OBJECTIVE
To compare male and female patients participating in e-STAR (electronic Schizophrenia Treatment Adherence Registry), an international, prospective, observational study assessing use of risperidone long-acting injection in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in both the Czech and Slovak Republics.

METHOD
The demographic, clinical, and treatment-related data were collected at baseline and then prospectively for 24 months. We focused on gender differences in demographic and clinical data (hospitalizations, concomitant medication, and clinical improvement using Clinical Global Impressions-severity of illness [CGI-S], Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF], and Personal and Social Performance [PSP] scales). All psychiatric diagnoses were made according to International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision criteria. Data were collected from September 2006 through September 2009.

RESULTS
A total of 868 patients (488 men and 380 women) were included in the assessment. At baseline, the women were significantly older than the men (42.1 ± 12.8 vs 34.8 ± 11.1 years, respectively; P < .0001). The women were also significantly more frequently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder (P = .0048). There was no difference between men and women in the proportion of patients hospitalized in the retrospective and prospective period (including length of stay). At 24 months, the men were taking fewer antidepressants and benzodiazepines than the women (controlled for baseline values). In men and women, a significant decrease in the CGI-S score (P < .001) and a significant increase in the GAF and PSP scores (P < .001) from baseline were observed. The improvements in CGI-S and PSP scores were similar in both groups (no significant difference between male and female patients). The improvement (increase) in the mean GAF score was significantly higher in women than in men (P = .0317).

CONCLUSIONS
The treatment with risperidone long-acting injection was associated with clinically significant improvement in both male and female patients with schizophrenia with comparable severity of illness. There were no significant differences in most outcome measures. Gender differences, especially concerning treatment response to individual antipsychotics and their different forms, should be more intensively studied.


This paper outlines a methodology for "auto/biographical" life-history writing and argues for its merits based on a particular case study. In the present context "auto/ biographical life writing" refers to life writing that is produced collaboratively by the participants, the researchers and research subjects, who are respectively positioned as writers/editors and narrators. We will propose an account of the dialogical structure that informs this inter-subjective interaction as developed in our collaboration with one Greek-Australian political activist. In our collaboration with George Gotsis on his auto/biography we have been taking what we call an ontological approach, in the sense of addressing the conditions of being in a collaborative researcher–researched relationship. We present the main features of this approach and discuss its merits and connection with our Greek-Australian historiography more broadly.


One of the most important developments in the recent scholarly investigation of (academic) practices of comparing has been the emergence of a profound criticism of comparative methods. Postcolonial scholars have drawn attention to the political and moral dimensions of comparing which frequently hides behind the seemingly neutral nature of comparative research. In the context of this discussion, this article presents a case study that traces the history of academic approaches to Shakespeare's The Tempest and discusses the function of (geographical) comparisons in the underlying conceptual and ideological matrix of different readings of the play by various schools of literary criticism. The article's particular focus is on scholarly interpretations that explicitly and/or implicitly engage with the text's embeddedness in colonial discourse and the corresponding practice of placing Prospero's fictional island in the Caribbean. In this context, I will show that colonial, postcolonial, and so-called 'Old World readings' of the play either locate or refuse to locate the island and its key protagonists literally and/or discursively in the specific geographical and/or historical context of the Americas. By analyzing the historical trajectory of this practice, this entry attempts to illustrate that postcolonial criticism itself looks back on a long history of engaging in ideologically charged practices of comparing. It also discusses potential consequences of these findings for the study of early modern literature.


Federal Law No. 323-FZ of 21.11.2021 "On the Fundamentals of Public Health Protection in the Russian Federation", adopted in 2011 and entered into force in 2012 (323-FZ) is a key federal law regulating the healthcare sector. The authors, through content and retrospective analysis, deductive method, method of generalization of judicial practice, conducted a comprehensive study of the application at the 10–year turn of the basic law in the healthcare system of the Russian Federation – 323- FZ. In the article, the authors analyzed the subject of legal regulation of the 323-FZ, the conceptual apparatus enshrined in 323-FZ, the principles of health protection, considered the ratio of the legal statuses of the patient and the medical worker, touched upon aspects of paid medical services. The problems in the implementation of the 323-FZ are also analyzed, the existing legal uncertainties of its enforcement are discussed. According to the results of the study, the authors conclude that it is necessary to consolidate the most complete guarantees of the realization of rights, both for patients and for medical workers, aimed, inter alia, at reducing the risks of conflicts between the patient and the doctor, regulating economic relations in health care. In this connection, it is necessary to carry out work on the timely completion of this law.


The adherence of Bordetella pertussis to human respiratory cilia is critical to the pathogenesis of whooping cough but the significance of bacterial attachment to macrophages has not been determined. Adherence to cilia and macrophages is mediated by two large, nonfimbrial bacterial proteins, filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA), and pertussis toxin (PT). PT and FHA both recognize carbohydrates on cilia and macrophages; FHA also contains an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence which promotes bacterial association with the macrophage integrin complement receptor 3 (CR3). We determined that virulent B. pertussis enter and survive in mammalian macrophages in vitro and that CR3 is important for this uptake process. We then determined the relative contribution of CR3 versus carbohydrate-dependent interactions to in vivo pulmonary colonization using a rabbit model. B. pertussis colonized the lung as two approximately equal populations, one extracellular population attached to ciliary and macrophage surface glycoconjugates and another population within pulmonary macrophages. Loss of the CR3 interaction, either by mutation of FHA or treatment with antibody to CR3, disrupted accumulation of viable intracellular bacteria but did not prevent lung pathology. In contrast, elimination of carbohydrate-bound bacteria, either by a competitive receptor analogue or an anti-receptor antibody, was sufficient to prevent pulmonary edema. We propose that CR3- dependent localization of B. pertussis within macrophages promotes persistence of bacteria in the lung without pulmonary injury. On the other hand, the presence of extracellular bacteria adherent to cilia and macrophages in carbohydrate-dependent interactions is associated with pulmonary pathology.


Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or impossible to find. They include a vast number of old works in museums, archives and libraries that are not being commercially exploited by rights holders because they are out-of-print, unpublished or anonymous, but nonetheless have cultural or historical significance. However, if the institutions cannot locate the rights holders, they cannot publish or publicly display these works without risking a copyright infringement lawsuit should the rights holders come forward in the future. This Note addresses a new aspect of the orphan works problem: its disproportionate impact on works created by racial and religious minorities, women, Native Americans and other indigenous people, and the poor. Locating rights holders for early-twentieth century works by these groups tends to be especially difficult for a variety of reasons. Minority and poor white musicians were routinely excluded from performing rights organizations until the 1940s and were less likely to register their copyrights. Women and minority visual artists often created their works apart from the established gallery system, and their artworks tend to be less exhibited and well-known. The identifying information for folk art and traditional Native American art is often lost. As a result, many of these important works remain locked away in archives and inaccessible to the public.This Note proposes a solution to the orphan works problem with the goals of promoting broader cultural access and participation in mind. I evaluate four potential approaches, and conclude that the Nordic countries' solution of extended collective licensing would best serve the goal of promoting access to cultural works of disadvantaged groups while fairly compensating rights holders who do come forward.


We study equilibrium outcomes in markets with asymmetric information about asset values among both buyers and sellers. In residential real estate markets hard-to-observe neighborhood characteristics are a key source of information heterogeneity: sellers are usually better informed about neighborhood values than buyers, but there are some sellers and some buyers that are better informed than their peers. We propose a new theoretical framework for analyzing such markets with many heterogeneous assets and differentially informed agents. Consistent with the predictions from this framework, we find that changes in the seller composition towards (i) more informed sellers and (ii) sellers with a larger supply elasticity predict subsequent house-price declines and demographic changes in that neighborhood. This effect is larger for houses whose value depends more on neighborhood characteristics, and smaller for houses bought by more informed buyers. Our findings suggest that home owners have superior information about important neighborhood characteristics, and exploit this information to time local market movements.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
The atherogenic potential of dietary derived lipids, chylomicrons (CM) and their remnants (CMr) is now becoming more widely recognised. To investigate factors effecting levels of CM and CMr and their importance in coronary heart disease risk it is essential to use a specific method of quantification. Two studies were carried out to investigate: (i) effects of increased daily intake of long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC n-3 PUFA), and (ii) effects of increasing meal monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content on the postprandial response of intestinally-derived lipoproteins. The contribution of the intestinally-derived lipoproteins to total lipaemia was assessed by triacylglycerol-rich lipoprotein (TRL) apolipoprotein B-48 (apo B-48) and retinyl ester (RE) concentrations.

METHODS AND RESULTS
In a randomised controlled crossover trial (placebo vs LC n-3 PUFA) a mean daily intake of 1.4 g/day of LC n-3 PUFA failed to reduce fasting and postprandial triacylglycerol (TAG) response in 9 healthy male volunteers. Although the pattern and nature of the apo B-48 response was consistent with the TAG response following the two diets, the postprandial RE response differed on the LC n-3 PUFA diet with a lower early RE response and a delayed and more marked increase in RE in the late postprandial period compared with the control diet, but the differences did not reach levels of statistical significance. In the meal study there was no effect of MUFA/SFA content on the total lipaemic response to the meals nor on the contribution of intestinally derived lipoproteins evaluated as TAG, apo B-48 and RE responses in the TRL fraction. In both studies, the RE and apo B-48 measurements provided broadly similar information with respect to lack of effects of dietary or meal fatty acid composition and the presence of single or multiple peak responses. However the apo B-48 and RE measurements differed with respect to the timing of their peak response times, with a delayed RE peak, relalive to apo B-48, of approximately 2-3 hours for the LC n-3 PUFA diet (p = 0.002) study and 1-1.5 hours for the meal MUFA/SFA study.

