An overview of several aspects of the weathering of roofing materials is presented. Degradation of materials initiated by ultraviolet radiation is discussed for plastics used in roofing, as well as wood and asphalt. Elevated temperatures accelerate many deleterious chemical reactions and hasten diffusion of material components. Effects of moisture include decay of wood, acceleration of corrosion of metals, staining of clay, and freeze-thaw damage. Soiling of roofing materials causes objectionable stains and reduces the solar reflectance of reflective materials. (Soiling of non-reflective materials can also increase solar reflectance.) Soiling can be attributed to biological growth (e.g., cyanobacteria, fungi, algae), deposits of organic and mineral particles, and to the accumulation of flyash, hydrocarbons and soot from combustion.


Poets and panorama are inextricably connected as man's visual sensory motor organ always anticipates in response to its recipience. It recreates an additional faculty of imagination in poet's mind that resonates with the random recipience and the most influential and impactful get a transformational embodiment in the generational process through a poet's aesthetic and synthetic version of thought process thereby taking representation in poetry form. William Wordsworth's poetry embodies the same after going through all the filtering process in mind and Muse. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic onslaught in the world and the 'trial and error' process of the governments and policy makers across the world relating to invention of an effective inoculation against the virus as a part of permanent panacea with no reportedly handy solution so far at hand could not but lead the world into a state of apathy and anarchy in respect to mental and psychological kept-up, and the pandemic paranoid fevered minds across the globe seek an intermediary alternatives for solace and salvation of their suffering souls and to remain abode and oblivious of the ongoing onslaught. In this connection, re-reading and re-interpreting Wordsworth's nature poetry could serve as an intermediary panacea to pacify the panic and phobia as well as to introspect the inner self in respect to man's works and deeds that how far man's activities could be liable for the present global threat in the guise of Covid-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019).


After 1990, the financial analysis of the phenomena that occur in firms has grown in importance. Financial analysts face new challenges as a result of Romania's joining to the European Union. A thorough analysis of the investment decisions is required in order to access structural funds. Many projects that may be granted funds are not feasible from a financial point of view, generating economic and social implications. To demonstrate that the demanded funds are truly needed, the analyst has to identify and quantify as precisely as possible all costs and benefits generated by that specific investment, task which may be accomplished with the use of Cost-Benefit Analysis. For this reason, in the following pages, we shall present the main methodological aspects of the method accompanied by an example of how it is used.


Asthma is a chronic
 inflammatory disorder characterized by wheezing, breathlessness,
 chest tightness and cough. The inflammation is responsible for
 bronchial hyperresponsiveness which renders the patient susceptible
 to certain environmental stimuli. The environmental factors alone
 are not responsible for these changes as they have an intricate
 interaction with genetic factors. In this study we determined the
 spectrum of symptoms and their correlation with serum IgE levels in
 asthmatic patients since no such data could be found for indigenous
 population. Cortisol and ACTH levels were determined to ascertain
 the status of hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Interleukin 13
 gene polymorphisms and their association with asthma and serum IgE
 levels were investigated. For the present study a detailed history
 was taken and peak expiratory flow measured on 164 asthmatic and 50
 controls. Seventy five randomly selected patients underwent serology
 and SNP genotyping. Serum was analyzed for total IgE, cortisol and
 ACTH levels. Six SNPs of interleukin 13 gene were studied by
 PCR-RFLP. Four polymorphisms were from the promoter region C-1512A,
 T-1112C, A-646G and C-469T, one nonsynonymous polymorphism from the
 exon 4 A2044 G (Arg toGln) and a 3'UTR polymorphism A2525G. The
 results of this research revealed that majority of patients belonged
 to moderate intermittent to severe persistent group. Exposure to
 dust was the most common triggering factor in our population. Serum
 IgE levels were directly proportional to the severity of asthma and
 were significantly correlated with history of allergy. However, no
 correlation was found between IgE levels and family history of
 asthma. Adrenal functions were normal when compared with the control
 group. Two SNPs T-1112C and A2044G showed strong association with
 serum IgE levels and both the presence and the severity of asthma.
 C-1512A showed association with asthma and its severity and was the
 only polymorphism that showed an association with the family history
 of asthma. While A2525G had a weak association with serum IgE levels
 only. The other two polymorphisms were in very low frequency in our
 population and hence no association with phenotypes could be
 ascertained. It could be concluded from the present investigation
 that exposure to dust could be the most common precipitating factor
 of asthma in our population. The two previously studied SNPs T-1112C
 and A2044G are strongly associated with serum IgE levels and both
 presence and severity of asthma in our population sample.


Abstract This paper follows Derrida's criticism, in The Voice and the Phenomenon, of Husserl 's conception of meaning as ideality and identity. The french author contests the ideality and supratemporality·of meaning, its separation from the meaning conferring act, and defends the inclusion of the following indicative dimensions of the last in the former: 1) the sensible element of the linguistic sign (namely in the ideal form of the word, that is in the expression) 2) the manifestation and communication of the experience or act (in the conscience as such) 3) the sensible and empirical content of experience, be it sensational, perceptive, imaginative or potentially and mediatelly intended (in the meaning itself). He questions, moreover, having asserted its temporal condition, which also derives, nevertheless, from some assertions by Husserl, the possibility of constitution of a «strict» and «true» identity, stating that intuitive presence is unable to form both the total covering between the intended and the fulfilling meaning, and the abstract ideality that would be function of the possibility of an infinite repetition, instead of conditioned by a "finite-infinite" one. Finally, he explains better the relation between the sensible face of sign and the ideality of meaning, the former's place and role within the differentiation and repetition process. He notes that it is an 'originary' lack in thinking and meaning itself that claims for the linguistic sign ('supplement of origin'), "in succession" for its ideal form and its sensible oral and written elements, without ever reaching any completion (' supplementarity', 'differe(a)nce'). We also attend the derridean hypothesis of writing as the consummation of the link between ideality and death, the last one being considered as having a special relation to sensibility and difference.


The Metamorphosis of Battersea is a study of the process of building development in a London parish during the nineteenth century. Part I reviews existing literature on the subject and looks at the physical and pre-urban background. It also provides a brief overview of the creation of the essential infrastructure of the suburb, from sewers to railways and from churches to music halls, and looks at the social and occupational background of the population as it grew with breathtaking rapidity from less than 3,000 in 1801 to 170,000 a century later.
 Part II discusses the evidence for building cycles in Battersea. The myriad men responsible for building the houses are then examined. This was an industry which essentially remained a collection of hand crafts throughout the period, albeit with some increase in the scale of operations after c.1870. Almost all of the thousands of builders and others came from within a five-mile radius of Battersea, and few lasted more than five years, most considerably less. The speculative nature of housebuilding was always at present and left a trail of bankruptcies and lesser failures in its wake.
 A classification of building estates according to the occupation of the initiator is proposed. Most were small operators who often failed to make the sure profits they expected when they set out. Case studies in Part Ill demonstrate that despite the degree of fragmentation in both estates and building, the operation of the various processes tended to produce homogeneous results in terms of the type and quality of housing, and of the tenants who occupied it, at leas: when new. This convergence often occurred despite the aspirations of landowners and developers, so that the supply and demand equation was usually in balance over a mid- to longer-term period, although there were severe cyclical fluctuations causing casualties among the many groups associated with the transformation of Battersea from an agricultural settlement with a substantial industrial base to a fully-fledged London suburb, larger than most provinicial towns


Off-policy learning, the ability for an agent to learn about a policy other than the one it is following, is a key element of Reinforcement Learning, and in recent years there has been much work on developing Temporal Different (TD) algorithms that are guaranteed to converge under off-policy sampling. It has remained an open question, however, whether anything can be said a priori about the quality of the TD solution when off-policy sampling is employed with function approximation. In general the answer is no: for arbitrary off-policy sampling the error of the TD solution can be unboundedly large, even when the approximator can represent the true value function well. In this paper we propose a novel approach to address this problem: we show that by considering a certain convex subset of off-policy distributions we can indeed provide guarantees as to the solution quality similar to the on-policy case. Furthermore, we show that we can efficiently project on to this convex set using only samples generated from the system. The end result is a novel TD algorithm that has approximation guarantees even in the case of off-policy sampling and which empirically outperforms existing TD methods.


The gut microbiota is important for maintaining the integrity of the intestinal barrier, promoting immunological tolerance and carrying out metabolic activities that have not evolved in hosts. Intestinal dysbiosis is associated with chronic kidney disease and probiotic supplementation has been shown to be beneficial. However, it is not known whether gut microorganisms-specifically, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) can protect against acute kidney injury (AKI). To address this issue, the present study investigated the effects of Lactobacillus salivarius BP121, an intestinal LAB isolated from the feces of newborns, in a rat model of cisplatin-induced AKI and also in Caco-2 human intestinal epithelial cells. BP121 prevented cisplatin-induced AKI in rats, as demonstrated by decreases in inflammation and oxidative stress in kidney tissue and in serum levels of uremic toxins such as indoxyl sulfate (IS) and p-cresol sulfate (PCS). BP121 also reduced intestinal permeability, as determined using fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran by immunohistochemical detection of tight junction (TJ) proteins such as zona occludens-1 and occludin. The abundance of Lactobacillus spp., which are beneficial intestinal flora, was increased by BP121; this was accompanied by an increase in the concentrations of short-chain fatty acids in feces. Additionally, H2O2-induced TJ protein damage was reduced in Caco-2 cells treated with BP121 culture supernatant, an effect that was reversed by the 5′ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor Compound C and Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 inhibitor TLR4-IN-C34. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that L. salivarius BP121 protects against cisplatin-induced AKI by decreasing inflammation and oxidative stress and this renoprotective effect is partially mediated by modulating the gut environment and thereby suppressing IS and PCS production as well as by regulating AMPK and TLR4 dependent TJ assembly.


