1Although new ventures' competitive positioning and their founders' social networks are both recognized as important in the context of transition economies, not much is known about their multiplicative effect on performance. We build on the strategic management literature and social network theory to develop theoretical predictions about the role of competitive strategies and social capital for entrepreneurial performance. These are tested with survey data from Bulgaria. We find that both the venture's competitive strategic positioning and the founder's networking positively influence performance. The hypothesized moderating effect of networking for the relationship between differentiation strategy and performance received only tentative support. Contrary to expectations, we find a negative moderating effect of networking for the relationship of cost leadership with performance. These results suggest that the entrepreneur's network plays a role in shaping how strategies influence performance by possibly upholding differen‑ tiation and de‑emphasizing cost leadership strategy. Implications for managerial practice and public policy are discussed.


In Indonesia, Kutai National Park is home to what is likely to be East Kalimantan's largest population of the Critically Endangered eastern subspecies of the Bornean Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus morio. It also hosts an astounding diversity of other species. Yet East Kalimantan faces many challenges in maintaining and protecting biodiversity from threats, including climate change. Forest restoration, also referred to as reforestation, presents a valuable opportunity to restore biodiversity and function to degraded areas that were once forested. Reforestation initiatives are being carried out in Kutai National Park, but there is a clear and pressing need to update Kutai National Park's existing restoration practices to ensure forest integrity, provide opportunities for threatened species, and guide consideration of how to build climate change resilience. By doing so, the forests that orangutans need to survive into the future are more likely to persist. We examine restoration case studies, remind readers of restoration best practice, and present sets of tree species from a set of ~250 considered in the analysis that are likely to be suited to various restoration targets for Kutai National Park, e.g. with a focus on habitat restoration for orangutan; or a focus on conservation of rare and useful species. The intended audiences of this work include: orangutan researchers, government, mining companies, nurseries and other companies that are seeking guidance on habitat restoration for climate change resilience in East Kalimantan, as well as those wishing to support biodiversity conservation and/or restoration in the region.


Abstract The Lake Tilla crater lake in northeastern Nigeria (10°23′N, 12°08′E) provides a ca. 17,000 14C yr multiproxy record of the environmental history of a Sudanian savanna in West Africa. Evaluation of pollen, diatoms, and sedimentary geochemistry from cores suggests that dry climatic conditions prevailed throughout the late Pleistocene. Before the onset of the Holocene, the slow rise in lake levels was interrupted by a distinct dry event between ca. 10,900 and 10,500 14C yr B.P., which may coincide with the Younger Dryas episode. The onset of the Holocene is marked by an abrupt increase in lake levels and a subsequent spread of Guinean and Sudanian tree taxa into the open grass savanna that predominated throughout the Late Pleistocene. The dominance of the mountain olive Olea hochstetteri suggests cool climatic conditions prior to ca. 8600 14C yr B.P. The early to mid-Holocene humid period culminated between ca. 8500 and 7000 14C yr B.P. with the establishment of a dense Guinean savanna during high lake levels. Frequent fires were important in promoting the open character of the vegetation. The palynological and palaeolimnological data demonstrate that the humid period terminated after ca. 7000 14C yr B.P. in a gradual decline of the precipitation/evaporation ratio and was not interrupted by abrupt climatic events. The aridification trend intensified after ca. 3800 14C yr B.P. and continued until the present.


We are living in an increasingly out of control world. Climatic, economic and social instability dominate our local and international political discourse. It feels almost impossible as a young independent designer to be able to make a beautiful and meaningful contribution to a better world and make a profit! So how can designers use their 'possibility seeking' capabilities to rebalance and reinvent our battered relationship with the environment, alienated social habits and defunct economic and political policies? How can we achieve all this whilst being rewarded for our work creatively and financially? Since 1995, MA Design Futures at Goldsmiths, University of London has advocated an extended role for design as an agent for ecological, social and economic change. In 2012, industry and government are now finally catching up, with countries such as the UK and Korea beginning to explicitly value a role for design thinking and practice as a driver for business and social innovation.

One of our aims on MA Design Futures is to train our students to evolve design tools and processes for working in teams. Our students graduate from the course to work not only in the creative industries but also as socially and environmentally aware designers in the public sector and design strategists in business. This is because through their experience on the course they become artful negotiators and synergisers who can mediate in between the different professional disciplines. For example, this year, one of our graduates is establishing a design innovation consultancy in the field of bio-synthetics in Columbia. Another has set up their own MA in 'Creative Leadership' at a top business school in London. What do these two very diverse designers have in common? They have both used Design Futures to inform the design of a reflexive theoretical and practical framework for action.


Injectable soft-tissue augmentation agents have become popular alternatives to surgical procedures for the aging face and body. In contrast to temporary, space-occupying replacement fillers such as collagen-based and hyaluronic acid products, poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) has been demonstrated to gradually promotes deposition of collagen via a biostimulatory response, with therapeutic effects lasting approximately two years. In 2004, the FDA approved its use for rejuvenation of facial contours secondary to lipoatrophy associated with antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection. By 2009 PLLA was FDA-approved for the correction of nasolabial fold contour deficiencies and other lines and wrinkles. There have since been limited but promising results with off-label use of PLLA for nonfacial volumization as well, including the hands, neck/décolleté, abdomen, and gluteal area. The objective of this article is to review clinical evidence, current trends, and technical considerations for the use of PLLA for nonfacial, body rejuvenation. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(5):489-494..


Unsupervised data mining techniques require human intervention for understanding and analysis of the clustering results. This becomes an issue in dynamic users/applications and there is a need for real-time decision making and interpretation. In this paper we will present an approach to automate the annotation of results obtained from data stream clustering to facilitate interpreting that whether the given cluster is an anomaly or not. We use fuzzy logic to label the data. The results will be obtained on the basis of density function & the number of elements in a certain cluster.


Volcanology and volcanic risk assessment have in the past been strongly
biased towards pure physical sciences and the study of hazard
mechanisms. Traditional vulnerability analyses undertaken at volcanoes
have focused on the vulnerability of buildings and the probabilities of loss
of life given proximity to a volcanic hazard. These alone, however, cannot
explain losses from historical volcanic eruptions. There is an additional
strong vulnerability component to volcanic disasters that includes
livelihoods, demographics of the population, and economic resources.
This thesis reports research findings on vulnerability to volcanic hazards
on the island of St. Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean. Four different
methods are used to conduct a vulnerability analysis entailing: calculation
of a Social Vulnerability Index, analysis of building vulnerability, creation of
stakeholder mental maps, and evaluation of historical vulnerability. This
mixed-method approach has been adopted as it combines both traditional
quantitative methods with qualitative techniques. Only by applying such a
range of methods at one location is one able to appraise the methods and
compare the geography of the different elements of vulnerability captured.
The results show that high levels of social and building vulnerability do not
coincide, and that proximity to the threat was the most important variable
identified by stakeholders. The historical analysis suggests that
vulnerability on St. Vincent is a product of the island's colonial history, and
years of slavery, indentured labour, and the culture of migration for work
and education abroad. It was determined that in the case of St. Vincent,
no single method is able to capture all elements of vulnerability that are
important to stakeholders. This research provides evidence of the need
for context-specific vulnerability analyses that utilise a variety of
quantitative and qualitative methods, rather than the broad application of
global standardised metrics.


The use of the catch per unit effort (CPUE) as an index of abundance usually requires a standardization process consisting of isolating all those exogenous factors from temporal variations in abundance from the CPUE time-series. These exogenous factors include those generated by modifications in fishery vessel efficiency, variations in fishing strategies, and environmental fluctuations. The selection of the latter has been considered to be one of the most difficult, arbitrary, and poorly documented stages since the environmental effects vary on different temporal scales in autocorrelated and non-random manners, influencing the CPUE through a cause-effect process. Transfer function models (TFM) were constructed to describe statistically the cause-effect relationship between two time-series and herein we propose that TFM are a valid tool for: i) discriminating environmental effects that influence the CPUE and ii) describing how these effects should be included in a generalized lineal model (GLM). We analyzed the Antarctic krill CPUE from August 1989 to July 1999, and as possible causal effects, the Antarctic Oscillation Index (AOI) and atmospheric pressure at sea level (APSL). TFM shows that the APSL, with an annual lag (APSL12), influences the CPUE of Antarctic krill, whereas the AOI did not have a significant effect. The use of APSL12 in the GLM increased the explanation of the deviance by 31% as compared with the APSL with no lag. We concluded that TFM constitute a promising tool for including environmental effects in the standardization of the CPUE that would result in less biased and more accurate indexes of abundance.


Background. Patients frequently present with unexplained fatigue in primary care, but there have been few treatment trials in this context. We aimed to test cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) for patients presenting to their family doctor with fatigue. Secondly, we described the outcome for a cohort of patients who presented to the same doctors with fatigue, who received standard care, plus a booklet. Method. This was a randomized trial, followed by a prospective cohort study. Twenty-two practices in SE England referred 144 patients aged 16 to 75 years with over 3 months of unexplained fatigue. Self-rated fatigue score, the hospital anxiety and depression rating scale, functional impairment, physical step-test performance and causal attributions were measured. In the trial six sessions of CBT or GET were randomly allocated. Results. In the therapy groups the mean fatigue score decreased by 10 points (95% confidence interval (CI)=−25 to −15), with no significant difference between groups (mean difference=−1·3; CI=−3·9 to 1·3). Fewer patients attended for GET. At outcome one-half of patients had clinically important fatigue in both randomized groups, but patients in the group offered CBT were less anxious. Twenty-seven per cent of the patients met criteria for CFS at baseline. Only 25% of this subgroup recovered, compared to 60% of the subgroup that did not meet criteria for CFS. Conclusions. Short courses of GET were not superior to CBT for patients consulting with fatigue of over 3 months in primary care. CBT was easier 'to sell'. Low recovery in the CFS subgroup suggests that brief treatment is too short.


