Nature and scope of work:
This work presents details of the method and results of an investigation of the role and influence of international reservations systems within the UK hotel industry.

The research comprised three questionnaire surveys of the use of computer reservations systems and distribution services by UK hotels. These are analysed and to
produce an indication of general use of systems and the contribution which these currently make to hotel groups and consortia.

The work also included a study of developments in access methods and changes in buyer behaviour as observed by representatives of computer reservation and distribution system, travel agency, hotel representation and intermediary companies.

The impact of information technology developments on the travel agency industry, distribution systems operators and intermediaries is considered. The work then indicates the potential implications of these developments for the strategic planning and operational management of hotels in light of prevailing attitudes to technology, preferred sales methods and buyer behaviour.

A computer based information and selection facility is developed. This provides a means of identifying the functions required of a distribution system in order to achieve
specific business aims. It identifies the channels which meet the requirements while also providing details of the implications associated with use of each.

Contribution to knowledge:
This research provides the first published account of the current and potential influence of information technology on the way in which the UK hotel sector deals with its market
and on the structure of the industry itself.

The work results from a comprehensive study of the role of a significant emerging technology within an important sector of the tourism, travel and leisure industry. It is seen as being complete in its own right but also forms a starting point for longitudinal research since no previous work of this nature or scale has been undertaken in the area of interest. The guide developed as part of this work also lends itself to extensive future development as both the technology with which it is concerned and the technology upon which it is based continue to mature.

The results of primary research indicate that there is scope for potential change in hotel sector sales and marketing practices as new methods of conducting business are
adopted by hospitality industry service providers, agencies and the buying public. The work also suggests that global distribution systems are not the most suitable channel for
all hotels but that alternatives must be considered in the context of the particular requirements of each hotel business. The use of formal research methods provides those involved in this sector with an objective assessment of the implications of widespread adoption of computer based reservation and distribution systems for individual businesses and for the industry as a whole. This addresses a requirement
which was identified by the author and contributors in the course of the research.

The subject area is complicated by the number of available channels through which businesses may distribute and receive information. This complexity is acknowledged
throughout the work generates a distribution channel evaluation guide based on the research findings. The purpose of this device is to direct readers through the process of
selecting the most appropriate channel to meet their specific business aims. The guide is based on results from the various stages of primary research which indicated the
aspects of distribution system use about which hoteliers were unclear and also provided material about possible strategic uses and the operational implications experienced by users. This information was used to develop a staged method of identifying the type of system which would meet specific requirements and to indicate the implications
associated with the use of a particular type of distribution system.

This decision process is described and is then presented in the form of a hypertext document. The current version provides an elementary guide which can be used to
assist qualitative evaluation in a complex subject area and indicates how this technology can be applied in its most basic form. Planned future work aims to develop the scope
and function of the static reference document to produce a means of access to product provider information and to create a forum through which users can communicate with
each other through e-mail. System suppliers can provide links to their own product information pages which can be accessed by users seeking information and advice.
These developments will result in a guide which is interactive and can be kept up to date by system suppliers. This extension of the guide's role should enable it to provide
material to be used in the decision support process by users wishing to conduct quantitative evaluation or comparison of distribution systems. This stage of development would require the use of a facility such as the World Wide Web (WWVV) to enable users and suppliers to communicate with each other.

The WWW offers ready support for hypertext, the use of which is considered to be important for this application because of its ease of use for inexperienced computer
users, the wide availability of the WWW and the suitability of an on-line system as means of publishing material which is subject to continual change. However, it is
considered likely that a static version of the guide could be made available for users who do wish to avoid the cost and complication of obtaining access to the WWW. Although
the use of hypertext is becoming more common, it is believed that this is the first use of this technology as a means of publishing research in this field.


Environ theory and analysis is an input–output (I/O) network theory of environment based on conservative interchange of energy and matter between system components. Utility analysis is an extension of basic I/O methodology that enables determination of proximate and ultimate interaction types between components by comparing contributions from and to intersecting I/O environs that mediate pairwise interactions. Ordered sign pairs of computed utilities specify and quantify nine interaction types. Our study asks two questions: (1) How do we unscramble complex webs to determine ultimate interaction types between components in ecosystems? (2) Is unweighted digraph structure, as widely investigated in food-web and other network theories, by itself sufficient, or must linkages also be quantified (weighted)? Utility analysis of 'community modules', which are small- order dissipative steady-state networks, indicated three modes of determining interaction types: (1) Structural determination – in certain simple webs, interactions are determined by network topology alone, without regard for numerical flow values; (2) Parametric determination, endogenous – in other webs, interactions are internally determined by flow values within the system. Both network topology and interior flow magnitudes combine to determine interaction types; (3) Parametric determination, exogenous – in a third class of webs, interactions are externally determined by boundary flows into the system from outside. In these webs, a combination of network topology and external inputs determines the interaction types. Characteristics of these three categories of networks are described, and it is shown that interactions in ecosystems, such as competition, predation, and mutualism, are typically not fixed, as often assumed, but vary with network coupling patterns and flow magnitudes, which are always fluid and changing.


Effects of the CB2-selective cannabinoid agonist AM1241 on activity evoked in spinal wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons by transcutaneous electrical stimulation were evaluated in urethane-anesthetized rats. Recordings were obtained in both the absence and the presence of carrageenan inflammation. AM1241, administered intravenously or locally in the paw, suppressed activity evoked by transcutaneous electrical stimulation during the development of inflammation. Decreases in WDR responses resulted from a suppression of C-fiber-mediated activity and windup. Abeta- and Adelta-fiber-mediated responses were not reliably altered. The AM1241-induced suppression of electrically evoked responses was blocked by the CB2 antagonist SR144528 but not by the CB1 antagonist SR141716A. AM1241 (33 microg/kg intraplantar [i.p.l.]), administered to the carrageenan-injected paw, suppressed activity evoked in WDR neurons relative to groups receiving vehicle in the same paw or AM1241 in the opposite (noninflamed) paw. The electrophysiological effects of AM1241 (330 microg/kg intravenous [i.v.]) were greater in rats receiving i.p.l. carrageenan compared with noninflamed rats receiving an i.p.l. injection of vehicle. AM1241 failed to alter the activity of purely nonnociceptive neurons recorded in the lumbar dorsal horn. Additionally, AM1241 (330 microg/kg i.v. and i.p.l.; 33 microg/kg i.p.l.) reduced the diameter of the carrageenan-injected paw. The AM1241-induced decrease in peripheral edema was blocked by the CB2 but not by the CB1 antagonist. These data demonstrate that activation of cannabinoid CB2 receptors is sufficient to suppress neuronal activity at central levels of processing in the spinal dorsal horn. Our findings are consistent with the ability of AM1241 to normalize nociceptive thresholds and produce antinociception in inflammatory pain states.


&NA; This secondary analysis quantified the psychometric properties of the Ohio Modified Arm‐Motor Ability Test (OMAAT) in a sample of neurologically stable chronic stroke survivors (n = 67, 40 men; mean age 59.8 yr, standard deviation = 12.8; 42 White, 23 Black, 2 other; 92.5% right‐sided lesion; 44 ischemic stroke). Findings indicate high OMAAT internal consistency (Cronbach's &agr; = .97, ordinal &agr; = .98, Gugiu's bootstrap reliability = .97), unidimensionality, and strong positive factor loadings for all 20 OMAAT items. Convergent validity between OMAAT and Action Research Arm Test total scores was strong (r = .90, p < .0001). The OMAAT is the first short measure of upper extremity functional limitation available to clinicians and researchers that includes an administration manual and that has been examined using nonparametric psychometrics. A detailed administration manual is provided as a supplement to this article. &NA; The OMAAT is the first short measure of upper extremity functional limitation available to clinicians and researchers that includes an administration manual and has been examined using nonparametric psychometrics.


Although the oxidation of pyrite in geological materials has been linked to various problems in civil engineering works for many years, the risk of further problems has not been eliminated. Pyrite occurs widely as a minor constituent of geo-materials and many construction processes result in the exposure of pyrite-bearing materials to air and water, which then result in oxidation. The paper presents an historical review of construction scenarios in which pyrite has had significant adverse impact. The cases considered include rapid deterioration of rock materials, chemical attack on concrete and metallic structures in the ground, and the expansion of fills and stabilized soils. These cases have been important turning points in understanding deleterious pyrite processes and the development of guidance for their avoidance. By following the guidance presented in the relevant standards and technical documentation, destructive processes due to pyrite should be avoided. However, as many of the problems are influenced by variables, such as site location factors and construction processes, adhering to published guidance may not eliminate the possibility of adverse impacts. It is important that expert technical advice is provided at all stages of projects and that any deviations from the expected performance should be properly evaluated.


