Cigarette smoking is one of the most important risk factors for peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Smoking increases the risk of PAD by several fold and is a more influential risk factor for PAD than for coronary artery disease. Multiple pathophysiologic mechanisms may account for the prevalence of atherosclerosis in cigarette smokers. These include abnormalities of endothelial function, lipoprotein metabolism, coagulation, and platelet function. Smoking cessation decreases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and may improve functional capacity in patients with PAD. Therapies to promote smoking cessation include counseling, nicotine replacement, and bupropion. Healthcare providers must enhance their efforts and target smoking cessation as a modifiable risk factor in patients with PAD and other manifestations of atherosclerosis.


During pregnancy, insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are important for growth of fetal and maternal tissues. One of the IGF binding proteins, IGFBP-1, is thought to regulate their activity within the local environment of the placenta. IGFBP-1 usually exists as a phosphorylated, high affinity species, which sequesters IGFs, thereby inhibiting their actions. This study has investigated the mechanisms that release IGF from IGFBP-1 at the maternal-fetal interface. Under basal conditions, human decidualized endometrium produces both non-phosphorylated (np) and phosphorylated (p) isoforms of IGFBP-1; however, in the presence of IGF-II, which is a trophoblast secretory product, npIGFBP-1 was preferentially produced. Furthermore, we found that trophoblast, presumably via placental alkaline phosphatase, can de-phosphorylate pIGFBP-1. Since npIGFBP-1 has decreased affinity for IGF-I, these effects should enhance IGF-I bioavailability. In addition, we found that decidual cells produce a protease, which cleaves IGFBP-1, but only when it is non-phosphorylated; [(125)I]-npIGFBP-1 is proteolysed into 14 and 17 kDa fragments which have markedly reduced affinity for IGF. We therefore propose paracrine modulation of IGFBP-1 at the maternal-fetal interface involving a multi-step process of de-phosphorylation and proteolysis; this will result in enhanced IGF bioavailability and is likely to represent an important mechanism for controlling fetal and maternal tissue growth.


Despite much obeisance paid to black holes by 'Standard Model' cosmologists (not to mention Hollywood, e.g., the recent film "Interstellar," alleged to have a basis in physics, but really pure science fiction), dissident physicists, led by Stephen Crothers, have re-examined the original analysis by Karl Schwarzschild which, due to an error by David Hilbert, has provided much of the basis for the alleged existence of black holes. This substantial body of work suggests black holes cannot exist, leading me to the logical conclusion that the densest stars possible are neutron stars (or perhaps, if such are possible, 'quark' stars) which have relatively small but 'non-singular' dimensions. Both the mass and "pulse" rate of many neutron stars (also known as pulsars) have been recorded. Examination of these data opens an avenue of speculation based on their angular momenta that perhaps could aid in the understanding of how 'heavy" (relative to our sun) rotating stars might evolve into pulsars.


How does a so-called bad neighborhood go about changing its reputation? Is it simply a matter of improving material conditions or picking the savviest marketing strategy? What kind of role can or should the arts play in that process? Does gentrification always entail a betrayal of a neighborhood's roots? Tackling these questions and offering a fresh take on the dynamics of urban revitalization, "The Philadelphia Barrio" examines one neighborhood's fight to erase the stigma of devastation. Frederick F. Wherry shows how, in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Centro de Oro, entrepreneurs and community leaders forged connections between local businesses and cultural institutions to rebrand a place once nicknamed the Badlands. Artists and performers negotiated with government organizations and national foundations, Wherry reveals, and took to local galleries, stages, storefronts, and street parades in a concerted, canny effort to reanimate the spirit of their neighborhood. Complicating our notions of neighborhood change by exploring the ways the process is driven by local residents, "The Philadelphia Barrio" presents a nuanced look at how city dwellers can make commercial interests serve the local culture, rather than exploit it.


How much can randomness help computation? Motivated by this general question and by volume computation, one of the few instances where randomness provably helps, we analyze a notion of dispersion and connect it to asymptotic convex geometry. We obtain a nearly quadratic lower bound on the complexity of randomized volume algorithms for convex bodies in Ropfn (the current best algorithm has complexity roughly n4, conjectured to be n3). Our main tools, dispersion of random determinants and dispersion of the length of a random point from a convex body, are of independent interest and applicable more generally; in particular, the latter is closely related to the variance hypothesis from convex geometry. This geometric dispersion also leads to lower bounds for matrix problems and property testing


We report a simple method to measure the third-order nonlinear refraction and absorption of bulk materials and waveguides. This method relies on the nonlinear evolution of the spectral intensity and width of femtosecond pulses, owing to self-phase modulation, according to a variable chirp introduced before propagation through the nonlinear sample. We describe the experimental details, and we present a comprehensive numerical analysis of the dispersive and the nonlinear effects that can influence the measurement. We also extend the method to characterize the time response of the fast cubic nonlinearity.


Short abstract:
Processes of memory survive through a myriad of artful skills. Their perduring performance adapts to specific contexts in order to communicate knowledge across time and space. This panel discusses imaginative solutions to remembrance which are generally avoided by historiographies of art.

Long abstract:
What are the particular artful practices which preserve knowledge across temporal and spatial boundaries? How is past learnt and lived in specific contexts? This panel invites papers which expand the notion of art to include the lived mnemotehnics, whether embodied or consciously (re)produced.

Specific examples of tangible and intangible arts of memory may be informed, inter alia, by discussions of politics, religion, oral and written histories, importance of place and sense of belonging, materiality, cultural destruction and arts initiatives.

Knowledge survives despite obstacles and violence of grand narratives. It is channelled through human and non-human agencies, in practices, places, artefacts, images, sounds and smells. As a cultural process, memory also becomes modified (and commodified), reappropriated and contested. It may be unconsciously essential to daily practices, but at times it is the silent language of resistance or at the forefront of social changes.
Explorations into these phenomena, usually scattered amongst disciplines, are grouped here to build upon the notions of art, investigate the different modes of remembrance and understand their role in personal and communal histories.

This panel invites interdisciplinary approaches to arts of memory, and encourages analyses of specific and contextualised examples.


Non-malleable codes, defined by Dziembowski, Pietrzak, and Wichs (ICS '10), provide roughly the following guarantee: if a codeword c encoding some message x is tampered to c'= f (c) such that c' ≠ c, then the tampered message x' contained in c' reveals no information about x. The nonmalleable codes have applications to immunizing cryptosystems against tampering attacks and related-key attacks. One cannot have an efficient non-malleable code that protects against all efficient tampering functions f . However, in this paper we show "the next best thing": for any polynomial bound s given a-priori, there is an efficient non-malleable code that protects against all tampering functions f computable by a circuit of size s. More generally, for any family of tampering functions F of size |F| ≤ 2s, there is an efficient non-malleable code that protects against all f ∈ F. The rate of our codes, defined as the ratio of message to codeword size, approaches 1. Our results are information-theoretic and our main proof technique relies on a careful probabilistic method argument using limited independence. As a result, we get an efficiently samplable family of efficient codes, such that a random member of the family is non-malleable with overwhelming probability. Alternatively, we can view the result as providing an efficient non-malleable code in the "common reference string" model. We also introduce a new notion of non-malleable key derivation, which uses randomness x to derive a secret key y = h(x) in such a way that, even if x is tampered to a different value x'= f (x), the derived key y' = h(x') does not reveal any information about y. Our results for non-malleable key derivation are analogous to those for non-malleable codes. As a useful tool in our analysis, we rely on the notion of "leakage-resilient storage" of Davi, Dziembowski, and Venturi (SCN '10), and, as a result of independent interest, we also significantly improve on the parameters of such schemes.


Linear systems work very well for the transmission of discrete-time continuous amplitude samples in poor signal-to-noise conditions, but their performance does not improve when the quality of the channel increases. Specifically, for high signal-to-noise ratios the gap with respect to the theoretical bounds is extremely large and, therefore, a more suitable method must be found. This is why non-linear encoding schemes have been studied, and several solutions have been proposed that outperform the classic linear approach. In this thesis we present analog non-linear mappings with very simple and flexible design methods, low encoding and decoding complexity, and great robustness against noise. All these characteristics make them very versatile codes ready to be applied in many different scenarios. For example, successful results have been achieved in the transmission of images by creating an analog joint source-channel encoding scheme that combines Compressed Sensing measurements with our non-linear analog codes. We also show an extension of this communication system for underwater acoustic channels and non-linear channels.


