We uncover an ever-overlooked deficiency in the prevailing Few-Shot Learning (FSL) methods: the pre-trained knowledge is indeed a confounder that limits the performance. This finding is rooted from our causal assumption: a Structural Causal Model (SCM) for the causalities among the pre-trained knowledge, sample features, and labels. Thanks to it, we propose a novel FSL paradigm: Interventional Few-Shot Learning (IFSL). Specifically, we develop three effective IFSL algorithmic implementations based on the backdoor adjustment, which is essentially a causal intervention towards the SCM of many-shot learning: the upper-bound of FSL in a causal view. It is worth noting that the contribution of IFSL is orthogonal to existing fine-tuning and meta-learning based FSL methods, hence IFSL can improve all of them, achieving a new 1-/5-shot state-of-the-art on \textit{mini}ImageNet, \textit{tiered}ImageNet, and cross-domain CUB. Code is released at this https URL.


This thesis examines the relationship between organizations structure, culture and leadership. The specific organization that has been studied is Swedish secondary schools. The Swedish schools have a divided task, first to develop the students academic skills and secondly to develop the students socially and civically. This thesis has its interest on the schools social environment with special interest focused on questions regarding bullying and insulting behaviour. The data that has been used consists of interviews and questionnaires with students, teachers and principals in 24 Swedish schools that have been studied in a larger study. This work is a part of a project called Structure, Culture and Leadership – prerequisites for successful schools?. The 24 schools that took part in the SCL study were divided in to four different groups depending on how well they are succeeding in reaching the social and academic objectives formulated in the steering documents. The main result show that principals that succeed to align structure and culture in relation to both the social and academic objectives are the ones that can be perceived as successful. It is these schools that have the lowest level of bullying and the highest grades. The principal takes social responsibility and takes questions in relation to bullying and insulting behaviour seriously. By doing that the principal can communicate the seriousness of the topic in order to develop awareness within the organization and a preventive work can therefore be possible. In schools that work with the students' ability to be participative seems to develop the students both socially and academically.


MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of auxins 2,4-dichloro-phenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and combination with kinetin were studied to obtain a suitable protocol of callus initiation of Trigonella foenum graecum. Callus was induced from hypocotyls and cotyledons explants which were collected from the seedlings of the mentioned plant. The explants were cultured in MS medium supplemented with two auxins 2,4-D and NAA separately with different concentrations (0.0 as control, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 mg/l). Concentration of kinetin (0.5 mg/l) was used in combination with all concentrations of 2, 4-D and NAA hormones. The callus was successfully induced in all different concentrations of two mentioned auxins and combinations of different concentrations of two auxins separately with (0.5 mg/l) of kinetin. No callus formation was observed in the absence of plant growth regulators. Hypocotyl explants of T.foenum- graecum were much better in inducing callus than cotyledons explants. Combinations of NAA+Kin and 2,4-D+Kin were found to be more effective for inducing callus from hypocotyls explants compared to 2,4-D and NAA alone, at the same time callus induced by 2,4-D using cotyledons explants gave the best results compared to the other hormone. Among the different concentrations of auxin and combinations with kinetin ,the highest mean of callusing index from hypocotyls segments was (3.50±0.15) with 100% 0f callusing in sixth week by 4.0 mg/l NAA+ 0.5mg/l Kin. In the case of callus induction from cotyledons segments the highest mean of callusing index (2.41±0.18) with 100% of callusing in sixth week was observed by 1.0 mg/l 2, 4-D.


This thesis is the first long study of the forgotten novelist and playwright Lionel Britton, whose creative works were all published in the 1930s. Throughout, the emphasis is on his only published novel, the very long and experimental Hunger and Love (1931). The Lionel Britton Collection at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, U. S. A., along with many unpublished materials of Britton's, holds former states of the novel, and I use a large amount of this material in my thesis; I suggest reasons why the content of the typescripts was gradually changed from the 1920s to 1930. Another vital issue is Britton's status as a working-class author, and it is my contention that Hunger and Love is an important working-class novel, although it has been almost totally neglected by the critics recovering this sub-genre. My thesis also addresses modernism in working-class fiction, a subject which has all too often been ignored by the almost automatic foregrounding of realism, and is a strong feature of Hunger and Love. Following this, my thesis broadens out to cover political minorities represented as outsiders in literature, and deals with the unmarried woman, the homosexual and the non-white, comparing them with the working-class protagonist in Hunger and Love. The concluding chapter involves the utopias and dystopias of minority groups, with special reference to Britton's Brain (1930) and Spacetime Inn (1932), which as plays are very unusual to the science fiction genre.


SUMMARY: Fishing trials with monofilament gill nets and longlines using small hooks were carried out in Algarve waters (southern Portugal) over a one-year period. Four hook sizes of "Mustad" brand, round bent, flatted sea hooks (Quality 2316 DT, numbers 15, 13, 12 and 11) and four mesh sizes of 25, 30, 35 and 40 mm (bar length) monofilament gill nets were used. Commercially valuable sea breams dominated the longline catches while small pelagics were relatively more important in the gill nets. Significant differences in the catch size frequency distributions of the two gears were found for all the most important species caught by both gears (Boops boops, Diplodus bellottii, Diplodus vulgaris, Pagellus acarne, Pagellus erythrinus, Spondyliosoma cantharus, Scomber japonicus and Scorpaena notata), with longlines catching larger fish and a wider size range than nets. Whereas longline catch size frequency distributions for most species for the different hook sizes were generally highly overlapped, suggesting little or no differences in size selectivity, gill net catch size frequency distributions clearly showed size selection. A variety of models were fitted to the gill net and hook data using the SELECT method, while the parameters of the logistic model were estimated by maximum likelihood for the longline data. The binormal model gave the best fits for most of the species caught with gill nets, while the logistic model adequately described hook selectivity. The results of this study show that the two static gears compete for many of the same species and have different impacts in terms of catch composition and size selectivity. This information will be useful for the improved management of these small-scale fisheries in which many different gears compete for scarce resources.


