According to Nielsen, social networks and blogs account for the largest percentage of time that individuals spend online, more than email and reading the news. Given the pervasiveness of social media and the potential impact it can have on corporate activities, some experts recommend that boards of directors pay closer attention to the information exchanged on these sites. Information gleaned through social media might provide unique and relevant insights that improve decision making. For example, this information might be used to supplement the traditional key performance indicators that boards use to monitor corporate performance. Similarly, it might also be used as an "early warning" system to improve risk management.In this closer look, we examine these issues in detail. We ask: Why haven't more boards utilized information from social media to improve corporate oversight? Should the board formally review social media metrics, or does this represent an encroachment on management? Can this information be used to safeguard corporate reputation?Topics, Issues and Controversies in Corporate Governance and Leadership: The Closer Look series is a collection of short case studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue that is relevant to the current debate on governance and explain why it is so important. Larcker and Tayan are co-authors of the book Corporate Governance Matters, and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.


This paper describes a method for creating new music by concatenative synthesis. Given a MIDI score and an audio recording of an example piece of monophonic music, our method synthesizes audio to correspond with a new MIDI score. The algorithm we use is based on concatenative synthesis, commonly used for generating speech. Two versions of our algorithm are explored, one in which individual notes from the example piece are concatenated, and one in which pairs of adjacent notes from the example piece are concatenated. We examine the range of example pieces and target scores for which each version of our algorithm yields good results. Our underlying framework remains general enough to be applicable to other problems, such as rendering a stylized version of the target score, and other types of sound analogies.


Background: Brachioplasty is aesthetic reshaping of the upper arm after removal of excess medial skin and fat. Massive weight loss patients evolve a severe arm deformity that extends through the axilla and onto the chest, Prevalent operations are incomplete and leave conspicuous scars along the bicipital groove that end as Ts or Zs in the axilla. The L brachioplasty starts with a long ellipse centered over the lower :'half-of the inner arm that sweeps up to the deltopectoral groove. A shorter ellipse is connected at right angles through the axilla onto the chest. The V flap formed between the ellipses is advanced across the axilla to raise the posterior axillary fold. An improved arm, axilla, and chest have an L-shaped zigzag crossing the axilla. Methods: L brachioplaslt, along with upper body lifting, was applied to 24 female weight loss patients over the last 2 years. Ultrasound-assisted lipoplasty Was also performed in five patients. All patients were interviewed. Follow-up ranged from 6 to 28 months. Results: All 22 patients were improved and pleased. One patient requested and received a limited scar revision. three patients had delayed healing at the tip of the triangular flap. Four seromas near the elbow responded to multiple aspirations. One hypertrophic scar was improved with intense pulsed light. Conclusions: The L-shaped brachioplasty is an innovative, effective, reliable, aesthetic, and safe technique. Integrating the brachioplasty into the upper body lift improves the contours of the axilla, breast, and upper lateral chest, contributing to improved harmonious body contour.


The number of children in the Netherlands is declining and will continue doing so for the coming decade. Consequently, primary schools face vacant floor space. Media reports state an alarming situation, without mentioning exact numbers on the current scale of the problem. Nevertheless, it is very relevant since vacancy costs public funds. This research concentrates on hidden vacancy, which is defined as the situation in which a school uses the entire school building, while not needing all available floor space based on government regulations.The DAS-framework is used as a conceptual model to approach the problem. Vacancy is a result of a mismatch between demand and supply. To calculate vacancy, demand and supply must be known. Demand can be calculated, based on amounts of students per school. However, the total supply is unknown, since this information is decentralized. Until now only estimates of the current supply are available, which vary between 10 M and 15,8 M m2. This makes it impossible to estimate the current vacancy._ _To solve this knowledge gap, an extract from a Cadastral database (BAG), holding information on Gross Floor Area and building year, was matched with the addresses of schools as registered in a database of the Office of Education. However, the raw version of this database held serious limitations. Often information was clearly incorrect and a substantial number of schools was missing. Therefore 100 municipalities were requested for additional data. As a result the database is enriched with detailed object information of 18% of the Dutch municipalities.It was found that the current supply of primary schools is 9,6 M m2. This leads to a national vacancy level of 7,9%. However, taking into account a friction vacancy of circa 4% and the rent of floor space to third parties nuances this percentage. Thus it is concluded that vacancy among primary schools is not as alarming on a national scale as reported. However, it is also concluded that the demand will decline in the coming years. The cost of this vacancy, corrected for a friction vacancy of 4%, is between 6,7 and 17,5 M euro annually. If the supply is not adapted to this changing demand, increase of vacancy is expected.For academics, the findings of this paper nuance existing literature, give insight in the current supply of primary schools and the scale of the current vacancy. Last it provides valuable insights for future scientific use of Cadastral data and its limitations.


The Variae of Cassiodorus have long been valued as an epistolary collection offering a window into political and cultural life in a so-called barbarian successor state in sixth-century Italy. However, this study is the first to treat them as more than an assemblage of individual case studies and to analyse the collection's wider historical context. M. Shane Bjornlie highlights the insights the Variae provide into early medieval political, ecclesiastical, fiscal and legal affairs and the influence of the political and military turbulence of Justinian's reconquest of Italy, and of political and cultural exchanges between Italy and Constantinople. The book also explores how Cassiodorus revised, updated and assembled the Variae for publication and what this reveals about his motives for publishing an epistolary record and for his own political life at a crucial period of transformation for the Roman world.


Life on the Internet has possibly as many forms and functions as real-world existence – a notion that is readily apparent through an examination of virtual worlds and Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). In the daily operation of such a world, players face social interactions in much the same fashion that individuals are likely encounter in their offline "real" life (Guadagno, Muscanell, Okdie, Burk, and Ward, 2011). These gaming experiences are of course colored by both the nature of the medium and the unique design of the virtual world in question (Taylor, 1999, 2004; Park and Namho, 2011). Scholars seeking to study the medium itself often look to the ways in which video games affect behavior or facilitate the acquisition of social capital (Zhong, 2011; Collins & Freeman, 2013), while the analysis of specific virtual worlds is traditionally limited to the ethnographic study of social institutions, play communities, and the daily lives of players (Mnookin, 1996; Pearce 2009). This paper is the result of a literature review of social interaction and online communication, as well as a pilot study on MMOG players, examining the relationship between self-disclosure (Miller, Berg, & Archer, 1983), motivation (Yee, 2006), social perception, and resultant behavior. A small pilot study indicated that people's motivations for gameplay as well as the group memberships of other players affect the likelihood of trusting and helping other players in MMOGs.


Purpose – This paper sets out to explore the proposition that building competences is more effective than privatisation and restructuring to improve performance in the Chinese chemical industry. Design/methodology/approach – Case study research has been undertaken in the Chinese chemical industry. The two case companies provide representative data on the factors under investigation. The case investigations that are described were complemented by a survey, the results of which have been reported elsewhere. Findings – Results obtained from the research show that privatisation of Chinese state-owned enterprises is not always an effective strategy to improve performance. In the case study companies, the development of core competences was more effective in enhancing performance. Research limitations/implications – The research results are limited by the scope of the study, which was carried out in the Chinese chemical industry. They are also based on in-depth case investigations in only two companies, but are supported by a large-scale survey reported elsewhere. The results have implications for academic researchers interested in China's privatisation programme. Practical implications – The research has practical implications for companies outside China that are considering collaborative operations with Chinese companies or investing in joint ventures. It also has implications for suppliers or customers of Chinese companies. Originality/value – The paper is based on original case study investigations carried out in Chinese enterprises and is supported by a survey of representative companies in China's chemical sector. Value is derived from understanding the basis of improved performance in the companies studied.


Aims: Evaluate the effects of Longevinex®, Statins, and caloric restriction in a one-eyed patient with Dominant Drusen. Presentation of Case: A 44-year old male patient with OD congenital amblyopia (20/800 VA) and persistent OS confluent drusen (20/20 VA) (Dominant Drusen) was prescribed AREDS I supplementation for 13 years, with stabile vision and retinal exams. Subsequently, the patient developed worrisome OS Amsler grid distortion along with OS sub-retinal drusenoid deposits (SDD) and retinal architecture disruption. Discussion: A significant increase in the drusen-free macular area (DFMA) of the patient occurred following 2 years of statin drugs and weight reduction and 4 years daily intake of a caloric restriction mimetic nutrient capsule. Only the Longevinex® red wine matrix nutrient complex Case Report Bhandari et al.; JAMMR, 27(7): 1-8, 2018; Article no.JAMMR.43775 2 resulted in complete Amsler grid resolution and sustainable normalisation of his retinal SD-OCT architecture. Conclusion: This case provides a longitudinal perspective on a novel therapy for SDD amelioration with promising results. Within the context of previously published research on Longevinex®, this approach potentially provides an efficient, cost effective, and compassionate strategy for patients at risk for AMD as well.


