Background
Oral and pharyngeal cancer (OPC) is a frequent type of cancer in Puerto Rico, with the risk being higher in men relative to women. We assessed differences in OPC risk factors implicated in these sex disparities.

Methods
We analyzed data of 740 adult participants (40-65 years) from the San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS). A comprehensive questionnaire was administered to collect information on sociodemographic characteristics, cigarette smoking, binge drinking, oral high-risk HPV infection, fruit and vegetable consumption, sexual behavior, and oral hygiene practices. A full-mouth periodontal examination was also performed. Sixteen OPC known and potential risk factors were evaluated. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) estimates for individual OPC risk factors, by sex, were calculated using log-binomial regression.

Results
Compared to women, men had significantly increased prevalence of several OPC risk factors including current smoking (PR: 1.91, 95% Confidence interval [CI]: 1.35-2.70), binge drinking (PR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.31-2.84), and severe periodontitis (PR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.47-2.85).

Conclusions
Men were significantly more likely than women to have risk factors for OPC. Cancer prevention and control efforts should focus on sex-specific interventions that help reduce this disparity.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate top-gated complementary n- and p-type black phosphorous FETs by engineering the workfunction of pre-patterned electrodes embedded in a SiO2 layer. Pre-patterned electrodes offer the possibility of reducing the exposure time of exfoliated flakes to oxidant agents with respect to top-contacted devices and maximize the accessible area for sensing applications. The devices are realized by exfoliating multilayer black phosphorous flakes on top of pre-patterned embedded source and drain contacts. A capping layer consisting of 15 nm thick Al2O3 is used to prevent flakes degradation and serves as top gate dielectric. We deposited both Au and Ag contacts to investigate the impact of the electrode workfunctions on BP FETs polarity. Au contacted devices showed p-type conduction with ON/OFF current ratio 140 and holes mobility up to 40 cm2V−1s−1. Devices with Ag contacts showed prevalent n-type conduction with ON/OFF ratio 1700 and electron mobility 2 cm2V−1s−1. The reported results represent a substantial improvement with respect to reported alternative implementations of black phosphorous FETs with pre-patterned, non-embedded electrodes. Moreover, we demonstrate that Ag is a promising metal for electron injection in black phosphorous FETs.


Many studies of natural landscape preference have demonstrated that qualities such as 'complexity' and 'naturalness' are associated with preference, but have struggled to define the key characteristics of these qualities. Recently, the development of software programs and digital techniques has offered researchers new ways of quantifying the landscape qualities associated with preference. Among them fractal geometry offers the most promising approach. Fractals have been defined as mathematical models of organic objects and patterns as opposed to the straight lines and perfect circles of Euclidean geometry found in man-made environments. Fractal patterns are mainly characterized by their dimension, which could be described as a statistical quantification of complexity. By applying this mathematical concept to digital images, several studies claim to have found a correlation between the fractal dimensions of a set of images and the images' preference ratings. Such studies have particularly focussed on demonstrating support for the hypothesis that patterns with a fractal dimension of around 1.3 induce better responses than others. However, much of this research so far has been carried out on abstract or computergenerated images. Furthermore, the most commonly used method of fractal analysis, the box-counting method, has many limitations in its application to digital images which are rarely addressed. The aim of this thesis is to explore empirically the suggestion that landscape preference could be influenced by the fractal characteristics of landscape photographs. The first part of this study was dedicated to establishing the robustness and validity of the box-counting method, and apply it to landscape images. One of the main limitations of the box-counting method is its need for image pre-processing as it can only be applied to binary (black and white) images. Therefore, to develop a more reliable method for fractal analysis of landscapes, it was necessary to compare different methods of image segmentation, i.e the reduction of greyscale photographs into binary images. Each method extracted a different structure from the original photograph: the silhouette outline, the extracted edges, and three different thresholds of greyscale. The results revealed that each structure characterized a different aspect of the landscape: the fractal dimension of the silhouette outline could quantify the height of the vegetation, while the fractal dimension of the extracted edges characterized complexity. The second part of the study focused on collecting preference ratings for the landscape images previously analysed, using an online survey disseminated in France and the UK. It was found that different groups of participants reacted differently to the fractal dimensions, and that some of those groups were significantly influenced by those characteristics while others were not. Unexpectedly, the variable most correlated with preference was the fractal dimension of the image's extracted edges, although this variable's predictive power was relatively low.


1) Introduction: hermeneutics and natural sciences For a long time--perhaps starting from the famous meeting in Davos in 1929--hermeneutics and the philosophy of science which derived from Neo-positivism and focused especially on exact and natural sciences followed separate ways. The crisis of the Neo-empiricist conception, though, brought some changes. The recovery of Duhem's holism, the focusing on the 'implicit' and 'tacit' components present in the cognitive process, Quine's rejection of the dogmas of analiticity and reductionism, Sellars' criticism of the myth of the datum, the overcoming of the distinction between theoretical and observational language, all these elements together led to the emergence of theses in the field of the philosophy of natural science similar to those maintained in the field of hermeneutics by authors like Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jurgen Habermas and Paul Ricoeur, theses about the hermeneutic circle, pre-understanding, and "prejudices." To tell the truth, the discussion has not led to clear and univocal results yet. Nevertheless, even though it is too early to advance a definite proposal, it seems possible to me to point out the inadequacy of traditional schematizations especially with respect to the epistemological problems of the objectivity and validity of knowledge. Thus, I do not intend to reconstruct the positions of the hermeneutic philosophers I will speak about; (2) rather, I will devote my attention only to their characterisation of hermeneutics in order to underline--in opposition to their intentions--the similarities with the procedure of natural sciences as this procedure is now described by Post-positivistic philosophy of science. The problem is complex and involves many questions, if only because there is no one universally recognised definition of the natural sciences' methodology. Some philosophers refer to the rules of the hypotethical-deductive method, some others to the canons of the inductive method; some refer to the falsification principle and the notion of corroboration, some others to the inductive confirmation. This is not to mention the variety of positions which have been adopted within these two methodological currents. The very question of the unity of method has a long history in which numerous divergences emerged, not only methodological, but also epistemological ones. In order to avoid all these difficulties, I will concentrate on some specific aspects of the traditional way of characterising the method of natural sciences and I will take the following three theses as parameters and starting points of my discourse: I. Natural science's methodology has universal scientific validity. II. The fundamental characteristics of their methodology is their 'being free' from subjective and evalutative prejudices. III. The systematic application of natural sciences' methodology as characterised in thesis (II) is the best guarantee for the obtainment of cognitive objectivity and the progressive approach to truth. These theses can be considered as some sort of "common ground" between "scientistic" philosophers and "hermeneutic" philosophers. In fact, slightly simplifying things, we can say that they express the opinions on the nature of natural science's method held by many of those who are in favour of the universal applicability of this method, and thus also to human sciences, and those who are not. In the following, I will not deal with the validity of thesis (I) and the methodological question in its general form. I will deal only with those aspects of thesis (I) that are connected to theses (II) and (III). These aspects involve the epistemological problem of cognitive objectivity, or, better, the relationship between subjective presuppositions and the objectivity of knowledge. I will focus my attention on the fact that most hermeneutic philosophers attribute qualities (II) and (III) to natural sciences, but not to human sciences and to hermeneutics in particular. …


Today, the usage of highly efficient flight procedures often lacks on the missing integration between air and ground based tools. Typically, modifications on both airborne and ground side are necessary to fully benefit from new technologies. Furthermore, modifications are usually expensive and therefore are only implemented if the counterpart also invests in the corresponding work.
In the past ten years, the Institute of Flight Guidance in Braunschweig performed extensive investigations on how airborne capabilities can be improved. Studies with the A330 Full Flight Simulator of ZFB Berlin and DLR's testing aircraft ATTAS both using DLR's Advanced Flight Management System onboard proved a highly accurate predictability of 4D-trajectories. Based on aircraft model and actual weather forecast, the 4D-FMS enables fuel efficient and noise optimized continuous descent approaches. With a planning horizon of about 20 minutes, threshold times were anticipated with a deviation of only +/-5s and an altitude precision of +/-150ft during the whole approach. Having a look at today's traffic mixture and its equipage level, about 11% of all aircraft flying in Europe are capable of reaching time constraints of +/-6s.
At least in high traffic situations, current terminal manoeuvring area concepts do not support 4D-capable aircraft in flying fuel efficient and noise abating profiles. In contrast, equipped aircraft are all forced to early join the same lateral flight path flying at normalized speeds to ensure separation and avoid a break-in of capacity. Thus, fuel and noise efficient approaches are currently performed in low traffic scenarios only.
In 2007, DLR launched the project "Future Air Ground Integration (FAGI)" that tries to solve today's trade-off between capacity and environmental sustainability. The major concept element is usage of trajectory based TMA operations to combine aircraft optimized flight profiles with a high airport throughput. A time based late merging allows aircraft to fly their preferred trajectories by staggering them laterally in an extended terminal manoeuvring area with a time constraint to be fulfilled at a late merging point. Due to the high navigation accuracy 4D-capable aircraft are able to follow their predicted flight path on their own. Unequipped aircraft are supposed to be integrated by means of a ground based 4D-guidance module that is also described in this work. The proposed concept integrates 4D-equipped aircraft in the normal traffic flow without losing aircraft throughput. The generic concept is fully scalable based on the equipage degree and leaves high flexibility for short term departures, reaction on contract violations (e.g. equipped aircraft not meeting their constraints) and emergency situations.
Several fast and real time simulations proved that the proposed concept is a possible way to go. Results from these simulations and from first trials with in-the-loop air traffic controllers are presented.