Today, the management of resources and current expenditures, working capital management is to maximize shareholder wealth as part of the task of financial management is particularly important. Administrators can choose different strategies affect the company's liquidity. I.e., in current assets can be conservative or aggressive strategy to secure and in current liabilities can be either conservative or aggressive strategy selected. Risk management is the process that tries the risk of providing investors with regard to their expected returns and put it in the right direction. It should also be noted that risk and return are two integral part of the decision making and risks should always be considered with regard to efficiency. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of working capital policy on risk management companies. This study is based on analysis of literature and analytical Ali panel data (panel data) is. In this study, the financial data of 110 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 2007 to 2012 were reviewed (660 firm – years). To analyze the results of the study program 20 SPSS, 7 Eviews and 16 Minitab is used. The results confirm the hypotheses associated with the sub 1-1, 2-1, 3-1 and 4-1, respectively, show that Among the four criteria of profitability and working capital policy, return on assets, return on equity, return on investment and Tobin's q and there is a direct relationship. The results confirm the hypotheses associated with sub 1.2 and 2.2, respectively, indicating that the between policy and operational risk and financial risk, working capital and an inverse relationship exists.


An Investigation was made of the crystallising properties of sodium chloride, sodium thiosulphate alpha-pentahydrate, and barium hydroxide octahydrate, in fluidised bed crystallisers. The operational proceedure was either to grow batches of crystals under known degree of supersaturation to determine rate of growth, or to grow crystals continuously to determine crystal size and quality. It was found that the diffusive presentation of solute to the crystal surface was, in general, slower than the rate of surface reaction. This was probably caused by the low relative velocity of crystal and solution in fluidised bed crystallisation, and by the imperfections in structure produced by the collisions in the fluidised bed. Typical mass transfer coefficients are 80, 4, and 50 gms/cm2 x hr. x gm/cc for the three solutes, in the order given above.The crystals showed a resistance to growth below supersaturations of the order of 0.5 gms. litre, which agrees with the work of Burton and Cabrera, (Disc. of the Far. Soc., No.5, "Crystal Growth", 1945) who showed that a lower metastable limit for growth is possible. The effect of temperature on growth rate was found to vary with the solute. Sodium chloride growth rate increased with temperature, while sodium thiosulphate pentahydrate and barium hydroxide octahydrate growth rates remained almost constant with temperature increase. Under production conditions in the crystalliser, at some specific working temperature, the metastable limits for bulk nucleation are 1.6, 50, and 2.8 gms/litre, supersaturation coefficients of 1.005, 1.048, and 1.025) for the three solutes. Just before supersaturation reaches the metastable limit the crystals become covered with protruberances which probably signify dendritic growth, and poor crystal structure. The measured rates of crystal growth showed an adequate degree of repeatability; and it was possible to scale up results from a one inch diameter batch cooling crystalliser up to a one foot diameter continuous evaporative crystalliser. The product crystal for each solute was greater than mesh under continuous production conditions, with no dust present. The crystals were hard, tended to be spherical, and had a good luster. Production rates of 2 m.n. crystals were of the order of 40 lbs/hr. x ft2 of crystalliser cross-sectional area, provided a suitable height of fluidised bed was available.


Out-of-phase type thermo-mechanical fatigue tests have been performed for Al-Si cast alloys with the temperature range of 323–523 K and the applied mechanical strain range of 0.5–1.5%. Thermo-mechanical fatigue lives and stress-strain hysteresis loops are investigated by the experiments. In general, the thermo-mechanical fatigue is affected by various factors such as thermal expansion/contraction, elasto-plastic/ creep deformation, softening by overaging, dynamic recovery, damaging and cracking. Multi-step finite element simulation techniques have provided an effective way of assessing the local damaging behavior of silicon particles, along with extracting the contribution from creep. Although the size and shape of the silicon particles in the material with a higher solidification rate are similar to those of a slowly cooled material, it exhibits superior thermo-mechanical fatigue property together with a smaller secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS, hereinafter). Since the difference in the stress-strain hysteresis loops between the two materials has vanished when the softening by overaging is almost finished, the observed difference in the thermo-mechanical properties is attributed to age-hardenability rather than the SDAS. The effects of damaging at the silicon particles to this difference are also suggested. In fact, damaged silicon particles have been observed extensively from an early stage of the thermo-mechanical loading, then forming fatigue cracks by the linkage of the damages. It has been clarified by the simulation that interfacial debonding is likely to occur rather than particle cracking in the materials used. The simulation provides valuable insights into the understanding of the spatial distribution of damage in the eutectic region. The simulation has also enabled to assess the contribution of the creep deformation, indicating that medium to high cycle fatigues are significantly affected by it.


Abstract. How do environmental risk systems function? is the main underlying question to be answered by students learning environmental risk. Under the framework of the Innovative Teaching project, an open-source, interactive and collaborative web-GIS application (RISKGIS) is developed for students in learning and understanding of environmental risk systems with a focus on geohazards and risk. The aim is for students to better understand and become familiarized with approaches used by experts as well as for teachers to better evaluate and monitor student learning, through a practical application with real case studies and hand-on exercises. To identify the possibility and applicability of the developed learning platform, a series of practical exercises is carried out with undergraduate and postgraduate students during the spring and autumn semesters of the environmental risk, and advanced risk and vulnerability courses of the University of Lausanne. A total of three exercises are conducted starting from the rapid risk calculation (individual) exercise to more complex risk management (individual and group) exercise with different case studies and functionalities of the learning platform. Depending on the exercises, students are asked to answer the test quiz, feedback questionnaires and group reports (if requested) through the Moodle platform to evaluate the performance of the students, exercises and the RISKGIS platform. Average feedback results from three different exercises revealed that students found the exercises useful and interesting, while a user satisfaction score of 7/10 and a system usability scale (SUS) of 64/100 is achieved, showing that several aspects of the RISKGIS learning platform could be further improved with suggestions and feedback of the students.


Interfacial study between thiophene molecule and graphene surface is presented by employing density functional theory methods. To do so, interfacing separation distance is varied from 1.00A to 2.50A. Our reported HOMO-LUMO energy gap values, adsorption energy as well as binding energy show the existence of intermolecular forces accumulated from the attractive van der Waals and Pauli repulsion forces. It is noted subsequently that the growing intermolecular forces are very sensitive even to relatively a small change in the interfacing separation distance between the molecule and surface. In the electronic density of states, dense electrons population of the thiophene/graphene system is found with appearance of spinpolarization at energy Fermi level. Moreover, a slight magnetic behaviour on thiophene molecule, accompanied by a decrease in the magnetization of graphene surface, is observed in the presence of the molecule near to the surface.