This monograph examines complex words -- compounds and those involving derivational and inflectional affixation -- from a syntactic standpoint that encompasses both the structure of words and the system of rules for generating that structure.The author contends that the syntax of words and the more familiar syntax involving relations among words must be defined by two discrete sets of principles in the grammar, but nevertheless that word structure has the same general formal properties as the larger syntactic structure and is generated by the same sort of rule system.This investigation of word structure and rule systems is based for the most part on the word syntax of English and related languages. One of its major conclusions is that English word structure can be "properly characterized solely in terms of a context-free grammar." Selkirk points out that the Semitic languages, for example, must be characterized in terms of a more elaborate schema.The first chapter presents a general theory of word structure, and discusses a context-free grammar for words, X theory in word structure, and word structure rules. The second chapter is concerned with compounding, and probes the structure and "headedness" of compounds, verbal compounds, and the category type of English compounds. The third and final chapter, on affixation, investigates the nature of affixes, inflectional affixation, and English derivational morphology.This book is the seventh in the Linguistic Inquiry Monograph series.


Previous literature finds that consumers tend to undervalue discounted future energy costs in their purchase decisions for energy-using durables. We argue that this finding could result from ignoring consumer heterogeneity in empirical analyses as opposed to true undervaluation. In the context of automobile demand, we show that, if not accounted for, consumer heterogeneity could lead to sorting, which in turn biases toward zero the estimate of marginal willingness to pay for discounted future fuel costs.


Graphene as a zero-bandgap two-dimensional semiconductor with a linear electron band dispersion near the Dirac points has the potential to exhibit very interesting nonlinear optical properties. In particular, third harmonic generation of terahertz radiation should occur due to the nonlinear relationship between the crystal momentum and the current density. In this work, we investigate the terahertz nonlinear response of graphene inside a parallel-plate waveguide. We optimize the plate separation and Fermi energy of the graphene to maximize third harmonic generation, by maximizing the nonlinear interaction while minimizing the loss and phase mismatch. The results obtained show an increase by more than a factor of 100 in the power efficiency relative to a normal-incidence configuration for a 2 terahertz incident field.


When compared to other Americans' health, a worse health status is seen among the American Indian and Alaska Native population. American Indians and Alaska Natives are faced with numerous disparities in healthcare, such as decreased access to healthcare. Additionally, healthcare data about this group are missing. Although health beliefs and traditions can differ among tribes, there are also similarities. Telemedicine is the use of technology (i.e., phone, videoconferencing) to deliver healthcare. This healthcare service may be beneficial for this population's healthcare needs because of telemedicine's possible advantages. Although telemedicine also has disadvantages, a knowledge of and respect for American Indian and Alaska Native cultures can help to overcome the disadvantages.


This review essay evaluates Daniel Carpenter's theory that the Food and Drug Administration's successful history is largely due to its strong reputation. Reputation is an increasingly popular explanation for legal compliance when a tally of the more immediate and tangible costs and benefits would suggest that noncompliance or shirking would be the more rational choice, and evaluating the way Carpenter explores reputation's important to the FDA allows for a broader consideration of its role in regulatory projects more generally. Moreover, by delving into what the agency did once it was given the authority to permit or reject the sale of drugs in the American market, Carpenter offers an account of what happens in agencies after administrative law stops its usual inquiry – or, at least, after it did so in the case of the FDA. The essay explores the implications of that "ordinary governance" for the usual focuses of legal scholarship.


This paper reflects on small and poor developing countries' needs from a multilateral trading system. Having recognised the importance of the WTO in ensuring predictability for producers and consumers and the limited negotiating capacity of small and poor countries, the paper examines three potential areas of constraint on trading by them: market access in goods, costs of trading and opening up of services trade. Several proposals that are currently under negotiations are then examined to suggest areas where these countries should focus their efforts in the WTO.


Transfers represent the type of current public expenditures and dominant elements in public finances. They are extremely important for the public finance system, and greatly affect the level of development of the country and all macroeconomic variables. From the aspect of their purposes and the aims that are to be achieved through transferred funds, transfers with an economic purposes, transfers for social purposes and transfers for payments of interest on public debt are different. The subject of research in this doctoral dissertation is public expenditures in the name of transfers in developed and developing countries, as well as their impact on key macroeconomic variables.
The purpose of the research in this doctoral dissertation is to make a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the dynamics of transfers in public finances and their impact on key macroeconomic variables. Accordingly, in the dissertation, the main hypothesis in the research is that the transfers are a significant and effective fiscal policy instrument that influences economic and social movements in the country.
Design and Methods of the Research - For each type of transfer, the scope and structure, as well as interdependence and effect on GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, inflation rate, volume of public debt, as well as volume of budget deficits, are analyzed in this dissertation. The analysis covers transfers in selected developed countries (USA, Germany and France) and developing countries (Slovenia, Hungary,
Slovakia) over the period 2007-2016. In accordance with the tasks of the research, several scientific methods were used in the preparation of this doctoral dissertation. The methods of comparative analysis were used on the transfer structure in countries of varying degrees of development. The dynamic analysis method was used to determine the form and direction of the long-term tendency (trend) in the movement of certain types of transfers, as well as the intensity of changes in the volume and structure of transfers by the countries on which the research is based. Statistical methods, primarily regression and correlation analysis, were applied in order to determine causal and consequential relationships between researched phenomena.
Research finding - The obtained results of the regression and correlation analysis applied in this dissertation confirm the initial hypothesis that transfers represent a significant and effective fiscal policy instrument that affects economic and social trends in the country. In addition, the hypothesis that the volume and structure of transfers is significantly determined by the level of economic development of the country is confirmed, since the analysis of the participation of transfers by types in the GDP of the analyzed countries resulted in the conclusion that there are differences between the developed and the developing countries as well as the hypothesis that the effects of using transfers in public finances are heterogeneous, since there is a difference between developed and developing countries. Special attention in this doctoral dissertation is devoted to analysis of transfers in public finances of the Republic of Serbia.
Significance of research - The observed tendencies in the scope and structure of transfers of the Republic of Serbia indicate that the transfer system in the Republic of Serbia is inadequate and should be significantly improved. The results of the research in this doctoral dissertation will gain in importance if the fiscal policy creators in the Republic of Serbia use it as a basis for finding the answers and solving
the problems of redesigning the transfer system, in order to increase its efficiency and improve the macroeconomic performance of the country and the standard of living of the population.


For more than ten years there has been an obvious trend of globalization of leading companies, as they have moved from multinational to global operations. Recently there has also been increased demand for combining locally-customized services to the economies of the scale of worldwide operations. One of the management challenges is to cope with this new customer need. In this environment, competitiveness calls for integrating the potential of information technology to well functioning global logistics. Information Technology Enabled Global Customer Service combines theoretical consideration and practical experiences in implementing new customer service models.


While addressing cache coherency in shared memory multiprocessors, traditional snoopy based pure write update (PWU) and pure write invalidate (PWI) protocols have many issues including low bandwidth, high memory latency, and large cache miss ratio. This paper presents a directory based hybrid cache coherence protocol to better address the cache coherency and improve performance of shared memory multiprocessors. The requests to be processed are selected by using the proposed directory scheme and considering priority through non-starving mode to facilitate small sharer groups with a reasonable waiting time. Different read and write requests on 8-, 16-, and 32-core multiprocessors are considered. Experimental results show that the proposed strategy decreases bandwidth requirement about 37% than the PWU strategy. The results also indicate that the proposed strategy decreases memory latency by up to 12% and cache miss ratio by up to 22% when compared with those of the PWI strategy.


A 66-year-old woman with a history of stage IA mixed endometrioid and serous endometrial cancer presented to our centre with 2 weeks of worsening headaches nearly 4 years after her initial surgery. At admission, she manifested bitemporal hemianopsia, difficulty walking and clinical and laboratory findings of panhypopituitarism, including diabetes insipidus. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a 2.7 cm sellar/suprasellar mass compressing the optic chiasm and infiltrating the pituitary stalk. Computerised tomography documented mediastinal, lung, adrenal and liver involvement, including a 2.5 cm palpable left supraclavicular node that on excisional biopsy demonstrated metastatic endometrial adenocarcinoma. Due to the advanced stage of her cancer as well as the presence of multiple metastases, including lung and hepatic metastases causing post-obstructive pneumonia and coagulopathy, the sellar/suprasellar mass was treated with fractionated radiosurgery rather than surgical excision.


We characterized the effect of phytic acid (inositol hexaphosphate, IP6) as a potential adjuvant in treatment of colorectal carcinoma and evaluated the optimal concentration and treatment time to produe the maximal therapeutic effect. There is some evidence that myoinositol (Ins) can potentiate anti-cancer effects of IP6. Therefore, we tested both IP6 and Ins individually and in combination on human cell lines HT-29, SW-480 and SW-620 derived from colorectal carcinoma in different stages of malignancy. The effect of tested chemicals on the cells was measured using metabolic activity assay (WST-1), DNA synthesis assay (BrdU), protein synthesis assay (Brilliant Blue) and apoptosis (caspase-3 activity). We tested IP6 and Ins at three concentrations: 0.2, 1 and 5 mM for 24, 48 and 72 h. The concentrations and incubation periods were chosen according to low toxicity of the tested substance that was observed in a long-term clinical study. We found that all employed concentrations of IP6 or IP6/Ins decreased proliferation of the cell lines, with the maximum decrease being observed in HT-29 cells. Metabolic activity of treated cells differed in response to IP6 and IP6/Ins treatment; in HT-29 and SW-620 significant decrease was observed only at the highest concentration, whereas in SW-480 cells metabolic activity was lower at each concentration except 0.2 and 1 mM IP6 or IP6/Ins in 24-h incubation. The results from protein content assay corresponded to the results obtained from WST assay. In addition, we found maximum increase in caspase-3 activity at concentration 5 mM IP6 or IP6/Ins in HT-29 cells and with IP6 at concentration of 0.2 mM or IP6/Ins in SW-480 cells with clear indication of Ins enhancing the proapoptotic effect of IP6 in all the cell lines studied.