The aim of this study was to investigate physiological and biochemical mechanisms of shoot elongation after cold period in hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis L. cv. Delft Blue). Hyacinth shoot rapidly elongated during hydro-culture period in cooled bulbs, but not in non-cooled bulbs. Alpha-amylase (EC 18.104.22.168.) is a key enzyme involved in starch hydrolysis. Alpha-amylase activity increased during the cold storage period and was low during rapid shoot elongation in hyacinth. In the non-cooled bulbs, its activity remained at the similar level. Sucrose content increased during the cold storage period in the shoot, but not in the scales. We, for the fi rst time, isolated cDNA for cold-responsive alpha- amylase gene (HoAmy1A, accession No. AB198975) from hyacinth, and presented that HoAmy1A expression increased in the scale during the cold storage period, but the level was very low during shoot elongation. We also found that promoter region of HoAmy1A contained CArG element, which is related to the response to low temperature. In tulip (Tulipa genesriana L.), the most studied bulbous plant, dramatic increase in alpha-amylase activity and translocation of sugars from the scales to shoot occurred during the growth stage, following cold treatment (Komiyama et al., 1997; Lambrechts et al., 1994). Our results suggest that there are two types (tulip and hyacinth types) of sprouting mecha- nisms in bulbous plants. Many bulbous plants require a cold period to stimulate rapid shoot elongation under suitable growth conditions. When bulbs are planted outdoors in a temperate climate, their shoots grow quite slowly during the winter, then elongate rapidly in the spring. Since the manipulation of bulb temperature to control fl owering is very important for the horticultural industry, cold treatment conditions have been studied extensively. Hyacinth is one of these fl ower bulbs, requires a cold period (-0.5 to 10 °C for 10 to 18


Autumn migration of the Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus L.) in the Montsant mountains (Tarragona).Data were coliected on the autumn migration of the Ring Ouzel in the years 1981-1986, with the exception of 1983. Aitogether 439 individuals were recorded in 80 separate observations. Migration takes place between the 5th and the 25th October, although within this period some significant differences can appear between years. Mixed flocks of Turdus torquatus torquatus and Turdus torquatus alpestris have been observed. The high numbers of T.t. torquatus recorded in the area suggest that this subespecies uses a more easterly route than had previously been supposed on the basis of ringing recovenes.


The synthesis of a new tetrafluorinated semiconducting donor polymer, poly[(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)-4-fluorothiophene-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene)-alt-(5,6-difluoro-4,7-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-dithien-2-yl-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PBTZF4), and its photovoltaic performance in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blends with the non-fullerene molecular acceptor [1,2:3,4]-bis-[N,N′-bis-1-pentylhexyl-perylenediimide-1,12-yl]-benzene (bPDI2P), are reported. PBTZF4:bPDI2P solar cells exhibit a high open circuit voltage (Voc) of 1.118 V, a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 10.02 mA cm−2, and a fill factor (FF) of 49.5%, affording a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.55%. Interestingly, a lower PCE of 3.68% is obtained with the difluorinated analogue, poly[(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)-thiophene-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene)-alt-(5,6-difluoro-4,7-(4-(2-ethyl-hexyl)-dithien-2-yl-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PBTZF2). Both PBTZF4:bPDI2P and PBTZF2:bPDI2P cells benefit from complementary (donor/acceptor) light absorption and very low geminate recombination, with bimolecular recombination being the dominant loss mechanism, as established by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. DFT computation and physicochemical characterization data argue that the "additional" tetrafluorination planarizes the PBTZF4 backbone and enhances aggregation versusPBTZF2, affording superior charge carrier transport as assayed by field-effect mobility. In addition, fluorine-originated HOMO stabilization, −5.41 eV for PBTZF4versus −5.33 eV for PBTZF2, and a superior blend microstructure afford a higher PBTZF4:bPDI2P solar cell PCE versusPBTZF2:bPDI2P.


This essay examines a literary exchange between the Visigothic poet-king Sisebut (612-621 AD) and his scholar-bishop Isidore of Seville following an anomalous sequence of eclipses. After Sisebut commissioned a scientific treatise from Isidore on such natural phenomena, he responded to the bishop's prose with a short poem on lunar eclipses (De eclipsi lunae). This study interprets the exchange of texts not as a literary game, but as high-stakes political correspondence. It situates the king's verses in an ongoing process of cultural construction in Visigothic Spain, led prominently by Isidore himself, but also tied to a rising ascetic movement. It argues that Sisebut was attuned to Isidore's designs to manage the discourses through which Christian power was proclaimed, and shows how the king attempted to versify in accord with scientific truth so as to fit within Isidore's ascetic intellectual program.


This part of the study presents the theory, design and appropriate models of a new distillation system with natural vacuum technique. Natural vacuum distillation (NVD) system is considered as ∩ (opposite U) to obtain 10.33 m of water elevation and create natural vacuum. Theoretical models of this system are investigated and appropriate models are selected for practice applications. In the scope of this study, the theory and design criteria of NVD system which include balance design and selection of distillation method, natural vacuum formation, balancing and feeding processes are introduced and discussed in detail. Additionally, P‐v and T‐s diagrams including the process flow of each model are obtained by depending on thermodynamic behaviours of the system. Consequently, the operation height between the tanks and columns should be stable and conserved as 10.33 m of water in order to create the natural vacuum and keep the natural balance of the system for a long time. Hence, the water is transported throughout the system due to the pressure differences between evaporation and distillation parts. The pressure losses that are caused by the water‐level differences between tanks and columns should be taken into account and absolutely reduced. Moreover, the system should be definitely operated in the natural vacuum to efficiently conduct the production of distilled water from wastewater with the high temperature. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Act authorizes certain nonprofit organizations and hospitals to operate clean needle exchange programs. These programs allow individuals who inject drugs to exchange their needles for clean, unused needles. The purpose of these programs is to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases associated with the repeated use and sharing of needles. The Act further authorizes the Department of Public Health to regulate the registration of organizations that will participate in these programs and protects employees of those organizations from being charged with crimes or offenses associated with selling, lending, giving, or exchanging needles.


This article is the first scholarly exploration of the implications of neurobiological memory modification for criminal law. Its point of entry is the fertile context of criminal punishment, in which memory plays a crucial role. Specifically, this article will argue that there is a deep relationship between memory and the foundational principles justifying how punishment should be distributed, including retributive justice, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, moral education, and restorative justice. For all such theoretical justifications, the questions of who and how much to punish are inextricably intertwined with how a crime is remembered - by the offender, by the sentencing authority, and by the broader community. Because this is so, new neurobiological techniques to modify memory - including interventions to erase some or all memory, to dampen the emotional/affective content of memory, and to enhance the duration and intensity of memory - pose, in principle, special challenges for the just and effective distribution of punishment. This article identifies and analyzes the substance and contours of these challenges. It is meant to prepare the necessary groundwork for future scholarship on how the law, as enacted, enforced, and interpreted, should respond (if at all) to such concerns.


This paper reports on two models that have been developed using ArcView Model Builder to map suitability for agricultural and urban land uses. Both models use a GIS-based multiple criteria modelling approach combining empirical data with experts judgement.The Agricultural Suitability Model considers soil, landscape and climate criteria; whereas the Urban Buildability Model assesses biophysical, socio-economic and spatial phenomena to define locational suitability from a sustainable development perspective.These models have been used to help develop strategic development plans for several rural shires in Victoria, Australia. One of the major objectives of these Shire development strategies was to protect good agricultural land from urban development. There are more than 30 agricultural land suitability models that have been developed to address particular commodities of interest to these Shires. Shires where these models have been applied so far include South Gippsland.


The South Sulawesi Provincial Government, through the health Office, stated that South Sulawesi currently has a fairly high infant mortality rate. From January to September 2018, a total of 870 infants died. According to these data, the highest mortality rate was recorded in Bone District. High maternal and neonatal mortality rates have a major impact on families and communities. Therefore, it is highly expected that women's participation as housewives will directly determine the survival of their infants. This study aims to determine the effect of child survival strategies (CSS) on the growth and development of infants of employed and unemployed mothers aged 0-6 months. It is an observational study with a case-control design. This study involved employed and unemployed mothers who had infants aged 0-6 months. The sample was determined by the simple random sampling method in the case and control groups. The Data was collected through interviews using a questionnaire and then analyzed statistically. This study is expected to provide input for the Indonesian Government (Health Office) as a consideration in formulating policies to reduce infant mortality rates, especially in South Sulawesi. The results indicated a significant correlation between mothers' occupations and their infants' fine motor skill development category (p < 0.05 or = 0.033). The anthropometry of infants of employed and unemployed mothers indicated no significant differences, both in terms of age, body weight, and body length (with p > 0.05). There was a significant correlation between mothers' occupations and their infants' fine motor skill development category. The infants of employed mothers tend to have good fine motor skill development than those of unemployed mothers. The percentage of growth and development of other infants that fall into the good category was found to be higher in employed mothers than in unemployed mothers, although it was not statistically significant. Employed mothers have better CSS than unemployed mothers, although it is not statistically significant.


Sinking particulate material collected in sequencing sediment traps moored at 3500 m depth (600 m above bottom) from 1993 to 2008 at the abyssal time‐series Sta. M in the northeast Pacific was analyzed via microscopy and digital imaging. Intact zooplankton fecal pellets were quantified and size, shape, and carbon content were measured. The most common identifiable fecal pellets were from larvaceans, which feed on small particles. Other abundant fecal pellets were likely produced by large copepods and euphausiids. The proportion of identifiable fecal pellet carbon to total particulate organic carbon (POC) flux varied and ranged from 3.3% to 47.7%. Fecal pellet flux and fecal pellet‐derived carbon flux was lowest in February, and highest in May, August, and November samples. The proportion of total POC in identifiable fecal pellets was negatively correlated to overall POC flux and to indicators of climate variability. The North Pacific Gyre Oscillation and Northern Oscillation Index climate indices were negatively correlated to the dominance of fecal pellets in POC flux, with changes in fecal pellet fluxes temporally lagging climate‐related changes by about 3 and 5 months, respectively. Variations in zooplankton distribution and abundance affect biogeochemical cycling to abyssal depths, further demonstrating how a changing climate may affect deep‐sea ecology. The dominance of zooplankton fecal pellets can shift proportionally, providing new insight into the processes controlling marine carbon sequestration in the deep sea.


