Awareness of bias in algorithms is growing among scholars and users of algorithmic systems. But what can we observe about how users discover and behave around such biases? We used a cross-platform audit technique that analyzed online ratings of 803 hotels across three hotel rating platforms and found that one site's algorithmic rating system biased ratings, particularly low-to-medium quality hotels, significantly higher than others (up to 37%). Analyzing reviews of 162 users who independently discovered this bias, we seek to understand if, how, and in what ways users perceive and manage this bias. Users changed the typical ways they used a review on a hotel rating platform to instead discuss the rating system itself and raise other users' awareness of the rating bias. This raising of awareness included practices like efforts to reverse-engineer the rating algorithm, efforts to correct the bias, and demonstrations of broken trust. We conclude with a discussion of how such behavior patterns might inform design approaches that anticipate unexpected bias and provide reliable means for meaningful bias discovery and response.


Haemophilia is an inherited condition in which circulating blood clotting factors are much reduced or absent resulting in the tendency to bleed into joint cavities where the ankle is the most commonly affected. Prophylactic replacement of clotting factors has much improved joint health in the majority of people with haemophilia however many continue to develop joint disease.
Purpose. To explore the potential for non-haematological factors to influence the development of haemophilic arthropathy at the ankle.
Methods. This study had two phases. Factors for investigation were determined using a Delphi process and subsequently preliminary clinical instrument testing occurred. Finally a case-control correlational study was carried out to investigate the presence of selected factors in a haemophilia cohort compared with normal volunteers.
Results. Forty-two factors reached consensus from the Delphi Process of which 22 were selected for onward investigation comprising musculoskeletal, exercise, and haematological factors. In a case-control study with 90 participants, six factors successfully differentiated the Haemophilia Ankle group from the others. A further three factors separated people with haemophilia from normal volunteers representing musculoskeletal differences that cannot be attributed to arthropathy. A regression model was developed comprising: the Ankle Lunge Test, Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM), Duration of Exposure to a key sport and Subtalar joint inversion which correctly predicted 89.7% of cases with 86.7% sensitivity and 92.9% specificity.
Conclusions. These results represent the first attempt to understand the interaction of factors that influence the arthropathy development. The FAAM sports subscale and Duration of Exposure to a key sport were identified as independent variables with the strongest association with haemophilic arthropathy at the ankle. Avenues for physiotherapeutic intervention have been identified with preventative screening tools and pre-habilitation programmes possible for young boys with haemophilia at risk of developing this debilitating condition.


The research fields of harmonic analysis, approximation theory and computer algebra are seemingly different domains and are studied by seemingly separated research communities. However, all of these are connected to each other in many ways.

The connection between harmonic analysis and approximation theory is not accidental: several constructions among which wavelets and Fourier series, provide major insights into central problems in approximation theory. And the intimate connection between approximation theory and computer algebra exists even longer: polynomial interpolation is a long-studied and important problem in both symbolic and numeric computing, in the former to counter expression swell and in the latter to construct a simple data model.

A common underlying problem statement in many applications is that of determining the number of components, and for each component the value of the frequency, damping factor, amplitude and phase in a multi-exponential model. It occurs, for instance, in magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy, vibration analysis, seismic data analysis, electronic odour recognition, keystroke recognition, nuclear science, music signal processing, transient detection, motor fault diagnosis, electrophysiology, drug clearance monitoring and glucose tolerance testing, to name just a few.

The general technique of multi-exponential modeling is closely related to what is commonly known as the Pad/'e-Laplace method in approximation theory, and the technique of sparse interpolation in the field of computer algebra. The problem statement is also solved using a stochastic perturbation method in harmonic analysis. The problem of multi-exponential modeling is an inverse problem and therefore may be severely ill-posed, depending on the relative location of the frequencies and phases. Besides the reliability of the estimated parameters, the sparsity of the multi-exponential representation has become important. A representation is called sparse if it is a combination of only a few elements instead of all available generating elements. In sparse interpolation, the aim is to determine all the parameters from only a small amount of data samples, and with a complexity proportional to the number of terms in the representation.

Despite the close connections between these fields, there is a clear lack of communication in the scientific literature. The aim of this seminar is to bring researchers together from the three mentioned fields, with scientists from the varied application domains.


Focardi and Fabozzi argue that current mainstream economics is not a science in the sense of the physical sciences, and they draw some conclusions from the point of view of asset management. Their key point is that economics as embodied in the general equilibrium theories describes an idealized rational economic world as opposed to one based on empirical data. Although this argument has already been made, it has been virtually ignored by economists. The current crisis, however, requires an economic understanding anchored on a solid empirical basis. The authors review a number of facts, including the following: 1) market efficiency is a quantitative concept, with efficiency defined in terms of the magnitude of realistic profit opportunities; 2) the dynamic vector-like nature of inflation challenges current theories about inflation and the generation of money, making growth path-dependent; 3) economic conservation laws are key to understanding growth; and 4) a market economy cannot support an unbounded level of wealth and income inequality because they become a destabilizing factor. The overall lesson for asset management is that economics matters and that the culture of pure speculation would be replaced profitably for society as a whole with a true culture of investment.


Objective: Drug hypersensitivity is an important problem because of its fatal consequences, prolonged hospitalization and increased treatment cost. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the knowledge level and attitude of the pediatrics and family health assistant physicians regarding drug hypersensitivity. Materials and Methods: Pediatrics and family health assistant physicians in Ankara and Mugla were enrolled into the study. Physicians who accepted to participate in the study completed a survey form. Results: 73.2% (n: 60) of the participating physicians were pediatrics assistants and 26.8% (n: 22) were family health assistants; thus a total of 82 assistants were included in the study. The average age was 27.54±1.75 (minimum-maximum: 25 – 33) years and 80.5% (n: 66) were female. 48.8% (n: 40) of the participants stated that they were encountering 1–2 drug allergy cases per month. Only 24.4% (n: 20) of them questioned drug allergy before prescribing. 80.5% (n: 66) of the participants stated that urticaria/angioedema emerging after drug administration is a type I hypersensitivity reaction and 81.7% (n: 67) claimed that anaphylaxis is a type I hypersensitivity reaction. We observed that patients diagnosed with vasovagal syncope after parenteral drug administration were diagnosed with anaphylaxis by 54.9% (n: 45) of the participants. Conclusion: Increasing the awareness about drug allergies will enable early intervention, proper selection of alternative drug treatment, and prevention of the mortality and morbidity. Physicians should be educated about drug allergies, in order to increase their knowledge to a satisfactory level.


Interrelations between parenting stress, quality of parent-adolescent relationship, and communication between parents and adolescents were studied in a sample of 124 Hispanic parents (62 mothers and 62 fathers) of adolescents. Parents responded to two subscales of the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIPA; Sheras, Abidin, & Konold, 1998), and the Parent Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS; Barnes & Olson, 1982). As expected, a closer and mutually supportive parent-adolescent relationship, and better communication between parents and adolescents were both associated with lower levels of parenting stress. However, a higher level of stress in mothers was not found, as in earlier studies. Results are discussed in the light of specific sample as well as cultural characteristics. Parenting characteristics have been linked to developmental outcomes in children (Domitrovich & Bierman, 2001) and adolescents (Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991), and identified as a crucial component of children's social context. At the same time, there is a general consensus that parenting is perhaps the most difficult role that adults play. There is no explicit preparation for the inherently ill-defined parenting role in the course of socialization (Coleman, 1997; Pasley & Gecas, 1984), especially for men, and parents have to make decisions for children in a constantly changing world, thus increasing the uncertainty about the appropriateness of those decisions. It is hardly surprising then, that all parents experience a certain amount of stress associated with parenting. Indeed parenting stress itself has been recognized as a central variable determining parenting behaviors. In his model of determinants of parenting behavior, Abidin (1992) visualized parenting stress as a result of parents' judgment of present threats and supports available to them. This stress in turn could produce motivational arousal and lead parents to maximize available physical and psychological resources to succeed in parenting. The success of parenting is determined by the availability and competent use of resources. Empirically, even low levels of stress may lead to ineffectual parenting (Abidin, 1992), which can take the form of a lowered ability to read the child's signals and needs accurately, and respond to them effectively. Parenting stress may be compounded as children enter adolescence. Most scholars agree that while a majority of families usher their children through adolescence to young adulthood with a fair amount of success and satisfaction, navigating adolescence is rather tricky due to the combination of developmental tasks of adolescence and the likely mid-life challenges confronting parents. The key challenge in the parent-adolescent relationship is accommodating distance while maintaining attachment (Williams, 2003). Adolescents desire greater privacy in their pursuit to individuate themselves from their parents, and parents find it difficult to relinquish the control they have enjoyed, which is sometimes prompted by an anxiety for the safety of the adolescent (Petronio, 1994). Also, increasing sociocognitive skills in the adolescents, such as perspective-taking and coordinating multiple perspectives, can lead them to question their parents' authority and increase the chances of argumentation. In addition to issues related to control, obstacles in communication appear during adolescence because of the awkwardness induced by pubertal changes and emerging sexuality (Henricson & Roker, 2000), and a general embarrassment in talking about sex and drugs (Coleman, 1997). This turbulence in communication cannot come at a worse time, since effective communication within the family is especially important in facilitating identity formation during adolescence (Barnes & Olson, 1985). Parents who can communicate effectively are better able to express their values and beliefs to adolescents (Small & Eastman, 1991), and adolescents who perceive their parents as more responsive are more likely to seek their parents' advice (Bednar & Fisher, 2003). …


