The Marketing Code Authority (MCA) is a voluntary association for the self-regulation of companies that market health products in South Africa. The MCA's constitution is a "world first" in that the member companies originate from diverse sectors, i.e. innovator, generics and veterinary medicine, as well as medical device and in-vitro diagnostics. The 252 member companies joined the MCA to signify industry's commitment to ensure that health products are marketed to healthcare professionals and to the public in a responsible, ethical and professional manner.


This document proposes a collection of simplified models relevant to the design of new-physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the characterization of their results. Both ATLAS and CMS have already presented some results in terms of simplified models, and we encourage them to continue and expand this effort, which supplements both signature-based results and benchmark model interpretations. A simplified model is defined by an effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of a small number of new particles. Simplified models can equally well be described by a small number of masses and cross-sections. These parameters are directly related to collider physics observables, making simplified models a particularly effective framework for evaluating searches and a useful starting point for characterizing positive signals of new physics. This document serves as an official summary of the results from the 'Topologies for Early LHC Searches' workshop, held at SLAC in September of 2010, the purpose of which was to develop a set of representative models that can be used to cover all relevant phase space in experimental searches. Particular emphasis is placed on searches relevant for the first similar to 50-500 pb(-1) of data and those motivated by supersymmetric models. This note largely summarizes material posted at http://lhcnewphysics.org/, which includes simplified model definitions, Monte Carlo material, and supporting contacts within the theory community. We also comment on future developments that may be useful as more data is gathered and analyzed by the experiments.


We present high-contrast H-band polarized intensity (PI) images of the transitional disk around the young solar-like star GM Aur. The near-infrared direct imaging of the disk was derived by polarimetric differential imaging using the Subaru 8.2 m Telescope and HiCIAO. An angular resolution and an inner working angle of 0.″07 and r ∼ 0.″05, respectively, were obtained. We clearly resolved a large inner cavity, with a measured radius of 18 ± 2 au, which is smaller than that of a submillimeter interferometric image (28 au). This discrepancy in the cavity radii at near-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths may be caused by a 3–4 MJup planet about 20 au away from the star, near the edge of the cavity. The presence of a near-infrared inner cavity is a strong constraint on hypotheses for inner cavity formation in a transitional disk. A dust filtration mechanism has been proposed to explain the large cavity in the submillimeter image, but our results suggest that this mechanism must be combined with an additional process. We found that the PI slope of the outer disk is significantly different from the intensity slope obtained from HST/NICMOS, and this difference may indicate the grain growth process in the disk.


A thermal spray process has been developed for the deposition of ferrites and highly anisotropic composites of magnetic alloys and ferrites. The critical volume fraction for conduction is at 5 to 10 volumetric percent (vol.%) metal in these thick films as compared to 33 vol.% in isotropic mixtures of spheroidal particles. The low percolation threshold and highly anisotropic transport properties are associated with the unusual microstructure of thermal spray coatings which are composed of lamellar splats stacked one upon the other. By varying the volume fraction of metal in these composites it is possible to drastically change the electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties of these coatings. In the sintered mixture the conductivity increases rapidly when the metal volume fraction reaches about 33 vol.% whereas in the thermal spray coating the conductivity increase occurs at metal fractions of about 2-6 vol.%. The magnetoresistance was measured in the parallel, perpendicular and transverse geometry in each case in fields up to 2 kilogauss. There is a clear and sharp transition from giant magnetoresistance (GMR) (negative ΔR/R) to anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) at the percolation threshold in both cases. These results show that the GMR comes from the scattering of weakly exchange coupled spins in the polycrystalline ferrite which can be aligned in high fields decreasing the resistance. The AMR is in the conductive metallic phase and its field dependence is mainly controlled by the shape anisotropy of the disk shaped splats as expected.


T Pyxidis is the only recurrent nova known to be surrounded by knots of material ejected in previous outbursts. Following the eruption that began on 2011 April 14.29, we obtained seven epochs (from 4 to 383 days after eruption) of Hubble Space Telescope narrowband Hα images of T Pyx. The ionizing flash of radiation from the nova event had no discernible effect on the surrounding ejecta until at least 55 days after the eruption began. Photoionization of hydrogen located north and south of the central star was seen 132 days after the beginning of the eruption. That photoionized hydrogen recombined in the following 51 days, allowing us to determine a hydrogen atom density of at least 7 × 10 5 cm − 3 ?> —at least an order of magnitude denser than the previously detected, unresolved [N ii] knots surrounding T Pyx. Material to the northwest and southeast was photoionized, and became bright between 132 and 183 days after the eruption began. Ninety-nine days later that northwest and southeast hydrogen had recombined. Both then (282 days after outburst) and 101 days later, we detected almost no trace of hydrogen emission around T Pyx. We determine that there is a large reservoir of previously unseen, cold diffuse hydrogen overlapping the previously detected, [N ii]-emitting knots of T Pyx ejecta. The mass of this newly detected hydrogen is model-dependent, but is is probably an order of magnitude larger than that of the [N ii] knots. We also determine that there is no significant reservoir of undetected hydrogen-rich ejecta, with density comparable to the flash-ionized ejecta we have detected, from the outer boundaries of the previously detected ejecta out to about twice that distance. The lack of distant ejecta is consistent with the Schaefer et al. scenario for T Pyx, in which the star underwent its first eruption within five years of 1866 after many millennia of quiescence, followed by the six observed recurrent nova eruptions since 1890. The lack of distant ejecta, demonstrated by our observations, is not consistent with scenarios in which T Pyx has been erupting continuously as a recurrent nova for many centuries or millennia.


In recent years, weak-form bills of rights have generated much excitement in contemporary constitutional scholarship because they are believed to create a new balance between parliamentary and judicial supremacy based on inter-branch "dialogue" between courts and legislatures. Few scholars, however, have examined the foundational question of whether judges and legislators can actually be expected to behave in a way that realizes the dialogic potential of weak-form instruments. This Article takes a new approach to this question, applying the insights of positive theory to engage in a comprehensive assessment of the behavior we can realistically expect of courts and legislatures in both strongand weak-form systems of judicial review. To the extent that there are discernable differences between systems regarding how the judiciary and the legislature interact, the Article claims that this behavior is more likely to be driven by the existence of structural and/or strategic impediments to effective political action in a particular constitutional system, rather than by any normative desire that judges and legislators may have to engage in inter-branch "dialogue." This analysis does not lead to the conclusion, however, that the concept of dialogue should be completely discarded. Instead, the Article takes its positive analysis one step further to claim that weak-form theorists have simply been looking for dialogue in the wrong place. In fact, all systems of judicial review, both strongand weak-form, should be understood as generating a broader form of society-wide dialogue between the judiciary, the political branches and the people about the meaning and interpretation of fundamental rights.


Thirty-five new Rb-Sr whole-rock and mineral isochrons are reported for igneous rocks from Graham Land. Magmatism was essentially continuous but peaks of activity occurred in early Jurassic, early Cretaceous, late Cretaceous and Eocene times. The oldest dated granite is Triassic (209 ± 3 Ma). Volcanic rocks were erupted throughout this history and some previously supposed Upper Jurassic volcanic rocks must be mid-Cretaceous or younger. A change in magma type, from uniformly acid to predominantly basic or intermediate, combined with westward migration of the arc, may be partly responsible for previously reported transverse geochemical variations. There is a marked trend of decreasing initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of the plutonic rocks with time, from c. 0.707 to 0.704, although volcanic rocks tend to have higher values. This trend is ascribed to the waning influence of an, as yet unidentified, pre-magmatic crustal basement, due to increasing depth of magma generation. Close parallels to the observed age pattern imply continuity of the Andean belt through southern South America into Graham Land back to early Mesozoic times and are not compatible with reconstructions of Gondwana in which the Antarctic Peninsula is located W of South America.


One of the special arrangements in testing contexts is to allow dyslexic students to listen to the text while they read. In our study, we investigated the effect of read-aloud assistance on young English learners' language comprehension scores. We also examined whether students with dyslexia identification benefit from this assistance differently from their peers with no official identification of dyslexia. Our research was conducted with young Slovenian learners of English who performed four language assessment tasks adapted from a standardized battery of Slovenian national English language tests. In a counter-balanced design, 233 students with no identified dyslexia and 47 students with dyslexia identification completed two language comprehension tasks in a reading-only condition, one task with read-aloud assistance and one task in listening-only mode. We used Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Modelling (GLMM) to estimate accurately the effects of the mode of administration, dyslexia status, and input text difficulty, while accounting for error variance owing to random differences between students, texts, and questions. The results of our study revealed that young L2 learners with no dyslexia identification performed similarly in the three conditions. The read-aloud assistance, however, was found to increase the comprehension scores of dyslexic participants when reading difficult texts, allowing them to perform at the level of their non-dyslexic peers. Therefore, our study suggests that this modification of the test administration mode might assist dyslexic students in demonstrating their text comprehension abilities.


This innovative history of British art museums begins in the early 19th century. The National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London may have been at the center of activity, but museums in cities such as Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Nottingham were immensely popular and attracted enthusiastic audiences. The People's Galleries traces the rise of art museums in Britain through World War I, focusing on the phenomenon of municipal galleries. This richly illustrated book argues that these regional museums represented a new type of institution: an art gallery for a working-class audience, appropriate for the rapidly expanding cities and shaped by liberal ideals. As their broad appeal weakened with the new century, they adapted and became more conventional. Using a wide range of sources, the book studies the patrons and the publics, the collecting policies, the temporary exhibitions, and the architecture of these institutions, as well as the complex range of reasons for their foundation.


