Around 1900, states began to recognize a tort of "commercial appropriation of identity," a branch of the tort of invasion of privacy. Under the appropriation tort, a person whose image or identity had been used in an advertisement without consent could recover damages for dignitary and emotional harms. In the middle of the 20th century, the tort underwent a fundamental shift. Courts reoriented the tort so that it no longer exclusively protected a person's interest in dignity or "privacy," but rather the pecuniary interest in the commercial exploitation of one's identity, or one's "right of publicity."No one disputes that this change occurred. Why it happened has yet to be explained. In this article, I explain appropriation's transformation from a dignity-based "right of privacy" to a profit-oriented "right of publicity" as a consequence of changing social attitudes towards advertising and mass consumption. At the turn of the 20th century, when frugality, modesty, and self-restraint were prevailing middle-class values, mass consumption and product advertising were widely associated with moral corruption and decay. Insofar as it associated a person with the "taint of commerce," appropriating someone's image and displaying it in an ad without consent subjected that person to public scorn and injured his or her dignity, reputation, and sense of self.By the 1950s, advertising and mass consumption had been resignified in the popular imagination. In the consumer culture and celebrity culture that America had become, buying consumer goods and being publicly associated with products were no longer viewed as disreputable acts but as potentially desirable and prestigious. The commercialization of personal identity took on an aura of glamour and status. The "right of publicity" eclipsed the "right of privacy" when modern consumer culture came to see loss of profit as the real injury to be had from the unauthorized commercial use of one's image, rather than harm to one's dignity or reputation.


Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the safety and outcomes of plate-screw fixation used for the immediate treatment of type-IIIC open fractures of forearm bones with complex soft tissue injuries.
Methods: A total of 22 patients (mean age: 31.6, range: 24-60) treated between 2004-2010 were retrospectively analyzed. All injuries resulted from high-energy traumas and fractures were classified using AO classification. All patients had vascular and nerve injuries, and four had skin defects associated with double fractures of the forearm. All patients were operated on within the first eight hours following injury. Six patients with comminuted fractures or with bone defects underwent primary bone grafting, and one patient was treated with shortening. Primary skin closure was achieved in 17 patients and three patients underwent immediate repair using skin grafts, while two patients were repaired with immediate transposition flaps. Bony unions, complications, and functional results via a DASH questionnaire were investigated.
Results: Mean follow-up was 28 months (range: 14-70). In all patients, radius bone union was achieved. Two patients underwent a Sauve-Kapandji procedure, utilizing the fractured segment of the ulnar diaphysis as a graft for radius. In one patient, osteosynthesis was repeated after 6 months because of nonunion. Mean period to bony union was 4.59 months (range: 3-6). Superficial infection developed in three patients after the operation, and was resolved with antibiotic therapy. The mean DASH score after surgery was 25.6.
Conclusion: In high nergy traumas of the upper extremity associated with complex injuries and Type-IIIC forearm fractures, severity of soft tissue injuries determined the functional results in patients, demonstrating it is possible to achieve a safe and efficient fixation with immediate plate-screw osteosynthesis.


The impact of naturalism, a literary approach invented by Zola and especially significant in the field of the novel through his American disciples Crane, Norris, and Dreiser, is well acknowledged and recognized. Not so well recognized, but equally important, is naturalistic theatre; this was a style that also originated with Zola, but its progeny was more international and its significance more radical and insurrectionary than in the less spectacular genre of fiction. "The Theatre of Naturalism: Disappearing Act" establishes the incipiently revolutionary context (between the Paris Communist Commune, crushed in 1871, and the successful Bolshevik insurrection of October 1917) - more or less foregrounded or in the background of works by Zola, Strindberg, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Synge, Shaw, and Tolstoy, focused especially on issues of class struggle and class war, as well as the prospects and possibilities of challenging the hegemony of the ruling orders. Especially in regard to later theatre, for instance the hypernaturalism of "The Brig" (Living Theatre) of Kenneth Brown, and of plays by Arnold Wesker and David Storey - Philip Beitchman frequently invokes themes culled from recent French theory, particularly Derrida's deconstruction and Baudrillard's ideas about simulation. "The Theatre of Naturalism" will open up new perspectives for anyone interested in theory or theatre, whether scholars or the wider theatre-loving or performing public.


Gas-liquid flow in annular geometries is the one of the most frequently encountered flow conditions in petroleum industry, either during drilling operations if aerated fluids are used, or production stages, if the produced fluid is under bubble point pressure. With the increase in the interest in horizontal / extended reach wells, understanding the flow behavior of gas-liquid mixtures in horizontal wells is essential for better pressure control downhole. Although two-phase fluid flow is studied intensively for circular pipes, there exists a lack of information about aerated fluid flow behavior inside annular geometries, both theoretically and experimentally. Existing two-phase fluid flow models available in the literature developed for circular pipes are performing poorly for annular geometries. Using hydraulic diameter definitions or effective diameter terms simply give inaccurate results for both flow pattern estimations and friction pressure loss determination. This study aims to identify the flow patterns of gasified fluids, and to determine frictional pressure losses for two phase flow through horizontal eccentric annular geometry. In order to develop the liquid holdup, Digital Image Processing Techniques have been used. Friction pressure losses are determined by applying two different methods; i) Modifying Lockhart-Martinelli parameter, and ii) Modifying Beggs and Brill's method, originally developed for circular pipes. Experiments have been conducted at Middle East Technical University (METU) Multiphase Flow Loop using air-water mixtures with various in-situ flow velocities. A digital camera is used for recording each test dynamically for the identification of flow patterns and the measurement of liquid holdup. Friction pressure losses are recorded during each test. The comparison of modified models with experimental data indicates that liquid holdup and friction pressure losses can be estimated with a reasonable accuracy. The information obtained from this study is critical, since very limited information is available in the literature for modeling two-phase flow behavior.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Based on the introduction of the Long Tail , the political, economical, social and technological environment for the development of rural supermarket chain in Ningxia is analyzed. The problems in the marketing strategy of Ningxia rural supermarket chain are pointed out, including single products and uneven level of quality, the products, which can not satisfy farmers' needs; low quality of the personnel and imperfect information system, thus the traditional way of marketing is challenged. In the end, from the perspective of products, position, price, and personnel, the marketing strategies for the development of Ningxia rural supermarket chain based on the Long Tail Theory are put forward.


The U.S. criminal justice system currently lacks a proportional, clear, and effective law targeted at individuals who purchase sex with trafficking victims. These "johns" of trafficking victims (JTVs) historically have remained anonymous and unaccountable. More recently, three unsatisfactory approaches to sanctioning this group have emerged. First, they are sometimes subjected to low-level patronization and solicitation misdemeanors alongside johns of consensual sex workers. Second, they are increasingly prosecuted as traffickers under sex-trafficking legislation. Third, they are occasionally prosecuted as statutory rapists and sex abusers if the victim is a minor. This Note argues that none of these first three approaches are an adequate fit for this population. Treating them simply as johns ignores the seriousness of their offense and does not distinguish prostitution from trafficking. Treating them as traffickers is disproportionate on the other extreme, especially with recent strict liability interpretations of sex-trafficking statutes and mandatory minimums, and furthermore dilutes the term "human trafficking." Finally, treating them as statutory rapists is underinclusive and ignores the commercial nature of the offense. This Note explores a fourth approach being implemented sporadically on the federal and state levels: prosecuting johns of trafficking victims under legislation explicitly addressing this group. This Note argues that targeted legislation is the most appropriate and fair approach. It advocates modified versions of such legislation, with tailored mens rea standards and flexible penalties correlated to culpability. Keywords: Human trafficking Language: en


The study aims to examine the factors that affect the probability of being underemployed. The concept of underemployment used is working more than 40 hours per week, but income is below the standard living needs. The research was conducted in South Sumatra Province in four cities. The analysis technique used is Logistic Regression. The results showed that significant variables are three items, namely education, number of children and self-empowerment. Increased education does not cause a person to get out of the problem of underemployment. Likewise, if the number of children increases then the probability to be underemployed increases by 63%. Conversely, the probability level to be underemployment decreased by 28.6% when more independent and more prosperous the person is.


Interaction of alpha 4 integrins with vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is classically important for immune function. However, we found recently that these receptors have a second role, in embryogenesis, where they mediate cell-cell interactions that are important for skeletal muscle differentiation. Here, we present evidence of an expanding role for these receptors in murine development. alpha 4 and VCAM-1 were found at embryonic sites of hematopoiesis, suggesting a role for these receptors during embryogenesis that parallels their hematopoietic function in adult bone marrow. During angiogenesis in the lung, alpha 4 and VCAM-1 were found on mesenchyme that gives rise to vascular endothelium and smooth muscle. alpha 4 persisted on the smooth muscle and the endothelium of newly forming vessels where it colocalized with its extracellular matrix ligand, fibronectin (FN). These patterns suggest several roles for alpha 4 integrins and their ligands in angiogenesis. alpha 4 was also found on neural crest derivatives where it colocalized with FN. alpha 4 was expressed selectively on cells in the dorsal root ganglia: it was apparent along ventral projections, but absent from dorsal projections, suggesting that alpha 4 integrins could be involved in defining neuronal fates. Although VCAM-1 was not expressed on most neural crest derivatives, it was found in the neural crest-derived outflow tract of the embryonic heart, where it colocalized with alpha 4. These results imply that alpha 4 integrins and their ligands could be important for migration or differentiation of neural crest. alpha 4 was also expressed on embryonic retina and FN was found on inductive mesenchyme surrounding the eye, suggesting a role for these proteins in eye development. Finally, based on their patterns of expression, we conclude that VCAM-1 only participates in a subset of interactions involving alpha 4 integrins, whereas FN appears to be the more general ligand.


