Abstract China has pursued a sustainable path of development in line with reality for four decades. Economic restructuring started in its vast rural areas, focusing on reforms targeting income increase for rural farmers. These radical sustainable policies that China's political leaders imbibed were not embraced by Nigeria's past leaders and these resulted in the bane of underdevelopment. The study examines the level and composition of the drivers of public-spending policy mechanisms that contribute to gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the agricultural sector in China and Nigeria and draws up a model of Chinese development for Nigeria. Secondary data was used and were sourced from FAOSTAT and International Monetary Fund's Government-Finance Statistics (various issues) from 1970–2016. Random-effects model results revealed that the policy of public-expenditure (PUEXP) and intervention (INTEV) variables were significant but negative, while enterprise-development (ENTDEV), drivers of development (DRIVERS) and Dummy D1t (modest public-expenditure access) were significant and positive for Nigeria. Three variables were significant and positive. The dummies D1t and D2t (macro-economic stability) were positive and significant for China. Public-expenditure and GDP growth has an inverse relationship in Nigeria, but a direct relationship in China. In Nigeria, PUEXP coefficient is ˗0.6810 and 0.8902 for China. Hence, macro-economic stability, enhanced market mechanisms and economic progress resulted in China and hereby lessons are drawn for Nigeria. Public leaders are responsible for governing the market in a manner that induces businesses to produce public value. However, if public-policy mechanisms are not well-designed to fit the economy's needs it could significantly influence the economy in a negative way, and the society bears the costs.


Curriculum in Indonesia showed several changes aimed to increase nation educational quality. In education unit level curriculum, there stated that Biology Science aimed to fertile the science attitude of students who honest, objective, open, persistent, critical, and able to cooperate with other. Basically, initial observation in grade VIII-A MTS Sunan Kalijaga Pamekasan stated that
students lack of activity in making questions, answering questions or giving their opinion orally, it caused by method used which was expository, which centered to teacher. That's why there needed learning method to increase activity and students' study result. The research purpose was to find out the application of Thinking Development through questions in Cooperative Model
TSTS to increase students' activity and study result.
Classroom action research was done in two action cycles and consisted of four phases. Data collection technique used observation sheet and test value each end of cycle. Action successful indicators could be seen from students' activity and study result from cycle I – II. Research location and time was done in May 17th to June 1st 2010 at MTs Sunan Kalijaga in students of grade VIII-A consisted of 32 students. Data collection technique used observation sheet,
individual test and field note. Data analysis for students' activity observation used percentage of activity criteria, while study result analyzed using study completeness. Study completeness of each students fitted with school study completeness, that was ≥ 65 Result showed: (1) students' study activity increased from cycle I – II; individual activity percentege was 60.33% increased into 81.91% , group discussion percentage was 67.75% increased into 85.42% and class discussion percentage was 59.89% increased into 74.99%; (2) students' study result measured from study completeness percentage from cycle I to cycle II had
increased. From 62.5% increased into 87.5%. From this research there could be concluded that study using Development thinking through questions pattern in cooperative model TSTS could increase the students' activity and study. The writer suggest the teacher to apply the method to increase activities and study result.


The free market reforms adopted by Mexico in the wake of the debt crisis of the 1980s and in connection with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have jeopardized the physical and cultural survival of Mexico's indigenous peoples, increased migration to the United States, threatened biological diversity in Mexico, and imposed additional stress on the environment in the United States. Despite these negative impacts, NAFTA continues to serve as a template for trade agreements in the Americas. Unless this template is fundamentally restructured, future trade agreements may replicate throughout the Western hemisphere many of the economic, ecological and social dislocations experienced under NAFTA. Using Mexico as a case study, the article examines the impact of trade liberalization on indigenous peoples and on the environment. Critiquing Mexico's neoliberal economic reforms through the framework of environmental justice, the article highlights some of the theoretical and practical limitations of the theory of comparative advantage, which serves as the justification for the free market economic policies promoted by international trade and financial institutions. The article urges policy-makers to integrate trade, human rights, and environmental policy instead of criminalizing immigrants or militarizing the U.S.-Mexican border. The article concludes by using the paradigm of environmental justice to outline the elements of a more equitable and sustainable approach to international trade law and policy that supports the livelihoods of indigenous and rural communities and protects the planet's finite natural resources.


Dengue virus NS1 protein induces inflammatory responses via TLR4 and disrupts endothelial cell monolayer integrity. A leak in the dike Everyone knows how mosquitos can wreck an end-of-summer picnic. But in some climates, these pesky intruders persist and carry a variety of detrimental diseases—some with no preventative vaccines or targeted therapies. One such passenger is dengue virus (DENV), which infects up to 400 million people each year and comes in several serotypes (1 to 4) and disease presentations—from mild infection to severe disease and sometimes death. But to treat or prevent dengue requires that we have a more complete picture of the disease pathology. Now, Modhiran et al. and Beatty et al. describe the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments that point to circulating dengue virus non-structural protein 1 (NS1) and the innate immune Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) as a focus for basic scientists as well as vaccine and drug developers. DENV infection protects a patient from future reinfection with the same DENV serotype as well as producing temporary immune protection from severe dengue disease caused by a different DENV serotype. But unlike diamonds, this immune protection doesn't last forever, and when the protected period passes, the patient becomes at increased risk of enhanced infection and progression to severe disease if he or she is infected with a second DENV serotype. This severe form of dengue infection is believed to result from immunopathogenic processes that induce cytokine storm and cause vascular leakage that leads to shock. Until now, no dengue viral proteins have been linked to vascular endothelium permeability (that is, vascular leakage). Beatty et al. show that inoculation of mice with DENV NS1 protein alone induces both vascular leak and secretion of inflammatory cytokines and that administration of NS1 with a sublethal dose of DENV2 leads to lethal vascular leak syndrome. In human endothelial cell monolayers in culture, NS1 from any of the four DENV serotypes triggered endothelial barrier permeability. NS1's pathogenic effects were blocked by NS1-immune polyclonal mouse serum or monoclonal antibodies to NS1 (in vivo and in vitro), and immunization of mice with NS1 protected against lethal DENV2 challenge. In an independent study, Mondrian et al. explore the underlying mechanism of NS1's effects. They show that highly purified NS1 acts as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP) that activates mouse macrophages and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in culture via TLR4, resulting in release of inflammatory cytokines—an effect that was blocked by either a TLR4 antagonist or an anti-TLR4 antibody. Then, in an in vitro model of vascular leak, the authors found that NS1 fractured the integrity of endothelial cell monolayers through a TLR4-dependent pathway, a finding that was supported by the observation that a TLR4 antagonist quelled capillary leak in a mouse model of dengue virus infection. Together, these new findings highlight NS1 as an instigator of dengue-associated vascular leak and thus pinpoint a potential target for dengue drugs and component for dengue vaccines. Complications arising from dengue virus infection include potentially fatal vascular leak, and severe disease has been linked with excessive immune cell activation. An understanding of the triggers of this activation is critical for the development of appropriately targeted disease control strategies. We show here that the secreted form of the dengue virus nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) is a pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP). Highly purified NS1 devoid of bacterial endotoxin activity directly activated mouse macrophages and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) via Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), leading to the induction and release of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In an in vitro model of vascular leak, treatment with NS1 alone resulted in the disruption of endothelial cell monolayer integrity. Both NS1-mediated activation of PBMCs and NS1-induced vascular leak in vitro were inhibited by a TLR4 antagonist and by anti-TLR4 antibody treatment. The importance of TLR4 activation in vivo was confirmed by the reduction in capillary leak by a TLR4 antagonist in a mouse model of dengue virus infection. These results pinpoint NS1 as a viral toxin counterpart of the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Similar to the role of LPS in septic shock, NS1 might contribute to vascular leak in dengue patients, which highlights TLR4 antagonists as a possible therapeutic option.


Prohibitions on anonymous egg and sperm donations are a growing international trend. U.S. law does not prohibit anonymous gamete donations. However, an expanding movement is advocating a shift to an open identity regime that will ban anonymity. My earlier study of three jurisdictions: Sweden, Victoria (Australia) and the United Kingdom, which adopted prohibitions on gamete donor anonymity, showed that these prohibitions played a role in creating shortages in egg and sperm supplies. Adoption of prohibitions on anonymity in the United States could result in similar shortages. This Article focuses on the potential effects of prohibitions on anonymity on the practice of surrogacy. The practice of surrogacy in the United States is highly dependent on donor eggs. Unlike most jurisdictions that prohibit gamete donor anonymity, the majority of U.S. states that permit surrogacy, distinguish between gestational and traditional surrogacy. These states provide legal certainty only to gestational surrogacy while leaving traditional surrogacy in a legal limbo. Infertility practitioners endorse the legal preference for gestational surrogacy. Donor eggs are used only in gestational surrogacy but not in traditional surrogacy. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate uses her own eggs and is the genetic mother of the conceived baby. However, in gestational surrogacy, the eggs of the intended mother or a donor are used and the surrogate is not the genetic mother. The Article advises that a shift toward an open identity system in the United Stares should be considered with extra caution because of the potential consequences to the practice of surrogacy. Prohibitions on gamete donor anonymity causing a scarcity in donor eggs could force a return to traditional surrogacy, with the accompanying legal uncertainty. Alternatively, the legal uncertainty enveloping traditional surrogacy could deter those in need of surrogacy from seeking it altogether thereby significantly contracting the practice of surrogacy.


