We model the impact costs of a strategy that trades a basket of correlated instruments, by extending to the multivariate case the linear propagator model previously used for single instruments. Our specification allows us to calibrate a cost model that is free of arbitrage and price manipulation. We illustrate our results using a pool of US stocks and show that neglecting cross-impact effects leads to an incorrect estimation of the liquidity and suboptimal execution strategies. We show in particular the importance of synchronizing the execution of correlated contracts.


J.H. Koolen and J. Park proved a lower bound for the intersection number $c_2$ of a distance-regular graph $\Gamma$. Moreover, they showed that a graph $\Gamma$, for which equality is attained in this bound, is a Terwilliger graph. We prove that $\Gamma$ is the icosahedron, the Doro graph or the Conway–Smith graph if equality is attained and $c_2\ge 2$.


Scene text detection remains a grand challenge due to the variation in text curvatures, orientations, and aspect ratios. One of the hardest problems in this task is how to represent text instances of arbitrary shapes. Although many methods have been proposed to model irregular texts in a flexible manner, most of them lose simplicity and robustness. Their complicated post-processings and the regression under Dirac delta distribution undermine the detection performance and the generalization ability. In this paper, we propose an efficient text instance representation named CentripetalText (CT), which decomposes text instances into the combination of text kernels and centripetal shifts. Specifically, we utilize the centripetal shifts to implement pixel aggregation, guiding the external text pixels to the internal text kernels. The relaxation operation is integrated into the dense regression for centripetal shifts, allowing the correct prediction in a range instead of a specific value. The convenient reconstruction of text contours and the tolerance of prediction errors in our method guarantee the high detection accuracy and the fast inference speed, respectively. Besides, we shrink our text detector into a proposal generation module, namely CentripetalText Proposal Network, replacing Segmentation Proposal Network in Mask TextSpotter v3 and producing more accurate proposals. To validate the effectiveness of our method, we conduct experiments on several commonly used scene text benchmarks, including both curved and multi-oriented text datasets. For the task of scene text detection, our approach achieves superior or competitive performance compared to other existing methods, e.g., F-measure of 86.3% at 40.0 FPS on Total-Text, F-measure of 86.1% at 34.8 FPS on MSRA-TD500, etc. For the task of end-to-end scene text recognition, our method outperforms Mask TextSpotter v3 by 1.1% on Total-Text.


A Mixed-effects Height-Diameter Model for Pinus kesiya in Malawi
A height-diameter model was developed in order to predict the total height of individual trees in Pinus kesiya in Malawi. Six generalized height-diameter models were fitted and evaluated based on data set consisting of 18156 tree heights and corresponding diameters at breast height. The data were collected during three inventories of 332 permanent plots located in Chongoni, Malawi. A model including the diameter at breast height of the tree, stand age, site index, and basal area as independent variables was selected as the best model. To deal with the problem of among-unit variability, a non-linear mixed effects modelling approach was used to fit the selected model. The mixed model included a random parameter that affected the model and provided realistic height predictions. The equation developed represents a new tool for evaluation and management of Pinus kesiya stands in the region.


We present a system for the estimation of unconstrained 3D human upper body movement from multiple cameras. Its main novelty lies in the integration of three components: single frame pose recovery, temporal integration and model adaptation. Single frame pose recovery consists of a hypothesis generation stage, where candidate 3D poses are generated based on hierarchical shape matching in the individual camera views. In the subsequent hypothesis verification stage, candidate 3D poses are reprojected to the other camera views and ranked according to a multiview matching score. Temporal integration consists of computing best trajectories combining a motion model and observations in a Viterbi style maximum likelihood approach. Poses that lie on the best trajectories are used to generate and adapt a texture model, which in turn enriches the shape component used for pose recovery. We demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state of the art in experiments with large and challenging real world data from an outdoor setting. The new data set is made public to facilitate benchmarking.


Analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) enables detection of specific species from water and soil samples. Typically, these analyses are performed by amplifying a short DNA sequence using species-specific primers. Alternatively, primers amplifying many species within a taxonomic group are used and amplicons are subsequently sequenced. Here, we describe a method to quickly characterize the biodiversity of a given environment by amplification of eDNA using a combination of primer pairs targeting a wide range of taxa and species identification by high-throughput sequencing. We tested this approach by analyzing 91 water samples of 40mL collected along the Cuyahoga River (Ohio, USA). We amplified eDNA extracted from each water sample using 12 primer pairs targeting mammals, fish, amphibians, birds, bryophytes, arthropods, copepods, plants and several microorganism taxa and simultaneously sequenced all PCR products by high-throughput sequencing. Despite the small sample volumes analyzed, we identified DNA sequences from 15 species of fish, 17 species of mammals, 8 species of birds, 15 species of arthropods, one turtle and one salamander. Interestingly, in addition to aquatic and semi-aquatic animal species, we identified DNA from many terrestrial species that live near the banks of the Cuyahoga River. We also identified DNA from one Asian carp species invasive to the Great Lakes but that had not been reported in the Cuyahoga River. Our study shows that analysis of eDNA extracted from a small sample of water using wide-range PCR amplification combined with massively parallel sequencing can provide a broad perspective on the biological diversity of a given environment.


BACKGROUND: TMD is a frequently occurring disorder of the mandibular joint that can be the cause of discomfort by creating symptoms such as pain, lockjaw or joint-popping, which often drives patients to seek treatment from their dental practitioner. The most common method to treat the joint dysfunction is an occlusal splint therapy. In the modern day, dentists can choose from a wide array of splints with different pros and cons. Additionally, physiotherapy can be used to treat the symptoms.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively assess different therapeutic concepts in the treatment of TMD–patients with a focus on the reduction or even absence of pain.
DESIGN: From 2011 until 2014, 358 patients received TMD treatment in the form of different splints and physiotherapy. A total of 52 parameters were recorded for a statistical analysis. Patients were split into two groups, with or without physiotherapy, and further divided into subgroups based on their type of splints. The main targets were the differences in influence on pain relief and absence thereof.
RESULTS: The evaluation in this study showed no significant difference in pain reduction between patients with and without physiotherapy. Nor is there any difference between patients with a pure bimaxillary calotte splint therapy, a pure maxillar (equilibrated/centric) splint therapy, or a pure mandibular (equilibrated/centric) splint therapy.
In patients who were treated only by bimaxillary calotte splints, due to their TMD, the chance of being free of pain was approx. 0.3 times that of patients who were treated only with maxillar splints.
In patients who were treated exclusively by a bimaxillary calotte splint, the chance of painlessness was approx. 0.4 times that of patients who were treated with mandibular splints.
The evaluation showed no significant difference between the patients with and without physiotherapy with regard to painlessness. There is no significant difference between combined splint therapy and pure bimaxillary calotte splint therapy, maxillar splint therapy, or mandibular splint therapy.
There was also no difference between maxilla and mandibular splint therapy in relation to painlessness. Male patients in the investigated treatment period were 3.3 times as likely to have an absence of pain compared to female patients.
CONCLUSION: The current observations warrant further analysis, depending on the set-up, taking into account the relevant parameters.


Using the Langevin approach and the multiscale technique, a kinetic theory of the time and space nonlocal fluctuations in the collisional plasma is constructed. In local equilibrium a generalized version of the CallenWelton theorem is derived. It is shown that not only the dissipation but also the time and space derivatives of the dispersion determine the amplitude and the width of the spectrum lines of the electrostatic field fluctuations, as well as the form factor. There appear significant differences with respect to the non-uniform plasma. In the kinetic regime the form factor is more sensible to space gradient than the spectral function of the electrostatic field fluctuations. As a result of the inhomogeneity, these proprieties became asymmetric with respect to the inversion of the frequency sign. The differences in amplitude of peaks could become a new tool to diagnose slow time and space variations in the plasma.


Abstract. Vulnerability plays an important role in risk assessment. For flood vulnerability assessment, the map and characteristics of elements-at-risk at different scales are strongly required depending on the risk and vulnerability assessment requirements. This study proposes a methodology to classify urban structure type by combining object-based image classification and different high resolution remote sensing data. In this study, a high resolution satellite image and LiDAR have been acquired over Kota Bharu, Kelantan which consists of highly heterogeneous urban structure type (UST) classes. The first stage is data pre-processing that includes orthorectification and pansharpening of Geoeye satellite image, image resampling for normalised Digital Surface Model (nDSM) and followed by image segmentation for creating meaningful objects. The second stage comprises of derivation of image features, generation of training and testing datasets, and classification of UST. The classification was based on three types of machine learning classifiers, i.e. Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART). The results obtained from the classification processes were compared using individual omission and commission error, overcall accuracy and Kappa coefficient. The results show that Random Forest classifier with all image features achieved the highest overall accuracy (93.5%) and Kappa coefficient (0.94). This is followed by CART classifier with overall accuracy of 93.7% and Kappa coefficient of 0.92. Finally, SVM classifier produced the lowest overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient with 88.6% and 0.86, respectively. The UST classification result can be further used to assist detailed building characterisation for large scale flood vulnerability assessment.


