Abstract The canonical consumer demand model predicts that as the price of a substitute decreases, quantity demanded for a good decrease. In the case of demand for sexual activity and availability of alternative leisure activities, popular culture expresses this prediction as "television kills your sex life." This paper examines the association between television ownership and coital frequency using data from nearly 4 million individuals in national household surveys in 80 countries from 5 continents. The results suggest that while television may not kill your sex life, it is associated with some sex life morbidity. Under our most conservative estimate, we find that television ownership is associated with approximately a 6 % reduction in the likelihood of having had sex in the past week, consistent with a small degree of substitutability between television viewing and sexual activity. Household wealth and reproductive health knowledge do not appear to be driving this association.


"Film and television-related tourism is big business in the UK, with high profile beneficiaries of the "set-jetting" trend including Glencoe (Braveheart, 1995), Lyme Park (Pride and Prejudice, 1995), and Alnwick Castle (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 2001). Whilst this type of tourism is not a new phenomenon, it is only in recent years that tourism authorities such as Visit Britain have attempted to capitalise upon the beneficial effects of screen tourism through promotional tie-ins or "movie maps".This increased focus upon the potential of screen tourism has coincided with a marked shift in the direction of film policy in the UK. Under the UK Film Council and the regional film agencies the arguments in favour of supporting film as an artistic activity hold little sway against the perceived wider economic benefits of film production. These benefits, or 'added values', are no longer confined to the film and media industries themselves, but also reach across into associated businesses, particularly those in the tourism sector. Recent research commissioned by the Film Council and Shepperton Studios claimed that in 2006 the UK film industry provided a boost to tourism which was worth £900m.This paper is the first phase of an interdisciplinary research project which aims to contextualise and evidence the phenomenon of film and TV tourism from an independent academic perspective, by integrating social science and humanities approaches.


In a previous report (Johnson & Donchin, 1978), we manipulated the discriminability of tone pairs that delivered feedback information in a time-estimation paradigm. As in other experiments using feedback stimuli, the event-related potentials elicited by these stimuli did not return to baseline in the 800-ms poststimulus interval. Since we were interested in this "Slow Wave''activity, the poststimulus interval was lengthened to 1500 ms. Averages revealed that a second positive peak was present for some of the individual subjects. To investigate this activity further, the filtered singletrial waveforms were inspected visually. These data were characterized by the presence of one, and occasionally two, positive peaks, with highly variable latencies, following the P300. These peaks were indistinguishable in frequency and general appearance from the P300s elicited by the feedback stimuli. After latency adjusting the waveforms on the peak of the second positive wave, amplitude and latency were quantified. Whereas P300 amplitude was directly related to stimulus discriminability and positive feedback elicited larger P300s than negative feedback, the amplitude of the second positive wave was constant across levels of discriminability and the same for both types of feedback. In contrast, the latencies of both waves were inversely related to stimulus discriminability and shorter following positive feedback than negative feedback. Evidence is presented to support our contention that these additional positive peaks represent P300 activity. The data are discussed in terms of what these multiple P300s reveal about human information processing.


Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment approach that uses a photosensitizer, and light, to kill cancer cells. The treatment consists of two stages. In the first stage, the photosensitizer is accumulated in cell, following topical or systemic administration. In the second stage, the sensitized tumor is exposed to light at a specific wavelength that is appropriate for the absorption spectrum of the photosensitizer. When this activated sensitizer transfers energy to molecular oxygen, reactive oxygen species are generated. Therefore, necrosis and/or apoptosis are induced in tumor cell. ROS can also stimulate the transcription and release of inflammatory mediators. There are different types of photosensitizer and each is activated by light of a specific wavelength. An ideal photosensitizer should be a pure compound, water-soluble to allow quality low manufacturing costs and good stability. It should have a absorption peak between 600 and 800-nm (red to deep red). Several photosensitizers are currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use with laser light. Wavelength determines how far the light can travel into the body. Therefore, each combination of photosensitizers and light wavelengths is used to treat different cancer types. PDT may also help by destroying the blood vessels around the cancer cells and by inducing the immune system to attack the cancer. Studies in clinic revealed that PDT, minimally invasive therapeutic procedure, can be curative particularly in early-stage tumors. It can help prolonged the life span and improve quality of life. To date, PDT is being tested in the clinic for use to treat cancers of the head and neck, brain, lung, pancreas, intraperitoneal cavity, breast, prostate and skin. The therapy can be used as an adjuvant therapy with conventional therapy such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. It can be concluded that PDT could be a promising cancer treatment modality with its curative potential. Key-words:Photodynamic Therapy, Laser, Photosensitizers, Cancer treatment


One theory proposed to account for the remarkable capacity and fidelity of visual memory is that visual memories are supported by an underlying structure of conceptual knowledge around which visual information is organized. However, some findings of visual memory learned in visual search tasks are not well explained by this theory. This study examines the importance of episodic, task-relevant, visual information in the organizational structure of visual memory. In two experiments, participants learned 36 target objects (750 ms presentation) in serial presentation search tasks, followed by additional searches containing varying numbers of new exemplars of the targets to introduce retroactive interference for the original search targets. Following the search trials, participants completed a 2-AFC memory test. The critical difference between the two experiments was the form of search instructions given. In Experiment 1, search instructions identified targets by color and conceptual category, making a perceptual feature, (i.e., color), relevant to the task, whereas in Experiment 2, the target was defined by the conceptual category alone making the perceptual feature irrelevant. In Experiment 1, memory test results showed that new exemplars that matched learned objects on both color and conceptual category induced more interference (80%) than those matched on conceptual category alone (87%). Experiment 2, in contrast, showed that new exemplar objects that matched only on conceptual category induced the same amount of interference (78%) as those matched on both color and conceptual category (77%). Results indicate that when made task-relevant, perceptual, as well as conceptual, information contributes to the organization of visual long-term memory. However, when made episodically non-relevant, perceptual information does not contribute to memory organization, and memory defaults to conceptual category organization. This finding supports a theory of an episodically defined organizational structure in visual long-term memory that is overlaid upon an underlying conceptual structure. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


We present a novel peer-to-peer backup technique that allows computers connected to the Internet to back up their data cooperatively: Each computer has a set of partner computers, which collectively hold its backup data. In return, it holds a part of each partner's backup data. By adding redundancy and distributing the backup data across many partners, a highly-reliable backup can be obtained in spite of the low reliability of the average Internet machine. Because our scheme requires cooperation, it is potentially vulnerable to several novel attacks involving free riding (e.g., holding a partner's data is costly, which tempts cheating) or disruption. We defend against these attacks using a number of new methods, including the use of periodic random challenges to ensure partners continue to hold data and the use of disk-space wasting to make cheating unprofitable. Results from an initial prototype show that our technique is feasible and very inexpensive: it appears to be one to two orders of magnitude cheaper than existing Internet backup services.


While non-stationary stochastic techniques have led to substantial improvements in vocabulary size and speaker independence, most automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems remain overly sensitive to the acoustic environment, precluding robust widespread applications. Our approach to this problem has been to model fundamental aspects of auditory perception, which are typically neglected in common ASR front ends, to derive a more robust and phonetically relevant parameterization of speech. Short-term adaptation and recovery, a sensitivity to local spectral peaks, together with an explicit parameterization of the position and motion of local spectral peaks reduces the error rate of a word recognition task by as much as a factor of 4. Current work also investigates the perceptual signiJicance of pitch-rate amplitude-modulation cues in noise.


We analyze a general market for an industry of competing service facilities. Firms differentiate themselves by their price levels and the waiting time their customers experience, as well as different attributes not determined directly through competition. Our model therefore assumes that the expected demand experienced by a given firm may depend on all of the industry's price levels as well as a (steady-state) waiting-time standard, which each of the firms announces and commits itself to by proper adjustment of its capacity level. We focus primarily on a separable specification, which in addition is linear in the prices. (Alternative nonseparable or nonlinear specifications are discussed in the concluding section.) We define a firm's service level as the difference between an upper-bound benchmark for the waiting-time standard (wI ) and the firm's actual waiting-time standard.

Different types of competition and the resulting equilibrium behavior may arise, depending on the industry dynamics through which the firms select their strategic choices. In one case, firms may initially select their waiting-time standards, followed by a selection of their prices in a second stage (service-level first). Alternatively, the sequence of strategic choices may be reversed (price first) or, as a third alternative, the firms may make their choices simultaneously (simultaneous competition). We model each of the service facilities as a single-server M/M/1 queueing facility, which receives a given firm-specific price for each customer served. Each firm incurs a given cost per customer served as well as cost per unit of time proportional to its adopted capacity level.