The past two decades have seen increased interest in social innovation as a leading source of change. While social innovation literature experienced vast growth, particularly in the Western world, there is limited research on the individuals engaged in it, especially concerning their leadership practice. The extant research focuses mostly on identifying traits and competencies exhibited by social innovators. These individuals are often thought of as exceptional people able to think systemically to identify and solve problems in novel ways. The field runs the risk of perpetuating the idea that to be a social innovator one must possess a specific list of impressive qualities and that possessing such qualities is sufficient to be a successful social innovator. Consequently, there is an incomplete picture, a one-dimensional portrait of social innovators. There is a need for comprehensive insight and knowledge regarding how they think, operate, and make meaning of their experiences. This study explored how social innovators make sense of their life and work, and how this meaning informs their leadership practice. Through qualitative interviews, the study investigated factors shaping participants' journeys into social innovation, as well as emerging patterns concerning how they make meaning. The study identified the developmental stage of each participant through the use of constructive-developmental theory, a stage theory of adult development, and the administration of Cook-Greuter's instrument, Leadership Maturity Assessment for Professionals. The research examined relationships between participants' assessed stages and the way they described themselves as social innovators. The results revealed that participants clustered around four developmental stages, with the majority within stages representing the societal expectations for most adults, particularly in professional settings. The analysis identified four critical factors shaping their social innovation journeys, as well as four strategies participants used to make meaning of their experiences. The study examines how these factors intersect and proposes recommendations for those interested in developing future social innovators. The findings of this study add a nuanced, more comprehensive understanding of social innovators. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the study is its potential to help reframe the conversation about who social innovators are beyond the current exceptional trait narrative.


The purpose of this article is to draw attention to urgent needs that exist in the field of maternity protection for women in industry and to evaluate the extent to which the Transitional Constitution addresses these. Since a purely theoretical discussion would be of rather limited value, this paper utilises research which the author undertook in order to ascertain the nature of maternity benefits being provided by employers in the textile industry in selected areas of Natal during 1989-1990. The essential components of maternity protection for working women are job protection, the right to maternity leave for a specified period, a cash benefit to replace wages lost during the leave period, and adequate health and medical insurance during pregnancy, at the time of childbirth, and for postnatal care. South African legislation as it stands contains each of these components, but they are skewed in such a way as to undermine their effectiveness and thus that of the whole maternity policy policy package. In this article each of these components will be discussed in turn.


One of the most compelling visions of future robots is that of the robot butler. An entity dedicated to fulfilling your every need. This obviously has its benefits, but there could be a flipside to this vision. To fulfill the needs of its users, it must first be aware of them, and so it could potentially amass a huge amount of personal data regarding its user, data which may or may not be safe from accidental or intentional disclosure to a third party. How may prospective owners of a personal robot feel about the data that might be collected about them? In order to investigate this issue experimentally, we conducted an exploratory study where 12 participants were exposed to an HRI scenario in which disclosure of personal information became an issue. Despite the small sample size interesting results emerged from this study, indicating how future owners of personal robots feel regarding what the robot will know about them, and what safeguards they believe should be in place to protect owners from unwanted disclosure of private information.


There has been tremendous recent progress on equilibrium-finding algorithms for zero-sum imperfect-information extensive-form games, but there has been a puzzling gap between theory and practice. First-order methods have significantly better theoretical convergence rates than any counterfactual-regret minimization (CFR) variant. Despite this, CFR variants have been favored in practice. Experiments with first-order methods have only been conducted on small- and medium-sized games because those methods are complicated to implement in this setting, and because CFR variants have been enhanced extensively for over a decade they perform well in practice. In this paper we show that a particular first-order method, a state-of-the-art variant of the excessive gap technique---instantiated with the dilated entropy distance function---can efficiently solve large real-world problems competitively with CFR and its variants. We show this on large endgames encountered by the Libratus poker AI, which recently beat top human poker specialist professionals at no-limit Texas hold'em. We show experimental results on our variant of the excessive gap technique as well as a prior version. We introduce a numerically friendly implementation of the smoothed best response computation associated with first-order methods for extensive-form game solving. We present, to our knowledge, the first GPU implementation of a first-order method for extensive-form games. We present comparisons of several excessive gap technique and CFR variants.


Rijndael, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is an encryption standard uses ByteSub, Shiftrow, Mixcolumn and KeyExpansion functions which are the principle of generating a random and pseudorandom numbers. AES has larger S-boxes, but a very simple algebraic description that make it particularly vulnerable. Attacks against
simplified variants of the AES algorithm have been reported for 128-bit keys, 7 rounds out of 10 have been attacked; for 192-bit keys, 7 rounds out of 12 have been attacked; for 256-bit keys, 9 rounds out of 14 have been attacked. NIST stated that AES appears to offer an adequate security margin. It is estimated that attacks in the indicated number of rounds above would result in a heavy cost to resources. Thus, it may be some time before malicious hackers have the ability to break AES in its original form. However, the rapid growth of computer technology and its resources may make this time shorter than NIST estimated time to break the algorithm. This research proposes a transformation function to be added to the AES algorithm. The new transformation function is shifting the columns of the AES state after the Mixcolumn function is applied to the state. This transformation function improves
the security of the AES algorithm by increasing the randomness of the AES output sequence. The new approach has shown positive result in terms of the randomness of output sequence. The approach has increased randomness in comparison to the output sequence of the original AES algorithm.


Creating a conservation plan for a collection of garments and accessories is crucial in keeping the collection alive and accessible to others. Without structure and proper handling, a collection will fall into disarray and the valuable information and potential use of the collection will be lost. The public interest in such collections is growing and museums must create structure in order to adapt. If completed successfully, a properly cared for collection will serve as a valuable asset to the greater body of knowledge. The collection within Eastern Michigan University is in such a state that it requires a protocol system to be developed and executed in order for the collection to survive and become accessible to others. I will research and propose a system based on the practices of several similar institutions. This research includes plans for a website, proper photography of items within the collection, searchable database, and developing a catalog system. These areas will be the main focus, with handling, storage, supplies, and lab protocols as secondary areas to address. This project resulted in the development of a "Starters Manual" for the collection, which addresses these areas. Due to this research, future classes will be able to implement the practices outlined within. Also, outside individuals and institutions will be able to access information regarding the collection. Degree Type Open Access Senior Honors Thesis Department Technology Studies