Ambiguity in language is a linguistic device which can hinder, hamper or blur effective communication. It results in multiple meaning or interpretation. This device can be used intentionally in a speech situation as a means of evasiveness, treading cautiously and as a means of avoiding undesirable consequences. This study is an attempt to examine the nature and sources of this device in Igbo. The work identified major types of ambiguity, their major causes and implications in Igbo were also highlighted. The objectives are to highlight the uses of the devices in communication and also to enable the users of the language detect them in communicative situations. In doing this, several materials on the topic were reviewed. The researcher also listened to Igbo speakers as they communicate in the society. The survey research method was adopted in collecting the data used in the work. All the data collected were analyzed and interpreted. The results led to the following findings: Ambiguity is a linguistic condition that is common in Igbo language as in other languages; it occurs as a result of using expressions that have more than one meaning. It is therefore necessary to bear the existence of this feature in mind in the process of language teaching.


Africa is urbanizing rapidly. Yet most dual economy models focus on the sectoral rather than spatial dimensions of development. This article adopts a "dual–dual" approach to measuring rural/urban and farm/nonfarm linkages. We develop an economy-wide model of Ethiopia that distinguishes between cities, towns, and rural areas. The model captures detailed sectoral and regional linkages, internal migration flows, and externalities from urban agglomeration. We find larger linkages between agricultural production and small towns and show that redirecting urban growth toward towns rather than cities leads to broader-based economic growth and poverty reduction. In contrast, industry and services, particularly within cities, are far less effective in reaching rural areas and the poor. Africa's current urbanization pattern—toward major cities rather than towns—will weaken national growth–poverty linkages. Urbanization that takes advantage of the synergistic relationship between agriculture and small towns has the potential to result in a more inclusive growth trajectory.


From May 2003 to February 2005,20 female leopard sharks (78 -140 cm TL) were tagged with acoustic transmitters in Elkhorn Slough, California, and their movements and habitat use were examined using acoustic tracking techniques. Nine sharks were manually tracked for 20-71.5 h, and 11 sharks were monitored for 4-443 d using an array of acoustic receivers. Use of different regions in Elkhorn Slough by tagged sharks changed seasonally and was associated with changes in temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. Sharks used Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR) extensively throughout the year, but especially during the spring and summer. ESNERR appeared to be important as both a foraging and nursery area, likely due to the abundance of intertidal mudflats. Movements and habitat use were tidally influenced, and likely were related to the distribution of important prey items in Elkhorn Slough.


Charity organizations often have limited resources and thus rely on individual contributions of money and time. The existing literature is divided on whether charitable giving and volunteering are complements or substitutes. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between giving time and giving money using 2012 General Social Survey results and to explore whether certain demographical attributes affect donating, volunteering, and the relationship between donations and volunteerism. A correlation test determines that the frequencies of giving time and giving money are complements (r = .3777). In addition to multiple and binomial logit regressions, a multinomial logit regression shows that a combination of income, age, marital status and sex, religion, number of children, political party affiliation, and self-rank of social position significantly affect the complementarity between donating and volunteering.


Voters increasingly rely on social media for news and information about politics. But increasingly, social media has emerged as a fertile soil for deliberately produced misinformation campaigns, conspiracy, and extremist alternative media. How does the sourcing of political news and information define contemporary political communication in different countries in Europe? To understand what users are sharing in their political communication, we analyzed large volumes of political conversation over a major social media platform—in real-time and native languages during campaign periods—for three major European elections. Rather than chasing a definition of what has come to be known as "fake news," we produce a grounded typology of what users actually shared and apply rigorous coding and content analysis to define the types of sources, compare them in context with known forms of political news and information, and contrast their circulation patterns in France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Based on this analysis, we offer a definition of "junk news" that refers to deliberately produced misleading, deceptive, and incorrect propaganda purporting to be real news. In the first multilingual, cross-national comparison of junk news sourcing and consumption over social media, we analyze over 4 million tweets from three elections and find that (1) users across Europe shared substantial amounts of junk news in varying qualities and quantities, (2) amplifier accounts drive low to medium levels of traffic and news sharing, and (3) Europeans still share large amounts of professionally produced information from media outlets, but other traditional sources of political information including political parties and government agencies are in decline.


Interleukin-7 (IL-7) promotes survival and expansion of lymphoid precursors. We show here that, in addition, IL-7 has a fundamental role, as early as the stage of the multipotent (B/T/NK) common lymphoid progenitor (CLP), in maintaining the B cell differentiation program open. CLPs generated in the absence of IL-7 have normal T/NK differentiation potential, but severely impaired B potential. Accordingly, CLPs from IL-7-deficient mice express lower amounts of early B cell factor (EBF) and Pax5 than wild-type CLPs, but similar amounts of GATA-3. Importantly, induced overexpression of EBF is sufficient to restore the B potential in these cells. These results indicate that IL-7 directs commitment of CLPs by modulating EBF expression. This is the first example of a cytokine influencing lymphoid lineage commitment in multipotent progenitors and highlights the relevance of the expression of a functional IL-7 receptor at the CLP stage.


Abstract Here the first photometric study of road-lighting white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) integrated with semiconductor colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is reported enabling higher luminance than conventional light sources, specifically in mesopic vision regimes essential to street lighting. Investigating over 100 million designs uncovers that quality road-lighting QD-WLEDs, with a color quality scale and color rendering index ≥85, enables 13–35% higher mesopic luminance than the sources commonly used in street lighting. Furthermore, these QD-WLEDs were shown to be electrically more efficient than conventional sources with power conversion efficiencies ≥16–29%. Considering this fact, an experimental proof-of-concept QD-WLED was demonstrated, which is the first account of QD based color conversion custom designed for street lighting applications. The obtained white LED achieved the targeted mesopic luminance levels in accordance with the road lighting standards of the USA and the UK. These results indicate that road-lighting QD-WLEDs are strongly promising for energy-saving quality road lighting.


During the 1930's, America's leading colleges and universities forged friendly ties with thoroughly Nazified universities in Germany. By doing so, they helped enhance the Hitler regime's prestige in the West. Such major American universities as Harvard, Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas warmly welcomed top Nazi officials to campus, where they enthusiastically praised the Third Reich. Administrators refused to criticize them, despite calls from the Jewish community and some students to do so. Prominent American academics were flattered to have the Nazi government bestow honorary degrees on them. This nation's foremost universities eagerly participated in well-orchestrated Nazi propaganda festivals organized by the Hitler regime at German universities. Leading university presidents such as Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia and Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago repeatedly crossed the Atlantic on German ships flying the swastika flag, ignoring the boycott of Nazi goods and services that had begun in this country in 1933. Many American colleges and universities, including the most prestigious, enthusiastically participated in student exchanges with German universities that had expelled their Jewish faculty members. The Hitler regime pushed for such exchanges, convinced that they would cause Americans to see the Third Reich as civilized. American university leaders had no problem encouraging their students to study at schools that taught such subjects as Nazi racial science and Aryan physics. Impressionable American collegians often returned from German universities full of praise for the Hitler regime and accused the American press of manufacturing accounts about Nazi atrocities against Jews. German youth who came to America to study were carefully selected "political soldiers of the Reich" and operated as Nazi propagandists on campus. They often extolled Hitler's greatness in American college newspapers and expressed blatantly antisemitic views. From the beginning of Nazi rule, many American and British journalists observed that the new regime in Germany was far more oppressive and menacing than any the world had ever seen. The Nazis almost immediately expelled Jews from the professions and university faculties, and they savagely beat Jews in the streets. The Jewish press referred to Hitler as the new Haman, and Haman, everyone knew, had tried to destroy the Jewish people. Only a few weeks after the Nazis came to power, the New York Times reported that American travelers returning from Germany were emphasizing that "there is no longer any doubt that to be either of Jewish faith or of Jewish origin ... in Germany now constitutes a crime." (1) The Manchester Guardian reported in April, 1933, that in Germany "in city after city, [in] village after village, [there is] ... such an abundance of barbarism ... that modern analogies fail." (2) Journalist Pierre van Paassen wrote in November, 1933, that "the position of the German Jews is getting worse every day" and urged immediate international action to save German Jewry "from physical extinction." He endorsed Rabbi Stephen Wise's call for settling 150,000 German Jews in Palestine, but van Paassen warned that unless such a plan was carried out at once "there will be no 150,000 German Jews left to be settled in Palestine." (3) James McDonald, the League of Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, visiting Rome in August, 1933, reported that when he asked Vatican Secretary of State Pacelli, representing Pope Pius XI, about the Catholic Church's attitude toward the plight of Germany's Jews, "his reply, both the tone and the contents, convinced me that there could be no help expected from that source." (4) The next month the Vatican handed Nazi Germany its first great diplomatic triumph by ratifying the Concordat with it. In the Concordat, the German Catholic Church and its bishops swore allegiance to the Nazi state. …


A new decoding technique based on an iterative method with pixel updating is proposed for fractal image compression. We prove that the new iterative method converges in the most general case of variable shape segmentations, unconstrained domains, and use of pixel shu ing. We show that in some important cases the new method has a greater rate of convergence than the conventional method. Furthermore, it is indicated how standard iterative methods can be e ciently implemented in fractal image compression. Finally, experimental results con rming the superiority of our technique are presented.


