Total Quality Management (TQM) and the issues relating to its implementation have been widely discussed and debated in the business and management literature during the last few years, particularly in the West. The implementation of TQM principles, concepts and methods in an organisation has been regarded as a real movement towards transforming its culture and improving its management processes and the quality of its services and products. Nevertheless, available data on TQM implementation within the context of the developing countries are limited or mainly focused on the manufacturing sector. Little research has been carried out on the subject within the service sector, particularly within the telecommunication sector. The issues relating to TQM implementation in this study are investigated within the context of a developing country; namely Oman; more particularly, within the context of the Omani telecommunication sector. Against this background, this study examines the feasibility of introducing TQM into Oman Telecommunications Company (OMANTEL). The study provides an analysis and assesses the extent to which there is a need for TQM implementation in OMANTEL, and the extent to which the company's internal environment is compatible with the tenets of TQM. The study is based on both secondary and primary data analysis. The secondary data are used to delineate the underpinning principles, methods, tools and techniques of TQM and to offer a background to the organisation under investigation. The secondary data were obtained through a survey of TQM literature and the archival data relating to OMANTEL. The primary data were obtained through an empirical study by questionnaire and conducting several interviews within OMANTEL. The primary data obtained are presented to manifest the extent to which it is feasible to introduce TQM in OMANTEL and to offer recommendations that would enhance this feasibility.The secondary data analysis reveals that there are several emerging trends in the Omani telecom sector that entail some changes in OMANTEL. The secondary data analysis reveals that TQM has much to offer to OMANTEL in order to meet those emerging trends. The primary data analysis reveals that there is a limited knowledge and understanding amongst OMANTEL's personnel of TQM and that there is a significant need for TQM implementation in OMANTEL. The primary data analysis reveals that there are some barriers that could be encountered in implementing TQM in OMANTEL; nevertheless, there are some driving forces that could facilitate this implementation. The primary data also reveals that the internal environment of OMANTEL is conductive to implementing the elements, concepts and principles of the proposed TQM framework.


This is the work of a critical literature review for performance-based contract in the aerospace industry. The research is separated into two different parts, namely, qualitative and quantitative review and analysis. The qualitative reviews and analysis covered the domains of servitization, performance-based contract and aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul service. Servitization served an important market sector to the emergent of performance-based contract. Subsequently, such concept is introduced to the aerospace space industry and yielded successful results. The quantitative reviews and analysis are done to offer guidance into the diverse modelling method used for performance-based contracting practices where previously not done before. The models are analysed together to draw direct comparison between one another and discussion are conducted to point the advantages and also the deficient in each model. This research contribute to the understanding of performance-based contract from both qualitative and quantitative understanding.


Introduction: Recently, suicide prevention has been an important public health issue. However, with the growing access to information in cyberspace, the harmful information is easily accessible online. To investigate the accessibility of potentially harmful suicide-related information on the internet, we discuss the following issue about searching suicide information on the internet to draw attention to it. Methods: We use five search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yam, and Sina) and four suicide-related search queries (suicide, how to suicide, suicide methods, and want to die) in traditional Chinese in April 2016. We classified the first thirty linkages of the search results on each search engine by a psychiatric doctor into suicide prevention, pro-suicide, neutral, unrelated to suicide, or error websites. Results: Among the total 352 unique websites generated, the suicide prevention websites were the most frequent among the search results (37.8%), followed by websites unrelated to suicide (25.9%) and neutral websites (23.0%). However, pro-suicide websites were still easily accessible (9.7%). Besides, compared with the USA and China, the search engine originating in Taiwan had the lowest accessibility to pro-suicide information. The results of ANOVA showed a significant difference between the groups, F = 8.772, P < 0.001. Conclusions: This study results suggest a need for further restrictions and regulations of pro-suicide information on the internet. Providing more supportive information online may be an effective plan for suicidal prevention.


Cytokines are potent molecules produced mainly by specific activated immune cells to control inflammatory responses besides other biologic processes. Although active participation of cytokines provides defense against carcinogenesis on the other hand, deregulation at the genetic level influences their activity to promote tumor development. Among many aspects, constitutional polymorphic sequence variations are key factors that derange the cytokine expression to lead an individual's propensity to risk for different cancers. Cytokine polymorphisms are now believed to alter these critical molecules that have a dual face in carcinogenesis as, when implicated in the activation of the immune response, these molecules check the cancer development while their persistent inflammatory reaction can envisage the development of malignancy and tumor growth. We have given ample evidence of case-control studies in a range of cancers where substantial evidence, as reported in this chapter, links polymorphism of cytokine gene susceptibility with numerous cancers. Cytokine gene polymorphism is vital to be significant bimolecular genetic determinants of susceptibility and prognosis of cancer. A strong need is felt for more case-control association studies in cytokine candidate genes involved in specific pathways for particular cancer in bigger powered sample sizes involving additional variables to disclose their factual risk for cancer.


Physical layer security over fading channels has drawn a considerable amount of attention in the literature. How to measure the secrecy performance is a fundamental but important issue for the study of wireless physical layer security. This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of the classical secrecy metrics as well as several new secrecy metrics for physical layer security over fading channels, which enables one to appropriately design secure communication systems with different views on how secrecy is measured.


The trend toward increasing inequality in family income in the United States since the late 1960s is well documented. Among key possible explanations for this increase are rising dispersion in individual earnings, changes in female labor supply decisions, and changes in family composition and living arrangements. We analyze the contribution of these factors to changes in family income inequality and poverty during the years 1969-1998, focusing on labor supply and family structure as behavioral changes but accounting also for changes in the distribution of male earnings. Our analyses rely on conditionally weighted density estimation, a semiparametric decomposition technique recently developed by DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996). We also use a relatively novel rank-based distributional exchange to assess the effects of changes in the distribution of male earnings. ; In our empirical work, we first analyze changes between 1969 and 1989, which corresponds roughly to the period of rising inequality that has been the focus of previous work. Our results indicate that rising dispersion of male earnings and the decline of traditional forms of family structure respectively explain up to about three-fourths and about one-half of rising inequality in family income during this period. The impact of changing family structure was most pronounced in the lower half of the distribution. In contrast, the increase in female labor force participation offset rising inequality to some degree, mainly in the upper half of the distribution, although its impact has moved down the distribution over time. In extending the analyses to the 1990s, we find that the rate at which inequality grew slowed after 1989, but the explanatory factors continued to have substantial effects. In each decade, the effects of the explanatory factors on poverty were especially large and followed a pattern similar to that for inequality.


The performance analysis of dual (two-branch) MRC under imperfect weight is derived. The weight of the perfect MRC is the conjugate of the channel gain normalized to the noise variance of each branch. On the other hand, the imperfect MRC in this paper means the case that the weight is only the conjugate of the channel gain, not being normalized to the noise variance. Considering the system (or channel) conditions that the noise level of each branch is different, we present the accurate performance analysis of imperfect dual MRC in terms of average combined signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), outage probability and average symbol error rate for arbitrary modulations in closed-form and compare them with the performance of the perfect MRC and the selection combining (SC). The interesting statistical results such as probability density function, cumulative distribution function, and moment generating function of the combined output SNR, which follows the ratio distribution of the square of the sum of the exponential random variables (RVs) to the weighted sum of the exponential RVs are derived. From the performance results we provide the criterion in choosing the imperfect MRC, perfect MRC, or SC depending on the degree of the difference of the noise level between branches.


We present a numerical procedure for solving a set of nonlinear coupled-mode equations on a finite interval. These equations originally arose in the study of the dynamics of gap solitons in nonlinear periodic media. Our procedure, which uses an implicit fourth-order Runge–Kutta method, is easy to implement, versatile, and quite well suited for vectorization or parallelization.


The impact of the recent near-collapse of the world banking system continues to be felt within families, with many people facing employment, money and housing problems as a direct result. Using data from a UK household survey, this paper explores the relationship between recession-related 'justiciable' life problems and relationship stability. Around 4% of such problems were reported to have brought about a family break-up. Often this was also accompanied by other life problems, such as stress-related illness. The risk of families breaking up was also observed to increase following the experience of recession-related problems, with the risk remaining high for a number of years. Our findings point to the role of legal services in mitigating the impact of recession-related justiciable problems, as well as the family problems that can ensue. Of concern, those most likely to report a relationship breakdown as a consequence of a recession-related problem included those on low incomes. With another consequence of the economic downturn being a contraction of the legal aid scheme, this poses a real challenge to people's ability to access justice.


What is the connection between reasons and motives? According to Reasons Internalism there is a non-trivial conceptual connection between normative reasons and the possibility of rationally accessing relevant motivation. Reasons Internalism is attractive insofar as it captures the thought that reasons are for reasoning with and repulsive insofar as it fails to generate sufficient critical distance between reasons and motives. Rather than directly adjudicate this dispute, I extract from it two generally accepted desiderata on theories of normative reasons and argue that a new theory can satisfy both. The new theory locates part of the meaning of normative reason statements in their role in normative discussion. It generates a view of the connection between reasons and motives that is distinct from Reasons Internalism, yet distinctively in its spirit.