Both the maritime traffic and the number of built offshore platforms have been continuously increasing over recent times. Among the structures built offshore, the fixed type constitutes the majority. The consequent diversity of plausible collision scenarios involving offshore platforms and passing ships must therefore consider aspects such as different ship size, different impact energy or different impact locations. For high energy collisions, large deformations are expected on both the platform and ship structures. It is expected that part of the energy absorption in the platform is confined to localized zones where plastic deformations take place, although the elastic strain energy may also be significant. For such impact problems, the amounts of strain energy in each structure are mainly dependent on the relative stiffness of the structures. By taking different ship and platform configurations as well as different contact points between the two bodies, different relative stiffness of the two structures can be tested in order to provide a clearer understanding of the dissipation of strain energy. The possible plastic deformation mechanisms are analyzed and simplified approaches are considered for prediction in comparison with the numerical results carried out by finite element analysis. Based on the results, some evaluations are made with respect to the code of practice in offshore platform design against ship impact.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Edge drilling by the muricid gastropods Chicoreus dilectus and Phyllonotus pomum has been observed in the laboratory under conditions simulating an enemy-rich environment, and evidence for it is found in Florida's Pliocene fossil record. However, this behaviour has never been observed in the wild and was presumed to be ecologically extinct for the last two million years. This study documents for the first time expression of enemy-induced edge-drilling behaviour in the wild by C. dilectus and P. pomum. These observations are based on a multi-year survey between 2002 and 2015 in St Joseph Bay, Florida, a coastal lagoon in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Edge drilling was not recorded in 2002 in St Joseph Bay, but expression of edge-drilling behaviour was confirmed by direct observation for both species and two stations in the bay between 2007 and 2011. Edge-drilling predation traces produced by C. dilectus and P. pomum accounted for more than half of all their drilling attacks in bulk samples collected in 2007, with the frequency of occurrence in bulk samples declining at both stations over time. Intensive sampling along the west Florida shelf over the same time interval failed to find any other unambiguous evidence for expression of edge drilling by these species. St Joseph Bay has the highest densities of predators and lowest prey survival rates in the region and also highest secondary productivity in any seagrass habitat globally, confirming the use of edge drilling by C. dilectus and P. pomum as an indicator of Florida's 'enemy hotspots' and their fates in modern times and in the fossil record. The re-emergence of enemy-induced edge drilling by C. dilectus and P. pomum in Florida after two million years, but only in St Joseph Bay, suggests the presentday ecology of the bay is unique on geological time scales.


In their landmark work, Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American States, Erikson, Wright, and McIver (1993) study the effects of individual state partisanship and political ideology on state presidential voting. In general, they found that partisanship and ideology affected presidential voting independently of one another. In addition, from 1988 through 1992 (the last year of their study), they found that ideology became more important in explaining variation in presidential vote. Renner (1997) took this study further, and showed, using newer data, that since 1992, partisanship and ideology have become more equal in their explanation of tile variance in presidential voting.


The Federal Reserve launched the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) in 2008 to promote liquidity in the funding markets and improve the operation of the broader financial markets. The facility increases the ability of dealers to obtain cash in the private market by enabling them to pledge securities temporarily as collateral for Treasuries, which are relatively easy to finance. The TSLF thus reduces the need for dealers to sell assets into illiquid markets as well as lessens the likelihood of a loss of confidence among lenders.


Many states confer upon natural persons a "right of publicity" that renders unlawful the unauthorized use of a person's name or other indicia of identity for purposes of trade. Efforts to reconcile publicity rights with the First Amendment and with principles of copyright preemption, however, have differed radically from one state or circuit to another, as well as within the scholarly community. In this Article, we present a comprehensive framework for integrating both First Amendment and copyright preemption principles into standard publicity analysis. Our framework eliminates much of the incoherence found in contemporary right of publicity case law by adopting a narrow reading of Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (to date, the only Supreme Court decision addressing the right of publicity), and by looking to principles of conflict preemption to cut through the indeterminacy of conventional preemption analysis under § 301 of the Copyright Act. More precisely, we argue that First Amendment and copyright preemption analysis tend to converge on two relatively simple principles: first, that publicity claims arising in the context of commercial speech usually should withstand both First Amendment and copyright preemption challenges; and second, that publicity claims arising in the context of noncommercial speech may proceed only when, among other things, the exercise of publicity rights plausibly can be justified as advancing a state interest in protecting personal privacy or individual autonomy, or (possibly) in preventing consumers from erroneously perceiving that the plaintiff endorses a product that she does not, in fact, endorse. Viable publicity claims involving noncommercial speech should be small in number, however; and should the Supreme Court someday opt to eliminate the distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech regulation, or to overrule Zacchini in favor of a more speech-protective standard, the number of viable claims within both classes should shrink further still.


Socratic Influence on the Stoic Epictetus Brandon Mulvey The primary aim of this proj ect is to examine the nature of Socrates' influence on the Stoic Epictetus. While Plato's Socrates certainly influenced Epictetus, the Socrates portrayed in Xenophon's Memorabilia plays an even larger role in shaping the Socrates Epictetus seeks to imitate. This claim will be substantiated by drawing close parallels between passages in Epictetus' Discourses and Handbook and Xenophon's Memorabilia. The discussion here demonstrates that Epictetus' methodology is a reflection ofXenophon's approach, characterized by committed doctrines and proscriptive advice giving, rather than the searching dialectical approach ending with negative results found in Plato's Socratic dialogues. I begin by examining A.A. Long's claim that it is Plato's Socrates that Epictetus emulates, and providing a critical analysis ofthis argument. I then argue that the methodology of Epicetetus' Discourses, as well as the content and subject matter, are inspired by Xenophon's Socrates.


We increase our understanding of augmenting a cellular immune response, by using an HIV-1 protease-derived epitope (PR75–84), and variants thereof, coupled to the C-terminal, of the B subunit of cholera toxin (CTB). Fusion proteins were used for immunizations of HLA-A0201 transgenic C57BL/6 mice. We observed different capacities to elicit a cellular immune response by peptides with additions of five to ten amino acids to the PR epitope. There was a positive correlation between the magnitude of the elicited cellular immune response and the capacity of the fusion protein to bind GM-1. This binding capacity is affected by its ability to form natural pentamers of CTB. Our results suggest that functional CTB pentamers containing a foreign amino acid-modified epitope is a novel way to overcome the limited cellular immunogenicity of minimal peptide antigens. This way of using a functional assay as readout for improved cellular immunogenicity might become highly valuable for difficult immunogens such as short peptides (epitopes).


ABSTRACT This paper discusses work carried out in Indonesia to strengthen research capacity and support policy development for the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). It addresses the questions: in an apparently receptive policy environment, what are the challenges facing the adoption of recommendations generated by policy research funded by foreign-funded projects, and what are the implications for the evaluation of the research? The paper reflects on some of the key research findings, on the contributions that capacity building for research can make to policy development, and on some of the challenges faced by policy-focused research projects and their assessment. It shows that many factors can influence the adoption of policy recommendations generated by research, leading to significant challenges for the evaluation of policy research activities.


Conjugated polymers have been found useful in a wide range of applications such as solar cells, sensor elements and printed electronics, due to their optical and electronic properties. Functionalization with charged side chains has enabled water solubility, resulting in an enhanced interaction with biomolecules. This thesis focus on the emerging research fields, where these conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) are combined with biomolecules for biological sensing and DNA nanowire assembling. CPEs have shown large potential in biomolecular detection where the optical read out is due to the geometrical alternation in the backbone and aggregation state. This thesis focused on transferring the biomolecular detection to a surface of CPEs. The characterization of the CPE layer show that a hydrogel can be formed, and how the layer can undergo geometrical changes upon external stimulus such as pH change. A selective sensor surface can be created by imprinting ssDNA or an antibody in the CPE layer. The discrimination for complementary DNA hybridization and specific antibody interaction can be monitored by surface plasmon resonance or quartz crystal microbalance. We have also taken the step out from the controlled test tube experiments to the complex environment of the cell showing the potential for staining of compartments and structures in live and fixed cell. Depending on the conditions and CPE used, cell nuclei, acidic vesicles and cytoskeleton structure can be visualized. Furthermore, the live staining shows no sign of toxic effect on cultured fibroblasts. CPEs can also be a valuable element when assembling electronics in the true nano regime. I have used DNA as building template due to its attractive size features, with a width of around 2 nm and a length scale in the µm regime, and the inbuilt base-paring recognition elements. This thesis shows how DNA can be decorated with CPEs and stretched on surfaces into a model for aligned semiconducting nanowire geometries. Not only making the template structures is of importance, but also how to place them on the correct surface position, i.e. on electrodes. Strategies for positioning DNA nanowires using transfer printing and surface energy patterning methods have therefore been developed in the thesis. The stretched DNA decorated with CPE also offers a way to further study the molecular binding interaction between the two molecules. Single molecular spectroscopy in combination with polarization has given information of the variation of the CPE binding along a DNA chain.


