OBJECTIVE: TO estimate the cost-effectiveness of thrombolytic therapy versus no thrombolytic therapy for patients following acute myocardial infarction, focusing on the impact of time to treatment on outcome. METHODS: A decision model was developed to assess the benefits, risks, and costs associated with thrombolytic therapy for treatment of acute myocardial infarction compared with standard nonthrombolytic therapy. The model used pooled data from a recent study of nine large randomized, controlled clinical trials and 12-month outcome data from a recently published meta-analysis of thrombolytic therapy trial data. Outcomes were expressed in terms of survival to hospital discharge and survival to 1 year after discharge. The risks of treatment that led to death, morbidity, or added costs were estimated. The model determined excess and marginal costs per death averted to hospital discharge and at 1 year. Results were also estimated in terms of cost per year of life saved. Sensitivity analyses included variations in time to treatment and drug cost. RESULTS: The marginal cost of thrombolytic therapy per death averted at 1 year was $222 344, or $14 438 per year of life saved. For patients treated within 6 hours of acute myocardial infarction, the marginal cost per death averted was $181 536 at 1 year, or $11 788 per year of life saved. CONCLUSIONS: Thrombolytic therapy is significantly more cost-effective than many other cardiovascular interventions and compares favorably with other forms of medical therapy. Results suggest that shortening the time to treatment has a critical impact on the cost-effectiveness of thrombolytic therapy.


To evaluate the effect of insulin-saline-bicarbonate therapy on amino acid metabolism in diabetic ketoacidosis, arterial and venous blood samples as well as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were obtained from six patients before and after initiation of corrective therapy. Levels of CSF glutamine were decreased while alanine, α-amino-n-butyrate, valine, isoleucine and leucine were increased significantly compared to a control group composed of six normal, postabsorptive adults free of any neurologic disease. Following therapy, CSF levels of alanine, α-amino-n-butyrate, valine, isoleucine, and leucine declined while glutamine levels did not change. Admission arterial plasma levels of the glycogenic amino acids were lower than normal while the branched-chain amino acids were elevated. Plasma alanine and glutamine arterio-venous (A-V) differences across forearm tissue were larger. After four hours of corrective therapy, arterial plasma levels of most of the amino acids had declined sharply and A-V differences for glutamine and alanine were markedly reduced (p <.O25 and p <.O1, paired t, respectively). Coincident with the decrease in A-V amino acid differences, plasma glucagon and free fatty acid levels declined significantly. These data suggest that the effect exerted by insulinsaline-bicarbonate therapy on amino acid metabolism is manifested by diminished A-V plasma alanine and glutamine differences across forearm tissue. Thus, the role played by the splanchnic bed both before and following corrective measures may be secondary to substrate availability.


There is an increasing imperative to conserve the biological diversity of the world to
ensure its future viability and integrity. The traditional approach in England has been to
protect a series of small, isolated sites. Recent research has demonstrated the
inadequacies of this approach, suggesting a need to direct energies more towards
conservation in the surrounding wider countryside. However, there are considerable
difficulties associated with achieving biodiversity objectives in the wider countryside,
as there is a heavy reliance on non-statutory planning mechanisms.
Whereas solutions to biodiversity conservation have generally been seen to lie in the
realm of natural science, this thesis recognises the need for a better understanding of the
people, policies and activities involved in the process. It therefore couples social
science perspectives with an understanding of ecological science principles, in order to
investigate the issues affecting the implementation of biodiversity conservation plans in
three case studies in south west England.
By employing a range of qualitative techniques this research: defines a number of
conservation objectives for the study areas; uses conservation objectives as a basis for
conducting a content analysis of biodiversity planning documents, in order to uncover
potential implementation opportunities and barriers; presents the results in an analytical
framework; explores and refines these through a series of semi-structured interviews
with key biodiversity actors.
This research uncovers a complex set of interacting issues. These issues relate to
partnership styles of working, building agreement and trust, variable levels of
knowledge about habitat and species in the wider countryside, restoration techniques,
indicative strategies, strategic targeting of resources, financial support to farmers and
other land managers, the role of monitoring, and policy responses to recent agricultural
crises.
The results attest to the importance of a social-scientific understanding of biodiversity
planning, in particular, of the forces which drive or obstruct the implementation of local
solutions. The thesis concludes with a number of recommendations, based on original
evidence, aimed at improving the implementation of biodiversity plans in the wider
countryside.


Hacking tells the fascinating tale of Albert Dadas, a native of France's Bordeaux region and the first diagnosed mad traveler. Dadas suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to travel obsessively, often without identification, not knowing who he was or why he traveled. Using the records of Philippe Tissie, Dadas's physician, Hacking attempts to make sense of this strange epidemic. In telling this tale, Hacking raises probing questions about the nature of mental disorders, the cultural repercussions of their diagnosis, and the relevance of this century-old case study for today's overanalyzed society.


A varied approach to the initiation, assessment and delivery of Omalizumab across the United Kingdom has been observed. To analyse the disparity in practize a questionnaire was disseminated to centres administering Omalizumab. Completed questionnaires n=43 (32.5% paediatric/67.5% adult). Questions asked were specific to the initiation, assessment and delivery of Omalizumab, the results identified a wide disparity in practize. Adherence assessment prior to Omalizumab initiation was completed by all centres; however there was a varied approach of each centre in their assessment. 90.6% assessed prescription records, 74.4% questioned patients regarding medication adherence, 32.5% measured prednisolone levels and 4.6% utilised a validated questionnaire (4.6%) Longitudinally 48.8% continue to monitor adherence every 0–6 months, 27.9% every 6–12 months whilst 11.6% do not cheque adherence long term. Centres were diverse in their period of recommended observation post first dose. 4.6% advocate a 0–60 minute observation, 25.5% 1–2hrs, 39.5%, 2–3 hrs and 23.3% >4hrs, subsequent dose administration also varied across centre 37.2% advocated a 0–30min observation, 25.5% a 30–60min period and 11.6% 2–3hrs (11.6%). Paediatric centres advocated a longer observation period post injection. Across centres there is a huge inconsistency in weight observation 46.5% of centres weigh patients each visit, 27.9% 1–3 monthly and 16.2% 3–6 monthly. Dose of Omalizumab is only altered specific to weight fluctuation by 60.4% of which a higher percentage is practised in paediatric compared to adult centres (71.4%/55.1%). Out of dosing range prescribing is undertaken by 57.1% (paediatric) 29% (adult). Use of adrenaline auto injectors were not advocated by 60.4% of the centres, of the remaining 39.5% who advocate adrenaline auto injectors only 47% of this population have specific guidance relating to length of time to keep the injector available. Results of this audit provide evidence for the requirement for national evidence based guidelines, to procure a standardised collaborative approach regarding the use of Omalizumab for patients with severe persistent allergic asthma, with this in situ best practise can be delivered throughout the United Kingdom.


Fulfills the immediate market need for those developers seeking to learn this latest evolutionary version of the Python lineage in a succinct, well-written package. Mike Riley, Contributing Editor for Dr. Dobbs Beyond the introduction to programming in Python 3 in the first chapter, if you progress through the first six chapters in sequence, youll be well on your way to taking off with using Python independently. James Pyles, Technical Writer and Author of the blog A Million Chimpanzees A key recommendation for any serious computer library strong in web programming languages. Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review Summerfields book is an excellent source to start learning Python 3. Anthony J. Duben, Computing Reviews A Fully Revised Edition Featuring New Material on Coroutines, Debugging, Testing, Parsing, String Formatting, and More Python 3 is the best version of the language yet: It is more powerful, convenient, consistent, and expressive than ever before. Now, leading Python programmer Mark Summerfield demonstrates how to write code that takes full advantage of Python 3s features and idioms. Programming in Python 3, Second Edition, brings together all the knowledge you need to write any program, use any standard or third-party Python 3 library, and create new library modules of your own. Summerfield draws on his many years of Python experience to share deep insights into Python 3 development you wont find anywhere else. He begins by illuminating Pythons beautiful heart: the eight key elements of Python you need to write robust, high-performance programs. Building on these core elements, he introduces new topics designed to strengthen your practical expertiseone concept and hands-on example at a time. Coverage includes Developing in Python using procedural, objectoriented, and functional programming paradigms Creating custom packages and modules Writing and reading binary, text, and XML files, including optional compression, random access, and text and XML parsing Leveraging advanced data types, collections, control structures, and functions Spreading program workloads across multiple processes and threads Programming SQL databases and keyvalue DBM files Debugging techniquesand using Test Driven Development to avoid bugs in the first place Utilizing Pythons regular expression mini-language and module Parsing techniques, including how to use the third-party PyParsing and PLY modules Building usable, efficient, GUI-based applications Advanced programming techniques, including generators, function and class decorators, context managers, descriptors, abstract base classes, metaclasses, coroutines, and more Programming in Python 3, Second Edition, serves as both tutorial and language reference. It assumes some prior programming experience, and it is accompanied by extensive downloadable example codeall of it tested with Python 3 on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.