Rising income inequalities are widely debated in public and academic discourse. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by proposing a new family of measures of unfair inequality. To do so, we acknowledge that inequality is not bad per se, but that its underlying sources need to be taken into account. Thereby, this paper is the first to reconcile two prominent fairness principles, namely equality of opportunity and freedom from poverty, into a joint measure of unfair inequality. Two empirical applications provide important new insights on the development of unfair inequality both over time (in the US) and across countries (in Europe). First, unfair inequality shows different time trends and country rankings compared to total inequality. Second, average unfair inequality doubles when complementing the ideal of an equal opportunity society with poverty aversion. Furthermore, we show that an exclusive focus on top incomes may misguide fairness judgments.


Control-flow integrity (CFI) is a promising technique to mitigate control-flow hijacking attacks. In the past decade, dozens of CFI mechanisms have been proposed by researchers. Despite the claims made by themselves, the security promises of these mechanisms have not been carefully evaluated, and thus are questionable. In this paper, we present a solution to measure the gap between the practical security and the claimed theoretical security. First, we propose CScan to precisely measure runtime feasible targets of indirect control transfer (ICT) instructions protected by CFI, by enumerating all potential code addresses and testing whether ICTs are allowed to jump to them. Second, we propose CBench as a sanity check for verifying CFI solutions? effectiveness against typical attacks, by exploiting a comprehensive set of vulnerable programs protected by CFI and verifying the recognized feasible targets. We evaluated 12 most recent open-source CFI mechanisms and discovered 10 flaws in most CFI mechanisms or implementations. For some CFIs, their security policies or protected ICT sets do not match what they claimed. Some CFIs even expand the attack surface (e.g. introducing unintended targets). To facilitate a deeper understanding of CFI, we summarize the flaws into 7 common pitfalls which cover the whole lifetime of CFI mechanisms and reveal issues that affect CFI mechanisms in practical security.


This book examines the central questions of ethics through a study of theories of right and wrong that are found in the great ethical works of Western philosophy. It focuses on theories that continue to have a significant presence in the field. The core chapters cover egoism, the eudaimonism of Plato and Aristotle, act and rule utilitarianism, modern natural law theory, Kant's moral theory, and existentialist ethics. Readers will be introduced not only to the main ideas of each theory but to contemporary developments and defenses of those ideas. A final chapter takes up topics in meta-ethics and moral psychology. The discussions throughout draw the reader into philosophical inquiry through argument and criticism that illuminate the profundity of the questions under examination. Students will find this book to be a very helpful guide to how philosophical inquiry is undertaken as well as to what the major theories in ethics hold.


BACKGROUND: Neonates are highly vulnerable to drug toxicities because of their age-related limitations in drug metabolisms and renal excretion. Lack of the knowledge and/or education for medical professionals about the right dose administration and the lack of neonate-specific formulations are the additional dilemmas. Cases Presentation: Here, we reported six neonates presented with severe drug toxicities, including acetaminophen, Digoxin, theophyllin, lidocaine and opium and they were successfully treated in NICU at Amirkola Children's Hospital, Babol- in the north of Iran. Most of the toxicities were originated from the lack knowledge of physician or parents for selecting the right drug and dose of drug for newborn babies. CONCLUSIONS: Better education of medical professional and parents are needed to avoid neonatal drug toxicities. KEYWORDS: Toxicity, Neonatal, Drug, Acetaminophen, Digoxin, Theophyllin, Lidocaine and Opium, Language: en


Emerging and future pervasive computing scenarios will soon feature a dramatic increase in the number of networked wearable devices: any computational mechanism involving humans (sensing, actuation, situation recognition, decision-making) will have the opportunity of involving large ensembles. What would be the proper programming model for such systems? We argue that it is nothing about current mainstream approaches, since they lack the suitable abstractions needed to smoothly address explosion of scale, resiliency and self-* properties, and heterogeneity of communication and computation infrastructure. We propose aggregate computing, a new approach for the development of large-scale, emerging pervasive computing systems. It considers as reference computing "machine" the overall "Superorganism of Wearables", abstracted to a mobile and densely interconnected continuum capable of manipulating physically-distributed computational structures as a whole. Independence from the details of the underlying network (size, density, topology, mobility) and support of resilience properties (adaptation, robustness, stabilisation) will no longer be a programming concern, but rather inherent features of the approach achieved by self-organisation "under-the-hood". In this talk, we give an overview of aggregate computing, and discuss its many facets and challenges: theoretical ground, production toolchain, libraries of reusable quality components, and run-time support.


Genomic selection in maize (Zea mays L.) has been one factor that has increased the rate of genetic gain when compared with other cereals. However, the technological foundations in maize also exist in other cereal crops that would allow prediction of hybrid performance based on general (GCA) and specific (SCA) combining abilities applied through genomic‐enabled prediction models. Further, the incorporation of genotype × environment (G × E) interaction effects present an opportunity to deploy hybrids to targeted environments. To test these concepts, a factorial mating design of elite yet divergent grain sorghum lines generated hybrids for evaluation. Inbred parents were genotyped, and markers were used to assess population structure and develop the genomic relationship matrix (GRM). Grain yield, height, and days to anthesis were collected for hybrids in replicated trials, and best linear unbiased estimates were used to train classical GCA‐SCA–based and genomic (GB) models under a hierarchical Bayesian framework. To incorporate population structure, GB was fitted using the GRM of both parents and hybrids. For GB models, G × E interaction effects were included by the Hadamard product between GRM and environments. A leave‐one‐out cross‐validation scheme was used to study the prediction capacity of models. Classical and genomic models effectively predicted hybrid performance and prediction accuracy increased by including genomic data. Genomic models effectively partitioned the variation due to GCA, SCA, and their interaction with the environment. A strategy to implement genomic selection for hybrid sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] breeding is presented herein.


1 Corresponding authors RNA editing in plant mitochondria is a post-transcriptional process involving the partial change of C residues into U. These C to U changes lead to the synthesis of proteins with an amino acid sequence different to that predicted from the gene. Proteins produced from edited mRNAs are more similar to those from organisms where this process is absent. This biochemical process involves cytidine deamination. The cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) phenotype generated by the incompatibility between the nuclear and the mitochondrial genomes is an important agronomical trait which prevents inbreeding and favors hybrid production. The hypothesis that RNA editing leads to functional proteins has been proposed. This hypothesis was tested by constructing transgenic plants expressing a mitochondrial protein translated fom unedited mRNA. The transgenic "unedited" protein was addressed to the mitochondria leading to the appearance of mitochondrial dysfunction and generating the male sterile phenotype in transgenic tobacco plants. Male sterile plants were also obtained by expressing specifically a bacterial ribonuclease in the anthers. The economical benefits of artificially engineered male-sterile plants or carrying the (native) spontaneous CMS phenotype, implies the restoration to obtain fertile hybrids that will be used in agriculture. Restoration to fertility of transgenic plants was obtained either by crossing male-sterile plants carrying the "unedited" mRNA with plants carrying the same RNA, but in the antisense orientation or, in the case of plants expresing the ribonuclease, by crossing male-sterile plants with plants expressing an inhibitor specific of this enzyme. RNA editing


In Unearthing Conflict Fabiana Li analyzes the aggressive expansion and modernization of mining in Peru since the 1990s to tease out the dynamics of mining-based protests. Issues of water scarcity and pollution, the loss of farmland, and the degradation of sacred land are especially contentious. She traces the emergence of the conflicts by discussing the smelter-town of La Oroya—where people have lived with toxic emissions for almost a century—before focusing her analysis on the relatively new Yanacocha gold mega-mine. Debates about what kinds of knowledge count as legitimate, Li argues, lie at the core of activist and corporate mining campaigns. Li pushes against the concept of "equivalence"—or methods with which to quantify and compare things such as pollution—to explain how opposing groups interpret environmental regulations, assess a project's potential impacts, and negotiate monetary compensation for damages. This politics of equivalence is central to these mining controversies, and Li uncovers the mechanisms through which competing parties create knowledge, assign value, arrive at contrasting definitions of pollution, and construct the Peruvian mountains as spaces under constant negotiation.


