This article updates certain aspects of the normative notions of the public sphere. The complex ecosystem of social communications enhanced by mobile media platform activity has changed our perception of space. If the public sphere has to normatively assess the expected conditions for public debate and for democracy, the assemblage of devices, discourses, infrastructures, locations, and regulations must be considered together. The literature reviewed about the public sphere, spaces, and geographically-enabled mobile media leads this article to the formulation of a concept of the public sphere that considers such assemblage as an interface. As an empirically applicable update to the definition of the public sphere the text offers a model that helps analyze those factors considering how they shape the communicative space in four modes: representations, structures, textures, and connections. These modes consider the roles played by assemblages of devices, infrastructures, and content in delimiting the circulation of information. The second part of the article illustrates the model with examples from previous research, paying particular attention to the structures' mode. The dissection of qualitative, quantitative, and geodata generated by digital and (visual) (n)ethnographic tools reveals three subcategories for the analysis of structures of space: barriers, shifts, and flows. The structures effectively enable/disable communication and define centers and peripheries in the activity flows. The contribution of this article is, thus, conceptual—it challenges and updates the notion of the public sphere; and methodological—it offers tools and outputs that align with the previously developed theoretical framework.


Student performance in a flipped classroom with an animation-based content knowledge development system for the bottom third of the incoming first year college students was compared to that in a traditional lecture-based teaching method. 52% of these students withdrew from the traditionally taught General Chemistry course, compared to 22% in a similar course taught in a flipped classroom teaching method. Of the students who persisted in the course and obtained a grade, there was an increase in A's and B's as well as an increase in D's and F's for students taught in a flipped classroom teaching method when compared to those in the traditional setting. When the course that was initially taught in a flipped classroom method reverted to a traditional teaching method, students in that course generally performed worse than students who were in a traditionally taught course all throughout.


The rocking motion of a solid block on a moving deformable base is a dynamic problem, that despite its apparent simplicity, involves a number of complex dynamic phenomena such as impacts, sliding, geometric and material nonlinearities and, under some circumstances, chaotic behavior. For that reason, since the first model proposed by G. W. Housner in 1963, a number of alternative models have been proposed for its mathematical simulation. Although, with very few exceptions, the previous models in the literature make the simplified assumption that this motion is planar, this is usually not true since a body will probably not be aligned with the direction of the ground motion. Thus, even in the case where the body is fully symmetric, the rocking motion involves three dimensional rotations and displacements. Moreover, for reasons more related to functionality than safety, it is not uncommon for heavy mechanical and electrical equipment to be placed on wheels. Examples of such devices are medical carts, mechanical equipment in hospitals, electrical transformers and recently even supercomputers. Although wheels facilitate the operation of these devices, they also affect the response of these objects during earthquakes; not necessarily in a beneficial way. This dissertation develops suitable models for simulating the previous dynamic problems. The equations of motion and suitable contact models are developed for each case. The importance of phenomena often neglected in the literature is stressed. Suitable examples illustrate the complex dynamic character of the problems examined. Finally, a static contact problem is examined. A model is developed for systems of multiple jointed elastic beams, using exact shape functions. A special application of the method for the definition of pressure loads in the wires of the main cable of a suspension bridge is presented. Examples illustrate the robustness of the method and the special properties associated with pressure loads.


This paper presents a tracked robot with blade arms powered to assist movement in difficult environments. As a result, the tracked robot is able to pass a ramp or climb stairs. The main feature is a pair of blade arms on both sides of the vehicle body working in collaboration with previously validated transformable track system. When the robot encounters an obstacle in a terrain, it enlists the blade arms with power to overcome the obstacle. In disaster areas, there usually will be terrains that are full of broken and complicated slopes, broken walls, rubbles, and ditches. Thereupon, a robot, which is instructed to pass through such disaster areas, needs to have a good off-road capability for such complicated terrains. The robot with crawling-assisting blade arms would overcome the obstacles along the terrains, and possibly become to be a rescue robot. A prototype has been developed and built; experiments were carried out to validate the enhanced crawling capability of the robot. Keywords—Tracked robot, rescue robot, blade arm, crawling ability, control system.


A 9-month-old child is admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with status epilepticus following a prolonged febrile convulsion. They are intubated and ventilated with a central venous catheter in situ. Broad-spectrum antibiotics have been started. A nurse asks you to write up some prophylactic oral nystatin as that is what the protocol says. The assumption is that the use of a non-absorbable antifungal will reduce the incidence of invasive fungal infection.

Do prophylactic topical non-absorbable antifungal medications (intervention) decrease the incidence of invasive fungal infections (outcome) in immunocompetent critically ill children on concomitant broad-spectrum antibiotics (patient)?

AMED, EMBASE, HMIC, BNI, Medline, PsycInfo, CINAHL, HEALTH BUSINESS ELITE 2005 to 2015

Search term used:

(('paediatric*' '[Title/Abstract]) OR ('pediatric*' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('child*' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('infant*' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('adolescen*' [Title/Abstract]) AND ('intensive care' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('critical care' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('critically ill' [Title/Abstract]) AND

('nystatin' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('antifungal' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('anti-fungal' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('amphotericin' [Title/Abstract]) AND

('prophyla*' [Title/Abstract]) OR ('prevent*' [Title/Abstract])

No limits were placed on the search

Studies conducted on paediatric non-neutropenic/immunecompetent inpatient populations, aged 0–16 years, were included. There were a number of review articles and comparative studies involving neonatal, oncology or transplant patients, but all of these were mainly using 'azole' derivatives as prophylaxis. One study comparing nystatin with placebo was excluded as the cohort groups were extremely or very low birth weight infants on the neonatal unit. Of relevance to the question, two systematic reviews, one retrospective case–historical control study and …


Healthcare providers are increasingly using machine learning to predict patient outcomes to make meaningful interventions. However, despite innovations in this area, deep learning models often struggle to match performance of shallow linear models in predicting these outcomes, making it difficult to leverage such techniques in practice. In this work, motivated by the task of clinical prediction from insurance claims, we present a new technique called reverse distillation which pretrains deep models by using high-performing linear models for initialization. We make use of the longitudinal structure of insurance claims datasets to develop Self Attention with Reverse Distillation, or SARD, an architecture that utilizes a combination of contextual embedding, temporal embedding and self-attention mechanisms and most critically is trained via reverse distillation. SARD outperforms state-of-the-art methods on multiple clinical prediction outcomes, with ablation studies revealing that reverse distillation is a primary driver of these improvements. Code is available at https://github.com/clinicalml/omop-learn.


Citrus greening disease caused by greening organism (GO; Liberobacter
asiaticum) is one of the most destructive diseases of citrus in Malaysia and
Indonesia. To detect the GO in infected plant tissues, Polymerase Chain
Reaction (PCR), an accurate, rapid and reliable detection method was applied
to detect the 165 rONA fragments of the GO in leaves showing one of several
typical symptoms of greening collected from GO-infected mandarin trees in
Malaysia and Indonesia.
In GO-infected mandarin trees, four typical symptoms of greening on leaves
were observed , namely mottling (type I), mild chlorosis with green veins (type
II), severe chlorosis with green veins (type III) and vein yellowing (type IV).
Types II and III symptoms were mostly found in GO-infected mandarin trees in
the field, followed by type I symptom, while type IV symptom was rare. Before PCR was used for the detection of GO in infected plant tissues, several
experiments relating to the optimization of the PCR condition were conducted.
Results indicated that the best sample of citrus tissues for DNA extraction was
the midrib plus the petiole. This can be shown by more intense band observed
after agarose gel electrophoresis. A positive amplification was still visible when
the reaction mixture contained 10 ng of total DNA was used. Results of the
optimization of the PCR condition indicated that the optimal PCR buffer for
amplification of GO's DNA was the standard buffer containing 78 mM Tris-HCI
(pH 8.8), 17 mM (NH4hS04, 10 mM ()-mercaptoethanol and 200)1g of Bovine
Serum Albumin (BSA). The optimal concentrations of MgClz, d NTP, primer and
Taq DNA polymerase to be used in reaction mixture were 1. 5 mM, 0.2 mM,
0.4uM, and 1 Unit, respectively. The optimal annealing temperature and
num ber of cycles of PCR condition were 55°C and 40 cycles, respectively.
The 16S rONA fragments of the GO in expected size of 1160 bp were detected
in each typical symptoms. These fragments were amplified from DNA extracted
from mandarin cultivars infected with the GO and were not amplified from DNA
extracted from healthy trees. These fragments were also detected in insect
vector (Diaphorina citn) collected from GO-infected mandarin trees and were
not amplified from DNA extracted from healthy vector collected from Murayya
paniculata using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method for DNA
extraction.


Before starting the health education program of the National Research Program 1A "Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in Switzerland", a baseline assessment in a stratified random sample in Aarau, Solothurn , Nyon and Vevey was performed (1977/1978). Results show the magnitude of the preventive task. 50% of young women and men smoke, 12% of the population has high blood pressure. Only 25% of all hypertensives are well controlled. 14% of the population have elevated serum cholesterol values and 50% are physically inactive after age 30. Finally, 15.5% of those investigated show type A behaviour pattern.