Background/Aims Spontaneous reporting systems have several weak points, such as low reporting rates and insufficient clinical information. Active surveillance programs, such as ward rounds and a clinical data repository (CDR), may supplement the weak points of such systems. We developed active surveillance programs and compared them with existing spontaneous reporting. Methods We collected adverse drug event (ADE) cases, which comprised 1,055 cases of spontaneous reporting, 309 reported by ward rounds, and 229 found using a CDR. The clinical features and causative drugs were evaluated. Results Active surveillance programs detected additional serious ADEs compared to those of spontaneous reporting programs. The ADEs identified by CDR (22.9%) were more likely to be classified as "serious" than those reported spontaneously (5.2%) or identified during ward rounds (10.3%). Causative drugs also differed. Opioids, antibiotics, and contrast media were the most common drugs causing ADEs in the spontaneous reporting system, whereas the active surveillance programs identified antibiotics as the most common causative drug. Clinical features also differed. ADEs with gastrointestinal manifestations were reported most frequently by spontaneous reporting programs. ADEs reported from active surveillance more reliably identified events associated with changes in laboratory values, such as hepatobiliary toxicity, hematologic manifestations, and nephrologic manifestations, compared with spontaneous reporting programs. Conclusions Our findings suggest that active surveillance programs can supplement spontaneous reporting systems in hospitals. ADEs related to laboratory abnormalities were monitored more closely by active surveillance programs and may be useful for identification of serious ADEs.


An 81 year old man presented with a 10 day history of an extensive blistering rash that was profoundly itchy. He had a history of hypothyroidism and a deep vein thrombosis. He was receiving carbimazole and warfarin and denied any recent changes in medication.

On examination he had more than 100 blisters over his whole body, although his face was spared (fig 1⇓). Some of the blisters formed a circinate pattern. Nikolsky's sign was negative. The mucous membranes were not affected.

Fig 1 Rash on patient's torso

Blood tests including full blood count, urea and electrolytes, and liver function tests were within normal ranges. He had a C reactive protein of 28.8 mg/L (reference range 0-4.9; 1 mg/L=9.52 nmol/L).

### 1 What are the possible causes of this man's blisters?

#### Short answer

The main differential diagnoses are bullous pemphigoid, linear IgA disease, and epidermolysis bullosa acquisita.1 This patient had bullous pemphigoid, the most common autoimmune subepidermal blistering disorder. It mainly affects older patients and presents with tense fluid filled blisters that can appear anywhere on the body, including the mucous membranes. It typically occurs over the limbs, groin, and abdomen.1 2

#### Long answer

Differential diagnoses for skin blistering disorders include bullous pemphigoid, epidermolysis bullosa acquisita, linear IgA disease, and a bullous drug reaction.1 Localised blisters, particularly those on the feet, may be caused by infections such as bullous tinea pedis. Superficial pemphigus vulgaris can usually be discounted because it rarely leaves more than erosions.3

Linear IgA disease typically produces symmetrical annular collections of papules and bullae on the extensor surfaces.2 It is a rare autoimmune condition. Linear depositions of IgA are seen …


Recently, autonomous vehicles have received worldwide attentions from academic research, automotive industry and the general public. In order to achieve a higher level of automation, one of the most fundamental requirements of autonomous vehicles is the capability to respond to internal and external changes in a safe, timely and appropriate manner. Situational awareness and decision making are two crucial enabling technologies for safe operation of autonomous vehicles.
This thesis presents a solution for improving the automation level of autonomous vehicles in both situational awareness and decision making aspects by utilising additional domain knowledge such as constraints and influence on a moving object caused by environment and interaction between different moving objects. This includes two specific sub-systems, model based target tracking in environmental perception module and motion planning in path planning module.
In the first part, a rigorous Bayesian framework is developed for pooling road constraint information and sensor measurement data of a ground vehicle to provide better situational awareness. Consequently, a new multiple targets tracking (MTT) strategy is proposed for solving target tracking problems with nonlinear dynamic systems and additional state constraints. Besides road constraint information, a vehicle movement is generally affected by its surrounding environment known as interaction information. A novel dynamic modelling approach is then proposed by considering the interaction information as virtual force which is constructed by involving the target state, desired dynamics and interaction information. The proposed modelling approach is then accommodated in the proposed MTT strategy for incorporating different types of domain knowledge in a comprehensive manner.
In the second part, a new path planning strategy for autonomous vehicles operating in partially known dynamic environment is suggested. The proposed MTT technique is utilized to provide accurate on-board tracking information with associated level of uncertainty. Based on the tracking information, a path planning strategy is developed to generate collision free paths by not only predicting the future states of the moving objects but also taking into account the propagation of the associated estimation uncertainty within a given horizon. To cope with a dynamic and uncertain road environment, the strategy is implemented in a receding horizon fashion.


Abstract Understanding the properties of time averaging (age mixing) in a stratigraphic layer is essential for properly interpreting the paleofauna preserved in the geologic record. This work assesses the age and quantifies the scale and structure of time averaging of land snail-rich colluvial sediments from the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal) by dating individual shells using amino acid racemization calibrated with graphite-target and carbonate-target accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon methods. Gastropod shells of Actinella nitidiuscula were collected from seven sites on the volcanic islands of Bugio and Deserta Grande (Desertas Islands), where snail shells are abundant and well preserved in Quaternary colluvial deposits. Results show that the shells ranged in age from modern to ~48 cal ka BP (calibrated radiocarbon age), covering the last glacial and present interglacial periods. Snail shells retrieved from two of the colluvial sites exhibit multimillennial age mixing (>6 ka), which significantly exceeds the analytical error from dating methods and calibration. The observed multimillennial mixing of these assemblages should be taking into consideration in upcoming paleoenvironmental and paleoecological studies in the region. The extent of age mixing may also inform about the time span of colluvial deposition, which can be useful in future geomorphological studies. In addition, this study presents the first carbonate-target radiocarbon results for land snail shells and suggests that this novel, rapid, and more affordable dating method offers reliable age estimates for small land snail shells younger than ~20 cal ka BP.


Abstract:In April 2019, mass uprisings in Algeria and Sudan toppled their longtime dictators. Yet the two countries' paths soon diverged. Protesters in Sudan secured a pact with the regime's remnants and embarked on a democratic transition. Protesters in Algeria, however, rallied until May 2021 but could not compel a regime transition. This divergence stems from: 1) the level of organization among protesters; 2) the degree of unity of the regime's security forces; and 3) the extent of international mediation. A comparison of Algeria and Sudan points to the importance of pacted transitions and sheds new light on the factors that facilitate such pacts.


Biomimetic robots are promising tools in animal behavioural studies. If they are socially integrated in a group of animals, they can produce calibrated social stimuli to test the animal responses. However, the design of such social robots is challenging as it involves both a luring capability including appropriate robot behaviours, and the acceptation of the robots by the animals as social companions. Here, we investigate the integration of a biomimetic robot driven by biomimetic behavioural models into a group of zebrafish (Danio rerio). The robot behaviours are based on a stochastic model linking zebrafish visual perception to individual behaviour and calibrated experimentally to correspond to the behaviour of zebrafish. We show that our robot can be integrated into a group of zebrafish, mimic their behaviour and exhibit similar collective dynamics compared to fish-only groups. This study shows that an autonomous biomimetic robot was enhanced by a biomimetic behavioural model so that it can socially integrate into groups of fish.


Sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation through Grant GN 534.1 from the Office of Science Information Service to the Computer and Information Science Research Center, The Ohio State Universality.


We study minimax convergence rates of nonparametric density estimation under a large class of loss functions called "adversarial losses", which, besides classical $\mathcal{L}^p$ losses, includes maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), Wasserstein distance, and total variation distance. These losses are closely related to the losses encoded by discriminator networks in generative adversarial networks (GANs). In a general framework, we study how the choice of loss and the assumed smoothness of the underlying density together determine the minimax rate. We also discuss implications for training GANs based on deep ReLU networks, and more general connections to learning implicit generative models in a minimax statistical sense.


Web 2.0 has captured the interest and the imagination of both educators and researchers while it is expected to exert a significant impact on instruction and learning, in the context of the 21st century education. Hailed as an open collaborative learning space, many questions remain unanswered regarding the appropriate teacher preparation and the pedagogical impact of using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom practice. Do teachers feel comfortable and ready to adopt educational Web 2.0? What are their beliefs and perceptions regarding the educational potential of Web 2.0? What are the educational and contextual issues that determine teachers' challenges and decisions to use Web 2.0 in their classroom practice? This paper addresses the questions above by presenting the design and the implementation of a development program aiming to prepare teachers to make meaningful and purposeful use of Web 2.0 tools in their classroom. The model of technological pedagogical content knowledge and the authentic learning approach were the guiding principles that largely influenced the Web 2.0 pedagogical framework, which was designed and applied in this particular teacher preparation program. The program findings were encouraging as far as the participants' perceptions and beliefs towards educational Web 2.0 and the expected outcomes for the students. Implications and recommendations are drawn in relation to the use of the proposed Web 2.0 pedagogical framework to guide teachers' development and the effective implementation of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom to maximize benefits and enhance students' learning.