Introduction:
A variety of evidence based pharmacological strategies are recommended to reduce the risk of stroke recurrence. The exact medications used will differ dependent on stroke aetiology and typically include antithrombotic, blood pressure lowering and lipid lowering strategies for ischaemic stroke and blood pressure lowering strategies for haemorrhagic stroke. Non-adherence to secondary preventative medications after stroke is common and is associated with poor outcomes.
Failure to adhere to medication regimens can be intentional, whereby the patient deliberately decides not to take medication or can be unintentional. For example, patients with limited financial resource or cognitive problems may struggle to adhere to the complex secondary prevention regimens often required post stroke. In turn, several factors contribute to these types of non-adherence. For example, intentional non-adherence may arise following an adverse event or be due to motivational factors whereas unintentional non-adherence can be due to impaired memory function. Stopping medication after stroke may be entirely reasonable if the clinical condition and balance of risks and benefits has changed. Understanding factors associated with adherence could inform strategies to improve it and improve clinical outcomes.
Numerous strategies exist to promote adherence but the feasibility and extent of resulted improvement in stroke patients is unclear. Strategies include educational, motivational or practical interventions; however, a combination of these is usually needed in order to reach sufficient improvement.
This research aimed to establish the extent of non-adherence to secondary preventative medications after stroke, explore factors associated with poor adherence and describe interventions used to enhance adherence to preventative medication after stroke.
Methods
The first chapter covers a thorough literature review of the evidence-based recommendations for the secondary prevention after stroke and looked generally at reported rate of adherence and reasons for non-adherence. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were used to identify predictive factors of non-adherence in chapter 2 and strategies used to enhance adherence to secondary preventative medication after stroke in chapter 5. Both followed PRISMA guidelines in designing the search criteria and reporting of the results. Also, chapter 3 contains a descriptive analysis of a retrospective data of stroke patients enrolled into clinical trials including patients' characteristics and their medication intake behaviour in the first 90 days after stroke. Chapter 4 investigated the factors associated with non-adherence to secondary preventative medication within the population described in chapter 3 using survival analysis. Then, a pilot study of a promising intervention in post-stroke population was performed based on the findings of the systematic review of effective interventions that enhanced medication adherence in stroke population and the findings of this study are presented in chapter 6.
Results
Chapter 2: This systematic review identified several factors in different categories that were associated with adherence to secondary preventative medication after stroke. These involved patient related factors such as having concerns about treatment, socioeconomic factors such as presence of carer, health related such as co-morbidities and disability, medication regimen factors including polypharmacy and cost of medication, caregiver factors like adequate communication and continuity of care, or stroke related factors including severity of stroke and stroke subtype. However, none of the factors included in meta-analyses was of significant effect on medication adherence; which is possibly due to heterogeneity in included studies. Prevalence of medication non-adherence in included studies was 32.8% of overall medication regimen (95% CI: 32.2-33.3%).
Chapter 3: 10304 Patients were included in the analysis; 54.5% were males and the mean age of participants was 69.4 ± 12.4 years. Of secondary preventative medication prescriptions, 21.3% of patients received anti-coagulants, 64.1% received anti-platelets, 18.2% received hypoglycaemic drugs, 17.9% received lipid-lowering drugs and 56% received Blood Pressure (BP) lowering drugs. Adherence rate was 88% to anticoagulants, 81.3% to anti-platelets, 68.9% to hypoglycaemic drugs, 86.7% to lipid-lowering agents and 78% to BP lowering drugs. Patients in this analysis received a mean of 7.1 (SD, 7) or a median of 5 (IQR, 3 – 9) medication per day.
Chapter 4: In Cox-regression survival analysis using multivariable analysis, frequent factors associated with non-adherence to secondary preventative medication classes. To anti-platelets medication- female gender, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic heart disease, polypharmacy (treatment with > 5 drugs), cortical involvement, recurrent ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke or bleeding while on treatment all associated with non-adherence. To anti-coagulant drugs- more severe stroke, smoking, polypharmacy, bleeding and recurrent ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke associated with less adherence. To lipid-lowering drugs- non-white ethnicity, more severe stroke, smoking, congestive heart failure, previous stroke and recurrent ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke all associated with decreased adherence. To BP lowering drugs- more severe stroke, smoking, previous stroke, thrombolysis treatment at baseline, cortical involvement in stroke, syncope, hypotensive episodes, and recurrent ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke associated with non-adherence; whereas history of hypertension and polypharmacy associated with better adherence.
Chapter 5: Interventions that involved patient education and counselling about medication at hospital discharge, provided a computerised educational program regarding risk factors management after stroke, encouraged self-care after stroke, motivated the patients to modify health behaviour or provided cues or reminders to take medication lead to significant improvement in adherence to secondary preventative medication after stroke. When combined in meta-analysis for each medication class, interventions significantly enhanced adherence to antithrombotic drugs (anti-coagulants and anti-platelets), lipid-lowering drugs and BP lowering drugs but not to the overall secondary preventative medication regimen.
Chapter 6: Ten participants were recruited to this pilot study, half of which were randomised to the intervention group i.e. received daily reminders. Mean age of participants was 59.6 ± 14.7 years and eight were males. All patients completed the study visits (baseline, 1-month and 3-months visits) where they were given an education session at baseline and medication adherence was assessed in each visit using a validated medication adherence scale. At 3-months post intervention, adherence to secondary preventative medication improved for two participants in the intervention group but reduced in two participants in the control group.
Conclusion
Studies in this thesis quantified rate of adherence to secondary preventative medication after stroke in real-life and clinical trials stroke patients. These studies added to the previous knowledge that non-adherence was common after stroke with around 30% of all patients discontinued treatment. Many factors were identified and associated with reduced adherence in stroke population. This finding could inform stroke clinicians to give extra care to those at risk of stopping secondary prevention measures. In addition, various strategies found by this research to be useful in improving medication adherence in stroke population. Such interventions need to be included in after stroke care. There is a major need for larger studies to investigate what are the best strategies to enhance adherence to medication after stroke.


This article investigates the nexus of competition and stability in European banking. It analyzes the European legal framework for competition policy in banking and several cases that pertain to anti-cartel policy, merger policy, and state-aid control. It discusses whether and how competition policy should be amended in order to preserve the stability of the banking system during crises. The article argues for increased cooperation between prudential regulators and competition authorities, as well as an enhanced framework for bank regulation, supervision, and resolution that could mitigate the need to change competition policy in crisis times.


In treatment of motion affected tumours by means of a scanned particle beam severe under and
over dosage can occur due to the interplay effect. By using gated beam delivery effective target
motion is reduced, but even for the residual motion the interplay effect can lead to unsatisfactory
dose distributions. Furthermore, an appropriate motion monitoring system is essential since
beam delivery has to be synchronized to target motion.
In this work three aspects were investigated to move gating closer towards clinical operation
at Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT): Firstly, influences of beam parameters on
dosimetric effects of residual motion were investigated in experiments and simulations. Increased
focus sizes and reduced iso-energy distances turned out to be an effective method
to gain dose homogeneity whereas reduction of lateral beam position spacing did not show
such an effect. Secondly, to enable systematic studies of mitigation techniques and effects of
miscorrelation between motion monitoring system and tumour motion a phantom with 6D target
and independent thorax motion was constructed and validated successfully in experiments.
Thirdly, two motion monitoring systems by VisionRT Ltd. and Anzai Medical Co.,Ltd., respectively,
were compared in terms of gating delays and correlation to tumour motion extracted
from MV-fluoroscopy. While the VisionRT system showed larger delays than the Anzai system
under laboratory conditions, no significant difference between the systems with respect to
tumour-correlation was found in a clinical study.
Results of this work will be incorporated into patient treatments using gating that will start at
HIT within the next few months. Furthermore, a phantom simulating thorax and target motion
with a variety of applications such as 4D imaging is now available and already in use by several
groups.


What ghosts can say- Even the ghosts of fathers--comes obscurely. What if the terror stays without the meaning? --Adrienne Rich, "What Ghosts Can Say" No justice [...] seems possible or thinkable without the principle of some responsibility, beyond all living present, within that which disjoins the living present, before the ghosts of those who are not yet born or who are already dead, be they victims of wars, political or other kinds of violence, nationalist, racist, colonialist, sexist, or other kinds of exterminations, victims of the oppressions of capitalist imperialism or any of the forms of totalitarianism. Without this non-contemporaneity with itself of the living present, without that which secretly unhinges it, without this responsibility and this respect for justice concerning those who are not there, of those who are no longer or who are not yet present and living; what sense would there be to ask the question "where?" "where tomorrow?" "whither?" --Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx In 1944, the last year, no doubt, in which it still might have been possible to speak of American "innocence," Fei Xiaotang, a Chinese anthropologist and sociologist on a visit to the United States, observed that America is a land without ghosts: American children bear no stories about ghosts. They spend a dime at the drugstore to buy a Superman comic book. [...] Superman represents actual capabilities or future potential, while ghosts symbolize belief in and reverence for the accumulated past. [...] How could ghosts gain a foothold in American cities? People move about like the tide, unable to form permanent ties with places, still less with other people. [...] In a world without ghosts, life is free and easy. American eyes can gaze straight ahead. But I still think they lack something and I do not envy their life. (qtd. in Arkush and Lee 179-181) By way of opening, I would like to sketch in some aspects of this perceived "lack" in American culture, frame it, perhaps, complicate it, and try to suggest what has driven me to consider it, what makes a dialogue with ghosts, for me, compulsory. I wish to examine some of the tenuous footholds ghosts have gained in the United States over the course of the last half century. My project is taken up at the instigation of Avery F. Gordon, who in her pathbreaking 1997 study, Ghostly Matters, asserts that "haunting rather than history (or historicism) best captures the constellation of connections that charges any 'time of the now' with the debts of the past and the expense of the present" (142). "How do we reckon with what modern history has rendered ghostly?" (18), asks Gordon, a question I am pursuing with respect to the ghostly within American culture at the present juncture, a present, as Derrida would say, peculiarly unhinged and haunted. My theme assumes the centrality of enactments of memory as popular loci of struggle over meaning within consumer culture and targets our peculiar obsession at the millennium's turn with the painful burdens of American history. I am interested in how cultural practices articulate individual or collective subjective sensibilities by excavating alternative histories, or "ghost" stories, by imaginatively summoning into presence those voices and beings that have been sacrificed to the march of progress and the consolidation of American literary and cultural traditions. Among other things, I want to examine the resonance of a haunted past within the context of a "multicultural" society by considering a complex of mnemonic struggles, with specific reference to the project of contemporary ethnic literature. Much of my argument is adumbrated in Kathleen Brogan's very fine recent book, Cultural Haunting, wherein she posits an entire new genre of ethnic ghost stories, dedicated to the project of "cultural mourning," which might be defined as the imaginative work that communities are compelled to do wherever they are savaged by a history that both shapes and dismisses them: "haunted tales [. …


Millions of people worldwide die prematurely or suffer from severe health ailments due to cooking equipment that causes unhealthy doses of (household) air pollution. Many attempts to address this have fallen short because technology was not improved sufficiently or the way it was introduced constituted an ill fit with the broader "cooking eco-system". In terms of technology, (biomass) gasifier stoves look promising on all three sustainability dimensions (people, planet, profit) but have not been adopted on a substantial scale across cultures and regions either. We therefore used a design approach that takes multiple contexts (target groups) into account and compared the performance of a gasifier stove that was developed following this multi-context approach with four previous gasifier versions. With the comparative assessment using criteria well beyond mere technological performance we found that it performed better than these versions as well as than what could be expected based on historical learning, while providing additional systemic advantages. These results encourage verification of the value of the multi-context approach in more settings while providing clues for refinement of the assessment method.