Contribution of maternal cytoplasmic factors and cellular interaction to determination of archenteron in a starfish embryo was analyzed by (1) examining temporal and positional pattern of expression of an endoderm-specific enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, (2) deleting the vegetal polar fragment from an immature oocyte and (3) changing the orientation of a blastomere within an early stage embryo. The archenteron (and the differentiated digestive tract) of Asterina pectinifera was divided into three areas based on the time of start of alkaline phosphatase expression. At 27 hours after 1-methyladenine treatment, the whole archenteron except the anterior end started to express alkaline phosphatase. The anterior negative area differentiated into mesodermal tissues such as mesenchyme cells and anterior coelomic pouches (anterior mesodermal area). The alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 1 gave rise to the esophagus and the anterior end of the stomach. Alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 2, which was gradually added to the posterior end of the archenteron after 30 hours, became alkaline-phosphatase- positive and formed the middle-to-posterior part of the stomach and the intestine. When the vegetal oocyte fragment, the volume of which was more than 8% of that of the whole oocyte, was removed from the immature oocyte, archenteron formation was strongly suppressed. However, when the volume deleted was less than 6%, most of the larvae started archenteron formation before the intact controls reached the mesenchyme-migration stage (30 hours). Although cells in the alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 2 are added to the posterior end of the archenteron after 30 hours in normal development (R. Kuraishi and K. Osanai (1992) Biol. Bull. Mar. Biol. Lab., Woods Hole 183, 258–268), few larvae started gastrulation after 30 hours. Estimation of the movement of the oocyte cortex during the early development suggested that the area that inherits the cortex of the 7% area coincides with the combined area of anterior mesodermal area and alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 1. When one of the blastomeres was rotated 180° around the axis of apicobasal polarity at the 2-cell stage to make its vegetal pole face the animal pole of the other blastomere, two archentera formed at the separated vegetal poles. Intracellular injection of tracers showed that cells derived from the animal blastomere, which gives rise to the ectoderm in normal development, stayed in the outer layer until 30 hours; a proportion of them then entered the archenteron gradually. The involuted animal cells expressed alkaline phosphatase and were incorporated into the middle-to-posterior part of the stomach and the intestine. These results suggest that anterior mesodermal area and alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 1 are determined by cytoplasmic factor(s) that had already been localized in their presumptive areas. In contrast, alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 2 becomes the endoderm by homoiogenetic induction from the neighboring area on the vegetal side, namely alkaline-phosphatase-positive area 1.


A series of trimethylsilyl-protected monoalkynes (Me3SiC≡C-R) and bis-alkynes (Me3 SiC≡C-R-C≡CSiMe3) incorporating carbazole spacer groups (R = carbazole-2-yl, carbazole-3-yl, carbazole-2,7-diyl, N-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole-2,7-diyl, carbazole-3,6-diyl, N-(2-ethylhexyl)carbazole-3,6-diyl), together with the corresponding terminal monoalkynes (H-C≡C-R) and bis-alkynes (H-C≡C-R-C≡C-H), have been synthesized and characterized. The CuI-catalyzed dehydrohalogenation reaction between trans-[(Ph)(Et3P)2PtCl], trans-[(Et3P)2PtCl2], and trans-[(P(n)Bu3)2PtCl2] and the terminal alkynes in (i)Pr2NH/CH2Cl2 affords a series of Pt(II) mono- and diynes, while the dehydrohalogenation polycondensation reactions with trans-[(P(n)Bu3)2PtCl2] under similar reaction conditions yields four Pt(II) poly-ynes of the form trans-[(P(n)Bu3)2Pt-C≡C-R-C≡C-]n. The acetylide-functionalized carbazole ligands and the mono-, di-, and polynuclear Pt(II) σ-acetylide complexes have been characterized spectroscopically, with a subset analyzed using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Pt(II) mono-, di-, and poly-ynes incorporating the carbazole spacers are soluble in common organic solvents, and solution absorption spectra show a consistent red-shift between the 2- and 2,7- as well as 3- and 3,6-carbazole complexes. Computational modeling is used to explain the observed spectral shifts, which are related to the enhanced electronic delocalization in the latter systems. These results also indicate that the inclusion of carbazole-2,7-diyl units into rigid-rod organometallic polymers should enhance electronic transport along the chains.


This study investigated the influence of phonological environment on variability in the production of the weak forms of four prepositions by advanced Brazilian speakers of English. Results of a VARBRUL analysis indicated that four phonological factors were exerting a significant effect: (a) the preposition itself; (b) whether or not there was a preceding syllable in the same intonation group; (c) the initial segment of the following word; (d) the metrical status of the following syllable. The relative amount of output by the speaker during the 30-minute recording also proved to have a significant effect. Since none of these factors appeared to be exerting a particularly powerful effect on its own, there may be some psycholinguistic factors also operating.


Abstract:Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has significantly increased controls over its already censored cyberspace—with a ruling that will allow jail terms for spreading "rumors" online, a cybersecurity law that will facilitate state control and data access, crackdowns on unauthorized VPN connections, and emphasis on the concept of "internet sovereignty." At the same time, technological innovations in such areas as big-data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things are increasingly being harnessed to monitor the lives and activities of China's 1.4 billion people. The new arsenal of the Chinese surveillance state includes mass video-surveillance projects incorporating facial-recognition technology; voice-recognition software that can identify speakers on phone calls; and a sweeping and intrusive program of DNA collection. In addition, officials are at work on a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) intended to assess the conduct of every Chinese citizen.


Upscaling of the Richards equation is important for large‐scale modeling of water flow in the unsaturated zone. We derive an upscaled model for Richards' equation in a layered porous medium. Homogenization theory is applied to derive the upscaled equations for slow flow processes. Two flow regimes are compared. The first flow regime is quantified by small Bond numbers, meaning forces due to pressure gradients are dominant on the small scale. The second flow regime is quantified by large Bond numbers, meaning that forces due to pressure gradients and gravity contribute equally on the small scale, while the large scale is dominated by gravity forces. The case of intermediate Bond numbers is also addressed. We compare the effective relative permeability function and the effective capillary pressure head–saturation function for both flow regimes. In the case of small Bond numbers the effective curves can be derived based on capillary equilibrium. The procedure to calculate effective curves is then quite simple. In the case of large Bond numbers the procedure is more complex. However, comparing effective curves of different test cases showed that the difference between the effective curves for different Bond numbers is not that large for moderate parameter contrasts and when the gradients of the capillary–saturation curve do not become too small. The effective parameter functions calculated with a capillary equilibrium assumption are therefore often a good estimate.


A detailed analysis of single-vehicle data is presented that sheds some light on the microscopic interaction of the vehicles in the various traffic states. Based on these results an improved cellular automaton model for traffic flow incorporating anticipation effects, reduced acceleration capabilities and an enhanced interaction horizon for braking is proposed. The model is able to reproduce the three phases (free flow, synchronized traffic, and wide jams) observed in real traffic. Furthermore a good agreement with detailed empirical single-vehicle data in all phases can be found. It turns out, that the incorporation of the human desire for smooth and comfortable driving into the driving strategy of vehicles leads to a model that exhibits synchronized traffic. Anticipation effects are responsible for a stabilization of the traffic phases and the empirically observed coexistence of wide moving jams with both free flow and synchronized traffic can be reproduced. It is shown that the single-lane dynamics can be extended to the two-lane case without changing the basic (realistic) properties of the model. Therefore it is possible to reproduce special two-lane phenomena, like the synchronization of the lanes, the lane usage inversion and the density-dependence of the number of lane changes, without adapting the parameters of the model. Finally, a statistical analysis of traffic data that is provided by an area-wide coverage of the highway network of North Rhine-Westfalia with inductive loops is given. The identification and characterization of the bottlenecks of the network reveal that the bottlenecks are not of topological nature but are constituted by onramps. This underscores the applicability of ramp metering systems.


In this study I investigate the question who speaks which
language to whom and for what purpose on the basis of a conceptualization of society which differs from previous sociolinguistic research. Whilst the language surveys of Eastern Africa have provided a range of data most specifically in the educational sector but also in the dmains factory, church, neighbourhood, I focus on work. Whilst inquiry in this sphere suffers from similar constraints to inquiry in other domains, i. e. that findings here may not be generalizable, the contextualization of the various work locales which I offer in the form of an analysis of the tourist industry suggests ways of integrating individual speech choices with wider
social forces in society. On the basis of criticisms of language planning literature I additionally propose consideration of the sociology of development to provide tools for the analysis of society in sociolinguistics.

In discussing educational policies of the colonial and postcolonial governments I assess opportunities presented and which groups benefitted. I comment on the early proliferation of vernacular presses and later restriction and prohibition, suggesting that debates on language policy in Kenya have contingently been restricted to considering only English and Swahili. Debates on language in goverment demonstrate and exemplify the changing status of both
English and Swahili.

I present results of interviews conducted amongst tourism
workers in Kenya, focusing on recruitment policies, changing
educational and professional standards and language problems. I finally analyse transcripts from tapes collected in a variety of tourism locales in Kenya. In applying conversational analysis, yet proceeding from an assumption of asymmetry in sociolinguistic interaction, I propose that it is possible to incorporate notions of power differentials into conversations and talk, particularly
where the contexts have been analysed.


Crystal mush is rapidly emerging as a new paradigm for the evolution of igneous systems. Mid-ocean ridges provide a unique opportunity to study mush processes: geophysical data indicate that, even at the most magmatically robust fast-spreading ridges, the magma plumbing system typically comprises crystal mush. In this paper, we describe some of the consequences of crystal mush for the evolution of the mid-ocean ridge magmatic system. One of these is that melt migration by porous flow plays an important role, in addition to rapid, channelized flow. Facilitated by both buoyancy and (deformation-enhanced) compaction, porous flow leads to reactions between the mush and migrating melts. Reactions between melt and the surrounding crystal framework are also likely to occur upon emplacement of primitive melts into the mush. Furthermore, replenishment facilitates mixing between the replenishing melt and interstitial melts of the mush. Hence, crystal mushes facilitate reaction and mixing, which leads to significant homogenization, and which may account for the geochemical systematics of mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB). A second consequence is cryptic fractionation. At mid-ocean ridges, a plagioclase framework may already have formed when clinopyroxene saturates. As a result, clinopyroxene phenocrysts are rare, despite the fact that the vast majority of MORB records clinopyroxene fractionation. Hence, melts extracted from crystal mush may show a cryptic fractionation signature. Another consequence of a mush-dominated plumbing system is that channelized flow of melts through the crystal mush leads to the occurrence of vertical magmatic fabrics in oceanic gabbros, as well as the entrainment of diverse populations of phenocrysts. Overall, we conclude that the occurrence of crystal mush has a number of fundamental implications for the behaviour and evolution of magmatic systems, and that mid-ocean ridges can serve as a useful template for trans-crustal mush columns elsewhere.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Magma reservoir architecture and dynamics'.