This critical douethographic study investigates the challenges and provides strategies related to the use of academic titles and establishing an academic persona within the academy. Both authors engage in a reflective examination of their life experiences, culture, and values, which have shaped their identities as scholars and professionals. The study then explores the varied challenges that both authors have experienced in their roles as early/mid-career professors. The results of the study indicated that the academy can present some unique challenges for non-tenured faculty, which include the acknowledgement of positionality and authority; students as customers' mentality; lack of respect for non-dominant norms; ageism experienced by young professors; and issues of peer-ship versus colleagueship as opposed to essential personhood.


Serious deformation has occurred in recent years on certain heavily-trafficked roads with rolled asphalt surfacing. The performance of this material is dependent on many compositional factors with the rheological properties of the binder being among the most important. The report considers those properties of binders that most affect the resistance to deformation of rolled asphalt. Thirteen binders were studied and mixtures containing them were subjected to design tests from BS 594: 1973 and the wheel-tracking test. These laboratory mechanical tests show that, within the range of binders tested, significant improvements in resistance to deformation can be achieved over a range of high road temperatures by increasing the softening point of the binder, irrespective of its penetration at 25 degrees C. A suggested specification for a "heavy duty" bitumen is based on a softening point (r & b) to BS 4692 of 63 + or - 5 degrees C and a penetration at 25 degrees C to BS 4691, of 40 + or = 10. (Author/TRRL)


In this paper we explore the idea of using high-level semantic concepts, also called attributes, to represent human actions from videos and argue that attributes enable the construction of more descriptive models for human action recognition. We propose a unified framework wherein manually specified attributes are: i) selected in a discriminative fashion so as to account for intra-class variability; ii) coherently integrated with data-driven attributes to make the attribute set more descriptive. Data-driven attributes are automatically inferred from the training data using an information theoretic approach. Our framework is built upon a latent SVM formulation where latent variables capture the degree of importance of each attribute for each action class. We also demonstrate that our attribute-based action representation can be effectively used to design a recognition procedure for classifying novel action classes for which no training samples are available. We test our approach on several publicly available datasets and obtain promising results that quantitatively demonstrate our theoretical claims.


Purpose: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in the U.S. Obesity is an epidemic that increases the risk of CVD. Regular exercise lowers the risk of CVD, and is important for weight management. Paradoxically, acute exercise increases the risk of CV events in sedentary individuals, but not in regular exercisers. One of the key mechanisms is an acute increase in blood pressure. The purpose of this study included to investigate if regular aerobic exercise protects obese individuals from acute exercise-induced vascular dysfunction; and to further elucidate the mechanisms through which high pressure may cause vascular dysfunction. In addition we sought to determine the mechanisms through which arteries from the regular exercisers are protected against high pressure. Methods: Obese adults were assigned to an aerobic training intervention or to a control group. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was assessed before and after acute leg press exercise; before and after the regular exercise intervention. Ex vivo adipose resistance artery FMD was also assessed. In an additional study, mice were subjected to two weeks of voluntary wheel running or control. Hind limb adipose resistance arteries were dissected from mice for measures of FMD or protein expression. Lastly endothelial cells were subjected to laminar shear stress (or static condition) to mimic exercise in cells. Results: Brachial FMD was reduced post-acute leg press exercise in the aerobic exercise and control groups before the aerobic exercise intervention, but was preserved in the aerobic exercise group following the aerobic exercise intervention. Post-acute leg press resistance artery FMD was impaired in the control group; but was preserved in the aerobic exercise group. The mechanism of preserved dilation after exercise was different than at rest (hydrogen peroxide in place of nitric oxide). Resistance arteries from exercised mice maintained FMD after being exposed to high pressure, but not arteries from control mice. In addition arteries from exercised animals and endothelial cells subjected to laminar shear stress expressed less pro-oxidant enzymes and more anti-oxidant enzymes. Conclusion: Aerobic exercise prevents acute exercise-induced vascular dysfunction in obese individuals and improves the redox environment in the adipose microvasculature.


Abstract The palace of Nuevo Baztán is a state-designated historic monument in central Spain built in the early eighteenth century. The main building material used in its facades is limestone. The aim of this investigation was to characterize the limestone, defining deterioration mechanisms contributing to the decay of the stone facades and testing a series of potential preservation treatments. The limestone is a biosparite; two microfacies were identified according to microscopic differences (limestones A and B) with distinct petrophysical characteristics mainly due to their different pore systems. Primary deterioration mechanisms were identified as those related to cycles of thermal and hygric stress, biodeterioration and those associated with structural movements. Main decay forms in the surface of the stone are erosion with material loss, spalling and flaking, chromatic alteration, fissures and biodeterioration. Conservation products prossessing water-repellent properties were therefore considered. From an initial selection of ten products, two siloxane-based products were ultimately determined to be the most effective on the basis of chromatic variables, water vapour permeability, water-stone contact angle, scanning electron microscope observations and durability (artificial ageing tests). Both products reduce water absorption rates and are expected to slow the rate of limestone decay. This study also demonstrates the value of advance testing of potential treatment methods before application in the field.


Peer to peer (P2P) systems have moved from application specific architectures to a generic service oriented design philosophy. This raised interesting problems in connection with providing useful P2P middleware services capable of dealing with resource assignment and management in a large-scale, heterogeneous and unreliable environment. The slicing problem consists of partitioning a P2P network into k groups (slices) of a given portion of the network nodes that share similar resource values. As the network is large and dynamic this partitioning is continuously updated without any node knowing the network size. In this paper, we propose the first algorithm to solve the slicing problem. We introduce the metric of slice disorder and show that the existing ordering algorithm cannot nullify this disorder. We propose a new algorithm that speeds up the existing ordering algorithm but that suffers from the same inaccuracy. Then, we propose another algorithm based on ranking that is provably convergent under reasonable assumptions. In particular, we notice experimentally that ordering algorithms suffer from resource-correlated churn while the ranking algorithm can cope with it. These algorithms are proved viable theoretically and experimentally.


The staying power of the world's most dashing secret agent and the evolution of the James Bond franchise are explored in this smart yet nostalgic collection of essays. Leading writers, including Raymond Benson, J.A. Konrath, Raelynn Hillhouse, and John Cox, discuss the ten sexiest Bond girls, the best villains, and the controversy surrounding the latest actor to play James Bond. Topics covered range from the playful--how to build a secret lair and avoid the perennial mistakes made by would-be world dominators--to the thought-provoking, such as Bond's place in the modern world, his Oedipal tendencies and perceived misogyny, and the unerring allure of the charming spy.


Neurons are polarized cells with dendrites and an axon projecting from their cell body. Due to this polarized structure a major challenge for neurons is the transport of material to and from the cell body. The transport that occurs between the cell body and axons is called Axonal transport. Axonal transport has three major components: molecular motors which act as vehicles, microtubules which serve as tracks on which these motors move and microtubule associated proteins which regulate the transport of material. Axonal transport maintains the integrity of a neuron and its dysfunction is linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as, Alzheimer's disease, Frontotemporal dementia linked to chromosome 17 and Pick's disease. Therefore, understanding the process of axonal transport is extremely important. Single particle tracking is one method in which axonal transport is studied. This involves fluorescent labelling of molecular motors and microtubule associated proteins and tracking their position in time. Single particle tracking has shown that both, molecular motors and microtubule associated proteins exhibit motion with multiple components. These components are directed, where motion is in one direction, diffusive, where motion is random, and static, where there is no motion. Moreover, molecular motors and microtubule associated proteins also switch between these different components in a single instance of motion. We have developed a MATLAB program, called MixMAs, which specializes in analyzing the data provided by single particle tracking. MixMAs uses a sliding window approach to analyze trajectories of motion. It is capable of distinguishing between different components of motion that are exhibited by molecular motors and microtubule associated proteins. It also identifies transitions that take place between different components of motion. Most importantly, it is not limited by the number of transitions and the number of components present in a single trajectory. The analysis results provided by MixMAs include all the necessary parameters required for a complete characterization of a particle's motion. These parameters are the number of different transitions that take place between different components of motion, the dwell times of different components of motion, velocity for directed component of motion and diffusion coefficient for diffusive component of motion. We have validated the working of MixMAs by simulating motion of particles which show all three components of motion with all the possible transitions that can take place between them. The simulations are performed for different values of error in localizing the position of a particle. The simulations confirm that MixMAs accurately calculates parameters of motion for a range of localization errors. Finally, we show an application of MixMAs on experimentally obtained single particle data of Kinesin-3 motor.