CONCLUSIONS
It was concluded that there are limitations of using RE as a specific CM marker, apo B-48 quantitation was found to be a more appropriate method for CM and CMr quantitation. However it was still considered of value to measure RE as it provided additional information regarding the incorporation of other constituents into the CM particle.


It has been known for a long time that visual task, such as reading, counting and searching, greatly influences eye movement patterns. Perhaps the best known demonstration of this is the celebrated study of Yarbus showing that different eye movement trajectories emerge depending on the visual task that the viewers are given. The objective of this paper is to develop an inverse Yarbus process whereby we can infer the visual task by observing the measurements of a viewer's eye movements while executing the visual task. The method we are proposing is to use Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to create a probabilistic framework to infer the viewer's task from eye movements.


This article reviews developments in the technology for ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials by "enzymatic" processes. Several methods of pretreatment of lignocelluloses are discussed, where the crystalline structure of lignocelluloses is opened up, making them more accessible to the cellulase enzymes. The characteristics of these enzymes and important factors in enzymatic hydrolysis of the cellulose and hemicellulose to cellobiose, glucose, and other sugars are discussed. Different strategies are then described for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation, including separate enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF), simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), non-isothermal simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (NSSF), simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF), and consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). Furthermore, the by-products in ethanol from lignocellulosic materials, wastewater treatment, commercial status, and energy production and integration are reviewed.


Individual's perception of self has potential to enhance or impede his or her success at work. In view of this, there is a need to examine the relationship between locus of control and self-esteem as they jointly influence teachers' frustration in Lagos state, Nigeria. The participants were two hundred (200) teachers (100 males and 100 females) randomly selected from private and public secondary schools in Lagos state, South- Western Nigeria. Quantitative data were collected using some psychological scales namely: Index of self-esteem (ISE), Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale (N-SLCS) and Organizational Frustration Scale (OFS). Analysis of data with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-15.0) shows that self-esteem and locus of control jointly predicted ninety nine percent (99%) variance in teachers' frustration. Also a positive significant relationship was found between teachers' frustration, self-esteem and locus of control. The implication of the findings of this study in terms of managing teachers' frustration were discussed and recommendations made that organizations should make efforts to raise their employees' self-esteem and locus of control right from engagement to disengagement stage.


1. Blood pressure, heart rate and plasma catecholamine responses were examined in two groups of elderly subjects distinguished by blood pressure responses to standing. Subjects in the control group showed a fall of less than 15 mmHg in systolic blood pressure on standing; subjects in the orthostatic hypotension group had falls of more than 20 mmHg systolic and 10 mmHg diastolic blood pressure on standing. 2. The heart pressure response on standing showed no significant difference between the two groups. 3. The orthostatic hypotension patients had lower plasma noradrenaline concentrations than the control patients (P less than 0.01) in the supine position, but during 10 min standing there was no significant difference in noradrenaline levels between the groups, and the percentage increase of noradrenaline levels in the orthostatic hypotension group was greater (P less than 0.05) than in the control group. 4. In the supine position, diastolic blood pressure was higher (P less than 0.05) in the orthostatic hypotension group than in the control group. 5. We conclude that impairment of baroreceptor function is not involved in most cases of orthostatic hypotension in the elderly, nor is there reduction of sympathetic nervous activity. We suggest that mechanical changes or adrenoreceptor dysfunction are more likely to be important factors in orthostatic hypotension in the elderly.


: Investigated was the spark plasma sintering (SPS) of β-SiAlON/0–30 wt % BN ceramic composites. The raw materials (β-Si 5 AlON 7 and BN powders) were prepared by infiltration-mediated combustion synthesis (CS). Experimentally established were the following process parameters for SPS of composites with high relative density (>95 %) and flexural strength of 250–300 MPa: (a) heating rate 50 deg/min, (b) maximum temperature 1650–1750°C, (c) and holding time 5 min.


The incredible increasing of the number of vehicles circulating in the Italian cities, occurred in the last fifteen years, is the main reason for still considering the traffic as the most important source of gaseous and particle pollutants in the urban atmosphere. The large volume of on road vehicles balances and deletes the positive effects in terms of exhaust emissions coming from the recent technological improvements regarding the engine combustion efficiency, the fuel quality and the after-treatment device performances. The urban air quality, in fact, is still greatly influenced by the elevated traffic volume, whose negative effects on the air pollution are made worse by the type of driving pattern enforced to the vehicle in a congested traffic situation. The most critical pollutant are represented by particulate matter and organic compounds, generally indicated as organic volatile compounds, which include carcinogenic species. Due to very dangerous effects of such pollutants for human health and environment, it is very important both to characterise the pollution source in terms of quantity and quality of emissions at the exhaust of the several in-use vehicle technologies and to establish the real contribution of road traffic to ambient air pollutant concentrations. This experimental work is aimed to carry out a comprehensive characterisation of volatile organic compounds and fine particles (in terms of mass, number and PAHs content) at the vehicle exhaust and in the ambient air, and to find a correlation between the exhaust pollution source and the air pollution in several traffic urban sites in Napoli. The methodology applied to realize this research plan involved two parallel experimental programmes: one aimed to measure exhaust emissions and the other to evaluate ambient air concentrations. Vehicle exhaust emission factors were evaluated by executing experimental tests on chassis dynamometer on a fleet including 20 in use vehicles, each characterised by a different engine technology and type approval stage. For the air quality monitoring, in situ sampling were realised in several sites of Napoli city: urban and sub-urban sites and road tunnels. Particulate and PAHs analyses were carried out both in vehicle exhaust and in ambient air, whereas BTEXs measurements were realized only in ambient air. One of the most relevant result was that, taking into account the traffic composition in the urban area of Napoli, the PTWs cover a not negligible role in the particulate urban air pollution. The road tunnels present the highest concentrations of BTEX and particulate, followed by the urban traffic sampling sites and the sub-urban ones. Due to many needed assumptions, a weak quantitative correlation was found between the air concentrations and exhaust emission rates produced by the real monitored traffic. More reliable correlations come from a qualitative analysis of pollutants measured in air and at the exhaust. A very good correlation was observed between the PAH ratios and BTEX ratios evaluated in both ambient air and exhaust emissions.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may occur as an idiopathic process or as a component of a variety of diseases, including connective tissue diseases, congenital heart disease, and exposure to appetite suppressants or infectious agents such as HIV. Untreated, it is a potentially devastating disease; however, diagnosis can be difficult due to the non-specific nature of symptoms during the early stages, and the fact that patients often present to a range of different medical specialties. The past decade has seen remarkable improvements in our understanding of the pathology associated with the condition and the development of PAH-specific therapies with the ability to alter the natural history of the disease. This article reviews the evidence for screening and diagnosis of susceptible patient groups and discusses treatment selection and recommendations based on data available from randomized controlled trials. In addition, due to the complexity of the diagnostic evaluation required and the treatment options available, this review mandates for a multidisciplinary approach to the management of PAH. We discuss the roles and organizational structure of a specialized PAH center in Perth, Western Australia to highlight these issues.


The Gelechioidea (>18 000 species), one of the largest superfamilies of Lepidoptera, are a major element of terrestrial ecosystems and include important pests and biological model species. Despite much recent progress, our understanding of the classification, phylogeny and evolution of Gelechioidea remains limited. Building on recent molecular studies of this superfamily and a recently revised family/subfamily classification, we provide an independent estimate of among‐family relationships, with little overlap in gene sample. We analysed up to five nuclear genes, totalling 6633 bp, for each of 77 gelechioids, plus up to 14 additional genes, for a total of 14 826 bp, in 45 of those taxa and all 19 outgroup taxa. Our maximum‐likelihood (ML) analyses, like those of previous authors, strongly support monophyly for most multiply‐sampled families and subfamilies, but very weakly support most relationships above the family level. Our tree looks superficially divergent from that of the most recent molecular study of gelechioids, but when the previous tree is re‐rooted to accord maximally with ours, the two phylogenies agree entirely on the deepest‐level divergences in Gelechioidea, and strongly though incompletely on among‐family relationships within the major groups. This concordance between independent studies is evidence that the groupings (or at least the unrooted branching order) are probably accurate, despite the low bootstrap values. After re‐rooting, both trees divide the families into three monophyletic groups: a 'Gelechiid Assemblage,' consisting of Gelechiidae and Cosmopterigidae; a 'Scythridid Assemblage,' consisting of Stathmopodidae, Scythrididae, Blastobasidae, Elachistidae, Momphidae, Coleophoridae and Batrachedridae; and a 'Depressariid Assemblage,' consisting of Autostichidae, Xyloryctidae, Lecithoceridae, Oecophoridae, Depressariidae and Lypusidae. Within the largest family, Gelechiidae, our results strongly support the pairing of Anomologinae with Gelechiinae, in accordance with a recent study of this family. Relationships among the other subfamilies, however, conflict moderately to strongly between studies, leaving the intrafamily phylogeny unsettled. Within the 'Scythridid Assemblage,' both trees support an 'SSB clade' consisting of Blastobasidae + (Scythrididae + Stathmopodidae), strongly resolved only in our results. Coleophoridae + Batrachedridae is supported, albeit weakly, in both trees, and only Momphidae differ in position between studies. Within the 'Depressariid Assemblage,' both trees support an 'AXLO' clade consisting of Autostichidae, Xyloryctidae, Lecithoceridae and Oecophoridae. The monophyly of this clade and relationships therein are supported weakly in previous results but strongly in ours. The recently re‐defined family Depressariidae is paraphyletic in our tree, but the evidence against depressariid monophyly is very weak. There is moderate support for a core group of Depressariidae consisting, among the seven subfamilies we sampled, of Depressariinae, Aeolanthinae and Hypertrophinae. We show that gelechioids have a higher total number and percentage of species that are saprophagous as larvae than any other apoditrysian superfamily, that saprophagy is concentrated primarily in the 'AXLO clade,' and that the ancestral gelechioid condition was probably feeding on live plants. Among the living‐plant feeders, concealed external feeding was probably the ancestral state. The multiple origins of internal feeding of various kinds, including leaf mining (otherwise almost unknown in Apoditrysia), are restricted mostly to the Scythridid and Gelechiid Assemblages. The traits that predispose or permit lineages to adopt these unusual life histories are worthy of study.