Purpose - – In the home furnishing industry outside contract installers produce higher quality work than in-house installers which is reflected in less revisits to customers to repair mistakes. Many home furnishing retailers are therefore contemplating introducing so that the quality of the work of in-house installers will be linked to financial incentives, thus resembling the situation of contract installers. However, a necessary condition for a successful introduction of bonuses is that in-house installers are motivated by it to deliver better quality work, i.e. cause less revisits. The purpose of this paper is to look into the question whether the introduction of bonuses could be used to increase the quality of work of in-house. Design/methodology/approach - – For the research the four steps of the evidence-based HRM framework, as developed by Rousseau and Barends (2011), were used. In steps 1, literature review, the research question was formulated based on work motivation theories (in particular on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, bonuses, and the differences between contract workers and organizational employees). In step 2, systematic gathering of facts, two existing questionnaires were combined to measure the motivation of the two types of installers. Findings - – In step 3, evaluation, the differences between the motivational factors and attitude towards bonuses was analysed for both groups of installers. The research results show that although in-house installers are potentially motivated by bonuses, they differ so much from contract installers in their general work motivation that introducing bonuses by no means will be a success. In step 4, ethical considerations, the consequences of the research findings were discussed. Research limitations/implications - – The main limitations are the use of a self-constructed questionnaire and the fact that the research was conducted at only one case company, thus rendering the generalization of findings problematic. Practical implications - – The practical implication of the study is that management of the case company can now better prepare itself for the issues to be expected when introducing bonuses for the in-house installers. Originality/value - – This research adds to the literature on the effects of bonuses on motivation. It also addresses a gap in the literature as there is currently hardly any academic literature on the conditions necessary to introduce bonuses for craftsmen successfully, and on whether this introduction is advantageous for organizations in the first place. In addition, the case company offered the opportunity to research the issue in a comparative way, by looking at the motivational factors influencing in-house installers and contract installers who work in the same conditions, something which to the knowledge of the authors has not been done before. Finally, the sue of an evidence-based HRM framework is quite unique for the human resource management field.


The book makes a fresh appraisal of the main principles of constitutional law, seeking to stimulate renewed debate about the fundamentals of British constitutionalism. Rejecting a purely fromal concept of the rule of law, Allan argues that public law should more fully and openly reflect the principles of liberty and justice which constitute the underlying point and substance of the rule of law. The connection between law and justice is ultimately secured by the primary role of the individual conscience in making judgements about what the law requires. And just as no court is ever an infallible arbiter of legal obligation - the individual may sometimes have to stand by his own conscientious reading of the law - Parliament cannot be accorded unqualified authority to change the law. The sovreignty of Parliament is necessarily limited by residual principles of leberal constitutionalism; any other view would contradict the rule of law. Standard comparisons between written and unwritten constitutions, and traditional accounts of the separarion of powers, ovscure more than they reveal. The interpretation and application of statutes must always be a matter of judicial deliberation and judgement, just as the application of government policies and administrative orders is ultimately subject to the requirements of justice in particular cases.


Canine Parvovirus (CPV 2), a member of genus Parvovirus, within family parvoviridae, superfamily parvovirinae, causes hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and myocarditis (parvo disease) in dogs. Since CPV 2 has been originated from Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), it has emerged into different genotypes, CPV 2a, CPV 2b and more recently CPV2c. The genome of CPV2 is 5323 bp long single stranded DNA. CPV2 is prevalent all over the world. Infected feces serve as source of parvo infection. This review describes in brief, the epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis, diagnosis and vaccination and treatment of CPV2 disease with special emphasis on its diagnostic methods electron microscopy (EM), virus isolation (VI), Hemagglutination (HA), immunochromatography, immunofluorescence, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real time PCR, loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and biosensors.


Taking a conceptual approach, this book studies the economic development of the four East Asian economies since 1950. The author summarizes and reconsiders many of the arguments and findings that supported and explained the economic 'miracles' of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, analysing the relationship between economic development, growth and political economy. This pioneering book will stimulate further analysis of East Asian development. It will be of essential interest to scholars in East Asian economics, and all those interested in modern economic development.


Within analytic jurisprudence the question "what is law?" is often taken to be of primary significance for two distinct reasons. First, it is thought to assume logical priority to normative questions: before one can say something about law, one needs to know what law is. Second, this inquiry is also thought to be uniquely philosophical, a non-empirical, pre-sociological investigation that can then tell empirical investigators what they need to look for if they want to find instances of law in the world. This article offers a general critique of this view. I start with examining several arguments claiming that jurisprudence is not conceptual, since if these arguments are true, they imply that critiques of conceptual jurisprudence are misguided. I argue that such arguments involve a terminological change more than a challenge or a substantive alternative to conceptual jurisprudence. I then turn to examining conceptual jurisprudence itself. I distinguish between two families of views on concepts, "externalism," which conceives of concepts as abstract entities, and "internalism," which conceives of concepts as basic units of thought. Because of this difference, these two views lead to two quite different characterizations of conceptual jurisprudence, each calling for different response. Nevertheless, I argue that both are unsuccessful. I offer a series of arguments against each view: the main argument against the externalist position is that it is viciously circular (as it necessarily assumes the view of law it defends); the main argument against the internalist view is a bad form of sociology. I conclude with brief hints as to what a non-conceptual jurisprudence would look like.


In the 32 western countries that participated in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC-2002) survey conducted in schools by means of an anonymous self-administered questionnaire among 45,848 schoolchildren, about 20% of 15-year-olds declared that they had already used cannabis, which is consequently the third most frequently consumed psychoactive substance after alcohol and tobacco. Boys are heavier consumers than girls in every country. France is one of the ten countries with the highest cannabis use rates among 15-year-olds (29.8%). The majority of users surveyed belonged to groups of experimental use (once or twice during the previous year: 7.9% of children) or moderate use (3-39 times: 7.3%); these groups were less frequently represented in Eastern, Northern and Southern Europe, in favour of "discontinuation" (have tried cannabis, but no cannabis use during the previous year). Frequent use is rarer (2.7%). After adjustment for economic level and age, being a boy, smoking tobacco (especially frequently), drinking alcohol (especially frequently) and having been drunk (especially more than twice) significantly and independently increased the probability of having smoked cannabis at least once during the subject's life. Finally, a correlation was observed between daily tobacco and alcohol consumption, frequent drunkenness and passage from experimental use to more frequent use. Psychoactive substance use is therefore rarely isolated among young people, and certain subgroups appear to be at greater risk and therefore warrant further research and prevention.


After seven years of arduous negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations was concluded in late 1993. The United States approved the agreement in late 1994, in time for the 1995 commencement of the new World Trade Organization (WTO), which will implement the agreement and provide the major forum for future trade negotiations. There have been a number of quantitative studies of the impact of world trade liberalization and of the formation of subregional free trade areas such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mercosur in South America, and the new Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Most of these studies focus on the impact of changes in policy, analyzing the efficiency gains and structural changes that might be induced by changes in import protection. The goal of such studies is not to project the future but to analyze the empirical mechanisms by which policy changes affect the world economy. In this brief, the authors discuss studies of world trade liberalization and studies of regional trading areas. Finally, they state that recent quantitative studies generally find that global trade liberalization yields substantially larger economic benefits, including benefits to agriculture, than the proliferation of regional trading arrangements. Thus, while increasing regionalism is emerging as an important element of the current international political economy, it is not a desirable outcome in itself.


This article looks at a topic that has received little attention in the legal literature: constitution making by families. Of what interest is it to constitutional law and family law, and to those interested in the state of the family, that families undertake to draft - and are urged by assorted experts on the family to draft - family constitutions (by analogy to the U.S. constitution) and family mission statements (by analogy to corporate mission statements)? This article contends that this reported trend is a fruitful topic of inquiry, since it bears on important questions about the dynamics of family life and family governance, as well as on how families (as associations) fit within the constitutional order. One reported impetus for families drafting such documents is a perception that an important relationship between families and other institutions of civil society and government is askew: families must define their own ends and values because these other institutions are no longer serving as generators or supporters of these values. The article examines Stephen Covey's influential book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families," as well as literature about various types of families drafting such documents (e.g., families struggling with work/family conflict, parents concerned about moral education, nontraditional families, religious families, wealthy families, and family businesses). It identifies several common arguments about why families should draft such documents. It suggests some tensions in the literature about the process of family self-constitution, which relate to two contrasting models of family - the natural and the constructivist family, and to contrasting models of family self-government - hierarchical and democratic.