Motivational components of responses in an environment can be congruent if the stimuli features of the presented cues, the actions that are required and the outcomes that are obtained by those actions are in alignment. For example, some cues or outcomes can favour responding by action over inaction even if this response is in conflict with instrumental learning. This congruence can be mirrored by overlapping neural activation patterns, e.g. previous work has shown that interactions of rewarding outcomes and approach actions are mediated by dopaminergic function in the basal-ganglia. In this thesis I present four experiments that investigate how modes of action or inaction affect different domains of cognition in relation to congruence with cues and outcomes. In the first experiment, I used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how motivational states created by congruence or incongruence between action and outcome valence (reward or avoiding loss) affect the persistence of episodic memories. The results highlight a benefit of acting for reward rather than inaction for reward. This benefit is mediated by basal-ganglia function. The second experiment investigated how approach actions are modulated by stimulus novelty of the cue instructing the action. Stimulus novelty enhances approach actions when the delay between the cue and action requirement is short. This implicates novelty in impulsive actions even in the absence of reward. The third experiment investigated how active and passive expressions of choice affect choice and the dynamics of revaluation. Choice is biased towards action regardless of stimulus valence, but the valence interacts with choice expression affecting revaluation. This suggests a basis for suboptimal choice and judgement sensitive to choice architecture and stimulus valence. The fourth experiment used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how beliefs about active creation inflate valuation in the human brain. The amygdala, representing subjective belief about creation, interacts with the caudate nucleus, representing item value. This shows that an interaction between reward and action can also be present in more abstract notions of reward and action, such as value judgements and creative construction, respectively, and is dependent on explicit belief. I argue the effects of motivational congruence between cues, actions and outcomes reveal hard-wired, Pavlovian control in decision making as instrumental contingencies are tightly controlled. These Pavlovian biases are discussed in the framework of different cognitive functions being governed by similar neural circuits resulting in hard-wired response tendencies. In conclusion, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates how action and inaction can benefit or bias memory and decision making. This is a possible source for suboptimal behaviour like impulsive choice and has a wide range of implications for decision making and mental health. The experimental work especially relates to topic in behavioural economics such as 'defaults' which exploit the difference between active and passive choice.


Human-quality text summarization systems are di cult to design, and even more di cult to evaluate, in part because documents can di er along several dimensions, such as length, writing style and lexical usage. Nevertheless, certain cues can often help suggest the selection of sentences for inclusion in a summary. This paper presents our analysis of news-article summaries generated by sentence selection. Sentences are ranked for potential inclusion in the summary using a weighted combination of statistical and linguistic features. The statistical features were adapted from standard IR methods. The potential linguistic ones were derived from an analysis of news-wire summaries. To evaluate these features we use a normalized version of precision-recall curves, with a baseline of random sentence selection, as well as analyze the properties of such a baseline. We illustrate our discussions with empirical results showing the importance of corpus-dependent baseline summarization standards, compression ratios and carefully crafted long queries.


This contribution reports on the synthesis of hyperbranched polylysines via thermal polymerization of L-lysine hydrochloride. Polymerization of L-lysine hydrochloride in the presence of one equivalent KOH at 150°C resulted in polymers with a number-average molecular weight of 4600 g/mol and a polydispersity of 2.6 after 48 h. The rate of polymerization could be significantly enhanced and the polymer molecular weight improved by carrying out the polymerization with 3 mol % of an amidation catalyst. Among the different catalysts that were investigated Zr(OnBu)4 was found to be the most effective. Unequivocal support for the branched architecture of the polymers was obtained from 1H NMR spectroscopy, which allowed the identification and quantification of the four different structural units that constitute the polymer, viz. Nα and Ne linked linear units, dendritic units and terminal units. The structure of the polymers was found to be relatively independent of the reaction conditions. The degree of branching and the average number of branches varied between 0.35-0.45 and 0.15-0.25, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Coupled-resonator optical waveguides are known to have interesting and useful dispersion properties. Here, we study the transport in these waveguides in the general case where each resonator is open and asymmetric, i.e., is leaky and possesses no mirror-reflection symmetry. Each individual resonator then exhibits asymmetric backscattering between clockwise- and counterclockwise-propagating waves, which, in combination with the losses, induces nonorthogonal eigenmodes. In a chain of such resonators, the coupling between the resonators induces an additional source of non-Hermiticity, and a complex band structure arises. We show that in this situation the group velocity of wave packets differs from the velocity associated with the probability density flux, with the difference arising from a non-Hermitian correction to the Hellmann-Feynman theorem. Exploring these features numerically in a realistic scenario, we find that the complex band structure comprises almost-real branches and complex branches, which are joined by exceptional points, i.e., non-Hermitian degeneracies at which not only the frequencies and decay rates but also the eigenmodes themselves coalesce. The non-Hermitian corrections to the group velocity are largest in the regions around the exceptional points.


The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of the grinding procedure on the moisture and crude protein concentration of a ground Medicago sativa L . hay sample for quality grading. An additional aim was to investigate the accuracy of electronic moisture testers (EMT). Variance of analyses revealed significant differences in moisture concentration between ground (CV = 16.1%) and unground (CV = 27.4%) samples ranging from 14.7 up to 41.1% of the unground sample. The grinding process had a non-significant influence on the CP concentration of the final grounded product. EMT failed to accurately predict moisture concentration around the moisture area of critical concern (16% and higher) where heat and/or mould damage are likely to occur. It was concluded that analytical moisture standards for Medicago sativa L . hay should be based on the original moisture concentration of samples in the unground state to be relevant for quality grading. Keywords : Lucerne hay, sampling, sample preparation, moisture concentration, crude protein


Gravel and coarse sand make up significant portions of some environmentally important sediments, but the hydraulic properties of the sediments are typically obtained in the laboratory using only the fine fraction (e.g., <2 mm or 4.75 mm). Researchers have found that the gravel content has a significant impact on the hydraulic properties of bulk soils. Therefore, laboratory experiments were conducted to measure the porosity and the saturated hydraulic conductivity of binary mixtures with different fractions of coarse and fine components. We proposed a mixing‐coefficient model to estimate the porosity and a power‐averaging method to determine the effective grain diameter of sediments. These were used to predict the saturated hydraulic conductivity of binary mixtures. The proposed methods could describe the porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity of the binary mixtures for a range of gravel contents, and they were successfully applied to two data sets in the literature.


The Mozart Effect is largely shrouded in myth, distorted and perpetuated through word-of-mouth, media, and time; the idea that listening to Mozart will instantly and permanently improve one's cognitive functioning is quite far-fetched. This distortion and oversimplification of experiments and research is not uncommon, but is still detrimental to the fields of research involved and can inhibit further research on the subject as well as related subjects. However, some aspects of the Effect may hold some truth. Years of musical training as well as actively listening to music can improve and change specific cognitive functioning processes in the long term, whereas passive listening may only allow for temporary results. The intent of this essay is to strip away the myth surrounding the research behind the Mozart Effect and bring the true aspects to the forefront. It also aims to bring awareness to new, rapidly growing fields that incorporate music-based intervention techniques that exist, in part, because of research involving the incredible relationship humans, and even non-human animals, have with music.


Presentation prepared for the workshop on developing index-based livestock insurance to reduce vulnerability due to drought-related livestock deaths, ILRI, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 12 July 2010.


In "The Art of John Fowles", Katherine Tarbox explores the teeming substance of Fowles' novels, uncovering in them a demand for the reader to master what Fowles call in "Daniel Martin", "whole sight" - the ability to comprehend and unify all the seemingly disparate elements of the self and the world. Guiding the reader through Fowles's works, Tarbox reveals that the skill of seeing whole must be learned and that Fowles teaches his reader how to see whole by using as an example the education of his protagonist. Each of the novels, from "The Collector" through to "A Maggot", takes a narcissistic protagonist through a process of intense "self-deconstruction and reconstruction" on a journey towards whole sight. The intervention of a benevolent, experienced mentor draws the protagonist into a complex masque or "godgame" that plays out, in metaphorical form, aspects of the protagonist's inauthenticity until he or she is reduced to a "litter of parts". In "The Magus" the old Greek islander Conchis dramatizes Nicholas's failings, while Sarah's bizarre charade in "The French Lieutenant's Woman" enacts Charles's struggle to be free of Victorian restraints. The fictional description of this process in the novels creates a dense tapestry of allusiveness, studied confusion, moral quandry, myth, archetype, and symbol that requires the reader to undergo the same sort of reconstruction as the protagonist before he or she can see the text whole. Within the extravagant methphor of the godgame, Fowles proposes that fiction itself is the great awakener, the great teacher. Always in his novels he compares the act of reading well with the acting of living well - both of which require, Fowles would argue, the gift of whole sight.


'Memetics', a concept most elegantly expounded by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, asserts that human culture consists of a multitude of units transmitted between individuals by imitation and subject to evolutionary pressures. Such particles, 'memes', are broadly analogous to the genes of biological transmission. Four late pieces of Mozart's, including Pamina's aria 'Ach ich fühl's' from Die Zauberflöte, are examined in terms of the meme concept and a conglomeration, or 'memeplex', consisting of seven memes is identified within them. The nature of the musical memeplex, in this specific case and also more generally, is considered, particularly from the perspective of its location at different levels of the structural hierarchy. The evolutionary history of some of Mozart's memes is examined with reference to selected passages from works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Finally, relationships between the musical memes under investigation and memes in the verbal-conceptual realm are explored.


This article explores the role of film producer and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen in the development of the so-called "kidult" film. It examines the origins and the significations of the word "kidult", which was seen to refer both to a specific type of film and to the audiences it mobilises. It denoted appeal to child and adult audiences, while asserting a distinction, a breaking away from parallel conceptions of the "family film" and "family audiences", which had held sway in Hollywood's industry and promotional discourses since the early 1930s. Harryhausen claimed to have invented the word, and his film 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) was explicitly promoted as a "kidult" film on initial release. Through close analysis of Harryhausen's fantasy films, this article argues that these productions adopted many of the essential narrative and representational elements of the 1950s Hollywood teen film, while still recognisably residing within a broader definition of Hollywood family entertainment. It contends that Harryhausen's films were precursors to the contemporary Hollywood fantasy blockbuster in their address to the conceptual "kidult" consumer, their fast-paced, action-adventure narratives, and their emphasis on spectacle.