Advancements in digital and communication technologies have brought about changes in the nature of surveillance and this in turn has impacted functioning of democracy. Additionally, surveillance is regarded as a grand narrative, accreted as a cultural entity to reduce fear, insecurity, misgovernance, corruption, and provide access to speedy public service delivery and welfare. In this scenario, in order to exercise democratic rights, people need to interlace themselves with surveillance. However, the construction of such a narrative conceals the potential corrosive effect of mass surveillance. This paper aims to explore the changes made in the domain of surveillance to face existential challenges and followed by counter effects of deploying sovereign power on democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law. Further, it will examine the significant changes occurring in legal measures and digital technological mechanisms of surveillance in India.


This report describes the present status of the detector design for SuperB. It is one of four separate progress reports that, taken collectively, describe progress made on the SuperB Project since the publication of the SuperB Conceptual Design Report in 2007 and the Proceedings of SuperB Workshop VI in Valencia in 2008. The other three reports relate to Physics, Accelerator and Computing.


Technology transfer (TT) is not mandatory for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, yet proponents of CDM argue that TT in CDM can bring new technologies to developing countries and thus not only reduce emissions but also foster development. We review the quantitative literature on determinants of TT in CDM and estimate determinants for CDM projects in China. China is by far the largest host country of CDM projects and it is therefore crucial to understand the factors that drive TT there. We focus on heterogeneity within a single country and results can thus be linked to specific policies of the country for better interpretation. Our probit estimations confirm results of international cross-country studies, indicating that larger projects and more advanced technologies are more likely to involve TT. In addition, we find evidence that agglomeration effects are more pronounced on the province level rather than larger regions. We also find a positive effect of FDI on TT and a complementary role of academic R&D engagement to TT.


Higher education is of growing public and political importance for society and the economy. Globalisation is transforming it from a local and national concern into one of international significance. In order to fulfil societal, governmental and business sector needs, many universities are aiming to (re-)position themselves. The book initially considers their "compass". They aspire to transformational planning, mission and strategy in which social justice is important, people are not treated as mere means to an end, and traditional moral positions are respected. This transformational urge is sometimes vitiated by blunt demands of new public management that overlook universities' potential for serving the public good. The volume then addresses universities' success in meeting their targets. Often the challenge in evaluation is the need to reconcile tensions, for example between structure and pastoral care of students; institutional competition and collaboration; roles of academics and administrators; performance-based funding versus increased differentiation. Measurement is supposed to provide discipline, align institutional and state policy, and provide a vital impetus for change. Yet many of these measurement instruments are not fully fit for purpose. They do not take sufficient account of institutional missions, either of "old" or of specialist universities; and sophisticated measurement of the student experience requires massive resources. Change and positioning have become increasingly key elements of a complex but heterogeneous sector requiring new services and upgraded instruments.


This chapter focuses on the causative behavior of sensory emotional denominal verbs. Under this label, as well as the so-called psychological or emotional verbs, some other verbs are also included. These verbs may convey a physical change of state or a psychological change of state, so they may be paraphrased as 'to cause + conflated noun', conveying external or internal causation, respectively. The semantic content of the implicated bases seems to strongly influence the final meaning of the resultant denominal verb. Furthermore, as well as the causative component, sensory-emotional denominal causative verbs carry some other meanings, such as location or possession. Keywords: denominal causative verbs; argument structure; conflation; sensory-emotional verbs


Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.


[1] We present a new computer code (PADIE) that calculates fully relativistic quasi-linear pitch angle and energy diffusion coefficients for resonant wave-particle interactions in a magnetized plasma. Unlike previous codes, the full electromagnetic dispersion relation is used so that interactions involving any linear electromagnetic wave mode in a predominantly cold plasma can be addressed for any ratio of the plasma-frequency to the cyclotron frequency ωpe/∣Ωe∣. The code can be applied to problems in astrophysical, magnetospheric, and laboratory plasmas. The code is applied here to the Earth's radiation belts to calculate electron diffusion by whistler mode chorus, electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC), and Z mode waves. The high-density approximation is remarkably good for electron diffusion by whistler mode chorus for energies E ≥ 100 keV, even for ωpe/∣Ωe∣ ≈ 2 but underestimates diffusion by orders of magnitude at low energies (∼10 keV). When a realistic angular spread of propagating waves is introduced for EMIC waves, electron diffusion at ∼0.5 MeV is only slightly reduced compared with the assumption of field-aligned propagation, but at ∼5 MeV, electron diffusion at pitch angles near 90° is reduced by a factor of 5 and increased by several orders of magnitude at pitch angles 30°–80°. Scattering by EMIC waves should contribute to flattening of the distribution function. The first results for electron diffusion by Z mode waves are presented. They show that unlike the whistler and EMIC waves, energy diffusion exceeds pitch angle diffusion over a broad range of pitch angles less than 45°. The results suggest that Z mode waves could provide a significant contribution to electron acceleration in the radiation belts during storm times.


The European Union (EU) has increased its efforts to counteract cancer due to occupational exposure. This is done by several means, including more active use and revision of the Carcinogen Directive (1), launch of the Roadmap on Carcinogens (2) and the Fight Against Occupational Cancer initiative (3). These are important steps, as more than 100 000 workers die each year from work-related cancer in Europe (4). The top seven exposures responsible for these cancers are asbestos, shift work, mineral oils, solar radiation, silica, diesel exhaust, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. One important measure is to introduce so-called "binding occupational exposure limit values" (BOELV), which are mainly set for non-threshold carcinogens. BOELV have to be implemented, at a minimum, in the work environment legislation of the EU member states. Recent efforts have resulted in an increase in BOELV from 6 substances in 2003 (Directive 98/24/EC) to 16 in 2017 (Directive 2017/2398), including, eg, hexavalent chromium (Cr VI), respirable crystalline silica, benzene, and 2-nitropropane. BOELV set in 2017 must be implemented in national law by 2020.

The EU-established BOELV were largely based on evaluations (formerly called summary documents, more recently recommendations) carried out by the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL). When possible, SCOEL recommends health-based occupational exposure limits (OEL) to the Commission, however, for non-threshold carcinogens, a safe level cannot be identified. In these cases, SCOEL instead calculates life-time extra cancer risks for different exposure levels (5).

In comparison with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (silica) and SCOEL`s (2-nitropropane and Cr VI) risk assessments, we find that the estimated cancer risks following exposure at BOELV are extremely high for some of the substances. For example, the OSHA estimates that 45 years of workplace exposure to respirable crystalline silica at the BOELV of 0.1 mg/m3 would cause 11−54 deaths from lung cancer and, in addition, 85 deaths from non-malignant respiratory diseases, and 39 deaths from kidney disease per 1000 workers (6). In fact, these OSHA calculations most likely underestimate the true risk as they do not account for the healthy worker survivor effect (7). Regarding 2-nitropropane, exposure to nitropropane at the BOELV of 5 ppm would result in tumors in 28 out of 1000 workers, according to our recalculation from the SCOEL recommendation (8). Maybe the most controversial and debated BOELV is that of Cr VI. The proposed BOELV was initially 0.025 mg/m3, but after much criticism, the value was lowered to 0.005 mg/m3. The latter value would still result in 20 lung cancers per 1000 workers according to SCOEL (9). The high risk of cancer and the BOELV for Cr VI have caused an intense debate in the Netherlands and Denmark, with extensive attention in major daily newspapers and even at ministerial level.