Lurking beneath the mosaic of geopolitical tensions in Asia is a wellspring of conflict over one of humanity's most fundamental needs: water. For the 1.3 billion people living in southwest China and the northern reaches of Southeast Asia, rivers are fixtures of local economies and cultures. In recent years, demand for water has skyrocketed due to the region's relentless economic development and population expansion, while supply is expected to dwindle over the next few decades due to the effects of changing climate patterns. Compounding this dire scarcity, water is being increasingly politicized due to die transnational nature of these major rivers. Since accessible water resources arc integral to life in general and the region's agricultural economies specifically, disputes over fair usage of these shared rivers have become critical challenges in regional diplomacy. More than ever, the policies and politics of countries in this region are being woven together in an inextricable web of dependency. In some ways, these river conflicts are manifestations of the region's foreign policy dynamics in another form. Though some fear that these river conflicts may turn into armed conflicts, certain international treaties have provided a sustainable framework for water management that serve as a glimmer of hope for conflict resolution in a region that is perpetually plagued with hostility. Strategically, China has a distinct advantage in terms of water resources because eight of the region's major rivers originate in the Tibetan Plateau of the western part of the country. These rivers, in turn, serve 1.8 billion people ranging from Pakistan to Vietnam. The crucial clement in these river conflicts is the power dynamic between upstream and downstream countries. Many countries like China and India have pursued aggressive programs of dam construction on these rivers to harness hydroelectric power and to manage water levels during flooding seasons. These policies have rippling effects downstream because riparian countries that share the river fear reductions in their water supply due to upstream manipulation. Within the next five years, China plans to meet fifteen percent of its energy consumption needs from alternative energy sources, and so hydroelectric generation is a top policy priority. The Mekong River alone supplies water to 325 million people living in China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. China has already built three major dams on the Mekong River, which in turn have the potential to send ripples of side effects downstream. By altering water levels, these projects can disrupt rice production and fuel local resentment as far downstream as Vietnam's IViekong delta region. Public opinion in many of the Mekong River's basin countries pins China as a scapegoat for economic and agricultural problems. In 1995, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission to facilitate policy collaboration on transnational water usage. Strikingly, China is not a member, though it has been receptive to dialogue. Another river basin in which China has played a polarizing role is the Brahmaputra, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau and flows through Assam in India before entering Bangladesh. In November 2010, China began construction on the Zangmu Dam on the Brahmaputra, which is estimated to cost US$1.2 billion. India fears that China might eventually try to divert the Brahmaputra towards its eastern provinces, thereby cutting off one of India's essential water sources. Though there has been much debate as to the technical feasibility of such an endeavor, the possibility of this type of upstream manipulation has continued to foment uneasiness between the two economic powers. …


Cold chain is a term related to the equipment and processes used to keep the correct temperature, in which the products, such as food, vaccines, blood, tissues, amongst others, should be stable to be preserved. Any change in temperature can cause a damage in the specific properties in products. Because of that, it is mandatory to constantly monitor temperature and log it to offer traceability. Furthermore, if products must be transported, the position coordinates should be taken into account as well, due to the possibility of making mistakes in logistics personnel, taking non-optimal routes to arrive to the destination, and increasing transportation time. Thus, logistics managers need tools to measure, save and analyze temperature and position in real time to make the most optimal decisions. The implementation of systems meeting Ubiquitous Computing can fulfill the challenge, because the generated information is available to be read, modified and stored everywhere and every time. Besides, messengers can be warned about anomalies regarding change of temperatures or coordinates, adding context awareness to the system. This work aims to show a novel architecture to monitor cold chains by using Ubiquitous Computing paradigm, by means of Single Board Computers. The system includes instrumentation, embedded processing with Single Board Computers, real time databases, Human Computer Interfaces, remote management and support to deploy a complete solution. By using this system, companies ensure traceability and integrity of data in cold chains. A study case is presented to validate the approach.


We describe the design and performance of a new full-field high-speed laser Doppler imaging system developed for mapping and monitoring of blood flow in biological tissue. The total imaging time for 256x256 pixels region of interest is 1.2 seconds. An integrating CMOS image sensor is utilized to detect Doppler signal in a plurality of points simultaneously on the sample illuminated by a divergent laser beam of a uniform intensity profile. The integrating property of the detector improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurement, which results in high-quality flow-images provided by the system. The new technique is real-time, non-invasive and the instrument is easy to use. The wide range of applications is one of the major challenges for a future application of the imager. High-resolution high-speed laser Doppler perfusion imaging is a promising optical technique for diagnostic and assessing the treatment effect of the diseases such as e.g. atherosclerosis, psoriasis, diabetes, skin cancer, allergies, peripheral vascular diseases, skin irritancy and wound healing. We present some biological applications of the new imager and discuss the perspectives for the future implementations of the imager for clinical and physiological applications.


Increasingly, political pressures to enact tax legislation impact the budget process, with enduring consequences that sometimes reach beyond tax law. Most recently, partisan conflict over the 2017 tax legislation challenged fundamental aspects of the budget process — such as the length of budget windows, the construction of budget baselines, even the independence of the estimators — in order to fit the law through the requirements of the budget reconciliation process. Ultimately, lawmakers adhered to many of the budget process rules in a formal sense, which could be viewed as demonstrating the resiliency of the process. There is reason, however, to not be so optimistic. The budgetary disputes heavily shaped the contours of the legislation, exacerbating the tendency of lawmakers to disregard long-term fiscal concerns and contributing to revenue losses of $1.9 trillion in the new law's first ten years. Additionally, the extent to which the 2017 tax legislation challenged the budget process likely has eroded important budget norms, casting doubt upon their staying power going forward. Over time, tax law has impacted budget policy by encouraging the ill-conceived use of reconciliation to ease the passage of revenue-losing legislation, while also creating pressure for Congress to unshackle itself from the budget process. This Article identifies points of instability in the budget process and offers suggestions for improving those areas in light of the new strains placed upon them.


There has been much discussion in the past few years surrounding
the decline in religious practice in Ireland. Poll after poll reveals
ever-decreasing percentages of worshippers who regularly attend
church services. Instead of lamenting the fact that a certain per
centage of the population have chosen to opt out of joining a con
gregation weekly for communal worship, I actually marvel at the
numbers that continuously choose to do so. Why do they come?
What motivates them to turn up at religious services where the
preaching may sometimes range from mediocre to dreadful,
where music may be non-existent or, if it features at all, may be
sub-standard or, indeed, cringe-inducing? One can understand
congregations regularly attending churches where a talented and
gifted clergy minister, ensuring that they 'get their money's
worth', so to speak. At the very least, if the homily is thought
provoking or the singing uplifting, it becomes less difficult to
understand why one might like to return to savour the experience
anew. However, the reality is simply that not all parishes are
blessed with good liturgy. What fills, or even half-fills, a church
on a Sunday morning in these parishes? Is it simply a profound
appreciation of what, for example, the Mass is about, a deep
seated realization that the sacraments work on the basis of ex
opere operato and, regardless of the personal character of the
celebrant, are effective when performed in the correct manner? Is
it custom, perhaps
- a social ritual by which practice one can feel
justified? Does it comprise a weekly dalliance with the divine -
the one with which we have become accustomed -
and, like an
old slipper, 'just feels right'? Perhaps, less cynically, it consists
of the working out of a faith that, while often unsure and stum
bling, leads one into the presence of God and humanity. The rea
sons for attending communal worship are probably as many as
the people who attend. Twenty-first century religion (in the tra
dition of the many centuries that preceded it) is anything but easy
to pin down. What follows here are some observations on reli
gious practice from the world of both those who occupy the pews
and also those individuals who choose to remain outside while
fondly retaining some of the practices of the organized religion
they shy away from.


Background: Instability of carotid plaques has been reported to be associated with stroke and other cerebrovascular events. The purpose of this study was to examine whether cholesterol-lowering therapy with atorvastatin in nonhypercholesterolemic patients reduces carotid plaque instability as assessed by ultrasound integrated backscatter (IBS) analysis. Methods: Consecutive non- or slightly hypercholesterolemic patients with moderate carotid artery stenosis were randomly assigned to a diet group (n = 20) or a statin group (atorvastatin; n = 20). Carotid plaques were monitored by measuring intima media thickness (IMT) and IBS values at baseline and after 6 months. Results: Three-dimensional IBS imaging showed that relative lipid volume of carotid plaques significantly decreased from 58.4 ± 25.6 to 47.8 ± 23.5% in the statin group (p < 0.01), whereas there was no significant decrease in the diet group. Significant regression of IMT was not observed in either group. The changes of IBS values and relative lipid volume between baseline and 6 months were correlated with the change in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (r = 0.31, p < 0.05, and r = 0.34, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: Lipid-lowering therapy by atorvastatin decreased relative lipid volume without significant regression of plaque volume during short-term follow-up in patients with moderate carotid artery stenosis. Quantitative assessment of carotid plaques by IBS analysis was clinically useful for monitoring atherosclerotic lesions.


This thesis begins by outlining the theoretical and empirical foundations of the economics of innovations. It then proceeds by analysing four econometric issues in the measurement of technological knowledge embedded in patented innovations and modelling the statistical relationship of the value of patented innovations originating in the G-5 countries overtime. This thesis contributes to the economics of innovation literature in four areas: (1) a comprehensive review of the proxies available to elicit the value embodied in patented inventions (2) a direct comparison of regression estimates based on citations count dependent variable versus citations-weighted dependent variable (3) an introduction and application of Regression Tree and Graphical Modelling methodologies to model patented inventions (4) estimation of the fluctuations and associations in the values of patented innovation in the G-5 countries using patent citations.


