This paper outlines the effects of farm bill subsidies on corn farmers' planting decisions, overall production, corn farmer income and market price of corn. The author utilizes a series of real and hypothetical market prices to demonstrate the particular combinations of subsidies that are available for corn farmers under varying market conditions. Research suggests that certain subsidies are theoretically capable of increasing production above normal levels when prices of corn fall below a certain threshold. However, in practice, prices of corn have not fallen below this threshold for extended periods of time, and thus this scenario has rarely presented itself historically. The author concludes that because they provide income support for corn farmers and create a safety net for corn prices, these subsidies represent an incentive in itself to grow corn over other non-subsidized produce. Thus, it is possible that corn subsidies have led to the growth of the industry over time by influencing the choices that farmers have made throughout history upon entering the market, rather than by influencing day-to-day planting decisions throughout the crop season.


This paper reports the results of a qualitative research study designed to examine the effects of guided written and oral reflections for developing reflective thinking skills 1 among Arab-Muslim female student teachers in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education program in Israel. Guidance was provided in the framework of a one- year practicum. Besides employing some qualitative research methods such as observations and conducting interviews, a pre-post questionnaire to examine changes in the participants' perceptions of reflective skills was administered. The results indicate some improvement in the students' reflective abilities. However, a more structured practice teaching program, time and ample opportunities for practice and reflection are needed to help Arab Muslim student teachers further develop their reflective abilities.


In this study, isolated speech recognition system on client/server structure is implemented. In this system, client and server communicate through Internet protocol (IP). The client performs speech analysis and sends the speech feature vectors as a payload in UDP (user datagram protocol) packets to the server. The server stores incoming vectors and runs speech recognition algorithm when the last packet of speech is received. The server also performs packet loss concealment (PLC). The UDP is an unreliable protocol and the UDP packets might be lost during transmission. Therefore the PLC is used to improve the recognition rates. HMM (Hidden Markov Model) is used as recognition algorithm in the system. The system is evaluated with ESOGU isolated word database. In the experimental study, it is seen that the replacement-based PLC technique improves the recognition rates.


We report on the use of phase-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PhS-OCT) to detect and track temporal and spatial shear wave propagation within tissue, induced by ultrasound radiation force. Kilohertz-range shear waves are remotely generated in samples using focused ultrasound emission and their propagation is tracked using PhS-OCT. Cross-sectional maps of the local shear modulus are reconstructed from local estimates of shear wave speed in tissue-mimicking phantoms. We demonstrate the feasibility of combining ultrasound radiation force and PhS-OCT to perform high-resolution mapping of the shear modulus.


The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) provides a framework for delivery of audio and video across IP networks with unprecedented quality and reliability. In RTP: Audio and Video for the Internet, Colin Perkins, a leader of the RTP standardization process in the IETF, offers readers detailed technical guidance for designing, implementing, and managing any RTP-based system.By bringing together crucial information that was previously scattered or difficult to find, Perkins has created an incredible resource that enables professionals to leverage RTP's benefits in a wide range of Voice-over IP (VoIP) and streaming media applications. He demonstrates how RTP supports audio/video transmission in IP networks, and shares strategies for maximizing performance, robustness, security, and privacy.Comprehensive, exceptionally clear, and replete with examples, this book is the definitive RTP reference for every audio/video application designer, developer, researcher, and administrator.Key coverage includes: RTP's goals, design philosophy, and relationships with other protocols The psychology of human perception in the design of media delivery systems RTP data transfer and control protocols, including framing, loss detection, reception quality feedback, and membership control Media playout, timing, and synchronization, including lip synchronization Mitigating network problems: error concealment, error correction, and congestion control Optimizing performance over low-speed links: header compression, multiplexing, and tunneling Integrating leading media codecs and standards into RTP systems Securing RTP sessions: encryption, authentication, and the new secure RTP profile for wireless networks Extensive references and practical examples throughout 0672322498B05092003


The photochemical reduction of thionine by N-Penyl-glycine, N-allylurea, N-phenylurea and thiourea in absolute methanol was investigated. An apparatus for the irradiation of air free solutions, with known intensities of monochromatic lights was constructed. Double walled glass reaction cell was devised in which nitrogen inlet/outlet, water inlet/outlet arrangements were made. Acidities of the reaction solutions were controlled using buffer solutions. Acidities determined spec-trophotometrically using basic indicator were expressed in terms of a Hamett acidity function. Variations of quantum efficiencies in absolute methanol have been determined at various concentrations of thionine, reductants, and acidities. The oxygen free reaction solutions were irradiated and the reactions were followed by measuring the intensity of light transmitted.The quantum efficiency, in yellow light, for the dis-appearance of thionine, was found to be a function of reductant concentration, acidity and temperature. The quantum efficiency was found to be independent of the concentration of thionine. The results have been interpreted in terms of a reaction mechanism. Ratios of the certain rate constants for the proposed mechanism have been evaluated. It was found that the quantum efficiency is controlled by two equilibriums between: i) triplet state of thionine with protion, and protonated triplet state of thionine, and ii) protonated triplet state of thionine with reductant, and associated complex of thionine with reductant.


In this article, we experiment with several different risk measures such as standard deviation, value-at-risk, expected shortfall and power-law spectral measures. We consider several families of testportfolios, one with a typical market risk profit-and-loss profile, and the others containing defaultable bonds of various credit ratings and various degree of diversification. We find that the risk measures are roughly equivalent on the market risk portfolios but differ significantly on the credit ones. In fact, value-at-risk as well as some coherent risk measures including expected shortfall have counter-intuitive features as a function of the degree of diversification for return distributions deviating substantially from the normal. Certain spectral risk measures possess the most intuitive properties regarding diversification.


This study focuses on the language learning attitudes of Secondary English Teachers both from the government and private owned schools. The respondents were 48 teachers in the country's National Capital Region who were participants in a National English Proficiency Training sponsored by the Center for English Language Studies of Far Eastern University, Manila in coordination with PhilamLife and the American Chamber of Commerce. Their attitudes toward language learning were determined through a survey questionnaire. Based on the survey, it may be said that 20 (or 41.67%) of the respondents have highly positive attitude towards language learning in as much as they reported themselves to be risk takers who are not afraid to make mistakes and, thus, may encourage their students to do the same as far as language learning is concerned. Ten (or 20.83%) of the teachers have an ambiguous attitude towards new language teaching techniques. However, among the 48 respondents, eight teachers (or 16.67%) may be said to have a more definite attitude toward language learning as they characterized themselves to be self-directed persons, an attitude they may influence into their students. On the other hand, five (or 10.41%) of the respondents characterized themselves as inhibited individuals, and as such a trait that may prevent them from trying on new language learning techniques in the classroom. But then three (0r 6.25%) of the teachers reported themselves to be conscious of their self-image and they may thus be more open to new teaching or learning techniques to give themselves on image being progressive. Furthermore, two (or 4.17%) of the respondents reported themselves to be ego-permeable and thus may be encouraged to become more progressive teachers by adopting (or even just adopting) new language teaching and language learning techniques.


Determination of snow characteristics in mountainous basins is difficult due to the complex spatial and temporal variability of snow cover. Accurate representation of snow cover variations in space and time is an important factor in snowmelt modeling, hydrological forecasts, water resources planning, and drought management. This study demonstrates how remotely sensed data can complement the measurements of ground hydro-meteorological data to simulate the spatial and temporal variations of snow cover characteristics in a mountainous basin. In this paper, we studied Karun basin, located in the south west of Iran, because of its importance in accumulating large snow reserves, and subsequently contributing snowmelt to the total runoff. Snow cover variability was simulated by extraction of maps of snow cover indices using remotely sensed data. Contribution of snowmelt to the runoff was determined using a seasonal water balance model as well as estimations based on indirect approaches by modeling variables such as critical temperature, which is an important variable in snow studies. Agreement between indirect approaches used in this paper is an encouraging result that shows the reliability of the procedure where snow data is scarce. The results of correlation analysis between topographic and meteorological variables with snow cover indices suggested that elevation is the single most important variable on large-scale snow variability.


Farmed salmon has large potential as a source of food to the worlds growing population. It is also an important source of income, both to local communities and Norway. The introduction of large biomass into the sea by the fish farming industry greatly increases the available hosts for parasites in Norwegian fjords. Due to the great outnumbering of wild populations by farmed salmon, the management of aquaculture has an effect on the environment, as host density increases disease and parasitic development. This salmon lice population growth has resulted in governmental restrictions on industry expansion, as the effect of some treatments is decreasing due to intensive use. The problem is also a large cost to the producers, who estimate that more than 10% of production cost is caused by the lice problem. The model consists of sub-models of the biomass in several locations within one area, lice populations and reproductive processes, dependent on temperatures, abundance and infection pressure divided between internal and external infection pressure on farm locations. The model aims to clarify the intensity of relationships governing some of these challenges, in order to find leverage points for improving the situation. The model is a framework for studying coordination of risk mitigating actions through scenario simulation. This allow users to test simple policies for lice mitigation, coordinated fallowing and pre-emptive treatment of salmon lice in locations. Further, the model forms a framework for expansion with the large sets of reported data openly available in order to increase its prediction power and thus be used as a tool to aid planning events. By making this framework available and easier to use, the value of data collection to operators in the industry may be made clearer, further improving the basis for model expansion in the future. We demonstrate that recreating the system and simultaneously using policies recommended by research, enhances the impact of parasite mitigating policies.