In June 2004, three confirmed cases of typhoid fever were reported to the health authorities in Leipzig, Germany. The patients had been admitted to hospital with unexplained fever and otherwise mild symptoms. All were members of the same pony club, none had been abroad. A retrospective cohort study among pony club members was performed to identify the source of infection. A suspected case was defined as unexplained fever g=38.5°C over three or more days since 1 May 2004. Additional positive serology defined a probable case and Salmonella Typhi isolation from blood or stool cultures a confirmed case. All hospitals, paediatricians and general practitioners in Leipzig and surroundings were contacted to identify additional cases.
In total, six cases were identified, all among pony club members: four confirmed, including the three originally reported cases, one probable and one suspected. The only exposure common to all cases during the probable time of infection was consumption of sandwiches with herb dressing from a snack bar on 25 or 26 May (May 25: RR=5.7; 95% CI 0.9-37.9; both days: RR=, P=0.007). Foods and workers from the snack bar tested negative. However, one worker, not previously registered with the health authorities, was identified during a site visit. It cannot be excluded that further unregistered individuals worked at the snack bar between May and June 2004. Despite intense case-finding activities, no further cases were identified among the population.
The most likely vehicle in this outbreak was sandwiches with herb dressing, though the source of contamination remains unknown. Even without history of travel to endemic countries, physicians should consider typhoid fever when managing patients with unexplained fever.


Covering every aspect of the new digital information environment from iPads and e-books to the future of information and how it will be controlled, this landmark textbook provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge guide to what's happening, why and how information professionals can have a pivotal role in this new landscape. Drawing on international case studies and current trends it explores the fundamental changes in the four core areas of information production, storage, distribution and consumption, grappling with cutting-edge issues such as: •key information trends in the last 15 years such as mass broadband •the rise of grass roots information production in social media, open access publishing and the storage of information in the cloud •how informal, digital methods of information distribution like RSS and webcasting are threatening traditional stakeholders like libraries, publishers and newspapers •the reconfiguration of the relationships between software, hardware and content creation companies •the need for a new information literacy and the pivotal role of the information professional.


Operating systems and programming languages are often informally evaluated on their conduciveness towards composition. We revisit Dan Ingalls' Smalltalk-inspired position that "an operating system is a collection of things that don't fit inside a language; there shouldn't be one", discussing what it means, why it appears not to have materialised, and how we might work towards the same effect in the postmodern reality of today's systems. We argue that the trajectory of the "file" abstraction through Unix and Plan 9 culminates in a Smalltalk-style object, with other filesystem calls as a primitive metasystem. Meanwhile, the key features of Smalltalk have many analogues in the fragmented world of Unix programming (including techniques at the library, file and socket level). Based on the themes of unifying OS- and language-level mechanisms, and increasing the expressiveness of the meta-system, we identify some evolutionary approaches to a postmodern realisation of Ingalls' vision, arguing that an operating system is still necessary after all.


This paper analyzes the operation of multi-level marketing (MLM) distribution channels, with an eye toward analyzing Net Economic Return (NER), and the possibility of Avoidable Economic Losses (AEL), to individuals from joining as MLM distributors. The analysis takes account of possible ex ante and ex post information sets of distributor prospects and the MLM firm. Protecting prospective and incumbent distributors has been an issue of policy importance in the many cases brought by the FTC against firms accused of operating illegal pyramid schemes and/or misleading prospective and current distributors. Accordingly, the current work posits a definition of AEL that is based on both the elements of the NER from participating, and avoidable and unavoidable informational limitations on the parts of the distributor and the firm. The paper's model allows investigation of distributors' joining decisions, work behaviors, income, and MLM profitability under these various scenarios, and informs the question of when and whether an AEL can be argued to have occurred. The paper first examines one of the only other academic analytic modeling articles evaluating the MLM distribution channel and highlights an implicit, but crucial, assumption in this model that creates an unnecessarily aggressive criterion for distinguishing between a legitimate MLM and a suspected illegal pyramid scheme. It then develops a definition of distributor AEL that may be caused by participation as a distributor in an MLM enterprise, specifying that an AEL occurs when the MLM firm or an upline sponsor possesses information of use in evaluating the quality of the business opportunity that would cause prospects not to join the MLM, and purposefully conceals this information when it could have effectively revealed it to prospects, thus leading some to join who would otherwise not join, and resulting in their NER less than the opportunity cost of participating. An emended modeling structure is next presented, which examines MLM business opportunities when the implicit assumption of the prior article is relaxed. The model focuses on non-business-building distributors who are likely to be the most at risk to suffer an AEL. Analysis of several sub-models of the emended model structure provides a characterization of the difference between misapprehension or imperfect information (which need not imply an AEL) and purposeful misrepresentation of the nature of the MLM business opportunity to prospective distributors (which may, but does not always, imply an AEL). Among the results of the model are that it is economically rational for a person to join the MLM as a personal-consumption-only distributor; that distributors with full information do not suffer an AEL by joining an MLM, regardless of their type; that the MLM firm may reasonably target both low and high achieving distributors in a "pooling" strategy, or only high achievers in a "separating" strategy; that a pooling strategy generally grants high-achieving distributors economic rents relative to low-achievers but that an AEL does not universally accompany this difference; and that an AEL can – but may not always – result from purposeful over-stating of the quality of the business opportunity by the MLM firm. The paper concludes with implications for MLM firm information dissemination strategies and for emended criteria for assessment of possible pyramid scheme operation.


Purpose
Knowledge work productivity is a well-studied topic in the existing literature, but it has focussed mainly on two things. First, there are many theoretical models lacking empirical research, and second, there is a very specific research regarding how something impacts productivity. The purpose of this paper is to collect empirical data and test the conceptual model of knowledge work productivity in practice. The paper also provides information on how different drivers of knowledge work productivity have an impact on productivity.

Design/methodology/approach
Through the survey method, data were collected from 998 knowledge workers from Finland. Then, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to confirm the knowledge work productivity dimensions of the conceptual model. Later, regression analysis was used to analyse the impacts of knowledge factors on productivity.

Findings
This paper increases the understanding of what matters for knowledge work productivity, with statistical analysis. The conceptual model of knowledge work productivity consists of two major elements: the knowledge worker and the work environment. The study results showed that the knowledge worker has the biggest impact on productivity through his or her well-being and work practices. The social environment was also found to be a significant driver. The results could not confirm or refute the role of the physical or virtual environment in knowledge work productivity.

Practical implications
The practical value of the study lies in the analysis results. The information generated about the factors impacting productivity can be used to improve knowledge work productivity. In addition, the limited resources available for organisational development will have the greatest return if they are used to increase intangible assets, i.e., management and work practices.

Originality/value
While it is well known that many factors are essential for knowledge work productivity, relatively few studies have examined it from as many dimensions at the same time as this study. This study adds value to the literature by providing information on which factors have the greatest influence on productivity.