This paper shows how, under existing tax law, illegal wage underpayment by an employer (sometimes called "wage theft") may generate employer tax liability for unreported income or disallowed business expense deductions. Given that the tax authority needs information from the underpaid worker to prove such liability, the paper identifies two ways that a worker can transmit that information to a tax authority: becoming a tax informant, or bringing a qui tam action under a state false claims act. Finally, the paper discusses possible influences on the decision of the unpaid worker to inform on the employer to the tax authority, and considers the conditions under which a tax authority is likely to audit an employer based on such information. In so doing, the paper identifies a new approach to combating wage theft and an undiscovered implication of basic income tax law.


Distribution patterns, microstructural relationships, and compositional variations for framboidal pyrite in the Paleozoic sedimentary host rocks to gold deposits on the northern Carlin trend, Nevada, and at Fosterville in central Victoria, collectively demonstrate that it is not all of synsedimentary-early diagenetic origin. Framboidal pyrite also nucleated in hydrothermal veins formed at several kilometers depth and along dissolution surfaces (stylolites and crenulation cleavages) formed during metamorphism at up to anchizonal grade (i.e., prehnitepumpellyite facies). There are no obvious differences in either the size range or internal morphology of framboids formed in these various settings, suggesting that a single, relatively simple crystallization path may operate over a wide depth range in the upper crust. At Fosterville, anomalously metal-rich (including Au) framboidal pyrite is most abundant adjacent to laminated shear veins that developed by slip along bedding surfaces during folding of the sedimentary host rocks. Microstructural relationships and Pb isotope compositions for the framboidal pyrite, and other similarly distributed, early-formed sulfides, support development in response to the localized, episodic influx of metal-enriched H 2S-bearing hydrothermal fluids during regional deformation between 440 and 400 Ma. These findings may have implications for other similarly deformed metasedimentary successions, where the discovery of Au-bearing framboidal pyrite has recently been cited as evidence for significant Au enrichment during sedimentation. © 2009 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.


BACKGROUND
In today's health care environment where resources are scarce discharge planning is an important component of resource allocation. Knowledge of the factors that influence discharge disposition is fundamental to such planning. Further, return to home is an important outcome metric related to the effectiveness of a stroke rehabilitation program.

AIM
To test the hypothesis that the patients who have a caregiver at home willing to participate in the care of the patient discharged from a stroke rehabilitation unit are more likely to be discharged home given other predictive factors being the same.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study using binary logistic regression analysis with outcome as discharge home vs. discharge not home after in-patient stroke rehabilitation.

SETTING
Hamilton Health Sciences multidisciplinary integrated stroke program unit.

POPULATION
During this period, 276 patients were admitted to the integrated stroke unit, of which 268 patients were living in the community prior to hospitalization. The remaining eight patients were admitted from a care facility, such as a nursing home or assisted living facility. Since a sample size of eight is too small, these patients were excluded from the analysis. As such, the analysis is based on the 268 patients who were living at home prior to the onset of stroke.

METHODS
The data points collected during the study period were age, gender, days from stroke onset to rehabilitation unit admission, pre-stroke living arrangement (lived alone vs. lived with spouse, partner, or another family member), FIMTM at admission, type of stroke, laterality of impairment, and discharge destination (i.e., private dwelling vs. nursing home, assisted living facility, or back to acute care).

RESULTS
As established by a number of previous studies, the most significant predictors of home as discharge destination was admission FIMTM. However, the second most important predictive factor for home discharge was prestroke living arrangement (lived alone vs lived with spouse/partner/other family member) as hypothesized by the authors.

CONCLUSION
Literature is rich with studies showing functional independence to be the most important predictor of home as discharge disposition but our analysis shows that pre-stroke living arrangement, i.e., lived alone vs lived not alone is also an important predictor for patients to be discharged home after stroke rehabilitation.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT
If current discharge planning relies on the availability of a caregiver at home after discharge from in-patient stroke rehabilitation then it may be worthwhile to include these caregivers in the inpatient rehabilitation process, to prepare them for their loved one's return home. Additionally, once the patient is discharged home more resources should be made available to support caregivers in the community. This may include more home healthcare personnel training and availability along with respite care.


Drought is a major factor limiting the growth of turfgrasses in many areas. The functional relationship of drought stress and accumulation of various ions in turfgrasses is not well understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of drought on root growth and accumulation of several major nutrients in three tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) cultivars varying in drought tolerance (Falcon II = Houndog V > Rebel Jr). Grasses were grown in well-watered or drying (nonirrigated) soil for 35 days in a greenhouse. Drought conditions limited total root length to a greater extent for 'Rebel Jr' than for 'Falcon II' and 'Houndog V', while specific root length (SRL) was greater in 'Falcon II' and 'Houndog V' than in 'Rebel Jr'. Concentrations of N, P, and Mg decreased, whereas those of K, Ca, and Fe increased, in shoots of drought-stressed plants of all three cultivars. Root N was not affected, but root P decreased in 'Rebel Jr', and root K decreased in all three cultivars under drought conditions. Drought reduced the proportions of N and P in shoots and increased those in roots, while increasing the proportion of K in shoots and decreasing that in roots. During drought stress, both 'Falcon II' and 'Houndog V' maintained higher K concentration in shoots, and 'Falcon II' in roots, than did 'Rebel Jr', but 'Rebel Jr' and 'Houndog V' had higher Fe concentration in shoots than did 'Falcon II'. The higher K and lower Fe accumulations in shoots could contribute to better drought tolerance of tall fescue cultivars.


This article examines two major generic fluid milk advertising campaigns in New York City during the 1986-92 period. Estimates from a time-varying parameter model show that the evolution of the impact of generic advertising on fluid milk sales over each campaign followed a bell-shaped pattern. Results also show that the first campaign was effective for twice as long as the second campaign and that it has a higher peak and higher average advertising elasticity. These findings may reflect long-term generic milk advertising wearout in the New York City market.


The paper evaluates the ability of a widely used automated commercial testing system to perform Ko consolidated-undrained triaxial compression and extension (CKoUC/E) tests on normally consolidated clay. The commercial system uses control software on a microcomputer to operate three digital pressure-volume controllers that control and measure the pore water pressure and volume, the radial stress, and the axial stress and strain for a specimen within a Bishop and Wesley Hydraulic Triaxial Apparatus. Because the commercial system calculates axial stress and strain by relying on indirect measurements assuming idealized behavior of the axial loading assembly, the system was modified to directly measure axial stress and strain. The system was also enhanced to enable shear in triaxial extension and to improve certain other testing procedures. Comparison of results from CKoUC/E tests obtained by the resulting reference system with prior data on resedimented Boston Blue Clay shows good to excellent agreement in 1-D compressibility and undrained stress-strain-strength characteristics. In contrast, stresses recorded by the commercial system resulted in significant overestimates of preconsolidation pressure, undrained strength, and the effective stress envelope, primarily caused by unquantifiable behavior of the axial loading assembly. Based on these results and other experience, the paper suggests features warranting special attention when selecting a commercially available automated triaxial system in order to upgrade the experimental capabilities of a laboratory.


The presence of cortical spreading depression is typically inferred from the presence of hypesthesia. The electrocorticogram and slow-potential change were recorded during cortical spreading depression and it was found that hypesthesia remained long after the cortex recovered from neural depression. Hypesthesia, therefore, is an unreliable indicant of cortical spreading depression; if cortical spreading depression is used as a research tool, neural activity must be monitored. These data offer a special problem for memory transfer studies.


Middlesex Community College libraries offer students in statistics and related disciplines access to numerous resources. Use the tabs below to locate books, articles, websites and citation help.


Malignant mesothelioma remains a difficult proposition in the clinic, with few accurate molecular markers available to guide diagnosis and patient management, and a dearth of effective treatments. Recent evidence implicates microRNAs-short non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression-in mesothelioma biology. Emerging evidence suggests that exploring aberrant microRNA expression will not only improve our understanding of the disease, but will also lead to the identification of new molecular biomarkers and therapeutic targets.


Job training is one of the most important aspects of skill formation and human capital accumulation. In this study we use longitudinal Canadian linked employer-employee data to examine whether white/visible minority immigrants and Canadian-borns experience different opportunities in two well-defined measures of firm-sponsored training: on-the-job training and classroom training. While we find no differences in on-the-job training between different groups, our results suggest that visible minority immigrants are significantly less likely to receive classroom training, and receive fewer and shorter classroom training courses, an experience that is not shared by white immigrants. For male visible minority immigrants, these gaps are entirely driven by their differential sorting into workplaces with less training opportunities. For their female counterparts however, they are mainly driven by differences that emerge within workplaces. We find no evidence that years spent in Canada or education level can appreciably reduce these gaps. Accounting for potential differences in career paths and hierarchical level also fails to explain these differences. We find however that these gaps are only experienced by visible minority immigrants who work in the for-profit sector, with those in the non-profit sector experiencing positive or no gaps in training. Finally, we show that other poor labor market outcomes of visible minority immigrants, including their wages and promotion opportunities, stem in part from these training gaps.