Three new genera, Atlantocarpus, Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora, are described from the Early Cretaceous of North America and Portugal based on floral structures with multicarpellate and apocarpous gynoecia that have been studied using scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy. Lambertiflora and Mugideiriflora have numerous perianth parts in several series, as well as many stamens and many carpels borne on a short conical receptacle. Atlantocarpus has many carpels arranged spirally on an elongated receptacle. Perianth and stamens are not preserved in Atlantocarpus, but scars of two sizes at the base of the receptacle indicate the presence of several series of tepals and stamens. Phylogenetic assessment of the three new genera indicates close relationships with members of extant Austrobaileyales, which is also favoured by the apparently ascidiate carpels of Atlantocarpus. However, the phylogenetic signal is not strong and the fossils also share many features with magnoliid angiosperms. Fully secure resolution of their relationships is hampered by lack of information of critical floral features in the fossil material, the constellation of likely plesiomorphic characters that they exhibit, and inadequate knowledge of character homologies and character evolution among extant taxa. There is also the broader concern about whether phylogenetic patterns can be reliably inferred for the earliest phases of angiosperm evolution based solely on a depauperate assemblage of extant taxa given extensive extinction over the last 100 million years. The new genera add to growing evidence of diverse extinct angiosperms with multiparted flowers during the Early Cretaceous that have a variety of relationships to extant ANA-grade angiosperms and magnoliids.


Previous workers have described five species of the blastoid genus Orbitremites from the Lower Carboniferous of Britain. The original aim of the present work was to study the variation and relative growth in each of these species, and the supposed evolutionary differences between the species from successive geological horizons. The recorded distribution of these five species has been reviewed, and where possible the older records have been confirmed by collecting new samples. The type species Orbitremites derbiensis has been collected from four localities, all in the D2 Subzone (Upper Visean). Another species, O. ellipticus, has been collected at three localities, all in the C2 Subzone (Lower Visean). But the other three species, O. orbicularis, O. campanulatus and O. mccoyi, have been found only in association with O. ellipticus. Two samples of Orbitremites were collected, comprising 581 specimens of O. derbiensis from the Middle Limestone of Grassington, Yorkshire, and 112 specimens from the Upper Clitheroe Limestone of Clitheroe, Lancashire, which included representatives of the other four species. Examination of the Clitheroe sample revealed that the forms previously described as distinct species are connected by intermediate forms. O. ellipticus and O. orbicularis are merely shape variants of the adult form of a single species, the difference in shape being described by their respective names. In many young individuals the base of the calyx is broad relative to that in larger specimens, and it is concluded that O. mccoyi is a young form of O. ellipticus and similarly O. campanulatus is a young form of O. orbicularis. As O. mccoyi and O. campanulatus are junior synonyms of 0. ellipticus, only two British species of Orbitremites were available for the later part of the study. Measurements of height, diameter, the sizes of the component plates and counts of the number of the ambulacral plates were made on all specimens sufficiently well preserved (Grassington 188 specimens, Clitheroe 40 specimens). Slight differences in the sizes of the component plates in each of the interambulacra of an individual were found to contribute to the errors of measurement. There is considerable variation in size because each of the samples consists of an assemblage of individuals which died at various ages, and so constitutes a growth series. The sample mean and the sample variance could not be used as a basis of comparison between the samples because the frequency distribution of size bears an unknown relationship to that in the original living community, due to bias resulting from differential mortality and further bias arising during preservation and collection. There is a strong positive correlation of all the variates with the size of the individual, so masking the true relationship between them. This difficulty has been overcome by the use of partial correlation. In O. derbiensis it was found that some variates are correlated, but in all cases the relationship appears to be based on the mechanical necessity that the component plates of the blastoid should fit together. None of the scatter diagrams for pairs of variates show any curvature in their general trend, and so in each case the relative growth relationship has been expressed as an equation for a straight line. The slope and intercept of the reduced major axis, and the standard error of each of these parameters, has been calculated for all pairs of variates in both samples. Growth is isometric for some pairs of variates, but in other cases the intercept of the relative growth line is significantly different from the origin, indicating important changes in shape during the young stages. The slope and intercept of the relative growth curves have been used as a basis of comparison between the samples. There is no significant difference in shape, as expressed by height and diameter, between O. derbiensis and O. ellipticus. In O. derbiensis the number of ambulacral plates relative to size is slightly greater than in O. eliptcus, due to an increase in the relative number on the deltoid region. There is no significant difference in the relative number of ambulacral plates on the radial region. As would be expected from the general appearance of the two species, there are large significant differences in the relative sizes of the component radial and deltoid plates. As only two British species, instead of five, were available for the later part of the work, the comparison inevitably fell short of one of its original aims as an evolutionary study. However, fifteen species of Orbitremites have been recorded from North America, all of which are geologically older than the two British species, and in common with O. ellipticus the deltoid is never larger than the radial plate. In contrast, in O. derbins, and also in O. malaianus from the Permian of Timor, the deltoid is larger than the radial plate. Whether this sequence indicates a general evolutionary trend within the genus can only be determined by a similar study based on the American species of Orbitremites.


The use of the Tok Pisin particle i, traditionally known as the "predicate marker," is shown to be overwhelmingly subject to two constraints, i.e., that of "nondeictic" use (as controlled by subject arguments), and that of "resumptive" use, with the latter sometimes overriding the former. Here, nondeictic means any nonpronominal or pronominal nonfirst and nonsecond person NP. The hypothesis concerning the first constraint seems weakened by apparent counterevidence in the use of i as triggered by -pela pronouns, by the failure of prima facie nondeictic subjects in equa-tional constructions to trigger the use of i, and by the use of i with follow-up verbs in serial constructions and with downstairs verbs in causative constructions. However, all these apparent exceptions are shown either to serve primarily resumptive rules or to be in fact compatible with the non-deixis rule. A corollary reviews openness of i to reanalysis as a copula.


We developed two radiation mapping algorithms that can handle different situations based on prior information of the search area. The algorithms were developed in the framework of model-driven measurement, where a world model was used to drive measurement collection, and measurements were used to update the world model.We developed and experimentally tested a robotic implementation of two Bayesian-based radiation mapping strategies in two dimensions, using a commercially available desktop mobile robot fitted with a CsI radiation sensor. Our approach for implementing the Bayesian radiation mapping algorithms was to drive the robot over each segment of the search area, in real time, according to the radiation counts collected by the sensor. Future research directions include extensions to three-dimensional mapping; exploring and characterizing the tradeoffs between time efficiency, map confidence level, and utilization of prior knowledge information; as well as the implementation of Bayesian statistics for the online update of the world model.


This study examines factors that determine business people's attitudes towards paying taxes in Ethiopia. Based on data obtained from a survey of business taxpayers in Addis Ababa, the study finds a statistically significant relation between tax-compliance attitude and factors such as the perception of probability of audit, corruption, satisfaction with the tax administration, peer influence, gender and education. The study emphasises the need for better understanding of why taxpayers are dissatisfied with the tax administration, including perceptions of corrupt practices.


Writers in Africa who have taken a critical view of their society have variously been designated as dissidents, traitors, or rebels by the political regimes. In most cases such writers have been forced into exile or placed in detention for their writing and their works banned in their countries. However, such writers have often only expressed the growing disillusionment characteristic of the post-independence African countries even in the recent democratic dispensation. Writers forced into exile have continued to write critical works about their countries besides taking stock of their new surroundings of exile. While postmodernism posits cosmopolitanism or nomadic existence as normal, where exile is home, this article argues that for Frank Chipasula exile could not become home because the local politics of former president for life and dictator in Malawi, Dr. H.K. Banda, and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) haunted his exile. This forced Chipasula in his poetry to engage with Banda's regime even from exile, resisting the tyranny with the terms of a guerrilla fighter hence his work could be called dissident writing. In his nomadic existence as an exile, Chipasula worries less about where he is than about his home country, Malawi. This article uses poems from his collection, Whispers in the Wings to examine the relationship between Chipasula as a poet in exile and his society in Malawi.


OBJECTIVES:: 1) To compare two published methods for estimating pleural pressure, one based on directly measured esophageal pressure and the other based on chest wall elastance. 2) To evaluate the agreement between two published positive end-expiratory pressure optimization strategies based on these methods, one targeting an end-expiratory esophageal pressure-based transpulmonary pressure of 0 cm H2O and the other targeting an end-inspiratory elastance-based transpulmonary pressure of 26 cm H2O. DESIGN:: Retrospective study using clinical data. SETTING:: Medical and surgical ICUs. PATIENTS:: Sixty-four patients mechanically ventilated for acute respiratory failure with esophageal balloons placed for clinical management. METHODS:: Esophageal pressure and chest wall elastance-based methods for estimating pleural pressure and setting positive end-expiratory pressure were retrospectively applied to each of 64 patients. In patients who were ventilated at two positive end-expiratory pressure levels, chest wall and respiratory system elastances were calculated at each positive end-expiratory pressure level. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:: The pleural pressure estimates using both methods were discordant and differed by as much as 10 cm H2O for a given patient. The two positive end-expiratory pressure optimization strategies recommended positive end-expiratory pressure changes in opposite directions in % of patients. The ideal positive end-expiratory pressure levels recommended by the two methods for each patient were discordant and uncorrelated (R = 0.05). Chest wall and respiratory system elastances increased with increases in positive end-expiratory pressure in patients with positive end-expiratory esophageal pressure-based transpulmonary pressures (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:: Esophageal pressure and chest wall elastance-based methods for estimating pleural pressure do not yield similar results. The strategies of targeting an end-expiratory esophageal pressure-based transpulmonary pressure of 0 cm H2O and targeting an end-inspiratory elastance-based transpulmonary pressure of 26 cm H2O cannot be considered interchangeable. Finally, chest wall and respiratory system elastances may vary unpredictably with changes in positive end-expiratory pressure. (Crit Care Med 201;41:0-0).