Variational quantum algorithms offer fascinating prospects for the solution of combinatorial optimization problems using digital quantum computers. However, the achievable performance in such algorithms and the role of quantum correlations therein remain unclear. Here, we shed light on this open issue by establishing a tight connection to the seemingly unrelated field of quantum metrology: Metrological applications employ quantum states of spin-ensembles with a reduced variance to achieve an increased sensitivity, and we cast the generation of such squeezed states in the form of finding optimal solutions to a combinatorial MaxCut problem with an increased precision. By solving this optimization problem with a quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), we show numerically as well as on an IBM quantum chip how highly squeezed states are generated in a systematic procedure that can be adapted to a wide variety of quantum machines. Moreover, squeezing tailored for the QAOA of the MaxCut permits us to propose a figure of merit for future hardware benchmarks.


Research on international trade in services is rather fragmented. Services usually are not an object for international trade, as they are intangible, non-transportable, non-tradable at the international market level. Here, in this article the concept of international service is presented, as well as barriers for trading them abroad are indentified. Tendencies of international trade in services are underlined. On the ground of secondary data, opportunities to trade globally for Lithuanian services suppliers are developed. At the end of the article recommendations for increasing the level of international trade of services are discussed.


Abstract. The research illustrated in this article aimed at identifying a good standard methodology to survey very narrow spaces during 3D investigation of Cultural Heritage. It is an important topic in today's era of BIM modelling applied to Cultural Heritage. Spaces like staircases, corridors and passages are very common in the architectural or archaeological fields, and obtaining a 3D-oriented survey of those areas can be a very complex task when completeness of the model and high precision are requested. Photogrammetry appears to be the most promising solution in terms of versatility and manoeuvrability also considering the quality of the required data. Fisheye lenses were studied and tested in depth because of their significant advantage in the field of view if compared with rectilinear lenses. This advantage alone can be crucial to reduce the total amount of photos and, as a consequence, to obtain manageable data, to simplify the survey phase and to significantly reduce the elaboration time. In order to overcome the main issue that arise when using fisheye lenses, which is the lack of rules that can be employed to design the survey, a general mathematical formulation to precisely estimate the GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) for every optical projection is presented here. A complete survey of a real complex case study was performed in order to test and stress the proposed methodology, and to handle a fisheye-based survey from beginning to end: the photogrammetric survey of the Minguzzi Staircase. It is a complex service spiral-staircase located in the Duomo di Milano with a total height of 25 meters and characterized by a narrow walkable space about 70 centimetres wide.


The notion of citizenship, while a basic human right, has come under scrutiny. It was once assumed a liberal inspired regime of citizenship rights would reign as the primary ideological perspective in the Western world, however this has not been the case. Numerous competing paradigms have questioned the premise upon which liberal guarantees of citizenship rights are based. In particular, communitarianism has subjected liberal rights discourse to a closer examination. Communitarian theory holds that universalist principles negate any articulation of community and its internal diversity, such as cultural citizenship. It is this understanding of citizenship that has taken hold in Canada. The Canadian political experience illustrates a number of attributes associated with communitarian thought. It is a collectivist society that articulates a notion of the common good, acknowledges the internal diversity of its citizens and possesses a highly developed deliberative democratic process. To this end, Canada can be described as being more communitarian than liberal in nature in the process it has adopted to address citizenship rights. However, the type of commuIiitarianism displayed in Canada differs from the political models examined by such scholars as Michael Sandel, Iris Marion Young or Will Kymlicka. Cultural citizenship rights are fluid and malleable in Canada. While no clear guarantees of citizenship rights exist, there is a common commitment by Canadians to engage in a fair, open and inclusive deliberative process. This model is unique to Canada; it cannot be exported in that it is a product of Canadian political culture. As a result, the contemporary demands of cultural citizenship are dealt with effectively and democratically in Canada in that the proper mechanisms for public deliberation exist.


Marker chromosomes are very rare in Klinefelter patients and phenotypic findings are related to the affected chromosomal region. The phenotypic effects of small supernumerary marker chromosomes (sSMC) range from multiple malformations/mental retardation to no effect (ie a normal phenotype). This wide spectrum of phenotypes is due to the origin, structure and gene content of the marker chromosome . The first Klinefelter case with sSMC 9 was published by Liehr et al in 2005. The present case was referred for chromosomal analysis because of dysmorphic features, speech delay and mild mental retardation. Conventional cytogenetic analysis revealed the 47 XXY karyotype in 17 metaphases and the 48 XXY + marker karyotype in eight metaphases. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH ) analysis to identify the marker chromosome was performed using the LSI p16 (9p21) Spectrum Orange/CEP 9 SpectrumGreen Probe (Vysis CDKN2A/CEP 9 FISH Probe) and partial trisomy 9 mosaicism was confirmed in this patient. To our knowledge, this is the second case of Klinefelter syndrome with a small supernumerary marker chromosome derived from chromosome 9.


The rhizomes of Alpinia officinarum Hance have been used conventionally for the treatment of various ailments, triggering a wide interest from the scientific research community on this ethnomedicinal plant. This review summarizes the phytochemical and pharmacological properties of the extracts and fractions from A. officinarum, a plant species of the Zingiberaceae family. Different parts of the plant – leaves, roots, rhizomes, and aerial parts – have been extracted in various solvents – methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, dichloromethane, aqueous, chloroform, and petroleum ether, using various techniques – Soxhlet extraction, maceration, ultrasonication, and soaking, whereas fractionation of the plant extracts involves the solvent–solvent partition method. The extracts, fractions, and isolated compounds have been studied for their biological activities – antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiproliferative, inhibition of enzymes, as well as the inhibition of nitric oxide production. More findings on A. officinarum are certainly important to further develop potential bioactive drug compounds.