ABSTRACT Bacillus subtilis grown in media containing amino acids or glucose secretes acetate, pyruvate, and large quantities of acetoin into the growth medium. Acetoin can be reused by the bacteria during stationary phase when other carbon sources have been depleted. TheacoABCL operon encodes the E1α, E1β, E2, and E3 subunits of the acetoin dehydrogenase complex in B. subtilis. Expression of this operon is induced by acetoin and repressed by glucose in the growth medium. The acoR gene is located downstream from the acoABCL operon and encodes a positive regulator which stimulates the transcription of the operon. The product of acoR has similarities to transcriptional activators of sigma 54-dependent promoters. The four genes of the operon are transcribed from a −12, −24 promoter, and transcription is abolished in acoR and sigL mutants. Deletion analysis showed that DNA sequences more than 85 bp upstream from the transcriptional start site are necessary for full induction of the operon. These upstream activating sequences are probably the targets of AcoR. Analysis of an acoR′-′lacZ strain ofB. subtilis showed that the expression of acoRis not induced by acetoin and is repressed by the presence of glucose in the growth medium. Transcription of acoR is also negatively controlled by CcpA, a global regulator of carbon catabolite repression. A specific interaction of CcpA in the upstream region ofacoR was demonstrated by DNase I footprinting experiments, suggesting that repression of transcription of acoR is mediated by the binding of CcpA to the promoter region ofacoR.


Helping T Helper Transcription Members of the interferon response family of transcription factors (IRFs) are specifically expressed in immune cells and are known to regulate their differentiation. IRF4 and IRF8 regulate gene expression by binding to other transcription factors, which results in their recruitment to composite motifs in the genome. Although the specific mechanism of how this regulation works in some immune cells is understood, how it occurs in T cells is not clear because the transcription factors that normally partner with IRFs are absent. Using genomic analysis, Glasmacher et al. (p. 975, published online 13 September; see the Perspective by Martinez and Rao) now identify IRF4–AP-1 composite elements in T helper 17 (TH17) cells and show that IRF4 and the AP-1 factor Batf cooperatively assemble on a large array of genes required for TH17 cell differentiation and function. Assembly of such heterodimers was also observed in TH2 cells, B cells, and dendritic cells, which suggests the general importance of this motif in immune cell differentiation. Cooperative binding of transcription factors to composite genomic elements regulates T helper 17 cell differentiation. Interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) and IRF8 regulate B, T, macrophage, and dendritic cell differentiation. They are recruited to cis-regulatory Ets-IRF composite elements by PU.1 or Spi-B. How these IRFs target genes in most T cells is enigmatic given the absence of specific Ets partners. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing in T helper 17 (TH17) cells reveals that IRF4 targets sequences enriched for activating protein 1 (AP-1)–IRF composite elements (AICEs) that are co-bound by BATF, an AP-1 factor required for TH17, B, and dendritic cell differentiation. IRF4 and BATF bind cooperatively to structurally divergent AICEs to promote gene activation and TH17 differentiation. The AICE motif directs assembly of IRF4 or IRF8 with BATF heterodimers and is also used in TH2, B, and dendritic cells. This genomic regulatory element and cognate factors appear to have evolved to integrate diverse immunomodulatory signals.


The ability of thymocytes to assess T cell receptor (TCR) signaling strength and initiate the appropriate downstream response is crucial for determining their fate. We have previously shown that a c-Cbl RING finger mutant knock-in mouse, in which the E3 ubiquitin ligase activity of c-Cbl is inactivated, is highly sensitive to TCR-induced death signals that cause thymic deletion. This high intensity signal involves the enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation of the mutant c-Cbl protein promoting a marked increase in the activation of Akt. Here we show that this high intensity signal in c-Cbl RING finger mutant thymocytes also promotes the enhanced induction of two mediators of TCR-directed thymocyte apoptosis, Nur77 and the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member, Bim. In contrast, a knock-in mouse harboring a mutation at Tyr-737, the site in c-Cbl that activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, shows reduced TCR-mediated responses including suppression of Akt activation, a reduced induction of Nur77 and Bim, and greater resistance to thymocyte death. These findings identify tyrosine-phosphorylated c-Cbl as a critical sensor of TCR signal strength that regulates the engagement of death-promoting signals.


Social Security is the largest source of income for most older Americans and is even more vital to particular demographic subgroups of older Americans. Analyzing the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) for calendar year 2011, this briefing paper examines the role of Social Security and other income sources in the retirement security of older Americans. It explores the unique value of Social Security to different gender, age, race/ethnic, and marital groups. It finds that significant shares of the older population rely on Social Security for the majority of their income and that Social Security lifts 14.8 million people out of poverty.


ABSTRACT A patient with mid-gut carcinoid tumor and the unusual complication of retroperitoneal fibrosis was also found to have a prolactinoma. This case brings the number of reported mid-gut carcinoid tumors complicated by a second endocrine neoplasm to five. Three of the second tumors were parathyroid in origin, and the fourth was an insulinoma. In view of the rarity of second tumors and in the absence of documented familial occurrence, it is inappropriate to exhaustively study each person with midgut carcinoid tumor, or their families, for a second endocrine neoplasm; however, physicians caring for patients with mid-gut carcinoid should be aware that second tumors are possible. Retroperitoneal fibrosis is also a rare complication of carcinoid, but can be associated with renal failure that can be prevented by surgical Intervention. Thus, physicians caring for patients with the carcinoid syndrome should also be aware of this complication.


Grounded on basic psychological needs theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), this qualitative study investigated the impacts of the talent development environmental factors on athlete burnout. Talented youth athletes with high and low burnout levels (n = 38; each group had 19 participants) were recruited to attend focus-group interviews. Thematic analysis led to five environmental themes: long-term development focus, holistic quality preparation, support network, communication, and alignment of expectations. Athletes with high burnout levels were likely to experience more detrimental and less conducive talent development environmental antecedents compared to those who were with low burnout levels. It was concluded that the talent development environmental factors are important antecedents for burnout prevention.


Using a random sample of 580 Midwestern women, we test the hypothesis that women who have experienced infertility report higher psychological distress. Approximately one third of our sample reports having experienced infertility sometime in their lives, although the majority of the infertile now have biological children. Drawing hypotheses from identity and stress theories, we examine whether roles or resources condition the effects of infertility or whether its effects are limited to childless women. Infertility combined with involuntary childlessness (including biological and social) is associated with significantly greater distress. For women in this category, the risk of distress is substantial.


This thesis examines three interrelated aspects around Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs): the cash-equivalent value (purchasing power) of loyalty currency, the impact of FFPs on consumer behaviour and surplus, and the taxation issues surrounding FFPs. Unlike most previous research on FFPs, this research uses data from an actual FFP, specifically the Virgin Australia Velocity Rewards program, to examine these aspects. The focus on one specific FFP and using its detailed data is a contribution to FFP literature in itself. No prior research has investigated the impact of a specific FFP on its members. The first aspect investigated is the estimation of the cash-equivalent value of Velocity Points, the loyalty currency of the Velocity Rewards program. Using publicly available Velocity Rewards data the cash-equivalent value of a Velocity Point in 2010 is estimated to range between AU$0.0066 and AU$0.0084. This range excludes the value of status benefit to the status member. The Velocity Points gained by a FFP member per flight equate to an in-kind discount on an average airfare of 3.3 per cent for Red members, 3.96 per cent for Silver members and 4.63 per cent for Gold members. The second aspect under consideration is whether the Velocity Rewards program can impact its members such that they fly more and/or spend more with Virgin Blue. This aspect is investigated with a proprietary stated-preference dataset from the Velocity Rewards program spanning three years from 2006 to 2008. A particularity of this dataset is that the FFP changed in 2007 from a simple bulk discount program to a complex status-tier program. By taking advantage of this 'quasi' experiment provided by the dataset across two very different program structures, it is shown that members change their consumption behaviour particularly when close to the next status tier threshold in order to achieve higher tier status. This is an expected reaction to frequent flyer programs and is what the airlines aim to achieve. Members buy more airfares and at higher prices. This thesis shows that under the new status-tier structure, the consumer surplus of FFP members has decreased by around 6 per cent. This implies that the introduction of the status-tier structure has been a successful strategy for Virgin Blue. The status-tier structure has allowed for a noticeable increase in the efficiency of Virgin Blue to extract additional consumer surplus from Velocity Rewards members. A detailed survey undertaken in 2010 among a representative sample of over 3300 Velocity Rewards members confirms the impact of the FFP on consumer behaviour. The most interest finding of the survey is that a large proportion of leisure and business travellers admitted a willingness to pay a higher fare – a FFP premium- to fly with Virgin Blue because of their Velocity Rewards membership. The average FFP premium is estimated to be around 8 per cent and is statistically different between leisure and business travellers. The cash-equivalent value of a Velocity Point as encapsulated in the FFP premium is estimated to range between AU$0.0108 and AU$0.0153, depending on the FFP status of a member. The final aspect considered in this thesis is the taxation of FFP rewards in Australia. Although it has long been recognised that FFP rewards earned on employer-funded business flights should be subject to taxation, this is currently not taking place. One of the main arguments against the implementation of taxation is the lack of a monetary tax base. This thesis argues that the cash-equivalent value of loyalty currency can be estimated with public data and is appropriate as a tax base. The legal hurdles to FFP reward taxation in Australia are also addressed. This thesis makes the following contributions to the knowledge on FFPs: • It is shown that a cash-equivalent value of loyalty currency can be estimated. • It is shown that Velocity Rewards impacts consumer choices, willingness to pay and consumer surplus. • It is shown that Velocity Reward members admit paying a FFP premium and that the magnitude of this premium can be estimated. • It is shown that taxation of FFP rewards in Australia is possible. Finally, the majority of these insights were gained with data that have not been available to researchers previously.