Abstract Acceptance of a spectrum of warm‐ through cold‐water shallow‐marine carbonate facies has become of fundamental importance for correctly interpreting the origin and significance of all ancient platform limestones. Among other attributes, properties that have become a hallmark for characterising many Cenozoic non‐tropical occurrences include: (1) the presence of common bryozoan and epifaunal bivalve skeletons; (2) a calcite‐dominated mineralogy; (3) relatively thin deposits exhibiting low rates of sediment accumulation; (4) an overall destructive early diagenetic regime; and (5) that major porosity destruction and lithification occur mainly in response to chemical compaction of calcitic skeletons during moderate to deep burial. The Pliocene Te Aute limestones are non‐tropical skeletal carbonates formed at paleolatitudes near 40–42°S under the influence of commonly strong tidal flows along the margins of an actively deforming and differentially uplifting forearc basin seaway, immediately inboard of the convergent Pacific‐Australian plate boundary off eastern North Island, New Zealand. This dynamic depositional and tectonic setting strongly influenced both the style and subsequent diagenetic evolution of the limestones. Some of the Te Aute limestones exhibit the above kinds of "normal" non‐tropical characteristics, but others do not. For example, many are barnacle and/or bivalve dominated, and several include attributes that at least superficially resemble properties of certain tropical carbonates. In this regard, a number of the limestones are infaunal bivalve rich and dominated by an aragonite over a calcite primary mineralogy, with consequently relatively high diagenetic potential. Individual limestone units are also often rather thick (e.g., up to 50–300 m), with accumulation rates from 0.2 to 0.5 m/ka, and locally as high as 1 m/ka. Moreover, there can be a remarkable array of diagenetic features in the limestones, involving grain alteration and/or cementation to widely varying extents within any, or some combination of, the marine phreatic, burial, and meteoric diagenetic environments, including locally widespread development of meteoric cement sourced from aragonite dissolution. The message is that non‐tropical shelf carbonates include a more diverse array of geological settings, of skeletal and mineralogical facies, and of diagenetic features than current sedimentary models mainly advocate. While several attributes positively distinguish tropical from non‐tropical limestones, continued detailed documentation of the wide spectrum of shallow‐marine carbonate deposits formed outside tropical regions remains an important challenge in carbonate sedimentology.


Although a variety of approaches can be used to manage student commitment, the role of physical elements, such as a facility or institution's virtual presence, appearance of infrastructure and signage, is often neglected in the literature. This gap in the literature is surprising considering the growing interest in the field of social sciences regarding the influence of physical elements (or tangibles) on commitment. It is against this background that this study investigated the possible effects of physical element attributes on student commitment. A number of antecedents of physical elements were identified by means of a literature review and their expected relationships with student commitment were proposed as hypotheses. These hypothesised relationships were assessed and a survey amongst 290 students from a multi-cultural South African university was conducted. The statistical program SPSS version 23 was used to analyse the data, and the hypothesised relationships were assessed by means regression analyses. The findings of the study indicate that the physical element dimensions 'communicators' and 'virtual servicescape' most significantly influenced overall student commitment. Contrary to popular belief, the study revealed that social servicescape did not have a significant impact on student commitment. Furthermore, it appears that a specific set of physical element attributes should be applied when student commitment is managed. Finally, the study offers an in-depth discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for relationship marketing strategies.


The article deals with issues of analysis of trends in state financial control. Nature of program-targeted approach to control budget spending is investigated. Requirements for accounting and financial reporting are defined, which is the main source of information during control actions and ways to improve the accounting system of state enterprises.


The issue of energy balancing in Wireless Sensor Networks is a pivotal one, crucial in their deployment. This problem can be subdivided in three areas: (i) energy conservation techniques, usually implying minimizing the cost of communication at the nodes since it is known that the radio is the biggest consumer of the available energy; (ii) energy-harvesting techniques, converting energy from not full-time available environmental sources and usually storing it; and (iii) energy transfer techniques, sharing energy resources from one node (either specialized or not) to another one. In this article, we survey the main contributions in these three areas and identify the main trending topics in recent research. A discussion and some future directions are also included.


Most earth-abundant electrocatalysts suffer from negligible activity for the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and significant overpotentials for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic media. We designed earth-abundant, carbon-supported titanium tungsten carbide (TixW1−xC) nanoparticles decorated with surface Pt coatings ranging from the "single-atom" to the two-monolayer regime. Reactivity studies demonstrated that sub-monolayer Pt coverages are optimal and could activate the exposed metal carbide sites for both HER and HOR at low overpotentials. Specifically, a 0.25 monolayer coverage of Pt improved the exchange current density of Ti0.2W0.8C by more than three orders of magnitude. This catalyst outperformed traditional Pt/C by a factor of 13 on a Pt mass basis, allowing for over a 96% reduction in Pt loadings. Deactivation was not observed after 10 000 cycles between −50 and +600 mV vs. RHE in 1.0 M HClO4, and activity was maintained after 140 000 catalytic turnovers. A technoeconomic analysis revealed that over the catalyst lifetime, this new architecture could reduce materials and energy costs by a factor of 6 compared to state-of-the-art earth-abundant catalysts and a factor of 12 compared to Pt/C.


Scores of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) are used to support decisions regarding personal liberty. There is increasing concern about its interrater reliability in applied contexts, where low reliabilites have been obtained. We report a study in which 12 forensic psychiatric staff raters assessed 43 male offenders for psychopathy using the PCL-R. These ratings were compared with those obtained at a second occasion from separate interviews utilizing similar file data by an independent researcher, experienced as an expert for the defense. Intraclass correlation coefficients were high; .89 for the PCL-R total scale, .82 for Factor 1, and .38 – .94 for individual items. These results stand in contrast to the considerably lower reliabilities found in recent field studies, mainly conducted within adversary judicial systems. In such contexts, ratings may be biased. Interrater reliability of PCL-R is likely be increased if raters utilize similar data.


The traditions, the development, and the objectives of deaf education in Norway and Russia are different. One of the main differences is whether deaf education is in itself seen as intercultural communication, meaning to what degrees the sign language communities are treated as linguistic and cultural minorities or simply as disabled. Neither the Russian nor the Norwegian practice is internationally unique, but the two become recognizable in light of each other, and internationally, they represent two common ways of dealing with education for the deaf today. This article will discuss what are some of the differences and similarities in deaf education between Norway and Russia related to the status of the two countries' signed languages and whether the deaf populations are viewed either as disabled or as a linguistic minority. The discussion is based on some historical occurrences leading to the current situations in the two countries. Two different discourses, a disability discourse and a minority discourse, will be presented. The disability discourse generally seems to be the most intuitive one among adult newcomers to this field, while the minority discourse more often needs a fair bit of elaboration. Therefore, more space will be devoted to the minority discourse in this article. Furthermore, the description of the differences and similarities in deaf education will draw on the writings of the Russian scholar Lev Vygotsky on (Russian) deaf education and look at what Joseph Stalin wrote about deaf people and language. I shall argue that Vygotsky's suggestions seem to have had more impact in Norway than in Russia, while Stalin's writings seemingly had a great impact on the view on Russian Sign Language (RSL1) and the practice and objectives of the Russian schools for the deaf. I will argue that a hundred years of experience of attempting to make the spoken majority language the first language of deaf children should lead to a change in direction.


Context. While classical models successfully reproduce intensities of many transition region lines, they predict helium extreme-UV (EUV) line intensities roughly an order of magnitude lower than the observed value. Aims. Our aim is to determine the relevant formation mechanism(s) of the helium EUV resonance lines capable of explaining the high intensities under quiet Sun conditions. Methods. We synthesised and studied the emergent spectra from a 3D radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulation model. The effects of coronal illumination and non-equilibrium ionisation of hydrogen and helium are included self-consistently in the numerical simulation. Results. Radiative transfer calculations result in helium EUV line intensities that are an order of magnitude larger than the intensities calculated under the classical assumptions. The enhanced intensity of He i λ 584 is primarily caused by He ii recombination cascades. The enhanced intensity of He ii λ 304 and He ii λ 256 is caused primarily by non-equilibrium helium ionisation. Conclusions. The analysis shows that the long standing problem of the high helium EUV line intensities disappears when taking into account optically thick radiative transfer and non-equilibrium ionisation effects.


During survey from 2013 to 2018, Cynodon dactylon at Shahjahnapur, Azamagarh, Oplismenus burmannii at Shahjahnapur, Arundo donax at Deoria and Ocimum cannum at Gorakhpur were observed with phytoplasma suspected symptoms. The maximum disease incidence (34%) was recorded at Deoria District in case of A. donax plant with witches' broom symptom. The nested PCR using universal primer pairs (R16F2n/R16R2) confirmed the phytoplasma association with all the suspected samples. Further BLASTn and phylogenetic analysis of the sequences revealed the association of 16SrXIV-A subgroups phytoplasma with C. dactylon, O. burmannii and phytoplasma belonging to 16SrI-B subgroups with A. donax and O. cannum plants in the present study.


In a South Africa torn by civil war, Michael K sets out to take his mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. Life and Times of Michael K goes to the centre of human experience the need for an interior, spiritual life, for some connections to the world in which we live, and for purity of vision.


BACKGROUND Currently, trauma center quality benchmarking is based on risk adjusted observed-expected (O/E) mortality ratios. However, failure to account for number of patients has been recently shown to produce unreliable mortality estimates, especially for low-volume centers. This study explores the effect of reliability adjustment (RA), a statistical technique developed to eliminate bias introduced by low volume on risk-adjusted trauma center benchmarking. METHODS Analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank 2010 was performed. Patients 16 years or older with blunt or penetrating trauma and an Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 9 or greater were included. Based on the statistically accepted standards of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program methodology, risk-adjusted mortality rates were generated for each center and used to rank them accordingly. Hierarchical logistic regression modeling was then performed to adjust these rates for reliability using an empiric Bayes approach. The impact of RA was examined by (1) recalculating interfacility variations in adjusted mortality rates and (2) comparing adjusted hospital mortality quintile rankings before and after RA. RESULTS A total of 557 facilities (with 278,558 patients) were included. RA significantly reduced the variation in risk-adjusted mortality rates between centers from 14-fold (0.7–9.8%) to only 2-fold (4.4–9.6%) after RA. This reduction in variation was most profound for smaller centers. A total of 68 "best" hospitals and 18 "worst" hospitals based on current risk adjustment methods were reclassified after performing RA. CONCLUSION "Reliability adjustment" dramatically reduces variations in risk-adjusted mortality arising from statistical noise, especially for lower volume centers. Moreover, the absence of RA had a profound impact on hospital performance assessment, suggesting that nearly one of every six hospitals in National Trauma Data Bank would have been inappropriately placed among the very best or very worst quintile of rankings. RA should be considered while benchmarking trauma centers based on mortality.