Protection has always been the most genuine function of architecture. In the context of global warming one of the most needed type of protection is from and against the sun. This necessity has led to an impressive creative outburst of amazing technological developments for all kinds of roofs without walls. These come in all forms and sizes, in a wide variety of materials concrete, fabrics, fiberglass, wood or plants, to name a few. This volume features serial productions as well as individual designs. These shadow-providing devices range from elegant sun blinds and canopies, to fancy pergolas and luxury tents as well as small pavilions in public parks, wide covered piazzas, and even entire buildings shielded by independent overlapping roofs. With texts, facts, drawings and photos the presentation of the projects focuses on the design as well as on the constructive aspects and technical features.


1. The most important challenge in diagnosis of celiac disease is not-performing the diagnostic tests in suspected persons. Because of multi-organ damage and multiple manifestations of disease, diagnosis of celiac disease may be delayed. It seems general physicians should be aware about uncommon presentations of disease and indications of celiac tests. 2. The second most important challenge is in patients with suspected disease but negative serologic tests. In these cases evaluating of HLA can be useful. 3. The third challenge is in cases with positive serologic tests but negative histopathological findings. There may be false positive serologic response or consumption of gluten before testing. We recommend introduction of gluten for at least 3 mo and re- endoscopy and if diagnosis is equivocal HLA-typing for DQ8 and DQ2 should be done. 4. The forth challenge is about performing endoscopy. Based on guideline from ESPGHAN if there are typical clinical manifestations of celiac disease, Anti-TTG more than ten times UPN, positive Anti-EMA and HLA DQ2, performing endoscopy may not be necessary, but many physicians don't agree with this idea. 5. In people who are genetically predisposed to celiac disease antibody levels may be fluctuating thus endoscopy with biopsy should be done in these patients. 6. In children lower than 2years, Anti- TTG and Anti –EMA have low sensitivity. we recommend Anti-TTG and Anti-DGP in these patients. 7. Resolution of symptoms after gluten free diet is not necessarily a feature of celiac disease. This condition may be seen in patients with IBS or non-celiac gluten sensitivity.


This paper examines who populates the expert and policy network around demographic change issues in Europe. We examine how competing policy departments in the European Commission DirectoratesGeneral (DGs) deal with the issue of Europe's changing demography, as well as discuss the role of external experts on demographic change. Our findings suggest that on demographic change issues at the EU level, DG EMPL has taken the lead, while DG ECFIN is the secondary actor. Still, internal European Commission dynamics mean that the lead actor on demographic issues has less autonomy in articulating a funded and clear policy position on how to address them. As a consequence, there is little institutional memory and hardly a depository of activity on demographic change. While outside expertise comes primarily from demographers, and other scholars concerned with demographic change, they are primarily an academic community rather than heavily engaged in European policy formulation. As a consequence of these dynamics, the European mode of governance on demographic change issues suffers from a lack of both flexibility and direction. It is an important slow-burning issue that is captured by neither the 'new intergovernmentalism' nor the 'new supranationalism' in post-crisis European governance strategies. Rather, demographic change issues largely operate in a vacuum and make only sporadic appearances on the EU agenda.


In this paper, we study two important problems related to quasi-multiautomata: the complicated nature of verification of the GMAC condition for systems of quasi-multiautomata, and the fact that the nature of quasi-multiautomata has deviated from the original nature of automata as seen by the theory of formal languages. For the former problem, we include several new conditions that simplify the procedure. For the latter problem, we close this gap by presenting a construction of quasi-multiautomata, which corresponds to deterministic automata of the theory of formal languages and is based on the operation of concatenation.


In this paper, we present a novel approach for joint decorrelation and despeckling of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. An iterative maximum a posterior estimation is performed to obtain the correlation and speckle-free SAR data, which incorporates a correlation model which realistically explores the physical correlated process of speckle noise on signal in SAR imaging. The correlation model is determined automatically via Bayesian estimation in the log-Fourier domain and patch-wise computation is used to account for spatial nonstationarities existing in SAR data. The proposed approach is compared to a state-of-the-art despeckling technique using both simulated and real SAR data. Experimental results illustrate its improvement in preserving the structural detail, especially the sharpness of the edges, when suppressing speckle noise.


Context. Mergers are an important aspect of galaxy formation and evolution. With large upcoming surveys, such as Euclid and LSST, accurate techniques that are fast and efficient are needed to identify galaxy mergers for further study.
Aims. We aim to test whether deep learning techniques can be used to reproduce visual classification of observations, physical classification of simulations and highlight any differences between these two classifications. As one of the main difficulties of merger studies is the lack of a truth sample, we can use our method to test biases in visually identified merger catalogues.
Methods. We developed a convolutional neural network architecture and trained it in two ways: one with observations from SDSS and one with simulated galaxies from EAGLE, processed to mimic the SDSS observations. The SDSS images were also classified by the simulation trained network and the EAGLE images classified by the observation trained network.
Results. The observationally trained network achieves an accuracy of 91.5% while the simulation trained network achieves 65.2% on the visually classified SDSS and physically classified EAGLE images respectively. Classifying the SDSS images with the simulation trained network was less successful, only achieving an accuracy of 64.6%, while classifying the EAGLE images with the observation network was very poor, achieving an accuracy of only 53.0% with preferential assignment to the non-merger classification. This suggests that most of the simulated mergers do not have conspicuous merger features and visually identified merger catalogues from observations are incomplete and biased towards certain merger types.
Conclusions. The networks trained and tested with the same data perform the best, with observations performing better than simulations, a result of the observational sample being biased towards conspicuous mergers. Classifying SDSS observations with the simulation trained network has proven to work, providing tantalising prospects for using simulation trained networks for galaxy identification in large surveys.


This study examines the relationship between attitude and outcome of 30 schizophrenic outpatients. Attitude is measured using the modes of response to psychosis proposed by MayerGross in 1920 and operationalised into questionnaire form by Soskis and Bowers (1969) and McGlashan and Carpenter (1981). The outcome is defined by the number ofrehospitalizations since the first diagnosis of schizophrenia. Results show a significant relationship between attitude and outcome. Positive attitude toward the illness and positive attitude toward the future were both significantly correlated with a positive outcome (lower rate of rehospitalization). Similarly, both negative attitudes toward the illness and negative attitude toward the future were significantly correlated with a negative outcome (higher rate of rehospitalization). There was a stronger correlation between positive attitudes and positive outcome than between negative attitudes and negative outcome. The relationship between attitude and outcome in schizophrenia is used to suggest alternative ways of conceptualizing and managing the condition. The findings of this study are also used to develop recommendations for further research.


This study compares several well-known machine learning techniques for public-private partnership (PPP) project dispute problems. Single and hybrid classification techniques are applied to construct models for PPP project dispute prediction. The single classification techniques utilized are multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks, decision trees (DTs), support vector machines, the naı̈ve Bayes classifier, and k-nearest neighbor. Two types of hybrid learning models are developed. One combines clustering and classification techniques and the other combines multiple classification techniques. Experimental results indicate that hybrid models outperform single models in prediction accuracy, Type I and II errors, and the receiver operating characteristic curve. Additionally, the hybrid model combining multiple classification techniques perform better than that combining clustering and classification techniques. Particularly, the MLP MLP and DT DT models perform best and second best, achieving prediction accuracies of 97.08% and 95.77%, respectively. This study demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of hybrid machine learning techniques for early prediction of dispute occurrence using conceptual project information as model input. The models provide a proactive warning and decision-support information needed to select the appropriate resolution strategy before a dispute occurs.


This research first examined nitrification inhibition caused by different classes of industrially relevant chemicals on activated sludge and found that conventional aerobic nitrification was inhibited by single pulse inputs of every chemical tested, with 1-chloro-2,4dinitrobenzene (oxidant) having the most severe impact, followed by alkaline pH 11, cadmium (heavy metal), cyanide, octanol (hydrophobic) and 2,4-dinitrophenol (respiratory uncoupler). Of the different chemicals tested, the oxidative and hydrophobic chemicals showed severe nitrification inhibition relative to other treatment processes and therefore deserved further investigation. For oxidative chemicals, we hypothesized that the more severe inhibition was because nitrifying bacteria lack one or more of the microbial stress response mechanisms used to mediate the toxic effect of oxidative chemicals. During these experiments, we showed that a rapid (minutes) antioxidant potassium efflux mechanism does not exist in two nitrifying bacteria, Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrospira moscoviensis. Furthermore, we showed that another important antioxidant molecule, glutathione, was not oxidized as readily as in a non-nitrifying bacterium. Furthermore, we hypothesized that hydrophobic chemical-induced nitrification inhibition recovered more quickly because of the presence of membrane modification stress response mechanisms. While testing this hypothesis, we showed that N. europaea modified its cell membrane in response to hydrophobic chemicals using a long-term (hours) membrane modification mechanism that required the synthesis of new fatty acids, but it did not contain a short-term (minutes) response mechanism involving a cis/trans isomerase. Therefore, investigating these nitrifier stress responses showed that nitrifiers lack short-term stress responses that may be used to rapidly detect inhibition, indicating that conventional methods of detecting nitrification inhibition, like differential respirometry and nitrate generation rate (NGR), are still the fastest and easiest methods to use. Because several conventional methods exist, we also investigated differences between differential respirometry and a UV method we developed to measure NGR. During these tests, we showed that the UV NGR method provided a more reliable measure of nitrification inhibition than differential respirometry, and that the time to maximum nitrification inhibition depended on the properties of the chemical toxin, which implies that longer exposure times may be needed to accurately predict nitrification inhibition.


