The western Canaries, relatively little studied until a few years ago from the geological point of view, have however provided decisive data for understanding many of the most important geological problems of the Archipelago, which would probably have been dilucidated earlier, had the study begun with the most recent islands, as occurs in similar chains of oceanic volcanic islands in other parts of the world. To summarize the main geological features and evolutionary characteristics of both islands we emphasize the following stages of development: During the Pliocene, a submarine volcanic edifice or seamount formed in the island of La Palma, made up of pillow lavas, pillow breccias and hyaloclastites, intruded by trachytic domes, plugs of gabbros, and a highly dense dyke swarm. The intense magmatic and dyke intrusion uplifted the searnount up to 1,500 m, tilting it 45-50" to the SW. This intrusive phase was followed by a period of quiescence and erosion of the emerged submarine edifice. The definitive consolidation and progression of the construction of the island continued from at least 1.77 ma in angular and erosive discordance over the submarine basement. The subaerial volcanic reactivation, in which explosive volcanism predominated during the initial stages, producing abundant volcanoclastic and phreatomagmatic materials at the base of the subaerial edifice, persisted in a highly continuous manner until at least 0.41 ma. This initial subaerial stage shaped the northern volcanic shield, formed by the accumulation of several superimposed volcanoes, approximately concentric in relation to one another and the submarine basement. The initial stage of the northern volcanic shield lasted between 1.77 and 1.20 ma, during which period the Garafia volcano was built to a height of 2,500-3,000 m, with steeply sloping flanks, formed predominantly by alkaline basalts with abundant pahoehoe lavas. The rapid growth and progressive instability of the Garafia volcano culminated some 1.20 ma ago in a gravitational landslide of the south flank of the volcanic edifice. The eruptive activity that followed the collapse built the Taburiente volcano, that rests upon a clear angular discordance caused by the landslide. The landslide depression was filled completely some 0.89 ma ago, as shown by the age of the first lavas to overflow the collapse embayment. The filling-in of the depression by the Taburiente volcano lavas finally formed a sequence of horizontal lavas, predominantly alkaline basalts, that ponded against the headwall of the landslide scarp fonning a plateau in the centre of the volcanic shield. Coinciding approximately with the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary (0.78 ma) an important reorganisation of the Taburiente volcano took place, the dispersed emission centres of which progressively concentrated in three increasingly defined rifts (NW, NE and N-S) and subsequently in a central edifice situated at the geometrical centre of the volcanic shield. The abundant emissions of this final stage covered the earlier formations with sequences of lava flows up to 1,000 m thick in places, with the exception of a part of the alignments of cones of the rifts. The basaltic lavas evolved towards more differentiated phonolitic and trachytic terms at the terminal phases of construction of the volcano. One of these rifts, the southern or Cumbre Nueva rift, developed more than the others, possibly because the volcanism already began to migrate southwards, forming a N-S trending dorsal ridge over 2,500 m high. The progressive instability of the Cumbre Nueva rift, due to overgrowth, triggered the gravitational landslide of the western flank, in a process that took place about 560 ka ago, involving the detachment of some 180-200 km3 and the formation of a wide depression (the Valle de Aridane) and the beginning of the formation, by incision and retrogressive erosion, of the Caldera de Taburiente. The activity subsequent to the collapse in the northern shield was preferentially concentrated in the interior of the new collapse basin, quickly building the Bejenado stratovolcano. This activity was coetaneous with that of other residual centres dispersed over the flanks of the shield. The initially basanite lavas of Bejenado volcano evolved to mafic tephrites in differentiated lateral and terminal vents. The activity of the volcanic shield ceased definitively some 0.4 ma ago. After a transition period with a certain degree of activity associated with Bejenado late peripheral vents, volcanism was definitively located until the present in the new Cumbre Vieja volcano, at the south of the island. The oldest Cumbre Vieja lavas have been dated in 123 ka, although the first eruptions of the volcano may be considerably older. During this last stage of volcanism in La Palma a N-S trending rift has been formed, with predominantly basanitic, tephritic and tephri-phonolitic lavas, and intrusions of domes of tephri-phonolites and phonolites, frequently associated with eruptive vents. Numerous submarine eruptive vents, severa1 of which are apparently very recent, have recently been observed and sampled at the prolongation of the Cumbre Vieja rift southwards in the ocean. The foreseeable geological evolution of this rift is similar to that of its Cumbre Nueva predecesor, towards a progressive development and increasing instability, although changes may take place that may modify it towards more stable configurations, fundamentally the submarine progression of the southern tip of the rift, that could redistribute the volume of emitted materials, reduce the aspect ratio of the volcano and, consequently, its instability. The en echelon faults generated during the 1949 eruption have been interpreted as a possible detachment of the western flank of the volcano, although a more favourable hypothesis would be that such faults are surficial and contribute to accommodating the volcano by reducing its instability. A noteworthy aspect is the important role played by the mobility of the general feeding system of the volcanism in shaping the form and structure of the island. If the volcanism had not continually migrated southward since the final stages of construction of the northern shield, the island of La Palma would probably have taken on a similar configuration to that of the islands of El Hierro or Tenerife, in the shape of a triangular pyramid, with triple-armed rifts and landslide lobes between the rifts. The southward migration of volcanism in La Palma left the northern shield extinct, the rifts incomplete and finally configured an island lengthened in a N-S direction. Another point of interest is that the islands of La Palma and El Hierro are the first of the Canaries to form simultaneously, with possibly alternating eruptive activity, at least in the most recent period. This separation in a «dual line» of islands and the greater depth of its oceanic basement account for the long time they have required to emerge since the formation of the prior island of La Gomera. The island of El Hierro is geologically somewhat younger than La Palma and, because it formed over a stationary source of magma, it presents, in comparison, a perfect, concentric development, with superimposed volcanoes and a regular three-armed rift geometry. The activity of the subaerial volcanism began in El Hierro with the development of Tinor volcano on the NE flank of the island (approximately from 1.12 to 0.88 ma), with the emission of massive typical basalts. The volcano developed quickly, with different stages of growth, the eruption of Ventejis volcano being the terminal explosive stage, and probably the precursor of the collapse of the NW flank of the edifice some 882 ka ago. The emissions of the new volcano -El Golfo, approximately 545 to 176.000 ka- totally filled the depression of the lateral collapse of Tinor volcano, the lava flows of which then spilled over the flanks of the earlier volcano. The beginning of the construction of the El Golfo volcano seems to have taken place after a relatively long period of activity, probably coinciding with the maximum development of the Cumbre Nueva rift on La Palma. The initial subaerial activity at El Golfo was characterised by basaltic lavas that evolved to trachybasalts and trachytes, and finally towards more differentiated eruptive episodes indicative of the terminal state of the volcanic activity of the El Golfo volcano. The excessive growth of this volcano triggered the failure of its north flank, generating the spectacular scarp and present El Golfo depression. Subsequent volcanism, from emission vents arranged in a three-armed rift system (rift volcanism, with ages ranging from 145 ka to 2,500 years, with probably prehistoric eruptions), implies the much more moderate continuation of the earlier predominantly basanitic-tephritic volcanic activity. This period may correspond to that of maximum development of the Cumbre Vieja rift, in the island of La Palma.


Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an emerging wireless physical layer technology that uses a very large bandwidth. We are interested in finding the design objectives of the medium access [medium-access control (MAC), namely, power control and scheduling] and routing protocols of a multihop, best-effort, UWB network. Our objective is to maximize flow rates (more precisely, log-utility of flow rates) given node power constraints. The specificity of UWB is expressed by the linear dependence between rate and signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver. It is known that, in wireless networks, different routing strategies can imply differences in MAC protocol design. Hence, we search for the jointly optimal routing, scheduling and power control. We find that the optimal solution is characterized by the following. 1) When data is being sent over a link, it is optimal to have an exclusion region around the destination, in which all nodes remain silent during transmission, whereas nodes outside of this region can transmit in parallel, regardless of the interference they produce at the destination. Additionally, the source adapts its transmission rate according to the level of interference at the destination due to sources outside of the exclusion region. 2) The optimal size of this exclusion region depends only on the transmission power of the source of the link, and not on the length of the link nor on positions of nodes in its vicinity. 3) Each node in a given time slot either sends data at the maximum power, or does not send at all. As for the routing, we restrict ourselves to a subset of routes where on each successive hop we decrease the distance toward the destination, and we show that 4) relaying along a minimum energy and loss route is always better than using longer hops or sending directly, which is not obvious since we optimize rate and not power consumption. Finally 5), the design of the optimal MAC protocol is independent of the choice of the routing protocol. For narrowband networks, 2), 4), and 5) do not hold, which shows that the design of an UWB network should be addressed in a different way than for narrowband. Our technical approach is based on expressing the design requirements as a mathematical optimization problem. We solve it exactly for simple networks on a line and approximately on random topologies in a plane with up to 50 nodes with various power constraints, traffic matrices, and mobility parameters.


Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) stand at the forefront of many recent developments in deep learning. Yet a major difficulty with these models is their tendency to overfit, with dropout shown to fail when applied to recurrent layers. Recent results at the intersection of Bayesian modelling and deep learning offer a Bayesian interpretation of common deep learning techniques such as dropout. This grounding of dropout in approximate Bayesian inference suggests an extension of the theoretical results, offering insights into the use of dropout with RNN models. We apply this new variational inference based dropout technique in LSTM and GRU models, assessing it on language modelling and sentiment analysis tasks. The new approach outperforms existing techniques, and to the best of our knowledge improves on the single model state-of-the-art in language modelling with the Penn Treebank (73.4 test perplexity). This extends our arsenal of variational tools in deep learning.


