Lumbar X-ray findings and clinical manifestations were investigated in 10 patients who underwent posterior fusion with or without Harrington instrumentation for idiopathic scoliosis between 1965 and 1975. The subjects were 4 men and 6 women, who ranged from 10 to 17 years of age at the time of surgery (mean, 12 years and 9 months). The postoperative follow-up period ranged from 20 to 30 years (mean, 24 years and 7 months). All patients were followed-up at our institution. Three patients received posterior fusion without instrumentation, and Harrington instrumentation was used in 7 from 1967 onwards. The distal end of the fusion was L2 in 4, L3 in 4, and L4 in 2 patients. Pain, evaluated by Moskowitz's criteria, was stage I in 5 and stage II in 5 patients (none of them had stage III or IV). In X-ray evaluation, graded according to Lawrence's classification, grade III changes were noted in 2 patients; one with thoracolumbar fusion with Harrington instrumentation to the L4 vertebra and the other patient was assessed at 30 years post-surgery. According to White-Panjabi's criteria, instability was noted in 1 patient with Harrington fixation including the L4 vertebra. Clinical manifestations and X-ray abnormalities were less severe than anticipated at 20 years plus post-surgery, although a tendency for deterioration was observed in patients with fusion including the L4 or patients followed up for more than 30 years post-surgery.


Diana L. Schiraldi Thesis Title: Identifying the Role of the School Business Administrator 2000 Dr. Ronald Capasso School Business Administration The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the school business administrator and to determine the congruency or incongruency between role expectations of the business administrator and actual role performance. Individuals participating in this study were the school business administrator and seventeen of his role set partners. Role set partners included the superintendent of schools, four district level administrators, eight building level administrators, two board members, a teacher and a custodial supervisor. Participants were surveyed using a written questionnaire to determine their views of the business administrator's role. The business administrator's daily activities were documented through shadowing. Responses to the role expectation surveys were summarized and compared to results of the shadowing exercise. Results of the study showed that role ambiguity did exist between the role expectations held for the business administrator by himself and his principal role partners, and between his actual role performance. This ambiguity did not appear to adversely affect the organization. Responsibilities of the business administrator role identified most frequently were accounting, budgeting, and finance. Preferable personal characteristics identified included interpersonal and communication skills, leadership and organizational skills. The study concluded that the role of business administrator is multifaceted and dynamic requiring many different skills and abilities.


This empirical study examined the perceptions and experiences of nine Thai college student writers' expression of emotions in poetry, narrative, and opinionated writing written in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages: Thai and English. The study focused on the participants' perspectives in order to gain more understanding of the phenomenon of expressing emotions in writing in different languages. The participants were nine Thai college students who attended a public university in Thailand. The data, gathered over three months, included 54 written responses and 36 interview sessions. The written responses included poems, narrative stories, and opinionated writing both in Thai and English. The interviews were conducted in Thai, transcribed, and translated into English. The interviews were then analyzed from two aspects: focusing on each individual's perceptions and experiences and focusing on genre writing and their emotionality writing experiences. This study's analysis suggested that the participants had positive responses to the written tasks when expressing emotions through different genres in L1 and L2. It also showed that emotions are one of the crucial elements in participants' writing experiences and that cultural and linguistic identities played important roles in the tasks of emotionality writing in both languages. The emotionality writing helped L2 learners gain meta-linguistic awareness of L1 and L2 and reflect on their language learning and personally significant experiences. Through that awareness, L2 learners could become educators for others who want to learn about their L1. The emotionality written tasks allowed the participants to reflect on their language learning and personally significant experiences. This study argued that emotionality writing should be encouraged in L2 writing classrooms and addressed the ramifications of expanding of L2 writing on a pedagogical level.


Nonvolatile memories are being used for quite long time in computer systems. So far, they successfully added another level of abstraction to the current memory hierarchy. The introduction of byte addressable nonvolatile memory may end-up serving the same purpose; i.e., yet another technology evolution, or may be used to carry on the next revolution in system architectures. In his talk, he will give a short survey of what had been done so far in this area and will discuss few challenges that still need to be solved in order to enable NVDRAM to become the enabler of the next computer architecture revolution.


A special case of a combinatorial theorem of De Bruijn and Erdős asserts that every noncollinear set of $n$ points in the plane determines at least $n$ distinct lines. Chen and Chavtal suggested a possible generalization of this assertion in metric spaces with appropriately defined lines. We prove this generalization in all metric spaces induced by connected chordal graphs.


Studies on single-molecule spectroscopy and nanoscale detection have been remarkably driven by an interest to reveal quantum and conformational states of single particles, the intra-molecular dynamics and their response to physical observables hidden by ensemble level measurements. A straightforward practice used in enhancing the signal from single particles is either to immobilize them on an engineered substrate or to embed them in a solid matrix. Given that the biophysical properties of the host environment introduce new perturbations and the particles will not behave as in their native environment, such approaches are inefficient to reflect the real dynamics. Therefore, recent advances in the field of single-molecule have led to a renewed interest in novel trapping methods, increased efforts into the development of promising tools for extended investigation, and the manipulation of solution-phase bio-molecules in real time. Despite the variety of successful passive trapping techniques, precise manipulation through non-perturbative forces is a big challenge for nano-sized particles. Such techniques either exert high power to the sample or compel special operating conditions disturbing the native environment. Therefore, an active trapping scheme guiding non-perturbative forces can break the trade-off between the particle size and the excreted power. This dissertation presents the development of an active trapping set-up using non-perturbative electrokinetic feedback and demonstrates its performance on nano-sized single particles for aims in biophysics. The essential theme is the engineering aspect of the technique, including the feedback configurations for various fluidic devices, the corresponding particle tracking schemes and the integration of the trapping platform to an integrated circuit pattern for advanced manipulation aims. The second theme is on specialized single fluorescence nanodiamonds (FNDs) as scanning magnetometer in fluidics. The implemented active trapping tool is employed for the manipulation of a rotationally free single FND to detect the localized magnetic field through an optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) spectrum. While the laser beam used in particle tracking can serve in optical excitation, an external radio frequency (RF) source is not sufficient to achieve microwave manipulation. Therefore, an RF antenna is designed to transmit the microwave signal to the proximity of the trapping chamber for electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. A nanostage positioning controller introduces scanning ability to the sample plane, in relative position of the trapped particle, in order to map the distribution of the detected fields over a fluidic volume. As FNDs are also sensitive to many other physical quantities, nanoscale single particle trapping and diamond photonics linkages are realized in this work, which provide an outstanding alternative for detection and imaging in complex fluidic environments that are closed to AFM-like physically supported probes.


Abstract Subaqueous channels are formed on subaqueous fans in oceans or lakes by turbidity currents. The subaqueous channels are laid on gentle slopes and are bounded by levees. The sediment in subaqueous channels differs in grain-size distribution in the channel and levee. The process by which a turbidity current flowing over an initially featureless surface creates channels by itself is still incompletely understood. I have addressed the following research question: which combination of turbidity-current factors leads to channelization? In this paper the discharge of turbidity currents, the bottom gradient of the turbidity currents, the settling velocity of sediment, and the range of grain-sizes of the sediment in the turbidity currents were considered for the turbidity-current factors. Some factors such as the sediment concentration of turbidity current, the width of the fan, the kinematic viscosity of water, the density of the particles, and the density of the ambient fluid were not considered. This meant that I had to determine the proper interaction of the following factors: the discharge of turbidity currents, the bottom gradient of the turbidity currents, the settling velocity of sediment, and the range of grain-sizes of the sediment in the turbidity currents. The following (model) testing arrangements were used: a test basin 6 m long with a slope 5 m long that can be inclined between 20% and 0.3%, sediments with four different densities and seven different grain-size distributions were used, with various discharges of turbidity currents. The model tests showed that subaqueous depositional channels can be formed when the dimensionless discharge is an empirical linear function of the gradient of subaqueous fans. The dimensionless discharge of the turbidity current is the product of the square of the grain size and the settling velocity of the sediment, divided by the discharge of the turbidity current. Formulas were developed to narrow down the range of sediment and flow conditions required for channel formation. It is shown that these formulas are applicable not only on the laboratory scale but also on the field scale.


The purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of the Primary School Science Curriculum or Kurikulum Sains Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) which was
implemented from the beginning of the 1994/1995 school session as replacement of the Kurikulum Alam dan Manusia. This exploratory descriptive study investigated the
effectiveness of KSSR training programmes for science teachers, level of management on KSSR changes executed by the headmaster, attitude, acceptance and performance of
headmasters and science teachers in the KSSR and problems faced on implementing the KSSR. This study also investigated whether there was any correlation between KSSR
training programmes, management of KSSR changes and attitude, acceptance and performance of teachers in KSSR. The sample consisted of every headmaster and two science teachers in each of the 97 schools which were chosen from 134 schools in Seberang Perai using random selection method. Pilot test was done on questionnaires designed by the researcher and reliability on the questionnaires for the headmasters and the science teachers were high. The questionnaires for the headmasters consisted of six
sections; background, management on KSSR changes, attitude towards KSSR, acceptance of KSSR and performance in KSSR. The questionnaires for the science teachers consisted of seven sections with the addition at KSSR training programmes section. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistical method and hypotheses testing were done using inferential statistical method and correlation analyses. KSSR training programmes and management of KSSR changes were found to be at the 'satisfactory' level. Attitude, acceptance and performance of teachers on KSSR as a whole was also at the 'satisfactory' level. Nevertheless, there was still a small percentage of science teachers who showed resistance with attitude, acceptance and performance at the 'unsatisfactory' level. The study also found that training programmes and management on KSSR changes showed significant relationship with attitude, acceptance and performance of teachers involved in the KSSR. Correlation testing on the headmasters showed that management on KSSR changes was influenced by their attitude, acceptance and performance. The performance of the headmasters in KSSR showed higher influence compared to their attitude and acceptance of KSSR.The study had identified 10 causes related to the problems in implementing KSSR. Since each of the causes was negligible in their percentage, the researcher regarded the problems were not serious. Based on the findings, it could be concluded that KSSR had been implemented almost
successfully and had nearly achieved its expectation level.