th -30 th 2004 ABSTRACT Existing wave concepts are based on energy conservation (1st law) and on measurable variables like wavelength, amplitude, frequency or velocity which define the energy and the behaviour of waves in space and time. A wave concept related to the 2nd law treats living systems as self-propagating wavefronts. These wavefronts are defined by the degradation of energy per unit time and by constituent sets of lineages of information which are in the most abstract case defined by positions in one spatial dimension, relatedness along the time axis, masses, energy flux shares, mass-specific metabolic rates, and adaptability; if the adaptability of the lineages is constrained, it is necessary to define the conditions in multidimensional niche space which permit lineages to propagate. The dynamics of the wavefront is defined by the likelihood and magnitude of exchanges of energy flux shares between the lineages, the macroevolutionary drift of mass and drift of mass-specific metabolic rate, the ratio of energy flux share to metabolic rate in relation to thresholds for the dissipation and amplification of lineages, and by niche drift which can be replaced by spatial drift if adaptability is unconstrained. This concept allows to create an at its roots simple numerical physics, the difference between animate and conventional inanimate physics being a higher number of relevant dimensions and the replacement of constants by measurable variables. From the physical point of view, this concept, in which the evolutionary drift is the consequence of variable natural selection in combination with constrained adaptability and genetic drift, is not restricted to any particular form of life (i.e. mechanics of information storage or processing). Cellular automata permit to apply this concept to abstract as well as realistic settings so that the causation of patterns, which are drawn from large sets of lineages and based on the variables mentioned, can be studied in one to three spatial dimensions within multidimensional niche spaces under application of arbitrarily defined rules. In application to real systems, the strategy is to determine time- independent virtual equilibria based on measurable axioms, including the assumption of energy flux conservation, and to identify neglected facts (like time dependence, demographic or microevolutionary processes/phenomena) which explain differences between the virtual, purely macroevolutionary computer worlds and reality.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Foot pain in elderly people may interfere with gait balance and cycle and may contribute for functional incapacity in the geriatric population. This study aimed at evaluating the frequency of functional incapacity associated to foot pain in elderly people. METHOD: Participated in this study 100 elderly people aged 60 years, with foot pain intensity of 30 mm by the pain visual analog scale (VAS). Types of feet and their injuries, types of shoes, falls, their circumstances and consequences were evaluated. Manchester Foot Pain Disability Index (MFPDI) and VAS at rest and movement, dynamic gait index and instrumental activity of daily life scale (IADL) were applied. Sperman and multiple regression tests were used for statistical analysis with significance level of 5% (p < 0.05). RESULTS: There has been prevalence of functional incapacity associated to foot pain above 50%. Univariate analysis has shown significant correlations of functional incapacity associated to foot pain and foot pain intensity at movement (p < 0.002), with the level of functional independence for IADL (p < 0.001), and with gait functionality, balance and risk for falls (p < 0.003), with significant association with the latter. The same correlations were significant in the multivariate analysis (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: Functional incapacity associated to foot pain was highly prevalent in the elderly and was significantly correlated to foot pain intensity at movement, to the level of functional independence for IADL and to gait / balance functionality and risk for falls.


Monte Carlo methods apply various physical models, either condensed history (CH) or track structure (TS), to simulate the passage of radiation through matter. Both CH and TS models continue to be applied to radiation dosimetry investigations on a micro and nano scale. However, as there has been no systematic comparison of the use of these models for such applications there can be no quantification of the uncertainty that is being introduced by the choice of physics model. A comparison of CH and TS models available in Geant4, along with a quantification of the differences in calculated quantities on a micro and nano scale, has been undertaken in this study. A sphere of liquid water was simulated, with an incident beam of monoenergetic electrons with kinetic energy between 50 eV and 10 keV. The energy deposition (typical of microdosimetry) and number of ionisations (typical of nanodosimetry), per incident particle, were recorded in a water sphere with diameter varying between 1 nm and 1 m. The simulations were repeated using the following physics packages: Livermore (CH), Penelope (CH) and Geant4-DNA (TS). Results indicated that substantial differences were present between calculated physical quantities, depending on the physics model, target diameter and ratio of the target diameter and mean track length of the incident electron. In the case of the smallest targets, the calculated energy deposition was higher when using the CH models, while the number of ionisations was typically underestimated. In larger targets the energy deposition was in good agreement for all physics models, however the number of ionisations was significantly underestimated by the CH approach, in some cases by almost two orders of magnitude. Regarding CH models, the parameter that had the greatest impact on the results was found to be the threshold of production of secondary particles; when this was minimised the CH and TS results showed the best agreement.


A corporate governance system consists of a set of mechanisms which restrict managerial discretion. The constraints on managerial discretion in the Anglo-Saxon environment, considered as a benchmark, are usually described as being primarily driven by shareholder interests, whereas the French and Japanese systems are traditionally thought of as more stakeholder oriented. However, the increasing share of international ownership has had a significant impact on corporate governance in both countries over the last two decades. The shareholder-driven discourse on corporate governance best practice, which leans heavily on agency theory, has been progressively institutionalized on a global scale (Aguilera & Cuervo-Cazurra, 2004). Institutional investors and professional asset management firms are likely to have been powerful advocates of institutionalizing discourse on corporate governance best practice (Wirtz, 2008a). We conducted a survey in order to study asset management firms' underlying perceptions and motivations in actively influencing corporate governance in France and Japan. Specifically, we set out to know to what extent professional asset managers endorse standard discourse on corporate governance best practice and feel they exert an active influence on corporate governance in France and Japan. In this paper, we present the major results of the survey.


We present a novel system for the real-time detection and recognition of traffic symbols. Candidate regions are detected as Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSER) from which Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) features are derived, and recognition is then performed using Random Forests. The training data comprises a set of synthetically generated images, created by applying randomised distortions to graphical template images taken from an on-line database. This approach eliminates the need for real training images and makes it easy to include all possible signs. Our proposed method can operate under a range of weather conditions at an average speed of 20 fps and is accurate even at high vehicle speeds. Comprehensive comparative results are provided to illustrate the performance of the system.


We explore the problem of classifying images by the object categories they contain in the case of a large number of object categories. To this end we combine three ingredients: (i) shape and appearance representations that support spatial pyramid matching over a region of interest. This generalizes the representation of Lazebnik et al., (2006) from an image to a region of interest (ROI), and from appearance (visual words) alone to appearance and local shape (edge distributions); (ii) automatic selection of the regions of interest in training. This provides a method of inhibiting background clutter and adding invariance to the object instance 's position; and (iii) the use of random forests (and random ferns) as a multi-way classifier. The advantage of such classifiers (over multi-way SVM for example) is the ease of training and testing. Results are reported for classification of the Caltech-101 and Caltech-256 data sets. We compare the performance of the random forest/ferns classifier with a benchmark multi-way SVM classifier. It is shown that selecting the ROI adds about 5% to the performance and, together with the other improvements, the result is about a 10% improvement over the state of the art for Caltech-256.


An avian embryo is ectothermic, with body temperature determined by environmental temperature. Upon hatching, the neonate begins a conversion so that endothermic capacity becomes feasible and body temperature becomes independent of environment. Whole animal metabolic rate and ventilation response, cardiovascular development, and maturation of muscle mitochondrial flux were the focus of this dissertation because of the direct role in shivering thermogenesis. Precocial ducks and altricial Double-crested Cormorants exhibit increasing hematocrit and disproportionate increases in fractional heart mass resulting in greater oxygen delivery capacity and increased capacity of muscles to utilize oxygen compared with ectothermic American Alligator and Common Snapping turtles. By selecting for faster growth and higher meat yield in the domestic chicken, differences in whole-animal, tissue, cellular, and regulatory responses are evident between broiler and layer type birds. In the altricial red-winged blackbird, despite appearance of a whole animal endothermic response sometime after 7 dph, capacity of skeletal muscles involved in shivering thermogenesis peaks prior to that time. Thus, full development of endothermy is delayed in this species, allowing the altricial nestling to allocate energy towards growth rather than metabolic maintenance. Hypothyroidism in neonate red-winged blackbirds results in delayed maturation of the cardiovascular system and mitochondrial oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle. Such deficiencies were quickly recovered once the animals returned to a normothyroid state, apparently at the cost of increasing body mass. Insights into onset of thermoregulation provide a more thorough understanding of metabolic and physical transitions a hatchling bird must undergo to reach the adult endothermic phenotype. Endothermic capacity will continue to be at the forefront of physiological research because of the significance of changes between the energetic relations of an animal that must occur with its environment.