The notions of information, representation and enaction entertain historical and complex relations with cognition.
Historical relations because representational structures belong to the central hypothesis of cognitive sciences.
Complex relations because cognitive sciences apply the notion of representation to animals, humans and robots, and also because the enactive approach tends to disregard the GOFAI type of representations.
In this wide horizon of relations, we propose to look at a systemic approach that could bring up a common denominator for information and representations in the build up of cognition, and also keep a link with the enactive approach.
Our purpose is to show that systems submitted to constraints can generate meaningful information to maintain their natures, and consequently build up meaningful representations that have some compatibility with the enactive approach. Such a systemic approach to the notion of meaningful information could then make available a link between enaction and meaningful representations.
The first part of the presentation is about reminding that cognition does not exist per se, but is related to the system that builds it. We look at cognition as constituted by dynamic meaningful representations built up by systems that have constraints to satisfy in their environments. Cognition is considered here at the level of the system that builds it and uses it in order to maintain its nature in its environment. Such a systemic approach fits with evolution. Organisms build representations to cope with survival constraints (frogs build representations of moving black dots in order to satisfy food constraints). Humans build representations and cognition to satisfy constraints that are conscious and unconscious. Artificial systems can use representations and cognition to run activities related to constraints implemented by the designers or coming from the environment (a goal to reach being considered as a constraint to satisfy).
In the second part of the presentation we define what are a meaningful information and a representation for a system submitted to a constraint in its environment, and we link these to the enactive approach. We define a meaningful information (a meaning) as an information generated by a system submitted to a constraint when it receives an external information that has a connection with the constraint. The meaning is precisely that connection. The meaning belongs to the interactions that link the system to its environment. The function of the meaning is to participate to the determination of an action that will be implemented in order to satisfy the constraint. (Menant, 2003). The satisfaction of the constraint goes with maintaining the nature of the system in its environment. A Meaning Generator System (MGS) is defined correspondingly. It is a building block for higher level systems. We present some characteristics of the MGS (groundings of a meaning, domain of efficiency and transfer of meanings, networking of meanings, evolutionary usage). The MGS approach is close to a simplified version of the Peircean triadic theory of signs (Menant, 2003, 2005 ).
We define the representation of an item for a system as being the dynamic set of meaningful information corresponding to the item for the system in its environments (an elementary representation being made of a single meaningful information). These representations link the system to its environment by their meaningful components related to the nature of the system. These representations are different from the GOFAI ones.
The possibilities for linking these notions of meaning and representation with the enactive approach come from the structure of the MGS: the need for an action is the cause of the meaning generation by and for the system. The action on the environment is for the system to maintain its nature (its identity). The MGS links together the generation of meaningful representations, the nature of the system, and the interactions with the environment. This can be considered as close to enacting a world by meaning generation (Di Paolo and all 2007), and to the enactive concept of sense making (De Jaegher, Di Paolo 2007).
We propose that basing the definition of a representation on the notion of meaningful information generated by a system submitted to a constraint can open a way for making the notion of representation compatible with the enactive approach.
In the third part of the presentation, we consider some cases of meaningful information and representations for organisms and for robots. Regarding organisms, the MGS can be used in an evolutionary context by looking at the evolution of the systems and of the constraints. Purpose is to modelize the generation of meanings and of representations in order to make available a tool usable for different levels of evolution, as evolution has a place in cognitive sciences (Proust, 2007). Constraints for basic life are survival constraints (individual and species). Group life constraints are also to be considered. Reaching the level of humans in evolution brings in new constraints that cannot be clearly identified as they have to take into account human consciousness which is today a mystery (the "hard problem"). On an evolutionary standpoint, human constraints come in addition to the ones existing for non human organisms. We can make some hypothesis on the nature of human constraints (Maslow pyramid based constraints, anxiety limitation…). For robots, the MGS is initially based on the design of the robot. The meaning generated within a robot is initially derived from the constraints implemented by the designer and from the environment. But some non calculable or non predictable evolutions of the robot can introduce meanings that look proper to the robot. This last point can be linked to the notion of autonomy in robots. In such examples, the dynamic management of meanings thru the MGSs in their environments keeps the link with the enactive approach.
We finish the presentation by summarising the points addressed and by proposing several continuations.


An audio signal following control of a sound follower six legged robot with the estimation of the sound source location using a microphone array. The traveling time difference of the sound signal depending on the distance provides the three dimensional coordinates of the sound signal. To detect the sound signal, Four microphone array is used to locate the area in the three dimensional space. Our project involves implementing a signal processing system for audio sensing and manipulation for the control of an autonomous vehicle. Our system will have two modes, autonomous and control. In autonomous mode, the robot will detect and follow pulses of a predetermined set of frequencies and the robot will approach the source. In control mode, the robot will execute commands by an administrator on PC transmitted to the robot via an RS-232 serial connection.


ABSTRACT Food-borne pathogens are ongoing problems, and new pathogens are emerging. The impact of fungi, however, is largely underestimated. Recently, commercial yogurts contaminated with Mucor circinelloides were sold, and >200 consumers became ill with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Mucoralean fungi cause the fatal fungal infection mucormycosis, whose incidence has been continuously increasing. In this study, we isolated an M. circinelloides strain from a yogurt container, and multilocus sequence typing identified the strain as Mucor circinelloides f. circinelloides. M. circinelloides f. circinelloides is the most virulent M. circinelloides subspecies and is commonly associated with human infections, whereas M. circinelloides f. lusitanicus and M. circinelloides f. griseocyanus are less common causes of infection. Whole-genome analysis of the yogurt isolate confirmed it as being close to the M. circinelloides f. circinelloides subgroup, with a higher percentage of divergence with the M. circinelloides f. lusitanicus subgroup. In mating assays, the yogurt isolate formed sexual zygospores with the (−) M. circinelloides f. circinelloides tester strain, which is congruent with its sex locus encoding SexP, the (+) mating type sex determinant. The yogurt isolate was virulent in murine and wax moth larva host systems. In a murine gastromucormycosis model, Mucor was recovered from fecal samples of infected mice for up to 10 days, indicating that Mucor can survive transit through the GI tract. In interactions with human immune cells, M. circinelloides f. lusitanicus induced proinflammatory cytokines but M. circinelloides f. circinelloides did not, which may explain the different levels of virulence in mammalian hosts. This study demonstrates that M. circinelloides can spoil food products and cause gastrointestinal illness in consumers and may pose a particular risk to immunocompromised patients. IMPORTANCE The U.S. FDA reported that yogurt products were contaminated with M. circinelloides, a mucoralean fungal pathogen, and >200 consumers complained of symptoms, including vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. The manufacturer voluntarily withdrew the affected yogurt products from the market. Compared to other food-borne pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites, less focus has been placed on the risk of fungal pathogens. This study evaluates the potential risk from the food-borne fungal pathogen M. circinelloides that was isolated from the contaminated commercial yogurt. We successfully cultured an M. circinelloides isolate and found that the isolate belongs to the species M. circinelloides f. circinelloides, which is often associated with human infections. In murine and insect host models, the isolate was virulent. While information disseminated in the popular press would suggest this fungal contaminant poses little or no risk to consumers, our results show instead that it is capable of causing significant infections in animals. The U.S. FDA reported that yogurt products were contaminated with M. circinelloides, a mucoralean fungal pathogen, and >200 consumers complained of symptoms, including vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. The manufacturer voluntarily withdrew the affected yogurt products from the market. Compared to other food-borne pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, and parasites, less focus has been placed on the risk of fungal pathogens. This study evaluates the potential risk from the food-borne fungal pathogen M. circinelloides that was isolated from the contaminated commercial yogurt. We successfully cultured an M. circinelloides isolate and found that the isolate belongs to the species M. circinelloides f. circinelloides, which is often associated with human infections. In murine and insect host models, the isolate was virulent. While information disseminated in the popular press would suggest this fungal contaminant poses little or no risk to consumers, our results show instead that it is capable of causing significant infections in animals.


T-bet is a member of the T-box family of transcription factors that appears to regulate lineage commitment in CD4 T helper (TH) lymphocytes in part by activating the hallmark TH1 cytokine, interferon-γ (IFN-γ). IFN-γ is also produced by natural killer (NK) cells and most prominently by CD8 cytotoxic T cells, and is vital for the control of microbial pathogens. Although T-bet is expressed in all these cell types, it is required for control of IFN-γ production in CD4 and NK cells, but not in CD8 cells. This difference is also apparent in the function of these cell subsets. Thus, the regulation of a single cytokine, IFN-γ, is controlled by distinct transcriptional mechanisms within the T cell lineage.


Body dissatisfaction is so common in the western world that it has become the norm, especially among women and girls. Writing New Body Worlds is a transdisciplinary research-creation project that aims to address these issues by developing an interactive digital fiction for body image bibliotherapy. It is created with the critical co-design participation of a group of young women and non-binary individuals (aged 18–25) from diverse backgrounds, who are representative of its intended audience. This article discusses how our participant research influenced the creative development of the digital fiction, its characters and its novel ludonarrative or story-game design. It theorizes how the specific affordances of a choice-based interactive narrative, that situates the reader-player in the mind of the fictional protagonist, may lead to enhanced empathic identification and agency and, therefore, a more profoundly immersive and potentially transformative experience. This process of "diegetic enactment" is where we postulate the therapeutic value lies: an ontological oscillation between the reader-player's mind and the fictional mind, which may induce the reader-player to reflect upon, and perhaps subtly alter, their own body image.


In jobs where the cost of effort exhibits increasing differences in separate tasks, automation increases productivity by directly eliminating the automated tasks and indirectly by reducing the marginal cost of non-automated tasks. Here, I report a field experiment rotating supermarket cashiers between conventional (where they scanned and collected payment) and scan-only checkouts. Consistent with increasing differences in separate tasks, at conventional checkouts, cashiers who scanned faster collected payments more slowly. At scan-only checkouts, cashiers scanned 10 percent faster, consistent with lower marginal cost of effort in the non-automated task. The faster scanning was not due to learning, less task-switching, or differential shirking.