We introduce a model for semiflexible polymer chains based on the integral of an appropriate Gaussian process. The stiffness is characterized physically by adding a bending energy. The degree of stiffness in the polymer chain is quantified by means of a parameter and as this parameter tends to infinity, the limiting case reduces to the Brownian model of completely flexible chains studied in earlier work. The calculation of the partition function for the configuration statistical mechanics (i.e., the distribution of shapes) of such polymers in elongational flow or quadratic potentials is equivalent to the probabilistic problem of finding the law of a quadratic functional of the associated Gaussian process. An exact formula for the partition function is presented; however, in practice, this formula is too complicated for most computations. We therefore develop an asymptotic expansion for the partition function in terms of the stiffness parameter and obtain the first-order term which gives the first-order deviation from the completely flexible case. In addition to the partition function, the method presented here can also deal with other quadratic functionals such as the "stochastic area" associated with two polymer chains.


The recent financial crisis has made it paramount for the financial services industry to find new perspectives to look at their industry and, most importantly, to gain a better understanding of how the global financial system can be made less vulnerable and more resilient. The primary objective of this book is to illustrate how the safety science of Resilience Engineering can help to gain a better understanding of what the financial services system is and how to improve governance and control of financial services systems by leveraging some of its key concepts. Resilience is the intrinsic ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions. This definition is focused on the ability to function, rather than just to be impervious to failure, and thereby bridges the traditional conflict between productivity and safety. The core concept of the book is that the behaviour of the financial services system is the result of the tight couplings among the humans, organizations and technologies that are necessary to provide complex financial functions such as the transfer of economic resources. It is a consequence of this perspective that the risks associated with these systems cannot be understood without considering the nature of these tight couplings. Adopting this perspective, the book is designed to provide some answers to the following key questions about the financial crisis: - What actually happened? - Why and how did it happen? - Could something similar happen again? How can we see that in time and how can we control it? - How can sustainable recovery of the global financial system be established? How can its resilience be improved?


This paper produces a panel of price indices for housing, other produced goods, and all produced goods for each metropolitan area in the United States and the non-metropolitan part of each state from 1982 through 2008 that can be used for estimating behavioral relationships, studying the workings of markets, and assessing differences in the economic circumstances of people living in different areas. Our general approach is to first produce cross-sectional price indices for a single year 2000 and then use BLS time-series price indices to create the panel. Our geographic housing price index for 2000 is based on a large data set with detailed information about the characteristics of dwelling units and their neighborhoods throughout the United States that enables us to overcome many shortcomings of existing interarea housing price indices. For most areas, our price index for all goods other than housing is calculated from the price indices for categories of non-housing goods produced each quarter by the Council for Community and Economic Research. In order to produce a non-housing price index for areas of the United States not covered by their index, we estimate a theoretically-based regression model explaining differences in the composite price index for non-housing goods for areas where it is available and use it to predict a price of other goods for the uncovered areas. The overall consumer price index for all areas is based on the preceding estimates of the price of housing and other goods. The paper also discusses existing interarea price indices available to researchers, and it compares the new housing price index with housing price indices based on alternative methods using the same data and price indices based on alternative data sets. Electronic versions of the price indices are available online.


Program slicing, a technique to compute the subset of program statements that can affect the value of a program variable at a specific program point, is widely used in tools to support maintenance activities. To be useful for supporting these activities, a slicing technique must be sufficiently precise and efficient. Harrold and Ci (1998) proposed a method for improving the efficiency of slicing by reusing slicing information for subsequent slicing. This paper presents an interprocedural slicing algorithm that improves the efficiency and precision of Harrold and Ci's algorithm for programs with pointer variables and recursion. Our empirical results show that our improvements can effectively achieve more reuse in slice computation, for programs with pointers, and can significantly reduce the sizes of slices, for programs with recursion.


Hybridization capture coupled with high-throughput sequencing can be used to gain information about nuclear sequence variation at hundreds to thousands of loci. A cross-species approach makes use of molecular data of one species to enrich target loci in other (related) species. This is particularly valuable for non-model organisms, for which often no a priori knowledge exists regarding these loci. Here, we have adopted cross-species capture to obtain data for 809 nuclear coding DNA sequences (CDS) in a non-model organism, the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, using baits designed with the help of the published genome of a related model organism (the domestic cat Felis catus). In this manner, we were able to survey intraspecific variation at hundreds of nuclear loci across the European range of L. lynx. A large set of bi-allelic candidate SNPs was then tested in a high throughput SNP-genotyping platform (Fluidigm), which we reduced to a final 96 SNP-panel based on assay performance and reliability; validation was carried out with additional samples not included in the SNP discovery phase. The 96 SNP-panel developed from CDS performed very successfully in the identification of individuals and in population genetic structure inference (incl. the assignment of individuals to their source population). In keeping with recent studies, our results show that genic SNPs can be valuable for genetic monitoring of wildlife species.


We investigate if we can find evidence of house effects in Swedish political opinion polls from 2006 to 2014. In order to respect the inherent restriction of the simplex sample space, we apply compositional data analysis and Aitchison geometry. We use compositional locally weighted regression ( C -loess) to estimate the share of voters for each party at given dates, a poll of polls. The estimated shares are compared to the poll(s) for that date using simplicial distances and compositional deviations (inverse perturbation). We can conclude that neither the mean simplicial distance nor the mean compositional deviation are equal for all polling organisations, also when controlling for different sample sizes and limiting the sample to only the last two years.


As knowledge gains a reputation for being a critical resource in the information-intensive economy, organizations have doubled their efforts in trying to extract value from knowledge management policies. One particular aspect of knowledge management, which has gone unnoticed in academic research, is the presence of conflicts in knowledge activities. By adopting a conflict perspective of knowledge activities, this study arrives at a two-dimensional framework that defines knowledge conflicts in terms of its type and nature. Central to this paper is the fundamental idea that conflicts form an integral part of knowledge management and depending on how they are managed; conflicts may be formidable partners or dangerous adversaries in the corporate quest for knowledge-derived competitiveness.


Surface finish is one of the prime requirements of customers for machined parts. The present paper presents an experimental study to investigate the effects of cutting parameters like spindle speed, feed and depth of cut on surface finish and material removal rate on EN-8. Taguchi methodology has been applied to optimize cutting parameters. The results showed that the spindle speed (the most significant factor) contributed 63.90%, depth of cut (second most significant factor) contributed only 11.32% and feed rate contribution was least with 8.33% for Ra. The contribution for feed and RPM was 60.91% and 29.83%.whereas the depth of cut contributed only 7.82% for material removal rate.


For decades the semiconductor industry has been a driver of global economic growth and social change. Semiconductors, particularly the microchips essential to most electronic devices, have transformed computing, communications, entertainment, and industry. In Chips and Change, Clair Brown and Greg Linden trace the industry over more than twenty years through eight technical and competitive crises that forced it to adapt in order to continue its exponential rate of improved chip performance. The industry's changes have in turn shifted the basis on which firms hold or gain global competitive advantage. These eight interrelated crises do not have tidy beginnings and ends. Most, in fact, are still ongoing, often in altered form. The U.S. semiconductor industry's fear that it would be overtaken by Japan in the 1980s, for example, foreshadows current concerns over the new global competitors China and India. The intersecting crises of rising costs for both design and manufacturing are compounded by consumer pressure for lower prices. Other crises discussed in the book include the industry's steady march toward the limits of physics, the fierce competition that keeps its profits modest even as development costs soar, and the global search for engineering talent. Other high-tech industries face crises of their own, and the semiconductor industry has much to teach about how industries are transformed in response to such powerful forces as technological change, shifting product markets, and globalization. Chips and Change also offers insights into how chip firms have developed, defended, and, in some cases, lost global competitive advantage.


Abstract Using newly available documents from the PRC Foreign Ministry Archive, this article traces the evolving legacies of the War of Resistance in the first seven years of the People's Republic. Analysis is offered of PRC campaigns against Japanese bacteriological war crimes, criticisms of American dealings with Japanese war criminals, and the 1956 trial of Japanese at Shenyang. Throughout, behind-the-scenes tensions with the Soviet Union and internal bureaucratic struggles over the Japanese legacy regarding these matters are revealed. The article thereby aims to shed light on how the War of Resistance affected post-war China's foreign relations, demonstrating how the young Republic advantageously used wartime legacies as diplomatic tools in relations with the superpowers and within the orchestrated clangour of domestic propaganda campaigns.


This study was performed to investigate the horizontal and vertical distribution of soil moisture and salinity using an alternative trickle irrigation system of drip tape. Four main treatments consisting of 100, 80, 70, and 60% of the plants' water requirements and three sub-treatments of 2.1, 4.6, and 10.2 dS/m, were conducted. Following irrigation, the soil moisture and salinity distribution around the emitters were measured every 24 h. The results showed that the accumulation of salts in the soil reduced the evaporation from the soil surface in treatments with high salinity. Therefore, in treatments with a low plant water requirement and high salinity levels, the volume of water in the soil is greater than in treatments with a high plant water requirement and low salinity levels. Although the crop yield is reduced with deficit irrigation, the saved water can be used to increase the area under cultivation, leading to increases in the overall crop yield.


