Cho or reduced brain function. These results may be important in assessing patients with lung cancer in order to help with treatment planning and prognosis.


This article examines the representational discourses in two Canadian ethnic publications after a campaign to secure approval of a publically funded Africentric school in the Toronto District School Board came to fruition. In documenting both publications' problematization of issues surrounding the school, this analysis demonstrates how discourses of multiculturalism and critical multiculturalism structured the articulation of blackness as identity in the coverage. Representational discourses employed by each publication underscore the complicated and nuanced responses to community issues that ethnic media often adopt in order to affirm sociopolitical positions to those within and beyond their referential borders.


Abstract. Very high resolution (VHR) DSMs (digital surface models) derived from stereo- or multi-stereo images from current VHR satellites like WorldView-2 or Pleiades can be produced up to the ground sampling distance (GSD) of the sensors in the range of 50 cm to 1 m. From such DSMs the digital terrain model (DTM) representing the ground and also a so called nDEM (normalized digital elevation model) describing the height of objects above the ground can be derived. In parallel these sensors deliver multispectral imagery which can be used for a spectral classification of the imagery. Fusion of the multispectral classification and the nDEM allows a simple classification and detection of urban objects. In further processing steps these detected urban objects can be modeled and exported in a suitable description language like CityGML. In this work we present the pre-processing steps up to the classification and detection of the urban objects. The modeling is not part of this work. The pre-processing steps described here cover briefly the coregistration of the input images and the generation of the DSM. In more detail the improvement of the DSM, the extraction of the DTM and nDEM, the multispectral classification and the object detection and extraction are explained. The methods described are applied to two test regions from two satellites: First the center of Munich acquired by WorldView-2 and second the center of Melbourne acquired by Pl´eiades. From both acquisitions a stereo-pair from the panchromatic bands is used for creation of the DSM and the pan-sharpened multispectral images are used for spectral classification. Finally the quality of the detected urban objects is discussed.


In English language teaching (ELT), compared with non-native English speaker English teachers (NNESTs), native English speaker teachers (NESTs) seemingly gain prominence and are often taken for granted as better English teachers for non-native speaker students, which is described as the native speaker ideology (NS ideology) in this area. In foregoing research of this issue, much attention has been paid to the comparison of NESTs and NNESTs, or students' perceptions on NESTs and NNESTs, while studies having a general picture of the NS ideology are scant. On the basis of literature review, the paper is attempted to have an overall picture of the NS ideology in ELT, with a focus on its causes, its effects on English teaching and learning, and its irrational aspects. In the end, corresponding implications for English teaching and learning are proposed based on the foregoing discussions.


BACKGROUND
Penetrating neck injuries result from missiles and stab wounds. A gas pistol is a non-lethal weapon for self-defence.

CASE REPORT
We present a case where the use of a modified gun led to multiple injuries in a single shot. Four projectiles were embedded in the neck, one in the larynx and three in the cervical spine. The first was removed via a combined external and endoscopic approach, while the rest were put on follow-up.

CONCLUSION
The reported case shows that damage from modified gas pistols, although rarely life threatening, may cause long term discomfort and diminished quality of life.


The Chaco-Pampean plain is one of the greatest plains worldwide; present a wetland macro system (lagoons, marshes, rivers, streams, channels).  The water quality of these environments is diverse and has different trace elements natural (As, F, Mo and V) and anthropogenic (Cr, Cu and Pb). The Chaco Pampean plain has an important diversity of fish species however the species of commercial importance are limited. This paper presents the reviews of the studies related to the presence of trace elements in tissues of commercial fishes (shad Prochilodus lineatus and silversides Odontesthes bonariensis ) in the Chaco-Pampean plain in recent decades and a discussion about associated information gaps is presented. The presence of trace elements in commercial fish muscle is a major problem for food security. The results showed that most of the elements present in shad are in lower levels than the maximum limits set by the Argentine Food Code (CAA, 2014). In the case of Pb present in the muscle of the shad, the determined values exceed those considered by the European Food Safety Authority. In the case of silversides the values of As, Pb, Hg are mostly lower than those maximum recommended by the Argentine Food Code. However, according to the European Food Safety Authority, the lower limit on the benchmark dose for a 10% response (BMDL) values associated with health risk for As.


Constitutionalism in Islamic Countries: Between Upheaval and Continuity examines the question of whether something similar to an "Islamic constitutionalism" has emerged out of the political and constitutional upheaval witnessed in many parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southern Asia in order to identify its defining features and to assess the challenges it poses to established concepts of constitutionalism. This book offers an integrated analysis of the constitutional experience of Islamic countries, drawing on the methods and insights of comparative constitutional law, Islamic law, international law and legal history. European and United States experiences are used as points of reference against which the peculiar challenges, and the specific answers given to those challenges in the countries surveyed, can be assessed. Whether these concepts can be applied successfully to the often grim political and social realities of their countries will provide invaluable insights into whether such a fusion can be sustained, and may even pave the way for a new era of constitutionalism in Islamic countries.


The main purpose of this study is to investigate the different aspects of the Sakawa Sili indigenous festival where the Sili dance is performed. Modernization and rituals theories are deeply observed to analyze my research questions. The main leading questions are: what is the importance of Sakawa Sili festival in Rai community? How it is celebrated? How is this festival affected by modernization and globalization? How do younger generations understand this festival? And how does this festival help to revitalizing the Rai's culture? These questions will be addressed in this study based on research collected during fieldwork. Basically this traditional indigenous festival is a celebration of praying to the Goddess of nature for good crops and protection from the natural calamities. Its meanings lie in the movements of bodies and how the dancers respond. Viewer can feel its music, sounds, shapes and directions. Every movement has its own senses while performing the dance. This study focused on how these movements are influenced by modernization and globalization. It is visible during the festival period that participants move their body in different ways like fast, slow and mixed. However, the important thing is that it is a way of motions that is found in Kirati land from more than thousands years. Several questions are raised to question the knowledge about the festival such as history, origin, importance and its rituals values. Mainly in order to answers my research questions, several tools and techniques were implemented. Through qualitative data my research questions will be observed and the impacts of modernization in the festival will be analyzed. How the impacts of modernization and globalization could positively and negatively affect the ritual will also be observed from this thesis. Important aspects like its origin, types, importance, rituals values and cultural revitalization are also analyzed in this study. The study examines the impacts of modernization and the complex relationship with globalization. Research closely observed its impacts on the Sakawa Sili festival in multiple ways. This thesis also discusses the fundamental questions about rights of indigenous people, questions of self-determination, indigenous identity and power. However, this study focuses on the impacts of modernization on the festival and examines the impacts on cultural and rituals values in Rai Kirati indigenous community