The leaf area index (LAI), defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground area, is used in many numerical weather prediction (NWP) models as an indicator of the vegetation development state, which is of paramount importance to characterize land evaporation, photosynthesis, and carbon-uptake processes. LAI is often simply represented by lookup tables, dependent on the vegetation type and seasons. However, global LAI datasets derived from remote sensing observations have more recently become available. These products are based on sensors such as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) or the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), onboard polar orbiting satellites that can cover the entire globe within typically 3 days and with a spatial resolution of the order of 1 km. We examine the meteorological impact of satellite-derived LAI products on near-surface air temperature and humidity, which comes both from the stomatal transpiration of leaves and from the intercepted water on the surface of leaves, re-evaporating into the atmosphere. Two distinct monthly LAI climatology datasets derived respectively from AVHRR and MODIS sensors are tested. A set of forecasts and data assimilation experiments with the integrated forecasting system of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts is performed with the monthly LAI climatology datasets as opposed to a vegetation-dependent constant LAI. The monthly LAI is shown to improve the forecasts of near-surface (screen-level) air temperature and relative humidity through its effect on evapotranspiration, with the largest impact obtained over needleleaf forests, crops, and grassland. At longer time-scales, the introduction of the monthly LAI is shown to have a positive impact on the model climate particularly during the boreal spring, where the LAI climatology has a large seasonal cycle.


We study an important recent series of multi-item multi-unit auctions conducted by the U.S. Treasury in retiring $67.5 billion of its debt. Consistent with auction theory, we find that bidders earn a small volatility-related expected profit as compensation for bearing the risk of the "winner's curse.†We find that the Treasury is penalized for being "spread too thin†when including multiple bonds in a buyback auction. Thus, the multi-item design of the auction may not have been optimal from the Treasury's perspective. In contrast, there is no evidence that the multi-unit aspect of the buyback affected the Treasury's costs. These results have a number of implications for current models of multi-item and multi-unit auctions.


Scientific information – from the moment it is produced by the scientific community until it reaches the nonexpert audience through the newspapers – is submitted to a complex process of adaptation. In this paper, we investigate the process of accommodating the scientific information provided by a primary scientific source (a peer-review journal) into journalistic discourse (a newspaper). As case studies we analyzed four scientific papers published by the peer-reviewed scientific journals Nature and Science, which were simultaneously used as primary scientific sources by Latin American newspapers. We observed that the process of accommodation into a new space, journalistic space, represents a significant shift in the content of the texts, including information that appears, disappears and is transformed in the process; transformations in the lexica, the style and the argumentation; a change in the hierarchy of the information; a shift in the information emphasized and in the social impact it might have.


This collection of papers celebrates Jack Golson's influence on the investigation of prehistoric agriculture in the mountainous interior of New Guinea. The breadth of Golson's interests and his remarkable intellectual generosity have stimulated several of his former students to attempt to develop some of the lines of enquiry identified through his own work. Golson has already been the subject of a major festschrift volume (Spriggs et al. eds 1993), in which his personal history and professional career are charted, and his influence on several generations of archaeologists is amply demonstrated. However, a number of factors have prompted us to issue a further acknowledgment of Golson's influence, the first being his continued reluctance to disengage from scholarly debate and enquiry following his retirement as the Professor of Prehistory at the Australian National University in 1991 (Spriggs and Jones 1993). Golson continues to publish, to edit, and to challenge those around him. The authors of this collection represent a more recent generation of researchers than those featured in the original festschrift, all but one of us (John Burton) having worked with Golson in the period since 1991. It does also seem something of an omission in the original festschrift that only one of the papers--Doug Yen's contribution on subsistence systems in the Pacific (Yen 1993)--addresses in any substantial way the history of agriculture in the New Guinea Highlands, given the centrality of the topic in Golson's own work. Each of the authors in the present collection has worked in New Guinea and most have focused at some point on questions of early agricultural history and social transformation in the region. The continuing investigation of early agriculture Archaeology in the New Guinea Highlands was in its infancy when Golson first assembled a team to investigate the Manton's agricultural site on Warrawau Plantation in 1966, in Papua New Guinea's Wahgi Valley. A handful of other archaeologists had already initiated work in the Highlands region. Sue Bulmer's pioneering surveys in the Wahgi Valley, Kundiawa and Chuave areas in 1959 (Bulmer 1966), were followed by independent programs of excavation pursued by Peter White (1972) and David Cole (Watson and Cole 1977) during the 1960s at a series of sites in what were then the Western and Eastern Highlands Districts. The agricultural site at Kuk Swamp was first identified in 1969 by Jim Allen (Allen 1970). Thereafter, Golson focused his attention on Kuk, and many of his colleagues and students tackled projects that were allied in some way or other to the wider questions raised by this talismanic site (Golson 1996). A forthcoming publication will set out much of the history and the results of the Kuk Swamp investigations (Golson et al. eds in prep.). Golson's work at Kuk, as elsewhere, has been marked by a particular conception of archaeology as a form of historical enquiry unimpeded by disciplinary boundaries. His training as a mediaevalist (Gathercole 1993) may have played a critical part in the formation of Golson's fundamental orientation as an historian employing the various technologies of archaeology and synthesizing the results from a broad spread of disciplines, while always keeping questions about the transformation of societies to the fore. It is not surprising, then, that Golson has urged each of the authors in this collection, at various times, to pursue alternative lines of enquiry: to read more widely in regional ethnography, to experiment with different techniques, and to combine the broadest possible range of perspectives on the past. Some of the consequences of this expansive approach to archaeology are evident in this collection, in which an historian (Chris Ballard), a palaeo-ecologist (Simon Haberle), a plant botanist (Peter Matthews) and an anthropologist (John Burton) feature alongside archaeologists (Herman Mandui, John Muke and Tim Denham). …


Two studies suggest that the endocytosis and retrograde transport of endosomal nerve growth factor (NGF) and TrkA, its receptor tyrosine kinase, are required for NGF-mediated neuronal survival. Target-derived growth factors, such as NGF, are critical for the survival of peripheral neurons. In sympathetic and sensory neurons, NGF-mediated survival depends on a retrograde signal from the nerve terminal to the cell body. The precise nature of this signal--which, in humans, may travel a meter or more--and whether survival requires the endocytosis and retrograde transport of NGF or TrkA has been debated for many years (see Preview by Chao). Ye et al. grew sympathetic neurons in compartmentalized cultures and applied various agents (including NGF, a TrkA inhibitor, and a neutralizing antibody to NGF) to different neuronal regions. Survival depended on TrkA kinase activity in both the cell body and distal axon and on available NGF in the cell body, but was independent of TrkA activity in the proximal axon. Endocytosis was required for survival when NGF was applied to the distal axon but not the cell body. Delcroix et al. investigated retrograde transport of NGF and NGF-stimulated retrograde transport and activation of TrkA and downstream signaling molecules in rat sensory neurons in vivo and in isolated segments of sciatic nerve in vitro. The authors used microscopy, analysis of different nerve regions, and density-gradient fractionation to show that these proteins were associated with each other and with endosomal markers and were found in endosomal fractions. Together, these studies support a "signaling endosome" model in which endosomal transport of NGF and TrkA, together with various effectors, are required for the retrograde survival signal. H. Ye, R. Kuruvilla, L. S. Zweifel, D. D. Ginty, Evidence in support of signaling endosome-based retrograde survival of sympathetic neurons. Neuron 39, 57-68 (2003). [Online Journal] J.-D. Delcroix, J. S. Valetta, C. Wu, S. J. Hunt, A. S. Kowal, W. C. Mobley, NGF signaling in sensory neurons: Evidence that early endosomes carry NGF retrograde signals. Neuron 38, 69-84 (2003). [Online Journal] M. V. Chao, Retrograde transport redux, Neuron 38, 1-2 (2003). [Online Journal]


Purpose The aim of the study reported here was to examine the safety and effectiveness of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in elderly patients with depression. Patients and methods Sixty-five depressed elderly patients received rTMS over their left prefrontal cortex for 6 days per week, from Monday to Saturday, for 3 weeks. The rTMS intensity was set at 100% of the motor threshold and 25 Hz stimulation with a duration of 2 seconds and was delivered 20 times at 30-second intervals. A full course comprised an average of 1000 magnetic pulses. Depression was rated using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) before and after treatment. Response was defined as a 50% reduction in HAMD score. Patients with HAMD scores < 8 were considered to be in remission. Results The mean HAMD score for the study group decreased from 21.94 ± 5.12 before treatment to 11.28 ± 4.56 after rTMS (P < 0.001). Following the treatment period, 58.46% of the study group demonstrated significant mood improvement, as indexed by a reduction of more than 50% on the HAMD score. Nineteen of these 38 patients attained remission (HAMD score < 8), while 41.54% of all study patients achieved a partial response. None of the patients had a worsened HAMD score at the end of the treatment. Treatment was generally well tolerated and no serious adverse effects were reported. Conclusion In this study, rTMS was found to be a safe, well-tolerated treatment, and a useful adjunctive treatment to medications in elderly treatment-resistant depressed patients. This study contributes to the existing evidence on the antidepressant effect of rTMS in the treatment of depression in patients over 60 years of age.


Sectoral approaches can be considered part of a transition towards a global carbon market. Providing the potentially strongest link between the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) and sectoral approaches, sectoral benchmarks can be used for setting caps, free allocation, or can become a catalyst for linking carbon markets. There would be at least three ways to strengthen the effectiveness of sectoral approaches through the choice of performance, metrics, reporting and compliance. With the possibility of an increase in decentralisation and flexibility in the post-2012 architecture, bottom-up approaches would rely heavily on the correct conduct of measurement, reporting and verification of mitigation actions in developing countries. Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there would be a hybrid range of agreements and mechanisms to make sectoral approaches operational.