Background: The association between cannabis use and the development of a first psychotic episode was studied in a group of 100 young people identified as being at very high risk for the onset of psychosis. Method: The 'ultra' high risk cohort was identified by the presence of subthreshold psychotic symptoms, or a combination of first-degree relative with a psychotic disorder and recent functional decline. Thirty-two per cent of the cohort developed an acute psychotic episode over the 12-month period after recruitment. As a component of a larger research study, the level of cannabis use by participants in the year prior to enrolment in the study was assessed at intake. Results: Cannabis use or dependence in the year prior to recruitment to this study was not associated with a heightened risk of developing psychosis over the following 12-month period and therefore did not appear to contribute to the onset of a psychotic disorder. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that cannabis use may not play an integral role in the development of psychosis in a high-risk group. While this study does not support a role for cannabis in the development of first-episode psychosis, we cannot conclude that cannabis use should be completely ignored as a candidate risk factor for onset of psychosis. A number of weaknesses of the study (the low level of cannabis use in the current sample, the lack of monitoring of cannabis use after intake) suggest that it may be premature to dismiss cannabis use as a risk factor for the development of psychosis and further research is urged in this area.


Which place occupies pleasure in sexual education programs? In Panama, as in other Latin American countries, violence against children and women does not allow people to realize own bodylines and less their right to pleasure. Present programs about sexual education, pregnancy prevention and AIDS promote the use of preservatives and abstinence but do not include the ethics of pleasure. Frequently, the health and training personnel are not prepared to speak about the topic. The use of sexual pleasure as a merchandise in media creates greater confusion. Bioethics must integrate psychological and anthropological studies and a sense of humanity to allow this personnel to work with persons towards the integral appropriation of human beings.


BACKGROUND: Acute hypotensive episodes (AHE), defined as a drop in the mean arterial pressure (MAP) <65 mm Hg lasting at least 5 consecutive minutes, are among the most critical events in the intensive care unit (ICU). They are known to be associated with adverse outcome in critically ill patients. AHE prediction is of prime interest because it could allow for treatment adjustment to predict or shorten AHE. METHODS: The Super Learner (SL) algorithm is an ensemble machine-learning algorithm that we specifically trained to predict an AHE 10 minutes in advance. Potential predictors included age, sex, type of care unit, severity scores, and time-evolving characteristics such as mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, or sedation medication as well as features extracted from physiological signals: heart rate, pulse oximetry, and arterial blood pressure. The algorithm was trained on the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care dataset (MIMIC II) database. Internal validation was based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the Brier score (BS). External validation was performed using an external dataset from Lariboisière hospital, Paris, France. RESULTS: Among 1151 patients included, 826 (72%) patients had at least 1 AHE during their ICU stay. Using 1 single random period per patient, the SL algorithm with Haar wavelets transform preprocessing was associated with an AUROC of 0.929 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.899–0.958) and a BS of 0.08. Using all available periods for each patient, SL with Haar wavelets transform preprocessing was associated with an AUROC of 0.890 (95% CI, 0.886–0.895) and a BS of 0.11. In the external validation cohort, the AUROC reached 0.884 (95% CI, 0.775–0.993) with 1 random period per patient and 0.889 (0.768–1) with all available periods and BSs <0.1. CONCLUSIONS: The SL algorithm exhibits good performance for the prediction of an AHE 10 minutes ahead of time. It allows an efficient, robust, and rapid evaluation of the risk of hypotension that opens the way to routine use.


Not available – first paragraph follows:
University research on insects and mites on citrus began in southern California in 1906 with the appointment of H. J. Quayle to the U.C. Plant Disease Laboratory at Whittier. In 1916 he correctly attributed resistance of black scale and California red scale to fumigation with HCN— one of the first reports of resistance. Quayle moved to Riverside in 1917, and the Division of Entomology of the Citrus Experiment Station was formed in 1918. Professor Quayle's studies on citrus insects and mites and their control brought worldwide recognition.


Although boat launching ramps are not 'high tech' facilities compared to many other types of waterfront construction, there is a continuing void of knowledge, experience, ability and confidence among both designers and contractors as how best to design and construct a first rate boat launching ramp. In an effort to fill that void in at least some small measure, this paper presents nine basic design and construction elements to be used in the development of boat launching ramps that are functional, durable and safe. The information has been developed over the past thirty years by California Department of Boating and Waterways staff, and represents the collective wisdom of boaters, harbormasters, concrete technicians, material suppliers, designers, engineers, consultants, government officials, and various other persons representing both public and private interests.


We present an innovative structure of a linear diffraction grating interferometer as a long stroke and nanometer resolution displacement sensor for any linear stage. The principle of this diffractive interferometer is based on the phase information encoded by the ±1st order beams diffracted by a holographic grating. Properly interfering these two beams leads to modulation similar to a Doppler frequency shift that can be translated to displacement measurements via phase decoding. A self-compensation structure is developed to improve the alignment tolerance. LightTool analysis shows that this new structure is completely immune to alignment errors of offset, standoff, yaw, and roll. The tolerance of the pitch is also acceptable for most installation conditions. In order to compact the structure and improve the signal quality, a new optical bonding technology by mechanical fixture is presented so that the miniature optics can be permanently bonded together without an air gap in between. For the output waveform signals, a software module is developed for fast real-time pulse counting and phase subdivision. A laser interferometer HP5529A is employed to test the repeatability of the whole system. Experimental data show that within 15 mm travel length, the repeatability is within 15 nm.


In "A Class Act," Karen C. Krahulik returns to the scene of her community history of Provincetown, Massachusetts, but uses a different methodology to assess the relationship between gentrification and transgression. Remaining within, but not confined by, the fields of history and oral history, Krahulik turns also to queer theory and performance studies to examine how artistic expression can be disruptive of Provincetown's seemingly facile slide toward homonormativity. In one section Krahulik assesses how the star of her essay, Ryan Landry, converted an underprivileged childhood into a successful form of "white trash" performance called, "booger drag." In another section she analyzes not only the subversive content, but also the timing of Landry's performances in a town that once was, but is no longer, necessarily queer. Analyzing Provincetown's history in the context of Landry's vexed iterations, allows Krahulik to provide a much more nuanced analysis of change over time in one of this country's most renowned gay resort meccas.