Using firm-level data from 28 European countries, this paper explores the relationship between two types of innovation (process and digital) and different forms of control (direct and indirect) at the workplace. We find that (1) digital innovation is more common than process innovation; (2) more innovative firms record higher levels of indirect control (especially related to algorithmic management) and lower levels of direct control; (3) the relationship between innovation and control is not uniform across European regions. These findings nurture the debate on the future of work as the process of digitalisation may promote a shift towards indirect forms of control and contribute to reducing the degree of direct control. Moreover, these changes may also affect the bargaining process and lead to a redefinition of managerial roles, though it should be acknowledged that social and institutional factors play an important role in shaping this process.


A spectral ripple effect observed in fold-type continuous-wave cavity ring down spectroscopy is described and studied. Its period was measured as ∼0.02 cm−1 in a 49.1 cm long V-shaped glass ceramics cavity. To find its origin, various losses of high-reflectivity coating and their relations to the optical field in the V-shaped cavity, especially the optical field inside the folding mirror coating, have been discussed and analyzed according to the interference theory and the matrix calculation method. It is found that the ripple mainly comes from an interference effect at the folding mirror coating between the direct and the inverse light waves. The interference effect results in the periodic fluctuations of the scattering and absorption loss of the high-reflectivity coating, so it can be used to measure some special losses of the high-reflectivity coating and separate them from the total loss of the coating.


In this lecture, we show that the protocol for quadratic residuosity discussed last week is indeed zero-knowledge. Next we move on to the formal definition of proof of knowledge, and we show that the quadratic residuosity protocol is also a proof of knowledge. We also start discussing the primitives required to prove that any language in N P admits a zero-knowledge proof.


The interpersonal conflicts are significant enough to reshape rather redefine the course of academic and administrative pursuits of the higher educational institutions. In every sphere of life, an interpersonal conflict is an antithesis to the phenomenon of co-existence. It cast a highly negative impact upon the institutional standards and eventually hampers the employees' credibility in all respects. Eventually, the graph of the employees' morale dips to its minima which are an alarming phenomenon to be analyzed and impeded. The academic institutions, as a seat knowledge and learning cannot afford to sustain the overdose of interpersonal conflict as these conflicts lessen the level of efficiency and output as a whole. The need arises to categorically elaborate, analyze and comprehensively devise the most appropriate approaches to resolve these disputes prevailing within the institutional domains. Keywords: Interpersonal conflict, Employees' morale and Institutional performance


Abstract Central to the present paper is the question of how designers can be supported to deliberately facilitate positive emotional experiences. Related to this, the paper provides an overview of the research on design for positive emotions, its issues, and opportunities for further investigations. The practical relevance of transcending the notion of generalised pleasure is discussed, highlighting the benefits of developing and applying a nuanced understanding of positive emotions. Overarching challenges and opportunities that underlie in stimulating such understanding are delineated along with the review of characteristics of positive emotions. Ethical issues of designing for positive emotions are reflected regarding its implications for well-being with suggestions to resolve them. Besides, the paper discusses emerging research directions, ranging from design tools to distinguish diverse positive emotions, the added value of exploring expressive interaction qualities of positive emotions, to advantages of involving tool users (e.g., designers and project stakeholders) in the development process.


What is the role for a law journal in advancing justice? What is the role of a justice-minded practitioner in furthering legal scholarship? And what is the intersection—practically and normatively—for law journals, legal scholars, practitioners, and justice? This brief Article attempts to lay a foundation for answering these important, but oft-neglected, questions. In the following conversation, a frequent contributor to the Michigan Journal of Race & Law (MJRL) and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal posit some ideas on how legal scholarship engages with justice, and how race-conscious practitioners can interact with race-conscious legal scholars.


This paper explores the determinants of the capital structure of Serbian firms listed on the regulated market using panel data. We model the leverage ratio as a function of firm-specific characteristics. The findings indicate the emerging character of Serbian corporate environment. We document that Serbian firms tend to have much lower debt ratio and that they rely more heavily on short-term than long-term debt compared to firms coming from other transitional economies. The study shows that there is a significant negative impact of liquidity, tangibility, profitability and cash gap on the two debt ratios. Leverage level is significantly positively affected by the income volatility and growth opportunities of Serbian firms. Our results are consistent with the findings of previous empirical studies realized in emerging and transition economies, indicating that Serbian companies follow the modified pecking order theory.


Ribo-Seq maps the location of translating ribosomes on mature mRNA transcripts. While ribosome density is constant along the length of the mRNA coding region, it can be altered by translational regulatory events. In this study, we developed a method to detect translational regulation of individual mRNAs from their ribosome profiles, utilizing changes in ribosome density. We used mathematical modelling to show that changes in ribosome density should occur along the mRNA at the point of regulation. We analyzed a Ribo-Seq dataset obtained for mouse embryonic stem cells and showed that normalization by corresponding RNA-Seq can be used to improve the Ribo-Seq quality by removing bias introduced by deep-sequencing and alignment artefacts. After normalization, we applied a change point algorithm to detect changes in ribosome density present in individual mRNA ribosome profiles. Additional sequence and gene isoform information obtained from the UCSC Genome Browser allowed us to further categorize the detected changes into different mechanisms of regulation. In particular, we detected several mRNAs with known post-transcriptional regulation, e.g. premature termination for selenoprotein mRNAs and translational control of Atf4, but also several more mRNAs with hitherto unknown translational regulation. Additionally, our approach proved useful for identification of new gene isoforms.


Author supplied:
Teaching software architecture (SA) in a bachelor computer science curriculum can be challenging, as the concepts are on a high abstraction level and not easy to grasp for students. Good techniques and tools that help with addressing the challenging SA aspects in a didactically responsible way are needed.
In this tool demo we show how we used the software architecture compliance checking tool HUSACCT for addressing various concepts of SA in our courses on software architecture. The students were introduced to architectural reconstruction and architecture compliance checking, which helped them to gain important insights in aspects such as the relation between architectural models and code and the specification of dependency relations between architecture elements as concrete rules.