The unfolding of the 2007 world financial and economic crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of real economic activity to strong fluctuations in asset prices. Which is the optimal monetary policy in an economy like the Colombian that is exposed to swings in asset prices? What is the implication, in terms of central bank losses, when it follows a standard simple rule instead of the optimal monetary policy? To answer these questions, we use a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with physical capital and sticky wages for the Colombian economy and derive the optimal monetary policy. Then, we explore the dynamic effects of news about a future technology improvement, which turns out ex post to be overoptimistic, under the optimal policy rule and under alternative specifications of simple rules and definitions of the output gap.


Climate change and food security are significant global challenges facing society. The dairy industry is inextricably linked to these challenges as it is concerned with the economies of food production, while acknowledging that it is a major contributor to greenhouse gas production. Action by microbial communities in the rumen is responsible for efficient breakdown of plant matter for food conversion, but a by-product of this action is substantial methane production. Insight into food conversion and methane production in rumen microbiota is possible through metagenomics analysis, which is the analysis of microbial communities and their interactions with the environment. However, metagenomic analysis is hampered by the sheer volume and complexity of data that needs to be processed. This paper presents a bioinformatics pipeline and visualisation platform that facilitates deep analysis of microbial communities, under various conditions in cattle rumen, with the aim of leading to significant impact on probiotic supplement usage, methane production and feed conversion efficiency. This pipeline was developed as part of the EU H2020 MetaPlat project and will pave the way for a more optimal usage of metagenomic datasets, thus reducing the number of animals necessary to be engaged in such studies. This will ensure better and more economic animal welfare, better use of resources and lessen the impact of the dairy industry on climate change.


Conservation and sustainability of historic cities in Malaysia have been drawing a lot attention from different stakeholders as many researches were undertaken relating heritage conservation and heritage tourism. The declaration of historic cities in Penang and Malacca as World Heritage Cities by UNESCO had proven that the conservation and preservation of tangible heritage assets not only essential to sustain the continuity of local cultural identity but also contribute to the economic regeneration and domestic heritage tourism. However, there have been only a small number of studies done on the urban decay features experienced by old towns in Malaysia and the corresponding revitalisation tools which suit the local culture context. Based upon the conflicts between urban decay issues arise within Ipoh Old Town and the lack of effective revitalisation efforts, the objectives are to identify the urban decay features currently experienced by Ipoh Old Town and to recommend the critical components to be revitalised in Ipoh Old Town. The mixed methods research which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research approaches is adopted as the methodology for this study. The quantitative data is obtained through questionnaire surveys whereas the qualitative research methods involved the gathering of information through interviews and case study analysis. These suggestions are categories into three major themes which are revitalisation, stricter enforcement and financial funding.


Background and purpose: The cost of health care has an increasing trend worldwide. Therefore, governments aim at analyzing the economic aspects of health services and make interventions in improving the financial performance of health care systems. This study was conducted to assess the new financial system of medical universities in Iran using SWOT analysis. Materials and methods: This cross sectional study was done in 2013. The study population included the financial managers and experts in Iran's health system. They were selected by census sampling and the Board of Health Budget Committee including 20 people were recruited. In order to assess the viewpoints of participants, strategic planning model was investigated using the SWOT matrix [strengths, weakness (internal factors), opportunities, and threats (external factors)]. Analytical hierarchy process was applied to weight and prioritize the items. Results: Four items in strengths, 15 in weakness, 7 in opportunities and 6 items in threats were extracted by the committee members. The score for internal factors (strengths and weakness) in SWOT table was 1.98 and the score for external factors (opportunities and threats) was 4.23. Conclusion: According to the results, external factors were found to have more effect on shaping the financial system in health care services in Iran which indicates a powerful impact of external organizations. Therefore, permanent finance subcommittees should be formed for effective and constant communication with external bodies.


The global demand for timber is increasing, with prognoses for the EU showing particularly high growth to meet renewable energy targets. However, there are limited options to meet rising timber demands within the EU, and global land competition to meet world food, energy and material needs, as well as to conserve high value nature areas, is increasing. This dissertation addresses the knowledge gap between the pressures of increased land use abroad and the underlying drivers of land use change. It argues that there is a high risk of problem shifting if EU policies to increase timber consumption are not accompanied by a monitoring system that accounts for consumption levels and provides a benchmark for sustainability.


The volume and quality of data, but also their relevance, are crucial when performing data analysis. In this paper, a study of the influence of different types of data is presented, particularly in the context of educational data obtained from Learning Management Systems (LMSs). These systems provide a large amount of data from the student activity but they usually do not describe the results of the learning process, i.e., they describe the behaviour but not the learning results. The starting hypothesis states that complementing behavioural data with other more relevant data (regarding learning outcomes) can lead to a better analysis of the learning process, that is, in particular it is possible to early predict the student final performance. A learning platform has been spe cially developed to collect data not just from the usage but also related to the way students learn and progress in training activities. Data of both types are used to build a progressive predictive system for helping in the learning process. This model is based on a classifier that uses the Support Vector Machine technique. As a result, the system obtains a weekly classification of each student as the probability of belonging to one of three classes: high, medium and low performance. The results show that, supplementing behavioural data with learning data allows us to obtain better predictions about the results of the students in a learning system. Moreover, it can be deduced that the use of heterogeneous data enriches the final performance of the prediction algorithms.


Abstract The present research explored people's everyday practice of counteractive control. Experience sampling was used to test our prediction that strong temptations would promote self-control. Participants were 237 Japanese citizens with ages ranging from 18 to 69. Results indicated that perceived temptation prompted stronger resistance and restraint of behaviors, compared to those cases where no conflict was perceived. In addition, multilevel path analysis revealed the underlying process such that (a) a strong desire toward temptation intensified perception of conflict; (b) perceived conflict bolstered the value of goals that were in disagreement with the temptation; and (c) highly valued goals promoted self-control (i.e., stronger resistance and hence less yielding to temptation).


As the EU becomes increasingly engaged in peace mediation, in this paper published by the Initiative for Peacebuilding, I compare how justice issues have been handled in four mediation processes in Indonesia (Maluku and Aceh), Nepal and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Eight key issues emerged from this comparison concerning the role of the mediator, technical support and assistance to negotiations, and engaging more actors than the mediators and their advisors in peace processes. This paper argues that the EU will need to be able to address these types of questions in order to support durable peace by promoting justice and human rights in peacemaking.


Objective Somatic symptoms unexplained by disease are common in all medical settings. The process of identifying such patients requires a clinical assessment often supported by clinical tests. Such assessments are time-consuming and expensive. Consequently the observation that such patients tend to report a greater number of symptom has led to the use of self-rated somatic symptom counts as a simpler and cheaper diagnostic aid and proxy measure for epidemiological surveys. However, despite their increasing popularity there is little evidence to support their validity. Methods We tested the score on a commonly used self-rated symptom questionnaire- the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ 15) (plus enhanced iterations including an additional 10 items on specific neurological symptoms and an additional 5 items on mental state) for diagnostic sensitivity and specificity against a medical assessment (with 18 months follow-up) in a prospective cohort study of 3781 newly attending patients at neurology clinics in Scotland, UK. Results We found 1144/3781 new outpatients had symptoms that were unexplained by disease. The patients with symptoms unexplained by disease reported higher symptoms count scores (PHQ 15: 5.6 (95% CI 5.4 to 5.8) vs 4.2 (4.1 to 4.4) p<0.0001). However, the PHQ15 performed little better than chance in its ability to identify patients with symptoms unexplained by disease. The findings with the enhanced scales were similar. Conclusions Self-rated symptom count scores should not be used to identify patients with symptoms unexplained by disease.


ABSTRACT This article aims to integrate over two decades of empirical research findings on teachers' organizational commitment (OC) to explore its antecedents and outcomes. Via a criteria-based approach, 68 peer-reviewed quantitative empirical articles published between 1994 and 2018 were identified and included for analysis. A systematic review revealed three core themes: demographic, within-person, and role-related predictors of teachers OC; interpersonal and contextual predictors of teachers' OC; and outcomes of teachers OC. Our review detected major "blind spots" related to antecedents, mediators, and moderators, and outcomes. Recommendations are provided to help advance knowledge on teachers' OC in upcoming decades.


The Fashion of Film (Mitchell Beazley, 2016) takes a journey through the last 100 years of cinema style to investigate how the most iconic movies have influenced the world of high fashion.

Researched extensively at the BFI library, the book examines this influence through 45 films across seven genres. 'Crime: Dressed to Kill' investigates the darker side of human nature that has provided us with style-obsessed archetypes, from the noir detective to the femme fatale. 'The Musical: Spectacular Fashion' looks at the lavish excess of this mid-century favourite and how it continues to inspire designers, while 'Historical Epic: Dressed to Excess' shows that the distant past still has the power to inspire the future, especially when mediated through the glamour of the film lens. 'Horror: Supernatural Chic' centres on the aesthetics of the paranormal, and how blood and monsters can provide unlikely inspiration for dress. 'Romantic Drama: Seductive Style' concentrates on the role of love and heartbreak in adorning the body, while 'Sci-Fi & Fantasy: Bionic Bodies' explores how our obsession with the future, or alternative realities, can shape the styles of the present. Finally 'Art House & Independent: Style with Substance' focuses on films that are made outside the mainstream, shaped by an auteur, whose particular vision can provide unique inspiration for the world of style.