To choose restaurants and coffee shops, people are increasingly relying on social-networking sites. In a popular site such as Foursquare or Yelp, a place comes with descriptions and reviews, and with profile pictures of people who frequent them. Descriptions and reviews have been widely explored in the research area of data mining. By contrast, profile pictures have received little attention. Previous work showed that people are able to partly guess a place's ambiance, clientele, and activities not only by observing the place itself but also by observing the profile pictures of its visitors. Here we further that work by determining which visual cues people may have relied upon to make their guesses; showing that a state-of-the-art algorithm could make predictions more accurately than humans at times; and demonstrating that the visual cues people relied upon partly differ from those of the algorithm.


Objective: To analyze the risk of elderly patients with osteoporotic fracture and to discuss the factors of rehabilitation nursing.
Methods: 150 cases of senile fracture patients treated in our hospital from May 2016 to May 2017 were selected as the research object, and were divided into non-osteoporotic fracture group (n=100) and osteoporotic fracture group (n=50) according to the nature of fracture. The Logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors of osteoporotic fracture in the elderly and the specific rehabilitation nursing countermeasures were discussed.
Results: No significant difference in body weight, blood lipid, smoking, drinking and comorbidity between the two groups (P>0.05). There were significant differences in sex, age, adequate light or not, and bone mineral density (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis shown that female, older age and lower bone density were independent risk factors for osteoporotic fracture in the elderly (OR: 2.885, 3.233, 3.885, 95% CI: 1.450~4.225, 1.720~5.774, 1.898~6.774, P<0.05).
Conclusion: Female gender, older age, lower bone mineral density were independent risk factors for osteoporotic fracture in the elderly, the instruction of exercise rehabilitation to be guided to prevent the complications, diet and medication care, psychological intervention, discharge guidance can help improve effects of nursing care, to improve patient's prognosis.


Greece's labour market entered the COVID-19 shock following several years of sustained employment growth and with wages picking up. Unemployment remained high and employment rates were low, especially among women, the young and older workers. The shock led to a sharp fall in labour force activity and has stalled new hiring. The improved social protection and temporary support measures have helped to support households' incomes and protect jobs during the COVID-19 crisis. However, high tax and social security contribution rates, together with little in-work support for the low-paid, continue abetting high structural informality. This heightens insecurity – by excluding many workers from activation policies or social and employment protection – and weakens productivity. Boosting the capacity of employment services and activation policies would support the recovery from the COVID-19 shock, in addition to durably improving employment prospects especially of long-term unemployed. Giving workplaces further flexibility to adapt collective agreements to specific circumstances would help align wage growth with productivity developments and help businesses to weather the COVID-19 shock. Building on the population's solid education levels by equipping workers with the skills needed by the labour market can support employment and incomes. This will require a substantial boost to professional education and training at all levels and ages. This chapter applies the 2018 OECD Jobs Strategy to Greece to identify reforms that can help to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and create a virtuous cycle between productivity, job creation, and well-being.


On the E side of Hudson Bay, the NW margin of the Archaean Superior Structural Province is overlain by an unmetamorphosed, little deformed, Early Proterozoic supracrustal sequence. The sequence is divisible into three parts, possible tectosomes, each characterized by a distinct style of mineralization. The arkosic, alluvial Richmond Gulf Group was shed eastward from a thermal uplift and has been preserved only in a later aulacogen, the Richmond Gulf Graben. It contains an apatite-cemented redbed. Secondly, a widespread post-aulacogen, carbonate-rich, W-facing miogeocline blanketed the region. A pyritic zone developed at its basal contact is particularly thick and hosts disseminated copper mineralization where formed on the arkose in the graben. A pyritic, brecciated, stromatolite-rich horizon within the carbonate contains galena and sphalerite. Thirdly, widespread iron formation and a local 60 cm thick manganese carbonate bed, overlying W-derived basalt flows, flysch and arkosic molasse, all of uncertain tectonic affinity, terminate the sequence.


Video background modeling, used to detect moving objects in digital videos, is a ubiquitous pre-processing step in computer vision applications. Principal Component Pursuit (PCP) PCP is among the leading methods for this problem. In this paper we proposed a new convex formulation for PCP, substituting the standard ℓ1 regularization with a projection onto the ℓ1-ball. This formulation offers an advantage over the known incremental PCP methods in practical parameter selection and ghosting suppression, while retaining the ability to be implemented in a fully incremental fashion, keeping all the desired properties related to such PCP methods (low memory footprint, adaptation to changes in the background, computational complexity that allows online processing).


Abstract Brucellosis is a transmissible bacterial zoonotic disease caused by Gram-negative coccobacillus bacteria of the genus Brucella. The disease severely hinders the livestock industry and human health. In several instances, infected animals act as carriers for the cross-species transmission of brucellosis. Social issues, poor husbandry practices, irregularities in the marketing and movement of domestic animals, and lack of coordination between veterinary and human health services are some of the key factors responsible for the transmission and prevalence of Brucellosis. Human contact with infected domestic animals is often the transmission route of Brucellosis infection. Therefore, human brucellosis could be eradicated globally by eradicating animal brucellosis. This review describes the current status of brucellosis and the risk factors of the disease in animals and the human population. In addition, there is a further discussion of the various issues related to the control and prevention of brucellosis in domestic animals and humans. 1. Introduction. 2. Historical background of Brucellosis. 3. Prevalence of brucellosis 4. Taxonomy 5. Epidemiology of Brucellosis 6. Risk factors for brucellosis 7. Transmission. 8. Clinical Symptoms. 9. Human brucellosis. 10. Diagnosis of brucellosis 11. Detection of Brucella organisms. 12. Serological tests. 13. Molecular diagnostic methods. 14. Control and prevention of brucellosis


This is Part 2 of 5 in the series of evidence statements from the IOC expert committee on exercise and pregnancy in recreational and elite athletes. Part 1 focused on the effects of training during pregnancy and on the management of common pregnancy-related symptoms experienced by athletes. In Part 2, we focus on maternal and fetal perinatal outcomes.


BACKGROUND
 Online misinformation proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern.

 OBJECTIVE
 We aimed to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation exposure and beliefs, associated factors including psychological distress with misinformation exposure, and the associations between COVID-19 knowledge and number of preventive behaviors.

 METHODS
 A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 1049 South Korean adults in April 2020. Respondents were asked about receiving COVID-19 misinformation using 12 items identified by the World Health Organization. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for the association of receiving misinformation with sociodemographic characteristics, source of information, COVID-19 misinformation belief, and psychological distress, as well as the associations of COVID-19 misinformation belief with COVID-19 knowledge and the number of COVID-19 preventive behaviors among those who received the misinformation. All data were weighted according to the Korea census data in 2018.

 RESULTS
 Overall, 67.78% (n=711) of respondents reported exposure to at least one COVID-19 misinformation item. Misinformation exposure was associated with younger age, higher education levels, and lower income. Sources of information associated with misinformation exposure were social networking services (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.20-2.32) and instant messaging (aOR 1.79, 1.27-2.51). Misinformation exposure was also associated with psychological distress including anxiety (aOR 1.80, 1.24-2.61), depressive (aOR 1.47, 1.09-2.00), and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR 1.97, 1.42-2.73), as well as misinformation belief (aOR 7.33, 5.17-10.38). Misinformation belief was associated with poorer COVID-19 knowledge (high: aOR 0.62, 0.45-0.84) and fewer preventive behaviors (≥7 behaviors: aOR 0.54, 0.39-0.74).

 CONCLUSIONS
 COVID-19 misinformation exposure was associated with misinformation belief, while misinformation belief was associated with fewer preventive behaviors. Given the potential of misinformation to undermine global efforts in COVID-19 disease control, up-to-date public health strategies are required to counter the proliferation of misinformation.