We present a new method to learn video representations from large-scale unlabeled video data. Ideally, this representation will be generic and transferable, directly usable for new tasks such as action recognition and zero or few-shot learning. We formulate unsupervised representation learning as a multi-modal, multi-task learning problem, where the representations are shared across different modalities via distillation. Further, we introduce the concept of loss function evolution by using an evolutionary search algorithm to automatically find optimal combination of loss functions capturing many (self-supervised) tasks and modalities. Thirdly, we propose an unsupervised representation evaluation metric using distribution matching to a large unlabeled dataset as a prior constraint, based on Zipf's law. This unsupervised constraint, which is not guided by any labeling, produces similar results to weakly-supervised, task-specific ones. The proposed unsupervised representation learning results in a single RGB network and outperforms previous methods. Notably, it is also more effective than several label-based methods (e.g., ImageNet), with the exception of large, fully labeled video datasets.


Height is a complex physical trait that displays strong heritability. Adult height is related to length of the long bones, which is determined by growth at the epiphyseal growth plate. Longitudinal bone growth occurs via the process of endochondral ossification, where bone forms over the differentiating cartilage template at the growth plate. Estrogen plays a major role in regulating longitudinal bone growth and is responsible for inducing the pubertal growth spurt and fusion of the epiphyseal growth plate. However, the mechanism by which estrogen promotes epiphyseal fusion is poorly understood. It has been hypothesised that estrogen functions to regulate growth plate fusion by stimulating chondrocyte apoptosis, angiogenesis and bone cell invasion in the growth plate. Another theory has suggested that estrogen exposure exhausts the proliferative capacity of growth plate chondrocytes, which accelerates the process of chondrocyte senescence, leading to growth plate fusion. The overall objective of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind estrogen-mediated growth and height attainment by examining gene regulation in chondrocytes and the role of some of these genes in normal height inheritance. With the heritability of height so well established, the initial hypothesis was that genetic variation in candidate genes associated with longitudinal bone growth would be involved in normal adult height variation. The height-related genes FGFR3, CBFA1, ER and CBFA1 were screened for novel polymorphisms using denaturing HPLC and RFLP analysis. In total, 24 polymorphisms were identified. Two SNPs in ER (rs3757323 C>T and rs1801132 G>C) were strongly associated with adult male height and displayed an 8 cm and 9 cm height difference between homozygous genotypes, respectively. The TC haplotype of these SNPs was associated with a 6 cm decrease in height and remarkably, no homozygous carriers of the TC haplotype were identified in tall subjects. No significant associations with height were found for polymorphisms in the FGFR3, CBFA1 or VDR genes. In the epiphyseal growth plate, chondrocyte proliferation, matrix synthesis and chondrocyte hypertrophy are all major contributors to long bone growth. As estrogen plays such a significant role in both growth and final height attainment, another hypothesis of this study was that estrogen exerted its effects in the growth plate by influencing chondrocyte proliferation and mediating the expression of chondrocyte marker genes. The examination of genes regulated by estrogen in chondrocyte-like cells aimed to identify potential regulators of growth plate fusion, which may further elucidate mechanisms involved in the cessation of linear growth. While estrogen did not dramatically alter the proliferation of the SW1353 cell line, gene expression experiments identified several estrogen regulated genes. Sixteen chondrocyte marker genes were examined in response to estrogen concentrations ranging from 10-12 M to 10-8 M over varying time points. Of the genes analysed, IHH, FGFR3, collagen II and collagen X were not readily detectable and PTHrP, GHR, ER, BMP6, SOX9 and TGF1 mRNAs showed no significant response to estrogen treatments. However, the expression of MMP13, CBFA1, BCL-2 and BAX genes were significantly decreased. Interestingly, the majority of estrogen regulated genes in SW1353 cells are expressed in the hypertrophic zone of the growth plate. Estrogen is also known to regulate systemic GH secretion and local GH action. At the molecular level, estrogen functions to inhibit GH action by negatively regulating GH signalling. GH treated SW1353 cells displayed increases in MMP9 mRNA expression (4.4-fold) and MMP13 mRNA expression (64-fold) in SW1353 cells. Increases were also detected in their respective proteins. Treatment with AG490, an established JAK2 inhibitor, blocked the GH mediated stimulation of both MMP9 and MMP13 mRNA expression. The application of estrogen and GH to SW1353 cells attenuated GH-stimulated MMP13 levels, but did not affect MMP9 levels. Investigation of GH signalling revealed that SW1353 cells have high levels of activated JAK2 and exposure to GH, estrogen, AG490 and other signalling inhibitors did not affect JAK2 phosphorylation. Interestingly, AG490 treatment dramatically decreased ERK2 signalling, although GH did stimulate ERK2 phosphorylation above control levels. AG490 also decreased CBFA1 expression, a transcription factor known to activate MMP9 and MMP13. Finally, GH and estrogen treatment increased expression of SOCS3 mRNA, suggesting that SOCS3 may regulate JAK/STAT signalling in SW1353 cells. The modulation of GH-mediated MMP expression by estrogen in SW1353 cells represents a potentially novel mechanism by which estrogen may regulate longitudinal bone growth. However, further investigation is required in order to elucidate the precise mechanisms behind estrogen and GH regulation of MMP13 expression in SW1353 cells. This study has provided additional evidence that estrogen and the ER gene are major factors in the regulation of growth and the determination of adult height. Newly identified polymorphisms in the ER gene not only contribute to our understanding of the genetic basis of human height, but may also be useful in association studies examining other complex traits. This study also identified several estrogen regulated genes and indicated that estrogen modifies the expression of genes which are primarily expressed in the hypertrophic region of the epiphyseal growth plate. Furthermore, synergistic studies incorporating GH and estrogen have revealed the ability of estrogen to attenuate the effects of GH on MMP13 expression, revealing potential pathways by which estrogen may modulate growth plate fusion, longitudinal bone growth and even arthritis.


Recent cosmic shear studies have reported discrepancies of up to 1σ on the parameter ${S_{8}=\sigma _{8}\sqrt{{\Omega _{\rm m}}/0.3}}$ between the analysis of shear power spectra and two-point correlation functions, derived from the same shear catalogues. It is not a priori clear whether the measured discrepancies are consistent with statistical fluctuations. In this paper, we investigate this issue in the context of the forthcoming analyses from the third year data of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3). We analyse DES Y3 mock catalogues from Gaussian simulations with a fast and accurate importance sampling pipeline. We show that the methodology for determining matching scale cuts in harmonic and real space is the key factor that contributes to the scatter between constraints derived from the two statistics. We compare the published scales cuts of the KiDS, Subaru-HSC, and DES surveys, and find that the correlation coefficients of posterior means range from over 80 per cent for our proposed cuts, down to 10 per cent for cuts used in the literature. We then study the interaction between scale cuts and systematic uncertainties arising from multiple sources: non-linear power spectrum, baryonic feedback, intrinsic alignments, uncertainties in the point spread function, and redshift distributions. We find that, given DES Y3 characteristics and proposed cuts, these uncertainties affect the two statistics similarly; the differential biases are below a third of the statistical uncertainty, with the largest biases arising from intrinsic alignment and baryonic feedback. While this work is aimed at DES Y3, the tools developed can be applied to Stage-IV surveys where statistical errors will be much smaller.


Behavioral animation is a means for automatic motion control in which animated objects are capable of sensing their environment and determining their motion within it according to certain rules. An interactive method of behavioral animation in which the user controls motion by designing a network mapping sensor information to effectors is described. The system is called Notion. The network consists of sensors (such as distance to other objects and recognition of their qualities) and effectors (here, jet motors propel objects) connected by nodes and connections. Nodes, which embody such responses as attraction, avoidance, arbitration, and their outputs, map sensory stimuli to effector responses. Sensors, nodes, and effectors are given set limits. Such limits, together with an interactive window environment for altering the network, make it possible to explore a variety of motions quickly.<<ETX>>


Uganda's agricultural growth has stagnated at about 2 percent for almost two decades yet the sector employs about 70% of the working population and contributes 40 percent of export earnings. On the other hand, Uganda's population growth rate remains very high, above 3 percent per annum, signaling the likelihood of food insecurity and increase in poverty incidence. It is thus clear that the current state of agriculture cannot support the country's target of attaining the lower-middle income status by 2020. A number of policies, programs and interventions have been implemented with no success in transforming the sector. These include: Structural Adjustment Programmes, Economic Recovery Program, Poverty Action Eradication Plan, and Plan for Modernization of Agriculture, among others. Indeed, the sector is at crossroads because while it is clear of what needs to be done to transform the sector, the current institutional set up seems weak and uncoordinated to effectively implement the required transformative interventions. Approaches that enhance institutional coordination, promote agricultural research and strengthen extension service provision would aid in revamping agricultural performance.


