This study examined perceptions of health and healthcare of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) receiving Medicaid Managed Care. Exploratory, semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 participants. Findings indicate that participants generally expressed being in good health and defined good health as (a) absence of pain, disease, and symptoms; (b) adherence to or not requiring treatment; (c) physical self-care; (d) mental or spiritual self-care; and (e) ability to perform the activities one wants to do. Participants conceptualized healthcare as (a) ensuring needs are met through access to services, (b) obtaining quality services, (c) navigating the healthcare system successfully, and (d) receiving humanizing healthcare. This study has implications for improving healthcare and communications between people with IDD and healthcare providers.


Twenty-five million people come to England every year, and some never go out of London. But England is full of interesting places to visit and things to do. There are big noisy cities with great shops and theatres, and quiet little villages. You can visit old castles and beautiful churches - or go to festivals with music twenty-four hours a day. You can have an English afternoon tea, walk on long white beaches, watch a great game of football, or visit a country house. Yes, England has something for everybody - what has it got for you?


Digital Enterprise Architecture allows multiple viewpoints on a company's IT landscape. To gain valuable information out of huge amounts of operational data, it is indispensable to have both an understanding of the Operations Architecture and an engine capable of managing Big Data. The mechanism of understanding huge amounts of data is based on three main steps: collect, process and use. The main idea is focused on extracting valuable information out of Big Data to make better design decisions. The Elastic Stack is an open-source solution to comfortably and quickly handle Big Data scenarios.


The effect of cascaded energy heterojunctions on geminate charge recombination in organic photovoltaic devices is examined using a kinetic Monte Carlo model. The structure of the cascaded heterojunction, which encourages spatial separation of the geminate charge pair, is varied to recreate that found in ternary blends and tri-layers, as well as that formed by self-organization in binary blends in which one component crystallizes. It is shown that substantial reductions in charge recombination can indeed be achieved with parameters similar that reported for P3HT:PCBM solar cells. However, the efficacy of cascaded energy heterojunctions is shown to be limited for thick cascade layers (>10 nm). This provides guidance as how to design ternary organic photovoltaics, whilst also offering a possible explanation of low recombination efficiency in some semi-crystalline OPVs.


Purpose - Managers at the company attempt to implement a knowledge management information system in an attempt to avoid loss of expertise while improving control and efficiency. The paper seeks to explore the implications of the technological solution to employees within the company. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reports qualitative research conducted in a single organization. Evidence is presented in the form of interview extracts. Findings - The case section of the paper presents the accounts of organizational participants. The accounts reveal the workers' reactions to the technology-based system and something of their strategies of resistance to the system. These accounts also provide glimpses of the identity construction engaged in by these knowledge workers. The setting for the research is in a knowledge-intensive primary industry. Research was conducted through observation and interviews. Research limitations/implications - The issues identified are explored in a single case-study setting. Future research could look at the relevance of the findings to other settings. Practical implications - The case evidence presented indicates some of the complexity of implementation of information systems in organizations. This could certainly be seen as more evidence of the uncertainty associated with organizational change and of the need for managers not to expect an easy adoption of intrusive IT solutions. Originality/value - This paper adds empirical insight to a largely conceptual literature. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


Abstract The Nagssugtoqidian Orogen is a ca. 1.8 Ga belt of east-west trending, highly deformed rocks that bisects central Greenland. Although a variety of data have suggested this belt marks the location of a continent-continent collision zone, evidence of subduction has been lacking. We report here mineralogical evidence from four samples within a well-defined lithologic unit of metabasic and metasedimentary ocean floor rocks of a previously unrecognized UHP metamorphic episode. The UHP episode is recorded by remnants of orthopyroxene exsolved from majoritic garnet, graphitized diamond, exsolution of rutile from garnet and pyroxenes, exsolution of magnetite from olivine, and complex exsolution textures in ortho- and clinopyroxenes (including omphacite). Associated with these mineralogical features is an unusual occurrence of quartz needles in Mn-rich fayalite. From textural characteristics, we infer that the quartz needles exsolved from the fayalite. To our knowledge, olivine with exsolved silica has not been reported. We note, however, that experimental studies have shown that b-spinel can incorporate excess silica. We therefore speculate these quartz needles may be silica that exsolved from Mn-rich ahrensite, the Fe analog of ringwoodite, upon decompression and inversion to fayalite. If correct, this occurrence would be the first reported sample of naturally occurring olivine (fayalite) that inverted from ahrensite. Corroborating an early UHP history are reaction relationships that delineate a path through high-pressure and high-temperature conditions during decompression. P-T conditions inferred for the UHP episode are ~7 GPa at ~975 °C. The unusually low T for this UHP system at ~1.8 Ga may reflect either very rapid subduction rates at that time, or unexpectedly cool mantle conditions. Preservation of the UHP assemblages probably is due, in large part, to the exceptionally low aH2O during decompression and cooling. These UHP rocks establish that the location of the subduction and suture zones that must have existed prior to and during the collision of continents was along what is now the northern edge of the Nordre Strømfjord shear zone.


We consider the risk of a portfolio comprising loans, bonds, and financial instruments that are subject to possible default. In particular, we are interested in performance measures such as the probability that the portfolio incurs large losses over a fixed time horizon, and the expected excess loss given that large losses are incurred during this horizon. Contrary to the normal copula that is commonly used in practice (e.g., in the CreditMetrics system), we assume a portfolio dependence structure that is semiparametric, does not hinge solely on correlation, and supports extremal dependence among obligors. A particular instance within the proposed class of models is the so-called t-copula model that is derived from the multivariate Student t distribution and hence generalizes the normal copula model. The size of the portfolio, the heterogeneous mix of obligors, and the fact that default events are rare and mutually dependent make it quite complicated to calculate portfolio credit risk either by means of exact analysis or naive Monte Carlo simulation. The main contributions of this paper are twofold. We first derive sharp asymptotics for portfolio credit risk that illustrate the implications of extremal dependence among obligors. Using this as a stepping stone, we develop importance-sampling algorithms that are shown to be asymptotically optimal and can be used to efficiently compute portfolio credit risk via Monte Carlo simulation.


This paper discusses a prototype for a communication aid on a mobile phone to support a Deaf person visiting a public hospital pharmacy. The aim is to prevent problems of non-compliance to treatment due to poor communication between a Deaf patient and a pharmacist. We studied the communication exchange between pharmacists and Deaf patients in a pharmacy setting in order to extract the most relevant content exchange between the two parties. A prototype was developed on a mobile phone and iteratively tested using role plays, questionnaires and focus groups with pharmacy students and Deaf participants. The prototype allows pharmacists to input text and make selections that provide detailed medical instructions in signed language to a Deaf patient. The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of encoding a limited communication flow on a mobile device, with carefully sequenced sign language videos that a Deaf patient can watch and understand in order to take medicine correctly.


In recent years the program evaluation methods have become very popular in applied microeconomics. However, the variety of these methods responds to specific problems, which are normally determined by the data available and the impact the researcher tries to measure. This paper summarizes the main methods in the current literature, emphasizing the assumptions under which the average treatment effect and the average treatment effect on the treated are identified. Additionally, after each section I briefly present some applications of these methods. This document is a didactic presentation aimed to advanced students and applied researchers who wish to learn the basics of these techniques.


This article presents the approach we followed for the creation of our virtual reality room, both from the hardware point of view and the software one. Our main goal to build a virtual reality room as cheap as possible and easily transportable was constrained by our knowledge of the mechanisms of human preception. Like any virtual reality system, our room aims to immerse the user in a place where he will be able to feel the presence of the virtual objects and his self-presence in the virtual environment. To recreate this dual feeling of presence we use the less intrusive as possible sensory interfaces and the most natural and intuitive motor interfaces. We achieve this goal by diverting the user's attention to the application itself. We present applications in various fields : art, games and archaeology.


The Bastille Day flare on 2000 July 14 was well observed by several space- and ground-based observatories and studied extensively by many researchers. Recently, we discovered that a large fraction of X-class flares are associated with a very interesting evolutionary pattern in δ sunspots: part of the outer δ spot structure decays rapidly after major flares; in the meantime, central umbral and/or penumbral structure becomes darker. These changes take place in about 1 hour and are permanent. We find that the active region NOAA AR 9077 has sunspot structure change similar to that associated with the 2000 July 14 X5.7 flare. We provide additional evidence supporting that we detected the real change in the sunspot structure after the flare. The new evidence presented in this paper include the following: (1) the Evershed velocity of decayed penumbral segments was weakened significantly following the flare, indicating actual weakening of penumbral structure; (2) based on available vector magnetograms before and after the flare, the transverse field strength decreased at the areas of penumbral decay and increased significantly near the flaring neutral line; (3) a new electric current system is found near the flare neutral line after the flare; and (4) the center-of-mass positions of opposite magnetic polarities converged toward magnetic neutral line immediately following the onset of the flare, and magnetic flux of the active region decreased steadily following the flare. There is no flare model capable of interpreting all the aspects of observations. A simple quadrupolar magnetic reconnection model may explain most of our observations: two magnetic dipoles join at the δ configuration before the flare; magnetic reconnection creates two new sets of loops: a compact flare loop and a large-scale expanding loop that might be the source of the CME. The outer penumbral fields become more vertical due to this reconnection, corresponding to the penumbral decay. Following initiation of magnetic reconnection associated with the flare, reconnected fields near the magnetic neutral line are first enhanced, then gradually weakened as it submerges. However, this model is questionable from one aspect of the observations: we failed to identify two far-end footpoints of this quadrupolar magnetic reconnection. We discuss other existing flare models in the context of our observations as well.