Equilibrium thermodynamic laws are typically applied to horizons in general relativity without stating the conditions that bring them into equilibrium. We fill this gap by applying a new thermodynamic interpretation to a generalized Raychaudhuri equation for a worldsheet orthogonal to a closed spacelike 2–surface, the "screen", which encompasses a system of arbitrary size in nonequilibrium with its surroundings in general. In the case of spherical symmetry this enables us to identify quasilocal thermodynamic potentials directly related to standard quasilocal energy definitions. Quasilocal thermodynamic equilibrium is defined by minimizing the mean extrinsic curvature of the screen. Moreover, without any direct reference to surface gravity, we find that the system comes into quasilocal thermodynamic equilibrium when the screen is located at a generalized apparent horizon. Examples of the Schwarzschild, Friedmann–Lemâıtre and Lemâıtre–Tolman geometries are investigated and compared. Conditions for the quasilocal thermodynamic and hydrodynamic equilibrium states to coincide are also discussed, and a quasilocal virial relation is suggested as a potential application of this approach. PACS numbers: 04.20.Cv, 04.70.-s, 04.70.Dy, 98.80.-k Class. Quantum Grav. 32 (2015) 165011 Quasilocal energy and thermodynamic equilibrium conditions 2


This book is a study of the role of the imagination. It focuses on the imaginative use of language in literature (poetry and narrative prose); but it also touches on some more comprehensive issues, for the questions it discusses are questions regarding the relationship between mind, reality and unreality. The first two chapters survey the thinking about the imagination in the history of philosophy. The main trends and the main problems are discussed, particularly in respect of the (positive or negative) evaluation of imagination. The subsequent chapters investigate the role of the imagination from a closer point of view. How is it that imagination appears in literary art? Central topics of discussion are the nature of narrativity, of fictional discourse and fictional objects, of realistic fiction, of symbolism and metaphor. Moreover, the similarities (both real and imagined) between literature and the other arts are explored. In all chapters attention is paid to the problem of the value of art and literary imagination. The last chapter addresses this issue head-on. In particular, it attempts to define the value of literature in relation to science.


A system dynamics modelling approach is adopted to deepen understanding of the effects of operational management on the performance of the Greater Kirkwood water supply system in South Africa. Currently, the interrupted operation of the system has led to perceptions of systemic social injustice on the part of citizens and contention between the municipality responsible for supplying water to the citizens and the Water User Association responsible for delivering untreated water to the municipality. The model is used as a means of exploring the technical constraints of the water supply system, and of supporting discussions between stakeholders about contentious issues, and the ways they can address these issues. Research on the utility of the model as a means of supporting strategic conversations between stakeholders (cf. Howick & Eden, 2010) is ongoing.


This beautiful book allows the reader to appreciate the complexities and subtleties of Ottoman art and architecture as a whole, while simultaneously learning more about the history of one of the world's most magnificent cities - Istanbul. Bridging the gap between the specialist scholar and the educated general reader, the history of the city is discussed, from the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453 up to the beginning of the twentieth century when the Ottoman Empire was finally dismantled following the First World War. This historical background appears alongside descriptions and illustrations of Ottoman architecture, regalia, textiles, books, ceramics, calligraphy and painting. Throughout, Yeomans presents the exhilarating alternative of Ottoman art, with its meaning expressed through non-figurative form rather than through the symbol systems and narrative of Western art.


From March 12–14, 1993, up to 1 m of snow fell on the northeast United States, with central Pennsylvania receiving some of the largest accumulations. The rain-on-snow events that followed provided a unique opportunity to monitor episodic acidification and fluctuations in dissolved aluminum concentrations during extreme flows in three forested Appalachian Plateau basins in north-central Pennsylvania. These events produced peak flows 2–5 times greater than previously monitored flows in the basins we studied, and in the Susquehanna River Basin, March discharge was the highest sustained flow on record.

High flows during the event were accompanied by greater streamflow dilution by rain and meltwater and shifts to surface and near-surface hydrologic flow paths, which reduced contact of water with the soil matrix. In the three basins we monitored, these extreme flows caused little water quality degradation relative to earlier events of lesser magnitude. High flows resulted in stream acidification due to base cation dilution rather than increased acid anion concentrations as found in previously monitored events. Total dissolved aluminum concentrations peaked and then remained nearly constant as flow increased during the event; however, aluminum concentrations were elevated above levels toxic to native trout populations in these streams for an extended period of time.


An approximation is obtained for the recession of a sloping aquifer. The analytical approximation can provide a useful tool to analyze data and obtain physical properties of the aquifer. In contrast to the case of a horizontal aquifer, when plotting the time derivative of the flux versus the flux on a log scale, the result shows that the flux derivative reaches a minimum value and that the curve can have a slope of unity as often observed. Illustration of the application of the analytical results to the Mahantango Creek data is also discussed.


Newspaper executives have been struggling for the past decade to slow the sharp and unprecedented decline of their industry. While no effort has worked, one promising business model would be to charge for access to online content. But only the rarest industry leaders have felt comfortable making the move to a paid-content model without industry-wide agreement, and such an agreement would be a per se violation of U.S. antitrust law. Unlike in other areas of the law, antitrust law does not permit courts to make policy judgments and approve of "good" agreements to restrain trade or fix prices, even when such a move would further antitrust policy interests. Exemptions can only come from Congress. This Comment argues that, because of the newspaper industry's vital role in generating new information that supports American democratic society, Congress should pass a narrow and temporary exemption from the collusion and price-fixing prohibition in Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Such an exemption would allow newspaper executives to work together on a sustainable online business model for the press, thereby preserving the American corps of professional newsgatherers. That, in turn, would stabilize contributions to the marketplace of information and ideas and would slow the consolidation and concentration of newspaper ownership. Both of these outcomes would advance a primary goal of antitrust law — increase in consumer options.


Photoinhibition may constitute an energetic cost for photosynthetic organisms through damage to the photosynthetic apparatus, or by increased metabolism due to damage avoidance or repair. For several species of scleractinian corals, fluorescence techniques have revealed a significant reduction in photochemical efficiency of symbiotic dinoflagellates within coral tissue in response to excess light absorption. To date, it has been unclear whether or not photoinhibition has a negative impact on energy budgets in corals. We simultaneously quantified the effect of exposure to excessive light on net rates of photosynthesis and on fluorescence-derived photochemistry. We acclimated colonies of the reef-building coral Turbinaria mesenterina to 3 different irradiance regimes in the laboratory. The corals were then exposed to light levels up to 10 times higher than their acclimation irradiance and assayed for rates of photosynthesis and photochemical yields. Results indicated that daily costs of photoinhibition are negligible. Reduced net rates of photosynthesis in the afternoon, compared to the morning, were predominantly due to enhanced afternoon rates of dark respiration. However, photoacclimation to high light levels reduces daily energy acquisition in the long term, primarily due to decreased chlorophyll concentrations. Therefore, although changes in the photosynthetic activity of symbiotic dinoflagellates over a diurnal irradiance cycle do not cause a measurable decline in net oxygen evolution for coral colonies, repeated exposure to excessive irradiance can reduce energy acquisition per unit surface area, and hence influence the upper limit of the depth distribution of scleractinian corals.


The much-discussed Arizona immigration statute, SB 1070, continues an effort – this time at the legislative level – to broaden the discretionary power of law enforcement. Yet, a fascinating question lies at the base of the public's pervasive criticism of the Act: where have all the critics been? Numerous Supreme Court cases already allow for law enforcement to engage in the very practice – racial and ethnic profiling premised on "reasonable suspicion" – that has incited the emotions of so many citizens nationwide. This Article therefore argues that the Arizona's SB 1070, while notable for the public response to it, is merely emblematic of a much larger and systemic problem that exists because of the collective core holdings from several Supreme Court Fourth Amendment cases. Indeed, law enforcement stops of persons lawfully present in the United States using an "illegal immigrant" profile have existed since the mid-1970s and will remain permissible regardless of the Act's ultimate fate. Several Supreme Court cases already bestow upon local law enforcement an inordinate amount of discretionary power both on the street and in an automobile. The combination of that power alongside the immigration consequences for a criminal violation provides law enforcement with a level of power and discretion comparable to that bestowed by the Arizona Act. Thus, although citizens may object to its enactment, one thing is clear: SB 1070 does not violate the Fourth Amendment.


In this study, 120 British male mice, weighing 35-40 g, and 5 months old were used. Three groups, one control (Group I) and two experimental (Groups II and III), were formed. One experimental group (Group II) received 60 Hz and 5 mT, while the other (Group III) received 90 Hz frequency and 5 mT magnetic flux density efficacy electromagnetic field (EMF), between 900 and 1700. During this period, blood was taken every hour and blood electrolyte levels (Ca++, P+++, Na+, K+, Cl-) were evaluated. In conclusion, in almost all periods and groups only sodium and calcium levels showed a steady decrease, while potassium levels increased when compared to the control group. However, these changes were not significant in most periods (p > 0.05).


Sun Y., Holm P.E., Liu F., 2014. Alternate partial root-zone drying irrigation improves fruit quality in tomatoes. Hort. Sci. (Prague), 41: 185–191. Alternate partial root-zone drying (PRD) irrigation and deficit irrigation (DI) are water-saving irrigation strategies. Here, comparative effects of PRD and DI on fruit quality of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) were investigated. The results showed that the irrigation treatments had no effect on tomato yield but significantly affected several organic and mineral quality attributes of the fruits. Compared to DI, PRD significantly increased the fruit concentrations of Ca and Mg, and fruit juice concentrations of total soluble solid, glucose, fructose, citric and malic acid, P, K and Mg. It is concluded that PRD is better than DI in terms of improving fruit quality, and could be a promising management strategy for simultaneous increase of water use efficiency and fruit quality in tomatoes.