The discovery of semantic relationships between two entities is an area of interest and study in the Semantic Web. Regarding the data in an RDF store as a graph allows the utilization of path searches, but with large ontologies exhaustive searches are not practical. SPARQLeR, an extension of SPARQL, sought to utilize regular expressions in the search and construction of a path which helped avoid exhaustive searches by limiting the search space during evaluation. Still, due to the filter constraint evaluation occurring after a path was constructed, the actual search space of the beginning and ending resources was not being limited. To address this problem, an optimization is proposed that uses a form of short circuit evaluation of the filter constraints in a SPARQL query to limit the search space as early as possible to avoid costly path searches between two nodes.


Background: Body composition is affected by diseases, and affects responses to medical treatments, dosage of medicines, etc., while an abnormal body composition contributes to the causation of many chronic diseases. While we have reliable biochemical tests for certain nutritional parameters of body composition, such as iron or iodine status, and we have harnessed nuclear physics to estimate the body's content of trace elements, the very basic quantification of body fat content and muscle mass remains highly problematic. Both body fat and muscle mass are vitally important, as they have opposing influences on chronic disease, but they have seldom been estimated as part of population health surveillance. Instead, most national surveys have merely reported BMI and waist, or sometimes the waist/hip ratio; these indices are convenient but do not have any specific biological meaning.
Anthropometry offers a practical and inexpensive method for muscle and fat estimation in clinical and epidemiological settings; however, its use is imperfect due to many limitations, such as a shortage of reference data, misuse of terminology, unclear assumptions, and the absence of properly validated anthropometric equations. To date, anthropometric methods are not sensitive enough to detect muscle and fat loss.
Aims: The aim of this thesis is to estimate Adipose/fat and muscle mass in health disease and during weight loss through; 1. evaluating and critiquing the literature, to identify the best-published prediction equations for adipose/fat and muscle mass estimation; 2. to derive and validate adipose tissue and muscle mass prediction equations; and 3.to evaluate the prediction equations along with anthropometric indices and the best equations retrieved from the literature in health, metabolic illness and during weight loss.
Methods: a Systematic review using Cochrane Review method was used for reviewing muscle mass estimation papers that used MRI as the reference method. Fat mass estimation papers were critically reviewed.
Mixed ethnic, age and body mass data that underwent whole body magnetic resonance imaging to quantify adipose tissue and muscle mass (dependent variable) and anthropometry (independent variable) were used in the derivation/validation analysis. Multiple regression and Bland-Altman plot were applied to evaluate the prediction equations. To determine how well the equations identify metabolic illness, English and Scottish health surveys were studied. Statistical analysis using multiple regression and binary logistic regression were applied to assess model fit and associations. Also, populations were divided into quintiles and relative risk was analysed.
Finally, the prediction equations were evaluated by applying them to a pilot study of 10 subjects who underwent whole-body MRI, anthropometric measurements and muscle strength before and after weight loss to determine how well the equations identify adipose/fat mass and muscle mass change.
Results: The estimation of fat mass has serious problems. Despite advances in technology and science, prediction equations for the estimation of fat mass depend on limited historical reference data and remain dependent upon assumptions that have not yet been properly validated for different population groups. Muscle mass does not have the same conceptual problems; however, its measurement is still problematic and reference data are scarce. The derivation and validation analysis in this thesis was satisfactory, compared to prediction equations in the literature they were similar or even better. Applying the prediction equations in metabolic illness and during weight loss presented an understanding on how well the equations identify metabolic illness showing significant associations with diabetes, hypertension, HbA1c and blood pressure. And moderate to high correlations with MRI-measured adipose tissue and muscle mass before and after weight loss.
Conclusion: Adipose tissue mass and to an extent muscle mass can now be estimated for many purposes as population or groups means. However, these equations must not be used for assessing fatness and categorising individuals. Further exploration in different populations and health surveys would be valuable.


ABSTRACT Stanley Pool is a Cretaceous continental formation which outcrops Southeast of Gabon to Congo. The current investigations performed in this continental formation in Gabon just revealed seven dinosaur footprints on pieces of argillites flags. The analysis of these more or less well preserved footprints highlights three morphotypes. Morphotype 1 comprises footprints 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the same shape but of different sizes. These footprints belong to tridactylous dinosaurs. Morphotype 2 comprises footprints 5 and 6 whose shape is oval. They would correspond to sauropods. Finally morphotype 3 only represented by the footprint 7 consists of four fingers. This well-preserved footprint would belong to a tetradactylous dinosaur. This major discovery is the first record of dinosaurs in Gabon. It strengthens the knowledge of dinosaurs palaeoichnology in Africa.


In the years since the launch of the World Wide Web in 1993, there have been profoundly transformative changes to the entire concept of publishing—exceeding all the previous combined technical advances of the centuries following the introduction of movable type in medieval Asia around the year 1000 1 and the subsequent large-scale commercialization of printing several centuries later by J. Gutenberg (circa 1440). Periodicals in print—from daily newspapers to scholarly journals—are now quickly disappearing, never to return, and while no publishing sector has been unaffected, many scholarly journals are almost unrecognizable in comparison with their counterparts of two decades ago. To say that digital delivery of the written word is fundamentally different is a huge understatement. Online publishing permits inclusion of multimedia and interactive content that add new dimensions to what had been available in print-only renderings. As of this writing, the IEEE portfolio of journal titles comprises 59 online only 2 (31%) and 132 that are published in both print and online. The migration from print to online is more stark than these numbers indicate because of the 132 periodicals that are both print and online, the print runs are now quite small and continue to decline. In short, most readers prefer to have their subscriptions fulfilled by digital renderings only.


In December 2001 the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security published a report describing plans to reform Social Security through the introduction of new, privately managed, defined-contribution pension accounts. The new accounts are to be financed by diverting a portion of payroll taxes that are now used to finance pensions under the existing defined-benefit public pension system. This paper evaluates the overall impact of the Commission's second plan on the distribution of retirement income and rates of return on pension contributions within and among future generations of married couples.


Iron is an essential micronutrient for life, but can be toxic in uncontrolled excess. Iron chelators have therefore become established therapeutics for the treatment of iron-overload disease, but they also show promise as anti-cancer drugs because of the additional role of iron in cell proliferation. Iron chelators have also been shown to protect skin cells from the effects of exposure to harmful levels of Ultraviolet A radiation (UVA). In fact, the harmful effects of UVA are now understood to be related to an increase in potentially harmful 'labile' intracellular iron, which results in the formation of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) which subsequently promote necrotic cell death. However the long-term administration of powerful iron chelators for therapeutic purposes is associated with severe iron depletion from healthy tissue, culminating in unacceptable side-effects. The concept of 'caged' iron chelators (CICs) which are selectively activated in situ by light of an appropriate wavelength is highly attractive, as iron chelation may then be delivered in a context-specific fashion, when it is required and appropriate to the level of UV light exposure. Such photoactivatable agents could have numerous applications: firstly as therapeutic agents for the targeted treatment of dermatological pathologies, including cancer, and secondly as photoprotectants in sunscreen formulations. The work herein describes the preparation of a series of CICs based on aroylhydrazone and thiosemicarbazone compounds, which have already been studied for their iron chelating and anti-proliferative activity. We have shown that caging may be achieved by chemical blockade of a key iron-chelating function with various photoremovable protecting groups (PRPGs). These include well-established PRPGs belonging to the nitrobenzyl and coumarin-4-yl family of compounds, as well as the more recently elucidated aminocinnamoyl and hydroxycinnamoyl moities. This latter class is of particular interest as a caging group, owing to the phototransformation of cinnamates into cyclic coumarin derivatives, some of which have been reported to possess potent antioxidant activity. Such CICs may therefore have potential applications in sunscreen formulations as "multifunctional" photoprotectants that provide synergistic protection against UVA damage. The uncaging of novel CICs with varying doses of UVA has been studied, along with their cytotoxic and photoprotective effects in human FEK4 fibroblasts and HaCAT keratinocyte cell lines, in the presence and absence of applied radiation.


This article is based on a qualitative study of a Norwegian French horn pedagogue's professional understanding. Through thematic narrative analysis of observations of her teaching practice, interviews and a survey form, the author identifies three pivots on which the professional understanding is centred: hornists, strategies and merging. The horn pedagogues´ professional understanding is presented in the research narrative 'The didactopographer' in the middle of the article, and is discussed within a profession-oriented theoretical framework in which power, identity and knowledge are fundamental aspects. The discussion also draws upon Hans-Georg Gadamer's views about education and the concept of sensus communis. The author summarises the contributions of this article to basic thinking in music and arts education.


This paper studies the effect of government stimulus spending on a novel aspect of the labor market: the differential impact of spending on the total wage bill versus employment. We analyze the 2009 Recovery Act via instrumental variables using a new instrument, the spending done by federal agencies that were not instructed to target funds towards harder hit regions. We find a moderate positive effect on jobs created/saved (i.e., the "extensive margin") and also a significant increase in wage payments to workers whose job status was safe without Recovery Act funds (i.e., the "intensive margin"). Our point estimates imply that roughly one-half of the wage payments resulting from the act were paid at the intensive margin. To provide a theoretical underpinning for the estimates, we build a micro-founded dynamic model in which a firm meets new government demand with a combination of new hiring and increasing existing workers׳ average hours. Faced with hiring costs and an overtime premium, the firm responds by increasing hours along both margins. Our model analysis also provides insight into how government spending policy should be structured to lower the cost of generating new jobs. Finally, we catalogue survey evidence from Recovery Act fund recipients that reinforces the importance of the intensive labor margin.