Passed in February 2005, the Class Action Fairness Act is the most comprehensive effort at regulating class action litigation the Congress has ever enacted. As we pass the first anniversary of the CAFA's enactment, there is a valuable opportunity to be taken in looking at the major questions with which the courts have been engaged in interpreting the new law. The primary problem has been deciding to what cases the new statute applies. Defendants, eager to gain the benefits of the new legislation, have attempted to extend the statute's reach to cases filed before the date it went into effect, February 18, 2005. While the precise commencement questions raised by the CAFA will only remain live issues for a short time, there is much in the CAFA case law to command our attention. The CAFA cases warrant continued and careful consideration because the issues with which the courts have dealt also arise regularly beyond the class action context, and will continue to do so. Whenever new legislation is enacted questions can arise over its applicability to pending cases. Surprisingly, courts and commentators previously have not given rigorous attention to the commencement problem; as a result, many of the reported decisions either reflexively follow older, not particularly well-reasoned precedents or simply reach dubious results. In this essay, I suggest that in interpreting the meaning of commenced, when used as a statutory application trigger, it would be valuable for courts to follow three essential canons of construction. First, whenever new legislation uses the date of commencement as a relevant point in time for identifying those cases to which the new statute applies, a court should first discern whether the law specifically defines the term. Assuming state law governs the definition of when a state suit is commenced because the federal statute does not include a different method, the second step is to determine whether a state rule fixes the time at which an action is commenced and, if so, to figure out what is that relevant date. Finally, the third canon of construction is to distinguish between state rules that fix the date of commencement with those that set requirements for maintaining the action or that have some other, even more specific purpose in mind. When the text of a law does not instruct differently, reflexive consideration of rules directed to purposes other than fixing the date of commencement confuses the inquiry with which the court must be involved. The question - the only relevant question - in interpreting statutory text governing its applicability is what did the Congress mean when it provided that the statute would apply only to cases commenced on or after the law's effective date. A court that follows these three canons of construction is more likely to better keep straight the proper inquiry about which it should be engaged.


Conversations in middle school about digital citizenship tend to focus on the responsibilities of citizenship and the issues of surveillance, safety, cyberbullying, and internet etiquette. While these are important and essential conversations, digital citizenship education needs to consider youth political identity and democratic participation in digital spaces if educators wish to take full advantage of the empowering potential of participatory technology. The potential for youth to shape diverse identities through digital technologies has significant implications for youth empowerment and agency and helps dismantle reductive narratives that have tended to define middle school youth. The role of digital citizenship education must be expanded to include critical social justice education. Such a reconceptualization of digital citizenship will result in curriculum that understands and supports the role digital technologies play in the development of youth political identity and help empower young people to impact positively on political issues. Little research has been done on the convergence of youth political identity and participatory technology spaces which are designed specifically for social justice and supported by social justice pedagogical ideals. Online social justice spaces support user empowerment through critical social justice education, community building, and orientation toward social action. If the context of youth lived experience is a technological one, the expression of youth political identity and youth activism through digital pathways requires attention and support from educators interested in digital citizenship education.


Background Good knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS including safe-sex practises are important for adolescents' sexual health. The AIDS Institute at Khon Kaen University (KKU), promotes knowledge of HIV/AIDS and research into different strategies to reduce HIV/AIDS risk. Method This study was conducted with first-year health-science KKU students. Sexual health behaviour, general knowledge about HIV and sexual transmitted diseases, HIV prevention beliefs, self-confidence and accessibility to care and counselling were explored using a self-report questionnaire, approved by KKU Ethics Committee. Results Questionnaires were returned by 683 health-science students; 69.4% were female, mean age was 18.8 years. More than 90% of them declared that they have not had sexual experience. Many (74%) had not talked about HIV with friends. Seven of ten survey questions about HIV knowledge were answered correctly in more than 84% of students. These questions included knowledge about at-risk populations, possibility of transmission without HIV symptoms, progression to death from opportunistic infection, transmission by eating together, timing for HIV testing, source of HIV in blood and body fluid and aggravated transmission by other sexual transmitted diseases. However, some still believed that HIV people should not have a sex life (33.7%), or, did not know that coitus interruptus is unsafe for protecting from HIV infection (33.2%). Regarding sexual practises, most were confident that they would not have sex without a condom (77.1%), or, would be able to bargain not to have sex if they didn't want to (82.5%), or, had access to condoms when needed (86.8%). Conclusion Students have good general knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Most report confidence about only engaging in safe-sex behaviours, and having the communication skills to bargain with a partner to achieve this. However, behaviour in real life situations can be very different. This is difficult to research by self-report methods and would require other research tools.


The paper models the interaction between risk taking in the financial sector and central bank policy for the case of pure illiquidity risk. It is shown that, when bad states are highly unlikely, public provision of liquidity may improve the allocation, even though it encourages more risk taking (less liquid investment) by private banks. In general, however, there is an incentive of financial intermediaries to free ride on liquidity in good states, resulting in excessively low liquidity in bad states. In the prevailing mixed-strategy equilibrium, depositors are worse off than if banks would coordinate on more liquid investment. In that case, liquidity injection will make the free riding problem even worse. The results show that even in the case of pure illiquidity risk, there is a serious commitment problem for central banks. We show that unconditional free lending against good collateral, as suggested by the Bagehot Rule, fails to address the moral hazard problem: Even though we consider a model with pure illiquidity risk, it turns out that such a policy will encourage banks to behave naughty, providing insufficient level of liquidity.


According to the laws of software evolution, software structure tends to degrade over time and cause future evolution to be even more difficult. Managing software evolution right from initial design through its evolution stages is important to ensure the final software product maintains its architectural integrity. Placing precise and timely software evolution information in the hands of the domain experts will allow accurate project and risk management while at the same time establishing clear accountabilities and guidelines. Current Software Evolution Management (SEM) infrastructures based on Software Configuration Management (SCM) lack product knowledge and deeper semantic understanding thus making it harder to effectively apply software metrics and feedback control systems that truly reflect the product and process needs. The disconnection of product knowledge in SCM prevents software practitioners from continually working with the logical design models through the implementation phases thus leads to widening software design and implementation gaps. Software process and product views should be closely linked in order to better manage and improve software quality. A SEM infrastructure is proposed that leverages the current state of SCM, incorporating application domain knowledge, a rich data model and a coherent process model that can be used to preserve the architectural integrity of the evolving software. My solution is Object-oriented Software Semantic Evolution Management (OSSEM), a SEM model and infrastructure with integral support for continuous modelling, applying software measurements and customisable feedback control systems to facilitate early detection of software design erosion. The infrastructure promotes extensibility by supporting custom metadata to define additional semantic artefacts, metrics policies to inject custom measurements and change policies to monitor quality attributes. I believe OSSEM unifies the software process and product perspectives; allows for more tacit knowledge to be made explicit and managed; empowers teams to be more context-aware during software maintenance or evolution activities; and overall provides guidance and governance to minimise software erosion in evolving systems.


Yao's circuit garbling scheme is one of the basic building blocks of cryptographic protocol design. Originally designed to enable two-message, two-party secure computation, the scheme has been extended in many ways and has innumerable applications. Still, a basic question has remained open throughout the years: Can the scheme be extended to guarantee security in the face of an adversary that corrupts both parties, adaptively, as the computation proceeds? We provide a positive answer to this question. We define a new type of encryption, called functionally equivocal encryption (FEE), and show that when Yao's scheme is implemented with an FEE as the underlying encryption mechanism, it becomes secure against such adaptive adversaries. We then show how to implement FEE from any one way function. Combining our scheme with non-committing encryption, we obtain the first two-message, two-party computation protocol, and the first constant-rounds multiparty computation protocol, in the plain model, that are secure against semi-honest adversaries who can adaptively corrupt all parties. A number of extensions and applications are described within.


Good research requires good data stewardship. Data stewardship encompasses all the different tasks and responsibilities that relate to caring for data during the various phases of the whole research life cycle. The basic assumption is that the researcher himself/herself is primarily responsible for all data.2 However, the researcher does need professional support to achieve this. To that end, diverse supportive data stewardship roles and functions have evolved in recent years. Often they have developed over the course of time. Their functional implementation depends largely on their place in the organization. This comes as no surprise when one considers that data stewardship consists of many facets that are traditionally assigned to different departments. Researchers regularly take on data stewardship tasks as well, not only for themselves but also in a wider context for a research group. This data stewardship work often remains unnoticed.


Abstract Despite a concerned effort over the past decade to improve education of healthcare providers and the public on the need for aggressive treatment of pain, this condition is still woefully undertreated. Patients who are the most undertreated for both acute and chronic pain, even terminal pain, are those with histories of addictions and those who are viewed as being at high risk for addiction. H physicians approach theirpatients with the belief that they deserve good analgesia, then it is not appropriate to avoid prescribing controlled substances to anyone in pain, including addicted patients. It is not appropriate to deny an addicted patient pain medication simply because of their status of addiction. When these principles are followed, the healthcare professional's task of adequately treating pain becomes easier. Although the approach to pain treatment may be somewhat modified for patients with an addiction history, that history alone should not preclude treating their pain, including using opioid medications when appropriate.