The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary assessment of the Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT's) bridge coating practices to identify areas where process improvements and/or cost savings could be realized. The assessment included reviewing VDOT's coating procedures, coating performance, and costs associated with bridge coating work, including containment systems, surface preparation techniques, and coating systems. In addition, information on bridge coating products and programs from bridge coating industries and organizations was gathered. The study found that the predominant methods VDOT uses to prepare and coat steel bridge components are adequate and are consistent with industry and compliance standards. These methods include dry abrasive blasting and the use of power tool cleaning for surface preparation; conventional full containment that achieves minimal emissions; and use of a three-coat zinc-based coating system. However, enacting changes in some of the preliminary work for a bridge coating project could improve VDOT's coating process and potentially reduce costs. These changes include providing additional guidance for coating treatment decisions and preventive maintenance; providing contractors more project scope details in the bid and contract documents; and requiring discussion of job-specific tasks in the preconstruction meeting. Combining the data from Site Manager and the Pontis Structure Inventory appears to be an efficient means of evaluating expenditures and trends. Analyzing costs for recoating work (VDOT's most common coating method) can be expedited by using "bridge deck area" (a field in the Pontis Structure Inventory) rather than "steel tonnage" (which must be drawn from individual contracts).


This paper investigates the impacts of wall heating conditions on heat transfer performace for a rotating channel with one side smooth and one side roughened by 45 degree inclined ribs. Previous experimental and numerical studies for only ribbed wall heated case showed that rotation has significantly negative impact on heat transfer performance. In order to investigate this uncommon behaviour, RANS simulations were conducted under three different wall heating conditions in present study: ribbed wall heated, all walls heated and adiabatic conditions. Numerical results show that the uneven wall heating condtions has negligible impact on stationary case, however, it has a large influence on rotational cases, in both the heat transfer and the fluid field. This is because in rotating cases, uneven heatings result in different buoyancy effects on trailing and leading walls that alter the main flow velocity profile. As a consequence, also secondary flows and heat transfer performance are affected.


Abstract. The paper presents an approach for the generation of digital elevation models (DEMs) of underwater areas from aerial images. Standard software-products do not provide the possibility to measure correctly through refractive interfaces, such as water. Existing solutions for that problem are based on oriented images and known water levels with the DEM points determined by forward intersection based on reconstructed image ray paths (ray tracing). In this article we present an integrated procedure for image orientation as well as DEM mass point determination from aerial imagery containing both land and underwater areas. The proof of concept was done by capturing UAV imagery of shallow water areas of a high-alpine lake in the Swiss alps. In the paper the processed dataset will be presented. Furthermore, the extraction and matching of image-points observed through water are discussed. The accuracy potential as well as practical limitations of processing multimedia-data are analysed.


An analytical solitary wave solution to the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) with varying coefficients in Bessel optical lattices is obtained based on the self-similar method. Our results indicate that a new family of Bessel (BSL) self-similar spatial solitons can be formed in the Kerr nonlinear media in the confined cylindrical symmetric geometry in sizes. These soliton profiles are rather stable, independent of propagation distance.


This work is undertaken in the attempt to understand the processes at work at the cutting edge of the twist drill. Extensive drill life testing performed by the University has reinforced a survey of previously published information. This work demonstrated that there are two specific aspects of drilling which have not previously been explained comprehensively. The first concerns the interrelating of process data between differing drilling situations, There is no method currently available which allows the cutting geometry of drilling to be defined numerically so that such comparisons, where made, are purely subjective. Section one examines this problem by taking as an example a 4.5mm drill suitable for use with aluminium. This drill is examined using a prototype solid modelling program to explore how the required numerical information may be generated. The second aspect is the analysis of drill stiffness. What aspects of drill stiffness provide the very great difference in performance between short flute length, medium flute length and long flute length drills? These differences exist between drills of identical point geometry and the practical superiority of short drills has been known to shop floor drilling operatives since drilling was first introduced. This problem has been dismissed repeatedly as over complicated but section two provides a first approximation and shows that at least for smaller drills of 4. 5mm the effects are highly significant. Once the cutting action of the twist drill is defined geometrically there is a huge body of machinability data that becomes applicable to the drilling process. Work remains to interpret the very high inclination angles of the drill cutting process in terms of cutting forces and tool wear but aspects of drill design may already be looked at in new ways with the prospect of a more analytical approach rather than the present mix of experience and trial and error. Other problems are specific to the twist drill, such as the behaviour of the chips in the flute. It is now possible to predict the initial direction of chip flow leaving the drill cutting edge. For the future the parameters of further chip behaviour may also be explored within this geometric model.


Background . The number of medical schools in Tanzania, and their respective student enrolments, has tripled in the last decade in response to the growing population and healthcare needs. There has, however, not been a corresponding increase in the number of faculty, resulting in a critical shortage of teachers.  Objective . To determine the extent of the faculty shortage at the School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS), Bugando, Tanzania.  Methods . A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted of all heads of departments and their staff to determine the number of available and required faculty. Postgraduate trainees were also interviewed about their role in undergraduate teaching activities.  Results . At the time of the study, the School of Medicine had a total of 83 faculty and about 700 undergraduate students and residents. Of the entire faculty, 32 (38.6%) worked as full-time employees and 51 (61.4%) as part-time employees. The Department of Surgery had the greatest number of faculty while Psychiatry and Ophthalmology had the smallest staff complement. Over 50% of departments reported faculty shortages of 30% or more. Postgraduate trainees confirmed that they were regularly called upon to teach medical students.  Conclusion . The critical shortage of faculty at CUHAS is likely to compromise the quality of education offered and, as a consequence, the competence of healthcare professionals being trained in Tanzania. Interventions that may improve the situation include the establishment of a residents-as-teachers training programme, and a faculty development programme to groom junior faculty to take on leadership roles and develop strategies to improve the quality of health professions education in Tanzania.


Project delays are a conspicuous and common problem in the international construction industry of today. Investigating the reasons for delay has become an important contribution to improved construction industry performance; and has been recognised as such in many countries, This paper reports upon the findings of a questionnaire survey into the causes of delay as part of a research programme regarding the principal factors influencing construction durations of projects in Hong Kong. The questionnaire was based on 83 delay factors, which were further grouped into 8 major factor categories, A detailed analysis of the 69 completed questionnaires indicates differing perceptions between groups of clients, consultants and contractors as to the individual factors and factor categories causing delays in civil engineering projects and their relative importance. The degrees of agreement / disagreement on both the individual factors and the factor categories between various groups of respondents are also determined...