This study develops cumulative carbon ''supply curves'' for global forests utilizing a dynamic timber supply model for sequestration of forest carbon. Because the period of concern is the next century, and particular time points within that century, the curves are not traditional Marshallian supply curves or steady-state supply curves. Rather, the focus is on cumulative carbon cost curves (quasi-supply curves) at various points in time over the next 100 years. The research estimates a number of long-term, cumulative, carbon quasi-supply curves under different price scenarios and for different time periods. The curves trace out the relationship between an intertemporal price path for carbon, as given by carbon shadow prices, and the cumulative carbon sequestered from the initiation of the shadow prices, set at 2000, to a selected future year (2010, 2050, 2100). The timber supply model demonstrates that cumulative carbon quasi-supply curves that can be generated through forestry significantly depend on initial carbon prices and expectations regarding the time profile of future carbon prices. Furthermore, long-run quasi-supply curves generated from a constant price will have somewhat different characteristics from quasi-supply curves generated with an expectation of rising carbon prices through time.The ?least-cost? curves vary the time periods under consideration andmore » the time profile of carbon prices. The quasi-supply curves suggest that a policy of gradually increasing carbon prices will generate the least costly supply curves in the shorter periods of a decade or so. Over longer periods of time, however, such as 50 or 100 years, these advantages appear to dissipate.« less


Abstract Skagit River watershed is the largest draining into Puget Sound and has the most extensive glacial cover of any basin > 5,000 km2 in the US outside of Alaska. We examined the importance of these glaciers to the basin's summer water balance using an empirical approach. In 1959 approximately 396 glaciers covered 170.23 ± 8.50 km2 of the basin. Since then, combined glacier area has decreased by 32.02 ± 1.60 km2 (- 19%), with most of the loss between elevations of 1600 m and 2100 m. Fifty years ago surface melting of snow, firn, and ice from Skagit glaciers provided from 0.440 ± 0.055 to 0.742 ± 0.093 km3 of water in summer (May through September) to the Skagit River at Concrete. Today, the surface melt component has decreased (- 24% ± 9%) and now ranges from 0.333 ± 0.042 km3 of water in cool-wet years to 0.559 ± 0.070 km3 in warm-dry years. Surface melt from the remaining glaciers continues to provide 6–12% of the river's total summer runoff, and roughly twice that fraction during August and September. Cold glacial meltwater is concentrated in tributaries Thunder Creek, White Chuck River, Suiattle River, Baker River, and Cascade River. Between 1959 and 2009 average cumulative annual mass balance of five monitored glaciers was -20.35 ± 3.63 m water equivalent. This has resulted in glacial water volume loss of 3.01 ± 0.69 km3 basin-wide, representing the elimination of ∼ 100 years of fresh water supply for Skagit County at the current rate of consumption.


The profile of a river that conveys sediment without net deposition and net erosion is referred to as 'graded' with respect to vertical aggradation of the river segment. Three experimental series, designed in terms of the autostratigraphic view of alluvial grade, were conducted to clarify the diagnostic spatial behaviour of graded alluvial–deltaic rivers: an 'R series', which utilized a moving boundary setting with a stationary base level; an 'F series' in a fixed boundary setting with a stationary base level to produce 'forced grade'; and an 'M series' in a moving boundary setting with constant base‐level fall to produce 'autogenic grade.' The results of the three experimental series, combined with geometrical modelling of the effects of basin water depth and other experimental data, suggest the following: (i) in a graded alluvial–deltaic system, lateral shifting and avulsing of active distributary channels are suppressed regardless of whether the downstream boundary of the deltaic system is fixed; (ii) in a delta with a downstream‐fixed boundary, the graded streams are stabilized within a valley that is incised in the axial part of the delta plain, whereby the alluvial plain outside the valley is abandoned and terraced; (iii) in moving boundary settings, the graded river simply extends basinward as a linearly elongated channel and lobe system without cutting a valley; and (iv) a modern forced‐graded alluvial river is most likely to be found in a valley incised into a fan delta in front of very deep water, and the stratigraphic signal of fossil autogenic‐graded rivers will be found in deltaic successions that accumulated in the outer to marginal areas of deltaic continental shelves during sea‐level falls. This renewed autostratigraphic view of alluvial grade suggests a thorough reconsideration of the conventional understanding that an alluvial river feeding a progradational delta is graded with a stationary base level.


The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was created in the hope of overcoming the barrier that state sovereignty, as a principle, had become to actions of humanitarian intervention. It was imagined that as mass atrocity crimes were coming to the attention of the international community, that, on the whole, they were willing, able and eager to intervene in order to stop the violence in question. Holding them back was sovereignty as both a legal and normative barrier. This was always a bad explanation for the pervasive lack of humanitarian intervention; accordingly R2P, as a bad solution, has failed almost entirely. The problem is, and always has been, that when faced with mass atrocity crimes, the international community is plagued by a near-permanent lack of political will to action.


Activated carbon fiber cloth (ACC) with hydrothermally grown zinc oxide is investigated to see its supercapacitive performance as an electrode for supercapacitor. Here, we demonstrate how ZnO can be grown on ACC to enhance its surface area and thereby its capacitance and energy density. Electrochemical characterizations carried out on the samples revealed that ZnO/ACC showed less internal resistance and good conductivity as compared to ACC alone. It also exhibits high areal capacitance of 37.42mF/cm2, and high energy density of 3.33 μWh/cm2. In this regard, the fabricated ZnO/ACC electrode can be used for energy storage and microscale on-chip applications.


We estimate the effects of unconditional (full fiscal decentralization) versus conditional (partial fiscal decentralization) block grants on local public spending in Brazilian municipalities. Our results suggest that the effect of unconditional and conditional transfers do not differ statistically. Their combination promotes a full crowding-in effect on aggregate public spending — i.e., for $1 of unconditional and conditional grant receipts; we find $1 of additional local public expenditures, greater than the corresponding effect of local income, providing further evidence for the flypaper effect. Moreover, the effect of unconditional transfers on education (health) spending is smaller than the effect of conditional education (health) transfers but greater than the corresponding effect of local income. We consider four strategies to identify causal effects of federal grants and the local income on fiscal responses regarding Brazilian local governments: (i) a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, (ii) Redistributive rules of education funds, (iii) Oil and Gas production, and (iv) Rainfall deviations from the historical mean.


With the benefit of hindsight it becomes easier to appraise the historical significance and impact of the European revolutions of 1989. By a privileging a global point of view, it becomes possible to leave behind the prevalent perspective of 1989 as a regional transition of Central Europe only. This essay does not substitute the stultifying regional perspective for a globalist doctrine, but rather acknowledges the contested character of revolution and its interpretation by taking as starting point six distinct interpretations of 1989. These are: - The breakdown of the Soviet empire due to the disintegration of its association of party and nomenklatura, and the future of "Empire;" - The transition from communist party rule to democracy; - The exhaustion of socialist welfare regimes based on a planned economy and the return of the market; - Nation building processes in the USSR and Eastern Europe and the consolidation of independent states; - Resistance, dissidence and the revival of civil society in a carnival of revolutions; - The end of the Cold War, the collapse of Soviet world power and the new world order. Through each of these lenses an effort is made to appraise the global scope and scale of 1989. The following questions guide the enquiry: - What is the global meaning of this aspect of the revolutions of 1989? - Does this shed new light on the history before 1989? - What kind of structural and cultural change followed after 1989? - In scholarship, which discursive shifts have occurred in response to 1989? In conclusion, a first estimate on the global significance of 1989 is provided with respect to short-term impact and medium-term change. Viewed from after 1989, the 20th century has seemed dark, an age of extremes and violence defined in Europe and spreading from there. However, just before 1989, it seemed as if the social question had been resolved, at least in the North: the 20th was seen as the social democratic century. Yet, in the 21st century the social question returns. But, with Marxism discredited and socialism infeasible, no ideas or actors are discernible that could carry the world towards a new resolution of the social question. This outcome is disquieting, for it now seems as if communism, fascism and world war were necessary handmaiden in this resolution, but have no peaceful, civil or cosmopolitan equivalent - at least, not yet. This should worry everyone.


This empirical study focuses on online collaboration and social interaction in temporary group formations. A case study of a massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft explores these issues. Within this context little attention has been paid to temporary collaboration groups. The phenomenon is analyzed using interaction data complemented with interview data, forum data and consideration of game design. We found two main types of interaction, sociable and instrumental, but investment in the social situation was exceedingly little. We conclude that the low levels of social interaction observed are the result of a game design that makes the cost of social play high and restricts the available space for players to act within the designed architecture of the game, thus limiting the possibilities for played sociality. The connection between designed and played sociality is crucial for understanding online collaboration as it shapes online social worlds and therefore users' experiences within this social context.


The extraction of minerals from land-based mines necessitates the disposal of large amounts of mine tailings. Dumping and storage of tailings into the marine environment, such as fjords, is currently being performed without knowing the potential ecological consequences. This study investigated the effect of short-term exposure to different deposition depths of inert iron ore tailings (0.1, 0.5 and 3 cm) and dead subsurface sediment (0.5 and 3 cm) on a deep water (200 m) fjord benthic assemblage in a microcosm experiment. Biotic and abiotic variables were measured to determine structural and functional changes of the benthic community following an 11 and 16 day exposure with tailings and dead sediment, respectively. Structural changes of macrofauna, meiofauna and bacteria were measured in terms of biomass, density, community composition and mortality while measures of oxygen penetration depth, sediment community oxygen consumption and 13C-uptake and processing by biota revealed changes in the functioning of the system. Burial with mine tailings and natural sediments modified the structure and functioning of the benthic community albeit in a different way. Mine tailings deposition of 0.1 cm and more resulted in a reduced capacity of the benthic community to remineralize fresh 13C-labelled algal material, as evidenced by the reduced sediment community oxygen consumption and uptake rates in all biological compartments. At 3 cm of tailings deposition, it was evident that nematode mortality was higher inside the tailings layer, likely caused by reduced food availability. In contrast, dead sediment addition led to an increase in oxygen consumption and bacterial carbon uptake comparable to control conditions, thereby leaving deeper sediment layers anoxic and in turn causing nematode mortality at 3 cm deposition. This study clearly shows that even small levels (0.1 cm) of instantaneous burial by mine tailings may significantly reduce benthic ecosystem functioning on the short term. Furthermore, it reveals the importance of substrate characteristics and origin when studying the effects of substrate addition on marine benthic fauna. Our findings should alert decision makers when considering approval of new deep-sea tailings placement sites as this technique will have major negative impacts on benthic ecosystem functioning over large areas.