This is an intimate account of the lives of a small group of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in and around the settlement of Otutati in northwestern Namibia. The narrative chronicles the events of a single year, though within tat year are found the events of a lifetime: birth, maturation, aging, death, generosity, meanness, accomplishment and failure.Through subtle yet vivid description, the author draws the reader into a human world that appears so utterly different. However, as the leading characters' lives and perosnal qualities, their joys, hopes and anxieties unfold, the exoticism of their world fades and the experience of life rings strangely familiar. Indeed, the narrative's power lies in its finely woven depiction of the great commonality of human life and the human condition in the midst of a peculiar and foreign world. If this is an admission anthropologists are traditionally loathe to make, yet it is so; and the reader is left with a beautiful and compelling portrait of a world and a people in which the familiar and the strange freely mix and mingle.


This study deals with the processing  of field seismic data for a seismic line located within the administrative boundaries of Najaf and Muthanna governorates in southern Iraq (7Gn 21) with a length of 54 km. The study was conducted within the Processing Department of the Oil Exploration Company using the Omega  system, which contains a large number of programs that deal with processing, through the use of these programs applied  predictive deconvolution  of both( gap) and (spike). The final section was produced for both types. The gap predictive deconvolution  gave improvement in the shallow reflectors while in deep reflectors it did not give a good improvement, thus giving a good continuity of the reflectors at the expense of resolution, whereas spike  predictive deconvolution  caused an increase in frequency noise in seismic sections, giving a good resolution at the expense of continuity.


In this article, we analyze the process of institutional change in Taiwan's disability field by focusing on the role of social movements. An institutional perspective emphasizes how a particular logic in an organizational field generates formal and informal institutions that define how persons with disabilities are treated in a society. Before the 1990s, the charity model was dominant, and later it came to be challenged by the disability movement, which advocated for the social model. We argue that the transition to a social model was a major achievement by disability organizations, which successfully combined the dual roles of advocate and service provider. By making strategic use of welfare privatization in the 1990s, they were able to mobilize a series of lobbying campaigns. Their efforts culminated in the passing of the Physically and Mentally Disabled Citizens Protection Act in 1997, which marked the beginning of the social model in Taiwan.


One of the greatest challenges in computer animation is the realistic portrayal of the human face. As realism within computer generated lighting models increases through the use of mathematical principles derived from real world lighting, an artist with an understanding and knowledge of lighting principles can easily generate a photographic still life. The complexity required to generate motion of organic surfaces particularly the human face must be able to attain the same realism. A high-level interface that can mask the complex systems required to achieve facial realism enables the animator to achieve the most appropriate performance for a character.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new method for free-space optical (FSO) communication, where the transmitter encodes data into a composite computer-generated hologram and the receiver decodes through a retrieved array of sidelobe-modulated optical vortices (SMOVs). By employing the SMOV generation and detection technique, the usual stringent alignment and phase-matching requirement of the detection of optical vortices is released. In transmitting a gray-scale picture with 180×180 pixels, a bit error rate as low as 3.01×10(-3) has been achieved. Due to the orbital angular momentum multiplexing and spatial paralleling, this FSO communication method possesses the ability to greatly increase the capacity of data transmission.


Conventional rail vehicles struggle to optimally satisfy the different suspension requirements for various track profiles, such as on a straight track with stochastic irregularities, curved track or switches and crossings, whereas mechatronically guided railway vehicles promise a large advantage over conventional vehicles in terms of reduced wheel–rail wear, improved guidance and opening new possibilities in vehicle architecture. Previous research in this area has looked into guidance and steering using multi-body simulation models of mechatronic rail vehicles of three different mechanical configurations – secondary yaw control, actuated solid-axle wheelset and driven independently rotating wheelsets (DIRW). The DIRW vehicle showed the best performance in terms of reduced wear and minimal flange contact and is therefore chosen in this paper for studying the behaviour of mechatronically guided rail vehicles on conventional switches and crossings. In the work presented here, a mechatronic vehicle with the DIRW configuration is run on moderate and high-speed track switches. The longer term motivation is to perform the switching function from on-board the vehicle as opposed to from the track as is done conventionally. As a first step towards this, the mechatronic vehicle model is compared against a conventional rail vehicle model on two track scenarios – a moderate speed C type switch and a high-speed H switch. A multi-body simulation software is used to produce a high fidelity model of an active rail vehicle with independently rotating wheelsets where each wheel has an integrated 'wheelmotor'. This work demonstrates the theory that mechatronic rail vehicles could be used on conventional switches and crossings. The results show that the mechatronic vehicle gives a significant reduction in wear, reduced flange contact and improved ride quality on the through routes of both moderate and high-speed switches. On the diverging routes, the controller can be tuned to achieve minimal flange contact and improved ride quality at the expense of higher creep forces and wear.


By using the supercell lattice method, we investigate the influence of the squeezing lattice on the birefringence characteristics of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs). We first define the concept of squeezing ratio and then present a model, with which several types of PCFs are simulated. Simulation results show that the squeezing of PCFs' lattice with the uniform air holes in the cladding can break the multifold symmetry of PCFs and make PCFs highly birefringent. Furthermore, it is reported for the first time to our knowledge that the polarity of PCFs' birefringence can change several times as the air-hole diameter changes.


The knowledge of the lithospheric structure of East Antarctica is very limited and as a consequence we cannot produce accurate and precise maps of the subglacial geothermal heat flux density. Seismic tomography studies and potential field data can be used to derive lithosphere structure, but the resolution is relatively low, and the smoothed models don't reflect the amalgamation of lithospheric terranes that formed the continent.
We combine geophysical constraints with geological knowledge from the sparse outcrops and known geology from Gondwanan neighbours in a plate reconstruction framework to attempt a regionalization of East Antarctica. We use Bayesian inference to suggest the most probable boundaries by using a multivariate prior constrained by available geophysical datasets. The boundaries form a segmentation of the Antarctic lithosphere and can be weighted with probabilistic significance and location. Our implementation allows sequential improvement as updated and refined seismic tomography and potential field data compilations. Likewise, a more consistent approach to adding mapped geological information adds further robust constraints.
The result is presented as a first draft of a multi-domain tessellated terrane map of the East Antarctic lithosphere. We believe that this approach will be useful in estimating both basal lithosphere and crustal contributions to heat flux. The approach provides a stepping stone towards more refined models in an evolving framework.


OBJECTIVE
The World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement establishes minimum standards for intellectual property rights, including patent protection for pharmaceuticals; therefore, it may make it difficult for developing countries to gain access to medicines, especially those countries that are the least developed. This study aims to determine whether implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in Latin American and Caribbean countries has generated patent legislation that is sensitive to public health needs.

METHODS
Legislation in 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries was analysed. The variables considered in the analysis were: the term of patents issued, patentable subject matter, transition periods (that is, time until legislation was enacted), reversal of the burden of proof of patent infringement, exhaustion of rights, compulsory licensing and the early working exception (which allows a country to complete all procedures necessary to register a generic product before the original patent expires).

FINDINGS
By 2000, all of the countries studied had reformed their legislation to conform to the agreement. Brazil and Argentina used the transition period until 2005 to grant patents in the pharmaceutical industry. All countries, except Panama, made use of the safeguards and flexibilities available through the agreement by including mechanisms for compulsory licensing in their legislation. Argentina; Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela (countries that represented the Andean community); the Dominican Republic; and Panama included mechanisms to allow parallel importation. Mexico did not. Brazil only permits parallel importation after a compulsory licence has been issued. The early working exception is included in legislation in Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

CONCLUSION
The countries in this study did not incorporate all of the mechanisms allowed for by the Agreement and are not adequately using the provisions that enable World Trade Organization (WTO) members to obtain better health for the public, particularly in regard to gaining access to medicines. This situation may deteriorate in future if other agreements establish more restrictive rules for intellectual property rights.


This short essay in tribute to Martha Albertson Fineman offers some initial thoughts about the significance of vulnerability theory as a category of analysis in legal history. Vulnerability theory is centrally concerned with how the state should respond to the inevitability of change over time in individual, social, institutional, and environmental circumstances. Vulnerability theory thus suggests that the law must account for temporality, making legal history central to the project of legal theory. To develop this insight, I use an illustrative example from my own scholarship: the legal construction and obfuscation of vulnerability in the U.S. welfare regime.


AIM
To evaluate the prognostic significance of HER-2/neu overexpression in hormone receptor and axillary lymph node positive breast cancer patients treated in a single institution.

METHODS
Paraffin-embedded primary breast cancers from 40 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma were studied immunohistochemically. HER-2/neu staining was classified as negative (0, 1+), weak/moderate positive (2+), or moderate/strong positive (3+) and was assessed for effectiveness as a predictor of outcome in univariate and Cox model multivariate analyses.