The articles in this issue explore a wide range of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues. Dr. Peggy Chinn discusses the stigma of being lesbian or gay in the nursing profession (and academia) and she challenges lesbian and gay nurses to act against the status quo. Dr. Joanne Hall explores the meanings of tomboyism from linguistic, literary, and historical perspectives. Dr. Danny Willis presents his study of gay men's experiences of hate crimes and their aftermath. Drs. Sarah Morgan and Patricia Stevens present their research on the transgender development of female-to-male transgendered adults. Dr. Scott Weber explores policy and nursing implications for parenting, family life, and well-being among sexual minorities. Dr. Maria Pettinato presents her study of mid-life and older lesbians with alcohol problems, and Dr. Carol McDonald explores the common assumption that disclosure of sexual orientation is therapeutic. Finally, Dr. Christopher Blackwell explores conversion therapies and their ethical implications for psychiatric/mental health nursing practice.


This paper presents performance measurements of fiber-optic flexural disk accelerometers. The flexural disk acts as a mass-spring element to which the fiber is bonded, such that an acceleration causes a strain to be imposed on the fiber which is measured interferometrically. Simple analytical models have been written to calculate the responsivity and resonant frequency of disks under various boundary conditions and the results of the models have been shown to be in good agreement with the measured responsivity for the case of moderately thick disks. Six optical fiber accelerometers based on flexural disks of different thickness and supports have been demonstrated to exhibit a responsivity in the range from 28 to 39 dB re 1 rad/g with a resonant frequency between 2.4 kHz to greater than 5 kHz, respectively. Of the designs considered, the centrally supported disk is shown to give the highest combination of responsivity and bandwidth. A centrally supported disk has been demonstrated to exhibit a flat response up to 2 kHz and a responsivity of 37 dB re 1 rad/g which when combined with an interferometric phase resolution of 6 /spl mu/rad//spl radic/Hz, would give a minimum detectable acceleration of 84 ng//spl radic/Hz. We have attempted to cover all aspects of the sensor design including responsivity, bandwidth, cross-responsivity, phase response and size and find that a complicated compromise between all of these design parameters is required to achieve the optimum performance.


Over generations, social workers have borrowed theories from sociology. However, sociologists have generally avoided borrowing theory from social work. By beginning with social work practice wisdom, we can unfold the complex elements organizing social work practice and by extension ethnographic research. Complexity and resulting uncertainty are antidotes for theoretical purity. Practice as grounded in life, that of client's and social workers is inherently "dirty", i.e., messy, disorganized, confusing, unfolding, and uncertain. Understandings and practices are accomplished in a connection of self to a profession, agency/organization, mandate and purpose, and ethical orientation, in interaction with colleagues and clients. Social workers take sides as they are grounded in an ethic of care. The challenge of developing an ethical practice in the face of difference, disagreement, disjunction, and conflict lead social workers to bracket, and hence reflect on the putative coherence of a "life world." Face-to-face work with individuals rather than being a liability provides a source of knowledge and wisdom to inform social science generally.


THE FIELD OF EARLY CHILDHOOD education and care (ECEC) in Australia is a highly dynamic one. Increased government interest and funding during the years of the Labor Governments from 2008–2012 strengthened the sector in terms of increased funding, policy development, level of staff qualification and measures of quality. While this support resulted in increased numbers of children enrolled in ECEC settings and greater numbers of students enrolled in early childhood teacher education degrees, it also contributed to increased workforce pressures and a shortage of qualified early childhood teachers. In this paper we report on a quantitative study that investigated the nature of student experience in a combined Bachelor of Education Early Childhood and Primary degree, and student perceptions of value. The results of the study indicate positive responses to the inclusion of both early childhood and primary content and professional experience undertaken in both prior to school and school settings.


We have identified a TTX-resistant low-threshold persistent inward sodium current in the cerebral giant cells (CGCs) of Lymnaea, an important state-setting modulatory cell type of molluscan feeding networks. This current has slow voltage-dependent activation and de-activation kinetics, ultra-slow inactivation kinetics and fast de-inactivation kinetics. It activates at approximately -90 mV, peaks at approximately -30 mV, reverses at approximately +35 mV and does not show full voltage-dependent inactivation even at positive voltage steps. Lithium-sodium replacement experiments indicate that the persistent sodium current makes a significant contribution to the CGC membrane potential. Injection of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) into the CGC cell body produces a large increase in the persistent sodium current that lasts for several hours. cAMP injection also leads to increased bursting, a significant decrease in the resistance and a significant depolarization of the soma membrane, indicating that cAMP-dependent mechanisms induce prolonged neuronal plasticity in the CGCs. Our observations provide the first link between cAMP-mediated modulation of a TTX-resistant persistent sodium current and prolonged neuronal plasticity in an identified modulatory cell type that plays an important role in behavioral state setting.


This paper discusses Roman production and trade of salted fish products focusing on organizational aspects. It argues that the scale of organization in the fishing and fish-salting 'industry' during the Roman era was such to allow the capillary diffusion, in favourable coastal areas, of fish-salting establishments, both small and large. The paper suggests that, once political and territorial unity were achieved and proper transport infrastructure were in place, two factors favoured this development: the existence of associations, whether business partnerships (societates) or professional associations (collegia; corpora) and the possibility to use the legal framework with a certain degree of 'inventiveness'. The former provided the necessary social networks so important in business relations, the start up capital, and the possibility to share profits and losses. The latter allowed—for some individuals at least—protecting their economic interests.


Kaposis sarcoma is an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-defining illness and with the size of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa AIDS-related Kaposis sarcoma (KS) are now being diagnosed more frequently although the true incidence of HIV-associated KS is not known. The clinical presentations of AIDS-related KS varied markedly across the African continent. This article reports a series of unusual clinical presentations of the tumour in Northeastern Nigeria. This is a prospective study carried out from September 2003 to August 2005 at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital Borno State Northeastern Nigeria. 20 cases of histologically-confirmed KS were prospectively studied. There were 17 (85 percent) men and three (15 percent) women giving a male to female ratio of 5.7:1. Their ages ranged from 21-45 (median 37) years. 18 (90 percent) of the patients were anaemic. Mean haematocrit value CD4+ cell count and duration of symptoms for all the patients were 29.5 +/- 7.5 percent 119.0 +/- 91.4 cells per microlitre and 3.5 +/- 1.7 months respectively. Multiple lesions were a common presentation affecting sites such as lower limbs trunk conjunctiva upper limbs and rectum as well as penis lymph node scrotum and oropharynx. Contrary to other reports that KS is not associated with HIV infection our study has demonstrated otherwise. This study also showed that both sexes are affected but with a male preponderance. KS is also a late presentation of the HIV/AIDS disease spectrum in our environment and has varied clinical manifestations. There is an urgent need to develop health education programmes to enhance the understanding of this disease and how it spreads particularly among the young generation. (authors)


Decision of special appeal board - first of its kind The protection of new plant varieties has traditionally been handled by patent agents or patent attorneys. The reason for this was that plant breeders' rights fell under the umbrella of 'intellectual property'. in fact, under the 1952 Patents Act new plant varieties were protect able as 'plant patents'. South Africa got its first Plant Breeders' Rights Act in 1964. This Act was replaced by the present Plant Breeders' Rights Act 15 of 1976 mainly to bring the requirements and protection afforded in South Africa into line with those dictated by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).


background The Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study (RALES) demonstrated that spironolactone significantly improves outcomes in patients with severe heart failure. Use of angiotensin-converting–enzyme (ACE) inhibitors is also indicated in these patients. However, life-threatening hyperkalemia can occur when these drugs are used together. methods We conducted a population-based time-series analysis to examine trends in the rate of spironolactone prescriptions and the rate of hospitalization for hyperkalemia in ambulatory patients before and after the publication of RALES. We linked prescriptionclaims data and hospital-admission records for more than 1.3 million adults 66 years of age or older in Ontario, Canada, for the period from 1994 through 2001. results Among patients treated with ACE inhibitors who had recently been hospitalized for heart failure, the spironolactone-prescription rate was 34 per 1000 patients in 1994, and it increased immediately after the publication of RALES, to 149 per 1000 patients by late 2001 (P<0.001). The rate of hospitalization for hyperkalemia rose from 2.4 per 1000 patients in 1994 to 11.0 per 1000 patients in 2001 (P<0.001), and the associated mortality rose from 0.3 per 1000 to 2.0 per 1000 patients (P<0.001). As compared with expected numbers of events, there were 560 (95 percent confidence interval, 285 to 754) additional hyperkalemia-related hospitalizations and 73 (95 percent confidence interval, 27 to 120) additional hospital deaths during 2001 among older patients with heart failure who were treated with ACE inhibitors in Ontario. Publication of RALES was not associated with significant decreases in the rates of readmission for heart failure or death from all causes. conclusions The publication of RALES was associated with abrupt increases in the rate of prescriptions for spironolactone and in hyperkalemia-associated morbidity and mortality. Closer laboratory monitoring and more judicious use of spironolactone may reduce the occurrence of this complication.


Countries adopting forest and land-use-based climate change mitigation policies are investing in infrastructure and capacity to track the impacts of these policies. A major capacity gap is the lack of coordination among ministries and sub-national governments that regulate drivers of forest and landuse change from both inside and outside the forest sector. Improving communication, data integration and data access among institutions is a key step towards identifying land-use policies that can balance a range of cross-sector objectives, and tracking these policies over time. To accomplish this, countries should develop data management systems that integrate spatial and nonspatial data from multiple sources. This working paper focuses on the development of forest and land-use information systems (FLUIS), which are data management systems that integrate forest and land-use data. More specifically, this paper examines the institutional, human resources and financial capacities of three countries — Cameroon, Indonesia and Peru — that have developed a FLUIS, and highlights common enabling factors and challenges.