Most adenoviruses use the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) as a major cellular receptor. We have shown recently that adenovirus types 8, 19a, and 37, which are the major causes of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, use sialic acid rather than CAR as a major cellular receptor. The predicted isoelectric point of the receptor-interacting knob domain in the adenovirus fiber protein is unusually high (9.0-9.1) in type 8, 19a, and 37. The pKa of sialic acid is low, 2.6, implying a possible involvement of charge in fiber knob-sialic acid interactions. Here we show that (i) positively charged adenovirus knobs require sialic acid for efficient cell membrane interactions; (ii) viral and knob interactions with immobilized sialic acid or cell-surface sialic acid are sensitive to increased ionic strength; (iii) negatively charged molecules such as sulfated glycosaminoglycans inhibit the binding of virions to target cells in a nonspecific, charge-dependent manner; and that (iv) the ability of adenovirus knobs to interact with sialic acid correlates with the overall charge on the top surface of the respective knobs as predicted by homology modeling. Taken together, the results presented provide strong evidence for a charge mechanism during the interaction between the Ad37 fiber knob and sialic acid.


The objective of this paper is to present a mathematical model that will contribute to the optimization and optimum configuration of the TBO concept. We develop a binary integer programming model whose aim is to assign a 4D-trajectory to each flight in order to optimize the efficiency of the ATM system. The model considers the preferred 4D-trajectory of all the flights in the pre-tactical planning phase and outputs an optimal predeparture 4D-trajectory for each flight to be shared or negotiated with other stakeholders and subsequently managed throughout the flight. These output trajectories are obtained by minimising the deviation (in terms of time delay, lateral and vertical deviation) from the original preferred trajectories. The particularities of this model are that it considers the complete 4D-trajectory for each flight as well as it incorporates the preferences and priorities of the ATM stakeholders. Some computational results are presented, which show that our optimization model has the ability to identify some trade-offs between the objectives of the stakeholders of the ATM system under the TBO concept.It can also provide the network manager with useful decision tools to choose a trajectory for each flight.


This article appears in a symposium issue of Seton Hall Law Review on courtroom epistemology. In Proving the Unprovable: The Role of Law, Science and Speculation in Adjudicating Culpability and Dangerousness, I argued that criminal defendants ought to be able to present speculative psychiatric testimony if the expert has followed a routinized evaluation process that addresses the relevant legal criterion, an argument based in part on the position that the Constitution can be read to entitle defendants to tell their exculpatory mental state stories. In a recent essay, Professor Lillquist takes aim at this latter rationale, which I called the right to voice. He believes that the right to voice cannot be found in the Constitution or the Supreme Court's construction of the Constitution, and that in any event recognition of such a right would be a bad idea because it would increase the chance of inaccurate outcomes. In response, this article bolsters the argument that there is a limited constitutional right to tell exculpatory mental state stories through experts and shows why fear that such a right will generate "inaccurate" verdicts is unfounded. In the course of doing so, it explains why these arguments apply only to psychiatric evidence and do not require or lead to a more generalized right to present a defense, which appears to be the real concern underlying Professor Lillquist's essay. Nonetheless, the concluding section of the article departs from the psychiatric context to suggest some new reasons why the notion of a more generalized right to voice at least ought to be on the table.


Adsorption of methylene blue, a basic dye onto activated Prosopis spicigera, prepared from dried fruit of the member of leguminasae family by batch adsorption method has been investigated. The operating variables studied are the initial dye concentration, initial solution pH, adsorbent dosage and contact time. Equilibrium data were successfully applied to study the kinetics and mechanism of adsorption of dye onto activated carbon. The kinetics of adsorption was found to be pseudo second order with regard to intraparticle diffusion. The pseudo second order is further supported by Elovich model, which in turn auguments the fact of chemisorption of dye onto the carbon. Quantitative removal of dye at higher pH of dye solution confirms the basic nature of MB and acidic nature of activated carbon. Equilibrium adsorption data were also analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models.


In paper is presented a research complex which will recreate as closely as possible the diversity of the real working environment with appropriate incentives and will register the necessary examination of physical, physiological signals and parameters. Apparatus complex will simulate close to real work situations, will include tests necessary to assess the psychological status of the research subject. Further ahead in the complex algorithm will monitor the overall conduct of the experiment will record and process information from all physiological channels: electro miograma, electrocardiogram, blood pressure, pulse wave, respiration rate, galvanic skin response. The operator will receive visual and auditory information from the computer complex and will communicate with him through a special keyboard, standard optical mouse, track ball, stick and pedal controls. It is proposed methodology for conducting comprehensive studies of operator in extreme conditions. The developed complex will contribute to enhancing the skills of operators of mission-critical systems - pilots, pilots, operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, astronauts, heads of air traffic, nuclear operators and drivers of public transport.


Orientation: Identification of the inner coping strategies used by South African Police Service (SAPS) officers who do operational work is something the SAPS should consider to ensure the officers' management of trauma and efficiency at work. Research purpose: The objective of this study was to describe inner coping strategies used by officers in the Vhembe district (South Africa) to reconstruct stressful and traumatic experiences at work. Motivation for the study: Most studies on coping amongst SAPS officers focus on organisational stress and not on the impact of the officers' operational work. Research design, approach and method: An exploratory design was used and 20 SAPS officers were selected through purposive sampling. In-depth face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as diaries were used to collect data, which were analysed using content thematic data analysis. Main findings: The results showed that the main categories of coping strategies that led to management of the impact of operational work amongst the selected sample were centred around problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, with some use of reappraisal and minimal use of avoidance. Considering the context of the officers' work, the list of dimensions of inner coping strategies amongst SAPS officers should be extended. Practical/managerial implications: Intervention programmes designed for the SAPS, including critical incident stress debriefing, should take the operational officers' inner strategies into account to improve the management of the impact of their work. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the inner coping strategies amongst SAPS officers, with special reference to operational work in a specific setting.


Targeted sequencing using Angiosperms353 has emerged as a low-cost tool for phylogenetics, with early results spanning scales from all flowering plants to within genera. The use of universal markers at narrower scales—within populations— would eliminate the need for specific marker development while retaining the benefits of full-gene sequences. However, it is unclear whether the Angiosperms353 markers provide sufficient variation within species to calculate demographic parameters. Using herbarium specimens from a 50-year-old floristic survey of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we sequenced 95 samples from 24 species using Angiosperms353. We adapted a data workflow to process targeted sequencing data that calls variants within each species and prepares data for population genetic analysis. We calculated genetic diversity using standard metrics (e.g. heterozygosity, Tajima's D). Angiosperms353 gene recovery was associated with genomic library concentration, with limited phylogenetic bias. We identified over 1000 segregating variants with zero missing data within 22 of 24 species. A subset of these variants, which were filtered to remove linked SNPs, revealed high heterozygosity in many species. Tajima's D calculated within each species indicated a moderate number of markers potentially under selection and identified evidence of population bottlenecks in some species. Despite sequencing few individuals per species, the Angiosperms353 markers contained sufficient variation calculate demographic parameters. Larger sampling within species will allow for estimating gene flow and population dynamics in any angiosperm. Our study will benefit conservation genetics, where Angiosperms353 provides universal repeatable markers, low missing data, and haplotype information.


"Cannabis, marijuana, pot, ganja - it goes by many names -- is by far the most widely used illegal substance, and accounts for more arrests than any other drug. Barely a week goes by without this drug appearing in the newpapers, and politicians have famously tied themselve in knots, trying to decide just how to deal with this recreational drug. While there have been many drug policy books on other substances - both legal and illegal, few have focused on this drug. Cannabis Policy: Moving beyond Stalemate is unique in providing the materials needed for deciding on policy about cannabis in its various forms. It reviews the state of knowledge on the health and psychological effects of cannabis, and its dangerousness relative to other drugs. It considers patterns and trends in use, the size and character of illicit markets, and the administration of current policies, including arrests and diversion to treatment, under the global prohibition regime. It looks at the experience of a number of countries which have tried reforming their regimes and softening prohibition, exploring the kinds of changes or penalties for use for possession: including depenalization, decriminalization, medical control, and different types of legalization. It evaluates such changes and draws on them to assess the effects on levels and patterns of use, on the market, and on adverse consequences of prohibition. For policymakers willing to look outside the box of the global prohibition regime, the book examines the options and possibilities for a country or group of countries to bring about change in, or opt out of, the global control system. Throughout, the book examines cannabis within a global frame, and provides in accessible form information which anyone considering reform will need in order to make decisions on cannabis policy (much of which is new or has not been readily available). This book will be essential for those involved in policymaking and be of interest to a wide range of readers interested in drugs and drug policy, as well as being an excellent supplementary text for university courses in criminology, policy science, social science, or public health"


Despite the fact that the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has always tried to strengthen the political independence and autonomy of public service broadcasting (PSB), German media regulation has witnessed an extended battle royal over an increase in the PSBs' licence fee. Apparently in order to achieve only a marginal reduction in the increase, the Länder have jointly violated constitutional law. This article interprets the debate over the increase as the consequence of institutional rigidities within German broadcasting regulation that favour the occurrence of regulatory problems in the PSB sector. The Länder are locked in nested games and, therefore, are forced to make what appears for outside observers to be sub-optimal choices. The institutional rigidities of German broadcasting regulation may provoke Länder critical of the current PSBs' strategies to employ severe structural interventions into the PSB sector. In the end, the institutionalised bias of German broadcasting regulation in favour of PSB may also account for a partial Europeanisation of the policy domain because they inspired commercial broadcasters to engage in 'arena shopping'.