Plan and execute penetration tests on wireless networks with the Kali Linux distribution About This BookLearn the fundamentals of wireless LAN security and penetration testingDiscover and attack wireless networks using specialized Kali Linux toolsA step-by-step, practical guide to wireless penetration testing with hands-on examplesWho This Book Is ForThis book is targeted at information security professionals, penetration testers and network/system administrators who want to get started with wireless penetration testing. No prior experience with Kali Linux and wireless penetration testing is required, but familiarity with Linux and basic networking concepts is recommended.What You Will LearnExplore the penetration testing methodology and its various phasesInstall Kali Linux on your laptop and configure the wireless adapterScan and enumerate wireless LANs and point out their vulnerabilitiesUnderstand the WEP security protocol and the techniques to crack the authentication keys and break itBecome proficient with the WPA/WPA2 protocol and use Kali Linux tools to attack itAttack the access points and take control of the wireless networkLaunch advanced attacks against clientsProduce stunning and effective reportsIn DetailKali Linux is the most popular distribution dedicated to penetration testing that includes a set of free, open source tools.This book introduces you to wireless penetration testing and describes how to conduct its various phases. After showing you how to install Kali Linux on your laptop, you will verify the requirements of the wireless adapter and configure it. Next, the book covers the wireless LAN reconnaissance phase, explains the WEP and WPA/WPA2 security protocols and demonstrates practical attacks against them using the tools provided in Kali Linux, Aircrack-ng in particular. You will then discover the advanced and latest attacks targeting access points and wireless clients and learn how to create a professionally written and effective report.


In a 1948 letter to George Santayana, Lowell writes about Robert Browning, the most prominent writer of the English dramatic monologue: I think Browning had all the right ideas about what the poetry of his time should take in--people and time. But (this is presumptuous) how he muffed it all! The ingenious, terrific metrics, shaking the heart out of what he was saying; the invented language; the short-cuts, the hurry; and (one must say it) the horrible self-indulgence--the attitudes, the cheapness! (Letters 81-82) As he wrote, Lowell was at work on the dramatic monologues that would form his third book, Mills of the Kavanaughs (1951). His comments on Browning are noticeable for the similarity of his complaints to the charges critics would level against Kavanaughs--that Lowell's idiosyncrasies were getting the better of him, that his promising career was stalled by his baroque sense of form and allusion. More significantly, the letter suggests his belief that "people and time" or, put differently, psychological depth and historical scope, were the proper goals of poetry and the particular province of the dramatic monologue. Renewed attention to the dramatic monologues in Kavanaughs and Lowell's next book, Life Studies (1959), reveals how writing in this form helped Lowell develop the personal voice that made the latter volume a poetic landmark. Though relatively obscure among Lowell's books, Kavanaughs is important for its experiments with the dramatic first person, leading to the more autobiographical first person poems of Life Studies. The personae Lowell creates for Kavanaughs are, like Lowell himself, deeply implicated in the history of their surroundings, and they provide a bridge from the epic sweep of the early books to the more intimate view of Life Studies. In addition to the little-discussed dramatic monologue in the voice of Hart Crane, Life Studies contains poems like "Man and Wife" and "To Speak of the Woe That Is in Marriage" that combine dramatic voice with Lowell's new, more personal approach. Kavanaughs, then, fills in a critical step in Lowell's development of a character and setting that allowed him to treat public history from the perspective of private experience. This reading of Kavanaughs and its place in Lowell's development relies on a definition of the dramatic monologue and an account of its conventions, which Lowell liberally alters. Critics have paid much attention to how the forms of confession--both in the religious and the psychoanalytical sense--shape Lowell's poems. (1) Elisa New, for example, argues that Lowell's typical gestures, "the solicitation of a hearing ear, the discovery of a conveyancing image or voice," involve the solitary speaker looking to an interlocutor for "absolution" (16). (2) The speaker's calling out to an auditor is key to the dramatic monologue as well, and the monologue form presents possibilities for Lowell's exploration of how the self interacts with the public world. In its most exemplary form, the dramatic monologue indicates both a speaker and an auditor. It responds to a dramatic occasion, encompasses some action, and reveals the qualities of the speaker as a character. Often the speaker is differentiated from the writer by name or by other details in the poem. Glynnis Byron's history of the dramatic monologue shows that when the form was developing in the Victorian era, critics saw its emergence as closely tied to new psychological methods for understanding the mind (4). For modernist poets, this tendency toward exploration of a singular mind made the dramatic monologue a form in which to examine fragmented consciousness. In doing so, modernists de-emphasized the relation between speaker and auditor to focus more on the individual's faceted personality. (3) Lowell extends fragmentation in his monologues, further breaking down the distinctions between author, speaker, and auditor. The speakers in Lowell's dramatic poems, though differentiated from the author by their names and biographical details, often bear marks of Lowell's experience. …


This book explores the role of Venereal Disease in shaping perceptions of sexuality in twentieth-century Scotland, and in defining the response of the Modern State to patterns of sexual behaviour. It examines how civic, medical and political authorities reacted to the 'Hideous Scourge' in times of peace and war and how far policy was informed by anxieties surrounding social change and public morality as much as by the incidence of disease and developments in medical knowledge. It focuses in particular on the moral assumptions underpinning epidemiological debate, and the various dimensions of stigmatisation and control within VD discourse, including gender, generation and class. This study also highlights the protracted campaign in Scotland for legal controls over those suffering from VD, and the enduring problem, resurrected by the threat of HIV and AIDS, of balancing the demands of public health against those of civil liberties in the regulation of 'dangerous sexualities'.


Biostratigraphy of the Famennian from the borehole Chojnice4 (Western Pomerania) The stratigraphic position of Upper Devonian sediments from column Chojnice 4 has been more closely determined on the basis of conodont and brachiopod fauna, referred to the conodont Palmatolepsis marginifera and Scaphignatus velifer Zones. In the ammonite division they correspond to the uppermost part of the Cheiloceras and Platyclymenia (do IIβ – do IIIβ) Zones. Łobanowski (1968) tentatively assigned them to the Upper Devonian (? Frasnian) deposits. The occurrence has been observed of the species Polygnathus semicostatus Branson and Mehl in the Palmatolepis marginifera Zone. One new cocodont form from the genus Polygnathus has been described.


A better understanding of interactions between metal-nanomaterial surfaces and biomolecules such as DNAs is critical for their biomedical applications. Here we investigated double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) adhering to palladium (Pd) nanosheets with two different exposed facets, {100} and {111}, using a combined computational and experimental approach. Different dsDNA binding modes on the two surfaces were observed, with a surprising "upright" conformation on Pd(100) and a "flat" conformation on Pd(111). Molecular dynamics simulations showed a stronger binding of the dsDNA on Pd(111) than Pd(100), which resulted in significant conformational changes and hydrogen bond breakage in the dsDNA on Pd(111). Further analyses revealed that the different binding strengths were caused by the number and arrangement of water molecules in the first solvation shell (FSS) of the two Pd surfaces. The water hydrogen bond network in the FSS of Pd(100) is compact and resists the embedding of dsDNA, while it is less compact on Pd(111), which allows penetration of dsDNA and its direct contact with Pd(111) surface atoms, thereby exhibiting stronger binding. Further free energy calculations with umbrella sampling supported these observations. Finally, these computational predictions on the adsorption capacity of dsDNA on Pd surfaces were confirmed by gel electrophoresis experiments.


Background and Objectives Tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant that has a novel pharmacological property: it increases the reuptake of 5-hydroxytryptamine. Recent studies have reported that the prevalence of depression is greater in patients with tinnitus than in control subjects who do not have tinnitus. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of tianeptine for the relief of tinnitus, especially in patients with depressive mood. Subjects and Methods Among a total of 52 tinnitus patients, 15 had depressive mood. The depressed tinnitus patients were prescribed Stablon® 12.5 mg once daily for 1 month without any other drug. We assessed the severity of tinnitus, level of depression, and the quality of sleep in these patients by using the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Hearing impairment and severity of tinnitus were measured with pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, and tinnitograms. These evaluations were conducted before and after medication treatment. Results For the 15 depressed tinnitus patients, THI scores significantly correlated with BDI and PSQI scores prior to medication treatment. These results showed that the discomfort of tinnitus was closely related to depression and sleep disorder. After medication treatment, THI and BDI scores significantly decreased, indicating that tinnitus and depression improved. However, no significant alteration in PSQI score was observed, indicating that there was no improvement in sleep quality. Conclusions In the treatment of depressed tinnitus patients, tianeptine might be an efficient drug to treat both tinnitus and depression. However, tianeptine is unlikely to improve the quality of sleep in these patients.


The conversion of CO2 into chemicals of commercial interest is a rapidly expanding area of research. Here, we present a highly active and stable CO2 methanation catalyst that is derived from a Ru-impregnated zirconium-based metal–organic framework (MOF) material. The Ru-doped MOF is transformed, under reaction conditions, into an active catalyst which yields CO2 conversions of 96% and a CH4 selectivity of 99%. We demonstrate that the final catalyst was composed of a mixture of Ru-nanoparticles supported on monoclinic and tetragonal ZrO2 nanoparticles. Notably, such catalytic activity has only been achieved using the MOF templating strategy. Catalysts of the same composition were synthesized via different methods but were less active for CO2 methanation.


Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of Fine needle aspiration cytology in detection of thyroid swellings in our ENT unit and to assess the correlation between preoperative cytodiagnosis and postoperative histopathological diagnosis.Study design: Cross sectional studyPlace & Duration of study: Department of ENTHead & Neck Surgery, Charak hospital, Pokhara, Nepal, from January 2010 to December 2010.Method: Fifty patients with enlarged thyroid gland, of both sexes were selected. All patients had preoperative fine needle aspiration (FNAC), performed by pathologist at histopathology department and postoperative specimens were also examined after which histopathological diagnosis were made. All FNAC reports were correlated with histopathology diagnosis.Results:Out of 50 patients 46 were female and 4 male. FNAC was accurate in 94% patients. Over all sensitivity was 91.66% and specificity of 97.29%.Conclusions:FNAC is reliable, safe and accurate method as a first line of evaluation in thyroid gland nodulesbefore surgery. FNAC is more specific than sensitive in detecting thyroid gland malignancy andtherefore histopathological analysis still remains essential for the final diagnosis.