A. Székács, P. Roszík, K. Balázs, L. Podmaniczky, and A. Ujj. 2020. Agroecological initiatives in Hungary and their Central European aspects. Int. J. Agric. Nat. Resour. 216-234. Agroecology initiatives were first implemented within Central and Eastern Europe in Hungary in the 1980s in response to the environmental and ecological problems of intensive, agrochemical-based agricultural technology. The agroecology sector has grown substantially ever since and is currently facing its second boom, yet Hungary's level of organic farming remains substantially below the average level in the European Union (EU) and in the Visegrad Group countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). This review summarizes early and recent agroecology developments in Hungary in the context of the region and the EU in a broader sense, mainly regarding scientific research and policy aspects. The 10-fold growth of the organic agriculture sector in Hungary over the last two decades brings Hungary somewhat closer to the average EU level and is discussed in relation to the regulating legal environment, i.e., the EU's harmonized Rural Development Program. In addition, the European Green Deal envisions a reduction in pesticide use by 50% by 2030 and supports agroecology to reduce excess fertilization, increase organic farming and reverse biodiversity loss. Hungary pursues these goals through, among others means, the transnational joint initiative of the Visegrad countries, BIOEAST. The environmental risks jeopardizing agroecology are summarized in a systematic context, covering not only agricultural organic microcontaminants but also agricultural biotechnology products and issues in energy utilization efficacy. Related past and current research projects, as well as Hungary's involvement in the international advancement of agroecology, are outlined.


Some alternative applications of corncob as a raw thermal insulation material are presented in this research work. Usually, corncob has been treated as an agricultural waste. Finding practical applications of this waste in product manufacturing may preserve the environment and may also allow using more green technologies. Therefore, a corncob particleboard, a lightweight concrete for nonstructural purposes, and a lightweight concrete masonry unit (CMU) are the granulated corncob-based products proposed. These products are studied in terms of thermal performance, and some thermal parameters are delivered. The results obtained through the experimental study allowed to estimate the thermal conductivity of the granulated corncob and of the granulated corncob particle‐ boards. The values obtained were 0.058 and 0.101 W/m°C, respectively. A thermal transmission coefficient of 1.99 W/m2°C was obtained for the nonstructural corncob lightweight concrete, and it was concluded that the density and the thermal properties of this alternative solution are in accordance with the properties of the currently used expanded clay concrete. For the granulated corncob lightweight CMU, a value of 1.15 W/ m2°C was estimated. This shows that this agricultural waste may have potential as a thermal insulation product.


Sole entrepreneurs overwhelmingly choose the single-member limited liability company (SMLLC) as the business entity for their operations. Consequently, simplicity of formation and operation of SMLLCs is highly desirable, both to facilitate entrepreneurship and to acknowledge that costs, lack of knowledge, bad advice, or a combination of them very often will cause sole entrepreneurs to forego professionally drafted documents and accept default SMLLC rules in the jurisdiction of formation.The death of the sole member is always an anticipated, indeed inevitable, occurrence, so one would expect that the default statutory rules and the widely available forms for SMLLCs would address this eventuality adequately. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In this Article, we address how SMLLC organizational documents should always address the death of the sole member of an SMLLC, and we conclude that a provision for the nonprobate transfer on death of the sole member's interest should be included. We also address the federal tax consequences of death-time transfers of SMLLC interests, and we uncover a thorny conflict between federal income taxes, which disregard the entity, and federal transfer taxes, which regard the entity.


Soft-tissues phosphatized in laboratory experiments closely resemble fossil phosphatized soft-tissues, indicating that similar processes were involved. The smaller the aggregations of calcium phosphate particles precipitated the greater the fidelity of morphological preservation. The highest fidelity occurs where the bacteria themselves are not replicated even though precipitation is bacterially induced. While extensive phosphatization of larger carcasses, however, may necessitate the build-up of concentrations in the sediment beforehand, this is not the case for phosphatization of small quantities of soft-tissue. Mineralization of soft-tissue in the laboratory is not 'instant' but may take several weeks, or even months if decay is inhibited. The precipitation of associated calcium carbonate is controlled by shifts in pH in response to the decay process.


We present an efficient high-power planar waveguide laser consisting of a 2% doped Yb:YAG core with sapphire claddings. The planar waveguide is double-side pumped at 940 nm using two custom aberration-corrected diode laser stacks which are imaged directly into the waveguide core. A method to measure the pump uniformity has been developed, showing uniform pumping throughout the waveguide core. Laterally resolved gain measurements show a uniform gain of 1 cm-1 across the full width of the device and the onset of pump saturation. Visible emission from 475 nm to 550 nm is observed, which is interpreted as due to a cooperative luminescence process. Using a plano-concave resonator, 400 W output power is extracted with a slope efficiency of 75% with good transverse beam quality but poor lateral beam quality. Using a hybrid unstable resonator, 300 W output power was achieved, with significantly improved lateral beam quality but reduced transverse beam quality due to interference from cladding modes.


South Korea and Taiwan differ significantly in their industrial structures, with the former comprising mainly of Chaebols and the latter SMEs. One interesting question to ask then is whether such a difference may affect their respective innovative ability and performance. Using patent data derived from the NBER website, we find that their performances are very close. The quality of their inventions, as measured by originality and generality, were about equal. Although Taiwan slightly outperformed South Korea in the total number of patents obtained, South Korean inventions seem to result in better commercial values. Finally, we analysed the relationship among the average number of patent citations received, the year and the technology category. The results suggest that (1) innovative performance is related to the technology field and (2) there have been significant changes over time for both countries in the growth rate of patents and in the average number of citations received.


Since passage of the Personal Responsibility and Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), states have the responsibility of developing and implementing their own Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) programs to operate in tandem with the Federal Food Stamp Program (FSP). The context for this welfare reform included a booming economy and broad public perception that welfare programs severely reduce the work effort of recipients. This study focuses on a period when the economy was in recession and investigates how the old cash welfare program, AFDC, and the FSP affected labor supply (weekly hours of work) decisions for single mothers, the majority of welfare recipients, across the rural-urban continuum. The central question is how the labor supply of single mothers responded to the availability of AFDC and FSP benefits, respectively, and whether their responses differed depending upon whether they reside in rural or urban areas. To answer this question, we utilize data from a special in-house Census Bureau extract from the Survey of Income and Program Participation with accurate rural and urban sub samples to estimate our three equations model, one for labor supply and one each for AFDC and FSP participation. The econometric model involves two linked components. The first is Bivariate Probit estimation of the AFDC and FSP participation decisions to account for possible correlation between the error terms of the participation equations. The participation estimates are linked to the second component, estimation of the labor supply equation, due to the endogeneity of the participation decisions and the possibility of bivariate selection. Single mothers may and do choose participation in either or both AFDC and the FSP and unobserved characteristics associated with those participation choices are likely to be negatively correlated with unobserved factors affecting labor supply. The participation estimates are used to calculate bivariate sample selection correction factors added as auxiliary variables in the labor supply equation. Because wages play important roles in all three equations, yet are observed only for women who work, we first impute wages based upon Heckman's two-step sample selection bias correction procedure for rural and urban sub samples. The results show that bivariate rather than univariate participation estimation is necessary. The bivariate selection corrections in the labor supply equations, however, yield mixed results. Nonetheless, the estimated model reasonably explains linkages between AFDC and FSP programs and labor supply. The results show that increasing the AFDC tax on earnings by 10 percent generates almost identical average increases in labor supply by rural and urban single mothers, 0.12 and 0.11 hours per week, respectively. Their responses are also similar with respect to a 10 percent increase in the FSP earnings tax, 0.03 and 0.04 hours per week on average. A 10 percent increase in AFDC and FSP unearned income tax rates yield average rural labor supply increases of 0.11 and 0.02 hours per week, respectively, and corresponding urban responses of 0.01 and –0.02 hours per week. With one exception, rural and urban single mothers reduce hours of work as expected when AFDC and FSP guaranteed benefits increase by 10 percent. For the AFDC benefit increase, rural single mothers reduce labor supply less on average than do urban single mothers, -0.08 vs. -0.12 hours per week. The FSP benefit increase generates the largest reduction in labor supply, -0.35 hours per week for rural single mothers, compared to a labor supply increase of 0.14 hours per week by urban single mothers.


The principle aim of this study was to uncover and produce a phenomenological description of the experiences involved when reading and discussing with others a book about death and dying. Although fictional literature is frequently used within bereavement services, there is a dearth of research to support evidence based practice. The methodological design was based on the work of Edmund Husserl, in particular his transcendental phenomenological approach to enquiry.

The participants for the study consisted of 11 bereaved young people, four of whom had Down's syndrome. A therapeutic bereavement session was attended by the group, during which a member of staff read Michael Rosen's SAD BOOK (Rosen, 2004). Afterwards a series of questions guided and stimulated discussion, gradually leading onto an exploration of their unique experiences. The participants listened, discussed, debated and shared stories, not only about reading the book but of their own grief.

The main therapeutic session was video recorded and provided data that included verbal and non-verbal language, together with details of the context in which the interactions took place. The analysis uncovered findings that included:

1) a connection to other bereaved people
2) discussion of crying and sadness
3) a focus on prose and illustrations, especially one page which read:

This is me being sad
Maybe you think I'm being happy in this picture
Really I'm being sad but pretending to be happy
I'm doing that because I think people won't
like me if I look sad

The findings were transformed to produce a phenomenological description of the experience when reading and discussing with others a book about death and dying. It is anticipated that this research will be of benefit to a wide range of multi-professional staff working with bereaved young people, some of whom may have a learning disability.


