BACKGROUND
Cranberries (particularly in the form of cranberry juice) have been used widely for several decades for the prevention and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The aim of this review is to assess the effectiveness of cranberries in preventing such infections.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness of cranberry juice and other cranberry products in preventing UTIs in susceptible populations.

SEARCH STRATEGY
Electronic databases and the Internet were searched using English and non English language terms; companies involved with the promotion and distribution of cranberry preparations were contacted; reference lists of review articles and relevant trials were searched. Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL - the Cochrane Library, issue 1, 2003) was searched in February 2003.

SELECTION CRITERIA
All randomised or quasi randomised controlled trials of cranberry juice/products for the prevention of urinary tract infections in susceptible populations. Trials of men, women or children were included.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers independently assessed and extracted information. Information was collected on methods, participants, interventions and outcomes (urinary tract infections (symptomatic and asymptomatic), side effects and adherence to therapy). RR were calculated where appropriate, otherwise a narrative synthesis was undertaken. Quality was assessed using the Cochrane criteria.

MAIN RESULTS
Seven trials met the inclusion criteria (four cross-over, three parallel group). The effectiveness of cranberry juice (or cranberry-lingonberry juice) versus placebo juice or water was evaluated in six trials, and the effectiveness of cranberries tablets versus placebo was evaluated in two trials (one study evaluated both juice and tablets). In two good quality RCTs, cranberry products significantly reduced the incidence of UTIs at twelve months (RR 0.61 95% CI:0.40 to 0.91) compared with placebo/control in women. One trial gave 7.5 g cranberry concentrate daily (in 50 ml), the other gave 1:30 concentrate given either in 250 ml juice or in tablet form. There was no significant difference in the incidence of UTIs between cranberry juice versus cranberry capsules (RR 1.11 95% CI:0.49 to 2.50). Five trials were not included in the meta-analyses due to methodological flaws or lack of available data. However, only one reported a significant result for the outcome of symptomatic UTIs. Side effects were common in all trials, and dropouts/withdrawals in several of the trials were high.

REVIEWERS' CONCLUSIONS
There is some evidence from two good quality RCTs that cranberry juice may decrease the number of symptomatic UTIs over a 12 month period in women. If it is effective for other groups such as children and elderly men and women is not clear. The large number of dropouts/withdrawals from some of the trials indicates that cranberry juice may not be acceptable over long periods of time. In addition it is not clear what is the optimum dosage or method of administration (e.g. juice or tablets). Further properly designed trials with relevant outcomes are needed.


With embedded systems becoming ubiquitous, there is a growing need to teach and train engineers to be well-versed in their design and development. The multidisciplinary nature of such systems makes it challenging to give students exposure to and experience in all their facets. This paper proposes a generic architecture, containing multiple processors, that allows easy integration of custom and/or predefined peripherals. The architecture allows students to explore both the hardware and software issues associated with real-time and embedded systems. Furthermore, the architecture can be extended to train students in advanced concepts in embedded multiprocessor systems. This generic architecture has been used for two courses at the National University of Singapore-one on real-time embedded systems and the other emphasizing the hardware aspects of embedded systems. The project in the real-time embedded systems course has students develop a five-a-side soccer system on multiple field-programmable gate array (FPGA) boards using embedded processors. In the embedded hardware design course project, students use an embedded processor-based system to perform decryption of a block encrypted image, accelerated through a custom co-processor. The use of displays gives students a visual/interactive experience and a sense of accomplishment, while reinforcing the theoretical concepts. Both qualitative and quantitative assessment results are presented, showing how students perceived these projects and met the learning objectives.


The main objective of the present study was to develop an efficient and reliable probe to be routinely used for detection of chromosome 13 copy numbers by interphase FISH. To achieve this, a Yeast Artificial Chromosome (YAC) containing sequences specific for human 13q12 (744D11), was cultured and the whole yeast genomic DNA was extracted. The human insert within the isolated DNA was amplified by inter-Alu PCR reaction and the PCR product was used as probe to detect the copy number of chromosome 13 using FISH experiments on 150 uncultured amniotic fluid samples after labelling with biotin or digoxigenin. Using this method 97 percent or more of the randomly evaluated cells from uncultured blood samples and 93 percent of the uncultured amniocytes showed two distinct signals on each cell. The intensity of signals was comparable to those of chromosome-sp ecific alphoid DNA probes. The results suggest that this approach can be reliably used for prenatal detection of chromosome 13 aneuploidy.


The thermal impacts on the performance of nanoscale-gap thermophotovoltaic (nano-TPV) power generators are investigated using a coupled near-field thermal radiation, charge, and heat transport formulation. A nano-TPV device consisting of a tungsten radiator, maintained at 2000 K, and cells made of indium gallium antimonide (In0.18Ga0.82Sb) are considered; the thermal management system is modeled assuming a convective boundary with a fluid temperature fixed at 293 K. Results reveal that nano-TPV performance characteristics are closely related to the temperature of the cell. When the radiator and the junction are separated by a 20 nm vacuum gap, the power output and the conversion efficiency of the system are respectively 5.83 × 105 Wm-2 and 24.8% at 300 K, whereas these values drop to 8.09 × 104 Wm-2 and 3.2% at 500 K. In order to maintain the cell at room temperature, a heat transfer coefficient as high as 105 Wm-2 K-1 is required for nanometer-size vacuum gaps. The reason for this is that thermal radiation since thermal radiation enhancement beyond the blackbody from a bulk radiator of tungsten is broadband in nature, while only a certain part of the spectrum is useful for maximizing nano-TPV performance. In future studies, near-field radiation spectral conditions leading to optimal performance characteristics of the device will be investigated.


This thesis deals with how the main female character in Emile Zola's Nana achieves her power. As a woman who is physically weaker than a man, Nana, the main character, exerts two ways to gain power needed. Her first way emphasizes on women's rights to determine their lives, which is coherent with what Michot-Dietrich says that Nana is the acknowledgement of an independent woman's power, the only requirements for her rise to power are will, the body, and the freedom from traditional religion and social constraints (219). Nevertheless, the second way she uses accentuates on women's powerlessness as King mentions that Nana holds on to Fontan despite all his beatings toward her, which implies that Nana "surrenders" to Fontan with a purpose, to keep Fontan at her side (134). Seeing these two contradicting ways to acquire power, the thesis writer is curious to know which one is Nana's successful way to attain power. In order to prove that her success to power is through the first way, the thesis writer uses feminist theories concerning "power feminism" and "victim feminism". As a support, she uses literary tools, namely characterization and conflict, to know Nana's characteristics and conflicts in the society so that Nana's ways of achieving power can be clearly seen. Throughout the analysis, the thesis writer finds out that Nana undergoes a change in using the way to obtain power. The first phase of her life is dominated by her determination about what to do with her own life, which helps her to gain power, and she has a good time during those moments. Then, she chooses the way which makes her lead a powerless and miserable life, especially the time when she meets and falls in love with Fontan, who likes to beat her. Nonetheless, at the last phase of her life, she once again selects the first way as she knows that it enables her to have a good life. As a whole, Nana actually prefers her rights to determine her life since this makes her able to fulfil her lavish daily needs.


We present new clay mineralogy and muscovite and illite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data from fault gouge and immediately adjacent wall rocks from the Salt Spring fault, the central portion of the Miocene South Virgin–White Hills detachment system in southern Nevada and northern Arizona. In combination with a wealth of published regional thermochronology data, we find that useful age information can be obtained from 40 Ar/ 39 Ar step-heating spectra of fine-grained clays in both sedimentary rocks and fault gouge derived from them. This information can be used to investigate the provenance of detrital clays in lowgrade sediments, the source of clays in fault gouge, and potentially to constrain thermal histories. A new muscovite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age from the footwall near the Salt Spring fault is ca. 900 Ma, in contrast with previously reported ages of ca. 90 Ma from near the South Virgin–White Hills detachment system at Gold Butte, Nevada, located 20 km along strike to the north. This discrepancy in muscovite cooling ages supports prior interpretations of significant along-strike variations in the magnitude of footwall exhumation. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data from clay-size sediment in a supradetachment basin at the Salt Spring Wash area show no influence from detrital ca. 900 Ma or older muscovite, but do show an influence from detrital muscovite with Cretaceous apparent ages, suggesting that these sediments were derived from Gold Butte to the north, and not from directly updip areas to the east. These observations suggest a Miocene paleotopographic configuration wherein Gold Butte formed an upland area that shed detritus southward into the supradetachment basin during exhumation of the Salt Spring footwall. Fault gouge from the Salt Spring detachment is similar to fine-grained sediment from the adjacent supradetachment basin both in terms of clay mineralogy and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar results. The gouge is rich in illite and smectite, clays that have low frictional coefficients, are relatively impermeable, and would have reduced the shear strength of the detachment at shallow depths. Apatite grains entrained in the gouge have a mean fission-track age of 15 Ma and mean track lengths that are statistically indistinguishable from previously published data from footwall samples. Collectively, these observations suggest that clay-rich gouge along this segment of the fault formed principally by scraping and incorporating clays and other minerals from the base of the supradetachment basin and that the fault zone did not experience temperatures measurably greater than the footwall.