In this magisterial new work, Bancroft Prize - winning historian David Kyvig chronicles the rise of a culture of impeachment since 1960 - one that extends far beyond the infamous scandals surrounding Presidents Richard Nixon (Watergate) and Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky) and has dramatically altered the face of American politics.A buzz word in today's public life, "impeachment" was anything but that before 1960. Since then it has been transformed from a historically little-known and little-used tool of last resort into a political weapon of choice. By examining the details and consequences of impeachment episodes involving three Supreme Court justices, a vice president, five federal judges, and four presidents, Kyvig explores this seismic shift in our constitutional culture and gauges its ongoing implications for American political life.Beginning with the John Birch Society's campaign against Chief Justice Earl Warren, impeachment efforts became far more frequent after 1960, with eight actually ending in resignation or removal. In describing these efforts, Kyvig recounts stories and subplots about key political actors and the controversies they inspired. He argues that judicial cases are as important as the better-known presidential ones and shows why those cases that did not proceed - against not only Warren, but also Abe Fortas, William O. Douglas, Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush - are as illuminating as those that did.Kyvig demonstrates that impeachment has been the bellwether of a changing - and increasingly toxic - political climate. Perhaps most important and ominous, the increasing threat of impeachment has encouraged presidents to hide potentially impeachable actions behind a thick veil of executive secrecy, while dramatically expanding executive power beyond the reach of either Congress or the courts.Combining political and legal history at their best, Kvyig also explores the cultural impact of journalist David Frost, editorial cartoonist Herblock, and filmmakers Alan Pakula, Robert Altman, and Oliver Stone. A gifted storyteller, he presents a cautionary tale that should be read by all who care about our national government and its ability to survive and thrive in perilous times.


The study of noble gases in oceanic basalts is central to understanding chemical heterogeneity of the Earth's mantle and origin of the atmosphere. In the terrestrial environment the abundances of noble gases are quite low because they were excluded from solid materials during planetary formation in the inner solar system. This low background inventory helps to make the noble gases excellent tracers of mantle reservoirs. In this context, mid-ocean ridge and ocean island basalts provide valuable windows into the Earth's mantle. These oceanic basalts are not prone to the degree of contamination often observed in continental lavas that results from their passage through thick continental lithosphere and crust. Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs) form by partial melting as the ascending mantle beneath spreading ridges reaches its solidus temperature, and MORBs are generally accepted to represent a broad sampling of the convecting upper mantle. Ocean island basalts (OIBs) represent melting 'anomalies' that are generally related to mantle upwelling. The extent to which ocean islands are derived from a thermal boundary layer in the deep mantle (e.g., as a mantle plume) or from chemical heterogeneities embedded within the mantle convective flow (e.g., as a mantle 'blob') has been debated for decades, and is not currently resolved. The isotope compositions of noble gases in oceanic basalts bear significantly on such debates over the chemical structure of the mantle. When oceanic basalts erupt as submarine lavas, their quenched rims of glass may contain high volatile abundances (especially when they are deeply erupted under elevated hydrostatic pressure), providing the best available opportunity for precisely characterizing the noble gas composition of the Earth's mantle. In favorable cases, inclusions of melt or fluids trapped within magmatic phenocrysts and mantle xenoliths can also be precisely analyzed for noble gas composition.

Measurable changes in the isotope compositions of noble gases …


The Himalayan forests particularly, Garhwal Himalayas being the youngest mountain ranges are the most vulnerable stretches of the world susceptible to forest fires. Soils are alive with biological organisms which respond directly to variations in the environment and modify environment physically and chemically. Biological properties of soil are most sensitive to soil heating, with fatal temperatures for most living organisms occurring below 100 0 C. In recent years extended droughts and the demand for conversion of forest to other land uses has resulted in significant increase in wildfire size, frequency and related environment impacts. In this study the impact of forest fire was assessed on the insect diversity in sal forest of Lachhiwala for burned and unburned (control) site in four different season, viz. monsoon, winter, spring and summer. A total of 805 individuals of arthropods were grouped into 14 orders and 25 families collected during the entire sampling period. Of all sampled data, a total of 239 individuals were observed in burned and 566 individuals in control site representing 10 orders and 17 families in burned against 13 orders and 24 families in control site.


We describe the design and implementation of a system for logic-based multimedia retrieval. As high-level logic for retrieval of hypermedia documents, we have developed a probabilistic object-oriented logic (POOL) which supports aggregated objects, different kinds of propositions (terms, classifications and attributes) and even rules as being contained in objects. Based on a probabilistic four-valued logic, POOL uses an implicit open world assumption, allows for closed world assumptions and is able to deal with inconsistent knowledge. POOL programs and queries are translated into probabilistic Datalog programs which can be interpreted by the HySpirit inference engine. For storing the multimedia data, we have developed a new basic IR engine which yields physical data abstraction. The overall architecture and the flexibility of each layer supports logic-based methods for multimedia information retrieval.


Background The aim of this study was to compare the effect of infant formula and the same formula subjected to microbial fermentation (yogurt) on the duration of diarrhea in young children with acute watery diarrhea, with or without reducing substances in stools. Methods One hundred twelve well-nourished children, aged 3 to 24 months, who were admitted to the hospital with acute watery diarrhea were included in a randomized trial. After appropriate rehydration, they were fed either an infant formula (group M, n = 56) or the same formula fermented with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus (group Y, n = 56). The two feedings were comparable in lactose concentration (40 to 42 g/L), pH 4.5, flavor, and texture. The groups were subdivided into those with or without reducing sugars in stools at presentation. The presence of reducing sugars in stool was used as a marker of carbohydrate malabsorption. Results Group M and group Y had comparable clinical characteristics at admission, including the number of patients with reducing sugars in stools (n = 31 in group M and 27 in group Y). The success rate (cessation of diarrhea and appropriate weight gain 7 days after enrollment into the study) was similar in both groups (82% in group M vs. 84% group Y). Clinical failure was 3.6% in both groups. The percentage of patients withdrawn from the study for medical reasons (5.4% in group M vs. 7.1% in group Y) or withdrawn at the parents' request (8.9% in group M vs. 5.4% in group Y) was similar. Duration of diarrhea and number of stools were significantly less in group Y compared with group M. Forty-eight hours after inclusion, diarrhea was still present in 62% of group M versus in 35% of group Y (P < 0.002). In children with reducing sugars in stools, the rate of success (82%) was similar in groups M and Y, but the duration of diarrhea and number of stools per day were significantly decreased in group Y. Forty-height hours after inclusion, diarrhea was still present in 75% of group M patients and in 20% of group Y patients who had reducing substances in the stool. Conclusion Young children with acute watery diarrhea, without malnutrition or associated disease, can be equally well treated with feeding of either infant formula or yogurt. Yogurt feeding is associated with a clinically relevant decrease in stool frequency and duration of diarrhea in children who have reducing sugars in stools.


The occurrence of Gnathostomiasis has been reported during post mortem examination of carcasses of 3 free-range tigers and two leopards from different Tiger Reserves of central India. Pathological lesions were characterized by bunches of nodules in the pyloric part of the stomach filled with light reddish colour worms with chronic gastritis. The parasites observed in the colony with 1:9 ratios of male and female worms measured 10-26 mm × 1.8-2.2 mm males and 25-35 mm × 1.8-2.3 mm females that were collected and kept in normal saline. The morphological observation of worms and eggs were envisaged for species identification. The recovered parasites from carcasses of leopards and tigers were identical to the morphological features of Gnathostoma spinigerum. The parasite have potential for zoonotic migration as the aquatic copepods act as their primary intermediated host and fishes harbour the encysted larval stage of the parasite may lead the occurrence of infection mostly in carnivores while accidentally infect the human beings. Such infection has already been reported in eastern Indian tribes resides in the close vicinity of the tiger reserves and national parks thus the migration of zoonotic disease takes place through common water resources of sylvatic and domestic cycle vice-versa.


Sulphonylurea-sensitive K(+)channels (K(ATP)) have been implicated in the release of acetylcholine (ACh) from the vagus nerve in the heart. Our aim was to establish the functional significance of this and to test whether this modulation could interact with stimulation of the NO-cGMP pathway that facilitates the decrease in heart rate (HR) in response to vagal nerve stimulation (VNS). We studied the effect of activation (diazoxide, 100 microM) and inhibition (glibenclamide 30 microM or tolbutamide 5 microM) of K(ATP)channels, and activation of the NO-cGMP pathway with the NO donor, sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 20 microM) or the cGMP analogue, 8-Br-cGMP (0.5 m M) on the HR response to VNS in the isolated guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) double atrial/right vagus preparation (n=40). Tolbutamide increased the bradycardia in response to vagal stimulation at 3 and 5 Hz (P<0.05); effects that were reversed by diazoxide. Glibenclamide also significantly increased the HR response to VNS at 1 and 3 Hz (P<0.05). Diazoxide alone significantly attenuated the HR response to VNS at 5 Hz (P<0.05). Neither glibenclamide nor diazoxide affected the HR response to carbamylcholine (CCh, 50-200 n M). In the presence of a maximal dose of tolbutamide, SNP or 8-Br-cGMP further increased the HR response to VNS at 5 Hz (P<0.05). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that inhibition of sulphonylurea-sensitive channels can increase the HR response to VNS by a pre-synaptic mechanism, and that this modulation may be independent of activation of the NO-cGMP pathway.