Ann Scales was a critic of militarism. She challenged her readers to engage in "a radical critique of all of the excuses for and covers for the use of force-that is, a radical critique of militarism-in whatever context it appears." She also cautioned that this critique is perhaps most important in contexts where the influence of militarism is less obvious. This Essay takes up Scales's challenge to call out and critique militarism, and to do so in a context where the influence of militarism may be less obvious, by focusing on immigration law and policy. Part I of this Essay summarizes Scales's critique of militarism. Part II uses Scales's analysis of Nguyen v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which involved a failed sex-based equal protection challenge to a citizenship law, as a starting point for tracing out the broad influence of militarism on immigration law doctrines. Part III explores the obvious ways in which militarized immigration policies legitimate state-sanctioned violence, using the Sixth Circuit's 2013 decision in the case of Villegas v. Metro Government of Nashville as an illustrative example. Part IV argues the less obvious point that this violent enforcement is used in the service of an immigration regime that is structured to reinforce gender hierarchies.


We analyze the estimation of information theoretic measures of continuous random variables such as: differential entropy, mutual information or Kullback-Leibler divergence. The objective of this paper is two-fold. First, we prove that the information theoretic measure estimates using the k-nearest-neighbor density estimation with fixed k converge almost surely, even though the k-nearest-neighbor density estimation with fixed k does not converge to its true measure. Second, we show that the information theoretic measure estimates do not converge for k growing linearly with the number of samples. Nevertheless, these nonconvergent estimates can be used for solving the two-sample problem and assessing if two random variables are independent. We show that the two-sample and independence tests based on these nonconvergent estimates compare favorably with the maximum mean discrepancy test and the Hilbert Schmidt independence criterion.


BACKGROUND
Gingivitis and periodontitis are prevalent inflammatory diseases of the periodontal tissues. Current treatments are often ineffective or do not prevent disease recurrence. Uncontrolled complement activation and resulting chronic gingival inflammation is a hallmark of periodontal diseases. We determined efficacy and safety of a complement 3-targeted therapeutic, AMY-101, locally administered in adults with periodontal inflammation.

METHODS
Thirty-two patients with gingival inflammation were enrolled into a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, split-mouth design phase 2a trial, after dose-escalation study to select safe and effective dose with additional 8 patients. Half of the mouth was randomly assigned to AMY-101 (0.1mg/site) or placebo injections at sites of inflammation, administered on days 0, 7 and 14 and evaluated for safety and efficacy outcomes at days 28, 60 and 90. The primary efficacy outcome was change in gingival inflammation, measured by modified gingival index (MGI), and secondary outcomes included changes in bleeding-on-probing (BOP), amount of plaque, pocket depth, clinical attachment level, and gingival crevicular fluid levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) over 90 days.

RESULTS
A once-per-week intragingival injection of AMY-101 for 3 weeks was safe and well-tolerated in all participants resulting in significant (P<0.001) reductions in clinical indices measuring gingival inflammation (MGI and BOP). AMY-101 significantly (P<0.05) reduced MMP-8 and MMP-9 levels, indicators of inflammatory tissue destruction. These therapeutic effects persisted for at least 3 months post-treatment.

CONCLUSION
AMY-101 causes significant and sustainable reduction in gingival inflammation without adverse events and merits further investigation for the treatment of periodontitis and other oral or peri-implant inflammatory conditions.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03694444.

FUNDING
Amyndas Pharmaceuticals. Amyndas contributed to the design and conducts of the clinical trial and in the writing of the manuscript.


Sexual brain organization is dependent on sex hormone and neurotransmitter levels occurring during critical developmental periods. The higher the androgen levels during brain organization, caused by genetic and/or environmental factors, the higher is the biological predisposition to bi- and homosexuality or even transsexualism in females and the lower it is in males. Adrenal androgen excess, leading to heterotypical sexual orientation and/or gender role behavior in genetic females, can be caused by 21-hydroxylase deficiency, especially when associated with prenatal stress. The cortisol (F) precursor 21-deoxycortisol (21-DOF) was found to be significantly increased after ACTH stimulation in homosexual as compared to heterosexual females. 21-DOF was increased significantly before and even highly significantly after ACTH stimulation in female-to-male transsexuals. In view of these data, heterozygous and homozygous forms, respectively, of 21-hydroxylase deficiency represent a genetic predisposition to androgen-dependent development of homosexuality and transsexualism in females. Testicular androgen deficiency in prenatal life, giving rise to heterotypical sexual orientation and/or gender role behavior in genetic males, may be induced by prenatal stress and/or maternal or fetal genetic alterations. Most recently, in mothers of homosexual men--following ACTH stimulation--a significantly increased prevalence of high 21-DOF plasma values and 21-DOF/F ratios was found, which surpassed the mean + 1 SD level of heterosexual control women. In homosexual men as well--following ACTH stimulation--most of the 21-DOF plasma values and 21-DOF/F ratios also surpassed the mean + 1 SD level of heterosexual men. In only one out of 9 homosexual males, neither in his blood nor in that of his mother increased 21-DOF values and 21-DOF/F ratios were found after ACTH stimulation. In this homosexual man, however, the plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) values and the DHEA-S/1000 x A (A = androstenedione) ratio were increased before and after ACTH stimulation. Furthermore, highly significantly increased basal plasma levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate were found in male-to-female transsexuals as compared to normal males, suggesting partial 3 beta-ol hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency to be a predisposing factor for the development of male-to-female transsexualism.


In distributed work systems, individual users perform work for other users. A significant challenge in these systems is to provide proper incentives for users to contribute as much work as they consume, even when monitoring is not possible. We formalize the problem of designing "incentive-compatible accounting mechanisms" that measure the net contributions of users, despite relying on voluntary reports. We introduce the Drop-Edge Mechanism that removes any incentive for a user to manipulate via misreports about work contributed or consumed. We prove that Drop-Edge provides a good approximation to a user's net contribution, and is accurate in the limit as the number of users grows. We demonstrate very good welfare properties in simulation compared to an existing, manipulable mechanism. In closing, we show the power of sybil attacks in accounting mechanisms and discuss our ongoing work, including a real-world implementation and evaluation of the Drop-Edge Mechanism in a BitTorrent client.


We report the preparation of a novel cross-linked anion exchange membrane (AEM) from poly(acrylonitrile)-co-poly(2-dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PAN-co-PDMA) copolymer by quaternizing the DMA moieties followed by cross-linking of –CN groups. This process avoids the use of the carcinogenic reagent, chloromethyl ether (CME) which is widely employed for the chloromethylation reaction in the preparation of AEMs. Key parameters were evaluated via electrodialysis (ED) during water purification and revealed that a copolymer containing 28 wt% PDMA possesses all the required properties of a high performance AEM, such as, reasonable water uptake (21%), good ion-exchange capacity (IEC = 1.30 m eq g−1), high ionic conductivity (Km = 2.22 mS cm−1), a high transport number (t− = 0.88) and good mechanical properties (9.2 MPa of tensile stress at break and 2.4 Kg cm−2 of burst strength in the water wet state). The AEM was directly tested in an ED unit in the recirculation mode by varying the concentration of the NaCl feed and the applied potential, showing a current efficiency as high as 80%. Such combination of physical and electrochemical properties of the membrane is attributed to its co-continuous morphology and its low degree of phase separation as confirmed by swelling, differential scanning calorimetry, the homogeneous distribution of oppositely charged dye and by the transparency of the membrane in both the dry and swelled states.


Distributed algorithms are algorithms designed to run on multiple processors, without tight centralized control. In general, they are harder to design and harder to understand than single-processor sequential algorithms. Distributed algorithms are used in many practical systems, ranging from large computer networks to multiprocessor shared-memory systems. They also have a rich theory, which forms the subject matter for this course.

The core of the material will consist of basic distributed algorithms and impossibility results, as covered in Prof. Lynch's book Distributed Algorithms. This will be supplemented by some updated material on topics such as self-stabilization, wait-free computability, and failure detectors, and some new material on scalable shared-memory concurrent programming.


Abstract Multimodel Arctic Ocean "climate response function" experiments are analyzed in order to explore the effects of anomalous wind forcing over the Greenland Sea (GS) on poleward ocean heat transport, Atlantic Water (AW) pathways, and the extent of Arctic sea ice. Particular emphasis is placed on the sensitivity of the AW circulation to anomalously strong or weak GS winds in relation to natural variability, the latter manifested as part of the North Atlantic Oscillation. We find that anomalously strong (weak) GS wind forcing, comparable in strength to a strong positive (negative) North Atlantic Oscillation index, results in an intensification (weakening) of the poleward AW flow, extending from south of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, through the Nordic Seas, and all the way into the Canadian Basin. Reconstructions made utilizing the calculated climate response functions explain ~50% of the simulated AW flow variance; this is the proportion of variability that can be explained by GS wind forcing. In the Barents and Kara Seas, there is a clear relationship between the wind-driven anomalous AW inflow and the sea ice extent. Most of the anomalous AW heat is lost to the atmosphere, and loss of sea ice in the Barents Sea results in even more heat loss to the atmosphere, and thus effective ocean cooling. Release of passive tracers in a subset of the suite of models reveals differences in circulation patterns and shows that the flow of AW in the Arctic Ocean is highly dependent on the wind stress in the Nordic Seas.