There has been a recent interest in the practices dimension of language policy (Skilton-Sylvester, 2008; Vila I Moreno, 2008) in the field of language policy and planning (LPP).This interest has been ranging from a macro/micro contrast of language policy (Martin, 2009) to actual language practices to classroom practices with regards to school policy (Heller, 1996, 2001, 2007). A large number of studies deal with practices of language in education but to date there still is a gap in the research conducted in the language classrooms investigating the medium of classroom interaction in situ. The aim of this study is to fill the gap in foreign language teaching research with an ethnomethodological conversation analysis lens where the target language- only is the school policy. The practices of this ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom reveal the actual "medium of classroom interaction" which changes moment by moment and turn by turn. To keep the target language-only policy the participants switch the medium of talk of self and the other through language policing. The aim of this study is to focus on other-initiated language policing as a special repair practice. The nature of repair in this case is different from repair in general as the trouble in the talk-in-interaction in this case is the medium of talk. Preliminary results show that in each category of other-policing there are differing trajectories of repair. The empirical data for this study consists of 20 hours of video recordings in an international Swedish school. The data was collected in ESL classrooms in grade 8 and 9 between the years 2007-2010. A monolingual policy is followed by the English language teachers of this school in ESL classrooms, which is kept in place through a teacher versus pupils' point system.


Neuroimaging studies have indicated abnormalities in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits in obsessive–compulsive disorder patients, but results have not been consistent. Since there are significant sex differences in human brain anatomy and obsessive–compulsive symptomatology and its developmental trajectories tend to be distinct in males and females, we investigated whether sex is a potential source of heterogeneity in neuroimaging studies on obsessive–compulsive symptoms. We selected male and female twin pairs who were concordant for scoring either high or low for obsessive–compulsive symptoms and a group of discordant pairs where one twin scored high and the co-twin scored low. The design included 24 opposite-sex twin pairs. Magnetic resonance imaging scans of 31 males scoring high for obsessive–compulsive symptoms, 41 low-scoring males, 58 high-scoring females, and 73 low-scoring females were analyzed and the interaction of obsessive–compulsive symptoms by sex on gray matter volume was assessed using voxel-based morphometry. An obsessive–compulsive symptom by sex interaction was observed for the left middle temporal gyrus, the right middle temporal gyrus, and the right precuneus. These interactions acted to reduce or hide a main effect in our study and illustrate the importance of taking sex into account when investigating the neurobiology of obsessive–compulsive symptoms.


The authors analyze the importance of relative wage positions within firms in western Germany in the context of individual quit decisions as an inverse measure of job satisfaction. Using a linked employer-employee data set (LIAB) for the years 1996–2005 whose sample consists of full-time male prime-age workers in western Germany without college degrees, they ascertain whether workers find status or signal effects stronger motivators for quit decisions. They find that workers with higher relative wage positions within their firms are, on average, more likely to quit their jobs than those with lower relative wage positions and that workers who experience a loss in their relative wage positions are also more likely to accept a wage cut associated with their job transition. Overall, results suggest that a signal effect is, on average, stronger than a status effect.


Latin America had a golden decade from 2002 to 2012, mostly thanks to favorable external conditions. Its commodity exports prices raised almost continuously, there were abundant capital inflows and low international interest rates. This golden decade has come to an end, even while no sudden worsening of external conditions is expected. Using several short term and structural indicators, this paper analyzes if this decade represented a turning point. Macroeconomic and financial vulnerabilities were indeed sharply reduced, labor market conditions improved significantly and investment rates increased, in most countries. Many of these achievements are likely to stay and Latin America may prove to be much more resilient to future shocks than in the past. However, the boom in extractive exports prices led to over-concentration of exports, stagnation of other tradable activities and other symptoms of Dutch Disease. Worst still, productivity gaps were not reduced as their structural determinants improved just too slowly. In summary, the boom was not completely wasted, nor was it fully capitalized.


Construction of big deep-litter pigsties and pigsties without litter (using liquid manure systems) is becoming more extensive. Due to lack of knowledge concerning animal- keeping in big pigsties, it has become necessary to study the work environment in pigsties and, in particular, their indoor climate. In order to determine the impact of the outdoor climate, different methods for animal-keeping and tending activities on indoor climate during summertime, the air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity and contents of oxygen, carbon dioxide and ammonia were measured on a daily basis at the height of 1.5 m from the floor above the pigsty in the centre of deep-litter (800 fattening pigs) and liquid manure system (600 young pigs) pigsties. Simultaneously outdoor air temperature and relative humidity were measured. Data Logger equipment with relevant sensors and Gas Monitor Pac III were used for studying the indoor climate. Hydrolog equipment was used for measuring the parameters of outdoor climate. Measurement results were processed by using computer programmes AMR Win Control, HW3 and MS Excel. It turned out that during summertime the indoor climate of pigsties was most affected by outdoor climate and tending works. The daily average indoor temperature (17.04 and 17.60°C respectively; outdoor temperature, 18.15 and 8.75°C) and relative humidity (68.11 and 78.59% respectively; outdoor relative humidity, 71.88 and 84.19%) remained within recommended limits for animals in the deep-litter pigsty and in the pigsty without litter. However, partial floor heating had to be used in the morning in order to ensure optimum indoor temperature and relative humidity in the pigsty for young pigs. Due to good ventilation in the pigsties the daily average contents of carbon dioxide (0.06 and 0.07%) and ammonia (20.9 and 8.7 ppm) remained within standard limits. Ammonia content in pigsties was higher during tending works, reaching 43 and 27 ppm. As a result of the study, the graphical and empirical relationship was determined between ammonia concentration and indoor air both in terms of air temperature and combined effect of temperature and relative humidity.


Intracellular Ca2+release in muscle is governed by functional communication between the voltage-dependent L-type Ca2+ channel and the intracellular Ca2+ release channel by processes that are incompletely understood. We previously showed that sorcin binds to cardiac Ca2+ release channel/ryanodine receptors and decreases channel open probability in planar lipid bilayers. In addition, we showed that sorcin antibody immunoprecipitates ryanodine receptors from metabolically labeled cardiac myocytes along with a second protein having a molecular weight similar to that of the α1 subunit of cardiac L-type Ca2+ channels. We now demonstrate that sorcin biochemically associates with cardiac and skeletal muscle L-type Ca2+ channels specifically within the cytoplasmically oriented C-terminal region of the α1 subunits, providing evidence that the second protein recovered by sorcin antibody from cardiac myocytes was the 240-kDa L-type Ca2+ channel α1 subunit. Anti-sorcin antibody immunoprecipitated full-length α1 subunits from cardiac myocytes, C2C12 myotubes, and transfected non-muscle cells expressing α1 subunits. In contrast, the anti-sorcin antibody did not immunoprecipitate C-terminal truncated forms of α1 subunits that were detected in myotubes. Recombinant sorcin bound to cardiac and skeletal HIS6-tagged α1 C termini immobilized on Ni2+ resin. Additionally, anti-sorcin antibody immunoprecipitated C-terminal fragments of the cardiac α1 subunit exogenously expressed in mammalian cells. The results identified a putative sorcin binding domain within the C terminus of the α1 subunit. These observations, along with the demonstration that sorcin accumulated substantially during physiological maturation of the excitation-contraction coupling apparatus in developing postnatal rat heart and differentiating C2C12 muscle cells, suggest that sorcin may mediate interchannel communication during excitation-contraction coupling in heart and skeletal muscle.


Estimates of the potential doubling time (Tpot) of seven human tumor xenografts were made using a cytokinesis-block method. This method is currently being investigated as an alternative to flow cytometric assays using the administration of a thymidine analog in the measurement of Tpot. If perfected, the cytokinesis-block method of measuring Tpot would be advantageous as a predictive assay, in that no label is administered to the tumors in situ. Xenografts were grown in nude mice, and following tumor excision and disaggregation, tumor cells were cultured with the cytokinesis-blocking agent cytochalasin B. The flux of cells through mitosis was marked by the accumulation of multinucleate cells. By counting the total number of nuclei as a function of time, the effective population growth was observed. Tpot values were obtained by fitting suitable exponential least squares curves to the data, with the doubling time indicated by the fitted functions. For the seven tumors studied, a significant spread in growth rates was observed. Tpot values generated by this method ranged from approximately 2 days for a rapidly growing squamous cell carcinoma of the pharynx, FaDu, to approximately 7.5 days for the slower growing glioblastoma multiforme U251-MG. These values are compared with standard 5-iododeoxyuridine Tpot measures and volume doubling times obtained by Perez et al. (Cancer Res., 55: 392-398, 1995) for the same tumor xenografts. Although individual Tpot values varied between these methods, the ranking of the seven tumors in order of Tpot times was the same regardless of method. In addition to estimating Tpot, for each of the tumors, the fraction of clonogenically dead cells that was microscopically apparent, including apoptotic cells and cells expressing micronuclei, was determined as a function of time in culture. Tracking this in vitro cell loss rate provides information on the adjustment of these primary tumor cells to in vitro culture, a factor that needs to be addressed when determining how in vitro measurements of Tpot can be effectively related to in vivo measurements.