The success of an MMIC design is strongly influenced by the process tolerances and model inaccuracies. In fact the MMIC technology is tuneless and all the problems related to the component tolerances must be taken into account in the design phase. This issue is even more relevant in high linearity power amplifiers. In this kind of devices many different parameters (P1dB, PAE, C/I) shall be simultaneously optimized, and, if not properly taken into account, process tolerances may affect the device performances, compromising the fulfillment of the desired requirements. In this paper the most relevant uncertainty sources and the factors influencing the process tolerances will be analyzed, giving the guidelines to keep under control the effect of process variation parameters and model inaccuracies.


ABSTRACT We examined small mammal (insectivores, bats and rodents) diversity in community and legally protected forest remnants in the Ghana-Togo Highlands of the Volta Region of Ghana, West Africa, a zoologically understudied area compared to neighboring Togo to the East, or Ghana west of the Volta River. We recorded 34 small mammal species: three species of shrews (Soricidae Fischer, 1815), 12 species of rodents, one primate (Galagidae Gray, 1825) and 17 species of bats (Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779). The rodent Stochomys longicaudatus (Tullberg, 1893) appears to be a first record for Ghana. Two shrew, three rodent and one bat species were first records for the Volta Region. By comparing our small mammal captures and limited microhabitat data from 1999 and 2001 to forest cover change maps for the period 2000-2015 we discuss trends in species community changes due to forest cover loss and other disturbance regimes. Aside from contributing to our understanding of the distribution of several small mammal species, the study demonstrates the progressive loss of forest habitat in the Volta Region.


This memo is an introductory guide to some of the TCP/IP and Internet
tools and utilities that allow users to access the wide variety of
information on the network, from determining if a particular host is
up to viewing a multimedia thesis on foreign policy. It also describes
discussion lists accessible from the Internet, ways to obtain Internet
documents, and resources that help users weave their way through the
Internet. This memo provides information for the Internet community.
This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.


Full-Scale Pavement Testing of Aggregate Base Material Stabilized with Triaxial Geogrid Shaun Todd Hilton Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, BYU Master of Science The objective of this research was to investigate the structural capacity of aggregate base materials stabilized with triaxial geogrid placed in a full-scale pavement involving control, or unstabilized, sections. Field testing was performed on a roadway in northeastern Utah that was 16 km (10 miles) long and included 10 test sections, seven stabilized sections and three control sections, each having five test locations. The pavement structure was comprised of a hot mix asphalt layer overlying an untreated aggregate base layer of varying thickness, depending on the test section. Except for the control sections, one or two layers of geogrid were incorporated into portions of the pavement structure at different locations. Falling-weight deflectometer testing and dynamic cone penetrometer testing were used to evaluate the structural capacity of the aggregate base layer in each pavement section. For data analysis, the Rohde's method was applied in conjunction with the 1993 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials pavement design guide methodology, and the Area under the Pavement Profile (AUPP) method was applied in conjunction with a mechanisticempirical pavement analysis. Statistical analyses were then performed to enable comparisons of the test sections. Field results indicated that the asphalt layer thickness was consistently 140 mm (5.5 in.) at all 10 test sections, and the base layer thickness varied from 360 mm (14 in.) to 510 mm (20 in.). The results of the statistical analyses indicated that the majority of the 45 possible pairwise comparisons among the test sections were not statistically significant, meaning that variations in the presence and position of triaxial geogrid at those sections did not appear to affect the structural capacity. The remaining comparisons, however, were statistically significant and involved the test sections with the highest structural capacity. While one of these was unexpectedly an unstabilized control section, the others were constructed using one or two layers of geogrid in the base layer. In addition to being statistically significant, the observed differences were also practically important. Increases in the observed base layer coefficient from 0.12 to 0.18 correspond to an increase in the allowable number of equivalent single axle loads (ESALs) from 5.9 million to 19.2 million at the research site, while decreases in the observed AUPP value from 340 mm (13.37 in.) to 213 mm (8.38 in.) correspond to an increase in the allowable number of ESALs from 3.7 million to 17.3 million at the research site. These results indicate that, when geogrid reinforcement is compatible with the given aggregate base material and proper construction practices are followed, statistically significant and practically important increases in pavement design life can be achieved.


Background Neck pain is a costly and common problem. Current treatments are not adequately effective for a large proportion of patients who continue to experience recurrent pain. Therefore, new treatment strategies should be investigated in an attempt to reduce the disability and high costs associated with neck pain. Dry needling is a technique in which a fine needle is used to penetrate the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and muscle with the intent to mechanically disrupt tissue without the use of an anesthetic. Dry needling is emerging as a treatment modality that is widely used clinically to address a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. Recent studies of dry needling in mechanical neck pain suggest potential benefits, but do not utilize methods typical to clinical practice and lack long-term follow-up. Therefore, a clinical trial with realistic treatment time frames and methods consistent with clinical practice is needed to examine the effectiveness of dry needling on reducing pain and enhancing function in patients presenting to physical therapy with mechanical neck pain. Objective The aim of this trial will be to examine the short- and long-term effectiveness of dry needling delivered by a physical therapist on pain, disability, and patient-perceived improvements in patients with mechanical neck pain. Methods We will conduct a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines. A total of 76 patients over the age of 18 with acute or chronic mechanical neck pain resulting from postural dysfunction, trauma, or insidious onset who are referred to physical therapy will be enrolled after meeting the eligibility criteria. Subjects will be excluded if they have previous history of surgery, whiplash in the last 6 weeks, nerve root compression, red flags, or contraindications to dry needling or manual therapy. Participants will be randomized to receive (1) dry needling, manual therapy, and exercise or (2) sham dry needling, manual therapy, and exercise. Participants will receive seven physical therapy treatments lasting 45 minutes each over a maximum of 4 weeks. The primary outcome will be disability as measured by the Neck Disability Index. Secondary outcomes include the following: pain, patient-perceived improvement, patient expectations, and successful blinding to the needling intervention. Outcome measures will be assessed at 4 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months by an assessor who is blind to the group allocation of the participants to determine the short- and long-term treatment effects. We will examine the primary aim with a two-way, repeated-measures analysis of variance with treatment group as the between-subjects variable and time as the within-subjects variable. The hypothesis of interest will be the two-way group by time interaction. An a priori alpha level of .05 will be used for all analyses. Results Recruitment is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. Data collection for long-term outcomes will occur throughout 2017 and 2018. Data analysis, preparation, and publication submission is expected to occur throughout the final three quarters of 2018. Conclusions The successful completion of this trial will provide evidence to demonstrate whether dry needling is effective for the management of mechanical neck pain when used in a combined treatment approach, as is the common clinical practice. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02731014; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02731014 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6ujZgbhsq)


Purpose: To describe women's experiences of early pregnancy after their experience of earlier miscarriage(s). Method: This study used a qualitative method with a phenomenological perspective. Midwives working in Maternity Healthcare Center were intermediaries in the data collection. The analysis material consisted of six open interviews with women in early stages of pregnancy that have experienced miscarriage in the past. The data analysis created an essence of the women's experiences. Results: All of the interviewees are happy to be pregnant. For some of the women the happiness is mixed with worry about experiencing another miscarriage. They are reluctant to experience the grief and loss that had accompanied their previous miscarriages. Those women are able to explain their misgivings to friends and family experience less worry and reluctance. A positive outlook for their pregnancy and to see miscarriage as something natural makes it easier to live with the outcomes. Conclusion: Women who have had a previous experience of miscarriage have mixed feelings of happiness and worry in early stages of pregnancy. Those women that choose to think positively accept miscarriage as part of nature's way and feel an inner peace. All of the women realize the importance of finding peace in their pregnancy.


Knowledge of an exoplanet's oblateness and obliquity would give clues about its formation and internal structure. In principle, a light curve of a transiting planet bears information about the planet's shape, but previous work has shown that the oblateness-induced signal will be extremely difficult to detect. Here, we investigate the potentially larger signals due to planetary spin precession. The most readily detectable effects are transit depth variations (TδV's) in a sequence of light curves. For a planet as oblate as Jupiter or Saturn, the transit depth will undergo fractional variations of order 1%. The most promising systems are those with orbital periods of approximately 15–30 days, which are short enough for the precession period to be less than about 40 yr and long enough to avoid spin-down due to tidal friction. The detectability of the TδV signal would be enhanced by moons (which would decrease the precession period) or planetary rings (which would increase the amplitude). The Kepler mission should find several planets for which precession-induced TδV signals will be detectable. Due to modeling degeneracies, Kepler photometry would yield only a lower bound on oblateness. The degeneracy could be lifted by observing the oblateness-induced asymmetry in at least one transit light curve or by making assumptions about the planetary interior.