Fabrication of titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film on microscope glass using sol-gel method has been studied intensively. The starting materials were titanium (IV) butoxide, ethanol, acetic acid, triton x-100, hydrochloric acid and deionized water. The materials were mixed together to form the sols. Then, the heat and ageing treatment was applied to form stable sols. The sols were then spin coated on the glass substrate to form the homogenous and transparent TiO2 thin film. The TiO2 thin film was coated at several layers using specific conditions. To evaluate the performance of thin film, the crystallinity of the thin film was determined by using the x-ray diffractometer (XRD). The change on the surface morphology was observed using atomic force microscope (AFM). The electrical property of the thin film was determined by doing the current-voltage (I-V) analysis on the thin film. It has been successfully shown that the anatase crystalline phase was observed when the TiO2 thin film was heated at 500°C. The roughness and the crystalline phase of TiO2 thin film changed drastically with the growth conditions. Finally, the effect of film preparation to the film resistivity also showed a critical aspect where we should take into account during the preparation of TiO2 thin film.


This book is a research monograph that explores the implications of the strongest minimalist thesis from an antisymmetric perspective. Three empirical domains are investigated: nominal root compounds in German and English, nominal gerunds in English and their German counterparts, and small clauses in Russian and English. A point of symmetry that has the potential of stalling the derivation emerges in the derivation of all of these constructions. Building on certain assumptions on how Merge works, this book shows that the points of symmetry can all be resolved in the same way; despite the fact that the three empirical domains under investigation are standardly derived from distinct structural configurations, such as head-head merger in the case of root compounds, head-phrase merger as it arises from standard complementation/predication structures for nominal gerunds, and phrase-phrase merger in small clauses. This book is of interest to all researchers working on syntax and its interfaces.


The following article presents the results of a cost-effectiveness analysis in which half-day and full-day intervention programs for handicapped preschoolers were compared. The research sample consisted of 39 matched pairs of handicapped 4-year-olds in nine half- and nine full-day classrooms. Program effectiveness was evaluated using cognitive and expressive language scores from a developmental inventory. Cost data were collected on personnel, facilities, equipment, transportation, and donations. The results indicated no differences in the educational outcomes associated with length of day and showed that half-day programs could serve 60% more children than full-day programs with the same budget. Of the two models examined, the half-day program appears to be the more efficient. Implications of findings for further research are considered.


This statement was developed by the National Institutes of Health Department of Energy (NIH-DOE) Joint Working Group on the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Human Genome Research (ELSI Working Group). This statement is endorsed by the National Society of Genetic Counsellors. In 1994, a highly publicised book, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve, claimed that IQ is largely genetically determined and that the differences in IQ between ethnic groups are substantially explained by genetic factors. We are especially concerned about the impact of The Bell Curve, and books developing similar themes, because we believe that the legitimate successes of the Human Genome Project in identifying genes associated with human diseases should not be used to foster an environment in which mistaken claims for genetic determination of other human traits gain undeserved credibility. Hermstein and Murray suggest that IQ explains social problems such as crime, welfare dependence, and single parenting. They state that socio-cultural barriers to personal advancement have largely been removed and, consequently, social success and high IQ are highly correlated. They assert that, to the extent that IQ is genetically determined, programmes to eliminate inequalities are thus doomed to failure. Hermstein and Murray are especially concerned that high birth rates among the poor and the "dysgenic" behaviour of women with high IQs, who are not bearing enough children, are threatening the population with genetic decline. According to them, these trends are "exerting downward pressure on the distribution of cognitive ability in the United States". The authors follow this analysis with policy recommendations. They propose eliminating welfare, which they believe subsidises birth among poor women, thus lowering the average intelligence of the population. They suggest ending remedial education programmes because the results are not worth the cost, given the claimed significant genetic determination of IQ differences. They urge the development of programmes of social support that would encourage women from the higher socio-economic classes to have more children. Neither Hermstein nor Murray are geneticists, nor have they carried out studies themselves on the genetic basis of behaviour. Their lack of training and experience in genetics does not disqualify them from evaluating genetic research nor from drawing their own conclusions. However, as geneticists and ethicists associated with the Human Genome Project, we deplore The Bell Curve's misrepresentation of the state of genetic knowledge in this area and the misuse of genetics to inform social policy. We urge consideration of the following three points: First, Hermstein and Murray invoke the authority of genetics to argue that "it is beyond significant technical dispute that cognitive ability is substantially heritable". Research in this field is still evolving, studies cited by Hermstein and Murray face significant methodological difficulties, and the validity of results quoted are disputed. Many geneticists have pointed out the enormous scientific and methodological problems in attempting to separate genetic components from environmental contributors, particularly given the intricate interplay between genes and the environment that may affect such a complex human trait as intelligence. Second, even if there was consensus on the heritability of cognitive ability, lessons from genetics are misrepresented. The authors argue that because cognitive ability is substantially heritable, it is not possible to change it and that remedial education is not worth the effort or cost. This is neither an accurate message from genetics nor a necessary lesson from efforts at remedial education. Heritability estimates are relevant only for the specific environment in which they are measured. Change the environment and the heritability of traits can change remarkably. Saying a trait has high heritability has never implied that the trait is fated to be. Height is both genetically determined and dependent on nutrition. Common conditions in which genetics play a role, such as diabetes or heart disease, can be corrected with insulin or cholesterol-lowering drugs and diet. The disabilities associated with singlegene conditions, such as phenylketonuria or Wilson disease, can also be prevented or significantly ameliorated by medical or nutritional therapy. Third, the more scientists learn about human genes the more complexity is revealed. This complexity has become apparent as more genes correlated with human genetic diseases are discovered. We are only beginning to explore the intricate relationship between genes and environment and between individual genes and the rest of the human genome. If anything, the lack of predictability from genetic information has become the rule rather than the exception. Simplistic claims about the inheritance of such a complex trait as cognitive ability are unjustifiable; moreover, as the history of eugenics shows, they are dangerous. Genetic arguments cannot and should not be used to determine or inform social policy in the areas cited by Hermstein and Murray. Since the lessons of genetics are not deterministic, they do not provide useful information on deciding whether or not to pursue various programmes to enhance the capabilities of different members of society. Those decisions are moral, social, and political ones. coright.


The dramatic increase in call center jobs has spawned numerous research about this industry and its effects on workers around the world. This review of literature covers some of these works and examines whether the gender-differentiated impact of call center work has been adequately explored. While men and women may be similarly exposed to the same stressful working environment and demanding work load, the effects are not necessarily the same. Earlier studies parenthetically cite specific effects of call center work on women such as health problems of pregnant and lactating mothers, safety concerns of women working at night, as well as conflicts between working hours and the demands of task performance and domestic and family responsibilities. A highly stressful job, coupled with graveyard shifts and unpredictable schedules, can have significant effects on women's traditional caring roles at home as well as on the gender division of labor within the household.


The regime of lubrication changes in a transient manner in many load bearing conjunctions. This is particularly true of any conjunction which is subjected to changes in contact kinematics as the result of stop-start or motion reversals and loading. One such conjunction in the IC engine is the piston-bore contact. A repercussion of these transient events under otherwise perceived steady operating condition is the underlying changes in the mechanisms giving rise to engine efficiency, such as parasitic losses, mainly due to friction. Understanding the nature of these losses is the prelude to any form of palliation.A single cylinder motocross motorbike engine's cylinder barrel is redesigned to accept wet liners with various incorporated instrumentation. The paper describes one such barrel which incorporates an instrumented floating liner for the purpose of measurement of in-cylinder friction. The principle and design of the floating liner is described. A series of tests are carried out in order to ensure the operational integrity and repeatability of the device. The basic test includes motorised running of the engine without the cylinder head installed. This renders simplified motion of the liner, subject to resistance by friction only. In a sense, under this type of motion, the liner should undergo a form of simple harmonic motion, which is verified using a number of suitably positioned accelerometers.Some more representative tests are reported under motorised conditions with the cylinder head installed. Thus, the effect of chamber pressure is introduced. However, with no combustion pressure, heat output and resulting side forces, a better understanding of tribological conditions is accrued owing to the reduced physical interactions. The results show the dominance of a mixed regime of lubrication at the dead centre reversals.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


AIM: To review trends in multiple births and associated mortality in England and Wales since 1975, in the light of trends for earlier years; to assess, within the limitations of the available data, the extent of any association between multiple birth rates and assisted conception and drugs used for subfertility. METHODS: Data collected routinely in England and Wales, between 1975 and 1994, were retrospectively reviewed. These comprised Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) data collected at the registration of live and stillbirths and deaths occurring under the age of 1 year in England and Wales from 1975 onwards. Department of Health data about NHS prescriptions dispensed outside hospitals within England for drugs which could be used in the medical management of subfertility were also included. RESULTS: The proportion of pregnancies that resulted in a registered multiple birth increased from a low of 9.9 per thousand in 1975 to 13.6 per thousand in 1994. Up to 1992, the increase was seen in all age groups except for women under 20, with the most substantial increase being in women aged 35 to 39. The rise in the rate of triplet and other higher order births was much steeper than that for all multiple births, increasing from 0.13 sets of triplets per thousand maternities in 1975, to 0.41 in 1994. Prescriptions dispensed for selected drugs that may be used for the medical management of subfertility and assisted conception became more common over this period. The fragmented nature of the data precluded direct comparison with changes in multiple birth rates, however. CONCLUSIONS: Although the causes of the rise since 1980 in multiple birth rates in general, and the dramatic rise in the triplet rate in particular, cannot be ascertained or quantified directly from routinely collected data, drugs used for subfertility and more recently, assisted conception, probably had a major role.