An increased role of local communities in natural resource management has recently been widely advocated as a solution to the problem of environmental degradation in the Third World. This conclusion is based on a broad debate on the role of endogenous institutions in which academics, politicians and practitioners working in southern Africa have participated. But, thus far, the debate has largely relied on dogma about the essential nature of rural communities: they are claimed to be clearly bounded, socially homogenous, and based on shared norms. In this article, the validity of these claims is studied in the context of the present administrative and legal reforms taking place in Mozambique. The analysis is based on field data from a case study from the Chôa highlands in Manica Province. In Chôa, exclusive territoriality is not considered a valid strategy, as the local population remains part of a larger socio-economic network, which extends to neighbouring Zimbabwe. The linguistic and cultural continuity has created favourable conditions for a dynamic process whereby the border has become an asset instead of a barrier. The open character of the border made it possible to benefit from both the more developed economy of Zimbabwe and the abundant natural resources under common property regime in Mozambique. In the study area in Chôa customary authority remains practically the only functioning institution at the local level despite adverse government policies. However, it operates without a firm legal basis and may be losing its efficiency, because the source of consensus traditional religion is being challenged by the penetration of new religions and the market economy. The most acute changes concern customary rules of land tenure, which are presently being redefined locally. Such emerging rule-systems are dynamic and adaptive. But they can also be perceived as a risk to national unity, and their compatibility with the principles of modern state administration remains a contested issue.


What kinds of intellectual practices are influential in the making and remaking of nations? How do literary texts shape nation-making? When are intellectuals most and least relevant to developing the nation? How do liberal, socialist, and nationalist intellectuals shape national ideologies?One of the principal debates in the study of nations concerns the relative significance of elites, specifically intellectuals, in inventing the nation. "Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation" delimits the capacities of intellectuals for shaping nations, as well as the ways in which the development of nations shapes intellectual practices. The introductory chapter presents the principal debates around nation-making and the identity and practices of intellectuals. Contributors from anthropology, history, literature, political science and sociology then explore the capacities and limits of intellectuals in the formation and restructuring of national identities in general, and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in particular.Each essay is followed by a brief intellectual autobiography in which the author's own relationship to nations is explored. The editors conclude the volume by developing a general theory of national intellectual practice.The principal focus of this book--the mutual articulation of intellectuals and nations--is a key subject for students and scholars of history, cultural studies, political science, anthropology, and sociology.Ronald Grigor Suny is Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago. Michael D. Kennedy is Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan.


In essence every form of government interference must be based on legislation that applies as a principle of legality, which is the main joint law of the State. However, because there are limitations to this principle or because of weaknesses and shortcomings in the laws and regulations, the government is given freedom. Freies Ermessen, namely the freedom of the government to be able to act on its own initiative in solving social problems. Freies Ermessen raises opportunities for conflicts of interest, in order to avoid or minimize violations of citizens' rights, hence increasing legal protection for deviant state administration (Verhoogde Rechtsbescherming) in the form of "Algemene Beginselen Van Behoorlijk Bestuur" or general principles of good governance. The task of government is carried out in the framework of the implementation of the general functions of government which includes institutional, personnel and management utilization. Whereas in the implementation of certain development tasks carried out in the context of implementing certain development tasks carried out through nation-building (cultural and political development) as well as through economic and social development (economic and social development) which is directed at increasing the welfare and prosperity of the entire community, Law Number 5 Year 2014 on state civil apparatus as the basis for regulating the state civil apparatus in each of its implementation policies prioritizes the foundation of legislation, propriety and justice. The method of research is normative legal research methods, namely the study of legal principles legal rules which are standards for behaving or behaving. This research can be carried out (especially) on primary and secondary legal materials, as long as the materials contain legal rules, because not every article in a law, for example, contains legal rules; there are articles which are only limits as commonly found in the general provisions of the legislation. Research on legal principles is a philosophical study because the legal principle is an ideal element of law. Goals: The purpose of this research is to make the state civil apparatus understand the concept of the welfare state, the use of discretionary power (Freies ermessen), understand the principles that limit the actions of state civil apparatus to avoid corruption and collusion and nepotism in realizing people's welfare in Indonesia. Novelty/Improvement: This article discusses the study of law regarding the position of Civil Servants in Indonesia based on Law Number 5 Year 2014 on State Civil Apparatus. Concerning state civil apparatus which is associated with principles general good governance, this research article is also expected to be able to provide information for readers to be able to realize the state civil apparatus free from the practice of collusion, corruption and nepotism in realizing good governance in Indonesia in the conception of welfare state.


Although a modality effect indicating better learning from an animation with spoken learning guidance than from an animation with written learning guidance has often been found in research on learning from animation, the effect has hardly been investigated for learning from computer simulation. This study examined the interaction effects between the multimedia types of animation and computer simulation, and the presentation modes of written and spoken learning guidance. Based on cognitive load theory and the specific characteristics of the multimedia types it was hypothesized that a modality effect would be replicated in the animation condition and a reverse modality effect would be found in the simulation condition. Results partially supported the hypotheses, indicating that participants learned more from animation when it was accompanied with spoken text, and from a simulation when it was accompanied with written text. However, no effect was found for cognitive load. Based on the results, spoken text is recommended to be used to guide learners in animations assisted learning environments, and written text is recommended to be used to guide learners in simulations assisted learning environments. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic Animation and computer simulation have been widely used in different learning fields. Modality effect means that students learn more from graphical representations when they are accompanied with spoken text instead of written text. The modality effect has been verified in different learning environments. What this paper adds Examined the interaction effects between the multimedia types of animation and computer simulation, and the presentation modes of written and spoken text in a learning guide. Provided recommendations for designing the leaning guide of animation and simulation based on cognitive load theory. Implications for practice and/or policy Modality effect was verified in animation, and thus, spoken text is more suitable for learning from animation. Reversed modality effect was found in simulation condition, and thus, written text is more suitable for learning from simulation.


Literature describes Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) as an extended and advanced use of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in a budgeting process. Despite some potential benefits of an ABB approach being suggested by a few academics and management consultants(Brimson & Antos, 1994/1999; Brimson & Fraser, 1991; Kaplan & Cooper, 1998; Sharman, 1996), very limited published literature has reported the actual ABB experience in practice. Empirical evidence from this research suggests that ABB development and implementation processes tend to encounter problems in practice which hinder the progress and even the successful completion of these processes. In the light of a general lack of published literature on ABB, it is thus necessary to explore
some fundamental issues on the applications of ABB, investigate factors that may determine the success or otherwise of an ABB implementation, and gain an in-depth understanding of generic and specific attributes of an ABB process within an organisational context.
This study examines the development and implementation of ABB systems in three UK organisations: Scottish Courage Brewing Limited -(SCB) (which is a wholly owned
subsidiary of a multinational brewer, Scottish and Newcastle p1c), BG Transco plc (Transco) (which is a public listed organisation and operates in the regulated gas supply
market), and Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) (which is one of the governmental agencies). In particular, this study examines the relationships between design specification of ABB systems, budgetary purposes and organisational objectives for system implementations on the basis of the ABB experiences gathered from SCB, Transco and CPS.
Four basic themes emerge from this study. First, it is rather difficult to implement the ABB model into a computer system based purely on the concept of 'ABB as a reverse ABC process'. Such difficulty arises due to the fundamental difference in data processing requirements, namely data aggregation in an ABC process and data dissemination in an ABB process. This difference can create major permutation problems and render an ABB system significantly less cost-effective. Second, ABB information can enhance a strategic planning process by providing a clearer cross-functional view of an organisation's activities/processes and highlighting a causal link between performance and resource. In that sense, ABB information is perceived to be
useful by top and middle line managers who want to see organisational performance and processes in a holistic manner. The existence of limited cost variability, which has been suggested in the literature as being unsuitable for the application of activity-based systems, does not prevent managers from using activity-based information to support decision making. Third, the success of an ABB implementation is attributed to a combination of internal and external factors. The internal factors are mainly related to technical, behavioural, organisational and cultural perspectives. For example, budgets and budgeting processes can help to form a particular set of norms (culture). The implementation of an ABB system may be perceived as an attempt to break the existing culture by introducing a new set of norms. Organisational restructuring, which destabilises the existing culture, may have some positive impacts on the ABB implementation. Furthermore, supportive administrative arrangements (e.g. standardised procedures and formalised goal/sub-goal development processes) and budgetary devolution can also help to define the precise role of an ABB system relating to
organisational objectives, and thus pave the way for a smooth ABB implementation. Evidence of this research suggests that an ABB implementation can also be substantially influenced by some external factors, such as political concerns, regulator's pressure, and market competition. Fourth, some generic issues relating to the implementation of ABC/M and budgeting systems, such as top management's commitment, simplicity, compatibility and resistance to changes are also relevant to the implementation of an ABB system.