The aim of this study was to examine how dance teachers work with psychological skills with their students in class. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female professional teachers in jazz, ballet and contemporary dance. The interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith 1996). Results revealed that all teachers used psychological skills training techniques such as goal setting and imagery and worked toward the following outcomes: group cohesion, self-confidence, and anxiety management. They strove to create a task-involving climate in their classes and the students were encouraged to participate in, for instance, the goal setting process and imagery applications. The teachers also placed significant emphasis on performance preparation, evaluation, and feedback, although some found it difficult to give positive feedback. Many of the findings can be associated with contemporary theories in sport psychology. However, the dance teachers had almost no formal training in performance psychology, but had instead developed their teaching methodology through their own experiences. Further skills development and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Many species of reptiles are sedentary and depend on ground-layer habitats, suggesting that they may be particularly vulnerable to landscape changes that result in isolation or degradation of native vegetation. We investigated patterns of reptile distribution and abundance in remnant woodland across the Victorian Riverina, south-eastern Australia, a bioregion highly modified (>90%) by clearing for agriculture. Reptiles were intensively surveyed by pitfall trapping and censuses at 60 sites, stratified to sample small ( 30 ha) remnants, and linear strips of roadside and streamside vegetation, across the regional environmental gradient. The recorded assemblage of 21 species was characterised by low abundance and patchy distribution of species. Reptiles were not recorded by either survey technique at 22% of sites and at a further 10% only a single individual was detected. More than half (53%) of all records were of two widespread, generalist skink species. Multivariate models showed that the distribution of reptiles is influenced by factors operating at several levels. The environmental gradient exerts a strong influence, with increasing species richness and numbers of individuals from east (moister, higher elevation) to west (drier, lower elevation). Differences existed between types of remnants, with roadside vegetation standing out as important; this probably reflects greater structural heterogeneity of ground and shrub strata than in remnants subject to grazing by stock. Although comparative historical data are lacking, we argue that there has been a region-wide decline in the status of reptiles in the Victorian Riverina involving: (1) overall population decline commensurate with loss of >90% of native vegetation; (2) disproportionate decline of grassy dry woodlands and their fauna (cf. floodplains); and (3) changes to populations and assemblages in surviving remnants due to effects of land-use on reptile habitats. Many species now occur as disjunct populations, vulnerable to changing land-use. The status of reptiles in rural Australia warrants greater attention than has been given to date. Effective conservation of this component of the biota requires better understanding of the population dynamics, habitat use and dispersal capacity of species; and a commitment to landscape restoration coupled with effective ecological monitoring.


The influence of biogenic particle formation on climate is a well recognised phenomenon. To understand the mechanisms underlying the biogenic particle formation, determining
the chemical composition of the new particles and therefore the species that drive the particle production is of utmost importance. Due to the very small amount of mass involved, indirect approaches are frequently used to infer the composition. We present here the results of such an indirect approach by simultaneously measuring volatile and
hygroscopic properties of newly formed particles in a forest environment. It is shown that the particles are composed of both sulphates and organics, with the amount of
sulphate component strongly depending on the available gas-phase sulphuric acid, and the organic components having the same volatility and hygroscopicity as photooxidation
products of a monoterpene such as α-pinene. Our findings agree with a two-step process through nucleation and cluster formation followed by simultaneous growth by condensation of sulphates and organics that take the particles to climatically relevant sizes.


The purpose of this paper is to analyse the powers conferred on Flavius Maternianus in 217 AD during Caracalla's Parthian campaign. The paper starts with an examination of Herodian's (4.12.4) and Xiphylin's (337, 19 ff. R.St. = Dio 78.4.2 Boissevain) accounts. Then a survey is presented of the main extant manuscript and epigraphic sources describing the granting of imperia to members of the senatorial order in the absence of the princeps. The paper concludes by suggesting that Maternianus's powers were granted to him in the form of an imperium in order to enable him to manage (as long as Caracalla was absent) both the current political affairs and the troops near Rome who were not involved in the Parthian campaign.


Metabolic bone disease of prematurity (MBDP) is a multifactorial condition characterized by a reduction in bone mineral density, involving chiefly nutritional but also biomechanical and hormonal factors. This is a relatively common complication among preterm infants, especially in those born before completing 28 weeks of gestation or those with extremely low birth weight (ELBW; < 1,000 g). These infants are prematurely deprived of calcium and phosphorus transplacental transfer, which is maximal during the third trimester of pregnancy and therefore present diminished mineral stores that may be further depleted by increased mineral requirements in the neonatal period.There are no standard approaches for the investigation and monitoring of MBDP and many cases remain undiagnosed until severe demineralization occurs. This entity is often clinically silent, being detected in laboratory studies or incidentally on radiographies performed for other purposes.We report five cases of premature infants diagnosed with MBDP in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and discuss early prevention and detection of this disease. The primary prevention and treatment approach is based on early and adequate nutritional intervention by providing sufficient calcium and phosphorus intakes and vitamin D supplementation. Motor physiotherapy is also recommended. Despite these preventive strategies, some infants may still develop MBDP and require further supplementation. Considering the potential complications of MBDP, screening should target infants at high risk, including those with very low birth weight (VLBW, < 1,500 g), namely those born before 28 weeks of gestation, on total parenteral nutrition (TPN) for longer than 4 weeks, unable to reach full fortified feeds or exposed to drugs with deleterious effects on bone health.


This thesis includes three empirical studies detecting the determinants of crime in England and Wales. We firstly apply time series analyses to look for cointegrating relationships between property crimes and unemployment as well as law enforcement instruments. We extend our study by employing panel data and corresponding techniques to control for area-specific fixed effects as well as the endogeneity of law enforcement variables. In our third study, we allow crime rate to have spatial spillover effect, in other words, the crime rate in one area is affected by, in addition to its local crime-influential factors, the crime rates and crime-related factors in its neighbouring areas. We demonstrate this result by constructing a theoretical model and testing it by applying spatial analysis regressions. Our main findings can be summarized as follows: First, property crimes are better explained by economic models of crime than violent crimes. Second, law enforcement instruments always have negative effects on both property and violent crimes, indicating their deterrence and incapacitation effects as predicted. Third, social-economic factors, such as unemployment and income level, have two effects on property crimes: opportunity and motivation. Their net effects on property crime rates depend on the type of crime as well as the time period being examined. And finally, there is indeed spillover effect existing in crime rate. For burglary, theft and handling, and robbery, the crime rate in one area is positively and significantly correlated with the crime rates from its neighbouring areas. Furthermore, the crime rate of sexual offences of one area is negatively related to such crime rates in neighbouring areas.


Background Multiple recurrences after complete resection and irradiation of supratentorial ependymoma are common and frequently result in patient death. However, the molecular basis for treatment resistance, the impact that radiation and other adjuvant therapies have in promoting recurrence, and the use of this information to rationally design effective approaches to treat recurrent ependymoma are unknown. Due to the rarity of these tumors and the even less likely banking of multiple recurrent samples from the same patient, we initiated a study to characterize the evolution of a single patient's ependymoma in response to therapy. Methods and Findings A combination of high depth, whole genome and exome-based DNA sequencing of germline and tumor specimens, RNA sequencing of tumor specimens, and advanced computational analyses were employed to reconstruct the natural history of a supratentorial ependymoma case in which there were four local recurrences. The findings reveal the extent to which treatment with radiation and chemotherapies resulted in the diversification of the tumor subclonal architecture and shaped the neo-antigen landscape, and provide new insights into possible molecular mechanisms of oncogenesis, treatment response and recurrence. Conclusions Although the recurrent tumors we studied were clearly shaped by therapy, the founding clone was never eradicated by any treatment. We conclude that DNA and RNA sequencing may provide critical prognostic indicators to identify ependymoma patients that should be observed, rather than irradiated, post gross total resection.


The Neotropical genus Coprophanaeus Olsoufieff (1924), as classified here, comprises 38 species distributed among three subgenera (Megaphanaeus Olsoufieff, Metallophanaeus Olsoufieff, and Coprophanaeus s. str.) and eight species groups. Keys presented help to identify supraspecific and species taxa, all of which are illustrated and diagnosed. Lectotypes are designated for Phanaeus ignecinctus Felsche and Phanaeus ohausi Felsche. Coprophanaeus corythus (Harold), formerly regarded as a subspecies of C. telamon (Erichson), assumes species status. Coprophanaeus magnoi Arnaud, described as a subspecies of C. milon (Blanchard), is raised to species status. New taxonomic interpretations result in 10 new subjective synonymies (junior synonym listed first): Phanaeus machadoi Pereira and d'Andretta = Coprophanaeus saphirinus (Perty); Phanaeus costatus Olsoufieff = Coprophanaeus cyanescens (Olsoufieff); Phanaeus worontzowi Pessoa and Lane = Coprophanaeus cyanescens (Olsoufieff); Coprophanaeus kohlmanni Arnaud = Coprophanaeus morenoi Arnaud; Coprophanaeus pluto nogueirai Arnaud = Coprophanaeus pluto (Harold); Coprophanaeus edmondsi Arnaud = Coprophanaeus conocephalus (Olsoufieff); Coprophanaeus uhleri Malý and Pokorný = Coprophanaeus chiriquensis (Olsoufieff); Coprophanaeus henryi Malý and Pokorný = Coprophanaeus gilli Arnaud; Phanaeus perseus Harold = Coprophanaeus corythus (Harold); Coprophanaeus telamon nevinsoni Arnaud and Gamez = Coprophanaeus corythus; and Coprophanaeus florenti Arnaud = Coprophanaeus ohausi (Felsche). The status of the following names remains unresolved: Phanaeus strandi Balthasar; Coprophanaeus rigoutorum Arnaud; C. terrali Arnaud; C. lichyi Arnaud; C. lecromi Arnaud; C. larseni Arnaud; and C. vazdemeloi Arnaud.