In the publishing tradition of Driven to Distraction or The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing, this prescriptive book by a developmental psychologist and sufferer of Sensory Defensive Disorder (SD) sheds light on a little known but common affliction in which sufferers react to harmless stimuli as irritating, distracting or dangerous. We all know what it feels like to be irritated by loud music, accosted by lights that are too bright, or overwhelmed by a world that moves too quickly. But millions of people suffer from Sensory Defensive Disorder (SD), a common affliction in which people react to harmless stimuli not just as a distracting hindrance, but a potentially dangerous threat.Sharon Heller, Ph.D. is not only a trained psychologist, she is sensory defensive herself. Bringing both personal and professional perspectives, Dr. Heller is the ideal person to tell the world about this problem that will only increase as technology and processed environments take over our lives. In addition to heightening public awareness of this prevalent issue, Dr. Heller provides tools and therapies for alleviating and, in some cases, even eliminating defensiveness altogether. Until now, the treatment for sensory defensiveness has been successfully implemented in Learning Disabled children in whom defensiveness tends to be extreme. However, the disorder has generally been unidentified in adults who think they are either overstimulated, stressed, weird, or crazy. These sensory defensive sufferers live out their lives stressed and unhappy, never knowing why or what they can do about it. Now, with Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, they have a compassionate spokesperson and a solution-oriented book of advice.


This study seeks to examine the experience of family members of brain injury survivors in regard to the accessibility, helpfulness, and the effects of the information, resources, and support that they received from professionals during the recovery period, post injury. This research was qualitative and was completed through the use of a semi-structured interview schedule. Participants were asked questions which facilitated the exploration of six different topic areas in order to gain an understanding of the participants' and their families' experience throughout the recovery process following the occurrence of a brain injury of a family member. The six areas that were explored were: knowledge and awareness of brain injury, family/caregiver, long term effects of brain injury; the family's way of coping and adaptation, advice for others who have a family member that has recently suffered a brain injury, as well as additional necessary resources, supports and educational needs. The research found that nine themes emerged. These themes include: lack of general brain injury awareness, misdiagnosis, stress and change in family roles; lack of family effects information and resources provided; prevalence emotional and mental health effects; lack of information provided on long term effects; family support and developed strengths. Results indicate a need to increase the amount of and availability of brain injury educational information, resources and support for brain injury survivors and their families. .


Many companies, when buying, use the same competitive priorities regardless of the category of the product being purchased. This purchasing practice creates misalignment between the purchasing and business strategies of a firm. The main aim of this paper is to theoretically explain why firms should not pursue the same competitive priorities for all purchased product categories. By analyzing most relevant literature and research findings published in peer-reviewed journals, this paper argues that strategic alignment between the purchasing competitive priorities and overall business strategy is of higher priority when buying strategic items than other categories. This research contributes to the field by introducing a conceptual framework that provides a further dimension to the strategic alignment concept. The framework aims to introduce the concept 'strategic supply relatedness'.


This study is concerned with gravity field recovery from low-low satellite to satellite range rate data. An improvement over a coplanar mission is predicted in the errors associated with certain parts of the geopotential by the separation of the orbital planes of the two satellites. Using Hill's equations an analytical scheme to model the range rate residuals is developed. It is flexible enough to model equally well the residuals between pairs of satellites in the same orbital plane or whose planes are separated in right ascension. The possible benefits of such an orientation to gravity field recovery from range rate data can therefore be analysed, and this is done by means of an extensive error analysis. The results of this analysis show that for an optimal planar mission improvements can be made by separating the satellites in right ascension. Gravity field recoveries are performed in order to verify and gauge the limitations of the analytical model, and to support the results of the error analysis. Finally the possible problem of the differential decay rates of two satellites due to the diurnal bulge are evaluated.


This issue is the first where I will be serving as Editor-in-Chief of Medical Writing (MEW). Elise Langdon-Neuner, Editor-in-Chief since 2004, will be stepping down. This is yet another step in the evolution of the journal. For those of you unfamiliar with its history, MEW started life in 1993 as a newsletter produced by European chapter of the American Medical Writers Association, EMWA's predecessor. The newsletter was originally named The AMWA Journal – Europe and eventually became The EMWA Newsletter with the creation of EMWA in 1995. The newsletter continued to grow with EMWA, becoming The Write Stuff (TWS) in 1998 thanks to the creative energy and hard work of Barry Drees, its first Editor-inChief. Barry carried TWS through its adolescence, learning on the job about how to format and run a professional journal. (I can imagine that was a lot of fun but probably also pretty stressful.) In a 2008 article summarizing the first 10 years of TWS, Barry says 'it was with immense satisfaction that I was able to pass the position on to Elise Langdon-Neuner in 2004 and to watch the incredible job she has done continuing to develop and expand TWS'. Just looking at the covers of TWS in the online archive, you can see what he means: essentially alone, and through an enormous amount of volunteered time, Elise elevated the content and format of TWS, bringing the journal into a sort of early adulthood, giving the journal a professional look and feel. Over the last several years, Elise single-handedly managed almost all aspects of the journal. This year, she brought the journal into adulthood, with a transformation from TWS, a private journal limited to EMWA, to MEW, a fully professional, international journal. Despite some growing pains during the transition, thanks to Elise, we are now ready for the next level of development. During the last couple of years, in addition to growing and maturing the journal, Elise has prepared the child to leave the nest, that is, to pass the editorship to the next generation. Elise has greatly simplified this by engaging a professional publisher, Maney Publishing, who is now handling production and publicity. Although I am now officially Editor-in-Chief, Elise will continue until the end of 2012 as Associate Editor and in the future as Emeritus Editor to help ease me into the post. I am pretty sure that nobody (certainly not me) will again be able to dedicate as much time and effort to the journal as Elise did. Indeed, as the journal expands, there is no way that this can remain a one-person job. Accordingly, one of my first steps has been to create 'section editors'whowill function semi-autonomously. In addition, to help MEW expand beyond EMWA and become broader and truly international, I plan on seeking new contributors from both within and outside of EMWA – and not only from Europe. Also, I am seeking out new regular columns and articles on topics outside the traditional base of EMWA, such as medical journalism and writing for lay audiences; medical communication and medical education; writing for nurses; and veterinary medical writing. Finally, I am working with Maney Publishing to continue to streamline production and communication. As noted by Keith Veitch, the first editor of The EMWA Newsletter, and re-emphasized by Barry Drees, 'an association of writers should be capable of producing a world-class journal, since it represents what we do for a living.' Elise and the other editors before me have done a great job putting us in the right direction, and I plan to continue heading towards that goal.