Objective: The proportion of high school students taking college courses (e.g., dual credit) is increasing and state and local policies are expanding, yet little is known about the effect of dual credit policies on key educational outcomes, including the effects for low-income students and students of color. The purpose of this study was to examine how dual credit policies differentially influence college access and completion. Method: This study used propensity score matching to examine the impact of community college dual credit policy in Illinois using a large sample of students (n = 41,727) who completed high school in spring 2003. Drawing from Perna and Thomas' Conceptual Model of Student Success and Rawls' notion of justice as fairness, the study examined effect heterogeneity to determine differential effects for low-income students and students of color on two educational outcomes: college enrollment and college completion. Results: The analyses showed that dual credit policies positively affect all students, but smaller effect sizes were detected for low-income students and students of color compared with average estimates suggesting that existing dual credit policies are inequitable. Contributions: Policy implications and recommendations include assessing state policies and integrating non-cognitive and psychosocial supports into dual credit programs to support underserved students.


Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processes play an important role in data warehousing. Typically, design work on ETL has focused on performance as the sole metric to make sure that the ETL process finishes within an allocated time window. However, other quality metrics are also important and need to be considered during ETL design. In this paper, we address ETL design for performance plus fault-tolerance and freshness. There are many reasons why an ETL process can fail and a good design needs to guarantee that it can be recovered within the ETL time window. How to make ETL robust to failures is not trivial. There are different strategies that can be used and they each have different costs and benefits. In addition, other metrics can affect the choice of a strategy; e.g., higher freshness reduces the time window for recovery. The design space is too large for informal, ad-hoc approaches. In this paper, we describe our QoX optimizer that considers multiple design strategies and finds an ETL design that satisfies multiple objectives. In particular, we define the optimizer search space, cost functions, and search algorithms. Also, we illustrate its use through several experiments and we show that it produces designs that are very near optimal.


As we celebrate the centennial of the AAUP's 1915 Declaration on Academic Freedom and Tenure, those core principles are still essential, but the changing administrative regime of higher education institutions has put them at risk. The dramatic increase in the number and percentage of contingent faculty positions— those on annual or term contracts rather than tenured or tenure-track appointment—undermines academic freedom in teaching, research, and public service. Where academic freedom was once fought and secured against specific charges or external pressures from particular ideological forces, the threat is now more insidious and structural from within the academy as well as outside interests. It is beyond the scope of this article to detail the forces and circumstances that have led to cuts in public funding for public universities and the growing reliance on private funds with motives and priorities that have often compromised the mission, priorities, and core academic values of the scholarly enterprise of both public and private institutions. The increasingly ubiquitous market-driven education policy and its consequences have been argued quite well by others. The point I wish to address is the seismic shift to contingent faculty and the stagnant or reduced number of tenure and tenure-track faculty. The argument is always economic exigence rather than any claim that it improves the quality of education. Administrators resist approving tenure track lines to save money by hiring contingent faculty with lower salaries and reduced benefits. At the same time, this alleged policy of scrimping has done nothing to slow the growth of the number of administrators and their salaries, an obvious point without mentioning the salaries and contracts of athletic coaches. Only faculty salaries and positions seem to be fodder in the losing battle to hold down the cost of tuition and fees for our students. Contingent appointments have comprised a majority of all faculty positions for more than a decade. While adjuncts, lecturers, instructors, post-docs, and visiting faculty members are valuable, even essential, they are not particularly valued by


The purpose of this monograph is to explore changes in the public meanings of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Aids) and health-seeking behaviour when a successful antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme is established in a community in which Aids was previously untreatable.
The place in question is Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. It is among the poorest and most densely inhabited rural districts in South Africa. It consists of some three dozen villages scattered in a wide radius around a town centre, and it is home to about 150 000 people. While parts of South Africa have been harder hit by the Aids epidemic than Lusikisiki, Aids remains the single gravest public health catastrophe the district has experienced in living memory. The rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence among pregnant women is about 30 per cent. According to the best actuarial models, about 110 people in Lusikisiki enter Stage IV Aids every month (Medecins sans Frontieres 2006). Anecdotal evidence I collected during my fieldwork between October 2005 and February 2007 suggests that an average of at least one person dies of Aids every day in the medical wards of the regional hospital in town. The last time young and middle-aged adults were struck down in comparable numbers was during the 1918 flu epidemic.


Cannabis is a diverse and polymorphic species. To better understand cannabinoid synthesis inheritance and its impact on pathogen resistance, we shotgun sequenced and assembled a Cannabis trio (sibling pair and their offspring) utilizing long read single molecule sequencing. This resulted in the most contiguous Cannabis sativa assemblies to date. These reference assemblies were further annotated with full-length male and female mRNA sequencing (Iso-Seq) to help inform isoform complexity, gene model predictions and identification of the Y chromosome. To further annotate the genetic diversity in the species, 40 male, female, and monoecious cannabis and hemp varietals were evaluated for copy number variation (CNV) and RNA expression. This identified multiple CNVs governing cannabinoid expression and 82 genes associated with resistance to Golovinomyces chicoracearum, the causal agent of powdery mildew in cannabis. Results indicated that breeding for plants with low tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) concentrations may result in deletion of pathogen resistance genes. Low THCA cultivars also have a polymorphism every 51 bases while dispensary grade high THCA cannabis exhibited a variant every 73 bases. A refined genetic map of the variation in cannabis can guide more stable and directed breeding efforts for desired chemotypes and pathogen-resistant cultivars. Sequence and annotation of 42 cannabis genomes reveals extensive copy number variation in cannabinoid synthesis and pathogen resistance genes


Abstract

Uexkull, Jakob Johann Baron von (1864–1944), non-Darwinian Baltic German biologist and philosopher, who introduced an environmental theory ('Umweltlehre') into biology. This theory differed from the contemporary concepts in many ways: it denied the existence of objectivity in life and research, referred to individuals instead of collectives, allowed analyses without commitment on either Darwinism or creationism, and permitted physiologists, biologists, behaviourists and psychologists work with it. Uexkull did not present his environmental theory at the beginning of his career around 1890, but only in the 1920s, after a long odyssey between Darwinism, anti-Semitic elusions, prebehaviouristic approaches and semicreationistic theses. When most of his 'German' colleagues in biology were involved in national socialistic crimes, Uexkull and most of his junior scholars refused to support race biology. However, after 1945, when evolutionary synthesis was introduced into life sciences, his outdated non-Darwinian biophilosophy was deployed from biological discussions.

Key Concepts:

Uexkull's environmental theory was based on the idea of a supernatural power in nature, which worked as a explanation for the existence of life at all.

Below supernatural power, biologists were able to analyse human and animal living worlds. Every life and his reflexes were explainable by Uexkull's functional cycle.

The environmental theory was usable for biologists, physiologists, behaviourists or psychologists, either Darwinistic or not. However, Uexkull hoped to use it as a proof for his anti-Darwinian ideology.

Uexkull's environmental theory was later used for explaining the behaviour of patients in psychosomatic medicine or in semiotic disputes and discussions over philosophy of sciences. It is in use even today, though most of his contemporary colleagues have fallen apart.

Keywords:

environment;
biology;
Umweltlehre;
neovitalismus/neovitalism;
radical constructivism;
Darwinism;
physiology


Firms in emerging markets are exposed to severe financial frictions and credit constraints, that are exacerbated by the sudden stop of capital inflows. Can monetary policy offset this external credit squeeze? We show that although this may be the case during moderate contractions (or in partial equilibrium), the expansionary effect of monetary policy vanishes during severe external crises. The exchange rate jumps to reduce the dollar value of domestic collateral until equilibrium in domestic financial markets is consistent with the external constraint. An expansionary monetary policy in this context raises the value of domestic collateral but it exacerbates the exchange rate depreciation (beyond the standard interest parity effect) and has little effect on aggregate activity. However there is a dynamic linkage between monetary policy and sudden stops. The anticipation of a dogged defense of the exchange rate worsens the consequences of sudden stops by distorting the private sector incentive to take precautions against these shocks. For similar general equilibrium reasons, dollarization of liabilities has limited impact during a sudden stop, but it has significant underinsurance consequences.


The summer of 2003 was characterized by an intense heat wave across Europe that resulted in a large number of deaths and intense and extended forest fires. In Portugal, during this period more than 300000 ha of forests were destroyed by fire, during a short period, emitting enormous quantities of pollutants to the atmosphere. These emissions have presumably important effects in terms of regional human health and on the atmospheric radiation balance. During the summer of 2003 aerosol samples were taken in the Aveiro region, Portugal, and analysed for total mass and a series of inorganic and organic compounds, including tracers of biomass burning such as potassium and levoglucosan. Based on air mass trajectories, the aerosol size distribution, the levels of particulate mass and the aerosol composition, observed during periods with and without forest fires, the contribution of forest fires to the regional aerosol load is inferred. The absolute and relative variability of the aerosol inorganic and organic components are used to evaluate the importance of forest fire emissions as sources responsible for the presence in the summer atmosphere of compounds such as particulate tracers. The results permit also to have, at least, a semi quantitative estimation of the emission factors of biomass burning tracers such as potassium and levoglucosan to the organic aerosol load in air mass plumes resulting from forest fires. The calculation of emission factors from natural forest fires (without the bias of laboratory and prescribed burnings) is a useful complement for a correct inventory of the impact of these nowadays common summer events on the contamination of regional and global atmosphere.