The relationship between accommodation and intraocular pressure (lOP) has not been addressed as a research question for over 20 years, when measurement of both of these parameters was less advanced than today. Hence the central aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of accommodation on lOP. The instrument of choice throughout this thesis was the Pulsair EasyEye non-contact tonometer (NCT) due principally to its slim-line design which allowed the measurement of lOP in one eye and simultaneous stimulation of accommodation in the other eye. A second reason for using the Pulsair EasyEye NCT was that through collaboration with the manufacturers (Keeler, UK) the instrument's operational technology was made accessible. Hence, the principle components underpinning non-contact lOP measures of 0.1mmHg resolution (an order of magnitude greater than other methods) were made available. The relationship between the pressure-output and corneal response has been termed the pressure-response relationship, aspects of which have been shown to be related to ocular biometric parameters. Further, analysis of the components of the pressure-response relationship together with high-speed photography of the cornea during tonometry has enhanced our understanding of the derivation of an lOP measure with the Pulsair EasyEye NCT. The NCT samples the corneal response to the pressure pulse over a 19 ms cycle photoelectronically, but computes the subject's lOP using the data collected in the first 2.34 ms. The relatively instantaneous nature of the lOP measurement renders the measures susceptible to variations in the steady-state lOP caused by the respiratory and cardiac cycles. As such, the variance associated with these cycles was minimised by synchronising the lOP measures with the cardiac trace and maintaining a constant pace respiratory cycle at 15 breathes/minute. It is apparent that synchronising the lOP measures with the peak, middle or trough of the cardiac trace significantly reduced the spread of consecutive measures. Of the 3 locations investigated, synchronisation with the middle location demonstrated the least variance (coeflicient of variation = 9.1%) and a strong correlation (r = 0.90, p = <0.001) with lOP values obtained with Goldmann contact tonometry (n = 50). Accordingly lOP measures synchronised with the middle location of the cardiac cycle were taken in the RE while the LE fixated low (L; zero D), intermediate (I; 1.50 D) and high (H; 4 D) accommodation targets, Quasi-continuous measures of accommodation responses were obtained during the lOP measurement period using the portable infrared Grand Seiko FR-5000 autorefractor. The lOP reduced between L and I accommodative levels by approximately 0.61 mmHg (p <0.00 I). No significant reduction in IOP between L and H accommodation levels was elicited (p = 0.65) (n = 40). The relationship between accommodation and lOP was characterised by substantial inter-subject variations. Myopes demonstrated a tendency to show a reduction in IOP with accommodation which was significant only with I accommodation levels when measured with the NCT (r = 0.50, p = 0.01). However, the relationship between myopia and lOP change with accommodation reached significance for both I (r = 0.61, p= 0.003) and H (r = 0.531, p= 0.0 1) accommodation levels when measured with the Ocular blood Flow Analyser (OBFA). Investigation of the effects of accommodation on the parameters measured by the OBFA demonstrated that with H accommodation levels the pulse amplitude (PA) and pulse rate (PR) responses differed between myopes and emmetropes (PA: p = 0.03; PR: p = 0.004). As thc axial length increased there was a tendency for the pulsatile ocular blood flow (POBF) to reduce with accommodation, which was significant only with H accommodation levels (r = 0.38, p = 0.02). It is proposed that emmetropes arc able to regulate the POBF responses to changes in ocular perfusion pressure caused by changes in lOP with I (r = 0.77, p <0.001) and H (r = 0.73, p = 0.001) accommodation levels. However, thc relationship between lOP and POBF changes in the myopes was not correlated for both I (r = 0.33, p = 0.20) and H (r = 0.05, p = 0.85) accommodation levels. The thesis presents new data on the relationships between accommodation, lOP and parameters of the OBFA,: and provides evidence for possible lOP and choroidal blood flow regulatory mechanisms. Further the data highlight possible deficits in the vascular regulation of the myopic eye during accommodation, which may play a putative role in the aetiology of myopia development.


I. INTRODUCTION Article V, section 6 of the Ohio Constitution declares that "[n]o idiot, or insane person, shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector." (1) It is the only official caveat to the otherwise general guarantee of voting rights for all citizens who have been residents within that state for at least thirty days with the exception of convicted felons--and that latter exception requires legislative action to be put into effect and can be eliminated as a source of exclusion in the same manner. (2) Therefore, unlike the status of a felon, the determination of a standard of "idiocy" and "insanity" is subject to executive determination and judicial interpretation. The fact that this language has been retained in its original form (despite a concerted constitutional revision process in 1975) (3) is, in itself, a curiosity--though Ohio is not the only state that has employed that language for the purpose of constitutionally restricting the franchise. (4) The fact that the Ohio government and legislature did not take advantage of a formal proposal to remove such language may be significant. Even more significant are the principles that it reflects, particularly relating to attitudes concerning the role of voting as part of the wider tradition of democracy within that state. Despite the legislative removal of the word "idiot" from the Ohio Revised Code in 2007, (5) the word not only persists (along with "insane") as a constitutional limit upon the electoral franchise but it also persists as a means of distinguishing political and cultural perceptions within Ohio society of the proper purpose and scope of democracy, the democratic process, and citizenship. (6) The persistence of that language within the Ohio Constitution document (despite the official recommendation of the Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission in 1975 that it be at least modified) (7) designates more than an anachronistic definition of mental disability. A recommended modification of article V, section 6 was not subsequently submitted to the amendment process, though the Ohio legislature eventually responded to part of the recommendation of the Constitutional Revision Commission in this area through a statute that requires an official adjudication of mental incompetence before a voter can be disqualified. (8) However, neither the commission nor the state legislature ever challenged or even addressed in a critical manner the underlying rationale for excluding a category of voters upon the basis of some form of mental disability nor has there been evidence of wider Ohio public support for such an assessment. That absence strongly suggests a consensus within Ohio that this sort of exclusion is, in principle, acceptable within the context of the state's electoral system and, more broadly, its democratic values. More significantly, it indicates a particular interpretation of democratic theory and values (arguably based upon a relatively parochial and exclusive definition of the concept) that differs from competing perceptions. This aspect of the issue is not generally examined, even though it is foundational to understanding any liberal democratic constitutional system such as the United States and its federal subunits, including the State of Ohio. (9) A factor that makes this subject especially significant is the multiple ideological interpretations of the concept of electoral participation. Therefore, this section of the Ohio Constitution, though seldom invoked and seemingly obscure, may reveal broad insights into the fundamental political and social values of that state. Political communities are reflected in their respective constitutional instruments (10) and Ohio is no exception. Article V, section 6 represents more than a particular electoral strategy. The extent to which the Ohio Constitution reveals fundamental attitudes about the role of the electoral franchise within its system of government is equally revelatory of the broader political culture of Ohio as it has evolved throughout its history. …


Fault step-overs with linking dip-slip faults are common features on long strike-slip fault systems worldwide. It has been noted by various researchers that under some circumstances, earthquakes can jump across fault step-overs to cascade into large events, while under other circumstances rupture is arrested at step-overs. There is also evidence that fault step-overs may be preferential locations for earthquake nucleation. The present work uses the 3D finite element method to model the dynamics of strike-slip fault systems with step-overs and linking dip-slip faults. I find that the presence of a linking normal or thrust fault greatly increases the ability of earthquake rupture to propagate across the step-over, leading to a larger event. Additionally, dilational step-overs with linking normal faults are more prone to through-going rupture than compressional step-overs with linking thrust faults. This difference is due to the sign of the normal stress increment on the dip-slip fault caused by slip on the strike-slip segments: Slip on the strike-slip segments causes a negative (unclamping) normal stress increment on the linking normal fault in a dilational step-over, whereas the opposite effect occurs on the linking thrust fault in a compressional step-over. Even in cases for which both dilational and compressional step-overs can experience through-going rupture, dilational step-overs typically experience higher slip, particularly on the linking normal fault. In the compressional case, rupture nucleation on the linking thrust fault may increase the likelihood of through-going rupture compared to nucleation on one of the strike-slip segments. Near the intersections between the fault segments, the stress interaction between the fault segments also causes a significant rotation of rake away from that which would be inferred from the regional stress field. The results help to emphasize the importance of two-way interactions between nearby fault segments during the earthquake rupture process. The results also may have implications for the probability of large earthquakes along geometrically complex strike-slip fault systems, and may help explain why step-overs sometimes act as barriers and other times as nucleation locations for large earthquakes.


The existing distribution system of Ethiopia has encountered frequent power outages. During this outage, the critical load of most firms in the country is supplied by diesel fuel. This study examines the feasibility of integrating solar PV system into an existing unreliable grid/diesel generator system for supplying the critical load of Kombolcha Industry Park (11°5′0′′ N, 39° 44′ 0′′ E), Ethiopia. The work was begun by collecting the load data, grid outage and meteorological data of the study site. Then, optimal design, modeling and techno-economic analysis of grid connected PV/diesel system has been carried out using HOMER Pro optimization software by exploring three different scenarios. Results showed that grid/PV/diesel systems are technically, economically and environmentally feasible for the selected location with the cost of energy 0.048 $/kWh. It is also found that the emissions in the optimized grid/PV/diesel systems for the locations decreased by 46%, compared to the existing grid/diesel system. This study will provide a helpful awareness to the concerned stakeholders and policy makers to implement gridconnected PV systems in the north central part of Ethiopia.