"People are the lifeblood of any organisation and the agents of reform and renewal in public administration. The knowledge, skills, values and attitudes of public servants are at the heart of state reform". If this statement is true, then the challenge facing the South African government, and other developmental states, in terms of building the human resources capacity of the state, is enormous. In particular, we need to harness and develop the capabilities of the public sector to meet our service delivery improvement imperatives, as articulated in the President's call for the "... mobilisation of the public sector to speed up social transformation"
There are a number of factors militating against successful skills formation and the elimination of skills shortages in the public sector, which need to be addressed. The greatest of these is probably the fact that training is very often of doubtful relevance, rarely focused on carry-through impact, rarely accompanied by post-course support and implementation; often facilitated or taught by people who have a very limited understanding of the public sector. There is an urgent need to focus on the cost-effectiveness and quality of training in the public sector, in order to ensure that the quality and relevance of training are commensurate with government's expectations and priorities. In particular, we need to focus on the link between learning and performance improvement, at how the skills and capability of our human resources are affected by and affect the efficacy (or not) of the entity and the environment within which we operate, in terms of the ability of the government to deliver on the objectives of the developmental state.
An understanding of how public servants learn effectively, and what needs to change in order to improve public servants' ability to apply new learning within their context, is central to ensuring the sustainability of the reform process, and to building the capability of the state. The paper will unpack the 'who, what and how' of human resource development, and present a number of assumptions which will be tested in the implementation of a wide ranging project currently underway at SAMDI.


In this paper, we address the problem of object discovery in time-varying, large-scale image collections. A core part of our approach is a novel Limited Horizon Minimum Spanning Tree (LH-MST) structure that closely approximates the Minimum Spanning Tree at a small fraction of the latter's computational cost. Our proposed tree structure can be created in a local neighborhood of the matching graph during image retrieval and can be efficiently updated whenever the image database is extended. We show how the LH-MST can be used within both single-link hierarchical agglomerative clustering and the Iconoid Shift framework for object discovery in image collections, resulting in significant efficiency gains and making both approaches capable of incremental clustering with online updates. We evaluate our approach on a dataset of 500k images from the city of Paris and compare its results to the batch version of both clustering algorithms.


This Thesis addresses how Semantic Web representations, in particular RDF, can enable flexible and scalable preservation, recreation, and querying of databases.An approach has been developed for selective scalable long-term archival of relational databases (RDBs) as RDF, implemented in the SAQ (Semantic Archive and Query) system. The archival of user-specified parts of an RDB is specified using an extension of SPARQL, A-SPARQL. SAQ automatically generates an RDF view of the RDB, the RD-view. The result of an archival query is RDF triples stored in: i) a data archive file containing the preserved RDB content, and ii) a schema archive file containing sufficient meta-data to reconstruct the archived database. To achieve scalable data preservation and recreation, SAQ uses special query rewriting optimizations for the archival queries. It was experimentally shown that they improve query execution and archival time compared with naive processing. The performance of SAQ was compared with that of other systems supporting SPARQL queries to views of existing RDBs.When an archived RDB is to be recreated, the reloader module of SAQ first reads the schema archive file and executes a schema reconstruction algorithm to automatically construct the RDB schema. The thus created RDB is populated by reading the data archive and converting the read data into relational attribute values. For scalable recreation of RDF archived data we have developed the Triple Bulk Load (TBL) approach where the relational data is reconstructed by using the bulk load facility of the RDBMS. Our experiments show that the TBL approach is substantially faster than the naive Insert Attribute Value (IAV) approach, despite the added sorting and post-processing.To view and query semi-structured Topic Maps data as RDF the prototype system TM-Viewer was implemented. A declarative RDF view of Topic Maps, the TM-view, is automatically generated by the TM-viewer using a developed conceptual schema for the Topic Maps data model. To achieve efficient query processing of SPARQL queries to the TM-view query rewrite transformations were developed and evaluated. It was shown that they significantly improve the query execution time.


CONFERENCE PROCEEDING Proceedings of the PDA/FDA Adventitious Viruses in Biologics: Detection and Mitigation Strategies Workshop in Bethesda, MD, USA; December 1–3, 2010 Guest Editors: Arifa Khan (Bethesda, MD), Patricia Hughes (Bethesda, MD) and Michael Wiebe (San Francisco, CA)


ABSTRACT The topic of the internationalisation of academia has recently attracted attention from sociolinguists and language-policy scholars. In this paper, we compare two different universities from two contrasting contexts in Europe in order to find out more about their projected stance [Jaffe, A. (2009). Stance in a Corsican School: Institutional and Ideological Orders and the production of Bilingual Subjects. In A. Jaffe (Ed.), Stance: Sociolinguistic perspectives (pp. 119–145). New York, NY: Oxford University Press] and attitudes towards the different languages present in their immediate contexts. In particular, we compare the University of Tartu (Estonia) with the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), analysing several key parameters. The purpose of the comparison is to contrast, from a sociolinguistic point of view, the higher education setting of two medium-sized language contexts in Europe [Vila, F. X., & Bretxa, V. (Eds.). (2015). Language policy in higher education. The case of medium-sized languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters] with different demolinguistic and language political features. The results show that both institutions adopt a similar stance in connection to their respective national language (a protectionist attitude), but they take different approaches towards the other societal language and English. We read these differences in light of the broader historical and socio-political backgrounds, which we suggest are reflected in the microcosm of the universities here analysed.


What is the purpose of a corporation? This fundamental question is as old as corporate law itself, and traditionally it is asked with reference to the ultimate beneficiaries of a corporation's activities. Modern management theory and the current technology-driven transformation of the economy, however, have breathed new life into the question about corporate purpose. Here, purpose is understood as an animated mission-purpose articulation of the reason for a corporation's existence; an aspirational idea about its existence that has the capacity to bond internal and external stakeholders to the company, inspiring innovation, productivity, and customer loyalty. This understanding of corporate purpose offers a pathway to a more inclusive and interconnected form of modern capitalism.
 This approach to purpose is now gaining regulatory traction. In December 2018, the United Kingdom's "comply or explain" Corporate Governance Code adopted a provision which provides that "the board should establish the company's purpose." This Article takes the United Kingdom's regulatory adoption of mission-purpose as a platform from which we can explore the economic and social benefits of purposeful companies and the legal and non-legal conditions that are necessary to support and nurture such companies. The Article argues that in the absence of purposeful shareholders corporate law must enable companies to construct a zone of insulation which protects its purpose—whatever it may be—from the pressures of immediate shareholder preferences which can compromise mission-purpose. It argues that in jurisdictions where law and market practice prevent the construction of such a zone of insulation, the economic and social benefits of purposeful companies will be unavailable, as mission-purpose disintegrates into the prosaic or a mere marketing device. This claim generates several theoretical and empirical objections, which the Article considers and rejects.


Humans and animals show remarkable flexibility in adjusting their behaviour when their goals, or rewards in the environment change. While such flexibility is a hallmark of intelligent behaviour, these multi-task scenarios remain an important challenge for machine learning algorithms and neurobiological models alike. We investigated two approaches that could enable this flexibility: factorized representations, which abstract away general aspects of a task from those prone to change, and nonparametric, memory-based approaches, which can provide a principled way of using similarity to past experiences to guide current behaviour. In particular, we combine the successor representation (SR) that factors the value of actions into expected outcomes and corresponding rewards with evaluating task similarity through clustering the space of reward functions. The proposed algorithm inverts a generative model over tasks, and dynamically samples from a flexible number of distinct SR maps while accumulating evidence about the current task context through amortized inference. It improves SR's transfer capabilities and outperforms competing algorithms and baselines in settings with both known and unsignalled rewards changes. Further, as a neurobiological model of spatial coding in the hippocampus, it explains important signatures of this representation, such as the "flickering" behaviour of hippocampal maps, and trajectory-dependent place cells (so-called splitter cells) and their dynamics. We thus provide a novel algorithmic approach for multi-task learning, as well as a common normative framework that links together these different characteristics of the brain's spatial representation.


An experimental asset market is used to test the effect of news concerning the underlying value of an asset on its trading price. Participants were divided into two groups and received different expected earnings values. Statistical support is found for the hypothesis that investors underreact to news on asset valuation. The results are consistent with the viewpoint that price and valuation history have a significant effect on trader behavior. Two sets of experiments involve a single asset with the same final earnings at the end of the experiment. Expected earnings are updated at the midpoint of the market trading. The two sets of experiments have different expectations of earnings during the first half of the experiment, which became identical after the midpoint. Despite this, the trading prices for the two sets of experiments differ significantly even after their expected earnings coincide. This provides support for underreaction and indicates that decision makers tend to anchor their price expectations to preexisting prices and/or valuations.


Jack Johnson, owner of Johnson Beverage, has just received notice that one of his largest and most loyal customers may want to negotiate a lower price for its product purchases. Information compiled by Johnson's accountant, where customer service costs are allocated to customers as a percentage of revenue, suggests that profit margin on the customer is too low to withstand a price decrease. Students are asked to design an activity-based system for allocating customer service costs and to use it to estimate customer profitability for several customers. The revised costs reflect that the customer places low demands on customer service resources and is sufficiently profitable to permit Johnson Beverage to negotiate on price to preserve the business. Additional analysis identifies some unprofitable customers, previously thought to be profitable, that offer opportunities for strategic decisions that lead to profit improvement.