1. Understanding the nature and characteristics of contact heterogeneities is crucial for predicting the epidemic behaviour of infectious diseases. Nonetheless, few studies include contact heterogeneities when modelling disease outbreaks in wildlife, which differ in their population impact from human diseases. 2. We use empirical estimates of contact heterogeneities and network metrics to simulate outbreaks of devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), an extinction-threatening infectious cancer. We incorporate tuneable algorithms, with a range of transmission rates and latent periods of DFTD, to grow devil
population networks capable of reproducing observed aspects of devil ecology, demographic and seasonal-based mixing preferences. The outputs of the network model are compared with a stochastic mean-field model, in which every individual is equally likely to pass or acquire infection through time. 3. Our network model predicts a lower epidemic threshold for DFTDcompared with the stochastic mean-field model.While host extinction probabilities are similar in both models, the network model predicts faster devil extinction and higher DFTD extinction probabilities, particularly for intermediate levels of transmissibility. 4. While the time taken to devil extinction increases with the longer estimate of latent period, probabilities of both, disease and devil extinction, are greater with the shorter latent period. Host–pathogen coexistence is strictly subject to the longest plausible estimate of latent period and low
transmissibility. 5. Synthesis and applications . In the particular case ofDFTD, incorporating observed host network structure has only a modest effect on the outcome of the host pathogen interaction. In general, however, non-random network structure may have major implications for the management of wildlife
diseases. Our results suggest that this is particularly likely for pathogens in which the probability of transmission given a contact is intermediate. Our approach provides a template for using empirically obtained data on contact networks to develop models to explore the extent to which network structure influences R 0 , the probability of extinction and the mean time until extinction.


This brief article offers a few proposals for discouraging losing candidates from contesting the certified result of an election. Our system encourages – or at least does not dissuade – the filing of post-election contests in close races. But election contests are often bad for our democracy, as they can harm the ideals of finality, certainty, and legitimacy of the election process – with little tangible benefit given that most election contests fail, at least at the federal and statewide level. The article suggests three possible disincentives to initiating post-election litigation: we could eliminate any possibility for a candidate to challenge the certified result, require a large monetary filing fee or the posting of a high bond, or impose a public stigma on candidates who contest an election and lose. In the end, the goal of this article is to promote a broader discussion of the propriety of post-election litigation and what we can do to curtail it.


Using UK LFS data, we examine the impact of disability on labour market outcomes by gender since the Disability Discrimination Act. Substantial differences in employment incidence and earnings continue to exist, especially for those with mental health problems. Distinguishing between work-limiting and non-work-limiting disability, the unobserved productivity effect of disability can be separated from discrimination. Limited evidence of wage discrimination against the disabled exists, but the 'penalty' for work-limiting disability, while falling for men, has increased for women. The improvement for disabled males is largely 'unexplained', possibly reflecting the impact of the legislation; this is not the case for females. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.


Realized net income of farm operators reached a postwar high of 16.8 billion dollars in .1947 and declined to a postwar low of 12.4 billion dollars in 1950. These estimates are for calendar years. On a quarterly basis, in terms of seasonally adjusted annual rates, the postwar high was 17.9 billion dollars in the first quarter of 1947, and the postwar low was 11.7 billion dollars in the second quarter of 1950. Thus, farmers' net income actually declined 35 percent during a period of a little more than 8 years as compared with a drop of only 26 percent indicated by the annual data. It is evident that the annual estimates do not measure the full swing from high to low. To overcome this handicap in the historical record of farm income, and to provide a foundation for more frequent and more up-to-date appraisal of the farm income situation in the future, this paper presents a new quarterly series on gross and net realized income of farm operators in terms of seasonally adjusted annual rates for 1929-53. These estimates will be published regularly henceforth in The Farm Income Situation.


In today's globalized world, companies are faced with numerous and continuously changing legal requirements. To ensure that these companies are compliant with legal regulations, law and consulting firms use open legal data published by governments worldwide. With this data pool growing rapidly, the complexity of legal research is strongly increasing. Despite this fact, only few research papers consider the application of information systems in the legal domain. Against this backdrop, we pro-pose a knowledge management (KM) system that aims at supporting legal research processes. To this end, we leverage the potentials of text mining techniques to extract valuable information from legal documents. This information is stored in a graph database, which enables us to capture the relation-ships between these documents and users of the system. These relationships and the information from the documents are then fed into a recommendation system which aims at facilitating knowledge trans-fer within companies. The prototypical implementation of the proposed KM system is based on 20,000 legal documents and is currently evaluated in cooperation with a Big 4 accounting company.


This thesis is a mixed methods analysis of the use of new, interactive web campaign techniques, often referred to as Web 2.0, by constituency level campaigns at the 2010 UK General Election. It has two main objectives: measuring the adoption of new web campaign techniques amongst constituency campaigns and assessing the influence of different factors on campaigns? propensity to use interactive campaigning. Drawing on previous work on parties? use of technology, this thesis tests a socially shaped explanation of adoption, hypothesising that the offline campaign style will be a strong influence. This contributes to the wider debate about election campaigning online by using an analytical framework of traditional and modern constituency campaigning that contextualises web campaign elements within the campaign as a whole. Data to test this hypothesis comes from a diverse range of sources. A national survey of election agents (ESRC Electoral Agent Survey 2010) is used to measure the offline campaign style of campaigns and their adoption of Web 2.0 campaign sites. Content analysis data from a subset of regional campaigns is then used to assess the extent to which campaigns actually used specific interactive features across a range of platforms. Finally, the findings of these analyses are triangulated using qualitative data collected in interviews with campaigners following the election. The findings of this work show that despite the rapid adoption of Web 2.0 sites, campaigns have not fostered the kind of interaction associated with an architecture of participation. The drivers of Web 2.0 adoption are more complex than originally envisaged, whilst social shaping explanations are relevant, statistical models leave much of the variation in adoption unexplained. In conjunction with the accounts of campaigners collected through interviews, this strongly suggests that researchers must consider more intangible factors such as the perceived symbolic and instrumental value of web campaigns alongside social factors when attempting to explain the adoption of Web 2.0.


With a new generation of facility instruments being commissioned for 8 metre telescopes, integral field spectroscopy will soon be a standard tool in astronomy, opening a range of exciting new research opportunities. It is clear, however, that reducing and analyzing integral field data is a complex problem, which will need considerable attention before the full potential of the hardware can be realized. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to explore some of the scientific capabilities of integral field spectroscopy, developing the techniques needed to produce astrophysical results from the data. Two chapters are dedicated to the problem of analyzing observations from the densely-packed optical fibre instruments pioneered at Durham. It is shown that, in the limit where each spectrum is sampled by only one detector row, data maybe treated in a similar way to those from an image slicer. The properties of raw fibre data are considered in the context of the Sampling Theorem and methods for three dimensional image reconstruction are discussed. These ideas are implemented in an IRAF data reduction package for the Thousand Element Integral Field Unit (TEIFU), with source code provided on the accompanying compact disc. Two observational studies are also presented. In the first case, the 3D infrared image slicer has been used to test for the presence of a super-massive black hole in the giant early-type galaxy NGC 1316. Measurements of the stellar kinematics do not reveal a black hole of mass 5 x l0(^9)M©, as predicted from bulge luminosity using the relationship of Kormendy & Richstone (1995). The second study is an investigation into the origin of [Fell] line emission in the Seyfert galaxy NGC4151, using Durham University's SMIRFS-IFU. By mapping [Fell] line strength and velocity at the galaxy centre, it is shown that the emission is associated with the optical narrow line region, rather than the radio jet, indicating that the excitation is primarily due to photoionizing X-rays.Finally, a report is given on the performance of TEIFU, which was commissioned at the William Herschel Telescope in 1999. Measurements of throughput and fibre response variation are given and a reconstructed test observation of the radio galaxy 3C 327 is shown, demonstrating the functionality of the instrument and software.


This dissertation rests on the assumption that the literary text is fundamentally part of the world from which it emerges. Following Heidegger's understanding of the work of art as a form of unconcealment, it argues that Michael Ondaatje's fictional work Anil's Ghost discloses the particular, historically contingent conditions that determine the ethical relations people are cast into during a time of war in the present era of globalization. The novel interrogates the idea of truth in its meta-fictional discourse and stakes out the grounds of its own fictional truth in contra-distinction to truth as fact offered by Western empiricism. Alongside the implicit criticism of Western epistemology, the novel mounts a critique of the universal human rights discourse and suggests that an ethical approach to the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is preferable to a political solution imposed from the outside. War is presented as a radically embodying event in which the body is made vulnerable to death and injury: and the ethical imperative to alleviate physical suffering is identified as the most immediate and appropriate response to the crisis of war. Following Levinas, ethics is understood to transpire in the corporeal relation between individuals. By attending in detail to the embodied experience of being in the world, the novel prepares the ground for an ethics of the body that is closely aligned to the ethics as first philosophy espoused by Levinas. The dissertation argues throughout that the novel discloses the nature of ethical relations between people in the world by means of its aesthetic forms of language. The domain of the ethical and aesthetics are thus commensurate.