Gelatin in this study was extracted by an enzymatic process from the scales of three marine fish species; Lutjanus sebea (Red snapper), Lethrinus harak (Black spot emperor) and Scalus ghobban (Blue barred parrot fish). Concentration of bacteria for mass production of enzyme was done in a fermentation medium using a bio reactor. Scales were hydrolyzed at 50 0 C and the pH maintained at 12. Complete hydrolysis took between 20 and 23 days for all species. The yield for the dried gelatin was between 28.2% and 41.4% for the marine fish scales under study. Fourier transform infrared spectra showed the presence of amide bands and two other additional absorption bands, indicating the presence of amide bonds for all the three species. The amino acid composition analysis for the gelatin of three species was then done showing the presence of 16 amino acids. Glycine was the most abundant for all the three species with about 35% followed by Alanine both adding up to around 50% of the total amino acid compositions. The amount of Proline was high for red snapper at over 14.2% compared to 11.1% and 11.6% for blue barred parrot fish and black spot emperor respectively.


The process of building consumer trust in e-Commerce is based on the presence of trust features or trust attributes in the websites. Trust attributes are usually presented to the consumer by some clues on the homepage. For example, the clue 'contact us' will be linked to the trust attribute 'company address'. Consumers may examine e-Commerce websites for the existence of trust attributes. However, to date, which trust attributes contribute to the website's trustworthiness and which trust attributes give more value to consumers has not been adequately explored. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is: (1) to look for relevant trust attributes that should be placed in e-Commerce websites and (2) to identify the importance ranking of trust attributes that contribute to the trustworthiness of e-Commerce website. Five e-Commerce trust models were used for deriving the trust attributes. An online survey that received 1230 respondents was carried out to investigate the importance ranking of important trust attributes. This paper contributes to the discussion on how to build trust in e-Commerce for various stakeholders that include consumers, business organizations, system developers, and also to the researchers.


Maternal and infant mortality has reduced over the years in sub-Saharan African but it is still the highest globally. Maternal Mortality Ratio in this region was approximately 66% (201,000) with 45% decrease in Infant Mortality rate between the periods of 1990 and 2015. Women on this part of the world face 15 times the dangers of childbirth and pregnancy situations as compared to those in the developed countries, children on the other hand are more than 14 times more likely to die before attaining age 5 than children in the developed world. This is partly because of challenges of patient referral. Referral is when a health professional at a lower health facility requests that a patient should seek for healthcare services at a higher health facility. The key among other challenges in referring a patient to a higher health facility from rural communities in sub-Saharan is the means of transport. This significantly and negatively affected the achievement of Maternal and Child health outcome in spite of the good works ongoing in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the targets of the goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which is to Ensure Healthy Lives and Wellbeing for all at all ages, the issue of geographic and physical barriers to healthcare facilities should be well looked into. Government and non-governmental organizations should help in the building of health facilities in rural and deprived communities, provide ambulance services, provide adequate health officers and drugs. All these coupled with good road network would help people in these communities. Also, primary healthcare should be placed within the cultural settings of these people, so that they can embrace and easily access it to save mothers and children from preventable deaths. Finally, other sub-Saharan African countries should adopt the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound system of primary healthcare provision introduced in Ghana to help reduce the maternal and infant mortality rate drastically by 2030.


BACKGROUND
A dark metallic-appearing smear, resembling a lead pencil mark, may be seen on a ceramic femoral head component at revision total hip arthroplasty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that such a mark on a retrieved ceramic femoral head is associated with increased surface roughness of the head and increased polyethylene liner wear in total hip replacement.

METHODS
Fifteen ceramic prosthetic femoral heads retrieved from fifteen patients at revision arthroplasty were examined in this study. Thirteen heads had been in vivo for an average of 10.8 years (range, 7.8 to 14.2 years). The remaining two heads had been in vivo for less than one month. The surface roughness characteristics of the explanted ceramic heads, the linear wear of the polyethylene liner, and the patient activity levels after the primary replacement and before the revision were determined.

RESULTS
Four of the thirteen ceramic heads that had been in vivo for >/=7.8 years had severe smears (>6% of the surface area), and the remaining nine heads had slight smears (<6% of the surface area). The two heads that had been in vivo less than one month had severe smears. The mean Ra and Rpm, the values for surface roughness, were 44.95 nm and 571.15 nm, respectively, in the hips with slightly smeared regions and 180.77 nm and 1245.88 nm, respectively, in the hips with severely smeared regions (p = 0.002). The mean linear liner wear rate was 0.10 mm/yr in the hips with slightly smeared heads and 0.19 mm/yr in the hips with severely smeared heads (p = 0.002). The activity score for all patients was 5 or 6 points on a 6-point scale.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study confirm the hypothesis that a visual dark metallic-appearing smear on a ceramic femoral head correlates with increased surface roughness of the head and increased polyethylene wear. These findings imply that contact of a ceramic femoral head with a metallic material, such as may occur with femoral head reduction or dislocation of a total hip replacement, is best avoided to prevent this metallic smear phenomenon.


Abstract. Simultaneous observations from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), launched together onboard the European MetOp platform in October 2006, are used to retrieve an upper tropospheric content of carbon dioxide (CO2) covering the range 11–15 km (100–300 hPa), in clear-sky conditions, in the tropics, over sea, for the first year of operation of MetOp (January 2008–December 2008). With its very high spectral resolution, IASI provides fourteen channels in the 15 μm band highly sensitive to CO2 with reduced sensitivities to other atmospheric variables. IASI observations, sensitive to both CO2 and temperature, are used in conjunction with AMSU observations, only sensitive to temperature, to decorrelate both signals through a non-linear inference scheme based on neural networks. A key point of this approach is that no use is made of prior information in terms of CO2 seasonality, trend, or geographical patterns. The precision of the retrieval is estimated to be about 2.0 ppmv (~0.5%) for a 5°×5° spatial resolution on a monthly time scale. Features of the retrieved CO2 space-time distribution include: (1) a strong seasonal cycle of 4 ppmv in the northern tropics with a maximum in June–July and a minimum in September–October. This cycle is characterized by a backward two-months lag as compared to the surface, by a backward one-month lag as compared to measurements performed at 11 km, and by a forward one-month lag as compared to observations performed at the tropopause (16 km). This is likely due to the time-lag of CO2 cycle while transported from the surface to the upper troposphere; (2) a more complex seasonal cycle in the southern tropics, in agreement with in-situ measurements; (3) a latitudinal variation of CO2 shifting from a South-to-North increase of 3.5 ppmv in boreal spring to a South-to-North decrease of 1.5 ppmv in the fall, in excellent agreement with tropospheric aircraft measurements; (4) signatures of CO2 emissions transported to the upper troposphere. In addition to bringing an improved view of CO2 distribution, these results from IASI should provide an additional means to observe and understand atmospheric transport pathways of CO2 from the surface to the upper troposphere.