Objectives: Locked plating constructs may be too stiff to reliably promote secondary bone healing. This study used a novel imaging technique to quantify periosteal callus formation of distal femur fractures stabilized with locking plates. It investigated the effects of cortex-to-plate distance, bridging span, and implant material on periosteal callus formation. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: One Level I and one Level II trauma center. Patients: Sixty-four consecutive patients with distal femur fractures (AO types 32A, 33A-C) stabilized with periarticular locking plates. Intervention: Osteosynthesis using indirect reduction and bridge plating with periarticular locking plates. Main Outcome Measurement: Periosteal callus size on lateral and anteroposterior radiographs. Results: Callus size varied from 0 to 650 mm2. Deficient callus (20 mm2 or less) formed in 52%, 47%, and 37% of fractures at 6, 12, and 24 weeks postsurgery, respectively. Callus formation was asymmetric, whereby the medial cortex had on average 64% more callus (P = 0.001) than the anterior or posterior cortices. A longer bridge span correlated minimally with an increased callus size at Week 6 (P = 0.02), but no correlation was found at Weeks 12 and 24 postsurgery. Compared with stainless steel plates, titanium plates had 76%, 71%, and 56% more callus at Week 6 (P = 0.04), Week 12 (P = 0.03), and Week 24 (P = 0.09), respectively. Conclusions: Stabilization of distal femur fractures with periarticular locking plates can cause inconsistent and asymmetric formation of periosteal callus. A larger bridge span only minimally improves callus formation. The more flexible titanium plates enhanced callus formation compared with stainless steel plates.


This paper studies the sensitivity of the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) thermal comfort model relative to its environmental and personal parameters. PMV model equations, adapted in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55–Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, are used in this investigation to generate two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) comfort zone plots for different combinations of parameters. It is found that personal parameters such as clothing and metabolic rate, which are usually ignored or simply assumed to be constant values, have the highest impact. In this work, we demonstrate the use of smart wearable devices to estimate metabolic rate. The metabolic rate for an occupant during normal life activities is recorded using a Fitbit® wearable device. This example is used to do the following: (1) demonstrate the PMV expected error range when personal parameters are ignored, and (2) determine the potential of using a wearable device to enhance PMV comfort model accuracy.


The threat of terrorism has become a fact of life for American citizens and, by extension, an important issue for current and future U.S. governments. International relations are inevitably affected by this situation, yet allies of the United States have of late been decrying the Bush administration's move toward unilateralism and its sceptical attitude toward multilateral approaches to security. In Smoke and Mirrors, Frank P. Harvey mounts a powerful case for American unilateralism by exposing the real costs, potential risks, and catastrophic failures of multilateral alternatives, that are rarely acknowledged by proponents. He addresses the relationship between globalization, terrorism, and unilateralism, and provides a systematic explanation for, and defence of, Washington's response to threats of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The reality of an increasingly fragile national security environment will impose tremendous pressure on Republican and Democratic leaders alike, and will compel American officials to prioritize safety, protection, and invulnerability above all else in an effort to become self-reliant in matters of security. Harvey develops his arguments with evidence from two significant case studies: the American ballistic missile defence program and the 2003 war in Iraq. He argues that, as the costs and risks of relying exclusively on multilateralism increase, the logical, legal, strategic, and moral reasons for embracing only multilateral approaches to security are becoming more tenuous. The implications for Canada and Europe are obvious. As the U.S. becomes more threatened, the pressures that drive American unilateralism will clash with the foreign, economic, and security policies of other powers, including traditional allies, themselves motivated by a competing set of unilateral self-interests. Smoke and Mirrors will compel critics of the Bush administration to move beyond the assumption that American foreign policies are temporary in nature. Indeed, the tensions caused by terrorism and proliferation will continue to shape Washington's threat perceptions and responses for decades. The book challenges critics to demonstrate the successes -- as distinct from the promises -- of multilateral security and to prove that their preferred alternative has achieved the victories that would justify a sweeping rejection of unilateralism.


The Japanese government has asserted that the purpose of scientific activities is to search for the truth about the world and contribute to public interest of the humanities and claimed that research misconduct should occur under no circumstances ever. The revealing of each new case of research misconduct leads to the establishment of investigation committees and research guidelines, as well as punishments for the transgressors. However, we wonder if Japanese researchers are receiving different messages that might undermine the purpose of the former messages. First, Japan's policies on science and technology have been created to comprise an integration of merit-based evaluations, principles of competition and a concentrated and unbalanced distribution of research funding, leading to decreases in ordinary research funding for the researchers and an increase in fierce research competition. Second, Japanese government and society as a whole continue to send the researchers messages such as 'Only results matter', 'Be No. 1 as a top priority' and 'All we need now is scientific progress'. Third, cultural peculiarities may explain some of the actions relevant to research misconducts currently noted in Japan. We argue that it is essential to re-examine and improve the governmental policies and evaluation methods for research achievements need to be more multifaceted. In order to have the researchers act according to ethics, it is essential for them to reaffirm their objectives for working in the fields of science and medicine and the importance of balancing their personal profit with the greater cause for entering into this field.


In response to public concerns about the environment, regulatory requirements for cleaning up spills of certain chemicals have become more stringent and cleanup costs have increased dramatically. Hence, due consideration must be given to environmental sensitivity as an element of transportation risk. Among the environmentally sensitive chemicals of most concern to the railroad industry are 10 halogenated hydrocarbons that are shipped in general-purpose tank cars. The cost of cleaning up spills of these chemicals in 1980 through 1989 exceeded $50 million. This represented more than half of the major environmental cleanup costs resulting from railroad transportation incidents in this period, although shipments of these chemicals accounted for less than 1% of the total carload volume of hazardous materials. Investing in more secure tank cars would increase the capital and operating costs but would reduce the risk of these spills. Under current packaging practices, the average liability is estimated to be $788 per carload in 1990 dollars, and this liability will double in 1992 as a result of more stringent hazardous waste disposal regulations. Use of more secure 105A300W or 105A500W tank cars would reduce the 1990 liability to $375 or $129 per carload, respectively. The analytical approach developed in this paper quantifies the benefits and costs of transporting these chemicals in such tank cars. The results indicate that the reduced liability resulting from the use of type 105 tank cars more than offsets the increased capital and operating costs and therefore would be a cost-effective means of reducing the risk.


Although they represent the majority of bloggers, personal bloggers who follow the diaristic genre are underrepresented in academic studies of blogging. Arguing against the dichotomies of 'real' and 'virtual' spaces, gift vs. the market economy, and authenticity vs. inauthenticity, this research explores how these are illuminated by an analysis of the effects of monetisation on the affordances and related practices of personal blogging.

Based on participant observation over three years, this thesis uses data derived from maintaining two blogs, participating in on- and offline blogging collective practices, in-depth interviews, and a survey, to investigate the effects of monetisation on personal blogging in Malaysia. Most of the participant observation was attending events organised by a blog advertising network (known here as BlogAdNet) that coincidentally started about the same time the research started. BlogAdNet proved to be successful in mobilising bloggers and advertisers in order to create a market for advertising on personal blogs, and therefore also provides a good case study for investigating the interaction between a previously mostly non-monetised blogging assemblage, and the market economy – in particular the advertising industry. The methodological approach is informed by actor-network theory, emphasising tracing empirical connections and allowing for non-human agency within networks of sociotechnical devices.

The theoretical frameworks that have proved helpful in explaining the collective blogging and market related practices are derived from Deleuze & Guattari's concepts of rhizomatic assemblages, and also Manuel DeLanda's further development of the social assemblage. These are used to allow for individual agency, whilst not overlooking nonhuman agency and emergent properties of dynamic systems. Within this framework, the blog is conceived as a sociotechnical dialogical medium that enables interpersonal interaction, and emergent collective practices. These are understood to be enabled by base and emergent affordances that offer the potential of causal relations between relevant actors and actants and thus stabilise a contingent 'blogging assemblage'.

To situate and analyse the effects of monetisation, and the influence of advertising, Michel Callon's notions of the 'economy of qualities' and related 'overflows' are drawn upon, and further extensions of those concepts by Don Slater and Mark Foster to understand the interaction and entanglement of socioeconomic components.

This thesis proposes that bloggers can be understood as engaging in polycasting, and the blog is described as a dialogical medium that enables extended parasocial relations. It concludes by drawing upon arguments based on the relational self that run counter to the assumption of the unitary self inherent in the modern authentic self. In addition, an emergent genre of blogging, the lifestyle blog, is seen as a result of the monetisation of personal blogging. Its emergence results from the sociotechnical processes that have taken place in order to entangle the bloggers and their audience with marketing and advertising strategies aimed at developing social assemblages that include their goods and brands.


We give a new method in order to obtain Weil-Serre type bounds on the minimum distance of arbitrary cyclic codes over Fpe of length coprime to p, where e ges 1 is an arbitrary integer. In an earlier paper we obtained Weil-Serre type bounds for such codes only when e =1 or e =2 using lengthy explicit factorizations, which seems hopeless to generalize. The new method avoids such explicit factorizations and it produces an effective alternative. Using our method we obtain Weil-Serre type bounds in various cases. By examples we show that our bounds perform very well against Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) bound and they yield the exact minimum distance in some cases.


