Diagnostic language assessment has received increased research interest in recent years, with particular attention on methods through which diagnostic information can be gleaned from standardized proficiency tests. However, diagnostic procedures in the broader sense have been inadequately theorized to date, with the result that there is still little agreement on precisely what diagnosis in second and foreign language learning actually entails. In order to address this problem, this article investigated how diagnosis is theorized and carried out in a diverse range of professions with a view to finding commonalities that can be applied to the context of language assessment. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals from the fields of car mechanics, IT systems support, medicine, psychology and education. Data were then coded, yielding five macro-categories that fit the entire data set: (i) definitions of diagnosis, (ii) means of diagnosis, (iii) key players, (iv) diagnostic procedures, (v) treatment/follow-up. Based on findings within these categories, a set of five tentative principles of diagnostic language assessment is drawn-up, as well as a list of implications for future research.


Research Question: How can the concept of Greening Goliaths and Emerging Davids be applied to better understand the sustainabile transformation of the fashion industry? Purpose: This paper sets out to analyze two approaches to sustainability within the fashion industry; A firm adopting CSR initiatives into their business strategy versus a sustainable brand. These approaches are explored within the framework of Greening Goliaths and Emerging Davids to recognize their contribution to the sustainable transformation of the fashion industry.Method: A qualitative approach to our case study was taken in which we analyze and measure the Swedish fast fashion company, H&M and an American eco-friendly fashion label, Reformation. A semi-formal phone interview with an expert on sustainability in the fashion industry gave us further knowledge of how the two approaches can be combined for the industry to become more sustainable. A model was developed that aided the analysis as well as the discussion of the empirical findings.Conclusion: Our conclusions found that the sustainable brand, Reformation can be categorized as an Emerging David and is in the Take-off stage. In order to gain a larger market share an contribute to the sustainable transformation of the industry Reformation will need to continue process innovation to lower their price point. H&M was initially categorized as a Greening Goliath however upon further analysis we believe they are shifting to become and Environmental David leading the sustainable transformation of the industry. In order for a sustainable transformation of the fashion industry there needs to be a co-evolution of both Greening Goliaths and Emerging Davids working together for a sustainable future.


We demonstrate that bilayer graphene exhibits strong nonlinear optical response in the terahertz frequency regime. The electric field strength required to generate single-frequency and triple-frequency nonlinear optical responses comparable to the linear optical response is only moderate and can be easily achieved in laboratory. This strong nonlinear optical response persists even in room temperature. This suggests that bilayer graphene can potentially be utilized in nonlinear terahertz photonics.


There is a growing recognition that the concentration of risk or venture capital in so few communities presents not only a challenge for the start-ups emerging from the many university entrepreneurial programs, incubators, and accelerators, but also is having a negative impact on the overall economy. Simultaneously, advancements in technology have undoubtedly improved the efficiency and profitability of many, if not most, industries. However, this has come at the expense of blue-collar jobs—and subsequently, the middle class. Moreover, with the concentration of venture capital in Silicon Valley, Boston, and now New York City, the companies located in those cities receive the lion's share of funding and enjoy the associated economic benefits of innovation and technological advancement—vibrant and expanding employment opportunities and wealth creation. This double-whammy of job losses across much of the country and concentrated wealth creation in few communities has come to the attention of researchers, forward-thinking community and family foundations, and wealthy individuals concerned with broadening the economic opportunities that innovation and technological advancement provide. The necessity to mobilize capital on a localized or regionalized basis has been labeled Place-Based Impact Investing. This article will review the research and conclusions that have fueled the need for Place-Based Impact Investing, identify the current thought leaders, and describe some of the early efforts at mobilizing "legacy capital" into communities to support the growing but underfunded innovative companies. We also will explore some of the new methods, vehicles, and overlooked tax laws that can accelerate the mobilization of capital on a more geographic and meritocratic manner.


We describe how drift-diffusion (DD) processes – systems familiar in physics – can be used to model evidence accumulation and decision-making in two-alternative, forced choice tasks. We sketch the derivation of these stochastic differential equations from biophysically-detailed models of spiking neurons. DD processes are also continuum limits of the sequential probability ratio test and are therefore optimal in the sense that they deliver decisions of specified accuracy in the shortest possible time. This leaves open the critical balance of accuracy and speed. Using the DD model, we derive a speed-accuracy tradeoff that optimizes reward rate for a simple perceptual decision task, compare human performance with this benchmark, and discuss possible reasons for prevalent sub-optimality, focussing on the question of uncertain estimates of key parameters. We present an alternative theory of robust decisions that allows for uncertainty, and show that its predictions provide better fits to experimental data than a more prevalent account that emphasises a commitment to accuracy. The article illustrates how mathematical models can illuminate the neural basis of cognitive processes.


The objective of this paper is to detect and analyze risky driving behaviour characteristics on the basis of smartphone data, with focus on key risk indicators, namely the number of harsh driving events and the use of mobile phone while driving. Driving behaviour analytics data from a naturalistic driving experiment are exploited in this research recorded by smartphone devices. The driving indicators that are collected include distance travelled, speed, accelerations, brakings, turnings, cornerings, and related 'events' in the form of harsh maneuvers (e.g. harsh acceleration, braking, etc.), as well as mobile phone use. One hundred drivers participated in the designed experiment during a 4-months timeframe and a large database of 18,850 trips was built. The results of this research reveal that distraction originating from smartphone usage has a serious impact on the number of harsh events that occur per kilometer and subsequently on the relative crash risk. Furthermore, mobile phone use while driving may be accurately "detected" by smartphone sensors data in more than 70% of cases.


We scrutinize Thomas Piketty's (2014) theory concerning the relationship between an economy's long-run growth rate, its capital-income ratio, and its factor income distribution put forth in his recent book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. We find that a smaller long-run growth rate may be associated with a smaller capital-income ratio. Hence, the key implication of Piketty's Second Fundamental Law of Capitalism does not hold. In line with Piketty's theory a smaller long-run growth rate may go together with a greater capital share. However, the mechanics behind this result are the opposite of what Piketty suggests. Our findings obtain in variants of Romer's (1990) seminal model of endogenous technological change. Here, both the economy's savings rate and its growth rate are endogenous variables whereas in Piketty's theory they are both exogenous parameters. Including demographic growth in the spirit of Jones (1995) shows that a smaller growth rate of the economy may imply a lower capital share contradicting a central claim in Piketty's book.


With the introduction of any new initiative into the mathematics classroom, there is often an assumption that it will produce visible and measurable effects in teaching approaches and pupil progress. Yet, there is a body of research that tempers such optimism, drawing attention to a series of mitigating factors, for example, the deep-seated nature of teachers' practices, their implicit or stated beliefs and values, and their lack of detailed awareness of how they perform in the classroom. Rather than make associative links between these factors and the success of the initiative, our intention is to examine the ways in which teachers are trying to interpret what the new scheme requires of them and how in turn, engaging with it causes them to re-describe both their pedagogic understanding and classroom practices relationally to earlier approaches. Employing data from a small project, we seek to examine four teachers' moves to grapple with this attempted shift from one teaching paradigm to another by considering how certain key terms serve to anchor the teachers' conceptions of themselves during this transition and find that their responses can be idiosyncratic and varied depending on the approaches in which they have been previously embedded. By using theoretical ideas from some neo-Marxist writers we examine these discursive shifts and their relevance to conceiving curriculum change. We suggest that the individual's teaching practice develops as a result of it being understood and enacted through a succession of ideological filters, each adding to the cumulative experience of the teacher.


Runtime stacks are critical components of any modern software--they are used to implement powerful control structures such as function call/return, stack cutting and unwinding, coroutines, and thread context switch. Stack operations, however, are very hard to reason about: there are no known formal specifications for certifying C-style setjmp/longjmp, stack cutting and unwinding, or weak continuations (in C--). In many proof-carrying code (PCC) systems, return code pointers and exception handlers are treated as general first-class functions (as in continuation-passing style) even though both should have more limited scopes.In this paper we show that stack-based control abstractions follow a much simpler pattern than general first-class code pointers. We present a simple but flexible Hoare-style framework for modular verification of assembly code with all kinds of stackbased control abstractions, including function call/return, tail call, setjmp/longjmp, weak continuation, stack cutting, stack unwinding, multi-return function call, coroutines, and thread context switch. Instead of presenting a specific logic for each control structure, we develop all reasoning systems as instances of a generic framework. This allows program modules and their proofs developed in different PCC systems to be linked together. Our system is fully mechanized. We give the complete soundness proof and a full verification of several examples in the Coq proof assistant.


Every day, learners use and reuse open, digital resources for learning. Reusing Open Resources offers a vision of the potential of these open, online resources to support learning. The book follows on from Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to E-learning. At that time focus was on the creation, release and reuse of digital learning resources modeled on educational materials. Since then the open release of resources and data has become mainstream, rather than specialist, changing societal expectations around resource reuse. Social and professional learning networks are now routine places for the exchange of online knowledge resources that are shared, manipulated and reused in new ways, opening opportunities for new models of business, research and learning.

The goal of this book is to extend the debate of how open, online resources might support learning across diverse contexts. Twenty-four distinguished experts from nine countries distributed across Europe and North America contribute empirical evidence and ideas. Collectively they provide a vision of the potential of open, online resources to support learning across everyday contexts of education, work and life.