RESULTS
20% of patients were positive for HER-2/neu. Significant associations were observed between HER-2/neu and increasing number of involved nodes (p = 0.014), p53 positivity (p = 0.039), the presence of vascular invasion (p = 0.029) and metastases (p = 0.01). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that HER-2/neu overexpression (p = 0.016) and age (p = 0.005) were independent predictors for disease-free survival (DFS) where the number of involved nodes (p = 0.032) was shown to be independent predictor for overall survival. In the HER-2/neu positively stained tumors, significant number of patients developed distant metastases than the patients with HER-2/neu negatively stained tumors (87.5% vs 34.4%, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSION
For node positive patients, HER-2/neu overexpression was a significant predictor of DFS.


Abstract Large companies can have both massively positive and massively negative impacts on communities, be it directly through their operations or indirectly through their influence on decision-makers. This is particularly true when business operations take place in conflict-affected or high-risk areas. Humanitarian organisations endeavouring to bring protection and/or assistance in these areas cannot, therefore, ignore these influential actors. Engagement with business actors – as well as with any other societal actor – should be framed within a clear rationale in order to deliver positive results. This article introduces the rationale that has been developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and offers some examples of past engagement between the ICRC and business actors. It notes that occasions for humanitarian organisations to engage with business actors are likely to become more frequent in the coming years and argues that this trend, if properly managed, offers humanitarian organisations opportunities to leverage energies, know-how, and resources from the business sector for the benefit of the persons and communities that humanitarian organisations strive to protect and assist.


This study fills a gap in the literature on the outcome mechanisms in which successful training programs improve employment and earnings, such as raises on the job or longer job duration. The city of New Orleans implemented a job training program as an RCT for low-income workers. Individuals in the treatment group were more likely to work in the target industries and move out of low-skill industries. In the first 9 months after training, the treatment group experienced higher earnings with new employers and with existing employments. After 9 months, the effects were driven by higher probability of staying with an employer (with now-higher earnings). Findings encourage patience on the part of trainees and the government, as workers may not find their stable, target employment immediately. Government may also want to find ways to improve early connections with employers after training.


Why has Bangladesh failed to raise quality in basic education when it successfully expanded school provision? This paper explores this problem through analysis of the influence of the political settlement on the design and delivery of the third Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP3), an US$8bn education reform plan. From document review, key informant interviews and comparative case study analysis of teacher motivations and performance, it concludes that the elite consensus on the need for basic mass education runs out when it comes to raising education standards: teachers are politically important, so reforms are more carrot than stick – in the form of training, increments, new entitlements. The centralised administration and its weak incentives to enforce unpopular reforms ensure discretion at the frontline/school level, so teacher performance depends ultimately on their inherent motivations. But the past generation has seen these motivations decline with the changing sociology of the teaching profession: teachers are less respected, relatively less well-paid and more often women (who have lower social status and more demands on their time), while the average public school pupil is 'harder to reach and harder to teach'. Education quality is improving, but incrementally, in line with a political economy that has generated positive incentives for teachers, without holding them more accountable for their performance.


This paper underscores the process of using Authentic Assessment (AA) not only as a tool to assess learning but also as an approach to enhance learning in a school in the context of Pakistan. Data was collected through classroom observations, conducting interviews, analyzing relevant documents and maintaining person reflective diary. Findings indicate that AA helped in enhancing students' learning such as knowledge about the noise pollution, planning, developing interview questions, interviewing people, preparing posters, giving presentation and responding to audience question. The study also revealed that in AA the student's role changed from a passive test taker to an active participant in the process of assessment. For example, they identified issue, found out solution, presented it to the community and also took part in the assessment of their own performance through self-assessment. The teacher's role during AA changed as a facilitator. Moreover, the study indicates that developing of observation checklists, criteria rubric and sharing it with students beforehand helps the student to improve their work and get desirable results.


Neonectria ditissima, the causal agent of European canker, can be present in symptomless scion wood. Sanitation treatments could minimise this risk to nursery trees. In this trial, six heat treatments and five chemical treatments were tested for their effectiveness in removing this pathogen from dormant 'Royal Gala' wood. In July 2018, 120 symptomless inoculated shoots (three inoculations/shoot) were harvested and stored at 1oC for 3 months. Bundles of five inoculated shoots (45 cm) were placed in the centre of 24 bundles, each consisting of 25 wood pieces. Heat-treated bundles were submerged in water (45oC for 45 min or 50oC for 15 min), or wrapped in moist cloth, vacuum sealed inside plastic then submerged for 3–6 h at the same temperatures. Chemical-treated bundles were submerged for 16 h at room temperature. Treatments were compared with untreated wood. After surface sterilising, isolation of N. ditissima from inoculated wounds was attempted on apple-sap amended water agar. All wounds from the untreated wood and from the chemical-treated wood yielded the pathogen. However, N. ditissima was not isolated from wounds that had been heat treated. Therefore, heat treatments that do not affect scion wood viability may prove an effective tool to remove European canker from nursery material.


The increasing demand for Internet access from more and more different devices in recent years has provided a challenge for companies and the academic community to research and develop new solutions that support the increasing flow in the network, applications that require very low latencies and more dynamic and scalable infrastructures, in this context the mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) emerged as a possible solution and applying this technology in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was developed the flying ad hoc networks (FANETs) which are wireless networks independent, its main characteristics are to have high mobility, scalability for different applications and scenarios and robustness to deal with possible communication failures. However, they still have several constraints such as limited flight time of UAVs and routing protocols that are capable of supporting network dynamics. To analyze this scenario, two simulations were developed where it was possible to observe the behavior of FANET with different routing protocols both during data transmission and video transmission. The results show that the choice of the best routing protocol must take into account the mobility of the UAVs and the necessary communication priority in the network.


This is part 1 of a 3-part series that presents a comprehensive examination of the results that can be expected from the 2010 national Health Care Reform legislation. Political pundits have speculated endlessly on the many changes mandated by the legislation, titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A review and assessment of this legislation at several levels (federal, state, state agency, local region, and individual business leaders) were undertaken. The results of this expanded analysis suggest strongly that members of the business community and their employees will benefit from the legislation early on (years 1–3) and then likely will be impacted adversely as the payment mechanisms driving the legislation are tightened by new federal regulations (year 4 onward). Businesses will likely be immediately impacted by the legislation, with small business owners being the prime beneficiaries of the new legislation owing to the availability of coverage to approximately 32 million individuals who previously had no access to coverage. In that regard, the soon-to-be newlyinsured population also will be a prime beneficiary of the legislation as the limitations on chronic illnesses and other preexisting conditions will be reduced or eliminated by the legislation.


In this lecture I give an introduction to the rotational energy extraction of black holes by the electromagnetic Blandford‐Znajek process and the generation of relativistic jets. After some basic material on the electrodynamics of black hole magnetospheres, we derive the most important results of Blandford and Znajek by making use of Kerr‐Schild coordinates, which are regular on the horizon. In a final part we briefly describe results of recent numerical simulations of accretion flows on rotating black holes, the resulting large‐scale outflows, and the formation of collimated relativistic jets with high Lorentz factors.


This article explores the role of the church in Zimbabwe's political space with emphasis on the transitional epoch set in motion with the consummation of the Inclusive Government after the signing of the Global Political Agreement on 15 September 2008. Being exploratory in approach, the study preferred a qualitative research design were secondary sources were the major source of data. Departing from the view point that the church and the state are complementary in satisfying human needs, the research established that the church is replete with political activists who are partaking in key political processes envisaged under the transitional phase and the enormity of their participation vary depending on the national issue at hand. More clearly, the church's association with the political parties in the government has been mostly that of a horse-rider relationship where politicians use the church to score cheap political points.


As waves of epidemic disease swept the Philippines in the late nineteenth century, some colonial physicians began to fear that the indigenous population would be wiped out. Many Filipinos interpreted the contagions as a harbinger of the Biblical Apocalypse. Though the direct forebodings went unfulfilled, Philippine morbidity and mortality rates were the world's highest during the period 1883-1903. In "Agents of Apocalypse," Ken De Bevoise shows that those "mourning years" resulted from a conjunction of demographic, economic, technological, cultural, and political processes that had been building for centuries. The story is one of unintended consequences, fraught with tragic irony.De Bevoise uses the Philippine case study to explore the extent to which humans participate in creating their epidemics. Interpreting the archival record with conceptual guidance from the health sciences, he sets tropical disease in a historical framework that views people as interacting with, rather than acting within, their total environment. The complexity of cause-effect and agency-structure relationships is thereby highlighted. Readers from fields as diverse as Spanish, American, and Philippine history, medical anthropology, colonialism, international relations, Asian studies, and ecology will benefit from De Bevoise's insights into the interdynamics of historical processes that connect humans and their diseases.


Successful applications of complex vision-based behaviours underwater have lagged behind progress in terrestrial and aerial domains. This is largely due to the degraded image quality resulting from the physical phenomena involved in underwater image formation. Spectrally-selective light attenuation drains some colors from underwater images while backscattering adds others, making it challenging to perform vision-based tasks underwater. State-of-the-art methods for underwater color correction optimize the parameters of image formation models to restore the full spectrum of color to underwater imagery. However, these methods have high computational complexity that is unfavourable for realtime use by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), as a result of having been primarily designed for offline color correction. Here, we present DeepSeeColor, a novel algorithm that combines a state-of-the-art underwater image formation model with the computational efficiency of deep learning frameworks. In our experiments, we show that DeepSeeColor offers comparable performance to the popular "Sea-Thru" algorithm [1] while being able to rapidly process images at up to 60Hz, thus making it suitable for use onboard AUVs as a preprocessing step to enable more robust vision-based behaviours.