This article investigates a new way of equity portfolio selection that provides maximum diversification along the uncorrelated risk sources inherent in the S&P 500.This diversified risk parity strategy is distinct from prevailing risk-based portfolio construction paradigms. Especially, the strategy is characterized by a concentrated allocation that actively adjusts to changes in the underlying risk structure. In addition, x-raying the risk and diversification characteristics of traditional risk-based strategies like 1/N, minimum-variance, risk parity, or the most-diversified portfolio, the authors find the diversified risk parity strategy to be superior. Although most of these alternatives crucially pick up risk-based pricing anomalies like the low-volatility anomaly, the diversified risk parity strategy more effectively exploits systematic factor tilts.


A branch of the endoplasmic reticulum–associated protein degradation system degrades inner nuclear membrane proteins in yeast. Proteins move to and from the inner nuclear membrane from the rest of the endoplasmic reticulum through the nuclear pores. This movement is tightly controlled. Consequently, the inner nuclear membrane accumulates a specific set of proteins required for various functions, including chromosome organization and transcriptional control. But when inner nuclear membrane proteins misfold, how are they eliminated? Foresti et al. addressed this question in yeast and found that a previously elusive branch of the endoplasmic reticulum–associated degradation system was key (see the Perspective by Shao and Hegde). O. Foresti, V. Rodriguez-Vaello, C. Funaya, P. Carvalho, Quality control of inner nuclear membrane proteins by the Asi complex. Science 346, 751–755 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. Shao, R. S. Hegde, Local synthesis and disposal. Science 346, 701–7025 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Facebook is a social network that connects more than 1.8 billion people. To serve these many users requires infrastructure which is composed of thousands of interdependent systems that span geographically distributed data centers. But what is the guiding principle for building and operating these systems?

For Facebook's infrastructure teams the answer is: Systems must always be available and never lose data. This talk will explore this quest. We will focus on three aspects.

Availability and consistency. What form of consistency do Facebook's systems guarantee? Strong consistency makes understanding easy but has latency penalties, weak consistency is fast but difficult to reason for developers and users. We describe our usage of eventual consistency and delve into how Facebook constructs its caching and replicated storage systems to minimize the duration for achieving consistency. We share empirical data that measures the effectiveness of our design.

Availability and correctness. With network partitions, relaxed forms of consistency, and software bugs, how do we guarantee a consistent state? We present two systems to find and repair structural errors in Facebook's social graph, one batch and one real-time.

Availability and scale. Sharding is one of the standard answers to operate at scale. But how can we develop one system that can shard storage as well as compute? We will introduce a new Sharding-as-a-Service component. We will show and evaluate how its design and service policies control for latency, failure tolerance and operationally efficiency.


This work presents an extensive study of the previously discovered formation of bipolar flux concentrations in a two-layer model. We interpret the formation process in terms of negative effective magnetic pressure instability (NEMPI), which is a possible mechanism to explain the origin of sunspots. In our simulations, we use a Cartesian domain of isothermal stratified gas that is divided into two layers. In the lower layer, turbulence is forced with transverse nonhelical random waves, whereas in the upper layer no flow is induced. A weak uniform magnetic field is imposed in the entire domain at all times. In this study we vary the stratification by changing the gravitational acceleration, magnetic Reynolds number, strength of the imposed magnetic field, and size of the domain to investigate their influence on the formation process. Bipolar magnetic structure formation takes place over a large range of parameters. The magnetic structures become more intense for higher stratification until the density contrast becomes around $100$ across the turbulent layer. For the Reynolds numbers considered, magnetic flux concentrations are generated at magnetic Prandtl number between 0.1 and 1. The magnetic field in bipolar regions increases with higher imposed field strength until the field becomes comparable to the equipartition field strength of the turbulence. A larger horizontal extent enables the flux concentrations to become stronger and more coherent. The size of the bipolar structures turns out to be independent of the domain size. In the case of bipolar region formation, we find an exponential growth of the large-scale magnetic field, which is indicative of a hydromagnetic instability. Additionally, the flux concentrations are correlated with strong large-scale downward and converging flows. These findings imply that NEMPI is responsible for magnetic flux concentrations.


The design and implementation of decision procedures for checking path feasibility in string-manipulating programs is an important problem, with such applications as symbolic execution of programs with strings and automated detection of cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in web applications. A (symbolic) path is given as a finite sequence of assignments and assertions (i.e. without loops), and checking its feasibility amounts to determining the existence of inputs that yield a successful execution. Modern programming languages (e.g. JavaScript, PHP, and Python) support many complex string operations, and strings are also often implicitly modified during a computation in some intricate fashion (e.g. by some autoescaping mechanisms). In this paper we provide two general semantic conditions which together ensure the decidability of path feasibility: (1) each assertion admits regular monadic decomposition (i.e. is an effectively recognisable relation), and (2) each assignment uses a (possibly nondeterministic) function whose inverse relation preserves regularity. We show that the semantic conditions are expressive since they are satisfied by a multitude of string operations including concatenation, one-way and two-way finite-state transducers, replaceall functions (where the replacement string could contain variables), string-reverse functions, regular-expression matching, and some (restricted) forms of letter-counting/length functions. The semantic conditions also strictly subsume existing decidable string theories (e.g. straight-line fragments, and acyclic logics), and most existing benchmarks (e.g. most of Kaluza's, and all of SLOG's, Stranger's, and SLOTH's benchmarks). Our semantic conditions also yield a conceptually simple decision procedure, as well as an extensible architecture of a string solver in that a user may easily incorporate his/her own string functions into the solver by simply providing code for the pre-image computation without worrying about other parts of the solver. Despite these, the semantic conditions are unfortunately too general to provide a fast and complete decision procedure. We provide strong theoretical evidence for this in the form of complexity results. To rectify this problem, we propose two solutions. Our main solution is to allow only partial string functions (i.e., prohibit nondeterminism) in condition (2). This restriction is satisfied in many cases in practice, and yields decision procedures that are effective in both theory and practice. Whenever nondeterministic functions are still needed (e.g. the string function split), our second solution is to provide a syntactic fragment that provides a support of nondeterministic functions, and operations like one-way transducers, replaceall (with constant replacement string), the string-reverse function, concatenation, and regular-expression matching. We show that this fragment can be reduced to an existing solver SLOTH that exploits fast model checking algorithms like IC3. We provide an efficient implementation of our decision procedure (assuming our first solution above, i.e., deterministic partial string functions) in a new string solver OSTRICH. Our implementation provides built-in support for concatenation, reverse, functional transducers (FFT), and replaceall and provides a framework for extensibility to support further string functions. We demonstrate the efficacy of our new solver against other competitive solvers.


This article is a literary review and analysis of Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America by Michael Tonry (1995). Part I of this review describes Tonry's analysis of the crime policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Part II discusses Tonry's indictment of the War on Drugs and criticizes his failure to acknowledge the effects of discriminatory prosecutorial practices and sentencing laws. Part III critiques Tonry's trivialization of the significance of race discrimination in the criminal justice system more generally. Part IV summarizes Tonry's proposals for change and stresses the importance of documenting, examining, and eliminating racial bias in the criminal justice system.The article concludes by noting that the important question is not whether racial bias is a "major" or "minor" cause of the disproportionate imprisonment of African Americans. The focus should be on how to discover and eliminate racial bias in the criminal justice system, wherever and whenever it exists. It stresses that law enforcement experts and criminologists should examine and propose solutions to the problem of racial bias in the discretionary arrest decisions of police officers and argues for monitoring of both police and prosecutor conduct.


Recent network traffic studies argue that network arrival processes are much more faithfully modeled using statistically self-similar processes instead of traditional Poisson processes [LTWW94a, PF94]. One difficulty in dealing with self-similar models is how to efficiently synthesize traces (sample paths) corresponding to self-similar traffic. We present a fast Fourier transform method for synthesizing approximate self-similar sample paths and assess its performance and validity. We find that the method is as fast or faster than existing methods and appears to generate a closer approximation to true self-similar sample paths than the other known fast method (Random Midpoint Displacement). We then discuss issues in using such synthesized sample paths for simulating network traffic, and how an approximation used by our method can dramatically speed up evaluation of Whittle`s estimator for H, the Hurst parameter giving the strength of long-range dependence present in a self-similar time series.


Glucagon, secreted by the pancreatic alpha-cells, stimulates insulin secretion from neighboring beta-cells by cAMP- and protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent mechanisms, but it is not known whether glucagon also modulates its own secretion. We have addressed this issue by combining recordings of membrane capacitance (to monitor exocytosis) in individual alpha-cells with biochemical assays of glucagon secretion and cAMP content in intact pancreatic islets, as well as analyses of glucagon receptor expression in pure alpha-cell fractions by RT-PCR. Glucagon stimulated cAMP generation and exocytosis dose dependently with an EC50 of 1.6-1.7 nm. The stimulation of both parameters plateaued at concentrations beyond 10 nm of glucagon where a more than 3-fold enhancement was observed. The actions of glucagon were unaffected by the GLP-1 receptor antagonist exendin-(9-39) but abolished by des-His1-[Glu9]-glucagon-amide, a specific blocker of the glucagon receptor. The effects of glucagon on alpha-cell exocytosis were mimicked by forskolin and the stimulatory actions of glucagon and forskolin on exocytosis were both reproduced by intracellular application of 0.1 mm cAMP. cAMP-potentiated exocytosis involved both PKA-dependent and -independent (resistant to Rp-cAMPS, an Rp-isomer of cAMP) mechanisms. The presence of the cAMP-binding protein cAMP-guanidine nucleotide exchange factor II in alpha-cells was documented by a combination of immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR and 8-(4-chloro-phenylthio)-2'-O-methyl-cAMP, a cAMP-guanidine nucleotide exchange factor II-selective agonist, mimicked the effect of cAMP and augmented rapid exocytosis in a PKA-independent manner. We conclude that glucagon released from the alpha-cells, in addition to its well-documented systemic effects and paracrine actions within the islet, also represents an autocrine regulator of alpha-cell function.