Introduction: Hypothyroidism is one the most complication due to iron overload in patients with β-thalassemia major (TM). On the other hand these patients are prone to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection that can cause thyroid dysfunction by itself or as the side effect of treatment with interferon (INF) or IFN plus ribavirin. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association of hypothyroidism with HCV positivity and serum ferritin levels in patients with TM. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 201 randomly selected patients with TM who were registered at the Thalassemia Clinic of a tertiary hospital in Shiraz, southern Iran were investigated. Thyroid function tests and serologic screening assays for HCV seropositivity (HCV Ab and HCV-RNA) were conducted for all patients. Results: Frequency of hypothyroidism was 22.9% including 19.9% subclinical hypothyroidism, 2% primary overt hypothyroidism and 1% central hypothyroidism. Eighty six patients (42.8%) were HCV Ab positive and 60 patients (29.9%) were HCV RNA positive. No significant relationship was found between hypothyroidism and HCV positivity or receiving IFN-α (P>0.05). Hypothyroidism showed a borderline significant association with high serum ferritin levels in TM patients (P=0.055). Conclusion: Our results showed no significant association between hypothyroidism and HCV infection in TM patients. It seems that the main mechanism of hypothyroidism in our patients is iron overload; however, for better evaluation a larger multicenter study is recommended. Also due to the importance of consequences of HCV infection, more careful pre-transfusional screening of blood should be considered in TM patients.(www.actabiomedica.it)


Using British panel data, we explore the finding that households often expect their financial position to remain unchanged compared to other alternatives, using a gener- alised middle inflated ordered probit (GMIOP ) model. In doing so we account for the tendency of individuals to choose 'neutral' responses when faced with attitudinal and opinion-based questions, which are a common feature of survey data. Our empirical analysis strongly supports the use of a GMIOP model to account for this response pattern. Expectations indices based on competing discrete choice models are then ex- ploited to explore the role that financial expectations play in driving the consumption of different types of durable goods and the amount of expenditure undertaken. Whilst financial optimism is significantly associated with consumption, indices which fail to take into account middle-inflation are found to overestimate the impact of financial expectations.


Glycomacropeptide (GMP) is a milk-derived bioactive peptide that comprises 15–20% of proteins present in whey, being the third most abundant. It is released from κ -casein by enzymatic digestion, either physiologically or in industry during cheese making process. GMP has many biological activities that are of particular interest for the manufacture of novel functional foods. Specifically, health promoting activities of this whey peptide are related to: antimicrobial, anticariogenic, gastric acid inhibitory, cholecystokinin releasing, prebiotic, and immune modulatory. GMP is also a peptide with promising use in food industry, due to its nutritional value and its emulsifying, foaming, and gelling properties. Besides, GMP has received much attention due to its use as an indicator of milk adulteration with cheese whey. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge about biological activities of GMP, going in-depth in immune regulatory properties, exposes the potential uses of GMP in industry, and finally reviews different methods used to detect GMP as adulteration index with cheese whey. and TNF- α and on STAT4 activation when cells were stimulated by A in of GMP. The same team studied the action of GMP on monocyte cell line THP-1 and they found that GMP increases the secretion


Dramatically declining employment and rising unemployment rates have characterized the labour market in Eastern Germany since economic, monetary and social union. This is the first empirical study which analyses the development of the wage structure after the union. With a large and growing slack in the labour market, downward pressure on wages might have been anticipated. Yet, wages climbed higher after unification due to the threat of migration and the process of wage bargaining. The Labour Market Monitor - a unique longitudinal survey of GDR residents taken between November 1990 and November 1991 - is used to estimate the extent of job turnover and wage differentials attributable to industries and firm size. It is then examined whether a positive association between wage changes and employment change exists, as postulated by wage competition models. However, the instruments for adjusting shortages (and surpluses) of labour. In this model high wage firms need only to open vacancies in order to expand employment. Empirically, we find that the changes in the pattern of industrial wage differentials are consistent with the job competition model, whereas the firm size wage differentials reflect the interplay of short-run shifts in labour demand and supply curves. Thus, it may be that fast transition process in Eastern Germany is being assisted by the prevailing industry and firm size wage structure.


Enhanced resilience should be a key component for buildings located in disaster prone areas to minimise negative environmental impacts, and facilitate security and community continuity. The primary emphasis of current building codes is to provide minimum levels of life safety. Thus, for hurricanes, floods, storm surges, wildland fires and other events where evacuation can be managed in a timely fashion the minimum requirements tend to be lacking with regard to providing adequate property protection and facilitating community preparedness; mitigation; response, relief and recovery. The resulting destruction typically results in excessive amounts of: 1) materials disposed in landfills; 2) resources expended on disaster response, relief, and recovery; 3) time required for services, residents, and businesses to return. The concepts of enhanced resilience are discussed and a set of recommended code criteria are provided for use in disaster prone areas and for designing sustainable buildings.


An experiment was conducted to understand how people disclose their health experiences online and the effects of frame selection on behavioral intentions. Participants were asked to respond to a narrative or an informational message in an online discussion of a common health issue. Four original generic frames—the reconstruction, suffering, advice/support, and denial/reactance frames—were used to analyze health disclosures and the subsequent effects. The results revealed that narrative messages encouraged participants to use the advice/support frame more frequently. Those who used the advice/support frame tended to be more frequently involved in the transformation mode and reported greater intentions of engaging in the behavior that might alleviate the health problem. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


In this paper, we describe the musical development of a new system for performing electronic music where a video-based eye movement recording system, known as Oculog, is used to control sound. Its development is discussed against a background that includes a brief history of biologically based interfaces for performing music, together with a survey of various recording systems currently in use for monitoring eye movement in clinical applications. Oculog is discussed with specific reference to its implementation as a performance interface for electronic music. A new work features algorithms driven by eye movement response and allows the user to interact with audio synthesis and introduces new possibilities for microtonal performance. Discussion reflects an earlier technological paradigm and concludes by reviewing possibilities for future development.


Gossipping has demonstrate to be an efficient mechanism for spreading information among P2P networks. Within the context of P2P computing, we propose the so-called Evolvable Agent Model for distributed population-based algorithms which uses gossipping as communication policy, and represents every individual as a self-scheduled single thread. The model avoids obsolete nodes in the population by defining a self-adaptive refresh rate which depends on the latency and bandwidth of the network. Such a mechanism balances the migration rate to the congestion of the links pursuing global population coherence. We perform an experimental evaluation of this model on a real parallel system and observe how solution quality and algorithm speed scale with the number of processors with this seamless approach.


The properties and structure of second-order ~Cartesian! correlation tensors are derived for the general case of two solenoidal random vector fields. The theory is intended to describe homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, with no assumed rotational or reflectional symmetries. Each correlation tensor can be written in terms of four scalar generating functions and the relationship of these functions to the potentials that generate the poloidal and toroidal components of the underlying vector fields is derived. The physical nature of the scalar functions is investigated and their true or pseudoscalar character is ascertained. In our general discussion we clarify several misleading statements dating back to Robertson's original paper in the field @Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 36, 209 ~1940!#. It is also shown that using the one-dimensional correlation function, it is possible to obtain spectral information on the induced electric field in directions perpendicular to the measurement direction. @S1063-651X~97!09208-8#


Supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions at any stage of the distribution system. These disruptions can be caused by natural disasters, production problems, or labor defects. The consequences of these disruptions may result in significant economic losses or even human deaths. Therefore, it is important to consider any disruption as an important factor in strategic supply chain design. Consequently, the primary outputs of this dissertation include insights for designing robust supply chains that are neither significantly nor adversely impacted by disruptions. The impact of correlated supplier failures is examined and how this problem can be modeled as a variant of a facility location problem is described. Two main problems are defined, the first being the design of a robust supply chain, and the second being the optimization of operational inspection schedules to maintain the quality of an already established supply chain. In this regard, both strategic and operational decisions are considered in the model and (1) a twostage stochastic programming model; (2) a multi-objective stochastic programming model; and (3) a dynamic programming model are developed to explore the tradeoffs between cost and risk. Three methods are developed to identify optimal and robust solutions: an integer L-shaped method; a hybrid genetic algorithm using Data Envelopment Analysis; and an approximate dynamic programming method. Several sensitivity analyses are performed on the model to see how the model output would be affected by uncertainty. The findings from this dissertation will be able to help both practitioners designing supply chains, as well as policy makers who need to understand the impact of different disruption mitigation strategies on cost and risk in the supply chain.


The JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway plays a critical role in tumorigenesis, and has been suggested as a potential molecular target for anti-melanoma therapeutics. However, few JAK2 inhibitors were being tested for melanoma therapy. In this study, eight amentoflavone analogues were evaluated for their activity against human malignant melanoma cells. The most potent analogue, compound 1, inhibited the phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 in human melanoma cells, but had no discernible effect on total JAK2 and STAT3 levels. A cellular thermal shift assay was performed to identify that JAK2 is engaged by 1 in cell lysates. Moreover, compound 1 showed higher antiproliferative activity against human melanoma A375 cells compared to a panel of cancer and normal cell lines. Compound 1 also activated caspase-3 and cleaved PARP, which are markers of apoptosis, and suppressed the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 level. Finally, compound 1 induced apoptosis in 80% of treated melanoma cells. To our knowledge, compound 1 is the first amentoflavone-based JAK2 inhibitor to be investigated for use as an anti-melanoma agent.