We provide a quantitative analysis of the trade-offs between health outcomes and the distribution of economic outcomes associated with alternative policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic We integrate an expanded SIR model of virus spread into a macroeconomic model with realistic income and wealth inequality, as well as occupational and sectoral heterogeneity In the model, as in the data, economic exposure to the pandemic is strongly correlated with financial vulnerability, leading to very uneven economic losses across the population We summarize our findings through a distributional pandemic possibility frontier, which shows the distribution of economic welfare costs associated with the different aggregate mortality rates arising under alternative containment and fiscal strategies For all combinations of health and economic policies we consider, the economic welfare costs of the pandemic are large and heterogeneous Thus, the choice governments face when designing policy is not just between lives and livelihoods, as is often emphasized, but also over who should bear the burden of the economic costs We offer a quantitative framework to evaluate both trade-offs


The quadrivalent virus-like particle vaccine against human papillomavirus (QHPV) is a population vaccine targeting peri-pubertal girls and boys. Focus on evaluation of adolescent ovarian safety arises from cases in primary care and published case series describing the development of menstrual dysfunction and idiopathic premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) following QHPV vaccination. A structured review of QHPV vaccine safety studies was performed to answer the question 'has the ongoing ovarian safety of this vaccine in adolescents been assessed?' The design, size and process of pre-licensing safety trials in relation to their capacity to assess ovarian function were reviewed. A structured literature search and review of post-licensing QHPV vaccine safety studies was conducted to September 2015. Post-licensing safety studies were hand searched for adolescent enrolment. These studies were further searched for documentation of menstrual function and ability to detect abnormal menstrual function. Vaccine adverse event notifications and regulatory safety statements were sought. Pre-licensing controlled safety trials did not investigate ovarian function. Capacity to observe ovarian function was impeded by safety trials' design, size and reporting process. Both placebo controls were comprised of vaccine constituents. Both were incorrectly identified. No controlled safety studies post-marketing reported on ovarian function or had the capacity to do so due to their design and pre-specified objectives. One small observational research finding from a syncope unit suggests new menstrual dysfunction in 48% of vaccinated young women. The ongoing ovarian safety of this vaccine in adolescents has not been assessed.


OBJECTIVES: Adolescents and young adults (A/YA) with sickle cell disease (SCD) are hospitalized in both children's and general hospitals. We determined the effect of hospital type and provider specialty on outcomes of hospitalized A/YA with SCD and acute chest syndrome (ACS). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used the 2007–2009 Premier Database, a large multi-institutional database, to identify 1476 patients ages 16 to 25 years with 2299 admissions with SCD and ACS discharged from 256 US hospitals from 2007 to 2009. Multilevel logistic regression and zero-truncated negative binomial regression were performed after adjustment for patient demographic, clinical, and hospital characteristics to test the association of hospital type and provider specialty on death, endotracheal intubation, simple or exchange transfusion, length of stay (LOS), and 30-day readmission. RESULTS: Of all admissions, 14 died and 45% were intubated. General hospitals had 13 deaths and were associated with higher intubation rates (predicted probability [PP], 48% [95% confidence interval (CI), 43%–52%]) and longer LOS (predicted mean LOS, 7.6 days [95% CI, 7.2–7.9]) compared with children's hospitals (PP of intubation, 24% [95% CI, 5%–42%]; and predicted mean LOS, 6.8 days [95% CI, 5.6–5.8]). There was no difference by hospital type or provider specialty in PP of simple or exchange transfusion, or 30-day readmission. CONCLUSIONS: General hospitals carry higher intubation risks for A/YA with SCD and ACS compared with children's hospitals. We need to better understand the drivers of these differences, including the role of staff expertise, hospital volume, and quality of ongoing SCD care.


This paper analyses vertical vision by tracing its possible genealogy and exploring the forms it takes in the contemporary city. In the first section, vertical vision is situated in the context of its cosmographic tenets. In the second section, the critique of verticality is complemented by a topological approach where vertical vision can be seen folding into a novel visual grammar. The lineaments of this grammar can be retrieved by attending specifically to algorithms and their role in contemporary urban perception, which we discuss in the third section. The fourth section implements the suggestions of two artists: Harun Farocki's notion of navigation, and Hito Steyerl's notion of bubble vision. Exposing the central role played by digital platforms in ushering in this novel paradigm, bubble vision can be reconstructed as the logical end-point of classical vertical vision. This comes in conjunction with the rise of a peculiar visual-cultural configuration, which could be called 'atmoculture.' Section five submits that atmoculture represents the cultural milieu of bubble vision. In conclusion, the paper invites visual scholars interested in the study of verticality to recognise bubble vision, together with its atmocultural background, as a new expression, and a reconfiguration, of vertical vision: similarly, centred and disembodied, exhilarating, and dangerously de-responsibilising.


As an execution platform, the Java virtual machine (JVM) provides many benefits in terms of portability and security. However, this advantage turns into an obstacle when it comes to determining the computing resources (CPU, memory) a program would require to run properly in a given environment. In this paper, we build on the Java resource accounting framework, second edition (J-RAF2), to investigate the use of bytecode instruction counting (BIC) as an estimation of real CPU consumption. We show that for all of the tested platforms there is a stable, application-specific ratio of bytecodes per unit of CPU time - the experimental bytecode rate (BRexp) - that can be used as a basis for translating a BIC value into the corresponding CPU consumption


Why did financial keiretsu develop in Japan, but not in Germany and the United States? Why is bank intermediation more dominant in Germany and Japan than in the United States? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each system? Capital Markets and Corporate Governance in Japan, Germany and the United States answers these and related questions. Helmut Dietl explains capital market intermediation, holding companies, multidivisional organizations, financial keiretsu, and LBO associations as organizational responses to capital market inefficiencies. Country-specific responses are described as a consequence of country-specific financial regulations. Each regulatory regime results in specific capital market inefficiencies. Comparative capital market and corporate data highlight the major strengths and weaknesses of each system. This book provides a comprehensive and innovative analysis of German, Japanese and U.S. regulations.


This is the fourth and final volume of papers from a series of workshops called "Computational Learning Theory and `Natural' Learning Systems." The purpose of the workshops was to explore the emerging intersection of theoretical learning research and natural learning systems. The workshops drew researchers from three historically distinct styles of learning research: computational learning theory, neural networks, and machine learning (a subfield of AI).Volume I of the series introduces the general focus of the workshops. Volume II looks at specific areas of interaction between theory and experiment. Volumes III and IV focus on key areas of learning systems that have developed recently. Volume III looks at the problem of "Selecting Good Models." The present volume, Volume IV, looks at ways of "Making Learning Systems Practical." The editors divide the twenty-one contributions into four sections. The first three cover critical problem areas: 1) scaling up from small problems to realistic ones with large input dimensions, 2) increasing efficiency and robustness of learning methods, and 3) developing strategies to obtain good generalization from limited or small data samples. The fourth section discusses examples of real-world learning systems.Contributors : Klaus Abraham-Fuchs, Yasuhiro Akiba, Hussein Almuallim, Arunava Banerjee, Sanjay Bhansali, Alvis Brazma, Gustavo Deco, David Garvin, Zoubin Ghahramani, Mostefa Golea, Russell Greiner, Mehdi T. Harandi, John G. Harris, Haym Hirsh, Michael I. Jordan, Shigeo Kaneda, Marjorie Klenin, Pat Langley, Yong Liu, Patrick M. Murphy, Ralph Neuneier, E. M. Oblow, Dragan Obradovic, Michael J. Pazzani, Barak A. Pearlmutter, Nageswara S. V. Rao, Peter Rayner, Stephanie Sage, Martin F. Schlang, Bernd Sch??rmann, Dale Schuurmans, Leon Shklar, V. Sundareswaran, Geoffrey Towell, Johann Uebler, Lucia M. Vaina, Takefumi Yamazaki, Anthony M. Zador


A new simple stability indicating and user friendly RP-Liquid Chromatographic method was developed for the accurate and precise determination of Valganciclovir using Phenomenex Gemini-NX C18 Column (250 mm Length × 4.6 mm diameter × 5 μm particle size) and variable wavelength (UV) detector. The mobile phase used for the study was sodium Citrate buffer:Methanol in a ratio of 40:60 v/v with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Valganciclovir was detected at wavelength 254 nm and eluted at 2.18 ± 0.5 min. The developed method is linear over 10-80 μg/ml concentration range and correlation co-efficient (r2) obtained as 0.9996. The tailing factor and plate count was found 1.32 and 3649 respectively. The proposed method was proven as robust after its extensive validation, which involves various parameters such as Precision, Linearity, Accuracy, Ruggedness, Robustness, Limit of Detection (LOD), Limit of Quantification (LOQ) and specificity. The developed and validated method is definite and reproducible, can be used for routine analysis of Valganciclovir in bulk form.


On Donatello as a wooad sculptor in Padua and his influence.
The wooden carved polychrome Crucifix from the Chiesa dei Servi in Padua, attributed to Donatello, has undergone restoration financed by the Italian Ministero dei beni e delle attivita culturali e del turismo. As soon as the restoration works are completed, this piece of an excellent artistic quality will be returned to the church community and to the scholars, in a form it has never been seen before.
After a miraculous bleeding of Christ in 1512, this work of art was considered a thaumaturgic relic and was located in the chapel in cornu Evangelii, built at the expense of Bartolomeo Campolongo. It had remained there until it was taken to the restoration laboratory, where a coat of paint imitating bronze – that had covered the sculpture until 2012 – was removed.
This short essay illustrates the most important features of the Crucifix, advances a hypothesis on the date when the bronze coat of paint was introduced and analyzes some practices connected to this object of worship, venerated until the mid-twentieth century: it was preserved in an altar protected by glass and hidden from sight by a curtain.
The study also investigates the problem of how Donatello's innovative artistic language was received by other contemporary sculptors in Padua, indicating the Crucifix in the Chiesa dei Servi as a model for other surviving examples, in the churches of Santa Croce and Santa Sofia in Padua.