This paper addresses the effect of promotion with copper and potassium on the carbidisation kinetics, structure and performance of silica supported iron catalysts for high temperature Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. The promotion with copper and potassium results in the enhancement of iron dispersion. Small hematite nanoparticles were uncovered in the calcined iron catalysts. Activation of the calcined catalysts in carbon monoxide or syngas results in the reduction of hematite to magnetite at 250–300 °C. The magnetite is then carbidised into Hagg iron carbide. The promotion with copper and potassium affects the rate of the iron reduction and carbidisation. Copper strongly enhances both hematite reduction and magnetite carbidisation in carbon monoxide and syngas. The presence of potassium hinders reduction of hematite to magnetite. Much higher reaction rates were observed on copper-promoted catalysts than on the potassium-promoted and unpromoted counterparts while the promotion with potassium had a stronger impact on the selectivity.


Background: Functional genetic markers have important implications for genetic analysis by providing direct estimation of functional diversity. Although high throughput sequencing techniques for functional diversity analysis are being developed nowadays, the use of already well established variable markers present in candidate genes is still an interesting alternative for mapping purposes and functional diversity studies. SSR markers are routinely used in most plant and animal breeding programs for many species including Eucalyptus . SSR markers derived from candidate genes (SSR-CG) can be used effectively in co-segregation studies and marker-assisted diversity management. Results: In the present study, eight new non reported SSRs were identified in seven candidate genes for wood properties in Eucalyptus globulus : cinnamoyl CoA reductase (CCR), homocysteine S-methyltransferase (HMT), shikimate kinase (SK), xyloglucan endotransglycosylase 2 (XTH2), cellulose synthase 3 (CesA3), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and the transcription factor LIM1. Microsatellites were located in promoters, introns and exons, being most of them CT dinucleotide repeats. Genetic diversity of these eight CG-derived SSR-markers was explored in 54 unrelated genotypes. Except for XTH2, high levels of polymorphism were detected: 93 alleles (mean of 13.1 sd 1.6 alleles per locus), a mean effective number of alleles (Ne) of 5.4 (sd 1.6), polymorphic information content values (PIC) from 0.617 to 0.855 and probability of Identity (PI) ranging from 0.030 to 0.151. Conclusions: This is the first report on the identification, characterization and diversity analysis of microsatellite markers located inside wood quality candidate genes (CG) from Eucalyptus globulus . This set of markers is then appropriate for characterizing genetic variation, with potential usefulness for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in different eucalypts genetic pedigrees and other applications such as fingerprinting and marker assisted diversity management.


Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.


In the last twenty years, higher education policies have become increasingly important national priorities in both the developed and the developing countries. According to the endogenous growth theory, higher education and thereby accumulation of human capital is considered to be the main driver of economic competitiveness in the growing global economy founded on knowledge. Thus, as education is undoubtedly one of the main drivers of economic growth and development, an increase in the real expenditures for education is found in many countries. All this is especially evident in times of rapid technological changes. The interest of this paper is to show the relationship between GDP and public spending on education by applying the method of panel data analysis on the selected EU Member States and former Soviet Union Countries for the period 2000 – 2011. The results of the analysis showed that public expenditure for education, as well the size of the tertiary educated workforce and the number of researchers have a positive impact on GDP growth.


Abstract. Chemical and aerosol processes in the transition from closed- to open-cell circulation in the remote, cloudy marine boundary layer are explored. It has previously been shown that precipitation can initiate a transition from the closed- to the open-cellular state, but that the boundary layer cannot maintain this open-cell state without a resupply of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Potential sources of CCN include wind-driven production of sea salt from the ocean, nucleation from the gas phase, and entrainment from the free troposphere. In order to investigate CCN sources in the marine boundary layer and their role in supplying new particles, we have coupled in detail chemical, aerosol, and cloud processes in the WRF/Chem model, and added state-of-the-art representations of sea salt emissions and aerosol nucleation. We conduct numerical simulations of the marine boundary layer in the transition from a closed- to an open-cell state. Results are compared with observations in the Southeast Pacific boundary layer during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx). The transition from the closed- to the open-cell state generates conditions that are conducive to nucleation by forming a cloud-scavenged, ultra-clean layer below the inversion base. Open cell updrafts loft dimethyl sulfide from the ocean surface into the ultra-clean layer, where it is oxidized during daytime to SO2 and subsequently to H2SO4. Low H2SO4 condensation sink values in the ultra-clean layer allow H2SO4 to rise to concentrations at which aerosol nucleation produces new aerosol in significant numbers. The existence of the ultra-clean layer is confirmed by observations. We find that the observed DMS flux from the ocean in the VOCALS-REx region can support a nucleation source of aerosol in open cells that exceeds sea salt emissions in terms of the number of particles produced. The freshly nucleated, nanometer-sized aerosol particles need, however, time to grow to sizes large enough to act as CCN. In contrast, mechanical production of particles from the ocean surface by near-surface winds provides a steady source of larger particles that are effective CCN at a rate exceeding a threshold for maintenance of open-cell circulation. Entrainment of aerosol from the free troposphere contributes significantly to boundary layer aerosol for the considered VOCALS-REx case, but less than sea salt aerosol emissions.


A B S T R A C T Background and Objectives: The chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of bitter orange (Citrus aurantium) leaf, ripe and unripe peel essential oils, cultivated in southwest of Iran, were investigated. Materials and Methods: The analysis of chemical composition of hydro-distilled essential oils was carried out by GC-MS. The disc diffusion and broth micro-dilution were used to assay the antimicrobial effect of achieved essential oils. Results: According to the GC-MS analysis, 34, 39 and 21 components were determined in the leaf, ripe and unripe peel, respectively. The results revealed that the main components of all essential oils were linalool and limonene. The oxygenated monoterpene and hydrocarbonated monoterpene were the main chemical groups of leaf and peel essential oils, respectively. Although all of the examined essential oils had antimicrobial potential, the leaf and unripe peel essential oils with MIC of 4.67 mg/ml were the most effective against the bacteria and yeast species, respectively, and the ripe peel essential oil was the weakest one. The growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was controlled in the treated orange juices. The antifungal activity of essential oils was increased by rising up in their concentration and decreased by passing time. Unripe and ripe essential oils showed the strongest and weakest anti yeast potential, respectively. Conclusions: The essential oils of leaves and ripe and unripe peels of bitter orange could be used as natural preservatives in food industry.


How can the incoming Secretary-General Antonio Guterres promote and lead change? The view in many policy circles is that the UN urgently needs comprehensive change, and the next Secretary-General is expected to capitalize on the honeymoon to initiate a transformation. We argue that initiating transformational change is counterproductive for the next Secretary-General. A better strategy is to implement modest changes that accumulate over multiple rounds and to influence and empower the leadership of so-called 'smart coalitions' of state and non-state actors seeking to enact ambitious changes to intergovernmental structures and global norms. Specifically, we propose a change leadership strategy for the next Secretary-General based on five guiding principles and including illustrative reforms that suggest how the next Secretary-General might put each principle into practice.


Advances in digital technologies and participatory culture have enabled the efficient use of crowdsourcing in a broad range of contexts, including journalism. Journalism is increasingly deploying crowdsourcing as a knowledge-search method and a means of engaging readers. Through crowdsourcing, journalists can tap into the collective intelligence of large online crowds. The knowledge-search mechanism is based on access to the information held by the crowd.
 Using crowdsourcing, journalists can find otherwise inaccessible information that contributes to their investigations. In several countries, crowdsourced investigations have uncovered important news, including lawbreaking and corruption. Crowdsourcing can also unveil a broader range of perspectives about a story topic, leading to more inclusive and objective journalism. As a result, crowdsourcing can support the journalistic norms of accurate, objective, and transparent reporting. Moreover, it engages participants and fosters a stronger relationship between readers and journalists. Finally, in its use of crowdsourcing journalism can enact more efficiently in its monitorial role in society.
 At the same time, however, crowdsourcing may compromise the journalistic goals of accuracy and objectivity. A crowd is a self-selected group, so its input reflects a participant bias. If this fact is overlooked, crowdsourcing can lead to biased reporting. Moreover, a direct connection with the crowd can increase pressure on journalists to conform to the crowd's wishes instead of pursuing journalistic norms and news values. This pressure can be especially strong in crowdfunding, a subtype of crowdsourcing.


This paper documents the foreign asset ownership and investment theory of the dynamic GTAP model (GTAP-Dyn). The new investment theory offers a disequilibrium approach to modeling endogenously international capital mobility. It permits a recursive solution procedure, a feature that allows easy implementation of dynamics into any static AGE model without imposing limitations on the model's size. The method involves treating time as a variable, not as an index. Having time as a variable allows the construction of dynamic GTAP with minimum modifications to the existing structure of GTAP, by separating the theory of static GTAP from the length of run.