This research is about theology study based on the Quran and Surn1ah. Thiss~udy concluded that argumen tation about theology must be based on themethodology of al-Quran and Hadith. Wrong method or contradictive methodto the two sources of Islamic law is not only effect in misunderstanding, but itcan bri..~ someone to become disbeliever. TI1e object of this research is makingthe Qur an as the basic of study, as well as feature of the study. Furthermore,this study used descriptive method with both classical and modem references.


Stress is a strong risk factor in alcoholic relapse and may exert effects that mimic aspects of chronic alcohol exposure on neurobiological systems. With the neuroimmune system becoming a prominent focus in the study of the neurobiological consequences of stress, as well as chronic alcohol exposure proving to be a valuable focus in this regard, the present study sought to compare the effects of stress and chronic ethanol exposure on induction of components of the neuroimmune system. Rats were exposed to either 1 h exposure to a mild stressor (restraint) or exposure to withdrawal from 15 days of chronic alcohol exposure (i.e., withdrawal from chronic ethanol, WCE) and assessed for neuroimmune mRNAs in brain. Restraint stress alone elevated chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), interleukin-1-beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mRNAs in the cerebral cortex within 4 h with a return to a control level by 24 h. These increases were not accompanied by an increase in corresponding proteins. Withdrawal from WCE also elevated cytokines, but did so to varying degrees across different cytokines and brain regions. In the cortex, stress and WCE induced CCL2, TNFα, IL-1β, and TLR4 mRNAs. In the hypothalamus, only WCE induced cytokines (CCL2 and IL-1β) while in the hippocampus, WCE strongly induced CCL2 while stress and WCE induced IL-1β. In the amygdala, only WCE induced CCL2. Finally—based on the previously demonstrated role of corticotropin-releasing factor 1 (CRF1) receptor inhibition in blocking WCE-induced cytokine mRNAs—the CRF1 receptor antagonist CP154,526 was administered to a subgroup of stressed rats and found to be inactive against induction of CCL2, TNFα, or IL-1β mRNAs. These differential results suggest that stress and WCE manifest broad neuroimmune effects in brain depending on the cytokine and brain region, and that CRF inhibition may not be a relevant mechanism in non-alcohol exposed animals. Overall, these effects are complex in terms of their neuroimmune targets and neuroanatomical specificity. Further investigation of the differential distribution of cytokine induction across neuroanatomical regions, individual cell types (e.g., neuronal phenotypes and glia), severity of chronic alcohol exposure, as well as across differing stress types may prove useful in understanding differential mechanisms of induction and for targeting select systems for pharmacotherapeutic intervention in alcoholism.


Spherical agglomeration (SA) is a novel process intensification strategy for particulate manufacturing. In the context of pharmaceutical manufacturing, it has the potential to reduce the number of unit operations in downstream processing from seven to three, which significantly reduces the manufacturing cost. However, SA process development for a new API in the drug pipeline is still a challenging exercise, which has impeded its practical implementation. The major bottleneck lies in the lack of fundamental understanding of the mechanistic principles underlying agglomeration of primary crystals, which can enable rational process design. In addition, most SA processes reported in literature focus on only the API, which does not eliminate the blending and wet granulation unit operations. The major purposes of this thesis are to (i) develop a first principle mathematical framework which can identify the fundamental agglomeration mechanism (ii) develop a model based online optimization framework, which can control the process, even in the presence of model parametric uncertainties (iii) develop a rational framework for co-agglomerating APIs and excipients, guided by process analytical technology tools. It is believed that the novel technology developed in this thesis will lay the groundwork for fast and robust process development of co-agglomerating APIs and excipients in the future, thereby enabling one-step direct compression. The large-scale development and deployment of this technology will significantly reduce the time to market and the manufacturing costs for new APIs, thereby ensuring higher accessibility of life-saving drugs.


ABSTRACT
Context: Student-athletes are commonly administered the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT®) battery at preseason baseline and post concussion. The ImPACT® is available in many different languages, but few studies have examined differences in cognitive performances and symptom ratings based on language of administration. Objective: This study examined differences on ImPACT® neurocognitive composites and symptom reporting at preseason baseline testing between student-athletes completing ImPACT® in Spanish versus English. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Preseason baseline testing for a high school concussion management program in STATE-XXX. Patients of Other Participants: Adolescent student-athletes completing testing in Spanish (n=169) and English (n=169) were matched on age, gender, and health/academic history. Language groups were compared on each outcome for the full sample and for gender-stratified subsamples. Main Outcome Measure(s): Neurocognitive composite scores and individual and total symptom severity ratings from the ImPACT® battery. Results: Athletes tested in Spanish had lower neurocognitive performances on two of five composite scores (i.e., Visual Motor Speed, p<.001, d=.51; Reaction Time: p=.004, d=.33) and reported greater symptom severity (p<.001, r=.21). When analyses were stratified by gender, similar Visual Motor Speed differences were observed between language groups among boys (p=.001, d=.49) and girls (p=.001, d=0.49), whereas Reaction Time showed a larger group difference for boys (p=.012, d=.42) than girls (p=.128, d=.21). Language group differences in symptom reporting were similar for boys (p=.003, r=.22) and girls (p=.008, r=.21), with more frequent endorsement of physical and affective symptoms by athletes tested in Spanish. Conclusions: Language group differences in total symptom severity were small (r=.21), and language group differences in neurocognitive performances were small-to-medium (d=.05-.51). Compared to previous studies comparing athletes tested in Spanish and English on ImPACT®, smaller effects were observed in the current study, which may be attributable to close matching on variables related to neurocognitive performances and symptom reporting.

KEY POINTS


The moves within postcolonial theory to "provincialise Europe" encourage an acknowledgement of the parochial nature of much of what still passes for universal theory in the western academy. Within geography, postcolonialism has generated a strong interest in colonial histories and contemporary postcolonial politics, but this has not displaced the dominant parochial forms of theorising in the discipline. The paper argues for a more cosmopolitan theoretical project within geography, one whose routes through a range of intellectual traditions and contexts might encourage a broader scope to conversations about space and nature, and produce more lively and creative insights into some of the urgent political issues facing the world today. A geography whose intellectual vision is limited to the concerns and perspectives of the richest countries in the world has little hope of effectively participating in the debates that will matter in the twenty-first century. Within the frame of this long-term intellectual project, this paper will suggest some initial practical steps which researchers, writers, teachers and students in geography might take to start to decentre the predominant Euro-Americanism of the discipline. The specific sources of inspiration for this argument are drawn from comparative urbanism and Southern African geography.


Summary There are five key reasons why biodiversity conservation should be considered a part of plantation management. (1) The plantation estate is large, and balancing various land management values with wood and pulp production is important when extensive areas of land are involved. (2) The locations and management of new plantations will affect the biota that currently exist in such landscapes. (3) Maintaining some elements of biodiversity within plantations can have benefits for stand productivity and the maintenance of key ecosystem processes such as pest control. (4) The retention (or loss) of biota in plantations is relevant to the formulation of ecological standards and the certification of plantations in many parts of the world. (5) Plantation forestry has a narrow and intensive management focus on producing a forest crop for a limited array of purposes. It will not meet future societal demands for a range of outputs from plantations (in addition to wood and pulp supply), and will not be congruent with the principles of ecological sustainability. This paper briefly reviews the biodiversity conservation values of Australian plantations. It shows that almost all work in Australian plantations, whether conifer or eucalypt, highlights the importance of landscape heterogeneity and stand structural complexity for enhancing biodiversity. Management of plantations to promote landscape heterogeneity and stand structural complexity and enhance the conservation of biodiversity will, in many cases, involve tradeoffs that will affect wood and pulp production. The extent to which this occurs will depend on the objectives of plantation management and how far they extend towards the more complex plantation forestry models that incorporate social and environmental values. We argue that the widespread adoption of plantation forestry that leads to homogenous stands of extensive monocultures will risk re-creating the array of negative environmental outcomes that have been associated with agriculture in many parts of Australia.


Underlying conceptions about culture continue to play an important and often not sufficiently recognised role in intellectual property theory and practice. For example, ideas about cultural progress and culture as autonomous are key conceptions underlying intellectual property doctrine that have continuing resonance. Conceptions of culture and cultural value have also played an important role in determining the shape of intellectual property frameworks and types of cultural production that have come to benefit from intellectual property protection. Intellectual property frameworks also have an impact on culture that merits greater attention. This article will discuss how conceptions of culture and cultural progress are important for understanding critical aspects of intellectual property theory and its implementation in varied contexts. It will also discuss the implications for culture of underlying assumptions based on valuable asset conceptions that continue to shape intellectual property frameworks.