The star λ Virginis is a well-known double-lined spectroscopic Am binary with the interesting property that both stars are very similar in abundance but one is sharp-lined and the other is broad-lined. We present combined interferometric and spectroscopic studies of λ Vir. The small scale of the λ Vir orbit (~20 mas) is well resolved by the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA), allowing us to determine its elements, as well as the physical properties of the components, to high accuracy. The masses of the two stars are determined to be 1.897 and 1.721 M☉, with 0.7% and 1.5% errors, respectively, and the two stars are found to have the same temperature of 8280 ± 200 K. The accurately determined properties of λ Vir allow comparisons between observations and current stellar evolution models, and reasonable matches are found. The best-fit stellar model gives λ Vir a subsolar metallicity of Z = 0.0097 and an age of 935 Myr. The orbital and physical parameters of λ Vir also allow us to study its tidal evolution timescales and status. Although atomic diffusion is currently considered to be the most plausible cause of the Am phenomenon, the issue is still being actively debated in the literature. With the present study of the properties and evolutionary status of λ Vir, this system is an ideal candidate for further detailed abundance analyses that might shed more light on the source of the chemical anomalies in these A stars.


The results of the 40Ar/39Ar step heating study of a folded and cleaved metasiltstone from Malmanare Point, Gerrans Bay, S Cornwall are presented. The rock comes from the mélange of the Roseland area, NE of the Lizard. The age spectrum obtained has two distinct sectors: (i) an older age component giving apparent ages of 521–490 Ma and (ii) a younger component with an apparent age of 424–410 Ma. The petrography suggests that the former is derived from the more resistant parts of large detrital muscovite flakes, while the latter comes from smaller metamorphic micas aligned along the prominent cleavage and also, in part, from original detrital grains partially or totally overprinted during the metamorphic event. The sediment was probably mid- to late-Ordovician in age. The source rocks appear to have been very largely of late Cambrian/early Arenig age. Folding, cleavage and low-grade regional metamorphism occurred as a result of late Caledonian orogenesis between 424–410 Ma. There is no evidence of any Variscan overprint on the age spectrum. Very minor, low energy argon losses appear to have taken place in mid-Mesozoic times (possibly related to regional mineralization) but, apart from this, the absence of any major overprint younger than 410 Ma indicates that since the end of the Silurian the rock has suffered only high-level, cold, non-penetrative deformation.


It has long been conjectured that hypotheses spaces suitable for data that is compositional in nature, such as text or images, may be more efficiently represented with deep hierarchical networks than with shallow ones. Despite the vast empirical evidence supporting this belief, theoretical justifications to date are limited. In particular, they do not account for the locality, sharing and pooling constructs of convolutional networks, the most successful deep learning architecture to date. In this work we derive a deep network architecture based on arithmetic circuits that inherently employs locality, sharing and pooling. An equivalence between the networks and hierarchical tensor factorizations is established. We show that a shallow network corresponds to CP (rank-1) decomposition, whereas a deep network corresponds to Hierarchical Tucker decomposition. Using tools from measure theory and matrix algebra, we prove that besides a negligible set, all functions that can be implemented by a deep network of polynomial size, require exponential size in order to be realized (or even approximated) by a shallow network. Since log-space computation transforms our networks into SimNets, the result applies directly to a deep learning architecture demonstrating promising empirical performance. The construction and theory developed in this paper shed new light on various practices and ideas employed by the deep learning community.


Laboratory water-intake models were used to evaluate and to optimize pump-approach flow patterns to the cooling-water pumps in thermal power stations. The intake performance was described and evaluated by means of the generally accepted criteria, such as pump-throat velocity distributions, prerotation, and vortex formation. The model intake structures were tested at a smaller scale prior to testing with an axial pump built at a larger scale. By means of the axial pump, characteristic curves (Q-H curves) were determined through an inductive flow meter and a differential pressure gage. The pump speed was varied in order to determine the influence of Reynolds and Froude numbers which were identified as the most significant parameters in water-intake modeling. In order to obtain detailed information of the mechanical impact generated by the surrounding intake structure on the pump, a vertical, high specific speed axial pump was built at Kaiserslautern University. The pump was equipped with a newly developed force measurement shaft. Strain gages were installed in the pump shaft to obtain the torque, axial thrust, the eccentricity of the axial thrust, and the radial force that comes to existence due to an unbalanced loading of the pump impeller. In addition, pump vibrations were recorded using a vibration sensor that was located on the vertical pump column. All the data were transmitted by a contactless telemetry module placed inside the shaft that rotated at a high angular speed. By means of a radio receiver connected to a computer aided data aquisition system the data were collected at high sample rates. Furthermore, various typically-used intake structures in prototype cooling-water systems were tested with and without sub-surface vortex suppressors, such as splitters and corner fillets. Mechanical impacts on the pump were quantified under these test conditions.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this analysis is to review the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of phakic intraocular lenses (pIOLs) for the treatment of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism.

CLINICAL NEED
CONDITION AND TARGET POPULATION REFRACTIVE ERRORS: Refractive errors occur when the eye cannot focus light properly. In myopia (near- or short-sightedness), distant objects appear blurry because the axis of the eye is too long or the cornea is too steep, so light becomes focused in front of the retina. Hyperopia (far sightedness) occurs when light is focused behind the retina causing nearby objects to appear blurry. In astigmatism, blurred or distorted vision occurs when light is focused at two points rather than one due to an irregularly shaped cornea or lens. Refractive errors are common worldwide, but high refractive errors are less common. In the United States, the prevalence of high myopia (≤ -5 D) in people aged 20 to 39, 40 to 59, and 60 years and older is 7.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.5% - 8.3%), 7.8% (95% CI, 6.4% - 8.6%), and 3.1% (95% CI, 2.2% - 3.9%), respectively. The prevalence of high hyperopia (≥ 3 D) is 1.0% (95% CI, .6% - 1.4%), 2.4% (95% CI, 1.7% - 3.0%), and 10.0% (95% CI, 9.1% - 10.9%) for the same age groupings. Finally, the prevalence of astigmatism (≥ 1 D cylinder) is 23.1% (95% CI, 21.6% - 24.5%), 27.6% (95% CI, 25.8% - 29.3%) and 50.1% (48.2% - 52.0%). LOW VISION: According to the Ontario Schedule of Benefits, low visual acuity is defined by a best spectacle corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) of 20/50 (6/15) or less in the better eye and not amenable to further medical and/or surgical treatment. Similarly, the Ontario Assistive Devices Program defines low vision as BSCVA in the better eye in the range of 20/70 or less that cannot be corrected medically, surgically, or with ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses. Estimates of the prevalence of low vision vary. Using the criteria of BSCVA ranging from 20/70 to 20/160, one study estimated that 35.6 per 10,000 people in Canada have low vision. The 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) found that 594,350 (2.5%) Canadians had "difficulty seeing ordinary newsprint or clearly seeing the face of someone from 4 m," and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) registry classified 105,000 (.35%) Canadians as visually disabled. PHAKIC INTRAOCULAR LENSES (PIOL): A phakic intraocular lens (pIOL) is a supplementary lens that is inserted into the anterior or posterior chamber of the eye to correct refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism). Unlike in cataract surgery, the eye's natural crystalline lens is not removed when the pIOL is inserted, so the eye retains its accommodative ability. In Canada and the United States, iris-fixated (anterior chamber lenses that are anchored to the iris with a claw) and posterior chamber lenses are the only types of pIOLs that are licensed by Health Canada and the Food and Drug Administration, respectively. EVIDENCE-BASED ANALYSIS METHOD: RESEARCH QUESTIONS #ENTITYSTARTX00026;