Why people kill themselves remains an enduring and unanswered question. With a focus on Sri Lanka, a country that for several decades has reported 'epidemic' levels of suicidal behaviour, this book develops a unique perspective linking the causes and meanings of suicidal practices to social processes across moments, lifetimes and history.

Extending anthropological approaches to practice, learning and agency, anthropologist Tom Widger draws from long-term fieldwork in a Sinhala Buddhist community to develop an ethnographic theory of suicide that foregrounds local knowledge and sets out a charter for prevention. The book highlights the motives of children and adults becoming suicidal and how certain gender, age, class relationships and violence are prone to give rise to suicidal responses. By linking these experiences to emotional states, it develops an ethnopsychiatric model of suicide rooted in social practice. Widger then goes on to examine how suicides are resolved at village and national levels, tracing the roots of interventions to the politics of colonial and post-colonial social welfare and health regimes. Exploring local accounts of suicide as both 'evidence' for the suicide epidemic and as an 'ethos' of suicidality shaping subjective worlds, Suicide in Sri Lanka shows how anthropological analysis can offer theoretical as well as policy insights.

With the inclusion of straightforward summaries and implications for prevention at the end of each chapter, this book has relevance for specialists and non-specialists alike. It represents an important new contribution to South Asian Studies, Social Anthropology and Medical Anthropology, as well as to cross-cultural Suicidology.


AUTHOR'S UPDATE NOTE (19-DEC-2012): This is an early draft, never published in this form, and it is superseded in its entirety by the published version. As published, this piece appeared as a two-part installment in Vol. 43 of the McGeorge Law Review (2012). The first installment, Poisoned Flowers in Cyberspace (Part 1), 43 McGeorge Law Rev. 199, is captioned "Finding Superman in Cyberspace" and lays out the proposed solution. Among other things, it includes a full color reproduction of a Superman comic book cover at page 295. The second installment, Poisoned Flowers (Part 2), 43 McGeorge Law Rev. 815, is captioned "Racing the Genie in Cyberspace" and is aimed at persuading juridical actors to implement the solution because it works, it is efficient, and it is authorized. Both "Finding Superman" (uploaded a few months ago) and "Racing the Genie" (uploaded to SSRN today) are now available at SSRN, and I urge any interested reader to read those published versions. END OF AUTHOR'S UPDATE NOTE (19-DEC-2012). In cyberspace, dynamically coded focal points don't just provide salient references. They can actually deliver a person's augmented presence to a location. Placing reliable focal points as navigational markers in coded space is useful and indexing them is even better because these activities support the public good by providing a virtual map to cyberspace, thereby promoting access, navigation, information-activity and trust among augmented presences. In an objective cyberspace which relies upon a virtual map featuring dynamically coded focal points functioning as markers, addresses, magnets, roadblocks or detours, I propose that conduct which (a) alters the virtual map, (b) plants deceptive focal points, (c) ambushes a user of focal points with uninvited or false invitations, or (d) expropriates, blocks or spoils focal points otherwise available, should be an actionable focal point offense. The focal point offense can be specified and is limited by a "common remedy" purposely designed to be flexible, proportionate and graduated to promote a modest recoding of cyberspace to preserve its foundational values. Upon request, the common remedy forces a reasonable technological accommodation by some combination of effective (1) disclaimer, (2) notice, (3) forced redirect/release, (4) reciprocal auction, or (5) opt-out/opt-in. This avoids the all-or-nothing prohibitory remedies attending current trademark infringement, cybersquatting, uniform domain name dispute resolutions, and similar patchwork solutions to mark-type disputes in cyberspace. The common remedy disarms the poisonous nature of the flowers planted in the code world, but also preserves a thriving, robust and dynamic cyberspace. I propose a comprehensive and coherent method of designing law for the code world of which cyberspace is a part. All focal point offenses use expressions functioning as markers or spoilers in cyberspace, and some of the more effective focal points incorporate trademarks. Quite apart from trademark-related law, I claim the specified focal point offenses in cyberspace constitute independently actionable misrepresentation or deceit, misappropriation or theft, spoilage or unfair competition. While some focal point offenses might also constitute trademark infringement, it is not immediately helpful to try to resolve all focal point offenses in cyberspace by "ordinary" principles of trademark law as developed in ordinary space. Trademark law as currently misapplied to focal point conflicts in cyberspace has raised curiously novel defenses and other aberrations that more frequently obscure than reveal what is happening in cyberspace while defacing trademark law itself. Current trademark likelihood of confusion factors, even when carefully applied, are not able reliably to predict a "likelihood of confusion" by attenuated or invisible uses of trademarked expressions in cyberspace, much less resolve the real problems caused by focal point offenses. If there is to be a likelihood of confusion analysis for some residual cases in which the proprietor might desire to assert trademark liability in addition to asserting a focal point offense, I propose a new factor to determine trademark likelihood of confusion by a rationally demonstrable "nature and place of use" analysis. This Article extends an argument begun in a series of prior Articles and is intended to persuade juridical actors actually to adopt the proposed new solution. I claim the new approach does three things: (1) it works — it provides a highly practical resolution of cyberspace focal point conflicts because it more reliably gets to the correct result, for the right reason, persuasively explained than any other proposed solution, (2) it is efficient — it allocates costs and benefits among cyberspace actors in a Pareto-optimal manner, and (3) it is authorized, predictable and principled — it is recognizably derived from existing patterns of law already regulating misrepresentation, misappropriation, and unfair competition, and can easily coexist with trademark-related law. I also claim it is better in all three respects than any other competing explanation of, or proposal for how to deal with invisible or attenuated trademark conflicts in cyberspace.