Political actors are using algorithms and automation to sway public opinion, notably through the use of "bot" accounts on social networking sites. This article considers the responsibility of social networking sites and other platforms to respect human rights, such as freedom of expression and privacy. It then proposes a set of standards for chat bots operating on these platforms, building on the existing policies of leading social networking platforms and on the indicators laid out by Ranking Digital Rights. A good normative framework for the use of bots on social networking sites should have three components: bots should clearly be labeled as such, they should not contact other users without consent, and information collected by them should only be used for disclosed purposes.


Abstract. The INCA-CE (Integrated Nowcasting through Comprehensive Analysis – Central Europe) project aims at implementing a transnational weather information system as well as applications for different socio-economic sectors to reduce risks of major economic damage and loss of life caused by severe weather. Civil protection and also stakeholders from economic sectors are in a growing need of accurate and reliable short-term weather forecasts. Within INCA-CE, a state-of-the art nowcasting system (INCA) is implemented at weather services throughout the European Union's CE (Central Europe) Programme Area, providing analyses and short term forecasts to the aforementioned end-users. In a coherent approach, the INCA (Integrated Nowcasting through Comprehensive Analysis) system will be adapted for implementation and use in a number of partner countries. Within transregional working groups, the gap between short-term weather information and its downstream activities in hydrological disaster management, civil protection and road management will be bridged and best practice management and measure plans will be produced. A web-based platform for outreach to related socio-economic sectors will initiate and foster a dialogue between weather services and further stakeholders like tourism or the insurance sector, flood authorities for disaster management, and the construction industry for cost-efficient scheduling and planning. Furthermore, the project will produce a compact guideline for policy makers on how to combine structural development aspects with these new features. In the present paper, an outline of the project implementation, a short overview about the INCA system and two case studies on precipitation nowcasts will be given. Moreover, directions for further developments both within the INCA system and the INCA-CE project will be pointed out.


The follow-up of paediatric heart transplant recipients is of vital importance to their short- and long-term health. With increasing numbers of transplants and better survival rates, more out-patient care is being performed at a local level. Both GPs and general paediatricians must have a thorough working knowledge of post-transplant medicine if they are to care effectively for these children. It is also essential for paediatric cardiologists to be vigilant for subtle signs of potentially catastrophic complications in these patients.

This article discusses current protocol in paediatric heart transplant, by examining the physiology, pathology and clinical presentation of the post-transplant recipient. It provides advice on running an out-patient clinic and successful management of acute presentations. It concludes that improvements in the understanding of transplantation can only be beneficial to individual patients if their specialist and local teams are knowledgeable about transplant, committed to the prevention of complications, and working in harmony with one another.

Paediatric heart transplantation is a small and highly specialised field of medicine. Over the last five years Great Ormond Street Hospital has performed more heart transplants in children than any other centre in the world, yet the numbers at follow-up remain small (<200). Despite improvements in post-transplant medicine these children remain susceptible to many cardiac and non-cardiac complications which, if left unchecked, may quickly become serious or life-threatening. The follow-up of these patients is thus of paramount importance to both their short- and long-term health.

The need to optimise shared care in this setting is therefore obvious. Patients and families require a local service that will provide them with immediate and effective care, without having to travel long distances to specialist centres. The majority of presentations are comfortably dealt with by a well-informed general paediatric team initially, although prompt communication with the tertiary centre is advised for …


Abstract The extant literature indicates that social work is a high stress profession owing to multifarious and complex demands of practice. There is also evidence of stress experienced by student trainees who aspire for a career in social work. Working with service users and the distressing life scenarios encountered on placement often involves negotiating complex emotions and requires reflective skills. Effective practice requires rapport building skills and the ability to demonstrate empathy is a core skill for effective practice. While there is a plethora of Western literature on these issues, the Indian literature has not adequately explored them. Framed against this background, this quantitative study collected data from students of all three years of their undergraduate social work course from a 'women only' college in India. Standardised instruments to assess empathy, reflective ability and emotional intelligence were administered. Statistical tests revealed a higher manifestation of these dimensions in final-year students than those in the first year. Further it was seen that the total emotional intelligence and empathy scores were positively correlated. Implications of these findings for the education and training of social work students has also been discussed in this article.


The study reported here is part of a large project for evaluation of the Thermo-Chemical Accumulator (TCA), a technology under development by the Swedish company ClimateWell AB. The studies concentrate on the use of the technology for comfort cooling. This report concentrates on measurements in the laboratory, modelling and system simulation. The TCA is a three-phase absorption heat pump that stores energy in the form of crystallised salt, in this case Lithium Chloride (LiCl) with water being the other substance. The process requires vacuum conditions as with standard absorption chillers using LiBr/water. Measurements were carried out in the laboratories at the Solar Energy Research Center SERC, at Hogskolan Dalarna as well as at ClimateWell AB. The measurements at SERC were performed on a prototype version 7:1 and showed that this prototype had several problems resulting in poor and unreliable performance. The main results were that: there was significant corrosion leading to non-condensable gases that in turn caused very poor performance; unwanted crystallisation caused blockages as well as inconsistent behaviour; poor wetting of the heat exchangers resulted in relatively high temperature drops there. A measured thermal COP for cooling of 0.46 was found, which is significantly lower than the theoretical value. These findings resulted in a thorough redesign for the new prototype, called ClimateWell 10 (CW10), which was tested briefly by the authors at ClimateWell. The data collected here was not large, but enough to show that the machine worked consistently with no noticeable vacuum problems. It was also sufficient for identifying the main parameters in a simulation model developed for the TRNSYS simulation environment, but not enough to verify the model properly. This model was shown to be able to simulate the dynamic as well as static performance of the CW10, and was then used in a series of system simulations. A single system model was developed as the basis of the system simulations, consisting of a CW10 machine, 30 m2 flat plate solar collectors with backup boiler and an office with a design cooling load in Stockholm of 50 W/m2, resulting in a 7.5 kW design load for the 150 m2 floor area. Two base cases were defined based on this: one for Stockholm using a dry cooler with design cooling rate of 30 kW; one for Madrid with a cooling tower with design cooling rate of 34 kW. A number of parametric studies were performed based on these two base cases. These showed that the temperature lift is a limiting factor for cooling for higher ambient temperatures and for charging with fixed temperature source such as district heating. The simulated evacuated tube collector performs only marginally better than a good flat plate collector if considering the gross area, the margin being greater for larger solar fractions. For 30 m2 collector a solar faction of 49% and 67% were achieved for the Stockholm and Madrid base cases respectively. The average annual efficiency of the collector in Stockholm (12%) was much lower than that in Madrid (19%). The thermal COP was simulated to be approximately 0.70, but has not been possible to verify with measured data. The annual electrical COP was shown to be very dependent on the cooling load as a large proportion of electrical use is for components that are permanently on. For the cooling loads studied, the annual electrical COP ranged from 2.2 for a 2000 kWh cooling load to 18.0 for a 21000 kWh cooling load. There is however a potential to reduce the electricity consumption in the machine, which would improve these figures significantly. It was shown that a cooling tower is necessary for the Madrid climate, whereas a dry cooler is sufficient for Stockholm although a cooling tower does improve performance. The simulation study was very shallow and has shown a number of areas that are important to study in more depth. One such area is advanced control strategy, which is necessary to mitigate the weakness of the technology (low temperature lift for cooling) and to optimally use its strength (storage).


Diesel engine developers are facing major challenges when meeting future demands on NOx and particulate emissions. The exhausts after treatment systems are rapidly improving and the technologies available in a few years will be capable of cutting emission levels close to the demanded levels. However, in order to reach the low emissions required in a long-lasting, cost effective way, the potential of reducing engine-out emissions must be fully utilized. Fortunately, engine management systems and hardware are now available to optimize fuel injection and heat release for low emissions while maintaining the trademarks of the diesel engine, i.e. low fuel consumption and dependable performance. The possibilities offered by the new technologies are so wide-ranging that, in order to use them optimally, models must be developed to guide the engine developer.

The model developed by the author is a zero-dimensional multizone model. Input to the model could be either a measured pressure trace or an arbitrary heat release rate. One of the cornerstones of the model is the assumption that NO is formed in zones that are burning close to stoichiometric conditions. The actual lambda value in these zones is found by comparing calculated and measured concentrations in the exhaust. According to the results, some of the effects observed on NO formation when varying the parameters of injection are due to the differences in local lambda.

It has been found that the local lambda determined with the model for a given injection system stays constant, even if the settings of the injection system are changed. Thus, there are reasons to expect that predicted trends of limited variations of injection parameters will be close to reality.

The results obtained with the model agree with results from more advanced models and with laser based measurements in optically accessible engines.