We infer the fine structure of a sub-Moho boundary layer (SMBL) at the top of the lithospheric mantle from high-resolution seismic observations of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (PNE) on superlong-range profiles in Russia. Densely recorded seismograms permit recognition of previously unknown features of teleseismic propagation of the well known Pn and Sn phases, such as a band of incoherent, scattered, high-frequency seismic energy, developing consistently from station to station, apparent velocities of sub-Moho material, and high-frequency energy to distances of more than 3000 km with a coda band, incoherent at 10 km spacing and yet consistently observed to the end of the profiles. Estimates of the other key elements of the SMBL were obtained by finite difference calculations of wave propagation in elastic 2D models from a systematic grid search through parameter space. The SMBL consists of randomly distributed, mild velocity fluctuations of 2% or schlieren of high aspect ratios ( 40) with long horizontal extent (~20 km) and therefore as thin as 0.5 km only; SMBL thickness is 60–100 km. It is suggested that the SMBL is of global significance as the physical base of the platewide observed high-frequency phases Pn and Sn. It is shown that wave propagation in the SMBL waveguide is insensitive to the background velocity distribution on which its schlieren are superimposed. This explains why the Pn and Sn phases traverse geological provinces of various age, heat flow, crustal thickness, and tectonic regimes. Their propagation appears to be independent of age, temperature, pressure, and stress. Dynamic stretching of mantle material during subduction or flow, possibly combined with chemical differentiation have to be considered as scale-forming processes in the upper mantle. However, it is difficult to distinguish with the present sets of Pn/Sn array data whether (and also where) the boundary layer is a frozen-in feature of paleo-processes or whether it is a response to an on-going processes; nevertheless, the derived quantitative estimates of the SMBL properties provide important constraints for any hypothesis on scale-forming processes. Models to be tested by future numerical and field experiments are, for example, repeated subduction-convection stretching of oceanic lithosphere (marble-cake model) and schlieren formation at mid-ocean ridges. It is also proposed that the modeling of the observed blocking of Sn and Pn propagation at active plate margins offers a new tool to study the depth range of tectonics below the crust-mantle boundary. 1 Corresponding author; e-mail: email@example.com


This article offers a detailed analysis of the penalties imposed on Cn. Calpurnius Piso pater in AD 20 after he had been posthumously convicted of maiestas (treason). Piso was accused of leaving his province (Syria) without permission and then returning to try to retake it after the death of Germanicus in AD 19. He was also believed by many to be implicated in the death of Germanicus. The details of his case have been revealed by a new inscription from Spain, the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre, which was first published in 1996. Part of this long and well-preserved inscription records the post-mortem sanctions against memory imposed by the senate and Tiberius on Piso after his suicide. The verdicts for his family members and accomplices are also included. The decree was posted on bronze in the major cities of the Empire and in the winter quarters of all the legions. The article argues for the following conclusions. The decree should be taken at face value and its punishments considered harsh for a member of the Roman office-holding elite. It was widely published throughout the Empire after there had been extravagant mourning for Germanicus. Consequently, it seems that post-mortem disgrace did not necessarily involve the family as a whole. Indeed, sanctions against memory appear to be consciously designed to preserve the Roman elite family, its assets, and social position by removing its erring member. Such sanctions reveal both a tension and an accommodation between remembering and forgetting, between the family and the community, between history and memory.


BACKGROUND
Children diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eye, tend to develop and die of second primary cancers in childhood and adolescence, but few investigations have followed patients into adulthood. Retinoblastoma is frequently caused by inherited mutations of the RB1 tumor suppressor gene. Most patients with germline (hereditary) mutations have bilateral disease.

PURPOSE
We sought to quantify the mortality from second malignancies among long-term survivors of retinoblastoma and to identify factors that predispose to these deaths.

METHODS
A retrospective cohort study examined mortality among 1603 patients enrolled at 1 year after diagnosis of retinoblastoma during the period 1914-1984. Data on demography, family history, and retinoblastoma treatment were collected by medical chart review and questionnaire interview. Number of deaths, by cause, was compared with the corresponding expected figure based on U.S. mortality data for the general population for 1925-1990.

RESULTS
Follow-up was complete for 1458 patients (91%) for a median of 17 years after retinoblastoma diagnosis. A total of 305 deaths occurred, 167 of them from retinoblastoma. There were 96 deaths from second primary tumors (relative risk [RR] = 30), 21 from other known causes (RR = 1.0), and 21 from ill-defined or unknown causes. Statistically significant excess mortality was found for second primary cancers of bone, connective tissue, and malignant melanoma and benign and malignant neoplasms of brain and meninges. Among 919 children with bilateral retinoblastoma, 90 deaths from second primary tumors occurred (RR = 60). Deaths from second tumors were more frequent among females (RR = 39) than males (RR = 22) (P = .007). The cumulative probability of death from second primary neoplasms was 26% at 40 years after bilateral retinoblastoma diagnosis, and additional cancer deaths occurred thereafter. Radiotherapy for retinoblastoma further increased the risk of mortality from second neoplasms. An excess of mortality from a second cancer, not seen in prior studies, was found among the 684 children with unilateral disease (RR = 3.1; 95% confidence interval = 1.0-7.3).

CONCLUSIONS
These findings implicate germinal mutations in the retinoblastoma gene in second cancer mortality. Radiotherapy treatment for retinoblastoma appears to further enhance the inborn susceptibility to development of a second cancer.

IMPLICATIONS
Patients with retinoblastoma, particularly bilateral retinoblastoma, should have careful follow-up, and interventions should be developed to reduce mortality from a second cancer.


Background Aquaporin 4 (AQP4) is considered a putative autoantigen in patients with Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), an autoinflammatory disorder of the central nervous system (CNS). HLA haplotype analyses of patients with NMO suggest a positive association with HLA-DRB1* 03:01. We previously showed that the human (h) AQP4 peptide 281–300 is the dominant immunogenic determinant of hAQP4 in the context of HLA-DRB1*03:01. This immunogenic peptide stimulates a strong Th1 and Th17 immune response. AQP4281-300-specific encephalitogenic CD4+ T cells should initiate CNS inflammation that results in a clinical phenotype in HLA-DRB1*03:01 transgenic mice. Methods Controlled study with humanized experimental animals. HLA-DRB1*03:01 transgenic mice were immunized with hAQP4281-300, or whole-length hAQP4 protein emulsified in complete Freund's adjuvant. Humoral immune responses to both antigens were assessed longitudinally. In vivo T cell frequencies were assessed by tetramer staining. Mice were followed clinically, and the anterior visual pathway was tested by pupillometry. CNS tissue was examined histologically post-mortem. Flow cytometry was utilized for MHC binding assays and to immunophenotype T cells, and T cell frequencies were determined by ELISpot assay. Results Immunization with hAQP4281-300 resulted in an in vivo expansion of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells, and an immunoglobulin isotype switch. HLA-DRB1*03:01 TG mice actively immunized with hAQP4281-300, or with whole-length hAQP4 protein were resistant to developing a neurological disease that resembles NMO. Experimental mice show no histological evidence of CNS inflammation, nor change in pupillary responses. Subsequent analysis reveals that a single amino acid substitution from aspartic acid in hAQP4 to glutamic acid in murine (m)AQP4 at position 290 prevents the recognition of hAQP4281-300 by the murine T cell receptor (TCR). Conclusion Induction of a CNS inflammatory autoimmune disorder by active immunization of HLA-DRB1*03:01 TG mice with human hAQP4281-300 will be complex due to a single amino acid substitution. The pathogenic role of T cells in this disorder remains critical despite these observations.


This article deals with the idea of the dialogic classroom and its in fl uence on the pedagogic discussion in Sweden, especially in the teaching of literature as part of Swedish language edu- cation. Through a discussion of Bakhtin's theory of the dia- logic, I argue that it is problematic to construct an opposition between experience-based teaching of Swedish and a more traditional approach that emphasises the literary canon. The teacher's valuative relationship towards what he or she is teaching is important in order to initiate a dialogue with stu- dents, regardless whether the material being taught belongs to the literary canon or to popular literature. It is argued that Bakhtin's theory has an unrecognized potential for the teach- ing of literature.


The phenomenon of the absence of the interaction concept of grade 1 - 3 of elementary school students is the background of this research. It was understood that the level of grade 1 - 2 tended to be the initial transition of paradigm shifts in students' thinking from kindergarten to the basic learning stage. Qualitative analysis with procedural methods applied in this study  to find out the students interactivity towards the color in their study room  so that the next stage can be designed the comfortable study 'room interaction concepts' in engaging the  colors as visual stimulation in the transition process of the audience state of mind and  growing student learning motivation. The initial stage of this research was carried out by analyzing observation data on students who were given treatment in the form of changing the color of the classroom through 360o video (virtual reality). The results of the study stated that grade 1 - 2 students have bright and 'hot' color tendency while grade 3 students  tend to have 'cool' color tendency. This is caused by the  influence of  nature of play  due to the development of the cognitive stage of the children based on their level of education. This means that the students of grade 1 - 2  still tend to have the characteristics of a kindergarten students  – that the level of the play process is still high, so that it can be said that the tendency of the characteristics of elementary students begins in grade 3. This is evidenced by some children have  different color tendency based on their choice. The children of Grade 1 and 2 tend to forget the color they like, so the color selection were based on the colors that is liked by their friends or colors that were still remembered. The students of grade  1 - 2 were too focus on their interactions with 'toys' in the form of a cardbox, so that VR can be said to be a comfortable noise in the process of play.