Scientists have recently discovered that microbial action is enhanced when they are used in form of Consortia than as their individual species. Bio-organic wastes such as human wastes and municipal solid wastes contain millions of tons of fertilizer equivalents, which is roughly 20% to 30% of global industrial fertilizer production, annually. To maintain agricultural yields at high levels over the years, the nutrients removed by crops have to be replaced. Current research work focuses on developing a sustainable technology to treat bio-organic waste such as human excrements into agriculturally useful organic manure. This study also aims at exploiting the power of natural and unmodified microbial flora as consortia for degrading human manure as well as synthetic polymers such as PVC, PU, Nylon etc. Our work shows the novel enzymatic role of microbial consortia and suggests their use in breakdown of wastes and polymers while increasing nutrient quality of organic wastes.


Introduction One of the proposed psychobiological pathways of craving attributes the desire for drinking in the context of tension, discomfort or unpleasant emotions, to "negative" (or "relief") craving. The aim of this study was to replicate a previously reported association of the PDYN rs2281285 variant with negative craving using a different phenotyping approach. Methods The TaqMan® Genotyping Assay was used to genotype the rs2281285 variant in 417 German alcohol-dependent subjects. The presence of negative/relief craving was assessed by asking if participants ever ingested alcohol to avoid unwanted emotional or somatic discomfort. Results The minor allele of rs2281285 was associated with an increased risk of drinking to avoid/escape unwanted emotional or somatic events (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.08–4.85, p = 0.0298). Discussion Despite the use of a different phenotyping approach to the measurement of negative craving, our results confirm the association between negative craving and PDYN rs2281285. Genetic markers of negative craving may help to identify subgroups of alcohol-dependent individuals vulnerable to relapse in the context of negative emotions or somatic discomfort, leading to the development of specifically tailored treatment strategies.


BACKGROUND
In recent years, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has become increasingly used for the management of non-spine bone metastases. Few studies have examined the radiological changes in bone metastases after treatment with SBRT and there is no consensus about what constitutes radiologic response to therapy. This article describes various changes on CT after SBRT to non-spine bone metastases in eight selected cases.

METHODS
A retrospective review was conducted for patients treated with SBRT to non-spine bone metastases between November 2011 and April 2014 at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. A musculoskeletal radiologist identified eight illustrative cases of interest and provided a description of the findings.

RESULTS
Different radiological changes following SBRT were described, including: remineralization of lytic bone metastases, demineralization of sclerotic bone metastases, pathologic fracture, size progression and response in different lesions, as well as lung fibrosis after SBRT to a rib metastasis.

CONCLUSIONS
We reviewed the radiological images of eight selected cases after SBRT to nonspine bone metastases and a number of characteristic findings were highlighted. We recommend future studies to correlate radiologic changes with clinical outcomes including pain relief, toxicity and long-term local control.


The present paper continues to explore the interrelation of texts and images pertaining to the Edessan acheiropoietos image of Christ that I began to explore in my article "The Abgar Legend Illustrated: Interrelation of the Narrative Cycles and Iconography in the Byzantine, Georgian and Latin Traditions," in Interactions: Artistic Interchange between the Eastern and Western Worlds in the Medieval Period. A Colloquium organized by the Index of Christian Art, Department of Art and Archeology, Princeton University, April 8-9, 2004. C. Hourihane, ed. Princeton & Pensylvania: University Press, 2007, 220-243. An attempt to interpret representation of the Mandylion on Deir al-Surini fresco (Egypt) in the light of representation of images of Christ/ Mandylia from the Georgian churches of Tsromi and Telovani, as well as the miniature from the Georgin Alaverdi Four Gospels, allowed me to conclude that before the tenth century a Syriac iconographic tradition depicting the Edessan image, different from its Byzantine counterpart, had existed. Moreover, their placement in the sanctuary, above the altar and the decorative details of the cloth on the Deir es-Suriani fresco allow us to speak about a "liturgical" mode of depiction of the Mandylion; that is to say, about the symbolical placement of the liturgical covering (i.e. the Cloth, or, in this case, as the tablecloth) above the altar with the bread of blessing (i.e. the image of Christ) on it. The scrutiny of various texts and images pertaining to the Mandylion led me to the conclusion that legends about the miraculous, or semi-miraculous emergence of acheiropoietos images came into being, most plausibly, in order to justify the mode of representations of the cult objects, as elements of the Byzantine church decoration – not only of the materials on which the image is depicted, that is to say, cloth and wood, but also the types of representations used in the church decoration, i.e. the icon and the fresco, and the mode of representing the images themselves, i.e., the face (reps. bust) and the full-length figure.


Geographers have long been alert to the ways space matters to knowledge production and the stories participants choose to share. Despite such understandings, however, geographers remain surprisingly absent from discussions regarding the ways these concerns play out across online spaces. This article reflects on the employment of one online space, Facebook, as a site for storytelling in research exploring return journeys to two Australian festivals – the Big Day Out and Mardi Gras Parade. This article argues that insight over longer temporalities and shifting spatialities afforded through Facebook facilitates heightened understandings of the nuances, repetitions, differences and paradoxes of identities, encounters, and politics. Facebook, therefore, has the potential to allow for different ways of knowing that cannot be ascertained in more orthodox research spaces. Moreover, the slipperiness of conceptualisations of privacy and consent in this space draws attention to the necessity of understanding consent as fluid and ongoing, rather than antecedent to fieldwork commencement. Crucially, however, reconceptualisations of privacy and consent in this space expose potential obstacles university ethics committees may meet in responding to research moving online.


Ab initio plane wave based density functional calculations within the generalised gradient approximation (GGA) have been carried out on a wide range of phases and stoichiometries for the platinum-titanium (Pt-Ti) and iridium-titanium (Ir-Ti) alloy systems, using the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package (VASP) with projector augmented wave (PAW) potentials. For all of the phases in this work, the equilibrium structures were found by performing a full relaxation of the atoms. There were 20 different phases considered for varying atomic percentage compositions for each alloy system. Energy-volume calculations and heats of formations were used to determined the equilibrium structures at each atomice percentage composition and to determine if there were high temperature phases at that composition. The elastic constants and elastic moduli are calculated and the electronic structure and density of states (DOS) were considered to understand the hardness and stability properties of the alloys. For the Pt-Ti system, the low and high temperature phases at different compositions agreed with previously published results in the literature. Intermediate phases at 50% were also determined, in agreement with previous results. Alloying Pt with Ti resulted in a decrease in the bulk modulus, i.e. not adding strength to the metal. However, the shear modulus increased for most of the alloys compared to bulk Pt and it was found that in general, alloying may increase the resistance to shear. PtTi alloys were found to be ductile in nature, as with both constituent metals in their bulk form. In the Ir-Ti system, bulk Ir was found to have the highest bulk, shear and Young's modulus with each of these values decreasing with increasing percentage Ti in the alloy. IrTi i alloys with 66.7% Ir composition or higher were found to be brittle in nature, similar in behaviour to bulk Ir; alloys with a higher percentage concentration of Ti were found to be ductile.


The main quest in this work is to develop a novel combined longitudinal and lateral controller that reliably attends the needs of precise motion control of highway vehicles. In pursuit of this a novel hybrid controller setup consisting of a PD (proportional-derivative) controller and an adaptive fuzzy controller is developed. The PD function is to do the main tracking in the domains of longitudinal and lateral control while the adaptive fuzzy controller is to address the coupling effects, nonlinearity issues and model uncertainties with further refining the output results. A three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) nonlinear vehicle model is used for the development and testing purposes of the controller. The controller is tested for viability in rigorous simulated scenarios subjected to some extreme parametric limitations. The results obtained from these tests proved the effectiveness of the controller that has been developed.


Ethiopia has taken great strides to reduce poverty and increase the welfare of its largely rural, agricultural-based population. Ethiopia, a country with rural based economy mainly from Agriculture sector which contributed with the range of 42.5 percent to 67.25 percent of the GDP for the past two decades (1990-2012). Similarly, the percentage of Rural population against the total population of the country accounts a larger coverage; with 87.38 percent for the year 1990, 85.26percent during 2000 and 82.46 percent for the year 2013. There is a steadfast growth in the total rural population from 41 million in 1990 and reached to 77.59 million in 2013 with average annual percentage growth rate of 2.8 for the past twenty three years. Very importantly, the major exportable products of the country is generated from the marketing of Agricultural produce such as coffee, khat, live animals, oilseeds, flowers, sesame, and also leather products. Above all, the consumption pattern and preference of rural consumer is changing due to the dynamic nature of marketing. However, marketers are failing to reach this largest target market of the population. This is mainly because, marketers are focusing on designing a product for urban market and when it becomes obsolete, it moves to the rural market. Indeed, it is unethical to override the marketing preference of the rural consumer. Recognizing the marketing requirements of the majority of the population would helps to bring a vibrant economic impact in the development of the nation. The present paper highlighted the major challenges and opportunities of Rural Marketing in Ethiopia, identified ways to explore the untapped Ethiopian Rural Market and identified possible recommendations and policy implications that would help to bring an improved development in the rural Ethiopia. Accordingly, the present article seeks the attention of Policy makers, Investors, Higher education curriculum developers and marketers to this vital area of development, to respond the call of the untapped Ethiopian Rural Market.