A Mobile World? "The importance of mobility in early societies now no longer needs demonstration. Recent work over the last decades has rendered obsolete the image of populations that are for the most part immobile that demographers have sought to purvey. Within the Mediterranean area, throughout a very long period lasting from Antiquity down to modern times, the circulation of human beings constitutes a fact that is both structural and structuring, an element of continuity that forms the very basis of the Mediterranean network." Claudia Moatti, whose research has done so much to illuminate human mobility across Mediterraneans ancient and early modern, succinctly sums up the current consensus. As historians and archaeologists of the classical world we now repeatedly emphasise movement and communication, mobility and con-nectivity, hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Our fascination with movement and exchange is evident in revisionist accounts of the Roman economy, in studies of the ancient novel between east and west, in projects that track diasporas through haplotype distribution and stable isotope analysis, and in multiple appropriations of post-colonial criticism and globalisation theory. A little of this is simply the latest round in a familiar old game of asserting the modernity of the ancients, but the evidence for movement is undeniable. The issue now is to assess the scale, nature and significance of all this, and to avoid an exaggerated reaction that underplays the equally undeniable differences between globalised modernity and the ancient world.


Wireless sensor networks are vulnerable to the node clone, and several distributed protocols have been proposed to detect this attack. However, they require too strong assumptions to be practical for large-scale, randomly deployed sensor networks. In this paper, we propose two novel node clone detection protocols with different tradeoffs on network conditions and performance. The first one is based on a distributed hash table (DHT), by which a fully decentralized, key-based caching and checking system is constructed to catch cloned nodes effectively. The protocol performance on efficient storage consumption and high security level is theoretically deducted through a probability model, and the resulting equations, with necessary adjustments for real application, are supported by the simulations. Although the DHT-based protocol incurs similar communication cost as previous approaches, it may be considered a little high for some scenarios. To address this concern, our second distributed detection protocol, named randomly directed exploration, presents good communication performance for dense sensor networks, by a probabilistic directed forwarding technique along with random initial direction and border determination. The simulation results uphold the protocol design and show its efficiency on communication overhead and satisfactory detection probability.


After satisfactory performance of the transition countries in 2000, growth slowed down in 2001 as the external conditions deteriorated. This tendency has not been checked in the first quarter of 2002. Industrial production has weakened, in some countries even declined. Expanding consumption has been the major growth factor. Also capital formation weakened, or contracted. This does not augur well for economic growth in the medium-term future. The contribution of foreign trade to GDP growth seems neutral - excepting the Czech Republic and Hungary (probably positive). This is due to external conditions weak growth in the EU. Lower world prices of energy had a negative impact on growth in Russia. The current account deficits in the advanced transition countries will remain relatively low (and the high Slovak deficit is expected to go down). In Yugoslavia the high current account deficits will continue. The Russian current account surplus, which is declining sharply, will still remain very large. Current account deficits will continue to be financed largely, and safely, by inflows of foreign direct investment. The slowdown of industrial production and producer prices affects firms' financial position. This is compensated by rising labour productivity, achieved primarily through cuts in employment. Unemployment is high, or very high. It is unlikely to go down significantly even in the medium run. However, the associated social problems will probably have no destabilizing political consequences (except Poland). The remarkable strength of the national currencies appears to have a fairly limited impact on the performance of trade and production. The recent exchange rate trends may have reflected financial (or even speculative) developments so that a potential for adjustments, involving devaluation, may be there. But the likelihood of major adjustments seems rather small because the solid capital inflows will continue even in the medium term, especially in view of prospective EU membership of the candidate countries. The general concern over loss of competitiveness due to overvaluation remains still valid. However, alternative measures of real appreciation suggest that the currencies of the transition countries may actually have been depreciating in real terms. Competitiveness need not have suffered - the more so as the process has been associated with quality and price gains in export activities. Given the external conditions, the overall growth in transition countries in 2002 will be weaker than in 2001. Acceleration in 2003 is possible provided the business climate in the EU improves. The average rate of catching-up vis-a-vis the EU will stay at about 2 percentage points per year.


As in all periods of swift economic development and political upheaval, our era of globalization has brought corruption and conflicts of interest into the spotlight. This comprehensive study highlights the difficulties of devising global legislative and judicial responses to these issues.
The papers gathered in this volume demonstrate how global regulations tend to meet strong cultural resistance, in particular when dealing with the more subtle patterns of conflicts of interest. It is a notion that is far from successfully regulated in every country or addressed in compatible ways. In fact, the comparisons offered demonstrate that even international organizations such as the European Union have failed to fully consolidate their systems for mitigating their own risks of corruption and conflicts of interest.
Providing a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of corruption and conflicts of interest from a comparative perspective, this book will prove vital for academics, NGOs and practitioners. (Publisher's abstract)


Citrus leaf blotch virus (CLBV) was purified and characterized from a Nagami kumquat (Fortunella margarita (Lour.) Swingle), showing bud union crease when propagated on Troyer citrange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck × Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.) (2). The complete nucleotide sequence of its genomic RNA was determined (4), and biological and molecular diagnosis methods were developed (1,3). CLBV, detected in several citrus cultivars from Australia, the United States (Florida and California), Japan, and Spain is usually associated with bud union crease on citrange or citumelo (C. paradisi (Macfad.) × P. trifoliata). The economic importance of CLBV for the citrus industry is presently unknown since its incidence in different citrus areas has not been evaluated, and its actual involvement in causing bud union crease on trifoliate rootstocks has not yet been proved. To assess seed transmissibility of this virus, 120 to 210 seeds from CLBV-infected Troyer citrange, Nagami kumquat, or sour orange (Citrus aurantium L.) plants were grown in a greenhouse. Individual 4-month-old seedlings were analyzed for CLBV by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and infection was confirmed by biological indexing on Dweet tangor (C. tangerina Hort. ex Tanaka × C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck) when seedlings were approximately 18 months old. Seed transmission was found in 2.50, 2.52, and 2.46% of the citrange, kumquat, and sour orange seedlings, respectively. This finding indicates that control of CLBV spread during citrus propagation will require, not only virus-free buds, but also rootstock seedlings that originate from CLBV-free seed source trees. Because CLBV is seed transmissible, regulations of citrus certification programs may need to be changed to include increased control of seed source trees. Also, international regulations for citrus seed movement likely will have to be augmented to include a phytosanitary certification indicating that seeds have been collected from CLBV-free trees. References: (1) L. Galipienso et al. Plant Pathol. 49:308, 2000. (2) L. Galipienso et al. Arch. Virol. 146:357, 2001. (3) L. Galipienso et al. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 110:175,2004. (4) M. C. Vives et al. Virology 287:225, 2001.


This section of THORAX is published in collaboration with the two abstractinig journals, Abstracts of World Medicine, and Abstracts of World Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, published by the British Medical Association. In this Journal some of the more important articles on subjects of interest to chest physicians and surgeons are selected for abstract, and these are classified into five sections: experimental; tuberculosis; neoplasm; asthma; thoracic surgery. Each section is not necessarily represented in any one issue.


Recently, Stein's unbiased risk estimator (SURE) has been applied to unsupervised training of deep neural network Gaussian denoisers that outperformed classical non-deep learning based denoisers and yielded comparable performance to those trained with ground truth. While SURE requires only one noise realization per image for training, it does not take advantage of having multiple noise realizations per image when they are available (e.g., two uncorrelated noise realizations per image for Noise2Noise). Here, we propose an extended SURE (eSURE) to train deep denoisers with correlated pairs of noise realizations per image and applied it to the case with two uncorrelated realizations per image to achieve better performance than SURE based method and comparable results to Noise2Noise. Then, we further investigated the case with imperfect ground truth (i.e., mild noise in ground truth) that may be obtained considering painstaking, time-consuming, and even expensive processes of collecting ground truth images with multiple noisy images. For the case of generating noisy training data by adding synthetic noise to imperfect ground truth to yield correlated pairs of images, our proposed eSURE based training method outperformed conventional SURE based method as well as Noise2Noise. Code is available at https://github.com/Magauiya/Extended_SURE


"Higher education institutions face an environment that is increasingly multicultural. However the presidency continues to be dominated by Anglo-European males (89.3%) as reported by the American Council on Education (ACE). Since the position of president is a highly sought position, insight into the preparation for the presidency can be a valuable tool to those who aspire to the position as well as for analysts of higher education leadership. This study adds to the limited literature on the preparation, backgrounds and crucial workplace issues of presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and non-HBCUs. This mixed method study was conducted in two phases: phase one involved determining which demographic, occupational, and other characteristics of presidents of HBCU and non-HBCU institutions are similar or different from each other. The data elements used in this study were provided by the American Council on Education. Phase two involved a set of open-ended, semi-structured interviews to elaborate and inform the statistically significant quantitative differences noted in the first set of analysis. Twenty participants were asked to describe the experiences that shaped their development and led them to the role of president of either an HBCU or Non-HBCU four-year institution of higher education. The participant population was HBCU and non-HBCU presidents of four-year accredited degree granting institutions of higher education. A purposive sampling strategy reflecting a variation of the size of institution, public versus non-public, region of the country, and institutional mission served as the basis for selecting participants. Findings indicate that presidents of HBCUs and non-HBCUs could not be distinguished on the basis of their educational background; that the experiences achieved and experiences that presidents wish they had more of prior to assuming the presidency were similar; and that HBCU presidents compared to non-HBCU presidents can be distinguished by the issues and concerns that dominate their actions (such as planning, fundraising and student issues). This study also provides recommendations for further research in policy and practice."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


BACKGROUND
The optimal management strategy for patients sustaining penetrating neck injury without an urgent indication for operative exploration remains controversial. The objective of this study was to prospectively assess multislice helical computed tomography angiography (MCTA) as a stand alone screening modality for the initial evaluation of hemodynamically stable patients with penetrating neck injuries. Our hypothesis was that MCTA is a sensitive diagnostic screening test that could noninvasively evaluate the vascular and aerodigestive structures of the neck.