Background and objective: cardiovascular diseases are increased in each year in India. Cardiovascular diseases more are occurred in the economically productive age group. This will affect their family and also the nation. Aim of the study is to find out the different types of heart diseases and the case fatality rate of cardiovascular disease from 1st April 2005 to 31st March 2010 in a teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study conducted on hospitalized patients admitted with cardiovascular diseases from 1st April 2005 to 31st March 2010. Medical records department follows the guide lines of International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 coding for entering the data, from that data were collected. Results: Of 10427 cases, 6324 (60.65%) were males and 4103(39.35%) females. Cardiovascular disease was more among males than females. It was more occurred in ≥60 years. Most of them were occurred due to cerebrovascular disease (33.7%). Ischemic heart disease was more among males than females. Total number of deaths due to cardiovascular disease was 797. Of them 525(65.87%) were males and 272(34.13%) females. Case fatality due to cardiovascular diseases was 7.64%. Case fatality among males (8.3%) were more than females (6.63%) (P=0.00). Conclusion: This study mentioned that most of the cases and deaths were occurred in 60 and above years. Second leading age group is 25-59 years. Accident in economically productive people was high. It will affect their family and also the nation. Hence it can be reduced by conducting health awareness programme.


The European sovereign debt crisis is characterized by the simultaneous surge in borrowing costs in the GIPS countries after 2008. We present a theory, which can account for the behavior of sovereign bond spreads in Southern Europe between 1998 and 2012. Our key theoretical argument is related to the bail-out guarantee provided by a monetary union, which endogenously varies with the number of member countries in sovereign debt trouble. We incorporate this theoretical foundation in an otherwise standard small open economy DSGE model and explain (i) the convergence of interest rates on sovereign bonds following the European monetary integration in late 1990s, and (ii) - following the heightened default risk of Greece - the sudden surge in interest rates in countries with relatively sound economic and financial fundamentals. We calibrate the model to match the behavior of the Portuguese economy over the period of 1998 to 2012.


Five approaches that can be used to control and simplify the speech recognition task are examined. They entail the use of isolated words, speaker-dependent systems, limited vocabulary size, a tightly constrained grammar, and quiet and controlled environmental conditions. The five components of a speech recognition system are described: a speech capture device, a digital signal processing module, preprocessed signal storage, reference speech patterns, and a pattern-matching algorithm. Current speech recognition systems are reviewed and categorized. Speaker recognition approaches and systems are also discussed.<<ETX>>


The United States Congress is currently devising the next farm bill. One of the many factors influencing the debate is the effect of trade agreements into which the United States has entered. Under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Agriculture, government spending on trade-distorting agricultural policies (referred to as "amber box" policies) has been limited. However, if the policy is considered non-trade-distorting ("green box"), then spending on such a policy is not constrained under the agreement. We explore the possible construction of a green box policy that is countercyclical to factors related to agriculture. The policy is based on our interpretation of the green box requirements; other interpretations are possible. The policy we construct would provide payments that are countercyclical to weather events and exchange rate movements (that is, the timing and size of the payments depends on weather events and exchange rate movements). Our model is but one of many possible configurations of such an approach and was chosen as an example of how such a program might be implemented. Given our construction, we also estimate the cost of the new program.


The role of trumpeters as emissaries in the early modern period has been known for some time. The article explains and illustrates this role by reference to several primary sources that reveal in considerable detail the emissarial and diplomatic duties in which (mainly) English trumpeters were engaged between the late 15th and the early 17th c. A number of key questions are also addressed in the paper: what exactly were the duties that these trumpeters were expected to acquit, and what qualifications made them fit for their purpose? How were the credentials of the trumpeter as diplomat advertised? How broadly understood were the protocols that allowed trumpeters to do this work, and what historical or other precedents were drawn on to allow such protocols to operate at a European level? Perhaps most important is the question of whether these trumpeters really were musicians at all, or merely diplomatic functionaries for whom the trumpet was merely a symbol that afforded rights of passage. The article draws on British state papers and other sources to answer these questions, concluding that the status of the trumpeter as diplomat was partly derived from older protocols of heraldic chivalry and the commonality of Christian ethics. It also offers evidence that far from being mere carriers of the trumpet, these men really were musicians who could be counted among the best of their time.


The economic transformation of the Republic of Serbia that
now lasts more than two decades has, due to numerous problems that
arose in the previously mentioned period, resulted in numerous
negative effects. Some of those such as deindustrialization and a
drastic drop in the partake of industry in the country's GDP have
turned out to be the greatest problems as they demanded immediate
attention. Furthermore, Serbia had to deal with problems that were a
direct consequence of the global economic crisis in the first decade of
this century. This is why the creators of the economic policy in Serbia
have formulated a new industrial policy,which, besides its main goal
– reindustrialization, has another and that is to be in line with the new
concept of industrial policy of the European Union, defined in the
Lisbon Strategy. Moreover, Serbia had to adjust its aims, instruments
and measures of this new industrial policy to the global economic
surrounding and current market mechanisms.
The process of globalization which brings about the birth of a
great number of global corporations, forces small and medium-sized
enterprises to connect and form networks. That being said, the
industrial policy of the Republic of Serbia, is more than anything else,
directed towards creating a better business environment for the
previously mentioned enterprises. The policy aims at developing
competitiveness, enhancement of research and progress, cooperation
and integration as well as making way for structural adjustments.
An important element in the creation and enhancement of a
favorable business environment for small and medium-sized
enterprises is the business infrastructure it being a modern form of
internal organization of industry production, i.e. a form of partial
integration in the industry. This is exactly why the development of a
modern business infrastructure has become an important element of
this, new industrial policy. It stands for application of a series of
measures and practical policies by public institutions in order to
create a favorable and a supportive environment in which the already
existing small and medium-sized enterprises can grow and new can be
opened.
The main aim of this research is to analyze the most important
elements of a business infrastructure such as business incubators,
clusters, free zones and science and technology parks in order to show
how much these have contributed to implementation of the new
industrial policy of the Republic of Serbia which in itself, has the aim
of developing competitiveness of the industry and whole of the
country's economy.
The development of business infrastructure in Serbia thus far
shows that certain progress has been made but that in time that is
ahead of us, we need more careful and better planning of development
of certain elements of business infrastructure and continuous
monitoring of the needs and requirements of small and medium-sized
businesses. Furthermore, special attention should be placed on the
quality of development of elements of business infrastructure as this
is the only way to achieve significant results.


We present an in-depth examination of the effectiveness of radial basis function kernel (beyond Gaussian) estimators based on orthogonal random feature maps. We show that orthogonal estimators outperform state-of-the-art mechanisms that use iid sampling under weak conditions for tails of the associated Fourier distributions. We prove that for the case of many dimensions, the superiority of the orthogonal transform can be accurately measured by a property we define called the charm of the kernel, and that orthogonal random features provide optimal (in terms of mean squared error) kernel estimators. We provide the first theoretical results which explain why orthogonal random features outperform unstructured on downstream tasks such as kernel ridge regression by showing that orthogonal random features provide kernel algorithms with better spectral properties than the previous state-of-the-art. Our results enable practitioners more generally to estimate the benefits from applying orthogonal transforms.


In the second half of the twentieth century social critics observed that western societies were undergoing a seemingly unhealthy and pervasive trend: Real heroes were being replaced by celebrities--persons whose achievements amounted to little more than being able to sing, dance, and appear more photogenic than most (Boorstin, 1961; Fishwick, 1969). This trend continues, promoted first by radio and moving pictures, then by television and more modern technology. More recently, critics have decried a deliberate attempt on the part of television executives to create an entire society of celebrity worshipers, people who would follow the potentially harmful, uninformed advice sometimes offered by these dubious heroes, especially if it increased the sale of sponsored products (Bogart, 1980; Schickel, 1985). The development and publication of the Celebrity Worship Scale (CWS) triggered a modest amount of research aimed at determining the attitudes, traits and behaviors of those who "worshiped" at least one celebrity (McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002). A factor analysis revealed three factors consisting of 23 items. This revision of the CWS became known as the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS; Maltby, Houran, Lange, Ashe, & McCutcheon, 2002; Maltby, McCutcheon, Ashe, & Houran, 2001). The first factor or subscale was labeled "Entertainment-social (ES)," because its ten items implied that some persons are attracted to celebrities because they have entertainment value and they provide opportunities for conversation. Factor or subscale two was named the "Intense-personal (IP)" subscale because its nine items reflect a deeper, more intense involvement with one's favorite celebrity. Factor or subscale three, "Borderline-pathological, (Path)" consists of four items that, if agreed with, imply a problematic, parasocial relationship. Subsequent research has shown that the first factor, ES, is relatively benign, but those who score high on subscales two and three (IP and Path) are likely to exhibit attitudes and behaviors that are problematic. For example, Maltby, Giles, Barber and McCutcheon (2005) found that female adolescents who scored high on CAS IP (but not ES) tended to have a poor body image. Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Houran and Ashe (2005) found that celebrity worship for Intense-personal reasons was correlated with fantasy proneness, and celebrity worship for Borderline-pathological reasons was linked to both fantasy proneness and dissociation. Maltby, Houran and McCutcheon (2003) found positive relationships between celebrity worship for Entertainment-social reasons and extraversion, one of the three dimensions of Eysenck's personality model (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975). However, IP scores correlated positively with Eysenck's neuroticism traits, and Path scores correlated with Eysenckian psychoticism traits (Maltby, et al.). A study of coping with stress, general health and life satisfaction led to the conclusion that poor mental health was associated with high scores on CAS IP (Maltby, Day, McCutcheon, Gillett, Houran, & Ashe, 2004). In addition to finding that high CAS IP scores and high CAS Path scores predicted both depressive symptoms and higher anxiety, Maltby, McCutcheon, Ashe, and Houran (2001) also found an association between CAS ES and depressive symptoms. The five-factor trait approach to the study of personality represents a modern synthesis of some of the most important traits commonly used to describe human beings (Costa & McCrae, 1992). The five-factor model and the scales based on it are "well-established and widely used" (Batey, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2009, p. 62). The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) measures the five-factor model of personality through five main domains (italicized), each subdivided into six facets or subscales (in brackets): (1) Neuroticism (Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness and Vulnerability), (2) Extraversion (Warmth, Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Activity, Excitement Seeking, and Positive Emotions), (3) Openness (Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas and Values), (4) Agreeableness (Trust, Straightforwardness, Altruism, Compliance, Modesty and Tender-Mindedness), and (5) Conscientiousness (Competence, Order, Dutifulness, Achievement Striving, Self-discipline and Deliberation). …