Campylobacter is an emerging zoonotic bacterial threat in the poultry industry. The current methods for the isolation
 and detection of Campylobacter are culture-based techniques with several selective agars designed to isolate
Campylobacter colonies, which is time-consuming, labour intensive and has low sensitivity. Several immunological and
molecular techniques such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Latex agglutination are commercially
available for the detection and identification of Campylobacter. However, these methods demand more advanced
instruments as well as specially trained experts. A hyperspectral microscope imaging (HMI) technique with the
fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) technique has the potential for multiplex foodborne pathogen detection. Using
Alexa488 and Cy3 fluorophores, the HMI (450–800 nm) technique was able to identify Campylobacter jejuni stains with
high sensitivity and specificity. In addition, HMI was able to classify six bacteria using scattering intensity from their
spectra without a FISH fluorophore. Overall classification accuracy of quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) method for
six bacteria including Bifidobacter longum, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium perfringens, Enterobacter cloacae,
Lactobacillus salivarius and Shigella flexneri using the HMI technique without fluorescent markers was approximately 88.6
% with pixel-wise classification.


This study explores the theory underpinning Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) and applies it to a selection of India-focused texts – including some by Indian authors – with a view towards establishing whether or not Said's model would allow for Orientalism by "Orientals".
Orientalism, Said's landmark postcolonial study, described an epistemological sequence in which the West had articulated, codified and – ultimately – politically determined the East through a hegemonic discourse that compared and contrasted Eastern "Otherness" with assumed Western normalcy. Racial and cultural essentialism was the animating dynamic for this process, and Said's model was predicated upon an ontological binary between a colonizing white subject (the British, French and American imperial powers) and a colonized brown object (the Orient).
Said's particular focus in Orientalism was the Arab "Near East"; India was mostly absent from his account (as indeed were South Asia in general, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia). Beyond Said's work, moreover, there has been limited scholarly engagement with Orientalism as it pertains to India. Discussion of Orientalism has been dominated by the Near East.
Despite the relative absence of India from debate around Orientalism, a number of India-focused texts (travel narratives and such) seem to present features that Said described as typical of Orientalism. Some of the more recent of these texts, moreover, have been written by expatriate Indians or people of Indic descent. These latter texts pose a conundrum: given the racial binary Said determined for Orientalism, how can Indian authors produce Orientalism?
This study applies Edward Said's theory of Orientalism to a selection of key India-focused texts, including two examples of "classic" Orientalism by white authors – James Mill's The History of British India (1817) and Katharine Mayo's polemic Mother India (1927) – and two examples of cosmopolitan Orientalism by Indic authors – V. S. Naipaul's An Area of Darkness (1964) and Suketu Mehta's Maximum City (2004). Through these case studies, and others, this thesis seeks to: a) address the relative absence of India from critical writing about Orientalism; and b) test the effectiveness and relevance of Said's theory for contemporary postcolonial and cosmopolitan contexts, where the racial binaries of the colonial era are no longer so dominant. What would it mean for Said's model if Indian writers cannot be Orientalists? What would it mean if they can?


This timely collection brings together original explorations of the COVID-19 pandemic and its wide-ranging, global effects on human rights. The contributors argue that a human rights perspective is necessary to understand the pervasive consequences of the crisis, while focusing attention on those being left behind and providing a necessary framework for the effort to 'build back better'. Expert contributors to this volume address interconnections between the COVID-19 crisis and human rights to equality and non-discrimination, including historical responses to pandemics, populism and authoritarianism, and the rights to health, information, water and the environment. Highlighting the dangerous potential for derogations from human rights, authors further scrutinize the human rights compliance of new legislation and policies in relation to issues such as privacy, protection of persons with disabilities, freedom of expression, and access to medicines. Acknowledging the pandemic as a defining moment for human rights, the volume proposes a post-crisis human rights agenda to engage civil society and government at all levels in concrete measures to roll back increasing inequality. With rich examples, new thinking, and provocative analyses of human rights, COVID-19, pandemics, crises, and inequality, this book will be of key interest to scholars, students, and practitioners in all areas of human rights, global governance, and public health, as well as others who are ready to embark on an exploration of these complex challenges. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Morten Kjaerum, Martha F. Davis, and Amanda Lyons;individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved.


Web services providing machine-accessible interfaces to environmental data are now commonplace. Building on this, a current trend is to expand these web services to provide on-demand access to model and analysis services. This progression suggests the future possibility of cloud-based decision support systems (DSSs) integrating distributed data and analysis services delivered through a host of providers. Such distributed environmental DSSs have many potential benefits, but would require highly scalable and responsive web services. The objective of this study is to assess the current feasibility of building distributed environmental DSSs from existing web services in the United States. Results show that, of the many available web services providing information about soils, river network topology, watersheds, streamflow, etc., response times are often only a few seconds for a small project area, but can grow exponentially as the project area increases. On-demand watershed delineation remains a slow-to-respond service relative to the other services tested. Also, the results suggest the need to better co-locate servers near client applications to speed up response times. Collectively, these results provide specific areas where future research is needed in order to achieve the vision of on-demand distributed environmental DSSs.


Federal trademark registration helps protect the hundreds of billions of dollars of brand value that trademarks can represent. Recently, interest in the failure-to-function doctrine, which prevents registration of proposed trademarks that consumers do not perceive as marks, has surged at the appellate body of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). This Note is the first in-depth, focused critique of the TTAB's recent failure-to-function jurisprudence. It argues that, as the TTAB currently uses it, the failure-to-function doctrine is incoherent and lacks clarity. On a more granular level, the doctrine rests on inconsistent multifactor tests whose factors the TTAB adds, subtracts, modifies, reconceptualizes, and weighs differently across cases, giving the USPTO little meaningful criteria by which to decide what marks merit registration. This inconsistency risks increasing costs for the USPTO, brands, and consumers by creating uncertainty as to what proposed trademarks the USPTO will approve. In response, this Note proposes combining failure to function with a different trademark doctrine: the doctrine of aesthetic functionality. Replacing failure to function's unwieldy multifactor inquiries with aesthetic functionality's narrow focus on competition promises to increase clarity and, in so doing, mitigate or avoid costs to the USPTO, brands, and consumers.


Using repeat photography, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of changes in forest cover on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. For the quantitative analysis, both images in a pair were classified using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technologies. Comparisons were made using three landscape metrics: total relative cover, mean relative patch size, and number of patches per major vegetation type. We noted several important changes in the pattern of the landscape and the structure of the forests. The relative area covered by interspersed, nonforested rangelands has decreased significantly, and the total forest cover across these landscapes has increased. Statistical analyses (ANOVA) of other landscape characteristics (patch number and patch size distribution) did not detect changes. However, nonstatistical observation of the trends in these data revealed that in many cases, there has been important, observable change in the configuration of the landscape at many of these locations. Furthermore, our field data show that 96% of the sampled forests have a conifer component in the overstory, understory, or both.


We compared primary production and respiration of temperate (Helgoland, North Sea) and subtidal Arctic (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard) microphytobenthic communities during sum- mer. The diatom communities were generally characterized as cosmopolitan, displayed no site specificity, and had similar chl a and fucoxanthin concentrations. Their net and gross photosynthe- sis rates and light adaptation intensities, derived from laboratory microsensor measurements, were also similar, despite differences in water temperature. Daily oxygen fluxes across the sedi- mentwater interface were estimated by combining laboratory microprofile and planar optode measurements with in situ data on oxygen penetration and light dynamics. During the study period, the Svalbard sediments were on average net heterotrophic, while the Helgoland sediments were net autotrophic (�22.4 vs. 9.2 mmol O2 m �2 d �1 ). This was due to high infaunal abundance in the Svalbard sediments that caused high oxygen uptake rates in the sediments and consumption below the sediment euphotic zone. Additionally, bioirrigation of the sediment due to infaunal burrow ventilation was reduced by light; thus, the sedimentary oxygen inventory was reduced with increasing light. Conversely, light-enhanced the oxygen inventory in the Helgoland sedi- ments. Oxygen dynamics in the Svalbard sediments were therefore dominated by bioirrigation, whereas in the Helgoland sediments they were dominated by photosynthetic oxygen production.


Motion information tends to be segregated from color and form information in the visual system, both perceptually and neuroanatomically, and it is therefore possible that different mechanisms of attention are used to select targets defined by these different feature types during visual search. To test this hypothesis, we recorded the N2pc component of the event-related potential waveform during visual search tasks with color, orientation, and motion targets. The N2pc component has previously been shown to reflect a specific attentional mechanism that is present for color and form targets, and we sought to determine whether this component would also be present for motion targets. The N2pc component was indeed observed for motion targets as well as color and orientation targets, consistent with the use of a common attentional mechanism across feature types. In addition, we found that motion singletons (i.e., individual items that moved in the opposite direction from the other items in the army) elicited an N2pc component even when they were task-irrelevant, indicating that motion discontinuities may produce an automatic orienting of attention.