In vitro ovarian follicle culture provides a tool to investigate folliculogenesis, and may one day provide women with fertility-preservation options. The application of tissue engineering principles to ovarian follicle maturation may enable the creation of controllable microenvironments that will coordinate the growth of the multiple cellular compartments within the follicle. Three-dimensional culture systems can preserve follicle architecture, thereby maintaining critical cell-cell and cell-matrix signaling lost in traditional two-dimensional attached follicle culture systems. Maintaining the follicular structure while manipulating the biochemical and mechanical environment will enable the development of controllable systems to investigate the fundamental biological principles underlying follicle maturation. This review describes recent advances in ovarian follicle culture, and highlights the tissue engineering principles that may be applied to follicle culture, with the ultimate objective of germline preservation for females facing premature infertility.


Extracted from text ... 50 Printed on Sappi Dukuza Plus Gloss 90g/m2. Journal of Marketing Vol 11 No 4 2005 (c)
professional development
Wake-up call for private providers
New strategy has implications for private providers in terms of learnership provision. Consulting general manager of the mfsa's Quality Management Unit, Dr Michele Serfontein, addresses this important issue.
Following the article by Eamonn Ryan in the Sunday Times on Sunday, 15 May 2005, I thought it prudent to highlight the role that private providers have played in the provision of the marketing learnerships in the past three years.
See article: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?id=st6a119514
You ..


A strategy was adapted for using the primary literature to foster active learning in an allied health microbiology course. Recent journal articles were selected that underscored the fundamental microbiological principles to be learned in each course unit. At the beginning of the semester, students were taught the relationship between the layout of scientific articles and the scientific method. During the rest of the semester, students were oriented to the topic of each paper by viewing videos from Unseen Life on Earth: an Introduction to Microbiology, reading assigned pages from the text, and participating in mini-lectures and discussions. After all preparatory material was completed, a paper was read and discussed in small groups and as a class. Students were assessed using daily reading quizzes and end-of-unit concept quizzes. While reading quizzes averaged approximately 93%, concept quiz grades averaged approximately 82%. Student recognition of the terms used in each unit's scientific article was assessed with pre-read and post-read wordlists. For the self-assessment, the percent change between pre-read and post-read word cognition was, as expected, highly significant. Approximately 80% of students agreed that reading the scientific articles was a valuable part of the class and that it provided meaning to their study of microbiology. Using the primary scientific literature facilitated active learning in and out of the classroom. This study showed that introducing the scientific literature in an allied health microbiology class can be an effective way of teaching microbiology by providing meaning through the current literature and understanding of the scientific method.


The Local Interstellar Medium (LISM) is a unique environment that presents an opportunity to study general interstellar phenomena in great detail and in three dimensions. In particular, high resolution optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy have proven to be powerful tools for addressing fundamental questions concerning the physical conditions and three-dimensional (3D) morphology of this local material. After reviewing our current understanding of the structure of gas in the solar neighborhood, I will discuss the influence that the LISM can have on stellar and planetary systems, including LISM dust deposition onto planetary atmospheres and the modulation of galactic cosmic rays through the astrosphere — the balancing interface between the outward pressure of the magnetized stellar wind and the inward pressure of the surrounding interstellar medium. On Earth, galactic cosmic rays may play a role as contributors to ozone layer chemistry, planetary electrical discharge frequency, biological mutation rates, and climate. Since the LISM shares the same volume as practically all known extrasolar planets, the prototypical debris disks systems, and nearby low-mass star-formation sites, it will be important to understand the structures of the LISM and how they may influence planetary atmospheres.


PEDALING-RELATED BRAIN ACTIVATION IN PEOPLE POST-STROKE: AN FMRI STUDY Nutta-on Promjunyakul, P.T., M.Sc. Marquette University, 2012 This study aimed to enhance our understanding of supraspinal control of locomotion in stroke survivors and its relationship to locomotor impairment. We focused mainly on the locomotor component of walking, which involves rhythmic, reciprocal, flexion and extension movements of multiple joints in both legs. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record human brain activity while pedaling was used as a model of locomotion. First, we examined the spatiotemporal characteristics of hemodynamic responses recorded with fMRI and found that they were different in stroke survivors and control subjects. However, these differences were not substantial enough to require altering the normal canonical hemodynamic response function to obtain valid measurements of pedaling-related brain activity. During pedaling, stroke survivors and control subjects showed activity in the sensorimotor cortex and cerebellum. Stroke survivors had reduced volume of activation in those regions, however the signal intensity was similar between the groups. In stroke survivors, sensorimotor cortex activity was symmetrically distributed across the damaged and undamaged hemispheres; while cerebellum activity was lateralized to the damaged hemisphere. These brain activation patterns were different from those observed during non-locomotor movements, where volume of activation was unchanged but signal intensity was reduced in stroke survivors. We conclude that neural adaptations for producing locomotor and non-locomotor movements post-stroke are not the same and that the spinal cord and cerebellum might have a compensatory role in producing hemiparetic locomotion. Finally, we examined the relationship between locomotor performance and pedaling-related brain activity measured with fMRI. We found no relationship between the brain activation symmetry and locomotor symmetry, suggesting that the brain activation from each hemisphere was not directly responsible for control of the contralateral leg. However, our stroke survivors demonstrated poor locomotor performance and decreased volume of activation measured during pedaling, suggesting that impaired locomotion was associated with reduced volume of activation. Signal intensity of brain activity was associated with rate of pedaling in stroke survivors, suggesting that increased signal intensity in the active brain areas may compensate for reduced volume of activation in the production of hemiparetic locomotion.


In February 1984, soldiers of the Kenya Army mounted a security operation around Wajir in Kenya's North Eastern Province. Having rounded-up all Somali men of the Degodia clan, as many as 5000 were taken to the Wagalla airstrip for interrogation. This was part of the policy of 'collective punishment' – a conscious act of state violence against its own citizens. After four days of interrogations at Wagalla, several hundred Degodia lay dead: whether 500 died, or 1000, or more is unknown, but the incident stands as the worst atrocity in Kenya's modern history. This article recounts what is known about the massacre from witness and survivor testimony, putting this together with documentary evidence recently revealed through the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and setting the analysis in the wider context of Kenya's treatment of the peoples of its 'forgotten north'. The conclusion summarises the findings of Kenya's TJRC on Wagalla, and comments on the recent construction of a monument to commemorate the massacre, opened at Wajir on 14 February 2014.


Constitutional takings protections, such as those in the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, create a potential for state liability for changes in regulatory policy by governments. This Article critiques takings jurisprudence in the context of two infrastructure investment issues: the stranded cost problem facing United States utility industries, which has given rise to claims of compensation for deregulatory takings; and the development of standards to protect direct foreign investment in developing countries. In both contexts, traditional legal doctrines do not adequately provide for the type of remedy sought so courts are in need of standards to assist them in determining when a change in government regulation warrants recovery for investors. After addressing the current state of United States takings jurisprudence, this Article outlines a constitutional takings doctrine that can be applied to these infrastructure investment issues both within and outside of the American context. Under the doctrine advanced in this Article, the government would be required to pay compensation whenever it takes resources as part of the process of producing public goods and services. This Article's analysis, however, supports a rebuttable presumption against compensation for losses connected with the overall implementation of a public policy. Property rights protection will not aid growth - nor will it sustain historical investment levels - if it encourages inefficient levels and types of investment. In the American context, federal court review of public utility deregulatory takings claims should not entertain the strong property rights notions that some advance for purposes of encouraging infrastructure investment. Instead, this Article concludes that there is no reason for courts to depart from the distinct line of cases addressing public utility price regulation, in which courts routinely defer to regulators' decisions regarding compensation. The courts should treat the deregulation of public utilities as an exercise of government policymaking authority that generally does not require compensation of stranded costs under the United States Constitution. In a similar manner, officials in developing countries who are eager for foreign investment need to look far enough ahead to ask if the generous terms they are offering to investors will backfire in the future when citizens perceive the costs they must bear. Developing countries should be wary of incorporating too sweeping a set of property rights protections into constitutions, individual contracts, or investment treaties, especially if they are still in the process of developing effective state institutions.


Conformal atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3 and TiO2 thin films on Kevlar®, poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) fibers at 50 and 100 °C affects the fiber cut resistance. Systematic studies of ALD coatings between 10 to 400 A thick formed at 50 and 100 °C revealed excellent conformality, and trends in cutting performance depended on materials and process details. A 50 A/50 A TiO2/Al2O3 bilayer formed at 50 °C increased cut resistance of PPTA by 30% compared to untreated fiber materials. In situ infrared analysis shows that trimethylaluminum (TMA) Al2O3 precursor reacts sub-surface with PPTA and tends to degraded mechanical performance. The TiCl4 TiO2 precursor reacts to form a barrier that limits TMA/PPTA interactions, allowing a harder Al2O3 layer to form on top of TiO2. The thin ALD coatings do not substantially affect durability, flexibility, or weight of the PPTA, making ALD a potentially viable means to enhance the protective properties of Kevlar and other polymer fiber systems.