Two questions should be answered in relation to the international role of the euro - is a more important international role for the euro worth pursuing, and what measures would achieve this result, if it is worth pursuing? The most significant benefit for the euro area if the euro played an increased international role would be less dependence on the dollar and a reduced ability of the United States to pursue its political objectives, which are possibly inconsistent with European Union objectives. Historically, international functions have been shared between currencies and the international weights of currencies have evolved according to a limited number of variables. The most important of these are the economic size of the issuing country, the level of development and stability of the underlying financial market, openness to capital movements, a policy stance that encourages currency internationalisation, and political and military power. With the exception of financial stability, these factors do not vary substantially in the short run and give rise to persistent, long-term trends. Thus, in the first twenty years of its existence, the euro has consistently been the second most used international currency, while the dollar has maintained the first position it has held since the second world war. The gap between the dollar and the euro is greatest in the invoicing of commodity trade and as vehicle for foreign exchange transactions, and smallest in cross-border payments. While the ranking of the dollar and the euro has not changed, the euro's share has fluctuated, particularly in its use in international finance, in correlation with the stability of the euro financial market. This has confirmed that a necessary condition for the euro to play a greater international role is the stability of the euro-area financial system. In addition, the completion of banking union, progress on capital markets union, the issuance of a common bond, and more generally the completion of the institutional architecture of the euro area and progress on a common foreign and defence policy, would promote a wider role for the euro. The European Central Bank should also move beyond its neutral attitude towards the international use of the euro. Most of these policies would have effects well beyond the international use of the euro and, while in principle desirable, are not easy to achieve. Proposals on the international role of the euro published in December 2018 by the European Commission were the start of a journey rather than a decisive step towards a greater international role for the euro.


Graphene with a sp2-honeycomb carbon lattice has drawn a large amount of attention due to its excellent properties and potential applications in many fields. Similar to the structure of graphene, two-dimensional semiconductors are its two-dimensional and isostructural counterparts based on the typical layer-structured semiconductors, such as boron nitride (h-BN) and transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g. MoS2 and WS2), whose layers are bound by weak van der Waals forces. Unlike the semi-metal features of graphene, the two-dimensional semiconductors are natural semiconductors with thicknesses on the atomic scale. When one of the dimensions is extremely reduced, the two-dimensional semiconductors exhibit some unique properties, such as a transition from indirect to direct semiconductor properties, and hence have great potential for applications in electronics, energy storage, sensors, catalysis and composites, which arise both from the dimension-reduced effect and from the modified electronic structure. In this feature article, recent developments in the synthesis, properties and applications of two-dimensional semiconductors are discussed. The reported virtues and novelties of two-dimensional semiconductors are highlighted and the current problems in their developing process are clarified, in addition to their challenges and future prospects.


The Fosterville goldfield occurs in sandstones, siltstones and shales of
Ordovician age, associated with the brecciated shear zones and associated stockworks
of the Fosterville Shear Zone. The Fosterville Fault is a planar mineralized structure
with significant old mine workings in the oxidized zone over a strike length of 8 km.
The present Central Ellesmere and F.osterville prospects are situated along the
Fosterville Fault.
The style of mineralization present in the Fosterville goldfield is a sedimentary
rock-hosted gold deposit, along the Fosterville Fault Zone. Gold occurs within
sediment hosted arsenopyrite and pyrite, in crystal lattice and/or as minute inclusions.
The mineralized fault breccia and associated stockworks are vertical to sub-vertical and
up to 30 m in width; only very minor quartz veining occurs.
The origin of the Fosterville gold deposit is considered to be genetically related
to a granite source, with a temperature for the mineralizing fluid of approximately 370
oc. The depth of the system range from 6.5-10 km.
PIXE (proton-induced x-ray emission) and AAS (atomic absorption
spectroscopy) have been very useful in analyzing for trace elements in vein quartz. The
Fosterville quartz shows generally high levels of trace elements. The analyses showed
positive correlation between the presence ofK, Ge, AI and As with Au in the host rock
and ihe intensity of the EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) of quartz veins. There is
a highly significant correlation between the Ge content and EPR of the quartz at the
absorption peak at g 2.0027. The present study indicates that the paramagnetic centre is
Ge-AI related.
The high correlation between Ge, Au and EPR suggests that EPR and Ge may
be used as an indicator of gold mineralization in this type of deposits. Ge is an element
typically enriched in late magmatic and hydrothermal minerals.


Abstract. Inferred effective climate sensitivity (ECSinf) is
estimated using a method combining radiative forcing (RF) time series and
several series of observed ocean heat content (OHC) and near-surface
temperature change in a Bayesian framework using a simple energy balance
model and a stochastic model. The model is updated compared to our previous
analysis by using recent forcing estimates from IPCC, including OHC data for
the deep ocean, and extending the time series to 2014. In our main analysis,
the mean value of the estimated ECSinf is 2.0 ∘C, with a
median value of 1.9 ∘C and a 90 % credible interval (CI) of
1.2–3.1 ∘C. The mean estimate has recently been shown to be
consistent with the higher values for the equilibrium climate sensitivity
estimated by climate models. The transient climate response (TCR) is
estimated to have a mean value of 1.4 ∘C (90 % CI 0.9–2.0 ∘C), and in our main analysis the posterior aerosol effective
radiative forcing is similar to the range provided by the IPCC. We show a
strong sensitivity of the estimated ECSinf to the choice of a priori RF
time series, excluding pre-1950 data and the treatment of OHC data.
Sensitivity analysis performed by merging the upper (0–700 m) and the deep-ocean OHC or using only one OHC dataset (instead of four in the main
analysis) both give an enhancement of the mean ECSinf by about 50 %
from our best estimate.


Abstract Most cavity-dependent species select tree-cavities with a narrow range of characteristics so that only a small subset of available cavities may be suitable for any species. Most surveys for tree-cavities are done from the ground using binoculars to reduce effort, but this technique is prone to error. These errors are likely to contribute to the loss of the cavity resource when used to inform conservation efforts for cavity-dependent species. The Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor) is an endangered migratory bird threatened by ongoing removal of cavity-bearing trees by production forestry. We climbed trees with cavities used for nesting by Swift Parrots and determined that they prefer cavities with small entrances, deep chambers and wide floors. Such cavities are rare and occur in large trees that support higher than average numbers of tree-cavities. Importantly, cavities used by Swift Parrots were also likely to be both overestimated and underestimated using ground-based surveys, and without calibration by climbing, the size and direction of survey error could not be determined. We conclude that the most effective way to gain detailed information about the characteristics and abundance of tree-cavities is to climb a representative sample of trees to calibrate ground-based methods for a specific ecosystem.


Background. The pilot phase IIb VIKING study suggested that dolutegravir (DTG), a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) integrase inhibitor (INI), would be efficacious in INI-resistant patients at the 50 mg twice daily (BID) dose. Methods. VIKING-3 is a single-arm, open-label phase III study in which therapy-experienced adults with INI-resistant virus received DTG 50 mg BID while continuing their failing regimen (without raltegravir or elvitegravir) through day 7, after which the regimen was optimized with ≥1 fully active drug and DTG continued. The primary efficacy endpoints were the mean change from baseline in plasma HIV-1 RNA at day 8 and the proportion of subjects with HIV-1 RNA <50 c/mL at week 24. Results. Mean change in HIV-1 RNA at day 8 was −1.43 log10 c/mL, and 69% of subjects achieved <50 c/mL at week 24. Multivariate analyses demonstrated a strong association between baseline DTG susceptibility and response. Response was most reduced in subjects with Q148 + ≥2 resistance-associated mutations. DTG 50 mg BID had a low (3%) discontinuation rate due to adverse events, similar to INI-naive subjects receiving DTG 50 mg once daily. Conclusions. DTG 50 mg BID–based therapy was effective in this highly treatment-experienced population with INI-resistant virus. Clinical Trials Registration. www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01328041) and http://www.gsk-clinicalstudywww.gsk-clinicalstudyregister.com (112574).


This study provides an introduction to the everyday life and emotional needs of hospitalized children, their families and hospital staff. Although written primarily for professionals working in a paediatric setting, it has much relevance for parents as well. It combines an up-to-date review of current research literature with the personal experience of the author, who has been associated with one of the world's leading children's hospitals for more than 20 years. After an opening historical section, there are chapters on what children understand about their illness and treatment, play, pain, dealing with life-threatening conditions, dealing with stress in patients, families and medical staff, and ethical and legal issues.


Phosphorylation of sites on the C terminus of the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) results in the induction of acute desensitization that is thought to be a precursor for the development of long-term tolerance. Alanine mutations of all 11 phosphorylation sites on the C terminus of MORs almost completely abolished desensitization and one measure of tolerance in locus coeruleus neurons when these phosphorylation-deficient MORs were virally expressed in MOR knockout rats. In the present work, we identified specific residues that underlie acute desensitization, receptor internalization, and tolerance and examined four MOR variants with different alanine or glutamate mutations in the C terminus. Alanine mutations in the sequence between amino acids 375 and 379 (STANT-3A) and the sequence between amino acids 363 and 394 having four additional alanine substitutions (STANT + 7A) reduced desensitization and two measures of long-term tolerance. After chronic morphine treatment, alanine mutations in the sequence between 354 and 357 (TSST-4A) blocked one measure of long-term tolerance (increased acute desensitization and slowed recovery from desensitization) but did not change a second (decreased sensitivity to morphine). With the expression of receptors having glutamate substitutions in the TSST sequence (TSST-4E), an increase in acute desensitization was present after chronic morphine treatment, but the sensitivity to morphine was not changed. The results show that all 11 phosphorylation sites contribute, in varying degrees, to acute desensitization and long-term tolerance. That acute desensitization and tolerance are not necessarily linked illustrates the complexity of events that are triggered by chronic treatment with morphine. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In this work, we showed that the degree of phosphorylation on the C terminus of the μ-opioid receptor alters acute desensitization and internalization, and in measures of long-term tolerance to morphine. The primary conclusion is that the degree of phosphorylation on the 11 possible sites of the C terminus has different roles for expression of the multiple adaptive mechanisms that follow acute and long-term agonist activation. Although the idea that acute desensitization and tolerance are intimately linked is generally supported, these results indicate that disruption of one phosphorylation cassette of the C terminus TSST (354–357) distinguishes the two processes.