METHODS
After Institutional Review Board approval, all penetrating neck injuries assessed during a 16-month period were prospectively evaluated at a Level I trauma center. Patients without an indication for urgent neck exploration underwent MCTA screening. MCTA accuracy was tested against an aggregate gold standard of final diagnosis encompassing all imaging, surgical procedures and clinical follow-up obtained.

RESULTS
In all, 106 injuries penetrated the platysma; 15 required urgent exploration and 91 underwent MCTA (34 gunshot wounds/57 stab wounds). Nineteen external wounds were in zone 1, 39 were in zone 2, 10 in zone 3, and 23 traversed multiple zones. MCTA was nondiagnostic in 2.2% secondary to artifact from retained missile fragments. Follow-up was achieved in 84.5% of patients for a mean of 33.3 days (range: 2-150). MCTA achieved 100% sensitivity and 93.5% specificity in detecting all vascular and aerodigestive injuries sustained. MCTA correctly identified two tracheal and two carotid artery injuries requiring operative or endovascular repair in asymptomatic patients. No injuries requiring intervention were missed by MCTA.

CONCLUSION
In the initial evaluation of stable penetrating neck injuries, MCTA appears to be a sensitive and safe screening modality. Further investigation is warranted.


BackgroundContrast ventriculograms of 542 patients treated with intravenous thrombolytic agents for acute myocardial infarction were examined to define changes in left ventricular ejection fraction and regional wall motion that occur during the first week after reperfusion therapy for acute myocardial infarction and define clinical, acute angiographic and treatment variables related to improvement in global and regional left ventricular function. Methods and ResultsIntravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator and/or urokinase was administered to 805 patients during acute myocardial infarction. Mean time from symptom onset to thrombolytic therapy was 3 hours (22 patients received therapy within the first hour). Acute and 7-day catheterizations were performed. Paired left ventricular ejection fraction and centerline regional wall motion were available in 542 patients (67%). Stepwise, multivariable analysis of clinical, acute angiographic and treatment variables was used to develop two models: One related to improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction, and the second related to improvement in infarct zone regional function. Left ventricular ejection fraction did not change (51.2±11.1% for acute versus 51.9±11.0% for 1 week, p=0.19). Improvement in infarct zone regional function was modest (14%) at 1 week (-2.54±+1.07 standard deviation per chord for acute versus -2.17+ 1.24 at 1 week, p<0.001). Subgroup analysis demonstrated modest improvement in ejection fraction (1.4±9.5%) and greater improvement in infarct zone function (19%) in patients with successful sustained reperfusion at 1 week. Depressed left ventricular ejection fraction and infarct zone regional wall motion at the acute study were strongly associated with improvement of these parameters at 1 week. Resolution of chest pain before acute catheterization, infarct-related artery flow at acute catheterization, and depressed regional wall motion in the noninfarct zone were associated with improvement in both ejection fraction and regional infarct zone function at 1 week. Notably, the time from the onset of symptoms to initiation of thrombolytic treatment was not related to subsequent improvement in ventricular function. ConclusionsDramatic improvement in left ventricular systolic function is not common after thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction. Improvement in global and regional systolic function is most closely related to acutely depressed ventricular function and successful acute coronary recanalization. Thus, patients with the most myocardium in jeopardy and successful coronary reperfusion demonstrate the greatest improvement in global and infarct zone ventricular function. Overall, the magnitude of this improvement is modest, suggesting that the benefits of coronary reperfusion are not solely related to improvement in systolic left ventricular function.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the Tagbanua language in Irawan alone as a potentially endangered language. Focusing on the language attitudes, language use, and actual language proficiency of the Tagbanua inhabitants, the researcher was interested in determining how these might be affected by the respondents' characteristics such as age, sex, education, and geographical location. Social factors such as intermarriage and stereotyping which might influence the perpetuation or decline of the language were also examined. The respondents included young and adult speakers from Sitio Iratag, Sitio Taga-ud, and lowland Irawan. To determine the language attitudes and language use of the respondents, the researcher administered a set of questionnaires. For actual language proficiency, two native speakers of Tagbanua were hired to do interviews with the respondents. The paper ends with an outlook of how the Tagbanua language can be maintained by its speakers.


Objectives: This study aims to evaluate patients operated due to extracranial head and neck schwannomas. Patients and Methods: A total of 14 patients (6 males, 8 females; mean age 42.6 years; range 7 to 73 years) who were treated for extracranial head and neck schwannomas between January 1995 and December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic data, tumor location, surgery, and clinical characteristics of the patients were discussed in light of the literature. Results: All patients were evaluated radiologically and with fine needle aspiration biopsy preoperatively. Total removal of the tumor was achieved in all patients. All tumors had benign character. Mean follow-up period was 14 months. Recurrence or malignancy was not detected in any patient. Conclusion: Schwannomas may present in a variety of sites in the head and neck region, and cause usually non-specific symptoms. Therefore, the preoperative diagnosis requires a clinical suspicion. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging is a useful and simple method for diagnosis.


Building on anthropological discussions of perspectivism and (zoo)semiotic accounts of sign use by humans and other animals, the article explores the cooperation of a guide dog and its visually impaired handler as contingent on the mutual adjustment of two individual perspectives. A perspective is defined as a point of view which comprises the meanings as well as the forms of objects that the subject perceives and acts upon. On certain occasions, individual perspectives can be alligated to one another, resulting in a transformation of the meaningful worlds of the subjects. Three types of connections between individual perspectives are delineated in the paper, resulting in the formation of mimetic, collaborative and comparative double perspectives. Although all of them bear relevance for the guide dog team's interactions, the collaborative double perspective is put under further scrutiny. The maintenance of the collaborative double perspective depends on the formation of trust between the two individuals. While investigating the conditions for the establishment of trust, a question is raised as to whether a shared communication system can serve as an ultimate ground for it.


Effect of oil palm empty fruit bunch(OPEFB) fiber and poly(methyl acrylate) grafted OPEFB on several mechanical properties of poly(vinyl chloride)/epoxidized
natural rubber (PVC/ENR) blends were studied. The
composites were prepared by mixing the fiber and the
PVC/ENR blends using HAKEE Rheomixer at the rotor
speed of 50 rpm, mixing temperature 1508C, and mixing
period of 20 min. The fiber loadings were varied from 0 to
30% and the effect of fiber content in the composites on
their ultimate tensile strength (UTS), Young's modulus,
elongation at break, flexural modulus, hardness, and impact
strength were determined. An increasing trend was
observed in the Young's modulus, flexural modulus, and
hardness with the addition of grafted and ungrafted fiber
to the PVC/ENR blends. However the impact strength,UTS, and elongation at break of the composites were found to decrease with the increase in fiber loading. An increase
in elongation at break and UTS and decrease in the flexural
and Young's modulus was observed with the addition of
PMA-g-OPEFB fiber compared to ungrafted fiber. This observation indicates that grafting of PMA onto OPEFB
impart some flexibility to the blend. The morphology of
cryogenically fractured and tensile fracture surfaces of the
composites, examined by a scanning electron microscope
shows that the adhesion between the fiber and the matrix is
improved upon grafting of the OPEFB fiber.


We propose an axiomatic approach to study the superior performance of mechanisms with obviously dominant strategies to those with only dominant strategies. Guided by the psychological inability to reason state-by-state, we develop Obvious Preference as a weakening of Subjective Expected Utility Theory. We show that a strategy is an obviously dominant if and only if any Obvious Preference prefer it to any deviating strategy at any reachable information set. Applying the concept of Nash Equilibrium to Obvious Preference, we propose Obvious Nash Equilibrium to identify a set of mechanisms that are more robust than mechanisms with only Nash Equilibria.


ABSTRACT Self-reported altruistic activity and social capital were examined as predictors of perceived happiness and life satisfaction among a sample of 4,486 Canadians aged 65 or more years from the 2003 Canadian General Social Services Survey, Cycle 17. Altruistic behaviour was measured by number of volunteer hours per month and helping others (not including family and friends). Social capital was measured using dimensions of belonging to one's community, community and neighbour trust, and group activities. Drawing on generativity and role-identity theories, it was hypothesised that altruistic behaviour and social capital are positively associated with well-being (using perceived happiness and life satisfaction), and that social capital mediates the relationship. For both perceived happiness and life satisfaction, after controlling for demographic, health status, and social support variables, measures of altruistic behaviour demonstrated statistically significant associations. Once measures of social capital were entered into the analysis in the final block, however, the altruistic behaviour variables were no longer statistically significant. Robust associations were found for social capital and the two measures of well-being, particularly between sense of belonging, trust in neighbours, and perceived happiness and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that altruistic behaviour is mediated by social capital. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to understanding the well-being of older Canadians.