Rocks exposed across the hundreds of islands that belong to the 800 km long Andaman–Nicobar archipelago provide a condensed window into the active subduction zone that separates the India–Australia plate from the over-riding Burma–Sunda plate. Despite a strategic and seismically active location the Andaman-Nicobar ridge has seen comparatively little research. This Memoir provides the first detailed and comprehensive account of geological mapping and research across the island chain and adjacent ocean basins. Chapters examine models of Cenozoic rifting of the Andaman Sea and the regional tectonic and seismogenic framework. A detailed critical review of the Andaman–Nicobar stratigraphy, supported by new data, includes arc volcanism and a description of Barren Island, India's only active volcano. Seismic history and hazards and the impacts of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami are also described. The volume ends with an examination of the region's natural resources and hydrocarbon prospects.


Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) might prevent heart failure or optimise drug treatments by improving cardiac contraction. We investigated whether DHA-enriched avian glycerophospholipids (GPL-DHA) exert cardioprotection in ouabain-treated rats after 4 weeks of dietary supplementation with 10, 35 or 60 mg DHA per kg body weight versus none (DHA10, DHA35, DHA60 and control groups, respectively). The contractile responsiveness to different doses of ouabain (10(-7) to 10(-4) M), ouabain intoxication (at 3 × 10(-4) M), and relative variations in cardiac energy metabolism were determined using (31)P NMR in isolated perfused rat hearts. The fatty acid composition of cardiac membranes was analysed by gas chromatography. DHA accretion in the heart was dose-dependent (+8%, +30% and +45% for DHA10, DHA35 and DHA60, respectively). The cardiac phosphocreatine content significantly increased at the baseline in DHA35 (+45%) and DHA60 groups (+85%), and at the different doses of ouabain in the DHA60 group (+73% to 98%). The maximum positive inotropy achieved at 10(-4) M ouabain was significantly increased in all DHA groups versus control (+150%, +122.5% and +135% for DHA10, DHA35 and DHA60, respectively), and ouabain intoxication was delayed. The increase in myocardial phosphocreatine content and the improved efficacy of ouabain on myocardial contraction without toxicity suggest the potential of GPL-DHA as a dietary supplement or ingredient for functional food, and possibly as a co-treatment with digitalis drugs in humans.


Abstract RationaleRationale: Substance P (SP) and hemokinin-1 (HK-1) are neuropeptides (NPs) that promote inflammatory responses by signaling through the neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R). Antagonists of NK-1R are highly effective in allergic inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness in mice but lack efficacy in humans. The reason for this difference is unknown. Human mast cells express both the NK-1R and Mas-related G protein receptor X2 (MRGPRX2) which are both activated by SP. The objective of this study was to determine if HK-1 activates human mast cells via MRGPRX2. Moreover, since MRGPRX2 contains a cholesterol recognition amino acid consensus (CRAC) domain the interaction between MRGPRX2 and cholesterol in lipid rafts likely contributes to MRGPRX2 function. Another objective in this study is to investigate whether lipid rafts are associated with MRGPRX2 function. Materials and Methods: Materials and Methods: Flow cytometry was used to determine the expression of NK-1R and MRGPRX2 in a human mast cell line (LAD2). MRGPRX2 function was investigated by using SP and HK-1 to induce degranulation with a selective NK-1R antagonist (CP96345). Methyl-b-cyclodextrin (MbCD) was used for cholesterol depletion in this study. In addition, mutants of the CRAC domain on MRGPRX2 were used to compare the functions of the receptor on degranulation and Ca 2+ mobilization in response to SP, HK-1, and other compounds (ciprofloxacin, HOE 140 and compound 48/80). Confocal microscopy was used to determine the localization of lipid raft compartments and MRGPRX2. Results:Results: LAD2 cells expressed both MRGPRX2 and NK-1R. HK-1 and SP induced degranulation in LAD2 cells and RBL-2H3 cells stably expressing MRGPRX2, but this response was resistant to inhibition by an NK-1R inhibitor (CP96345). However, SP and HK-1 induced degranulation in RBL cells transiently expressing NK-1R and this response was inhibited by CP96345. Depleting cholesterol by using MbCD decreased the degranulation response. Furthermore, confocal microscopy showed that the lipid rafts and MRGPRX2 colocalized in both WT and the CRAC domain mutants. However, CRAC domain mutants of MRGPRX2 did not respond to SP in Ca 2+ mobilization and degranulation assays. This study provides a potential explanation for the previous observation that NK-1R antagonist are highly effective in allergic responses in mice but fails in human. Our findings suggest that unlike the situation in mice where the effects of neuropeptides are mediated via NK-1R, these effects are mediated by MRGPRX2 in humans. Moreover, lipid rafts may not be associated with MRGPRX2 function. However, the CRAC domain mutant appears to be defective in coupling G protein. Conclusion:Conclusion: This finding suggests that MRGPRX2 may serve as a novel target for modulating asthma and other neuropeptide/mast cell-mediated diseases. Abstract Rationale : Substance P (SP) and hemokinin-1 (HK-1) are neuropeptides (NPs) that promote inflammatory responses by signaling through the neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R). Antagonists of NK-1R are highly effective in allergic inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness in mice but lack efficacy in humans. The reason for this difference is unknown. Human mast cells express both the NK-1R and Mas-related G protein receptor X2 (MRGPRX2) which are both activated by SP. The objective of this study was to determine if HK-1 activates human mast cells via MRGPRX2. Moreover, since MRGPRX2 contains a cholesterol recognition amino acid consensus (CRAC) domain the interaction between MRGPRX2 and cholesterol in lipid rafts likely contributes to MRGPRX2 function. Another objective in this study is to investigate whether lipid rafts are associated with MRGPRX2 function. cells and both control These demonstrate that may not be and CRAC mutant appear to be defective in coupling to G protein. the results of Ca 2+ mobilization to test if the CRAC domain mutant is defective in coupling to G protein. There was no Ca 2+ mobilization in CRAC domain mutant.


Number of suspects per capita were estimated for immigrants in Germany grouped by citizenship (n=83). These were correlated with national IQs (r=-.53) and Islam prevalence in the home countries (r=.49). Multivariate analyses revealed that the mean age and sex distribution of the groups in Germany were confounds.

The German data lacked age and sex information for the crime data and so it was not possible to adjust for age and sex using subgroup analyses. For this reason, an alternative adjustment method was developed. This method was tested on the detailed Danish data which does have the necessary information to carry out subgroup analyses. The new method was found to give highly congruent results with the subgrouping method.

The German crime data were then adjusted for age and sex using the developed method and the resulting values were analyzed with respect to the predictors. They were moderately to strongly correlated with national IQs (.46) and Islam prevalence in the home country (.35). Combining national IQ, Islam% and distance to Germany resulted in a model with a cross-validated r2 of 20%, equivalent to a correlation of .45. If two strong outliers were removed, this rose to 25%, equivalent to a correlation of .50.


BACKGROUND
Relatively little is known about medication administration errors in mental health settings.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the frequency and nature of medication administration errors in old-age psychiatry. To assess the acceptability of the observational technique to nurse participants.

METHOD
Cross-sectional study technique using (i) direct observation, (ii) medication chart review and (iii) incident reports.

SETTING
Two elderly long-stay wards in an independent UK psychiatric hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Nine nurses administering medication at routine medication rounds.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Frequency, type and severity of directly observed medication administration errors compared with errors detected by retrospective chart review and incident reports.

RESULTS
Using direct observation 369 errors in 1423 opportunities for errors (25.9%) were detected vs. chart review detected 148 errors and incident reports none. Most errors were of doubtful or minor severity. The pharmacist intervened on four occasions to prevent an error causing patient harm. The commonest errors observed were unauthorized tablet crushing or capsule opening (111/369, 30.1%), omission without a valid reason (100/369, 27.1%) and failure to record administration (87/369, 23.6%). Among the nurses observed, the error rate varied widely from no errors to one error in every two doses administered. Of the seven nurses who completed the post-observation questionnaire, all said they would be willing to be observed again.

CONCLUSION
Medication administration errors are common and mostly minor. Direct observation is a useful, sensitive method for detecting medication administration errors in psychiatry and detects many more errors than chart review or incident reports. The technique appeared to be acceptable to most of the nursing staff that were observed.