International and national armed conflicts are usually preceded by a media campaign in which public figures foment ethnic, national, racial or religious hatred, inciting listeners to acts of violence. Incitement on Trial evaluates the efforts of international criminal tribunals to hold such inciters criminally responsible. This is an unsettled area of international criminal law, and prosecutors have often struggled to demonstrate a causal connection between speech acts and subsequent crimes. This book identifies 'revenge speech' as the type of rhetoric with the greatest effects on empathy and tolerance for violence. Wilson argues that inciting speech should be handled under the preventative doctrine of inchoate crimes, but that once international crimes have been committed, then ordering and complicity are the most appropriate forms of criminal liability. Based in extensive original research, this book proposes an evidence-based risk assessment model for monitoring political speech.


In a simultaneous experiment we studied the de Haas–van Alphen (dHvA) and the Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) effects in a two-dimensional electron system (2DES) in a modulation-doped GaAs∕AlxGa1−xAs heterostructure. For this, a gated 2DES mesa was monolithically integrated with a micromechnical cantilever with an interferometric fiber-optics readout. In situ measurement of the dHvA and SdH oscillations at 300mK in a magnetic field B allowed us to directly compare the variation of the ground state energy and the nonequilibrium transport behavior, respectively. This was done on a 2DES of a small carrier density ns ranging from 5×1010to33×1010cm−2. The wave forms of the dHvA oscillations were nonsinusoidal down to a magnetic field as small as 1.45T. At the same time the zero-field mobility was as low as μe=105cm2/Vs. We found that at fixed B the observed dHvA wave form and amplitude were independent of ns and μe. This was unexpected and in contrast to the established picture in the literature. To understand the dHvA effect quantitatively in a disordered 2DES our data suggest that energetic details of the disorder potentials have to be considered.


Recent literature has identified modern "parenting" as an expert-led practice—one which begins with pre-pregnancy decisions, entails distinct types of intimate relationships, places intense burdens on mothers and increasingly on fathers too. Exploring within diverse historical and global contexts how men and women make—and break—relations between generations when becoming parents, this volume brings together innovative qualitative research by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists. The chapters focus tightly on inter-generational transmission and demonstrate its importance for understanding how people become parents and rear children.


We propose a new way for temperature measurement in the core of active optical fiber under high-power laser generation. The technique is based on quadrature fiber Michelson interferometer assisted with lock-in amplification for separated amplitude and phase modulations of the probe light, which allows to perform measurements in arbitrary heat transfer conditions. The technique is demonstrated on the Yb-doped fiber laser. The pump power up to 25 W under natural convection was applied. The value of convective heat transfer coefficient and its dependence on temperature difference between fiber and environment are determined from these measurements.


Due to its ease of use, relational keyword search (R-KWS) has become increasingly popular. Compared to SQL, it has several benefits. First, R-KWS hides the schema from users and allows searching for combinations of terms without knowing in which data sources they appear. Second, its queries are easy to express. Third, many search tasks only become feasible through R-KWS. However, R-KWS is a young concept that holds many challenges. First, it lacks common semantics, and different implementations encounter various pitfalls. Second, its simplicity comes at a high computational cost. Specifically, R-KWS explores a vast search space, composed of all possible combinations of keyword occurrences in any attribute of every table. There are two general methodologies for query processing: (i) graph based (GB), traversing a materialized data graph, and (ii) operator based (OB), executing a set of relational operator trees. In both cases, a large portion of the computations are wasted on traversals/operators that fail to return results. Finally, while data streams become increasingly important to our information landscapes, R-KWS has been restrained to static data. The contribution of this paper is thus threefold. First, it provides homogenized semantics and matching query processing methods (GB as well as OB) that are formally shown to be correct. Second, it introduces a comprehensive framework for reachability indexing that quickly collapses the search space, and leads to significant savings. Third, it extends R-KWS to continuous queries over relational data streams. In particular, it proposes temporal semantics, as well as matching query processing techniques (GB as well as OB) that are further optimized. Extensive experiments demonstrate the high practicability of R-KWS, on tables as well as streams, and the significant benefits of the proposed optimizations.


Abstract This article deals with the extraction of minerals (limestone/marl/flysch) in the quarry Rodež, which is located in western Slovenia. During the extraction of minerals in a quarry, drilling and blasting of benches are used. The focus of the article is on the analysis of the parameters related to drilling and blasting in surface excavations when using a combination of explosions and introducing horizontal wells along with vertical holes in the bench. On the basis of the analysis of basic parameters through a combination of drilling horizontal wells and charging those with the ammonal + Anfex explosive, analyses of effects of seismic disturbances on potentially affected buildings have also been conducted. The article is connected to and deals exclusively with the basic parameters of drilling and blasting, with the introduction of horizontal drilling and with the analysis of seismic measurements of threatened buildings in accordance with the German standard German Institute for Standardisation (DIN) 4150 during the use of a new method of blasting.


Unstable flow causes major uncertainties in the characterization of drainage in the vadose zone by inducing finger‐like flow paths in soils with or without macropores. Recent studies have identified the major factors governing fingered flow to be the combined effects of capillary hysteresis, the existence of a threshold water‐entry value in a porous medium, and a positive matric potential gradient behind the wetting front. This situation typically occurs during redistribution following high‐rate infiltration, a common occurrence in hydrology. The conditions favoring instability can also develop during infiltration into a fine‐over‐coarse layered soil, into hydrophobic or air‐entrapped soils, or even in a homogeneous coarse‐textured soil if the infiltration rate is low. An analysis of the conditions necessary for the onset of unstable flow in a uniform soil is provided in this paper. We demonstrate that if the matric potential gradient (dh/dz) becomes positive during redistribution, a perturbation at the wetting front will cause finger flow. However, if dh/dz remains negative, the perturbation will be dissipated. The analysis is used to predict a critical depth of irrigation (Ic) beyond which the flow should become unstable. A series of point‐source and line‐source infiltration experiments were conducted using a slab‐box filled with uniform sands. The results confirmed that as soon as Ic is exceeded, a finger was formed at the bottom of the wetting front, channeling the flow and stopping water movement in the surrounding areas. We discuss this phenomenon's implications for practical irrigation and leaching designs.


Distributed and concurrent applications often have subtle bugs that only get exposed under specific schedules. While these schedules may be found by systematic model checking techniques, in practice, model checkers do not scale to large systems. On the other hand, naive random exploration techniques often require a very large number of runs to find the specific interactions needed to expose a bug. In recent years, several random testing algorithms have been proposed that, on the one hand, exploit state-space reduction strategies from model checking and, on the other, provide guarantees on the probability of hitting bugs of certain kinds. These existing techniques exploit two orthogonal strategies to reduce the state space: partial-order reduction and bug depth. Testing algorithms based on partial order techniques, such as RAPOS or POS, ensure non-redundant exploration of independent interleavings among system events by imposing an equivalence relation on schedules and ideally exploring only one schedule from each equivalence class. Techniques based on bug depth, such as PCT, exploit the empirical observation that many bugs are exposed by the clever scheduling of a small number of key events. They bias the sample space of schedules to only cover all executions of small depth, rather than the much larger space of all schedules. At this point, there is no random testing algorithm that combines the power of both approaches. In this paper, we provide such an algorithm. Our algorithm, trace-aware PCT (taPCTCP), extends and unifies several different algorithms in the random testing literature. It samples the space of low-depth executions by constructing a schedule online, while taking dependencies among events into account. Moreover, the algorithm comes with a theoretical guarantee on the probability of sampling a trace of low depth---the probability grows exponentially with the depth but only polynomially with the number of racy events explored. We further show that the guarantee is optimal among a large class of techniques. We empirically compare our algorithm with several state-of-the-art random testing approaches for concurrent software on two large-scale distributed systems, Zookeeper and Cassandra, and show that our approach is effective in uncovering subtle bugs and usually outperforms related random testing algorithms.