Introduction. This study systematically identified, extracted, and organized neurofeedback (NFB) practitioner factors connected to client adherence. It is important to understand this connection because increased adherence leads to improved NFB outcomes. A previous NFB conceptual framework and previous NFB client adherence findings were used to guide the current study. Method. One hundred and ninety-eight NFB practitioners completed online surveys gathering demographic information and ratings of practice behaviors and characteristics. For data set analyses, this study utilized SPSS version 20 for descriptive statistics, frequencies, means, standard deviations, ranges, Pearson product-moment correlation analyses, and independent samples t -tests. Results. Findings indicated that the following significantly correlated with client adherence: (a) practitioner technical and interpersonal techniques; (b) practitioner commitment to improving technical and interpersonal skills; and (c) practitioner confidence displayed during sessions. Results also indicated commitment correlated separately with techniques and confidence. These results suggested that practitioners engaging in self-NFB sessions reported significantly higher adherence rates compared to practitioners not engaging in self-NFB sessions. Findings demonstrated that practitioners conducting ≧ 40 monthly NFB sessions reported significantly higher adherence rates compared to practitioners conducting < 40 monthly NFB sessions. Conclusion. This study concluded that practitioners with commitment to improving their technical and interpersonal expertise leads to increased confidence during NFB sessions, ultimately improving adherence and outcome rates. When averaging 40 or more NFB sessions with clients per month, practitioners provide themselves with continued opportunities to practice current and new technical and interpersonal skills. By conducting self-NFB, practitioners develop their own descriptions of physiological regulation and share their own results with clients, which in turn builds rapport and increases therapeutic bonds leading to higher adherence.


Aaker's (1997) brand personality framework has become influential across many streams of brand personality research, but it fails to capture an important dimension that reflects consumer's anxious feelings towards brands. Consumers are increasingly evaluating brands through expressions of negative emotive language. For example, the BP oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico stimulated negative emotions among consumers. This paper is the first to thoroughly incorporate a brand personality dimension reflective of consumer anxious tense and frustrated feelings towards brands. From the extant literature we propose and define negative brand personality. Four adjacent studies were conducted to explore, purify and refine in what form negative brand personality traits exist among consumers. This paper concludes with a conceptual model detailing the antecedent constructs to negative brand personality and behavioral consequences.


The Confederate army went to war to defend a nation of slaveholding states, and although men rushed to recruiting stations for many reasons, they understood that the fundamental political issue at stake in the conflict was the future of slavery. Most Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders themselves, but they were products of the largest and most prosperous slaveholding civilization the world had ever seen, and they sought to maintain clear divisions between black and white, master and servant, free and slave. In Marching Masters Colin Woodward explores not only the importance of slavery in the minds of Confederate soldiers but also its effects on military policy and decision making. Beyond showing how essential the defence of slavery was in motivating Confederate troops to fight, Woodward examines the Rebels' persistent belief in the need to defend slavery and deploy it militarily as the war raged on. Slavery proved essential to the Confederate war machine, and Rebels strove to protect it just as they did Southern cities, towns, and railroads. Slaves served by the tens of thousands in the Southern armies--never as soldiers, but as menial labourers who cooked meals, washed horses, and dug ditches. By following Rebel troops' continued adherence to notions of white supremacy into the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, the book carries the story beyond the Confederacy's surrender. Drawing upon hundreds of soldiers' letters, diaries, and memoirs, Marching Masters combines the latest social and military history in its compelling examination of the last bloody years of slavery in the United States.


This paper presents the design of NaviPBx, an ultrasound-navigated prostate cancer biopsy system. NaviPBx is designed to support an affordable and sustainable national healthcare program in Senegal. It uses spatiotemporal navigation and multiparametric transrectal ultrasound to guide biopsies. NaviPBx integrates concepts and methods that have been independently validated previously in clinical feasibility studies and deploys them together in a practical prostate cancer biopsy system. NaviPBx is based entirely on free open-source software and will be shared as a free open-source program with no restriction on its use. NaviPBx is set to be deployed and sustained nationwide through the Senegalese Military Health Service. This paper reports on the results of the design process of NaviPBx. Our approach concentrates on "frugal technology", intended to be affordable for low–middle income (LMIC) countries. Our project promises the wide-scale application of prostate biopsy and will foster time-efficient development and programmatic implementation of ultrasound-guided diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in Senegal and beyond.


Precise fingerprinting of an operating system (OS) is critical to many security and forensics applications in the cloud, such as virtual machine (VM) introspection, penetration testing, guest OS administration, kernel dump analysis, and memory forensics. The existing OS fingerprinting techniques primarily inspect network packets or CPU states, and they all fall short in precision and usability. As the physical memory of a VM always exists in all these applications, in this article, we present OS-SOMMELIER+, a multi-aspect, memory exclusive approach for precise and robust guest OS fingerprinting in the cloud. It works as follows: given a physical memory dump of a guest OS, OS-SOMMELIER+ first uses a code hash based approach from kernel code aspect to determine the guest OS version. If code hash approach fails, OS-SOMMELIER+ then uses a kernel data signature based approach from kernel data aspect to determine the version. We have implemented a prototype system, and tested it with a number of Linux kernels. Our evaluation results show that the code hash approach is faster but can only fingerprint the known kernels, and data signature approach complements the code signature approach and can fingerprint even unknown kernels.


Extracted from text ... 12 September 2006 Moneyweb's PERSONAL FINANCE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Alex Forbes'
transformation
A chapter is closed as Alexander Forbes sells its
London-based business to turn its focus on Africa
By GEOFF CANDY
ALEXANDER Forbes' acquisition
of 100% of London listed broker
Nelson Hurst in 1997 for R600m
was the group's big break internationally.
It provided it not only with a
36% boost in headline earnings the
following year, but also transformed
the group into an established
international organisation,
ranked amongst the top 10, with
operations in 30 countries worldwide.
A slew of further acquisitions
followed on the group's international
front, ..


This research extends work done in business and society by employing institutional theory to examine organizational responses to social activism. This work examines how womens' reproductive healthcare facilities have responded to antiabortion activism. Institutional theory, coupled with the crisis management literature, was used to develop a set of hypotheses. Survey data indicate that rather than conforming to pressures by anti-abortion activists, facilities develop features that actively resist the pressures exerted by this stakeholder group. The work extends research in corporate social performance by pointing out that crisis management can be subsumed under stakeholder management. The work also contributes to the crisis management literature by providing a theoretical base for that work and moves the focus of the work from product/process failures in large organizations to social crises faced by small organizations. It also extends research in institutional theory by expanding the way in researchers conceive of coercive pressures.


Abstract For the poultry industry, concerns about ammonia are multifaceted and include issues of live production performance, animal health, and welfare, and environmental impact. Retail industry marketers, as a component of their evolving animal care audit programs, are issuing guidelines for the control and reduction of ammonia within poultry facilities to address animal welfare concerns. At the same time, pressure is being placed on poultry producers from interested groups and neighbors to reduce ammonia emissions for environmental reasons. Since the current procedure for reducing ammonia levels in houses is to exhaust air as much as possible, this will, in some part, conflict with efforts to reduce ammonia emissions from poultry live production facilities. Research will be needed from the industry and academia to develop methods of reducing nitrogen excreted by poultry, e.g., research in nutrition, genetics, poultry husbandry, and management. Research is needed to improve or develop methods of manure management and treatment that will reduce ammonia emissions. Research is also needed in developing methods of closing the loop, using nitrogen in poultry manures to produce crops that can be fed back to poultry. Importing major quantities of feedstuffs from other regions of the country and depositing manure onto low-productivity pastures or cropland may not be sustainable. Some combination of reducing excess nutrients in manure, alternative uses for these nutrients, shipping excess nutrients back to grain producing areas, or increasing grain production in poultry-producing areas will be required to address environmental concerns and minimize regulatory advances.


Aim: The purpose of this study was to asses and compare the oral hygiene, gingival and periodontal conditions among a group of Indian population who used miswak, toothbrush or combined miswak\brush for their routine daily oral hygiene. Materials and Methods: A total of 528 subjects participated in this study (63.6% females and 36.4% males), ranging in age from 20 to 45 years (mean ± SD = 35.43 ± 12.83). All subjects were interviewed regarding their oral hygiene habits and use of miswak and conventional toothbrush. After fulfilling the entry criteria participants were classified according to their oral hygiene habits as miswak users (group I), tooth brush users (group II) or both miswak users and tooth brush users (group III). All subjects were assessed using Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), gingival index, pocket depth and gingival recession. Data was analysed using ANOVA test and Scheffe test according to need. The level of significance used was 5% level. Results: It showed that there was no statistically significant difference of OHI-S between groups (P= 0.751). On the other hand, all the three groups differ significantly in relation to mean gingival index (p= 0.000). Also, Group II demonstrated a significantly higher mean pocket depth than Group I (p=0.019). However, gingival recession was significantly higher in Group I in comparison to Group II and Group III (P=0.000). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that, apart from gingival recession that might be encountered in miswak users, the miswak exhibits a significantly higher improvement in gingival and periodontal conditions as compared to tooth brush.


Objective
The aim of this study was to use three-dimensional images to determine the presence of upper lip asymmetry at rest and during smiling in a group of individuals with no history of orthodontics or facial cosmetic surgery.