I.-Subject of Investigation. In a paper to the IXth. Coastal Engineering Congress in Lisbon in 1964, two SOGREAH engineers, Mr. Barailler and Mr. Gaillard, described a number of applications of electronic computers for research on waves in coastal areas. lnvestigation with a physical scale model yields both a validity criterion for calculation and a interesting illustration. The present article covers the full results of a systematic pure wave diffraction study on a model and compares them with the corresponding computer-calculated data. It is in two parts, which discuss the following subjects: (i) Pure diffraction in a body of water in which there are no wave-reflecting obstacles. (ii) Pure wave diffraction in a body of water containing totally or partly reflecting obstacles. II.-Test Conditions. The tests were conducted in a constant depth of wate rand with the waves heading straight for the "harbour entrance," which was determined in the first part of the investigation by the following characteristic breakwater head configurations: Thin breakwater heads; Thick vertical-fronted breakwater heads; Thick conical-section breakwater heads. The second part of the investigation considered wave conditions in a body of water bounded by wave reflecting obstacles. III.-Results. Only the general findings of the investigation are given, as available space does not allow full sets of test results to be included and compared with calculated curves. Calculations allows neither for the thickness of the breakwaters to either side of the opening nor for the embankment slope at the considered point. The position and dimension of the "theoretical" opening therefore require very careful examination. Only position need be considered for a vertical-fronted brea1ewater. Comparison of various solutions shows that closest agreement is obtained for the opening coinciding with the breakwater centerline (case 2). Embankment slope has to be allowed for in the conical-section breakwater lead case, because of its "converging duct" effect. The "equivalent opening" is shorter than that measured at datum level, which is shown up by a shift in the measured maximum amplitude values towards the centerline. Provision has been made for the determination of this "equivalent length" on a computer. In the tests with reflecting obstacles the theoretical opening was assumed to lie in the plane of the inside breakwater face, as the calculation of wave diffraction with reflection requires basing on clearly-defined boundaries. In this case, breakwater head thickness could be allowed for by further subdivision of the considered region; computer tests are now in progress on this point. Conclusion. a) Diffraction without reflection: Comparison between physical and mathematical model results under the above conditions shows very satisfactory agreement for vertical-fronted breakwater heads. In the case of conical-section breakwater heads, agreement is satisfactory beyond a limit at about 1 1/2 wave lengths from the opening. Though absolute measured and computed amplitudes also agree well up to this limit, a shift in the maximum value positions is observe d, which it should be possible to correct by establishing the position and length of the "equivalent opening". b) Diffraction with reflection: Satisfactory agreement is achieved with both methods.


In Mongolia, as worldwide, communities are challenged by water scarcity, depletion and pollution. Greywater treatment and reuse could partially meet water demand and help protect the environment and health. In March 2010, greywater from six randomly sampled households in the Ger areas of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, was analyzed followed by the development of three innovative treatment systems: an underground (UG-), greenhouse (GH-) and ice-hole greywater treatment unit (IH-GWTU). The UG- and GH-GWTU were implemented to identify opportunities and challenges for future investments in greywater treatment and reuse. Users9 and non-users9 perceptions, and business opportunities, were assessed. Laboratory analysis showed a high chemical oxygen demand (6,072–12,144 mg/l), N-NH 4 + (183.7–322.6 mg/l), PO 4 − (12.6–88.2 mg/l) and total suspended solids (880–3,200 mg/l) – values exceeding the WHO guidelines and much higher than in any other country: low water consumption combined with traditional diet might be major reasons. Odourless and colourless water after treatment in a UG-GWTU lead to more acceptance than a GH-GWTU. Business opportunities include the use of treated water for irrigation, considering WHO and national standards. Further research focuses on seasonality of installation, technical shortcomings, maintenance, biological quality control and user training.


Background Following the success of the smaller 2010 pilot study, this initiative was 12 month collaboration between Barwon Health's Respecting Patient Choices (RPC) program, 18 General Practice Clinics from within the Barwon region and the Barwon Medicare Local. Table 1 General Practice ACP Activity 2012 Activity GP Project Activity Overall Program Activity (Total Activity) Referrals 1345 2071 Completed Plans 1174 1531 Declined 25 61 Deceased 16 139 Aim To engage with General Practitioners in providing advance care planning (ACP) to their patients demonstrating a sustainable ACP model for general practice. Methods Funding provided by Barwon Health for 2.0 EFT ACP Facilitator positions. Key stakeholders were engaged and Memorandum of Understanding developed. Participating practices were identified through an expression of interest and GPs were encouraged to complete their own ACP. Patients with chronic or life limiting illness and aged were the target population including other interested individuals. This was achieved via the >75 Health Assessment, Chronic Disease Management Planning and routine consultations. Engagement with GP staff occurred collaboratively with Barwon Medicare Local throughout the project period. Results Providing trained staff from a funded ACP program to 18 practices in the Geelong region has resulted in 1350 referrals for ACP and a completion rate of 87% (1174). From this cohort, there have been 295 in-patient episodes of care with a number of ACP's implemented as required. Discussion Similar findings to the smaller 2010 pilot study have been demonstrated through patients exhibiting a high rate of acceptance, participation, document completion and satisfaction when ACP is provided through GP's. Conclusion This larger study has demonstrated that General Practice is integral to the commencement of ACP discussions in the community, where there is established trust and confidence and whilst patients are 'relatively well', in the absence of acute illnesses. Barwon Health's catchment includes a higher proportion of older persons in comparison to the state average and is therefore significant that the general awareness of ACP is raised routinely within the community. Table 2 Barwon Health's Respecting Patient Choices program data 2006–2007 (2 years) 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Referrals 500 440 534 736 801 2045 Contacts 1034 1473 1981 2652 4521 Completed plans 248 197 269 363 406 1509 Declined 22 19 30 23 58 Reviews 24 214 433 711 912 Deaths 68 36 89 106 135 135


Sociometer theory (Leary & Baumeister, 2000) proposes that self-esteem is an evolutionary adaptation which functions to monitor the quality and quantity of people's interpersonal relationships together with their eligibility for these, and to motivate adaptive behaviour in response to these assessments. The present work describes a series of studies designed to systematically test hypotheses concerning relationships between self-perceptions of physical attractiveness, self-esteem and relationship behaviour, derived from sociometer theory. Study 1 extended previous research by employing a novel measure of self-perceived attractiveness and showing that this significantly and positively correlated with both global and multidimensional measures of self-esteem in both women and men. Studies 2 and 3 tested the hypothesis, derived from sociometer theory, that using a social comparison manipulation of self-perceived physical attractiveness should causally affect self-esteem in women. The results of these studies did not support this hypothesis and challenged previous findings in the literature: Women exposed to images of highly attractive others did not report significantly lower subsequent levels of self-esteem than those exposed to unattractive others. Study 4 examined whether exposing women to an implicit manipulation of self-esteem would affect their subsequent self-perceptions of attractiveness. The results showed that women exposed to a negative priming condition reported significantly lower levels of self-esteem and self-perceived physical attractiveness than those in the positive condition. These results constitute the first empirical demonstration that implicit manipulations of self-esteem can exert causal effects on specific self-perceptions. Study 5 examined the previously untested prediction that self-perceptions of desirability and self-esteem would correlate with self reports of romantic relational behaviour in women. The results indicated that although self-perceptions of desirability significantly correlated with relational behaviour, self-esteem did not. These results, together with previous research in self-esteem are discussed in relation to sociometer theory, and a novel modification of the theory is proposed.


In the past, to derive the unit hydrograph (UH) various distribution functions have been utilized so far, though they had their own limitations. In this study, the applicability of two-parameter beta distribution has been explored for the derivation of UH. The parameters of the distribution function were estimated using the Genetic Algorithm which facilitates the minimization of global error. The suitability of the derived UH resulting from the two-parameter beta distribution was verified by comparing the UH derived by the two-parameter gamma distribution. The results obtained from both the distributions were almost similar and close to the observed UHs, which confirmed the applicability of the two-parameter beta distribution as an alternate approach for the derivation of the UH.


The resonant Rayleigh scattering dynamics of excitons in single GaAs quantum wells is investigated. The deviation of the measured intensity from the ideal ensemble average is analyzed as a function of the speckle ensemble size. The influence of the amplitude and correlation length of the exciton disorder potential is traced using a series of samples with varying inhomogeneous broadening and interface island sizes. The experimental data are compared with theoretical predictions using exciton states of spatially uncorrelated energies, as well as full calculations of the exciton polarization dynamics using a more realistic disorder potential including the formation of monolayer islands. Deviations from the dynamics of uncorrelated states are found at early times after excitation. They are reproduced by the calculations possessing a state correlation due to quantum mechanical level repulsion and a finite correlation length for the disorder potential. Additionally, the presence of a long-range disorder potential in the micrometer range is suggested. Changing the disorder potential by varying the island size influences the observed dynamics systematically according to the different disorder correlation lengths.