Due to complex shaders and high-resolution displays (particularly on mobile graphics platforms), fragment shading often dominates the cost of rendering in games. To improve the efficiency of shading on GPUs, we extend the graphics pipeline to natively support techniques that adaptively sample components of the shading function more sparsely than per-pixel rates. We perform an extensive study of the challenges of integrating adaptive, multi-rate shading into the graphics pipeline, and evaluate two- and three-rate implementations that we believe are practical evolutions of modern GPU designs. We design new shading language abstractions that simplify development of shaders for this system, and design adaptive techniques that use these mechanisms to reduce the number of instructions performed during shading by more than a factor of three while maintaining high image quality.


In the last issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Medical Toxicology, Dr. Reza Afshari raised the question of what are the best scientific areas of focus of toxicology for �low income countries and how such research might be achieved (1). South-south collaboration, in which developing countries share resources, was one of the proposed solutions. Rather than limit discussion to �low income� countries, the issue of research agenda might be better framed within the perspective of �developed� and �developing� countries. Two of the largest Asia Pacific Association of Medical Toxicology member countries, Iran and India lay almost within visual distance of the United Arab Emirates. Despite its wealth, the United Arab Emirates has a general lack of high-quality medical research, and toxicology research is virtually non-existent. In contrast, Iran and India, with far less economic strength, have a vast network of highly trained and expert clinicians in medical toxicology and most other medical specialties. This is helpful to consider, and to understand that high income does not equal quality in research. Outstanding medical research, applicable to both developing and developed countries, may be conducted in resource-poor settings. An example of collaborative research that comes to mind is the World Health Organization (WHO) Pediatric Hydrocarbon Study Group clinical decision rule for young children with possible hydrocarbon aspiration (2). The results of this research, that was supported by the WHO, conducted in Egypt, and led by an American toxicologist, have clinical applicability and utility in developing and developed countries. Conducting this study in a developed country, such as the USA, would have been extraordinarily difficult or impossible. In addition to South-South collaborations, tapping research expertise of other countries, developed or developing, is another key factor for facilitating relevant and translatable research in countries that historically lack such. Finding mutually relevant research questions that are shared by developed and developing countries can also avail research opportunities. Lastly, developing a culture of research led by clinicians and persons with expertise in biostatistics and epidemiology, who may be based in clinical sciences or academia, is an important key to having a sustained productive research effort in any country. This letter can be easily summarized: �The most important resource for quality research is not funding, it is knowledge�.


Water uptake or hygroscopicity is one of the most fundamental properties of atmospheric aerosols. Aerosol particles containing soluble materials can grow in size by absorbing water in ambient atmosphere. This property is measured by a parameter known as growth factor (GF), which is defined as the ratio of the wet diameter to the dry diameter. Hygroscopicity controls the size of an aerosol particle and therefore its optical properties in the atmosphere. Hygroscopic growth depends on the dry size of the particle, its chemical composition and the relative humidity in the ambient air (Fitzgerald, 1975; Pilinis et al., 1995). One of the typical problems in aerosol studies is the lack of measurements of aerosol size distributions and optical properties in ambient conditions. The gap between dry measurements and the real humid atmosphere is filled in this study by utilizing a hygroscopic model which calculates the hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles at Mt Zeppelin station, Ny Alesund, Svalbard during 2008.


This study aims to evaluate the impacts of the aerosol direct effect on simulated concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) over East Asia, which is controlled by heavy local air pollution and long-range transport. The online coupled Weather Research and Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) modeling system was applied to one-way and two-way simulations (without and with the aerosol direct effect) of a period from January till March of 2014. The differences between the two simulations showed that there were particularly large impacts of the aerosol direct effect on the eastern Asian continent with high aerosol loading. The temporal mean contributions of the direct effect averaged over the regions from Northeast to Central China were a 15% decrease in the surface shortwave radiation, a 9.0% decrease in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, and an 8.6% increase in the ground-level PM2.5 concentration. In addition, there were negative contributions of the direct effect to the PM2.5 concentration over the ocean from the Sea of Japan to the East China Sea (a 1.0% decrease on average throughout the period). The PM2.5 decrease over the ocean was likely attributable to a reduction in the secondary PM2.5 outflow from the continent to the downwind region, which was caused by the increased dry deposition of PM2.5 precursors from the increased ground-level concentrations within a more stable PBL over the continent. Overall, the substantial decrease in the surface shortwave radiation due to the aerosol direct effect led to enhanced atmospheric stability and therefore increased the ground-level PM2.5 in the heavily polluted region.


Since 1896, about seventy-two species of aphids have been described from this part of India by different workers. The species so far described are distributed over about forty-two genera. The present paper brings the number of species to seventy-four and that of the genera to forty-three. Lachnus titabarensis nov. spec. Apterous viviparous female. — Body pyriform, about 2.4 to 2.6 mm long, with about 1.3 to 1.5 mm as maximum width. Abdominal tergites brownish, wrinkled, with a row of small pleural patches on either side; base of siphunculus surrounded by a large brownish patch. Hairs on the dorsum of the abdomen on small circular sclerites (mostly broken), stout; most of the hairs with long acute apices, a few with acuminate apices; the shorter ones caudad, a very few of such hairs with deeply furcated apices (fig. 1); the longest of the entire hairs may be up to 22/3 times as long as the basal diameter of segment III, the shortest furcated hair is up to about 11/4 times as long as the diameter mentioned. Dorsal hairs on the head rather fine, and with acute apices. The antennae are slightly lighter in colour than the head, which is dark brown, excepting the basal 2/3 of segment III, which is still lighter; segment III smooth basad, the rest of the flagellum gradually more distinctly imbricated from base to apex; segment III up to about 7/12 the length of segments IV, V, and VI taken together; segments IV and V subequal; processus terminalis slightly less than half the length of the base of the segment (5/11); hairs on segment III with finely drawn apices, up to about 2 to 22/3 times as long as the basal diameter of the segment. The apex of the rostrum bluntish, reaching a little beyond the second coxae; segments 4 + 5 up to about 7/8 the length of the second segment of the


In this paper, we discuss two‐dimensional failure modeling for a system where degradation is due to age and usage. We extend the concept of minimal repair for the one‐dimensional case to the two‐dimensional case and characterize the failures over a two‐dimensional region under minimal repair. An application of this important result to a manufacturer's servicing costs for a two‐dimensional warranty policy is given and we compare the minimal repair strategy with the strategy of replacement of failure. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004.


ABSTRACT Members of the neutrophilic iron-oxidizing candidate class Zetaproteobacteria have predominantly been found at sites of microbially mediated iron oxidation in marine environments around the Pacific Ocean. Eighty-four full-length (>1,400-bp) and 48 partial-length Zetaproteobacteria small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences from five novel clone libraries, one novel Zetaproteobacteria isolate, and the GenBank database were analyzed to assess the biodiversity of this burgeoning class of the Proteobacteria and to investigate its biogeography between three major sampling regions in the Pacific Ocean: Loihi Seamount, the Southern Mariana Trough, and the Tonga Arc. Sequences were grouped into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) on the basis of a 97% minimum similarity. Of the 28 OTUs detected, 13 were found to be endemic to one of the three main sampling regions and 2 were ubiquitous throughout the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, two deeply rooted OTUs that potentially dominate communities of iron oxidizers originating in the deep subsurface were identified. Spatial autocorrelation analysis and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that geographic distance played a significant role in the distribution of Zetaproteobacteria biodiversity, whereas environmental parameters, such as temperature, pH, or total Fe concentration, did not have a significant effect. These results, detected using the coarse resolution of the SSU rRNA gene, indicate that the Zetaproteobacteria have a strong biogeographic signal.


We present a tool for the static analysis of XPath queries and XML Schemas. The tool introduces techniques used in the field of verification (such as binary decision diagrams) in order to efficiently solve XPath query satisfiability, containment, and equivalence, in the presence of real-world XML Schemas. The tool can be used in query optimizers, in order to prove soundness of query rewriting. It can also be used in type-checkers and optimizing compilers that need to perform all kinds of compile-time analyses involving XPath queries and XML tree constraints.


An important question in representative democracies is how to ensure that politicians behave in the best interest of citizens rather than their own private interests. Aside from elections, one of the few institutional devices available to regulate the actions of politicians is their pay structure. In this paper, we provide fresh insights into the impact of politician salaries on their performance using a unique law change implemented in 2012 in Turkey. Specifically, the members of the parliament (MPs) in Turkey who are retired from their pre-political career jobs earn a pension bonus on top of their MP salaries. The law change in 2012 significantly increased the pension bonus by pegging it to 18 percent of the salary of the President of Turkey, while keeping the salaries of non-retired MPs unchanged. By exploiting the variation in total salaries caused by the new law in a difference-in-differences framework, we find that the salary increase had a negative impact on the performance of the retired MPs. In particular, the overall performance of these MPs was lowered by 12.3 percent of a standard deviation as a result of the increase in salary caused by the new law. This finding is robust to numerous specification tests. Furthermore, the results obtained from an auxiliary analysis suggest that one of the mechanisms through which MPs reduce their performance is through absenteeism.


This case study documents a range of responses to objects in the natural history galleries visited by young children and adults at Manchester Museum. Results suggest that museum objects can support a connection to nature, which can lead to environmentally friendly behaviours in adulthood. Parental interaction with children is identified as a key characteristic of supporting a connection to nature. With this in mind, the Nature Discovery gallery was developed at Manchester Museum, along with a handling table, for the under-fives and their families. The practicalities of setting up the handling table and an assessment of the first year of its operation is also discussed.