Public Health Law in a Nutshell provides a fascinating, informative, and concise assessment of the critical role of law in American society to protect the community's health. Its chapters lay out definitive legal issues underlying core public health powers to prevent and control communicable and chronic conditions like influenza, obesity, cancer, and heart disease. The text also explores legal routes to address sources of public health threats, including tobacco and alcohol use, guns, vehicles, defective products, and the built environment. Understanding the field of public health law encompasses its constitutional sources and limits as well as the many possibilities and pitfalls of historic and modern attempts to regulate in the interests of the community's health and safety. This Nutshell not only addresses these issues and others, but also provides a modern framework supporting the role of law in this pivotal area of society. It is a "must read" for any legal or public health practitioner in the field, as well as students in schools of law, public health, or medicine assessing these issues in prior or current coursework.


Introduction: Monitoring and evaluation are an integral parts of any education system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the achievements of Department of Endodontic's educational objectives in graduate dentists of Yazd Faculty of Dentistry of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 45 graduates from 2006 to 2011 who practiced in Yazd province without attending any specialized training were evaluated. Root canal treatment quality for central incisors and first maxillary molar, in terms of length, taper and density were radiographicaly evaluated. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test and Fisher exact test. Results: The mean value of practice was 40.24 out of 45 in the studied population (89.4% of the total score). No significant association between the educational objectives' achivement and time (P-value = 0.314), age (P-value = 0.532), gender (P-value = 0.465) and marital status (P-value = 0.294) were observed. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated the desired goals of practical training at Endodontic Department


Stress is a multifactorial stimulus that elicits responses at emotional, cognitive, behavioral and also at physiological levels. Thus the approach to manage stress should also be multifactorial. Among the herbal approaches, traditionally polyherbal formulations are used in Indian medicine. Present study on StressCare capsules was a Double Blind, Placebo Controlled, Clinical Study to evaluate its Efficacy and Safety in 100 volunteers presenting with clinical symptoms of stress and irritability. On entry, a detailed medical history was obtained to ascertain the presence of anxiousness followed by complete physical and psychological examination. All the people were randomly divided into StressCare and placebo groups, and people from both the groups received either StressCare or placebo for a period of 8 weeks, in a dose of 2 capsules twice daily, orally. Those involved in the study were evaluated clinically on entry at 4 weeks and at end of 8 weeks. All the subjects were clinically evaluated at regular intervals and statistical analysis was performed between the groups. Study results indicate that StressCare is safe and effective in the management of mild occasional stress and irritability as compared to placebo.


Seeking a form of knowledge that places communication as constitutive of temporary organization, I explored the temporary organization that is research collaboration as
it is structured and restructured in stories people tell. I fiamed the research problem in terms of a muted voice of a group of people in the research collaboration
discourse: What research collaboration stories do researchers tell? And how is the temporary organization that is research collaboration structured and restructured in the stories they tell?
I conversed with 30 forestry researchers in three Southeast Asian universities with
which I had access by virtue of my affiliation as student, as staff and as a scholar of a
consortium of universities. From the recurring symbols and repeated expressions in
their narratives, and the sequencing of repeating or not repeating a collaborative act, I
derived two types of stories, "the partner story" and "the not partner story". The
partner story tells of a continuing partner relationship, the not partner story of a not
. . . 111 continuing partner relationship. I retold the partner and the not partner stories
through eight stories in various settings.
Drawing fi-om Taylor et al's definition of organization as "a construction of text made
out of conversation", I made an interpretation that the temporary organization that is
research collaboration is seen in the configuration and reconfiguration of the partner
relationship in the partner and the not partner stories: first, at the level of text, as
narrative structure and as networked transcendent; and then, at the level of
conversation, in the identity and in the indeterminacy of partner relationship. The
collaborative structures took shape and continued to take shape in ongoing research
collaboration conversations.
By departing fiom the usual conception of network as information link, the study
surfaced existing networks of partner relationship obscured in managerialist stories
and in the literatures on research collaboration. The networks are "hidden transcripts"
existing but unseen as the researchers' experiences and perspectives are unheard in
the centered discourse.
I structured the dissertation also as story to illustrate the constitutive property of
communication and to suggest that science as organized knowledge is also
communicatively constituted.


Cloud computing platforms can facilitate the use of Earth science models by providing immediate access to fully configured software, massive computing power, and large input datasets. However, slow inter-node communication performance has previously discouraged the use of cloud platforms for massively parallel simulations. Here we show that recent advances in the network performance on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud enable efficient model simulations with over a thousand cores. The choices of Message Passing Interface (MPI) library configuration and inter-node communication protocol are critical to this success. Application to the GEOS-Chem model of atmospheric chemistry at global 50 km horizontal resolution shows efficient scaling up to at least 1152 cores, with performance and cost comparable to the NASA Pleiades supercomputing cluster. Plain Language Summary Earth science model simulations are computationally expensive, typically requiring the use of high-end supercomputing clusters that are managed by universities or national laboratories. Commercial cloud computing offers an alternative. However, past work found that cloud computing platforms were not efficient for large-scale simulations over 100 CPU cores, because the network communication performance on the cloud was slow compared to local clusters. We show that recent advances in the cloud network performance enable efficient model simulations with over a thousand cores, and cloud platforms can now serve as a viable alternative to local clusters for simulations at large scale. Computing on the cloud has extensive advantages, such as providing immediate access to fully-configured model code and large datasets for any users, allowing full reproducibility of model simulation results, offering quick access to novel hardware that might not be available on local clusters, and being able to scale to virtually unlimited amounts of compute and storage resources. Those benefits will help advance Earth science modeling research.


Social networks, particularly public ones, have become part of the fabric of how we communicate and collaborate as a society. With value from micro-level personal networking to macro-level outreach, social networking has become pervasive in people's lives and is now becoming a significant driving force in business. These new platforms have provided new approaches to many critical enterprise functions, including identifying, communicating, and gathering feedback with customers (e.g., Facebook, Ning); locating expertise (e.g., LinkedIn); providing new communication platforms (e.g., Twitter); and collaborating with a community, small or large (e.g., wikis). However, many organizations have stayed away from potential benefits of social networks because of the significant risks associated with them. This book will help an organization understand the risks present in social networks and provide a framework covering policy, training and technology to address those concerns and mitigate the risks presented to leverage social media in their organization. The book also acknowledges that many organizations have already exposed themselves to more risk than they think from social networking and offers strategies for "dialing it back" to retake control. It defines an organization's goals for social networking. It presents the risks present in social networking and how to mitigate them. It explains how to maintain continuous social networking security.


It's not difficult to recognize an organization or team that has strong morale, pride, and spirit as opposed to one that does not. In the former, productivity and creativity are high and relationships are strong; in the latter, negativism, dissatisfaction, and friction reign. Here's a look at some steps leaders can take to enhance the characteristics that make for a prolific, efficient, cooperative, and loyal team.


Social scientists have long relied on a wide range of tools to collect information about the social world, but as individual fields have become more specialised, researchers are trained to use a narrow range of the possible data collection methods. This book, first published in 2006, draws on a broad range of available social data collection methods to formulate a set of data collection approaches. The approaches described here are ideal for social science researchers who plan to collect new data about people, organisations, or social processes. Axinn and Pearce present methods designed to create a comprehensive empirical description of the subject being studied, with an emphasis on accumulating the information needed to understand what causes what with a minimum of error. In addition to providing methodological motivation and underlying principles, the book is filled with detailed instructions and concrete examples for those who wish to apply the methods to their research.


Abstract The modern convex-analytic rendition of the classical welfare theorems characterizes optimal allocations in terms of supporting properties of preferences by non-zero prices. While supporting convex sets in economies with finite dimensional commodity spaces is usually a straightforward application of the separation theorem, it is not that automatic in economies with infinite dimensional commodity spaces. In the last 30 years several characterizations of the supporting properties of convex sets by non-zero prices have been obtained by means of cone conditions. In this paper, we present a variety of cone conditions, study their interrelationships, and illustrate them with many examples. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D46, D51.