The question of removing Teri Schiavo's feeding tube electrified the country in March, 2005. Florida, like most states, had adopted a substituted judgment paradigm for decisionmaking for incompetent patients. Under that approach the case appears to have been correctly decided, and should have been resolved after final review by the Florida courts. By reframing the case as one of starvation of a conscious person with a brain injury, lawyers for Teri Schiavo's parents were able to generate massive public support from right-to-life and disability rights groups. This led to additional litigation and both state and national legislative attempts to overturn the results of an on-going judicial proceeding. These events demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of the substituted judgment paradigm, and the power of the right-to-life movement in judicial and policy decisions at the end of life. In the end the Schiavo case will have little significance in changing the law of end-of-life care. But it does show the influence that "culture of life" forces will exert on the legal and policy issues raised by biotechnology.


In this work we analyze the resort to high order exponential solvers for stiff ODEs in the context of cardiac electrophysiology modeling. The exponential Adams-Bashforth and the Rush-Larsen schemes will be considered up to order 4. These methods are explicit multistep schemes.The accuracy and the cost of these methods are numerically analyzed in this paper and benchmarked with several classical explicit and implicit schemes at various orders. This analysis has been led considering data of high particular interest in cardiac electrophysiology : the activation time ($t\_a$ ), the recovery time ($t\_r $) and the action potential duration ($APD$). The Beeler Reuter ionic model, especially designed for cardiac ventricular cells, has been used for this study. It is shown that, in spite of the stiffness of the considered model, exponential solvers allow computation at large time steps, as large as for implicit methods. Moreover, in terms of cost for a given accuracy, a significant gain is achieved with exponential solvers. We conclude that accurate computations at large time step are possible with explicit high order methods. This is a quite important feature when considering stiff non linear ODEs.


In this paper we present a modular interprocedural pointer analysis algorithm based on access-paths for C programs. We argue that access paths can reduce the overhead of representing context-sensitive transfer functions and effectively distinguish non-recursive heap objects. And when the modular analysis paradigm is used together with other techniques to handle type casts and function pointers, we are able to handle significant programs like those in the SPECcint92 and SPECcint95 suites. We have implemented the algorithm and tested it on a Pentium II 450 PC running Linux. The observed resource consumption and performance improvement are very encouraging.


Using data on agricultural traders in Madagascar, this paper shows that social capital has a large effect on efficiency. Better connected traders are shown to have significantly larger sales and gross margins than less connected traders after controlling for physical and human inputs. The analysis indicates that three dimensions of social network capital should be distinguished: relationships with other traders, which help firms economize on transactions costs; relationships with individuals who can help in times of financial difficulties, which insure traders against liquidity risk; and family relationships, which reduce efficiency, possibly because of measurement error. Social network capital enables traders to deal with each other in a more trustworthy manner by granting and receiving credit, exchanging price information, and economizing on quality inspection. Schooling is correlated with the use of superior modes of transaction but needs to be complemented by social network capital.


Running any dairy enterprise is a risky activity: the profitability of the enterprise is affected by the price fluctuation of feed and animal health products from inputs, as well as by the fluctuation of end-product prices. Under these circumstances, it is essential for the cattle breeders, in order to survive, to harness the reserves in management as effectively as possible. In this research the efficiency and risk of 32 sample dairy farms were analysed in the Northern Great Plain Region from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) by applying classical Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and stochastic DEA models. The choice of this method is justified by the fact that there was not such an available reliable database by which production functions could have been defined, and DEA makes possible to manage simultaneously some inputs and outputs, i.e. complex decision problems. By using DEA, the sources that cause shortfall on inefficient farms can be identified, analysed and quantified, so corporate decision support can be reinforced successfully. A disadvantage of the classical DEA model is that the stochastic factors of farming cannot be treated either on the side of inputs or outputs; therefore, their results can be adopted with reservations, especially in agricultural models. This may have been because we could not discover that many agricultural applications. Considering the price of inputs and outputs as probability variables, 5000 simulation runs have been done in this research. As a result, it can be stated that at which intervals of the input and output factors can become competitive and the fluctuation of these factors can cause what level of risk at each farm.


Since the aetiology of prostatic cancer is unknown, and therapy for metastatic disease non-curative, a decrease in the mortality rate from this condition can only be achieved by early diagnosis and effective treatment of the primary tumour. For diagnosis of localised cancer no practical alternative exists to rectal palpation. Of 629 cases of prostatic cancer seen at Tygerberg Hospital, the disease had metastasised in 29% of white and 58% of coloured patients at initial diagnosis. Prostatism or urinary retention was the presenting complaint in 74.7% of patients. The letters of referral of 97 patients were examined to determine whether prostatic cancer had been diagnosed by the primary care physician before referral. Rectal examination by the referring physician was recorded or implied in 64.9% of patients, and in those patients who underwent rectal examination before referral prostatic cancer was diagnosed in 54%. These findings imply that the opportunity for early diagnosis of prostatic cancer may be missed in many patients in whom rectal examination by the primary physician is indicated.


ABSTRACT This article is a conversation-analytic investigation of the forms of organization that allow specific items of classroom discourse – words, phrases, up to whole turns at talk – to be altered by subsequent items. Central to the article is an analytic distinction between self-correction and other-correction, that is, between repair sequences in which the speaker of the initial item (the "trouble source") makes the correction and instances in which this is performed by one of her or his interlocutors (cf. Jefferson 1974; Schegloff et al. 1977). The classroom case is analytically interesting both for its own sake and also on account of research speculations that other-correction should be more frequent in adult-child talk than in other genres of conversation. However, in order to provide an analysis of the problem sensitive to the particularities of the classroom, it is necessary to look not merely at corrections, but at the larger repair trajectories in which they occur. These trajectories consist of corrections plus their prior initiations, the latter being means by which speakers mark out some item as requiring correction. Once the social identities of teacher and student are mapped against self-and other-forms of initiation and correction, it is possible to discern some of the structural preferences of classroom discourse along the general axis of repair. The materials are taken from geography lessons in Australian high school classrooms. (Repair and correction, question and answer, clue-giving, expansion sequences, modulation, classroom discourse, everyday language use, Australian English, conversation analysis, sociology of education)