: Thin film of CdSe has been deposited onto clean glass substrate by using Chemical Bath Deposition technique. For the as-deposited films, the XRD analysis revealed a uniform cubic phase of CdSe nanocrystalline thin film with preferred orientation along the (111) plane. Absorption spectra of this film have been recorded using spectrophotometer. The thickness of the film has been determined by gravimetric method. The energy band gap has been calculated using Tauc method. It is found that energy band gap of CdSe film is 2.35 eV.


This article describes a pedagogic work, carried out within a School of Architecture, using a web-based learning environment to support collaborative understanding of texts on architectural theory. Five architectural manifestoes of the European avant-garde were selected to be analyzed. First, each student interpreted one text, explaining the content with a multimedia presentation and summarizing the main ideas with three concepts. The individual work was followed by the collaborative work, which consisted of the construction of a critical vocabulary and a concept map. The collaborative work was carried out using a web-based system specifically created for the course. As students submitted their concept definitions to the system, they collaboratively created a critical vocabulary, summarizing the main ideas of the five texts. Then, students established relationships between pairs of concepts, which were visualized with a concept map. Subsequent exploration of the semantic spaces embodied in the map became a so urce of knowledge for both students and teachers. In this context, the concept map became an abstract machine, an artificial construct that allowed learners to produce meaning by interaction with it. INTERTWINING PEDAGOGY AND TECHNOLOGY This pedagogic experience took place during the academic year 2000/2001, within the course Sistemas de Representacion SDR, in the third year class of the Escola Tecnica i Superior d'Arquitectura La Salle, in Barcelona, Spain. The course SDR is part of an innovative pedagogic project whose aim is to integrate--in pedagogically meaningful manner--information and communication technologies into the education of Architecture. The concept of Representation constitutes the subject matter of this course, which is structured in six themes: (a) text, (b) shape, (c) object, (d) image, (e) space, and (f) light (Figure 1). The theoretical content is made up of relationships between 'theory bits' taken from different disciplines: fundamentally architecture, but also art, graphic design, communication, aesthetics, psychology, philosophy, and computing. The theoretical base of the course, therefore, conforms to the nature of the Web, where relationships between items become more important than the items themselves. Also in accordance with the spirit of the Web, exercises are carried out in an individual and collaborative manner, using the web-based environment SDR:NETWORKING (http://www.salleurl.edu/sdr), which has been specifically created for the course. The environment is divided into six modules, suited to the requirements of each one of the six themes. Thus, with SDR:NETWORKING [TEXT], students can analyze texts collaboratively by means of a concept map. With SDR:NETWORKING [OBJECT], they can carry out a process of form generation, collaboratively developing a three-dimensional object in successive stages. Also with SDR:NETWORKING [SPACE], they can establish associations among spatial units, which then give rise to cyber-narratives (http://www.salleurI.edu/sdr/info). SDR:TEXT The theoretical construct of the theme TEXT, is built up from different subject matters: linguistics (syntax and semantics, semantic triangle), cognition (semantic networks, concept maps), graphic design (posters, advertisement, media), interactive media (interface design, interactivity) and architectural theory (aesthetic principles of the Modem Art and Architecture). The exercise consists of the analysis and interpretation of five texts from the European artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century: (a) Henry van de Velde, Credo, 1907; (b) Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut and Adolf Behue, New Ideas on Architecture, 1919; (c) Theo van Doesburg and Cornelius van Eesteren, Towards Collective Building. Commentary on Manifesto V, 1923; (d) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Industrialized Building, 1924; and (e) Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Five Points Towards a New Architecture, 1926. …


Okay, all you VB6 developers--time's up. As of March 2005, Microsoft no longer supports this version of Visual Basic. And you can't blame them. Three years ago, they introduced the .NET Framework--an elegant, powerful platform--along with the new component-based VB.NET language. But roughly five million of you decided to stick with VB6, mostly to maintain legacy Windows and COM projects. Now, with the upcoming release of VB 2005, Microsoft has several attractive reasons to upgrade that you'll find hard to resist, including the return of some VB6 features. And we have the perfect book to help you make the conversion: Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart. Now, you can test-drive the beta version of VB 2005 with three hands-on projects that enable you to learn the syntax of this new language quickly.VB 2005 not only lets you convert the bulk of your existing VB6 code, but offers several familiar features, such as compile-and-run debugging, new MyClasses that simplify use of .NET libraries and frameworks, lots of IDE support for Windows, web and mobile GUI development, and data access controls that closely resemble what you use now. The real plus is that you'll be using these features with the .NET platform, which is more secure, less complex than COM, and offers OneClick deployment.Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart lets you get the feel of this platform for building smart/rich Windows Forms clients, ASP.NET web applications, and web services. Author Wei-Meng Lee, a Microsoft .NET MVP, veteran O'Reilly author and frequent contributor to the O'Reilly Network, has put together three useful test-drive projects, complete with code samples, that let you develop:A personal library Windows applicationA Web-based shopping cart applicationA stock enquiry Web Service Our jumpstart guide is the quick, painless way to migrate from VB6 to VB 2005, and the perfect training manual for moving your organization to the more robust, dynamic and secure world of .NET.


Renal enlargement in polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is caused by the proliferation of mural epithelial cells and transepithelial fluid secretion into the cavities of innumerable cysts. Arginine vasopressin (AVP) stimulates the proliferation of human PKD cells in vitro via cAMP-dependent activation of the B-Raf/MEK (MAPK/ERK kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway. ERK activity is elevated in cells that line the cysts in animals with PKD, and AVP receptor antagonists reduce ERK activity and halt disease progression. For suppression of the effect of AVP physiologically, water intake was increased in PCK rats, a model of PKD, and the effect on renal morphology, cellular mechanism, and function was determined. The addition of 5% glucose in the drinking water increased fluid intake approximately 3.5-fold compared with rats that received tap water. In PCK rats, increased water intake for 10 wk reduced urinary AVP excretion (68.3%), and urine osmolality fell below 290 mOsmol/kg. High water intake was associated with reduced renal expression of AVP V2 receptors (41.0%), B-Raf (15.4%), phosphorylated ERK (38.1%), and proliferating cell nuclear antigen-positive renal cells (61.7%). High water intake reduced the kidney/body weight ratio 28.0% and improved renal function. Taken together, these data demonstrate that water intake that is sufficient to cause persistent water diuresis suppresses B-Raf/MEK/ERK activity and decreases cyst and renal volumes in PCK rats. It is suggested that limiting serum AVP levels by increased water intake may be beneficial to some patients with PKD.


Background: Quality is an important aspect of the conduct of sample surveys, but often the need for timely results, generated within a specified budget, can become the overriding imperative. When sample surveys are considered from a quality perspective two major dimensions need to be considered; measurement and representativeness. In ongoing data collections there is a third dimension; the impact dimension that includes timeliness, sensitivity and responsiveness, flexibility and coherence, comparability, accessibility and usefulness. Aims and objectives: To consider important research issues for ongoing population health surveys in Australia including: (i) the diminishing coverage of landline phone frames because of mobile-only phone users; (ii) having consistent criteria and standards to enable comparisons between collections; and (iii) how system approaches to ongoing collection and management improves timeliness, sensitivity, responsiveness, flexibility, coherence, comparability, accessibility and usefulness of the data and (iv) how well the current total survey error framework captures that. Methods: The research was undertaken mainly using the ongoing NSW Population Health Survey. This included (i) inclusion of mobile phone numbers into the NSWPHS, (ii) applying the AAPOR definitions to the NSWPHS, (iii) application of a data management and reporting system to the NSWPHS, (iv) collection of self-reported and measured height and weight in the NSAOH, comparisons between the NSWPHS and the NATSIHS and an examination of total survey error framework.


Bayesian models provide powerful tools for analyzing complex time series data, but performing inference with large datasets is a challenge. Stochastic variational inference (SVI) provides a new framework for approximating model posteriors with only a small number of passes through the data, enabling such models to be fit at scale. However, its application to time series models has not been studied.

In this paper we develop SVI algorithms for several common Bayesian time series models, namely the hidden Markov model (HMM), hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM), and the non-parametric HDP-HMM and HDP-HSMM. In addition, because HSMM inference can be expensive even in the minibatch setting of SVI, we develop fast approximate updates for HSMMs with durations distributions that are negative binomials or mixtures of negative binomials.


This paper proposes a general method for improving the structure and quality of sequences generated by a recurrent neural network (RNN), while maintaining information originally learned from data, as well as sample diversity. An RNN is first pre-trained on data using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), and the probability distribution over the next token in the sequence learned by this model is treated as a prior policy. Another RNN is then trained using reinforcement learning (RL) to generate higher-quality outputs that account for domain-specific incentives while retaining proximity to the prior policy of the MLE RNN. To formalize this objective, we derive novel off-policy RL methods for RNNs from KL-control. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated on two applications; 1) generating novel musical melodies, and 2) computational molecular generation. For both problems, we show that the proposed method improves the desired properties and structure of the generated sequences, while maintaining information learned from data.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the use of high-resolution manometry (HRM) in awake and sedated dogs and to assess potential effects of a standard sedation protocol.

ANIMALS
22 Beagles.