METHODOLOGY
What are the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and safety of pIOLs for the treatment of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism?Do certain subgroups (e.g. high myopia and low vision) benefit more from pIOLs?How do pIOLs compare with alternative surgical treatment options (LASIK, PRK, and CLE)?Using appropriate keywords, a literature search was conducted up to January 2009. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, and observational studies with more than 20 eyes receiving pIOLs were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcomes of interest were uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), predictability of manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE), and adverse events. The GRADE approach was used to systematically and explicitly evaluate the quality of evidence.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The search identified 1,131 citations published between January 1, 2003, and January 16, 2009. Including a health technology assessment (HTA) identified in the bibliography review, 30 studies met the inclusion criteria: two HTAs; one systematic review; 20 pre-post observational studies; and seven comparative studies (five pIOL vs. LASIK, one pIOL vs. PRK, and one pIOL vs. CLE). Both HTAs concluded that there was good evidence of the short-term efficacy and safety of pIOLs, however, their conclusions regarding long-term safety differed. The 2006 HTA found convincing evidence of long-term safety, while the 2009 HTA found no long-term evidence about the risks of complications including cataract development, corneal damage, and retinal detachment. The systematic review of adverse events found that cataract development (incidence rate of 9.6% of eyes) is a substantial risk following posterior chamber pIOL implantation, while chronic endothelial cell loss is a safety concern after iris-fixated pIOL implantation. Adverse event rates varied by lens type, but they were more common in eyes that received posterior chamber pIOLs. The evidence of pIOL effectiveness is based on pre-post case series. These studies reported a variety of outcomes and different follow-up time points. It was difficult to combine the data into meaningful summary measures as many time points are based on a single study with a very small sample size. Overall, the efficacy evidence is low to very low quality based on the GRADE Working Group Criteria. For all refractive errors (low to high), most eyes experienced a substantial increase in uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) with more than 75% of eyes achieving UCVA of 20/40 or better at all postoperative time points. The proportion of eyes that achieved postoperative UCVA 20/20 or better varied substantially according type of lens used and the type of refractive error being corrected, ranging from about 30% of eyes that received iris-fixated lenses for myopia to more than 78% of eyes that received posterior chamber toric lenses for myopic astigmatism. Predictability of manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE) within ± 2.0 D was very high (≥ 90%) for all types of lenses and refractive error. At most time points, more than 50% of eyes achieved a MRSE within ± 0.5 D of emmetropia and at least 85% within ± 1.0 D. Predictability was lower for eyes with more severe preoperative refractive errors. The mean postoperative MRSE was less than 1.0 D in all but two studies. Safety, defined as a loss of two or more Snellen lines of best spectacle corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), was high for all refractive errors and lens types. Losses of two or more lines of BSCVA were uncommon, occurring in fewer than 2% of eyes that had received posterior chamber pIOLs for myopia, and less than 1% of eyes that received iris-fixated lens implantation for myopia. Most eyes did not experience a clinically significant change in BSCVA (i.e. loss of one line, no change, or gain of one line), but 10% to 20% of eyes gained two or more lines of BSCVA. The pIOL outcomes for UCVA, predictability, BSCVA, and adverse events were compared with FDA targets and safety values for refractive surgery and found to meet or exceed these targets at most follow-up time points. The results were then stratified to examine the efficacy of pIOLs for high refractive errors. There was limited data for many outcomes and time points, but overall the results were similar to those for all levels of refractive error severity. The studies that compared pIOLs with LASIK, PRK, and CLE for patients with moderate to high myopia and myopic astigmatism showed that pIOLs performed better than these alternative surgical options for the outcomes of: UCVA,predictability and stability of MRSE,postoperative MRSE,safety (measured as clinically significant loss of BSCVA), andgains in BSCVA.Correction of refractive cylinder (astigmatism) was the only outcome that favoured refractive surgery over pIOLs. This was observed for both toric and non-toric pIOLs (toric pIOLs correct for astigmatism, non-toric pIOLs do not). Common adverse events in the LASIK groups were diffuse lamellar keratitis and striae in the corneal flap. In the pIOL groups, lens repositioning and lens opacities (both asymptomatic and visually significant cataracts) were the most commonly observed adverse events. These studies were determined to be of low to very low evidence quality based on the GRADE Working Group Criteria.

KEYWORDS
Eye, myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, phakic intraocular lens, LASIK, PRK, uncorrected visual acuity, best corrected visual acuity, refractive errors, clear lens extraction.


Resonators usually are characterized with two partially dependent values: finesse (F) and quality factor (Q). The finesse of an empty Fabry-Perot (FP) resonator is defined solely by the quality of its mirrors and is calculated as F=piR(exp 1/2)/(1-R). The maximum up-to-date value of reflectivity R approximately equal to 1 - 1.6 x 10(exp -6) is achieved with dielectric mirrors. An FP resonator made with the mirrors has finesse F=1.9 x 10(exp 6). Further practical increase of the finesse of FP resonators is problematic because of the absorption and the scattering of light in the mirror material through fundamental limit on the reflection losses given by the internal material losses and by thermodynamic density fluctuations on the order of parts in 109. The quality factor of a resonator depends on both its finesse and its geometrical size. A one-dimensional FP resonator has Q=2 F L/lambda, where L is the distance between the mirrors and lambda is the wavelength. It is easy to see that the quality factor of the resonator is unlimited because L is unlimited. F and Q are equally important. In some cases, finesse is technically more valuable than the quality factor. For instance, buildup of the optical power inside the resonator, as well as the Purcell factor, is proportional to finesse. Sometimes, however, the quality factor is more valuable. For example, inverse threshold power of intracavity hyperparametric oscillation is proportional to Q(exp 2) and efficiency of parametric frequency mixing is proportional to Q(exp 3). Therefore, it is important to know both the maximally achievable finesse and quality factor values of a resonator. Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are capable of achieving larger finesse compared to FP resonators. For instance, fused silica resonators with finesse 2.3 x 10(exp 6) and 2.8 x 10(exp 6) have been demonstrated. Crystalline WGM resonators reveal even larger finesse values, F=6.3 x 10(exp 6), because of low attenuation of light in the transparent optical crystals. The larger values of F and Q result in the enhancement of various nonlinear processes. Low-threshold Raman lasing, optomechanical oscillations, frequency doubling, and hyperparametric oscillations based on these resonators have been recently demonstrated. Theory predicts a possibility of nearly 10(exp 14) room-temperature optical Q-factors of optical crystalline WGM resonators, which correspond to finesse levels higher than 10(exp 9). Experiments have shown numbers a thousand times lower than that. The difference occurs due to media imperfections. To substantially reduce the optical losses caused by the imperfections, a specific, multi-step, asymptotic processing of the resonator is implemented. The technique has been initially developed to reduce microwave absorption in dielectric resonators. One step of the process consists of mechanical polishing performed after high temperature annealing. Several steps repeat one after another to lead to significant reduction in optical attenuation and, as a result, to the increase of Q-factor as well as finesse of the resonator which demonstrates a CaF2 WGM resonator with F greater than 10(exp 7) and Q greater than 10(exp 11).


Background: Early discussion of end-of-life issues has been found to be associated with better quality of life, reduced use of aggressive care, earlier hospice referral, improved bereavement outcomes for survivors, and reduced costs. Yet, such conversations do not occur regularly for patients with serious illness. Barriers to such conversations are found in patients, physicians, and the health care system. In this presentation, we will review data about the benefits of early discussions, describe the rationale for the use of a checklist to improve discussions of end-of-life issues, describe appropriate "triggers" for such conversations, and review risks and benefits of early discussions. Based on an extensive development process we will propose an evidence-based Serious Illness Communication Checklist (SICC) that is designed to guide early clinician discussions with patients and their families about values and goals about end-of-life care, review a training program for physicians and other clinicians to prepare them to use the SICC, and describe a system-wide approach for communicating patient values and goals through use of a structured format within the electronic medical record. Finally, preliminary impressions from the early phases of a prospective, cluster randomized trial in oncology will be described.


There is a clear tension in the law between exercises of state police power in land-use regulation, including zoning laws, on the one hand, and takings under the Fifth Amendment on the other. Courts have struggled to find a dividing line between the two, but for their efforts we are left only with is a disjointed array of legal tests, each one as flawed as the next. Legal theorists, for their part, must shoulder some of the blame — no single theory can identify the point at which community need outweighs private property rights. Even well-developed theories thus fail to translate into practical application. But this Article is resolved to bridge that gap.
This Article presents a novel theory that provides a unified normative framework for evaluating government interference with private property. It seeks to identify the tipping point at which private property rights must give way to the needs of the community at large. This approach, which I refer to as Property's Tipping Point, is a burden-shifting framework that accommodates competing theories of property. It builds on landmark Supreme Court cases to provide a unified standard for courts to apply in resolving cases of regulatory takings and exactions.
The approach presented in this Article has both a substantive and a procedural component. It develops two tests that work dynamically to identify the point where community need trumps owner autonomy: the indispensability of needs and the generality of action. The former requires that any government interference with private property is designed to promote community prosperity. The latter test — the generality of action — confines the government to the boundaries of the rule of law. It is only by passing these two tests that a government authority may reach Property's Tipping Point.


In this paper we supplement Greece's recent annotated inventory of freshwater fishes per hydrographic basin with recent distributional data and taxa alteration information, based on field sampling and a literature review up to September 2011. We report on newly documented distributional records of 31 fish species plus one unidentified taxon, within 35 hydrographic river basin units in Greece. These new records include 14 native fish species, seven alien and 12 translocated. Translocated taxa are distinguished from aliens, in order to report species non-indigenous to a basin but native within the same ecoregion. Twelve hydrographic basin units are newly added to the roster of ichthyologically explored river basins following a previous basin-scale inventory method (the total is now 117). This review increases the number of Greece's freshwater fish taxa to 167, since four new species are added to the list ( Carassius langsdorfii, Neogobius fluviatilis, Telestes alfiensis, Millerigobius macrocephalus ) and two are deleted ( Salmo dentex, Barbus rebeli ) due to taxonomic changes. Taxonomic changes will probably continue to alter the national list since phylogenetic research is ongoing on several taxa in many parts of the country


Life span, growth and cost of reproduction of Illex coindetii were examined for the first time in the southern Adriatic Sea, central Mediterranean Sea. Age and growth were investigated through statoliths reading. Cost of reproduction was explored by studying the relative investment between somatic and gonad growth. The life span of I. coindetii was less than nine months in both sexes. Females (128-234 days) showed longer life span than males (124-178 days). In both sexes the linear model best described the mantle length-at age data, while the exponential model provided the best fit to the total weight-at-age data. In terms of mantle length, females grew faster than males (average growth rate was 1.33 mm day - 1 in females and 1.00 mm day -1 in males). In terms of total weight, no significant differences were highlighted between growth curves of males and females. Mantle length, total weight, mantle weight and fin weight increased up to the latest maturity stage in both sexes. Immature and maturing individuals showed poorer body condition than mature counterparts in both sexes. Some evidences of a reproductive strategy more similar to a multiple-spawning than to a single-spawning species were found.


Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explore whether industry affiliation still has a significant impact on the prominence of web-based CSR disclosures given the potential benefits for all companies to use the internet as a channel for stakeholder communication. Design/methodology/approach To measure the prominence of web-based CSR disclosures, a four-dimensional model is constructed using the locations, sources, accessibility and extent of CSR disclosures. The sample for the study were 65 companies listed on the NZX with market capitalisation of over NZD 150 million. Findings The findings of the paper show, firstly, that listed companies in New Zealand are utilising their websites for communicating CSR information to stakeholders, regardless of their industry affiliation and the size of their market capitalisation. However, industry affiliation still has a significant impact on the prominence of web-based CSR disclosures in New Zealand, with 'sensitive' industries namely mining & construction, energy and transport industries, registering above average score for all four dimensions of the prominence measurement. Interestingly, several 'less sensitive' industries such as the financial services, and media & telecommunications, are found to demonstrate growing emphasis by making their CSR disclosures more prominent via their corporate websites. Practical implications Companies need to recognise that web-based CSR disclosures are increasingly becoming not only an important method for companies to communicate with their stakeholders, but also a significant platform for them to strategically manage their image and identity. Originality/value The paper complements earlier descriptive studies on CSR disclosures by constructing a model to measure prominence of web-based CSR disclosures.


The use of proactive tactics to disrupt criminal activities, such as Terry street stops and concentrated misdemeanor arrests, are essential to the "new policing." This model applies complex metrics, strong management, and aggressive enforcement and surveillance to focus policing on high crime risk persons and places. The tactics endemic to the "new policing" gave rise in the 1990s to popular, legal, political and social science concerns about disparate treatment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. Empirical evidence showed that minorities were indeed stopped and arrested more frequently than similarly situated whites, even when controlling for local social and crime conditions. In this article, we examine racial disparities under a unique configuration of the street stop prong of the "new policing" – the inclusion of non-contact observations (or surveillances) in the field interrogation (or investigative stop) activity of Boston Police Department officers. We show that Boston Police officers focus significant portions of their field investigation activity in two areas: suspected and actual gang members, and the city's high crime areas. Minority neighborhoods experience higher levels of field interrogation and surveillance activity net of crime and other social factors. Relative to white suspects, Black suspects are more likely to be observed, interrogated, and frisked or searched controlling for gang membership and prior arrest history. Moreover, relative to their black counterparts, white police officers conduct high numbers of field investigations and are more likely to frisk/search subjects of all races. We distinguish between preference-based and statistical discrimination by comparing stops by officer-suspect racial pairs. If officer activity is independent of officer race, we would infer that disproportionate stops of minorities reflect statistical discrimination. We show instead that officers seem more likely to investigate and frisk or search a minority suspect if officer and suspect race differ. We locate these results in the broader tensions of racial profiling that pose recurring social and constitutional concerns in the "new policing."


SpiNNaker is a massively-parallel neuromorphic computing architecture designed to model very large, biologically plausible spiking neural networks in real-time. A SpiNNaker machine consists of up to 216 homogeneous eighteen-core multiprocessor chips, each with an on-board router which forms links with neighbouring chips for packet-switched interprocessor communications. The architecture is designed for dynamic reconfiguration and optimised for transmission of neural activity data, which presents a challenge for machine configuration, program loading and simulation monitoring given a lack of globally-shared memory resources, intrinsic addressing mode or sideband configuration channel. We propose distributed software mechanisms to address these problems and present experiments which demonstrate the necessity of this approach in contrast to centralised mechanisms.


Young women are at the maximum risk of Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection which are asymptomatic in a majority of cases and spontaneously get cleared. Women in the age between 20 and 35 years are more active sexually and especially in the developing nations, this age group forms a major cohort among the population of pregnant women. The changed hormonal milieu and immune response during pregnancy might favor presence or persistence of HPV infection, while at the same time natural clearance also takes place during pregnancy with an unknown mechanism. Various HPVs have been reported to be associated with preterm rupture of membranes (PROM), fetal growth restriction (FGR), preeclampsia, placental abnormalities and preterm delivery in several populations. The risk factors involved in the intrauterine environment affects fetal development and thus increase the development risk of specific diseases in adult life as per the hypothesis of the fetal origins of adult disease (FOAD). The structural and molecular changes in the feto-maternal interface support and protect the semiallogeneic fetus from immune-mediated or inflammatory injury. On the other hand, the trophoblast cells of placenta facilitate the replication of HPV and the affliction of placenta and the vaginal infection can directly be associated with pregnancy outcomes. So, to optimize better child health care and reproductive outcomes, HPV screening might help during pregnancy. It is therefore important to understand how the HPV is affecting the early pregnancy and immune cells within the feto-maternal interface are educated for self-clearance to fulfill their biological functions or prevalence to affect the pregnancy outcomes and how the persistence of HR-HPV infection overtime increases the development of cervical cancer risk.


What Are Qualitative Research Ethics by Rose Wiles (2013) Bloomsbury Academic. London. New York. ISBN. 978-1-84996-652-7 In her recent work, "What are qualitative research ethics?, Wiles addresses the novel and unique ethical dilemmas that arise when conducting research in the qualitative methodological research paradigm. There are multiple perspectives and questions regarding ethics in this discipline. Wiles poses the question that drives much of the dissent-what are research ethics? The answer is not linear and involves much complexity. Research ethics are dynamic and, as Wiles puts it, concern more than committee approval. Despite the inherent complexity of qualitative research ethics, Wiles creatively interweaves the academic/technical with the professional/practical and presents a well-developed argument for research ethics as a process of 'ethical literacy' instead of rules and regulations. It is the concept of ethical literacy that defines and situates qualitative research ethics in the larger discipline of research ethics. Wiles provides an introductory text that outlines frameworks for considering ethical issues as they arise during the course of qualitative research. She intends that her book would be a resource for students and researchers in the social sciences. Wiles contends that ethical literacy is the crux of qualitative research ethics. It is this notion that informs qualitative methodology relative to determining the ethical parameters of research. It is important to note that ethical literacy is not the answer, but provides a pathway to possible answers or solutions?. Ethical literacy requires an evolving dialogue concerning the best way to ensure that research itself unfolds in an ethical manner. This continuous unfolding begins by seeing ethical research as more than Institutional Review Board approval for the protection of participants in research. Wiles contends that ethics should permeate every step of research. This perspective is necessary because Wiles contends that ethical issues can arise throughout the research process, particularly in qualitative research where sometimes the path is unclear until several participant interactions have been completed and data analyzed. Ethical literacy can therefore be viewed as an informed framework from which researchers make decisions relative to the ethics of their research process. This perspective includes fundamental principles that inform ethical frameworks in the design of the research as well as the unfolding dynamic processes of ethical decision-making during a qualitative research study. While it is an introductory text, it is not elementary. The content of Wiles' work includes standard/traditional ethical principles and practices as well as contemporary and creative ideas and principles that inform the undertaking of ethical research. She eloquently connects the historical circumstances that gave rise to certain ethical principles and practices, thereby highlighting the rationale and the necessity of their inclusion in the building of one's ethical literacy. She discusses the Nuremberg Code, the syphilis study conducted at Tuskegee by the Public Health Service, the Belmont Report and other historical incidents and precedents that inform the base of our modern ethical frameworks. This historical catalog informs the structure of the content of her work as well. It is impressive that she includes traditional perspectives of Western ethics and connects these principles with contemporary issues and concerns. Wiles' work covers informed consent, anonymity and conformity, risk and safety, and contemporary issues involving information sharing, e-research and other contemporary concerns of qualitative research ethics. …


This working paper examines collusive agreements in the U.S. energy industry, with a focus on Section 1 energy cases brought by the U.S. government since the early 1990s. It observes that public Section 1 enforcement in various segments of the domestic energy sector appears not to follow the pattern of enforcement against anticompetitive agreements more generally. Anomalies are apparent in terms of the relative number of cases won, a prepondence of civil (versus criminal) enforcement actions, and liberal use of injunctions. The paper proceeds to examine possible explanations for these observations, including the roles of regulation and judicially-created antitrust immunities in restraining a more vigorous approach to public enforcement. It concludes with observations and policy recommendations.


Preface. The contributors. List of tables. List of figures. Introduction: Globalisation and interconnectedness in Southeast Asian tourism (P. Teo et al.). Regional Context. Tourism and political relationships in Southeast Asia (C.M. Hall). Towards a regional analysis of tourism in Southeast Asia (D.G. Pearce). Deterritorialisation and New Regionalisms. Singapore tourism: capital ambitions and regional connections (T.C. Chang, K. Raguraman). Tourism in an inter-state borderland: the case of Indonesian-Singapore cooperation (C. Grundy-Warr, M. Perry). Gateways, hubs and interconnections in Southeast Asia: implications for tourism development in the twenty-first century (S. Page). Reinventing Tradition in an Interconnected World. Globalisation, tourism and culture in Southeast Asia (T.H.B. Sofield). Global-local interrelationships in UNESCO world heritage sites (H. Black, G. Wall). Negotiating global tourism: localism as difference in Southeast Asian theme parks (P. Teo, B.S.A. Yeoh). Thailand in "Touristic Transition" (E. Cohen). Dialogic heritage: time, space and visions of the National Museum of Singapore (Can-Seng Ooi). Imaging Melaka's global heritage (C. Cartier). Acting as One in Ecotourism. Southeast Asian tourism: traditional and new perspectives on the natural environment (Wong Poh Poh). Sinews of interconnectivity: tourism and environment in the Greater Mekong subregion (M.J.G. Parnwell). "Borneo, nature's paradise": constructions and representations of nature within nature-based tourism (K. Markwell). Potentials and Problems. Danger-zone tourism: prospects and problems for tourism in tumultuous times (K.M. Adams). Interconnections, planning and the local-global nexus: a case from Vietnam (P. Burns). Bali and beyond: locational effects on the economic impact of tourism (W. Nuryanti). Conclusion: Southeast Asian tourism interconnections - status, challenges and opportunities (G. Wall). Author index. Subject index.