Background There is a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in women of reproductive age. Methods This work studied the first two generations of offspring (F1 and F2) of Swiss mice from mothers fed one of two diets: SC (standard chow) or VitD- (vitamin D-deficient). Functional and developmental kidney measurements were taken. Results The first two generations of the VitD- group had higher blood pressure at 6 months of age than the offspring of the SC group as well as an increase in renin and AT1r expression. However, at all ages, both F1 and F2 VitD- mice had shorter glomerular diameters, and diet played a significant role in the total variation. Both the F1 and F2 generations of the VitD- group had more immature glomeruli than offspring from the SC group. Immature glomeruli begin to disappear at 10 days, but at this age, F1-VitD- mice had more immature and mature glomeruli than F1-SC mice. At 6 months of age, F1-VitD- mice exhibited more glomeruli, while F2-VitD- mice exhibited the same number of glomeruli as F2-SC mice, but fewer glomeruli compared to the F1-VitD group. Both diet and generation account for the total variation in the number of glomeruli. Decreases in urine output and podocin expression and increases in urea and creatinine in the urine were observed in F1 offspring. Conclusion These findings demonstrate that maternal vitamin D deficiency accompanies changes in the renal expression of important factors that may retard the maturation of glomeruli by extending the period of nephrogenesis.


Analyzing complex textual datasets consists of identifying connections and relationships within the data based on users' intuition and domain expertise. In a spatial workspace, users can do so implicitly by spatially arranging documents into clusters to convey similarity or relationships. Algorithms exist that spatialize and cluster such information mathematically based on similarity metrics. However, analysts often find inconsistencies in these generated clusters based on their expertise. Therefore, to support sensemaking, layouts must be co-created by the user and the model. In this paper, we present the results of a study observing individual users performing a sensemaking task in a spatial workspace. We examine the users' interactions during their analytic process, and also the clusters the users manually created. We found that specific interactions can act as valuable indicators of important structure within a dataset. Further, we analyze and characterize the structure of the user-generated clusters to identify useful metrics to guide future algorithms. Through a deeper understanding of how users spatially cluster information, we can inform the design of interactive algorithms to generate more meaningful spatializations for text analysis tasks, to better respond to user interactions during the analytics process, and ultimately to allow analysts to more rapidly gain insight.


The ongoing development of anti-diabetic drugs brings a revolution in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are considered a new class of oral anti-diabetic agents used in treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the necessity to explore and compare the existing analytical method used for estimation of such drugs either single or in combination is crucial. This review offers an overview of different HPLC-UV and spectrophotometric methods used for determination of DPP-4 inhibitors namely; sitagliptin, vildagliptin, saxagliptin, linaglitpin and alogliptin in a tabulated comparative way. In addition, the present work included stability indicating assays of the drugs and determination of their process related impurities. Spectrophotometric assays showed more facilitated, simple and cost effective methods than the reported chromatographic techniques. Furthermore, the reviewed spectrophotometric methods showed the advantages of low cost solvents, shorter analysis time and simple instrumentation instead of complex details implemented in the chromatographic method development. The developed comparative review should be of interest to the analysts in the area of drug control and can be used by quality control laboratories for the recently approved gliptin combinations.


Design pervades our lives. Everything from drafting a PowerPoint presentation to planning a state-of-the-art bridge embodies this universal human activity. But what makes a great design? In this compelling and wide-ranging look at the essence of invention, distinguished engineer and author Henry Petroski argues that, time and again, we have built success on the back of failure--not through easy imitation of success.

 Success through Failure shows us that making something better--by carefully anticipating and thus averting failure--is what invention and design are all about. Petroski explores the nature of invention and the character of the inventor through an unprecedented range of both everyday and extraordinary examples--illustrated lectures, child-resistant packaging for drugs, national constitutions, medical devices, the world's tallest skyscrapers, long-span bridges, and more. Stressing throughout that there is no surer road to eventual failure than modeling designs solely on past successes, he sheds new light on spectacular failures, from the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and the space shuttle disasters of recent decades, to the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001.

 Petroski also looks at the prehistoric and ancient roots of many modern designs. The historical record, especially as embodied in failures, reveals patterns of human social behavior that have implications for large structures like bridges and vast organizations like NASA. Success through Failure--which will fascinate anyone intrigued by design, including engineers, architects, and designers themselves--concludes by speculating on when we can expect the next major bridge failure to occur, and the kind of bridge most likely to be involved.


This paper provides a thorough performance evaluation of the GeRaF protocol in a multi-hop wireless sensor network scenario. The contributions of the paper are twofold. First we provide an in-depth discussion on the impact of the different protocol parameters and of network features on the protocol performance. Based on the results of the first part of our investigation we design variants of the basic GeRaF protocol which are able to significantly decrease the packet latency and to increase the packet delivery ratio. The study presented in this paper is the first attempt to thoroughly characterize the performance of GeRaF and is a necessary step toward understanding the real protocol behavior before implementing it on real devices


Reliable site-specific delivery of genetic constructs remains a challenging component of gene-based therapy of solid tumors. Isolated limb perfusion (ILP) continues to be evaluated for treatment of locally advanced soft tissue sarcomas because this approach uniquely directs therapeutic agents into the tumor-bearing extremity without significant systemic leak. In light of these considerations, we tested the hypothesis that ILP could be used to deliver genes carried in viral vectors to the sarcoma-bearing rat extremity, resulting in demonstrable gene transfer into the tumor. ILP was performed in rats by cannulating the femoral artery and vein, isolating the hind limb from systemic circulation by tourniquet, and cycling perfusate for 15 min at a rate of 2.4 ml/min. Leakage into the systemic circulation was 7.5% of the total perfusate concentrated in the isolated limb, as determined by perfusion with technetium 99m-tagged RBCs. We used the ILP technique to perfuse rat hind limbs bearing syngeneic fibrosarcoma tumor nodules with the replication-defective adenovirus Ad5LacZ, which expresses the bacterial beta-galactosidase. 5-Bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-beta-D-galactoside staining of the perfused limb tissues confirmed gene transfer to the tumor and peritumoral tissue, demonstrating that the tumor was part of the perfusion circuit and that gene therapy delivered via this method was feasible. These results suggest that adaptation of this preclinical gene delivery model to administer genetic constructs aimed at controlling tumor growth may prove beneficial to patients with extremity sarcomas.


The paper investigates the time-varying correlation between the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) index, and five major international stock markets. An MGARCH-DCC approach is employed to measure the degree to which the MSE moves with other stock markets. Daily returns on these six stock exchange indices were computed and used to calculate dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between the markets. The results indicate that the local stock market appears not to be driven by the same forces that shape foreign stock markets, implying that local dynamics shape returns on the Exchange, rather than foreign events.


Land-based sources of pollution are estimated to be the source of approximately eighty percent of all marine pollution. In Protecting the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources of Pollution: Towards Effective International Cooperation, Daud Hassan outlines the major sources of Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution (LBSMP), examines the current legal framework for control of LBSMP, and highlights the obstacles to creating more effective control measures. Additionally, Hassan presents a case study focusing on LBSMP control in the Bay of Bengal region and then concludes with a recommendation for the creation of a global treaty to more effectively address the impacts of LBSMP on the marine environment.


From the previous research performed during last years it became clear that the attitudes, opinions and perception regarding nuclear issues in the broadest sense including topics like radioactivity and properties of radiation, influence of ionizing radiation on humans, functioning of nuclear facilities and riskiness of support activities (e.g. transport) differ very much between nuclear experts and lay people. As nuclear experts should be involved in communication with the public on nuclear topics it is important to understand their understanding of the public opinions, because this could influence their attitudes toward the general public and their way of communication with them. Study presents nuclear experts' perception of lay public attitudes toward nuclear issues and reasons behind them. With the help of internet survey within the members of Nuclear Society of Slovenia the opinions of Slovenian nuclear experts were collected. Especial emphasize was devoted to the consequence of existing experts' opinions regarding communication with lay public. Survey contain questions about different aspects of lay public knowledge and understanding of nuclear issues, ways of communication with the public, attitudes toward public participation in the decision processes, perception of the experts' role in the process, etc.


Mental health is increasingly gaining the spotlight in the media and public discourse of industrialized countries. The problem is not new, but thanks to more open discussions and fading stigma, it is emerging as one of the most critical concerns of public health today. Psychological problems among children and adolescents can be wide-ranging and may include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), disruptive conduct, anxiety, eating and mood disorders and other mental illnesses. Consistent evidence shows the links between adolescents' mental health and the experience of bullying. Collecting internationally comparable data to measure mental health problems among children and adolescents will provide important evidence and stimulate governments to improve psychological support and services to vulnerable children.