Over the past two decades, network scholarship has repeatedly raised the issue of the limited attention given to socio-political considerations in the study of business-government relationships. It seems paradoxical that the theoretical understanding of political embeddedness of business networks remains limited, despite an increasingly globalized world, and the associated interconnectedness this brings between firms and governments. Firms' responses to climate change constitute a case in which governmental actors are deeply embedded in wider business networks. Previous research on political embeddedness of business networks raises questions about how the formulation and implementation of government policy changes affect the business network itself. In an attempt to further our understanding of the issues these questions pose, it is vital to recognize and study the interconnectedness of these networks as it allows an unveiling of the fundamental barriers and enablers of organizational responses to climate change. The study is based upon an in-depth analysis of Chinese Electricity Industry Networks. Findings suggest that governmental interventions at any point in the network may spread across the wider inter-business networks, policy-business networks as well as inter- and intra-governmental networks. Hereby, we posit that governmental intervention acts as both, barrier and enabler of organizational responses to climate change. The present study contributes to our understanding of the embeddedness of business networks in a wider political context.


This paper studies the problem of indoor zone temperature control in shared work-spaces equipped with heterogeneous heating and cooling sources with the goal of increased energy savings and environment personalization. We consider two scenarios to assess the performance of our control strategies. The first scenario requires time-bound pre-cooling/pre-heating of a shared space in preparation for a scheduled activity (Scenario A). The second scenario considers a cohabited work-space where occupants have different temperature preferences (Scenario B). Utilizing an on-campus smart conference room (SCR) as a testbed, we use data-driven model learning to establish a relationship between the room's heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) operations and the zone temperatures. Next, we use a model predictive control (MPC)-based approach to achieve a desired average temperature while minimizing power consumption (for Scenario A) and minimize the thermal discomfort experienced by individuals based on their temperature preferences (for Scenario B). The experimental results show that for Scenario A, the proposed control policy can save a significant amount of energy and achieve the desired mean temperature in the space fairly accurately. We further note that for Scenario B, the control scheme can achieve a significant spatial differentiation in temperature towards satisfying the occupants' thermal preferences.


As everyday technologies become more implicated in our physical health and mental wellbeing, the dependent relationship between people, technology and the environment cannot be ignored.  There is a responsibility to examine assumptions around the relationships between body, technology and culture. What are the dominant paradigms and tacit assumptions underlying the designs and products that become embedded in daily life? How is movement and posture understood?  What implications do these models have on how people understand and use their bodies in daily life?
It is this set of questions that underpins our research into the application of principles of Feldenkrais Method to interaction design, or what we call body-centric interaction design. We began this enquiry with a focus on the workplace, and how it could be redesigned through the lens of Feldenkrais Method.  Our approach shares the values of body-conscious design introduced by Galen Cranz (2000), and extends the focus from the design of furniture and environment to include the use of digital, interactive technologies. It also builds on Margaret Kaye's previous Feldenkrais-based workplace consultancy, including running workshops, on sitting, examining individual work areas, and adjusting work physical structures to suit the individual person.  The consultancy was premised on the basis that we work with what we have. In contrast, the new study has enabled an exploration of new concepts using interactive technologies to support the aims of Feldenkrais practice in the workplace.


Rice husks are an important by-product of rice milling process and are major waste product of the agricultural industry. Rice husk contain nearly 20 mass% silica, which is present in hydrated amorphous form. They have now become a great source as a raw biomass material for manufacturing of value-added silicon composite products, including silicon carbide, silicon nitride, silicon tetrachloride, magnesium silicide, pure silicon, zeolite, fillers of rubber and plastic composites, cement, adsorbent and support of heterogeneous catalysts. The rice husk was subjected to pyrolysis in fluidized-bed pilot plant in air or nitrogen atmosphere. The controlled thermal degradation of the rice husks in air or nitrogen leads to production of white rice husks ash (WRHA) and black rice husks ash (BRHA) respectively. WRHA contains almost pure (95mass %) silica in a hydrated amorphous form, similar to silica gel, with high porosity and reactive surface OH groups. BRHA contains different amounts of carbon and silica in amorphous form with high specific surface area and porosity. The raw rice husks and the obtained pyrolysis products were used as fillers of polypropylene (PP) and tetrafluoroethylene-ethylene copolymer (TFE-E) composites. The kinetics and thermodynamics of water adsorption onto filled polypropylene composites during soaking were studied at different temperatures, quantities and nature of fillers. It was established, that the adsorption kinetics was limited by intra-particle diffusion in plane sheet particles. The sorption process is exothermal in nature and accompanied with decrease of the entropy. The physicomechanical properties of composite materials were determined. The fillers introduced in polypropylene change the mechanical strength and make the composites brittle. This change is more pronounced for the composites with BRHA and RRH, followed by WRHA. The composites studied showed lower elongation at break. The biggest decrease was observed for the composites with BRHA where e decrease from 500 (for the initial PP) to 7 % at filling degree of 20 mass %. The effects of the amount of adsorbed water, temperature and treatment time on the composites tensile properties were estimated. It was found after immersion in water that the composites improve their tensile strength compared to initial non-treated samples. The thermal stability and kinetics of non-isothermal degradation of PP and TFE-E composites filled with 10 or 20 mass % vigorously grounded and mixed RRH, BRHA, WRHA and Aerosil Degussa (AR) were studied. Using different calculation procedures the most probably kinetic mechanism was found to be described by kinetic equations of n -th order (Fn mechanism). The kinetic parameters were obtained, and a linear dependence between ln A and E was observed, known also as kinetic compensation effect. The abundance of a waste from paddy milling industry, as well as its interesting complex of behaviors are prerequisite for success for obtaining of cheap and valuable products and gives a new alternatives for its applications. The production of value added materials from rice husks not only facilitates utilization of an abundantly available agro waste, but also reduces the environmental pollution and solves a serious ecological problem.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise 149 hospitality-related studies published in the past two decades pertaining to environmental management (EM). The review was divided into three main stages: 1993-1999, 2000-2009 and 2010-2014 and provided future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

The study sample consisted of articles published between 1993 and 2014 in four leading hospitality journals. The four journals chosen were the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. The title, abstract and the content, as needed, of all EM-related full-length articles from these four journals were content analysed. Editors' notes, book reviews, industry news, conference papers and research notes were excluded from this paper.

Findings

EM research in the hospitality industry during the first two stages focused on the development of environmental policies and practices, green consumerism, managers' environmental attitudes, indoor air quality and smoke-free environments, sustainable development, environmental performance, environmental cost control and environmental management systems (EMSs). During the third stage from 2010 to 2014, topics about environmental benchmarking and indicators have surfaced. Notwithstanding this, EM in the environmental reporting, and green marketing have been pursued less enthusiastically.

Research limitations/implications

Compared with the mainstream management literature and considering the future development of EM, hospitality scholars are encouraged to extend their research to include green marketing, environmental technologies, environmental reporting, carbon footprint, employees' green behaviour, the effects of EM on hospitality firms' stakeholders and small- and medium-sized hospitality firms. In addition, more effort should be spent on developing hospitality-specific theories for EM.

Originality/value

Little has been done to determine the main research agendas in hospitality EM. A review of recent research on this topic provides an inventory of existing knowledge and points out areas requiring further knowledge exploration.


In mammals the cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) subfamily isoforms are primarily expressed in liver and intestines with lesser amounts found in other tissues. The aim of this study was to examine the cellular localization and the expression pattern of CYP3A27 in the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) of a freshwater teleost species, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), a fish model used extensively for toxicological and carcinogenesis research. Using an avidin biotinylated enzyme complex and 3,3'-diaminobenzidine staining, strong cytoplasmic immunohistochemical staining was observed for CYP3A27 protein in hepatocytes and in enterocytes of the intestinal ceca and the proximal descending intestine when probed with a polyclonal antibody raised against rainbow trout P450 LMC5, a CYP3A protein. The intensity of epithelial staining decreased distally along the GI tract with faint staining observed in the epithelial cells examined near the vent. Western blot analysis was supportive of the immunohistochemistry results. Northern blot analysis also demonstrated that CYP3A27 mRNA was expressed along the entire GI tract. The major area of CYP3A27 mRNA expression was in the intestinal ceca, followed by the proximal descending intestine, at levels that were about three- to five-fold and two- to four-fold, respectively, greater than seen in the liver of the fish studied. Monooxygenase activities of intestinal ceca microsomes against testosterone and progesterone confirmed the presence of active CYP3A enzyme in this tissue. These results suggest that the intestine of rainbow trout may possesses substantial capacity for first-pass metabolism of xenobiotics by CYP3A27, which makes it an excellent model in which to study the consequence of such metabolism.