The Kashmiri shawl is rooted in a complex tradition of craft that dates back at least five hundred years. Its uniqueness lies in a combination of factors that have made it virtually impossible to duplicate anywhere else. "The Kashmiri Shawl" is the story of this textile, re-told through a South Asian perspective. This book re-aligns the design symbolism and technical evolution of the shawl to indigenous sources by placing emphasis on areas previously ignored in earlier histories. The shawl's origins in Kashmir, the rich vein of patronage it thrived on, its changing ornamental face, its regional variations in Persia and Punjab, its enormous impact on the European imagination, all combine to form a narrative shaped to engage the reader. The authors bring fresh clarity to the many myths that have arisen around the Kashmiri shawl on the South Asian trade circuit. They also interpret most of the complexities in the Kashmiri shawl lexicon. Today, possessing one of these jewel-like collectables is like owning a tiny stake in the heritage of its many-layered cultural identities.


BACKGROUND
Epidemiologic studies have suggested a protective effect of magnesium intake on cardiovascular disease risk. However, intervention trials of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure and conventional cardiometabolic risk markers are inconsistent. Effects on vascular function markers related to cardiovascular disease risk have rarely been studied.

OBJECTIVE
The objective was to evaluate the effects of long-term magnesium supplementation on arterial stiffness.

DESIGN
We performed a 24-wk, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention study. Fifty-two overweight and slightly obese individuals (30 men and 22 postmenopausal women, mean ± SD age: 62 ± 6 y) were randomly allocated to receive either 3 times daily magnesium (3 × 117 mg or 350 mg/d) or placebo capsules. Twenty-four-hour urine collections and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure assessments were performed at the start and end of the study. Carotid-to-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWVc-f) was assessed at baseline, after 12 wk, and at week 24.

RESULTS
Serum magnesium concentrations did not differ after 12 wk but tended to increase after 24-wk magnesium supplementation compared with placebo by 0.02 mmol/L (95% CI: 0.00, 0.04 mmol/L; P = 0.09). Twenty-four-hour urinary magnesium excretion increased by 2.01 mmol (95% CI: 1.22, 2.93 mmol; P < 0.001) at week 24. PWVc-f was not changed after 12 wk (0.0 m/s; 95% CI: -0.6, 0.5 m/s; P = 0.90) but was improved in the magnesium compared with the placebo group by 1.0 m/s (95% CI: 0.4, 1.6 m/s; P = 0.001) after 24 wk. Office and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure levels were not changed. No adverse events were observed.

CONCLUSION
Our data indicate that a daily magnesium supplement of 350 mg for 24 wk in overweight and obese adults reduces arterial stiffness, as estimated by a decrease in PWVc-f, suggesting a potential mechanism by which an increased dietary magnesium intake beneficially affects cardiovascular health. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02235805.


Gender is the term used to refer to the socially constructed relations between women and men in a particular society. There is a strong relationship between gender and agriculture in developing countries. According to the UN report (2000) on the status of women, women are twice as likely as men to be involved in agriculture-related activities. Moreover, twothirds of the world's 876 million illiterates are women, most of whom live in rural areas of developing countries. National averages of female workers in the agricultural labour force vary. But globally women have a principal role in agribusiness, food processing, and consumer related activities. As far as Nepal, a Himalayan country, is concerned, livestock plays a significant role to the national economy. Buffalo is the most preferred ruminant that contributes about 70 and 65 % share to the national milk and meat production respectively. A study carried out on gender aspect revealed that women perform more than two-thirds of the total agricultural works but their participation in capacity buildings viz: group formation and mobilisation, exposure to new technology, training, etc. is only about 40 %. Specifically, women participation in group formed for goat keeping is the highest (57.2 %) where as it is lowest in the case of buffalo farming group (18.4 %). It clearly shows that women have only got the opportunity towards the small ruminants but they are neglected to the most important enterprises like buffalo and cattle. Experience has shown that when women in developing countries, like Nepal, are empowered, the benefits are felt in entire families and communities. Constraints such as lack of capital and access to institutional credit, social and cultural norms, education and poverty, lack of technical skills and access to extension services affect women more than men and limit women's participation and efficiency in livestock production. However, positive trend of women education, government policy towards capacity building, women advocacy and developing partnership show the opportunity for the women and ultimately for the livestock research and development in Nepal.


Improved oncological treatments permit increased survival rates, although cancer patients remain at risk of losing ovarian function. An attractive option for fertility preservation includes the use of immature oocytes, a strategy which can occur on a rapid timeline and without hormonal stimulation. As a result, cancer therapy can proceed promptly even in patients with hormone-sensitive tumors. Following retrieval, immature oocytes can be cryopreserved at either the immature germinal vesicle or the mature metaphase-II stage, i.e. either before or after in vitro maturation (IVM). We present a critical review of previous human studies on the cryopreservation of immature oocytes. Evaluations include in vitro developmental competence upon thawing/warming, or organization of the spindle and chromosomes. Reported successes vary, perhaps in relation to the source of the oocytes and protocols for cryopreservation and IVM. Weaknesses exist with the experimental designs implemented to date, so caution must be exercised before considering the use of immature oocytes to be a safe and reliable practice in the fertility preservation of cancer patients. To date, results indicate that with current protocols, it may be best to cryopreserve immature oocytes after IVM at the metaphase-II stage. Nonetheless, efficacy remains very low. Future efforts should tailor and optimize not only cryo-preservation, but also IVM protocols for use in either germinal vesicle or metaphase-II oocytes, together with a comprehensive assessment of oocyte function and developmental competence to term. Despite current challenges, the burgeoning field of immature oocyte cryopreservation constitutes a promising option for cancer patients with impaired ovarian function.


Contemporary furniture design has grown in popularity in recent years, but why? The Furniture Machine looks at the furniture industry and at design trends since 1990, to unravel the appeal of contemporary design. Who are the leading designers and that are the dominant styles of the period, from Minimalism to Blobjects and the New Antiques? Which technical or material innovations, like CAD-CAM and rapid prototyping, have changed the way furniture is made? Who are the most influential design thinkers, and what ideas have most influenced the look of furniture?

Drawing on the collections of the V&A Museum and elsewhere, The Furniture Machine seeks to answer these questions through the work of the major designers of the period, including Philippe Starck, Ron Arad, Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison and Gaetano Pesce. Furniture by continually innovative Italian manufacturers such as Cappellini, Edra, Moroso, magis and Kartell is considered alongside the increasingly influential activities of conceptual labels such as Droog Design and Moooi. The Furniture Machine also highlights the rising generation of designers from Britain, continental Europe, Japan and the USA.

This book is the first to take an in-depth look at a key period during which the advent of new aspirational lifestyle magazines like Elle Deco and Wallpaper*, and IKEA's infiltration of the mass-market, fuelled popular enthusiasm for contemporary design. Just as design has conquered the mass market, so it has entered the art and collectors' market too. The book looks at how designers achieve celebrity and how this 'ego system' effects the industry. It also examines how the structures of the global furniture design industry are increasingly beginning to echo those of the fashion world, celebrating newness and promoting innovation.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to test forward-looking incentives against backward-looking incentives. Design/methodology/approach - – Wage growth model to estimate forward-looking effects of unpaid overtime and a probit model of participation in unpaid overtime controlling for excessive pay to estimate backward-looking effects. The authors use data form the OSA labour supply panel (years 1994, 1996 and 1998). Findings - – The importance of backward-looking incentives is demonstrated in an empirical analysis of participation in unpaid overtime. The authors show that employees who have relatively good wages now or who have had relatively good wages in the recent past participate more often in unpaid overtime. The authors also show that participation in unpaid overtime does not lead to extra wage growth. Research limitations/implications - – These results imply that involvement in unpaid overtime is to be explained from backward-looking incentives, not from forward-looking incentives. The paper concludes that backward-looking incentives deserve more attention in the economic literature, especially as they are well-accepted as work motivation devices by employees. Limitations are the length of the panel study (four years) and the fact that the data are restricted to one country (the Netherlands). Social implications - – Personnel policies should focus more on the intrinsic motivation of personnel rather than on extrinsic motivation. Originality/value - – This is the first paper to test both forward- and backward-looking incentives simultaneously.


In March 2015, the UK Military Aircraft Structural Airworthiness Advisory Group endorsed MASAAG Paper 123; the paper provides guidance on best practice processes required to integrate matured SHM systems into UK military aircraft. The paper benefited from the work of the SAE G-11 SHM technical committee and included contents covering the UK military perspective to provide a good opportunity for peer reviews. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the F-35 Structural Prognostics & Health Management (SPHM) development processes and review the processes of MASAAG Paper 123. Comparisons between these processes should indicate the applicability of MASAAG Paper 123 to modern SHM systems and identify any gaps or redundancies that should be considered in the future issues of MASAAG Paper 123 or in the intended international military guidebook of the SAE G-11 SHM technical committee. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/6


Over the last two decades, there has been an intensive discourse and research about measuring sustainable urban development. Many cities, regions and countries have decided to introduce indicators for monitoring and measuring the progress towards sustainability. Today there is a wide spread perception that information on the environment in general, and urban environment in particular, is the determinant of effective rational decisions and allocation of resources. Such information would enable planners and decision makers to formulate redistributive policies and programmes to address some of the disparities that exist in a post-socialist city. Cities of the post-socialist world characterized by sharp disparities, socio-economic contrasts and environmental degradation provide an excellent laboratory for tracing information on the quality of urban life. The current situation in the emerging Croatian coastal city of Zadar reflects the diversity of the post-socialist urban change in a very fragile Mediterranean landscape. This paper takes a critical look at sustainable development and its measurements. It describes the participatory approach through which different local communities in Zadar were evaluating quality of life based on basic pillars of sustainable development. The identification and collection of their opinions provide valuable data base and community input into urban governance and development planning decision making.