In this paper, we study the performance of space-time trellis codes (STTCs) with receive antenna selection over fast fading channels. Specifically, we derive upper bounds on the pairwise-error probability (PEP) with antenna selection. In performing the selection, we adopt a criterion that is based on using L out of the available M receive antennas that result in maximizing the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver, where L les M. We show that the diversity order resulting from antenna selection deteriorates significantly and is actually dictated by the number of selected antennas. The implication of this result is that adding more receive antennas, while maintaining the same number of selected ones, will have no impact on the diversity order, but it does, however, provide some additional coding gain. This is unlike the case for quasi-static fading channels in which the diversity order is always preserved with antenna selection when the underlying STTC is full-rank. We present numerical examples that support our analysis


This paper traces one of early critical theory's key terms—Walter Benjamin's concept of natural history—back to a little known source: the problem of historical chronology, to which Benjamin was introduced in 1916 by a lecturer in Mesoamerican languages and mythology, Walter Lehmann. The great majority of ancient Mexican and Mayan manuscripts were elaborations of their calendric system in respect of its numerical theory, chronology, and system of divination. The main question at the time was how the Maya reconciled their divinatory calendar with the actual period of the solar year and, by extension, how pre-Columbian events could be reckoned within Christian chronology. In a set of hitherto undiscovered manuscripts, Lehmann proposed instead a reorientation of the entire sky around an older lunar system, as well as the existence of a transitional luni-solar period during which the astronomically more accurate solar calendar emerged but retained traces of the lunar relations on whose destruction it was premised. Noting that the problem of historical time "must be grasped in its correlation to the problem of historical space"—of history's "setting [*Schauplatz*]"—Benjamin, too, interprets chronology as a reckoning system that sets its normal or zero to which all other events refer at an "origin" that, inasmuch as it resets time to initiate a wholly new series of days and years, is also a document of eventual annihilation. Tracking the marks left by the study of ancient Mexico on Benjamin's early writings, this paper proposes that from Benjamin's insight that "nature" has from its outset undergone a "decomposition" into historically differentiated concepts (number, appearance, and setting), to his critique of the persistence of "mythic" violence in contemporary legal institutions and his analysis of the "historical" character of the concept of "origin" (in the *Trauerspiel* book), one question persistently forces its way to the surface: how to critique the violence involved in the production of historical time—and, in doing so, articulate the specifically colonial character of the violence that subtends the dialectic of myth and history.


Using monthly data for four selected emerging economies, sterilised central bank foreign exchange intervention is found to have little systematic influence on the near-term nominal exchange rate expectations in the direction intended by the central banks. In other words, central bank dollar purchases to stem exchange rate appreciation or related exchange rate volatility are not associated with an adjustment of the near-term exchange rate forecasts in the direction of depreciation, and vice versa. This suggests intervention may not change the nearterm exchange rate expectations. Moreover, intervention may have had unintended effects in the sense that it can lead to undesired volatility in the exchange rate, which is consistent with previous studies.


Who are commercial sector customers, and how do they make decisions about energy consumption and energy efficiency investment? The energy policy field has not done a thorough job of describing energy consumption in the commercial sector. First, the discussion of the commercial sector itself is dominated by discussion of large businesses/buildings. Second, discussion of this portion of the commercial sector s consumption behavior is driven primarily by theory, with very little field data collected on the way commercial sector decision-makers describe their own options, choices, and reasons for taking action. These limitations artificially constrain energy policy options. This paper reviews the extant literature on commercial sector energy consumption behavior and identifies gaps in our knowledge. In particular, it argues that the primary energy policy model of commercial sector energy consumption is a top-down model that uses macro-level investment data to make conclusions about commercial behavior. Missing from the discussion is a model of consumption behavior that builds up to a theoretical framework informed by the micro-level data provided by commercial decision-makers themselves. Such a bottom-up model could enhance the effectiveness of commercial sector energy policy. In particular, translation of some behavioral models from the residential sector to the commercial sector may offer new opportunities for policies to change commercial energy consumption behavior. Utility bill consumption feedback is considered as one example of a policy option that may be applicable to both the residential and small commercial sector.


Symmetric multiprocessor architectures (SMP) are gaining popularity for system on chip (SoC) applications as they provide an interesting power/performance/flexibility tradeoff. We address the problem of power consumption in such architectures by designing a new adaptive Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) algorithm for non real time operating system (non-RTOS) running on a SMP-SoC. We show the effectiveness of our algorithm on a cycle accurate simulation environment running a real-life multi-threaded application. The experimental results show a potential gain of up to 55%. I. INTRODUCTION


The purpose in this paper is to contribute towards an understanding of the link
beween plurality of self and knowledge. The paper relates the concept of cognitive
polyphasia with Bakhtin's views on positioning and the polyphony of the person, and
Hermans and Kempen's concept of the dialogical self. It links dialogical
epistemology and ontology to argue that, (i) polyphony and polyphasia of self and
knowledge are two sides of the same process, and (ii) our ability to position ourselves
in relation to the knowledge of others explains how the meanings, practices and
identities that co-exist within individuals and groups are put to use, enabling us to
function in multiple relationships and contexts. The paper concludes by suggesting
that identity and knowledge are inseparable from both the multiple relationships in
which they develop and from processes of self-other positioning. Research on expert
knowledge of homelessness amongst professionals working in the UK voluntary
sector is briefly examined to illustrate the proposed theoretical argument.


The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) has developed into a global energy-maritime crime hotspot, with Nigeria being the epicentre of illegal oil-related maritime activities in the region. For several decades, scholars have sought to justify crude oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal fuel trade especially in the waters of Nigeria, in the context of greed-grievance. While that approach provides a basis for understanding the realities of illegal energy-maritime activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, it does little to explain how the illicit activities have evolved into a global enterprise it is today, the dynamics of the business and the infrastructure that sustain the criminality. Against the backdrop of this limitation in existing theoretical underpinning of illegal energy-maritime activities in the GoG, this study adopts an enterprise-value chain model which, moving beyond the greed-grievance narrative, emphasises the primacy of both the enterprise and the marketplace (not players in the market) in explaining, and understanding the dynamics, complexities and persistence of crude oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal fuel trade in the GoG. The enterprise-value chain approach as adopted in the study, offers an advantage of interdisciplinary perspective, combining Smith's enterprise theory of crime and Porter's business management concept of value chain to understanding energy-maritime criminality in the GoG. The enterprise-value chain model sees the tripod of crude oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal trade in fuel as an organised crime; a well-structured economic activity whose business philosophy hinges on the provision of illegal goods and services. Such activities exist because the legitimate marketplace has limited capacity to meet the needs of potential customers. Within the enterprise-value chain framework, the study identifies, and analyses the dynamics of overlap, cooperation and conflict among the different players in the illegal energy-maritime industry as well as mutually beneficial relationships between formal and informal energy-maritime economies. Such an overlap is critical to understanding both the nature of the business and its sustaining value chain. The study concludes that current energy-maritime security architecture in the Gulf of Guinea does not capture the organised, enterprise nature of illicit offshore and onshore activities and its sustaining value chain, which highlights its inherent limitation viz-a-viz the region's quest for energy-maritime security. There is therefore an urgent need to address this seeming gap as it determines significantly how the phenomenon is considered both for academic purposes and public policy. It is this obvious gap in both academic literature and policy on maritime security in the GoG that this study intends to fill. The study, in the context of its theoretical framework, develops a business approach to enhancing energy-maritime security in the GoG.


In this paper, we address the imaging of the spatial distribution of the resistivity of conductive materials by using data from eddy-current nondestructive testing. Specifically, the data consists of measurements of the impedance matrix at several frequencies acquired using a coil array. The imaging method processes the second-order term (estimated from the measured data) of the power series expansion, with respect to frequency, of the impedance matrix. This term accounts for the resistive contribution to changes of the impedance matrix, due to the presence of anomalies in the conductor under test, occurring at relatively low frequencies. The operator mapping a given resistivity distribution inside the conductor into the second-order term satisfies a proper monotonicity property. The monotonicity makes it possible to apply a fast noniterative imaging method initially developed by the authors for elliptic problems such as electrical resistance tomography. Numerical examples show the main features of the proposed method, and demonstrate the possibility of real-time imaging.


The phosphorus (P) requirements of meat-type poultry cannot be met by plant-based diets because approximately two thirds of total phosphorus in cereals and leguminous feed materials is in the unavailable form of phytate (inositol hexaphosphate or phytic acid). Phosphorus supplements are expensive and over supplementation can increase excretion of P, with negative implications on the environment. For some time, research has focussed on the development of exogenous phytase enzymes capable of releasing phytate phosphorus for absorption, thus reducing the environmental impact of poultry production and requirements for costly dietary inorganic P supplementation. The absolute adoption of this strategy has, however, been stalled by apparent variability in rate of release of phytate by phytase enzyme. The aim of this project was to examine the availability and reactivity of phytate in diets and raw materials fed to broilers in a range of physiological environments, and to develop strategies for combating their effects. A series of in vitro studies and bird trials were conducted to investigate phytate reactivity by observing the relationship between pH, protein phytate interactions and phytate susceptibility to the effects of phytase. A bird trial was undertaken comparing the current commercial level of 500 FTU/kg phytase and a superdose of 5000 FTU/kg phytase in soyabean meal and rapeseed meal based broiler diets. Feeding phytase doses above the commercial recommendation resulted in increased bird performance through phytate destruction, leading to heightened alleviation of the anti-nutritional effects of phytate. This suggests that superdosing broiler diets can improve profitability by both increasing availability of phosphorus and removing restrictions of using cheaper feed ingredients which are viewed as undesirable due to their high phytate content. There is a common misconception that poultry lack any endogenous phytase, but a study sequentially sampling broilers from age d4 to d14 illustrated that phytase activity from intestinal mucosa and bacteria and diet is quantifiable in regulating phytate-P digestion. Endogenous phytase contributes significantly towards degradation of phytate at bird age d4. By d14, ileal phytase activity levels were approximately 45 U/kg and the amount of total dietary phytate hydrolysed ranged from 21% to 36%.
Measurements of total phytate-P content of diets may be deceptive as they do not indicate substrate availability for phytase; measurements of phytate susceptible to the effects of phytase may be a more accurate measure of phosphorus availability to the bird. To verify this hypothesis in practice, a bird study was designed to compare diets formulated to contain high or low susceptible phytate. This study showed that at age d28, birds fed diets with high susceptible phytate content had significantly better cumulative BWG (p=0.015) and FCR (p=0.003) than birds fed diets with low susceptible phytate content. Furthermore, in vitro screening of raw materials revealed that phytate susceptibility varies considerably between ingredients and batches of ingredients, and total phytate content bears no relation to susceptible phytate content of an ingredient. Therefore, for optimum phytase efficacy, it may be advantageous to formulate diets and develop phytase matrix values based on the susceptible phytate content of the individual batch of ingredients being fed. Both total and susceptible phytate content can be measured using simple colorimetric assays. Examination of in vitro digestion models and subsequent correlation to in vivo studies indicate that exposing samples to conditions that mimic the gastrointestinal environment is the most accurate way to predict phytate degradation and mineral availability in diets prior to feeding. The relationship between phytate reactivity and pH was investigated throughout this project. It was found that gastric pH is closer to the optimum for pepsin activity and phytate-complex degradation when in the presence of phytase. This is because phytate reduces protein digestibility, resulting in heightened presence of intact proteins in the tract, which instigates an increase in secretion of HCl and pepsin. More bicarbonate ions are released in response to this increased acidity, causing an increase in intestinal pH and resulting reduction in solubility of phytate-protein complexes. To conclude, dietary phytate that is susceptible to phytase effects as opposed to total phytate content should potentially be considered when determining phytase matrix values. For optimum response to phytase, it may be beneficial to formulate diets based on the susceptible phytate content of the individual batch of ingredients being fed. Some raw materials have high total phytate content but also high susceptible phytate content, meaning they have the potential to be used as replacements for more expensive feed ingredients if in the presence of phytase. This is particularly the case in diets supplemented with high doses of phytase (>500 FTU/kg), because high phytase doses alleviate the extra-phosphoric anti-nutritional effects of phytate as well as increase mineral availability.


Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. The incidence and mortality rate is increasing in developing countries as compare to developed countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different courses of chemotherapy treatment on serum biochemical profile of breast cancer patients. In the present study, two hundred breast cancer patients were selected to study variations in serum biochemical level of breast cancer patients. The mean values of blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, uric acid, aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT), alanine aminotransferase (SGPT) and alkaline phosphatase was found to be 32.58±19.7mg/dl, 1.05±0.59mg/dl, 8.6±1.3mg/dl, 27.3±4.02U/L, 27.9±10.24U/L and 111±24.04U/L before the start of chemotherapy courses. The mean values of total and direct bilirubin, total serum protein, albumin, Fasting and postprandial glucose level was 0.30±1.3mg/dl, 0.13±0.11mg/dl, 8.11±0.5g/dl, 3.5±0.07g/dl, 96±25 mg/dl and 110±25mg/dl before the start of chemotherapy treatment. The level of serum blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and post-prandial glucose level was found to be more than normal reference range; while the level of creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase (AST or SGOT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT or SGPT), total serum protein, albumin and fasting blood glucose level was reported to be within normal reference range during the different courses of chemotherapy. In conclusion, present results suggest serum biochemical parameters as an important diagnostic tool in the disease monitoring and metastasis.


Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Affected individuals cluster in families in patterns that reflect the sharing of numerous susceptibility genes. Genome-wide and large-scale gene-centric genotyping studies that involve tens of thousands of cases and controls have now mapped common disease variants to 34 distinct loci. Some coronary disease common variants show allelic heterogeneity or copy number variation. Some of the loci include candidate genes that imply conventional or emerging risk factor-mediated mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Quantitative trait loci associations with risk factors have been informative in Mendelian randomization studies as well as fine-mapping of causative variants. But, for most loci, plausible mechanistic links are uncertain or obscure at present but provide potentially novel directions for research into this disease's pathogenesis. The common variants explain ∼4% of inter-individual variation in disease risk and no more than 13% of the total heritability of coronary disease. Although many CAD genes are presently undiscovered, it is likely that larger collaborative genome-wide association studies will map further common/low-penetrance variants and hoped that low-frequency or rare high-penetrance variants will also be identified in medical resequencing experiments.


We examine whether the popular 2/3 rule-of-thumb splitting criterion used in out-of-sample evaluation of predictive econometric and machine learning models makes sense. We conduct simulations regarding the predictive performance of the logistic regression and decision tree algorithm when considering varying splitting points as well as sample sizes. Our non-exhaustive repeated random sub-sampling simulation approach known as Monte Carlo cross-validation indicates that while the 2/3 rule-of-thumb works, there is a spectrum of different splitting proportions that yield equally compelling results. Furthermore, our results indicate that the size of the complete sample has little impact on the applicability of the 2/3 rule-of-thumb. However, our analysis reveals that when considering relatively small and relatively large training samples in relation to the sample size, the variation of the predictive accuracy can lead to misleading results. Our results are especially important for IS researchers considering the usage of out-of-sample methods for evaluating their predictive models.


W W W. E R S .U S DA .G OV / A M B E R WAV E S Across America, over 42 million meals—31 million lunches and 11 million breakfasts—are served on a typical schoolday through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Under these programs, USDA reimburses school food authorities (SFAs) for meals that are expected to meet Federal nutrition standards. Reimbursement rates depend on whether the meal is a lunch or breakfast and the student is certified to receive a free, reducedprice, or full-price meal. With the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, reimbursement rates do not vary based on geography. It is challenging for SFAs to serve appealing, healthful meals while covering food, labor, and other operating costs. But is this cost challenge more difficult for SFAs in rural or urban areas or in certain regions of the country? An ERS analysis of data on school meal costs from a large, nationally representative sample reveals that where an SFA is located can affect meal costs. In the 2002-03 school year, after controlling for other factors, SFAs' per meal costs in the Southeast and Southwest regions averaged consistently below per meal costs in other regions. In the Southeast, lower food costs accounted for much of the difference, while in the Southwest, lower labor costs had more of an impact. Urban locations, on average, had lower per meal costs than their rural and suburban counterparts, primarily due to lower food costs. These urban SFAs also benefited from the lower per meal labor costs derived from their large size. An SFA is the administering unit for the operation of a school feeding program. An SFA can be a school district, several school districts, or an individual school. ERS researchers used data from 1,432 SFAs that participated in the 2004 School Food Authority Characteristics Survey to measure the effects of location on school foodservice costs. The SFAs provided information on wages and salaries for kitchen workers, supervisors, and cooks; food costs, which include both purchased food and the value of federally provided commodities; and expenses for nonfood supplies, such as trays, napkins, and cleaning supplies. The researchers employed a f lexible economic model that controlled for a number of SFA characteristics that might influence cost, such as the total number of meals served and the mix of lunches and breakfasts served. This approach allowed the researchers to separate the effects of location from other factors that inf luence cost.


The effects of kainic acid (KA) on neurogenesis in the developing rat hippocampus were investigated. Neonatal [postnatal day (P) 7] rats received a single bilateral intracerebroventricular infusion of KA (50 nmol in 1.0 μL) or vehicle. At P14, P25, P40, and P60, the spatial and temporal relations between the neurodegeneration and neurogenesis induced by KA were explored by using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated biotinylated UTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) to detect the dying cells and 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to label newly generated cells. There was progressive loss of neurons in the cornu ammonis (CA) 1 and CA3 subfields of the hippocampus at all time points in KA-treated rats. TUNEL staining identified dying cells at P14 through P60, mainly in the CA3 subfield. The number of TUNEL-positive cells decreased with age. Neurogenesis also was observed in the KA-treated hippocampus. The number of BrdUpositive cells in the dentate gyrus was significantly decreased at P14, when the number of TUNEL-positive cells is highest. However, at later time points (P40 and P60), the number of BrdU-positive cells in the dentate gyrus was significantly increased. In addition, the number of BrdU-positive cells was increased in the CA3 subfield at P40 and P60 in KA-treated rats. A substantial proportion (40%) of the newly generated cells in CA3 also expressed markers of immature and mature neurons (class III β-tubulin and neuronal nuclei). Newly generated cells in the CA3 subfield only rarely expressed glial markers (8%). These results suggest that a single exposure to KA at P7 has both immediate (inhibition) and delayed (stimulation) effects on neurogenesis within the dentate gyrus of developing rats. KA administration resulted in both neuronal apoptosis and neurogenesis within the CA3 subfield, suggesting that the purpose of neurogenesis in the CA3 is to replace neurons lost to apoptosis.


Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a financial mechanism aimed at providing incentives to reduce carbon emissions from forests and enhance carbon stocks. In most forest-rich developing countries, policy actors, i.e., state and nonstate as well as international and national, are designing national REDD+ policies. Actors' interests and beliefs shape patterns of interactions, ranging from cooperation to conflict, and these interactions influence a country's direction and progress in REDD+ policy formulation and implementation. We used a comparative policy network approach to analyze the power structures in national REDD+ policy domains in seven countries. We drew on the typology of power structures defined by two dimensions, namely the distribution of power in the policy arena and the dominant type of interaction, cooperative or conflictual, among actors, and we mapped the progress of national REDD+ decision-making processes against these power structures. We tested three hypotheses and found that (1) national ownership over the policy process is a prerequisite for progress. In addition, (2) the level of concentration of power in an actor group can facilitate progress in REDD+; however, particularly when concentration of power is high, progress will be possible only if the interests of the most powerful are aligned with the objectives of REDD+ and address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. Furthermore, (3) although cooperation is perceived as ideal in any collective decision-making setting, a certain level of conflict is necessary for progress in REDD+ decision making. This applies particularly in more advanced national REDD+ domains, where, following a honeymoon phase during which most policy actors embrace the broad idea of REDD+, policy decisions must deal with difficult realities associated with negotiating established business-as-usual interests, which entails high political costs.