The steady propagation of the one-dimensional detonation wave in heptane/air sprays was computationally studied using detailed chemistry, with emphasis on the effects of droplet heating, vaporization, and drag, as well as momentum and heat loss on the detonation velocity and quenching. Results show strong coupling between these processes and the detonation response, leading to a variety of interesting phenomena such as drag-induced concentration of droplets; interference of thermal runaway by cooling due to droplet vaporization; one-stage vs two-stage ignition; chemical heat release controlled by either Arrhenius kinetics or droplet vaporization; internal vs external loss in causing quenching; nonlinear feedback between integrated loss, chemical heat release, and detonation velocity that is responsible for quenching; and the strong influence of the postshock specific heat of the fuel vapor. Consequently, we show that there exist optimum droplet sizes for higher detonation velocities and wider quenching limits and that, depending on the droplet size, higher droplet loading of the spray can also promote detonation propagation and extend its quenching limits.


Abstract Contrary to what is assumed in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), the conceptual power of metaphor may not lie in its widespread unconscious use but in its more limited and targeted deliberate use, which may or may not give rise to conscious metaphorical cognition. Deliberate and conscious metaphorical thought is connected to the general functions of all conscious thought as described by Baumeister and Masicampo (2010). Their theory provides a basis for demonstrating how deliberate and conscious metaphorical cognition facilitate social and cultural interactions, by reconsidering Musolff's (2004) analysis of metaphor in political discourse on European integration. The paper concludes by formulating some implications of CMT's neglect of conscious metaphor and of deliberate metaphor more generally. If the power of metaphor lies in thought, as has been held by CMT for thirty years, it may be that conscious rather than unconscious cognition - or, more generally, deliberate rather than non-deliberate metaphor use - enables that power. Given the relative infrequency of deliberate and conscious metaphor use, this, in turn, may entail that the online effect of metaphor is more restricted than has been assumed over the past three decades.


Dark biosphere research has been widely neglected, although by volume this biome comprises the lion's share of habitats on our planet. In these systems the main metabolic strategies are of chemotrophic nature, leading to gradual depletion of redox gradients essential for sustaining life. Thus these environments are regarded more or less close to chemical equilibrium.Here, we use sequence data of whole community metagenomes and taxonomic marker approaches to study the ecology of environments close to the thermodynamic limit: deep terrestrial aquifers and aphotic systems impacted by petroleum- derived products. We show that these systems select for individuals with reduced genomes and cell sizes, likely as a mode to save energy. Due to genome reduction, these so called "streamlined" cells are reduced in the number of genes and metabolic pathways. This loss has led to community members sharing the metabolic burden of synthesizing in particular energy costly metabolites, creating tight interdependencies between the community members, as a consequence. In addition, we propose that cells scavenging anabolic products derived from detrital biomass and intermediate fermentation products are equally important in these systems. Hence, life at the thermodynamic limit involves a much more complex biological system than previously shown, that goes beyond traditionally described electron- and intermediate metabolite-transfer dependencies.This thesis furthermore includes ecological implications, demonstrating how species diversity and community metabolism are shaped by redox gradients and dispersal potential in the deep biosphere and contaminated sediments. This research is also relevant from a practical point of view, as it pinpoints new opportunities for enhanced bioremediation through metabolite additions in order to raise the efficiency of degradation processes.


Noise control of multiple noise sources in 3‐D enclosures remains a concern in many applications. This is of particular interest in vehicles, where multiple primary sources contribute to the sound field inside the enclosure. When utilizing active noise control (ANC) systems in these applications, multiple reference inputs are required. A comparison of active noise control with multiple and single reference inputs of multiple noise sources is presented in a case format. Since most sources are structural in origin, independent harmonic vibration of two of the rectangular enclosure walls are used as the primary noise sources. Although a multiple reference input ANC system is much more successful at controlling multiple noise sources, care must be taken in choosing the reference inputs. If the reference inputs are not independent the ANC becomes ineffective. Also, a case study of sound‐pressure reductions obtained for on and off resonance of both the enclosure and the enclosure walls is presented. [Work suppo...


Introduction: There have been concerns with the availability and affordability of EMA's recently approved medicines with a conditional approval in Korea. This needs to be addressed to provide future guidance to the authorities in Korea. Objective: Compare the availability and affordability of medicines with a conditional approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) among 12 countries (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea) in light of access to medicine concerns in Korea. Methods: Thirteen medicines were selected and compared in terms of their availability and affordability across 12 countries. Approval rate for the selected medicines and time lag to approval on the basis of EMA's approval dates were calculated. Reimbursement status and prices were compared as proxies of affordability. Results: The average approval rate was 31.9% for the selected medicines for all countries outside the EU countries. The highest rate was in United States (69.2%) followed by Korea and Switzerland (46.5%). An average of 238 days was taken among the countries for approval. The United States (median: -355 days) was the country where the medicines were most rapidly approved. Korea (152 days) ranked the fifth most rapidly approving country. An average listing or reimbursement rate for all countries was 54.1%. The United States ranked 100% for the listing of their approved medicines followed by Germany (92.3%). Korea (66.7%) ranked eighth. Price dispersion ranged from 1.1 to 3.1. Korean prices of the selected medicines were found to be neither high nor low when compared to other countries. Conclusion: Korea was found to be a country where marketing authorization for more medicines tended to be made and subsequent reimbursement and pricing were not rigid even generous compared to other Asian-pacific countries. Korean drug benefit policies for listing and pricing did not appear to hinder access to medicines even with a conditional approval in comparison with others.


The Socio-Economic Atlas of Kenya is the first of its kind to offer high-resolution spatial depictions and analyses of data collected in the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census . The combination of geographic and socio-eco - nomic data enables policymakers at all levels, development experts, and other interested readers to gain a spatial understanding of dynamics affecting Kenya. Where is the informal economic sector most prominent? Which areas have adequate water and sanitation? Where is population growth being slowed effectively? How do education levels vary throughout the country? And where are poverty rates lowest? Answers to questions such as these, grouped into seven broad themes, are visually illustrated on high-resolution maps. By supplying precise information at the sub-location level and summarizing it at the county level, the atlas facilitates better planning that accounts for local contexts and needs. It is a valuable decision-support tool for government institutions at different administrative levels, educational institutions, and others. Three organizations – two in Kenya and one in Switzerland – worked together to create the atlas: the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the Nanyuki-based Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development (CETRAD), and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern. Close cooperation between KNBS, CETRAD, and CDE maximized synergies and knowledge exchange.


Two new genera and eight new species of benthic foraminifera are described from the shallow water, tropical lagoon of Madang, Papua New Guinea. The new hauerinid genus Pseudolachlanella is characterized by juvenile cryptoquinqueloculine, adult almost massiline arranged chambers, and a slitlike, curved aperture with parallel sides and a long, slender, curved miliolid tooth. Pitella haigi n. gen., n. sp. is a new foraminifera with cryptoquinqueloculine arranged chambers, an almost entirely pitted shell surface (pseudopores) and a rounded aperture with a short simple tooth. Among the other species described as new are four hauerinids and two agglutinated foraminifera All new species described here occur sporadically in the shallow water back- and forereef environments of the lagoon (0–55m), and live infaunally and epifaunally in well-oxygenated, fine and coarse grained biogenic sediments. They are absent in muddy, organic-rich, low-oxygen sedimentary environments within bay inlets where variations of salinity are considerable.


This paper presents a hybrid approach to understanding the knowledge management requirements for a knowledge intensive service organization. It proposes a strategy-knowledge management alignment framework grounded in literature. The framework was constructed by studying four published case-studies that tackle knowledge management at world class management consulting firms. The paper then applies the framework to two cases in the knowledge intensive services sector. The first case studies a young management consulting firm needing to formalize its knowledge management policies and processes. The second case studies the creation of an IT Outsourcing Services Division by a traditional telecommunications company that needs to expand its product offering to increase its opportunities for growth in a small market. The two case studies support the proposed framework and show that it can be used to obtain practical solutions in a business environment. One of the case studies also contributes to developing the case method in research by using the Socratic Dialogue as a means to collecting and analyzing evidence.


We used radio-telemetry to study autumn migratory flight initiation and orientation in relation to wind and air pressure in a nocturnal passerine migrant, the reed warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus at Falsterbo, southwest Sweden. The majority of the reed warblers departed in the expected migratory direction towards south of southwest, while a low number of the birds took off in reverse directions between north and east. Flight directions at departure correlated with wind directions. These correlations were particularly prominent at higher wind speeds but were absent at wind speeds below 4 m/s. Birds departing in the expected migratory direction compensated completely for wind drift. The reed warblers preferred to depart during nights with tailwinds and when air pressure was increasing suggesting that reed warblers are sensitive to winds and air pressure and select favourable wind conditions for their migratory flights. Since air pressure as well as velocity and direction of the wind are correlated with the passage of cyclones, a combination of these weather variables is presumably important for the birds' decision to migrate and should therefore be considered in optimal migration models.


Abstract The topic of smart structures, their active control and implementation, is relatively new. Therefore, different approaches to the problem can be met. The present paper discusses variable aspects of the active control of structures. It explains the idea of smart systems, introduces different terms used in smart technique and defines the structural smartness. The author indicates differences between actively controlled structures and structural health monitoring systems and shows an example of an actively controlled smart footbridge. The analyses presented in the study concern tensegrity structures, which are prone to the structural control through self-stress state adjustment. The paper introduces examples of structural control performed on tensegrity modules and plates. An influence of several self-stress states on displacements is analyzed and a study concerning damage due to member loss is presented.