WGELECTRA met three times (22–24/10/2014; 10–12/11/2015, and 17–19/01/2017) to discuss the ongoing research projects in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany and provide an overview of the state of the art knowledge of the ecological effects. Pulse trawls are used in the North Sea fishery for flatfish and brown shrimp. The shrimp pulse applies a low frequency pulse that invokes a startle response (tailflip) in shrimps. The sole pulse applies a higher frequency that invokes a cramp response that immobi-lise the fish species facilitating the catching process. The use of electricity in fishing has raised considerable concern among stakeholders which is mainly focused on the un-known effects on marine organisms and the functioning of the benthic ecosystem but also altered fishing efforts & catch efficiencies. A number of laboratory experiments have been carried out in which a selection of fish species and invertebrate species have been exposed to electrical stimuli to study possi-ble adverse effects. The maximum pulse treatment applied exceeded the strength of the pulse used by the fishery. Electrical stimulation did not cause direct mortality dur-ing exposure. Exposure to the sole pulse stimuli invoked vertebral fractures and asso-ciated haemorrhages in roundfish species (cod), but not in flatfish species (sole, plaice, dab) or seabass. The results suggest that fractures are restricted to the larger size classes of cod that are retained in the net, whereas smaller cod that can escape through the 80 mm meshes did not develop fractures even when exposed to high field strength. The fracture incidence in cod increases with field strength and decreases with pulse frequency. Fracture incidence varied between experiments. Experimental induced frac-tures corresponded to fractures observed in cod and whiting sampled from commercial pulse trawls. Further studies are required to study the relationship between the frac-tures and the body size and determine the differences in fractures across fish species. Shrimp pulse exposure did not invoke fractures in roundfish or flatfish species. Histological examination of fish exposed to pulse stimuli in laboratory experiments, did not reveal other abnormalities in species examined, except for a small haemorrhage in 2 of the 25 exposed plaice, and a significant increase in melanomacrophage centres in the spleen of cod exposed to the shrimp pulse 24 h after exposure. No adverse effect could be detected on the electro-sense organ used in food detection behaviour of small-spotted catshark. In an experiment exposing brown shrimp and ragworms to a sole pulse showed no consistent adverse effects, but shrimps that were exposed 20 times during a 4-day period to a sole pulse showed an increased mortality compared to one of the control treatments, but not compared to the 2nd control treatment or to mechani-cally stimulated shrimps. Little is known on the effects of electrical stimulation on the development of eggs and larvae. One experiment exposing early life stages of cod (egg, larvae, early juveniles) to a pulse stimulus exceeding the pulse used in the fisheries did not find an increase in developmental abnormalities in exposed animals, but observed a reduced hatching rate and an increased mortality in 2 out of the 8 experiments. No adverse effects were observed in sole eggs and larvae. No studies have been done on the effect of pulse stimulation on the functioning of the benthic ecosystem and nutrient dynamics. Although the laboratory experiments sug-gest that fish and invertebrates resume their normal behaviour after exposure, no in-formation is available on for instance the threshold levels at which the functioning of species is being adversely affected. Electrical stimulation changes the species selectivity of the trawl. The catch efficiency of the pulse trawl for sole is higher, and the catch efficiency for plaice and other fish species is lower, when expressed in terms of the catch rate per swept area. It is uncer-tain whether the pulse trawl has a better size selectivity (reduced bycatch of undersized fish), but all experiments show that the bycatch of benthic invertebrates is substantially reduced. Applying electrical stimulation in the fishery for brown shrimp, offers a promising innovation to reduce the bycatch of fish and benthic invertebrates, while maintaining the catch rate of marketable sized shrimps. The reduction in bycatch de-pends on the design of the net, in particular the specifics of the groundrope. In ecological terms, the replacement of the tickler chain beam trawl with pulse trawl with electrodes diminish the mechanical impact of trawling on the North Sea benthic ecosystem. Although the irreversible effects of electrical stimulation seem to be re-stricted to the vertebral fractures in cod and whiting, further research on the effects of electrical stimulation on marine organisms and ecosystem functioning is needed to as-sess the effects on the scale of the North Sea.


Throughout history, technological development and economic growth has led to greater prosperity and overall standard of living for many people in society. However, along with the benefits of economic development comes the social responsibility of minimizing the mortality and morbidity health impacts associated with human activities, safeguarding ecosystems, protecting world cultural heritage and preventing integrity and amenity losses of man-made environments. Effects are often irreversible, extend way beyond national borders and can occur over a long time lag. At current pollutant levels, the monetized impacts carry a significant burden to society, on the order of few percent of a countryAƒÂ¢A'€A'â"¢s GDP, and upwards to 10% of GDP for countries in transition. A recent study for the European Union found that the aggregate damage burden from industrial air pollution alone costs every man, woman and child between 200 and 330 AƒÂ¢A'â€sA'¬ a year, of which CO2 emissions contributed 40 to 60% (EEA 2011). In a sustainable world, an assessment of the environmental impacts (and damage costs) imposed by man\'s decisions on present and future generations is necessary when addressing the cost effectiveness of local and national policy options that aim at improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this paper is to present a methodology for calculating such adverse public health outcomes arising from exposure to routine atmospheric pollutant emissions using a simplified methodology, referred to as the Uniform World Model (UWM). The UWM clearly identifies the most relevant factors of the analysis, is easy to implement and requires only a few key input parameters that are easily obtained by the analyst, even to someone living in a developing country. The UWM is exact in the limit all parameters are uniformly distributed, due to mass conservation. The current approach can be applied to elevated and mobile sources. Its robustness has been validated (typical deviations are well within the Aƒâ€sA'±50% range) by comparison with much more detailed air quality and environmental impact assessment models, such as ISC3, CALPUFF, EMEP and GAINS. Several comparisons illustrating the wide range of applicability of the UWM are presented in the paper, including estimation of mean concentrations at the local, country and continental level and calculation of local and country level intake factors and marginal damage costs of primary particulate matter and inorganic secondary aerosols. Relationships are also provided for computing spatial concentration profiles and cumulative impact or damage cost distributions. Assessments cover sources located in the USA, Europe, East Asia (China) and South Asia (India).


Extracted from text ... 24 Management Today July 2006
What drives black talent
in South Africa?
T
Claudia Cruz is project manager at
Consumer Insight Agency, a Cape Town
based market research company.
There is a significant disjoint between what
young black talent in South Africa wants
and what most corporates are delivering.
This is according to new research findings
which concluded that this mismatch was
also contributing to the damaging culture
of job hopping in corporate South Africa.
The research - a qualitative survey carried
out by Cape Town based market researcher,
the Consumer Insight Agency -
involved in-depth, videoed interviews with ..


Abstract Title Plasmid-mediated resistance to macrolides in some Staphylococcus isolates recovered from patients with lower respiratory tract infection. Background Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci are considered to be among the major causes of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. Macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramin type B (MLS) antibiotics are widely indicated for the treatment of staphylococcal infections. A great concern is the increase in the prevalence of macrolide resistance among Staphylococcus spp. The aim of our study was to detect plasmid-harbored genes responsible for macrolide resistance in staphylococci involved in lower respiratory tract infections (LRIs) in Egypt. Methods and findings A total of 189 bacterial isolates were recovered from 180 sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage specimens obtained from patients with LRIs. The specimens were collected during the period of 2010 to 2012 from Microbiological diagnostic laboratories of two governmental hospitals specialized in the treatment of chest infections, Al-Sadr (Abbassia) and Al-Demerdash hospitals. The antibiogram analysis revealed that 64, out of 189 isolates (33.9%) were resistant to the tested antibiotics (Erythromycin, Clarithromycin, Azithromycin and Clindamycin). Among the resistant isolates, only 8 isolates (12.5%) were identified to be Staphylococcus spp. Among these isolates, four showed constitutive (cMLS) phenotype, while the other isolates exhibited inducible (iMLS) phenotype. The molecular analysis of resistant isolates revealed the presence of plasmids in the eight test isolates. By using PCR, two genes suspected to be responsible for plasmid-mediated resistance could be detected using two specific primer pairs for erythromycin ribosomal methylase (erm) and erythromycin resistance ATP-binding protein (coded as msr). The erm gene was detected in four isolates (50%), while the prevalence of msr gene constituted 25% (detected in two isolates only). Further verification of msr gene was performed by DNA sequencing of the PCR product obtained by using the plasmid extract of one isolate as a template. The nucleotide sequence of msr gene was submitted to the GenBank database, and given the accession code KJ710361. Conclusion Plasmid-mediated resistance to macrolides prevails among Staphylococcus isolates involved in LRIs as the 8 resistant isolates of this genus was shown to harbor plasmids, with prevalence of 50% (erm gene) and 25% (msr gene). Therefore, the reasons behind the prevalence of plasmid-mediated resistance to macrolides have to be studied, and control measures should be undertaken.


Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is the most common spinal deformity in children. The traditional treatment for curves greater than 50 degrees is posterior spinal fusion with pedicle instrumentation for prevention of curve progression later in life. However, there is growing interest in non-fusion techniques such as anterior vertebral body tethering. Despite the common presentation of thoracolumbar and lumbar curves in AIS, descriptions of anterior vertebral body tethering for AIS have been largely limited to the thoracic vertebrae. The goal of this paper is to describe the technique of lumbar anterior vertebral body tethering which involves a combined thoracoscopic and mini-open approach to the spine with a transdiaphragmatic tether. The technique and reduction are aided by CT navigation and a radiolucent hinged spine surgery table. Dissemination of successful techniques is essential to advance non-fusion care for idiopathic scoliosis.


Aspergillus niger - 245, a strain isolated from soil samples showed good β-fructosidase activity when inoculated in medium formulated with dahlia extract tubers. The enzyme was purified by precipitation in ammonium sulphate and percolated in DEAE-Sephadex A-50 and CM-cellulose columns, witch showed a single peack in all the purification steps, maintaining the I/S ratio between 0.32 to, 0.39. Optimum pH for inulinase activity (I) was between 4.0 - 4.5 and for invertase activity (S) between 2.5 and 5.0. The optimum temperature was 60O.C for both activities and no loss in activity was observed when it was maintained at this temperature for 30 min. The Km value was 1.44 and 5.0, respectively, for I and S and Vm value 10.48 and 30.55, respectively. The I activity was strongly inhibited by Hg2+ and Ag+ and 2 x 10-3 M of glucose, but not by fructose at the same concentration. The enzyme showed an exo-action mechanism, acting on the inulin of different origins. In assay conditions total hydrolysis of all the frutans was obtained, although it has shown larger activity on the chicory inulin than that one from artichoke Jerusalem and dahlia, in the first 30 min. The obtained results suggested that the enzyme presented good potential for industrial application in the preparing the fructose syrups


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated morbidity pose a worldwide health problem. As well as risk of endstage renal disease requiring renal replacement therapy, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of premature death among the CKD population. Proteinuria is a marker of renal injury that can often be detected earlier than any tangible decline in glomerular filtration rate. As well as being a risk marker for decline in renal function, proteinuria is now widely accepted as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This review will address the prognostic implications of proteinuria in the general population as well as other specific disease states including diabetes, hypertension and heart failure. A variety of pathophysiological mechanisms that may underlie the relationship between renal and cardiovascular disease have been proposed, including insulin resistance, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction. As proteinuria has evolved into a therapeutic target for cardiovascular risk reduction in the clinical setting we will also review therapeutic strategies that should be considered for patients with persistent proteinuria.