The University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library ILL Borrowing Office is a high volume borrowing office. Over the past 5 years the office has implemented technological and workflow changes to improve the delivery of ILL borrowing services to patrons. Technological changes implemented in the office include: patron-initiated requesting in the CIC Virtual Electronic Library and WorldCat, tight links between patron-initiated requests and an external patron database, OCLC direct request service, OCLC custom holdings, OCLC ILL Fee Management Service, web-based request forms, using the integrated library system to manage circulation, ARIEL, and CLIO ILL management software. Other changes include expanding communication with patrons via email, offering fewer office hours, abolishment of all paper files, physical rearrangement of the office, only accepting requests via electronic means, and routing selected ILL requests to Acquisitions for rush purchase and processing. Request volume has increased over time. Staff levels have not changed significantly. Turnaround time has decreased significantly and patrons receive their requested materials much faster. The poster will present the changes made by the ILL Borrowing Office and the impact on patron service. Plans for the future will be presented.


Introduction: Poisoning is a major public health problem and one of the most common causes of child mortality, particularly in developing countries. Incidences of poisoning are variable according to the cultural and economic characteristics of particular communities. Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze cases of poisoning in children under 6 years of age underwent hospitalization in a health center of Rasht. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted as a case-control study. The study included 2160 cases of hospitalized children under 6 years old. The study duration was 4 months. There were 2 groups, 70 children hospitalized because of poisoning (case group) and a control group of 105 people (1.5 times that of the case group) that consisted of children under 6 years of age and , non-hospitalized. Information gathered by questionnaire included; demographic information on individuals and families, as well as method of poisoning and the child's condition after hospitalization. Information was collected from interviews and medical records. Data were analyzed after collection using descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (chi-square tests, t-test). Results: The findings showed that most children (51.4 %) were between the ages of 1-3 years. Of the total sample 64.3 % were boys and 35.7 % were girls. In 80% of cases, poisoning was accidental and 97.1% were gastrointestinal in nature. In 51.4% cases, the cause was poisoning from medicine; 36.1% of cases were caused by methadone and in 17.1% of cases incidents had occurred in the kitchen. There was significant difference in both case and control groups in terms of father's level of education (P = 0.012) and mother's job (P = 0.025). Conclusion: Results showed that the most common cause of poisoning in children aged 1-3 was from pharmaceutical drugs; determined by the side effects of poisoning. A low rate of parental awareness was considered to have contributed to these cases of poisoning so parental awareness was determined as significantly important for improving childcare in the study region.


Background: Cancer-induced immunosuppression is antigen-specific rather than systemic and the mechanisms for the antigen specificity are incompletely understood. Here we explore the option that tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) may be transferred to antigen-presenting cells (APCs), together with immunosuppressive molecules, through cancer-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), such as exosomes. Stimulation of a suppressive phenotype in the very same APCs that take up TAAs may yield antigen-specific tolerance. Methods: sEVs isolated from patient-derived or well-established melanoma cell lines were used to demonstrate the transfer of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules to the surface of APCs. The immunosuppressive influence of sEVs was assessed by flow cytometry analysis of activation markers, cytokine expression, and mixed lymphocyte reactions. Results: MHC class I molecules were transferred from melanoma cells to the cell surface of APCs by sEVs. Concomitantly, CD86 and CD40 co-stimulatory molecules were down-regulated and IL-6 production was strongly induced. TGF-β transported by sEVs contributed to the promotion of a suppressive phenotype of APCs. Conclusion: The presented results indicate the existence of a hitherto undescribed mechanism that offers an explanation for antigen-specific tolerance induction mediated by cancer-derived sEVs.


A successful grasp requires careful balancing of the contact forces. Deducing whether a particular grasp will be successful from indirect measurements, such as vision, is therefore quite challenging, and direct sensing of contacts through touch sensing provides an appealing avenue toward more successful and consistent robotic grasping. However, in order to fully evaluate the value of touch sensing for grasp outcome prediction, we must understand how touch sensing can influence outcome prediction accuracy when combined with other modalities. Doing so using conventional model-based techniques is exceptionally difficult. In this work, we investigate the question of whether touch sensing aids in predicting grasp outcomes within a multimodal sensing framework that combines vision and touch. To that end, we collected more than 9,000 grasping trials using a two-finger gripper equipped with GelSight high-resolution tactile sensors on each finger, and evaluated visuo-tactile deep neural network models to directly predict grasp outcomes from either modality individually, and from both modalities together. Our experimental results indicate that incorporating tactile readings substantially improve grasping performance.


Unlike traditional markets, Information Technology ("IT") markets are characterized by special and unique features that shall be discussed in this paper. Competition in IT markets is dynamic; nonmarket based information production models ('peer production') play a significant role in IT markets; and IT market are usually data market rather than product market. The combination of the legal rule prohibiting circumvention of technological measure under the DMCA and the use of DRMs, created a new regime, the DRM/DMCA regime, which bestows the entertainment industry with a new and strong right to control the access to and use of the copyrighted work. The use of such a strong right under the DRM/DMCA regime may have, in some instances, anti-competitive effects in IT markets. A recent example for such allegedly anti-competitive use of the DRM/DMCA regime can be found in the litigations initiated by movie studios and the DVD CCA against two IT companies, Kaleidescape and RealNetworks. These cases demonstrate the attempts of the entertainment industry to block the marketing of technological device or software products which allow their end users to upload the content of their DVD to the device's hardware and replay it afterwards from the device itself or their own PC. The key question I would like to address in this paper is the limits of the conceptual framework of antitrust law and of copyright law for regulating possible anti-competitive effects of the DRM/DMCA regime on competition in IT markets in the U.S, given the unique features of IT markets.


The development of an online turbine generator diagnostic system is described from conception to initial field verification. The system is composed of a data center located in the power plant that collects data from online measurement devices and communicates these data to a centralized diagnostic facility in Orlando, Florida, where the actual diagnosis is done. The resulting diagnosis and recommended actions are transmitted to the power plant where they are displayed to the operator by the data center. The market-place need, initial approaches to the product, system field verification are described. The artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic program has been diagnosing seven large utility generators since July 1984 and has correctly diagnosed a significant number of generator and instrumentation problems. Issues such as a centralized approach, rule base quality control, and the range of resources needed for a successful product are discussed.


The consolidation of law and the development of legal writing during Spain's Golden Age not only helped that country become a modern state but also affected its great literature. In this fascinating book, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria explores the works of Cervantes, showing how his representations of love were inspired by examples of human deviance and desire culled from legal discourse. Gonzalez Echevarria describes Spain's new legal policies, legislation, and institutions and explains how, at the same time, its literature became filled with love stories derived from classical and medieval sources. Examining the ways that these legal and literary developments interacted in Cervantes's work, he sheds new light on Don Quixote and other writings.


After decades of steady decline, mortality rates among middle aged white people in the United States have risen sharply, driven largely by an increase in deaths from drug and alcohol poisonings, suicide, and liver disease, a study has found.

The rise in midlife mortality has been paralleled by an increase in self reported morbidity, the researchers reported, with more middle aged white people reporting poor health, pain, psychological distress, alcohol use, and difficulties with activities of daily living.

The study, which was conducted by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, both professors of economics at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, was published online on 2 November in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .1 Deaton was recently awarded the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Case and Deaton analyzed US morbidity and mortality statistics for a fifteen year period from 1999 to 2013. Previous studies found that between 1970 and 2013 the all cause mortality among those aged 45-54 in the US fell by 44%. Similar improvements were seen in other wealthy nations, such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Case and …


Diagnosis of malignant lymphadenopathy is of particular importance for treatment planning, before treatment staging and also for prognosis determination. Currently various diagnostic procedures are used to differentiate benign and malignant lymphadenopathy which are invasive and costly. Ultrasonography as a noninvasive, low-cost and accessible method is proposed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of some ultrasonographic parameters in differentiating malignant from benign superficial lymphadenopathies. In this study ultrasonography was performed for lymph nodes of 100 patients who were eligible for pathological evaluation of superficial lymphadenopathy. The most accessible lymph nodes were marked and biopsied. Sonographic and pathologic results were compared. The sensitivity and specificity of the test and the appropriate cutoff point was determined based on the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve using SPSS Ver.17. From 100 evaluated lymph nodes 55 were benign and 45 were malignant. There was no significant difference between malignant and benign lymph nodes in terms of cortical and medullary thickness (p=0.055),but there was a significant difference between benign and malignant lymph nodes in terms of blood supply pattern and mean of Pulsatility Index (PI) (P=.007) and Resistive Index (RI) (P<0.001) . The cortex thickness of 7.95 mm with 62.2Ua sensitivity, 72.7Ua specificity and 70Ua accuracy was the appropriate cutoff point in differentiating malignant and benign lymphadenopathy. The color Doppler criteria in combination with gray scale ultrasonography could be helpful to select patients for biopsy or Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA), but cannot fully replace pathological evaluation.