Introduction: Necessity of Strategic Planning for Insurance Companies Although today remarkable changes in the markets for insurance and financial services point to a "Financial Service (R)Evolution"(1), many German insurance companies (IC's) disregard the essential importance of strategic planning.(2) There is a progressing number of sceptical opinion, predicting adverse times for the insurance industry. However, the majority of insurance practitioners is coinciding with the so-called "theory of continuity": In terms of growth, the insurance industry is more successful than the economy as a whole, and will prosper in the future as well.(3) The "climatic change" of the environment significant for strategic decision making, is leaving its marks on the insurance business. An overview of the actual trend estimations indicates that the latest developments mentioned briefly by the headings "European Common Market", "German (Re)Unification", "East European Markets", "Increasing Consumer Sovereignty" etc. demand for strategic planning. The result of a well representative investigation concerning the insurance market in Germany, we realized in autumn of 1990, confirms the significance of the developments listed above. More than 90 insurance companies who filled out a questionaire, expect that these factors concerning their strategic environment will be of paramount importance. Nevertheless, this result stimulated us to develop concepts and instruments for the specific needs of insurance companies, which can be helpful in managing the future. Firstly, this article presents a discussion of the possible applications of specific strategic instruments for insurance companies. Also an exemplary case is shown, demonstrating how to use these strategic techniques in an IC. Business Segmentation as a Prerequisite for Applying Strategic Techniques Due to a shortage of information, senior managers often have no knowledge of market-attractiveness and specific competitive positions of the various strategic business areas ("SBA's"). Thus the importance of setting up easily comprehensive business sections is obvious but in view of the "line-of-business-thinking" (e.g. for IC: life, fire, marine) the formation of totally autonomous SBAs may bear some problems for the insurer. The reason why this may be problematical is that insureds often take out several insurance policies from different lines of business. This brand name loyalty explains the characteristic difference between industrial production and the insurance business. One always has to consider what impact specific strategic options chosen for only one SBA has on the other business segments.(4) Therefore, general aspects of overlapping SBA should be taken into account for SBA-forming.(5) For this reason the insurance industry predominantly applies the criterion "types of customers" for the segmentation of business. In the meantime, the insurance practitioners have realized the great importance of customer orientated planning of business segments, but the widespread differentiation between private and business customers is not suitable for these circumstances. Apart from separating the operating area, based on the predominant criterion "customer" (market) and the still commonly used criterion "product", geographical aspects may occur as relevant. This point of view is important especially for ICs because a loss or the individual experience in the insurance industry can vary from one region to another. With these criteria for separating the operating area one can identify useful characteristics and relate them to one another because the business segmentation is serving as a basis for applying many strategic methods such as the portfolio technique, detailed below. Possible Applications of the Portfolio Analysis Especially the two-dimensional matrix, which combines market attractiveness and competitive advantage, has proven itself for the use within the service business. …


Upward migration of brine because of pressurization resulting from injection is a risk of disposal of water produced with oil and geologic carbon storage. Analysis of the net production in each zone associated with oil production activities in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California, determined that net injection caused by disposal of water produced with oil occurred in zones above the shallowest zone with net production in several oil fields. The zones with net injection are also variously at depths just greater than the shallowest depths for geologic carbon storage or at depths intermediate between more typical geologic carbon storage depths and overlying groundwater with a total dissolved solids concentration appropriate for domestic use. As such, these net injections provide analogs for brine pressurization caused by geologic carbon storage, either in the injection zone around the CO2 plume or in overlying zones caused by vertical leakage of brine or CO2. Hundreds of newspaper articles regarding groundwater contamination in the main newspaper in the southern San Joaquin area collectively reported on effects on groundwater from tens of sources at tens of locations. These effects resulted in the closure of about 100 water supply wells. However, no effects caused by upward migration of brine were reported. Of the shallowest zones with oil production–related activity in each field, the Fruitvale field, Main area, Etchegoin pool had the largest cumulative net injection volume. This pool is also intersected by numerous faults and approximately 900 wells related to oil production, each providing a potential pathway for upward fluid migration. Total dissolved solids and nitrate concentration data are available from greater than 100 water supply wells overlying this pool. Analysis of these data determined there was no significant groundwater quality change likely attributable to upward migration of brine (p < 0.05). It is not known if this is because the application of current underground injection control regulations is effective or because upward migration of brine, which is a dense phase, to groundwater is unlikely. The different engineering and economic implications of these two hypotheses suggest the need for future work to ascertain which is correct under different conditions.


Soil structure interaction plays a crucial role in the
behavior, analysis and design of heavy infrastructure of high importance such
as power plants, processing facilities, hospitals, precision engineering
facilities, hydraulic power infrastructure, etc. The change in frequency
content of the ground motion as seismic waves propagate through the subsoil might
result in the reduction or amplification of the response acceleration of
seismically excited structures. SSI has a significant influence on the
calculated in-structure response spectra (ISRS), and the calculated seismic design
demand forces. The fundamental hypothesis is that
nonlinearities at the soil-structure interface have the potential to influence
the peak acceleration demands due to energy dissipation. The sources of the
non-linearity include (i) non-linear structural behavior, (ii) non-linear soil
behavior and (iii) geometric non-linearities across the interface such as
gapping and sliding. The dissertation aims to establish a non-linear SSI
analysis methodology in time domain to understand the response of structural basemat
with respect to the free-field motion when subjected seismic excitation. The
contribution of each source of nonlinearity on the basemat response is examined
through an array of sensitivity studies. The numerical studies are carried out
on the Fukushima Daichii nuclear power plant in Japan with ground motion
history from the Tohoku earthquake.


The lung must mount an effective immune response to pathogenic challenge while controlling attendant tissue damage. Central to this co-ordination are the immunomodulatory effects exerted by the pulmonary environment on the local alveolar macrophages (AMs). Moreover, intracellular pathogens are known to exploit the host immune system. For this reason, we hypothesized that the resident AM would comprise a vulnerable population of cells capable of being exploited by intracellular pathogens. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the role of the AM during pulmonary infection with either the obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii or the facultative intracellular fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. We showed [1] that resident AM are indeed the cell-type most susceptible to infection with C. burnetii. These resident AM remain infected up to twelve days, serving as a permissive niche that supports bacterial survival. Additionally, a subset of infected AMs underwent a characteristic phenotypic change in response to infection, resulting in an increased expression of surface integrin CD11b and continued expression of surface integrin CD11c. We conclude that C. burnetii is capable of exploiting the pulmonary environmental effects on the resident AM allowing for exploitation of the AM as a susceptible and permissive niche for infection. In the context of C. neoformans infection, we found that only a restricted population of C. neoformans replicated in AMs. The majority of C. neoformans that replicated in vivo did so extracellularly and the extent of extracellular replication exceeded intracellular replication of the yeast. In fact, the majority of intracellular fungal load in AMs at 48 hours post-infection was attributable to the uptake of extracellular C. neoformans from 24 to 48 hours post-infection. Thus, unlike C. burnetii, C. neoformans does not appear to exploit the pulmonary environmental effects on the resident AM during establishment of infection. Through the identification of the AM as a susceptible and permissive niche for C. burnetii infection and the finding that C. neoformans replicates primarily extracellularly during early pulmonary infection, we have both filled a deficiency in the previous knowledge base and set the stage for future studies into the induction of subsequent adaptive immune responses during these varied infections.


The Ocean is profoundly influenced by a number of factors, including climate change, the subsequent sea-level rise and the associated impact on biogeochemical processes. The implementation of marine biomass, energy sources and mineral exploitation in the context of globalisation have also influenced the ocean economy. In this framework, a wide range of crucial issues has emerged calling for close co-operation between science and policy. International policy, sustained by the law of the sea, has made strong, but insufficient efforts to provide useful tools to deal with these considerations. This topical book examines ocean governance from a perspective which has taken shape as a result of efforts made in the international arena. Adalberto Vallega offers a unique view, considering the ocean as a spatial complex system which cannot be described in detail but must be represented as a whole and argues that scientific approaches must change to achieve progress and co-operation between science and policy. The text focuses on the cardinal aspects and issues of ocean governance and studies ecological, economic and legal management dimensions in their proper context. Making use of an interdisciplinary approach and non technical language, this book will be a useful tool for understanding the present conditions of the ocean and the design of its future. It will be an invaluable resource for professionals and advanced students alike.


By using three-photon excitation at 291.7 nm of the n = 4 hydrogen level and observing Balmer-beta radiation at 486.1 nm, hydrogen atoms in an atmospheric C(2)H(2)/O(2) flame have been detected. Other schemes for hydrogen detection were also tried, and the results are discussed.


We use the moment method to calculate the Gordon–Haus timing jitter of optical pulses in dispersion-managed communication systems designed by use of lumped fiber amplifiers. The use of the Gaussian approximation for the chirped pulses, in combination with variational analysis, allows us to obtain an analytic expression for the timing jitter that is valid for an arbitrary number of amplifiers within each map period. We use this result to discuss how jitter is affected when more than one amplifier is used within each map period. We consider jitter for soliton-based systems as well as for low-power light-wave systems designed by use of the chirped return-to-zero format. In each case, the effects of dispersion compensation on the timing jitter are studied in detail.


Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in women that generally metastasize to local and distal organs. However, the invasion of skeletal muscle by breast cancer is an unusual and rare phenomenon.  We report here a murine breast cancer model of invading skeletal muscles by breast cancer. The model consists of an intraperitoneal inoculation of 4T1 cells, a murine breast cancer cell line in female BALB/c mice.  After 4 weeks of injections, all the animals developed a butterfly-like sheath structure on the dorsal side of the liver. Histological evidence suggests invasion of the skeletal muscles by breast cancer cells. Metastasis to the liver and lung was observed in some animals.  To our knowledge, this is the first observed occurrence of its kind in an animal model.  This model could be beneficial in the development of anti-metastatic and anti-cancer drugs.


In this paper we present a factor approach combined with copula functions to price tranches of synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) having totally inhomogeneous collateral (the obligors in the CDO pool have different spreads and different notional) . While a CDO is a portfolio of defaultable fixed income products, copulas are functions which link univariate distributions together to build a multivariate distribution function. The attractiveness of copulas lies in their flexibility to simulate or fit dependant variables and their ability to provide scale invariant measures of association between random variables. When pricing a synthetic CDO, the copula function will be used in conjunction with the factor approach to model the obligors risk neutral joint default probabilities. This paper will, in one hand, interest people already familiar with the copula theory but unfamiliar to their application for the pricing of (correlation derivatives) financial instruments; while on the other hand, it will be relevant for people familiar with the credit derivatives products willing to know more about the copula functions.


Large B-cell lymphoma manifesting in the mediastinum shows distinctive clinical and immunophenotypic features and is recognized as a unique type of large B-cell lymphoma in the Revised European-American Lymphoma classification. Fifty-one cases of primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma were retrieved from the immunodiagnosis laboratory database files and were stained with anti-CD30 (Ber-H2). Of the 51 cases, 35 (69%) stained for CD30. This staining ranged from strong membrane staining of all or almost all of the neoplastic cells to positivity of rare individual cells. Eleven cases (22%) were negative; 4 (8%) were equivocal. Only 1 case was uninterpretable owing to B-5 fixation and lack of a positive internal control. Thus, the majority of mediastinal large B-cell lymphomas express the Hodgkin marker CD30. This finding may result in misdiagnosis of large cell lymphoma as Hodgkin disease.


The research reported in this thesis primarily focuses on the thermal and photochemical reactions of half-sandwich ruthenium complexes. The photochemical reactions employ the use of ex situ and in situ UV irradiation of the complexes. The latter of these techniques allows for samples to be irradiated within an NMR spectrometer, the principal method used to monitor reactions when highly unstable products result.

The reactivity of [CpRu(PPh3)2Cl] towards a range of substrates is first described, where the thermal and photochemical reactions (applying the ex situ method) are contrasted. Replacement of PPh3 by a range of 2-electron donors, including CO, PEt3, ethene and tBuNC was achieved. Similar treatment is given to the complex, [CpRu(PPh3)2H]. However, this hydride complex proved to be slow to react and only minimal conversion to products was achieved, even using photochemical methods.

The reactivity of CpRu(PPh3)2Me toward a range of 2 electron donors was considered in greater detail, particularly its ability to activate Si-H, H-H and C-H adducts under photochemical conditions. Low temperature photochemical techniques, using the in situ method, were employed to determine that both Si-H and C-H bond activation is undertaken by the fragment [CpRu(κ2-2-C6H4PPh2)]. This fragment was shown to activate the C-H bonds of solvent molecules, and form Ru(IV) complexes [CpRu(PPh3)(sol)(SiEt3)H] (where sol = C-H activated solvent, e.g. THF), which were stable at room temperature. The substitution of PPh3 occurs in an analogous fashion to that of the chloride derivative. However, the rate of conversion was increased but no evidence for migration of either CO or ethene into the RuMe bond was observed.

The η3-coordinated complexes, [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-Si(Me2)-CH=CH2)], [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-CH2C2H3)], [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-CH2C6H5)] and [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-CH2C10H7)] were synthesised. In the cases of [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-CH2C2H3)] and [CpRu(PPh3)(η3-CH2C6H5)], thermal and photochemical reaction was initiated with substrates to generate the corresponding η1 substituted derivatives. These products were characterised by NMR techniques.

Finally, the ability of the fragment, [CpRh(NR3)], to C-H activate benzene was considered. NMR data were collected for the low stability products of the photochemical reaction which strongly indicated that this auxiliary is capable of C-H bond activation. Due to working at low temperatures (233 K) and the large amounts of amine required to generate [CpRh(NR3)], full characterisation by NMR of these species was not attained.


Jimmy Santiago Baca is a poet, memoirist, novelist, essayist, filmmaker, and activist who began his literary career in Florence State Prison, Arizona, where he was incarcerated from 1974 to 1979. Baca spent most of his adolescent years between orphanages, stints of homelessness, and time in juvenile detention facilities. He credits learning to read and write in prison as the galvanization of his journey from illiteracy to worldly poet, and his endorsement of literacy as an avenue for individual and community empowerment echoes the black nationalist political thought of Malcolm X. In addition to an overarching theme of literacy, he also maintains a critical awareness to the politics of land ownership. He is of Chicano and Apache descent and often draws on his Indigenous heritage, as well as his prison experience, to critique the colonial settler ideology that associates private property with personal liberty. He is among the gallery of canonized Chicano pinto (prisoner) poets like Ricardo Sánchez and Raúl Salinas who discovered their talents while incarcerated. His poetry and prose are in harmony with prisoner discourse that indicts the state for economic injustices and contextualizes crimes as economic necessity instead of demonizing the individual. Similar to Sánchez and Salinas, Baca's poetic voice can be both figural and visceral in the same breath. But distinct from these pinto poets, Baca's poetic introduces a proliferation of personas that go back and forth between a poet who wants to love and make peace and a pugnacious identity that was nurtured by the violence of life in various state institutions, particularly prison. He has published eighteen books that include poetry, memoir, fiction, creative non-fiction, essay collections, and chapbooks. He is an active writer and frequently has additional publications in various stages of production, showing us that the negotiation of his traumatic past is never fully complete. Indeed, he continues to push his boundaries as a writer and challenges any preconceived notions about the literary limits of a prison cultivated intellectual.


This paper presents a study carried out in the Italian region of Umbria, after the 2016 Central Italy earthquake. The aim is to address the problem of the conservation and protection of architectural heritage in Italy. The application of retrofitting strategies, while improving the seismic performance of historic—and frequently listed by conservation bodies—buildings, will not significantly alter their appearance, will be reversible, and fall within the principle of minimum intervention (minimal (least) intervention (or conservative repair)). These issues were evaluated in the paper by considering the different points of view of structural engineers and conservators. Heavy structural-oriented interventions as well as the underestimation of the importance of the structural safety for masonry monuments has produced, in the past, irreversible damage to important buildings and monuments, and loss of architectural heritage in Italy. The requirement of structural safety, especially for monuments located in seismic-prone areas, is compared with the need for conservation. The Italian building guidelines for interventions of cultural heritage are also discussed, highlighting some limitations and important advancements.


The division of labor between humans and computer systems has changed along both technical and human dimensions. Technically, there has been a shift from technologies of automation, the aim of which was to disallow human intervention at nearly all points in the system, to technologies of "heteromation" that push critical tasks to end users as indispensable mediators. As this has happened, the large population of human beings who have been driven out by the first type of technology are drawn back into the computational fold by the second type. Turning artificial intelligence on its head, one technology fills the gap created by the other, but with a vengeance that unsettles established mechanisms of reward, fulfillment, and compensation. In this fashion, replacement of human beings and their irrelevance to technological systems has given way to new "modes of engagement" with remarkable social, economic, and ethical implications. In this paper we provide a historical backdrop for heteromation and explore and explicate some of these displacements through analysis of a number of cases, including Mechanical Turk, the video games FoldIt and League of Legends, and social media.


The World Health Organization and World Bank (2011) estimate that there are more than 1 billion people with disabilities in the world. To address this population's diverse needs, the United Nations drafted their Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006. Article 24 (Education) of the CRPD requires ratifying countries to develop an inclusive education system to address the educational needs of students with disabilities alongside their peers without disabilities. Despite substantive improvements and movement toward inclusive education, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) continue to struggle with accurately identifying and supporting students with disabilities, including knowing how to effectively screen, evaluate, and qualify students for additional services (Hayes, Dombrowski, Shefcyk, & Bulat, 2018a). These challenges stem from the lack of policies, practices, and qualified staff related to screening and identification. As a result, many students with less-apparent disabilities—such as children with learning disabilities—remain unidentified and do not receive the academic supports they need to succeed in school (Friend & Bursuck, 2012). This guide attempts to address the lack of appropriate, useful disability screening and identification systems and services as countries look to educate all students in inclusive settings. Specifically, this guide introduces viable options for screening and identification related to vision, hearing, and learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms in LMICs. It also provides guidance on how LMICs can transition from an assessment-center model toward a school-based identification model that better serves an inclusive education system.