A nonlinear numerical model is developed for the interaction of waves with a pipeline covered with rubble. The wave field utilizes a fully nonlinear potential formulation while the porous medium is governed by modified Navier-Stokes equations. The model employs the BEM in the water column and the FEM in the rubble layer. Wave forces on the pipeline are calculated by integrating pressure around the pipeline perimeter. The numerical and experimental results for the wave kinematics in the pipeline vicinity are found to be in reasonable agreement. Numerical analyse indicate that the horizontal wave force is larger than the vertical force for all tested wave and rubble conditions. Forces increase with increasing wave height and decreasing depth. However, for the cases examined there is an intemediate water depth at ML « 1/6 for which the forces are largest. The armor stone size and rubble layer pososity have little influence on the magnitudes of the forces. The horizontal force is nearly independent of the depth of rubble cover over the pipeline. However, the vertical force increases significantly as the depth of cover decreases. Also, for partial pipeline cover, the maximum horizontal and vertical forces are more in phase, which combined with the larger vertical force, results in a substantially less stable condition. 1 Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Oregon State University, OR 97331, USA 2 Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan 3 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan


We present and evaluate a method for estimating the relevance and calibrating the values of parameters of an evolutionary algorithm. The method provides an information theoretic measure on how sensitive a parameter is to the choice of its value. This can be used to estimate the relevance of parameters, to choose between different possible sets of parameters, and to allocate resources to the calibration of relevant parameters. The method calibrates the evolutionary algorithm to reach a high performance, while retaining a maximum of robustness and generalizability. We demonstrate the method on an agent-based application from evolutionary economics and show how the method helps to design an evolutionary algorithm that allows the agents to achieve a high welfare with a minimum of algorithmic complexity.


We studied the effects of gag mutations on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) assembly, processing, and infectivity by using a replication-defective HIV expression system. HIV mutants were screened for infectivity by transduction of a selectable marker and were examined for assembly by monitoring particle release from transfected cells. Gag protein processing and reverse transcriptase activities of mutant particles were also assayed. Surprisingly, most Gag protein mutants were assembled and processed. The two exceptions to this rule were a myristylation-minus mutant, and one gag matrix domain mutant which expressed proteins that were trapped intracellularly. Interestingly, a mutant with a 56-amino-acid deletion within the HIV gag capsid domain still could assemble and process virus particles, exhibited a wild-type retrovirus particle density, and had wild-type reverse transcriptase activity. Indeed, although most HIV-1 gag mutants were noninfectious or poorly infectious, they produced apparently normal particles which possessed significant reverse transcriptase activities. These results strongly support the notion that the HIV-1 Gag proteins are functionally involved in post-assembly, postprocessing stages of virus infectivity.


Context: Family functionality is the extent to which the patterns of family are effective and useful in achieving cordial relationship. A functional family relationship is vital for coping with mental stress. Aim: This study aimed to assess the family functionality status of patients with mental illness. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Patients with mental illness were selected through systematic sampling from the mental health outpatient clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital in Rivers State. Materials and Methods: Family functionality status was assessed using the family adaptation, partnership, growth, affection, and resolve questionnaire, a validated and study instrument. Statistical Analysis Used: Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed using Predictive Analytics Software version 20. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study consists of 151 patients, with a male–to-female ratio of 1:1.2. Functional family relationship was reported in 99 (65.6%) patients while severely and moderately dysfunctional relationships were noted in 12 (7.9%) and 40 (26.5%) patients, respectively. The prevalence of dysfunctional family relationship was highest among patients with mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use (58.3%). The differences in proportions of family functionality status across the diagnostic categories were not significant. Conclusions: The presence of dysfunctional family status among patients with mental illness in this study highlights the need to implement family therapies to promote functional family relationship in patients with mental illness.


Abstract A direct simulation of 3D liquid metal flow in the DCLL (Dual Coolant Lead Lithium) blanket is conducted to study the distribution of pressure and velocity influenced by different material properties of FCI (Flow Channel Insert). A consistent and conservative scheme and projection method on a collocated mesh (Ni et al., J Comp Phys 227 (2007)174-204 and 227 (2007) 205-228) are employed to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the Lorentz force included based on an electrical potential formula. As an illustration, three blanket flows have been considered: liquid metal flow in a channel without FCI, with a silicon carbide FCI and with a FCI made of conductive material. It is shown that liquid metal flows in blanket with FCI are 3D developing flows. It is verified that: MHD pressure drop can be reduced by using silicon carbide FCI; PES (Pressure Equilibrium Slot) can balance the pressure difference between two sides of FCI near the slot but the pressure difference is still very large far away from PES; conductive FCI cannot reduce MHD pressure drop. Due to the leakage of current circuit across the slot, with PES opened at one side, a strong reversed velocity is observed in PES. The comparison of velocity distribution between numerical simulation and experiment from LEVI (Xu et al., ISFNT-9, 2009) is conducted. The difference shows that further experimental and numerical analysis is needed.


The ongoing economic crisis, which originated in the USA and has since spread rapidly to capital markets worldwide, is massive, complex, and many times contradictory. One could say the same for responses to the crisis as governments, firms and multi‐national institutions struggle to grasp the full magnitude of the event. This article interrogates the key commodities involved—land, labor and money—and the always‐uneasy relations between spaces of social reproduction and capital. Such ambivalence is critical to understanding how new economic realities are formed in light of retreating neoliberalism as markets become destabilized. The analysis provided suggests the commodities involved in the housing crisis are the basis for a countermovement against dispossession.


We report measurements of displacement and mechanical work for miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) whose compliant electrodes were fabricated using metal ion implantation. 20 to 30 mum thick polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes were bonded to silicon chips with through holes of diameter 2 to 3 mm and were implanted on both sides with gold ions. Out-of-plane deflection recorded as a function of voltage and applied mechanical distributed load was in very good agreement with an analytical model. Unloaded vertical displacements up to 7% of the membrane's diameter were recorded and mechanical work up to 0.3 muJ was obtained with an applied pressure of 1 kPa. This performance data and associated model allow such miniaturized polymer actuators to be efficiently dimensioned for different applications, for instance in micropumps and active optical devices.


Local value-addition in developing countries is often aimed at the upgrading of agricultural value chains, since it is assumed that doing so will make farmers better off. However, transmission of the added value through the value chain and constraints to adoption of value-adding activities by farmers are not well understood. We look at this issue in the case of coffee in Ethiopia – the country's most important export product – and value-addition in the coffee value-chain through 'washing' coffee, which is done in wet mills. Washed coffee is sold internationally with a significant premium compared to 'natural' coffee, and we find that this premium is largely transmitted to producers. However, while wet mills have become more widespread, the share of washed coffee in Ethiopia's coffee exports is not increasing over time and, even if coffee farmers have access to a wet mill, they often do not sell all their coffee cherries to them. Relying on a unique primary large-scale dataset and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we examine the reasons for this puzzle. The reasons seemingly are twofold. First, labor productivity in producing red cherries, which wet mills require, is lower than for natural coffee, reducing incentives for adoption, especially for those farmers with higher opportunity costs of labor. Second, only impatient, often smaller, farmers sell red cherries, as more patient farmers use the storable dried coffee cherries as a rewarding savings instrument, given the negative real deposit rates in formal savings institutions.


Background Population prevalence estimates of electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use range considerably based on the operational definition of 'use'. Recently, we investigated the utility of 'use frequency' for restricting prevalence estimates to non-experimenters in adult populations. Results suggested that individuals reporting use on ≤5 days in the past 30 were likely to discontinue use, and should be excluded from estimates of population prevalence. Objective This study investigated the predictive validity of ENDS use frequency as a measure for likelihood of continued use, and cigarette smoking abstinence. Methods We recontacted smokers and recent quitters who participated in the random digit dial 2014 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey. At ∼1 year follow-up, we reassessed ENDS use and cigarette smoking among N=601 respondents. Results Fewer than half of respondents who reported using ENDSs on 1–5 days in the past 30 at baseline reported any ENDS use 1 year later (27%, 95% CI (18% to 40%)). Conversely, more than half of respondents who reported daily use at baseline also reported subsequent use at follow-up (89%, 95% CI (78% to 100%)). The likelihood of subsequent ENDS use by respondents using ENDSs on more than 5 days but less than daily did not significantly differ from chance (37%, 95% CI (22% to 61%)). Conclusions For adult population surveillance surveys, defining current use prevalence as 'any use in the past 30 days' includes many individuals who can be expected to discontinue use within 1 year. Until measures of ENDS use become standardised, researchers should choose definitions carefully because different definitions are likely to yield different results.


A study of bucket-shaped pots from 986 Norwegian graves. These graves include altogether 1179 bucket-shaped pots or fragments of pots. Bucket-shaped pots represent a ceramic category that is special to Norway. Other than in Norway, only a few pots have been recorded in Sweden, and only a single find comes from Denmark. The premise of this study is the consideration that a thorough and careful analysis of bucket-shaped pots will provide information about manufacture, specialization and workshops, and indentify regional groups and regional identity in the Late Roman and Migration periods, aspects that so far have received little attention. It also helps better clarify the chronology of some of the important artefact categories in Norway in this period.