If the risks are so high, then why are BOELV not set lower? One reason might be that the decision-makers think that SCOEL`s cancer risk estimates are overly conservative (ie, the experts are exaggerating the risk at workplace relevant exposure levels). This might indeed be the case for some substances where SCOEL used linear extrapolation to zero concentration, while the true risk might be lower than proportional (sublinear or hockey stick) or even zero up to a certain exposure concentration (threshold). However, SCOEL used the best available toxicological and epidemiological data in their assessments, and it seems difficult to find any alternative ways of scientifically sound risk calculation, unless new data emerges. In any case, the assumption of exaggerated risk is not valid for crystalline silica, for which there is epidemiological evidence of mortality also around the BOELV.

Another argument would be that it is unrealistic to assume that workers are exposed to the chemical at the BOELV their whole working life (ie, 40 hours per week for 40 years). We agree that this assumption is unrealistic in most cases, however, it forms the basis for setting OEL, as stated for example in the SCOEL methodology (5). Moreover, as retirement age increases, an individual`s actual working years might stretch beyond 40 years in some cases. Furthermore, long work shifts, for example 14 days in a row with 12 hours per day, have become common in some type of work. In any case, it seems very strange to maintain a high limit value with the argument that workers are far less exposed in practice. A third argument is that, regardless of the numerical value, the establishment of a BOELV acknowledges that the chemical is a dangerous carcinogen and that measures should be taken to minimize the exposure as far as possible (the ALARA principle: as low as reasonably possible). The problem of having a too-high limit value is that it gives a false sense of protection. Further arguments put forward are that the present BOELV are just a first step. New toxicological data and technical improvements may well lead to lowered values in the future, and BOELV are minimal requirements, so member states may introduce lower values if they wish. The future will tell if this will happen. Most EU member states lack the resources to develop OEL on their own. Sweden, for example, disbanded their expert group a few years ago, with the understanding that this work is carried out at the EU level and therefore unnecessary at the national level.

So, are the new EU BOELV good or bad? Well, certainly they are a start, and maybe even a good one at that. However, in our opinion, some of the limits are outrageously high and breach the fundamental rights of safe and healthy working conditions (10, 11). Moreover, there are still very few binding values, many more are needed in order to protect workers more thoroughly against occupational cancer.

References
1. Directive 2004/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work (Sixth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Council Directive 89/391/EEC). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Union. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:229:0023:0034:EN:PDF
2. Roadmap on Carcinogens. Available from roadmaponcarcinogens.eu
3. Fight against Occupational Cancer Conference, Vienna 24-25 September 2018. https://www.eu2018.at/calendar-events/political-events/BMASGK-2018-09-24-Conf.Carcinogens.html
4. Takala J. Eliminating occupational cancer in Europe and globally. OSH Wiki. Available from https://oshwiki.eu/wiki/Eliminating_occupational_cancer_in_Europe_and_globally
5. European Commission. Methodology for derivation of occupational exposure limits of chemical agents The General Decision-Making Framework of the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL); 2017. https://circabc.europa.eu/sd/a/99a19e17-b82e-4c9e-91cd-458818f4f915/SCOEL%20methodology%202017.pdf
6. OSHA. Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica. Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 58 / March 25, 2016 / Rules and Regulations. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-03-25/pdf/2016-04800.pdf
7. Keil AP, Richardson DB, Westreich D, Steenland K. Estimating the impact of changes to occupational standards for silica exposure on lung cancer mortality. Epidemiology 2018;29(5) 658-65. https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000000867
8. SCOEL/REC/300 2-Nitropropane Recommendation from the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits. 17 March 2018. https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5824f230-0d3a-11e7-8a35-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
9. SCOEL/REC/386 Chromium VI compounds Recommendation from the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits. 28 August 2017
10. European Parliament. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. 2000/C 364/01. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf
11. United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf


Since we are a meeting of mixed language origins, it may be of real importance to clarify our terminology. In addition to the word reconciliation, which denotes the restored relationship between striving factions, thus appeasement, several other words function on more or less the same level in, religious speech. Expiation signifies the paying of a penalty, the tpaking of amends, whereby the relationship is restored. Atonement deals, with the unification of striving factions by making amends for whatever caused the trouble. All three these words are represented in Afrikaans by the word ""versoening"".


The application of statistics to problems in business and economics, encompassing the gathering, organization, analysis, and presentation of data. Topics include descriptive statistics in tabular and graphical forms; the common measures of central tendency and dispersion; sampling and probability distributions; construction of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing; and correlation analysis. This course is offered as BUS 2340 or ECN 2340.


There is a growing need to predict ecological responses to long-term habitat change. However, statistical models for marine soft-substratum ecosystems are limited, and consequently there is a need for the development of such models. In order to assess the utility of statistical model- ling approaches for predicting likely changes in species distributions under varying environmental conditions, we tested the utility of logistic modelling and classification approaches. We successfully developed models relating the presence/absence of common intertidal macrofauna to changing envi- ronmental variables such as sediment characteristics, depth/elevation, tidal currents and wind-wave (i.e. wind-generated wave activity) disturbance. The final model for each species contained between 1 and 6 variables, where the percentage correctly predicted was moderate to high, ranging from 59 to 97%. We were also able to identify relationships between higher level variables such as estuary type, basin morphometry and catchment-draining processes in driving macrobenthic community composition; however, we were unable to fully test the utility of the classification approach due to dif- ferences in the scale at which the macrobenthic data was collected and the scale of the higher level physical variables. These models were developed and tested using data that covered a range of envi- ronmental conditions in 5 estuaries in New Zealand. Such broad-scale statistical models play a criti- cal role in our understanding of the likely effects of large-scale habitat change. However, a greater understanding of the fine-scale mechanistic controls on species distributions such as life-history characteristics, density information and biotic interactions would potentially lead to the development of more sensitive models.


The majority of the world's population is now urban, and for most this will mean a life lived in the suburbs. City Suburbs considers contemporary Anglo-American suburbia, drawing on research in outer London it looks at life on the edge of a world city from the perspective of residents. Interpreted through Bourdieu's theory of practice it argues that the contemporary suburban life is one where place and participation are, in combination, strong determinants of the suburban experience. From this perspective suburbia is better seen as a process, an on-going practice of the suburban which is influenced but not determined by the history of suburban development. How residents engage with the city and the legacy of particular places combine powerfully to produce very different experiences across outer London. In some cases suburban residents are able to combine the benefits of the city and their residential location to their advantage but in marginal middle-class areas the relationship with the city is more circumspect as the city represents more threat than opportunity. The importance of this relational experience with the city informs a call to integrate more fully the suburbs into studies of the city.


Abstract
 Catenipora is one of the most common tabulate coral genera occurring in various lithofacies in the Upper Ordovician Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai in South China. A combination of traditional multivariate analysis and geometric morphometrics is applied to a large number of specimens to distinguish and identify species. Based on three major principal components extracted from 11 morphological characters, three major groups as determined by the cluster-analysis dendrogram are considered to be morphospecies. Their validity and distinctiveness are confirmed by discriminant analysis, descriptive statistics, and bivariate plots. Tabularium area and common wall thickness are the most meaningful characters to distinguish the three morphospecies. Geometric morphometrics is adopted to compare the morphospecies with types and/or figured specimens of species previously reported from the vicinity of Zhuzhai. Despite discrepancies in corallite size, principal component analysis and discriminant analysis, as well as consideration of overall morphological characteristics, indicate that the morphospecies represent C. zhejiangensis Yu in Yu et al., 1963, C. shiyangensis Lin and Chow, 1977, and C. dianbiancunensis Lin and Chow, 1977. Catenipora occurs in seven stratigraphic intervals in the Xiazhen Formation at Zhuzhai, representing a variety of heterogeneous environments. The coralla preservation is variable due to differential compaction; coralla preserved in limestones are commonly intact and in growth position, whereas those in shales are mostly crushed or fragmentary. The size and shape of corallites are considered primarily to be species-specific characters, but are also related to the depositional environments. In all species, morphological characters, including corallite size, septal development, and shape and size of lacunae, show high variability in accordance with lithofacies and stratigraphic position. The intraspecific differences in corallite size at various localities in the Zhuzhai area may indicate responses to local environmental factors, but may also reflect genetic differences if there was limited connection among populations.


The underlying mechanism of communicative behavior in both humans and other animals was proposed to be "mirroring", which refers to the similar neural pattern during action production and action observation. Nevertheless, the role of mirroring in human communication remains a puzzle, since human communication systems can take a symbolic form not relying directly on body action. We hypothesized that mirroring contributes to the formation of implied meaning, i.e., connotation, in symbolic communication. We used electroencephalography to study human brain mirroring activity, indexed by mu-suppression measured in 10–12 Hz band over the left-central area, firstly in a non-communicative single-player game then in a communicative coordination game. We evaluated the effect of the mirroring activity in each game upon the performance of symbolic communication in the communicative game. We found that the participants showed significant mirroring in both games performed better on connotation-forming than those who showed significant mirroring in the communicative game only. Our results suggest that imagining signaling action in both communicative and non-communicative contexts could be a key to connotation-forming in symbolic communication.