Background People with stroke have a low peak aerobic capacity and experience increased effort during performance of daily activities. The purpose of this study was to examine test-retest reliability of a portable ergospirometry system in people with stroke during performance of functional activities in a field-test. Secondary aims were to examine the proportion of oxygen consumed during the field-test in relation to the peak-test and to analyse the correlation between the oxygen uptake during the field-test and peak-test in order to support the validity of the field-test. Methods With simultaneous measurement of oxygen consumption, participants performed a standardized field-test consisting of five activities; walking over ground, stair walking, stepping over obstacles, walking slalom between cones and from a standing position lifting objects from one height to another. All activities were performed in self-selected speed. Prior to the field-test, a peak aerobic capacity test was performed. The field-test was repeated minimum 2 and maximum 14 days between the tests. ICC2,1 and Bland Altman tests (Limits of Agreement, LoA) were used to analyse test-retest reliability. Results In total 31 participants (39% women, mean (SD) age 54.5 (12.7) years and 21.1 (14.3) months' post-stroke) were included. The ICC2,1 was ≥ 0.80 for absolute V̇O2, relative V̇O2, minute ventilation, CO2, respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate and Borgs rating of perceived exertion. ICC2,1 for total time to complete the field-test was 0.99. Mean difference in steady state V̇O2 during Test 1 and Test 2 was -0.40 (2.12) The LoAs were -3.75 and 4.51. Participants spent 60.7% of their V̇O2peak performing functional activities. Correlation between field-test and peak-test was 0.689, p = 0.001 for absolute and 0.733, p = 0.001 for relative V̇O2. Conclusions This study presents first evidence on reliability of oxygen uptake during performance of functional activities after stroke, showing very good test-retest reliability. The secondary analysis showed that the amount of energy spent during the field-test relative to the peak-test was high and the correlation between the two test was good, supporting the validity of this method.


We present the first experimental comparison of effective single mode operation bandwidth in sub-wavelength optical wires (SOWs) and conventional single-mode fibers (SMFs). The full transmission spectrum, half-turn bend loss and mode field diameter were measured and compared for a variety of SMFs of different cut-off wavelength and a SOW. The SOW was shown to offer an enormously broadband single-mode operation bandwidth with a larger mode field area than the SMFs. Applications of SOWs include fiber lasers, sensors, photolithography and optical coherence tomography amongst others.


To accurately examine the mechanisms that control virus retention and transport in porous media, it is essential to perform experiments under environmentally relevant conditions. Laboratory studies of virus transport are generally conducted using buffered solutions. However, there are no standards for the concentration and composition of the solution, making comparisons between different studies difficult. Our objective was to systematically investigate the effects of the ionic strength and composition of buffer solutions on adsorption of viruses during transport through saturated sand columns. Two phosphate buffered saline solutions (PBS and PBS2) and one artificial ground water (AGW) were used and experiments were conducted under saturated, steady state flow conditions. Bromide tracer and bacteriophages ΦX174 and MS-2 were introduced into saturated sand columns as step inputs and their concentrations in the outflow samples were determined. Change in ionic strength did not affect the behavior of ΦX174, whereas MS-2 was largely removed in the high ionic strength PBS buffer (0.16 M ) but moved through the columns in the low ionic strength PBS2 and AGW buffers (0.002 M ). An additional experiment conducted under an ionic strength gradient (from 0.002 to 0.2 M) using PBS indicated that the outflow concentration of MS-2 decreased slowly from an ionic strength of ∼0.03 M, reached a minimum at an apparent critical value of ∼0.1 M, and then increased gradually. This study also suggests that metals or metal oxides on sand surfaces can cause significant virus removal under high ionic strength conditions.


We envision a future where Web, mobile, and desktop applications are delivered as isolated, complete software stacks to a minimal, secure client host. This shift imbues app vendors with full autonomy to maintain their apps' integrity. Achieving this goal requires shifting complex behavior out of the client platform and into the vendors' isolated apps. We ported rich, interactive POSIX apps, such as Gimp and Inkscape, to a spartan host platform. We describe this effort in sufficient detail to support reproducibility.


Within the Prince George's County Health Department (PGHD) located in the state of Maryland is the Department of Communicable and Vector-Borne Disease Control (CVDC), which handles the County's rabies surveillance activities. In Prince George's County, all animal bites are required to be reported due to the risk of exposure to rabies, a viral disease that has a mortality rate of almost 100% once victims become symptomatic. According to CVDC records, in 2015 alone, there were a total of 1242 animal exposures. Not only is there a high volume of cases handled by the CVDC annually, but within the CVDC, only one staff member investigates potential rabies exposures full time. The proposed program evaluation utilizes a mixed methods approach. The quantitative method utilized will be a statistical analysis and the qualitative method will include interviews with the CVDC staff formally working with the rabies program, as well as members of the Prince George's Police Department, Animal Management and a selected health care facility. The goal is that the implementation of this evaluation will allow the CVDC to gather information in order to evaluate the efficiency of its rabies surveillance program. Ultimately, the desired conclusion from this analysis is to be able to better understand how the program is operating and whether changes could be implemented to improve program function. Public Health Relevance: Due to the necessity and thus permanence of programs such as the Prince George's County's rabies surveillance program, as long as these programs are resulting in their desired end goal, how well these programs are being implemented is never evaluated. There is no evaluation of how the resources are being allocated, whether the program is well staffed or how well the program is able to work with it collaborators-essentially the efficiency of the program. Even though a program is achieving its designated goals, the implementation of the program is also important. A program that is functioning inefficiently can lead to a drain on already scarce monetary resources, burning out of program staff, and the unintended negative effects of policies put in place (or not put into place) without any concept of how they will affect the program on the ground. These are problems that can affect any type of program and eventually lead to problems in the long term-problems that can be avoidable through the use of program evaluation.


It is notoriously difficult to couple surface mass balance (SMB) results from climate models to the changing geometry of an ice sheet model. This problem is traditionally avoided by using only accumulation from a climate model, and parameterizing the meltwater run-off as a function of temperature, which is often related to surface elevation (Hs). In this study, we propose a new strategy to calculate SMB, to allow a direct adjustment of SMB to a change in ice sheet topography and/or a change in climate forcing. This method is based on elevational gradients in the SMB field as computed by a regional climate model. Separate linear relations are derived for ablation and accumulation, using pairs of Hs and SMB within a minimum search radius. The continuously adjusting SMB forcing is consistent with climate model forcing fields, also for initially non-glaciated areas in the peripheral areas of an ice sheet. When applied to an asynchronous coupled ice sheet – climate model setup, this method circumvents traditional temperature lapse rate assumptions. Here we apply it to the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Experiments using both steady-state forcing and glacial-interglacial forcing result in realistic ice sheet reconstructions.


The peripheral blood of 60 normal adults was separated into plasma, red cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and platelets. Lactoferrin concentrations were measured in the plasma and cell extracts and compared to those of lysozyme. The neutrophil lactoferrin content in males and post‐menopausal females was found to be significantly higher than in pre‐menopausal females. A small amount of lactoferrin was found in association with monocytes, but not with lymphocytes, erythrocytes and platelets. Neutrophil lysozyme concentrations did not exhibit any variation with sex and age; but the level in monocytes was higher than that in neutrophils. No correlation was observed between individual neutrophil lactoferrin values and the plasma level. Immunofluorescent studies showed neutrophils to have a lobulated pattern suggestive of nuclear staining. Monocytes did not show direct staining, but exhibited a peripheral pattern after prior exposure to lactoferrin—confirming the existence of a surface receptor. Gel chromatography indicated that neutrophil lactoferrin is in a polymerized or complexed form which elutes with the void volume on Sephadex G‐200; serum lactoferrin consists of two forms, one of which also elutes with the void volume on Sephadex G‐200.


In situ bioremediation was first applied in 1972 when a subsurface release of high-octane gasoline threatened the water supply of a small town in Pennsylvania. Soluble inorganic nutrients and aeration accelerated the biodegradation of hydrocarbons. Since then, research and applications have increased. The method is increasingly being used now, principally to decontaminate or to protect ground water. In recent years, there have been improvements in oxygen delivery, new hydrogeological strategies, and the industry has improved its ability to forecast performance. Remediation processes involve the reduction of molecular oxygen to water while an organic compound is oxidized to create energy, cell mass and carbon dioxide. Oxygen transport has been the limiting factor. Recently scientists have explored the use of hydrogen peroxide to deliver greater quantities of oxygen. Air sparging, or injecting oxygen, is also described. Solid-phase oxygen release systems are a newer method in which a relatively insoluble oxygen in a matrix gradually releases oxygen when exposed to water. Bioavailability, or the rate of constituent dissolution, is also discussed. This is a problem with dense aqueous phase liquids, and the best strategy may be to prevent migration of dissolved constituents beyond the source zone. Intrinsic biodegradation or the natural unassisted biodegradation of contaminants is also being studied. The use of zero valent iron to reduce contaminants, especially chlorinated solvents, and nitrate reducing bacteria are also discussed. In the future, we are likely to see in situ bioremediation of chlorinated solvents by anaerobic methods, although this will be limited because of cost and complexity.


In this paper we will focus on two bodies of work which used digital design and manufacturing technologies in their inception and production; one produced by an experienced digital maker (Marshall) and the other by a novice maker (Vannucci). We are proposing these sets of works as Pragmatic enticatypes (artefacts that sit between prototypes and provotypes to entice conversation). We will describe and discuss the outcomes of a workshop where the participants, many of whom were craftspeople and designers, tried through our enticatypes to get under the skin of the dichotomies that can still persist between machine/digital produced and handmade objects. We will exemplify the role our artifacts played in the workshop and the participants' reflections and discussions raised across, and between, the analogue and the digital in relation to: novelty in contrast to originality, authenticity as a mark of respect for tradition, control as a measure of competence and competence as a measure of skill. Moreover, as first attempt of enticatypes, we will underline their shortcomings in this workshop in order to discuss how very different craft results, both using a Research through Design approach, could potentially lead an audience to different types of conversations, interactions and outcome. And how a highly hands-on group of participants, such as craftspeople, recognises and interprets different qualities in the same artefacts.