We demonstrated high power and low noise GaAs MMIC amplifiers for K- to Ka-band space equipment. For high power application, two different approaches were adopted. A SIV(Source Island Via-hole) FET high power amplifier achieved a saturation output power of 33 dBm with a power added efficiency of 26% at 21 GHz, which also provided an output power as high as 32 W when 16 chips of them were power-combined in an SSPA for an on-board transponder. On the other hand, a p-HEMT high power amplifier using lumped element matching circuits provided a P1dB of 31 dBm with a linear gain of 11.5 dB at 19 GHz. For low noise application, p-HEMT low noise amplifier delivered a super low noise Figure of 1.0 dB with an associated gain of 18 dB at 32 GHz. Gamma ray irradiation hardness of mm-wave MMIC LNAs was also investigated, up to 1E7 rad, which indicated that the p-HEMT MMIC LNA has sufficient gamma ray hardness in the space environment.


We developed a new quick pseudo-3D photoionization code based on Cloudy (Ferland et al.) and IDL (RSI) tools. The code is running the 1D photoionization code Cloudy various times, changing at each run the input parameters (e.g. inner radius, density law) according to an angular law describing the morphology of the object. Then a cube is generated by interpolating the outputs of Cloudy. In each cell of the cube, the physical conditions (electron temperature and density, ionic fractions) and the emissivities of lines are determined. Associated tools (VISNEB and VELNEB_3D) are used to rotate the nebula and to compute surface brightness maps and emission line profiles, given a velocity law and taking into account the effect of the thermal broadening and eventually the turbulence. Integrated emission line profiles are computed, given aperture shapes and positions (seeing and instrumental width effects are included). The main advantage of this tool is the short time needed to compute a model (a few tens of minutes).


Managers of Fund of Funds have access to information not available to the general public in evaluating funds from their own family. However, they may have family or self‐serving motives that can hurt shareholder performance. By examining a history of individual transactions of Funds of Funds, we show that managers of Fund of Funds despite access to nonpublic information select individual funds that underperform random selection. Much of this underperformance is shown to be explained by managers satisfying a specific set of family and management goals. Fund of Funds that invest exclusively outside their fund family do not face these family and management goals and they outperform funds of funds then invest inside the family.


In anaphase, microtubules provide a specification signal for positioning of the contractile ring. However, the nature of the signal remains unknown. The small GTPase Rho is a potent regulator of cytokinesis, but the involvement of Rho in contractile ring formation is disputed. Here, we show that Rho serves as a microtubule-dependent signal that specifies the position of the contractile ring. We found that Rho translocates to the equatorial region before furrow ingression. The Rho-specific inhibitor C3 exoenzyme and small interfering RNA to the Rho GDP/GTP exchange factor ECT2 prevent this translocation and disrupt contractile ring formation, indicating that active Rho is required for contractile ring formation. ECT2 forms a complex with the GTPase-activating protein MgcRacGAP and the kinesinlike protein MKLP1 at the central spindle, and the localization of ECT2 at the central spindle depends on MgcRacGAP and MKLP1. In addition, we show that the bundled microtubules direct Rho-mediated signaling molecules to the furrowing site and regulate furrow formation. Our study provides strong evidence for the requirement of Rho-mediated signaling in contractile ring formation.


We argue that a spending tax, as opposed to an income or wage tax, is the "last best hope" for a return to significantly more progressive marginal tax rates than obtain today. The simple explanation for this central claim looks to incentive effects, especially for "rich people," as both economists and commentators are inclined to focus. High marginal tax rates under an income tax fall on and hence deter the socially productive activities of work and savings. High marginal rates under a wage tax fall on and hence deter the socially productive activity of work alone. But high marginal rates under a spending tax fall on and hence deter high-end spending, which is arguably a social "bad," and do not necessarily deter the social goods of work and savings. This is a possible empirical result. In this Article, we present the analytic arguments for it and sketch out a research agenda that might verify it. The idea is that because one can escape or defer paying taxes under a progressive spending tax by saving, an activity with positive social externalities, the efficiency costs of high marginal rates under a spending tax can be mitigated. Unless people work only in order to be able to spend on themselves, and even then only if they fully internalize in their present labor supply decisions the ultimate tax they will pay - and we argue that each of these assumptions is unlikely to hold in the extreme - a spending tax can bear more steeply progressive rates with less cost in efficiency or social wealth than can an income or wage tax. A progressive spending tax also holds out the possibility of sorting the rich or high ability into two groups, elastic savers and inelastic spenders, which could yield welfare gains unavailable under income or wage taxes, which under current technologies can only sort the high ability into workers and non-workers. Progressive spending taxes also fall on consumption financed by windfall gains, as to which unexpected good fortune ex ante incentive effects are likely to be weak.Most of the Article sets out analytic possibilities. In the final Section, we add a sketch of a welfarist and a fairness-based argument for progressive spending taxes, and conclude with a call for a major new research agenda.


The main aim of this study was to carry out an in-depth investigation which would avoid the accepted criticism of unreliability and expense of many such studies. It was decided that the basic source of data would be Nottinghamshire Constabulary records for 1988, as it was expected that the new methods would prove successful on police accident files, thus making a very large new data base available for accident research in general. The type of accident chosen was the right-turning accident either onto or off a larger road, and 185 records of such accidents were coded for analysis, using a special coding scheme to cope with the sequential information, TRAAL (Traffic-Related Action Analysis Language). This study aimed to overcome some of the difficulties in analysis by drawing upon a variety of methods from other areas of the behavioural sciences, as well as more conventional statistical analyses. These included sequence analysis which preserves the temporal structure of the data and enables the effects of the order of events to be examined, so it may be possible to detect chains of events which are especially likely to result in accidents. Rule finding, based on genetic algorithms was also used, as well as a second, complementary, method of rule finding - based on Quinlan's ID3 algorithm to generate decision trees. Other more conventional methods were used such as cluster analysis, prototyping analysis of variance and other parametric and non- parametric analyses. In addition to the main in-depth study a subsidiary study was carried out where a sample of experienced drivers were asked to write an account of a right-turning accident as they envisaged it and a safe right turn (one that does not result in an accident). These hypothetical accounts were compared with each other using the same methods as for the real data, and looking for differences in their sequential structure. Results suggest that older drivers have specific problems with right turns at junctions of fast busy roads, and there is an excessive accident involvement of younger drivers; the study also emphasizes the vulnerability of bicycles, motorbikes and pedestrians.