On May 19, 2009, a panel of distinguished legal professionals assembled in Washington, D.C. at a conference, entitled Libel Lawfare: Silencing Criticism of Radical Islam, to discuss radical Islam's exploitation of Western libel laws to silence authors and journalists who seek to expose terror-financing networks and criticize radical Islam. The debate also embodied a cresting wave of public concern about the surprising ways Western laws enable this assault. This paper seeks to call attention to two critical mistakes, which were perpetuated by panelists at the conference and which are consistently present in current libel lawfare scholarship. Foremost, no one has yet arrived at an adequate definition for libel lawfare; instead, scholars consistently talk past one another as they rely on a number of different terms to describe the same phenomenon. Second, no one has sufficiently identified the crucial distinction between smalland large-scale libel lawfare; instead, scholars talk of libel lawfare as if it were one big problem. The purpose of this paper is to clear up the confusion caused by the foregoing mistakes, examine how these mistakes affect current legislative efforts to combat libel lawfare, and offer a new way of looking at the libel lawfare problem as a whole. "THIS COPY OF THE THESIS HAS BEEN SUPPLIED ON CONDITION THAT ANYONE WHO CONSULTS IT IS UNDERSTOOD TO RECOGNIZE THAT ITS COPYRIGHT RESTS WITH THE AUTHOR AND THAT NO QUOTATION FROM THE THESIS, NOR ANY INFORMATION DERIVED THEREFROM, MAY BE PUBLISHED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT."


Within the framework of automatic ground propulsion systems for aircraft, a method is presented to generate Feedback Linearization based controllers in an automated way. A nonlinear on-ground aircraft model realized in the objectoriented language Modelica is inverted automatically and used as Feedback Linearizing core of a ground trajectory tracking system. The controller is completed by an outer linear loop. Issues in the model inversion process are discussed. In particular, robustness against parameter uncertainties must be assessed carefully. With this method, the study and development of automatic ground propulsion systems can be
quickened because control laws can be obtained for different system architectures and different aircraft starting from the respective dynamic models, allowing easier and quicker assessment of these technologies and comparisons between different aircraft platforms.


Background. Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are encouraged to stay active to maintain their mobility. Ambulatory activity monitoring (AM) provides an objective way to determine type and amount of gait-related daily activities. Objective . To investigate the effects of a home cueing training program on functional walking activity in PD. Methods. In a single-blind, randomized crossover trial, PD patients allocated to early intervention received cueing training for 3 weeks, whereas the late intervention group received training in the following 3 weeks. Training was applied at home, using a prototype cueing device. AM was applied at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 weeks in the patient's home, to record body movements. Postures and motions were classified as percentage of total time spent on (a) static activity, further specified as % sitting and % standing, and (b) % dynamic activity, further specified as % walking, % walking periods exceeding 5 seconds (W>" xbd="1983" xhg="1960" ybd="1440" yhg="1401"/>5s) and 10 seconds (W>10s). Random coefficient analysis was applied. Results. A total of 153 patients participated in this trial. Significant improvements were found for dynamic activity (β= 4.46; P < .01), static activity (β=-3.34; P < .01), walking (β= 4.23; P < .01), W>5s (β = 2.63; P < .05), and W>10s (β = 2.90; P < .01). All intervention effects declined significantly at 6 weeks follow-up. Conclusion. Cueing training in PD patients' own home significantly improves the amount of walking as recorded by AM. Treatment effects reduced after the intervention period, pointing to the need for permanent cueing devices and follow-up cueing training.


When communism fell in 1989, the question for most Eastern European countries was not whether to go to a market economy, but how to get there. Several years later, the difficult process of privatization and restructuring continues to concern the countries of the region. The Transition in Eastern Europe, Volumes 1 and 2 is an analysis of the experiences of various countries making the transition to market economies and examines the most important challenges still in store. Volume 1, Country Studies, gives an in-depth, country-by-country analysis of various reform experiences, including historical backgrounds and discussions of policies and results to date. The countries analyzed are Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, eastern Germany, Slovenia, and Russia. Written by leading economists, some of whom helped shape local and national reforms, this volume identifies common progress, common difficulties, and tentative solutions to the problems of economic transition. Volume 2, Restructuring, focuses on specific issues of transition, including how to design labor market institutions, privatization, new fiscal structures, and bankruptcy laws; how to reorganize foreign trade; and how to promote foreign direct investment. The articles, written by experts in the field, will be of direct help to those involved in the transition process. These volumes provide a standard reference on economic transition in the region for policymakers in Eastern Europe and in western countries, for international agencies concerned with the transition process, and for anyone interested in learning about the dramatic changes that have recently occurred in Eastern Europe.


Inverted papilloma is a benign form of sinonasal tumor characterized by aggressive local evolution, tendency to local recurrence and a significant risk of malignancy. The tumor often originates in the lateral nasal wall, while in a small percentage of cases (<10%) an exclusively sinusal location is encountered. A sphenoidal sinus origin of the tumor is rare. We present the therapeutic management of a patient initially diagnosed with inverted papilloma, originating in the left sphenoid sinus, that subsequently maligned. We emphasize a few particularities of the endoscopic endonasal approach: timing of the surgery, anatomical and surgical risk elements, complete resection difficulties.


Abstract. Atmospheric concentrations of methanol, acetaldehyde, acetone, isoprene and monoterpenes were measured using PTR-MS (proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry) in a boreal forest site in Hyytiala, Finland (61°51' N, 24°17' E). The concentration measurements were made in the upper canopy of a Scots pine forest during 6 June, 2006–31 August, 2007. Meteorological variables such as temperature and photosynthetically active radiation were measured simultaneously. We also detected biologically sensitive turnover points such as the onsets of photosynthetic activity, onset of growing season, bud burst and stem growth during the annual cycle and compared them to changes in BVOC (biogenic volatile organic compound) concentrations. A typical seasonal pattern of winter minimum and summer maximum was found for all studied compounds except acetaldehyde. Spring time methanol and acetone concentrations increased together with photosynthetic capacity. The day-time daily median BVOC concentrations correlated best with air temperature. The intercorrelations between compounds and the analysis of meteorological conditions indicated that the measured concentrations presented well the local source. During an exceptional summer drought period the concentrations were neither connected with photosynthesis nor transpiration, but they were regulated by some other, yet unknown factors.