Abstract. Stochastically generated streamflow time series are widely used in water resource planning and management. Such series represent sets of plausible yet unobserved streamflow realizations which should reproduce the main characteristics of observed data. These characteristics include the distribution of daily streamflow values and their temporal correlation as expressed by short- and long-range dependence. Existing streamflow generation approaches have mainly focused on the time domain, even though simulation in the frequency domain provides good properties. These properties comprise the simulation of both short- and long-range dependence as well as extension to multiple sites. Simulation in the frequency domain is based on the randomization of the phases of the Fourier transformation. We here combine phase randomization simulation with a flexible, four-parameter kappa distribution, which allows for the extrapolation to as yet unobserved low and high flows. The simulation approach consists of seven steps: (1) fitting the theoretical kappa distribution,
(2) normalization and deseasonalization of the marginal distribution,
(3) Fourier transformation, (4) random phase generation, (5) inverse Fourier transformation, (6) back transformation, and (7) simulation. The simulation approach is applicable to both individual and multiple sites. It was applied to and validated on a set of four catchments in Switzerland. Our results show that the stochastic streamflow generator based on phase randomization produces realistic streamflow time series with respect to distributional properties and temporal correlation. However, cross-correlation among sites was in some cases found to be underestimated. The approach can be recommended as a flexible tool for various applications such as the dimensioning of reservoirs or the assessment of drought persistence. Highlights.
 Stochastic simulation of streamflow time series for individual and multiple sites by combining phase randomization and the kappa distribution. Simulated time series reproduce temporal correlation, seasonal distributions, and extremes of observed time series. Simulation procedure suitable for use in water resource planning and management.


Background and purpose: Menopause is a physiological process and diabetes is a metabolic disease that occurs more frequently in older women. The present study investigated the effects of diabetes on some biochemical parameters and histopathological changes in ovariectomized rats. Materials and methods: Thirty two adult female rats were divided into four groups of 8 and studied for 55 weeks. The animals were assigned into a control group, an ovariectomized group (55 weeks), a third group in which diabetes was induced in the last 5 weeks of the study in rats with intact ovary. The next group included ovariectomized rats (for 55 weeks) in which diabetes was induced in the last 5 weeks of the study. Pathological alterations of liver, kidney, pancreas, lung and some serum biochemical parameters were determined in each group at the end of the study. Results: Diabetic and diabetic ovariectomized rats showed increase in serum levels of blood glucose, AST, ALT, GGT, ALP, calcium, urea, TG and HDL compared with the control group (P< 0.05). Increased serum levels of LDH, TG, cholesterol, HDL, LDL were seen in ovariectomized rats compared with the control group (P< 0.05). Pathological examinations revealed changes in all groups except in the control group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that long term reduction of estrogen in ovariectomized diabetic rats can reduce the serum levels of glucose, AST, ALT, GGT, urea, VLDL and triglycerides compared with non ovariectomized diabetic rats.


Worldwide, the pharmaceuticals market is anticipated to grow from more than USD 782 billion in 2011 to approach a value of just over USD 971 billion by the end of 2016, registering a CAGR of over 24% (1) . In 2010 the average medicines expenditure per person within the UK was £271 (2) , and this is expected to increase with the ageing population. A significant and increasing proportion of these sales are protein-based biotherapeutics or biomolecules. Currently, these account for 19% of the total market, and are growing at twice the rate of traditional small molecule pharmaceuticals. It is predicted that close to 50% of the top 100 pharmaceutical products will be biomolecules by 2016 (3) . By far the largest segment of the biopharmaceutical market is the monoclonal antibody (MAb) with an estimated share of 25.6%, which corresponds to USD 51.1 billion (4) .


Little is known, from a clinical perspective, about the use of wrist motion during daily living activities. This work aimed to identify an informative list of physical tasks that could be measured practically in a clinical setting. Measurement methods including data gloves were investigated, but these were not used for reasons of practicality and accuracy. A commercial electrogoniometer system was chosen and used to measure wrist motion in flexion/extension and radial/ulnar deviation planes while eighteen right-handed, healthy, volunteer subjects (twelve male and six female, aged 23 to 56 years, mean 29.9 years) carried out mock-ups of the twelve everyday tasks listed in the Michigan Hand Questionnaire. The 2-plane data from each task-measurement test were displayed on an angle-angle scatter plot, overlaid with an elliptical, estimated maximum-motion envelope. The mean ranges of motion, averaged over all eighteen subjects, varied widely between tasks: 1.3° of flexion/extension (S.D. 1.49°) and 1.4° of radial/ulnar deviation (S.D. 2.10°) were seen while holding a glass of water, and corresponding values of 61.4° (S.D. 12.1°) and 24.3° (S.D. 7.79°) while buttoning a shirt. Frequency plots were also generated to show which wrist positions were most commonly used during the tasks. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to reduce the original task list to just four tasks which represented a wide range of aspects of wrist motion, including large mean ranges of motion and mean locations that were displaced away from the neutral wrist position. These four short-listed tasks (holding a frying pan, turning a key in a lock, holding a glass of water and buttoning a shirt) could all be carried out whilst seated, with little reliance on other physiological joints and with low-cost props. The overall approach described in this thesis could be refined into a useful clinical tool, either for identifying motion impairments tracking individual patients' progress. In particular, the use of the elliptical estimated motion envelopes gave immediate and useful context to the task data.


This research study introduces a definition for eWineTourism (eWT) and a new PIAB (purpose, ICTs, activities, benefits) conceptual model to analyze eWT. It also presents the results of an exploratory study to understand eWT practices of wineries in six major wine regions in Europe and
 North America. The objective is to understand how wineries in different global regions are using eWT practices to attract consumers and to interact with them online. An online survey methodology was used to evaluate the websites of 729 wineries in the six regions of Bordeaux, Alsace, Piedmont,
 Tuscany, Napa/Sonoma, and Oregon. Results indicate that global wine regions are adopting eWT practices in different ways, but no one wine region is as yet utilizing eWT to its full potential. Major contributions of this study are its introduction of an eWT definition, the PIAB model, and recommendations
 for academics and practitioners regarding the advancement of eWT practices.


The serotonin transporter is a key brain protein that modulates the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin from synaptic spaces back into the presynaptic neuron. In this book, an international team of top experts introduce and explicate the role of serotonin and the serotonin transporter in both human and animal brains. They demonstrate the relevance of the transporter and the serotonergic system to substrates of neuropsychiatric disorders, and explain how this knowledge is translated into valid animal models that will help foster new discoveries in human neurobiology. Writing for graduate students and academic researchers, they provide a comprehensive coverage of a wide spectrum of data from animal experimentation to clinical psychiatry, creating the only book exclusively dedicated to this exciting new avenue of brain research.


The Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) operational processing uses spatial filtering with a Hamming window to avoid noise due to aliasing. The spatial extent of the Hamming windows prevents processing near the coast line. However, sea surface winds near the coast are very important, given that activities related to shipping and transport, off-shore resource exploitation, wind parks and tourism are most intense near the coast. Furthermore, coastal winds are also important for monitoring ecological and erosion processes. To provide ASCAT winds closer to the coast, three different products have been generated with spatial filtering over a circular box, and subjected to validation both in coastal and open ocean areas. The product made with a backscatter averaging cut-off radius Rmax = 15 km closely resembles the operational ASCAT 12.5-km product. However, the smaller spatial averaging extent of the box compared to the Hamming window, not only allows retrieving winds closer to the coast, but also captures smaller ocean wind variability and it is consequently providing greater consistency of the ASCAT backscatter triplet with the wind Geophysical Model Function (GMF), as observed by a reduced elimination of points by the Quality Control (QC). Due to the low noise observed in this product, we anticipate that in cases with high wind gradients, such as near tropical cyclones, even higher resolution winds than the ones presented here may be worthwhile retrieving.


We consider symmetry-projected Hartree-Fock trial wave functions in constrained-path Monte Carlo (CPMC) calculations. Previous CPMC calculations have mostly employed Hartree-Fock (HF) trial wave functions, restricted or unrestricted. The symmetry-projected HF approach results in a hierarchy of wave functions with increasing quality: the more symmetries that are broken and restored in a self-consistent manner, the higher the quality of the trial wave function. This hierarchy is approximately maintained in CPMC calculations: the accuracy in the energy increases and the statistical variance decreases when further symmetries are broken and restored. Significant improvement is achieved in CPMC with the best symmetry-projected trial wave functions over those from simple HF. We analyze and quantify the behavior using the two-dimensional repulsive Hubbard model as an example. In the sign-problem-free region, where CPMC can be made exact but a constraint is deliberately imposed here, spin-projected wave functions remove the constraint bias. Away from half filling, spatial symmetry restoration in addition to that of the spin leads to highly accurate results from CPMC. Since the computational cost of symmetry-projected HF trial wave functions in CPMC can be made to scale algebraically with system size, this provides a potentially general approach for accurate calculations in many-fermion systems.