Data cube construction has been the focus of much research due to its importance in improving efficiency of OLAP. A significant fraction of this work has been on ROLAP techniques, which are based on relational technology. Existing ROLAP cubing solutions mainly focus on "flat" datasets, which do not include hierarchies in their dimensions. Nevertheless, the nature of hierarchies introduces several complications into cube construction, making existing techniques essentially inapplicable in a significant number of real-world applications. In particular, hierarchies raise three main challenges: (a) The number of nodes in a cube lattice increases dramatically and its shape is more involved. These require new forms of lattice traversal for efficient execution. (b) The number of unique values in the higher levels of a dimension hierarchy may be very small; hence, partitioning data into fragments that fit in memory and include all entries of a particular value may often be impossible. This requires new partitioning schemes. (c) The number of tuples that need to be materialized in the final cube increases dramatically. This requires new storage schemes that remove all forms of redundancy for efficient space utilization. In this paper, we propose CURE, a novel ROLAP cubing method that addresses these issues and constructs complete data cubes over very large datasets with arbitrary hierarchies. CURE contributes a novel lattice traversal scheme, an optimized partitioning method, and a suite of relational storage schemes for all forms of redundancy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of CURE through experiments on both real-world and synthetic datasets. Among the experimental results, we distinguish those that have made CURE the first ROLAP technique to complete the construction of the cube of the highest-density dataset in the APB-1 benchmark (12 GB). CURE was in fact quite efficient on this, showing great promise with respect to the potential of the technique overall.


BACKGROUND
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have been shown to reduce cardiovascular mortality at a dose of ≈1 g/d. Studies using higher doses have shown evidence of reduced inflammation and improved endothelial function. Few studies have compared these doses.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to compare the effects of a nutritional dose of EPA+DHA (0.85 g/d) with those of a pharmaceutical dose (3.4 g/d) on serum triglycerides, inflammatory markers, and endothelial function in healthy subjects with moderately elevated triglycerides.

DESIGN
This was a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized, 3-period crossover trial (8 wk of treatment, 6 wk of washout) that compared the effects of 0.85 and 3.4 g EPA+DHA/d in 23 men and 3 postmenopausal women with moderate hypertriglyceridemia (150-500 mg/dL).

RESULTS
The higher dose of EPA+DHA lowered triglycerides by 27% compared with placebo (mean ± SEM: 173 ± 17.5 compared with 237 ± 17.5 mg/dL; P = 0.002), whereas no effect of the lower dose was observed on lipids. No effects on cholesterol (total, LDL, and HDL), endothelial function [as assessed by flow-mediated dilation, peripheral arterial tonometry/EndoPAT (Itamar Medical Ltd, Caesarea, Israel), or Doppler measures of hyperemia], inflammatory markers (interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein), or the expression of inflammatory cytokine genes in isolated lymphocytes were observed.

CONCLUSION
The higher dose (3.4 g/d) of EPA+DHA significantly lowered triglycerides, but neither dose improved endothelial function or inflammatory status over 8 wk in healthy adults with moderate hypertriglyceridemia. The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00504309.


It is not surprising that the problems of choice of law and international group insolvency have not been sufficiently addressed during the initial development of cross-border insolvency frameworks. The choice of law problem raises difficult questions and affects substantive rights in the context of cross-border insolvency. International group enterprises come about in different legal and operational structures, requiring a sufficiently nuanced regime that could properly accommodate the diverse types of groups. Generally, the regulation of groups is difficult, as it raises a concern of defeating the economic merits of the corporate form. Addressing the combined problem of international groups and choice of law presents significant challenges, and requires careful analysis of economic structures and their implications on both creditors' expectations regarding their substantive rights and the ability to achieve efficient solutions in insolvency. This Article aims to provide a roadmap of choice of law solutions in international enterprise group cases, and to compare these solutions with the existing cross-border insolvency practice and the cross-border insolvency frameworks.


About Us: The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table is a group of scientific experts and health system leaders who evaluate and report on emerging evidence relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, to inform Ontario's response. Our mandate is to provide weekly summaries of relevant scientific evidence for the COVID-19 Health Coordination Table of the Province of Ontario, integrating information from existing scientific tables, Ontario's universities and agencies, and the best global evidence. The Science Table summarizes its findings for the Health Coordination Table and the public in Science Briefs.


Objective: Bone marrow examination is essential for staging Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL) at the time of diagnosis to determine the correct treatment and prognosis of the disease. The aim of this study was to analyze clinical presentation, hematological profile, biochemical profile, radiological presentation and patterns of bone marrow involvement in patients with Hodgkins lymphoma retrospectively. Materials and Methods: Bone marrow procedures were done in 49 cases of Hodgkins lymphoma a part of staging procedure. Results: 9 patients showed involvement of bone marrow by Hodgkins lymphoma. Clinically, 1 patient was staged as stage II (CSII), 2 patients as stage III (CSIII) and the remaining 6 as stage IV (CSIV) on the basis of extra nodal evidence of disease in liver, bone, lung or pleura on PET scan. The pattern of bone marrow infiltration was diffuse in 3 patients and focal in 6 patients. Length of the biopsy varied from 0.5 cm to 3.0 cm. Conclusion: BME should not be performed in all patients diagnosed with HL as a routine staging procedure. In an already known CS IA, IIA the incidence is very low and in CSIV it provides no additional therapeutic or prognostic information. However, patients with stage IIB, IIIB, IIIA and with any of the following: leucopenia, elevated LDH or ALP levels, splenomegaly should undergo biopsy of adequate length as additional prognostic information may be obtained. If it is suspicious of involvement, serial sections and contralateral biopsies should be examined so that even a single atypical cell or focus is not missed.


The surface functionalization of microfiltration membranes (MFM) with different pore sizes and morphologies with respect to enzyme immobilization was investigated. Polypropylene (PP) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) membranes were therefore grafted (photopolymn.) with acrylic acid (AA) and 2-aminoethyl methacrylate (AmEMA) and the membrane permeabilities of the resulting PP-g-PAA, PP-g-PAmEMA, PET-g-PAA, and PET-g-PAmEMA MFM were detd. Covalent enzyme immobilization was carried out using the following enzymes: amyloglucosidase (aspergillus niger), invertase (baker's yeast), and fructosyltransferase (FTF, only PET-g-PAmEMA MFM). Enzyme bonding capacities of the resulting porous enzyme membranes were detd. The enzyme membrane reactor (EMR) performance was also detd., no enzyme release was obsd. The synthesis of inulin using covalent immobilized inulin-sucrase and EMR technique (FTF-immobilized PET MFM) is described.


Acoustic musical instruments have traditionally featured static mappings from input gesture to output sound, their input affordances being tied to the physics of their soundproduction mechanism. More recently, the advent of digital sound synthesizers and electronic music controllers has abolished the tight coupling between input gesture and resultant sound, making an exponentially large range of input-to-output mappings possible, as well as an infinite set of possible timbres. This revolutionary change in the way sound can be produced and controlled brings with it the burden of design: Compelling and natural mappings from gesture to sound now must be created in order to create a playable electronic music instrument. The goal of this thesis is to present a device that allows flexible assignment of input gesture to output sound, so acting as a laboratory to help further understanding about the connection from gesture to sound. An embodied multi-degree-of-freedom gestural input device was constructed. The device was built to support six-degree-of-freedom inertial sensing, five isometric buttons, two digital buttons, two-axis bend sensing, isometric rotation sensing, and isotonic electric field sensing of position. Software was written to handle the incoming serial data, and to implement a trainable interface by which a user can explore the sounds possible with the device, associate a custom inertial gesture with a sound for later playback, make custom input degree-of-freedom (DOF) to effect modulation mappings, and play with the resulting configuration. A user study with 25 subjects was run to evaluate the system in terms of its engaging-ness, enjoyability, ability to inspire interest in future play and performance, ease of gesturing and novelty. In addition to these subjective measures, implicit data was collected about the types of gesture-to-sound and input-DOF-to-effect mappings that the subjects created. Favorable and interesting results were found in the data from the study, indicating that a flexible trainable musical instrument is not only a compelling performance tool, but is a useful laboratory for understanding the connection between human gesture and sound. Thesis Supervisor: Joseph A. Paradiso Title: Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences


Transitions across the home environment, early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings and
compulsory school education (CSE) mark significant changes in the life of children and their families
and communities. Positive experiences of transition between educational levels can be a critical
factor for children's future success and development, while negative experiences can have lasting
challenges leading to poorer educational performance, especially for more disadvantaged children.
Adopting a more unified approach to caring and learning (educare) across educational settings in
order to sustain continuity of children's experiences over time, can significantly improve children's
educational achievement and socio-emotional development. In turn promoting inter-institutional
professional learning communities of ECEC and primary school staff as well as involving parents in
the transition process are considered to be key factors in ensuring successful transitions. Taking these crucial elements into account, practitioners and researchers from four different countries
have collaborated in a transnational action-research study (START/Erasmus +) in order to foster warm
and inclusive transitions across the early years. In line with the European Commission priorities, the general objectives of the project were:
• to ensure a good start in education for all children, by enhancing the quality of ECEC and by
ensuring that the benefits of ECEC are carried through to statutory school/ education levels;
• to support teachers and ECEC staff to adopt new methods and tools for dealing with complex
classroom realities and diversified groups of learners.
More specifically, four pilot projects in four different countries (Sl, It, UK, Be) were established to
develop warm and inclusive transitional practices with specific attention to children and families who
face complex family situations (e.g. socio-economic disadvantage) and are at 'risk of social exclusion'
(e.g. Roma, children with migrant background, refugee children, children with special educational
needs). These innovative practices were enabled by setting up inter-institutional professional learning
communities of ECEC, primary school staff and/or other local stakeholders. By engaging in action
research supported by researchers, ECEC and primary school staff explored new pedagogical
approaches and educational methodologies that supported children and families in facing successful
transition processes.