Methods
Standardized three-dimensional frontal resting and smiling images of 54 volunteers were analyzed using the 3dMDvultus software (3dMD, Atlanta, GA). Measurements were made from the soft tissue nasion, ipsilateral ala, subnasale, and menton to the right and left commissures of the lip. A 2.5 mm or greater difference between the right and left sides was defined as an asymmetry. The agreement on the presence or absence of asymmetry between the subjects' states of rest and smiling was determined by the McNemar's chi-squared test. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05.

Results
Menton was the most stable facial landmark to evaluate the upper lip symmetry at rest and during smiling (p=0.002). Using menton as a landmark, only one of the 54 subjects showed asymmetry while resting, but 12 (22%) showed asymmetry when smiling.

Conclusion
As part of treatment planning for orthodontics or orthognathic surgery, patients should be evaluated for the upper lip symmetry during resting and smiling. The presence of asymmetry during smiling is a significant clinical problem that needs to be recognized so that patients can be informed about the effect it can have on the final esthetic result.


The effects of individual and multiple antioxidant vitamins on growth and morphology of human nontumorigenic (2HPC8) and tumorigenic (2HP1G) parotid acinar cells in culture have not been investigated. Our study showed that tumorigenic acinar cells were more sensitive than nontumorigenic acinar cells to individual vitamins such as vitamin C, beta-carotene (BC), d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate (alpha-TS), and retinoic acid (RA) and a mixture of four vitamins (vitamin C, BC, alpha-TS, and RA). The effect of individual vitamins on tumorigenic acinar cells depended on the dose and the type of vitamins. Vitamin C at a low concentration stimulated growth, but at a high concentration it inhibited growth. BC was most effective in reducing growth, and it alone caused extensive morphological changes in tumorigenic acinar cells. A mixture of four vitamins at appropriate doses was more effective than a mixture of two or three vitamins at the same doses in reducing the growth of tumorigenic acinar cells. The extent of growth inhibition depended on the dose and the type of vitamins. Our results suggest that the use of multiple antioxidant vitamins is essential for a maximal reduction in cancer incidence among a high-risk population. The use of one or two vitamins may be ineffective or even harmful.


In this essay, prepared as the basis for the 2013 Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law, University of Florida, I describe five aspects of the Supreme Court's decision in NFIB v. Sebelius that are sometimes overlooked or misunderstood. (1) The Court held that imposing economic mandates on the people was unconstitutional under the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses; (2) Whether viewed from a formalist or realist perspective, Chief Justice Roberts' reasoning was the holding in the case; (3) The Court did not uphold the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate under the tax power; (4) The newfound power to tax inactivity is far less dangerous than the commerce power that was advocated by the government and most law professors; and (5) the doctrine established by NFIB matters (to the extent that constitutional law doctrine ever matters). Finally, I turn my attention to the question of why so many law professors got this case so wrong. After providing a lengthy compendium of published law professor opinions about the case, the author suggests that most missed the boat because they have failed to appreciate the constitutional gestalt that informed the Rehnquist Court's New Federalism, a gestalt that can now be seen to carry over to a majority of the Roberts Court.


Jessica Ellen Sewell. Women and the Everyday City: Public Space in San Francisco 1890–1915 . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011, xxxiii + 232 pp., 74 b/w illus. $25, ISBN 9780816669745

Since the 1980s, urban geography, urban sociology, and architectural studies have fruitfully converged to produce studies of the lived experience of cities. Generalized theoretical approaches to the growth of urban society have ceded place to and have been enriched by "thick descriptions" of particular cities and communities. Jessica Ellen Sewell's is one such book.

Sewell writes of a period, just before and after the 1906 earthquake, when Progressive Era San Francisco was transforming itself from a Gold Rush town to a sophisticated urban center. Her focus is on the lives of women and the originality of her work is in how she analyzes the role of architecture and design in shaping their lives and their movements around the city. Sewell argues for "a complex relationship between gender ideology and the built environment" (169). She is clear that class at times trumped gender in these women's lives, and she shows how interior and exterior spaces were experienced by women of different social status.

Sewell's five areas of investigation—"sidewalks and sidecars," "errands" (shopping), "dining out," "spectacles and amusements," and "spaces of suffrage"—are set within the framework of the changing protocols of how women were supposed to behave in public. …


The affective dimension of students' transition into university is an area of development that has the potential to improve student success. Large-scale research suggests that developing a growth mindset belief – that academic ability can always be expanded – may be especially helpful for first generation students. A starting point for developing growth mindsets as one type of affective support for students is to investigate how we can position students on the fixed-to-growth spectrum of beliefs about academic ability. This mixed-methods study considers the changes during their first year of university in the mindset beliefs held by two representative first-year mathematics students, one who passed and one who had to repeat the second semester of mathematics. Without experiencing interventions aimed at developing growth mindsets, both students showed small shifts towards stronger growth mindsets over their first year. Limitations with assessing mindsets are acknowledged and recommendations for future research in this area are suggested.


Presentation of the Nephrology Quiz and Questionnaire (NQQ) has become an annual "tradition" at the meetings of the American Society of Nephrology. It is a very popular session judged by consistently large attendance. Members of the audience test their knowledge and judgment on a series of case-oriented questions prepared and discussed by experts. They can also compare their answers in real time, using audience response devices, to those of program directors of nephrology training programs in the United States, acquired through an Internet-based questionnaire. As in the past, the topics covered were transplantation, fluid and electrolyte disorders, end-stage renal disease and dialysis, and glomerular disorders. Two challenging cases representing each of these categories along with single best answer questions were prepared by a panel of experts (Drs. Hricik, Palmer, Bargman, and Fervenza, respectively). The "correct" and "incorrect" answers then were briefly discussed, after the audience responses and the results of the questionnaire were displayed. The 2010 version of the NQQ was exceptionally challenging, and the audience, for the first time, gained a better overall correct answer score than the program directors, but the margin was small. Last month we presented the transplantation and fluid and the electrolyte cases; in this issue we present the remaining end-stage renal disease and dialysis and the glomerular disorder cases. These articles try to recapitulate the session and reproduce its educational value for a larger audience--that of the readers of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Have fun.


OBJECTIVE To identify characteristics of adult patients at baseline associated with duration of subsequent, continuous, subcutaneous infusion of insulin treatment (pump therapy) of type I diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS For 6 wk, patients followed a standardized conventional therapy and kept a record of insulin dosages, capillary blood glucose concentrations, and symptomatic hypoglycemia. They were then hospitalized. Additional baseline data were obtained and pump therapy was started. Survival analysis was used to determine the relationship between baseline independent variables or risk factors and duration of pump therapy, which is the dependent variable. RESULTS Of the 68 participants, 33 (49%) terminated pump therapy after an average of 9.9 mo of treatment. Two models (each P < 0.00005) were developed that exhibited a high degree of consistency. Of the 6 variables, 5 were common to both models (HbA1 autonomic neuropathy, mean amplitude of glycemic excursions, frequency of symptoms of hypoglycemia when blood glucose was < 70 mg/dl, and erythema at injection sites). The sixth variable in model 1 (insulin dosage) was replaced in model 2 by a variable, Adult Self-Efficacy for Diabetes, which was obtained on the 33 more recently enrolled patients; this variable related to patient perceptions of self-care behaviors. CONCLUSIONS We found that, at baseline, the presence of a high concentration of HbAx and a low estimation by the patient of their ability to treat the disease portend failure of insulin pump therapy as evidenced by its discontinuation. This effect is accentuated when clinical evidence of autonomic neuropathy is observed. These findings offer guidance in selecting patients with type I diabetes for insulin pump therapy.


Background Several individual-level stressors have been linked to incident coronary heart disease (CHD), but less attention has focused on the influence of neighbourhood-level sources of stress. In this study we examined prospective associations of individual-level and neighbourhood-level stressors with incident CHD. Methods Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants aged 45–84 years at baseline (2000–2002) with complete data were included in the analyses (n=6678 for individual-level and n=6105 for neighbourhood-level stressors). CHD was defined as non-fatal myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest or CHD death. Median follow-up was 10.2 years. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to estimate associations of individual-level and neighbourhood-level stressors (categorised into approximate tertiles) with incident CHD. Results Higher reported individual-level stressors were associated with higher incident CHD. Participants in the high individual-level stressor category had 65% higher risk of incident CHD (95% CI 1.23 to 2.22) than those in the low category after adjusting for sociodemographics (P for trend=0.002). This association weakened but remained significant with further adjustment for behavioural and biological risk factors. There was a non-linear relationship between neighbourhood-level stressors and incident CHD (P for quadratic term=0.01). Participants in the medium category had 49% higher CHD risk (95% CI 1.06 to 2.10) compared with those in the low category; those in the high category had only 27% higher CHD risk (95% CI 0.83 to 1.95). These associations persisted with adjustment for risk factors and individual-level stressors. Conclusions Individual-level and neighbourhood-level stressors were independently associated with incident CHD, though the nature of the relationships differed.