PROCEDURES
An HRM catheter with 36 pressure sensors was inserted intranasally in each dog. After an adaption period of 5 minutes, each set of measurements included 5 swallows of a liquid and 5 swallows of a solid bolus. Measurements were repeated 30 minutes after IM administration of buprenorphine and acepromazine.

RESULTS
HRM was successfully performed in 14 dogs. Data sets of 8 dogs were adequate for analysis. For the upper esophageal sphincter, median values of baseline pressure, residual pressure, relaxation time to nadir, and relaxation duration were determined for awake and sedated dogs for liquid and solid swallows. For the tubular portion of the esophagus, median values of peristaltic contractile integral, bolus transit time, and contractile front velocity were determined for awake and sedated dogs for liquid and solid swallows. For the lower esophageal sphincter, median values of baseline pressure and residual pressure were determined for awake and sedated dogs for liquid and solid swallows. Significant differences (awake vs sedated) were found for the upper esophageal sphincter residual pressure (liquid swallows), relaxation time to nadir (liquid swallows), bolus transit time (solid swallows), and contractile front velocity (solid swallows).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
HRM was feasible for evaluation of esophageal function in most awake dogs. Although sedation in uncooperative patients may minimally influence results of some variables, an overall assessment of swallowing should be possible.


The study of belief change has been an active area in philosophy and AI. In recent years two special cases of belief change, belief revision and belief update, have been studied in detail. In a companion paper (Friedman & Halpern, 1997), we introduce a new framework to model belief change. This framework combines temporal and epistemic modalities with a notion of plausibility, allowing us to examine the change of beliefs over time. In this paper, we show how belief revision and belief update can be captured in our framework. This allows us to compare the assumptions made by each method, and to better understand the principles underlying them. In particular, it shows that Katsuno and Mendelzon's notion of belief update (Katsuno & Mendelzon, 1991a) depends on several strong assumptions that may limit its applicability in artificial intelligence. Finally, our analysis allow us to identify a notion of minimal change that underlies a broad range of belief change operations including revision and update.


Abstract. The presence of light-absorbing aerosol particles deposited on arctic snow and sea ice influences the surface albedo, causing greater shortwave absorption, warming, and loss of snow and sea ice, lowering the albedo further. The Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) now includes the radiative effects of light-absorbing particles in snow on land and sea ice and in sea ice itself. We investigate the model response to the deposition of black carbon and dust to both snow and sea ice. For these purposes we employ a slab ocean version of CESM1, using the Community Atmosphere Model version 4 (CAM4), run to equilibrium for year 2000 levels of CO2 and fixed aerosol deposition. We construct experiments with and without aerosol deposition, with dust or black carbon deposition alone, and with varying quantities of black carbon and dust to approximate year 1850 and 2000 deposition fluxes. The year 2000 deposition fluxes of both dust and black carbon cause 1–2 °C of surface warming over large areas of the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas in autumn and winter and in patches of Northern land in every season. Atmospheric circulation changes are a key component of the surface-warming pattern. Arctic sea ice thins by on average about 30 cm. Simulations with year 1850 aerosol deposition are not substantially different from those with year 2000 deposition, given constant levels of CO2. The climatic impact of particulate impurities deposited over land exceeds that of particles deposited over sea ice. Even the surface warming over the sea ice and sea ice thinning depends more upon light-absorbing particles deposited over land. For CO2 doubled relative to year 2000 levels, the climate impact of particulate impurities in snow and sea ice is substantially lower than for the year 2000 equilibrium simulation.


With the technology of artificial defects creating, we can tune the band structure and transport properties of many two-dimensional (2D) layered materials. One prototype materials system is the antidoted graphene sheet, where periodical pores are made using focuses ion or electron beams in the nanoscale. We here study the electrical conductivity, thermopower, and active rates of cooling and refrigeration of antidoted graphene samples with different pore-radii and interporous distances. We use a calculation method that takes into consider the sensitivity of transport to charge carrier energy, which can be used to describe the elastic and inelastic scatterings in diffusive, ballistic and quantum hopping regimes. It is found that our results from the new calculational approach are more consistent with the experimental data, compared to some traditional methodologies. It is also interesting to see that the optimized active rates of cooling and refrigeration are very robust against the distribution variations of interporous distance and the pore-radius, which implies easy industrialization and inexpensive manufacturing. The same analysis and investigation can also be extended to many other layered materials, including the transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMD), blue phosphorene, and tellurium.


In this paper, new optimization algorithms for the in-core fuel shuffling sequence of a boiling water reactor (BWR) are proposed to reduce outage time. During the short outage of a BWR, fuel shuffling can be a critical path in the periodic overall plant inspection. Therefore, a reduction in operation time for in-core fuel shuffling is essential to improve the plant capacity factor. For BWR in-core fuel shuffling, the shuffling sequence should be selected carefully since a fuel shuffling operation may affect those following it. Furthermore, several constraints must be satisfied during the in-core fuel shuffling of a BWR; e.g., two fuel assemblies must be inserted diagonally in a cell to fix the position of a control blade in it. Therefore, it is difficult to optimize BWR in-core fuel shuffling. In order to resolve this issue, new optimization methods are proposed, and the performances of some optimization algorithms are compared. Test calculations in actual BWR plants reveal that the workload for in-core fuel shuffling can be reduced by the proposed methods. The results of this paper will contribute to increasing the plant capacity factor by reducing the outage time.


Automated program repair has been a heated topic in software engineering. In recent years, we have witnessed many successful applications such as Genprog, SPR, RSRepair, etc. Given a bug and its test suite, which includes both passed test cases and failed test cases, these tools aim to automatically generate a patch that fixes the bug without developers' efforts. All these tools adopt a "Generate-and-Validate" approach, which assumes a tool-generated patch to be correct as long as it passes all its test cases. However, if test suites are of poor quality that cannot cover all the situations, incorrect tool-generated patches might pass all their test cases and be regarded as correct patches. We call such patches that are incorrect but can pass whose test suites as overfitted patches. In order to investigate the reasons why overfitted patches are generated and to reduce overfitted patches, we perform a deep analysis on the patches composed by developers, and the patches (i.e., the correct and the overfitted patches) that are generated by Genprog and SPR. In this thesis, we propose two orthogonal approaches to filter out overfitted patches: 1) To preserve correct tool-generated patches and filter out only overfitted patches, we propose some patterns, named anti-patterns, that can efficiently distinguish correct patches against overfitted patches. We select nine bugs from the Genprog benchmark data set to evaluate the anti-patterns. By embedding the anti-patterns into SPR and filtering out overfitted patches, on average, developers can review 44.7% less tool-generated patches to reach correct patches. Meanwhile, by filtering out overfitted patches at runtime, the anti-patterns speed up SPR's efficiency by 1.34 times on average. 2) We leverage machine learning techniques with meaningful features to predict the correctness of tool-generated patches. Our results show that the machine learning approach cannot preserve correct patches well. In other words, machine learning techniques would mis-classify correct patches as overfitted patches and filter them out. Thus, we believe the machine learning approach requires significant future work, e.g., more representative features and effective classification algorithms, to be useful in practice. These two orthogonal approaches provide automatic program repair tools with valuable guidance on how to avoid generating overfitted patches.


Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. The effects of human activities on land and water are now large and extensive. These reflect physical changes to the environment. Global change such as urbanization, population growth, socioeconomic change, evolving energy needs, and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on water resources systems. It is argued that achieving water security throughout the world is the key to sustainable development. Studies on holistic view with persistently changing dimensions is in its infancy. This study focuses on narrative review work for giving a comprehensive insight on the concept of water security, its evolution with recent environmental changes (e.g., urbanization, socioeconomic, etc.) and various implications. Finally, it presents different sustainable solutions to achieve water security. Broadly, water security evolves from ensuring reliable access of enough safe water for every person (at an affordable price where market mechanisms are involved) to lead a healthy and productive life, including that of future generations. The constraints on water availability and water quality threaten secured access to water resources for different uses. Despite recent progress in developing new strategies, practices and technologies for water resource management, their dissemination and implementation has been limited. A comprehensive sustainable approach to address water security challenges requires connecting social, economic, and environmental systems at multiple scales. This paper captures the persistently changing dimensions and new paradigms of water security providing a holistic view including a wide range of sustainable solutions to address the water challenges.


This study is set out to understand intercultural communication competence and sensitivity among International students in Malaysia. In the discipline of communication, intercultural communication competence (ICC) has been a subject of study for more than five decades. Over this time, many have identified a number of variables that contribute to intercultural communication (ICC). This paper examines significant relationship between international students' intercultural communication competence and their intercultural sensitivity as per their everyday situations in Malaysia. Anxiety uncertainty management theory is applied to the study to explain the relationship between intercultural communication competence and intercultural sensitivity among international students studying in Malaysia. Gudykunst (2005) described seven factors that envisage a person's uncertainty and anxiety levels while communicating with unfamiliar persons: motivation to interact with strangers, self-concept, reactions to strangers, social categorization of strangers, situational processes, ethical interactions and connections with strangers. These help reduce other people's anxiety as well as their uncertainty. The study employed a quantitative research design using the survey method where a self-administered questionnaire was employed and respondents were recruited using non-random sampling to generate the data. 300 international students from international Islamic university Malaysia (IIUM) who have studies in Malaysia for over a year participated in the study. Findings show, that there is a significant relationship between students with intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence. The study recommends, that further research should be done to examine whether a single mediating factor such as change in anxiety and uncertainty can affect the level of intercultural sensitivity and intercultural communication competence. The theory is also supported in the study.