Manufacturers are now allowed to use the terms "genetically modified organism" or "GMO" on U.S. food labels to make claims that genetically engineered ingredients are not present in a meat, poultry, or egg product. Previously, use of the terms was only allowed on these so-called negative claims if they were part of the name of a third-party certifier, such as the Non-GMO Project. USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service released the new guidelines on Aug. 19, providing examples of labels that are acceptable for products that don't contain GMOs or livestock that were not fed GMO ingredients. The action was prompted by a GMO food labeling law enacted in July. The law requires USDA to develop a national GMO labeling standard and rules for non-GMO food labeling. USDA relies on third-party certification organizations to verify that products do not contain GMOs. The new guidelines clarify that organic certification is sufficient


Events are one of the most important and preferred practices of public relations discipline. The importance of event practices rises everyday with the opportunities of improving technology, and becomes much more preferable. Events becoming an important tool leads a growth in the number of event agencies, which results in a big sector special to events. There is also a challenging competition between the event agencies in the growing event sector. Diversity, which comes as a result of the growth in event sector and improvements in technology, brings extraordinary and creative dimensions to event practices. Social media networks, which are improving very fast especially on the last few years, become a very important and entertaining base for event practices, and social media and digital platforms also become much more usable. The comprehensive change in event management, digitalbased practices which can be considered as the proof of this change, and the integration of these practices to the social media with examples from the event sector, are going to be analyzed within this study.


Most distributed machine learning systems nowadays, including TensorFlow and CNTK, are built in a centralized fashion. One bottleneck of centralized algorithms lies on high communication cost on the central node. Motivated by this, we ask, can decentralized algorithms be faster than its centralized counterpart?
Although decentralized PSGD (D-PSGD) algorithms have been studied by the control community, existing analysis and theory do not show any advantage over centralized PSGD (C-PSGD) algorithms, simply assuming the application scenario where only the decentralized network is available. In this paper, we study a D-PSGD algorithm and provide the first theoretical analysis that indicates a regime in which decentralized algorithms might outperform centralized algorithms for distributed stochastic gradient descent. This is because D-PSGD has comparable total computational complexities to C-PSGD but requires much less communication cost on the busiest node. We further conduct an empirical study to validate our theoretical analysis across multiple frameworks (CNTK and Torch), different network configurations, and computation platforms up to 112 GPUs. On network configurations with low bandwidth or high latency, D-PSGD can be up to one order of magnitude faster than its well-optimized centralized counterparts.


Was Athens an imperialistic state, deserving all the reputation for exploitation that adjective can imply, or was the Athenian alliance, even at its most unequal, still characterized by a convergence of interests? The Power of Money explores monetary and metrological policy at Athens as a way of discerning the character of Athenian hegemony in midfifth-century Greece. It begins with the Athenian Coinage Decree, which, after decades of scholarly attention, still presents unresolved questions for Greek historians about content, intent, date, and effect. Was the Decree an act of commercial imperialism or simply the codification of what was already current practice? Figueira interprets the Decree as one in a series concerned with financial matters affecting the Athenian city-state and emerging from the way the collection of tribute functioned in the alliance that we call the Athenian empire. He contends that the Decree served primarily to legislate the status quo ante.


A system to utilize high-temperature nuclear heat effectively is proposed here. The system comprises a High-Temperature Gas-cooled nuclear Reactor (HTGR), reaction vessels to produce H2 using the steam-reforming reaction of CH4 or the Iodine-Sulfur (I-S) process, chemical heat pumps and He gas turbines. The chemical heat pumps are operated between the two decomposition temperatures of SO3 (~900°C) and HI (~500°C) of the I-S process. The pump system transfers heat from lower temperature to higher one with repeated H2 absorption-desorption cycles, and the overall thermal conversion ratio from H2O to H2 can be enhanced. The material candidate for H2 absorption in heat pump is considered TiH2 and ZrCoH3 (or UH3) according to the two reaction temperatures. The decomposition of the metal hydrides proceeds at their respective plateau pressures that are a function of temperature regardless of the H content in metals. Variations of the temperature and the equilibrium H2 pressure with repetitions of the heat-pump cycle are shown in the present paper comparatively. In addition, proton-conducting fuel cell system supplied with CH4 is incorporated in the high-temperature utilization system.


We have successfully developed a high-gradient magnetic separation system for medical proteins using affinity magnetic nanobeads. Our system shows very high separation efficiency and can also be expected to realize lower cost due to larger production rate compared to the conventional system. The developed system consists of a 3-T superconducting magnet and a filter made of fine magnetic metal fibers. The superconducting magnet is wound with a NbTi twisted multifilamentary wire, and cooled by a 4-K Gifford-McMahon cryocooler. In order to achieve high recovery ratio of the magnetic nanobeads trapped on the filter located in a room-temperature clear bore of the cryostat, the ac degaussing system for the filter is fabricated using an inductance-capacitance resonance circuit composed of a series connection with the superconducting magnet and an additional capacitor. To perform the inductance-capacitance resonance more than a few cycles between superconducting magnet and capacitor, the superconducting magnet has a slit in the bobbin to prevent an eddy current coupled with an alternating magnetic field. It also has a control system for a high-speed switching circuit. This magnet can successfully generate a magnetic field of 3.0 T in the clear bore of the cryostat with a diameter of 30 mm in a relatively fast sweep time of 150 s due to the slit in the magnet bobbin. Using our degaussing system, a high recovery ratio of the nanobeads in pure water has been performed about 94.1%.


OPPORTUNITIES. — Desirable opportunities for service from responsible sources are announced in this Bulletin, and no charge therefor is made. SERVICES AVAILABLE. — Under this heading brief announcements (not more than fifty words) will be published without charge to the members. Announcements will not be repeated except upon request received after an interval of three months, during this period names and records will remain in the active files. NOTE. — All replies to either "Opportunities" or "Services Available" should be addressed to the key number indicated in each case and forwarded to the ENGINEERING SOCIETIES EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, 33 West 39th Street, New York City, the employment clearing house of the National Societies of Civil, Mining, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers.


In this work, we report the synthesis of a high ionic conducting and mechanically stable non-aqueous gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) in which a liquid electrolyte (LiClO4/propylene carbonate) is entrapped in a poly(2-hydroxy-3-phenoxy propyl acrylate) matrix by a UV assisted in situ polymerisation strategy. Unlike conventional dry and quasi-solid non-aqueous GPEs, our system (H-P-L-3M-80%) shows an excellent ionic conductivity of 4.7 × 10−3 S cm−1, a value which is comparable to those of non-aqueous liquid electrolytes. The high mechanical stability of GPE arises due to the covalent cross-links present in the polymer matrix as well as the reversible non-covalent cross-links between the solvent and the polymer matrix through the Li+ cations. Subsequently, the GPE has been prepared in situ on the inner and the outer surface of the electrode material to fabricate a 2.0 V supercapacitor device with a high mass loading (3.8 mg cm−2) of the active material (YP-80F, a high surface area porous carbon). The device shows an equivalent series resistance (ESR) as low as 2.2 Ω, which is close to that of the device fabricated from the corresponding liquid electrolyte and is far better than those of the devices evolved from conventional GPEs and dry polymer electrolytes. The mass specific capacitance of 113 F g−1 obtained at a current density of 2 mA cm−2 shows 81% retention even at a high current density of 20 mA cm−2. The scalability of the strategy is demonstrated by fabricating a large area (area = 16 cm2, loading = 4.0 mg cm−2) all-solid-state flexible-supercapacitor (H-P-L-3M-S-4.0) device which can be operated at a potential window of 2.5 V. The device was found to show a mass specific capacitance of 111 F g−1 at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 (0.25 A g−1), all the while, retaining a very low ESR of 2.2 Ω. The potential of the strategy to mimic the liquid-like electrode–electrolyte interface, augmented with the ability to tune further, opens up new horizons for energy storage devices.


Introduction: Since ancient times, some mescaline containing plants that have hallucinogen effects and cause alterations in the central nervous system have been used to fulfill traditional objectives associated with divination, healing, spirituality and others. Objective: To determine the effect of the aqueous extract of Trichocereus pachanoi at doses of 10 %, 20 % and 30 % solution on depression-like exploratory behavior in Rattus rattus var. albinus . Material and Methods: The present experimental study, which is exploratory, constructive and prospective in nature, was conducted in 4 groups of 10 rats.  The rats were administered increasing doses of aqueous extract of Trichocereus pachanoi ; then, they underwent forced swimming with a previous 15-minute training. Results: The group that did not receive any treatment had the lowest response to the duration of time spent at scaling compared to groups B, C and D that spent 13.5 min., 17.17 min., and 24.37 min., respectively. Also, in the evaluation of mobility, group A showed the lowest value compared to groups B, C and D that recorded 13.42 min., 17.62 min., and 23.12 min., respectively. Conclusions: The treatment with aqueous extract of Trichocereus pachanoi at concentrations of 10 %, 20 % and 30 % applied to rats has been effective in producing a tranquilizer effect on the depression-like exploratory behavior in rats.


of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Jiao Zhang and Professor Carey K. Morewedge. No. of pages in text. (109) It is generally assumed that the hedonic response to an outcome is a joint function of the desirability of the outcome and the likelihood of its occurrence. Losses are almost never pleasurable, but people believe that losses hurt less when they are small and/or expected than when they are large and/or unexpected. Conversely, gains are almost always pleasurable, but are more so when they are large and/or unexpected than when they are small and/or expected. When consumers decide which potential losses to avoid and which potential gains to pursue, their decisions depend on predictions of their hedonic responses to those potential future gains and losses. Thus, an important question is whether affective forecasters are able to accurately predict the extent to which their hedonic responses to an outcome are influenced by the magnitude of the outcome and the probability of its occurrence. This dissertation proposes that affective forecasters overestimate the extent to which their happiness with an outcome depends on its magnitude and its probability of occurrence because of differences in affective intensity between affective forecasters and experiencers. The hedonic experience of an outcome is typically more affectively intense than the simulation of that outcome upon which the affective forecasts for it are based. Intense experiences capture attentional resources required to consider and incorporate outcome specifications into judgment. Consequently, hedonic experiences are less influenced by outcome specifications than are affective forecasts of those experiences. The present research establishes that affective forecasters are more sensitive to the magnitude of an outcome and its probability of occurrence than experiencers. It provides support for the theorized account that the asymmetry in affective intensity evoked by the act of making affective forecasts and having the corresponding hedonic experiences leads to different attention and sensitivity to these outcome specifications. The difference in sensitivity to outcome specifications between forecasters and experiencers can lead to under-and overestimation of emotional response: High magnitude and low probability beget overestimation of future emotional response, whereas low magnitude and high probability beget underestimation of future emotional responses.