ABSTRACT The article reviews scholarship on Leonardo da Vinci during the 20th century. An initial fascination with a handful of paintings has led to a nearly comprehensive understanding of his art. A catalogue raisonne for Leonardo and his school has yet to be made. Awareness of Leonardo as a scientist began with a vague reputation of a universal genius who never finished anything. Some praised, others sought to limit him as an artist-engineer. The 20th century revealed that Leonardo made substantial contributions in the domains of physics, mechanics, optics, perspective and medicine. Even so, nearly 500 years after his birth, much remains to be done in understanding fully one of the great geniuses of all time.


This paper discusses the likely evolution of U.S. inflation in the near and medium term on the basis of (1) past U.S. experience with very low levels of inflation, (2) the most recent Japanese experience with deflation, and (3) recent U.S. micro evidence on downward nominal wage rigidity. Our findings question the view that stable long-run inflation expectations and downward nominal wage rigidity will provide sufficient support to prices such that deflation can be avoided. We show that an inflation model fitted on Japanese data over the past 20 years, which accounts for both short- and long-run inflation expectations, matches the recent U.S. inflation experience quite well. While the model indicates that U.S. inflation might be subject to a lower bound, it does not rule out a prolonged period of mild deflation going forward. In addition, our micro evidence on wages suggests no obvious downward rigidity in the firm's wage costs, downward rigidity in individual wages notwithstanding. As a consequence, downward nominal wage rigidity may provide little offset to deflationary pressures in the current U.S. situation, despite some circumstantial evidence that this channel might have been at work in the past.


The electrophilic borylation of 2,5-diarylpyrazines
results in the formation of boron-nitrogen doped dihydroindeno[1,2-b]fluorene which can be synthesized via
mildly air-sensitive techniques and the end products handled readily under
atmosphereic conditions. Through transmetallation via diarylzinc reagents a series
of derivatives were sythesized which show broad absorption profiles that
highlight the versatility of this backbone to be used in organic solar cell
devices. These compounds can be synthesized in large yields, in alow number of
steps and functionalized at many stages along the way providing a large depth
of possibilities. Exploratory device paramaters were studied and show PCE of
2%.


This article discusses the under-researched topic of Austro-Hungarian foreign policy towards Albania during the First World War. It argues firstly that Albania's location was geo-strategically vital to both Austria-Hungary and Italy, and that only co-operation helped keep Albania's neutrality intact and generally protected the country against its hostile neighbours. The analysis then outlines that when the Austro–Italian alliance broke down in 1915, Austria-Hungary attempted to secure Albania's neutrality as a means of exercising indirect control over the country. Finally, once Central Power troops conquered most of Albania, the highest civil-military echelon in Vienna suffered serious strains as the Foreign Ministry attempted to retain Albanian independence and neutrality whilst the army desired its annexation. The Albanian neutrality case study is a prime example of a state unable to ensure or even influence its own neutrality by force, diplomacy, or the trade of vital resources, and whose geo-political position made control of the region vital. Drawing upon Hungarian and German-language sources, this article addresses a striking omission in First World War Balkan historiography, discusses a forgotten neutrality example, and provides insights into Austro-Hungarian policymaking towards this vital Adriatic territory.


ABSTRACT Aim: In the TORCH trial, molecularly unselected pts with advanced NSCLC were randomized to erlotinib or cisplatin + gemcitabine (CisGem) as first line within planned treatment sequences. To confirm previous data or explore new biomarkers, polymorphisms potentially affecting erlotinib activity (EGFR-216G > T [EGFR216], EGFR-191C > A [EGFR191], EGFR intron 1 CA-dinucleotide-repeat [CADR], ABCG2 + 421C > A [ABCG2]) were tested and the interaction with treatment was studied. Methods: Genotyping was by Sanger sequencing and Taqman. Interaction between each polymorphism and treatment outcome was tested by Cox model for progression-free survival (PFS) and by Zelen exact test for response rate (RR) and toxicity (skin and diarrhoea). Results: EGFR216 (known in 240 pts): G/G 32%, T/G 43%, T/T 25%. EGFR191 (240 pts): C/C 81%, A/C 17%, A/A 2%. ABCG2 (257 pts): C/C 85%, A/C 14%, A/A 1% (A/- 15%). CADR (262 pts): short/short (S/S) 28%, long/short 31%, long/long 40%. EGFR216 and EGFR191 had no significant interaction with treatment outcomes. ABCG2 polymorphism has no interaction with RR and toxicity but significantly affects treatment effect on PFS (interaction p = 0.039). HR (erlotinib vs CisGem) 1.69 (95% CI 1.28 – 2.23) in ABCG2 C/C and 0.71 (95% CI 0.34 – 1.47) in ABCG2 A/-. HR for ABCG2 A/- vs C/C was 0.68 (95% CI 0.40 – 1.14) and 1.47 (95%CI 0.90-2.44) in erlotinib and Cis/Gem arm respectively. CADR polymorphism was associated with skin toxicity but not diarrhoea: erlotinib produced more severe skin toxicity in CADR S/S pts (20% vs 6%, odds ratio 4.15, 95% CI 1.30-13.25, p = 0.013), while no severe skin toxicity was reported with CisGem. Conclusions: TORCH data: (a) do not confirm previous evidence on the value of EGFR216 as predictive of EGFR TKI effect; (b) confirm no value of EGFR191; (c) suggest that erlotinib efficacy might be higher in ABCG2 A/- cases; and (d) suggest that skin toxicity of erlotinib might be higher in CADR S/S cases. Disclosure: M. Di Maio and C. Gridelli: acted as consultant for Eli Lilli, Roche and received honoraria from Eli Lilli, Roche; M. Tsao: acted as consultant for AstraZeneca, Roche; he received honoraria from AstraZeneca, Roche and he received a research funding from Roche; C.A. Butts: acted as consultant for Roche and received honoraria from Roche; R. Feld: acted as consultant for Roche, received honoraria from Roche and received a research funding from Roche; F. Perrone: received honoraria from Roche and received a research funding from Roche. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


How can we best use crowdsourcing to perform a subjective labeling task with low inter-rater agreement? We have developed a framework for debugging this type of subjective judgment task, and for improving label quality before the crowdsourcing task is run at scale. Our framework alternately varies characteristics of the work, assesses the reliability of the workers, and strives to improve task design by disaggregating the labels into components that may be less subjective to the workers, thereby potentially improving inter-rater agreement. A second contribution of this work is the introduction of a technique, Human Intelligence Data-Driven Enquiries (HIDDEN), that uses Captcha-inspired subtasks to evaluate worker effectiveness and reliability while also producing useful results and enhancing task performance. HIDDEN subtasks pivot around the same data as the main task, but ask workers to perform less subjective judgment subtasks that result in higher inter-rater agreement. To illustrate our framework and techniques, we discuss our efforts to label high quality social media content, with the ultimate aim of identifying meaningful signal within complex results.


This paper examines evaluations of Asian accented English by American listeners. Despite widely circulating stereotypes about Asian accents, and the substantial body of work on attitudes toward different language varieties, relatively few studies have looked at American attitudes toward Asian accented English, and those that exist have produced rather ambiguous results. In an online survey, respondents from across the United States rated different voices on several traits grouped into three dimensions: Attractiveness, Status, and Dynamism. Three different Accent Conditions were tested: Mainstream US English [MUSE], Asian Accented English [AA], and Brazilian Portuguese Accented English [BP]. Results indicate generally negative evaluations of Asian accented English. RM ANOVAs (N = 69) reveal that AA voices were rated significantly lower than MUSE voices on all dimensions, and significantly lower than BP voices on Attractiveness and Dynamism. Even on intelligence, a trait that forms a cornerstone of the 'Model Minority' stereotype of Asian Americans, AA voices were rated significantly lower than the other two groups. There were also differences according to Speaker Gender, with a tendency for female speakers in the AA and BP conditions to be rated more favorably than male speakers. Overall, this study provides important evidence of the significant attitudinal obstacles that anyone who speaks English with an Asian accent in the US is likely to encounter, and points to the need for further work that explores the social and linguistic factors behind accent bias. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/


We present a live migration solution based on Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), a light-weight mobility protocol standardized by IETF. PMIPv6 handles node mobility without requiring any support from the moving nodes. In addition, PMIPv6 works with IPv4, IPv6 and dual-stack nodes. Our results from a real testbed show that network connectivity is successfully maintained with little signaling overhead and with short virtual machine (VM) downtime. As far as we know, this is the first time PMIPv6 is used to enable live migration beyond the scope of a LAN.


Syrian Kurdish politics is complex. While the political parties appear rather similar in terms of their goals, fierce inter-party rivalry exists, nonetheless. Shedding some light on Syrian Kurdish politics using Social Movement Theory as a theoretical framework, this article deals with how and why Syrian Kurds choose a specific political party. Interviews with Syrian Kurdish political activists in Iraqi Kurdistan provide the data. The interviews point out that a striking cleavage exists: Respondents sympathizing with the dominant political party preferred social equality, while interviewees belonging to other parties have a preference for non-violence.