Quantitative predictions of egocentric distance and geographical slant perception may be derived from dense coding (scale expansion) in angular variables (Durgin & Li, 2011). In particular, distance/height matching tasks can be accounted for by measured biases in perceived direction (elevation) relative to the horizon (Li et al., 2011). However, substantial interest has accumulated for studies arguing that perception is affected by physiological factors such as BMI and age. We used a cross-sectional methodology to look at space perception across the adult lifespan (ages 18-72). We examined performance in several distance, height, and slant tasks including estimation and perceptual matching. We also measured factors concerning specialized knowledge (golfers and skiers know more about distance and slope estimation, respectively), physiology (age, BMI), and personality (e.g., Agreeableness) that might influence performance. Participants (N=106) included college students (N=58), but also non-student members of the nearby community (N=48). Consistent with coding efficiency theory, slant, distance and height estimates closely accord with the angular expansion account: Distances were underestimated (0.72 of actual distance); height was overestimated (1.11 of actual height) and egocentric distance-height matching performance (mean ratio: 1.53) accorded well with the ratio between estimate ratios (i.e., 1.54). Contrary to the action-ability hypothesis, participants defined as obese by CDC guidelines (mean BMI = 35.2) tended to underestimate distance more than those defined as normal. Slant overestimates were consistent with scale expansion, but were also affected reliably both by knowledge and by age. Although obese adults tended to give higher slant estimates, the reliable effect of age on slant estimation was opposite to the predictions of action ability (older adults gave lower slant estimates). Whereas some aspects of the slant results could be used to support an action-ability account, the data as a whole contradict the action-ability account. The data quantitatively support the coding efficiency account. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Background and Purpose The most powerful predictors of functional recovery and eventual home discharge among stroke survivors are the initial severity of the stroke and the patient's age. We analyzed a large population of stroke rehabilitation admissions by stratifying subgroups with coherent outcomes in an attempt to define potentially more efficient patterns of providing rehabilitation care. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 520 consecutive patients admitted to a rehabilitation hospital (1 calendar year) with cerebral infarction or hemorrhage. Side of index stroke, age, and functional disability at admission were the independent variables. Change in functional disability and home versus nursing home discharge were the dependent measures. Results Recovery was overall most closely related to admission severity and age, but the relations between recovery and independent measures were complex. Patients aged <55 years all were discharged home whatever their initial severity. Patients admitted with modest functional disability were almost all discharged home (96%), whatever their age. For the remainder of the patients, admission severity and age interacted to create two groups with very different prospects for home discharge (P < .0001). Within the groups that eventually returned home, there were very different rates of functional improvement that were directly related to length of hospital stay. Conclusions Standard clinical measures available at rehabilitation admission carry enough predictive power to define management strategies for stroke survivors. A management algorithm is proposed that might increase the efficiency of stroke rehabilitation programs and might allow comparisons of efficacy between different treatment settings.


Extensive reading improves fluency and there is a real need in the ELT classroom for motivating graded material that will encourage students to read. In 1976, Steve Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak started a computer company called Apple in a garage in California. Today, hundreds of millions of people use the technology that Steve Jobs and his team at Apple helped to create. A fascinating and informative biography.


Coffee contains polyphenolic antioxidants and caffeine, which may favorably affect pulmonary function. Therefore, the authors studied cross-sectional associations (1987-1989) between coffee intake and pulmonary function in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, a population-based cohort study (analytic sample = 10,658). They also conducted analyses stratified by smoking status, since smoking is a strong risk factor for respiratory disease and could influence the effects of caffeine and antioxidants. Self-reported coffee intake was categorized as rare/never, <7 cups/week, 1 cup/day, 2-3 cups/day, and >or=4 cups/day. Pulmonary function was characterized by the spirometric measures forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)). After adjustment for demographic factors, lifestyle characteristics, and dietary factors, pulmonary function values increased across increasing categories of coffee consumption in never and former smokers but not in current smokers. In never or former smokers who consumed >or=4 cups of coffee daily, FVC and FEV(1) were 2%-3% greater than in never or former smokers who rarely/never consumed coffee (P(trend) values: in never smokers, 0.04 for FVC and 0.07 for FEV(1); in former smokers, <0.001 for FVC and <0.001 for FEV(1)). These data show a possible beneficial effect of coffee (or a coffee ingredient) on pulmonary function, but it appears to be limited to nonsmokers.


The risk assessment of chromium in drinking water is complex. To better understand this complexity, the essential information on exposure, analytical and treatment methods, toxicology, and mode of action (MOA) on which agencies based their risk assessments are provided. Humans are exposed to an average of 0.2–2 μg hexavalent chromium per liter in drinking water through natural erosion of soil and rocks or by contamination from industrial sources. Internationally, drinking water limits for total chromium range from 50 to 100 μg/L. These values are based on intestinal toxicity data from experimental animals, since human toxicity data via the oral route are lacking. MOA analysis supports a progression from noncancer to cancer effects via a nonmutagenic MOA and therefore a threshold approach is appropriate for the risk assessment of chromium in drinking water. Drinking water limits derived from this approach are measureable by available analytical methods and achievable by available treatment technologies, and are protective of both cancer and noncancer effects.


Originally published in France between 1876 and 1888, Auguste Racinet's "Le Costume historique" was the most wide-ranging and intelligent study of clothing ever published. Covering the world history of costume, dress, and style from antiquity through the end of the 19th century, the great work - 'consolidated' in 1888 into 6 volumes containing nearly 500 plates - remains, to this day, completely unique in its scope and detail. Racinet's organization by culture and subject has been preserved in TASCHEN's magnificent reprint, as have excerpts from his delightful descriptions and often witty comments. Perusing these beautifully detailed and exquisitely colored illustrations, you'll discover everything from the garb of ancient Etruscans to traditional Eskimo attire to 19th century French women's couture. Though Racinet's study spans the globe from ancient times through his own, his focus is on European clothing from the Middle Ages to the 1880s and this subject is treated with exceeding passion and attention to detail. "The Costume History" is an absolutely invaluable reference for students, designers, artists, illustrators, and historians; it is also an immensely fascinating and inspirational book for anyone with an interest in clothing and style.


Objective: Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical parasitic disease caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. Schistosoma japonicum is zoonotic in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia, with bovines acting as major reservoirs of human infection. The primary objective of the trial was to examine the impact of a combination of human mass chemotherapy, snail control through mollusciciding, and SjCTPI bovine vaccination on the rate of human infection. Methods: A 5-year phase IIIa cluster randomized control trial was conducted among 18 schistosomiasis-endemic villages comprising 18,221 residents in Northern Samar, The Philippines. Results: Overall, bovine vaccination resulted in a statistically significant decrease in human infection (relative risk [RR] = 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.69 to 0.82) across all trial follow-ups. The best outcome of the trial was when bovine vaccination was combined with snail mollusciciding. This combination resulted in a 31% reduction (RR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.61 to 0.78) in human infection. Conclusion: This is the first trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of a bovine vaccine for schistosomiasis in reducing human schistosome infection. The trial is registered with Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12619001048178). © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.


Cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmannii) is widely used by the public as a food ingredient and contains chemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, saponins, and terpenoids which function as an antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus. This study aims to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration of cinnamon ethanol extract on Staphyloccocus aureus. This research is experimental with posttest only control group design through the tube dilution method. The results of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) study showed no clarity at concentrations of 30% and 40%. The results of the Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) obtained the number of colonies at a level of 10% by 51 CFU / plate, 20% by 27 CFU / plate, 30% by 6 CFU / plate and 40% by 0 CFU / plate. Based on the results of this study concluded that MIC cinnamon ethanol extract was 30%, and MBC cinnamon ethanol extract was 40%.


It was recently pointed out that topological liquid phases arising in the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) are not required to be rotationally invariant, as most variational wavefunctions proposed to date have been. Instead, they possess a geometric degree of freedom corresponding to a shear deformation that acts like an intrinsic metric. We apply this idea to a system with an anisotropic band mass, as is intrinsically the case in many-valley semiconductors such as AlAs and Si, or in isotropic systems like GaAs in the presence of a tilted magnetic field, which breaks the rotational invariance. We perform exact diagonalization calculations with periodic boundary conditions (torus geometry) for various filling fractions in the lowest, first and second Landau levels. In the lowest Landau level, we demonstrate that FQHE states generally survive the breakdown of rotational invariance by moderate values of the band mass anisotropy. At 1/3 filling, we generate a variational family of Laughlin wavefunctions parametrized by the metric degree of freedom. We show that the intrinsic metric of the Laughlin state adjusts as the band mass anisotropy or the dielectric tensor are varied, while the phase remains robust. In the n=1 Landau level, mass anisotropy drives transitions between incompressible liquids and compressible states with charge density wave ordering. In n>=2 Landau levels, mass anisotropy selects and enhances stripe ordering with compatible wave vectors at partial 1/3 and 1/2 fillings.


This paper proposes a model inference framework for production systems distributed over multiple devices exchanging thousands of events. Building models for such systems and keeping them up to date is time consuming and expensive, thus not adequately taken care of. Our framework, called Autofunk and designed with the collaboration of our industrial partner Michelin, combines formal model-driven engineering and expert systems to infer formal models that can be used to perform analyses, e.g. test case generation, or help diagnose faults in production by highlighting faulty behaviours. Given a large set of production events, we infer exact models that only capture the functional behaviours of a system under analysis. In this paper, we introduce and evaluate our framework on a real Michelin manufacturing system, showing that it can be used in practice.


This study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore integrative psychotherapists' lived experience of recognising a personal blind spot in their therapeutic work. The five female participants aged between 42-60 years have between two and twenty years clinical experience. Each participant was interviewed on two separate occasions, with a period of one month between interviews. The inductive approach of IPA sought to capture the richness and complexity of participants' lived emotional experiences. Given the methodological challenges uncovering the implicit domain of participants' blind spots, researcher reflexivity served as a secondary but integral data source and provided the experiential context from which meaningful findings emerged.