Introduction: Müllerian anomalies can be challenging to diagnose. We describe a patient with uterus didelphys and cervical atresia who presented with a symptomatic pelvic mass that was incompletely diagnosed as an endometrioma. Consequently, it was inadequately treated at the time of laparotomy, necessitating a laparoscopic hemihysterectomy for definitive management. Case Description: A 17-year-old nulligravida presented with abdominal pain and pelvic pressure. Computed tomographic imaging showed an 18-cm pelvic mass and left renal agenesis. The patient underwent an exploratory laparotomy with resection of a large endometrioma and left salpingo-oophorectomy. During the operation, an enlarged left uterine horn was observed and was kept intact. She made an uneventful recovery, but returned 6 months later with pelvic pain and pressure. Ultrasonography and hysterosalpingogram diagnosed uterus didelphys with left cervical atresia causing an obstructed hemiuterus. Laparoscopic hemihysterectomy with extensive adhesiolysis was performed, and the patient's symptoms resolved. Discussion: Endometrioma is rare in adolescents, and its presence should raise suspicion of a müllerian anomaly. Laparoscopic management, while safe and feasible, is more challenging in the setting of dense adhesions from a prior laparotomy. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging is recommended in adolescents who present with chronic pelvic pain and a symptomatic pelvic mass, to rule out a congenital anomaly and avoid a needless second surgery.


Any time humans in any culture consider primary ethical concepts, justice will be to the fore. Much seems to hinge upon it whether human society is to function with any semblance of civil order, security and harmony. When justice is pervasively trampled upon, the very fabric of liveable society crumbles. The apprehension for justice is clearly reflected in almost all of the Old Testament (OT). It is an important theological motif in the OT. This is found in such OT literature as historical, legal, prophetic and wisdom writings. This evidence thus reveals that the apprehension for the issue of justice was one of the many ways by which Israel's multifaceted social life was knit together throughout its various ancient historical developments. No aspect of the life of Israel was excluded from this kind of apprehension for justice, and Yahweh was understood to be actively involved in its entire phase. This article examines Malachi's fourth disputation in the light of the lawlessness alluded to in Malachi 2:17 and the corruption of personal and civil morality in Malachi 3:5. In the discussions that follow, this article examines the need for the justice of Yahweh; that is, Yahweh's righting of past wrongs and the reversal of sinful societal order. The purpose is to enact a communal ethic for those who generously care for the neighbourhood and are firm in their devotion to Him, that is, God.


Widespread outbreaks of tomato powdery mildew (Leveillula taurica and Oidium neolycopersici) are problematic in fresh market tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) crops in western Oregon, USA. In western Oregon, fresh market tomatoes are frequently grown in greenhouses or high tunnels where conditions can promote diseases such as powdery mildew. Heightened concerns about worker safety limit the pesticides available for use in enclosed systems. We studied the efficacy of ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light applications under high-tunnel conditions compared with a standard fungicide program. Plants treated with UV-C had zero incidence of powdery mildew on all sample dates in the first trial. In trial 2, disease incidence was lower on UV-C treated plants than both grower standard and nontreated control early in the study while disease severity remained lower in UV-C than nontreated control and similar to grower standard treatment. Additional research is needed to optimize UV-C treatment intervals to minimize negative effects on plant growth and maximize powdery mildew control.


Objective To identify recent increases in mortality and morbidity rates from injuries among Americans aged 65 years and over. Design A longitudinal analysis of mortality and morbidity data on injuries in the elderly, examining variations in recent trends by cause, sex, race/ethnicity and age group. Setting USA, mortality rate (2000–6) and morbidity rate (2001–7). Data sources Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's web-based injury statistics query and reporting system online database. Main outcome measures Linear regression was used to examine the statistical significance of trends in mortality and morbidity rates in the study period. The percentage change in rates was used to measure the linear trend. Race/ethnicity was classified into Hispanic (all races except black), non-Hispanic white ('white') and black. Results Injury mortality for people aged 65 years and over increased by 3% during 2000–6; morbidity increased by 7% during 2001–7. Falls mortality increased by 42% but emergency department visits for falls did not increase. Significant increases in death rates occurred in motorcycle crashes (145%), machinery (46%), poisoning (34%) and drowning (19%); morbidity rates increased in poisoning (143%), motorcycle crashes (86%), machinery (48%), bicycles (24%), struck by/against (13%) and overexertion (11%). Motor vehicle occupant injuries decreased. Conclusions The reported rate of fatal falls for people aged 65 years and over increased by 42% during 2000–6 but non-fatal falls did not increase. Research is needed to explain the inconsistent changes between fatal and non-fatal falls, and to identify risk factors contributing to the significant increases in both fatal and non-fatal injuries from machinery, motorcycle crashes and unintentional poisoning.


The question of how to deal with uncertainty in environmental decision-making is currently attracting considerable attention on the part of scientists as well as of politicians and those involved in government administration. The existence of uncertainty becomes particularly apparent in the field of environmental policy because environmental problems are regarded as highly complex and long-term and because far-reaching changes have to be taken into account; moreover, the knowledge available to practitioners and policy makers alike is often fragmentary and not systemised. One key issue arising from this is the challenge to develop scientific decision support methods that are capable of dealing with uncertainty in a systematic and differentiated way, integrating scientific and practical knowledge. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for perceiving and describing uncertainty in environmental decision-making. It is argued that perceiving and describing uncertainty is an important prerequisite for deciding and acting under uncertainty. The conceptual framework consists of a general definition of uncertainty along with five complementary perspectives on the phenomenon, each highlighting one specific aspect of it. By using the conceptual framework, decision-makers are able to reflect on their knowledge base with regard to its completeness and reliability and to gain a broad picture of uncertainty from various standpoints. The theoretical ideas presented here are based on two empirical studies looking at how uncertainty is dealt with in the implementation process of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The rather abstract differentiations are illustrated by a number of examples in the form of interview statements and excerpts from the WFD and the WFD guidance documents Impress, Wateco und Proclan.


Cisco routers are everywhere that networks are. They come in all sizes, from inexpensive units for homes and small offices to equipment costing well over $100,000 and capable of routing at gigabit speeds. A fixture in today's networks, Cisco claims roughly 70% of the router market, producing high-end switches, hubs, and other network hardware. One unifying thread runs through the product line: virtually all of Cisco's products run the Internetwork Operating System, or IOS. If you work with Cisco routers, it's likely that you deal with Cisco's IOS software--an extremely powerful and complex operating system, with an equally complex configuration language. With a cryptic command-line interface and thousands of commands--some of which mean different things in different situations--it doesn't have a reputation for being user-friendly.Fortunately, there's help. This second edition of Cisco IOS in a Nutshell consolidates the most important commands and features of IOS into a single, well-organized volume that you'll find refreshingly user-friendly.This handy, two-part reference covers IOS configuration for the TCP/IP protocol family. The first section includes chapters on the user interface, configuring lines and interfaces, access lists, routing protocols, and dial-on-demand routing and security. A brief, example-filled tutorial shows you how to accomplish common tasks.The second part is a classic O'Reilly quick reference to all the commands for working with TCP/IP and the lower-level protocols on which it relies. Brief descriptions and lists of options help you zero in on the commands you for the task at hand. Updated to cover Cisco IOS Software Major Release 12.3, this second edition includes lots of examples of the most common configuration steps for the routers themselves. It's a timely guide that any network administrator will come to rely on.


ABSTRACT As everyday practices are increasingly digitalised, many countries are prioritising broadband rollout. However, infrastructure provision under national policies has not been uniform. In comparison to urban populations, rural communities often have inferior broadband infrastructure and services and there are disparities in digital opportunities between rural and urban areas. A case study of twenty rural Australian internet users reveals that rural communities suffer from limited access, inconsistent and unreliable services, and rural broadband plans' data restrictions and high prices, which we conceptualise as 'interrupted access'. Rural internet experiences are subsequently shaped by the availability, speed, stability and affordability of connections. As a response, a form of 'technological literacy' is emerging through which rural consumers undertake technical and social manoeuvrings to self-address challenges from interrupted access and increase their opportunities for digital inclusion. Participants developed innovative local solutions, such as self-installed auxiliary hardware and mobile towers, which they used to improve mobile broadband coverage. Those unable to build such solutions displayed new types of knowledge encompassing broader contexts of connectivity (infrastructure, devices and plans) and re-structured rural life to accommodate internet use that is shaped by interrupted access. Growing community-level capacity and interest in broadband development suggests national policies could better reduce rural-urban inequities by supporting and empowering localised solutions. Without addressing the interrupted nature of rural connectivity to improve service quality and affordability, disparities in the digital opportunities available to rural and urban consumers will persist.


In information systems (IS) academic debates on the comparative merits of particular methodological approaches, reflection on the role of personal preference in initial methodology selection remains rare. More significantly, while most IS researchers identify limitations in their research approaches, rarely do they engage in detailed examination of the appropriateness of their research designs to their specific research contexts or acknowledge the constraints imposed by the phenomena being studied. This paper contributes to the ongoing development of critical reflection in IS research design by exploring these issues as part of the development of a research approach to ISS (Information Systems Strategy) amongst Australian biotechnology firms.


Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the scope of using telematics systems based on GPS/GPRS in the road transport as well as to identify determinants of applying telematics tools to increase the quality in the supply chain. Design/Methodology/Approach: The contribution is based on a review of literature, preparing of a questionnaire-based survey directed to road transport companies and estimating logit models. Findings: It is submitted that there is an observable trend of extending telematics in the road transport. The following variables increase the probability of using telematics systems for punctuality checking in supply chains such as the number of employed persons, importance of telematics for getting new orders, managers' viewpoints that telematics increases the quality of order processing and forecasting punctuality of loadings as well as speeds up decision-making processes. Practical Implications: Application of IT solutions including telematics in road transport is growing continuously. However, the awareness of managers about possible areas of applying them is still unsatisfactory. The paper reveals the determinants of application telematics in supply chain, which can be used to motivate and train managers to extend its scope in practice. Originality/Value: The study is based on primary data from road transport companies and related to the scope of application of telematics systems in operational management. A logit model is applied to evaluate the determinants of using IT systems in the road transport industry. It may be useful for practitioners and analytics of transport industry to broaden applications of IT solutions.