Residual feed intake (RFI) is a feed efficiency trait defined as the difference between actual feed intake and the one predicted on the basis of requirements for production and maintenance of body weight. Evidence exists of a positive correlation between RFI and fat thickness in Bos taurus, suggesting that low RFI cattle (feed efficient ones) are leaner. The objective of this study was to access the relationship between fat thickness and RFI by partial correlation including all animals (n=603, 300 bulls and 303 heifers), and by means comparison including only animals divergently classified by RFI (low RFI, n=192 and high RFI, n=186). The animals were born from 2004 to 2010, and were performance tested after weaning for 56 to 112 days, depending of test year and sex. The average age and body weight at the beginning of performance test were 286±42 days and 225±51kg. At the end of performance test images of backfat thickness (BF) were obtained by ultrasound (Pie Medical-Aquila-3.5 MHz linear probe) between the 12th and 13th ribs, transversely over the longissimus muscle. Images of rump fat thickness (RF) were obtained at the junction of the gluteus medius and biceps femoris muscles between the hook and pin bones. The images were saved and subsequently analyzed using Echo Image Viewer 1.0. For partial correlations (MANOVA, SAS 9.3), the model included fixed effect of contemporary group (GC=year, sex and installation) and age of the beginning of performance test and age of ultrasound fat measurement (average of 373±42 days) as covariates (linear effect). For means comparison (GLM, SAS 9.3), the model included fixed effects of GC, RFI classes (only low RFI and high RFI, excluding medium RFI) and age of beginning of performance test. Partial correlations between fat thickness and RFI were close to zero (-0.006 for BF and 0.010 for RF). Reinforcing these results, there were no significant differences of BF and RF from feed efficient (low RFI class) and feed inefficient animals (high RFI class), although there were significant difference between them on the dry matter intake independently of average daily gain (ADG) and metabolic body weight. These results show that animals with low RFI have lower feed intake, similar ADG and subcutaneous fat thickness than high RFI animals, fact that is desirable for slaughterhouses and consumers.


Under complex survey sampling, in particular when selection probabilities depend on the response variable (informative sampling), the sample and population distributions are different, possibly resulting in selection bias. This article is concerned with this problem by fitting two statistical models, namely: the variance components model (a two-stage model) and the fixed effects model (a single-stage model) for one-way analysis of variance, under complex survey design, for example, two-stage sampling, stratification, and unequal probability of selection, etc. Classical theory underlying the use of the two-stage model involves simple random sampling for each of the two stages. In such cases the model in the sample, after sample selection, is the same as model for the population; before sample selection. When the selection probabilities are related to the values of the response variable, standard estimates of the population model parameters may be severely biased, leading possibly to false inference. The idea behind the approach is to extract the model holding for the sample data as a function of the model in the population and of the first order inclusion probabilities. And then fit the sample model, using analysis of variance, maximum likelihood, and pseudo maximum likelihood methods of estimation. The main feature of the proposed techniques is related to their behavior in terms of the informativeness parameter. We also show that the use of the population model that ignores the informative sampling design, yields biased model fitting.


To examine the extent to which the family relations of lesbians and gay men are integrated into the family literature, we reviewed over 8,000 articles published between 1980 and 1993 in nine journals that publish family research. Our review shows that research on lesbian and gay families is quite limited, and that, where these families have been studied, they have been problematized and their diversity has been overlooked. We describe and define lesbian and gay families, illustrating their diversity and challenging the neglect of this population in family studies. We direct researchers' attention toward a social ecologies model that incorporates the dynamics of family relationships. We discuss theoretical implications of studying lesbian and gay families, and propose research directions to improve our knowledge of these families and families in general.


Credibility is a powerful and compelling notion. An amalgam of trust and believability, it provides a lens for examining and understanding economic, social, and political situations arising in many arenas, as two divergent but related situations that have come to my attention of late suggest. Consider the following interaction between a father, Abhinay, and his daughter, Aruna. Abhinay says to Aruna that if in future she loses her mobile phone, he will not buy her another one for at least six months. The purpose of such a statement is to give Aruna the incentive to take good care of her mobile phone. However, she may choose not to incur the costs that come with keeping track of a mobile phone if her father's statement, or threat, is not credible. That is, perhaps Aruna believes her father will capitulate if she loses her mobile phone, and is thus unable to communicate with her family when she is out and about, causing him considerable worry! This is but one small example illustrating the difficulty that parents face in establishing credibility with their children. Then, consider an example of a similar credibility problem, one faced by many governments. Political leaders say they will act prudently in the future when influencing the setting of interest rates. But when that future arrives, and times are bad, they then behave quite differently in order to protect their electoral objectives. This rightly perceived lack of credibility impacts on the current behaviours of firms, consumers, and other economic actors. And that, in turn, adversely affects economic outcomes. For instance, a commitment to the setting of interest rates independent of government politics was a fundamental rationale for the creation of the now famous Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England by the Labour government in 1997. Indeed, creating this institutional mechanism was one of the party's very first acts upon gaining power after around two decades in opposition. The goal was to establish government credibility in this critical policy arena. In various forms, the same dramas, all matters in which credibility lies at the heart of the matter, are now in the world spotlight. As the United States debates whether it will fashion a new health care plan, one question concerns the credibility of the threat to require citizens to have insurance. As nations worry about Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities, questions emerge about what possible sanctions will be credible enough to serve as deterrents. Then, too, credibility is at stake in the financial markets as the crisis over the Greek government's debt situation confronts the European Union. As these varied events illustrate, establishing and maintaining credibility is not easy. Credibility, or a lack of it, underlies interactions among institutions – governments, markets, businesses and among humans – family, friends, and colleagues. At times such as these, one may seek useful insights from timeless sources. Thomas Schelling's classic treatise The Strategy of Conflict, still offers fresh insight half a century after it was published. The seminal book on bargaining and strategic behaviour by the Nobel laureate underscores the relevance of economic research and game theory in so many current world situations in which credibility is a key element. In reading it, one is reminded of the critical similarities that underlie seemingly unrelated events, such as deterring the proliferation of nuclear arms, crafting beneficial monetary policies, and the raising of one's children. Good luck in establishing your credibility!


Compartmental models have proven to be useful in various forms of epidemics: Ebola, dengue fever, swine fever, flu, avian flu, etc. Such models have experienced a great development especially because of the multitude of practical applications, but also due to the many possibilities of software implementation. Although there are a few software tools, for example, EpiModel, they have limitations in modelling and use of language employed in the simulation. Measles can be described as a model with 4 compartments, SEIR, but for a better knowledge of all geographic implications in terms of vaccination, we propose a MSEIR model (S = susceptible, I = infected, R = recovered, vaccinated, E = exposed, M = maternally immune). The educational software created in MATLAB, can generate a graphical system, with specific interactions between compartments, starting with initial values set by the user as a result of specific epidemiological studies. After defining the compartments and their links, a generator will build the system of equations which models the compartmental system, solvable through numerical methods specific to measles. Optionally, the user will be able to view the system of differential equations using symbolic calculation. The solutions will be displayed graphically and will allow the user to compare the epidemic evolution with or without vaccine, as well as optimal policy for vaccination using the Jacobian matrix for determination of the endemic equilibrium. Graphical user interface is intuitive, educational, with the possibility of amending the transfer rate between compartments, parameters and initial values. The reproduction number R0 can be defined to be used in order to analyse the influence of it for fit the model with experimental data. The main novelty in this paper is composed mainly by a graphical interface an easy-to-use by student and researcher for in create abilities to use a compartmental model and at the same time, able to provide sufficient arguments in the decision making process and health policies. The other innovative approach is the possibility to define by user a symbolic equation for a compartmental model meanwhile the too will translate in mathematical one that can be solved by differential equation using numerical methods.


To compare the effects of supplementary ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation on a tropical/subtropical and a temperate plant, two indica rice cultivars (Er Bai Ai and Lemont) and peas were exposed to supplementary UV-B radiation for 8 days (biologically effective irradiance of 0.68 W m-2, 12 h per day). Marked decreases occurred in the ratios of variable to maximum chlorophyll fluorescence yield and in the quantum yield of photosynthetic oxygen evolution over the 8 day treatment period. The greatest decline always occurred in pea leaves, while in rice, cv. Er Bai Ai was more susceptible to UV-B radiation than cv. Lemont. Compared with control plants, the content of soluble protein and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) protein decreased significantly after the UV-B treatment; the greatest decrease occurred in pea leaves, while the rate of decrease in rice was greater in cv. Er Bai Ai than cv. Lemont. Over the 8 day UV-B treatment period, the increase of UV-B-absorbing compounds was greater in rice leaves than in pea leaves, and greater in cv. Er Bai Ai than in cv. Lemont, although cv. Lemont was more UV-B tolerant. We suggest that the increase in these compounds is not the only indicator of resistance to UV-B damage; other factors, yet to be identified, may also confer UV-B tolerance. While leaf orientation may be related to the severity of UV-B damage, naturally near-horizontal pea leaves were still much more susceptible to UV-B damage compared with rice leaves which were held horizontally over the 8 day treatment period. Brown spots appeared on the upper surface of leaves of cv. Er Bai Ai after 2 days of UV-B treatment and showed a cumulative increase with the duration of exposure. Our study confirms the multiplicity of photosynthetic responses and of different protective strategies that may account for the differential sensitivity of plants to supplementary UV-B radiation.