In the framework of the structural reforms in Colombia one of the most important policy proposals was reducing rigidities in the labor market. A perspective to assess the results of such reforms is the analysis of the relationship between firm employment and wage differentials in manufacturing before and after the reforms. If the labor reforms reached the intended objective of making more flexible the labor market, the employment levels must change faster, along with the behavior of wages and other labor costs, given some characteristics of firms and the economy. This paper addresses this topic proposing a model of wage differential and employment growth and testing its propositions before and after the structural reforms and controlling for industry and firm characteristics. A first finding is the confirmation of the positive relationship proposed between intra-industry wage differential and employment. In the inter-industry wage differential estimation, we find heterogeneous responses depending on the industry and a reduction in the autonomous labor turnover.


Wind energy is becoming the most viable renewable energy source mainly because of the growing concerns over carbon emissions and uncertainties in fossil fuel supplies and the government policy impetus. The increasing penetration of wind power in distribution systems may significantly affect voltage stability of the systems, particularly during wind turbine cut-in and cut-off disturbances. Currently, doubly fed induction generator wind turbine (DFIG-WT) is the most popular wind turbine. This paper investigates the issues of voltage stability improvement and grid-loss reduction of distribution systems which include DFIG-WTs under unbalanced heavy loading conditions. Simulation studies are carried out in IEEE 34-bus test system using DIgSILENT software to examine these issues during steady-state and transient operations of the system. Optimal locations of the WTs are determined based on this analysis. A new index (system unbalanced voltage variance) is proposed to evaluate system unbalanced voltage. The dynamic impacts between WTs and motor loads are also examined.


Insulin resistance (IR) is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer (BC) development in African American (AA) postmenopausal women. While obesity and IR are more prevalent in AA than white women, they are under-represented in genome-wide studies for systemic regulation of IR. By examining 780 genome-wide IR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) available in our data, we tested 4,689 AA women in a Random Survival Forest framework. With 37 BC-associated lifestyle factors, we conducted a gene-environment interaction analysis to estimate risk prediction for BC with the most influential genetic and behavioral factors and evaluated their combined and joint effects on BC risk. By accounting for variations of individual SNPs in BC in the prediction model, we detected 4 fasting glucose-associated SNPs in PCSK1, SPC25, ADCY5, and MTNR1B and 3 lifestyle factors (smoking, oral contraceptive use, and age at menopause) as the most predictive markers for BC risk. Our joint analysis of risk genotypes and lifestyle with smoking revealed a synergistic effect on increased risk of BC, particularly ER/PR+ BC, in a gene-lifestyle dose-dependent manner. The joint effect of smoking was more substantial in women with a prolonged exposure to cigarette smoking and female hormones. The top GWA-SNPs associated with metabolic biomarkers in combination with lifestyles synergistically increase the predictability of invasive ER/PR positive BC risk among AA women. Our findings highlight generically targeted preventive interventions for women who carry particular risk genotypes and lifestyles.


Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is a potential oncolytic agent as it can replicate up to
10,000 times better in human cancer cells than in most normal human cells. Several
strains of NDV were reported to induce cytolysis to various cancerous cell lines.
In this study, the cytolytic effects of local strain NDV AF2240 toward DBTRG.05MG
(glioblastoma multiform) and U-87MG (anaplastic astrocytoma) cell lines were
determined using microtetrazolium assay (MTT) for both monolayer and co-culture
methods. The value of (IC50) inhibition concentration, fifty percent at which the titer
of NDV as hemagglutination units (HAU) that reduce 50% of cell population as
compared to the untreated control was determined after 72 hours. TheIC50 values for
cytolytic effects of NDV strain AF2240 on DBTRG.05MG cell line were 955 HAU/ml
and 460 HAU/ml for the monolayer and co-culture methods, respectively. For U-
87MG cell line, the IC50 values were 380 HAU/ml and 52 HAU\ml for monolayer and co-culture methods, respectively. No significant cytolytic effect was observed on
normal HCN-2 and 3T3 cell lines at the same titre used in the brain tumor cell lines.
The cell proliferation rate of treated brain tumor cell lines was reduced significantly
with time and titration of the virus as compared to the untreated control.
It was confirmed that the mode of cell death in response to infection by NDV strain
AF2240 on brain tumor cell lines was by apoptosis. Morphological features of
apoptosis were observed by Phase Contrast Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy
(Acridine Orange (AO) and Propidium Iodide (PI) staining) and Transmission
Electron Microscopy. Features observed included chromatin condensation and
margination along the inner nuclear membrane, cytoplasmic condensation, and
membrane blebbing without disintegration of the cellular membrane. These were
further confirmed with DNA laddering in agarose gel electrophoresis assay and
terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP-X nick end-labeling staining
(TUNEL) assay. However, analysis of the cellular DNA content using PI showed that
the virus caused an increase in sub-G1 region. The apoptosis peaks (sub-G1) found in
DBTRG.05MG cells treated with NDV strain AF2240 were 18.40 and 37.40% for
24 and 48 hours, respectively whereas in U-87MG cells treated with NDV strain
AF2240 the peaks were 10.29 and 19.45% for 24 and 48 hours, respectively. Early
apoptosis was also observed by annexin V flow cytometry method. The amounts of
apoptotic cells were 3.7 and 4.26% for DBTRG.05MG cells and U-87MG cells 6
hours post-inoculation, respectively. It was concluded that NDV strain AF2240 is a
potent antitumor agent and the mode of cell death induced by this virus is apoptosis.


Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway that is essential for homeostasis, development and disease. It is characterised by an elongating membrane that enwraps a portion of the cytoplasm to form a double membrane vesicle termed an autophagosome. Autophagosomes are then delivered to the endocytic pathway and/or lysosome for degradation and recycling of the sequestered cargo. Identification of 31 autophagy-related proteins (Atg), including the transmembrane protein Atg9, has led to the recent advancement in understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern autophagy. However, a number of questions remain unanswered, including the origin of the donor membrane and the specificity of the cargo selected. Atg9 is required for autophagy in both yeast and mammalian cells and has been speculated to be involved in delivery of membrane lipids to forming autophagosomes. In mammalian cells, mAtg9 traffics between the trans-Golgi network, endosomes and newly formed autophagosomes. To better understand the mechanisms involved in regulation of mAtg9 trafficking I performed a yeast two-hybrid screen and identified p38IP as an interacting partner of the C-terminal domain of mAtg9. p38IP was originally identified as a p38alpha interacting protein and was shown to be required for p38alpha activation in mouse development. Here, I show that p38IP is required for mAtg9 trafficking and autophagosome formation. Furthermore, I find that the interaction between mAtg9 and p38IP is regulated by p38alpha, a negative regulator of autophagy in HEK293 cells. Following activation of p38alpha with anisomycin, binding of p38IP to mAtg9 is disrupted and autophagy inhibited. I propose a model by which p38alpha regulates interaction of p38IP with mAtg9, and as a result regulates mAtg9 trafficking and autophagosome formation.


This article discusses the bilateral ties that have been forming between Israel and its periphery – that is, Greece, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and South Sudan – and draws a comparison to Israel's previous relations with Iran, Turkey and Ethiopia. It considers the contribution of those partnerships at the security-intelligence and economic level and suggests its potential impact in the political arena. This research concludes that, despite the dividends that can be gained from security, economic and energy cooperation, its value compared to that of its predecessor is lower based on their instability, domestic issues and lower levels of regional or international influence.


Bridge management involves all efforts to build, preserve, and operate bridge networks cost-effectively with an objective to deliver the best value for the public tax dollars spent. The dissertation consists of three complementary studies that address both bridge management policies and condition data that contribute to bridge management practices. This dissertation begins with an overview of federal and state government bridge management efforts taken in conjunction with the federal bridge programs in the last 40 years. While the majority of the states have implemented a BMS, the level of implementation is varied, and the overall input from BMSs to network-level decisions remains minimal. Survey findings from 40 states indicate that federal funding eligibility is the major criterion that impacts state-level bridge management decisions. State transportation agencies need federal guidance on areas such as using decision support tools, implementing BMSs, and improving data quality. The findings from the study are useful to both practitioners and policy makers, and identify challenges and needs for bridge management at both federal and state level. Following the policy study, a statistical comparison of field NBI condition ratings and ratings generated by FHWA's NBI Translator (BMSNBI) algorithm for Iowa bridges is presented. Statistical analysis indicates that the ratings generated by the NBI Translator algorithm are not representative of actual NBI ratings. Results from the research raise questions about the effectiveness of the algorithm. Final study in this dissertation presents a new methodology to predict National Bridge Inventory (NBI) condition ratings from bridge management system (BMS) element condition data, based on Classification and Regression Trees (CART). The proposed methodology achieves significantly better accuracies than other methodologies reported in the literature for the data set used in this study. The CART prediction methodology uses simple and logical conditions of BMS element condition data to predict NBI condition ratings and has potential use for federal and state transportation agencies to summarize bridge condition data.


Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the occurrence of cutaneous fungal infections affecting athletes. Methods: A respectively study of superficial fungal infections in athletes was carried out during the period March 2002 to December 2006 on 656 mycologically proven cases of dermatophytosis found in athletes in Tehran. Mycological examination consisted of culturing of pathologic material followed by direct microscopic observation. Mycological cultures were carried out on Sabouraud Chloramphenicol Agar, Sabouraud Chloramphenicol and Cyclohexamide Agar, and Dermatophyte Agar incubated at 25° C for at least 28 days. Diagnosis was based on macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the colonies. Results: We surveyed 1075 athletes suspected of having cutaneous fungal infections from 201 institutions and found that 656 (61%) were positive for fungal infections. The fungal isolates comprised Trichophyton tonsurans (56%), Epidermophyton floccosum (11.8%), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (8.9%), Trichophyton rubrum(8.3%), Trichophyton verrucosum (3.9%), Trichophyton violaceum (3.3%), Microsporum canis (2.5%), Malassezia fur fur (3.3%), and Pityrosporum oval (2%). The distribution of the lesions on the body was: trunk> groin> hair and scalp> sole and toe webs> finger nails> toe nails. Fungal infections were more commonly seen in wrestlers and aerobics. Conclusion: The results suggest that athletic activity seems to be a predisposing factor, especially for fungal infections.


Over the past years, the field of synthetic biology has gained a significant array of tools and parts, making way for increasingly complex bio-molecular circuits to be constructed. The development of biocircuits can be facilitated by assembling parts in a less complex, cell-free, environment which contains only the machinery for gene transcription (TX) and translation (TL), which have been extracted from bacteria. In this project, a part library was collected and used to assemble DNA constructs for a newly designed biocircuit. An in vitro TX-TL extract was used to test the circuit modules using linear DNA, and in parallel with predictive modeling of the biomolecular reactions, the overall circuit design was evaluated. The results have given valuable insight into the performance of the circuit modules in a much shorter time than conventional in vivo cloning and testing would have achieved.


Ocean tides cause noticeable aliasing errors in the gravity field from single pair space-borne graimetric missions like GRACE. Several studies about future gravity missions have shown that constellations with two or more GRACE-like tandems can lead to a significant reduction of aliasing error from all kinds of high-frequency signal sources. Despite such reduction, tidal aliasing will remain an error source still. This study investigates the efficiency of tidal error dealiasing in the post-processing mode for such future dualpair missions. To that purpose, we analyze the way a certain satellite mission sampling each tidal constituent. Given the repeat orbit patterns and the observation time span, we examine and model the aliasing periods and amplitudes constitute by constitute. Results show that a double-pair formation has de-aliasing function comparing to a single-pair formation in terms of distribution and amplitude of ocean tide aliasing error. With least-square (LS) estimation, the aliasing error can be reduced significantly.


Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) can greatly affect the clinical outcome of medical problems. We sought to assess the in-hospital mortality of patients with the acute coronary syndrome (ACS) according to their SES. Methods: All patients admitted to Tehran Heart Center due to 1st-time ACS between March 2004 and August 2011 were assessed. The patients who were illiterate/lowly educated (≤5 years attained education) and were unemployed were considered low-SES patients and those who were employed and had high educational levels (>5 years attained education) were regarded as high-SES patients. Demographic, clinical, paraclinical, and in-hospital medical progress data were recorded. Death during the course of hospitalization was considered the end point, and the impact of SES on in-hospital mortality was evaluated. Results: A total of 6246 hospitalized patients (3290 low SES and 2956 high SES) were included (mean age = 60.3 ± 12.1 years, male = 2772 [44.4%]). Among them, 79 (1.26%) patients died. Univariable analysis showed a significantly higher mortality rate in the low-SES group (1.9% vs. 0.6%; P < 0.001). After adjustment for possible cofounders, SES still showed a significant effect on the in-hospital mortality of the ACS patients in that the high-SES patients had a lower in-hospital mortality rate (odds ratio: 0.304, 95% confidence interval: 0.094–0.980; P = 0.046). Conclusions: This study found that patients with low SES were at a higher risk of in-hospital mortality due to the ACS. Furthermore, the results suggest the need for increased availability of jobs as well as improved levels of education as preventive measures to curb the unfolding deaths owing to coronary artery syndrome.


PURPOSE
Compare the geometric accuracy of the BrainLab cone SRS system with paper target overlays against the Varian TrueBeam CBCT image guidance system as well as to optimize CT protocols for planning.

METHODS
A head phantom with rigid geometric inserts (mounted in the BrainLab headring) was used to test the localization accuracy of the BrainLab system and the TrueBeam CBCT system. A 2 mm diameter BB (to act as a target) was placed on one of the surfaces inside the phantom. Planning CT scans were acquired with both helical and sequential techniques with a range of slice thicknesses. Localization was performed using the BrainLab CT/X-ray localizer box and subsequent planning was performed in iPlan. Printed target position overlays were then used to set up the phantom on the TrueBeam. A CBCT was acquired, 3D/3D matching was performed, and the differences in position between the paper printouts and 3D/3D match were recorded. Position of laser intersection on BB target was used as the standard for accuracy assessment.

RESULTS
The BrainLab localization system was found to align the phantom to within approximately 1.0 mm in any one direction of the target BB center. CBCT image guidance with 3D/3D matching was able to improve alignment to within approximately 0.5 mm in any one direction. The observed difference is partially attributed to a 0.1° mechanical misalignment of the couch mount and thus in the BrainLab localizer box.

CONCLUSION
CBCT guidance was found to be more accurate than BrainLab localizer alone. Oversampled, helical scanning for planning is recommended because of the smooth table motion, quicker scan time, and no loss of localization accuracy compared to sequential scanning. Quality assurance testing of the CBCT system accuracy should be performed after verifying the lasers with the standard Winston-Lutz test and just prior to each treatment.


Ecological disorganization stemming from conspicuous consumption practices is understudied in the social sciences. In this analysis, we study conspicuous consumption and its implications for environmental sociology, ecological footprint analysis, and green criminology. We examine the issue of conspicuous consumption through the study of items that increase the ecological footprint considerably, that is, through the consumption of "luxury commodities." Specifically, we draw attention to assessing aspects of ecological footprints of super yachts, super homes, luxury vehicles, and private jets. Taken together, the construction and use of these items in the United States alone is likely to create a CO2 footprint that exceeds those from entire nations. These results are not necessarily surprising but suggest that excessive consumption practices of the wealthy may need to be reinterpreted as criminal when they disrupt the normal regeneration and reproduction of ecosystems by generating excessive ecological disorganization.


Conventional wisdom recommends the superiority of private ownership of enterprises. The reality confronts it with a rich diversity in ownership and governance structures. This volume examines five types of unorthodox ownership and governance form emerging in the industrial sector across major economies. It analyses two cases to demonstrate that there are alternative ways to harden budget constraints of state-owned enterprises. It investigates what forces have driven these new developments and what functioning mechanisms have underlain the adaptive dynamics. It also looks at relevant policy implications for for developing and transition economies.

Thanks to the expanding role of these innovative ownership and governance forms in both the developed and developing economies, the perspectives and analyses presented in this book are of vital interest to various business people such as investment bankers, corporate lawyers, and business consultants, as wells as to regulators, policy-makers and scholars.


This is a review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). This film review is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol9/iss1/7 The latest film from Charlie Kaufman, the rare screenwriter whose reputation equals, if not exceeds, that of stars and directors, transports us once again into the innermost realms of the mind. As with Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (both 2002), Kaufman demonstrates his preoccupation with the rupture of identity, memory, and the human psyche. Imaginatively constructed and beautifully filmed, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (a collaboration with director Michel Gondry) is on one level simply a case of 'boy meets girl,' following the conventional typology of the romance tale: encounter, attraction, excitement, relational growth, conflict, dissolution, despair, eventual reconciliation and the possibility of reunion. However, what unfolds―a fantastically-Freudian journey through the psychic jungle-gym of Joel Barrish's (Jim Carrey) mind―completely eschews this sort of conventional linearity. Joel and Clementine (Kate Winslet) meet unexpectedly; a lengthy and tumultuous romance ensues. When relationship ends painfully, Clem, with the help of cleverly-named "Lacuna, Inc," erases Joel from her memory. Lacuna's Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) assists clients by eradicating unwanted memories through a high-tech neurological procedure. That Clem has completely forgotten him leaves Joel devastated. He decides to undergo the procedure himself. Yet, even as his memories of Clementine are being systematically wiped-out, he comes to his 1 Hancock: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2005 senses, admitting that, despite his pain, these memories are precious to him and worth keeping. The majority of the film involves Joel and his mental construction of Clementine frantically fleeing the "eraser guys," hiding out in the most remote, suppressed parts of Joel's memory―his childhood, his humiliation―although they are always eventually caught. He cannot "call it off;" his memories of Clem will all soon be gone. As his memorial world crumbles around him, Joel realizes the folly of forgetting. He and Clem say their previously unfinished goodbyes, but, in the end, memory prevails over the machine, and hope remains. The film takes its title from Alexander Pope's 18th-century poem, "Eloisa to Abelard," the two star-crossed lovers Kaufman also employs in Being John Malkovich's puppet show. In the poem, mourning the loss of her fallen Abelard, Eloisa learns that it is "the hardest science to forget!" She longs to replace her lingering love for Abelard with "God alone, for he / alone can rival, can succeed to thee." But memories of Abelard still haunt Eloisa, separating her from God and driving her to suicidal despair, for as she expresses, "If I lose thy love, I lose my all." The notion that a person's being is ultimately grounded in relationality has been explored by various philosophers and theologians (Buber, Bonhoeffer, 2 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 9 [2005], Iss. 1, Art. 7 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol9/iss1/7 Levinas). In light of this construction of the self according to the other, the film's idea of erasing another from one's memory becomes a metaphoric act of murder―the subject's desire to be freed from the other is essentially to will the other's death. But, like Eloisa, this becomes an act of suicide, for to vanquish the other is to vanquish oneself. In this way the service Lacuna provides its clients is a curse disguised as a blessing, for these images and narratives are the constituent parts of our very being and cannot truly be expunged―memory wins out, on more than one occasion. The film reflects on this theme, ironically employing a Nietzschean aphorism from Beyond Good and Evil: "Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders." Worthy of theological reflection is the film's theodical position that even negative, painful experiences contribute to the greater scheme of the universe or to our overall personhood in an incomprehensible way. If, following Augustine, we are but the sum of our memories and can only know ourselves as such, might we over time come to equally appreciate both our good and bad experiences, and allow that they might all be either redemptive or redeemed? As when Dr. Mierzwiak's secretary, Mary (Kirsten Dunst), "returns" to Lacuna's clients their files of erased memories, might we conclude that one is able to truly move on only by facing, not erasing, these memories? 3 Hancock: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2005 Eternal Sunshine speaks to the insuppressible power of memory, even subtly suggesting that while we are custodians of our memories, we neither choose nor own them, but rather they own and choose us, making us who we are. Like the Jewish child at the Passover meal asking to be told once again the story of his ancestors' flight from Egypt and of God's miraculous acts―like the Christian who, baptized in infancy, is told in adulthood to "remember" her baptism―often our most significantly shaping memories are given to us, gifts of an O/other. In diverse ways, people of faith recall past events with which they have no immediate contact, and simultaneously look ahead to the telos of their faith: the Kingdom coming, peace, liberation, the "real presence" of the object of love and devotion, hope and desire fulfilled―in Pope's words, "every pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd." 4 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 9 [2005], Iss. 1, Art. 7 https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol9/iss1/7