Abstract. Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle as a potential sink or source. Land management influences SOC storage, so the European Parliament decided in 2013 that changes in carbon stocks within a certain land use type, including arable land, must be reported by all member countries in their national inventory reports for greenhouse gas emissions. Here we show the temporal dynamics of SOC during the past 2 decades in Swedish agricultural soils, based on soil inventories conducted in 1988–1997 (Inventory I), 2001–2007 (Inventory II) and from 2010 onwards (Inventory III), and link SOC changes with trends in agricultural management. From Inventory I to Inventory II, SOC increased in 16 out of 21 Swedish counties, while from Inventory I to Inventory III it increased in 18 out of 21 counties. Mean topsoil (0–20 cm) SOC concentration for the entire country increased from 2.48 to 2.67% C (a relative increase of 7.7%, or 0.38% yr−1) over the whole period. We attributed this to a substantial increase in ley as a proportion of total agricultural area in all counties. The horse population in Sweden has more than doubled since 1981 and was identified as the main driver for this management change (R2 = 0.72). Due to subsidies introduced in the early 1990s, the area of long-term set-aside (mostly old leys) also contributed to the increase in area of ley. The carbon sink function of Swedish agricultural soils demonstrated in this study differs from trends found in neighbouring countries. This indicates that country-specific or local socio-economic drivers for land management must be accounted for in larger-scale predictions.


The United States war on drugs has, for decades now, systematically targeted communities of color. This sustained attack on people of color is accomplished through the use of whiteness. Recently, mainstream news media and elected officials have called for a "gentler war on drugs" to address the opioid epidemic. While some may see this as a welcome change, we take a more critical view. Specifically, we examine the role of White women in two popular television series that feature narratives of addiction as a gendered instance of "white drug exceptionalism." To do this, we conducted a systematic analysis of a narrative television show, Law & Order, and a reality-based show, Intervention, using nine seasons over the same time period (2000–2010). In the procedural drama Law & Order, White women were featured prominently as part of the carceral state, both as police detectives and as prosecutors. Occasionally, White women are portrayed as victims of drug culture. On the rehabinspired Intervention, the majority of all characters are White, and the audience is invited to view drug use and recovery through a white lens that tells a particular kind of story about addiction. Both the carceral model promoted by Law & Order and the therapeutic model valorized by Intervention rely on particular notions of White womanhood mapped onto neoliberal regimes of citizenship that not only compel us all toward "health" and "sobriety" but also warp our collective imagination, so that we only see some drug users as worthy of a gentleness and compassion.


Auctions have a long history and are an effective method to distributed resources. In the era of Internet and e-commerce, electronic sealed-bid auction play an important role in business. However, it is a risk to run a sealed-bid auction through the Internet, which is an open and unreliable environment. There are many security concerns about correctness and fairness of the auction and privacy of the bidders in electronic sealed-bid auctions. Cryptology seems to be the only security solution for electronic sealed-bid auction. On the other hand, a practical electronic sealed-bid auction scheme must be efficient. So efficient application of cryptographic tools to electronic sealed-bid auction is the focus of this thesis. Firstly, security requirements of sealed-bid auctions are surveyed. The auction result must be determined correctly according to the submitted bids and the pre-defined auction rule. The bidders must compete with each other in a fair play and none of them can take advantage of others. The auction must be publicly verifiable, so that the auction result is acceptable by everyone. Usually, a losing bidder hopes to keep his bid secret, so the losing bids should be kept secret. In different applications, different auction rules may be applied. So, to avoid a tie, a large number of biddable prices must be accepted in some applications. Secondly, the currently known sealed-bid auction schemes are classified. In recent years, many sealed-bid auction schemes based on various cryptographic primitives have been proposed. Nearly all of them can be classified into five models. In the Model 1, each bid is known to the auctioneers, who can find the winning bid and winner very efficiently. Bid privacy is not implemented in Model 1. In Model 2 homomorphic bid opening is employed, so that the winning bid and winner can be found while the losing bids are kept secret. In Model 3 very strong bid privacy is achieved through a Dutch-style bid opening, which is highly inefficient. In Model 4, the link between the bids and bidders instead of confidentiality of the bids is kept secret. This kind of confidentiality is weaker than normal bid privacy and called relative bid privacy in this thesis. (Complete confidentiality of the bids in the end of the auction is called absolute bid privacy.) Implementation of relative bid privacy can be very efficient if an efficient anonymous channel can be constructed. Model 5 uses secure evaluation to open the bids and find the auction result and makes it possible to achieve absolute bid privacy efficiently. Three main cryptographic primitives are explored and employed to design new auction schemes in four auction models. The first tool is batch verification, which can improve computational efficiency in auction schemes. The second is mix network, which can be used to implement anonymous channels in Model 4 and Model 5. Two new efficient mix networks are designed and used in Model 2, Model 4 and Model 5. The third is secure evaluation, which is employed in two new auction schemes in Model 5 to achieve strong bid privacy efficiently. Other cryptographic primitives employed in the auction schemes include efficient 1-out-of-w oblivious transfer in Model 2 and key chain in Model 3. Five new auction schemes are proposed. The first scheme in Model 2 batch verifies bid validity to improve efficiency. The second scheme optimises the key chain used in Model 3 to obtain a more advanced auction scheme. The third scheme implements a concrete anonymous channel in Model 4 for the first time and achieves relative bid privacy and high efficiency convincingly. The last two employ new secure evaluation techniques to achieve absolute bid privacy and high efficiency. With these five new auction schemes, better solutions are achieved in various auction applications.


It is shown that the propagation of steady-state spatial solitons in a bismuth titanium oxide (Bi12TiO20) photorefractive crystal is strongly affected by the presence of concomitant natural optical activity. We assume that the Bi12TiO20 crystal is (110) cut and that the external bias field is along the [001¯] axis. Such orientation introduces self-focusing in one polarization of an optical wave front, whereas it has no effect whatsoever on the component orthogonal to it. Under these conditions, the equations that describe the coupled evolution of the two polarizations of an optical planar beam are derived. Our numerical study of the interaction dynamics shows that, even though the optical beam experiences periodic diffraction in one of the polarization components, it can still recover significantly at particular distances within the crystal. Moreover, it is initially capable of maintaining its solitonlike form over a certain distance of propagation. Relevant examples are provided.


Oxide-based electronics have been well established as an alternative to silicon technology; however, typical processing requires complex, high-vacuum equipment, which is a major drawback, particularly when targeting low-cost applications. The possibility to deposit the materials by low-cost techniques such as inkjet printing has drawn tremendous interest in solution processible materials for electronic applica‐ tions; however, high processing temperatures still required. To overcome this issue, solution combustion synthesis has been recently pursued. Taking advantage of the exothermic nature of the reaction as a source of energy for localized heating, the precursor solutions can be converted into oxides at lower process temperatures. Theoretically, this can be applied to any metal ions to produce the desired oxide, opening unlimited possibilities to materials' composition and combinations. Solution combus‐ tion synthesis has been applied for the production of semiconductor thin films based on ZnO, In2O3, SnO2 and combinations of these oxides, and also for high κ dielectrics (Al2O3). All of which are required for numerous electronic devices and applications such as fully oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs). The properties of produced thin films are highly dependent on the precursor solution characteristics; hence, the influence of several processing parameters; organic fuel, solvent and annealing temperature was studied. Although precursor solution degradation/oxide formation mechanisms are not yet fully understood, particularly for thin films, we demonstrate that high-perform‐ ance devices are obtained with combustion solution-based metal oxide thin films. The results clearly show that solution combustion synthesis is becoming one of the most promising methods for low-temperature flexible electronics.


Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, the higher likelihood of attending school after puberty has put girls at risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar. We address the endogeneity between fertility and education decisions by instrumenting early pregnancy with the young woman's access to condoms at the community level, and her exposure to condoms since she was 15 years old. We control for an extensive set of community social infrastructure characteristics to deal with the endogeneity of program placement. Our instrumental variable results show that having a child increases by 42% the likelihood of dropping out of school and decreases the chances of completing lower secondary school by 44%. This school-pregnancy related dropout is associated with a reduction of 1.1 standard deviations in the Math and French test scores. These results are consistent with hazard model estimations: delaying the first birth by a year increases the probability of current enrollment by 5% and the Math and French test scores by 0.2 standard deviations.