Customer relationship management (CRM) has been the favorite topic of scores of marketing consultants and academicians for over a decade. CRM approaches marketing as dating in which the marketer attempts to turn strangers into friends and friends into lifetime partners and to retain the loyalty of the right customers for this is the key to long-term profits in a company. Gender theories posit that women and men behave differently, and that they approach things differently. Moreover, these theories have documented a picture of women are being more expert and motivated relationship psychologists than men, as more active in their relationship monitoring, and as more oriented toward the maintenance and success of their relationships. Based on these theories, this paper develops some propositions to facilitate its empirical testing related to relationship communication and relationship dissolution in business market. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to create more insight into areas where relationship marketing research to date has not been abundant. Second, this paper attempts to contribute to methodological development of measuring relationship success by systematically distinguishing between good communication relationship and good management relationship.


Tasked with re-working East Carolina University's Joyner Library materials allocation plan to better align it with current needs two librarians Lisa Barricella (Acquisitions) and Cindy Shirkey (Collection Development) decided to incorporate a use factor measure. By incorporating a use factor such as the one developed by George Bonn Barricella and Shirkey hope to distribute the money for books in a way that more closely represents actual usage patterns for the collection. During the presentation the speakers will give a history of the materials allocation plan used by Joyner Library since the 1980's talk about using Bonn's measure on our collection and outline what our new materials allocation plan will look like.


Objectives Extension of disease beyond the atrioventricular (AV) node is associated with increased mortality in cardiac neonatal lupus (NL). Treatment of isolated heart block with fluorinated steroids to prevent disease progression has been considered but published data are limited and discordant regarding efficacy. This study evaluated whether fluorinated steroids given to manage isolated advanced block prevented development of disease beyond the AV node and conferred a survival benefit. Methods In this retrospective study of cases enrolled in the Research Registry for NL, inclusion was restricted to anti-SSA/Ro-exposed cases presenting with isolated advanced heart block in utero who either received fluorinated steroids within 1 week of detection (N=71) or no treatment (N=85). Outcomes evaluated were: development of endocardial fibroelastosis, dilated cardiomyopathy and/or hydrops fetalis; mortality and pacemaker implantation. Results In Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, fluorinated steroids did not significantly prevent development of disease beyond the AV node (adjusted HR=0.90; 95% CI 0.43 to 1.85; p=0.77), reduce mortality (HR=1.63; 95% CI 0.43 to 6.14; p=0.47) or forestall/prevent pacemaker implantation (HR=0.87; 95% CI 0.57 to 1.33; p=0.53). No risk factors for development of disease beyond the AV node were identified. Conclusions These data do not provide evidence to support the use of fluorinated steroids to prevent disease progression or death in cases presenting with isolated heart block.


Critical raw materials (CRM) are used in various applications in different sectors, and their consumption will likely further increase in future. The threats caused by their limited availability and high prices have led to discussion on more efficient use of the resources available. The enhanced recycling of critical raw materials could be a significant opportunity for the Nordic countries.This report focuses on the recycling potential of wastes containing CRMs, analyses of the bottlenecks of recycling, and identifies potential policy instruments to eliminate the barriers or reduce their impact. In order to enhance sustainable recycling, the Nordic countries should improve knowledge of CRM availability, develop new recycling strategies, support demonstration and selected R&D actions, and strengthen Nordic influence on the development of European legislation and standards.


The phenomenal growth of derivative financial instruments has sparked a near revolution in finance. These instruments take many forms and come in literally hundreds of varieties. Some, such as commodity futures and options, are heavily regulated when they are traded on organized exchanges. Other derivatives, particularly those traded over-the-counter, are subject to little regulation. Included on the list of unregulated derivatives are swap transactions. The swaps market alone is equal in size to the regulated markets with which it competes. The lack of regulation over such a large financial market and the losses suffered by some large firms in recent months has raised concerns that regulation may be needed. Numerous private and governmental studies have suggested improvements in balance sheet disclosures and some additional regulatory monitoring. Few of these reports advocate any stringent regulatory controls or even a unified regulatory approach. Yet, all seem to recognize that these instruments can pose a serious threat to the world's financial systems. This article will explore the growth and development of unregulated over-the counter derivative financial instruments and it will suggest a methodology for imposing a regulatory system over these still untested instruments.The first part of this article explores the history and background of derivative instruments, and it reviews the considerations that led Congress to regulate many forms of these products. The second part of the article turns to the growth of the new unregulated financial instruments and describes some of the regulatory concerns they have raised. The article then focuses on the regulatory approaches that have been considered to date, some of which are as complicated as the instruments they seek to regulate. Finally, the article proposes a regulatory program that will guard against undue exposure from derivative transactions without unduly restricting the growth and operation of this very important financial market.


99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (MDP) radionuclide imaging examinations were done in four horses having clinical evidence of skull trauma or infection. Radiographs were made of each horse prior to scintigraphy. Four case histories are presented. In each instance, scintigraphy provided complementary information to that obtainable through radiography, which aided in accurately localizing and characterizing the site and extent of abnormalities, and which proved particularly valuable as an aid for therapeutic planning.


We study two procedures (reverse-mode and forward-mode) for computing the gradient of the validation error with respect to the hyperparameters of any iterative learning algorithm. These procedures mirror two ways of computing gradients for recurrent neural networks and have different trade-offs in terms of running time and space requirements. The reverse-mode procedure extends previous work by Maclaurin et al. (2015) and offers the opportunity to insert constraints on the hyperparameters in a natural way. The forward-mode procedure is suitable for real-time hyperparameter updates, which may significantly speedup the overall hyperparameter optimization process.


Valdis Lumans provides an authoritative, balanced, and comprehensive account of one of the most complex, and conflicted, arenas of the Second World War. Struggling against both Germany and the Soviet Union, Latvia emerged as an independent nation state after theFirst World War. In 1940, the Soviets occupied neutral Latvia, deporting or executing more than 30,000 Latvians before the Nazis invaded in 1941 and installed a puppet regime. The Red Army expelled the Germans in 1944 and reincorporated Latvia as a Soviet Republic. By the end of the war, an estimated 180,000 Latvians fled to the West. The Soviets would deport at least another 100,000.Drawing on a wide range of sources-many brought together here for the first time-Lumans synthesizes political, military, social, economic, diplomatic, and cultural history. He moves carefully through traditional sources, many of them partisan, to scholarship emerging since the end of the Cold War, to confront such issues as political loyalties, military collaboration, resistance, capitulation, the Soviet occupation, anti-Semitism, and the Latvian role in the Holocaust.


The Sierra Madre Occidental is the result of Cretaceous-Cenozoic magmatic and tectonic episodes related to the subduction of the Farallon plate beneath North America
and to the opening of the Gulf of California. The stratigraphy of the Sierra Madre Occidental consists of fi ve main igneous complexes: (1) Late Cretaceous to Paleocene
plutonic and volcanic rocks; (2) Eocene andesites and lesser rhyolites, traditionally grouped into the so-called Lower Volcanic Complex; (3) silicic ignimbrites mainly
emplaced during two pulses in the Oligocene (ca. 32–28 Ma) and Early Miocene (ca. 24–20 Ma), and grouped into the "Upper Volcanic Supergroup"; (4) transitional
basaltic-andesitic lavas that erupted toward the end of, and after, each ignimbrite pulse, which have been correlated with the Southern Cordillera Basaltic Andesite
Province of the southwestern United States; and (5) postsubduction volcanism consisting of alkaline basalts and ignimbrites emplaced in the Late Miocene, Pliocene,
and Pleistocene, directly related to the separation of Baja California from the Mexican mainland. The products of all these magmatic episodes, partially overlapping in
space and time, cover a poorly exposed, heterogeneous basement with Precambrian to Paleozoic ages in the northern part (Sonora and Chihuahua) and Mesozoic ages
beneath the rest of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

The oldest intrusive rocks of the Lower Volcanic Complex (ca. 101 to ca. 89 Ma) in Sinaloa, and Maastrichtian volcanics of the Lower Volcanic Complex in central
Chihuahua, were affected by moderate contractile deformation during the Laramide orogeny. In the fi nal stages of this deformation cycle, during the Paleocene and Early Eocene, ~E-W to ENE-WSW–trending extensional structures formed within the Lower Volcanic Complex, along which the world-class porphyry copper deposits of
the Sierra Madre Occidental were emplaced. Extensional tectonics began as early as the Oligocene along the entire eastern half of the Sierra Madre Occidental, forming
grabens bounded by high-angle normal faults, which have traditionally been referred to as the southern (or Mexican) Basin and Range Province. In the Early to Middle
Miocene, extension migrated westward. In northern Sonora, the deformation was sufficiently intense to exhume lower crustal rocks, whereas in the rest of the Sierra
Madre Occidental, crustal extension did not exceed 20%. By the Late Miocene, extension became focused in the westernmost part of the Sierra Madre Occidental, adjacent
to the Gulf of California, where NNW-striking normal fault systems produced both ENE and WSW tilt domains separated by transverse accommodation zones. It is worth noting that most of the extension occurred when subduction of the Farallon plate was still active off Baja California.
Geochemical data show that the Sierra Madre Occidental rocks form a typical calc-alkaline rhyolite suite with intermediate to high K and relatively low Fe contents.
Late Eocene to Miocene volcanism is clearly bimodal, but silicic compositions are volumetrically dominant. Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios mostly range between 0.7041 and 0.7070,
and initial eNd values are generally intermediate between crust and mantle values (+2.3 and −3.2). Based on isotopic data of volcanic rocks and crustal xenoliths from
a few sites in the Sierra Madre Occidental, contrasting models for the genesis of the silicic volcanism have been proposed. A considerable body of work led by Ken Cameron
and others considered the mid-Tertiary Sierra Madre Occidental silicic magmas to have formed by fractional crystallization of mantle-derived mafi c magmas with
little (<15%) or no crustal involvement. In contrast, other workers have suggested the rhyolites, taken to the extreme case, could be entirely the result of partial melting of the crust in response to thermal and material input from basaltic underplating. Several lines of evidence suggest that Sierra Madre Occidental ignimbrite petrogenesis involved large-scale mixing and assimilation-fractional crystallization processes of crustal and mantle-derived melts.