An environmentally benign synthesis of substituted 4H-thiopyrans was carried out by the condensation of aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile, carbon disulfide and primary amines. Constant potential electro synthesis was carried out in an undivided cell at room temperature in the presence of lithium perchlorate as a supporting electrolyte. Clean synthesis, use of electricity instead of chemical reagents and atom economy are attractive features of the present protocol.


ABSTRACT: Acquired and chronic neurological illness causes fundamental changes to all aspects of an individual's identity, starting with the physical self and extending through one's psychosocial existence. The descriptive literature on music therapy with acquired neuro-disabling conditions often describes the holistic effect of intervention on all areas such as communication, emotions, social and physical responses. However, the empirical research to date has isolated single variables which demonstrate functional improvement, even though functional goal-oriented techniques may not optimize the psychotherapeutic potential which music therapy possesses. This has created a gap between that which clinicians observe and report in the clinical literature, and the published outcomes in research studies. This paper presents the results of an open coding analysis which is one stage of the grounded theory research paradigm. The findings provide evidence of the effects of music therapy in adults with chronic, progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Emergent from data grounded in participants' experiences, central phenomena are revealed of how music therapy affects the emotional, physical, interpersonal and expressive self, and in particular, how music therapy can assist with the emotional consequences of acquired disability. The study offers novel information relevant to both researchers in this field and to clinicians working with adults with acquired neuro-disability. Background and Literature Review This paper offers novel theoretically and empirically derived insights into the study of music therapy in chronic neuro-disability. Using qualitative methodology, it offers evidence supporting anecdotal claims in the literature that music therapy addresses key self-concepts and feelings of identity which are left damaged after acquiring neuro-disability (Jochims, 1995; McMaster, 1991; Magee, 1995, 1999a, 1999b; Purdie, 1997; Purdie & Baldwin, 1994; Selman, 1988). The lack of outcome studies and few descriptive studies of music therapy in MS prompted the authors to review literature with associated neuro-disabling conditions. This then includes similar degenerative neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease and Huntington's Disease, as well as acquired neurological conditions which do not have a degenerative component, such as stroke and traumatic brain injury, but result in reduced life spans nonetheless. These are placed together under the umbrella of 'chronic neuro-disability', although there are specific differences in pathology, as common factors exist in physical and cognitive changes with secondary communication and psychosocial changes. To date, the music therapy research with such populations has demonstrated two main areas of benefit. The first of these is improvement in physical functioning through applying and modifying musical parameters (Miller, Thaut, McIntosh, & Rice, 1996; Thaut, Mclntosh, Prassas, & Rice, 1993; Thaut, Mclntosh, Rice et al., 1996) and the second has shown that music therapy can address neuro-communication disorders (Cohen, 1988, 1992, 1995; Cohen & Ford, 1995; Cohen & Masse, 1993; Pilon, McIntosh, & Thaut, 1998). These outcome studies have contributed to the validation of music therapy within health care services and provide an evidence base for the application of music therapy in neuro-disability. However, it would appear that in-depth case studies continue to be the most useful for the music therapy clinician in the description of techniques and processes which are readily applicable in clinical practice. In the authors' opinions, descriptive studies remain the most beneficial format for understanding the individual experience psychodynamically, behaviorally and physically in music therapy. This argument finds some support in a survey which revealed that music therapists found pubished research to be of little relevance to their daily clinical practice (Nicolas & Gilbert, 1980). …


Good communication during all phases of the project lifecycle is an important factor for the project suc-cess; in fact it is the prime factor that connects all of the project success factors together. Often, construction projects suffer from the lack of efficient communication due to many reasons, among which are the enormous versatility of stakeholders during project lifecycle, and the adversary relations which may appear among the construction project parties. This research is investigating the effect of using modern electronic communication management systems on the success of the construction projects in United Arab Emirates, trying to survey the effect on the project success criteria which were identified by the authors for the construction projects in this country. Two case studies, one of them coupled with action research are presented, interviews, surveys document review and progress feedback have been used to collect the evidence, preceded by a literature survey and a brief study to clarify how the communication mechanism works, and how it affects the trust and relations among the project stakeholders and consequently the project success. Some of the results are in agreement with pertinent published literature and research findings, an example of this would be the improvement on schedule and project control. On the other hand, the benefits for quality control during design and construction phases of the project in addition to HSE potential improvement remain debatable. At the same time the current investigation on one of the cases has revealed an organisational transformation trend from functional to-wards matrix and project structures, this kind of change is taking place after the implementation of project electronic communication management system into the client organisation, this transformation has enhanced chances of project success.


We study a search model with employment protection legislation. We show that if the output from the match is uncertain ex ante, there may exist a discriminatory equilibrium where workers with the same productive characteristics are subject to different hiring standards. If a bad match takes place, discriminated workers will use longer time to find another job, prolonging the costly period for the firm. This makes it less profitable for the firms to hire the discriminated workers, thus sustaining discrimination. In contrast to standard models, the existence of employers with a taste for discrimination may make it more profitable to discriminate also for firms without discriminatory preferences.


By extending the net-gain modulation phasor approach to account for the discrete distribution of the gain and saturable absorber sections in the cavity, a convenient model is derived and experimentally verified for the cavity design of two-section passively mode-locked quantum dash (QDash) lasers. The new set of equations can be used to predict functional device layouts using the measured modal gain and loss characteristics as input. It is shown to be a valuable tool for realizing the cavity design of monolithic long-wavelength InAs/InP QDash passively mode-locked lasers.


The repair of DNA damage in highly compact, transcriptionally silent heterochromatin requires that repair and chromatin packaging machineries be tightly coupled and regulated. KAP1 is a heterochromatin protein and co-repressor that binds to HP1 during gene silencing but is also robustly phosphorylated by Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) at serine 824 in response to DNA damage. The interplay between HP1-KAP1 binding/ATM phosphorylation during DNA repair is not known. We show that HP1α and unmodified KAP1 are enriched in endogenous heterochromatic loci and at a silent transgene prior to damage. Following damage, γH2AX and pKAP1-s824 rapidly increase and persist at these loci. Cells that lack HP1 fail to form discreet pKAP1-s824 foci after damage but levels are higher and more persistent. KAP1 is phosphorylated at serine 473 in response to DNA damage and its levels are also modulated by HP1. Unlike pKAP1-s824, pKAP1-s473 does not accumulate at damage foci but is diffusely localized in the nucleus. While HP1 association tempers KAP1 phosphorylation, this interaction also slows the resolution of γH2AX foci. Thus, HP1-dependent regulation of KAP1 influences DNA repair in heterochromatin. Mol Cancer Res; 10(3); 401–14. ©2011 AACR.


This article discusses a critical, but overlooked, cause of political dysfunction in the United States — the Constitution's design for the executive branch. Specifically, this article argues that by opting for a single executive rather than a multi-person executive, the Constitution causes two serious problems. It fuels the high levels of partisan polarization that we see today, and it increases the likelihood of misguided presidential decision making.Of course, this was something the founding fathers thought about and debated. Should we have a single executive or a multi-person executive branch? There were good reasons in 1787 for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to settle on a single executive. But as our country has changed over time, the executive branch has changed too, and it has changed in ways that have been problematic.First, the founding fathers expected presidents to view the entire country as their constituency. Unlike members of the House who represent a single congressional district, or members of the Senate who represent a single state, presidents represent everyone. But modern presidents do not really see themselves as representing everyone. Rather, they have become standard-bearers for their parties and their party platforms. At the same time, the presidency has changed in another important way. The modern White House has assumed a far greater amount of policy-making power than envisioned for an "executive" branch that was designed to carry out policies passed by Congress. Indeed, the Oval Office has become the most important policy-making center in the national government. Having a president wield expansive policy-making power on behalf of only one side of the political aisle exacerbates partisan conflict and encourages unwise policy choices. Drawing on the experience in other countries with executive power shared by multiple officials, this article proposes a bipartisan executive. By adopting a two-person, two-party presidency, we would do much to promote a more effective political system. Giving meaningful representation to persons across the political spectrum would defuse partisan conflict and ensure that public policy reflects a broad range of policy perspectives.A bipartisan executive would especially do much to address concerns about the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. His erratic temperament and use of fascist rhetoric have highlighted the risk that an authoritarian executive could misuse the enormous power of the Oval Office. A presidential partner would provide an important check on autocratic behavior, especially when the President's party controls Congress and therefore is not likely to push back against executive decision making.


The Sino-Japonic manuscript Xue-guanhua/Gaku-kanwa 學官話 (Learning Mandarin Chinese), compiled for students from the Ryūkyū Kingdom, is a noteworthy historical Chinese educational source. It represents historical cross-cultural interactions between Okinawan residents in China and the locals in a wide variety of speech situations, and as such it is one of the few historical cross-cultural sources available on Chinese communication and social behaviour. Along with revealing norms of historical Chinese communication, Xue-guanhua provides a vivid description of Chinese social and cultural customs.

The present volume, which provides a detailed introduction and annotated translation of Xue-guanhua, is relevant not only to researchers but also to readers with interest in Chinese and Okinawan language and culture