Tropical Latin America is a nexus of tectonic plates whose relative motions have led to rapid tectonic and volcanic mountain building in late Neogene time. Tropical mountain building, in turn, leads to highland "cloud forest" microclimates with increased rainfall, lower diurnal temperatures, and diverse microclimates. I have previously emphasized how the geologically recent growth of mountains has been localized in Central America and that this is likely a factor in the high diversity and endemism in those highlands. This paper will show that Andean uplift accelerated at ~15 Ma ago and ~ 5 Ma BP and continues to this day. This process evolved geographically among the cordilleras of the region. Givnish and others recently presented phylogenomic evidence that the diversity of many epiphytic orchids, including tribes found in the neotropics, also accelerated during this time interval.. Phylogenetic investigations of tropical orchid pollinators have shown that acceleration in speciation in such pollinators as hummingbirds, orchid bees, and flies occurred over this same time frame, suggesting that geologically driven environmental changes may have acted in concert with changes in orchid biology to speed up orchid diversity in these highlands. I also review some of the long-distance dispersal processes of orchids in the tropical Americas. River systems draining the Colombian Andes discharge into the Caribbean Sea and current-driven log-raft drifts and air suspension during cyclonic storms transport plants and animals from east to the west. Lastly I emphasize the need for the more information on orchid floras and species distribution in this hotspot.


Two amphiphilic block copolymers using hydrophobic poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were successfully synthesized. One of them is an (A-b-B)4 type star polymer [(PCL-b-PEG)4] and the other one is a Y-shaped PEG–(PCL)2. A star-shaped polymer (PCL-b-PEG)4 was prepared by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of e-caprolactone continued by click reaction of (PCL-azide)4 and PEG-alkyne. The synthesis of Y-shaped PEG–(PCL)2 block copolymer was carried out via Diels-Alder click reaction of a furan protected maleimide end-functionalized PEG (PEG-MI) with an anthracene end-functionalized PCL following the ROP of e-caprolactone. The characterization of micelles is carried out using both materials in aqueous media as drug delivery vehicles, which showed satisfying results and enhanced the cytotoxic effect of the anti-cancer drug vinorelbine (VLB). However, micelles consisted of Y-shaped unimers were found to be more convenient for delivery of hydrophobic drugs such as VLB because they formed in lower concentration, carrying a higher amount of drugs and owing a monomodal distribution. We concluded that the free tails of hydrophobic chains in Y-shaped block copolymer facilitate the assembly of amphiphilic material in water to form micelles.


The paper investigated four Chinese graduate students' perceptions of the major differences between North American and Chinese classroom teaching styles. Major differences in the following five areas were identified: 1) the teacher's role, 2) the student's role, 3) the form of class organization, 4) the teacher's expectations, and 5) the student's expectations. It then explored these four Chinese graduate students' North American classroom learning reality. Finally, the paper examined how they adjusted their classroom learning strategies and approaches accordingly so that they could adapt to the North American classroom environment. ********** During the past two decades there has been a significant growth in the number of non-native speakers (NNS) of English pursuing academic studies in North American universities. Statistics shows that students from the People's Republic of China are the largest single group, and approximately 80% of them are graduate students (Canadian Bureau for International Education, 2002; Institute of International Education, 2001). Generally, they have completed their undergraduate education in China prior to commencing graduate studies in North American universities. Chinese graduate students are from a very different cultural background. Their learning experience in North American classrooms has important educational implications for both university administrators and educators (Huang & Klinger, 2006). Academic learning, as argued by Tweed and Lehman (2002), varies depending on the cultural context. They proposed a Confucian-Socratic framework to analyze the influence of different cultural contexts on academic learning. Socrates (469-399 BC), a Western exemplar, valued the questioning of both his own and others' beliefs, the evaluation of others' knowledge, self-generated knowledge, and teaching by implanting doubt. Socratic-oriented learning involves "overt and private questioning, expression of personal hypotheses, and a desire for self-directed tasks" (p. 93). In contrast, Confucius (551-479 BC), an Eastern exemplar, valued effortful and respectful learning, behavioral reform, and pragmatic acquisition of essential knowledge (Tweed & Lehman, 2002). Confucian-oriented learning involves "effort-focused conceptions of learning, pragmatic orientations to learning, and acceptance of behavioral reform as an academic goal" (p. 93). Confucian philosophy has a strong impact on Chinese people's viewpoints, ways of thinking and behaviors. Confucius stressed the importance of hard work. He believed that success was mainly due to hard work rather than ability. He also believed that "behavior reform is a central goal of education because virtuous behavior can ensure individual success and societal harmony" (Tweed & Lehman, 2002, p. 92). Confucius valued pragmatic learning. He viewed the goal of learning as to competently conduct oneself within a civil service job. He stressed the acquisition of essential knowledge and respectful learning. He taught his students to respect and obey authorities. He once said that "to honor those higher than ourselves is the highest expression of the sense of justice" (Confucius, 1947, p.332). When Chinese graduate students come to study in North American classrooms, many bring a Confucian-oriented perspective to their learning, while their North American professors and peers may have a more Socratic orientation. Since they have little exposure to Western classroom cultures, they will feel unfamiliar and even uncomfortable with North American classroom culture (Huang & Klinger, 2006). Research with NNS of English studying at North American universities in an English for academic purposes context has indicated that Chinese graduate students experience considerable challenges and anxiety in their academic studies (Huang, 2004, 2005; Huang & Klinger, 2006; Sun & Chen, 1997; Upton, 1989). They often feel uncomfortable with the students' behaviors at North American classrooms (Upton, 1989). …


In most of video coding standards such as high efficiency video coding (HEVC), I-frame assignment is periodic even when the content change is minor, which degrades the coding efficiency. This paper proposes an I-frame assignment method based on Nash bargaining solution (NBS) in game theory to solve this problem. The encoded sequence is divided into several subsequences. Each subsequence is regarded as a game. All group of picture (GOP) in a subsequence is further divided into several sets of GOP. Each set of GOP is regarded as a player and compete for the number of I-frames. The optimal I-frame assignment is determined based on the generalized NBS. Experimental results show the proposed method outperforms HEVC by 5.21% bitrate saving.


Abstract. MARSCHALS (Millimetre-wave Airborne Receivers for Spectroscopic CHaracterisation in Atmospheric Limb Sounding) is a limb viewing instrument working in the millimetre and sub-millimetre spectral regions (from 294 to 349 GHz). The scientific rationale of MARSCHALS is the study of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere region. In March 2010 MARSCHALS was deployed on-board the M-55 Geophysica stratospheric aircraft during the PREMIER(PRocess Exploration through Measurements of Infrared and millimetre-wave Emitted Radiation)-Ex field campaign. From the campaign base at Kiruna, Sweden, a research flight to investigate the Arctic atmosphere was conducted. For the first time the instrument fully exploited the three spectral bands. In this paper, we present results of the analysis of MARSCHALS measurements acquired during the PREMIER-Ex flight as processed by the Millimetre-wave Atmospheric Retrieval Code. For the second time after the SCOUT-O3 flight in 2005, MARSCHALS measured vertical distributions of temperature, water vapour, ozone and nitric acid over an altitude range of 4 to 24 km. In addition, vertical profiles of carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide were obtained for the first time. The measurements were performed in clear sky conditions and in presence of low and high altitude clouds (that were able to obscure measurements in the middle infrared spectroscopic region) and some information about thick clouds were extracted from the data. The capabilities to derive information on upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric vertical profiles of temperature and minor constituents from millimetre-wave limb sounding observations in the northern polar region are presented and discussed for each of the individual targets. The results of MARSCHALS data analysis contributed to demonstrate the scientific relevance and technical feasibility of millimetre-wave limb-sounding of the UTLS proposed for the ESA Earth Explorer 7 candidate Core Mission PREMIER. PREMIER was not selected at the end of the Earth Explorer 7 evaluation process, but it is still being considered for future launch opportunities.


A geographic network is a graph whose vertices are restricted to lie in a prescribed region in the plane. In this paper we begin to study the following fundamental problem for geographic networks: can a given geographic network be drawn without crossings? We focus on the seemingly simple setting where each region is a unit length vertical segment, and one wants to connect pairs of segments with a path that lies inside the convex hull of the two segments. We prove that when paths must be drawn as straight line segments, it is NP-complete to determine if a crossing-free solution exists. In contrast, we show that when paths must be monotone curves, the question can be answered in polynomial time. In the more general case of paths that can have any shape, we show that the problem is polynomial under certain assumptions.


Emerging new imaging technologies, such as HDR (High Dynamic Range) or UHD (Ultra High Definition), have a significant impact in various applications. One of them, namely, visual privacy protection in video surveillance is an important and increasingly popular research topic. To evaluate the influence of new imaging technologies, a suitable dataset of images and video sequences is needed. However, there are only few datasets for testing performance of various algorithms on above mentioned applications, and moreover, a little to nothing exists for evaluation of visual privacy tools. Since surveillance and privacy protection have contradictory objectives, the design principles of corresponding evaluation datasets should differ too. In this paper, we present a new dataset of still and moving pictures considering the predefined principles for privacy evaluation in video surveillance applications. Annotations of various privacy related regions, such as face, hair, body silhouette, skin regions, accessories, and other personal information, including their description, are provided within the dataset. Presented dataset will serve for evaluation of privacy protection tools using both objective and subjective assessment, as well as for showing the importance of HDR imaging in video surveillance applications and its influence on the privacy-intelligibility trade-off.