Use of a microcomputer catchment modelling program designed for stormwater management studies is described. The program is a kinematic type model, i.e. hydrodynamics are based on uniform flow conditions and continuity in conduits. The advantages of modular over finite elements and finite difference models are discussed. The modules in the program include catchments with infiltration, aquifers, conduits with circular, regular or compound cross-sections and storage reservoirs. The modular nature of the program enables alternatives combinations of hydrological modules to be assembled ranging from large catchments to urban drainage systems. The program is therefore of use only for a variety of catchment configurations but also for management studies, i.e. alternative detention or diversion systems to reduce peak flows and increase catchment recharge. The kinematic equations limit the hydraulic capability, i.e. backwater computations are not possible, but the resulting equations are suitable for rapid analysis on microcomputers. Routing is achieved by outlet control, but care is necessary to avoid numerical diffusion. An example application demonstrates the versatility in comparing alternative stormwater management strategies in an urban catchment in Sandton. Detention storage and road layout appear to have more influence than disconnected impervious areas, dual drainage or floodplain storage.(A)


Certain social consequences of the government debt increase are examined depending on the income and debt-to-GDP ratio level of the country. Nonlinear link between the government debt and the public expenditures on healthcare and education are revealed both in the developed and emerging markets. The public healthcare spending starts to decrease when the public debt exceeds 60% and 90% of GDP in the emerging and developed economies respectively. The expenditures on education diminish after debt-to-GDP ratio reaches 60%. The unemployment rate augments with the growth of the state debt.


There are many youth workers who continue to design their interventions without any theoretical basis, �despitealonghistoryofyouthworkasafieldofpractice. �Theaimofthisarticleistopresent� selected ideologies and theoretical frameworks underpinning youth work practice. These ideologies and theories, although predominantly borrowed from other disciplines, provide insight on how youth work should be practised. Based on a thorough literature review, the authors have selected different theories and ideologies that youth workers, like other professionals, are expected to know, understand and to adapt to youth work practice. These theories are important and would serve as theoretical frameworks on which youth work interventions will be based and, thereby, provide youth workers with the means to predict and analyse the situations of young people from different viewpoints to enable the development of different strategies to address relevant problems. The article concludes that theories and ideologies should be used as reference points, and youth workers mix and match different theories and ideologies depending on the nature of problem they are addressing at that particular time.


Burnout in nursing staff is a major cause for turnover and absenteeism. Identifying risk and protective factors may be helpful in decreasing burnout symptoms. Moreover, research indicates that ambulatory assessments of the autonomic nervous system might be helpful in detecting long-term stress and burnout symptoms. One hundred and ten forensic nursing staff members completed questionnaires measuring experiences with aggressive behaviour, emotional intelligence, personality, and job stress during four waves of data collection across a 2-year period. Multilevel analyses were used to test the predicted associations and moderation effects with (the development of) burnout symptoms. Burnout was predicted by a combination of emotional intelligence, job stress, aggression, personality factors, and skin conductance, but no moderation effects over time were found. Over a period of 2 years, the model approximately predicts a change in one burnout category on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The amount of burnout symptoms in nurses might be used as an indicator to predict turnover and absenteeism considering the increase in symptoms over time. Nursing staff who experience severe aggression and who have relatively low levels of emotional intelligence and altruism and high levels of neuroticism and job stress should be monitored and supported to decrease the risk of burnout. Staff members can be trained to increase their emotional intelligence and relieve stress to decrease their burnout symptoms and turnover and absenteeism on the long term. Ambulatory assessment might be helpful as a nonintrusive way to detect increasing levels of burnout.


A detailed product study has been performed on the OH radical initiated oxidation of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) under different conditions of temperature, partial pressure of O 2 and NO x concentration.
 The products of the OH radical initiated oxidation of DMS have been investigated under NO x free conditions at temperatures of 284, 295 and 306 ± 2 K and the O 2 partial pressures of 20, 200 and 500 mbar. The major identified sulphur-containing products were DMSO, SO 2 and methane sulphonic acid (MSA). Evidence has been found for the formation of methane sulphinic acid (MSIA) in considerable yield. Formation of methane thiol formate (MTF) and carbonyl sulphide (OCS) has been also observed. The variation of the formation yield of DMSO and SO 2 with temperature and O 2 partial pressure has been found to be consistent with a mechanism involving both addition and abstraction channels of the initial reaction. The found formation yields of DMSO for 284 K (46.3 ± 5.0 %), 295 K (34.8 ± 7.6 %) and 306 K (24.4 ± 2.8 %), at 200 mbar O 2 , give evidence for the predominance of the addition pathway at low temperature. High overall molar formation yields of SO 2 , about 90 % at all temperatures, leads to the conclusion that further oxidation of the products in both the addition and abstraction channels results mainly in SO 2 production under the experimental conditions of this study.
 The major sulphur-containing products identified in the presence of NO x were SO 2 , DMSO, dimethyl sulphone (DMSO 2 ), MSA, methane sulphonyl peroxy nitrate (MSPN) and OCS. The variation of the product yields with NO x concentration at different temperatures was also found to be consistent with the occurrence of both addition and abstraction channels. It was found that increasing the initial NO concentration depresses the DMSO, SO 2 and OCS formation yields and enhances those of DMSO 2 , MSA and MSPN. The branching ratio for DMSO formation was found to decrease with increasing initial NO and to decrease with increase of the temperature. This behaviour is expected for a reaction sequence involving formation of a thermally unstable peroxy radical adduct and its subsequent reaction with NO with formation of an oxy-alcoxy species which can react with molecular O 2 to form DMSO 2 . The molar formation yield of SO 2 was found to decrease with increasing both the temperature and initial NO x .
 A study of the gas phase oxidation of DMSO by OH radicals has been performed under conditions similar to those for DMS. Formation of MSIA in a very high yield was found. The results show quite definitely that MSIA is the major oxidation product of DMSO and that its measured yield is independent of the reaction conditions. Formation of DMSO 2 , SO 2 , MSA and MSPN has been observed. The observed behaviour of these products supports a formation mechanism involving secondary chemistry of MSIA initiated either by OH or by peroxy radicals.


This study demonstrates the importance and best practices associated with the challenges graduates face when trying to find their first job in television broadcasting. It analyzes what the literature states on this subject and takes a closer look at what hiring experts in two designated market areas say on the matter. This study will provide insight for graduates as they transition from the classroom to the newsroom. Graduates of journalism programs are facing a unique set of challenges because of the transition taking place in newsrooms across the country from a traditional style of news reporting to a multimedia journalist style. The added circumstances of a recent recession, a down-sizing of the industry and rapidly changing technology are all issues that the study investigates. This study not only investigates the challenges facing students when trying to gain employment in broadcast television it also provides insight as to how to successfully face those challenges.