Enhancing compliance with international norms by armed non-state actors is central to efforts to improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Limited engagement with such actors, as well as lack of clarity as to the precise nature and extent of the international legal regimes that are applicable to them, constitute significant barriers to achieving better compliance. In this article the authors argue for international human rights law to be more widely seen as imposing direct obligations upon armed nonstate actors and for counter-terrorism legislation not to be interpreted so as to preclude engagement on positive respect for humanitarian norms. What is needed is greater engagement with armed non-State actors, not less.


Studies of the change in mass and the geometry, due to evaporation, of small droplets of water on poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) have been performed. Measurements of contact angle, θ, contact radius, r0, and rate of mass loss with time in the regime of constant contact radius, valid for θ < 90°, are reported. Contrary to previous reports in the literature, it is shown that the rate of mass loss is proportional to the height of the droplet and not the spherical radius. The results are explained by a model based on a spherical cap geometry and the observed constant value of the contact radius. The predicted variation in contact angle with time is accurately fitted by the derived formula which gives a slope proportional to r0-2. Experiments over a range of contact radii from 0.293 to 0.585 mm confirm this power law behavior. To first order the rate of evaporation is predicted to have a weak time dependence and to be proportional to r0; a result which is also supported by the experimental data.


In the present work, impact of UV-B radiation (280- 315nm: 0.4 W m-2) on growth, photosynthetic pigments, protein, ascorbate, proline and lipid peroxidation have been studied in two cyanobacteria Nostoc muscorum and Synechocystis PCC 6803. UV-B radiation (2 to 6 hrs) leads to 55% inhibition of growth in Synechocystis PCC 6803 in comparison to control where as in Nostoc muscorum growth reduces up to 45%. This UV-B treatment also significantly decreased the contents of chlorophyll, carotenoids and phycocyanin. Photosynthetic pigments decreased with increasing doses of UV-B (2 to 6 hrs) radiation. However, the inhibitory effect in Synechocystis PCC 6803 was more pronounced than in Nostoc muscorum. With increasing UV-B exposure period, production of ascorbate (19- 45%), proline (12-29%) and lipid peroxidation was significantly higher in Synechocystis PCC 6803 as compared to control sample. It was observed that lipid peroxidation enhanced 33 % than control sample of Synechocystis PCC 6803. Our result shows that photosynthetic apparatus is the main target of UV-B radiation causing degradation of photosynthetic pigments. This study concluded that Synechocystis PCC 6803 was the susceptible organism for survival in stress condition than Nostoc muscorum.


WeObserve delivered the first European-wide Citizen Observatory (CO) knowledge platform to share best practices, to address challenges and to inform practitioners, policy makers and funders of COs. We present key insights from WeObserve activities into leveraging challenges to create interlinked solutions, connecting with international frameworks and groups, advancing the field through communities of practice and practitioner networks, and fostering an enabling environment for COs. We also discuss how the new Horizon Europe funding programme can help to further advance the CO concept, and vice versa, how COs can provide a suitable mechanism to support the ambitions of Horizon Europe.


The legal literature on federalism has long taken for granted that Americans no longer meaningfully identify with, or feel strong loyalties to, their states. This assumption has led some scholars to reject federalism altogether; others argue that federalism must be reoriented to serve national values. But the issue of identity and loyalty sweeps far more broadly, implicating debates about the political safeguards of federalism, the ability of states to check national power, and the likelihood that states will produce policy innovations or good opportunities for citizen participation in government. The ultimate question is whether American federalism lacks the cultural and psychological support to sustain itself.This article is the first comprehensive effort to assess whether contemporary American states are meaningfully distinctive from one another and whether contemporary Americans identify with their states. The death of state identity is an empirical claim, but no proponent of that claim has ever marshalled empirical evidence to support it. It is also a claim unique to legal scholarship: Scholars in political science, history, economics, cultural psychology, and other disciplines have developed extensive literatures on state political cultures. This article surveys those literatures and collects evidence on the states' geographic, demographic, and policy diversity, states' impact on political preferences, relative trust in state and federal institutions, state's distinct historical narratives, and the impact of individual mobility among the states. I conclude that reports of the death of state identity are greatly exaggerated — and that has important implications for American federalism.


Introduction In order to achieve America's educational goals, it is imperative that excellent teachers be recruited, prepared, and supported in every school (National Research Council, 1999; Pikulski, 2000). Professional development, as defined by Hassel (1999), is the process of improving staff skills and competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results for students. Teachers are becoming recognized as the centerpiece of educational change; active and powerful change agents who have the power to make a difference, both individually and collectively (Castellano and Datnow, 2000; Hurst, 1999). Reform efforts must address core processes of teaching and learning if they are to markedly change what happens in schools. Teachers must explore implementation of research insights in their own classrooms regarding needs, interest, instructional history, and proficiency of individual students. Teacher beliefs about an innovation, its consequences, concerns, and contextual variables associated with it, are important in determining teacher behavior (Burke et al., 1996; Castellano and Datnow, 2000; Kennedy and Kennedy, 1996; Laine and Otto, 2000; Ros and van den Berg, 1999). Attitude, in conjunction with action, are critical change factors (C. Kennedy and J. Kennedy, 1996). Ultimately, the individual teacher determines the extent to which any innovation occurs. With that in mind, the best teachers never assume they have arrived, but constantly strive to refine their practice. Current Status of Professional Development Studies that focus on teacher awareness have found many remain seriously unprepared to address individual differences in many academic skills (Alexander and Lyon, 1996; Darling-Hammond, 1997; Laine and Otto, 2000; National Research Council, 1998). They are often unable to put together superior instructional programs due to deficiencies in their own knowledge, industry, and motivation (Durkin, 1987). This may be attributed to current teacher preparation practices for both pre-service and in-service teachers (Alexander and Lyon, 1996; Lyon, 1998). Professional development for teachers, administrators, and faculty play an essential role in school reform efforts. Far more time must be made available for staff learning and planning if reform efforts are to succeed (Laine and Otto, 2000; Sparks, 1994). A study of more than 1,000 districts found every additional dollar spent on developing teachers netted improvements in student achievement greater than any other school resource (National Research Council, 1999). However, districts are currently spending less than half of one percent of their resources on staff development. Many of those school districts are not directing their professional development dollars in a coherent way toward sustained, practical learning opportunities for teachers (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Laine and Otto, 2000). These observations are confirmed by surveys indicating America's teachers are usually provided too little professional preparation. Teachers may not be in the position to make the best judgments about what a particular child needs nor do they have the experience to keep the student on track (Report of the Carnegie Corporation, 1996). Though an abundance of material exists concerning what constitutes good professional development for teachers, existing patterns fall short of what is needed (Laine and Otto, 2000; Sparks, 1994). Staff development efforts have been found ineffective due to short duration, low intellectual level, poor focus, and little substantive research-based content. Plans are developed and implemented from the top-down, are outdated, lack follow-up, neglect teacher concerns and neglect connections to challenges teachers face (Bullough, Burbank, Gess-Newsome, Kauchak, and Kennedy, 1998; National Research Council, 1998; Sullivan, 1999). They are found to be largely unrelated to school mission and too often inconsistent with changes in curriculum, assessment, and proven best practices (Laine and Otto, 2000). …