In this paper I will attempt to outline the long and complex history of National Curriculum technology at primary level , celebrating the successes as well as analysing the mistakes. It is , in the words of the chairman of the National Curriculum Council (NCC), a 'lesson for us all' (Graham 1993) and makes salutary reading for any country or state about to embark upon the implementation of its own primary technology curriculum. The story in England and Wales is one of ' free-market curriculum making' in which: "; ... policy for technology education has emerged in an unplanned way by a process of action and reaction , involving initiatives and proposals from a variety of stakeholders ... "; (Layton 1995, p. 114)


"Lean Thinking" has dominated product development and project management for over a decade. Now, however, a six-year study by MIT's International Motor Vehicle Program led by Michael Cusumano and Kentaro Nobeoka finds that, in order to dramatically improve product portfolios, Toyota and other leading companies are moving beyond single-project management on which lean thinking is based. In "Thinking Beyond Lean", Cusumano and Nobeoka show that single-project management can produce isolated hit products and "fat" designs that contain few common components and many unnecessary parts and features. As a result, in this era of slowing growth and falling profits, leading companies are maximizing their investment by utilizing a groundbreaking concept the authors call "multi-project management". Drawing on a data base of 210 automobile products and detailed case studies from Toyota, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Renault, and Fiat, the authors demonstrate how product development teams can share engineers and key common components but retain separate designers to maintain distinctive product features. The result: multi-project management has brought these companies huge savings in development and production costs. Cusumano and Nobeoka's findings will be required reading for every company that makes more than one product. Taking up where "The Machine That Changed the World" left off, "Thinking Beyond Lean" will change the way leaders do business now and in the future.


A study was conducted among the faculty members, staff, graduate students and researchers of Memorial University (MUN) through well-designed surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of the health and safety programs provided by the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Unit at MUN. To establish a benchmark and to understand Memorial's environmental health and safety programs relative to other institutions, we have reviewed the health and safety programs of ten universities across Canada and performed a comparative study with Memorial's safety programs based on the publicly available information on university webpage. We have conducted two identical online surveys of MUN employees and graduate students on their knowledge, attitude, and behavior regarding health and safety in October, 2016, and in April, 2017. A quantitative analysis was done to understand the health and safety awareness with reference to different demographic factors and the effect of the dissemination of the health and safety information on knowledge, attitude, and behavior of employees and graduate students. Our survey results were compared with the result of a previous survey, conducted in 2013 on safety culture of Memorial University. The surveys were followed by Key Informant Interviews (KII) of eight officials of Memorial University to understand the causes of some of the findings from the surveys and get the views of the university administration on some of the comments made by the survey respondents. Overall, the survey results show that Memorial University has progressed significantly in communication and in the use of online tools to manage the environment, health, and safety. Also, Memorial has a good health and safety policy in place, and the health and safety program is at par with other Canadian universities.


Lactoferrin (LF) is an iron-binding glycoprotein of molecular mass ca. 80 kDa that is predominantly found in mammalian body fluids. Lactoferrin is a multifunctional protein that has a wide range of properties such as antibacterial, antiviral, antiinflammatory, and anti-allergic functions. Tyrosine residues in the protein play a part in many lactoferrin functions. Protein tyrosine nitration modification represents an oxidative and nitrosative stress process which can be caused by the exposure of proteins to oxidants from air pollution or disease. Understanding the way nitrated lactoferrin interacts with the biochemical environment of the body is thus important to the broader goal of understanding and preventing lactoferrin-related diseases, including certain ocular diseases. The main goal of this set of linked studies was to investigate the process by which LF may be nitrated, to observe changes in its protein structure and function, and to investigate a possible route to block the nitration process. In the first project discussed here, nitrated lactoferrin was synthesized using two different nitration agents: sodium peroxynitrite and tetranitromethane. After nitration, spectroscopic analysis showed formation of nitrotyrosine with an increase in absorbance intensity at 350 nm, as well as attenuation in fluorescence intensity at an excitation wavelength of 280 nm. A sandwich ELISA protocol was developed to quantify the amount of nitrotyrosine in nitrated lactoferrin samples. The results show that the increase iii in the amount of nitrotyrosine depends on the molar ratio of nitrating agents added to the reaction. This study represents the first time that nitrotyrosine in lactoferrin had been selectively detected. In the second project, a broth microplate antibacterial susceptibility assay was applied to determine changes in the antibacterial function of lactoferrin brought about after nitration. The results reveal a reduction in the naturally present antibacterial activity of LF, which scales linearly with the increase in nitration molar ratios. In the third project, ergothioneine was used to inhibit the nitration reaction using several protein models, as well as to examine it as a potential therapeutic target for nitrosative stress-related diseases. The results illustrated that ergothioneine diminished the nitration production and protected the protein antibacterial activity. Collectively, these findings suggest that the nitration of tyrosine residues within lactoferrin can be important with respect to several physiological processes. Thus, further understanding the interaction between nitrated LF and the biochemical environment may aid in future research toward clinical diagnoses and in the development of therapies for diseases involving nitration of lactoferrin.


This paper analyzes the determinants of emigration at the individual and household level, using three waves of the Egyptian labor market panel survey (ELMPS) covering the 1998-2012 period. Exploiting the panel structure of the data allows us to reduce the risk of reverse causality, and to estimate the effect of migrant networks more accurately than in existing studies based on cross-sectional data. We confirm, in the Egyptian context, that migrants abroad are positively selected on the wealth of the origin household, due to migration costs; and that the growth of a network of past emigrants from the same community mitigates this positive selection, increasing the propensity to migrate among poorer households. We also offer a novel insight on the linkages between emigration decision and home country's labor market conditions. We show that unemployment and informal employment appear as the main incentives to emigrate. This suggests that the scarcity of "quality jobs", in particular on the skilled labor market, is one important factor driving emigration flows in Egypt.


Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has been the world's sole superpower. It is the only country to maintain a global naval presence, a panoply of overseas bases, and the ability to deploy military forces to distant regions. The U.S. defense budget, at over $280 billion for fiscal year 2000, is several times larger than the combined spending of the countries generally perceived as the most likely future U.S. opponents: China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Yugoslavia. (1) No potential adversary comes close in advanced conventional weaponry--such as cruise missiles, stealth fighter-bombers, laser-guided bombs--and supporting navigation, surveillance, target-acquisition, and communications systems. Even the Pentagon predicts that a peer competitor will not emerge until around 2010, and most analysts consider that possibility unlikely. Given U.S. supremacy in conventional forces, few rational opponents would deliberately seek a direct military confrontation with the United States--although Iraq blundered into war by miscalculating Washington's response to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and was soundly defeated. Instead, future adversaries who resort to military force against the United States will probably employ asymmetric, or David-and-Goliath, strategies involving innovative yet affordable weapons and tactics designed to weaken U.S. resolve and its ability to use its superior conventional military capabilities effectively. A future opponent, for example, might employ nonconventional weapons--nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological--or conduct terrorist attacks against military or civilian targets on American territory in a bid to deter or impede U.S. intervention in a regional conflict in the Persian Gulf, the Korean Peninsula, or the Balkans. Such an adversary could be selective in its objectives, timing the moment of an attack to maximize its strengths. Although the United States could ultimately prevail, the increased financial and human costs might undermine the political will of U.S. leaders to sustain the conflict or deter allies from providing assistance. (2) U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen has warned that "a paradox of the new strategic environment is that American military superiority actually increases the threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical attack against us by creating incentives for adversaries to challenge us asymmetrically." (3) Hype or Threat? To what extent is asymmetric warfare a new threat that poses a significant danger to the security of the United States? Three strategic assessments published by the U.S. Department of Defense have called attention to the issue. The May 1997 Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review stated that a future adversary could "employ asymmetric methods to delay or deny U.S. access to critical facilities; disrupt our command, control, communications, and intelligence networks; or inflict higher than expected casualties in an attempt to weaken our national resolve." (4) The National Defense Panel, a group of nongovernmental analysts commenting on the Quadrennial Defense Review, agreed that future opponents will seek to disable the underlying structures that enable our military operations. Forward bases and forward-deployed forces will likely be challenged and coalition partners coerced. Critical nodes that enable communications, transportation, deployment, and other means of power projection will be vulnerable. (5) Finally, Joint Vision 2010, a study of warfare in the next century by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asserted that our most vexing future adversary may be one who can use technology to make rapid improvements in its military capabilities that provide asymmetrical counters to U.S. military strengths, including information technologies." (6) In response to these alarming declarations, skeptics have argued that military scenarios focusing on asymmetric threats tend to overstate the vulnerabilities of the United States, and that merely identifying theoretical windows of vulnerability does not necessarily mean that real-world adversaries could climb through them. …


This broad comparative survey focuses on five big case studies, starting with the English Revolution in the seventeenth century, and going on to the Mexican, Russian, Vietnamese and Iranian Revolutions. Revolutions in World History traces the origins, developments, and outcomes of these revolutions, providing an understanding of the revolutionary tradition in a global context. Questions about motivations and ideologies are raised as well as about the effectiveness of these revolutions


Does democratization reduce the cost of credit? Using global syndicated loan data from 1984 to 2014, we find that democratization has a sizeable negative effect on loan spreads: a one-point increase in the zero-to-ten Polity IV index of democracy shaves at least 19 basis points off spreads, but likely more. Reversals to autocracy hike spreads more strongly. Our findings are robust to the comprehensive inclusion of relevant controls, to the instrumentation with regional waves of democratization, and to a battery of other sensitivity tests. We thus highlight the lower cost of loans as one relevant mechanism through which democratization can affect economic development.