Imagine that you could "really" understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom. "The Beginning of Wisdom" is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, "a coherent anthropology" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that "rivals anything produced by the great philosophers." Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of "The Beginning of Wisdom" explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate question: How to live a good life? Connecting the two "parts" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical structure: how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness. A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, "The Beginning of Wisdom" is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time.


Traditional PD research offers a range of methods for participant engagement. Yet little is shared of the microdynamics of participation at its most intense, when the designer as facilitator is challenged by a range of social contingencies. Engaging people in change can be a messy process, especially when emotions run high. This paper explores two situations where communities were asked to collaborate on disaster mitigation plans and looks at how facilitation took place to engage with these concerns. It considers the relationship between method and its enactment, between the participatory practitioner and participant group, and between intention and outcome. In doing so, it questions the prevalent research culture that anonymises facilitation and its agency. Instead, we offer a more synthesised reading of practice, by focusing on aspects that compound the designers' task, such as the dynamics of the group and emotions manifested by participants. We argue that we need to orientate towards understanding the designers' participatory practice, rather than reporting participatory methods alone. The act of engaging others involves an embodied knowing, with moment-by-moment shifts in position, focus and delivery. Acknowledging this involves a rethink of our frameworks for reflecting and reporting on design.


An rRNA processing protein has an additional role in regulating the transcription of ribosomal proteins. Synthesis of ribosomes is one of the most energy-intensive cellular processes, requiring the coordinated synthesis of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and dozens of ribosomal proteins (RPs). In yeast, RP genes (RPGs) are expressed when the activator protein Ifh1 binds to the transcription factor Fhl1, which is constitutively bound to RPG promoters. Inhibition of growth with rapamycin (a drug that inhibits the nutrient-sensing and growth-controlling kinase target of rapamycin [TOR]) or by nutrient depletion triggers Ifh1 dissociation from RPG promoters, reducing transcription of RPGs. Ifh1 also exists in a complex called CURI that includes two proteins involved in rRNA processing. Studying the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Albert et al. found that a direct interaction between Ifh1 and Utp22, an rRNA-processing protein in the CURI complex, played an essential role in coordinating RP and rRNA synthesis. In yeast two-hybrid assays, Ihf1 associated with Utp22. Chromatin immunoprecipitation with sequencing (ChIP-seq) showed that Ihf1 binds to the UTP22 promoter, and analysis of yeast in which Ihf1 was depleted from the nucleus confirmed that Ihf1 regulates the transcription of UTP22 in addition to regulating RPG transcription. In yeast strains containing a mutation that reduces the interaction of Ifh1 with Fhl1 at RPG promoters, inducible overexpression of Utp22 impeded growth, whereas overexpression of another protein from the CURI complex did not. In cells that had been depleted of the induced Utp22 and then were exposed to rapamycin to inhibit TOR, Ifh1 associated with RPG promoters within 20 minutes of the addition of rapamycin, a time at which Ifh1 continued to be dissociated from RPG promoters in wild-type yeast exposed to rapamycin. Rapid rebinding of Ifh1 to RPG promoters in response to Utp22-depletion also occurred in yeast growing under starvation conditions (deficiency of glucose or both glucose and amino acids), suggesting that Utp22 is specifically required for long-term repression of RP synthesis under conditions that inhibit the nutrient-sensing TOR pathway. Consistent with this model, expression of an Ihf1 mutant that could not bind Utp22 resulted in the return of Ifh1 to RPG promoters in yeast exposed to rapamycin. The interaction of Ifh1 with RPG promoters is dynamic, with a Utp22-independent component occurring within 5 minutes of rapamycin treatment. Thus, Ihf1 both stimulates expression of the Utp22-encoding gene and binds Utp22 in a complex necessary for restricting transcription of RPGs. By sequestering Ihf1 away from RPG promoters, Utp22 enables cells to properly coordinate RPG expression with growth conditions. What effect Ihf1 has on the rRNA-processing functions of Utp22 remains to be determined. Rudra and Warner discuss the extent to which these proteins and interactions are conserved in mammalian cells and raise the possibility that different mechanisms may coordinate rRNA and RP synthesis in different eukaryotes. B. Albert, B. Knight, J. Merwin, V. Martin, D. Ottoz, Y. Gloor, M. J. Bruzzone, A. Rudner, D. Shore, A molecular titration system coordinates ribosomal protein gene transcription with ribosomal RNA synthesis. Mol. Cell 64, 720–733 (2016). [PubMed] D. Rudra, J. R. Warner, A CURIous case of molecular kidnapping. Mol. Cell 64, 639–640 (2016). [PubMed]


ABSTRACT Most freshwater mussel species in the Great Lakes colonized the region from the Mississippi River basin and few appear to have colonized from Atlantic coast rivers. The Eastern Pondmussel, Ligumia nasuta, is widespread along the Atlantic coast but occurs elsewhere only in the Great Lakes, suggesting that it is one of the few Great Lakes species of Atlantic origin. Great Lakes populations are now imperiled following invasion of the lakes by dreissenid mussels. We examined patterns of diversity in the mitochondrial CO1 and ND1 genes in L. nasuta populations in the Great Lakes and in Atlantic coast rivers. Genetic diversity was low in Great Lakes populations and included only one CO1 and two ND1 haplotypes, all of which were also found in Atlantic coast populations. Genetic diversity was higher in Atlantic coast populations and included four CO1 and six ND1 haplotypes. Pairwise ФST revealed significant genetic differentiation for both genes between Atlantic coast and Great Lakes populations but not within Great Lakes populations. These results suggest that all populations of L. nasuta in the Great Lakes are derived from a single, small founder group that colonized from an Atlantic coast river. As such, Great Lakes populations may be considered a single management unit and conservation efforts based on propagation or translocation should be limited to use of Great Lakes source stock to prevent introduction of non-native haplotypes.


This paper reports the findings of a digital storytelling praxis within a higher education classroom located outside of Metro Detroit in the United States. Drawing on Zembylas's (2006, 2008) scholarship on emotion in the production of knowledge and the teacher's role, adjacent to literature surrounding personal writing and safe houses for learning, an investigation of student perceptions of digital storytelling within a writing classroom took place during the 2016 and 2017 academic years. Data highlights the students' interest for the emotionally-driven course content digital storytelling encourages, as it taught students how to insert genre conventions into their own writing. Digital storytelling, according to the students, also supplied a means for students to develop relationships with their peers as many students felt isolated on this largely commuter campus. Students additionally viewed the curriculum as promoting 'real world' skills they could transfer outside of the classroom and into their lives. However, to craft digital stories, data revealed how students turned toward sharing personal (and or traumatic) narratives. This can be problematic in terms of emotional safety if students are made to feel they must leverage emotions for grades and are then forced to broadcast their digital stories in a public forum. To lessen these concerns, strategies for implementing digital storytelling into the curriculum are provided. Lastly, the author concludes that educating students within a Trump presidency requires a different pedagogical approach. Assignments such as digital storytelling that merge the scholarly and the personal, alongside nurturing empathy, open dialogue, and building relationships might offer a direction forward. Keywords: digital storytelling, classrooms as safe houses, personal writing, higher education


Worldwide, the leading cause of
death is ischemic heart disease. Other than medical and surgical
management, alternative therapy such as relaxing music has been identified as
having an impact on reducing morbidity in ischemic heart disease. Although
several studies have been conducted to find out the impact of music on pain,
anxiety, heart rate and stress in myocardial ischaemia, literature on the long
term impact of music on severity of symptoms associated with stable angina is
very sparse. Therefore, the whole purpose of this study was to determine the
long term effects of Indian music on severity of symptoms in patients with
stable angina. Methodology: A single blind randomized clinical trial was
conducted on 60 patients of 45 to 65 years of age with stable angina. Intervention
group (n = 30) listened to a music based on Indian classical system at home
twice a day complementary to their regular treatment for a period of one
month. Control group (n = 30) was only on their usual treatment. Both groups
were assessed prior and one month after the study period for severity of
symptoms based on Canadian classification of angina
guidelines and their treatment. Results: Severities of symptoms (timing of the chest
pain, chest pain during walking and climbing a staircase, the effect of chest
pain in day to day physical activities, frequency and the number of GTN used
per week and frequency of consultation a doctor for chest pain) were
significantly improved in the study group (p 0.05). Conclusion: Systematically, regular listening of music based on
Indian classical system significantly improves the severity of the stable
angina symptoms. Hence music has a potential benefit in considering for use as
complementary to angina treatment in reducing morbidity.