The effective uptake of inorganic phosphate by cells from the environment depends on specific transport systems. In bacteria, these uptake systems are well characterized and most species contain both secondary transporters as well as primary uptake systems belonging to the ABC-family of transporters. Under phosphate starvation, genes coding for high-affinity phosphate transporters are induced in bacteria as well as in eukarya. In E. coli these are genes of the phosphate-specific transport via Pst or the Glycerol-3-phosphate-specific transporter, Ugp. Archaea possess the PHO stimulon, which induces numerous genes in response to phosphate limitation. So far this stimulon has only been described for Halobacterium salinarum R1. The genome of H. salinarum encodes ABC transporters resembling the Pst and Ugp systems of E. coli which are upregulated under Pi-limited conditions.

In this study, the gene expression and function of the phosphate dependent operons pst1, pst2 and ugp of H. salinarum were investigated.
First, it was shown that the three operons (pst1, pst2 und ugp) are transcribed as one polycistronic unit. The respective promoters are located upstream of the first ORF (open reading frame) of the operons, and transcription start sites (TSS) were mapped. Two TSSs were found for the pst1 operon, and are utilized in a phosphate dependent manner. Through an unknown regulation mechanism, the cell switches transcription of pst1 mRNA to either a transcript with or without a 60 nt long leader sequence. The transcripts of the pst2 and ugp operons have no 5'UTRs, regardless of phosphate concentration. Using a Ppst1-bgaH reporter system, it was observed that the transcripts with or without a leader sequence have different translation efficiencies. The transcript without a 5'UTR had a 150-fold higher translation efficiency than the transcript with a 5'UTR. It was concluded that the expression of the pst1 operon is modulated through a post-transcriptional regulation mechanism. To our knowledge, this is the first identified archaeal protein-coding operon that is transcribed by alternative promoters. The differences in phosphate dependent gene expression of the pst1, pst2 and ugp operons were investigated using the bgaH reporter system. Under phosphate saturated conditions, the expression of the pst2 operon is stronger compared to the expression of the pst1 operon, whereas under phosphate limited conditions, pst1 operon expression is highly induced. This assay system also identified the TATA boxes of the pst1 and pst2 promoters as well as AT-rich motifs, named P boxes. Mutations in the P box, with the consensus ATATWWW , reduced the promoter activity of both the pst1 and pst2 promoters. The results indicated that the TATA-2 box of the pst1 promoter has an impact on the phosphate dependent promoter activity under phosphate limited conditions and could be used as a P box.
In the second part of the study, the proposed functions of the transporters Pst1, Pst2 and Ugp and the kinetic parameters were determined. Different knockout mutants were constructed, and these showed that the Pst transporters had different phosphate affinities. It was concluded from the results that the binding proteins PstS1 and PstS2 can interact with both transporters.
The phosphate transport systems Pst1 and Pst2 are used differently. Under phosphate saturated conditions the cell operates mainly with the lower-affinity Pst2 transporter. If phosphate becomes limiting in the environment, predominantly the high-affinity transporter Pst1 is induced. This process is regulated on the transcriptional as well as on the post-transcriptional level. Furthermore, it was shown that a deletion of the Pst1 transporters leads to a loss of phosphate-directed chemotaxis under Pi-stress. This result confirms the importance of the Pst1 transporter under phosphate limited conditions.
In related studies, growth experiments showed that the Ugp transporter is the only transporter for glycerol-3-phosphate in H. salinarum. In addition, the search for a regulatory protein that is involved in the regulation of the genes of the PHO stimulon did not reveal any likely candidates, but it was shown that deletion of the pst1 operon leads to an induction of the pst2 operon.


Synopsis In a prospective study 22 bus crews who were victims of physical assault were assessed using standardized psychiatric instruments, followed up for 18 months and compared to a non-assaulted control group drawn from the same bus garage. At initial assessment the assaulted group, compared to the controls showed a significant increase in psychiatric impairment and distress (as measured by the GHQ-30 and IES respectively), with 23% of assault victims developing post-traumatic stress disorder as defined by DSM-III-R. At follow-up, while high levels of both psychiatric impairment and distress persisted there was evidence that they may be separate phenomena.


We report on 3.6 cm VLA and VLBA observations of YZ CMi and AD Leo, two nearby dMe stars. We resolve YZ CMi and can fit a circular symmetrical gaussian component of FWHP of 0.98 ±0.2 mas, corresponding to an extent of the corona above the photosphere of 1.77 × 1010 ± 8.8 × 109 cm or 0.7 ±0.3 R? (R? refers to the photospheric radius). We obtain an estimate of the brightness temperature of 7.3 × 107 K, which is consistent with that expected from gyrosynchrotron emission. For AD Leo the emitting region is unresolved. We therefore set a conservative upper limit to its diameter of 1.8 times the photosphere diameter, which leads to an extent of the corona above the photosphere of < 2.8 × 1010cm or < 0.8 R?. We compare the radio emitting dMe stars with measured sizes with the Sun and conclude that these active stars have much more extended coronal radio emission than the Sun. The VLBA position of YZ CMi has been found to differ by 32 mas from the positions calculated from the Hipparcos catalogue. The discrepancy is caused by large errors in the listed proper motion. An improved value is given.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a therapeutic group programme, provided by community health workers, in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms associated with postnatal depression (PND) among women living in a rural setting.

METHOD
A prospective repeated measures design was used. Women reporting difficulties in the postnatal period were recruited through community health services. Training was provided to community health workers, who then facilitated a 9 week group programme (cognitive-behavioural strategies) for women with PND. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale measured depressive and anxiety symptoms before starting the group programme, at the completion of the programme and at two follow-up times.

RESULTS
Fourteen women completed the group programme at two sites in rural Victoria. Comparison of mean anxiety and depressive symptom scores revealed a significant reduction in scores from pre- to post-programme. For those women who also completed the follow-up symptom measurement, this reduction in symptoms was maintained.

CONCLUSIONS
The results show that therapeutic group work is an effective intervention that can be applied by community health workers in a rural setting. Challenges for clinicians working with women experiencing PND in rural areas and implications for future research are discussed.


Abstract The General Principles set forth below were developed by a working group organized by the OECD, including company law experts from France, Germany, Russia, and the United States.They are inteded both to guide drafters of company law in transition economies, and to set forth options for drafters to consider. Company law drafters may also wish to consult two model laws that are generally consistent with the principles set forth below: (1) a model law on joint stock companies prepared in English and Russian by Bernard Black and Anna Tarassova, reprinted in Bernard Black, Reinier Kraakman & Anna Tarassova, Guide to the Russian Law on Joint Stock Companies (1998); and (2) a draft model law on joint stock companies prepared in Russian by the ScientificConsulting-Center for Private Law of the Community of Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (1998). FOREWORD In the context of the programme of the OECD's Centre for Co-operation with Non Member Economies (CCNM), a group of experts on company law was constituted to discuss and formulate a set of general principles of company law that can be of use to policy makers in the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS) as well as in other transition economies. These principles, presented in this publication, have four main aims: (1) to identify `best practices' or main alternative approaches towards a modern company law, adapted to the special needs of transition countries; (2) to articulate these principles in a fashion that allows them to be used as a basis for on-going and future legislative reform; (3) to assist the drafters of model/comparative legislation in the transition context; and (4) help regulators and especially judges in interpreting and implementing existing and future legislation. The CCNM is the focal point for the OECD's co-operation with transition economies in Central and Eastern European countries and the NIS. Its major responsibility is to design and manage a programme of policy dialogue which can take numerous forms, including conferences, seminars, expert meetings, and country-specific advice in which policy questions can be explored and draft legislation reviewed. As part of its ongoing programme of assistance, the OECD, in co-operation with the Turkish International Co-operation Agency and the German government, has created the Centre for Private Sector Development in Istanbul. This publication and related meetings were realised in the context of this Centre. In September 1996 a small team of experts was constituted to draft the principles. The group included: Dr. Gainan Avilov, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Legislative and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation; Professor Bernard Black, Columbia University School of Law, U.S.A. (general rapporteur); Professor Dominique Carreau, University of Paris I; Dr. Oksana M. Kozyr, Deputy Head of Department, Research Centre for Private Law under the President of the Russian Federation; Mr. Stilpon Nestor, Head of the Privatisation and Enterprise Reform Unit at the OECD; and Dr. Sarah Reynolds, Fellow, Davis Centre for Russian Studies, Harvard University, U.S.A. The draft set of principles elaborated by the drafting team was submitted for discussion to a high-level experts group which met in Istanbul on 9-11 December 1996. Participants included senior representatives and company law experts from NIS countries and OECD member countries (see List of Participants). IMAGE FORMULA12 Conclusions drawn at this meeting, following the presentation of the draft text and its extensive discussion by the experts, form the basis for the general principles published herein. These were finalised and edited in English by an OECD Secretariat team, which included Stilpon Nestor, Frederic Wehrle, and Sebastian Molineus. In view of the aim of the general principles, it was decided to publish them simultaneously in Russian. …