In this study cyclophosphamide was quantified after adapting a prior analytical method using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after solid phase purification and derivatization with trifluoroacetic anhydride. The analyte was measured by analysis in wipe test from infusion bags, which may be contaminated by contact with the gloves used during preparation of the drugs. Surface of bag contaminated may be an important source of contamination for workers in the others chemoterapy handling areas, such as administration rooms. This drug, in fact, is one of the most frequently used alkylating antineoplastic agents for different types of tumors and it is furthermore classified as a human carcinogen by IARC. Ifosfamide was used as internal standard and the quantification was carried out by reference to calibration curves within a range from 1 to 100 ng/mL. The limit of detection was 0.4 ng/mL. The values of the variation coefficient varied from 0.5 to 10% (intra-assay) and from 0 to 19% (interassay). Frozen reference wipe samples containing cyclophosphamide were analysed over one month and no significant loss was observed. The range obtained for bias assay was 83-116% and the recovery was 98.9%. Cyclophosphamide was measured in 36 of 42 infusion bags collected from different hospitals with values ranging from 90 to 41874 ng (median= 607.5 ng). The results, well related to those reported in the literature, suggest that this method can be used to identify cyclophosphamide from wipe samples and can be considered useful in exposure assessment to this drug. *Correspondence:


A carefully designed and beautifully illustrated photographic guide to the moths you are most likely to see during the day
This concise photographic field guide helps you to identify the day-flying moths most likely to be seen in Great Britain and Ireland. It combines stunning photographs, clear and authoritative text and an easy-to-use design to increase your knowledge and enjoyment of these intriguing and often colourful insects. Like butterflies, some moths fly regularly in sunshine, whereas others that usually fly at night are readily disturbed from their resting places during the day. This guide describes all of these species and features at least one photograph of each in its natural, resting pose. A brief description of each moth covers the key identification features and when and where to look for it, and includes information on its status, life history, special features and caterpillar food plants. Other sections explain how to distinguish moths from butterflies, and also provide essential information on biology, classification, habitats, gardening for moths, conservation and legislation and recording and monitoring.

Individual accounts for 158 species and photos of 28 others
More than 320 stunning photos, with every moth shown as you see it
Beautifully designed, easy to use and clearly written


Magnetostratigraphy is best known as a technique that employs correlation among different stratigraphic sections using the magnetic directions defining geomagnetic polarity reversals as marker horizons. The ages of the polarity reversals provide common tie points among the sections, allowing accurate time correlation. Recently, studies of magnetic methods and the timing of geological processes have acquired a broader meaning, now referring to many types of magnetic measurements within a stratigraphic sequence. Many of these measurements provide correlation and age control not only for the older and younger boundaries of a polarity interval, but also within intervals. Thus, magnetostratigraphy no longer represents a dating tool based only on geomagnetic polarity reversals, but comprises a set of techniques that includes measurements of geomagnetic field parameters, environmental magnetism, rock-magnetic properties, radiometric dating and astronomically forced palaeoclimatic change recorded in sedimentary rocks, and key corrections to magnetic directions related to geodynamics, palaeocurrents, tectonics and diagenetic processes.


Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard), an exotic plant species, has invaded woodlands in several areas in mid-western and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, and it is displacing the indigenous under-story flora. This study was conducted to provide information about the species' biology that might be useful in controlling its spread in native woodlands. The plant is a strict biennial in North America, spending the first year of growth as a basal rosette. This period of relatively slow growth is followed by a period of rapid shoot elongation (1.9 cm/day) during early spring of the second growing season. The plant is capable of cross- and self-pollination, although pollination and stigma receptivity occur before the flower is open, so autogamy is the most likely breeding system. Garlic mustard invests 20.4% of its biomass in reproductive effort, with an annual seed rain of 15,000 seeds/m2. Seed dispersal from fruits begins in early July and continues into October. Most seeds germinate in the spring following the year in which they were produced. Seedling recruitment is high (8.3–18.0 seedlings/cm2), but only about 7.5% of the plants survive to maturity. The success of the plant in invading woodlands appears to be related to (1) its autogamous breeding system that allows a single individual, or a few individuals, to establish populations of genetically similar but interfertile individuals; (2) high seed production, permitting establishment of large numbers of individuals; and (3) rapid growth during the second growing season, which increases its competitive ability. Because of garlic mustard's ability to occupy understory habitats successfully, it may be unrealistic to expect to eliminate the plant from many habitats it has already invaded.