Statistics indicate that even if young workers complete vocational training, as a group they are at risk of sustaining injury. It appears that a lack of training in the area of injury prevention may explain some of this effect. Teachers are considered to be key actors in injury-prevention training and in the process of developing students' preventive behaviour at work, but little is known about the reality. The objective of this study was to understand how teachers experience their activities in support of students' development of injury-prevention behaviour at work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven teachers from four different vocational training programs. The content of the interviews was then examined using phenomenological analysis. Results show representations participants form of occupational health and safety, of injury-prevention behaviour and of their roles as teachers in relation to prevention. A closer look at these roles reveals the daily challenges teachers encounter. Among other things, there seems to be a lack of continuity in the training process, insufficient pedagogical resources and resistance on the students' part. Results offer an insight into teachers' experience with their part in the support of vocational students' development of injury-preventing behaviour.  It appears they recognize having to play an active role in the development of injury-preventing behaviour at work among students, but have to face daily challenges affecting their teaching. Results of this study can serve as a starting point to make improvements to the injury-prevention training offered in vocational training centres.


The expectation interest remedy requires the promisor to transfer a sum equal to the promisee's expected gain from performance if the promisor reallocates her resources to another use. The theory of efficient breach justifies the remedy because the promisor will either perform, when the promisees' gain would exceed the gain from reallocation, or breach when the promissee's gain is below. Critics of the theory argue that breach is immoral, whether efficient or not, because the promisee has a right to performance or to its gains. Both critics and supporters mistakenly elide the real issue. Contract law defines a breach as the promisor's failure to take an action the parties' contract requires or to take an action the contract forbids. Hence, if business contracts are efficient, as is commonly assumed, breaches cannot be efficient. The real issue thus is what the parties' contract requires. A contract that requires the promisor to trade a specified object or to perform a specified service is breached if the promisor fails to trade or to perform; but a contract that permits the promisor either to trade or to perform or to transfer the sum that equals the promissee's gain would only be breached if the promisor neither trades nor transfers. The expectation interest remedy is a good default if parties more commonly write the latter "dual performance contract" than the former mandatory trade contract. Both supporters and critics of efficient breach theory mistakenly suppose that parties commonly write mandatory trade contracts. It follows for them that the failure to trade is a breach, and the dispute is over the morality of breach. We show that parties commonly write dual performance contracts so the failure to trade is not a breach. Whether this is so or not, the important result is that, because contracts can be efficient but breaches cannot be, the theory of efficient breach should vanish. Rather, attention should turn to the contract interpretation issue regarding which obligations, respecting trade or transfer, the parties actually assumed.


Odours released during the land application of manure results from different gases released from the liquid phase. These gases do create objectionable odours in the vicinity of the land-applied manure. In order to reduce the intensity of odour during manure application, we investigated the effectiveness of combining Borkohle with manure during land application. Boracic acid is widely used as a flame retardant in cellulose insulation. During demolition of existing buildings, this insulation is sorted into its own residual waste fraction. The cellulose fibres are extracted and pelletized on site. Subsequently, the pellets are charred in a pyrolysis furnace. The resulting Borkohle charcoal containing boron in various compounds can be used as a soil enhancer and provides the trace element Boron to the fields. Furthermore, Borkohle provides long-term storage of carbon in the soil. Initial trials of combining boracic charcoal with manure additionally showed that odour emissions seemed to be significantly lower when manure was combined with Borkohle. This work presents methods to quantify the odour reductions resulting from the addition of Borkohle to manure as well as first results. Parameters like the influence of the amount of charcoal added and exposure time have been investigated. Charcoal was added at concentrations between 5 and 250 g L-1. While applying typical amounts of charcoal, a reduction of odour concentration of up to 85% was observed. A positive correlation between odour reduction and the amount of charcoal added was observed. Charcoal has a negligible effect when exposure times are less than 30 minutes.


Observational studies report a rapid decline of ocean CO2 uptake in the temperate North Atlantic during the last decade. We analyze these findings using ocean physical‐biological numerical simulations forced with interannually varying atmospheric conditions for the period 1979–2004. In the simulations, surface ocean water mass properties and CO2 system variables exhibit substantial multiannual variability on sub‐basin scales in response to wind‐driven reorganization in ocean circulation and surface warming/cooling. The simulated temporal evolution of the ocean CO2 system is broadly consistent with reported observational trends and is influenced substantially by the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Many of the observational estimates cover a period after 1995 of mostly negative or weakly positive NAO conditions, which are characterized in the simulations by reduced North Atlantic Current transport of subtropical waters into the eastern basin and by a decline in CO2 uptake. We suggest therefore that air‐sea CO2 uptake may rebound in the eastern temperate North Atlantic during future periods of more positive NAO, similar to the patterns found in our model for the sustained positive NAO period in the early 1990s. Thus, our analysis indicates that the recent rapid shifts in CO2 flux reflect decadal perturbations superimposed on more gradual secular trends. The simulations highlight the need for long‐term ocean carbon observations and modeling to fully resolve multiannual variability, which can obscure detection of the long‐term changes associated with anthropogenic CO2 uptake and climate change.


Many modern applications require the evaluation of analytical queries on large amounts of data. Such queries entail joins and heavy aggregations that often include user-defined functions (UDFs). The most efficient way to process these specific type of queries is using tree execution plans. In this work, we develop an engine for analytical query processing and a suite of specialized techniques that collectively take advantage of the tree form of such plans. The engine executes these tree plans in an elastic IaaS cloud infrastructure and dynamically adapts by allocating and releasing pertinent resources based on the query workload monitored over a sliding time window. The engine offers its services for a fee according to service-level agreements (SLAs) associated with the incoming queries; its management of cloud resources aims at maximizing the profit after removing the costs of using these resources. We have fully implemented our algorithms in the Exareme dataflow processing system. We present an extensive evaluation that demonstrates that our approach is very efficient (exhibiting fast response times), elastic (successfully adjusting the cloud resources it uses as the engine continually adapts to query workload changes), and profitable (approximating very well the maximum difference between SLA-based income and cloud-based expenses).


In this article, the authors set out to study the time use of men and women in Sweden, comparing self-employed and employed individuals. Previous studies indicate that there are reasons to believe that both gendered time use and mechanisms related to time use might differ between the self-employed and employees. Employing time use data, the aim was to study whether there are differences in gendered time use between self-employed individuals and employees in Sweden, and furthermore, which mechanism relates to gendered time use among self-employed individuals and employees. The results show that self-employed men and women distribute their time in a more gender-traditional manner than employees. In addition, relative resources are found to be an important factor related to gendered time use among the self-employed. For employees, gender relations tend to be a mechanism related to gendered time use. The conclusion is that working conditions are important for gendered time use and should be considered in future studies.


Statistical income surveys are used to show the separate and joint effects of taxes and transfers on the distribution of household income among employees in the Czech Republic. On the face of it, the state takes more from and gives less to households, compared with the situation before 1989, and the redistributive effect of the new system is much stronger. In a cross-national comparison, the results depend on the sources and the methods used. When taxes and benefits are taken separately, it can be said that the Czech state taxes upper-income households considerably, but not to an extreme extent, and that the targeting of benefits to low-income families is narrow, though not the narrowest. When a summary measure is applied, the Czech system appears to be no more redistributive than those of other countries. It is found that personal income tax reforms affect redistribution flows only to a very limited degree.


Abstract This article examines the effect of cartography on the development of the modern state system. I argue that new mapping technologies in early modern Europe changed how actors thought about political space, organization, and authority, thus shaping the creation of sovereign states and international relations. In particular, mapping was fundamental to three key characteristics of the medieval-to-modern shift: the homogenization of territorial authority, the linearization of political boundaries, and the elimination of nonterritorial forms of organization. Although maps have been interpreted as epiphenomenal to political change, each of these three transformations occurred first in the representational space of maps and only subsequently in the political practices of rulers and states. Based on evidence from the history of cartographic technologies and their use by political actors, the practices and texts of international negotiations, and the practical implementation of linearly bounded territoriality by states, this article argues that changes in the representational practices of mapmaking were constitutive of the early-modern transformation of the authoritative structure of politics. This explanation of the international system's historical transformation suggests useful new directions for investigations into the possibility of fundamental political change due to the economic, social, and technological developments of globalization.


A Late Archean layer rich in sand-sized spherules of former silicate melt in the Monteville Formation (Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa) has Ir concentrations as high as 6.4 ppb and is clearly enriched in Ir relative to associated tuffs, carbonates, and shales. The Monteville spherule layer is also enriched in other siderophile elements, including the platinum group elements (PGEs). The PGEs in the spherule layer produce a flat (meteorite like) pattern when they are normalized to chondritic abundances. The abundances of Ir and other siderophile elements are similar to broadly contemporaneous spherule layers in the Hamersley basin of Western Australia. That the mineral compositions, textures, and sedimentary structures of the spherule layers in the Transvaal Supergroup and Hamersley basin are also very similar suggests that they were all formed by the same processes. We think that the best way to explain the high Ir concentrations and other characteristics of the Monteville spherule layer is that it represents distal impact ejecta. There are, however, significant differences between the Monteville spherule layer and Early Archean spherule layers in the Barberton greenstone belt, including much higher average and maximum concentrations of Ir in the latter. The data presented here clearly show that each Precambrian spherule layer is unique and needs to be characterized individually, as is true for the impact spherule layers of the Phanerozoic.