Aneurinibacillus thermoaerophilus strain AFNA as a novel isolated extracellular thermostable organic solvent tolerant lipase producing bacterium was employed in the present study. The lipase production of strain AFNA and its correlation with bacterial growth was studied via a modeling assessment by response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) techniques. The best achieved models were multilayer full feed forward incremental back propagation network and modified cubic response surface model (mRSM) using backward elimination. The highest lipase specific activity (13.1 Umg-1) and bacterial growth (OD600 = 3.0) were obtained at technically similar: growth temperature (53 and 53oC), inoculum size (2.6 and 3.0%), agitation rate (118 and 115 rpm) and initial pH (7.0 and 7.2) but different medium volume (139 and 87 ml) and incubation period (48 and 38 hrs), respectively. In addition, the importance of effective parameters on the bacterial growth and lipase production was studied where pH and inoculum size were the most and the least effective factors, respectively. Significant correlation between lipase production and bacterial growth was observed when Bivariate correlation was employed to analyse the data. As a conclusion, lipase production was the result of a synergistic combination of effective parameters interactions and these parameters were in equilibrium.


Abstract Hailed as the gold standard, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) occupies a hegemonic position at the top of evidence-based medicine's hierarchy of knowledge. It is testament to the methodology's capacity for standardization that it can so readily be spoken of in the singular: the RCT. Under what conditions, then, is it possible to speak of change in the gold standard? Since the 1950s, alternative versions of the RCT have been advocated for under the banner of 'adaptive design'. Adaptive designs allow investigators to make pre-planned changes to a trial on the basis of accruing information while the experiment is ongoing. Initially a niche topic of methodological debate among biostatisticians, the approach is becoming widespread in mainstream drug development. A genealogical analysis exposes the discursive moves used to justify and popularize adaptation, from a focus on patient well-being and the greater good in the 1960s and 1970s, to efficiency and virtualism in the 1990s and 2000s. Changing discourses of time and patienthood have facilitated a move away from standardization as the singular logic of trials towards an appreciation of flexibility, undergirded by probabilistic methodologies. Adams et al.'s [(2009). Anticipation: Technoscience, life, affect, temporality, Subjectivity, 28, pp. 246–265] conceptual framework of anticipation illuminates this evolving moral economy of medical research, in which modes of knowledge production which claim to know the future are supplanting the traditional certainties of fixed and standardized experimental designs. Predictable uncertainty is the currency of this emerging economy, which capitalizes on computer simulation and ever more sophisticated tools of prediction to leverage credibility.


The Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) is more than a century old. Water allowances and canal water distributions responded to increasing crop water requirements in a southward direction, e.g. higher water allowance in Sindh as compared to Punjab. But within a province, the canal water supplies do not address the issue of difference in irrigation demand. The consequence is unprecedented groundwater depletion in Bari Doab and waterlogging in certain other canal commands. After the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, gradually reduced flows and ultimate desiccation of eastern rivers have also contributed towards falling groundwater levels of adjoining aquifers. In this study, water allocations in the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, annual average canal water diversions, and irrigation demand were compared for canal commands in Punjab. Rainfall was taken as an ultimate source of water that has a beneficial impact in integration with canal and groundwater. It is concluded that the efficiency of existing irrigation systems can be improved by adopting the concept of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Thus, to avoid waterlogging and groundwater depletion, reallocation of canal water supplies amongst the irrigation units in Punjab, in proportion to the relative irrigation water demand and cropping intensities, is recommended.


Starting with Gilmer et al. (2018), several works have demonstrated the inevitability of adversarial examples based on different assumptions about the underlying input probability space. It remains unclear, however, whether these results apply to natural image distributions. In this work, we assume the underlying data distribution is captured by some conditional generative model, and prove intrinsic robustness bounds for a general class of classifiers, which solves an open problem in Fawzi et al. (2018). Building upon the state-of-the-art conditional generative models, we study the intrinsic robustness of two common image benchmarks under $\ell_2$ perturbations, and show the existence of a large gap between the robustness limits implied by our theory and the adversarial robustness achieved by current state-of-the-art robust models. Code for all our experiments is available at this https URL.


ONE OF THE MAJOR distinguishing traits of the Modernist Poets--which has also been one of their legacies bestowed upon subsequent generations--is their interest in philosophical ideas that explore the nature of an individual's relationship with the external world. Even at the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is still difficult to avoid the influence of the Modernist Poets. The Modernists were the first generation of poets to write in direct response to the modern milieu that essentially separates us in experience from all previous eras. Their revolutions in form, subject, style, theme, and philosophy have transformed poetry from the strictly metered forms and styles of the previous centuries into the highly solipsistic, and as Randy Malamud termed it in The Language of Modernism, the "difficult, confusing, obfuscatory" (2) forms poetry often takes. Whether most current poets believe it or not, they still show the presence of the Modernists (for better and for worse) in their writing, despite the pervasive application of the term postmodernism. The preoccupation of some postmodernist poetry with what Paul Hoover defined in the Introduction to Postmodern American Poetry as "'the death of God and the author," and with "oppositional strategies" such as "the empty sign" (xxvii), is largely an intensification of modernism, in that the writing still responds to modern urban culture, and that postmodernist writing still utilizes many of the same techniques--juxtaposition, irony, and paradox--as the modernists used. The prevailing assumption of much postmodern poetry, that the poet's primary expression is one of solipsistic self-reflexivity with a tendency toward nihilism, has been a guiding literary concept for several decades. While on the surface the solitary nature of being a poet seems to validate many of the philosophical suppositions of literary deconstructionism, I have always harbored doubts about the creative possibilities of what seems to be a very narrow view of experience. It was from this impetus that I began to search for philosophical ideas that would better represent my own thinking and intuition about the creative impulse and would offer a more fertile set of assumptions and ideals for creative activity. It is in the work of Process Philosophers Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead in relation to the concept of the individual's experience of and interaction with temporality that my own hunches about the nature of creativity are best represented. My proposal is a simple as this: that Bergson's and Whitehead's views of temporality are fundamental principles, and the concept of the essential interrelatedness of things provides the basis for a much more fruitful artistic aesthetic that I am terming the poetics of process, than does current deconstructive postmodern poetics. Nietzsche and the Responses to the External World by Modernism and Postmodernism The influence of philosophy on the Modernist Poets, and particularly the philosophers of the late nineteenth century, is well known. As Sanford Schwartz detailed in The Matrix of Modernism, the major features of modernism, "abrupt juxtaposition, irony, paradox, and the like" (3), are not simply the unmediated responses of artists to the social and religious breakdown of the turn of the century. True, modernism is a clear response to the miasma caused by the shift in western society from a rural, Christian existence to an urban, secular one; the rise of industrialization and its subsequent slums and robber barons, and Darwin's Theory of Evolution brought with them a wave of anxiety and skepticism would be aptly labeled alienation. Yet many of the poets interpreted these phenomena as the consequences of a society that had adopted the nihilism discussed in the work of some nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophers. Lawrence Gamache also noted in "'Toward a Definition of 'Modernism'" that in the shift to the modernist period, "there has been a progression from the optimistic attempt to discover the real world, studied confidently as the proper object of philosophy and science and as the artist's guide, to man reduced to skepticism and his own subjectivity" (36). …


The functional food market is growing day by day all over the world and especially in Europe. The market in Turkey has not yet been sufficiently developed, stands out as one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. However, when the literature is examined, it is seen that market mechanisms for functional foods are not adequately addressed and understood from the consumer perspective. In this context, this study focuses on the antecedents determining the consumers' willingness to buy of functional foods in order to provide insight from the consumer perspective. In this context, in order to contribute to the consumer perspective, this study focuses on consumer trust and interest, which are important antecedents determining the functional food preferences of consumers. Within this focus, it is aimed to understand whether trust in functional foods affects the decisions of purchasing these products and whether consumer health interest plays a role in this relationship. The research hypotheses were tested with data collected from 373 consumers by means of a questionnaire created to achieve this aim. According to the findings, it is concluded that there is a positive relationship between consumer trust and willingness to buy functional foods, and consumer health interest has a moderator effect on this relationship. These results provide information that can be benefited especially by food sector players, while contributing to marketing literature in the context of understanding consumer-based antecedents of functional food consumption.


We demonstrate intra- and inter-board level optical interconnects using polymer waveguides and waveguide couplers consisting of both 45 degree total internal reflection (TIR) mirrors and inkjet-printed micro-lenses. Surface normal couplers consisting of 50 µm × 50 µm waveguides with embedded 45 degree mirrors are fabricated using a nickel mold imprint. Micro-lenses, 70 µm in diameter, are inkjet-printed on top of the mirrors. We characterize the optical transmission between waveguides located on different boards in terms of insertion loss, mirror coupling loss, and free space propagation loss as a function of interconnection distance in free space. Each mirror contributes 1.88 dB loss to the system, corresponding to 65% efficiency. The printed micro-lenses improve the transmission by 2-4 dB (per coupler). Data transmission at 10 Gbps reveals that inter-board interconnects has a bit error rate (BER) of 1.1 × 10(-10) and 6.2 × 10(-13) without and with the micro-lenses, respectively.