This thesis explores the changing cultural meanings that the Volkswagen took in Germany in an attempt to understand the cultural exchange between the United States and Germany. In sum, it establishes that the car takes a distinct cultural form in the two countries governed by unique and particular historical developments. Over the last decade researchers working with car cultures have realized the long standing error of taking American values associated with the car as a normative marker of global car cultures, yet no one has suggested a working methodology to ensure that non-normative meanings are captured in analysis. I suggest that this problem arises from studying single aspects of the car in isolation. The methodology that I propose looks at design, production, marketing, and consumption as a system where meaning can be produced, interpreted, and reassigned at the various stages. This wider approach allows for a non-normative analysis of car culture. This helps to demonstrate how the development of the car culture becomes more distinct through transatlantic interaction. I propose that the incursion of culturally significant foreign products causes shifts and redefinitions in the domestic market making the product a way to evaluate one's own identity. The present work plots these various identities to capture the large trajectories of German car culture. I challenge the notion that there were necessarily different cultures of production and consumption in the United States and Germany which could explain the divergence in the two nation's car's cultures. When discussing the Weimar Republic I highlight Germany's interest in motorization visa-vie developments in the United States. The section on the Third Reich places the creation of a Volkswagen as a lynchpin for the Nazi's entire ultranationalistic modernization policy which carried meanings of their particular vision of racial community. The post-war section identifies the ways that the Federal Republic reinterpreted the Volkswagen making it a symbol of the economic miracle of the 1950s, and ultimately, a way to contrast the republic with the Nazis era and win international validation.


Asynchronous circuit design shows many similarities with software design. This is due to the modular construction style associated with asynchronous circuits, where each asynchronous module can be designed as a standalone object communicating with other modules. We propose a visualisation system for asynchronous circuit design tools, based on clustered graph visualisation and coordinated views. The novelty of our approach is to apply classical software visualisation techniques to a hardware environment and take advantage of properties specific to our asynchronous design flow. This system is based on a control and data flow graph representation of the asynchronous circuit compiled from a high-level description by a syntax-directed transparent process and transferable to the final hardware circuit by a direct synthesis process. Compared to software compilation flows, this transparent design flow offers opportunities for visualisation, with representations at different stages being easily mapped onto each other to combine their visualisation qualities. Each representation also exhibits properties based on some physical attributes of the final hardware circuit, allowing us to render some abstract properties on top of real-world-based ones. This paper shows how the handshake circuit graph is used as the underlying structure onto which properties extracted from other structures are mapped, and then how this structured graph is used as the central piece in a coordinated views environment. These visualisation techniques have been exercised by designers optimising the design of a fully asynchronous ARM processor.


With the emergence of mobile and ubiquitous computing environments, there is a requirement to enable collaborative applications between components of these environments. As many of these applications (e.g. MP3 players) have been designed to operate in isolation, making them work together is often complicated by two, different aspects: firstly, a lack of protocols to enable the systems to bind to each other for interaction and, secondly, semantic and ontological differences in the meta-data
describing the data to be shared. An abstraction termed a Self-Managed Cell has previously been proposed as an architectural pattern for building autonomous systems, that can represent entities ranging from individual devices to entire environments, and have described mechanisms that enable such cells to establish peer-to-peer bindings facilitating interaction at the system and management level. Semantic and ontological differences in the meta-data describing information to be shared between peers and application level aspects of interaction still exist, and prevent successful, autonomous application collaboration.

Typical approaches to application collaboration, particularly in the database world, require the presence of a third-party administrator to manage ontological differences; such an approach is incompatible with interactive, autonomous systems. This dissertation presents a novel approach to automatic collection mapping suitable for deployment in autonomous, interacting systems. The approach facilitates the collaboration of SMC application-level data collections by identifying areas of conflict and using meta-data values associated with those collections to establish commonality. Music sharing and traditional "book" library catalogue matching applications, exploiting this mapping mechanism, have been
developed to facilitate the sharing of data between peers. Protocols and abstractions are used to establish commonality and collaboration between the systems, and the mapping mechanism is used to enhance interoperability at the application level.


A survey of small-holder tobacco farmers production practices, featuring the use of fertilisers and lime in their tobacco lands indicated that 21 out of a systematically drawn sample of 43 respondents from an area covering over 95 percent of the total small-holder tobacco area of the country, use the recommended rate of basal fertilizer. None of the 43 had their soils analysed for pH or nutrients before growing tobacco or had ever applied any lime before growing tobacco. Forty two soil samples collected from tobacco lands belonging to another group of 42 farmers, similarly selected from the same population of farmers, showed that more than 80 percent of the farmers may be growing tobacco at pH levels below 5.0, and that only about 6 percent of them may be growing it at levels near its optimum. The latter group was predominantly from the northern regions of the country. Most of the soils sampled fell in the pH range 4.0 to 4.5. This trend may suggest that tobacco productivity on small holder-farms may increasingly be threatened with acidity over time and that the fertilizer levels being applied on small-holder farms may not be cost-effective.


Booderee National Park at Jervis Bay, 200km south of Sydney, attracts over 450,000 visitors each year. The park has many special features, including dramatic wave cut platforms and sea caves, some of the whitest beach sands in Australia, and very high densities of native predators such as the Powerful Owl and the Diamond Python. This book outlines the biology and ecology of Booderee National Park.

Booderee packs an extraordinary level of biodiversity into a small area (roughly 6500 hectares), with more than 260 species of terrestrial vertebrates and over 625 species of plants. It is home to species of significant conservation concern, such as the globally endangered Eastern Bristlebird for which the park is one of its last and most important strongholds. The diversity of vegetation is also astounding: in some parts of the park, it is possible to walk from ankle-high sedgelands, through woodlands and forest and into subtropical rainforest in less than 150 metres.

The book highlights how Booderee National Park is a functional natural ecosystem and, in turn, how management practices aim to improve environmental conditions and promote biodiversity conservation. Richly illustrated with colour images from award-winning photographer Esther Beaton, it will delight visitors to the park as well as anyone with an interest in natural history.


The reliance on private parties is a global tendency in modern regulation. One peculiar regulatory technique which foresees a core role for private parties is that of European standardization. The employment of standards for regulatory purposes delivers enormous benefits for the harmonization process and is today a key factor in the EU's trade policy; however, the process of European standardization raises a number of concerns from a rule of law perspective, which are linked to 'hybrid nature' of the process, which foresees an intertwined public and private decision-making process. The aim of this contribution is to discuss the role of public law in the process of European standardization. After discussing the legal nature of European harmonized standards, the current application and potential applicability of general principles of administrative law is discussed and the necessity and availability of judicial control is examined.


Data cube construction is a commonly used operation in data warehouses. Because of the volume of data that is stored and analyzed in a data warehouse and the amount of computation involved in data cube construction, it is natural to consider parallel machines for this operation. This paper addresses a number of algorithmic issues in parallel data cube construction. First, we present an aggregation tree for sequential (and parallel) data cube construction, which has minimally bounded memory requirements. An aggregation tree is parameterized by the ordering of dimensions. We present a parallel algorithm based upon the aggregation tree. We analyze the interprocessor communication volume and construct a closed form expression for it. We prove that the same ordering of the dimensions in the aggregation tree minimizes both the computational and communication requirements. We also describe a method for partitioning the initial array and prove that it minimizes the communication volume. Finally, in the cases when memory may be a bottleneck, we describe how tiling can help scale sequential and parallel data cube construction. Experimental results from implementation of our algorithms on a cluster of workstations show the effectiveness of our algorithms and validate our theoretical results.