The OpenMobileNetwork is an open platform that provides approximated and semantically enriched mobile network and WiFi access point topology data based on the principles of Linked Data. By making use of the data within the Linking Open Data Cloud, this platform enables the development of new and sophisticated location-based services for the end consumer that also incorporate the semantics of a location rather than plain geospatial information. More importantly, it gives mobile network operators the opportunity to exploit their asset (being their network topology) for innovative services based on semantically enriched data analytics such as identifying location hotspots or traffic heat maps. The foundation of the OpenMobileNetwork is an ontology comprising static and dynamic network context facets that describe mobile and WiFi access point networks from a topological perspective (e.g., base stations, their locations and coverage areas). Within this paper, we present this ontology in detail and demonstrate its applicability in a power management scenario for mobile networks.


Section 1071 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 required the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), working with the Secretary of Defense and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), to conduct a study on the ability of the national test and evaluation (T&E) infrastructure to effectively and efficiently mature hypersonic technologies for defenserelated systems development in the short and long term. It further required the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees containing the results of this study, together with a plan for requirements and proposed investments to meet Department of Defense (DoD) needs through 2030. The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) supported both the OSTP and DoD efforts, and was subsequently tasked to quantify the projected savings that could accrue to each of three conceptual conventional hypersonic system development programs if the proposed T&E capability enhancements presented in the DoD plan submitted to Congress were available at the beginning of Milestone (MS) A. As part of its analysis, IDA utilized an IDA-developed approach for valuing the closure of critical T&E capability gaps based on the potential programmatic cost and schedule savings that could reasonably be expected to accrue from the start of MS A through the end of MS C by funding the five-year, $350 million T&E infrastructure investment proposed in the DoD plan. This expansion of the cost-benefit "control volume" to include projected system development savings proved successful in justifying and securing full funding for the proposed DoD plan. This paper summarizes the IDA approach and its application to making the business case for closing capability gaps in other aerospace research, development, test, and evaluation areas.


Dead tree trunks have significant ecosystem functions related to biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles. When lying on the soil surface, they are colonized by an array of invertebrate fauna, but what determines their community composition is still unclear. We apply community assembly theory to colonization of tree logs by invertebrates. During early decomposition, the attached bark is critically important as an environment filter for community assembly through habitat provision. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more dissimilar bark traits were between tree species, the more their faunal community compositions would differ. We tested this hypothesis by investigating the effects of bark traits on the invertebrate communities in the early-decomposing logs of 11 common, temperate tree species placed in the 'common garden' experiment LOGLIFE. Bark traits included bark looseness, fissure index, outer bark thickness, ratio of inner to outer bark thickness, punch resistance, water storage capacity and bark pH. The predominant faunal groups studied were Annelida, Isopoda, Chilopoda, Diplopoda, Diptera and Coleoptera. Our results showed (i) strong interspecific differences in bark traits, (ii) that bark traits related to environmental buffering had profound effects on the abundance of specific invertebrate groups, and (iii) the higher the overall bark trait dissimilarity between tree species, the more dissimilar these tree species were in faunal community composition, and the higher was the joint invertebrate family richness. A suite of bark traits together has fundamental afterlife effects on invertebrate community assembly, strongly filtering the colonizing invertebrates in early-decomposing logs, driving variation in their community composition and diversity. Our findings indicate that bark trait dissimilarity among tree species in forest stands is likely a better indicator of early-phase dead trunk fauna diversity than tree species diversity per se. A lay summary is available for this article.


The analysis of the scientific literature on the problem under study shows that today religion is actively returning to various spheres of society and emerging as a more powerful factor of consciousness, and it has a strong position in the cultural, ideological and political spheres. The religious worldview emerges as one of the basic concepts in the psychological study of religion, and it is seen as the basic foundation of human individual consciousness as a form of spiritual assimilation of being. The religious worldview permeates the individual at the level of life, at the level of self-awareness and thinking. At the same time, it was noted that the religious worldview, while having a significant practical significance, a significant socio-psychological contribution, has not been sufficiently studied. According to the results of the article, the essence of the content of the religious worldview was reinterpreted, the theoretical features of the psychological features of the student period, the occurrence and manifestation of the phenomenon under study were highlighted. Empirical researches have revealed the current state of development of students' religious beliefs, as well as aspects of its manifestation in communication.


Metaphoric expressions are not all equal, in the sense that some are intuitively more or less metaphoric than others. Part of this intuition is influenced by the underlying metaphor, but another part is influenced by the linguistic expression which carries that metaphor. This paper puts forward a system, first, of dividing the two important elements which contribute to gradient intuitions of metaphoricity. These are (1) the density of the metaphor in the surface semantic content of the expression and (2) elements of the relationship between source and target in the underlying metaphor. Second, the paper puts forward a system for measuring the overall metaphoricity of an expression. This is a comparative system which can replicate intuitions that any two expressions have either equal or varying degrees of metaphoricity. The most interesting conclusion which can be drawn from intuitions of metaphoricity is that there are multiple factors with equal influence on metaphoricity. These factors can create conspiracies which disguise the strength of the underlying metaphor.


Despite that workforce aging is recognized as a key social and economic concern of developed countries, previous research has largely neglected the role of organizational and news media in the debate about this topic. Relying on a content analysis of five Dutch newspapers and the organizational media of 50 Dutch organizations (N = 1328), this study traces variation in frames of older workers' employability. Results reveal that organizations in their organizational media attempt to avoid associations with problems related to older workers and highlight the solutions they offer, while news media are relatively more inclined to problematize the issue and victimize older workers. This study elucidates our understanding of how organizational and news media communicatively deal with older workers' employability, and how key actors drive frame-formation processes in both domains.


The one-loop QCD corrections to the light-front wave-function for the quark-antiquark Fock state inside a transverse or longitudinal off-shell photon are explicitly calculated, both in full momentum space and in mixed space (a.k.a. dipole space). These results provide one of the main contributions to virtual NLO corrections to many DIS observables (inclusive or not) in the dipole factorization formalism at low Bjorken x.
In a follow-up article, these one-loop corrections are combined with earlier results on the wave-function for the quark-antiquark-gluon Fock state, in order to get the full set of NLO corrections to the DIS structure functions $F_2$ and $F_L$ in the dipole factorization formalism, valid at low Bjorken x.


ABSTRACT According to Hall's context theory, people from different cultures may react differently to complex messages. The current study is the first empirical examination of context theory's role on message comprehension and appreciation. In a comparative survey-based study (N = 289), Belgian and Dutch participants judged 12 complex product advertisements with visual metaphors. As expected by context theory, perceived complexity was lower for Belgian (a higher-context culture) than for Dutch participants (a lower-context culture), and participants' personal context culture score fully accounted for this difference. Similarly, ad liking was higher for Belgian than for Dutch participants, and again, this difference was explained by context score.


Injustice in criminal cases often takes root before trial begins. Overworked criminal judges must resolve difficult pre-trial evidentiary issues that determine the charges the State will take to trial and the range of sentences the defendant will face. Wrong decisions on these issues often lead to wrongful convictions. But as behavioral law and economic theory suggests, judges who are cognitively busy and receive little feedback on these topics from appellate courts rely upon intuition, rather than deliberative reasoning, to resolve these questions. This leads to inconsistent rulings, which prosecutors exploit to expand the scope of evidentiary exceptions that almost always disfavor defendants. Such intuitive, inconsistent decision-making thereby undermines criminal justice before trial even starts.

In this Article, I argue that criminal judges can rely on an alternative model to decide an especially vexing pre-trial evidentiary issue—the admissibility of a co-conspirator's hearsay statement at the defendant's trial. Judges can look to principles in uniform commercial laws to resolve this issue in a more deliberative fashion. Uniform commercial laws predictably, accurately, and simply allocate individual liability for the actions of opaque, profit-driven commercial organizations. Those laws can likewise allocate individual liability amongst members of analogous conspiratorial organizations. Because those laws are also reducible to decision trees and checklists that encourage deliberative reasoning while still generating relatively fast decisions, judges can rely upon them to produce fair results without bringing their dockets to a standstill.

I provide several examples in which illicit organizations are sufficiently analogous to commercial organizations for judges to apply uniform commercial laws when resolving co-conspirator hearsay issues. When judges do so, they will check the growth of anti-defendant evidentiary exceptions. Critically, they will also increase the likelihood of just outcomes in criminal cases once the trial begins.


This article presents a mathematical framework based on information theory to compare multivariate sensory streams. Central to this approach is the notion of configuration: a set of distances between information sources, statistically evaluated for a given time span. As information distances capture simultaneously effects of physical closeness, intermodality, functional relationship and external couplings, a configuration can be interpreted as a signature for specific patterns of activity. This provides ways for comparing activity sequences by viewing them as points in an activity space. Results of experiments with an autonomous robot illustrate how this framework can be used to perform unsupervised activity classification.