It has become common for authors to argue that government commitment to repay debt depends upon institutions. In this article I present new econometric evidence which shows that in one prominent case, Great Britain after 1688, credibility depended more immediately upon partisan preferences. The 'revolution' in British public finance may indeed have been spurred forward by the constitutional changes of the Glorious Revolution, but it was only consolidated in 1715, almost three decades later, during a 'Whig Supremacy' where a single party established unchecked control over British political institutions. It mattered a great deal for the final outcome that the Whig party was intimately associated with government creditors while their opponents, the Tories, were not. I provide evidence of a structural break in both government costs of borrowing and Bank of England share prices that is consistent with this argument. Using an ARCH-in-mean model, I then show that the evolution of the Whig majority in the House of Commons provides a better explanation for the evolution of government credibility than does either the assumption of a simple structural break in 1715, or an explanation focusing strictly on political stability, and ignoring partisan preferences. These findings have broad implications for our understanding of the determinants of credibility.


BACKGROUND
Single-detector-row computed tomography (CT) has a low sensitivity for pulmonary embolism and must be combined with venous-compression ultrasonography of the lower limbs. We evaluated whether the use of D-dimer measurement and multidetector-row CT, without lower-limb ultrasonography, might safely rule out pulmonary embolism.

METHODS
We included 756 consecutive patients with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism from the emergency departments of three teaching hospitals and managed their cases according to a standardized sequential diagnostic strategy. All patients were followed for three months.

RESULTS
Pulmonary embolism was detected in 194 of the 756 patients (26 percent). Among the 82 patients with a high clinical probability of pulmonary embolism, multidetector-row CT showed pulmonary embolism in 78, and 1 patient had proximal deep venous thrombosis and a CT scan that was negative for pulmonary embolism. Of the 674 patients without a high probability of pulmonary embolism, 232 (34 percent) had a negative D-dimer assay and an uneventful follow-up; CT showed pulmonary embolism in 109 patients. CT and ultrasonography were negative in 318 patients, of whom 3 had a definite thromboembolic event and 2 died of possible pulmonary embolism during follow-up (three-month risk of thromboembolism, 1.7 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.7 to 3.9). Two patients had proximal deep venous thrombosis and a negative CT scan (risk, 0.6 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 2.2). The overall three-month risk of thromboembolism in patients without pulmonary embolism would have been 1.5 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 0.8 to 3.0) if the D-dimer assay and multidetector-row CT had been the only tests used to rule out pulmonary embolism and ultrasonography had not been performed.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicate the potential clinical use of a diagnostic strategy for ruling out pulmonary embolism on the basis of D-dimer testing and multidetector-row CT without lower-limb ultrasonography. A larger outcome study is needed before this approach can be adopted.


The project aim was characterisation of antibacterial releasing, remineralising and self-adhesive novel dental composites. Commercially available bulk filling and flowable composites were tested in order to provide benchmark properties for successful dental composite materials. 20 wt. % of light curable urethane dimethacrylate based liquid was mixed with 80 wt. % glass filler containing 10 wt. % CHX and 0 - 40 wt. % CaP. Conversion versus depth with 20 or 40 s light exposure was assessed by FTIR. Solidification depth and polymerisation shrinkage were determined using ISO 4049 and 17304 respectively. Subsequent volume expansion and biaxial flexural strength and modulus change upon water or simulated body fluid (SBF) immersion were determined over 4 and 6 weeks respectively. Precipitation of hydroxyapatite on the surfaces of light cured discs after storage in water versus SBF was assessed weekly up to 4 weeks using SEM with EDX, Raman and XRD. Mass of precipitate that could be scraped from the surfaces was determined gravimetrically after 12 weeks. CHX release into solution or associated with the hydroxyapatite layer over 12 weeks was determined using UV spectrometry. Biaxial flexural strength and modulus were determined after 1 month immersion in SBF. The shear bond strength between experimental formulations and Ivory dentine etched with phosphoric acid was assessed. Separate adhesive agent 'iBond' was applied to dentine and the shear strength was compared with that when experimental composite was attached directly to the dentine without iBond use. Conversion decreased linearly with both depth and CaP content. Shrinkage was ~3% for experimental materials. Early water sorption increased linearly, whilst strength and modulus decreased exponentially to final values when plotted versus square root of time. Maximum volumetric expansion increased linearly with CaP rise and balanced shrinkage at 10-20 wt. % CaP. Experimental composites initial strength and modulus decreased linearly with increasing CaP. Hydroxyapatite layer thickness / coverage from SEM images, Ca/Si ratio from EDX and normalised hydroxyapatite Raman peak intensities were all proportional to both time in SBF and CaP wt. % in the filler. Hydroxyapatite was, however, difficult to detect by XRD until 4 weeks. Early CHX release was proportional to the square root of time and to CaP level and twice as fast in water compared with SBF. After 1 week, CHX continued to be released into water. In SBF, however, any released CHX became entrapped within the precipitating hydroxyapatite layer. At 12 weeks HA entrapped CHX was proportional to the CaP filler wt. % and up to 14% of the total in the sample. CHX formed 5 to 15% of the HA layer with 10 to 40 wt. % CaP respectively. Shear bond strength has increased upon addition of CaP up to 20 wt. %. Formulations with 0 wt. % CaP and no adhesive monomer exhibited the lowest shear strength of ~ 3 MPa. Upon addition of 4Meta and still absence of CaP, the shear strength increased up to 13 MPa. Formulations with 20 wt. % CaP experienced the highest shear strength of ~ 25 MPa irrespective of the addition of adhesive monomers. The high strength, hydroxyapatite precipitation and surface antibacterial accumulation should reduce tooth restoration failure due to fracture, aid demineralised dentine repair and prevent subsurface carious disease respectively.


Surface sediments from five stations within Gonghu Bay in Taihu Lake, China, were sampled for seasonal and spatial metal contamination analysis variations and ecological risks assessment from April 2009 to January 2010. The Contamination Factor (CF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) indicated that the sediments in Gonghu Bay ranged from unpolluted to moderately polluted, except for Cd. The one-way ANOVA analysis results showed that the Pb, Zn, Cr, and Cu concentrations were higher at station 3 (lake inlet) and the Cr, Pb, and Zn concentrations were significantly higher in the spring. Additionally, using BCR's sequential extraction, the results showed that the fractionated metals Zn and Cd were observed as bioavailable fractions in the sediments, which could have potential moderate mobility in the water system. There was a significant increase in the bioavailable form during winter. The ratio of secondary and primary phrase (RSP) decreased according to the order Zn > Cu > Ni > Pb > Cd > Cr. Finally, these results indicated that the sediments of Gonghu Bay were polluted by Cd, Zn, and Cu, which provides a scientific basis for effectively protecting sediments in watershed areas from long-term heavy metal accumulation.


INTRODUCTION
It is well known that color can be induced spatially as the completion of a color boundary (Pinna, 1987) and temporally as an afterimage (especially within a boundary contour; Daw, 1962). Also, figures with sparse color contours can induce local extensions of the contour boundary, as in Neon Color Spreading (Varin, 1971). These observations have invoked the concept of color induction as driven largely by color contours. Consideration that most chromatic cells in primary visual cortex are not contour selective, however, suggests that contourless color induction should be possible.

METHODS
Fields of sparse random dots of one color on the left side of a black field and a contrasting color on the other side are accurately fixated for 10 s, and assessed for color induction. The dots are then removed and the empty black field assessed for color induction.

RESULTS
The colored dots induce color spreading across each side of the field. Rather than being the opposite color, as predicted by the local color border hypothesis, the field color is a darker version of the color of the dots overlying the field. This induced color represents a novel form of color induction from the color of the dots alone. Removal of the dots switches the induced field color to the opponent color. The dots also have afterimages of the opponent color that may appear and disappear with microsaccadic eye movements, while the induced opponent field color remains and fades gradually over about 5s, as though it were an afterimage of the initial induced field color. The two different induced field colors form a color border much sharper than between the sets of sparse random dots.

DISCUSSION
Induced colors can form borders in the absence of contour border in the input image, inverting the standard logic of color border processing. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


In this thesis, we obtain approximations to the non-3-colourability threshold of sparse random graphs and we investigate the structure of random graphs near the region where the transition from 3-colourability to non-3-colourability seems to occur. It has been observed that, as for many other properties, the property of non-3-colourability of graphs exhibits a sharp threshold behaviour. It is conjectured that there exists a critical average degree such that when the average degree of a random graph is around this value the probability of the random graph being non-3-colourable changes rapidly from near 0 to near 1. The difficulty in calculating the critical value arises because the number of proper 3-colourings of a random graph is not concentrated: there is a `jackpot' effect. In order to reduce this effect, we focus on a sub-family of proper 3-colourings, which are called rigid 3-colourings. We give precise estimates for their expected number and we deduce that when the average degree of a random graph is bigger than 5, then the graph is asymptotically almost surely not 3-colourable. After that, we investigate the non-$k$-colourability of random regular graphs for any $k \geq 3$. Using a first moment argument, for each $k \geq 3$ we provide a bound so that whenever the degree of the random regular graph is bigger than this, then the random regular graph is asymptotically almost surely not $k$-colourable. Moreover, in a (failed!) attempt to show that almost all 5-regular graphs are not 3-colourable, we analyse the expected number of rigid 3-colourings of a random 5-regular graph. Motivated by the fact that the transition from 3-colourability to non-3-colourability occurs inside the subgraph of the random graph that is called the 3-core, we investigate the structure of this subgraph after its appearance. Indeed, we do this for the $k$-core, for any $k \geq 2$; and by extending existing techniques we obtain the asymptotic behaviour of the proportion of vertices of each fixed degree. Finally, we apply these results in order to obtain a more clear view of the structure of the 2-core (or simply the core) of a random graph after the emergence of its giant component. We determine the asymptotic distributions of the numbers of isolated cycles in the core as well as of those cycles that are not isolated there having any fixed length. Then we focus on its giant component, and in particular we give the asymptotic distributions of the numbers of 2-vertex and 2-edge-connected components.