Geophysical data indicate that the crust in the unextended core of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental is ~55 km-thick, but thins to ~40 km to the east. The anomalous
thickness in the core of the Sierra Madre Occidental suggests that the lower crust was largely intruded by mafi c magmas. In the westernmost Sierra Madre Occidental
adjacent to the Gulf of California, crustal thickness is ~25 km, implying over 100% of extension. However, structures at the surface indicate no more than ~50% extension. The upper mantle beneath the Sierra Madre Occidental is characterized by a low velocity anomaly, typical of the asthenosphere, which also occurs beneath the Basin and Range Province of the western United States.
The review of the magmatic and tectonic history presented in this work suggests that the Sierra Madre Occidental has been strongly infl uenced by the Cretaceous-Cenozoic evolution of the western North America subduction system. In particular, the Oligo-Miocene Sierra Madre Occidental is viewed as a silicic large igneous province formed as the precursor to the opening of the Gulf of California during and immediately following the final stages of the subduction of the Farallon plate. The mechanism responsible for the generation of the ignimbrite pulses seems related to the removal of the Farallon plate from the base of the North American plate after the end of the Laramide orogeny. The rapid increase in the subduction angle due to slab roll-back and, possibly, the detachment of the deeper part of the subducted slab as younger and buoyant oceanic lithosphere arrived at the paleotrench, resulted in extension of the continental margin, eventually leading to direct interaction between the Pacific and North American plates.


Ketamine is an effective agent when used for sedation during painful bedside procedures. We developed a ketamine administration protocol for nonanesthesiologists for the purpose of establishing safe monitoring and documentation during ketamine sedation procedures. From June 1, 2002, through June 30, 2003, a total of 522 sedation events using ketamine were performed; 347 of these events were analyzed. Seventeen (4.9%) events contained potentially adverse outcome indicators, 10 (2.9%) of which required intervention. Eight events were airway related and responded to repositioning, supplemental oxygen, or bag-valve-mask ventilation. Two patients had a decrease in blood pressure, which responded to fluid administration. Total doses of ketamine administered were between 6 and 800 mg, for procedures ranging from 1 to 105 minutes, in patients weighing between 3 and 111 kg. The development of a strict protocol ensures the safe administration of ketamine for the pediatric burn patient.


Background Left atrial (LA) echocardiographic parameters are increasingly used to predict clinically relevant cardiovascular events. The study aims to evaluate the LA expansion index (LAEI) for predicting diastolic heart failure (HF) in patients with severe left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction. Methods This prospective study enrolled 162 patients (65% male) with preserved LV systolic function and severe diastolic dysfunction (132 grade 2 patients, 30 grade 3 patients). All patients had sinus rhythm at enrollment. The LAEI was calculated as (Volmax - Volmin) x 100% / Volmin, where Volmax was defined as maximal LA volume and Volmin was defined as minimal volume. The endpoint was hospitalization for HF withp reserved LV ejection fraction (HFpEF). Results The median follow-up duration was 2.9 years. Fifty-four patients had cardiovascular events, including 41 diastolic and 8 systolic HF hospitalizations. In these 54 patients, 13 in-hospital deaths and 5 sudden out-of-hospital deaths occurred. Multivariate analyses revealed that HFpEF was associated with LAEI.and atrial fibrillation during follow-up. For predicting HFpEF, the LAEI had a hazard ratio of 1.197per 10% decrease. In patients who had HFpEF events, the LAEI significantly (P< 0.0001) decreased from 69±18% to 39±11% during hospitalization. Although the LAEI improved during follow-up (53±13%), it did not return to baseline. Conclusions The LAEI predicts HFpEF in patients with severe diastolic dysfunction; it worsens during HFpEF events and partially recovers during followup.


In wavelength-switched optical networks (WSONs), quality of transmission (QoT) has to be guaranteed during lightpath provisioning. In multibit-rate WSONs, this task is complicated by the coexistence of optical connections operating at different bit-rates and modulation formats. The major issue consists in accounting for the severe impairments due to cross-phase modulation (XPM) induced by 10 Gb/s lightpaths on neighbor 40 or 100 Gb/s lightpaths. In this paper, QoT modeling is first reviewed for 10, 40, and 100 Gb/s transmission according to the adopted modulation format and detection type. In addition, a Gaussian approximation to compute the bit error rate of differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) and QPSK signals is proposed, as well as closed formulas to compute the nonlinear phase noise variance due to XPM. Also, discussions about the XPM cumulation over spans in a WSON and how XPM can be considered in a dynamic network are provided. Then, four lightpath provisioning schemes are proposed to effectively account for QoT and, in particular, for XPM. The schemes differently exploit: 1) augmented spectral separation among lightpaths at different bit rates; 2) XPM worst-case scenario; and 3) current and novel generalized multiprotocol label switching extensions. The performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated through simulations in several multibit-rate scenarios. Results show that the proposed schemes provide effective network resource utilization while guaranteeing the adequate QoT to lightpaths at any bit rate.


In tax law, as elsewhere, the federal government has treated native Americans and their tribal governments ineffectively and inconsistently. Examining the treatment of Indian tribal government under the Internal Revenue Code through the early 1990's demonstrates again their unique position in our federal system. The saga of how these tax laws affected tribal governments, however, also illustrates in dramatic microcosm the relationship between ambiguous statutory language, administrative discretion, and legislative oversight.This article begins by reviewing IRS rulings that preceded any legislative action. Part II explores the forces that produced the Tribal Tax Act of 1982 and analyzes the legislative benefits of a vague statutory standard in connection with a key provision of the legislation, that giving the tribes authority to issue tax-exempt bonds for "essential governmental functions." Part II describes the response of the IRS to this statutory provision. It explains the impact of the tribal governments on the regulatory process and the significance of such participation on administrative discretion. Part IV considers the bond offerings undertaken by the tribes, all but one of which were leveraged buy-outs involving off-reservation businesses, as well as congressional action to halt such offerings and the consequences of the legislative changes. The articles concludes by observing that however one evaluates the result in the tribal bond case, this series of events demonstrates the need for active oversight by members of Congress who wish both to prevent lenient regulations under broad statutory delegations and to avoid costly ex post action, such as passing new legislation.


This thesis is about migrants' everyday encounters with Italian immigration law and its bureaucracy. Centred on research conducted in an advice centre for migrants, I explore the ways in which various actors within the immigration nexus (migrants, brokers, advisers and officials) interacted with what I call the documentation regime. The documentation regime was characterised by pervasive uncertainty. Everyday encounters with it created frustration and anxiety for migrants and those who worked on their behalf. The bureaucracy's arbitrary nature, however, also allowed for its manipulation. Rule bending and loop-hole finding characterised the strategies which migrants developed in order to successfully navigate the regime: strategies which were referred to as "Italian-like". Immigration law, therefore, simultaneously produced migrants as both structurally marginalised and as resourceful and tactically astute agents, embedded within a particular social context.
While focusing on migrants' active navigation of the regime highlights their agency and resourcefulness, I do not suggest that these were acts of resistance. Rather, I wish to situate their practices within the wider socio-economic setting in which they took place. Although in some ways migrants became insiders through their bureaucratic encounters, they did not escape the racialised category of low-level worker. The requirement of a work contract for legal status, and the kinds of work available to migrants, continually reproduced their marginalisation in Italian society, even among the most integrated. By exploring the situation of the second generation, who were socially Italian yet subject to the same immigration laws as their parents, I highlight the racialised discrimination which migrants experienced. It is this situation which motivated migrants' desire to move on from Italy, which was considered as only a stepping-stone country: an entry into the rest of Europe and beyond.


Several volatile sulphur compounds have been detected in raw and processed milk. These are hydrogen sulphide, methanethiol, carbonyl sulphide, dimethyl sulphide, carbon disulphide, dimethyl disulphide, dimethyl trisulphide, dimethyl sulphoxide, and dimethyl sulphone. Many of these increase in milk during heat processing and are associated with the cooked flavor of heat-treated milks, particularly UHT and sterilized milk. Several researchers have attempted to explain the origin of these volatiles in both raw and processed milk, and how to reduce the associated cooked flavor that has a negative impact on consumer acceptability of processed milk. These compounds are difficult to detect and analyze due to their high volatility, sensitivity to oxidation and heat, and in some cases, their very low concentrations. However, methods of detection and quantification have improved in recent years. Pre-concentration methods such as solid phase microextraction (SPME) together with gas chromatography equipped with sulphur-selective detectors now enable low concentrations of these compounds to be analyzed. In this review, methods of extraction and analyzis of these volatile sulphur compounds are comared, and their occurrence in milk is reviewed.


Satellite remote sensing has the capacity to aid the three major components of a fishery: research, management, and the fishing industry. An evaluation of the potential of satellite-derived data to the fishery is based upon six case studies which are presented as evidence of the capabilities of satellite-borne sensors. Peripheral applications pertaining to the marine environment and possible applications for the future are reviewed. Three basic categories of remote sensing programs related to the fishery are defined: one to test the applicability of the technology to the field of fisheries; another to employ the technology to fisheries research; and a third to provide remote sensing technology for commercial interests. Problems limiting the usage of remote sensing in fisheries are discussed. The possibilities of initiating a commercial venture to provide sea surface temperature charts to the fishing industry are explored; the foundation for such a venture at the present would be precarious. It was determined that the most successful contributors to remote sensing of fisheries were sea surface temperature and ocean color data. Data on sea surface wind activity is expected to be of great value, although initial studies were terminated with the early failure of the SEASAT-A mission. Temperature sensors and a scatterometer are included in future space programs; an ocean color imager is not. Until a full complement of relevant sensors is in orbit, the full potential of