Recent visuolinguistic pre-trained models show promising progress on various end tasks such as image retrieval and video captioning. Yet, they fail miserably on the recently proposed Winoground dataset, which challenges models to match paired images and English captions, with items constructed to overlap lexically but differ in meaning (e.g., "there is a mug in some grass" vs. "there is some grass in a mug"). By annotating the dataset using new fine-grained tags, we show that solving the Winoground task requires not just compositional language understanding, but a host of other abilities like commonsense reasoning or locating small, out-of-focus objects in low-resolution images. In this paper, we identify the dataset's main challenges through a suite of experiments on related tasks (probing task, image retrieval task), data augmentation, and manual inspection of the dataset. Our analysis suggests that a main challenge in visuolinguistic models may lie in fusing visual and textual representations, rather than in compositional language understanding. We release our annotation and code at https://github.com/ajd12342/why-winoground-hard.


Energy and matter are fundamental, yet challenging concepts in middle school chemistry due to their abstract, unobservable nature. Although it is important for science teachers to elicit a range of students' ideas to design and revise their instruction, capturing such varied ideas using traditional assessments consisting of multiple-choice items can be difficult. In particular, the linguistic complexity of these items may hinder English learners (ELs) who speak English as a second language from understanding and representing their ideas. This study explores how multi-modal assessments using different types of open-ended items can document ELs' and English-dominant students' (EDSs) understanding of energy and matter in chemistry. 38 eighth-grade, linguistically diverse students taught by one teacher at a low-income middle school completed an assessment designed to elicit their ideas about properties of matter and chemical reactions through arguing from evidence, writing explanations, and developing models of chemical phenomena. The results show that the three types of assessment items captured different correct and alternative ideas that ELs and EDSs held. In particular, modeling appears promising as a tool to assess what ELs know about properties of matter and chemical reactions in middle school chemistry, compared to other written items. The findings of this study provide insights into how different types of assessment items can be used to better understand the range of ideas held by linguistically diverse students.


An optimized control scheme for the most advanced traveling wave type ultrasonic motor powered by a resonant power converter is presented and verified by measurements on a prototype drive. Basing on an averaged drive model, which reflects the slow dynamic behavior of the drive's ultrasonic oscillations by time varying fundamental Fourier coefficients, a cascaded two-phase vector control scheme is designed. The novel drive control divides into an inner voltage and outer bending wave control compensating couplings and suppressing the beat characteristics. Since an amplitude modulation is applied instead of frequency modulation, the well known pull out phenomenon is eliminated in general. By means of an online frequency adaptation to the stator's resonance, the drive's performance is optimized remarkably.


The Supreme Court's citation of foreign tribunals has been highly controversial. My purpose in this essay is to examine this controversy in light of historic American attitudes toward the "law of nations" and other forms of foreign authority. My thesis is that foreign law has deeply permeated our legal system from the very beginning. Citation of foreign law did not merely reflect the paucity of relevant domestic precedent. Rather, it reflected a deeply held understanding of law, in which background legal principles were not tied to any particular jurisdiction. Such background principles permeated specific legal systems, filling gaps and providing context for positive enactments such as statutes and written constitutions. Given this understanding of law, implementation of transnational legal principles was bound to be reflected in frequent citation of foreign legal authority. The fact that a practice is deeply embedded historically does not prove its validity. It does, however, make it difficult to attack the practice as a suspect modern innovation or to make a plausible claim that disastrous results will surely follow. It is also difficult to argue that references to foreign sources violates the mandate of the framing generation, when members of that generation assumed that such reference would be made and indeed referred to transnational legal principles in the Constitution itself.


Stomionis a swarm of 13 tenebrionid beetle taxa endemic to the Galapagos Islands. The taxa show marked morphological variation, and all are flightless. They can be divided into three divergent morphological groups based on external sculpturing of the elytra. Eleven taxa were examined electrophoretically at 20 enzyme loci to measure the extent of genetic differentiation which accompanied morphological differentiation and speciation.Stomionare shown to be ideal candidates for allopatric and founder event speciation, with their limited dispersal ability, narrow distributions, and incidence of single-island endemics. Accordingly, individual heterozygosities were low in most taxa, and gene pool divergence was apparent among populations of single taxa occupying different islands. Both interspecific and intraspecific genetic identities were high, with an average I=0.88 and I=0.96, respectively. The relatively young age of the genus and the allopatric mode of speciation may account for high genetic relatedness. No clear relationship was found between allozyme phenotypes and the three morphological groups, thus, the evolution of these traits may have been facilitated by similar selection among islands of similar age and geography. The geographical distributions of the morphological groups can be used to suggest a general pattern of speciation for the group.


The artificial neural network (ANN) is a mathematical model capable of representing any non-linear relationship between input and output data. ANN is an abstract representation of the biological nervous system which has the ability to solve many complex problems. It has been successfully applied to a wide variety of classification and function approximation problems. The information processing capability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is related to its architecture and weights. To have a high efficiency in ANN, selection of an appropriate architecture and learning algorithm is very important. In this study, the adaption of neural network connection weights using Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFO) is proposed as a mechanism to improve the performance of Artificial Neural Network in classification of Software Defect Dataset. The problem concerns the classification of software as defective or non defective on the basis of software metrics data. The results show that BFOANNs have better accuracy than traditional ANNs. The experimental results showed that BFOA-ANN has an improvement of 2.55 % in software defect prediction accuracy than the original feed forward artificial neural network and 2.80 % in case of cascade forward neural network. General Terms Learning enhancement, Optimization


We describe a new species of agamid lizard, Ctenophorus mirrityana sp.nov. currently known from two disjunct populations in western New South Wales. The species is a member of the C. decresii species complex, and was formerly recognized as an outlying population of C. decresii due to similarities in dorsal colour pattern and adjacent distributions. Previous work documented deep molecular divergence, across multiple loci, with no genetic admixture between the new species and proximal C. decresii populations. We find that the new species differs in morphology from all other members of the species complex and is characterized by distinct male throat and lateral coloration, a small head size relative to snout-vent length, a large number of labial scales, and a lack of tubercular scales. We also identify two geographically structured lineages ( northern and southern) within C. decresii as requiring further taxonomic investigation, based on notable genetic and morphological (including colour) divergence. We find that divergence in coloration is associated with genetic and body form differentiation within the decresii species complex.


With the exception of facilities set aside for people who cannot live independently, the law has historically given counties in New York State little or no role in addressing housing issues, with decisions being left to private enterprise, municipalities, and public corporations. Proposals are thus regularly advanced to grant powers to county governments to initiate their own housing programs. In 1992, the Attorney General of New York State issued an opinion that departs form previous opinions of his office and invites greater county involvement in low-cost housing. This article argues that under New York law, the role of municipalities is central in housing development and that county governments have few powers to initiate low-income housing programs. These roles are firmly grounded in a desire to limit public debt and to assure that subsidized housing is provided by municipal governments since they are in the best position to assess local housing needs and to provide such housing with the public services it needs. Part of the article includes a discussion on the constitutional and statutory limits on county housing powers in New York State, and thus whether county police powers authorize assisted housing programs and the extent to which counties can participate in federal housing programs.


While there is much in the literature on the usability of the Course Management System (CMS) itself, there is little that looks at content of these CMS. This study aims to investigate the usability of the e-learning courses in Ajman University from the perspective of students and the faculty members. The e-learning usability evaluation questionnaire developed by Zaharias (2009) has been used as the main instrument for data collections in this study. Semi-structured interview is another instrument that has been used to investigate the e-Learning usability evaluation. This form has been used to collect the qualitative data from the faculty members. Research results revealed that the attitude of the majority respondents toward the usability of e-learning courses in Ajman University in general is strongly positive. Most of the participants in this study view the e-learning courses in Ajman university easy to use, easy to learn and have usable user interface. However, the first year students hesitate to express firm opinion about usability of e-learning courses in Ajman University. The study concludes and recommends that there is a great need to have more training for freshman students on how to use Moodle, in addition, advanced training sessions for instructors to improve their skills on how to use Moodle more effectively and utilize its all features to make more effective usage and easier ways of ongoing interaction with all students.


Levels of highly-unsaturated fatty acids, the most important nutritional factors in fry production of marine fish, were compared between hatchery-produced and wild-caught milkfish Chanos chanos fry. The most striking difference found between the fry was in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA: 22:6n-3) levels: DHA levels in hatchery-produced fry were only 37% and 18% of those in wild-caught fry in the polar lipids and neutral lipids, respectively. However, high DHA levels were detected in ovary and spawned eggs from hatchery-reared broodstock. Investigation on the time course change in DHA levels of hatchery-produced fry revealed that the DHA levels of polar lipids drastically declined from 25% at day 0 posthatching to 5% at day 14 posthatching. Nannochloropsis sp. and rotifers Brachionus sp., which were used as live food from day 2 to day 14, did not contain DHA with relatively high eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA: 20:5n-3) levels. DHA level was restored to 13% in 45-day old fry by feeding of formulated diets with a substantial amount of DHA from day 15. Thus, the lack of DHA in the live food appears to lead to the low DHA level in hatchery-produced fry. On the other hand, the cost of DHA enrichment for one milkfish fry was estimated to be 2.6 Philippines centavos, which is equivalent to about 10% of the market price of milkfish fry. The increase of the production cost might not be accepted in domestic hatcheries under competitive marketing with imported fry. Financial and marketing support by the government will be one of the measures to encourage the stable production of domestic milkfish fry with high quality in the Philippines. It is also necessary to conduct institutional campaigns to inform local fry producers and milkfish farmers of the importance of DHA-enrichment.