Abstract. Indoor navigation and visualization become increasingly important nowadays. Meanwhile, the proliferation of new sensors as well as the advancement of data processing provide massive point clouds to model the indoor environment in high accuracy. However, current state-of-the-art solutions fail to manage such large datasets efficiently. File based solutions often require substantial development work while database solutions are still faced with issues such as inefficient data loading and indexing. In this research, through a case study which aims to solve the problem of intermittent rendering of massive points in the context of indoor navigation, we devised and implemented an algorithm to compute the continuous Level of Detail (cLoD) where geometric and classification information are considered. Benchmarks are developed and different approaches in Oracle are tested to learn the pros and cons. Surprisingly, the flat table approach could be very efficient compared with other schemes. The crucial point lies in how to address priority of different dimensions including cLoD, classification and spatial dimensions, and avoid unnecessary scanning of the table. Writing results either to the memory or the disk constitutes major part of the time cost when large output is concerned. Conventional solutions based on spatial data objects present poor performance due to cumbersome indexing structure, inaccurate selection and additional decoding process. Besides, approximate selection in the unit of physical object is proposed and the performance is satisfactory when large amount of data is requested. The knowledge acquired could prompt the development of a novel data management of high dimensional point clouds where the classification information is involved.


This article explores the ways in which narratives of The Excursion are different from those of The Prelude not only in the manner of their telling, but in terms of their internalised meaning for both speakers and listeners. The piece looks at the main speakers in the poem – the Wanderer, the Pastor, the Solitary and the Poet – in terms of the ways a man's profession and daily life shapes his use of memory in relation to others. Where, for the Wanderer, life is a spatial map which he himself draws, the Pastor's internalised memory embodies a fixed community. The figures of Solitary and Poet, are less straightforward, in terms of their own relationship with the memories they carry and their representation of others through its externalisation. The final part of the article looks closely at the role of the Poet as translator and outsider – the only one for whom the journey is an 'excursion'– and considers the implications for Wordsworth's own understanding of the poet's role.


Products with complicated shapes require superior surface finish to perform the intended function. Despite significant developments in technology, finishing operations are still performed semi automatically/manually, relying on the skills of the machinist. The pressure to produce products at the best quality in the shortest lead time has made it highly inconvenient to depend on traditional methods. Thus, there is a rising need for automation which has become a resource to remain competitive in the manufacturing industry.Diminishing return of trading quality over time in finishing operations signifies the importance of having a pre-determined trajectory (tool path) that produces an optimum surface in the least possible machining time. Tool path optimization for finishing process considering tool kinematics is of relatively low importance in the present scenario. The available automation in grinding processes encompass around the dynamics of machining.In this paper we provide an overview of optimizing the tool path using evolutionary algorithms, considering the significance of process dynamics and kinematics. Process efficiency of the generated tool movements are studied based on the evaluation of relative importance of the finishing parameters. Surface quality is analysed using MATLAB and optimization is performed on account of peak to valley height.Surface removal characteristics are analysed based on process variables that have the most likely impact on surface finish. The research results indicated that tool path is the most significant parameter determining the surface quality of a finishing operation. The inter-dependency of parameters were also studied using Taguchi design of experiments. Possible combinations of various tool paths and tool influencing parameters are presented to realize a surface that exhibits lowest errors.


Intussusception is the telescoping of a segment of the intestine
into the distal segment. It is common in children in the first two
years of life (90-95%) and it is rare in adults (5-10%). Malignant
tumours are more common than the benign tumours in the colon,
leading to intussusception in adults, although the reverse is true
in the small intestine. Colocolic intussusception in adults due
to a benign cause is veryrare . Intussusceptions due to lipomas
have been reported on the right side of the colon, especially in
the caecum and at the illeocaecal junction. It is even very rare
on the left side of the colon, especially in the splenic flexture
in elderly type II diabetic patients. Here, we wish to document
a rare case of colocolic intussusception with pedunculated
lipoma as the lead point. The CT was diagnostic and the patient
underwent a non- oncological resection of the colon. Grossly,
a pedunculated lipoma with the cut surface showing lobulated
yellow areas was seen. The histological examination showed an
ulcerated and infarcted lipoma which caused pressure atrophy
of the adjacent mucosal glands.


Myc oncogenes encode transcription factors that bind to E-box sequences in DNA, driving the expression of a large number of target genes and are deregulated in approximately 70% of human cancers. Deregulated Myc expression cause enhanced proliferation (which is counteracted by apoptosis), angiogenesis and cancer. Though Myc's importance in induction of S phase has been established, less is known about its functions in the G2 and M phases of the cell cycle. Paper I addresses the targeting of the Myc targets Aurora kinase A and B that have roles in G2/M transition and provide evidence that pharmaceutical Aurora kinase inhibition causes cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in a Myc-selective manner and is useful in treating Myc-induced lymphomas in vivo. The assumption that the important target genes responsible for the biological effects of Myc overexpression were those encoding components of the cell cycle machinery lead to little interest in other potentially important groups of target genes. However, recent work challenged this view by indicating that Myc target genes encoding metabolic enzymes may be critical for Myc-induced tumorigenesis. Importantly, the targeting of Myc target genes encoding metabolic enzymes has the potential of providing a new treatment strategy of Myc-induced cancers. Paper II covers the pharmaceutical targeting of the Myc-induced spermidine synthase (Srm) that shows promise as a tool for chemoprevention by affecting proliferation, but not for the treatment of established tumors. Paper III focuses on the negligible effect an Ldha mutation has on Myc- induced lymphomagenesis. Ldha has long been known to be a Myc target gene and in vitro experiments have recently indicated it to be important for transformation. It seems the negligible effect of the Ldh mutation can be explained by the high frequency of loss of either Arf or p53 in this mouse model, since enforced Ras-Myc oncogenic cooperation in soft agar assays of Ldh mutant MEFs effectively inhibits colony formation, and λ-Myc;Ldh mutant bone marrow infected with oncogenic Ras does not give rise to tumors when transplanted into wild-type mice. A role for Ldh in the ability of tumors to evade the immune system was also indicated in this study. The combined experiences and very different outcome of the three studies included in this thesis draw attention to the value of in vivo assessment of Myc downstream targets in Myc-induced lymphomagenesis.


type="main"> This study examines the incidence of managerial interventions in Australian firms to avoid reporting working capital deficits. We document a significant discontinuity in the distribution of current ratios at 1.0. We also find that the propensity of Australian firms to avoid working capital deficits is largely determined by the costs and benefits of management interventions. Firms with short-term or long-term debt are less likely to engage in accounts manipulation, while firms paying dividends are more likely to do so. Further examination of the components of current assets and current liabilities reveals that, to avoid working capital deficits, Australian firms tend to undertake actions to overstate accounts receivable rather than overstate inventory or understate current liabilities. The results provide practical guidance and implications for shareholders, auditors and regulators in identifying accounting irregularities.


IZA DP No. 14037 JANUARY 2021 Between the Dockyard and the Deep Blue Sea: Retention and Personnel Economics in the Royal Navy This paper tackles some issues in personnel economics using the career profiles of British naval officers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We ask how promotions, payouts, positions, and peers affect worker retention. Random variation in task assignments and job promotions allows us to explore factors that affect retention of personnel. We develop a number of key insights. Firm-specific human capital accumulation bolsters retention, while technological changes can undo some of this effect. Other challenges to worker retention include lack of promotion opportunities, and "exit contagion" from exits of former peers. Modernizing organizations may need to enhance promotion opportunities and reorganize certain tasks, or else face loss of skilled personnel. JEL Classification: J6, J45, J62, N31


This thesis deals with developmental, universal, grammatical, and functional factors involved in the acquisition of L2 syllable structure. More specifically, using speech data from Spanish and Chinese learners of Swedish, the thesis examines the production and development of syllable onsets and codas—that is, syllable margins. In doing so, the present work draws on various theoretical considerations and empirical findings from research on L1 and L2 acquisition, phonology and phonetics, language variation and language typology. The thesis includes three empirical studies, all of which are based on longitudinal conversational data. Study I deals with the acquisition of word-initial /sC(C)/ onsets by one native Spanish speaker, whereas Study II and Study III focus on the acquisition of word-final codas by three native Chinese speakers. Study I and Study II both showed that onset and coda length and phonetic environment are influential factors in the production of syllable structure, while sonority may not be as reliable a predictor of production difficulty. Next, both Study I and Study III provide evidence of a U-shaped rather than linear development of pronunciation accuracy. This pattern is interpreted as an effect of initial increase in fluency, with more focus on content and less on form. In addition, Study III showed that L2 proficiency is related to the epenthesis-deletion differential. An increasing ratio of epenthesis-to-deletion is the first-order indicator of increasing L2 proficiency during early stages of acquisition, but increased target-like production becomes the first-order indicator of development at later stages. Finally, Study III showed that learners are aware of potential ambiguity resulting from simplification in different grammatical/functional categories. Codas that are essential for the retention of semantic information are preserved through higher accuracy rates and higher relative levels of epenthesis errors.