This research evaluates the performance of automotive child restraint systems (CRS) that conform to international proposals for a universal restraint concept to be adopted by both restraint and vehicle manufacturers. The concept is known as Isofix (International Standards Organisation FIXing), and is intended to ensure optimum compatibility and coupling between vehicle and CRS.
In order to quantify the benefits of the proposed Isofix concept it has been necessary to establish the performance limits and benefits offered by current commercially available adult belt retained CRS. A considerable body of knowledge existed on the performance and limitations of the then current CRS. However, during 1995 a significant amendment was introduced affecting ECE R44, the compliance standards applicable to CRS in Europe to which most rnanufacturers require their products to conform (separate national standards also exist). In 1995 amendment 03 was added to ECE R44 and became a catalyst for considerable development activity by manufacturers of child restraints, that resulted in new or revised product ranges. These new products, in particular forward facing Group 1 (9-15 kg) child restraints have significantly improved dynamic performance in frontal impacts, notably in modern vehicles whose seat belt anchorage positions have been optimised for restraint of adults, but are commonly less effective in restraining framed CRS. It was important therefore to re-assess existing systems as the baseline for a realistic evaluation of the proposed Isofix concepts (chapter 10).
It was evident that, of the different Isofix concepts being proposed, no overall evaluation of their relative performance had, to that date, been undertaken. A programme involving the design and manufacture of not only suitable test equipment but, in a number of cases, prototype devices, was undertaken. The resulting data have formed the basis of input to the ISO Working Group 1, the body responsible for the evolution of the Isofix concept. This programme also highlighted a number of shortfalls in the proposed concepts. The major results of this test programme have been published at international level, and were used to inform the Isofix discussions.
During the programme of comparative evaluation of not only the Isofix but the current belt retained devices, it became clear to the writer that in a frontal impact the orientation of the occupant with respect to the direction of travel had significance. A literature survey produced evidence of minimal research in this area. Hence it was decided by the writer to
include a programme of parametric tests to investigate the significance of occupant orientation, given that commercially available CRS often include a feature to vary the recline angle of the seat. The Isofix set-up was particularly suitable for this exercise in that it eliminated many of the variables associated with belt retained devices. The results of this work have been published at intemationallevel.
A review of the available accident data indicates that side impacts are potentially more life threatening than the more common frontal impacts due to the proximity of the occupant to an intruding vehicle or object. However, current European certification standards do not require the evaluation of CRS in a side impact. This is considered to be an area where
improvements, particularly aided by an Isofix type attachment concept, can be made. Therefore the final area of research undertaken by the writer was to develop and propose a test to evaluate CRS in a realistic side impact scenario. This involved the simulation of not only the acceleration imparted to the target vehicle occupant but in addition the intrusion component. This work, which again has been presented at international level, contributed towards a proposal to amend the European certification standard for CRS to include a side
impact evaluation.
This thesis commences with a review of the accident data currently available, and looks at how the physiological and anatomical properties of the child, vehicle design, and the
inherent potential for misuse and mis-installation of the current generation of CRS, impact upon child safety. This is followed by an overview of the lsofix proposal before the results of the writer's detailed testing of both current belt retained and proposed Isofix CRS concepts (chapters 10 and 11) are reported. The subsequent chapters (12 and 13) detail the
results of the writer's investigation into CRS orientation in a frontal impact and the development of a representative side impact test, based on a single sled, for inclusion in the
European certification procedure. The document concludes with discussion and conclusions relating to the future of CRS design and evaluation.
The major findings of this research were:
• contrary to initial expectations, significant CRS recline angle in a forward facing device has been proven to be undesirable;
• Isofix CRS with rigid lower anchors have been shown to be beneficial, particularly in side impacts, their efficacy in a forward impact being compromised by rotation in devices that
do not incorporate an anti-rotation device;
• a side impact test has been developed which more accurately represents the input to a CRS seen in a rear vehicle incident. Such a test is not only desirable but essential to drive CRS manufacturers into improving side impact protection for occupants.


Background: Spin is the misrepresentation of study findings, which may positively or negatively influence the reader's interpretation of the results. Little is known regarding the prevalence of spin in abstracts of systematic reviews, specifically systematic reviews pertaining to the management and treatment of acne vulgaris. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to characterize and determine the frequency of the most severe forms of spin in systematic review abstracts and to evaluate whether various study characteristics were associated with spin. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, we searched PubMed and EMBASE for systematic reviews focusing on the management and treatment of acne vulgaris. Our search returned 316 studies, of which 36 were included in our final sample. To be included, each systematic review must have addressed either pharmacologic or nonpharmacologic treatment of acne vulgaris. These studies were screened, and data were extracted in duplicate by two blinded investigators. We analyzed systematic review abstracts for the nine most severe types of spin. Results: Spin was present in 31% (11/36) of abstracts. A total of 12 examples of spin were identified in the 11 abstracts containing spin, with one abstract containing two instances of spin. The most common type of spin, selective reporting of or overemphasis on efficacy outcomes or analysis favoring the beneficial effect of the experimental intervention, was identified five times (5/12, 42%). A total of 44% (16/36) of studies did not report a risk of bias assessment. Of the 11 abstracts containing spin, six abstracts (55%) had not reported a risk of bias assessment or performed a risk of bias assessment but did not discuss it. Spin in abstracts was not significantly associated with a specific intervention type, funding source, or journal impact factor. Conclusions: Spin is present in the abstracts of systematic reviews and meta-analyses covering the treatment of acne vulgaris. This paper raises awareness of spin in abstracts and emphasizes the importance of its recognition, which may lead to fewer incidences of spin in future studies. (JMIR Dermatol 2020;3(1):e16978) doi: 10.2196/16978


CEOs often receive pensions that provide life annuities of up to 60% of their final salary plus bonus. I investigate the extent to which pensions are managerial rent extraction and/or the result of optimal contracting between CEOs and boards of directors. Specifically, I examine whether CEOs exploit limited disclosure requirements to hide and/or camouflage excess pension benefits and whether pensions are associated with CEO power and/or contracting determinants. Overall, my results provide some support for both the managerial power and optimal contracting views of pensions. Economic contracting variables, however, appear to explain pension benefit levels to a greater extent than measures of CEO power. This suggests that although pensions can be used to extract rents, this practice appears to be limited. In addition, my results suggest that pension-based rent extraction can be detected using public disclosures, implying that recent SEC changes in pension disclosure requirements are likely to have little effect on investors' ability to value pensions.


Future compact and power-efficient all-optical data routers can benefit from versatile all-optical buffering strategies and switch fabric architectures to achieve high performance. This paper reports two novel variable all-optical-buffer-based optical packet switching (OPS) fabric architectures and corresponding all-optical contention resolution schemes designed towards this goal. The combined input-queued-and-output-queued OPS (CIOQ-OPS) architecture incorporating enhanced K-stage output buffer units achieves lowest packet rates with an optimized input and output buffer capacity partition ratio of 0.5, while the multiple-input-queued OPS (MIQ-OPS) architecture achieves the best performance when each input parallel all-optical buffer contains two variable all-optical buffer queues. Simulation results demonstrate that the newly proposed OPS architectures achieve much lower packet loss rates, packet buffering delay, and jitter for a relatively high traffic load level of 0.7. The performance improvement is typically by one or two orders of magnitude compared to the previously reported OPS architectures with all-optical variable delay buffers with a given reasonable all-optical buffer size of 1000 B.


The present thesis investigates in how far properties of a reader's first language (L1) have an influence on syntactic processing in a second language (L2). While the Competition Model (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982, 1987, 1989, MacWhinney, 1997) predicts that syntactic properties of the L1 can have an influence on L2 processing, the Shallow-Structure Account (Clahsen & Felser, 2006) suggests that an L2 speaker's representation of an L2 sentence is shallower, lacks syntactic detail, and is therefore not detailed enough for properties of the L1 to have an influence on L2 processing (Papadopoulou & Clahsen, 2003). In two sets of studies, I investigate whether L2 speakers of English activate syntactic information from their L1 while processing English sentences. In Experiments 1-4, native speakers of German, and control groups of native speakers of French and English, are confronted with English sentences consisting of a word order which exists in both English and German, but which represents different underlying syntactic structures in both languages. Results suggest that native speakers of German activate syntactic information from their L1 while reading such sentences. Experiments 5-7 represent an attempt to address both the issue of L1 influence and the issue of shallow processing within the context of the same experimental design. Native speakers of German, and a control group of native English speakers, read grammatically incorrect English sentences with a word order which would either be grammatically correct in German, or grammatically incorrect in both English and German. In this set of experiments, we found evidence against an influence of syntactic properties


Inflammatory activation of the cerebrovascular
endothelium in response to oxygen-glucose deprivationThere is
increasing evidence that inflammatory processes play a pivotal role
in the pathophysiology of ischaemic brain injury. Cerebrovascular
endothelial cells that form the blood-brain barrier are critical
for maintaining brain homeostasis, however, during cerebral
ischaemia they contribute to the post-ischaemic inflammatory
responses. It is not yet fully understood how different cerebral
cells interact during this inflammatory response. This study aimed
to test the hypothesis that oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)
induces the inflammatory activation of the cerebrovascular
endothelium and glial cells in vitro and that intercommunication
between these cells regulate their responses to OGD. Primary murine
brain endothelial cells (MBECs) monocultures, murine mixed-glial
monocultures and MBEC-glial co-cultures were exposed to OGD for up
to 24 hours (h), then reperfused cultures were returned to normoxia
for a further 24 hours.MBECs and glia remained viable over a 24 h
OGD exposure and during reperfusion. OGD induced a time-dependent
increase in MBEC glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) expression but a
time-dependent decline in expression and secretion of monocyte
chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). A significant increase in
keratinocyte-derived chemokine (KC) secretion by MBEC monocultures
was observed during reperfusion after prolonged exposure (18-24 h)
to OGD whereas, KC secretion by co-cultured MBECs was increased
during reperfusion after short exposure (4 h) to OGD. Co-cultured
MBECs displayed a significant increase in intercellular cell
adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1
(VCAM-1) expression in response to a short or prolonged exposure to
OGD with 24 h of reperfusion. Neither OGD nor reperfusion had any
effect on permeability of the MBEC monolayer.OGD induced a
time-dependent increase in nuclear stabilisation of hypoxia
inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1) in glial cells which correlated
to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion during OGD
and subsequent reperfusion. Nuclear stabilisation of the nuclear
factor kappa B (NFp65 subunit by glial cells was dependent upon
the duration of OGD. Reperfusion induced a significant increase in
KC secretion by co-cultured glial cells after short exposure to
OGD. Inflammatory activation of co-cultured MBECs and glia after 4
or 24 h OGD caused a significant increase in neutrophil
transendothelial migration which correlated with MBEC expression of
ICAM-1 and VCAM-1. A combination of these cell adhesion molecules
with neutrophil integrins and soluble glial-derived mediators
contributed to neutrophil transendothelial migration.These studies
provide evidence that combined hypoxia and glucose withdrawal
induces the activation of MBECs and glial cells in vitro.
Cross-talk between these two cell types may further regulate their
activation. As a result of this inflammatory activation, soluble
MBEC and glial-derived mediators may contribute to…


Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms involve the deep nesting of distinct components, where each component typically exhibits opportunities for distributed computation. Current RL libraries offer parallelism at the level of the entire program, coupling all the components together and making existing implementations difficult to extend, combine, and reuse. We argue for building composable RL components by encapsulating parallelism and resource requirements within individual components, which can be achieved by building on top of a flexible task-based programming model. We demonstrate this principle by building Ray RLLib on top of Ray and show that we can implement a wide range of state-of-the-art algorithms by composing and reusing a handful of standard components. This composability does not come at the cost of performance --- in our experiments, RLLib matches or exceeds the performance of highly optimized reference implementations. Ray RLLib is available as part of Ray at this https URL


'Constitutionalisation' is the key concept in the search for legitimate governance in the European Union and in the international system. This paper suggests revitalising of a discipline which is widely neglected in European law and international law scholarship. It does not, however, recommend a return to the conflict of laws (private international law) in the traditional sense. The new type of conflicts law which it advocates is not concerned with selecting the proper legal system in cases with connections to various jurisdictions. This conflicts law is conceptualised as a response to the increasing inter-dependence of formerly more autonomous legal orders and to the democracy failure of constitutional states which result from the external effects of their laws andlegal decisions on foreign systems and on their citizens who cannot understand themselves as their authors. European law has a vocation and many means both to compensate for the democracy failures of member states and to build upon this potential in its constitutionalisation. The conflicts law approach also provides new, albeit more restrained, perspectives at international level. WTO law is used to explored and document its constitutional perspectives.The conflicts law approach is differentiated into three dimensions. With this differentiated fabric, the approach responds to transformation processes which have affected contemporary law at all levels of governance after the rise of regulatory politics and the turn to governance. In its second dimension, conflicts law seeks to constitutionalise co-operative problem-solving under the lead of administrative bodies, while its third dimensions is concerned with both the recognition and the supervision of transnational governance arrangements and para-legal regimes.


We study an SIS epidemic model over an arbitrary connected network topology when the agents receive personalized information about the current epidemic state. The agents utilize their available information to either reduce interactions with their neighbors (social distancing) when they believe the epidemic is currently prevalent or resume normal interactions when they believe there is low risk of becoming infected. The information is a weighted combination of three sources: 1) the average states of nodes in contact neighborhoods 2) the average states of nodes in an information network 3) a global broadcast of the average epidemic state of the network. A 2n-state Markov Chain is first considered to model the disease dynamics with awareness, from which a mean-field discrete-time n-state dynamical system is derived, where each state corresponds to an agent's probability of being infected. The nonlinear model is a lower bound of its linearized version about the origin. Hence, global stability of the origin (the diseasefree equilibrium) in the linear model implies global stability in the nonlinear model. When the origin is not stable, we show the existence of a nontrivial fixed point in the awareness model, which obeys a strict partial order in relation to the nontrivial fixed point of the dynamics without distancing. In simulations, we define two performance metrics to understand the effectiveness agent awareness has in reducing the spread of an epidemic.


Parliamentary and media discourses are different. Whereas speaking in parliament is, at least on the surface, governed by procedural rules and deliberative traditions, media representations adhere to a narrative dramaturgy. A crisis situation affects the relation between these forms of discourse. When there is a perceived threat against the nation, often the media 'rally around the flag', purportedly displaying a greater acceptance of the arguments presented by leading politicians or the government. Similarly, crisis awareness limits the room for dissent in parliament, since there is a perceived need to close ranks in the face of an external threat. In this situation, turning to public opinion is not an option for those wanting to present alternative viewpoints. This article examines whether the concept 'world opinion' became an alternative outside ally for members of parliament (MPs) who wanted to position themselves in the debates on the Falklands War (1982).


Recommender systems are increasingly used for personalised navigation through large amounts of information, especially in the e-commerce domain for product purchase advice. Whilst much research effort is spent on developing recommenders further, there is little to no effort spent on analysing the impact of them - neither on the supply (company) nor demand (consumer) side. In this paper, we investigate the diversity impact of a movie recommender. We define diversity for different parts of the domain and measure it in different ways. The novelty of our work is the usage of real rating data (from Netflix) and a recommender system for investigating the (hypothetical) effects of various configurations of the system and users' choice models.We consider a number of different scenarios (which differ in the agent's choice model), run very extensive simulations, analyse various measurements regarding experimental validation and diversity, and report on selected findings. The choice models are an essential part of our work, since these can be influenced by the owner of the recommender once deployed.


Wolfhart Pannenberg's understanding of God as the all-determining power of the future is the governing focus of this intensive study which examines the whole structure of Pannenberg's theology from that vantage point. It serves both as a careful exposition of his thought and as a richly nuanced critique of a number of key themes in his theological program. Recognizing that Pannenberg's theology draws from the revelation of God but is also concerned to answer adequately the questions raised by our quest for knowledge, concern for meaning, and boundless 'world-openness, ' the explorations delve into his conceptual prolegomena concerning philosophical truth, historical meaning, and anthropological understanding, and then track in subsequent chapters his view of revelation as that is discernible in the Old Testament, in the tradition of Jewish apocalyptic, and, finally and most importantly, in the life, message, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The guiding principle of this theological exploration is to judge the sufficiency of Pannenberg's theological insights directly on their own merit, without introducing alternative presuppositional perspectives


The highlight on any local private international law calendar is beyond doubt the publication of a new edition of Christopher Forsyth's standard textbook on the Roman-Dutch conflict of laws as applicable in South Africa and most of its neighbouring countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe), as well as in Sri Lanka. Upon its initial appearance in 1981, this was the first comprehensive text on the subject to be published since Paulus Voet's De Statutis Eorumque Concursu Liber Singularis in 1661 (for a translation, see AB Edwards The Selective Paulus Voet (2007)).


I. INTRODUCTION On Sunday, December 31, 2000, the United States signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("ICC"), and thus became one of the 139 nations that met the New Year's Eve, 2000 deadline for signature established in the Treaty.1 David Scheffer, who served as the Clinton Administration's Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, signed on the President's behalf, after traveling to the United Nations on the Sunday morning at the direction of the National Security Advisor, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger. Scheffer's last major diplomatic mission for the outgoing Administration came after an eleventh-hour Presidential decision that marked a major shift in US policy toward the ICC. The President's decision was hailed by Court proponents, who have long advocated the establishment of a permanent international judicial tribunal with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. But the decision was also roundly condemned by conservative commentators and members of Congress, who see the ICC as a threat to US sovereignty. John Bolton, now Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, writing in the Washington Post, accused the President of "a stealth approach to eroding our constitutionalism and undermining the independence and flexibility that our military forces need to defend our interests around the world."2 He urged the incoming Administration, of which he is now a part, to "unsign" the Treaty. Despite highly charged criticism by ICC opponents, President Clinton's signature was far from the unequivocal endorsement of the ICC that Court advocates would have most welcomed. In fact, the President's signature statement complained about "significant flaws in the Treaty," and indicated that US concerns should be effectively addressed before the Senate considered consent to ratification of the Rome Statute.3 Signature offered neither unqualified support nor unbridled rejection of the Rome Statute. Rather, it represented an effort to manage effectively legitimate yet conflicting policy imperatives to reach an equilibrium that best addressed US interests. This effort at "dexterous multilateralism" is worth examining closely, as it relates to an issue of growing importance in US foreign policy: the tension between sovereign prerogatives and deference to multilateral institutions. It is this issue which increasingly bedevils US policymakers as they consider how to address the war on terrorism, the situation in Iraq, and related national security challenges. II. BACKGROUND TO SIGNATURE In many respects, President Clinton's decision to sign the Rome Statute grew out of his Administration's forward-leaning approach toward multilateral engagement on international human rights issues. This included successful Administration efforts to establish the post of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; to secure Senate consent to ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and to negotiate the International Labor Organization Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, as well as UN protocols against trafficking in persons, exploitation of children, and use of child soldiers. The Clinton Administration combined its emphasis on promoting international human rights norms with an effort to encourage political accountability for human rights abuses-for example, through active US involvement in the UN Human Rights Commission. US officials also recognized that the United States could not easily urge upon others standards of behavior and accountability that the US government was unprepared to accept for itself, and the Administration spent a great deal of time and energy in preparing reports on human rights practices in the United States, which were submitted to UN bodies pursuant to treaties relating to civil and political rights, torture, and racial discrimination. …


This case is a follow up to "Colorado Benefits Management System: Decision Time" (McCubbrey and Fukami, 2005). It chronicles the events in the two years that followed the ill-advised conversion of the Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS). CBMS was converted over the objections of the user community and after the expenditure of approximately $100 million. The results were both predictable and avoidable. The system was fraught with errors, and the fallback plan was never implemented. Clients, principally the poor and elderly, suffered as a result of the system's errors and poor performance. An audit conducted by the State of Colorado found that millions of dollars had been misspent after conversion. As of August 2006, CBMS remains a troubled system and has received a considerable amount of unfavorable publicity in the local and national media. Colorado counties are struggling to use the system and worker morale is suffering. A lawsuit against the State is pending. The case concludes by asking: Who is to blame for this mess? Why is it taking so long to fix? What could have been done differently to avoid the resulting chaos? What should be done to repair CBMS? How can progress be measured?