Three superordinate themes and seven subthemes emerged from the interviews: Feeling under pressure, Facing a Blind Spot and finding the missing piece, and Holding my own. Theme one explores participants' loss of self-awareness when personal vulnerabilities are triggered by client work. It also describes maladaptive coping skills such as avoidance, employed to cope with feelings of vulnerability and shame. Theme two describes the process of facing a personal blind spot where participants recognise the impact of their personal needs and history on their therapeutic work. Theme three describes how self-compassion helps participants develop an expanded sense of self-awareness and capacity to be emotionally responsive to their clients despite their personal difficulties. The findings suggest that when shame is hidden and unacknowledged, it impacts on therapists' ability to be emotionally responsive to their clients' concerns. Furthermore, unacknowledged shame is a primary cause of therapeutic ruptures in their clinical work. The study recommends that continued research be undertaken into resilience towards shame in order to prepare and protect therapists against the normative force of subjective negative self-appraisal when they experience feelings of incompetence in their therapeutic work. Some aspects of these findings can be found in previous research on countertransference with participants of varying experience and varying therapeutic modalities. Given the centrality of the therapeutic relationship as a vehicle for successful therapeutic outcome, research that furthers our understanding of therapist emotional resilience and personal efficacy can help guide training and supervision.


The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project has been conducting a photometric survey of transiting planets orbiting bright stars for over 10 years. The KELT images have a pixel scale of ∼23″ pixel−1—very similar to that of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)—as well as a large point-spread function, and the KELT reduction pipeline uses a weighted photometric aperture with radius 3′. At this angular scale, multiple stars are typically blended in the photometric apertures. In order to identify false positives and confirm transiting exoplanets, we have assembled a follow-up network (KELT-FUN) to conduct imaging with spatial resolution, cadence, and photometric precision higher than the KELT telescopes, as well as spectroscopic observations of the candidate host stars. The KELT-FUN team has followed-up over 1600 planet candidates since 2011, resulting in more than 20 planet discoveries. Excluding ∼450 false alarms of non-astrophysical origin (i.e., instrumental noise or systematics), we present an all-sky catalog of the 1128 bright stars (6 < V < 13) that show transit-like features in the KELT light curves, but which were subsequently determined to be astrophysical false positives (FPs) after photometric and/or spectroscopic follow-up observations. The KELT-FUN team continues to pursue KELT and other planet candidates and will eventually follow up certain classes of TESS candidates. The KELT FP catalog will help minimize the duplication of follow-up observations by current and future transit surveys such as TESS.


A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit via avatars. Content in virtual worlds such as Second Life or OpenSimulator is increasingly presented using three-dimensional (3D) dynamic presentation technologies that challenge traditional search technologies. As 3D environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, the need for a data crawler and distributed search service will continue to grow. By increasing the visibility of content across virtual world servers in order to better collect and integrate the 3D data we can also improve the crawling and searching efficiency and accuracy by avoiding crawling unchanged regions or downloading unmodified objects that already exist in our collection. This will help to save bandwidth resources and Internet traffic during the content collection and indexing and, for a fixed amount of bandwidth, maximize the freshness of the collection. This work presents a new services paradigm for virtual world crawler interaction that is co-operative and exploits information about 3D objects in the virtual world. Our approach supports analyzing redundant information crawled from virtual worlds in order to decrease the amount of data collected by crawlers, keep search engine collections up to date, and provide an efficient mechanism for collecting and searching information from multiple virtual worlds. Experimental results with data crawled from Second Life servers demonstrate that our approach provides the ability to save crawling bandwidth consumption, to explore more hidden objects and new regions to be crawled that facilitate the search service in virtual worlds.


The Humid Forest Zones (HFZ) of Central Africa, have relatively been understudied in the area of their potentials as large mammals habitats. This is particularly true for forest elephants which are predominantly migratory across large ecological landscapes. This migratory phenomenon makes it difficult to state with certainty their status and habitat need in time and space that can help conservationist and policy makers to designate /classify a landscape as a large mammal (elephant) habitat. It was from this backdrop of uncertainty that this study on the Assessment of the Takamanda-Mone landscape as a potential forest habitat for the African forest elephant ( Loxodonta africana cyclotis ) in the South West Region of Cameroon was consecrated. The study in order to achieve set objectives, made use of Socio-economic surveys that involved the use of questionnaire, some selected Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools. Biological assessment techniques such as transects, poacher guided survey as well as the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS), techniques were employed for data collection and analysis. Results revealed that the Takamanda-Mone landscape is a potential forest habitat for the African forest elephant ( Loxodonta africana cyclotis ). Their presence and migration in and out of the study area is known to be affected by the two seasons (dry and wet) that prevail in the areas. Their presence was found to be more marked in the wet and low in the dry season.  Results further revealed that evidences of the African forest elephants ( Loxodonta africana cyclotis ) presence in the study area ranged from physical encounters and observation of the animals, left over of crops destroyed, recorded vocalisations of the animals far-off villages, forest fruits devastation, fresh and old forest tracks, footprints, feeding signs, debarking and felling of trees to dung droppings. The evidence of direct encounter and observing the animals was strongly associated with the older population (40 years and above). Result also showed that during some of the direct encounters with the population, the African forest elephants were known to have killed about 10 persons and injured about 17persons over the past 25 years in the study area. Conclusively, the study area is a habitat for the African Forest elephant ( Loxodonta africana cyclotis ) and is being recommended to be designated as a habitat for the protection of species and other wildlife species.


ABSTRACT Right-wing Eurosceptic political groups gained ground in the elections for the European Parliament in May 2014. The electoral victory of right-wing Euroscepticism was accompanied by a concern that populism is (once again) spreading in Europe. Associating right-wing Eurosceptics with populism raises the question of whether critiques of populism can be directly extended to right-wing Euroscepticism. By reconstructing the right-wing Eurosceptic concept of 'the people,' this article demonstrates that the Eurosceptic concept of the people has a dual meaning that encompasses both a transnational and a national concept of the people. The article concludes that while Euroscepticism shares ideological features with populism, it is problematic, due to the internal structure of the promoted concept of the people and the European political environment, directly to extend recent critiques of populism to right-wing Euroscepticism.


COMPARISON OF REDUCTIVE DEHALOGENATION BY MICROBIAL POPULATIONS ON ADSORPTIVE VERSUS NON-ADSORPTIVE BIOREACTOR SUPPORT MATERIALS by Linda 5. Colella The overall performance of two bioreactors was studied. The reactor with a wood-based activated carbon as a biosupport completely dehalogenated a higher feed concentration of trichlorophenol than that with Manville beads. The carbon reactor was further characterized by the development of adsorption isotherms for most of the class of chlorophenols. Competitive adsorption wag investigated using an anaerobic medium, and a lignite-based carbon was studied for comparison. The order of adsorption strength on both carbons is trichloropenols> dichlorophenols> monochlorophenols, with the woodbased carbon having higher overall adsorption than the lignite-based carbon. The presence of the anaerobic medium decreased the extent of chlorophenol adsorption at lower liquid concentrations. The investigation of the effect of a biofilm on the adsorption characteristics of the activated carbon showed that the biofilm decreased the rate at which adsorption equilibrium of 4-CP was obtained. However, the equilibrium itself was not effected. It was also determined that the organisms serve as adsorptive material. COMPARISON OF REDUCTIVE DEHALOGENATION BY MICROBIAL POPULATIONS ON ADSORPTIVE VERSUS NON-ADSORPTIVE BIOREACTOR SUPPORT MATERIALS


It has long been debated whether it is possible to distinguish between secular and religious elements in 'Hindu law'. At present, the general view is that law cannot be separated from religion in the Indic context, not least because, according to the Shastras, Veda is the chief source of Dharma. Nevertheless, it is recognized that the Dharmashastra incorporates diverse elements: (a) explicitly stated norms of two types: (1) rules derived from priestly ritual codes, and (2) precepts drawn from the Arthashastra (political science) tradition; as well as (b) recognition of the authority of customs specific to region, caste, or profession. Although all these are subsumed within the Brahmanical system, we can discern different conceptions of the relative authority of brahmins and the ruler. This distinction of overlapping spheres of authority is reflected in the treatment of misconduct: the same act may entail punishment by the king as well as distant but automatic consequences due to the operation of karma, consequences that can be averted only by expiatory ritual performances. The ritual impurity of a sin also can have social consequences such as stigma or ostracism, which is likewise removed though expiation. Despite the interlinking of these spheres, their fundamental distinctness is acknowledged in the legal process prescribed in the codes as well as in the glimpses we have of actual legal practice in pre-modern India. Although the Dharmashastra overall represents a system of natural law based on the Brahmanical religious cosmology, it contains within it elements derived from a seemingly positive legal system based on the supreme authority of the king in settling disputes. Further, the distinction between brahmin and royal authority corresponds to a distinction, not between religion and law, but between two parallel and complementary legal subsystems, each with its own set of standards, procedures, and sanctions.