It is a well-known fact that small-amplitude perturbations can be amplified in globally stable flows due to non-normal mechanisms. This leads in the time domain to the transient growth of some initial disturbances, and in the frequency domain to the amplification of some harmonic disturbances. It is of interest to look for the most amplified of these disturbances: the optimal perturbations. We consider here random perturbations which are being continuously advected in the laminar flow past a backward-facing step. The response of the flow to this sustained stochastic input can be analysed in the frequency domain in terms of amplification at each individual frequency, and the problem therefore boils down to combining appropriately harmonic optimal and sub-optimal perturbations at all frequencies. In this work we use a variational technique to compute the sensitivity of noise amplification to steady control, either passive (e.g. a small cylinder inserted in the flow) or active (e.g. wall blowing or suction). Sensitivity maps allow the identification of regions where control is most effective in reducing amplification. Our work extends existing sensitivity methods in two ways: (i) from time-harmonic to time-stochastic, (ii) from perturbations distributed in space in the whole flow to perturbations localized at the inlet. We therefore deal with a more realistic representation of incoming noise. We also simplify the process of control design by integrating all harmonic sensitivity maps for each individual frequency into one single stochastic sensitivity map. In the backward-facing step flow, harmonic disturbances are strongly amplified around one preferred frequency. The amplification of stochastic noise can be reduced by inserting a small control cylinder in regions of large streamwise velocity, particularly at streamwise locations between the step corner and the upper reattachment point. Alternatively, boundary control is most effective when using wall suction upstream of the step corner; this results in a shorter separation bubble on the lower (resp. upper) wall when using boundary actuation at the lower (resp. upper) wall, as confirmed by applying sensitivity analysis to recirculation length in this flow. We find that sensitivity maps for stochastic noise are largely similar to those for the optimal harmonic perturbation at the most amplified frequency. This suggests that the design of steady control in strong noise amplifiers (globally stable but convectively unstable flows) can be conducted restricting one's attention to the most dangerous perturbation at the most dangerous frequency.


To the nativists and cognitivists, input plays a minor role in language acquisition; however, more recent studies have shown that to a certain extent, the frequency and usage of lexical terms in children's linguistic environment do play a role in language development, especially when they involve interaction. This paper presents an investigation on the usage of eight Malay shape-based numeral classifiers in eleven caretaker-child interactions.  A semi-structured elicited procedure was designed to stimulate the caretaker and child to interact with each other in a naturalistic setting.  Since Malay numeral classifiers are most prominently observed in counting activities, an interactive game was designed to identify what numeral classifiers caretakers would choose to talk about more in a situation where all numeral classifiers had the same chance to be talked about.  Caretakers' usage of numeral classifiers and their reactions to children's usage of numeral classifiers are highlighted in this paper.  Results indicate that Malay numeral classifier usage is not pervasive in Malay caretaker-child interactions. They suggest that the degree of obligatoriness of numeral classifiers in the Malay grammar plays a role in caretakers' numeral classifier usage and their reactions to children's usage.


The interconnection problems in solid state electroluminescent displays, due to complex addressing and memory requirements, can be minimised by making a monolithic device in which light is produced in a thin film on silicon and controlled by underlying integrated circuitry. This thesis describes the preparation and properties of some luminescent films for this application. Preliminary work was aimed at depositing epitaxial ZnS phosphor films on silicon but, due to problems of reproducibility and activation, this was not a success. Its termination, however, was prompted mainly by another reason; the discovery by the author of the phosphor willemite (Zn(_2)Si0(_4):Mn) which seemed admirably suited for deposition as a thin luminescent film on silicon integrated circuitry. The main advantage was the novel method of fabrication1which involved the conversion of an oxide layer on the silicon surface to willemite by reaction with an evaporated film of ZnF(_2):Mn. The films produced were composed of microcryetallites embedded in a matrix of unreacted oxide. They were brightly green oathodoluminescent. In an MIS structure the current was assymetrical with bias. For negative and low positive bias on the metal the films were highly insulating but with high positive bias relatively large currents flowed accompanied by weak green electroluminescence. A conduction model, based on capacitance-voltage, current-voltage and luminescence experiments, has been proposed. In this, mobile positive ions in the. film discharge only when the cathode is metal so that with positive bias, they accumulate in front of the silicon where field intensification occurs. Electrons then tunnel from the silicon to collision excite the luminescence of manganese centres in the willemite. The observation of d.c. electroluminescence i4 thin films of willemite together with the ease and reproducibility of the fabrication process and its apparent compatibility with silicon technology, is thought to be a significant step in the development of a monolithic display based on silicon.


Much of sub-Saharan Africa's farmland is (still) cultivated with the hand hoe, and agricultural processing and transport are often done manually. This limits the potential of agriculture in the region. Mechanisation can help to alleviate food shortages and enhance agricultural development. However, this implies high levels of investment for farmers and some risks for rural populations and eco-systems. The necessary financing is especially difficult to access and risky for longer-term agricultural investments such as mechanisation. In addition, there can be trade-offs between mechanisation and employment. To better understand how mechanisation can contribute to food security, this study first assesses the controversial impact of mechanisation on rural populations and their environments. In a second step, the difficulty in accessing financing is analysed, distilling success factors for financing mechanisation. Thereby, the study aims at bringing the sectors of agriculture and finance closer together with the overall objective of fighting food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.


In recent years, there has been increasing interest in farmer research groups (FRG) to catalyse farmer participation in research, and to widen the impact of participatory research. However, there is dearth of systematic empirical studies that evaluates the quality of participation in FRG. Using empirical data from a sample of 21 FRGs in Kabale, Uganda, this paper investigates what types of participatory research occurred at the different stages of the research process, how farmer participation occurred, who participates in FRG, what are the factors that determined farmers' participation in FRG, and what criteria should be used in monitoring and evaluating the performance of FRG. Results showed that the types of participation were more of functional consultative and collaborative types, but varied in the different stages of the research process as farmers were increasingly taking on more roles and responsibilities. Results showed that farmer participation in FRG tend to follow a "U" shaped curve, with high participation at the initial stages of the process, followed by dramatic decrease as many farmers drop out from the groups, and slow increases towards the end of the first seasons. Similarly, there was a significantly higher participation of male farmers at the beginning of the process, compared to women. However, as FRGs progressed, the proportion of men decreased while the relative proportion of women increased dramatically to reach about 67% of farmers in mixed groups, and 24% of the FRGs were women only. These results suggest that FRG proved to be a more effective mechanism to involve women and the resource-poor farmers in research who would otherwise be bypassed by conventional approaches. The results of the Logit regression model confirmed that the probability of participating in FRG was higher for women compared to men, and that there were no significant differences in wealth circumstances between FRG members and the rest of the community. We argue that FRG as an approach has a great potential for catalyzing the participation of farmers as partners in research and development activities. However, this requires significant support and personal commitment of researchers to broaden the scope of FRGs from a functional consultative type to a more collegial empowering type, and from variety evaluation to broader natural resources management research and other developmental issues.


Abstract The crystal structure of karibibite, Fe3 3+(As3+O2)4(As2 3+O5)(OH), from the Urucum mine (Minas Gerais, Brazil), was solved and refined from electron diffraction tomography data [R 1 = 18.8% for F > 4σ(F)] and further confirmed by synchrotron X-ray diffraction and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The mineral is orthorhombic, space group Pnma and unit-cell parameters (synchrotron X-ray diffraction) are a = 7.2558(3), b = 27.992(1), c = 6.5243 (3) Å, V = 1325.10(8) Å3, Z = 4. The crystal structure of karibibbite consists of bands of Fe3+O6 octahedra running along a framed by two chains of AsO3 trigonal pyramids at each side, and along c by As2O5 dimers above and below. Each band is composed of ribbons of three edge-sharing Fe3+O6 octahedra, apex-connected with other ribbons in order to form a kinked band running along a. The atoms As(2) and As(3), each showing trigonal pyramidal coordination by O, share the O(4) atom to form a dimer. In turn, dimers are connected by the O(3) atoms, defining a zig-zag chain of overall (As3+O2) n -n stoichiometry. Each ribbon of (Fe3+O6) octahedra is flanked on both edges by the (As3+O2) n -n chains. The simultaneous presence of arsenite chains and dimers is previously unknown in compounds with As3+. The lone-electron pairs (4s2) of the As(2) and As(3) atoms project into the interlayer located at y = 0 and y = ½, yielding probable weak interactions with the O atoms of the facing (AsO2) chain. The DFT calculations show that the Fe atoms have maximum spin polarization, consistent with the Fe3+ state.


The quality of groundwater is affected by many activities occurring on the surface of the earth. A pro-active protection approach is required to avoid the costly and technologically difficult exercise of groundwater remediation. This paper reviews various approaches for groundwater protection and documents recent developments in this field. A comprehensive protection strategy consists of many elements, ranging from the protection of entire aquifers to localised water-supply sources. A three-tier protection concept, with the emphasis on a zoning approach, is proposed for South Africa. This will facilitate the protection of groundwater at various levels (national, regional and local) and will ensure that protection needs in the short, medium and long term are addressed.


The objective of this project is to demonstrate the capabilities of a Raspberry Pi when used as a grid-tied, bi-directional power inverter for renewable energy storage applications. Due to its economical nature, this system would play a large role in the growing solar industry by making solar energy more accessible, affordable, and easier to install. The inverter uses a single-phase H-Bridge to generate a sine wave from a proprietary wall mounted battery. To improve power quality, an enhanced low pass filter is added to provide a better drop off to reduce extraneous harmonics. The system synchronizes this synthetic sine wave output with the incoming grid frequency through a PID that controls a Phase Locked Loop (PLL). However, the Raspberry Pi proved incapable of this task due to being unable to power the drivers to run the switching circuit.