Progress in the field of pathogen detection relies on at least one of the following three qualities: selectivity, speed, and cost-effectiveness. Here, we demonstrate a proof of concept for an optical biosensing system for the detection of the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa while addressing the abovementioned traits through a modular design. The biosensor detects pathogen-specific quorum sensing molecules and generates a fluorescence signal via an intracellular amplifier. Using a tailored measurement device built from low-cost components, the image analysis software detected the presence of P. aeruginosa in 42 min of incubation. Due to its modular design, individual components can be optimized or modified to specifically detect a variety of different pathogens. This biosensor system represents a successful integration of synthetic biology with software and hardware engineering.


1. The present study was designated to determine whether there are any detectable differences in cardiovascular anatomy or physiology between Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) pups at birth. 2. It was found that mean arterial pressures were significantly higher, heart rates were slightly higher, and heart weight/body weight ratios were higher in SHR. 3. Vascular dimensions were determined in a small sample of those rats, and the data there also indicate hypertrophy to some degree: the ratio of wall thickness/lumen radius was higher in SHR, tangential wall tension and number of cell layers in the media were increased. 4. It is concluded that some of the concomitant features of hypertension, such as left ventricular wall hypertrophy and arterial wall hypertrophy, may be genetically determined to some extent in SHR.


Ferma Leather is one of the online stores in Indonesia which provides leatherbased products focus on digital camera strap, established since 2012 and used digital marketing as social media Instagram. The latest form of Ferma Leather digital marketing is by created a photo contest or photo challenge join with Folk Indonesian. This Programme is intended to increase Ferma Leather Instagram followers and create buzz marketing program which is currently implemented by Ferma Leather is a photo contest with total prizes 4.5 million shopping vouchers. This photocontest promotion assisted by an external buzzer from folk Indonesia instagram (@folkindonesia) and also Vears Jeans (@vearstjeans). Buzz marketing is quite effective in disseminating information gradually and continuously transmitted from mouth to mouth in informing the company's products and services. For that to happen the company will need to select a trusted person, honest, have good integrity, and a strong personal branding. People who expected to be a choice, it is a good talker in understanding and explaining the products and services company. This study is intended to explain buzz marketing of Ferma Leather through Instagram. This Research used qualitative methodology, post-positivism paradigm that presented by descriptive design. The data obtained by in-depth interviews, literature study, documentation and observation. The focused discussions of this research through the 5 indicators, there are media, differentiation, information, results and maintenance. The result of this research stated that Ferma Leather success used Instagram to promote their product by increase post photo content, photo challenge, and comment. Its mean that buzz marketing strategy is quite effective with an increase in sales revenue and followers, Ferma Leather also evaluated each week to increase maintenance perform. Keywords: Buzz Marketing, Marketing, Ferma Leather


Many conditions may mimic syncope, including epilepsy, TIA, coma, hypoxia, hypoglycaemia, hyperventilation, falls, drop attacks, and psychogenic pseudosyncope. An episode of loss of consciousness is highly likely to be syncope if it is complete, transient, has rapid onset and short duration, with associated loss of postural tone and is followed by a spontaneous and complete recovery without sequelae. Reflex syncope has a more favourable, benign prognosis but structural and primary electrical heart diseases are major risk factors for sudden cardiac death. The initial assessment in patients with suspected syncope should aim to confirm the syncopal nature of the episode, identify the most likely cause of syncope and stratify the risk of major cardiovascular events or sudden arrhythmic death. Vasovagal syncope represents the most common cause of syncope, irrespective of age, sex and comorbidity. Cardiac syncope is the second most common cause. A detailed history should be taken, and a thorough physical examination and an ECG performed as initial assessment in suspected syncope. A detailed account of the episode should be obtained from the patient, and any witnesses, as well as a drug history. Treatment of reflex syncope and orthostatic hypotension is based on lifestyle modifications. It is important first of all to identify and treat the potential secondary causes of arrhythmic syncope. Cardiac pacing is indicated in patients with bradycardia-induced syncope. For patients with tachycardia-induced syncope, drug therapy, catheter ablation or ICD implantation are potential options. Because of its high efficacy, catheter ablation is the first choice in most supraventricular tachycardias and in patients with ventricular tachycardia and a normal heart.


The MUdeF - Multimedia Museum of the Fortresses of Lunigiana, recently opened in the old Firmafede Fortress in Sarzana, offers an overview, significant and unique in Europe, on buildings dating back to the period of transition from medieval castles to Renaissance ones. The new museum is an interactive and emotional journey that winds along 27 rooms, narrating the history and the distinctive elements of Lunigiana, captured through the changes of the fortified buildings, the evolution of customs and traditions and the stories of some historical figures connected to the area. The multimedia exhibition of MudeF was designed and developed by ETT S.p.A., a Genoese creative and digital company that has integration of humanistic and technological knowledge as hallmark. The integration of various technological solutions - NFC, capacitive and proximity sensors, projection mapping, 360° video projections, talking pictures – and new generation storytelling, creates an engaging and immersive visit and learning experience. The project is an interesting case study of how the targeted use of new technologies in museums allows to fully enhance historical-architectural complexes that, despite not owning works or collections enough "charismatic" to compete with the main tourist attractors today, can offer visitors interesting experiences and cultural enrichment through the narration of their long history and connection with the surrounding territories.


Patent applications are evaluated in light of the prior art. What this means is that patent examiners evaluate a claimed invention by comparing it with what in a rough sense corresponds to the set of ideas and inventions already known to the public. This is done for three reasons. First, the comparison helps to ensure that patents issue only in cases where an inventor has made a non-trivial contribution to the public's store of knowledge. Second, it protects a possible reliance interest on the part of the public since, once an invention is widely known, members of the public might reasonably assume that the invention is free for all to use. And third, it pressures inventors to file their patent applications promptly lest some other inventor disclose a related invention or the applicant himself inadvertently let slip some fraction of his own research result. The prior art inquiry has a fourth policy implication, however, and while this one might not have been one of the motivating factors for establishing the inquiry in the first place, it is just as important when it comes to designing and interpreting sensible prior art rules. That additional wrinkle is simply this: the fact that patent applications are evaluated in light of the prior art gives firms a strategic incentive to create prior art. A firm can publish a journal article or engage in a public demonstration and in that way affect both a rival's ability to patent a related invention and the rival's incentive to do so. Perhaps surprisingly, this can make the disclosing firm better off even though, by revealing information, the firm is likely helping its rival and, worse, narrowing or even fully preempting the very patent it seeks. In this Article, then, we explain the incentive for strategic disclosure. We show that a firm trailing in a given patent race has an incentive to disclose information in the hopes of preempting a rival's patent, but only if the laggard itself has little chance of leapfrogging the leader and winning the race. We show that a firm leading a patent race similarly has an incentive to disclose, this time in an effort to reduce its rival's expected payoff and in that way encourage the rival to quit the race. We consider the possibility that private negotiations will displace public disclosures, for example with the laggard agreeing not to disclose and in exchange receiving from the ultimate patentee some form of favorable licensing agreement. Lastly, we consider the implications all this might have for the patent system overall.


Mashups is novel content created by extracting and combining data from diverse data sources. In this paper, we present a framework of privacy-preserving data sharing and integration for mashup services. The mashup privacy protection system evaluates privacy preferences expressed in a distributed privacy policy network, i.e., personal privacy policies (PPP), data source organisation's privacy policies (SPP) and mashup organisation's privacy policies (MPP). The privacy policy is expressed in terms of sensitive data to be protected, mashup provider, mashup-operations, and purposes. These parameters can link to the open semantic resources on the web, such as a friend of a friend (FOAF), service industry classification codes and UN product and service classification codes, providing richer semantic reference and avoiding data ambiguity. The mashup privacy protection system allows the specification of privacy policies and enforces distributed privacy policies in creating a new content by a third party mashup provider.


The importance of journalism to civil society is constantly proclaimed, but empirical evidence on journalism's impact, and how this operates, is surprisingly thin. Indeed, there is confusion even about what is meant by the term "impact". Meanwhile, the issue of the role of journalism is becoming increasingly urgent as a consequence of the rapid changes engulfing the news media, brought about by technological change and the flow-on effect to the traditional advertising-supported business model. Assessing the impact of journalism has recently been the topic of debate among practitioners and scholars particularly in the United States, where philanthropists have responded to the perceived crisis in investigative journalism by funding not-for-profit newsrooms, with resulting new pressures being placed on journalists and editors to quantify their impact on society. These recent attempts have so far failed to achieve clarity or a satisfactory conclusion, which is not surprising given the complex web of causation within which journalism operates. In this paper, the authors propose a stratified definition of journalistic impact and function. They propose a methodology for studying impact drawing on realistic evaluation—a theory-based approach developed primarily to assess large social programmes occurring in open systems. The authors argue this could allow a conceptual and methodological advance on the question of media impacts, leading to research capable of usefully informing responses at a time of worrying change.


Many commercial mobile applications or "apps" have surfaced in the past few years, such as Polar, Suunto, etc., to assist hobby runners in their personal fitness training. Although they partially consider vital parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, etc., they do not consider the specific health constraints and requirements of rehabilitation patients. Nevertheless, the hobby scenario is also important for long-term, self-responsible rehabilitation training. As motivation is a key success factor in this phase, personal interests of the user have to be considered. The work presented in this paper tackles this problem context from a design science perspective, and derives a new concept for pervasive mobile assistance in the aforementioned scenarios. The approach covers specific route characteristics, its impact on the user and the user's personal preferences. The paper concludes with a description of an implemented proof-of-concept as a personal health system for self-motivated and self-controlled disease management.