SD Apo Lactoferrin-Tobramycin/Gentamicin Combinations are superior to monotherapy in the eradication of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm in the lungs Wilson Oguejiofor1, Lindsay J. Marshall1, Andrew J. Ingham1, Robert Price2, Jag. Shur2 1School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. 2School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath, Bath, UK. KEYWORDS: lactoferrin, apo lactoferrin, spray drying, biofilm, cystic fibrosis Introduction Chronic lung infections from the opportunistic pathogeen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been recognised as a major contributor to the incidences of high morbidity and mortality amongst cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (1,2). Currently, strategies for managing lung infections in CF patients involves the aggressive use of aerosolised antibiotics (3), however, increasing evidence suggests that the biofilm component of P. aeruginosa in the lower airway remains unperturbed and is associated with the development of antibiotic resistance. If this is so then, there is an urgent need to suitably adjust the current treatment strategy so that it includes compounds that prevent biofilm formation or disrupt established biofilms. It is well understood that biofilm formation is strongly dependent on iron (Fe3+) availability (4), therefore aerosolised anti-infective formulations which has the ability to chelate iron may essentially be a well suited therapy for eliminating P. aeruginosa biofilms on CF airway epithelial cells (5). In this study, we report the use of combination therapy; an aminoglycosides (tobramycin and gentamicin) and an antimicrobial peptide (lactoferrin) to significantly deplete P. aeruginosa biofilms. We demonstrate that lactoferrin-tobramycin and lactoferrin-gentamicin combinations are superior to the single antibiotic regime currently being employed to combat P. aeruginosa biofilms. MATERIALS AND METHOD Antibiotics: The antibiotics used in this study included gentamicin and tobramycin supplied by Fagron, UK. Bacterial strain and growth conditions: Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 was provided by Prof. Peter Lambert of Aston University, Birmingham UK. The Strains were routinely grown from storage in a medium supplemented with magnesium chloride, glucose and casamino acids. Dialysis of lactoferrin: Apo lactoferrin was prepared by dialyzing a suspension of lactoferrin for 24 hrs at 4 °C against 20 mmol/L sodium dihydrogen phosphate, 20 mmol/L sodium acetate and 40 mmol/L EDTA (pH 3.5). Ferric ion (Fe3+) removal was verified by atomic absorption spectroscopy measurements. Spray drying of combinations of lactoferrin and apo lactoferrin with the different aminoglycosides: Combinations of tobramycin and gentamicin with the different preparations of lactoferrin were spray dried (SD) as a 2% (w/v) aqueous suspension. The spray drying parameters utilized for the production of suitable micron-sized particles includes: Inlet temperature, 180°C, spray flow rate, 606 L/hr; pump setting, 10%; aspirator setting, 85% (34m3/hr) to produce various outlet temperatures ranging from 99 - 106°C. Viability assay: To test the bactericidal activity of the various combinations, a viability assay was performed as previously described by Xu, Xiong et al. (6) with some modifications. Briefly, 10µL of ~ c. 6.6 x 107 CFU mL-1 P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 suspension were incubated (37°C, 60 mins) with 90 µL of a 2 µg/mL concentration of the various combinations and sampled every 10 mins. After incubation, the cells were diluted in deionised water and plated in Mueller hinton agar plates. Following 24 h incubation of the plates at 37°C, the percentage of viable cells was determined relative to incubation without added antibiotics. Biofilm assay: To test the susceptibility of the P. aeruginosa strain to various antibiotics in the biofilms mode of growth, overnight cultures of P. aeruginosa were diluted 1:100 into fresh medium supplemented with magnesium chloride, glucose and casamino acids. Aliquots of the dilution were dispensed into a 96 well dish and incubated (37°C, 24 h). Excess broth was removed and the number of colony forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) of the planktonic bacteria was quantified. The biofilms were then washed and stained with 0.1% (w/v) crystal violet for 15 mins at room temperature. Following vigorous washing with water, the stained biofilms were solubilized in 30% acetic acid and the absorbance at 550nm of a 125 µL aliquot was determined in a microplate reader (Multiskan spectrum, Thermo Scientific) using 30% acetic acid in water as the blank. Aliquots of the broth prior to staining were used as an indicator of the level of planktonic growth. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Following spray drying, the mean yield, volume weighted mean diameter and moisture content of lactoferrin powder were measured and were as follows (Table 1 and table 2); Table 1: Spray drying parameters FormulationInlet temp (°C)Outlet temp (°C)Airflow rate (L/hr)Mean yield (%)Moisture content (%) SD Lactoferrin18099 - 10060645.2 ±2.75.9 ±0.4 SD Apo Lactoferrin180100 - 10260657.8 ±1.85.7 ±0.2 Tobramycin180102 - 10460682.1 ±2.23.2 ±0.4 Lactoferrin + Tobramycin180104 - 10660687.5 ±1.43.7 ±0.2 Apo Lactoferrin + Tobramycin180103 - 10460676.3 ±2.43.3 ±0.5 Gentamicin18099 - 10260685.4 ±1.34.0 ±0.2 Lactoferrin + Gentamicin180102 - 10460687.3 ±2.13.9 ±0.3 Apo Lactoferrin + Gentamicin18099 -10360680.1±1.93.4 ±0.4 Table 2: Particle size distribution d10 d50d90 SD Lactoferrin1.384.9111.08 SD Apo Lactoferrin1.284.7911.04 SD Tobramycin1.254.9011.29 SD Lactoferrin + Tobramycin1.175.2715.23 SD Apo Lactoferrin + Tobramycin1.115.0614.31 SD Gentamicin1.406.0614.38 SD Lactoferrin + Gentamicin1.476.2314.41 SD Apo Lactoferrin + Gentamicin1.465.1511.53 The bactericidal activity of the various combinations were tested against P. aeruginosa PAO1 following a 60 minute incubation period (Figure 1 and Figure 2). While 2 µg/mL of a 1:1 combination of spray dried apo lactoferrin and Gentamicin was able to completely kill all bacterial cells within 40 mins, the same concentration was not as effective for the other antibiotic combinations. However, there was an overall reduction of bacterial cells by over 3 log units by the other combinations within 60 mins. Figure 1: Logarithmic plot of bacterial cell viability of various combinations of tobramycin and lactoferrin preparations at 2µg/mL (n = 3). Figure 2: Logarithmic plot of bacterial cell viability of various combinations of gentamicin and lactoferrin preparations at 2µg/mL (n = 3). Crystal violet staining showed that biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa PAO1 was significantly (ANOVA, p < 0.05) inhibited in the presence of the different lactoferrin preparations. Interestingly, apo lactoferrin and spray dried lactoferrin exhibited greater inhibition of both biofilm formation and biofilm persistence (Figure 2). Figure 2: Crystal violet staining of residual biofilms of P. aeruginosa following a 24hr incubation with the various combinations of antibiotics and an exposure to 48 hr formed biofilms. CONCLUSION In conclusion, combination therapy comprising of an antimicrobial peptide (lactoferrin) and an aminoglycosides (tobramycin or gentamicin) provides a feasible and alternative approach to monotherapy since the various combinations are more efficient than the respective monotherapy in the eradication of both planktonic and biofilms of P. aeruginosa. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like to thank Mr. John Swarbrick and Friesland Campina for their generous donation of the Lactoferrin. REFERENCES 1.Hassett, D.J., Sutton, M.D., Schurr, M.J., Herr, A.B., Caldwell, C.C. and Matu, J.O. (2009), "Pseudomonas aeruginosa hypoxic or anaerobic biofilm infections within cystic fibrosis airways". Trends in Microbiology, 17, 130-138. 2.Trust, C.F. (2009), "Antibiotic treatment for cystic fibrosis". Report of the UK Cystic Fibrosis Trust Antibiotic Working Group. Consensus document. London: Cystic Fibrosis Trust. 3.Garcia-Contreras, L. and Hickey, A.J. (2002), "Pharmaceutical and biotechnological aerosols for cystic fibrosis therapy". Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 54, 1491-1504. 4.O'May, C.Y., Sanderson, K., Roddam, L.F., Kirov, S.M. and Reid, D.W. (2009), "Iron-binding compounds impair Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation, especially under anaerobic conditions". J Med Microbiol, 58, 765-773. 5.Reid, D.W., Carroll, V., O'May, C., Champion, A. and Kirov, S.M. (2007), "Increased airway iron as a potential factor in the persistence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in cystic fibrosis". European Respiratory Journal, 30, 286-292. 6.Xu, G., Xiong, W., Hu, Q., Zuo, P., Shao, B., Lan, F., Lu, X., Xu, Y. and Xiong, S. (2010), "Lactoferrin-derived peptides and Lactoferricin chimera inhibit virulence factor production and biofilm formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa". J Appl Microbiol, 109, 1311-1318.


The extraordinary progress of mobile device technologies pushes for a new generation of smart mobile applications, featuring complex computational and interactive behaviour, exhibiting different degrees of autonomy and flexibility. This raises new challenges in mobile application programming, calling for programming tools and development platforms providing a proper level of abstraction to deal with such a new level of complexity. This demo aims at investigating the adoption of agent-oriented programming - and in particular of agent-based programming languages rooted on a strong notion of agency - to tackle the complexities related to the design of fore-coming smart mobile applications. For doing this we present an agent-oriented platform called JaCa-Android, providing an agent-oriented level of abstraction to design, program and execute smart mobile applications on top of the Android platform.