In this study different molecular techniques are contrasted (RAPD's, allozyme, sequencing mtDNA, sequencing ribosomal spacers) and appropriate analytical methods (allelic and infinite-sites approaches; inbreeding and coalescent models) used for estimating population genetic parameters in parasites. A range of population genetic questions at different scales were chosen to emphasise the importance of tailoring techniques and analytical methods to the particular question being investigated.

The realisation that each question formulated has a particular scale means the appropriate technique and markers must be useful at that scale to attempt to answer the question. The useful scale of a technique depends several factors including the region of DNA examined, the density of sampling of the technique, and the mode of evolution of the markers. Each technique will produce a useful range of variability. Below the lower limit there is no variation, above the upper limit the variation is too high to produce useful comparisons.

Parasites are of interest for many reasons, primarily because they can cause disease and thus impact on their host's population dynamics. They are often closely associated with their hosts and may undergo co-evolution, as well as causing an ongoing immunological "arms race" with their hosts. The parasitic mode of live is found throughout nearly all taxonomic groupings and thus classical models of population genetics based on sexual, diploid vertebrates do not fit well with the entire diversity of parasite groups.

Genetic diversity within and among populations of Echinococcus granulosus was examined contrasting a RAPD dataset with an allozyme dataset. Two models of variation in Echinococcus have been proposed, those of Smyth and Rausch, and the expected genetic structure from each was compared to the observed genetic structure. The premise of Smyth's model, predominant self-fertilisation, was supported, but the resultant pattern of genetic variation followed Rausch's model.

RAPD data, being dominant, present challenges to analysis. An approach to overcome this dominance problem and allow standard allelic frequency analysis is described using the selfing rate estimated from allozyme data. The RAPD data were also analysed using both band-sharing and nucleotide diversity approaches.

A population genetic study of Ostertagia ostertagi in the USA was extended to two different scales: within an Australian state and between the USA and Australian continents. Three alternative explanations for the observed discrepancy between genetic structure and differentiation in an important biological trait, hypobiosis, were explored. A number of programs and analyses were compared including coalescent geneflow estimates.

Variation among multiple copies of two spacer regions of rDNA was examined within individuals of Ostertagia ostertagi. Both the intergenic spacer and internal transcribed spacer 1 regions were found to include repeat regions, with different numbers of repeats creating length differences in clones from the same worm. Multi-copy genes present extra challenges in analysis to ensure that only homologous copies are being compared. Many studies fail to look for variation within populations or within individuals.

The two major conclusions from these examples are that:

1). The study of variation necessarily involves an implicit scale, and markers must be chosen that are appropriate to the question being explored.

2). Using several methods of analysis of genetic data allows contrasts to be made, and if different methods produce similar results gives much more confidence in the conclusions drawn. Incongruence in results leads to new questions and reexamination of the assumptions of each analysis.


The chemical modification of clozapine (1) has permitted the finding of new analogues, e.g., olanzapine (2), quetiapine (3), 5-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-8-chloropyrido[2,3-b][1,5]benzoxazepine fumarate (9), with a clinical or psychopharmacological profile similar to that of clozapine. However, when developing new derivatives, the designers are discouraged by the development of clozapine-induced agranulocytosis. Different researchers have raised the role played by the oxidizability of the molecule in such a deleterious effect. In the present paper, we examined the oxidation profile (direct scavenging abilities, efficacy in inhibiting lipid peroxidation, and electrooxidation potential) of newly developed methoxy and trifluoromethylsulfonyloxy analogues related to clozapine, some of them being described as putative antipsychotic. The oxazepine derivative 7, unlike the other diazepine derivatives (6, 10--12), was not readily oxidized. Using a statistical predictive model for hematotoxicity previously described, 7 was found in the cluster of potentially nontoxic compounds while diazepine derivatives 6 and 10-12 were classified as potentially toxic compounds. Among these original compounds, 7, which presents a preclinical clozapine-like profile and a low sensitivity to oxidation, could be a promising antipsychotic candidate with low side effects. Considering the tricyclic derivatives examined so far, some elements of structure-oxidation relationship (SOR) might be pointed out. Regarding the nature of the tricyclic ring substituent, from the most to the least sensitive to oxidation, the sequence was as follows: HO > Cl > CH(3)O > CF(3)SO(2)O. The nature of the tricyclic ring influenced also the sensitivity to oxidation; the diazepine moiety appeared to be the most reactive ring compared to oxa- and thiazepine congeners. These parameters could be advantageously integrated in the early design of new safer clozapine-like analogues.


The Water Framework Directive is one of the most important pieces of European environmental legislation in recent years, requiring all inland and coastal waters to achieve ''good status'' by 2015. Article 16 of the Directive describes how and by when Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for pollutants should be developed, and states that pollutants presenting a significant risk to or via water should be identified by the European Commission and classified as priority substances, with the most hazardous of these classified as priority hazardous substances. Generation of ecotoxicity test data is one option for filling gaps when deriving EQS but there are also options that avoid testing, such as the use of (Quantitative) Structure Activity Relationships ([Q]SARs), Quantitative Structure-Property Relationships (QSPRs), Activity-Activity Relationships (AARs), Quantitative Structure ActivityActivity Relationships, or read-across from similar substances. All of these nontesting methods are based on the idea that properties (including biological activities) of a chemical substance depend on its intrinsic nature and can be directly predicted from its molecular structure and inferred from the properties of similar compounds whose activities are known. This report explores application of the widely used and freely available EPIWIN suite of QSARs, particularly the ecotoxicity software ECOSAR, for derivation of EQS under the WFD. The predictive ability of these QSARs is examined using the 33 priority substances in the Water Framework Directive Daughter Directive on Priority Substances, plus the additional substances recommended for inclusion by the European Parliament, as representative substances for EQS derivation. We also investigated use of the OECD QSAR Application Toolbox version 1 for read across of data. We address the following questions: 1. How effective are the QSARs in EPIWIN at identifying the selected substances as Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) or very Persistent and very Bioaccumulative (vPvB)? These substances would potentially be classifiable as priority hazardous substances and would also require consideration of sediment toxicity and secondary poisoning through the food chain. 2. How accurate and precise is ECOSAR at estimating acute and chronic toxicity for fish, invertebrates and algae for these substances? 3. How similar are EQS for these substances based on measured data and ECOSAR estimates? 4. To what extent is the most sensitive trophic group accurately predicted by ECOSAR for acute or chronic exposure? 5. Can a formal approach for defining similarity for read-across help to group substances in a defensible way that increases the amount of data available overall for EQS derivation? The following conclusions and recommendations apply generally on the assumption that the substances analysed in this report are representative of the types of substances for which EQS may also need to be set in the future. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AA Annual average concentration (arithmetic mean) AAR Activity-Activity Relationships AF Assessment Factor BCF Bioconcentration Factor ChV Chronic Toxicity Value EQS Environmental Quality Standards MAC Maximum Allowable Concentration MoA Mode of Action NOEC No Observed Effect Concentration OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PAH Polyaromatic hydrocarbons PBT Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic substance PNEC Predicted No Effect Concentration Kow Octanol-water partition coefficient QAAR Quantitative Structure Activity-Activity Relationship QSAR Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship QSPR Quantitative Structure-Property Relationship REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals TGD European Technical Guidance Document on Risk Assessment vPvB very Persistent and very Bioaccumulative WFD Water Framework Directive


Improved mean-field techniques are a central theme of statistical physics methods applied to inference and learning. We revisit here some of these methods using high-temperature expansions for disordered systems initiated by Plefka, Georges and Yedidia. We derive the Gibbs free entropy and the subsequent self-consistent equations for a generic class of statistical models with correlated matrices and show in particular that many classical approximation schemes, such as adaptive TAP, expectation-consistency, or the approximations behind the vector approximate message passing algorithm all rely on the same assumptions, that are also at the heart of high-temperature expansions. We focus on the case of rotationally invariant random coupling matrices in the 'high-dimensional' limit in which the number of samples and the dimension are both large, but with a fixed ratio. This encapsulates many widely studied models, such as restricted Boltzmann machines or generalized linear models with correlated data matrices. In this general setting, we show that all the approximation schemes described before are equivalent, and we conjecture that they are exact in the thermodynamic limit in the replica symmetric phases. We achieve this conclusion by resummation of the infinite perturbation series, which generalises a seminal result of Parisi and Potters. A rigorous derivation of this conjecture is an interesting mathematical challenge. On the way to these conclusions, we uncover several diagrammatical results in connection with free probability and random matrix theory, that are interesting independently of the rest of our work.


Neutron tomography has been applied to investigate the mechanism of hydrogen assisted cracking in technical iron and supermartensitic steel. Rectangular technical iron block samples showed blistering due to intense hydrogen charging and the tomographic method revealed in situ the spatial distribution of hydrogen and cracks. Hydrogen accumulated in a small region around cracks and the cracks are filled with hydrogen gas. Cracks close to the surface contained no hydrogen. Hydrogenous tensile test samples of supermartensitic steel were pulled until rupture and showed hydrogen accumulations at the notch base and in the plastically deformed region around the fracture surface. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Paul Scherrer Institut.