New technological advancements in media and communication have made information
increasingly accessible and have offered an environment for distance learning to expand as an
alternative mode for delivering education and instruction. The advantages of this mode of
delivery have encouraged educational institutions around the world to expand their
educational approach and offer the opportunity for more students to join their programmes at
a distance. In light of the variety of methods and technologies that are used to deliver such
programmes, challenges concerning the quality of these programmes have started to emerge.
In response, organisations and agencies have begun to develop quality standards for distance
learning in order to assess the implementation of these programmes. Calls for the use of such
standards in assuring the quality of distance learning programmes are on the rise. By 2002,
many Saudi Arabian universities had begun to offer a range of distance learning programmes
to meet the demand from a growing number of students. Although the Saudi government
invested huge financial and human resources into the implementation of distance learning,
the quality of such learning has been widely disputed. Through a case study approach
involving a leading university in Saudi Arabia that offers a variety of distance learning
programmes, this study aimed to develop a strategic approach for implementing quality
distance learning. The study utilised a mixed methods design for assessment purposes from
three different perspectives (administrators', faculty members' and students'). The study
found that the quality of distance learning in the country faces many barriers at six
levels/dimensions. These barriers, in most respects, ensued from the ambiguity of the
Ministry of Higher Education regulations that organise distance learning in the country,
which has incapacitated the Deanship of Distance Learning role as the centre of distance
learning operations at distance learning Saudi universities. It concluded with a strategic
approach that is mainly focused on the elimination of the aforementioned barriers. The study
findings provide Saudi universities authorities with a comprehensive tool for evaluating the
quality of their distance learning programmes and solutions to implement quality distance
learning in the country to avoid the shortcomings of the perceived poor distance learning
quality.


The growing interest of physicists in economic problems has led to the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field called econophysics. It applies methods and concepts of statistical physics to study economic and financial phenomena. This thesis contributes to the research activities in econophysics, focusing mainly on the study of financial markets. Financial markets can be viewed as complex systems which exhibit highly non-stationary behavior. We concentrate in particular on the non-stationarity of correlations between companies.

We begin by introducing an approach to model the non-stationarity of correlations. This approach is based on concepts from random matrix theory and allows us to construct a correlation averaged multivariate normal distribution which takes the non-stationary correlations into account. We perform an empirical study to verify the random matrix approach for financial returns.

We consider two applications of the random matrix approach. First, we study the effect of non-stationary correlations on portfolios, and in particular on the distribution of portfolio returns. We derive an average portfolio return distribution which we compare with the portfolio returns of randomly selected portfolios. Second, we investigate the stability of the correlation structure of market states. The random matrix approach reduces the complexity of the financial market to a single parameter which characterizes the correlation fluctuations due to non-stationarity. This allows us to estimate the fluctuation strength of correlations directly from the empirical return distributions and thus to assess the stability of the correlation structure.

We further extend our market states analysis by studying the empirical de- pendence structure of market states. We estimate and study empirical pairwise copulas for each market state. In addition, we derive a copula which arises from the correlation averaged multivariate normal distribution and compare it with the empirical pairwise copulas of each state. The results confirm the consistency of our random matrix model with financial data once again.

Finally, we focus on the extreme value statistics of correlated random variables. We derive a distribution for the maximum of correlated normal random variables and extend the result to the non-normal case. We verify our findings in numerical simulations.


Abstract.
 Satellite image-based mapping of tropical forests is vital to conservation planning. Standard methods for automated image classification, however, limit classification detail in complex tropical landscapes. In this study, we test an approach to Landsat image interpretation on four islands of the Lesser Antilles, including Grenada and St. Kitts, Nevis and St. Eustatius, testing a more detailed classification than earlier work in the latter three islands. Secondly, we estimate the extents of land cover and protected forest by formation for five islands and ask how land cover has changed over the second half of the 20th century. The image interpretation approach combines image mosaics and ancillary geographic data, classifying the resulting set of raster data with decision tree software. Cloud-free image mosaics for one or two seasons were created by applying regression tree normalization to scene dates that could fill cloudy areas in a base scene. Such mosaics are also known as cloud-filled, cloud-minimized or cloud-cleared imagery, mosaics, or composites. The approach accurately distinguished several classes that more standard methods would confuse; the seamless mosaics aided reference data collection; and the multiseason imagery allowed us to separate drought deciduous forests and woodlands from semi-deciduous ones. Cultivated land areas declined 60 to 100 percent from about 1945 to 2000 on several islands. Meanwhile, forest cover has increased 50 to 950%. This trend will likely continue where sugar cane cultivation has dominated. Like the island of Puerto Rico, most higher-elevation forest formations are protected in formal or informal reserves. Also similarly, lowland forests, which are drier forest types on these islands, are not well represented in reserves. Former cultivated lands in lowland areas could provide lands for new reserves of drier forest types. The land-use history of these islands may provide insight for planners in countries currently considering lowland forest clearing for agriculture.


For the first time, grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) analysis is used to characterize the morphology of TiO(2) thin films grown by glancing angle physical vapor deposition (GLAD). According to cross-section scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, the films consist of near isotilted TiO(2) columns of different length and width depending on film thickness. The obtained GISAXS patterns show a characteristic asymmetry with respect to the incidence plane, which is associated with the tilted geometry of the TiO(2) columns. The patterns also show the existence of two populations of columns in these GLAD-TiO(2) films. The population of the thinnest columns appears related to the first grown layer and is common for all the films investigated, while the second population of columns grows with the thickness of the films and has been related to wider columns formed by shadowing at the expense of the initially formed columns.


The Immigrant German Election Study 2017 is the first electoral study that allows precise estimates about the behaviour of Immigrant Voters at a German federal election. It is funded by the German Research Foundation. The Principal Investigators are Achim Goerres (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Dennis Spies (University of Cologne) with Sabrina J. Mayer as the project manager based in Duisburg. The field work was commissioned to infas Bonn.
About 500 Germans from the former Soviet Union (1st and 2nd immigrant generation, abbrev. DRUS) and 500 Germans of Turkish descent (1st and 2nd generation, abbrev. DTUR) were randomly selected from all resident members of these groups in Germany by a multi-stage sampling procedure (random sample of local districts – random sample of residents – classification of residents according to their name and other information – screening interview – full interview). The face-to-face study was conducted directly after the federal election from 2nd of October until 3rd of December 2017.


The Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (IIHR) has recently experienced rapid growth in number of experimental studies, in number of buildings housing these models, and in the diversity of the experimental projects. In order to provide for real-time data acquisition, experimental control and interactive processing of acquired data, the various laboratory facilities have been interfaced to a network of Hewlett-Packard minicomputer systems and microcomputers. These allow for both high- and low-speed multi-channel data acquisition, sensor traverse control, and data processing and graphics during and after experiments.


This paper summarizes our recent work on thin sheets, thick-walled TREXs, and thin-walled tubings of Zircaloy materials with emphasis on texture analyses, orientation distribution functions, plasticity models, correlationof single crystal behavior to textured bulk materials as well as their application to in-reactor performance of cladding materials in LWRs. The mechanical anisotropy and strain localization were investigated on recrystallized Zircaloy-4 sheet using the grid method, which yielded the transverse contractile strain ratios (R,P), formability parameter B, critical strains to necking, and fracture. The anisotropy and formability parameters were also evaluated from texture data and crystallite orientation distribution function (CODF) using prism slip as the dominant deformation mode, and both the lower bound and Bishop-Hill analyses were considered. Excellent correlations were noted between the experimental results and lower bound model predictions. Constant strain-rate impression tests were used to evaluate the directional dependence of the mechanical characteristics of recrystallized Zircaloy-2 TREX from which the mechanical anisotropy and formability parameters were derived. The poor correlation between the experimental results and plasticity-CODF model predictions is attributed to the large texture gradients of the thick-walled tube shells. These parameters determined at the mid-wall using the grid method, however, correlated excellently with the prism model. Biaxial creep of cladding materials is considered in terms of creep loci at constant energy dissipation for CWSR Zircaloy-4 along with the results by Stehle et al. on recrystallized Zircaloy-4 and by Suzuki et al. on Zircaloy-2. Moreover, the anisotropic yield locus developed for Zircaloy-2 by Suzuki et al. is also considered. The minor compositional differences between the two alloys have negligible influences on their textures as well as their creep behaviors, and all of these results on the recrystallized materials agreed with the predicted creep locus based on prism slip. Quantitative correlations were made by appropriately adjusting the creep compliance. The creep behavior of CWSR cladding was quite different from the recrystallized and correlated with the assumption of basal slip dominance. The application of creep anisotropy derived from CODF in predicting the out-of-pile and in-pile creep behaviors of fuel rod cladding is demonstrated by considering appropriate model equations for thermal and radiation creep components as well as radiation growth developed by Murty et al., Wilson et al., and Clevinger et al.