The images of human trafficking are all too often reduced to media tales of helpless young women taken by heavily accented, dark-skinned captors-but the reality is a far cry from this stereotype. In the Middle East, Dubai has been accused of being a hotbed of trafficking. Pardis Mahdavi, however, draws a more complicated and more personal picture of this city filled with migrants. Not all migrant workers are trapped, tricked, and abused. Like anyone else, they make choices to better their lives, though the risk of ending up in bad situations is high. Legislators hoping to combat human trafficking focus heavily on women and sex work, but there is real potential for abuse of both male and female migrants in a variety of areas of employment-whether on the street, in a field, at a restaurant, or at someone's house. Gridlock explores how migrants' actual experiences in Dubai contrast with the typical discussions-and global moral panic-about human trafficking. Mahdavi powerfully contrasts migrants' own stories with interviews with U.S. policy makers, revealing the gaping disconnect between policies on human trafficking and the realities of forced labor and migration in the Persian Gulf. To work toward solving this global problem, we need to be honest about what trafficking is-and is not-and to finally get past the stereotypes about trafficked persons so we can really understand the challenges migrant workers are living through every day.


Abstract Thai fermented fish products were screened for lactic acid bacteria capable of inhibiting Listeria sp. ( Listeria innocua ). Of 4150 assumed lactic acid bacteria colonies from MRS agar plates that were screened by an agar-overlay method 58 (1.4%) were positive. Forty four of these strains were further characterized and 43 strains were inhibitory against Listeria monocytogenes . The strains were inhibitory to other Gram-positive (lactic acid) bacteria probably because of production of bacteriocins. All 44 strains inhibited both Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus and 37 were inhibitory to a mesophilic fish spoilage bacterium (an Aeromonas sp.). Inhibition of Gram-negative bacteria was attributed to production of lactic acid. Most strains were identified as Lactobacillus spp., and all grew well at ambient temperatures (25–37°C) and tolerated up to 6.5% NaCl. Glucose was fermented rapidly in laboratory media whereas pH decreased only very slowly in fish juice supplemented with 4% glucose and 3.5% NaCl or in a rice–fish mixture. Only four of 44 isolates could degrade and ferment complex carbohydrates such as rice, potatoes and maize starch. This indicates that other types of bacteria may be responsible for the rapid spontaneous fermentation of the products or that other yet-unknown factors ensure rapid fermentation. Overall anti-listerial lactic acid bacteria do occur in fermented fish products and the antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria indicates that they may be important in product safety.


Standard video compression techniques (e.g., MPEG) produce variable bit rate video stream for constant quality. The bursty nature of video traffic may cause significant inefficiency in bandwidth allocation. A number of works have been done to enhance bandwidth efficiency by respectively focusing on variable bit rate (VBR) traffic modeling, smoothing and call admission control. In this paper, we propose a unified modeling and smoothing scheme for call admission control based on the computationally efficient wavelet model in (R. Riedi, et al., 1999). The wavelet-based model, which captures the multifractal nature of the VBR traffic, not only tracks the autocorrelation of the real traffic well, but also gives an accurate description of the heavy tail distribution VBR traffic exhibits. Simulation results show that this method outperforms other existing ones in estimating necessary bandwidth for video traffic transmission. In addition, based on this tree-structured wavelet model, call admission control scheme can be implemented in conjunction with tree-structured wavelet-based traffic smoothing techniques (e.g., PCRTT and WTS). Consequently, additional bandwidth efficiency can be gained via traffic smoothing.


The objectives of this pilot study were to determine levels of certain heavy metals (cadmium, lead and mercury) in river sediment and fish and to quantify the associated health risks for recreational anglers who regularly consume fish from the river. World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines were used to evaluate levels of heavy metals in fish and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prescribed reference doses were used to calculate risks associated with fish consumption. It was determined that adults can safely consume one fish meal per day. Children should consume no more than one fish meal every three - four days and pregnant women should limit their consumption to one meal per month. Hair samples obtained from a group of regular fishermen were within the WHO guidelines but were elevated when compared to a control group. Future acidification and pollution of the Swan River catchment area could negatively impact upon the health of the ecosystem and the people who use the river resources. It is recommended that further studies be conducted in order to identify a profile of pollution and heavy metal distribution throughout the river ecosystem. A sentinel population of regular fish consumers needs to be identified and monitored. Seasonal fish consumption guidelines need to be developed for various species of fish in different parts of the river. A baseline level of heavy metals in hair samples for the Perth population needs to be established and the public need to be informed of risks associated with fish consumption.


Common root rot is the most important root disease of cereals in western Canada and some reports have shown that chloride (Cl-) fertilization may reduce the severity of infection. In 1985, strip experiments were laid out at 36 field sites to investigate the effect of Clfertilization on root rot disease and crop production in Saskatchewan. At 8 sites, KCl addition depressed common root rot infection and increased grain yield of one of the crops: spring wheat, winter wheat or barley. In 1986, replicated field plot experiments were established at six sites, where spring wheat and barley were treated with different sources and rates of Clcontaining fertilizers. Generally, higher Clconcentrations in plant tissue were found to be related to lower concentrations of plant tissue N03--N, and at one site, to reduced levels of root rot infection. Clfertililization did not significantly affect grain yield at any of the sites. A growth chamber experiment examined the interaction between Cl-. nutrition and root rot disease under controlled environmental conditions. Spring wheat, gr~wn on sand culture was inoculated with H. sativum fungi. As was the case in field experiments Claddition resulted in reduced concentrations of plant N03--N. The inoculated treatments which received KCl, NaCl and K2S04 all had lower disease ratings than the corresponding check treatment. In a second growth chamber experiment, carried out under sterile conditions, initial infection by Fusarium spp. tended to result in higher foot rot disease ratings as compared to treatments which were initially inoculated with H. sativum .. In this experiment, disease ratings were based on foot rot infection since subcrown internodes failed to develop on the experimental plants.


We transform a Muller game with n vertices into a safety game with ( n ! ) 3 vertices whose solution allows us to determine the winning regions of the Muller game and to compute a finite-state winning strategy for one player. This yields a novel antichain-based memory structure, a compositional solution algorithm, and a natural notion of permissive strategies for Muller games. Moreover, we generalize our construction by presenting a new type of game reduction from infinite games to safety games and show its applicability to several other winning conditions.


BACKGROUND Guidelines for nonoperative management (NOM) of high-grade pancreatic injuries in children have not been established, and wide practice variability exists. The purpose of this study was to evaluate common clinical strategies across multiple pediatric trauma centers to develop a consensus-based standard clinical pathway. METHODS A multicenter, retrospective review was conducted of children with high-grade (American Association of Surgeons for Trauma grade III-V) pancreatic injuries treated with NOM between 2010 and 2015. Data were collected on demographics, clinical management, and outcomes. RESULTS Eighty-six patients were treated at 20 pediatric trauma centers. Median age was 9 years (range, 1–18 years). The majority (73%) of injuries were American Association of Surgeons for Trauma grade III, 24% were grade IV, and 3% were grade V. Median time from injury to presentation was 12 hours and median ISS was 16 (range, 4–66). All patients had computed tomography scan and serum pancreatic enzyme levels at presentation, but serial enzyme level monitoring was variable. Pancreatic enzyme levels did not correlate with injury grade or pseudocyst development. Parenteral nutrition was used in 68% and jejunal feeds in 31%. 3Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram was obtained in 25%. An organized peripancreatic fluid collection present for at least 7 days after injury was identified in 59% (42 of 71). Initial management of these included: observation 64%, percutaneous drain 24%, and endoscopic drainage 10% and needle aspiration 2%. Clear liquids were started at a median of 6 days (IQR, 3–13 days) and regular diet at a median of 8 days (IQR 4–20 days). Median hospitalization length was 13 days (IQR, 7–24 days). Injury grade did not account for prolonged time to initiating oral diet or hospital length; indicating that the variability in these outcomes was largely due to different surgeon preferences. CONCLUSION High-grade pancreatic injuries in children are rare and significant variability exists in NOM strategies, which may affect outcomes and effective resource utilization. A standard clinical pathway is proposed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic/care management, level V (case series).


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are playing remarkable contribution in real time decision making by actuating the surroundings of environment. As a consequence, the contemporary agriculture is now using WSNs technology for better crop production, such as irrigation scheduling based on moisture level data sensed by the sensors. Since WSNs are deployed in constraints environment, the life time of sensors is very crucial for normal operation of the networks. In this regard routing protocol is a prime factor for the prolonged life time of sensors. This research focuses the performances analysis of some clustering based routing protocols to select the best routing protocol. Four algorithms are considered, namely Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), Threshold Sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network (TEEN), Stable Election Protocol (SEP) and Energy Aware Multi Hop Multi Path (EAMMH). The simulation is carried out in Matlab framework by using the mathematical models of those algorithms in heterogeneous environment. The performance metrics which are considered are stability period, network lifetime, number of dead nodes per round, number of cluster heads (CH) per round, throughput and average residual energy of node. The experimental results illustrate that TEEN provides greater stable region and lifetime than others while SEP ensures more throughput.