Crowdsourcing refers to the use of technologies to gather the collective effort and wisdom from an undefined group of online users for organizational innovation and/or problem solving. While the idea holds a lot of potential, its implementation can be thwarted by an ill design and management of the collaboration processes. Therefore, studies on crowdsourcing collaboration processes are important for the advancement of the field. We argue that studying this aspect of crowdsourcing can benefit from the modular view of collaboration processes provided by Vreede et al.'s (2009) six collaboration pattern framework. We propose to analyze current popular crowdsourcing websites through this framework and perform cluster analyses. We expect that our study will provide insights into existing practices of crowdsourcing collaboration and inform future research on crowdsourcing collaboration.


The rapid-distortion model of Hunt & Graham (1978) for the initial distortion of turbulence by a flat boundary is extended to account fully for viscous processes. Two types of boundary are considered: a solid wall and a free surface. The model is shown to be formally valid provided two conditions are satisfied. The first condition is that time is short compared with the decorrelation time of the energy-containing eddies, so that nonlinear processes can be neglected. The second condition is that the viscous layer near the boundary, where tangential motions adjust to the boundary condition, is thin compared with the scales of the smallest eddies. The viscous layer can then be treated using thin-boundary-layer methods. Given these conditions, the distorted turbulence near the boundary is related to the undistorted turbulence, and thence profiles of turbulence dissipation rate near the two types of boundary are calculated and shown to agree extremely well with profiles obtained by Perot & Moin (1993) by direct numerical simulation. The dissipation rates are higher near a solid wall than in the bulk of the flow because the no-slip boundary condition leads to large velocity gradients across the viscous layer. In contrast, the weaker constraint of no stress at a free surface leads to the dissipation rate close to a free surface actually being smaller than in the bulk of the flow. This explains why tangential velocity fluctuations parallel to a free surface are so large. In addition we show that it is the adjustment of the large energy-containing eddies across the viscous layer that controls the dissipation rate, which explains why rapid-distortion theory can give quantitatively accurate values for the dissipation rate. We also find that the dissipation rate obtained from the model evaluated at the time when the model is expected to fail actually yields useful estimates of the dissipation obtained from the direct numerical simulation at times when the nonlinear processes are significant. We conclude that the main role of nonlinear processes is to arrest growth by linear processes of the viscous layer after about one large-eddy turnover time.


This paper compares and analyses operating characteristics of equalizing tilting pad thrust bearings with babbitt and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite facings. Each bearing arrangement included six pads with an outer diameter of 228.6 mm and 60 percent offset. The babbitted bearing was typical of design in general use. A PTFE composite was applied instead of the babbitt to a similar bearing. Bearings were tested at different load-speed combinations in the fully flooded mode. Pad temperature distributions, collar temperatures and bearing friction torque were continuously measured. Test results show that the PTFE composite provides excellent thermal insulation so that pad thermal crowning is eliminated. PTFE-faced bearings operate with lower power loss and slightly higher collar temperatures compared to similar babbitted bearings.


Background -- An adequate level of muscle glycogen at the time of slaughter is essential for ensuring the production of premium quality meat, and minimising the incidence of dark cutting in cattle and sheep. Muscle glycogen status is likely to reflect the rate of turnover, principally driven by the sensitivity of muscle to insulin/nutrition, and adrenalin/stress. Breed indices for sheep and cattle are focused towards selection for muscling, potentially impacting on muscle glycogen metabolism and thus dark cutting. Objective -- Determine the impact of selection for muscling on insulin and adrenalin sensitivity in cattle and sheep. Design -- 12 steers from either Piedmontese (heavy muscling genotype), or Angus sires, and 20 5-month old lambs with sires selected for extremes (high v low) in Muscling Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) were maintained on a pelleted concentrate ration and challenged with adrenalin at 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, and 1.6 µg/kg liveweight via indwelling jugular cathetars. In cattle these challenges were undertaken at 15 and 36 months. Blood samples were taken prior to, and up to 120 min following administration of challenges for the determination of plasma lactate concentration -- an indicator of muscle response. Peak plasma lactate response was analysed for either difference between breeds (Angus or Piedmontese) or impact of Muscling EBV (sheep analysis) using a linear mixed effects model, with level of adrenalin challenge and basal lactate concentration as covariates, and animal as a random term. Outcomes -- Increasing adrenalin challenge lead to a linear (lambs) and curvilinear (cattle) increase in plasma lactate peak response (P <0.05; Fig. 1a & b). The slope of this increase for the low muscle EBV lambs (ie EBV = -2) was more than twice (P <0.05) that of the high, suggesting that high muscle EBV lambs are less sensitive to adrenaline at the level of the muscle. In cattle there was no difference between breeds at 15 months, but both breeds demonstrated increased adrenalin sensitivity at 36 months (P <0.05). In the Angus sired cattle, the increase in sensitivity (ie slope) was almost twice that of the more heavily muscled Piedmontese (P <0.05). Thus, as was the case in lambs, the more heavily muscled genotypes are less sensitive to adrenaline at the level of the muscle. Conclusions -- Selection for muscling will reduce stress sensitivity in muscle tissue potentially resulting in more muscle glycogen at slaughter, and less dark cutting in sheep and cattle.


In the presence of 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (IUdR; 1-2 x l0-4 M) P815Y murine mast tumor cells in culture complete only one doubling of their cell number and one doubling of their DNA. Even though DNA does not increase beyond this one doubling, DNA synthesis continues in IUdR-inhibited cultures. 3H-Thymidine is incorporated into DNA, and the pattern of the incorporation as seen with CsCl density gradient centrifugation agrees with the pattern that would be expected from replication of hybrid DNA containing IUdR in one strand (IU-THY DNA) in medium without IUdR. A new band appears at the density of native DNA, and both the new band and the IU-THY band are radioactive. Because in all experiments the specific radioactivity of the IU-THY band was about one-half that of the native DNA band, it is suggested that only one-half of the IU-THY DNA replicates.

The failure of the amount of DNA in the culture to increase despite the continued synthesis of DNA suggested that breakdown of DNA must occur in IUdR-inhibited cultures. IU-THY DNA was labeled with radioactivity in either the IUdR-containing strand or in the thymidine-containing strand. Both strands were found to break down at about the same rate, and the rate of breakdown appeared to be sufficient to account for the failure of DNA to accumulate in the inhibited culture. This experiment also indicated that the breakdown of DNA was not a consequence of DNA "repair," since the distinguishing feature of "repair" is selective removal of abnormal DNA.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to thank Dr. Pauline Chang for the 3H-IUdR. We are indebted to Mrs. Agneta Brown, Miss Katja Hahn, and Mrs. Donna Reno for their very able technical assistance. This investigation was supported by Public Health Service Research grant No. CA-02817-09 from the National Cancer Institute. N. R. Morris is an American Cancer Society Scholar in Cancer Research; supported by grant No. P333 of the American Cancer Society.


In the recent years, highway engineers introduced skewed joints in the concrete pavement with a 4 foot to 5 foot skew on a 24 foot width pavement, which results in only one wheel crossing the joint at any one time. Subsequently, a skewed joint is expected to reduce load induced stresses and improve riding quality across the joint. However, despite of precise design and construction of concrete highway pavements, some of concrete pavements (example: Interstate-10 and -75 in U.S.A. and 88 Olympic highway in Korea) has already shown severe signs of longitudinal and transverse cracking, faulting, and pumping before the end of their intended service life. Subsequently, this research was performed to study an analytical behavior of concrete pavements, especially for the effects of skewed joints on concrete pavements. This research should provide highway engineers with more structural behaviours and answers on concrete pavement failure problems.


The aim of this study has been to explore success factors and barriers to the formation and implementation of single policy measures and policy packages in transport, and to identify strategies to manage such barriers. As a first step, we developed a typology of barriers and success factors for policy formation and implementation. Secondly, we carried out an empirical analysis of barriers and success factors in four cases of policy packaging: Urban Congestion Charging; National Heavy Vehicle Fees; Aviation in the European Emissions Trading System and The EU's First Railway Package. The third and final task was to identify more general strategies to manage barriers in policy formation and implementation. A main conclusion in this report is that a conscious application of these strategies may contribute significantly to successful formation and implementation of even controversial policies or policy packages.


This chapter explores the literature on social entrepreneurship and civil society in South Africa, with a brief look on the country context and the need to fast track socio-economic change. It presents weaknesses in the current ability of civil society to function well and argues that social entrepreneurship offers opportunity to strengthen traditional methods of delivering social value, whilst introducing new aproaches. The chapter provides brief insights on where social entrepreneurs require greater support to be effective and looks at where there are quick wins to enable them to thrive.