Abstract Autologous stromal vascular fraction (SVF) can be enzymatically released from lipoaspirate obtained under local anesthesia. SVF is known to have regenerative, anti-inflammatory, pain mitigating, and immune-modulatory properties. Our translational research network has been studying the safety and efficacy of SVF since 2012. Almost 100 related physician teams around the world are applying the same institutional review board–approved methods of SVF production, which use a surgically closed SVF isolation system. During the same outpatient surgical procedure, procured SVF is administered according to strict investigative protocols to mitigate diseases associated with chronic pain including arthritis, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative disease, and various inflammatory conditions. The shared research collaborative online database contains safety and efficacy data on more than 3500 patients. Our processed SVF contains valuable anti-inflammatory cytokine growth factors in addition to both adult mesenchymal and hematopoietic stem cells targeting damaged, or inflamed tissue. SVF administration may potentially play a large role in the outpatient treatment of pain. In this article, we describe our protocol for the production and administration of SVF, and its safety and efficacy in the treatment of pain associated with chronic conditions.


Agency and institutions are essential concepts within institutional theory. In this Perspectives issue, we draw on a select group of Organization Studies articles to provide an overview of the topic of agency and institutions. We first consider different ways of defining agency and institutions and examine their implications for institutional theory. We then analyse the relationship of actors and institutions through four lenses – the wilful actor, collective intentionality, patchwork institutions and modular individuals. Our analysis leads us to dissociate agency from individuals and view it as a capacity or quality that stems from resources, rights and obligations tied to the roles and social positions actors occupy. Roles and social positions are institutionally engineered. It is social actors qua occupants of roles and positions (not individuals) that enter the social 'stage' and exercise agency.


In this paper, we study the classification of web spam. Web spam refers to pages that use techniques to mislead search engines into assigning them higher rank, thus increasing their site traffic. Our contributions are two fold. First, we find that the method of datset construction is crucial for accurate spam classification and we note that this problem occurs generally in learning problems and can be hard to detect. In particular, we find that ensuring no overlapping domains between test and training sets is necessary to accurately test a web spam classifier. In our case, classification performance can differ by as much as 40% in precision when using non-domain-separated data. Second, we show rank-time features can improve the performance of a web spam classifier. Our paper is the first to investigate the use of rank-time features, and in particular query-dependent rank-time features, for web spam detection. We show that the use of rank-time and query-dependent features can lead to an increase in accuracy over a classifier trained using page-based content only.


This book presents an introduction to the methodology of structural equation modeling, illustrates its use, and goes on to argue that it has revolutionary implications for the study of natural systems. A major theme of this book is that we have, up to this point, attempted to study systems primarily using methods (such as the univariate model) that were designed only for considering individual processes. Understanding systems requires the capacity to examine simultaneous influences and responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) has such capabilities. It also possesses many other traits that add strength to its utility as a means of making scientific progress. In light of the capabilities of SEM, it can be argued that much of ecological theory is currently locked in an immature state that impairs its relevance. It is further argued that the principles of SEM are capable of leading to the development and evaluation of multivariate theories of the sort vitally needed for the conservation of natural systems. Supplementary information can be found at the author's website, accessible via www.cambridge.org/9780521837422.


Abstract Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have drawn huge attention for diagnosing myriad of diseases, including cancer. However, the EV detection and analyses procedures often lack much desired sample standardization. To address this, we used well‐characterized recombinant EVs (rEVs) for the first time as a biological reference material in developing a fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (FO‐SPR) bioassay. In this context, EV binding on the FO‐SPR probes was achieved only with EV‐specific antibodies (e.g. anti‐CD9 and anti‐CD63) but not with non‐specific anti‐IgG. To increase detection sensitivity, we tested six different combinations of EV‐specific antibodies in a sandwich bioassay. Calibration curves were generated with two most effective combinations (anti‐CD9/Banti‐CD81 and anti‐CD63/Banti‐CD9), resulting in 103 and 104 times higher sensitivity than the EV concentration in human blood plasma from healthy or cancer patients, respectively. Additionally, by using anti‐CD63/Banti‐CD9, we detected rEVs spiked in cell culture medium and HEK293 endogenous EVs in the same matrix without any prior EV purification or enrichment. Lastly, we selectively captured breast cancer cell EVs spiked in blood plasma using anti‐EpCAM antibody on the FO‐SPR surface. The obtained results combined with FO‐SPR real‐time monitoring, fast response time and ease of operation, demonstrate its outstanding potential for EV quantification and analysis.


OGC CityGML is an open standard for 3D city models intended to foster interoperability and support various applications. However, through our practical experience and discussions with practitioners, we have noticed several problems related to the implementation of the standard and the use of standardized data. Nevertheless, a systematic investigation of these issues has never been carried out, and there is thus insufficient evidence for tackling the problems. The GeoBIM benchmark project is aimed at finding such evidence by involving external volunteers, reporting on various aspects of the behavior of tools (geometry, semantics, georeferencing, functionalities), analyzed and described in this article. This study explicitly pointed out the critical points embedded in the format as an evidence base for future development. A companion article (Part I) describes the results of the benchmark related to IFC, the counterpart of CityGML within building information modeling.


Taking all these into account, it is important to increase the fertility of the soil from the erosion process in Ismayilli and to prevent the washing of fodder crops from perennial herbs. The cultivation of these plants in the mountainous regions protects the slopes from the terrible erosion process and provides the animals with a strong fodder. It is proved by the results of the research that restoration of fertility and ecological balance of erosion lands and the implementation of soil-agro-technical measures to increase productivity are of great importance. Due to the application of these measures, I, as a result of improving the water and physical properties of the affected land, prevent surface water flows. In addition, the results of the study have been proven by the fact that, for certain reason, erosion and erosion hazards are most likely to be taken over by the sowing of perennial herbs. Thus, perennial herbs, in particular, accumulate the nitrogen atmosphere of the legumes, enriches the soil with organic matter, accelerates the formation of water-resistant granular - topical structure and improves its water-physical properties, which in turn facilitates the rapid digestion of foodstuffs.


A Single High Dose of CVD 103-HgR Live Oral Cholera Vaccine Is More Immunogenic than a Standard Dose or than One or Two Doses of Shanchol Oral Killed Vaccine In a study by Sow et al. (e00265-17), Malian adults were randomly allocated to receive a single standard dose (108 CFU) or a high dose (109 CFU) of CVD 103-HgR live oral cholera vaccine or two doses (2 weeks apart) of Shanchol killed oral cholera vaccine. Inaba serum vibriocidal antibody responses (seroconversion rate, geometric mean titer [GMT], and fold rise) were compared. High-dose CVD 103-HgR exhibited significantly higher seroconversion rates than one or two doses of Shanchol and significantly higher GMTs than standard-dose CVD 103-HgR. A single high dose of CVD 103-HgR is recommended for accelerated evaluation in developing countries to assess effectiveness and practicality in field situations.


Mambo is a PHP-based Open Source CMS. Mambo is both easy to use at the entry level for creating basic websites, while having the power and flexibility to support complex web applications. Mambo implements the core requirements of a full featured CMS. It has a powerful and extensible templating system with the ability to upload and manage many different data types. User access control, content approval, rich administrative control, content display scheduling are all built-in. New features and extensions are constantly added to the core system, with many more being available and supported by the community. Most of the Mambo development team now works on a fork of Mambo known as Joomla. Mastering Mambo is fully compatible with Joomla's 1.0 release.


Since the first cases of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Tanzania were reported in 1983, the epidemic has evolved from being a rare and new disease to a common household problem, which has affected most Tanzania families. The mainland Tanzania faces a generalized human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS epidemic, with an estimated 6.5% of the mainland population infected with HIV (7.7% of adult women and 6.3% of adult men). Overall, 1.4 million Tanzanians (1,300,000 adults and 110,000 children) are living with HIV infection, in a total population of 41 million. The social, economic, and environmental impact of the pandemic is sorely felt as an estimated 140,000 Tanzanians have perished, leaving behind as estimated 2.5 million orphans and vulnerable children, representing approximately 10-12% of all Tanzanian children. As elsewhere in sub-Saharan African, the underlying factors of poverty, migration, marginalization, lack of information and skills, disempowerment, and poor access to services raise the risk of HIV and have an impact on the course and spread of the pandemic. Close to 85% of HIV transmission in Tanzania occurs through heterosexual contact, less than 6% through mother-to-child transmission, and less than 1% through blood transfusion. There continues to be a significant difference in the prevalence among urban (10.9%) and rural (5.3%) areas of the country. The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) of Tanzania was founded in 1987 to champion the health sector response to the HIV epidemic. The primary objectives of the program were to reduce spread of HIV infection, screen blood supplies, enhance clinical services for HIV/AIDS patients and improve STI treatment, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), advocate behavioral change and conduct epidemiologic surveillance and other research. The program phases started with a two-year phase called Short Term Plan
(1985-1986). Subsequent phases were termed Medium Term Plans lasting for five-year periods. Through these program phases successful national responses have been identified, the most effective ones being those touching on the major determinants of the epidemic and addressing priority areas that make people vulnerable to HIV infection. These include the following; Since early eighties great efforts have been made to reduce spread of HIV infection through screening of donor blood, advocating behavioral change, condom promotion and improvement of STI treatment. In addition a number of epidemiologic surveillance have been conducted to monitor the trend of HIV infection among different subpopulations e.g. blood donors and pregnant women attending antenatal clinics. In 2004, the National Blood Transfusions Services (NBTS), which is a centralized system of coordinated blood transfusion services, was established. The NBTS is responsible for collection, processing, storage and distribution of safe blood and blood products to health facilities. At the moment NBTS coordinates eight zonal blood transfusion centers, namely Lake Zone-(LZBTC) in Mwanza region, Western-(WZBTC) in Tabora, Northern (NZBTC) in Kilimanjaro region, Eastern (EZBTC) in Dar es Salaam, Southern highlands (SHZBTC) in Mbeya, Southern (SZBTC) in Mtwara and Zanzibar and a military zone –Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF). Since the establishment of NBTS, donated blood in the eight zones is systematically screened for HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis. The National HIV Care and Treatment Plan (NCTP) was launched in October 2004, with the main focus of a rapid scaling up of HIV care and treatment services, aimed at having more than 400,000 patients on care and treatment by the end of 2008 and, at the same time, follow up disease progression in 1.2 million HIV+ persons who are not eligible for ntiretroviral therapy (ART). Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services were established in 2002 , providing a package of services that include: counseling and testing for pregnant women; short-course preventive ARV regimens to prevent mother-to-child transmission; counseling and support for safe
infant feeding practices; family planning counseling or referral; and referral for long-term ART for the
child. This report which covers the NACP activities through December 2008 has been arranged in five chapters and is intended for various stakeholders, primarily those working within the health sector.