A. Velasquez, and G. Pichard. 2010. In vitro protein breakdown by enzyme extracts of rumen origin: comparison with methods in situ and proteases of Streptomyces griseus. Cien. Inv. Agr. 37(3): 57-70. Proteolytic activity of enzymatic extracts generated from rumen microorganisms cultivated in vitro was evaluated. The incubation of rumen fluid used different substrates to generate a higher enzyme concentration and promote a broad spectrum of hydrolytic activity. The composition of the substrates used in the cultivation of the fluid was enriched in protein, starch or cell wall. Enzyme preparations were evaluated by incubating in 30 mL of buffer 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6.5) at 39 oC during 48 hours, 100 mg of crude protein from feeds soybean meal, canola meal, sunflower meal, gluten feed, dehydrated alfalfa meal, berseem clover, oat forage and perennial ryegrass. Enzyme extracts from cultivated rumen fluid showed an average protein breakdown of 75.5%, in eight feed samples tested. This value was very close to that measured with the technique of proteases from Streptomyces griseus (74.6% CP), but significantly lower (P≤0.05) than the one obtained by the in situ methodology (84.8% CP). The technique with extracted rumen enzymes showed higher level of proteolysis in the early hours of incubation (6 H) compared to the other techniques. These results suggest that the enzyme preparations of ruminal origin have the ability to predict degradability of feed proteins in the rumen, particularly in the first phase when most of proteins are hydrolyzed and become available for microbial utilization.


Purpose - – In light of recent enthusiasm over African private sector development, the purpose of this paper is to review the business literature on African enterprise development with a view of identifying lacunas in the literature and of developing an analytical framework that may guide future research on this issue. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper provides a review of the extant literature on African enterprise development by juxtaposing the traditional pessimistic view of African business performance with more recent, optimistic accounts. Based on the literature review, lacunas in the literature are identified and an integrative framework for analysing African enterprise development is developed. The framework is used to provide an overview of the received literature on African enterprise development, to identify voids and lacunas and to identify new research agendas. Findings - – While a growing number of studies suggest profound improvements in the performance of African enterprises, data limitations, conceptual ambiguities and absence of comprehensive studies still cautions against sweeping generalizations. The paper reviews the literature on factors shaping the performance of African enterprises, observing that while much research is focusing on the role of the African business environments for enterprise development, much less attention has been devoted to the role of firm-specific capabilities, strategies and management. The paper concludes by advocating a contingency approach to research on African enterprise development that emphasizes the interplay between firm-specific factors and the specificities of the African business environment. Originality/value - – The paper provides a comprehensive literature review on African enterprise development and presents a novel framework for understanding African enterprise development from a business perspective.


The general building conditions in low-cost housing act as an indicator of human quality of life. The enhanced aspects on quality will create a safe environment for the occupants. However, issues arisen have concerning the delivery performance in Malaysia's low-cost housing since the occupants are likely to perceive safety hazards. The safety issues and challenges during the occupancy period include structural instability and falling building fragments. Without defining the occupants' requirements in the early housing development, it is hard to determine the prevailing safety factors. To achieve a better safety provision during the occupancy period, this study used the Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) approach that incorporates participation from the occupants. POE is used to examine specific performance issues in the building occupancy stage. It generally encompasses a comprehensive review of the building's current situation. The fundamental concept of POE stresses the importance of obtaining feedback from the building occupants. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to develop a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) framework that integrates safety elements for low-cost housing (LCH) in Malaysia to meet the occupants' satisfaction level of LCH. A building inspection survey and occupants' satisfaction survey was conducted to 24 low cost housing schemes, known as Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) housing schemes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The sample size for both surveys was 380 (380 for housing units; 380 for occupants). Statistical correlation was used to affirm the incorporation of occupants in respect of safety performance in the POE approach. The analysis used Spearman's rho correlation since the variables in both surveys consist of an ordinal scale. It was found that all attributes have a significant relationship and successfully support the research hypotheses. In other words, the user's satisfaction has a direct relationship with the overall safety performance of buildings in meeting the needs and expectations of the users. The results have generated an insight into the effectiveness of POE as a means of assessing safety performance. The development process of the framework utilized the vital phases of POE and inputs of safety elements, which were validated through the methodology phases in this research. There are three main phases in this framework: i) planning phase, ii) conducting phase and iii) applying phase, which are related to the concept of POE. The phases involved the safety category, safety elements and safety attributes that have been determined and developed through the preliminary survey, the semi-structured interviews and the main survey. The developed framework shows the steps undertaken for each phase and provides a description of the activities addressed in each step. The results from the validation interviews with the industry practitioners have allowed the usage of the proposed framework for improving safety performance to meet the satisfaction of the occupants. The proposed framework has fulfilled the vital phases of POE and integrates the safety elements with the satisfaction of occupants. The applicability of POE as the asessment tool has generated a new method to optimize housing safety performance during the occupancy stage. The proposed POE framework with integrated safety elements is enable to provide a significant input to related government and housing agencies. It is also suggested that the framework is able to propose a modification and improvement concerning the safety performance and maintenance in low-cost housing during the period of occupancy.


tera: Miridae) causes sporadic damage in Utah apple orchards. Damage is inflicted by nymphs, which feed on developing fruit causing dimpling and fruit distortion. As apple fruits mature, they become less susceptible to campylomma injury. Injury appears shortly after petal fall as small corky areas alone or small corky areas surrounded by a depression. Golden Delicious is typically more susceptible to damage than Red Delicious. Pear fruit rarely suffer damage, even at high campylomma populations. Campylomma overwinter as eggs laid in the young twigs of apple, pear and other rosaceous plants. These eggs begin hatching in the spring at about pink stage of apple bud development. This insect has three to four generations per year. A portion of first generation adults migrate from orchard trees to herbaceous weeds, particularly common mullein. However, campylomma can be found in apple and pear orchards throughout the growing season. Late nymphal stages and adults are beneficial predators of aphids, mites and pear psylla. In late summer through fall, adults will migrate into orchards to lay overwintering eggs.


Adequate adoption of evidence-based practice is deeply rooted in accessing methodological quality and completeness of systematic reviews and meta-analyses reporting. Nonetheless, this assumption might be flawed if the methodological quality assessment has not been properly conducted. Taking the former statement into consideration, this correspondence article encourages the improvement of future methodological quality assessment manuscripts, especially in the field of restorative dentistry. Thus, this article addresses a methodological quality assessment about systematic reviews in restorative dentistry by Sarkis-Onofre et al. in the May 2019 issue of the Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry as an example of evaluating appraisals of reviews for increasing the awareness of reviewers, authors, and readers.


This overview of transaction cost economics is organized around the "Carnegie Triple" - be disciplined; be interdisciplinary; have an active mind. The first of these urges those who would open up the black box of economic organization to do so in a modest, slow, molecular, definitive way, with the object of deriving refutable implications and submitting these to empirical testing. The second recommends that the student of economic organization be prepared to cross disciplinary boundaries if and as this is needed to preserve veridical contact with the phenomena. The injunction have an active mind is implemented by being curious and asking the question "What is going on here?" The paper concludes with a discussion of operationalization.


Cu 2S nanocrystals and superlattices were synthesized by a simple solution-phase thermolysis of the copper dodecanethiolate polymer precursor. X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) confirmed the chalcocite crystal structure of the nanocrystals. Monodispersed Cu 2S nanodisks, spheres and hexagon nanoplates could be fabricated with this method. Further, copper sulfide nanoarrays assembled by nanoparticles of different shapes were obtained by adjusting the experimental conditions. The growth of the nanocrystals and their self-assembly structures were studied and believed to be associated with the lamellar structure of the copper thiolate precursor.


Traumatic brain injury is a major health issue globally. Recently, there is no effective treatment, which can improve functional recovery of the TBI patients. Recent studies conclude that stem cell therapy has got tremendous regenerative potential, which can cure CNS injuries. Experimental Success in stem cell therapy also raise a hope in researchers to investigate more. The therapeutic aspects of stem cell therapy are based on the potential to differentiate in to tissue specific cells and integrate in to host tissue to regenerate the lost cells or injured cells. This commentary reflects the role of variety of stem cells in treating TBI .


Over the past few decades substantial progress has been achieved in the democratisation and modernisation of the countries of Southeastern Europe. The formal democratic institutions were introduced, a liberalisation of trade resulted in the reintegration of the region into the global economy and some of them successfully applied to join the EU and NATO. But the transformation process is far from over. In the past years the achievements of the political and economic transformation have been rolled back and the quality of governance has declined in many countries. To avoid a further deterioration of the situation in the region the new impulse for institutional transformation and a change of the development model are needed.

This report is the outcome of a discussion held during the conference "The Freedom Challenge in Southeastern Europe – Implications for Poland". This joint event was developed by the Centre for Eastern Studies and Ideas Lab – the President's Expert Programme at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. The chapters of the report reflect the main three subjects debated during the conference. In the first chapter Spasimir Domaradzki assesses the rule of law and its influence on the consolidation of democracy in the region. In the second chapter Marta Szpala focuses on economic development in Southeastern Europe. The third chapter is written by Adam Balcer and analyses the key instruments Russia is using to build influence in this region.


This paper presents a new pressure-based error prevention technique for mobile touchscreen text entry. Two user studies were conducted to compare the new technique with a conventional virtual keyboard, one with novice and another with expert users. Results of the first user study showed that with practice the new technique significantly improves accuracy. Yet, no such indication was observed during the second study.


A Continuum (filled polymer) is inhomogeneous and anisotropic. The Continuum is used in an injection moulding simulation at first (generally unnewton type of fluid). Then the continuum is solid (after cooling) and it is possible to carry out ordinary structural analysis with it both static and dynamic. The solid continuum has different mechanical properties for each of discrete element. The consequent values of mechanical characteristics (after simulation of load) will generally have different values when influence of injection moulding is taken into account for analyses.