This thesis examines the developing role of television channels in the delivery of public service broadcasting in Britain, 1996-2002. Starting from a hypothesis that channels are distinct television products in their own right and increasingly important in organising how broadcasters think about their audiences, it argues that channels have identities expressed through their schedules and determined by their relationship to genre and target audience.

Based on research at the BBC (from 1998 - 2002), involving interviews with key staff and the analysis of BBC documents, this study examines the television broadcasting functions of commissioning, scheduling, marketing and audience research. It illustrates how these activities created specific identities for television channels and how these identities shaped the programming that reached television screens. It reveals how channels became increasingly important in the television landscape as buyers in a more demand-led commissioning economy and acted as a focus for the creation of media brands. It then discusses how the evolution of a channel portfolio enabled each channel to play a specific role in fulfilling public service obligations and looks at how different models of audience emerged in relation to the different public service television channels, charting the decline of the mass audience and the emergence of the visualisation of audiences in a more individualised way.

The thesis concludes by addressing some implications of these developments. It looks at how the different models of audience in circulation affect debates about quality television, and how changing ideas about the construction of public service channels may impact on the regulation of broadcasting. Finally, it explores the effect of multiple channels, each targeted at specific audiences, on the concept of a unitary public sphere and speculates that channels have the potential to underpin the creation of multiple imagined communities.


Problem. The most rapid growing family type in the United States is the single parent family. It is the dominant family type in the African-American community. According to the United States Bureau of the Census (2010), 69% of all Black children are born to single mothers. Single mother families are at a dramatically greater risk for drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality (National Center for Health Statistics, 1993). These findings are alarming and present great challenges for African-American single mother families. In an attempt to address this crisis, the church, as an agent of change, is in a position to develop effective coping skills that will enhance the well-being of African-American single mother families. This project presents a program to aid the church in accomplishing this goal. Method. This study used quantitative and qualitative data to explore the life experiences of single mother families. A questionnaire was utilized to collect pertinent information that guided the researcher in determining the specific content to be included in the coping skills seminar for single mothers. A syllabus was developed outlining eight presentations in the following areas: (a) finance, (b) education, (c) parenting, (d) communication, (e) physical self-care, (f) psychological self-care, (g) emotional self-care, and (h) spiritual self-care. The seminar was conducted in a group setting with 15 participants and one facilitator. The findings were reported in statistical data, illustrated tables, and charts. Results. African-American single mother families of the Antelope Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church were positively impacted by the coping skills seminar. The overall well-being of the single mothers improved in specific and tangible ways after applying the many coping skills acquired during the seminar. The local church congregation was affected in more than one way as it experienced an increase in the well-being and spiritual growth of the single mother families. A new ministry for single mother families is in the process of being developed and will be implemented in the local church. Conclusions. Single mother families are an integral part of society. The challenges they face are astronomical. The solution for improving the single mother paradigm is three-fold. First, we need to be intentional about improving the quality of life for single mothers. This can be achieved by providing increased financial opportunities and making college education attainable. Secondly, we need to equip single mothers with life-skills that will improve parent-child relationship, employ positive discipline, and enhance communication. Finally, single mothers are encouraged to make self-care a top priority in their lives which is essential to the well-being of the entire family. It is essential that federal and state agencies, businesses, colleges, and churches become proactive in providing assistance that will empower single mother families. Churches have the added responsibility to function as an extended family to single mothers by providing support, healing, relevant resources, and modeling compassion as commanded by the head of the Church, Jesus Christ.


In this study, an enzymatic zinc determination method was applied to pleural fluid, the basis of which was the regaining of the activity of apo carbonic anhydrase by the zinc present in the sample. The method was used for pleural fluid zinc determination in order to show the application to body fluids other than serum. For this purpose, pleural fluids were obtained from 20 patients and zinc concentrations were determined. Carbonic anhydrase was purified by affinity chromatography from bovine erythrocytes. The zinc present in its structure was removed by dialysis against dipicolinic acid, resulting in apoenzyme obtained at a ratio of 100%. The activity of the enzyme was determined by the esterase action on p-nitrophenyl acetate. For comparison, the same samples were analyzed in atomic absorption. The results obtained were evaluated statistically. (\( > \)0.05 t-test, \( < \)0.001 Zn2+ (AA)-Zn2+ (apoCA), \( < \)0.005 Zn2+ (apoCA)-Total protein).


A historical note on the aetiology of phossy jaw shows that present-day knowledge is little greater than it was a century ago. The varied clinical course of the disease is described together with a report of 10 classical cases not previously reported. Six cases, not amounting to true necrosis but in which healing after dental extraction was delayed, and described, and mention is made of the noticeable differences in the oral state and appearances of tartar of healthy workmen exposed to phosphorus compared with healthy workmen not exposed. But no systematic differences of any kind were found in the incidence of general infections, fractures of bones, haematological findings, and biochemical studies of blood and urine in two groups of healthy men most exposed and least exposed to phosphorous in the same factory. An intensive study in hospital of a case of classical necrosis showed no departure from normal, except delayed healing following bone biopsy from the iliac crest, and a reversed polymorphonuclear/lymphocyte ratio. In the discussion the time of onset of necrosis after first exposure to phosphorus, clinical and radiological diagnosis, the organisms present, personal susceptibility, the appearance of the sequestra, and regeneration of bone are considered. An up-to-date note on prevention of the disease is given, although this has met with only partial success. Some persons are highly susceptible and, whilst complete protection is impossible in the light of our present knowledge, early diagnosis and modern treatment have robbed the disease of its terrible manifestations of Victorian times and turned it into a minor, although often uncomfortable complaint, with little or no resulting disability.


An 81-year-old man sustained a dog bite to his right lateral calf. Despite antibiotics, the patient continued to have leg swelling, severe itching, and a chronic wound. He was evaluated at the Wound Center, at which time a diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency was made, and a venous reflux examination was recommended. The patient was scanned using Intersocietal Accreditation Commission Vascular Testing venous reflux protocol. Imaging was directed to the area of concern at the lateral calf. A 1.1-mm vein branch off the proximal calf great saphenous vein (GSV) was identified under the itching/trauma area with venous reflux identified. Venous reflux examination findings identified significant venous reflux from the right saphenofemoral junction through the distal calf GSV and vein branches. An elective right GSV endothermal venous ablation and stab phlebectomy were performed. The patient returned per protocol on postoperative day 2. He reported no pain and complete resolution of itching. Physical examination demonstrated marked improvement in the excoriated area. Surveillance duplex revealed no evidence of an endovenous heat-induced thrombosis. Venous stasis dermatitis occurs when there is inflammation of the skin caused by chronic venous insufficiency. In the early stages, symptoms include swelling at the ankles, hyperpigmentation, dryness, and itching. The development of stasis dermatitis can be precipitated by trauma, thereby unmasking underlying chronic venous insufficiency. Stasis dermatitis in this patient resolved because we treated the cause: chronic venous insufficiency.


This paper addresses questions of friendship and political community by investigating a particular complex case, comradeship in the life of the soldier. Close attention to soldiers' accounts of their own lives, successes and failures shows that the relationship of friendship to comradeship, and of both to the success of the soldier's individual and communal life, is complex and tense. I focus on autobiographical accounts of basic training in order to describe, and to explore the tensions between, two positions: (1) Becoming a soldier is a corrupting loss of individuality and moral sensitivity, and friendship is resistance to it. (2) Becoming a soldier is one form of flourishing, and comradeship—the soldier's distinctive form of friendship—is one of its constitutive virtues. I draw particularly on George Orwell's account of basic training and fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and on Tim O'Brien's account of basic training and fighting in Vietnam.


An ad hoc wireless network consists of mobile networks which creates an underlying architecture for communication without the help of traditional fixed-position routers. Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) is a routing protocol used for Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). Nevertheless, the architecture must maintain communication routes although the hosts are mobile and they have limited transmission range. There are different protocols for handling the routing in the mobile environment. Routing protocols used in fixed infrastructure networks cannot be efficiently used for mobile ad-hoc networks, so that MANET requires different protocols. This paper presents the performance analysis of the routing protocols used various parameter-patterns with Two-ray model.


Background: Patient centered care is a mechanism to encourage healthcare consumers to work together with health care professionals to achieve quality outcomes In the VA, non-adherence to treatment recommendations is problematic. Non-adherence results in poor use of VA resources as veterans come in for care but do not follow through with recommended treatment plans. Besides asking veterans about their health goals and preferences, understanding the veteran's orientation regarding health beliefs and motivators for adherence to recommended treatment plans is essential for nurses who aim to help the veteran achieve healthy lifestyle behaviors. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine veteran's health beliefs and the relationships among veteran's health beliefs and adherence to the treatment plan in order to better understand how to deliver effective patient centered care to the Veteran population. Method: This study was conducted at a small rural VHA facility, using a descriptive correlational design and a convenience sample (N= 84) of Vietnam veterans, ages 54-64, who were prescribed diet, exercise, and medications in the treatment of hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and/ or diabetes. Subjects were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire that included standardized measures of health beliefs. Treatment adherence was measured by attendance to primary care appointments to address hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or diabetes. Results: Data analysis was conducted using a two-tail Pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis. The major findings of this study were that, in veterans, adherence is negatively associated with perceived severity of illness but positively associated with the perception susceptibility for becoming ill. Veterans will adhere to the treatment plan if they perceive susceptibility to illness but their adherence may wane if they perceive the severity of the illness increasing. Conclusion: The findings of this study have significant relevance to nursing. Understanding the health beliefs of veterans and the impact on adherence to the treatment plan is important knowledge if nurses are to help veterans overcome ambivalence to change. These findings suggest a potential for Motivational Interviewing techniques to support self-management regimens in a patient-centered approach.