Many optimisations in modern compilers have been traditionally based around using analysis to examine certain aspects of the code; the compiler heuristics then make a decision based on this information as to what to optimise, where to optimise and to what extent to optimise. The exact contents of these heuristics have been carefully tuned by experts, using their experience, as well as analytical tools, to produce solid performance. This work proposes an alternative approach – that of using proper statistical analysis to drive these optimisation goals instead of human intuition, through the use of machine learning. This work shows how, by using a probabilistic search of the optimisation space, we can achieve a significant speedup over the baseline compiler with the highest optimisation settings, on a number of different processor architectures. Additionally, there follows a further methodology for speeding up this search by being able to transfer our knowledge of one program to another. This thesis shows that, as is the case in many other domains, programs can be successfully represented by program features, which can then be used to gauge their similarity and thus the applicability of previously learned off-line knowledge. Employing this method, we are able to gain the same results in terms of performance, reducing the time taken by an order of magnitude. Finally, it is demonstrated how statistical analysis of programs allows us to learn additional important optimisation information, purely by examining the features alone. By incorporating this additional information into our model, we show how good results can be achieved in just one compilation. This work is tested on real hardware, for both the embedded and general purpose domain, showing its wide applicability. Declaration I declare that this thesis was composed by myself, that the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text, and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified.


Biomass partitioning in forages is highly variable during plant development and with the rate of nutrient supply. This study was carried out with the objective to evaluate the tillering pattern and biomass partitioning of Mombasa grass (Megathyrsus maximus cv. Mombaca) subjected to rates of nitrogen (N) during regrowth. The treatments consisted of three weekly rates of N: control (without N supply), 25 and 50 mg dm-3 of N, which were evaluated by 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 days after defoliation. The design was of completely randomized blocks in a 3 × 6 factorial arrangement with three replicates. The number of tillers was measured and harvesting and weighting of the following morphological components were performed: leaf (leaf blades), pseudostem, stem base and root. Interaction between N rates and regrowth times was found for all variables analyzed. The N supply increased the number and weight of tiller (up to 117.3 and 167.6%, respectively), as well as the shoot dry matter yield of Mombasa grass. That effect was most significant particularly at 32 days of regrowth. Among the treatments receiving N supply, the highest N rate was more significant to leaf and shoot yield only after 6-11 days of regrowth. High N supply must be applied to Mombasa grass only after that time and the biomass harvested between 24-28 days of regrowth.


PURPOSE
Breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (BI-ALCL) is a rare type of T-cell lymphoma that arises around breast implants. The optimal management of this disease has not been established. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of different therapies used in patients with BI-ALCL to determine an optimal treatment approach.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
In this study, we applied strict criteria to pathologic findings, assessed therapies used, and conducted a clinical follow-up of 87 patients with BI-ALCL, including 50 previously reported in the literature and 37 unreported. A Prentice, Williams, and Peterson model was used to assess the rate of events for each therapeutic intervention.

RESULTS
The median and mean follow-up times were 45 and 30 months, respectively (range, 3 to 217 months). The median overall survival (OS) time after diagnosis of BI-ALCL was 13 years, and the OS rate was 93% and 89% at 3 and 5 years, respectively. Patients with lymphoma confined by the fibrous capsule surrounding the implant had better event-free survival (EFS) and OS than did patients with lymphoma that had spread beyond the capsule (P = .03). Patients who underwent a complete surgical excision that consisted of total capsulectomy with breast implant removal had better OS (P = .022) and EFS (P = .014) than did patients who received partial capsulectomy, systemic chemotherapy, or radiation therapy.

CONCLUSION
Surgical management with complete surgical excision is essential to achieve optimal EFS in patients with BI-ALCL.


Abstract. A blind intercomparison of ground-based ultraviolet (UV) instruments has been organized for the first time in Italy. The campaign was coordinated by the Environmental Protection Agency of Aosta Valley (ARPA Valle d'Aosta) and took place in Saint-Christophe (45.8° N, 7.4° E, 570 m a.s.l.), in the Alpine region, from 8 to 23 June 2010. It involved 8 institutions, 10 broadband radiometers, 2 filter radiometers and 2 spectroradiometers. Synchronized measurements of downward global solar UV irradiance at the ground were collected and the raw series were then individually processed by the respective operators on the base of their own procedures and calibration data. A radiative transfer model was successfully applied as an interpretative tool. The input parameters and output results are described in detail. The comparison was performed in terms of global solar UV Index and integrated UV-A irradiance against a well-calibrated double monochromator spectroradiometer as reference. An improved algorithm for comparing broadband data and spectra has been developed and is discussed in detail. For some instruments, we found average deviations ranging from −16 % up to 20 % relative to the reference and diurnal variations as large as 15 % even in clear days. Remarkable deviations were found for the instruments calibrated in the manufacturers' facilities and never involved in field intercomparison. Finally, some recommendations to the UV operators based on the campaign results are proposed.


This research aimed to investigate the behavior intention of early childhood teachers to apply teaching aids. The survey method was used to collect data from 281 early childhood teachers currently working at early childhood education institutes. The data was analyzed by t-test, Chi-square analysis, and Pearson coefficient to examine the differences and correlation on various dimensions in different backgrounds. Stepwise regression-coefficient was analyzed to investigate the predictability of self-efficacy on behavior intention of teaching aids application of early childhood teachers. The results showed that: a. all early childhood teachers agreed that teaching aids acquired multiple functions; b. environmental conditions of teaching aids provided by early childhood education institutes located in different cities were different; c. most teachers showed both positive self-efficacy and high behavior intention of applying teaching aids in their teaching; d. behavior intention of applying teaching aids was influenced by the restriction of environmental conditions; e. teachers with higher self-efficacy also had higher behavior intention to use teaching aids in teaching; f. the major reason for not using teaching aids was because teachers had too many chores to prepare. Finally, some suggestions were proposed according to the results for the reference of relevant organizations and staff. Keywords: Early childhood teachers, teaching aids, behavior intention ********** Research Background and Motivation Early childhood is a stage when physical and mental functions such as body, cognition, language, social relation and emotion are wholly developing. Therefore, many countries devoted a large amount of men and money on promoting early childhood education. For the past few centuries, employment population of women workforce has increased due to the prosperous economy, therefore, children must be taken care of by nannies or early childhood education institutes. Therefore, the numbers of day-care centers and early childhood education institutes have been redoubled in recent years. To guarantee the quality of early childhood education institutes and the rights of children, early childhood education has gathered people's attention. "Good teachers make a strong nation" is an old Chinese proverb, which showed the importance of the quality of early childhood teachers as they will impose the initial influence to the whole lives of children (Carol & Nita,1990 ; Shi,1999). What professional knowledge should an excellent teacher acquire? From the teaching model designed by educators, it should include: analyzing students' attributes, deciding teaching goals, editing or choosing teaching materials, choosing suitable teaching media, guiding students to give feedback, and teaching evaluations (Qin, 2004). Apart from these, how to choose an appropriate teaching media to suit with the nature of teaching materials and professional knowledge and skills for applying teaching aids in teaching. Early childhood educator, Montessori (1870-1952), suggested an early childhood education environment should be equipped with three elements: a fine environment, excellent teachers, and suitable teaching aids. He argued an excellent teacher not only has to look after children but to design a fine environment and also to apply different teaching skills (such as changing teaching methods, designing and choosing appropriate teaching aids), so as to nurture holistically developed children. Wu (1997) also believed teachers can not teach by mouths only, they should apply multimedia to cooperate with their teaching. By providing visual, audio, and tactual sensational experiences, teachers can inspire students' learning motivation and produce excellent teaching results. Therefore, teachers should acquire respectable professional knowledge, such as: excellent expressive ability; able to understand students' attributes; knowing how to cooperate teaching methods with suitable teaching aids; estimating if teaching aids are suitable for students' to handle and operate; evaluating if teaching aids match teaching situation; and if time allowance is sufficient, etc. …


We present an energy-efficient processing-in-memory (PIM) architecture named Z-PIM that supports both sparsity handling and fully variable bit-precision in weight data for energy-efficient deep neural networks. Z-PIM adopts the bit-serial arithmetic that performs a multiplication bit-by-bit through multiple cycles to reduce the complexity of the operation in a single cycle and to provide flexibility in bit-precision. To this end, it employs a zero-skipping convolution SRAM, which performs in-memory AND operations based on custom 8T-SRAM cells and channel-wise accumulations, and a diagonal accumulation SRAM that performs bit- and spatial-wise accumulation on the channel-wise accumulation results using diagonal logic and adders to produce the final convolution outputs. We propose the hierarchical bitline structure for energy-efficient weight bit pre-charging and computational readout by reducing the parasitic capacitances of the bitlines. Its charge reuse scheme reduces the switching rate by 95.42% for the convolution layers of VGG-16 model. In addition, Z-PIM's channel-wise data mapping enables sparsity handling by skip-reading the input channels with zero weight. Its read-operation pipelining enabled by a read-sequence scheduling improves the throughput by 66.1%. The Z-PIM chip is fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process on a 7.568-mm2 die, while it consumes average 5.294-mW power at 1.0-V voltage and 200-MHz frequency. It achieves 0.31–49.12-TOPS/W energy efficiency for convolution operations as the weight sparsity and bit-precision vary from 0.1 to 0.9 and 1 to 16 bit, respectively. For the figure of merit considering input bit-width, weight bit-width, and energy efficiency, the Z-PIM shows more than 2.1 times improvement over the state-of-the-art PIM implementations.