Abstract This review summarizes our current understanding of the major Eurasian orogens in the context of Arctic tectonics: the Ediacaran Timanides, the middle Palaeozoic Caledonides, the late Palaeozoic Uralides and the Mesozoic fold belts of Taimyr and Verkhoyansk. Controversies and problems are associated with the: (i) regional extent, timing, and nature of deformation associated with Ediacaran Timanian orogenesis; (ii) northward extent of Caledonian deformation; (iii) continuation of Permo-Carboniferous Uralian orogenesis on Novaya Zemlya and understanding this deformation in Taimyr; (iv) timing, location and style of deformation associated with Mesozoic deformation in Taimyr and Verkhoyansk, and its relationship to the opening of the Amerasia Basin; (v) original size of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate (AACM) and the nature of its boundaries, including the timing and amount of extension of the AACM and the location of the South Anyui Suture; and (vi) age and nature of pre-Okhotsk–Chukotka volcano-plutonic belt basement across eastern Russia and western Alaska and its relationship to the development of the Canada Basin/Amerasia Basin. The resolution of these controversies is needed to test hypotheses for the tectonic development of the Amerasia Basin, in particular, and for understanding the tectonic development of the Circum-Arctic as a whole.


Objectives. To evaluate the impact of a 2-year, pharmacy students run, diabetes home visitation program for patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus. Methods. Eighty patients with poor glycemic control (HbA1C > 10%) were randomized to intervention (home visitations) or control (no intervention) groups. Two groups of selected fourth-year pharmacy students conducted monthly home visits with assigned patients for consecutive 1-year intervals. Results. Thirty patients completed the 2-year intervention; 40 patients comprised the control group. Mean baseline HbA1C levels of the treatment and control groups (11.2 ± 1.3% and 10.7 ± 1.6%, respectively) did not significantly change after 2 years (10.0 ± 2% and 9.9 ± 2.5%, respectively; P= 0.467). Two treatment group patients experienced a total of 2 ED visits compared to 11 control patients who had a total of 16 visits to a hospital emergency department (ED) (P =0.027 and 0.115, respectively). Thirteen treatment group patients experienced a total of 14 hospital admissions, compared to 20 control patients who had a total of 32 admissions (P = 0.58 and 0.292, respectively). Conclusion. Patients involved in a student-run diabetes home intervention program had significantly less ED visits than a control group.


Extracted from text ... Editorial Editorial
South African Family Practice
(SAFP) journal has joined the
mainstream of reputable
international medical publications
with its recent selection to be
indexed in EMBASE (www.
embase.com). This may seem like
stating the obvious, given the role
that SAFP is playing in the discipline of family medicine, rural
health and primary health care in South Africa. SAFP is also
on the approved list for the measurement of research output
of public higher education institutions in South Africa, which
means that the national Department of Education compensates
the institution from which research articles in SAFP originate.
The latter is ..


The aim of this research has been to validate the need to promote emotional competences in the teaching staff, oriented towards improving coexistence and teaching' quality in schools and high schools in Spain.
 For this, we propose the design and assessment of the effectiveness of a permanent training program for intrapersonal (emotional awareness, emotional regulation and motivation) and interpersonal (empathy and social abilities) competences, through an educational quasi-experimental research, with pre-posttest. In order to do this research, we count with the collaboration of two schools in Salamanca (Spain), with a total of 47 teachers from the different educational levels (Preschool, Primary and Secondary). We will introduce the different used assessment strategies and their sense in terms of feedback in a formative type of intervention.
 After the data analysis, the results show, on one hand, a significant improvement (alpha,05) of the level in the different assessed emotional competences depending on the tool, and the need rate as well, the interest and satisfaction sensed by the teachers in terms of the development of this kind of competences; judging them as useful for the teaching performance.


One of the most frequently examined relationships in education economics is the impact of tuition increases on the demand for higher education. We provide a quantitative synthesis of 443 estimates of this effect reported in 43 studies. While large negative estimates dominate the literature, we show that researchers report positive and insignificant estimates less often than they should. After correcting for this publication bias, we find that the literature is consistent with the mean tuition-enrollment elasticity being close to zero. Nevertheless, we identify substantial heterogeneity among the reported effects: for example, male students and students at private schools react strongly to changes in tuition. The results are robust to controlling for model uncertainty using both Bayesian and frequentist methods of model averaging.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy of tetrahydroaminoacridine (THA) in Alzheimer's disease.

DESIGN
Randomized, double-blind, multiple crossover trial with three treatment periods, each consisting of 3 weeks of active drug therapy and 3 weeks of placebo administration.

SETTING
Referral-based geriatric practice in a community hospital.

PATIENTS
Thirty-four patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. Subjects were included if they had stage 3 to 6 disease (as determined by the Reisberg scale) and had not been taking psychotropic drugs for at least 1 month and if informed consent had been obtained from the patients and their next of kin.

INTERVENTIONS
Fifty to 100 mg of THA daily and matched placebo.

RESULTS
Of the initial 34 patients 14 experienced liver toxicity and 3 gastrointestinal side effects during the study; however, all 22 who completed the study were able to tolerate at least the minimum dose. For the 22 patients there was no clinically or statistically significant effect of THA on cognition, functional status or behaviour. The results for individual patients showed no subgroup of THA-responsive patients.

CONCLUSION
THA has no clinically important benefits in Alzheimer's disease and is associated with appreciable toxic effects.


Liver cancer is one of the most common malignancies characterized by unrestricted proliferation, poor prognosis, aggression, metastasis, and reduced sensitivity to drugs. Despite the advances in diagnosis and treatment, patients with liver cancer are still usually diagnosed at a late progressive stage. Thus, the optimal treatment for liver cancer patients largely depends upon an accurate early diagnosis. Hence, this study evaluated the gene expression profiles and chromosomal rearrangements of CD133, MUC1 and KRT19 genes as potential biomarkers of liver cancer using two cell lines: normal human hepatocytes (hNheps) and human hepatoma (HepG2) cell lines. From the study, it was shown that the gene expression of CD133, MUC1, and KRT19 are indeed up-regulated in liver cancer cells, and that multiple signals of these biomarkers are detected in the liver cancer sample. This suggests that the possible mechanism for elevated expression of the biomarkers is not due to the presence of an enhancer or a highly active gene promoter; rather it is because of the multiple copies, duplication, and possible translocation of these cancer biomarker genes in liver cancer cells. Finally, this study has demonstrated that the detection of chromosomal rearrangements can be used or has a potential as a diagnostic tool for liver cancer


European soccer clubs have different ownership models, some of which are still dependent on or controlled by the public sector. The authors investigate club performance in the 2006–2018 Union of European Football Associations' Champions League seasons, using a random-effects and ordered logistic model, to identify how different ownerships are associated with performance and what other factors, such as Financial Fair Play, determine the likelihood of European soccer clubs progressing through the tournament and increasing their revenues. The private ownership structure is statistically significant and positively associated with the probability of qualifying for later rounds in the Champions League and consequently leading to increased revenues. These results, however, vary before and after Financial Fair Play was implemented. It is apparent that the objective to implement a policy designed to increase competitiveness requires a more in-depth approach than Financial Fair Play as wealthier clubs, despite their ownership model, are more likely to be more successful and widen the gap.


Background Nonunion is a postoperative complication after ankle arthrodesis (AA), which leads to increased morbidity and revision rates. Previous studies have identified risk factors for nonunion following AA, but no meta-analysis has been performed to stratify risk factors based on strength of evidence. Methods Abstracts and full-text articles were screened by 2 independent reviewers. Relevant data were extracted from the included studies. Random effects meta-analyses were summarized as forest plots of individual study and pooled random effect results. Results Database search yielded 13 studies involving 987 patients were included, and 37 potential risk factors for nonunion. Meta-analysis found 5 significant risk factors for nonunion post-AA. Strong evidence supports male gender (OR: 1.96; 95% CI: 1.13-3.41), smoking (OR: 2.89; 95% CI: 1.23-6.76), and history of operative site infection prior to arthrodesis (OR: 2.40; 95% CI: 1.13-5.09) as predictors for nonunion following AA. There was moderate evidence supporting history of open injury (OR: 5.95; 95% CI: 2.31-15.38) and limited evidence for preoperative avascular necrosis (OR: 13.16; 95% CI: 2.17-79.61) as possible risk factors for nonunion. Conclusion The results of our meta-analysis suggest that male gender, smoking, and history of operative site infection have strong evidence and that history of open injury and avascular necrosis also have evidence as risk factors for nonunion. Surgeons should be cognizant of these risks when performing AA and closely follow up with patients with the aforementioned risk factors to ensure postoperative success. Levels of Evidence: Level V: Systematic review of cohort and case-control studies