In most cases, in genetic breeding of Arabica coffee, plot size is defined in an empirical manner. It is often based only on the experience of the breeders and the availability of resources, potentially leading to a reduction in precision. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the size of the experimental plot for evaluation of coffee yield. We evaluated two experiments for validation of cultivars with 12 treatments set up in a randomized complete block design with three replicates and plots composed of 50 plants. Each plant was considered as a basic unit. Estimates of ideal plot size were made by maximum curvature of the coefficient of variation, linear-plateau segmented model and by the resampling methods. We discussed the variations in the parameter estimates for different plot sizes. Divergence was seen among the plot sizes estimated by the different methodologies. Increasing the number of plants per plot led to a higher experimental precision to the point that the increase was no longer significant. The plot size recommended for evaluating coffee production is from seven to 19 plants.


Abstract Background: Trauma-related consultations, admissions and complications are the leading problems at Doctors on Call for Service (DOCS) Hospital, Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, and yet no studies have been carried out to document the experience of long-stay traumatic-fracture patients in this hospital. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the experience and psychosocial needs of patients with traumatic fractures treated for more than six months at DOCS Hospital. Methods: Six free-attitude interviews were conducted with purposively selected patients. The interviews were recorded with a tape recorder and transcribed verbatim, and content analysis was used to identify themes from the interviews. Results: All patients could clearly connect the injury experience to severe pain that lingered on for weeks or months for some patients, accompanied by other symptoms such as insomnia, poor appetite and psychological symptoms. Most patients felt disabled, were abandoned by relatives or friends and experienced financial problems. Some benefited from the injury by way of strengthened marital links. Some patients complained of poor information about their illness and the management plan and did not appreciate the treatment from caregivers, while some disclosed their needs and expectations and appreciated the caregivers who showed interest in them. Conclusions: The experience of long-term trauma has negative effects on the whole person of the patient, including his or her work and family, and some patients continue to suffer from the effects of the traumatic event up to six months later. The needs of patients suffering from trauma include reassurance by physicians and nurses, more information and participation in the decision-making process, regular visits from friends and family, and better bedside manners from caregivers.


Here we present three-dimensional MHD models for the Parker instability in a thick magnetized disk, including the presence of a spiral arm. The B field is assumed parallel to the arm, and the model results are applied to the optical segment of the Carina-Sagittarius arm. The characteristic features of the undular and interchange modes are clearly apparent in the simulations. The interchange mode appears first and generates small interstellar structures in the interarm regions, but its development inside the arm is hampered by the acceleration of the spiral wave. In contrast, the undular mode follows its normal evolution inside the spiral wave, creating large gas concentrations distributed along the arm. This results in a clear arm/interarm difference; the instability triggers the formation of large interstellar clouds (with masses in the range of 106-107 M☉) inside the arms but generates only small structures with slight density enhancements in the interarm regions. The resulting clouds are distributed in an antisymmetric way with respect to the midplane, and their masses are similar to those inferred for H I superclouds in our Galaxy. Such a cloud distribution results in an azimuthal corrugation along the arm, and for conditions similar to those of the optical segment of the Carina-Sagittarius arm, it has a wavelength of about 2.4 kpc. This structuring, then, can explain the origin of both H I superclouds and the azimuthal corrugations in spiral arms. In particular, the wavelength of the fastest growing undular mode matches the corrugation length derived with the young stellar groups located in the optical segment of the Carina-Sagittarius arm.


The Court has used radically different techniques when it evaluates the scope of particular rules. When it examines whether there is a conflict between a Federal Rule and a provision of state law (usually, but not always, procedural law), it employs a distinctly read-my-lips approach to determining whether the Federal Rule speaks to the issue with the directness that Hanna v. Plumer (1965) and subsequent cases require. But when the Court considers whether a Federal Rule is consistent with the Rules Enabling Act's (REA) requirement that no Rule shall "abridge, enlarge or modify" substantive law, a majority of the Justices abandons that direct approach in favor of a far more amorphous consideration, including whether the state rule is "outcome affective" and whether the state rule, even if cast as a procedural rule, nonetheless embodies by implication some substantive state policy.The result, predictably, is great confusion and very limited direction to the inferior federal courts. The most recent manifestation of the confusion came in Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, Inc. v. Allstate Insurance Company (2010), where there were split majorities both on the approach the Court should use in REA cases and on how the Court should decide Shady Grove. This article focuses on the Justices' divergent approaches to REA questions, and concludes that the read-my-lips approach bequeathed by Hanna and its successors is also the proper approach with respect to REA questions.The reason for this conclusion is that the Court's mission in deciding both types of Federal Rules cases (1) whether there is a sufficiently direct conflict between federal and state law and 2) whether a Federal Rule violates REA's language) is fundamentally the same. The question is whether the Rule speaks to a particular issue, and the question is the same whether the issue is substantive or procedural. The Article argues that the Hanna-Walker read-my-lips approach is appropriate in both circumstances. If a Federal Rule does not speak directly to an issue (as the Court decided it did not in Walker v. Armco Steel Co. (1980) (Rule 3 says nothing about the event that stops the running of a state statute of limitations and therefore does not apply to that issue in diversity cases.)) then it does not concern that issue. The Federal Rules mean precisely what they say; inferences are inappropriate. There is no reason to abandon that approach in REA cases.The advantage of the Hanna-Walker approach is plain. It simplifies the inquiry, brings consistency to the manner in which the Court construes and applies the Federal Rules, and offers far more guidance to the inferior federal courts than does the current regime. While clarity and simplicity are second-order rather than first-order values in the law, the Court should not scorn them unnecessarily.


Alain Badiou's Being and Event is the most original and significant work of French philosophy to have appeared in recent decades. It is the magnum opus of a thinker who is widely considered to have re-shaped the character and set new terms for the future development of philosophy in France and elsewhere. This book has been written very much with a view to clarifying Badiou's complex and demanding work for non-specialist readers. It offers guidance on philosophical and intellectual context, key themes, reading the text, reception and influence; and further reading.


This thesis grew out of a problem encountered by a subsidiary of a Swedish multinational industrial corporation. This subsidiary is responsible for the corporation's customer financing activities. In the thesis, we refer to these entities as the Division and the Corporation. The Division needed to find a new approach to finance its customer loan portfolio. Risk control and return maximization were important aspects of this need. The objective of this thesis is to devise and implement a method that allows the Division to make optimal funding decisions, given a certain risk limit. We propose a funding approach based on stochastic programming. Our approach allows the Division's portfolio manager to minimize the funding costs while hedging against market risk. We employ principal component analysis and Monte Carlo simulation to develop a multicurrency scenario generation model for interest and exchange rates. Market rate scenarios are used as input to three different optimization models. Each of the optimization models presents the optimal funding decision as positions in a unique set of financial instruments. By choosing between the optimization models, the portfolio manager can decide which financial instruments he wants to use to fund the loan portfolio. To validate our models, we perform empirical tests on historical market data. Our results show that our optimization models have the potential to deliver sound and profitable funding decisions. In particular, we conclude that the utilization of one of our optimization models would have resulted in an increase in the Division's net income over the past 3.5 years.


In this paper we consider the possible consequences that accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) bears for Belarus. Our approach is based on partial equilibrium. We have applied a method of locating specific 'sensitive' points in the economy and treating them as separate items specific elements in the economic system on which WTO access will have an appreciable impact. Our research focuses on Belarusian manufacturing. We first determine possible changes in access to foreign markets associated with the cancellation of discriminatory non-tariff, antidumping and other restrictive measures introduced by WTO members. Total losses to the Belarusian manufacturers are currently estimated to be of the order of USD 230-250 million a year. Lifting those barriers will constitute the immediate short-term benefits to Belarus on accession to the WTO. In order to assess the short-term impact of WTO accession on Belarusian manufacturing, the scenario used assumed a reduction of tariffs, complete removal of discriminatory measures and a lowering of market barriers to Belarusian exports. A quantitative assessment was made of the gains and losses by manufacturing branch, followed by a simple sensitivity analysis. The latter revealed the Belarusian manufacturers' ability to withstand increased import competition up until such time as the requisite restructuring measures have been introduced. Summary conclusions are drawn for each branch in the light of those findings. One section of the paper focuses on the implications for Belarus of the Russian Federation's accession to the WTO. Consideration is given to the possible impact on Belarusian exports to the Russian market. The analysis shows, however, that Russia's joining the WTO does not incur the risk of Belarus losing its share of the Russian market. In the final section, consideration is given to state support for agriculture and the development of service markets, with a discussion on possible forms of, and limits to, liberalization. The final conclusion is that liberalizing the imports of certain items is very much in line with the need to revise the current structure of trade specialization in Belarus. Import liberalization should not be seen simply as a trade-off for the non-discrimination of Belarusian exports. If the economy of Belarus is to benefit, the country must pursue a consistent policy of cutting back or closing down those manufacturing activities that are unlikely to evolve into internationally competitive industries. Liberalization of the domestic market in the wake of WTO accession must be in keeping with (a) the financial viability of specific industries; and (b) the need to provide in a manner compatible with WTO rules and regulations additional protection to those industries with high value-added that are of strategic importance to the country's future development.