In this study, experimental tie-line data analysis was conducted for the ternary system (water+phosphoric acid+1-pentanol) at 278.2 K and 288.2 K and atmospheric pressure. The compositions of equilibrium phases were determined using the acid-base and the Karl Fisher titration methods and mass balance calculations. Reliability of the experimental data was investigated using the Othmer–Tobias and Hand equations. The UNIQUAC thermodynamic model was applied for correlation of the equilibrium tie-line points. The experimental tie-lines were satisfactorily regressed using the thermodynamic model (%rmsd=2.48). Distribution coefficients and separation factors were determined over the biphasic area. Separation factors were greater than one in all the investigated feeds at the studied temperatures that guarantees the successful separation process. The Kamlet-Taft parameters were applied for the LSER modeling of the obtained distribution coefficients and separation factors. The effect of temperature on extraction process was investigated by adding a modification term in Kamlet-Taft equation. The ternary system revealed good fittings with the modified LSER model. The results showed that, the temperature decrement had positive effect on the extraction ability of the 1-pentanol for separating phosphoric acid from aqueous solution.


During 1996 the world's attention was captured by the litigation posed by the United States' government against Microsoft, blaming the latter of abusive use of its monopoly power in order to win what was known as the "browser's war". This paper presents the previous scenario to the web browser's battle carried out by Microsoft and Netscape, analyzing both firm's strategies in a short and also in a long term horizon game. The study provided is based on game theory tools and attempts to give a model that explains the firms' behavior. Although the presented model is quite simple, it accurately explains the strategic interaction between the firms and its predictions fits with the actual results.


Discourse Reflexivity in Linear Unit Grammar: The case of IMDb message boards represents a significant landmark. Not only is it the first in-depth corpus-based study to be based on Linear Unit Grammar, it is also the first study to present a unified model of both Linear Unit Grammar and Linear Unit Discourse Analysis. To illustrate this model, the book focuses on the role of discourse reflexivity in the linear structure of online message board discourse from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) webpage. It is shown that discourse reflexivity plays a central role in the linear structure and antagonism characteristic of this type of discourse. This book will particularly appeal to those who have an interest in carrying forward the innovations in the description of grammar, lexis and discourse proposed by John Sinclair in his lifetime as well as to those with a specific interest in discourse reflexivity and computer-mediated communication.


Thermal behaviour of Felodipine (FEL) and Ramipril (RAM) drugs was studied in drug substance, binary mixture and co-formulated tablets. Some thermal analysis methods such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), derivative thermogravimetry (DrTGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to investigate the thermal behaviour of both drugs. The thermogravimetric data allowed the determination of different thermodynamic and kinetic parameters such as: Ea, ΔH, ΔS and ΔG. The drugs purity was found to be 99.88% and 99.92% for FEL and RAM, respectively. The simplicity, speed and low cost of the thermal analysis justify its application in the quality control of pharmaceutical drugs.


Biochemical analyses of residues preserved on ethno-historical and archaeological artefacts increase our understanding of past indigenous knowledge systems. The interpretation of biochemical traces is, however, difficult. Problems that can hamper credible interpretations of ethno-historical or archaeological residues include incomplete knowledge about local natural products, limited published data about product applications, and overestimation of the abilities of the analytical techniques to make specific identifications. In an initial attempt to address some of the challenges, we discuss arrow poison as a case in point, and we provide complete, updated inventories of known southern African poison ingedients and recipes, suspected poisons, and the current state of knowledge about these toxins and their effects. We also suggest that discoveries of ancient arrow poison, and the technical steps involved in early toxicology, have the potential to indicate levels of human cognition.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To examine the morbidity, mortality, and hospital course of an elderly patient sample (mean age, 86 years; 95% CI, 84 to 87) having percutaneous aortic balloon valvuloplasty.

DESIGN
Retrospective consecutive case series before and after balloon valvuloplasty.

SETTING
Tertiary care referral hospital.

PATIENTS
Consecutive sample of 26 patients aged 80 years or older with symptomatic aortic stenosis referred for balloon valvuloplasty from July 1987 to July 1988.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Percutaneous aortic balloon valvuloplasty reduced the transvalvular gradient from 59 (95% CI, 51 to 67) to 31 mm Hg (95% CI, 26 to 35; P less than 0.0001) and increased aortic valve area from 0.45 (95% CI, 0.38 to 0.51) to 0.67 cm2 (95% CI, 0.58 to 0.76; P less than 0.0001). The mean length of hospital stay for the entire study population was 11.2 days (95% CI, 7.3 to 15.2) at a total hospital charge per patient of $29,600 (95% CI, 21,050 to 38,150). For patients having procedural complications (11 complications in 8 patients), surgical procedures, or cardiogenic shock, the mean hospital stay increased to 16.2 days (95% CI, 6.2 to 26.2; P less than 0.05) and the hospital charge increased to $44,400 (95% CI, 24,280 to 64,520; P less than 0.01). Two patients who presented with cardiogenic shock died, and 1 patient had an aortic valve replacement before discharge. Four patients were recently discharged (less than 1 month) and follow-up was obtained in the remaining 19 patients at 6.1 months (95% CI, 4.1 to 8.1). Five more patients, including the remaining patient who presented with cardiogenic shock, died after discharge for an overall mortality of 32%. Twelve of the remaining fourteen patients had fewer symptoms and improved an average of 1.1 New York Heart Association classes (95% CI, 0.7 to 1.4; P less than 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Percutaneous aortic balloon valvuloplasty in patients 80 years and older improves hemodynamics and symptoms of heart failure during short-term follow-up in most patients, but overall mortality is high in this elderly patient population. Hospital charges and length of stay were much higher in patients with complications or coexisting medical illnesses. Valvuloplasty is a reasonable alternative treatment for patients with aortic stenosis who require palliative treatment of symptoms and have high surgical risk.


Interference has been proven to have an effect on the performance in wireless mesh networks (WMN). Using multichannels can improve the performance of WMNs by reducing interference influence. In this paper, we study how to design a robust WMN for a set of mesh nodes, each with Q Networking Interface Cards (NICs) and pre-defined connection requests. Our scheme aims to construct an interference-aware network topology for the nodes, then set up a pair of link-disjoint paths for each request with fault- tolerant capability. We propose two novel schemes to improve the network design. First, we embrace the network interference for providing resource- efficient protections. Second, protection links are shared and reused by multiple connections for protection, which further improves the efficiency of network resource usage. Our simulation results show that our scheme outperformed previous schemes.


Culminating with the Quebec Secession Reference (1998), the Supreme Court of Canada identified a number of unwritten principles that it described as the 'lifeblood' of the Constitution – they 'infuse our Constitution,' they wrote, and 'breathe life into it.' Having a 'powerful normative force,' they even could give rise to 'substantive legal obligations.' Since then, the Supreme Court has curiously retreated from this stance, preferring to rely on the written constitution and declining to consider unwritten constitutional principles as altering those substantive commitments. This trend line was most clearly on display in Quebec v. Canada (2015), where the Court resisted having the unwritten constitutional principle of cooperative federalism constrain exercises of unilateral federal authority. Significantly, the three civil law justices from Quebec jointly issued dissenting reasons, having the support of a number of scholars from within Quebec. The Court's behaviour indicates that the justices were not serious about the role of unwritten constitutional principles going forward. The paper argues that the unwritten constitution was developed in the Secession Reference as a response to legitimacy concerns then facing the Court, which are no longer present. Judges and scholars from Quebec mistook these signals as genuinely novel legal developments rather than strategic responses designed to get the Court out of a jam.


OBJECTIVES
Organizing pneumonia (OP) is an interstitial lung disease characterized by granulation tissue buds in alveoli and alveolar ductus, possibly accompanied by bronchiolar involvement. Histopathologically, OP may signify a primary disease and be observed as a contiguous disease or as a minor component of other diseases. In this study, the clinical significance of histopathological OP lesions and clinical and radiological features of patients with primary OP were examined.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Between January 2011 and January 2015, of 6,346 lung pathology reports, 138 patients with OP lesions were retrospectively evaluated. According to the final diagnoses, patients were grouped as reactive OP (those with final diagnosis other than OP) and primary OP (those with OP). Patients with primary OP were classified according to etiology as cryptogenic and secondary OP. Radiological evaluation was conducted within a categorization of "typical," "focal," and "infiltrative."

RESULTS
Of 138 patients, 25% were males and the mean age was 54±14 years. Pathologically, 61% of patients had reactive OP and 39% had primary OP. All reactive OP lesions were reported using surgical specimens, and the most frequent primary diagnoses were malignancy (65%), infection (15%), interstitial lung diseases other than OP (7%), and bronchiectasis (5%). Other diagnoses included bullae, foreign body, hamartoma, bronchogenic cyst, and bronchopleural fistula. Of all the primary OP patients, 48 had cryptogenic OP and six had secondary OP. Radiological involvement was consistent with typical OP in 30%, focal OP in 63%, and infiltrative OP in 7% of the patients. All focal OP lesions were defined using surgical resections. Positron emission computed tomography (PET-CT) was recorded in 28 patients. In 11 patients, lymphadenomegaly was comorbid. The mean widest diameter of focal opacity was 2.7±1.2 (1.2-4.9) cm, and the mean the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax was 6.1±3.9 (1.7-16.7).