htmlabstractThis deliverable is part of WP3: Source Code Quality and Activity Analysis. It provides descriptions and prototypes of the tools that are needed for source code quality analysis in open source software projects. It builds upon the results of:
• Deliverable 3.1 where infra-structure and a domain analysis have been investigated for Source Code Quality Analysis and initial language-dependent and language-agnostic metrics have been prototyped.
• Deliverable 3.2 where an integrated architecture for source code analysis and source code activity analysis was presented. The current document adds multi-language support to this architecture.
• Collaboration with WP2 and WP5, where an integrated quality model is developed which brings together metrics into concise and comparable descriptions ("factoids") of project quality aspects.
In this deliverable we report solely on source code a metrics which work for specific programming languages, namely Java and PHP. For language agnostic quality analysis we refer to Deliverable 3.3. The work on Tasks 3.3 and 3.4 has been done in parallel. On the one hand, in order to prevent unnecessary duplication the final report on the satisfaction of the requirements that were identified in Deliverable 1.1 are presented here, but not in Deliverable 3.3. On the other hand, for the sake of cohesion and readability, some general design considerations concerning the metrics and their aggregation is copied between the two deliverable documents in the introduction sections of both documents (Section 1).
In this deliverable we present:
• A brief summary of motivation and challenges for Task 3.4;
• The infra-structure to support metrics for PHP;
• A build-information (e.g. class paths) recovery tool for Java, called BMW; • Metrics including their motivation in GQM terminology [3]:
• Shared metric providers between Java and PHP • Metric providers specific for Java
• Metric providers specific for PHP
• An overview of the use of the above metrics in the OSSMETER quality model through factoids. • A status update of the full requirements table relevant for WP3.
This document is also good to read if you are a user of OSSMETER.


Fractal image compression is a comparatively new technique which has gained considerable attention in the popular technical press, and more recently in the research literature. The most significant advantages claimed are high reconstruction quality at low coding rates, rapid decoding, and "resolution independence" in the sense that an encoded image may be decoded at a higher resolution than the original. While many of the claims published in the popular technical press are clearly extravagant, it appears from the rapidly growing body of published research that fractal image compression is capable of performance comparable with that of other techniques enjoying the benefit of a considerably more robust theoretical foundation. So called because of the similarities between the form of image representation and a mechanism widely used in generating deterministic fractal images, fractal compression represents an image by the parameters of a set of affine transforms on image blocks under which the image is approximately invariant. Although the conditions imposed on these transforms may be shown to be sufficient to guarantee that an approximation of the original image can be reconstructed, there is no obvious theoretical reason to expect this to represent an efficient representation for image coding purposes. The usual analogy with vector quantisation, in which each image is considered to be represented in terms of code vectors extracted from the image itself is instructive, but transforms the fundamental problem into one of understanding why this construction results in an efficient codebook. The signal property required for such a codebook to be effective, termed "self-affinity", is poorly understood. A stochastic signal model based examination of this property is the primary contribution of this dissertation. The most significant findings (subject to some important restrictions) are that "self-affinity" is not a natural consequence of common statistical assumptions but requires particular conditions which are inadequately characterised by second order statistics, and that "natural" images are only marginally "self-affine", to the extent that fractal image compression is effective, but not more so than comparable standard vector quantisation techniques.


Successful object-oriented action typically increases the perceived size of aimed target objects. This phenomenon has been assumed to reflect an impact of an actor's current action ability on visual perception. The actual action ability and the explicit knowledge of action outcome, however, were confounded in previous studies. The present experiments aimed at disentangling these two factors. Participants repeatedly tried to hit a circular target varying in size with a stylus movement under restricted feedback conditions. After each movement they were explicitly informed about the success in hitting the target and were then asked to judge target size. The explicit feedback regarding movement success was manipulated orthogonally to actual movement success. The results of three experiments indicated the participants' bias to judge relatively small targets as larger and relatively large targets as smaller after explicit feedback of failure than after explicit feedback of success. This pattern was independent of the actual motor performance, suggesting that the actors' evaluations of motor actions may bias perception of target objects in itself.


There are two known diamondiferous bodies in Kazakhstan, the Kumdy-Kol deposit and the Barchi-Kol occurrence. Both are located within the western part of a metamorphic belt that outcrops at the central part of the Kokchetav Massif. The metamorphic belt is interpreted as a mega-melange that comprises structural units underlain by HP and UHP rocks. Diamondiferous varieties of the UHP rocks within the Kumdy-Kol deposit form a narrow (~1 km thick), NE-trending band; they comprise less than one percent of the total UHP rock volume. The economically important diamondiferous zone consists of variegated rocks, from silicate to essentially carbonate varieties with a wide spectrum of mineral assemblages. Garnet-biotite gneiss makes about 80 % of the diamondiferous zone. Certain regularity is discernable in spatial distribution of diamonds: linear diamond-rich zones alternate with barren ones. The diamond grade ranges from several carats per ton (cpt) to several hundreds cpt. Different morphological varieties are present among the diamonds: octahedra, cubes, cube-octahedron combination forms, skeletal and spheroid crystals. A wide range of δ 13 C (−8.9‰ through −27 ‰) and δ 15 N (+5.3 ‰ through +25 ‰) values have been measured. Diamonds from different rock types differ in their carbon isotopic pattern: diamonds from gneiss have 'lighter' isotopic compositions relative to those of pyroxene-carbonate and garnet-pyroxene rocks. Graphite, coesite, clinopyroxene, rutile, titanite, kyanite, K-feldspar, biotite, phengite, quartz, phlogopite, albite, apatite, chlorite and carbonates are minerals forming intergrowths with diamonds. The most frequent combination is graphite +diamond. We conclude that the model of crustal fluid-metasomatic formation of diamonds in metamorphic rocks reflects the observed regularities best. The morphology of diamondiferous bodies favors the notion of their formation from a carbon-bearing fluid. The micrometer size of the diamonds, along with isotopic signatures, hint at their formation under metastable crustal conditions. This model presumes that the formative process occurred at relatively low temperature and pressure within an open disequilibrium catalytic system. It does not exclude an UHP episode in the geological history of the metamorphic rocks.


The issues of diffuse and point source phosphorus (P) pollution in river systems are presented using a catchment model to assess nutrient behaviour, seasonal effluent standards and biosolid substitution. A process-based, dynamic water quality model (INCA-P) has been applied to four UK catchments, namely, the Rivers Tywi, Wensum, Lunan and Hampshire Avon, to simulate water fluxes, sediments, total phosphorus and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations. The model has been used to assess impacts of both agricultural runoff and point P sources from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on water quality. With increasing costs for P fertilizer and P reduction at WWTPs, a strategy of recycling P from WWTPs as biosolids to substitute for fertilizers in vulnerable catchments has been investigated. Significant reductions in P concentrations are achieved if this substitution were implemented on a large scale. Reductions in SRP of between 6% and 41% can be achieved using this strategy. The effects of implementing new WWTP standards are shown to reduce SRP by 30%. Seasonal consent standards applied in only summer months could reduce SRP by 53% and achieve a substantial reduction in treatment costs year round.


Background: Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt. (Asteraceae) is an aromatic, herbaceous, perennial plant and known commonly name as "White Sage", "Black Sage", "Prairie Sage" or "Cudweed Sagewort". It is traditionally used as an antispasmodic, anthelminthic, antidiarrhoeal, stomachic, hepatic colic, appetizer, and regulator of menstruation, antimalaric and antiparasitic efficiancy. Objective: The essential oil composition of the flowering herb of A. ludoviciana (AL) was investigated and for the first time, the oil was screened for antiparasitic activity. Methods: The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil (EO) obtained from the herb with flowered of A. ludoviciana was analyzed by Gas Chromatography–Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Results and Discussion: The outcomes showed that the major components of oil were camphor (40.6%), 1,8-cineole (25.5%) and camphene (4.7%), among 45 identified compounds, comprising 98.5 of the total oil. In addition, the oil was tested against Acanthamoeba castellanii, Leishmania infantum and Trichomonas vaginalis. Conclusion: In this study, it is first demonstrated that A. ludoviciana essential oil (AL-EO) is effective against three important parasites.


The Claron Formation is a well-known lithologic unit located in southwestern Utah (USA) that forms extraordinary cliffs such as those of Cedar Breaks National Monument and the Bryce Canyon National Park. The relative age of Claron Formation is a controversial topic due to its lithological characteristics, i.e. diagenesis and the low fossils abundance. Acharophyte assemblage located at the Griffin Top section (Aquarius Plateau, Utah, USA) provides, for the first time, the relative age of the base of the Claron Formation. A well-preserved population of charophytes belonging to Peckichara torulosa (Dollfus and Fritel, 1919) Grambast, 1957 is described from the lower pink member of the Claron Formation. Based on documented ages of this charophyte species in Europe andChina, we infer that the basal part of the Claron Formation is lower Eocene in age (Ypresian).