Cancer is a debilitating disease resulting from uncontrolled proliferation. One major treatment strategy for cancer is the application of chemotherapeutic drugs which kill cancer cells. Cucurbitacins are a new family of plant-derived drugs that are being researched for their potential cytotoxic effects against cancer cells. All cucurbitacins have shared an anti-cancer activity stemming from their inhibitory effects on Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling. Cucurbitacin IIa (Cuc IIa) is the newest compound to be characterized in this family. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the anti-cancer properties of Cuc IIa. Cuc IIa was used to treat mice that had been injected with Lewis Lung cancer cells. These animal studies show that Cuc IIa had reduced the tumor size without any weight change within the mouse. Furthermore Cuc IIa displays anti-cancer activity against prostate cancer cell lines PC3 and Rv1 and lung cancer cell line NCI-H1299. Cuc IIa is shown to induce apoptosis through actin clustering. In addition Cuc IIa induces apoptosis through the increase in cleaved PARP expression and a reduction in phospho-Histone H3 expression. Cuc IIa induces cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. While other members of the Cucurbitacin family express anti-cancer activity through effects on the JAK2/STAT3 pathway Cuc IIa does not share this feature. Western blot staining for JAK2 and STAT3 proteins reveal that Cuc IIa exterts no direct effect JAK2/STAT3 phosphorylation. Instead Cuc IIa inhibits survivin downstream of JAK2/STAT3 phosphorylation. Therefore this thesis highlights a unique Cuc compound with the potential to become a powerful anti-cancer agent not working at the level of JAK2/STAT3 activation which is commonly found in other Cucurbitacins. This feature may provide a new mechanistic point of anti-cancer drug action to combat drug resistance.


Background Screening for Plasmodium spp. sporozoite infection in mosquitoes is routinely done using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), a fast and non-destructive method, has recently been shown to distinguish, with 95% accuracy, between uninfected and sporozoite-infected mosquitoes using laboratory strains of Plasmodium falciparum (PfN54). The aim of this present study was to further investigate the reproducibility of NIRS to identify sporozoite infection in mosquitoes infected using field isolates of P. falciparum gametocytes from asymptomatic carriers. Methods Healthy individuals (aged 5 years and above) were screened for gametocytaemia by thick-smear microscopy in an area of moderate transmission along the Coast of Kenya between May and September 2018. Asymptomatic gametocyte carriers were recruited for mosquito feeding assays, direct membrane feeding (DMFA) and direct skin feeding (DFA), using insectary-reared Anopheles gambiae s.s (Kilifi strain). Mosquitoes were kept for 14-days post feeding after which they were scanned using NIRS and subsequently analysed for sporozoite infection using circumsporozoite-ELISA. Predictive models were explored using partial least square regressions (PLS). Results Two hundred and ninety-nine (299) individuals were screened for malaria parasites, 74 (24.8%) were found with circulating asexual parasites, and 16 (5.4%) with P. falciparum gametocyte stages. Fourteen (14) asymptomatic gametocyte carriers were recruited to the study for mosquito feeding assays. A total of 134 (7%, 134/1881) sporozoite-infected mosquitoes were obtained from 9 successful experiments. Three different training datasets composed of infected and uninfected mosquitoes were analysed. The PLS models were unable to distinguish between sporozoite-infected and uninfected mosquitoes. A predictive model could not be generated. Conclusions The results of this study were not consistent with previous published research on NIRS for detection of sporozoite infection in the same mosquito species and may reflect differences between laboratory and field conditions. The current findings indicate that methods for sporozoite detection should be tested on field isolates at an early stage in their development and are informative for future research seeking novel high-throughput methods for parasite detection in mosquitoes.


The annual rise of hip procedures occurring year upon year is a major concern, especially with revision rates increasing. There is need for improvements for orthopaedic materials to compensate for this problem with higher success rates in the long term. The main failure of current metallic materials used in hip replacement devices is due to wear and the metallic ions being leached out. Cobalt-based alloys are one of the best bearing surface materials used in hip replacement, however, a better understanding of the microstructure and mechanical properties is required to enhance its properties and also the need for new fabrication techniques to be explored to develop materials that can reduce the number of revision surgeries. The most common cobalt based alloy (F75) used in orthopaedics is investigated and a novel route to manufacture the alloy is conducted. Heat treatments via annealing and normalising are analysed. In the annealed alloy up to 1100°C there is an increase in hardness and carbide content. Above this temperature, there is a significant decrease in both properties due to carbide dissolution. XRD analysis identifies the phases present and how they varied with temperature. The production of the F75 alloy via spark plasma sintering has yielded an alloy with carbide free microstructures. The grains are finer than the conventional methods of fabrication (cast and wrought) and the hardness is significantly higher even in the absence of the carbides. The hardness has been attributed to the formation of oxide phases within the microstructure and chromium and molybdenum rich phases that act as solid solution hardeners. The oxide in the microstructure is identified as chromium oxide formed by a redox reaction between cobalt oxide found on the surface of cobalt particles and chromium. Tribological performance has been investigated upon this newly manufactured alloy (SPS alloy) against two commercial medical grade cobalt based alloys (F75 and F1537) used in hip replacement devices. The SPS alloy had higher hardness, which resulted in the lowest wear rate and friction coefficient, with lower amounts of chromium and molybdenum detected from the wear debris compared to the F75 and F1537 alloys. The wear debris size and size distribution generated from the SPS alloy were very small and the shape was more spherical. The element leaching is conducted upon these alloys, with the SPS alloy forming an oxide layer upon the surface that could be beneficial for limiting ion leaching and for tribological performance.


Newcastle disease is one of the most serious diseases of birds, caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV), also known as avian paramyxovirus type 1 (APMV-1). The disease is distributed world-wide and may cause large economic losses in the poultry industry. The severity of the disease varies depending on the host species and specific properties of the virus. Highly virulent strains of NDV can be discriminated from low virulent strains by the presence of a multibasic amino acid motif at the proteolytic cleavage site of the fusion (F) protein. However, some NDV variants isolated from pigeons (pigeon paramyxovirus type 1; PPMV-1) are low virulent for chickens, despite their F protein cleavage site containing a multibasic amino acid sequence. Furthermore, these isolates may show an increase in virulence when passaged in chickens. To study the molecular basis of NDV virulence, a reverse genetics system for the non-virulent PPMV-1 strain AV324 was developed. Furthermore, the already available reverse genetics system for the highly virulent NDV strain Herts/33 was used. Subsequently, the NP, P, M, F and L genes were evaluated for their role in virulence by exchanging these genes between both strains. The results showed that the F protein of AV324 is functionally not different from that of Herts/33. However, a direct correlation between the activity of the viral replication proteins (NP, P and L) and virulence was demonstrated. To elucidate the adaptation mechanism by which PPMV-1 becomes more virulent for chickens, strain AV324 was passaged five times in day-old chickens. Complete genome sequencing of passaged virus showed that the increase in virulence was accompanied by mutations in the L and P replication proteins rather than the viral fusion protein. The effect of these mutations on virulence and enhanced replication was confirmed by means of reverse genetics. All together, these results demonstrate that the virulence level of NDV is directly related to the efficiency of viral replication. These data, together with the knowledge that some PPMV-1 infected pigeons shed virus without having clinical signs and the observation that the number of NDV outbreaks in pigeons caused by PPMV-1 in Europe is increasing, underlines the potential danger of pigeon-derived paramyxoviruses for the poultry industry.


1. The isoenzyme pattern of phosphohexose isomerase on starch-gel electrophoresis was found to be significantly and consistently different in the muscles of the Swiss white and 129 ReJ mice. This provided a good marker for identifying donor and host muscle. 2. The isoenzyme pattern does not appear to be due to different proportions of type 1 and 2 fibres or to fibre type grouping as is found in denervated/reinnervated muscle. 3. Tibialis anterior muscles from Swiss white mice were transplanted into the legs of 129 ReJ mice and vice versa. Transplantations between mice of the same strain were used as controls. 4. The isoenzyme patterns from transplanted muscles indicate that it is the donor muscle which regenerates when the tissue is transplanted from one animal to another.