This study aimed to compare the contributions of sources of proprioception to the reproduction accuracy of relatively slower and more rapid arm movements. We recruited 34 volunteers and gave them dart throwing tasks under two different durations followed by joint position sense (JPS) tests and force sense (FS) tests at the elbow and the wrist. We found moderately positive correlations between slow movement performance and proprioceptive acuity with FS (wrist) and JPS (elbow), accounting for 52% of the absolute errors (p < .001), and, with FS (wrist), accounting for 50% of the variable error (p < .001). Moreover, we observed a smaller correlation between rapid movement performance and proprioceptive acuity, accounting for 17% of absolute errors with JPS (elbow; p = .008) and 11% of variable error (p = .033). These results suggest that relatively slow movement performance is partly determined by performers' proprioceptive acuity of the movement-related limbs. Relatively rapid movement performance is also affected by correctional proprioceptive feedback, though to a lesser degree.


No one disputes that the sticker price of college—what schools charge, not necessarily what students end up paying—has for decades been rising at a very fast clip. What analysts disagree about is why. There are many possible explanations, but one that has a lot of adherents is that direct public support for colleges and universities, which is determined primarily by state, and to a lesser extent, local governments, has been in considerable decline. Schools have had to raise prices just to stay at level funding.
This explanation has problems. For one, it cannot be applied to private institutions, where prices have risen precipitously over the last 25 years. That said, prices at public four-year institutions and community colleges—especially the former—have risen faster than at private schools. Can these results be explained by declining direct support? As this paper illustrates with breakdowns of appropriation and tuition-and-free revenue for all 50 states, changes to direct subsidies are only part of the explanation, and that part varies from state to state.
In the aggregate, state and local support for higher education has risen over the last 25 years, and "cuts" mainly appear on a per pupil basis because enrollment has increased significantly. Even then, for the average state only around 57 percent of annual increases in per pupil tuition and fee revenue covered per student drops in state and local appropriations—a far cry from the notion that colleges have had to raise prices just to keep their heads above water. And a potentially crucial underlying factor may help to explain the per pupil cuts: state policymakers may constrain appropriation increases because they know that aid to students, primarily through the federal government, allows students to pay more.


Background: We aimed to investigate the relationship between liver function tests (LFTs) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) as several studies have shown positive correlations between some of the LFTs, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT), and MetS but have not fully explored the same in the elderly. Owing to the progress in public health, the aging of the general population becomes a major issue. Design: We enrolled subjects aged over 60 years who underwent routine health checkups in a Health Screening Center after excluding subjects with a history of hepatitis B or C infection, excessive alcohol consumption, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, acute hepatitis, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, or receiving medications for these diseases. Finally, 9,282 participants were eligible for analysis. Statistical Analysis: All data were tested for normal distribution with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and for homogeneity of variances with the Levene′s test. A t-test was used to evaluate the differences between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate regressions were used to observe correlations between different parameters. Receiver operating characteristic curves of each LFT were used to predict MetS. Areas under curves and 95% confidence interval were also estimated and compared. Results: With the exception of aspartate aminotransferase and α-fetal protein, the results of LFTs, including total and direct bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), ALT, and γ-GT, were altered in the group with MetS. Furthermore, the levels of γ-GT in men and ALP in women were independently associated with all MetS components and had the highest areas under receiver operating characteristic curves. Conclusion: Abnormal LFTs are highly correlated with MetS in the hepatitis-free elderly, with levels of γ-GT in men and ALP in women being the most important factors. LFTs may represent an auxiliary tool for the detection of MetS.


The response of plants to abiotic stress factors is a major determinant of the growth and yields of crops. In this study the effects of two separate but related abiotic stress factors on elite spring barley cultivars (Horedeum vulgare ) were studied; the effects of high leaf temperatures (Tleaf) on photosynthesis rates, and the effects of high nitrogen supply on photosynthesis rates and flowering.

A novel method was developed for precisely controlling Tleaf within ± 0.2oC of the set temperature. These experiments confirmed the results of others that increasing Tleaf above 36.0oC for 3 hours severely impaired light saturated CO2 assimilation rates (Asat) by irreversibly suppressing the activity of the C3 cycle by >80%. This suppression was not attributable to stomatal closure, the generation of ROS, or an increase in photorespiration; instead the data were consistent with the hypothesis that limitations imposed by low chloroplast ATP levels. Measurements on whole leaf ATP levels in the light and dark of control and heat stressed leaves, however, were equivocal. Whole leaf ATP levels of light adapted leaves increased with Tleaf whereas the levels in dark adapted leaves initially decreased but increased again above 38oC; most importantly, the difference – an estimate of chloroplast ATP levels - increased with Tleaf, an observation that is not consistent with the hypothesis.

The effects of high Tleaf was assessed on plants grown in soil and hydroponic solutions over a range of N-supply. Similar responses were observed regardless of the nitrogen status of the plants. Surprisingly, the unit leaf area (ULA) photosynthesis rates of control (not heat stressed) attached leaves doubled when plants were grown in 16 mM N compared with 0.6 mM N (commensurate with arable soils); detailed analysis of CO2 Assimilation vs. Internal CO2 concentration (A/Ci) curves showed the carboxylation coefficient (ϕCO2) increased suggesting the ULA capacity of the C3 cycle had been boosted and this correlated well with ULA protein levels. It seems there is a good prospect, therefore, for boosting ULA photosynthesis rates, and hence grain yield, by increasing plant N-status above that currently used in arable production. Increasing N-supply to these levels, however, has detrimental effects on the morphology and development of barley. Increasing N-supply above 0.3 mM induced tillering (increased resource sink strength) as well as yield; above 1.6 mM, however, yields began to decline, flowering was delayed, although tillering (vegetative growth) continued to proliferate. At the highest levels used (16 mM) floweing was completely suppressed; the crown meristem underwent a vegetative to reproductive transition but stem elongation was incomplete – plants rarely progress beyond the 3 node stage. A series of transcript profiling experiments were conducted to establish the mechanisms by which high N-status suppressed flowering. Analysis of the transcriptional activity of key components of the flowering pathway in leaves, coupled with observations on floral spike development suggested flowering was triggered an initiated the development of the inflorescence at the crown meristem, but high N inhibits the development of the floral primordia. A RNA-Seq experiment was undertaken to determine the transcriptome profiles of 2-3 node stage floral primordia in plants grown in 16 mM and 0.64 mM N-supply. These studies were hampered by the poor level of annotation of published barley sequences, but none-the-less several interesting candidate sequences, including a homologue of the Arabisopsis flowering gene AtAPETELLA2, were strongly down regulated; these results from these experiments are discussed in detail. Studies were also undertaken to manipulate sink strength in barley plants by reducing the number of tillers either mechanically (removal) or using 'uniculm' mutants from the Bowman barley accession lines. These experiments have proved to be challenging and progress has been slow; a discussion is provided on how these experiments may be completed.

The ultimate goal of this project is to develop barley lines with an optimized sink strength (tiller number) that will not trigger excessive vegetative growth when plant N-status is high. This should lead to the retention of N in the leaves of the main culm leading to higher ULA photosynthesis rates and hence higher yields. To achieve this, however, these plants will have to be further manipulated so that high plant N-status does not suppress flower development.


The financial crisis has highlighted the opportunistic conduct of some banks, which have taken advantage of the trust relationship with their clients to place them unsuitable products. In Spain, the distribution of preferred shares among retail clients has created a problem of enormous proportions. Preferred shares are a high-risk complex financial instrument, with which you can lose all the capital invested. Despite its complexity and risk were offered by credit institutions, mainly savings banks, as an alternative to time deposits, without reporting risks.This article identifies the problem of indiscriminate distribution of preferred shares among retail clients of credit institutions. After identifying the problem, its review the legal framework applicable to the sale of preferred shares, to propose changes to improve investor protection. To end with mitigation measures that could be applied to give a fair and equitable treatment to most affected clients.


Growth of a frost layer on an evaporator surface due to low evaporator temperature as well as moisture contained in surrounding air deteriorates performance of a refrigeration system significantly and requires significant energy for defrost. Many studies have been performed to model the heat and mass transfer phenomena in an attempt to have insight and accurate prediction. However, many models form nonlinear algebraic differential equations and thereby it is computationally demanding to include them into a typical building energy simulation environment for a cooler or freezer consisting of an enclosure, refrigeration equipment, defrost elements, and controls. Computationally efficient but reasonably accurate models are needed in order to evaluate overall system performance. The objective of this paper is to introduce a modeling approach to overcome the problem. A numerical solution strategy based on an enthalpy-based reformulation and linearization method will be presented. Comparisons of a proposed and detailed model results are provided.