Background: The heterogeneous clinical outcome that characterizes chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can be predicted by a serie of clinical prognosis factors. However, the existence of a significant subset of patients with early stage CLL makes crucial the need of more accurate prognostic markers allowing the possibility of early treatment of these patients. Although high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels have been seen to play a role in CLL, discrepancies in the information compiled about oxidative stress (OS) in these patients have been reported. Methods: In this study, we evaluate the overall OS status, through a recently defined score of oxidative stress (SOS), of 37 early stage CLL patients and we compare SOS with well-known prognosis factors and with a matched control group of healthy individuals. Results: We have observed an imbalance in the antioxidant/prooxidant equilibrium in early stage CLL patients with a significant higher SOS than that of the healthy control group (0.00 ± 0.53 vs. 2.97 ± 1.13; P < 0.05). Most of the patients who exhibit 3 - 4 adverse prognosis factors also present higher values of most of the OS biomarkers and SOS. Conclusions: These data strongly suggest that the combination strategy of OS biomarkers with already known prognosis factor may have potential clinical applications in early stage CLL patients. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4021/jh34w


Medical evaluators must understand the context for the impairment assessments they perform. This article exemplifies issues that arise based on the role of impairment ratings and what edition of the AMA Guides to the Impairment of Permanent Impairment (AMA Guides) is used. This discussion also raises interesting legal questions related to retroactivity, applicability of prior precedent, and delegation. On June 20, 2017, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania handed down its decision, Protz v. WCAB (Derry Area Sch. Dist.), which disallows use of the "most recent edition" of the AMA Guides when determining partial disability entitlement under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act. An attempted solution was passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and was signed into law Act 111 on October 24, 2018. Although it affirms that the AMA Guides, Sixth Edition, must be used for impairment ratings, the law reduces the threshold for total disability benefits from 50% to 35% impairment. This legislative adjustment benefited injured workers but sparked additional litigation about whether, when, and how the adjustment should be applied (excerpts from the laws and decisions discussed by the authors are included at the end of the article). In using impairment as a threshold for permanent disability benefits, evaluators must distinguish between impairment and disability and determine an appropriate threshold; they also must be aware of the compensation and adjudication process and of the jurisdictions in which they practice.


A controlled double-blind clinical trial was performed comparing therapeutic efficacy of hidrosmin versus diosmin in patients suffering from chronic venous insufficiency with varicose symptomatology in the inferior limbs. Ten patients were treated with hidrosmin and other 10 with diosmin randomly. The controls carried out during the trial were as follows; basal control before the beginning of the trial and therapeutic controls on days 15, 30, 60 and 90 of the study. With that aim clinical examinations and different explorations were performed: physical exam, phlebography, electrocardiogram, ophthalmological examination and biochemical analyses (hemogram, globular sedimentation rate, platelet counts, etc.). The clinical therapeutic efficacy of hidrosmin in the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency of inferior limbs was superior to the diosmin in most of the studied parameters even though a lower posology was employed. From a clinical point of view the clinical improvement in the subjective symptomatology (heaviness, local tenderness, cramps, paresthesias, etc.) was very superior to the one obtained with the objective signs (phlebography, skin trophism, evolution of the edema, etc.). No significative adverse reactions appeared.


This paper estimates the dynamic conditional correlations in the returns on WTI oil one-month forward prices, and one-, three-, six-, and twelve-month futures prices, using recently developed multivariate conditional volatility models. The dynamic correlations enable a determination of whether the forward and various futures returns are substitutes or complements, which are crucial for deciding whether or not to hedge against unforeseen circumstances. The models are estimated using daily data on WTI oil forward and futures prices, and their associated returns, from 3 January 1985 to 16 January 2004. At the univariate level, the estimates are statistically significant, with the occasional asymmetric effect in which negative shocks have a greater impact on volatility than positive shocks. In all cases, both the short- and long-run persistence of shocks are statistically significant. Among the five returns, there are ten conditional correlations, with the highest estimate of constant conditional correlation being 0.975 between the volatilities of the three-month and six-month futures returns, and the lowest being 0.656 between the volatilities of the forward and twelve-month futures returns. The dynamic conditional correlations can vary dramatically, being negative in four of ten cases and being close to zero in another five cases. Only in the case of the dynamic volatilities of the three-month and six-month futures returns is the range of variation relatively narrow, namely (0.832, 0.996). Thus, in general, the dynamic volatilities in the returns in the WTI oil forward and future prices can be either independent or interdependent over time.


The dilemma felt particularly by Arab youth was captured in Tunisia by the self-immolation in 2010 of Mohamed Bouazizi, who was frustrated by restrictions on his small street-vending business. Bouazizi's death became the catalyst that seemed to light up revolts throughout the Middle East. The frustration had been building for some time: large segments of society were denied economic progress, while the middle class was squeezed, and governments had cut back on services and public employment. Since the series of uprisings began, the debate in Arab countries has focused almost exclusively on politics and questions of national identity. In fact, economic issues are driving the agenda, and real economic grievances must be addressed in order for the many transitions to succeed. Ghanem gives a thorough assessment of the Arab Spring, beginning with political developments since the revolutions and changes in the legal and institutional frameworks that affect economies. Arab economies grew at healthy rates before the revolts, but the benefits of economic growth were unfairly distributed. The politically connected reaped great benefits, while educated youth could not find decent jobs, and the poor and middle class struggled to make ends meet. Ghanem advises that Arab countries need to adopt new economic policies and programs that enhance inclusiveness, expand the middle class, and foster growth in undeveloped regions. Key elements include strengthening economic institutions, developing small businesses, reforming the education system to better prepare Arab youth for the modern labor market, promoting gender equality with the objective of raising female labor market participation rates, and setting up programs for rural and regional development to reduce inequality and eliminate extreme poverty.


CEO compensation is a highly controversial subject. While most company directors believe that CEO pay is not a problem, the majority of the American public believes that it is. The difficulties that boards face in justifying CEO pay levels in some ways stem from the challenge of quantifying how much value a CEO creates and how much of this value should be shared as compensation. We examine this topic in detail and ask: 1) Why are CEO compensation arrangements not explicitly tied to value creation? 2) How much does a CEO personally contribute to corporate performance? 3) How is corporate performance best measured: by change in stock price or change in corporate profits? 4) What portion of shareholder value creation should a CEO receive in pay? 5) Why don't companies explicitly calculate and disclose the relation between value creation and pay? The Stanford Closer Look series is a collection of short case studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance and executive leadership. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue that is relevant to the current debate on governance and explain why it is so important. Larcker and Tayan are co-authors of the books Corporate Governance Matters and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.


This paper examines Andrew Jackson's role in establishing the foundations of the Presidency. He is generally considered by historians to have been one of the nation's most vigorous and powerful chief executives. He advanced a new vision of the President as the direct representative of the people. Jackson put theory into practice with the vigorous exercise of his executive powers - interpreting the Constitution and enforcing the law independently, wielding the veto power for policy as well as constitutional reasons, and re-establishing control over the executive branch. In the first of two great political conflicts of his time, the Bank War, Jackson vetoed a law that the Supreme Court and Congress both thought constitutional, removed federal deposits from the Bank, and fired cabinet secretaries who would not carry out his orders. In the second, the Nullification Crisis, Jackson again interpreted the nature of the Constitution and the Union on behalf of the people, and made clear his authority to carry out federal law, even against resisting states. Although he was a staunch defender of limited government, Jackson would confront head-on the forces seeking a weaker union and or a weaker Executive. His achievement would be to restore and expand the Presidency, within the context of a permanent Union. He would also spark resistance so strong that it would coalesce into a new political party, the Whig party, devoted to opposing concentrated executive power.


Hinged to a conversation between the author and her friend and colleague (now deceased) in Australia in 1993, this essay examines an ethical and conceptual gap that opens between an analytic that focuses on the disruptive nature of enjoyment in heteronormative orders and the distributional price of exceeding the Law in settler normativities. It pivots on the claim that the general availability of intensified potential, like the general availability of enjoyment, doesn't negate the specific social (dis)orderings that differentiate and then treat different bodies differently. It asks what purchase might accrue conceptualizing this conversation as an instance of a "queer bond."


In moving radar, e.g. airborne radar, the clutter from land and sea needs to be suppressed in order to detect the target. One approach to total cancellation of the clutter is Displaced Phase Center Antenna (DPCA). DPCA assumes that the antenna elements are positioned on a line parallel to the velocity vector of the radar platform so that the elements can take each others positions at different points of times. This paper theoretically investigates if it is possible with other antenna element positions, e.g. in three dimensions, for a total cancellation of the clutter. We arrive at a condition which conforms to the principle that the elements should take each others positions at different times but allows other antennas than the single line parallel to the velocity vector. Our condition could be used as constraints in an optimization problem where the target signal performance is optimized. The multipulse DPCA condition is one solution to our condition.We also give two examples of non-linear antennas fulfilling our condition.


Lisp programmers constantly carry out experiments in a read-eval-print loop. The experimental activities convince the Lisp programmers that new or modified pieces of programs work as expected. But the experiments typically do not represent systematic and comprehensive unit testing efforts. Rather, the experiments are quick and dirty one shot validations which do not add lasting value to the software, which is being developed. In this paper we propose a tool that is able to collect, organize, and re-validate test cases, which are entered as expressions in a read-eval-print loop. The process of collecting the expressions and their results imposes only little extra work on the programmer. The use of the tool provides for creation of test repositories, and it is intended to catalyze a much more systematic approach to unit testing in a read-eval- print loop. In the paper we also discuss how to use a test repository for other purposes than testing. As a concrete contribution we show how to use test cases as examples in library interface documentation. It is hypothesized—but not yet validated—that the tool will motivate the Lisp programmer to take the transition from casual testing to systematic testing.