Interstitial Lung Disease, Fith Edition is a complete publication of interstitial lung diseases and includes clinical, pathologic, radiologic and physiologic evaluation of the patient with ILD. It provides a basic pathobiology and a complete description of individual disease entities. The book covers a wide array of disorders, sarcoidosis, asbestosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, drug induced lung disease, connective tissue disease and pulmonary vasculitis, to name but a few. This new edition also features an examination of future potential therapies for interstitial lung disease. Interstitial Lung Disease is divided into three sections. The Clinical Approach section provides the basis for recognizing the key features that allow a specific diagnosis to be achieved. The section dedicated to Basic Mechanisms emphasizes the many advances in genetics and cellular and molecular biology that have greatly expanded our understanding of the biological processes involved in the pathogenesis of the interstitial lung diseases. The third section titled Clinical Entities describes the clinical manifestations, radiologic patterns, histopathological features and management of the specific process


Acid soils limit crop yields around the world due to nutrient deficiencies and mineral toxicities. Non-adapted plants grown on acid soils typically have shorter and thicker root systems because high concentrations of soluble aluminium (Al\(^{3+}\)) inhibit root elongation. This restricts their ability to acquire water and nutrients. An important mechanism of Al\(^{3+}\) resistance discovered in many plant species relies on the release of organic anions from roots. The gene controlling this trait are members of two gene families called the aluminium activated malate transporter (ALMT ) family and multidrug and toxic compound exudation (MATE) family. Members of the ALMT family encode anion channels which release malate anions from roots while the MATEs encode co-transporter proteins which facilitate citrate release from roots. Although barley (Hordeum vulgare) is more sensitive to Al\(^{3+}\) toxicity than many other cereals including wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale) and rice (Oryza sativa) significant genotypic variation in resistance does occur. This variation is controlled by citrate efflux from the root apices which is encoded by a MATE gene called HvAACT1. In this study three MATE genes from barley, Arabidopsis and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) were transformed into the Al\(^{3+}\)- sensitive barley cultivar 'Golden Promise' with a constitutive promoter. These genes include the major Al\(^{3+}\)-resistance genes from barley and sorghum (HvAACT1 and SbMATE respectively) and the Frd3 gene from Arabidopsis thaliana which is important for iron nutrition. All three are known to encode transport proteins that facilitate citrate efflux from cells. The resulting transgenic lines were assessed for transgene expression, citrate efflux from root apices, and Al\(^{3+}\) resistance in hydroponic solution and acid soil. The control plants included in these experiments were null segregant lines and the parental barley cultivar. The Al\(^{3+}\)-resistant barley cultivar Dayton was also included as a positive control.
Barley cultivar "Golden Promise" was transformed separately with the MATE genes using the Agrobacterium method. Several independent T2 or T3 barley lines homozygous for each transgene were generated as well as null segregant lines. The transgenic lines released significantly more citrate from their root apices than the null controls. Plants expressing the HvAACT1 and SbMATE genes required Al\(^{3+}\) in the external solution to activate citrate efflux while plants expressing Frd3 released citrate in the presence and absence of Al\(^{3+}\). This is consistent with previous studies showing that HvAACT1 and SbMATE are Al\(^{3+}\)-activated proteins. The citrate efflux from the transgenic lines was similar to, or greater than, the efflux detected from cv. Dayton.
Transgenic and control seedlings were grown in an aerated hydroponic culture containing a simple nutrient solution with 0, 1, 2, or 4 μM AlCl\(_3\) (pH 4.3). Net root growth was measured after 4 d. Relative root growth (growth in the Al\(^{3+}\) solution relative to control solution) was significantly greater in the transgenic lines than the null controls for most Al\(^{3+}\) treatments and similar results were obtained for the three MATE genes. The Al\(^{3+}\) resistance of the transgenic lines was similar to the Al\(^{3+}\) resistance of cv. Dayton.
Al\(^{3+}\) resistance of the transgenic and control lines was also assessed in short-term soil experiments. The acidic ferrosol was either unamended (pH 4.33 with aluminium being 21% of exchangeable cations) or limed so that pH increased to 5.18 and only 1% of exchangeable cations was aluminium. After 6 d growth the following measurements were made: length of the longest and second-longest roots, total root length, total root weight, shoot weight and distribution of root diameters. In the unamended acid soil root growth of the null lines was inhibited compared to the limed soil and the roots became thicker. Expression of each of the MATE genes significantly increased Al\(^{3+}\) resistance with relative length of the longest roots (root length in acid compared to limed soil) and relative total root length (total root length in acid compared to limed soil) providing the greatest differences between the transgenic and null lines. The transgenic lines also maintained a greater percentage of thinner roots in the acid soil than the null lines.
These results demonstrate that Al\(^{3+}\) resistance in barley can be enhanced by heterologous expression of the SbMATE and Frd3 genes or by over-expression of the endogenous HvAACT1 gene. Biotechnology provides important options for increasing the Al\(^{3+}\) resistance of crop plants which can complement traditional breeding practices. Both strategies will be important for maintaining and even increasing food production on acid soils in the future.


In this study, we investigated the problem of recommending usernames when people attempt to use the ``@'' sign to mention other people in twitter-like social media. With the extremely rapid development of social networking services, this problem has received considerable attention in recent years. Previous methods have studied the problem from different aspects. Because most of Twitter-like microblogging services limit the length of posts, statistical learning methods may be affected by the problems of word sparseness and synonyms. Although recent progress in neural word embedding methods have advanced the state-of-the-art in many natural language processing tasks, the benefits of word embedding have not been taken into consideration for this problem. In this work, we proposed a novel end-to-end memory network architecture to perform this task. We incorporated the interests of users with external memory. A hierarchical attention mechanism was also applied to better consider the interests of users. The experimental results on a dataset we collected from Twitter demonstrated that the proposed method could outperform state-of-the-art approaches.


One problem associated with test generation algorithms for sequential circuits is that they often produce tests which, when applied to the circuit under test, create static and/or dynamic hazards which may invalidate the test. Usually, for static hazards, but not dynamic hazards, these situations can be predicted using a logic simulator. In this paper we present procedures which can be added to path sensitization test generation algorithms so that the resulting procedure will not produce tests which will be invalidated due to hazards. Incidental to this work is a new simulation technique for handling both static and dynamic hazards. The principal concepts behind this work deal with detecting when hazards are created in a circuit; propagating hazard status information related to a signal line through a circuit; detecting those conditions at flip-flop inputs which necessitate hazard free conditions; and finally, selecting test inputs so that all hazard free conditions are satisfied.


Simulating physical systems is a core component of scientific computing, encompassing a wide range of physical domains and applications. Recently, there has been a surge in data-driven methods to complement traditional numerical simulations methods, motivated by the opportunity to reduce computational costs and/or learn new physical models leveraging access to large collections of data. However, the diversity of problem settings and applications has led to a plethora of approaches, each one evaluated on a different setup and with different evaluation metrics. We introduce a set of benchmark problems to take a step towards unified benchmarks and evaluation protocols. We propose four representative physical systems, as well as a collection of both widely used classical time integrators and representative data-driven methods (kernel-based, MLP, CNN, nearest neighbors). Our framework allows evaluating objectively and systematically the stability, accuracy, and computational efficiency of data-driven methods. Additionally, it is configurable to permit adjustments for accommodating other learning tasks and for establishing a foundation for future developments in machine learning for scientific computing.


Ecological psychology is concerned with the relations that have evolved between organisms and their natural environments that support successful perceiving and acting. Yet, our species is currently unique in that it lives in an environment that is largely of its own construction, built in order to fine-tune or extend the job done by evolution. Most of the objects we grasp, surfaces we walk on, and shelters we inhabit are, for better or worse, artifacts. We are thus in the rather novel position of constructing our own econiche, or as the architect Lerup put it, "We design things and things design us." Yet, despite several decades of progress in ergonomics, there are still few general working principles for designing environments that fit the activities of human beii;gs and anticipating the reciprocal effects on human activity. Panero and Zelnick (1979) noted this when they described the assorted volumes of .reference standards that are used by architects and designers: "Much of the available material is based almost exclusively on outdated trade practices or on the personal judgments of those preparing the standards. With few exceptions, most reference standards are simply not predicated on enough hard anthropometric data" (p. 12). Ecological psychology has something to contribute to such design problems, because ecological research is relevant to human action in the built environment as well as in the natural one. 8. CONSTRUCTING AN ECONICHE 211


The assimilation of observations from teledetected images in geophysical models requires one to develop algorithms that would account for the existence of coherent structures. In the context of variational data assimilation, a method is proposed to allow the background to be translated so as to fit structure positions deduced from images. Translation occurs as a first step before assimilating all the observations using a classical assimilation procedure with specific covariances for the translated background. A simple validation is proposed using a dynamical system based on the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg–Landau equation in a regime prone to phase and amplitude errors. Assimilation of observations after background translation leads to better scores and a better representation of extremas than the method without translation.


t-Efficient management of the radio spectrum can be accomplished by making use of channel assignment techniques, which work by allocating different channels of the spectrum to the cells of the network in a conflict-free manner (i.e., the cochannel interference is minimized). The problem of dynamically reallocating the channels in response to change in user location patterns, which occurs frequently for a micro-cell network architecture, is even more difficult to tackle in a timely manner. Most existing approaches use various sequential search based heuristics which cannot produce high quality allocation fast enough to cope with the frequent traffic requirement variations. In this paper, we propose a quasi-static approach which combines the merits of both static and dynamic schemes. The static component of our approach uses a parallel genetic algorithm to generate a suite of representative assignments based on a set of different estimated traffic scenarios. At on-line time, the dynamic component observes the actual traffic requirement and retrieve the representative assignment of the closest scenario from the off-line table. The retrieved assignment is then quickly refined by using a fast parallel local search algorithm. Our extensive simulation experiments have indicated that the proposed quasi-static system outperforms other dynamic channel assignment techniques significantly in terms of both blocking probabilities and computational overhead.