Article history: Received 14 August 2017 Accepted 1 December 2017 Available online 7 December 2017 Background: TRF2 (telomeric repeat binding factor 2) is an essential component of the telomere-binding protein complex shelterin. TRF2 induces the formation of a special structure of telomeric DNA and counteracts activation of DNA damage-response pathways telomeres. TRF2 has a poorly characterized linker region (udTRF2) between its homodimerization and DNA-binding domains. Some lines of evidence have shown that this region could be involved in TRF2 interaction with nuclear lamina. Results: In this study, the fragment of the TERF2 gene encoding udTRF2 domain of telomere-binding protein TRF2 was produced by PCR and cloned into the pET32a vector. The resulting plasmid pET32a-udTRF2was used for the expression of the recombinant udTRF2 in E. coli RosettaBlue (DE3). The protein was isolated and purified using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by ion-exchange chromatography. The purified recombinant protein udTRF2 was injected into guinea pigs to generate polyclonal antibodies. The ability of anti-udTRF2 antibodies to bind endogenous TRF2 in human skin fibroblasts was tested by western blotting and immunofluorescent staining. Conclusions: In this study, the recombinant protein udTRF2 and antibodies to it were generated. Both protein and antibodies will provide a useful tool for investigation of the functions of the udTRF2 domain and its role in the interaction between TRF2 and nuclear lamina.


Climate change has increasing implications for the economic and social life of the UK, as the reports of the UKCIP1 and the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 20122 make clear.
In particular, it will impact on the performance of our built environment – our buildings and the civil infrastructure that supports our urban communities and our communications networks. Recognising this, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
has funded successive programmes of research aimed at improving understanding of the impact of climate change on the built environment and into means of improving its
adaptability and resilience. A recent phase of this research brought together a number of research projects, including COPSE, under the umbrella of the Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) Co-ordination Network (CN)3.
The ARCC CN has sought to develop close links between those directly involved in the research, who are principally in universities, and prospective users of the outputs, such as policy-makers, architects and engineering consultants. To that end, it has held conferences and technical events, published summaries of the research programmes and issued regular newsletters, with the aim of promoting the outputs of the research and facilitating their application. This publication further contributes to that overall aim.
Academic research is, rightly, first published in peer-reviewed journals where it can be subject to the scrutiny of other researchers, and the findings compared with those of similar studies. Journal publications are often, though, not easily accessible for practitioners who will be principally concerned with the findings and their implications rather than the methods through which they were obtained. By contrast, short non-technical summaries do not provide a suitable basis for application of the findings.
This publication seeks to fill that gap, in that it offers an overview of the COPSE project which, while summarising the research undertaken, gives most attention to the outputs and their relevance for practitioners. By also providing full details of the publications from
COPSE research, it facilitates further investigation by those who wish to take advantage of latest research findings.


Robotics and autonomy systems are becoming increasingly important, moving from specialised factory domains to increasingly general and consumer-focused applications. As such systems grow ubiquitous, there is a commensurate need to protect against potentially catastrophic harm. System-level testing in simulation is a particularly promising approach for assuring robotics systems, allowing for more extensive testing in realistic scenarios and seeking bugs that may not manifest at the unit-level. Ideally, such testing could find critical bugs well before expensive field-testing is required. However, simulations can only model coarse environmental abstractions, contributing to a common perception that robotics bugs can only be found in live deployment. To address this gap, we conduct an empirical study on bugs that have been fixed in the widely used, open-source ArduPilot system. We identify bug-fixing commits by exploiting commenting conventions in the version-control history. We provide a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the bugs, focusing on characterising how the bugs are triggered and how they can be detected, with a goal of identifying how they can be best identified in simulation, well before field testing. To our surprise, we find that the majority of bugs manifest under simple conditions that can be easily reproduced in software-based simulation. Conversely, we find that system configurations and forms of input play an important role in triggering bugs. We use these results to inform a novel framework for testing for these and other bugs in simulation, consistently and reproducibly. These contributions can inform the construction of techniques for automated testing of robotics systems, with the goal of finding bugs early and cheaply, without incurring the costs of physically testing for bugs in live systems.


The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Indian residential schools allows us to rethink the scope and bounds of transitional justice. Once we expand our notions of injustice and transition, the Canadian case is not so far apart from paradigmatic cases, which too often overlook structural violence. The article argues for settler decolonization as a path of reconciliation and in so doing directly engages structural violence and instantiates theoretical arguments to more securely anchor the field of transitional justice to positive peace. The article analyzes the decolonizing potential of the TRC in its ability to invoke 'social accountability' through its approach to truth and in its grassroots potential. Although the TRC has some capacity to advance decolonization, its progress is hampered by the conservative political environment, its weak public profile and to some degree its own emphasis on survivor healing, which provides a ready focal for settlers to individualize Indian residential schools violence as something of the past. Yet, Indigenous healing is intrinsically connected to structural transformation and reconciliation depends upon remedying colonial violence in the present.


Introduction: Nature has been an attractive source of new therapeutic candidate compounds. The plants produce naturally occurring secondary metabolites which are being investigated for their anticancer and antioxidant activities. Tithonia diversifolia and Gliricidia sepium are commonly growing in Bukidnon, Philippines. These plants have long list of ethno-medicinal uses. Thus, there is a need to further investigate their phytochemical constituents as well as their biological activities. Objectives: The study focuses on the phytochemicals in the ethanolic leaf extracts of T. diversifolia and G. sepium collected from Bukidnon, Philippines. Moreover, cytotoxic and antioxidant properties of the extracts were also determined through Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay (BSLA) and Total Antioxidant Capacity, respectively. Materials and Methods: Qualitative phytochemical screening and determination of Total Phenolic Content (TPC), Total Flavonoid Content (TFC), Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) and cytotoxicity of the ethanolic leaf extracts of T. diversifolia and G. sepium were conducted. Results and Discussion: Results of the study showed the presence of flavonoids, phenolics, tannins and terpenoids in the ethanolic leaf extracts of T. diversifolia and G. sepium. The TPC of T. diversifolia (15.20 mg GAE/g dry sample) was found higher than that of G. sepium (14.43 mg GAE/g dry sample). Similar trend was also observed in the TFC where T. diversifolia and G. sepium recorded 12.50 and 9.00 mg QE/g dry sample, respectively. T. diversifolia also gave higher TAC of 302.8 mg AAE/ g dry sample than G. sepium (200.2 mg AAE/g dry sample). For cytotoxicity test, T. diversifolia (LC50 = 14.57 mg/L) exhibited more potent toxicity as compared to G. sepium (LC50 = 15.85 mg/L). The results indicate that the detected phytochemicals may account for the exhibited biological activities of T. diversifolia and G. sepium. Conclusion: This study uncovers the promising antioxidative and cytotoxic property of G. sepium and T. diversifolia that warrants further investigation.


Background: The health determinant model indicates that certain socio-cultural, socio-demographic, environmental, and lifestyle factors influence health status and wellbeing of any population group in any given nation Previous studies have suggested the need for regional and interregional comparison of health inequalities due to the interaction of these factors. Aims: This study investigated mental health indicators and cognitive health status by sex and ethnicity among university students in Nigeria. Method: The study was cross sectional. Full time university students were recruited from six universities within the major three ethnic groups in Nigeria. Data collection was with an anonymous questionnaire. One thousand five hundred and forty-nine responses were valid, while 563 responses were rejected for missing data especially sex and ethnicity. The variables examined were, psychosomatic health complaints and cognitive behaviours. Descriptive tests, chi-square tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted. Results: With regard to mental health indicators, the results showed that while depression indicate significant differences by gender and ethnicity, life satisfaction showed significant differences by ethnicity alone. Cognitive health status showed sex*ethnicity interaction effect for self-efficacy, sense of coherence and powerful others locus of control. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the mental health of female students in the sample was poorer than those of male students; with female students from the Hausa ethnic group, demonstrating the worst possible health outcome.


Cloud computing and its pay-as-you-go model continue to provide significant cost benefits and a seamless service delivery model for cloud consumers. The evolution of small-scale and large-scale geo-distributed datacenters operated and managed by individual cloud service providers raises new challenges in terms of effective global resource sharing and management of autonomously-controlled individual datacenter resources. Earlier solutions for geo-distributed clouds have focused primarily on achieving global efficiency in resource sharing that results in significant inefficiencies in local resource allocation for individual datacenters leading to unfairness in revenue and profit earned. In this paper, we propose a new contracts-based resource sharing model for federated geo-distributed clouds that allows cloud service providers to establish resource sharing contracts with individual datacenters apriori for defined time intervals during a 24 hour time period. Based on the established contracts, individual cloud service providers employ a cost-aware job scheduling and provisioning algorithm that enables tasks to complete and meet their response time requirements. The proposed techniques are evaluated through extensive experiments using realistic workloads and the results demonstrate the effectiveness, scalability and resource sharing efficiency of the proposed model.


Repairable secret sharing schemes are secret sharing schemes where, without the original dealer who distributed the shares, the participants can combine information from their shares to perform a computation that reconstructs a share for a participant who has lost their share. In this work, we study the repairability of a threshold scheme with respect to the probability that it is possible to perform a repair for a failed share, where each participant in the scheme is available with some probability p. We measure the repairability of a scheme in terms of probability that a repair set is available and in terms of the expected number of available repair sets. Additionally, we design efficient algorithms for determining who to contact when attempting to perform a repair on a failed share for repairable threshold schemes which use 2-designs. We also introduce the use of t-designs, for t > 2, as distribution designs to produce repairable secret sharing schemes with higher repairing degrees and we discuss modifications to the algorithm to account for the different attributes of the designs where t > 2.