State capture and corruption are widespread phenomena across the globe, but their empirical study still lacks sufficient analytical tools. This paper develops a new conceptual and analytical framework for gauging state capture based on microlevel contractual networks in public procurement. To this end, it establishes a novel measure of corruption risk in government contracting focusing on the behavior of individual organizations. Then, it identifies clusters of high-corruption-risk organizations in the full contractual network of procuring authorities and their suppliers using formal social network analysis. Densely connected clusters of high-corruption-risk organizations are denoted as the domain of state capture. The paper demonstrates the power of the new analytical framework by exploring how the radical centralization of the governing elite following the 2010 elections in Hungary affected centralization of state capture. Findings indicate the feasibility and usefulness of such microlevel approach to corruption and state capture. Better understanding the network structure of corruption and state capture opens new avenues for research and policy on anticorruption, budget deficit, market competition, and quality of democracy. Supporting further empirical studies of corruption, the data are made available at digiwhist.eu/resources/data.


We present a real-time bidirectional communication system that lets two people, separated by distance, experience a face-to-face conversation as if they were copresent. It is the first telepresence system that is demonstrably better than 2D videoconferencing, as measured using participant ratings (e.g., presence, attentiveness, reaction-gauging, engagement), meeting recall, and observed nonverbal behaviors (e.g., head nods, eyebrow movements). This milestone is reached by maximizing audiovisual fidelity and the sense of copresence in all design elements, including physical layout, lighting, face tracking, multi-view capture, microphone array, multi-stream compression, loudspeaker output, and lenticular display. Our system achieves key 3D audiovisual cues (stereopsis, motion parallax, and spatialized audio) and enables the full range of communication cues (eye contact, hand gestures, and body language), yet does not require special glasses or body-worn microphones/headphones. The system consists of a head-tracked autostereoscopic display, high-resolution 3D capture and rendering subsystems, and network transmission using compressed color and depth video streams. Other contributions include a novel image-based geometry fusion algorithm, free-space dereverberation, and talker localization.


The global market of inter-banking syndicated loans is a vast network of obligations upon which lenders rely for longer-term financing, and, in turn, provide to the real economy to finance projects. This network is explicitly modeled from 1998 to 2013 such that firms are nodes and loan facilities are edges in network terminology. Various measures of network topology are calculated, inclusive of temporal firm centrality, network density, transitivity, modularity, and community structure. Like many complex real-life networks, the global inter-lender network displays small world properties that insulate the network from adverse shocks overall. However, specific firms are shown to be systemically important at varying times; the removal of a systemically important firm fractures the network into dissolute communities, potentially disrupting the flow of capital to the economy. Both borrower and lender network centrality affect contract terms; overall, centrality lowers the cost of capital. Global network properties are also shown to inform micro contract terms.


The safe environmental disposal of sulphide-rich copper/zinc mine tailings is fast becoming a major economic factor in determining the profitability of mining operations. There have been new approaches and better technologies practised in the recent years which allow the mining industries to reduce and/or eliminate the environmental impacts of harmful mine tailings. One of these approaches is the use of high-density paste backfill (HDPB) which is consisting mainly of a mix of solid particles (with the cement) and water, containing between 70% and 85% by dry weight of solids. The increased use of HDPB has improved the reliability, and has reduced the cost of the preparation and transportation systems. This paper focuses on the potential environmental benefits of using the HDPB when tailings are acid generating, and also provides a case study conducted in an underground copper/zinc mine in northeast Turkey in order to illustrate these benefits. 94


BACKGROUND
The utilisation of massed therapy for treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is gaining strength, especially prolonged exposure. However, it is unknown whether massed prolonged exposure (MPE) is non-inferior to standard prolonged exposure (SPE) protocols in the long term. The current study aimed to assess whether MPE was non-inferior to SPE at 12 months post-treatment, and to ascertain changes in secondary measure outcomes.

METHODS
A multi-site non-inferiority randomised controlled trial (RCT) compared SPE with MPE in 12 clinics. The primary outcome was PTSD symptom severity (CAPS-5) at 12 months post-treatment commencement. Secondary outcome measures included symptoms of depression, anxiety, anger, disability, and quality of life at 12 weeks and 12 months post-treatment commencement. Outcome assessors were blinded to treatment allocation. The intention-to-treat sample included 138 Australian military members and veterans and data were analysed for 134 participants (SPE = 71, MPE = 63).

RESULTS
Reductions in PTSD severity were maintained at 12 months and MPE remained non-inferior to SPE. Both treatment groups experienced a reduction in depression, anxiety, anger, and improvements in quality of life at 12 weeks and 12 months post-treatment commencement. Treatment effects for self-reported disability in the SPE group at 12 weeks were not maintained, with neither group registering significant effects at 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS
The emergence of massed protocols for PTSD is an important advancement. The current study provides RCT evidence for the longevity of MPE treatment gains at 12 months post-treatment commencement and demonstrated non-inferiority to SPE. Promisingly, both treatments also significantly reduced the severity of comorbid symptoms commonly occurring alongside PTSD.


This is the most comprehensive and widely-used textbook on managed care. The Fifth Edition of this authoritative text provides practical knowledge and advice to help you master the complexities of managed care today. With learning objectives for each chapter, a glossary of terms and common acronyms, study questions, tables and charts, and the expert guidance of Peter R. Kongstvedt, Essentials of Managed Health Care is a perfect introduction to the key concepts of managed care. This revision includes updates to all chapters, as well as new sections on the most relevant topics in managed care today such as: pay for performance, consumer-directed healthcare plans, payor/provider collaboration, and electronic enablement of clinical activities supported by health plans. The chapter on Medicare has been completely revised to reflect the recent Medicare Prescription Drug Act.


What makes some people big and others small--obviously our genes, but which ones? Working out the complex of genes that control such quantitative traits in animals and plants is one of the big challenges facing geneticists. In his Perspective, Doebley discusses new results that identify the fw2.2 gene as one of the genes determining fruit size in the tomato (Frary et al.).


Three different commercially available polymeric films were studied to determine their effect on the sensory properties of fresh broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. Italica cv. 'Marathon'). The polymer materials investigated were oriented polypropylene (OPP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and one low density polyethylene (LDPE) which contained an ethylene absorber. The fresh broccoli was packaged and stored for one week at 10°C or 3 days at 4°C followed by 4 days at 10°C. The oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations inside the packages were monitored during storage. After storage the broccoli was evaluated according to sensory analyses, i.e. triangle test and quantitative descriptive analysis, by an analytical panel. The panel judged the broccoli according to smell, taste, texture and appearance. The triangle test showed significant differences between the smell of the broccoli samples, stored in the different packaging materials, when cooked. However, no differences between the raw broccoli, stored in the different packaging materials could be detected. The quantitative descriptive analysis showed that the following attributes; fresh smell and taste, chewing resistance, and crispness, differed significantly between the packaged broccoli when cooked. The appearance was shown to be the sensory property of broccoli most affected by the storage conditions, i.e. packaging material used and storage temperature. The results indicated the importance of the packaging material for maintaining the broccoli quality. However, one packaging material that was able to maintain all the studied sensory properties could not be identified. (Less)


This paper discusses the issues of reliquefaction of natural gas vapors on the Q-Flex type LNG tankers. DRL gas carrier power plant has been presented. The principle of operation of a BOG reliquefaction plant has been described. An energy analysis referring to nominal operational conditions has been performed. DRL LNG carrier's power plant load at laden voyage has been estimated. The results have been confronted with the values typical for conventional LNG carriers. General conclusions on the size of the Q-Flex LNG tanker's power plant have been drawn.


In this paper, a synthetic mixture of ZrO2 and Fe2O3 was prepared by coprecipitation for use in chemical looping and hydrogen production. Cycling experiments in a fluidized bed showed that a material composed of 30 mol % ZrO2 and 70 mol % Fe2O3 was capable of producing hydrogen with a consistent yield of 90 mol % of the stoichiometric amount over 20 cycles of reduction and oxidation at 1123 K. Here, the iron oxide was subjected to cycles consisting of nearly 100% reduction to Fe followed by reoxidation (with steam or CO2 and then air) to Fe2O3. There was no contamination by CO of the hydrogen produced, at a lower detection limit of 500 ppm, when the conversion of Fe3O4 to Fe was kept below 90 mol %. A preliminary investigation of the reaction kinetics confirmed that the ZrO2 support does not inhibit rates of reaction compared with those observed with iron oxide alone.