It has been observed that some stray light (x-rays) is thrown into the neighborhood of the focus obtained if x-rays are focused by a bent optical flat. Most of this extra light is due to imperfections of the optical flats, while halation, Fresnel diffraction at the slits and air scattering make only minor contributions. An analysis of the distribution of this extra light, a study of the effect of controlled irregularities and pin hole images of surfaces taken with x-rays lead to definite conclusions about the structure of such surfaces.


Why do some people receive higher incomes than others with similar talents and abilities? And why do certain sources of income, such as income from farm labor and income from growing sugarcane, go to different people? What steps can be taken to reduce the wide differences in income earned, so that the number of people living below the poverty line can be reduced? What roles do education and the migration of household members play in lifting people out of poverty and in improving income distribution? To answer these questions, researchers in recent years have used various techniques to analyze the sources of income inequality and poverty in developing countries. These studies help policymakers understand the root causes of income inequality and poverty within their societies. Equipped with such information, policymakers can take specific measures to improve income distribution and the income-earning potentials of different groups of people.


Background The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), a UN initiative to engage corporations in supporting the UN's mission, sets out principles that companies should follow for more ethical business practices. Since its inception in 2000, at least 13 tobacco companies, subsidiaries and tobacco industry affiliates joined the UNGC. In a September 2017 integrity review, the UNGC Board excluded from UNGC participation companies who derive revenue from tobacco production or manufacturing. Objective To determine, from the tobacco industry's perspective, tobacco companies' motives for joining the UNGC. Method Tobacco industry documents search using the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library, and search of published reports and documents on the tobacco industry and the UNGC. Results Tobacco companies sought to join the UNGC for two reasons: (1) to improve their reputation, in keeping with other corporate social responsibility efforts; (2) to gain proximity to UN agencies and weaken the WHO's influence, part of an overall strategy to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Conclusions Excluding tobacco manufacturers from UNGC participation is an important step to limit the tobacco industry's ability to influence the UN and promote its image and, by extension, its deadly products. It is important to monitor enforcement of this policy and resist the engagement of tobacco industry front groups, such as industry-funded foundations, with the UNGC.


This article deals with homogenization methods, namely two-scale convergence and Hconvergence, with the aim of comparing their efficiency in studying composite materials. Analytic examples are given to illustrate both methods. While compensated compactness allows one to determine the limit of a product of two weakly converging sequences under additional assumptions on the derivatives, two-scale convergence takes advantage of underlying oscillations of solution sequences and H-convergence is concerned with the operator behaviour. Special attention is paid to periodic homogenization as this case yields the most involved results. Numerical experiments are used to investigate open questions in H-convergence dealing with the possible relaxation of some convergence hypotheses. Partial results are established in this respect.


This paper examines the determinants of temporary and permanent migration and the impact of the return decision on remittances patterns. Using a new detailed household dataset on migration in the Republic of Moldova, it is shown that return is determined by the economic conditions at home and abroad as well as by the legal status in the host country. Especially economic frustration turns out to be an important push factor for permanent migration. Besides, family ties play an important role, as do respective migrant networks. Concerning remittances, the results indicate that temporary migrants remit around 30% more than their permanent counterparts even though they often reside in lower wage countries. Overall, the findings indicate that temporary migration is relatively more favorable for developing countries as it fosters higher remittances, repatriation of skills and home savings.


It has been four years since the financial crisis of 2008, and the global financial system still is experiencing malaise caused by high rates of unemployment; a lingering, unresolved supply of foreclosed properties; the deepening European debt crisis; and fear of a recurrence of the bank turmoil that brought about the Great Recession. All of these factors have led to stagnant economic growth worldwide. In Rocky Times , editors Yasuyuki Fuchita, Richard J. Herring, and Robert E. Litan bring together experts from academia and the banking sector to analyse the difficult issues surrounding troubled large financial institutions in an environment of economic uncertainty and growing public anger. Continuing the format of the previous Brookings- Nomura collaborations, Rocky Times focuses largely on developments within the United States and Japan but looks at those in other nations as well. This volume examines two broad areas: the Japanese approach to regulating financial institutions and promoting financial stability and the U.S. approach in light of the Dodd-Frank Act. Specific chapters include ""Managing Systemwide Financial Crises: Some Lessons from Japan since 1990,"" ""The Bankruptcy of Bankruptcy,"" ""The Case for Regulating the Shadow Banking System,"" ""Why and How to Design a Contingent Convertible Debt Requirement,"" and ""Governance Issues for Macroprudential Policy in Advanced Economies."" Contributors: Gavin Bingham (Systemic Policy Partnership, London), Charles W. Calomiris (Columbia Business School), Douglas J. Elliott (Brookings Institution), Kei Kodachi (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research), Morgan Ricks (Vanderbilt Law School).


Background: Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is a global public health problem. CVD patients are at high risk of recurrent stroke and other atherothrombotic events. Prevalence of risk factors, comorbidities, utilization of secondary prevention therapies and adherence to guidelines all influence the recurrent event rate. We assessed these factors in 18,992 CVD patients within a worldwide registry of stable outpatients. Methods: The Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health Registry recruited >68,000 outpatients (44 countries). The subjects were mainly recruited by general practitioners (44%) and internists (29%) if they had symptomatic CVD, coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and/or ≧3 atherothrombotic risk factors. Results: The 18,992 CVD patients suffered a stroke (53.7%), transient ischemic attack (TIA) (27.7%) or both (18.5%); 40% had symptomatic atherothrombotic disease in ≧1 additional vascular beds: 36% coronary artery disease; 10% PAD and 6% both. The prevalence of risk factors at baseline was higher in the TIA subgroup than in the stroke group: treated hypertension (83.5/82.0%; p = 0.02), body mass index ≧30 (26.7/20.8%; p < 0.0001), hypercholesterolemia (65.1/52.1%; p < 0.0001), atrial fibrillation (14.7/11.9%; p < 0.0001) and carotid artery disease (42.3/29.7%; p < 0.0001). CVD patients received antiplatelet agents (81.7%), oral anticoagulants (17.3%), lipid-lowering agents (61.2%) and antihypertensives (87.9%), but guideline treatment targets were frequently not achieved (54.5% had elevated blood pressure at baseline, while 4.5% had untreated diabetes). Conclusions: A high percentage of CVD patients have additional atherothrombotic disease manifestations. The risk profile puts CVD patients, especially the TIA subgroup, at high risk for future atherothrombotic events. Undertreatment is common worldwide and adherence to guidelines needs to be enforced.