In September 2011, the UN General Secretary declared his vision of making modern energy accessible to all by 2030. Unfortunately, less than 50% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa have access to modern forms of energy. This implies that Africa requires sustained investment in the energy sector. In order to provide investment guide and policy recommendations, this thesis seeks to investigate the determinants of renewable energy, energy efficiency practices and natural gas demand in oil producing African countries. The choice of these types of fuel is dictated by the fact that, renewable energy, energy efficiency and natural gas have been considered the solution to the hydra-headed problems of energy security, energy access and climate change in Africa. The thesis contributes to the energy economics literature in four main ways. First, the thesis applies spatial analysis to the issue of ‗oil curse' which has often been associated with oil producing African countries since investments in energy will require finance which can be provided by proceeds from oil resources. Second, the effect of natural resource depletion and energy-related carbon emissions on renewable energy consumption is examined. Third, the natural gas consumption behavior of oil producing African countries is examined. Finally, the Product Generational Dematerialisation (PGD) is applied to the energy efficiency of fossil fuels and electricity consumption in Ghana. The thesis finds among other things that both economic and technical factors affect the demand for natural gas and renewable energy. Further, the results reveal that the consumption of both fossil fuel and renewables have not been efficient. Finally, the thesis confirms the oil curse hypothesis. However, how conducive the investment climate in a particular country has positive bearings on neighbouring countries.
Whilst the study seeks to recommend for more investment into energy supply and demand, attention should be given to three factors: availability, the environment and finance. Whereas, renewable energy sources, natural gas and efficiency abound in Africa and are environmentally friendly, finance may be a major hindrance to investments. Therefore, the sixth chapter of this thesis, examines how oil resources are managed so that it can help fund investments in energy. The chapters are therefore linked by the need for oil producing African countries to harness the finances to invest in available and clean sources of energy.
The thesis recommends that oil producing Africa should open their economies for international trade, invest in commercial sources of renewable energy, build strong accountability institutions, channel oil revenues into productive sectors and educate the public on energy efficiency not just electricity efficiency.


Alternaria brown spot, caused by the tangerine pathotype of Alternaria alternata, is a serious disease of commercially important tangerines and their hybrids. The pathogen produces host-selective ACT toxin, and several genes (named ACTT) responsible for ACT-toxin biosynthesis have been identified. These genes have many paralogs, which are clustered on a small, conditionally dispensable chromosome, making it difficult to disrupt entire functional copies of ACTT genes using homologous recombination-mediated gene disruption. To overcome this problem, we attempted to use RNA silencing, which has never been employed in Alternaria spp., to knock down the functional copies of one ACTT gene with a single silencing event. ACTT2, which encodes a putative hydrolase and is present in multiple copies in the genome, was silenced by transforming the fungus with a plasmid construct expressing hairpin ACTT2 RNAs. The ACTT2 RNA-silenced transformant (S-7-24-2) completely lost ACTT2 transcripts and ACT-toxin production as well as pathogenicity. These results indicated that RNA silencing may be a useful technique for studying the role of ACTT genes responsible for host-selective toxin biosynthesis in A. alternata. Further, this technique may be broadly applicable to the analysis of many genes present in multiple copies in fungal genomes that are difficult to analyze using recombination-mediated knockdowns.


China has become the largest source of capital in Cambodia. Managers of state enterprises that construct hydropower plants and roads—as well as private investors and managers in mining, agricultural land concessions, and garment manufacturing—wield increasing influence and are beginning to shape labor practices. In this situation, mainland Chinese migrants are no longer seen by the Sino-Khmer as the marginal and suspect outsiders that they were twenty years ago. Rather, for both the increasingly entrenched Sino-Khmer elite and the struggling Sino-Khmer middle classes, they are a source of business opportunities or jobs. The Sino-Khmer have emerged as middlemen both between Chinese capital and the neopatrimonial Cambodian state and between Chinese managers and Khmer labor. This role is predicated upon a display of Chineseness whose form and content is itself rapidly changing under the influence of an increasing number of teachers and journalists who come from the mainland to run Cambodia's Chinese-language press and schools. This paper will attempt to makes sense of the facets of this change.


Recent research has indicated that increasing species diversity of the pastures might improve sward productivity and stability. The present experiment evaluates the effect of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale Weber) as a potential pasture species on the performance of a perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)-white clover (Trifolium repens L.) mixture in terms of total herbage yield, weed infestation, and nitrogen (N) yield in a replacement-series experiment over three harvest years. The three species were grown in monocultures and in all possible binary and three-species mixtures under two N fertilization levels (0 and 200 kg N ha -1 ). Herbage yield and N yield of the three-species mixture were not significantly different from the ryegrass-white clover mixture over the 3 yr. The contribution of dandelion to the total herbage yield increased over years, which improved yield stability. A competition analysis, performed by calculating relative yield and relative yield total, indicated that ryegrass had a competitive advantage over white clover in fertilized and unfertilized swards, but over dandelion only when the sward was fertilized. Nitrogen application reduced the nonsown species yield in all mixtures, except that of white clover-dandelion. Our results indicate that dandelion might have the potential of contributing to herbage yield, nutritive value, and resistance to invasions of ryegrass-white clover pastures.


Research and management efforts in the area of intimate partner violence (IPV) have primarily focused on male perpetrators and female victims, resulting in more limited knowledge of female IPV perpetrators and their male victims. In the current study the violence risk assessments of police officers were examined in order to outline the characteristics of female perpetrators of IPV and their male victims. In addition, the officers' assessments of violence risk and proposed risk management strategies are presented. Results reveal some similarities between the female perpetrators and male victims and their more studied counterparts. However, differences appear to be present in the perceived violence risk posed by the perpetrators and the violence risk management strategies proposed to reduce that risk and protect the victim. The results suggest a need for further research in the area, particularly with respect to the violence risk assessment and management of female IPV perpetrators.


Nonverbal behaviour (NVB) as means of expressing emotions is an important channel for social interaction (Riggio & Riggio, 2012). Nonverbal cues influence others through mechanisms such as emotional contagion (see e.g. Hatfield et al., 1994) or impression formation (see e.g. Warr & Knapper, 1968). These are important aspects in team sports, but research is sparse.A series of studies aiming at exploring NVB during handball matches will be presented. First, a coding scheme that reliably captures NVB in the post-shot period, the Handball Post-Shot Behavior Coding Scheme (H-PSB-CS) was developed (Moesch et al., 2015b). Thereafter, data from 616 post-scoring coding situations from 18 female elite handball matches were analyzed using the H-PSB-CS. Results showed among others that players displayed more NVB after scoring in playoff compared to league matches, that the bigger leading a team had, the more NVB were displayed after scoring, and that the amount of NVB declined over the course of a match (Moesch et al., 2015a). Furthermore, the interaction of the ongoing history of events of the game (i.e., how the team performs) and touch (but not gesture) significantly predicted subsequent performance: A high degree of touch when playing well, and a low degree of touch when playing poorly were related with positive subsequent performance, while, showing much touch when playing poorly, or showing little touch when playing well predicted negative performance (Moesch et al., 2015c). The findings of the presented studies resulted in low effect sizes, which can be due to the fact that it is difficult to control all external variables in such complex contexts. However, there are many advantages of using behavioural observation, for example high ecological validity.


In Vacco v. Quill, 521 U.S. 793 (1997), the Supreme Court for the first time in American case law explicitly applied the principle of double effect to reject an equal protection claim to physician-assisted suicide. Double effect, traced historically to Thomas Aquinas, proposes that under certain circumstances it is permissible unintentionally to cause foreseen evil effects that would not be permissible to cause intentionally. The court rejected the constitutional claim on the basis of a distinction marked out by the principle, i.e., between directly intending the death of a terminally ill patient as opposed to merely foreseeing that death as a consequence of medical treatment. The Court held that the distinction comports with fundamental legal principles of causation and intent. Id. at 802. Critics allege that the principle itself is intrinsically flawed and that, in any event, its employment in Vacco is without legal precedent. I argue in response to contemporary objections that double effect is a valid principle of ethical reflection (Part II); claims to the contrary notwithstanding, double effect analysis is a pervasive, albeit generally unacknowledged principle employed regularly in American case law (Part III); and drawing on the preceding two sections, Vacco's application of the principle of double effect is appropriate (Part IV). My conclusion is that [o]peration of some form of the principle, by whatever name, is inevitable. In an imperfect world where duties and interests collide, the possibility of choices of action foreseen to have both good and evil consequences cannot be avoided. In rare circumstances, ethics and the law require that a person refrain from acting altogether. More often, however, they provide that a determination of whether an actor may pursue a good effect although knowing it will or may unintentionally cause an harmful effect requires a more complex analysis - a double effect analysis.