Recent scholarship on the role of national party organizations in American politics—specifically, the Democratic and Republican National Committees—has argued that political science research has thus far undervalued the importance of these organizations. These studies have noted the importance that party leaders—including presidents, Congressional leaders, and governors—place on the national committees' role in shaping a party brand. Notably, these studies are all qualitative historical accounts—perhaps because finding consistent quantitative data from within the DNC and RNC across time is complicated due to limitations in access to archival resources across both parties and time. I present a new quantitative data set measuring DNC and RNC activity on the basis of an external source: New York Times coverage of national committee activity in the period 1953–2012. I use this data to test the claim that, while "party branding" is a core national committee goal, the DNC and RNC do not consistently engage in it. I find that monthly New York Times references of party branding operations decline for parties that hold the White House. Meanwhile, coverage of other service operations does not decline, suggesting committees step back their branding role when their party has control of the executive branch of the federal government.


We report theoretical modeling for a diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG laser in which the laser rod is fixed in a solid nonfocusing (prismatic) light collector. The geometry provides for pumping the rod from four sides, which gives a relatively uniform gain profile across the transverse section of the rod and enables a high tolerance of the laser output to resonator and pump diode misalignment. The numerical model is developed to illustrate how the pumping uniformity and the transfer efficiency are affected when changes in the collector and lasing materials are made. We use small-signal gain measurements to test the predictions of the model and to examine the extent to which surface scattering from the rough rod barrel further spatially averages the deposited pump energy. The effects of the different refractive indices of the rod, collector, and fixant and the absorption properties of the laser material on optical transfer efficiencies are discussed.


There are certain well defined clinical situations where prolonged therapy is beneficial, but prolonged duration of antibiotic therapy is associated with increased resistance, medicalising effects, high costs and adverse drug reactions. The best way to decrease antibiotic duration is both to stop antibiotics when not needed (sterile invasive cultures with clinical improvement), not to start antibiotics when not indicated (treating colonization) and keep the antibiotic course as short as possible. The optimal duration of antimicrobial treatment for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is unknown, however, there is a growing evidence that reduction in the length of antibiotic courses to 7-8 days can minimize the consequences of antibiotic overuse in critical care, including antibiotic resistance, adverse effects, collateral damage and costs. Biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) do have a valuable role in helping guide antibiotic duration but should be interpreted cautiously in the context of the clinical situation. On the other hand, microbiological criteria alone are not reliable and should not be used to justify a prolonged antibiotic course, as clinical cure does not equate to microbiological eradication. We do not recommend a 'one size fits all' approach and in some clinical situations, including infection with non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli (NF-GNB) clinical evaluation is needed but shortening the antibiotic course is an effective and safe way to decrease inappropriate antibiotic exposure.


Background Prior acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) trials have identified hypoinflammatory and hyperinflammatory subphenotypes, with distinct differences in short-term outcomes. It is unknown if such differences extend beyond 90 days or are associated with physical, mental health or cognitive outcomes. Methods 568 patients in the multicentre Statins for Acutely Injured Lungs from Sepsis trial of rosuvastatin versus placebo were included and assigned a subphenotype. Among 6-month and 12-month survivors (N=232 and 219, respectively, representing 243 unique survivors), subphenotype status was evaluated for association with a range of patient-reported outcomes (eg, mental health symptoms, quality of life). Patient subsets also were evaluated with performance-based tests of physical function (eg, 6 min walk test) and cognition. Findings The hyperinflammatory versus hypoinflammatory subphenotype had lower overall 12-month cumulative survival (58% vs 72%, p<0.01); however, there was no significant difference in survival beyond 90 days (86% vs 89%, p=0.70). Most survivors had impairment across the range of outcomes, with little difference between subphenotypes at 6-month and 12-month assessments. For instance, at 6 months, in comparing the hypoinflammatory versus hyperinflammatory subphenotypes, respectively, the median (IQR) patient-reported SF-36 mental health domain score was 47 (33–56) vs 44 (35–56) (p=0.99), and the per cent predicted 6 min walk distance was 66% (48%, 80%) vs 66% (49%, 79%) (p=0.76). Interpretation Comparing the hyperinflammatory versus hypoinflammatory ARDS subphenotype, there was no significant difference in survival beyond 90 days and no consistent findings of important differences in 6-month or 12-month physical, cognitive and mental health outcomes. These findings, when considered with prior results, suggest that inflammatory subphenotypes largely reflect the acute phase of illness and its short-term impact.


Study region: The Maheshwaram and Waipally catchments of Andhra Pradesh, India, and the Plonnaruwa catchment of north-central Sri Lanka. Study focus: The distribution of F across eight crystalline phases and between the bedrock and the regolith at eleven sites in three catchments is documented. Mineral contributions to F release during weathering and regolith development are quantified. New hydrological insights for the region: An estimate of weathering duration for the in situ regolith in Andhra Pradesh, 250–380 Ka, is close to a previous estimate for southern India. Partial or total destruction of the primary F-bearing bedrock minerals and consistent depletion of F in the remnant minerals result in a much reduced total F content in the regolith. Leaching experiments and field relationships , however, indicate a greater potential for F mobilisation to groundwater from the regolith than the bedrock. Schemes for managed aquifer recharge should beware the risk of mobilising additional F to groundwater.


Professors Molot, Fuller, Fiss, and Resnik, among others, have expressed concerns about the unbounded, unchecked, unbridled, and virtually unfettered judicial discretion of American trial court judges who preside over civil case settlement conferences. I am also concerned. But the best response is not to abolish or severely restrict judicial settlement conferences. Rather, it is to add more formality and more written guidelines. New guidelines would discourage each trial court judge from marching to the beat of her own drummer. These guidelines should involve, as suggested by Professor Fuller, both more adversary control and more detailed and written criteria. In addition, new guidelines should expressly recognize that the claims and interests that might be discussed at judicial settlement conferences are far broader than the justiciable claims that might be discussed at trial preparation conferences. Thus, civil case settlement talks and civil case settlements subject to same-case judicial enforcement can involve many more claims, interests, and people than would have been involved in any adversarial proceedings. New written guidelines for federal and state courts should follow existing rules and statutes of general and particular applicability already operating in some American trial courts. As with pleading and discovery, new settlement conference guidelines should speak to differences between civil actions, including some distinctions between significant cases and routine cases and between civil cases based upon the amounts in controversy.


DEBRA UMBERSON University of Texas KRISTIN ANDERSON Drew University* JENNIFER GLICK Brown University** ADAM SHAPIRO University of North Florida*** Research on perpetrators of domestic violence suggests that acts of violence may result .from feelings of low personal control. Research on victims suggests that domestic violence may undermine feelings of personal control. Using a national sample, we consider how domestic violence is related to personal control. We find that individuals who have initiated violence against a partner do not differ from individuals who have nonviolent relationships in feelings of personal control. However, experiencing violence at the hands of a partner has significant adverse effects on a sense of personal control for women, but not for men. This suggests that violence, even when both the man and woman participate, is more detrimental to the self-perceptions and well-being of women than of men. Key Words: domestic violence, marital conflict, mastery, personal control. wife abuse. National surveys indicate that at least 28% of couples experience physical violence at some point in their relationship and 16% of couples experience violence in a given year (Straus & Gelles, 1986). The consequences of domestic violence are substantial-in terms of physical injury, psychological and emotional distress, suicide, and substance abuse among victims (Stark & Flitcraft, 1991). Much of the research on domestic violence addresses etiological questions: Why do some people perpetrate acts of domestic violence, and why do so many victims remain in abusive relationships? These questions are generally addressed in two very separate literatures that are concerned with either the victims or the perpetrators of domestic violence and that ignore any overlap between these two groups. The victim literature focuses on social and psychological factors that lead individuals-typically women-to remain involved in abusive relationships (Bowker, 1983: Walker, 1984). The perpetrator literature focuses on social and psychological factors that lead individuals-typically men-to abuse their domestic partners (Dutton, 1988; Hamberger & Hastings, 1986; Stets, 1988). A central theme in both literatures is that feelings of personal control play an important role in the dynamics of domestic violence. The victim literature suggests that victims of domestic violence experience an increasingly diminished sense of control that leads to powerlessness and helplessness-psychological conditions that disenable individuals from leaving abusive relationships. The perpetuator literature suggests that perpetrators of domestic violence are characterized by a reduced sense of personal control or a high need for control that plays a role in triggering violent episodesviolent episodes that may enhance personal control. The study presented here draws on theoretical and empirical work in psychosocial epidemiology to explore how personal control is related to domestic violence in a national sample. We consider both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence in our analysis. In light of theoretical and research evidence that domestic violence is a different phenomenon for men and women (Johnson, 1995; Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Neidig, & Thorn, 1995), we also consider how the association of personal control and domestic violence may differ for men and women. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH AND PERSONAL CONTROL The term, "personal control," developed in previous theoretical and empirical work (e.g., Mirowsky & Ross, 1989, 1990; Rosenfield, 1989; Turner & Noh, 1983), refers to the "belief that one's own intentions and behaviors can impose control over one's environment" (Umberson, 1993, p. 578). This general concept has been similarly labeled "personal efficacy" (Kohn, 1972) and "mastery" (Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan, & Mullen, 1981). The obverse of personal control is revealed in Wheaton's (1980) measure of fatalism. …


In many forward-looking macroeconomic models, such as the New Keynesian model, firms' expectations about the future play a key role in determining outcomes today. We examine this hypothesis using a novel panel dataset on firms actual and expected price changes collected by the Confederation of British Industry. Our microeconometric approach overcomes the identification issues faced by previous empirical studies. The results suggest that firms' expectations play a key role in their price-setting behaviour, with a coefficient on firm's expectations consistent with the discount factor typically assumed in macroeconomic models.