CONCLUSION
OP lesions generally present as a minor component of other diseases. In patients with OP, cryptogenic OP and radiological focal OP is more frequently observed. Most focal OP lesions are detected using surgical resections because of malignant prediagnosis owing to elevated SUVmax.


This chapter aims to connect the digital resources of knowledge with the historical and cultural heritage in the context of smart cities. Specifically, combining the joint interven tion in the Real Sitio of El Pardo and Aranjuez, as well as the Foundation Square of the University of Alcalá, both in Spain. Through traditional historical research and the inno vative use of new technologies like augmented reality (AR), a historical, biological and cultural heritage is conserved, consisting of forests, gardens, agricultural spaces, urban centers and palatial residences. Cultural and artistic heritage is a resource of the first mag - nitude for the sustainable development of smart cities. It evolves with time and society; it is this that determines what goods are to be conserved and protected for posterity, accord - ing to the values attributed to them. Hence, the importance of achieving an awareness in society plays an active part in the conservation, enjoyment and dissemination of heritage. In this context, the augmented reality is presented as a powerful tool for contextualizing and disseminating the heritage, as well as to make the resources created more accessible, making an innovative use of the new technologies applied to the transfer of knowledge and the enhancement of a country's cultural and historical heritage.


Machine learning (ML) is increasingly used in environmental research to process large data sets and decipher complex relationships between system variables. However, due to the lack of familiarity and methodological rigor, inadequate ML studies may lead to spurious conclusions. In this study, we synthesized literature analysis with our own experience and provided a tutorial-like compilation of common pitfalls along with best practice guidelines for environmental ML research. We identified more than 30 key items and provided evidence-based data analysis based on 148 highly cited research articles to exhibit the misconceptions of terminologies, proper sample size and feature size, data enrichment and feature selection, randomness assessment, data leakage management, data splitting, method selection and comparison, model optimization and evaluation, and model explainability and causality. By analyzing good examples on supervised learning and reference modeling paradigms, we hope to help researchers adopt more rigorous data preprocessing and model development standards for more accurate, robust, and practicable model uses in environmental research and applications.


PURPOSE
Recent success of rescuing vision by photoreceptor replacement in mouse models of photoreceptor degeneration intensifies the need to identify approaches to generate photoreceptors cells for future replacement therapies. We explored the possibility of whether in the mouse eye photoreceptor-like cells could arise from the RPE experimentally manipulated to express a regulatory gene participating in transcriptional networks leading to photoreceptor genesis during retinal development.

METHODS
Transgenic mice were generated with a DNA construct that would express neurogenin1 from RPE bestrophin-1 promoter or neurogenin3 from RPE65 promoter. Transgenic mice were examined with histology and immunohistology for the presence of photoreceptor-like cells and for the presence of cells that might represent transitional stages in RPE-to-photoreceptor reprogramming. Explant culture of "sclera+choroid+RPE" eyecup was used to examine whether cells with photoreceptor traits could arise from the eyecup derived from transgenic mice.

RESULTS
Transgenic animals showed varied degrees of phenotype manifestation. Approximately 60% of offspring from ∼50% of founders contained photoreceptor-like cells in the subretinal space. These cells expressed photoreceptor proteins recoverin, red opsin, and rhodopsin, and displayed morphologic similarities to photoreceptors. In these eyes, the RPE was maintained. Cells seemingly amid RPE-to-photoreceptor transformation were observed in young and aged mice, suggesting old animals were responsive to the reprogramming scheme. De novo generation of photoreceptor-like cells was detected in "sclera+choroid+RPE" eyecup explants derived from adult animals.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results point to a potential way to generate photoreceptor cells in situ in adult mammalian eyes.


The history of mountaineering has long served as a metaphor for civilization triumphant. Once upon a time, the Alps were an inaccessible habitat of specters and dragons, until heroic men--pioneers of enlightenment--scaled their summits, classified their strata and flora, and banished the phantoms forever. A fascinating interdisciplinary study of the first ascents of the major Alpine peaks and Mount Everest, The Summits of Modern Man surveys the far-ranging significance of our encounters with the world's most alluring and forbidding heights. Our obsession with "who got to the top first" may have begun in 1786, the year Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard climbed Mont Blanc and inaugurated an era in which Romantic notions of the sublime spurred climbers' aspirations. In the following decades, climbing lost its revolutionary cachet as it became associated instead with bourgeois outdoor leisure. Still, the mythic stories of mountaineers, threaded through with themes of imperialism, masculinity, and ascendant Western science and culture, seized the imagination of artists and historians well into the twentieth century, providing grist for stage shows, poetry, films, and landscape paintings. Today, we live on the threshold of a hot planet, where melting glaciers and rising sea levels create ambivalence about the conquest of nature. Long after Hillary and Tenzing's ascent of Everest, though, the image of modern man supreme on the mountaintop retains its currency. Peter Hansen's exploration of these persistent images indicates how difficult it is to imagine our relationship with nature in terms other than domination.


Brain cancers inflict a disproportional burden of mortality upon sufferers. Due to the difficulties of diagnosis and treatment, survival is low with most patients succumbing to the disease within a year of diagnosis. This has been the imperative factor to
underpin some of the molecular mechanisms regulating gliomas and to aid with the development of novel disease biomarkers specifically targeting immortalisation (telomerase). 1[mmortalisation not only requires telomerase but also an
imbalance/inactivation of DNA repair functions such as 06 methylguanine-DNAmethyltransferase (MGMI) which is a major obstacle with regards to glioma chemotherapy.
The primary focus of this study was to evaluate whether there was an association betweenh TERT and its many subunits: TEPI (human telomerase-associated protein 1), TNKS ( tankyrase), DCKI (dyskerin) and PARPI (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase1 ) in human glioma compared to normal brain tissues and cell lines. Evidence suggests that hTERT was the only gene that was transcribed in all the glioma cell lines and tissues, while absent in the normal. Thus hTERT may represent a simple but reliable biological marker for distinguishing glioma tissues from normal.
The hTERT gene is subjected to its own highly coordinated regulation in normal and cancer cells however, whether hTERT is regulated via methylation/demethylation in glioma is unknown. 5azadC treatment reduced hTERT expression, which resulted in the downregulation of telomerase protein and its activity. However, an inverse correlation between hTERT and MGMT expression was observed after treatment.
Evidence shows that hTERT inactivation enhances sensitivity towards some chemotherapeutic agents, thus a combination of 5azadC with various chemotherapeutic agents proved to be more effective than chemotherapy administered on its own.
Although 5azadC treatment activates MGMT and subsequently hyposensitises glioma cells toward alkylating agents, specifically TMZ (temozolomide), it may compensate by offering telomerase sensitised cells, thus providing an alternative avenue of therapy for the 50% of the glioma patients chosen for this study that have an unmethylated MGMT promoter. However, further clinical developments concerning this approach will be required. 5azadC is known for its toxicity and its effects are diverse, thus it is not favoured as a therapeutic agent. To address these issues three DNMTI (methylation gene) siRNAs were used, downregulating DNMTI directly and hTERT indirectly (possibly via the promoter methylation inhibition mechanism). Combining siRNA and chemotherapeutic agents (TMZ or taxol) enhanced the effects of both the drugs, thus offering an alternative method of treatment using lower concentrations of the drug and hence, reducing side effects, and improving the life expectancy of glioma patients.
All glioma tissues used in this study, irrespective of grade or invasiveness, transcribed hTERT at approximately similar copy numbers however, only some of these tissues translated this to protein. This could be due to hTERT mRNA splicing or the
involvement of other regulating factors. Several studies have reported that protein translation decreases with age, this would explain why only two of the older patient samples had detectable telomerase activity when they all expressed hTERT mRNA.
However, additional studies using a larger cohort of glioma tissues would be needed to further understand the precise mechanism for the discrepancy in hTERT translation in the older glioma patients.
Four novel sets of investigations were documented in this thesis resulting in publications:
a) 77VKS expression was evaluated in glioma tissues for the first time,
b) the effects of the demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5azadC) on the expression of hTERT and MGMTin glioma cells was evaluated,
C) combining DNMTI siRNA and chemotherapeutic agents (TMZ or taxol) enhancedth e efficacy of the chemotherapeutiacgents and, finally
d) although, h TERT transcription was found in all glioma tissues used in this study irrespective of grade or invasiveness (at similar copy numbers), a discrepancy in translation was documented.
Some of the finding from this study may well become the starting point for integrating translational research in to future clinical trial designs for cancer, specifically for glioma patients.


Enthusiastic employees far out-produce and outperform the average workforce:they step up to do the hard, even 'impossible' jobs.i¾ Most people are enthusiastic when they're hired: hopeful, ready to work hard, eager to contribute. What happens? Management, that's what. The authors tell you what managers do wrong, and what they need to do instead. It's about giving workers what they want most, summarized in the Three-Factor Theory: to be treated fairly; to feel proud of their work and organizations; and to experience camaraderie. Sounds simple, but every manager knows how tough it can be. Nostrums, fads, and quick and easy solutions have abounded in the management literature, but swiftly go out of style when they fail to meet the test in the workplace. The authors provide research-grounded answers to crucial questions such as: Which leadership and management practices can have the greatest positive performance impact? What does employee satisfaction really mean? What's the relationship between employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profit? Sirota and his colleagues detail exactly how to create an environment where enthusiasm flourishes and businesses grow.