Frame/content (F/C) theory [1] offers a working rationale of the rise of serial-order control and forms without assuming a priori units. A synthesis of our recent work is presented with the purpose of refining this rationale on two points. First, observations of contraction activity and passive elasticity suggest that basic frames of serial-order control correspond to contraction-relaxation cycles not present in non-speech motions such as mastication. Second, on explaining prosodic grouping, results show a relationship between "size effects" on such patterns and grouping effects on recall. Converging evidence suggests that grouping may arise from capacity limits on attention processes of short-term memory.


Large displacement on a low-angle normal fault results in isostatic uplift of the lower plate in response to tectonic denudation. Simple models of the denudation process predict warping of the lower plate into a broad antiform, or antiform-synform pair, with axes perpendicular to the direction of extension. The amount of warping is strongly influenced by initial fault geometry, surface topography, the amount of extension, and the distribution of extension within the upper plate. Late-stage processes that augment antiform growth include one-sided denudation of the antiform, reverse faulting due to concave-upward flexure, and wholesale detachment and reverse-drag folding of the antiform. Antiformal uplifts, now exhumed by erosion, form mountain ranges in the southwestern United States where conditions were favorable for warping during mid-Tertiary crustal extension. Four major structural domains are apparent in transects across these uplifts and adjacent areas: (1) unextended area, (2) synformal upper plate, (3) antiformal uplift, and (4) wedge-shaped upper plate. Each domain is separated from adjacent domains by the traces of a master low-angle normal fault.


Who uses requirements engineering and design methodologies besides the people who invented them? Are researchers at least actually trying to use them in real-world complex projects and not in "paper project"? In this paper, we dare to recount the experience and the lessons we gained in trying to use seriously and in-depth a requirements engineering method (called AWARE) combined with a conceptual user-centered design method (called W2000) for the development of a real-world web application. The project is recounted through the process followed and the artifacts produced, as well as by crystallizing our experience in using and transferring the method to industry in practical and methodological recommendations.


In this paper, we investigate the role of School Management Committees (COGES) in Burkina Faso. These committees include elected members of each community, and are tasked with setting and implementing annual school plans. The study adopted a hybrid evaluation method incorporating a randomized controlled trial and a large-scale artefactual field experiment a la Levitt and List (2007) on public goods with monetary rewards, to closely examine unexplored issues impacting on the sustainability of community-driven projects, and to identify at least partially the mechanisms of this sustainability. We found that the COGES project significantly increased social capital in the form of voluntary contributions to public goods, especially by linking those that people can be connected to vertically. On average, the direct increase in voluntary contributions to public goods from the implementation of the COGES project was between 8.0 and 10.2%. For groups composed of school principals, teachers, and parents, the average contribution increased by between 12.7 and 24.1% through the democratic election of school management committee members, and by between 11.0 and 17.2% through the implementation of the COGES project. These results suggest that community management projects can improve local cost recovery by increasing local contributions of public goods, potentially leading to better fiscal sustainability in community-driven projects. Moreover, the results based on our hybrid experiments are largely in line with real-world decisions observed in the schools under our investigation. As a byproduct, our findings are supportive of models of other-regarding preferences.


Increased longevity and population aging will increase the number of men with late onset hypogonadism. It is a common condition, but often underdiagnosed and undertreated. The indication of testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT) treatment requires the presence of low testosterone level, and symptoms and signs of hypogonadism. Although controversy remains regarding indications for testosterone supplementation in aging men due to lack of large-scale, long-term studies assessing the benefits and risks of testosterone-replacement therapy in men, reports indicate that TRT may produce a wide range of benefits for men with hypogonadism that include improvement in libido and sexual function, bone density, muscle mass, body composition, mood, erythropoiesis, cognition, quality of life and cardiovascular disease. Perhaps the most controversial area is the issue of risk, especially possible stimulation of prostate cancer by testosterone, even though no evidence to support this risk exists. Other possible risks include worsening symptoms of benign prostatic hypertrophy, liver toxicity, hyperviscosity, erythrocytosis, worsening untreated sleep apnea or severe heart failure. Despite this controversy, testosterone supplementation in the United States has increased substantially over the past several years. The physician should discuss with the patient the potential benefits and risks of TRT. The purpose of this review is to discuss what is known and not known regarding the benefits and risks of TRT.


Death has been viewed in cultural terms in Ireland more as rite than right. Engrained in the collective consciousness is the conception of death as part of nature's course, a societal rite of passage. This in turn is influenced by the peculiar Irish attitude to nature and the natural which has found legal expression in the Constitution of 1937 with its homage to the ideals of natural law. The way in which successive governments have approached the issues spanning the natural cycle: contraception, birth, education, marriage and sexuality has borne the imprint of a pre-modern approach to social, ethical and legal dilemmas. The right to die is as much part of the debate over the right to life as is the status of the unborn. Chapter one is an introductory chapter which outlines in greater detail the extent of the question to be broached and the method of its answer. In the second chapter, the issue of defining death is studied. The relationship between both legal and ethical definitions of this concept and the practice of medicine is examined. In chapter three the topic of pregnancy termination is examined, with special reference to the legal and ethical problems which arise in this area of medical practice. Chapter four examines the problem raised by the issue of treatment withdrawal or passive euthanasia and proposes a framework for its resolution. Chapters five and six deal with the issues raised by active intervention to end life in the medical context. Chapter five examines the issue of active euthanasia and chapter six analyses the related but discrete area of assisted suicide. Chapter seven contains the review and conclusions, and tentatively suggests that a more patient-oriented approach be taken by the law in resolving such dilemmas.


Despite the many feasible benefits of ICT in the organizational competitiveness, the extent to which ICT has been applied to carve a niche in the hospitality industry still remains unclear. Various studies have demonstrated that companies which leverage Information and Communication Technology and product differentiation create an environment where ICT has a great impact in the business arena. While there exists some studies on ICT, none has focused on the efficacy of ICT in creating competitive advantage within the selected hotels in Nairobi, and how to innovativetly and strategically use it. Various scholars have found that the use of ICT per se does not create competitive advantage. The main purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in creating competitive advantage in selected hotels in Nairobi County.The research was carried out in 3-5 star hotels which forms about 80% of the total income of the star-rated hotels in the country. The study used a total sample size of twenty four (24), 3 to 5 star-rated hotels in the country and was designed to include the crosssectional descriptive survey research design. A sample size of two hundred and seventy four (n=274) respondents were targeted from the 24 hotels. Two hundred and thirty four (234) questionnaires inclusive of twelve (12) interview guides were filled and returned, which formed about 85% response rate. The structured questionnaires were both open and closed ended. Both proportionate and purposive sampling techniques were used to sample the respondents for the study. The study used the split-half technique to determine the reliability of the research instruments. The collected data was then analyzed using the linear and multiple regression, the Pearson Correlation and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and the related test of significance was applied appropriately. The study found out that the use of ICT in Service Delivery and Competitive Advantage were positively and significantly correlated. The results also revealed that the use of ICT in Employee Empowerment and Competitive Advantage were positively and significantly correlated. Further, results revealed that the use of ICT in Marketing and Competitive Advantage were also positively and significantly correlated. Based on these findings, the study concluded that the use of ICT in service delivery, employee empowerment and marketing had a positive and significant influence on competitive advantage. Finally, the study recommended that all the hotels should innovatively and strategically integrate their websites with Property Management Systems (PMS) to promote efficiency within the organizations. This would lead to quality service delivery which easily translates to customer loyalty and retention.


Microvascular remodeling is a complex process that includes many cell types and molecular signals. Despite a continued growth in the understanding of signaling pathways involved in the formation and maturation of new blood vessels, approximately half of all compounds entering clinical trials will fail, resulting in the loss of much time, money, and resources. Most pro-angiogenic clinical trials to date have focused on increasing neovascularization via the delivery of a single growth factor or gene. Alternatively, a focus on the concerted regulation of whole networks of genes may lead to greater insight into the underlying physiology since the coordinated response is greater than the sum of its parts. Systems biology offers a comprehensive network view of the processes of angiogenesis and arteriogenesis that might enable the prediction of drug targets and whether or not activation of the targets elicits the desired outcome. Systems biology integrates complex biological data from a variety of experimental sources (-omics) and analyzes how the interactions of the system components can give rise to the function and behavior of that system. This review focuses on how systems biology approaches have been applied to microvascular growth and remodeling, and how network analysis tools can be utilized to aid novel pro-angiogenic drug discovery.