Abstract. A computationally efficient, open-source feature-tracking algorithm, called ORB, is adopted and tuned for sea ice drift retrieval from Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images. The most suitable setting and parameter values have been found using four Sentinel-1 image pairs representative of sea ice conditions between Greenland and Severnaya Zemlya during winter and spring. The performance of the algorithm is compared to two other feature-tracking algorithms, namely SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform) and SURF (Speeded-Up Robust Features). Having been applied to 43 test image pairs acquired over Fram Strait and the north-east of Greenland, the tuned ORB (Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF) algorithm produces the highest number of vectors (177 513, SIFT: 43 260 and SURF: 25 113), while being computationally most efficient (66 s, SIFT: 182 s and SURF: 99 s per image pair using a 2.7 GHz processor with 8 GB memory). For validation purposes, 314 manually drawn vectors have been compared with the closest calculated vectors, and the resulting root mean square error of ice drift is 563 m. All test image pairs show a significantly better performance of the HV (horizontal transmit, vertical receive) channel due to higher informativeness. On average, around four times as many vectors have been found using HV polarization. All software requirements necessary for applying the presented feature-tracking algorithm are open source to ensure a free and easy implementation.


This book aims to provide insight into the fields of business and leadership by examining the role of ethics in these areas. The papers in this book derive from the 2014 Annual Griffiths School of Management International Conference, organized by Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania, where academics and practitioners interacted and discussed current insights and research in the different dimensions of business ethics and leadership. This resulting book offers empirical and theological research on ethics, business and leadership from a transdisciplinary and knowledge-based context. Since the financial crisis in 2008, the debate on business ethics and leadership has dominated the public sphere at all levels of interest, from grassroots to the elites in educational institutions, governments, businesses and NGOs. Naturally, constructive and transdisciplinary discussions need to take place, with due consideration for the specific context of each situation, so that propositions upon which to build the future can be formulated. These discussions unfold in an ever more intricate world of business, powered by ever more pervasive and intelligent technology and scientific development, all brought together by globalization. In this world, organizations are faced with new and more complex ethical issues in their pursuit to serve clients, gain profits, motivate employees, collaborate with partners and act responsibly towards society and the environment. A wise approach to changing the future is to understand the mistakes of the past, because one must always learn how to overcome past mistakes in order to develop a better future. But a necessary approach to building a better future is looking at the world through a transdisciplinary mindset. This allows us to see the world as a complex whole; it fosters creative interaction between fields of knowledge; it opens doors for knowledge and innovation flows across disciplines; and it allows the tackling of complex problems and situations. Given the current context of our world, this is an approach that we ought to pursue. Featuring contributions from academics, researchers, scholars and practitioners from across the globe, this book will be of great interest for students and practitioners in the fields of business, leadership and ethics. .


In this paper we continue the investigation of the regularity of optimal transport maps on Riemannian manifolds, in relation with the geometric conditions of Ma-Trudinger-Wang and the geometry of the cut locus. We derive some sufficient and some necessary conditions to ensure that the optimal transport map is always continuous. In dimension two, we can sharpen our result into a necessary and sufficient condition. We also provide some sufficient conditions for regularity, and review existing results.


Mining cities have undergone the process of extensive exploitation, which always results in a series of water issues. Integrated water resource management is necessary in improving water supply, allocation and quality without damaging economic development. This article constructs a linear optimization model including a 'Top-Down' socio-economic mode, and 'Bottom-Up' water quality control and water supply–demand modes with integrated water resource management focused on water allocation and water reclamation. Based on computer simulation, the model can propose a water resource management under the constraints of water supply–demand and water quality control, and the model can precisely predict the influences of water resource management on economic development, water utilization and water quality. Taking Ordos, a Chinese national resource city, as a case study, this model addresses a detailed water resource management, including a water allocation plan among industries and water reclamation plan with technologies, selection, arrangement and subsidies. The implementation of water resource management can fulfill multiple objectives on water quantity, water quality and sustainable economic development. This study indicates that water resource management with a comprehensive dynamic model can be a maneuverable approach to realize the sustainable development of economic growth and water resource utilization, as well as formulate the regional development plan.


As those who have preceded me into the Accounting Hall of Fame in recent years will know, one's first intimation of the conferment of this high honor comes in the form of a telephone call from Tom Burns. As I have told him, I rank that call with only two others in my professional career. The first was a telephone call from Bob Anthony early in 1963, inviting me to spend the year 1963-64 in Switzerland with my family, teaching at IMEDE. It turned out to be a fabulous year. The other was a call from Charlie Zlatkovich in 1976, saying that I had been nominated as president-elect of the American Accounting Association. Other nice things have happened over the years by mail, or by cable (as in the case of the invitation in 1959 to join the Wharton faculty). But by telephone, these are the three occasions I shall remember.First, let me acknowledge some debts. It is true, as Chuck Horngren recognized two years ago on a similar occasion, that in naming specific individuals one runs the risk of omitting some deserving names. But I am going to accept that risk.My greatest debt, of course, is to my wife, Miriam. She has been by my side now for almost 50 years, and no other influence can compare with hers.However, there have been other influences. One was a certain teacher of English in my London secondary school, so many years ago, who almost brutally instilled some rules that have helped me to write better English than I might otherwise have done He had a number of "forbidden words," the use of which automatically earned you a zero for an essay. His forbidden words included "very," "extremely," "former" and "latter"; and there were others. During the intervening 65 years, I have often broken his rules, but always to the detriment of my writing.Another debt of the same kind that I acknowledge is to Reed Storey, whose editing of my drafts when we were working together on the FASB's Concepts Statement No. 2 on Qualitative Characteristics greatly improved that document and my writing generally. I am much more sensitive to dangling participles, the common misuse of "this" when one means "that," the misuse of "which" instead of "that," and other linguistic blunders than I was previously.My main debt, of an academic nature, is undoubtedly to the faculty of the London School of Economics, both in the classroom when I was a student, and later as colleagues when I went back to teach there for almost a decade after World War II. To have rubbed shoulders with men like Arnold Plant and Ronnie Edwards (both later knighted), Lionel Robbins (later Lord Robbins), my immediate colleagues William Baxter and Harold Edey, Basil Yamey (that fine accounting historian for whom I accepted the Hourglass award here on Sunday evening), and no fewer than four Nobel prize winners in economics (John Hicks, James Meade, Friedrick Hayek, and Ronald Coase), was a rare privilege. This must sound like name-dropping; but these men really have exerted a lasting influence on me. Lie at LSE during my years there was life in an intellectual powerhouse.Most American academics start their careers by writing a dissertation for their Ph.D., mining one or two papers out of it, and then going on from there. My start was different, and I was reminded of it recently when my wife and I were in London, riding down Oxford Street in a bus, past D. H. Evans, a department store. D. H. Evans, in 1947 or thereabouts, gave me the idea for my first serious paper. I was having lunch there one day and I noticed that the dining room was divided into two sections by moveable screens. On one side of the screens, the space was devoted to a self-service cafeteria, while the other side was devoted to waitress service. This led me to think how I would position the screens if I were the restaurant manager. …


Aims: The aim was to investigate the time trends in educational, occupational, and income-related inequalities in leisure time physical inactivity in 2006, 2010, and 2014 in northern Swedish women and men. Methods: This study was based on data obtained from the repeated cross-sectional Health on Equal Terms survey of 2006, 2010, and 2014. The analytical sample consisted of 20,667 (2006), 31,787 (2010), and 21,613 (2014) individuals, aged 16–84. Logistic regressions were used to model the probability of physical inactivity given a set of explanatory variables. Slope index of inequality (SII) and relative index of inequality (RII) were used as summary measures of the social gradient in physical inactivity. The linear trend in inequalities and difference between gender and years were estimated by interaction analyses. Results: The year 2010 displayed the highest physical inactivity inequalities for all socioeconomic position indicators, but educational and occupational inequalities decreased in 2014. However, significant positive linear trends were found in absolute and relative income inequalities. Moreover, women had significantly higher RII of education in physical inactivity in 2014 and significantly higher SII and RII of income in physical inactivity in 2010, than did men in the same years. Conclusions: The recent reduction in educational and occupational inequalities following the high inequalities around the time of the great recession in 2010 suggests that the current policies might be fairly effective. However, to eventually alleviate inequities in physical inactivity, the focus of the researchers and policymakers should be directed toward the widening trends of income inequalities in physical inactivity.


Kachchu is a simple localized dermatological infection of the genitoinguinal region, which occurs because of unhygienic observance, and manifests in the form of inflammation followed by secondary bacterial or fungal infections that can be best correlated to genitoinguinal intertrigo. Even though it rarely causes systemic manifestations, its mere presence itself is disturbing because of intractable itching and pain. It may delay the proper healing of the episiotomy wound and may cause difficulty in walking because of severe pain. Candida powder is the highest selling medicine for the intertrigo, as the incidence of intertrigo is as high as 40% in some particular seasons. In the Ayurveda fraternity, there is no established preparation that can be preserved safely in all the epochs of life in females and which is easy to apply. After understanding the disease in the perspective of the ayurvedic and modern medicinal systems, Khadiradi yoga choorna — a new ayurvedic formulation — was prepared on the basis of stringent ayurvedic principles. Hence, an attempt has been made to study the efficacy of the khadiradi yoga avachurnana1 in Kachchu, with special reference to genitoinguinal intertrigo in females.