With the replacement of Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor with Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, the pendulum has swung sharply away from Supreme Court deference to campaign finance regulation toward perhaps the greatest period of deregulation we will have witnessed since before Congress passed the important 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act. In 2006, in Randall v. Sorrell, the Court for the first time struck down individual contribution limits in candidate elections as too low. In 2007's Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL), the Court mostly eviscerated a key aspect of the McCain-Feingold law limiting corporate and union spending in federal elections. More importantly, a new Court majority has signaled its receptivity to many more challenges to campaign finance laws. As Part I of this Article explains, as a matter of jurisprudence the Roberts Court's new approach to campaign finance regulation is just as incoherent as the prior New Deference approach, though moving in a decidedly different ideological direction. Likely in an effort to appear moderate or minimalist, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito have made their deregulatory moves without expressly overturning existing precedent, leading Justice Scalia in WRTL to decry Chief Justice Roberts' and Justice Alito's faux judicial restraint, which Justice Scalia says obfuscat[es] the Court's sub silentio overruling of precedent. Justice Scalia is right (if impolitely blunt): given Chief Justice Roberts' and Justice Alito's views of the First Amendment and campaign finance regulation, there is no jurisprudential reason (though there were political reasons) for the two newest Justices not to join Justice Scalia's concurring opinion expressly calling for overruling of the precedent of deference. As Part II details, however, the lack of jurisprudential consistency described in Part I will be inconsequential for the politics on the ground. Beyond incoherence, the WRTL principal opinion removes effective limits on corporate and union spending from their general treasury funds in elections. The only ads that may not be paid for with such funds are those that expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates for office and those that are susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate. There are debatable issues around the edges of interpreting this new test, but those disagreements are likely to be mostly of interest to academics and to those who will deliberately craft advertisements to further push the development of deregulatory jurisprudence. The new test will not pose a formidable obstacle for those corporations and unions that wish to run ads to influence elections. As a result, we could well see a significant rise in corporate election-related spending. Finally, Part III looks at the next likely challenges to campaign finance regulation, and how the Roberts Court is likely to address them. Though the Roberts Court's faux minimalist approach allows for some variation in how lower courts will address campaign finance challenges in the near term, the lower courts' pre-McConnell experience demonstrates that many courts are likely to strike down ever more campaign finance regulations on First Amendment grounds. Those few appellate courts that uphold such laws likely will face Supreme Court reversal. I expect to see challenges to laws that have been upheld by the Supreme Court in the past, such as the ban on corporate and union spending from treasury on express advocacy, the McCain-Feingold ban on contributing soft money to political parties, federal individual campaign contribution limit, and laws requiring disclosure of electioneering communications. I also expect to see challenges to laws that the Supreme Court has not directly addressed, such as a challenge to the constitutionality of contribution limits to independent expenditure committees and 527 organizations. I believe many of these challenges will succeed.


This study was conducted to discover a new filtering media, specifically for pathogenic microorganism removal for the water treatment industry to produce safe drinking water. Granular bed filtration was used in this study as a healthy, simple and economical method to prevent the penetration of bacterial contamination. Alternative filter media from local source namely the burnt oil palm shell (BOPS) was also introduced. In order to determine the BOPS performance, the experimental programme and research approach used in this study were the design and construction of filtration unit, preparation of filter media, determination distribution size, morphology, porosity and specific gravity of filter media and also physical and biological analysis of filtrate water. In addition, total coliform and Escherichia coli tests of filtrate water in single-, dual- and tri-media filter were also investigated. Physical properties of BOPS were found to be equivalent or superior to those commercialized available granular filter media with ball-pan hardness of 97.30%. Granular media filter with mix media classes (which is a dual-media filtration) is also found to be a reliable surrogate for physical removal and biological barrier during filtration studies. Dual-media filtration BOPS/sand ES 1.0/0.5 mm is operating optimum condition of removing 80.77% of turbidity, 76.23% of suspended solid, 59.45% of colour and for bacteriological 0.63 log and 0.46 log of removal for total coliform and Escherichia coli. There was statistically significance difference between types of media filter to the removal of physical variable at 0.05 level as determined by one-way anova for the turbidity % removal (p = 0.000), suspended solid % removal (p = 0.000) and colour % removal (p = 0.000). Under one-factor analysis, there was a statistically significant difference for dual-media filtration for Escherichia coli removal (p = 0.001), but not significant for single- and tri-media filter. Both Tukey HSD and Scheffe post hoc analysis revealed that BOPS/Sand: 1.0/0.5mm significantly higher log of removal by compared to commercial filter media anthracite/sand. The study also identified that energy losses were correspondingly to the porosity and shape factor value of media filter. Moreover, lower diameter grain size resulted in higher energy losses. The BOPS was identified as a potential filter media that can help in reducing the cost of water treatment and enhancing environmental sustainability. Thus, the final result of this study has found that BOPS can be used as a new biodegradable medium filter in water treatment process specifically for the removal of pathogenic microorganism.


In this study we perform Brownian dynamics simulations to investigate the influence of surface reaction rate on the development of size dispersion of interfacial nanostructures that form by electrodeposition of non-interacting ions (particles) onto surfaces with randomly distributed nucleation sites. The surface reaction rate is incorporated into the simulations by using a reaction probability that approaches unity in the case of instantaneous, diffusionlimited deposition. It is found that the size uniformity of the growing particles on the randomly distributed active sites can be improved by decreasing the reaction probability. The simulation results, in qualitative agreement with experiments, show that decreasing the reaction probability is an effective means to weaken the interparticle diffusion coupling by reducing the overlap of diffusion zones surrounding the nanoparticles, and thereby reduce the particle size dispersion.


Abstract Construct: We aimed to develop an assessment tool to measure the quality of electronic health record inpatient documentation of cross-cover events. Background: Cross-cover events occur in hospitalized patients when the primary team is absent. Documentation is critical for safe transitions of care. The quality of documentation for cross-cover events remains unknown, and no standardized tool exists for assessment. Approach: We created an assessment tool for cross-cover note quality with content validation based on input from 15 experts. We measured interrater reliability of the tool and scored cross-cover note quality for hospitalized patients with overnight rapid response team activation on internal medicine services at 2 academic hospitals for 1 year. Patients with a code blue or a clinically insignificant event were excluded. The presence of a note, writer identity (resident or faculty), time from rapid response to documentation, note content (subjective and objective information, diagnosis, and plan), and patient outcomes were compared. Results: The instrument included 8 items to determine quality of cross-cover documentation: reason for physician notification, note written within 6 hours, subjective and objective patient information, diagnosis, treatment, level of care, and whether the attending physician was notified. The mean Cohen's kappa coefficient demonstrated good interrater agreement at 0.76. The instrument was scored in 222 patients with cross-cover notes. Notes documented by faculty scored higher in quality than residents (89% vs. 74% of 8 items present, p < .001). Cross-cover notes often lacked subjective information, diagnosis, and notification of attending, which was present in 60%, 62%, and 7% of notes, respectively. Conclusions: This study presents reliability evidence for an 8-item assessment tool to measure quality of documentation of cross-cover events and indicates improvement is needed for cross-cover education and safe transitions of care in acutely decompensating medical patients.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the use of a linguistic form (lexical reduplication) can communicate affective contents. Lexical reduplication, understood as the intentional repetition of a word, is defined as a pattern XX used to convey, on the one hand, a content which differs from the "basic" meaning of X by involving, for instance, intensification, narrowing, or expansion, and, on the other hand, an affective content that results from the evaluation of the state of affairs at hand. To test reduplication as well as the derivation of affective contents linked to its use, I have relied on a recognition task: after hearing a short story, participants were asked if the items presented on the screen occurred in the story or not. The results obtained suggest that the formal pattern of reduplication plays the role of a trigger.