Estimating the quantiles of a large dataset is a fundamental problem in both the streaming algorithms literature and the differential privacy literature. However, all existing private mechanisms for distribution-independent quantile computation require space at least linear in the input size $n$. In this work, we devise a differentially private algorithm for the quantile estimation problem, with strongly sublinear space complexity, in the one-shot and continual observation settings. Our basic mechanism estimates any $\alpha$-approximate quantile of a length-$n$ stream over a data universe $\mathcal{X}$ with probability $1-\beta$ using $O\left( \frac{\log (|\mathcal{X}|/\beta) \log (\alpha \epsilon n)}{\alpha \epsilon} \right)$ space while satisfying $\epsilon$-differential privacy at a single time point. Our approach builds upon deterministic streaming algorithms for non-private quantile estimation instantiating the exponential mechanism using a utility function defined on sketch items, while (privately) sampling from intervals defined by the sketch. We also present another algorithm based on histograms that is especially suited to the multiple quantiles case. We implement our algorithms and experimentally evaluate them on synthetic and real-world datasets.


According to a state archives and records management report, "accurate, complete, and
accessible government records are essential tools of democracy" (Council of State Historical
Records Coordinators, p.1). Archival institutions have a key role in the preservation, protection,
management, and procurement of public records. Citizens rely on archive facilities to obtain
access to essential personal, legal, ancestral, and historical documents as well as to ensure
government accountability. Good customer service by archival institutions ensures that delivery
of services meets the needs and expectations of its constituents.

In an effort to become more responsive to the needs of its customers, the Delaware Public
Archives (DPA) contracted with the University of Delaware's Institute for Public Administration
(IPA) to design a new customer service model.


In an earlier article I described how courts in Internet settings have expanded the commercial use (or trademark use) prerequisite to infringement and dilution liability, thereby enabling trademark owners to control a wide range of unauthorized reproductions of their marks that do not associate the mark with the defendant's goods or services, and may not even expose Internet users to the mark at all. Others have written with concern about the courts' simultaneous expansion of the likelihood of confusion requirement for infringement liability. This article addresses the proper role of the First Amendment in limiting this expansion of trademark rights on the Internet, focusing specifically on the unauthorized use of marks in domain names that identify forum sites (that is, web sites that do not primarily sell or advertise goods or services, but consist of noncommercial speech). The article points out the considerable disarray of judicial approaches to this issue, including a number of splits among the Circuits, and undertakes to impose some principled order on the disarray. Most uses of trademarks constitute commercial speech. However, a commentator's unauthorized, noncommercial use of a mark is entitled to a higher level of First Amendment protection than commercial speech. In such cases, courts have held that the First Amendment requires a balancing of implicated interests – the interests of the trademark owner and the public in avoiding confusion about the source or sponsorship of products, on one hand, versus the defendant's and the public's interest in freedom of expression and the free flow of ideas and information. When the defendant has made an unauthorized use of the plaintiff's mark in the title to an expressive work, in particular, courts have determined that this balance requires a finding for the defendant unless the title has no artistic or expressive relevance to the expressive work or (if it has relevance) the title explicitly misleads as to the source or content of the work. This article argues that domain names for forum web sites are comparable to the titles of expressive works, and points out how existing principles defining and governing the regulation of non-commercial speech should apply when mark owners challenge incorporation of their marks into domain names for gripe sites and other forum sites that target the mark owner. Unfortunately, courts have generally ignored the Supreme Court's definition of noncommercial speech in this context, and the First Amendment implications of prohibiting the defendants' use. In particular, courts are equating commercial speech with the Lanham Act's recently expanded commercial use requirement. While the commercial use requirement has served in the past to ensure that Lanham Act protection is consistent with First Amendment principles, its recent expansion has seriously undermined its effectiveness to do so. The article also examines the interface of First Amendment protection with the Anticybersquatter Consumer Protection Act, focusing particularly on how the courts are construing and applying the forth and fifth factors that the Act lays out for determining whether a defendant has the requisite bad faith intent to profit from the plaintiff's mark. The article notes several concerns, including a tendency of courts to undermine the purpose of the fourth factor's safe harbor for noncommercial fair use by: 1) relying on recent expansion of the Lanham Act's commercial use requirement in infringement and dilution cases to find that the defendant's forum site use was commercial; 2) focusing on the defendant's intent to harm the plaintiff, rather than his intent to profit; and 3) defining profit to include non-financial interests, such as the defendant's personal satisfaction from airing his criticism of the plaintiff. The article also points out pitfalls in the courts' construction of the fifth factor, and suggests alternative constructions that are more consistent with First Amendment precedent.


We have carried out an extensive observational study ( from BIMA data) and made a preliminary theoretical investigation of the molecular gas around HH 2. The molecular maps show a very complex morphological, kinematical and chemical structure. For clarity we divided the observed region in four subregions: ( 1) The Ahead Core, located ahead of HH 2: its chemistry may be a consequence of a weak UV field originating in HH 2. The chemical structure within the Ahead Core suggests that it is not homogeneous but probably composed of small clumps; ( 2) The SO2 Clump, which is a molecular component within the Ahead Core that is more exposed to the UV radiation from HH 2. An increase of density and relative molecular abundances is observed towards HH 2. The UV radiation is possibly the source of molecular enhancement. Our chemical analysis confirms that this clump must have substructure within it; ( 3) the West Core, which is surrounded by a ring structure of shocked ionized gas and mid-IR emission. The ring structure is likely a consequence of the fact that the core is in the foreground with respect to the shocked and hot component. The chemistry of this core can be best explained as arising from a combination of an old photo-processed dense clump and a PDR, with or without a warm interface created in the interaction of the outflow with the core; ( 4) The High Velocity Region, associated with HH 2, is traced by HCO+ but not by other molecular shock tracers. The chemistry can be accounted for by the interaction of the VLA 1 outflow with a dense clump via non-dissociative shocks and by the presence of a very strong UV field. The overall main conclusion of this work confirms the findings of Papers I and II, by demonstrating that in addition to the strong photochemical effects caused by penetration of the UV photons from HH 2 into molecular cloud, a range of complex radiative and dynamical interactions occur. Thus, despite the apparent "quiescent" nature of the molecular cloud ahead of HH 2, the kinematical properties observed within the field of view suggest that it is possibly being driven out by the powerful winds from the VLA 1 protostar.


Local wage setting is when companies in their collective agreements with unions formulate local rules for determining wage increase criteria, in contrast to central wage setting where the industry agreement specify the rules for all companies covered. HR-managers should promote local wage practices more than they currently do. I identify reasons behind HR-managers (and unions) skepticism towards local wage practices and go on to argue that in the end a local wage practice will be better organizational-practice because it will develop organization specific knowledge and this will promote discovery and develop organizational integrity. Hence, HR-managers should embrace local wage practices because it is good for the organization, although it means more work and higher demands on the managers themselves. The social outcome of local wage practices is that firm-specific explorations in HR-management schemes is HR-intrapreneurship which in combination with competition is likely to foster inter-organizational learning and stronger firms.


Reinforcement learning (RL) for robotics is challenging due to the difficulty in hand-engineering a dense cost function, which can lead to unintended behavior, and dynamical uncertainty, which makes it hard to enforce constraints during learning. We address these issues with a new model-based reinforcement learning algorithm, safety augmented value estimation from demonstrations (SAVED), which uses supervision that only identifies task completion and a modest set of suboptimal demonstrations to constrain exploration and learn efficiently while handling complex constraints. We derive iterative improvement guarantees for SAVED under known stochastic nonlinear systems. We then compare SAVED with 3 state-of-the-art model-based and model-free RL algorithms on 6 standard simulation benchmarks involving navigation and manipulation and 2 real-world tasks on the da Vinci surgical robot. Results suggest that SAVED outperforms prior methods in terms of success rate, constraint satisfaction, and sample efficiency, making it feasible to safely learn complex maneuvers directly on a real robot in less than an hour. For tasks on the robot, baselines succeed less than 5% of the time while SAVED has a success rate of over 75% in the first 50 training iterations.


Fastest Route Recommendation (FRR) aims to find the fastest path in response to user's queries in a large complex road network. Early studies cast the FRR task as a pathfinding problem on graphs and adopt heuristic algorithms as the major solution due to the efficiency and robustness. A major problem of heuristic algorithms is that the heuristic function is usually empirically set with simple methods, which is difficult to model other useful factors. In this paper, we extend the classic A* algorithm for the FRR task by modeling complex traffic information with neural networks. Specially, we identify an important factor that is important to improve the FRR task, i.e. the estimation of travel time. For this purpose, we first develop a module for predicting the time-varying traffic speed for a road segment, which is the foundation for estimating the travel time. Conditioned on this module, we further design another module to estimate the fastest travel time between two locations connected by routes. We adopt neural networks to implement both modules for enabling the capacity of modeling complex traffic characteristics and dynamics. In this way, the original two cost functions of A* algorithm have been set in a more principled way with neural networks. To our knowledge, we are the first to use neural networks for improving A* algorithm in the FRR task. It elegantly combines the merits of A* algorithm and the powerful modeling capacities of neural networks for the FRR task. Extensive results on the three real-world datasets have shown the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model.