Background The gut–brain axis facilitates a critical bidirectional link and communication between the brain and the gut. Recent studies have highlighted the significance of interactions in the gut–brain axis, with a particular focus on intestinal functions, the nervous system and the brain. Furthermore, researchers have examined the effects of the gut microbiome on mental health and psychiatric well-being. The present study reviewed published evidence to explore the concept of the gut–brain axis. Aims This systematic review investigated the relationship between human brain function and the gut–brain axis. Methods To achieve these objectives, peer-reviewed articles on the gut–brain axis were identified in various electronic databases, including PubMed, MEDLINE, CIHAHL, Web of Science and PsycINFO. Results Data obtained from previous studies showed that the gut–brain axis links various peripheral intestinal functions to brain centres through a broad range of processes and pathways, such as endocrine signalling and immune system activation. Researchers have found that the vagus nerve drives bidirectional communication between the various systems in the gut–brain axis. In humans, the signals are transmitted from the liminal environment to the central nervous system. Conclusions The communication that occurs in the gut–brain axis can alter brain function and trigger various psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and depression. Thus, elucidation of the gut–brain axis is critical for the management of certain psychiatric and mental disorders.


______________________ Abstract: A tandem automated guided vehicle (AGV) system deals with grouping workstations into some non-overlapping zones, and assigning exactly one AGV to each zone. This paper presents a new non-linear integer mathematical model to group n machines into N loops that minimizes both inter and intra-loop flows simultaneously. Due to computational difficulties of exact methods in solving our proposed model, a threshold accepting (TA) algorithm is proposed. To show its efficiency, a number of instances generated randomly are solved by this proposed TA and then compared with the LINGO solver package employing the branch-andbound (B/B) method. The related computational results show that our proposed TA dominates the exact algorithm when the size of instances grows.


Background: Jaw cysts and cyst-like lesions cause facial deformity, destruction of dental tissues and affect masticatory and phonation functions. These ad-versely erode patients' psycho-social status; create low self-esteem and may change one's facial identity and appearance. Objective: To determine the histo-pathologic characteristics, variants and demographic pattern of jaw cysts and cyst-like lesions at the University of Nairobi Dental Hospital. Material and Me-thod: This was an analytical and verification study that involved microscopic re-examination of all available incisional/excisional biopsy samples from January 2000 to December 2009 for histo-pathological diagnosis at the University of Nairobi Dental Hospital. Results: 187 jaw cysts and cyst-like lesions were diagnosed at the University of Nairobi Dental Hospital over the ten-year period. Keratocystic odontogenic tumours constituted 28%, dentigerous cysts 25%, nasopalatine duct cysts 19%, radicular cysts 15%, while calcifying odontogenic cysts comprised 4% of all the lesions. The rest of the lesions were between 1% and 3% of all the lesion entities. Conclusion: Keratocystic odontogenic tumours and dentigerous cysts were the most common developmental odontogenic cysts diagnosed in the ten-year period.


Following the previous work (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 32021), this study continues to investigate the intriguing phenomenon of thermal decomposition during continuous cooling. The phenomenon can be detected and its kinetics can be measured by means of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The kinetics of the thermal decomposition of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), nickel oxalate (NiC2O4), and lithium sulfate monohydrate (Li2SO4·H2O) have been measured upon heating and cooling and analyzed by means of the isoconversional methodology. The results have confirmed the hypothesis that the respective kinetics should be similar for single-step processes (NH4NO3 decomposition) but different for multi-step ones (NiC2O4 decomposition and Li2SO4·H2O dehydration). It has been discovered that the differences in the kinetics can be either quantitative or qualitative. Physical insights into the nature of the differences have been proposed.


"The choices that smallholder farmers are able to make are strongly conditioned by the geographic conditions in which they live. The importance of this fact for rural development strategy is not lost on policy makers. For example, the government of Ethiopia frequently frames policy discussions by broadly different geographical conditions of moisture availability, recognizing moisture reliable, drought prone and pastoralist areas. These conditions are seen as important criteria for determining the nature, extent and priority of development interventions for different parts of the country. There is considerable evidence, however, that other geographical factors also have important implications for rural development options. This paper uses agroecology, access to markets, and population density to define development domains: geographical locations sharing broadly similar rural development constraints and opportunities. Unlike similar efforts conducted elsewhere, this work is unique in that it seeks to move away from a subjective mapping of factors of theorized importance to a more rigorous definition of development domains on the basis of quantitative data on smallholder livelihood strategies. After selecting variables for mapping, we calibrate our definition for domains in such a way that their explanatory power is maximized across a range of livelihood strategies that figure in the current Ethiopian rural development discourse (market engagement, dependence upon agriculture, etc.)." Authors' Abstract


This collection of essays brings together the latest historical research on cultural production and reception during the Second World War. Its starting point is how this war was presented to, and understood by, contemporaries and how they differentiated it from earlier conflicts. Although this was particularly noticeable in the construction of ideas of inclusiveness and commonality where the people' pulled together to secure victory and a socially equitable peace, the essays also seek to explore the diversity of institutional and personal experiences. Essays look at major national institutions and industries such as the recently formed BBC, the culturally diverse and rapidly expanding commercial press, and the British film industry. The collection explores the role of the individual agent, with studies on established writers and composers, and how each related to the collective rationales of wartime.


First published in 1909, W.E.B. Du Bois's biography of abolitionist John Brown is a literary and historical classic. With a rare combination of scholarship and passion, Du Bois defends Brown against all detractors who saw him as a fanatic, fiend, or traitor. Brown emerges as a rich personality, fully understandable as an unusual leader with a deeply religious outlook and a devotion to the cause of freedom for the slave. This new edition is enriched with an introduction by John David Smith and with supporting documents relating to Du Bois's correspondence with his publisher.


Depression and dementia are among the most common psychiatric syndromes diagnosed in elderly. Cognitive impairment is seen in both disorders, this may pose a challenge in differential diagnosis, but cognitive impairment is reversible in depression while progressive in dementia. Comorbid conditions are frequently seen in older people, depression in elderly may also present with different symptoms from young adults and this may be a challenge for the clinician. Changes in cognitive functions with advancing age, somatic symptoms, appetite and sleep changes frequently seen in healthy elderly must also be taken into account while differentiating normal and pathologic. Late-onset elderly depressions has distinctive cognitive features from early-onset conditions, there are observations and fi ndings that especially late-onset depressions with comorbid cerebrovascular disorders will eventually result in dementia. Upon those obversations "vascular depression" hypothesis is introduced. İn this article clinical features, neuropsychological profi le and neuroimaging fi ndings helpful in differential diagnosis of depression and dementia will be reviewed.


Laser emission based on an electrically reconfigured fingerprint texture of a cholesteric liquid crystal helical superstructure is achieved by judiciously designing the composition of the device material and the device structure. Unlike the common lasing, resulting from photonic bandgap behaviour of photons having a certain wavelength in a self-organized liquid crystal helix with a common planar arrangement, the lasing shown herein is caused by a combination of the high-order distributed feedback resulting from periodic refractive index modulation in fingerprint stripes and the waveguide effect of the sandwiched cell structure. Furthermore, this laser, with a narrow bandwidth of less than 0.5 nm, can be switched between two orthogonal emission directions; the emission wavelength as well as the lasing mode (i.e., single-mode, multi-mode and random-mode) can be manipulated readily with a comparatively low external electric stimulation owing to the variety of configurations and reconfigurations possible for such a soft helix. In addition, the lasing can be electrically turned on and off. This study not only corroborates the lasing possibility of a cholesteric liquid crystal helix showing fingerprint texture with a helical pitch significantly exceeding the short pitch required in common photonic band edge lasing, but also simultaneously introduces potential applications in photonic integration and others processes.


This paper develops a unified model of growth, population, and technological progress that is consistent with long-term historical evidence. The economy endogenously evolves through three phases. In the Malthusian regime, population growth is positively related to the level of income per capita. Technological progress is slow and is matched by proportional increases in population, so that output per capita is stable around a constant level. In the post-Malthusian regime, the growth rates of technology and total output increase. Population growth absorbs much of the growth of output, but income per capita does rise slowly. The economy endogenously undergoes a demographic transition in which the traditionally positive relationship between income per capita and population growth is reversed. In the Modern Growth regime, population growth is moderate or even negative, and income per capita rises rapidly. Two forces drive the transitions between regimes: First, technological progress is driven both by increases in the size of the population and by increases in the size of the population and by increases in the average level of education. Second, technological progress creates a state of disequilibrium, which raises the return to human capital and induces patients to substitute child quality for quantity.


A brief characteristic of goals of clusters and their role in the innovation development in a health care are presented. The integration process of scientific, educational, medical institutions and businesses in the regional cluster is shown. Illustrated by the example of Kemerovo city the efficiency of a consolidation is evaluated, which is characterized by the creation of scientific production with its subsequent commercialization of high-tech enterprises, continuing vocational education, medical care in cardiovascular diseases on the full-cycle basis.


The Environmental Protection Agency released its proposed Clean Power Regulation in June 2014, and in mid-summer 2015, the finalized rule will be the first comprehensive regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants in American history. Compliance strategies will be expensive and complex decisions for states to make. Each state faces the choice of whether to comply individually or as a region, but posses the freedom to comply in whatever way they choose. Pennsylvania is unique. The commonwealth has an entrenched coal industry, a nascent natural gas industry, and is a net exporter of electricity. Joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a group of northeast states that borders Pennsylvania to the north, may be one compliance option, but joining a different region may be a more desirable lower cost solution. This analysis seeks to show that the cost of compliance would be lower if Pennsylvania joined a select group of states within the PJM Interconnection. One result of the analysis suggests that by joining with complementary states within PJM, relatively minor changes in Pennsylvania coal-fired generation would be required to meet Clean Power Plan compliance 2030 goals.