Fire is a complex process involving interactions and feedbacks between biological, socioeconomic, and physical drivers across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This complexity limits our ability to incorporate fire into Earth system models and project future fire activity under climate change. Conceptual, empirical, and process models have identified the mechanisms and processes driving fire regimes, and provide a useful basis to consider future fire activity. However, these models generally deal with only one component of fire regimes, fire frequency, and do not incorporate feedbacks between fire, vegetation, and climate. They are thus unable to predict the location, severity or timing of fires, the socioecological impacts of fire regime change, or potential non‐linear responses such as biome shifts into alternative stable states. Dynamic modeling experiments may facilitate more thorough investigations of fire–vegetation–climate feedbacks and interactions, but their success will depend on the development of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) that more accurately represent biological drivers. This requires improvements in the representation of current vegetation, plant responses to fire, ecological dynamics, and land management to capture the mechanisms behind fire frequency, intensity, and timing. DGVMs with fire modules are promising tools to develop a globally consistent analysis of fire activity, but projecting future fire activity will ultimately require a transdisciplinary synthesis of the biological, atmospheric, and socioeconomic drivers of fire. This is an important goal because fire causes substantial economic disruption and contributes to future climate change through its influence on albedo and the capacity of the biosphere to store carbon. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:910–931. doi: 10.1002/wcc.428


In the framework of indoor mobile robotics, place recognition is a challenging task, where it is crucial that self-localization be enforced precisely, notwithstanding the changing conditions of illumination, objects being shifted around and/or people affecting the appearance of the scene. In this scenario online learning seems the main way out, thanks to the possibility of adapting to changes in a smart and flexible way. Nevertheless, standard machine learning approaches usually suffer when confronted with massive amounts of data and when asked to work online. Online learning requires a high training and testing speed, all the more in place recognition, where a continuous flow of data comes from one or more cameras. In this paper we follow the Support Vector Machines-based approach of Pronobis et al., proposing an improvement that we call Online Independent Support Vector Machines. This technique exploits linear independence in the image feature space to incrementally keep the size of the learning machine remarkably small while retaining the accuracy of a standard machine. Since the training and testing time crucially depend on the size of the machine, this solves the above stated problems. Our experimental results prove the effectiveness of the approach.


Background Falls down stairs are a common presentation to the paediatric emergency department. The pattern of injury associated with this mechanism of injury has not been described for the UK population. A retrospective analysis of attendances to the Emergency Department of Sheffield Children's Hospital was carried out. Results Overall 90% (216/239) of patients sustained one or more injuries; 69% (165/239) sustained minor head and facial injuries; 12% (29/239) sustained minor soft tissue injuries of other regions; 10% (23/239) had limb fractures, of which 60% (14/23) were of the upper limb (nine clavicle fractures, one supracondylar fracture of the elbow and four wrist fractures) and 40% (9/23) were of the lower limb (four femoral fractures and five tibial fractures). Two per cent (5/239) had skull fractures (all were in the group of children dropped while being carried on the stairs). Injuries to more than one body part occurred in only 3% (8/239) of cases. Discussion The results suggest that children who fall down the stairs are mainly toddlers and in general sustain only minor injuries, the commonest being a minor head injury. Severe truncal and extremity injuries or injuries involving multiple body regions should provoke further questioning looking for evidence of non-accidental injury. There is no correlation between the number of stairs fallen down and the likelihood or severity of injury. Conclusion Infants who fall down stairs with their carer or are dropped while being carried down stairs require an especially close evaluation.


In September 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Chevron v. Yaiguaje, a case that legal commentators had been keeping an eye on for years. The Chevron case has spanned several decades as well as several continents, and the enforcement action in Ontario was the latest in a series of procedural moves aimed at enforcing a nearly $10 billion Ecuadorian judgment against the oil giant. In Chevron, the plaintiffs sought to have the judgment enforced in Ontario against both Chevron (the judgment debtor) and Chevron Canada (a seventh-level indirect subsidiary of the judgment debtor). The Chevron case did not decide the merits of the dispute, but rather addressed two discrete jurisdictional questions: (1) Was a real and substantial connection between Chevron and Ontario required in order to enforce a money judgment against Chevron? And, (2) What was the appropriate basis of jurisdiction over Chevron Canada?
With respect to the first issue, the Court held that jurisdiction was properly assumed over Chevron, the judgment debtor, because service of process had been properly effected on Chevron pursuant to the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure. No additional showing of a real and substantial connection between Chevron and Ontario was required. With respect to Chevron Canada, the Court held that jurisdiction was appropriate in Ontario because Chevron Canada was carrying on business in Ontario and it was served with process in juris. It is this latter holding that has the most potential to disrupt the existing case law.
What the Supreme Court of Canada did in Chevron was essentially endorse tag jurisdiction over a corporation. If a corporation is carrying on business — a fairly low standard judging from the Chevron case itself — and the corporation is served in juris, then a provincial court will have general jurisdiction over the corporation. General jurisdiction, a largely American term, refers to the power of a court to adjudicate any and all disputes involving a defendant, even those with no connection to the underlying forum. Although the Court justified its holding on presence-based jurisdiction over Chevron Canada on the basis of well-established precedent, this Article takes the position that this precedent is actually not that well-established. For instance, in the leading case cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, Incorporated Broadcasters, the Ontario Court of Appeal actually appeared not to understand what is required to assert presence-based jurisdiction over a corporation. Additionally, this Article argues that there are various (likely unintended) conceptual problems created by the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Chevron: the adoption of too low a standard for carrying on business, which results in the assertion of universal jurisdiction over corporate defendants; the partial subsuming of the real and substantial connection test; and the conceptual misalignment between presence-based jurisdiction and assumed jurisdiction. This latest development in Canada ironically comes at a time when U.S. courts are dramatically reining in general jurisdiction. This Article suggests that the United States' experience with this issue — and its reasons for severely limiting general jurisdiction — should inform Canadian jurisprudence on the topic.


One of the latest technologies to garner attention from the food world is the Web site Kickstarter, and it has already affected the restaurant industry in a number of ways. The Web site is a crowd-funding platform for "creative projects" in multiple disciplines–several restaurant owners have already used Kickstarter to raise capital toward opening and sustaining restaurants. The Kickstarter team9s definition for a "creative project" is vague at best, and patterns have already emerged that raise questions about whether restaurants are an appropriate type of project to harness this platform. So far, three patterns have taken shape: the neighborhood restaurant, the philanthropic restaurant, and the experimental spot, as evidenced by Colonie in Brooklyn, Mission Chinese Food and Commonwealth in San Francisco, and What Happens When in New York, respectively. While restaurants use many creative elements, they also are businesses at the core. Thus, the best restaurant-oriented candidates for Kickstarter are those who aim to go beyond the conventional expectations of what a restaurant should provide. Ideally they will use Kickstarter9s crowd-sourced funds to bring more to the community than what the charge for on the plate.


ABSTRACT Over New Year's Eve in 2016, a slew of sexual assault cases against women came to light in India's tech hub of Bengaluru. Four years prior, against the backdrop of a violent rape in the nation's capital of Delhi, prominent feminists and activists took to the streets as part of mass public protests calling for legal protections for women in India. The response to the New Year's Eve allegations, however, differed in two ways. The first was the conspicuous role social media played for the first time in the feminist movement in India. The second was the leadership provided by young feminists in the country. A coalition of various feminist organisations and individuals banded together to form a collective under the hashtag #IWillGoOut. This article discusses feminist activism over a period of two weeks at the start of 2017, when the #IWillGoOut collective rapidly mobilised widespread public support calling for the safety of women and minorities in public spaces in India. The campaign organised and led marches and events in over 30 towns and cities of India with no formal fundraising effort. I draw on my personal experience of organising the campaign to share insights into its success in transforming online support to offline action using social media. This experience provides a useful example that can be used in other social justice movements in the Indian subcontinent.


Planning of construction operations and projects must take into account weather conditions and the resulting impacts on the project schedule. Predetermination of weather and its resulting impacts on a construction schedule will allow management to implement a program to effectively deal with its effects. A methodology for incorporating weather effects must include the identification of activities subject to delay as a result of adverse weather conditions, a model for determining the degree by which an activity is affected, and a recording mechanism by which the results are maintained for analysis. This paper summarizes a simulation model which generates weather conditions. modifies the construction schedule to reflect the conditions generated, and records activity and total project duration as probability distributions after a number of simulation runs.