Abstract Anthropogenic radionuclide signatures associated with nuclear testing are increasingly utilized in environmental science to explore recent sedimentation. In this study, we assess the suitability of Pu radioisotope analysis in floodplain lake environments in the Amazon Basin to form geochronologies during the 20th century. The 240Pu + 239Pu (240+239Pu) signatures in six sediment cores indicate sediment accumulation rates in the floodplain lakes of the major rivers; Amazon (2.3 mm year-1), Tapajos (10.2 and 2.4 mm year-1) and Madeira (3.4, 4.2 and 6.2 mm year-1). The results from this study show that 240+239Pu fallout activities, and the well documented (240Pu/239Pu) atomic ratios of the above ground nuclear tests which began in the 1950's, are sufficient and well preserved in Amazon floodplain lake sediments to infer chronologies. Lead-210 dating analyses in the same sediment cores produced comparable sediment accumulation rates at three of the six sites. The differences between dating methods may be attributed to the different time scale these dating methods represent and/or in the solubility between Pb and Pu along the sediment column. The geochronologies derived from the 240+239Pu and 210Pb dating methods outlined in this work are of interest to identify the effects of changing sediment accumulation rates during the previous century as a result of development, including deforestation, along the Amazon Basin which increased towards the middle of the 20th century. This study shows that Pu dating provides a viable alternative geochronology tool for recent sediment accumulation (previous ~60 years) along the Amazon Basin.


We present six simulations of galactic stellar haloes formed by the tidal disruption of accreted dwarf galaxies in a fully cosmological setting. Our model is based on the Aquarius project, a suite of high-resolution N-body simulations of individual dark matter haloes. We tag subsets of particles in these simulations with stellar populations predicted by the galform semi-analytic model. Our method self-consistently tracks the dynamical evolution and disruption of satellites from high redshift. The luminosity function (LF) and structural properties of surviving satellites, which agree well with observations, suggest that this technique is appropriate. We find that accreted stellar haloes are assembled between 1 < z < 7 from less than five significant progenitors. These progenitors are old, metal-rich satellites with stellar masses similar to the brightest Milky Way dwarf spheroidals (10^(7)–10^(8) M_⊙). In contrast to previous stellar halo simulations, we find that several of these major contributors survive as self-bound systems to the present day. Both the number of these significant progenitors and their infall times are inherently stochastic. This results in great diversity among our stellar haloes, which amplifies small differences between the formation histories of their dark halo hosts. The masses (~10^(8)–10^(9) M_⊙) and density/surface-brightness profiles of the stellar haloes (from 10 to 100 kpc) are consistent with expectations from the Milky Way and M31. Each halo has a complex structure, consisting of well-mixed components, tidal streams, shells and other subcomponents. This structure is not adequately described by smooth models. The central regions (<10 kpc) of our haloes are highly prolate (c/a ~ 0.3), although we find one example of a massive accreted thick disc. Metallicity gradients in our haloes are typically significant only where the halo is built from a small number of satellites. We contrast the ages and metallicities of halo stars with surviving satellites, finding broad agreement with recent observations.


In this article, Professor Darren Hutchinson contributes to the debate over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause by arguing that the Supreme Court has inverted its purpose and effect. Professor Hutchinson contends that the Court, in its judicial capacity, provides protection and judicial solicitude for privileged and powerful groups in our country, while at the same time requires traditionally subordinated and oppressed groups to utilize the political process to seek redress for acts of oppression. According to Professor Hutchinson, this process allows social structures of oppression and subordination to remain intact. First, Professor Hutchinson examines the various meanings ascribed to equality, the difficulty in finding one meaning of equality under the Fourteenth Amendment, and how the Supreme Court has recognized that it should have a role in protecting subjugated groups. Second, the article presents Professor Hutchinson's inversion thesis, which argues that the Court has stopped acting as the protector of historically disadvantaged groups and now provides historically privileged classes judicial solicitude. Finally, this article recommends that, as an alternative, the Court should utilize an antisubordination theory of equality whereby the Court bases constitutional decisions on their demonstrable effect on politically vulnerable and historically oppressed classes.


Over 200,000 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occur every year amounting to billions of dollars being spent on the ACL annually. While the quadriceps muscle produces an anterior shear force on the tibia that causes the ACL to strain, the hamstrings muscle can protect the ACL by producing a posterior shear force to the tibia reducing the strain. When the hamstrings contract simultaneously with the quadriceps, ACL strains are considerably less compared to isolated quadriceps forces, thus the balance of hamstring and quadriceps muscle forces play a critical role in determining the forces on the ACL. During dynamic landing tasks, quadriceps demands increase as the landing height increases, which may cause the ACL to be more susceptible to injury. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of the quadriceps and hamstring muscle forces on ACL forces during single-leg landing from three different heights. We hypothesized that the ratio between hamstrings and quadriceps muscle forces would be negatively correlated to peak ACL forces during landing from three different heights. We anticipated that the hamstring to quadriceps ratio would decrease as landing height increased primarily due to the increased quadriceps demands.  Three males with an average height of 1.75±0.07m with an average mass of 74.08±8.66kg and three females with an average height of 1.70±0.04m and an average mass of 55.93±6.83kg landed on their right leg from three different heights, 15cm, 30cm, and 45cm. Musculoskeletal modeling was used to estimate muscle forces. Regression analyses predicted the ACL forces from all three heights, and the heights pooled together.   The results showed that the quadriceps muscles forces were strongly positively correlated to the peak ACL force while the hamstrings muscle forces were not significantly correlated to peak ACL force. Linear analysis showed the hamstring to quadriceps ratio to be moderately negatively correlated with peak ACL force (r[superscript]2 = 0.278), but nonlinear curve analysis showed a stronger relationship between these variables (r[superscript]2 = 0.425). However, as the landing height increased, these linear and nonlinear relationships both decreased. This signifies that another factor was contributing to the peak ACL force especially at higher heights. The combined influence of ground reaction forces and the hamstring to quadriceps ratio revealed that as landing height increased the ground forces became more of a factor in predicting peak ACL forces compared to the hamstring to quadriceps ratio being the dominant predictor at the lowest heights.   In conclusion, the data support our hypothesis the hamstring to quadriceps ratio was inversely related to the peak ACL force although the strength of this relationship was height dependent. Further, as landing height increases, the ground reaction forces become the stronger predictor of peak ACL forces compared to the hamstring to quadriceps force ratio.


Abstract Measurements have been made of 3He, 4He, and 3H in a sample containing 2.7% of the gas from the interior of an Arata-style hollow palladium electrode charged with ~5 g Pd-black that had undergone electrolysis in D2O as a cathode for 90 days and then as an anode for a further 83 days. There is no evidence for the much larger amounts of 4He observed by Arata and Zhang in similar experiments. However, a very large concentration has been found of 3He, 2.3 ± 0.5 × 1012 atoms/cm3 standard temperature and pressure that apparently can all be attributed to the decay of tritium produced during electrolysis. No direct production of 3He can be specified, a result that is also different from the conclusions of Arata and Zhang. The 3He and tritium measurements and the results of a gas analysis using a Finnigan-type mass spectrometer show that at the end of the anodic electrolysis, the electrode void contained 5.8 ± 0.7 × 1013 atoms tritium in the gas phase as HT, DT, and T2, and 1.7 ± 0.3 × 1015 atoms tritium in the aqueous phase as HTO, DTO, and T2O. At this stage, the gas phase pressure was ~18.8 atm in a free volume of 0.6 cm3, and the total mass of water was ~5.7 mg. The gas phase tritium value is viewed as a lower limit for gaseous tritium produced inside the electrode because some of that tritium must have been removed into the D2O electrolyte during the anodic episode. The 3He and 4He measurements were also made in the two samples of the Pd-black and in sections cut from the walls of both Pd electrodes. The H2O electrolyzed samples did not show any evidence of unusually high 3He and/or 4He, but all the D2O electrolyzed samples showed clear evidence of 3He from tritium decay. A stepwise temperature heating experiment performed with a 24.9-mg sample of the D2O Pd-black showed that the diffusion process for 3He can be described by an equation of the form D = D0 exp(-U/kT) with an activation energy U of 1.1 eV. It is also apparent that the 3He from tritium is quantitatively retained in the Pd-black at room temperature.


The late Cenozoic volcanic activity in Kyushu is characterized by large-scale volcano-tectonic depressions. The sites of these depressions together with associated volcanism and gold mineralization migrated southeastward in northern Kyushu and eastward in southern Kyushu. Thus, Quaternary gold deposits in Kyushu occur within 30 km west from the present volcanic front; the Pliocene gold deposits occur farther away from the active volcanoes.

Typical Quaternary gold mineralization in Kyushu is the quartz vein type with associated adularia and minor calcite. Although host rocks are predominantly andesitic volcanic rocks and sometimes rhyolite and lacustrine sediments, the major portion of high-grade quartz veins of the Hishikari deposit discussed here is hosted in basement sedimentary rocks close to the unconformity between the basement and overlying Quaternary andesites. Five distinct alteration types are recognizable on the basis of mineral assemblages for Quaternary gold deposits. Two are the deeper propylitic alteration and the shallower smectite-zeolite alteration of the widespread and temperature-controlled type; the rest are mica-chlorite alteration, argillic alteration, and silicification of the fracture-controlled type.

Most Quaternary and some Pliocene gold deposits in Kyushu are located near small Bouguer anomaly highs in areas of regional gravity anomaly lows. In the case of the youngest deposits the gravity anomaly highs are overlapped by low electrical resistivities. The small gravity anomaly highs have been ascribed to underlying uplifted blocks of basement. The low resistivity anomalies are caused by the presence of argillic alteration of the shallow portion of the mineralized systems.