The term structure of interest rates has been a hot topic in the financial sector. With the accelerating process of interest rate liberalisation, to seek a representative benchmark interest rate of the market is basis for the fixed income products pricing. This paper using Nelson-Siegel-Svensson model and polynomial spline model fitting analysis is carried out on bond transaction data of inter-bank in China, through analysis and comparison of the two models, to choose the appropriate method to fit the term structure of interest rates.


It seems a good time to re-appraise the pioneering work of the arts and environment charity Common Ground. This influential organisation has wound up its campaigning work on the retirement of its co-founders, Sue Clifford and Angela King, though its publishing work is to be continued elsewhere. Common Ground was formed in 1983 and quickly gained a reputation for a range of work which set out to celebrate the distinctiveness of everyday places, the wisdom of subjective and continuing local knowledge, and the meanings which nature brings to life. Their work often revolved around collaboration with significant artists and writers - notably Peter Randall-Page, Andy Goldsworthy and Stephen Turner, among many others. It stimulated direct community participation and was practice-orientated.

Common Ground's work attracted some commentary (and even some criticism) from 1990s cultural geography. This paper will critically explore how Common Ground's approach was transgressive in terms of its inter-leavings of nature-culture; and spanned practice and theory in relation to a range of substantive theme which are now prominent within geography, for example, local food production; trees, woods and orchards; river catchments; notions of 'local distinctiveness' as articulated in material culture and habit; the wider interface of geographical inquiry and art. Ground's Grounds work will also be placed in the wider contexts of environmentally focused "new nature writing" and "land art" which have emerged so strongly over the last two decades or so and which now have significant inter- linkages with various strands of geographical thinking.


Hybridization and polyploidy followed by genome-wide diploidization significantly impacted the diversification of land plants. The ancient At-α whole-genome duplication (WGD) preceded the diversification of crucifers (Brassicaceae). Some genera and tribes also experienced younger, mesopolyploid WGDs concealed by subsequent genome diploidization. Here we tested if multiple base chromosome numbers originated due to genome diploidization after independent mesopolyploid WGDs and how diploidization impacted post-polyploid gene retention. Sixteen species representing ten Brassicaceae tribes were analyzed by comparative chromosome painting and/or whole-transcriptome analysis of gene age distributions and phylogenetic analyses of gene duplications. Overall, we found evidence for at least 13 independent mesopolyploidies followed by different degrees of diploidization across the Brassicaceae. New mesotetraploid events were uncovered for tribes Anastaticeae, Iberideae and Schizopetaleae, and mesohexaploid WGDs for Cochlearieae and Physarieae. In contrast, we found convergent patterns of gene retention and loss among these independent WGDs. Our combined analyses of Brassicaceae genomic data indicate that the extant chromosome number variation in many plant groups, and especially polybasic but monophyletic taxa, can result from clade-specific genome duplications followed by diploidization. Our observation of parallel gene retention and loss across multiple independent WGDs provides one of the first multi-species tests that post-polyploid genome evolution is predictable. Significance statement Our data show that multiple base chromosome numbers in some Brassicaceae clades originated due to genome diploidization following multiple independent whole-genome duplications (WGD). The parallel gene retention/loss across independent WGDs and diploidizations provides one of the first tests that post-polyploid genome evolution is predictable.


Currently, the use of deep neural networks in the field of processing medical images is increasing. Particularly, these networks are widely used in medical applications such as medical diagnosis. Recently, the use of generative adversarial networks has been increasing in various applications. In this paper, we propose a new method for improving and classifying a CT scan dataset of a lung image based on generative adversarial networks. Images are selected from LUNA16 dataset. After pre-processing the dataset of images and selecting the candidate areas, we divided nodule images into 3 groups of small, medium and large, and configured a generative adversarial network. Then we applied a dataset of nodule image in 3 categories, along with a random normal vector as inputs of the network. By using this method, equally we increased our dataset of images in both class of nodule and non-nodule images. Finally, we use 6 types of the CNN neural network as feature extraction and classifier on a dataset of new generated images. Compared to the use of data augmentation and use of pre-trained networks and fine-tuning, the high accuracy of the proposed method demonstrates its optimal efficiency.


A prenatal care program was evaluated to measure its effectiveness and impact. In 1999 a new prenatal care program was introduced in Curitiba, Paraná State, Brazil, in health services under the Unified National Health System, introducing organizational changes in order to enhance accessibility, increase the number and distribution of prenatal visits, and ensure minimum necessary procedures. To evaluate how these changes were assimilated in routine practice, a cohort study was proposed in a sample of 660 primigravidae randomly selected among women enrolled in the program before the 20th week of gestation, from March to August, 2000. Two home visits and consultation of maternity cards or patient records during prenatal and hospital care were performed. The results indicate good accessibility and professional adherence to the protocol, but problems still remain with initiating care before the end of the first trimester and adequate distribution of consultations. According to the study criteria, adequate care was found for only 38.6% of the women, pointing to the complexity of factors that influence adequate prenatal care.


Background and Objectives To analyze the clinical correlation between perverted nystagmus and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormal findings and to evaluate whether perverted nystagmus is clinically significant results of brain abnormal lesions or not. Subjects and Methods We performed medical charts review from January 2008 to July 2014, retrospectively. Patients who were suspected central originated vertigo at Frenzel goggles test were included among patients who visited our hospital. To investigate the correlation with nystagmus suspected central originated vertigo and brain MRI abnormal findings, we confirmed whether performing brain MRI or not. Then we exclude that patients not performed brain MRI. Results The number of patients with perverted nystagmus was 15, upbeating was 1 and down-beating was 14. Among these patients, 5 patients have brain MRI abnormal findings. However, 2 patients with MRI abnormal findings were not associated correctly with perverted nystagmus and only 3 patients with perverted nystagmus were considered central originated vertigo and further evaluation and treatment was performed by the department of neurology. Conclusions Perverted nystagmus was considered to the abnormalities at brain lesions, especially cerebellum, but neurologic symptoms and further evaluation were needed for exact diagnosis of central originated vertigo.


The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a language for visualizing, specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system. UML supports the most typical software modeling problems; however, due to the diversity of software development domains, there may be occasions when the model requires elements or notations not provided by standard UML. This paper presents an extension to UML by defining new profiles for different application domains: one for agent-oriented systems and another for aspect-oriented development. The ArgoUML tool has been extended to support the definition of new profiles for the modeling of different application domains, including those mentioned. .


ABSTRACT In this paper I examine the ways in which public discourse about the sperm donation industry in Israel, as appearing in mass media and advertising culture, bridges militarist, pro-natalist, and neoliberal ideologies. In constructing the sperm produced by combat soldiers as superior and in emphasizing the potential dangers of inferior sperm or the lack of enough sperm to meet demand, mainstream media and sperm banks adopt, utilize, and exploit a culture of fear that is linked to Israel's perceived existential threat in order to serve their own commercial goals. At the same time, the tensions between national-collective and individual perceptions of gender and body occasionally rise to the surface, with media simultaneously embracing and questioning dominant cultural narratives concerning masculinity and militarism. Implications of the relations between media discourses of blood, sacrifice, and death, and those of sperm, reproduction, and cultural regeneration are discussed.


Abstract. The Argentine margin contains important sedimentological, paleontological and chemical records of regional and local tectonic evolution, sea level, climate evolution and ocean circulation since the opening of the South Atlantic in the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous as well as the present-day results of post-depositional chemical and biological alteration. Despite its important location, which underlies the exchange of southern- and northern-sourced water masses, the Argentine margin has not been investigated in detail using scientific drilling techniques, perhaps because the margin has the reputation of being erosional. However, a number of papers published since 2009 have reported new high-resolution and/or multichannel seismic surveys, often combined with multi-beam bathymetric data, which show the common occurrence of layered sediments and prominent sediment drifts on the Argentine and adjacent Uruguayan margins. There has also been significant progress in studying the climatic records in surficial and near-surface sediments recovered in sediment cores from the Argentine margin. Encouraged by these recent results, our 3.5-day IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) workshop in Buenos Aires (8–11 September 2015) focused on opportunities for scientific drilling on the Atlantic margin of Argentina, which lies beneath a key portion of the global ocean conveyor belt of thermohaline circulation. Significant opportunities exist to study the tectonic evolution, paleoceanography and stratigraphy, sedimentology, and biosphere and geochemistry of this margin.


Following publication ofthe book, brieffocused reviews ofits chapters will be published in consecutive issues ofthe Netherlands Heart Journal. After each of these articles, there will be two multiple-choice questions, which can be answered in the section Questions &Answers ofthe website ofthe CVOI, www.cvoi.org. Correct answers will be honoured with 1 credit, while wrong answers to one or both questions will connect the participant to a section that presents and discusses the correct answers, after which the procedure can be repeated. Correct answers to both questions will automatically lead to registration of the CME credits in the Cardiologist Registration Accreditation System (CRAS) on the CVOI website. All textbooks contain eight chapters; participants can therefore obtain 16 credit points.