Objective Experimental studies have shown that adrenomedullin (ADM) has an important role in circulatory homeostasis. Mid-regional pro-ADM (MR-proADM) is a stable form of ADM. Observational studies found an important association with age, body mass index and kidney function. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic performance of MR-proADM in the general population, controlling for these potential confounders. Methods 7903 subjects (mean age 49±13 years, 49% male) from the Prevention of REnal and Vascular ENd-stage Disease (PREVEND) cohort with a median follow-up of 10.5 years were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. Results Mean baseline MR-proADM was 0.39±0.14 nmol/l. In cross-sectional analyses, age, blood pressure, C reactive protein, cystatin-C, N-terminal pro-brain type natriuretic peptide and urinary albumin excretion remained as independent determinants of MR-proADM. In prospective analyses, MR-proADM was associated with the primary endpoint (combined cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular morbidity), with event rates ranging from 8% in the lowest quintile to 45% in the highest quintile (p for trend <0.001) independent of age, sex, components of the Framingham risk score and other cardiovascular markers. Overall Net Reclassification Improvement against the Framingham risk score was 2.2%, which was non-significant. However, significant modification of the effect of MR-proADM on outcome by age was observed. In subjects aged ≤70 years (N=7475), 8.8% were correctly reclassified in a higher risk category (p=0.017) and 3.4% in a lower risk category (p<0.001). In subjects aged >70 years (N=428) there was no improvement of reclassification (p=0.32). Conclusion This study gives a detailed overview of the distribution of ADM in a general population and provides evidence that it is a potent and interesting biomarker in predicting cardiovascular events. These results seem especially applicable to younger subjects.


OBJECTIVE
To review and evaluate the evidence for the widespread view that signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are influenced, or even caused, by the weather.

METHODS
A literature search from 1985 to April 2003 was performed using the PubMed database of the US National Library of Medicine. Additional relevant articles were identified from the bibliographies, and from our own archives. Methods and findings of the studies were critically reviewed.

RESULTS
Only temperature and humidity appear to have clear influences on the symptoms of RA, although the reported findings do not agree. In many cases, the apparent controversies can be explained by the intimate relationship between temperature and humidity, and by taking local circumstances into account. The differences in the methods applied in studies on effects of weather on RA strongly hampered our evaluation.

CONCLUSION
RA variables are positively correlated with the humidity of the microclimate at the patient's skin. High outdoor relative humidity is unfavorable, but has less influence when there are few barriers for water vapor, like clothes, and when air conditioning is used. High temperature is unfavorable since it increases absolute humidity, but beneficial as well, since it reduces the presence of barriers, and stimulates the use of air conditioning. The classic opinion, "Cold and wet is bad, warm and dry is good for RA patients," seems to be true only as far as humidity is concerned.


As the train develops in the direction of high speed, intelligence and comfort, higher requirements are raised on safety and reliable running of the train. The structure design of locomotive becomes increasingly complex and more service information with its variety is offered to the passengers. These factors diversify the equipment in the train network system and the number and variety of control information, monitoring information, and failure diagnose information as well as passengers' service information that need to be transmitted through train network are also doubled. Therefore, the train network system is the key in the future of train as well as the train stability and safe running. The more reliability the train network system has, the more safely the train runs in addition to the great reduction of commissioning and maintenance costs. Therefore, it is of vital theoretical and practical significance for the design of train network system and even of the complete train to analyze the reliability of the train network system and explore the improved measurements of reliability of train network system. Currently, little systematic reliability evaluation is conducted on the train network system of the existing train, and the introduction on the effect of reliability factors on the train network system is far from specific. This paper is aimed at putting the current train network system in the mainstream into model building and carrying out systematically reliability evaluation in an effort to seek out the factors that affect the system reliability. It sets out to elaborate on the basic theory of reliability and then puts the WTB + MVB network aimed at the current mainstream frame into reliability model building through a serial model, and puts the frame of ETB+ECN network aimed at the development trend of the next generation into reliability model building at the same time. Finally, the reliability expression of both systems is thus obtained. The main factors that affect reliability of the train network system are obtained through the analysis. The model provides references for the reliability evaluation and active safe operation and maintenance of the train network system, and for further network system design of the existing train.


This is a biography of Remedios Varo, a Surrealist painter based on interviews with the artist's family, close friends and fellow artists. The author also draws on the family's extensive archives and research in Mexico, Europe and North Africa. From her wandering childhood in Spain to her final years of intense creativity in Mexico City, Remedios Varo lived a life filled with adventures as strange as the scenes she rendered. Tapping into sources as diverse as alchemy and physics, mysticism and engineering, mythology and mathematics, she created evocative, jewel-like images whose power is reinforced by her highly precise technique. The greatest influence on her art and life was Surrealism, which she first encountered in Barcelona and later pursued in Paris where she was married to the Surrealist poet Benjamin Peret, and where her long, collaborative friendship with Leonora Carrington began. Varo had a war-haunted life - she moved to Paris to escape the Spanish Civil War, then barely escaped France during the Nazi occupation - and had intense romantic involvements with three husbands and numerous lovers. She settled in Mexico in 1942, where she remained - and was passionately admired - until her death in 1963.


The approach set forth by Edward Craig in  Knowledge and the State of Nature  has a greater explanatory value than it has been granted to date, and his suitably modified project can resolve a number of puzzling issues regarding the value of knowledge. The paper argues that a novel theory that relates knowledge to testimony is capable of explaining why knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief and why it has a distinctive value. Significantly, this theory avoids the recently advanced revisionism regarding the focus of epistemological research.


Security protocols are the small distributed programs which are omnipresent in our daily lives in areas such as online banking and commerce and mobile phones. Their purpose is to keep our transactions and personal data secure. Because these protocols are generally implemented on potentially insecure networks like the internet, they are notoriously difficult to devise. The field of symbolic analysis of security protocols has seen significant advances during the last few years. There is now a better understanding of decidability and complexity questions and successful automated tools for the provision of security and prevention of attack have been applied to numerous protocols, including industrial protocols. Models have been extended with algebraic properties to weaken the perfect cryptography assumption and even computational soundness results towards cryptographic models have been achieved. What was still missing, however, was a book which summarized the state-of-the-art of these advances. Whilst this book does not pretend to give a complete overview of the field - something which would be impossible in a single volume - it does, nevertheless, cover a representative sample of the ongoing work in this field, which is still very active. The book contains an introduction and ten tutorial-like chapters on selected topics, each written by a leading expert, and will be of interest to all those involved in the formal analysis of security protocols.


Background: Lack of internal data makes some operational risks hard to calculate with quantitative models. This is true for the IT risk or the risk that a bank will experience losses caused by IT System and Infrastructure failure. IT systems and infrastructure are getting more predominant and important in the banking industry which makes the IT risk even more important to quantify. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to find an appropriate way of modelling IT risk for the banking industry. The purpose is to test different models constructed according to the Loss Distribution Approach and observe which models work best at quantifying the IT risk for the banking industry. The reason to quantifying the IT risk using the Loss Distribution Approach for the whole industry is because individual banks do not have enough internal data to do so themselves. There is still a need for a quantitative understanding of this risk and an industry level quantification will help visualize the IT risk exposure banks face today. Method: In order to find an appropriate way of modelling the IT risk in the banking industry, this paper tries different models constructed using the Loss Distribution Approach. These different models were categorized into two different methods referred to as Method one and Method two. Method one is the simple Loss Distribution Approach to modelling this IT risk and Method two twists this approach by modelling the severity distribution with a hybrid distribution. Conclusion: In general terms, method two were found to be the best method to use for modelling the IT risk. Hybrid distribution models do a better job at estimating rare events with high severity and are, therefore, good models to use for quantifying the IT risk. A LDA model using Poisson as a frequency distribution and a Pareto tail and Log-logistic body as a severity distribution were the best model to use for modelling IT risk in the banking industry.


Background: Type II diabetes is becoming an epidemic among the population of Qatar. Patients with type II diabetes are more prone to periodontal disease. Metabolic derangement and poor quality of life are related to deterioration in the periodontal status. Objective: The aim of the current study is to estimate the prevalence of periodontal disease among patients with type II diabetes in Doha, Qatar. Study Design: This was observational cross-sectional study. Methods: One hundred and eighty patients with II diabetes were included in the study. Data were collected from participant medical records. The dental examinations consisted of a full-mouth assessment including the number of remaining teeth, assessment of periodontal status using the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index: To determine the impact of dental caries on the teeth. Similarly, the World Health Organization community periodontal index was used to determine the periodontal status of the patients. Information on metabolic parameters including glycosylated hemoglobin A1C values was collected from the participants' medical files. Results: A total of 49 (36.6%) participants had periodontal pocket of 4–6 mm, more than a third 46.6 (38.3%) of the participants had one tooth missing, around 52 (29%) patients had filled teeth, more than a third 72 (40%) of the participants had poor oral hygiene, two-third 120 (66.6%) had gingivitis, 71 (39%) periodontitis, and 66 (36.6%) dental caries. DMFT score showed that the majority of participants had decayed teeth 136 (75, 6%), 113 (63, 1%) had missing teeth, and 27 (15%) had teeth with total crown destruction. The mean DMF index was 6.3. Conclusion: Periodontitis was common among patients with type II diabetes in Qatar.