The importance of circum-Pacific volcanic belts as a source of rich gold deposits has been highlighted by recent discoveries of deposits such as McLaughlin, California; El Indio, Chile; Lihir, Papua New Guinea; and Hishikari, Japan. In particular, epithermal gold deposits related to Quaternary volcanoes have become the focus of exploration in island-arc systems of the western Pacific rim, in which Kyushu lies. Kyushu is the principal gold-producing area in Japan. There are several important gold deposits which are related to waning or extinct geothermal systems of Quaternary age. The erosion level in the Quaternary volcanic areas is shallow so that some of the surface expressions are different from those of older deposits. The purpose of this paper is to outline the characteristics of gold mineralization of Quaternary volcanic areas in Kyushu on the basis of detailed geologic and geophysical investigations undertaken over the last ten years. Major epithermal gold deposits in Kyushu occur in late Cenozoic volcanic areas which were formed by the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate beneath the Eurasian plate.


Background Accelerated atherosclerosis, increased cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In single SNP studies, CD40, HLADRB1, MTHFR, SMAD3 and possibly other alleles have been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or vascular pathophysiology in RA. Endothelial dysfunction, carotid atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness that may predict the development of CVD are assessed by bracial artery flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD), common carotid intima-media thickness (ccIMT) and arterial pulse-wave velocity (PWV), respectively. Objectives In this study, we wished to determine expression profiles of multiple genes that may differentiate between physiological and pathological vascular function in RA. Methods Altogether 16 RA patients were recruited. FMD, ccIMT and PWV were assessed in all patients using standard B-mode ultrasound techniques. FMD <6%, ccIMT >0.6mm and PWV >9 m/sec were considered abnormal. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples were obtained and used in microarray. The signature of those genes were determined by principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchic clustering (GeneSpring software), which significantly differentiated patient subsets with normal vs abnormal FMD, ccIMT and PWV. Results Among RA patients, 11 had low (impaired) and 5 had normal FMD, 11 had high (increased) and 5 had normal ccIMT and 9 had high (increased) and 7 had normal PWV. Altogether 20 genes differentiated patients with low vs normal FMD. Altogether 33 genes separated high vs normal PWV. Finally, 240 genes differentiated increased vs normal ccIMT. Conclusions Using microarray, genetic signatures may differentiate RA patients with and without vascular pathology. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Maintenance of protein quality control and turnover is essential for cellular homeostasis. In plant organelles this biological process is predominantly performed by ATP-dependent proteases. Here, a genetic screen was performed that led to the identification of Arabidopsis thaliana Lon1 protease mutants that exhibit a post-embryonic growth retardation phenotype. Translational fusion to yellow fluorescent protein revealed AtLon1 subcellular localization in plant mitochondria, and the AtLon1 gene could complement the respiratory-deficient phenotype of the yeast PIM1 gene homolog. AtLon1 is highly expressed in rapidly growing plant organs of embryonic origin, including cotyledons and primary roots, and in inflorescences, which have increased mitochondria numbers per cell to fulfill their high energy requirements. In lon1 mutants, the expression of both mitochondrial and nuclear genes encoding respiratory proteins was normal. However, mitochondria isolated from lon1 mutants had a lower capacity for respiration of succinate and cytochrome c via complexes II and IV, respectively. Furthermore, the activity of key enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle was significantly reduced. Additionally, mitochondria in lon1 mutants had an aberrant morphology. These results shed light on the developmental mechanisms of selective proteolysis in plant mitochondria and suggest a critical role for AtLon1 protease in organelle biogenesis and seedling establishment.


This article discusses the reading culture in Nigeria. It deals with issues such as colonial legacy, early reading cultures, languages dilemmas, educational problems and how to define a reading culture. Recent changes and the rise of digital possibilities is also discussed and explained. What sets this article apart is that it explores the writings of many different people, that it covers a relatively long period of time and that it incorporates theory with figures and practical examples. Karin Barber and Robert Fraser's texts provide a theoretical framework, but this article mainly focuses on conference papers found in the Reading in Africa Collection at Oxford Brookes University.


The DUX4 transcription factor is normally expressed in the cleavage stage embryo and regulates genes involved in embryonic genome activation. Mis-expression of DUX4 in skeletal muscle, however, is toxic and causes facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). We recently showed DUX4-induced toxicity is due, in part, to the activation of the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) response pathway and the accumulation of intranuclear dsRNA foci. Here, we determined the composition of DUX4-induced dsRNAs. We found that a subset of DUX4-induced dsRNAs originate from inverted Alu repeats embedded within the introns of DUX4-induced transcripts and from DUX4-induced dsRNA-forming intergenic transcripts enriched for endogenous retroviruses, Alu and LINE-1 elements. However, these repeat classes were also represented in dsRNAs from cells not expressing DUX4. In contrast, pericentric human satellite II (HSATII) repeats formed a class of dsRNA specific to the DUX4 expressing cells. Further investigation revealed that DUX4 can initiate the bidirectional transcription of normally heterochromatin-silenced HSATII repeats. DUX4 induced HSATII RNAs co-localized with DUX4-induced nuclear dsRNA foci and with intranuclear aggregation of EIF4A3 and ADAR1. Finally, gapmer-mediated knockdown of HSATII transcripts depleted DUX4-induced intranuclear ribonucleoprotein aggregates and decreased DUX4-induced cell death, suggesting that HSATII formed dsRNAs contribute to DUX4 toxicity.


Organizations create competitive advantage by creating more economic value than their rivals. Increasing business competition and information technology development have both led to huge corporate organizational changes and have raised the importance of intangible assets along the value chain. Value creation and the success of organizations increasingly depends on the leverage of knowledge available internally, as nowadays it has become essential to understand employee portals' business value and to build adequate change management programmes. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Strategy Map (SM) show an organization's objectives, how they are achieved, and the link between the goals of the various sub-units and how these act together to produce the overall results. BSC and SM clarify how intangible assets are aligned with strategy, to create value for the organization. However, the concerns related to change management seem not to have been properly addressed. To conveniently deal with these matters, the authors propose a framework to map the cause-effect relationships that generates business value, as well as provides top management and decision makers with the information needed for a suitable top-down commitment and sponsorship, which is essential to bring about the appropriate change management and benefits' realization. SM and Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) were combined, resulting in a suitable framework to help organizations enhance their knowledge, mitigating the risk of investment failure or misuse, and a timely contribution to capture more value from investments in intangible assets. The developed framework helps organizations address their concerns related to value creation and change management, and it has been applied to this Employee Portal case study. This case study allows us to conclude that, although the promotion of organizational culture and corporate alignment are not usually frequent goals of organizations, and do not motivate investments in the development of employee portals, they are generally recognised as being essential tools for decision-making and value creation.


Subsurface lithological/hydrogeological investigations were conducted in west-central Sudan to define aquifer systems, their quality and extensions. Separated by a low-lying central basement dome, the Bara and Kosti Basin Complexes accommodate thick clastic sedimentary rocks and provide a supply of groundwater. An examination of numerous boreholes from the database of the National Corporation for the Development of Rural Water Resources (NCDRWR) has revealed two aquifer systems: upper and main. The main aquifer system is semi-confined and most often lies under hydraulic pressure created by an overlying aquitard of a clayey nature, whereas the upper system is a water table aquifer. The upper aquifer extends from the north of the study region to the latitude 13°10′ north and is composed predominantly of well-sorted sand dunes in the upper part and partially of the Umm Rawaba Formation in its lower part. The Umm Rawaba Formation, which is Late Tertiary-Pleistocene unconsolidated fluviolacustrine sediments, forms the main aquifer system. The average hydraulic conductivity and thickness were estimated to be 9.89·10−5 m/sec and 70 m and 6.8·10−6 m/sec and 150 m for the upper and main aquifer, respectively. Groundwater generally flows along the axial troughs of the Bara and Kosti Basins from the northwest to the southeast showing progressive increase in salinity owing to an ionic exchange with abundant evaporitc minerals down the gradient.

Based on water quality and availability, west-central Sudan is divided into three zones: western, central and eastern. In the western zone where groundwater is shallow and recharge is adequate, water exploitation is unchallenging. Water exploration in the central and eastern zones should be aided by geophysical methods. High salinity in the eastern zone requires a careful selection of productive zones and the sealing of saline zones.


. We compared responses of adults and larvae of the brooding corals Pocillopora damicornis and Seriatopora hystrix to 12-h exposures to constant temperature treatments (21°C, 28°C, or 30°C) and a treatment in which temperature fluctuated from 28° to 21°C, simulating daily temperature variation generated by tidally driven upwelling in their natural habitat (Nanwan Bay, southern Taiwan). In all treatments, the maximum dark-adapted quantum yield of photosystem II (FV/FM) of the larvae was ∼49% lower than that of adult corals; FV/FM in the larvae also differed among temperature treatments, with the highest values in the fluctuating treatment. These results show that the larvae of at least P. damicornis are more sensitive to temperature than adults, and suggest that larvae are physiologically well suited to fluctuating temperature regimes. To assess whether the timing of larval release affected their performance, larvae of P. damicornis were compared among release days within a single reproductive event. Groups of larvae released on nine consecutive days differed significantly in size, Symbiodinium content, and FV/FM. This demonstration of functional differences among coral larvae that are released on different dates within a single reproductive event creates the potential for advantages to accrue from the coincidence of larval phenotypes with temporally varying conditions. Adult colonies may experience selective advantages by producing broods of functionally variable larvae, in order to match extreme phenotypes to unusual environmental conditions.