The tritium-helium (3H/3He) dating method has been applied to the Chalk (fractured microporous limestone) aquifer
in the UK for the first time. An evaluation of the results from diffusion cell versus pumped tube sampling showed generally
good agreement between the two techniques. Measurements of noble gas (Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) concentrations revealed
typically low amounts of excess air in the aquifer, with little variation around a mean of 1.3 ccSTP/kg suggesting the
predominance of steady recharge via the microporosity rather than via the fracture network. Chalk boreholes are generally
unlined, with discrete inflows from a few fracture-related flow horizons. Despite this, attempts to detect age layering in
the water column by suspension of diffusion samplers or by slow-pumping were unsuccessful. However, when shortscreen
piezometers were used, better evidence for an age-depth relationship was obtained. Assuming a piston-flow model
of water movement, a vertical flow rate of ~3.3 m/yr was indicated. However, a more complex picture of movement was
obtained by comparing total 3H activity (including the 3He decay equivalent) against SF6 concentration, which suggested
the existence of various modes of mixing. This would be consistent with the high degree of fracturing that exists in the
Chalk.


BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology is an ideal tool for implementing IoT (Internet of Things) applications, as it consumes little power and provides wireless communication. There are many applications using this technology already available on the market. These products are classified as personal applications while using the BLE-supported tablets or smartphones for transmitting data and are not institutional. There are numerous studies showing that the number of IoT sensors and devices will increase rapidly. However, personal approaches cannot manage a large number of devices. In this study, a BLE gateway device which interconnects BLE and WiFi networks was developed. This device is also capable of transmitting IoT node information to a server or cloud on the Internet. The proposed design uses only BLE and WiFi stack chips and does not require an additional microcontroller unit for running gateway applications. This makes the design cost-effective and power efficient, which are important for the IoT environment.


Big Data analytics is increasingly performed using the MapReduce paradigm and its open-source implementation Hadoop as a platform choice. Many applications associated with live business intelligence are written as complex data analysis programs defined by directed acyclic graphs of MapReduce jobs. An increasing number of these applications have additional requirements for completion time guarantees. The advent of cloud computing brings a competitive alternative solution for data analytic problems while it also introduces new challenges in provisioning clusters that provide best cost-performance trade-offs. In this dissertation, we aim to develop a performance evaluation framework that enables automatic resource management for MapReduce applications in achieving different optimization goals. It consists of the following components: (1) a performance modeling framework that estimates the completion time of a given MapReduce application when executed on a Hadoop cluster according to its input data sets, the job settings and the amount of allocated resources for processing it; (2) a resource allocation strategy for deadline-driven MapReduce applications that automatically tailors and controls the resource allocation on a shared Hadoop cluster to different applications to achieve their (soft) deadlines; (3) a simulator-based solution to the resource provision problem in public cloud environment that guides the users to determine the types and amount of resources that should lease from the service provider for achieving different goals; (4) an optimization strategy to automatically determine the optimal job settings within a MapReduce application for efficient execution and resource usage. We validate the accuracy, efficiency, and performance benefits of the proposed framework using a set of realistic MapReduce applications on both private cluster and public cloud environment. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Computer and Information Science First Advisor Boon T. Loo Second Advisor Insup Lee


Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with worsened outcomes following severe injury. However, clinical studies evaluating the effect of DM on outcomes in patients suffering traumatic brain injury (TBI) are currently lacking. Methods: This was a National Trauma Databank (NTDB) study over a 5-year period. Patients with DM were matched with victims of isolated TBI without DM in a 1:2 ratio. Outcomes included mortality, hospital and surgical intensive care unit (SICU) length of stay, ventilator days and discharge disposition. Results: Of the 35 005 patients with isolated TBI, 636 (1.8%) cases had documented DM. After matching 1272 counterparts without DM, no differences with regards to demographic and injury characteristics were observed comparing the two groups. Overall mortality in the study population was 18.8% (n = 358), with a significantly increased in-hospital mortality in patients with vs without DM [22.6% vs 16.8%; OR (95% CI): 1.45 (1.14–1.83); p = 0.002]. Patients with DM were significantly less frequently discharged home compared to their counterparts without DM [38.9% vs 46.1%; OR (95% CI): 0.75 (0.60–0.93); p = 0.008]. Conclusion: Traumatic brain injury in conjunction with diabetes mellitus is associated with an almost 1.5-fold increased mortality while compared to patients with isolated TBI without diabetes mellitus. Prospective validation of these findings is warranted to determine the underlying aetiology.


When corporate scandals break out, a review of corporate governance practices follows and fresh regulation is introduced. However, the public debate on the standards of acceptable corporate behavior appears devoid of moral expectations. Our corporations should not only be legal and economic beings but moral ones too. Gandhi's concept of "trusteeship" can serve as a philosophical foundation for businesses and provide requisite moral guidance.


Handedness has been extensively studied because of its relationship with language and the over-representation of left-handers in some neurodevelopmental disorders. Using data from the UK Biobank, 23andMe and the International Handedness Consortium, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of handedness ( N  = 1,766,671). We found 41 loci associated ( P  < 5 × 10 −8 ) with left-handedness and 7 associated with ambidexterity. Tissue-enrichment analysis implicated the CNS in the aetiology of handedness. Pathways including regulation of microtubules and brain morphology were also highlighted. We found suggestive positive genetic correlations between left-handedness and neuropsychiatric traits, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Furthermore, the genetic correlation between left-handedness and ambidexterity is low ( r G  = 0.26), which implies that these traits are largely influenced by different genetic mechanisms. Our findings suggest that handedness is highly polygenic and that the genetic variants that predispose to left-handedness may underlie part of the association with some psychiatric disorders. A genome-wide association study of 1.7 million individuals identified 41 genetic variants associated with left-handedness and 7 associated with ambidexterity. The genetic correlation between the traits was low, thereby implying different aetiologies.


I/O is the critical bottleneck for data-intensive scientific applications on HPC systems and leadership-class machines. Applications running on these systems may encounter bottlenecks because the I/O systems cannot handle the overwhelming intensity and volume of I/O requests. Applications and systems use I/O forwarding to aggregate and delegate I/O requests to storage systems. In this paper, we present two optimization techniques at the I/O forwarding layer to further reduce I/O bottlenecks on leadership-class computing systems. The first optimization pipelines data transfers so that I/O requests overlap at the network and file system layer. The second optimization merges I/O requests and schedules I/O request delegation to the back-end parallel file systems. We implemented these optimizations in the I/O Forwarding Scalability Layer and them on the T2K Open Supercomputer at the University of Tokyo and the Surveyor Blue Gene/P system at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility. On both systems, the optimizations improved application I/O throughput, but highlighted additional areas of I/O contention at the I/O forwarding layer that we plan to address.


In view of the tobacco provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Decision of the Sixth Conference of the Parties of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control enjoining parties to explore possible legal options to minimize the risk of the tobacco industry making undue use of trade and investments rules to challenge tobacco control measures, this paper explores and analyzes the practice of safeguarding specific sectors in trade and investment negotiations. Safeguarding a sector, be it tobacco control or the environment, in a trade and investment agreement involves legalizing the integration of the sector in the trade treaty primarily by explicitly acknowledging said sector in the instrument and encouraging compliance with a treaty or the standards it has set. This is primarily accomplished through (1) specific exception (or modified general exception); (2) partial exclusion; and, (3) full exclusion. The tobacco provision in the TPP, a treaty among twelve (12) countries, is an example of a partial exclusion as this involves the option to exclude tobacco control measures from the investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms chapter. The trend in integrating the environment and labor sectors in TIAs also involves enabling better enforcement of treaty standards previously agreed on. In United States free trade agreements, this requires: (1) Adoption of policies (including process and mechanisms for implementation); (2) public participation in decision-making; (3) inter-ministerial collaboration; and, (4) dispute settlement mechanisms. Knowledge of the extent by which a sector can be safeguarded in trade and investment agreements can inform discussion around strengthening FCTC implementation.


With the development of satellite remote sensing technology, more and more requirements are put forward on the timeliness and stability of the satellite weather service system. The FY satellite rainfall estimate day knock off product algorithm runs longer, about 20 minutes, which affects the estimated rainfall product generated timeliness. Research and development of parallel optimization algorithms based on the needs of satellite meteorological services and their effectiveness in practical applications are necessary ways to enhance the high-performance and high-availability capabilities of satellite meteorological services. So aiming at this problem, we started the parallel algorithm research based on the analysis of precipitation estimation algorithm. Firstly, we explained the steps of precipitation estimated date knock off product algorithm; secondly, we analyzed the four main calculation module calculating the amount of algorithms; thirdly, multithreaded parallel algorithm and MPI parallelization was designed. Finally, the multithreaded parallel and MPI parallelization were realized. Experimental results show that the multithreaded parallel and MPI parallelization algorithm could greatly improve the overall degree of computational efficiency. And, MPI parallelization mode has a higher operating efficiency. The performance of parallel processing is closely related to the architecture of the computer. From the perspective of service scheduling and product algorithms, the MPI parallelization approach is adopted to achieve the purpose of improving service quality.