The aim of this project was to examine whether exposure to environmental and physiological stress conditions could affect some functional properties for the selection of probiotic microorganisms. The study was focused on two commercial strains of Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis and two non-commercial Bifidobacterium strains, namely B. breve NCTC 11815 and B. longum NCTC 11818. The effects of exposure to acid, bile, osmotic and oxidative stresses on their antimicrobial activity, biofilm formation capacity and antibiotic susceptibility profiles were assessed. The conditions to generate acid stress in the organisms were chosen as pH 3 for one hour, for both B. animalis ssp. lactis strains, and pH 4 for one hour, for B. breve and B. longum. Conditions for bile stress were 1% (w/v) bile for one hour, for both B. animalis ssp. lactis strains and B. breve, and 0.5% (w/v) bile for one hour, for B. longum. Osmotic stress conditions were 3% (w/v) NaCl for one hour, for both B. animalis ssp. lactis strains and B. breve, and 2% (w/v) NaCl for one hour, for B. longum. Oxidative stress was generated for all organisms by shaking at 200 rpm for two hours. The antimicrobial activities of all four bifidobacteria against pathogenic bacteria, namely Escherichia coli NCTC 12900, Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium DT124 and S. enterica ser. Enteritidis PT4, were maintained after exposure to each stress, although there appeared to be lower inhibition after exposure to stress. This varied with strain and type of stress. The antibiotic susceptibility profiles of all four bifidobacteria for five antibiotics, namely tetracycline, erythromycin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol and vancomycin, were unchanged after exposure to each stress. The expression of tetracycline resistance gene tet(W) in one of the B. animalis ssp. lactis strains, designated as strain C, was significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) after exposure to acid, bile and osmotic stresses, although this did not translate to higher resistance of B. animalis ssp. lactis (C) to tetracycline. Effects of each stress on biofilm formation in the four bifidobacteria varied with the strain. In general, more positive effects of exposure to stress were observed in both B. animalis ssp. lactis strains, while more negative effects of exposure to stress were shown by B. breve and B. longum. The expression of exopolysaccharide-synthesis gene gtf01207 in B. animalis ssp. lactis (C) was significantly higher after exposure to osmotic stress, although it also appeared to be higher after exposure to acid and bile stresses. Studying the effects of exposure to stress on in vitro probiotic selection properties could give a better reflection of what applies in vivo, since microorganisms for probiotic use would be inevitably exposed to stresses. This could give a more accurate insight on the potential to provide health benefit. The results of this study may justify the commercial use of the B. animalis ssp. lactis strains.


The aim of the project was to re-present this little known piece of history to new audiences and directly connect the Kinder contemporaneously to their own history through physical elements of witness and survival embedded within the work. Due to the nature of the Diaspora it was felt that this Memorial Work should have the potential to travel back to the countries of origin of the Kinder, where for many years the Jewish absence had left a cultural void. Each of Potter's 23 prints that form the exhibition shows an original suitcase containing objects carried by a child over 60 years ago as they travelled into an unknown future. Each child was allowed only one suitcase, the contents severely restricted; in many instances the objects represent the last physical contact that a child had with either of their parents. These personal treasures, assigned to each child at a critical point in their history, are significant in the context of a specific religious culture, and the individual's sense of his/her own particular national heritage, in terms of geography and cultural influence. The prints are wall mounted, set in deep wooden box frames, echoing the traditional museum case. The engraved narrative, on the glass in front of the image, is in the contemporary handwriting of the individual survivor, a fragment taken from personal accounts, letters, telephone conversations and meetings with the artists. This graffiti-like text disturbs the equilibrium of the implied 'museum', conveying the centrality of those still amongst us bearing direct witness to events and history. The exhibition toured to: Ghetto Museum Terezin, Czech Republic; Imperial War Museum North, Salford Quays, UK;; Memorial Site of Mauthausen, Upper Austria; Nestroy–Hof Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Support was received from a range of charitable and public organisations.


Abstract Beryllium-copper alloy (Be0.9%Cu) ICF capsules are being developed for the pursuit of thermonuclear ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Success of this capsule material requires that its shock propagation and radiation burnthrough characteristics be accurately understood. To this end, experiments are being conducted to measure the shock propagation and radiation burnthrough properties of Be0.9%Cu alloy. These experiments involve measurements on small Be0.9%Cu wedge, step and flat samples. Samples are mounted on 1.6-mm-diameter × 1.2-mm-length hohlraums that are illuminated by the OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester. X-rays produced by the hohlraum drive the sample. A streaked optical pyrometer detects breakout of the shock produced by the X-ray pulse. In this paper we describe synthesis of the alloy material, fabrication and characterization of samples, and assembly of the targets. Samples were produced from Be0.9%Cu alloy that was synthesized by hot isostatic pressing of Be powder and copper flake. Samples were 850 μm diameter disks with varying thickness in the case of wedge and step samples, and uniform thickness in the case of flat samples. Sample thickness varied in the range 10-90 μm. Samples were prepared by precision lathe machining and electric discharge machining. The samples were characterized by a Veeco white light interferometer and an optical thickness measurement device that simultaneously measured the upper and lower surface contours of samples using two confocal laser probes. Several campaigns with these samples have been conducted over the past two years.


Each year a very big amount of population die because of addiction. Regarding the great population of teenagers, many of these dead persons are teenagers. In this study, the researcher made an attempt to study the relation between 2 variables of sport and self-efficiency and tendency towards addiction in teenagers. Method: this study which is itself a part of a greater one, is a semi-empirical research with 2 groups, 310 students of 9th of first period of high school in Ahwaz in 2015)Data collection was carried out by questionnaires; a researcher-made questionnaire in 3 parts (personal and familial questions, questions concerning to Pender's health promotion model and sport questions) which has been used after determining its justifiability and stability. All the interventional sessions were 7 which were held in 40 days. At the end of these sessions, there held sport and recreational matches in 2 months. Then as posttest, questionnaires were given to students for second time. Findings: according to results obtained in this study, before interventions tendencies toward addiction were in a high level but after applying interventions, they were meaningfully decreased (P<0.05) as far as relationship between self-efficiency and sport level of students were concerned, it was determined that before interventions these variables were in a low level but after theses interventions, they were meaningfully high(P≤0.05). Conclusion: results of this study demonstrated that the rate of tendency toward addiction decreased after interventions and the difference was statistically meaningful (P≤0.05). Also the self-efficiency and sport increased after intervention, and again this difference was meaningful(P≤0.05). By these results one can understand that perceived self-efficiency and sport influence each other and both have a great impact on teenagers' tendency toward addiction. According to the carried out intervention, it is quite clear that one can influence teenagers' behavior related to addiction tendency and perceived self-efficiency of them directly, through not very much investment whether by time or economically. By this we can indirectly make a positive impact on teenagers' behavior concerning addiction by increasing perceived selfefficiency of them.


The underpricing and long—run underperformance of initial public offerings (IP0s) of common stock are well documented anomalies. The aim of this thesis is to examine why these two anomalies occur. For this purpose we employ a sample of 653 U.K. IPOs listed in the Main Market (official list) and the Unlisted Securities Market (USM) during the period 1984-1992. The thesis has been primarily motivated by the fact that there are not many comprehensive studies examining these anomalies for IPOs in the U.K., particularly with regards to IPOs obtaining a quotation on the official list. We begin the thesis by examining the initial and aftermarket performance of IPOs. In line with previous studies, we find that the IPOs in our sample are underpriced on average by 10.42%. To assess long—run performance after the initial offering we employ the cumulative return and the buy and hold return measures. We compute IPO abnormal returns relative to two market indexes by using three different models: (1) the market—adjusted model, (2) lbbotson's (1975) RATS model and (3) the Fama and French (1993) three factor asset pricing model. We find that new offerings perform poorly in the long—run. A one pound investment in IPOs is worth less than 90 pence after three years. The thesis continuous by investigating the causes of underpricing. We examine the underpricing anomaly from several angles. First, we test the hypothesis that IPOs produce positive short—run returns because of the ex ante uncertainty surrounding their post—issue value. Employing OLS regression analysis, we find the influence of ex ante uncertainty on the level of initial returns to be rather weak. Second, we examine whether issuers intentionally underprice their IPOs in order to signal firm quality. The empirical findings, however, obtained through logit and OLS regression analysis, provide limited evidence in support of this signalling hypothesis. Third, we investigate whether new issues are deliberately underpriced in the IPO premarket. For this purpose we employ the stochastic frontier model pioneered by Aigner et al. (1977). Although we find that IPOs are deliberately underpriced in the premarket, we fail to establish a significant relation between premarket and initial underpricing. Lastly, we evaluate the underwriter price support hypothesis, which posits that the high IPO initial returns are the result of aftermarket inefficiencies. We find, however, on the basis of statistical analysis and Tobit analysis, that this hypothesis cannot explain away positive first day returns. Overall, the results presented in the current thesis point to the conclusion that newly listed firms generate positive returns in the short—run and negative returns in the long— run because they are initially overvalued by optimistic investors.


This paper tells the history of solid-state chemistry in France from 1945 to the present. There, the chemical study of solids was carried out by a national, academic community of solid-state chemists, which went through three successive organizational regimes. It was first framed by prewar traditions, taking the form of a feudal regime of Parisian research schools until the late 1950s. As the first post-World War II generation gained power and influence, research schools tended to drop their local specificity and the same disciplinary matrix spread across the country. This disciplinary regime was made possible through the centralized administration of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Finally, a multiplication of practices and socializations blurred common standards in the 1980s, which shifted the community toward a cluster regime where numerous thematic groups loosely interacted under a broader umbrella influenced by materials science.

This case study investigates the institutional and epistemic structures and dynamics of a scientific community in a national context. The empirical analysis relies heavily on oral history, which affords special attention to the perceptions, discourses, and identities of the actors. The self-identification of chemists not only reflected their own beliefs but also constantly referred to their alter egos, the French solidstate physicists.


Much of the remarkable progress in computer vision has been focused around fully supervised learning mechanisms relying on highly curated datasets for a variety of tasks. In contrast, humans often learn about their world with little to no external supervision. Taking inspiration from infants learning from their environment through play and interaction, we present a computational framework to discover objects and learn their physical properties along this paradigm of Learning from Interaction. Our agent, when placed within the near photo-realistic and physics-enabled AI2-THOR environment, interacts with its world and learns about objects, their geometric extents and relative masses, without any external guidance. Our experiments reveal that this agent learns efficiently and effectively; not just for objects it has interacted with before, but also for novel instances from seen categories as well as novel object categories.


The data obtained on the NACA M-12 airfoil, tested at twenty atmosphere density in the NACA variable density wind tunnel, have been extended by additional tests at one and at twenty atmospheres under improved conditions. The results of these tests are given. Considerable scale effect was found.