Missing data poses significant challenges while learning representations of video sequences. We present Disentangled Imputed Video autoEncoder (DIVE), a deep generative model that imputes and predicts future video frames in the presence of missing data. Specifically, DIVE introduces a missingness latent variable, disentangles the hidden video representations into static and dynamic appearance, pose, and missingness factors for each object, while it imputes each object trajectory where data is missing. On a moving MNIST dataset with various missing scenarios, DIVE outperforms the state of the art baselines by a substantial margin. We also present comparisons for real-world MOTSChallenge pedestrian dataset, which demonstrates the practical value of our method in a more realistic setting.


The institutional use of IELTS for university admissions reflects an implicit claim for a student's language development and growth. The extent to which such potential is realised, or not, can therefore be considered a consequential validity issue of the IELTS examination. To date, there has been relatively little focus in IELTS impact studies on the different IELTS profiles of 'successful IELTS students'. This research adopted a case study approach and tracked 26 postgraduate students over a five to 11 month period in one English university. Framed as a post-IELTS impact study, it has examined the possible affective and academic impacts of the students' IELTS performances (in all four language skill areas) from the point at which they start their academic programs of subject learning. Identity is conceptualised from a socio-cultural perspective: drawing on the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998), the development of identity involves negotiation of access to communities of practice. Identity and learning are performed, and through narrative accounts of performance in learning journals, interviews and student workshops, we document the process of learning by international students. This process is further informed by two other data sets: i) the accounts of academic tutors and administrators, and ii) assessments of learning power, as represented by the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (Broadfoot 2005; Deakin Crick et al, 2004). Student performance on IELTS has been analysed in relation to the four language skill areas. Two approaches have been taken to the analysis of the data: (a) ethnographic accounts of subject learning through the medium of English, and (b) categorical analysis using winMAX (Kuckartz 1998). The findings from this research are several and point to: (i) the affective dimensions of the struggle of postgraduate students and the ways in which these derive from the test itself; (ii) the linking of this struggle with how they work through the four language skills; (iii) an overwhelming lack of awareness of admissions staff about IELTS; and (iv) the assumptions about the test by tutors and how these might impact on student performance.


Cardiac dysrhythmia is responsible for over half a million deaths in the United States annually. In this work, we evaluate the performance of neural networks on classifying electrocardiogram (ECG) sequences as normal or abnormal (arrhythmia). Using neural networks as our primary learning model, we explain our model's performance and discuss hyperparameter tuning. Comparing the results of our model to SVMs, random forests, and logistic regression, we find that our neural network outperforms the other three models with a binary classification accuracy of 91.9%. For the multi-class classification task, we achieve an accuracy of 75.7%. The use of GPUs accelerates the neural network training process up to an order of magnitude over CPUs.


Online banking is a new phase in retail banking services. With the help of online banking several types of services through which customers can request information and carry out their banking transaction such as balance inquiry, inter account transfers, utility bills payment, request check book etc., via a telecommunication network or internet without physically visit the branches. The advent of the Internet has a significant impact on banking service that is traditionally offered by the branches to the customers. With the help of the Internet, customers can do their banking anytime and anywhere as long as Internet access is available. This new type of service has been called "online banking" or "Internet banking." Customers are being facilitated by reducing their visits in banks and they can carry out their transactions via internet or ATM Machines instead of personally visiting the branches. The Promotion of online banking technology enabled the banks to enhance its operations with cost cutting effectively and efficiently in order to handle daily banking affairs via online banking channel. This Paper examines trends and dynamics of online banking.


When designing sports equipment, it is often desirable to predict how certain design parameters will affect human performance. In many instances, this requires a consideration of human musculoskeletal mechanics and adaptive neuromuscular control. Current computational methods do not represent these mechanisms, and design optimization typically requires several iterations of prototyping and human testing. This paper introduces a computational method based on musculoskeletal modeling and optimal control, which has the capability to predict the effect of mechanical equipment properties on human performance. The underlying assumption is that users will adapt their neuromuscular control according to an optimality principle, which balances task performance with a minimization of muscular effort. The method was applied to the prediction of metabolic cost and limb kinematics while running and walking with weights attached to the body. A two-dimensional musculoskeletal model was used, with nine kinematic degrees of freedom and 16 muscles. The optimal control problem was solved for two walking speeds and two running speeds, and at each speed, with 200 g and 400 g masses placed at the thigh, knee, shank and foot. The model predicted an increase in energy expenditure that was proportional to the added mass and the effect was largest for a mass placed on the foot. Specifically, the model predicted an energy cost increase of 0.74% for each 100 g mass added to the foot during running at 3.60 m/s. The model also predicted that stride length would increase by several millimetres in the same condition, relative to the model without added mass. These predictions were consistent with previously published human studies. Peak force and activation remained the same in most muscles, but increased by 26% in the hamstrings and by 17% in the rectus femoris for running at 4.27 m/s with 400 g added mass at the foot, suggesting muscle-specific training effects. This work demonstrated that a musculoskeletal model with optimal control can predict the effect of mechanical devices on human performance, and could become a useful tool for design optimization in sports engineering. The theoretical background of predictive simulation also helps explain why human athletes have specific responses when exercising in an altered mechanical environment.


The importance of the infrastructure sector to the process of economic growth and development has long been recognized and understood by scholars and policymakers. Without adequate infrastructure, modern commerce characterized by production specialization and exchange across markets would grind to a halt. Economic globalization would not take place without the reduction in communication and transportation costs brought about by the progress achieved in the development of infrastructure within and across countries. Thus, any attempt at understanding Malaysia's past experiences in economic development thus requires an analysis of the role that the infrastructure has played. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an analysis of how the infrastructure sector has developed in Malaysia and the role it has played in the country's development. In this chapter, the term 'infrastructure' refers to economic infrastructure, and principally covers transport, energy, information and communication technology, drinking water and sanitation.


Why aren't more people engaged in actions that would help mitigate climate change? The psychological "dragons of inaction" that impede green behaviors fall into seven "genera," each with multiple "species" of barriers to pro-environmental behavior. Collectively, they represent a formidable challenge to policy makers, not only because there are so many of these dragons, but also because policy makers will need to learn much more about which dragons impede which sorts of people in order to target policies cost-effectively. Some people, dubbed "mules," carry heavy loads of responsibility as they take major steps to mitigate climate change. Others are "honeybees" who help the environment, but without intending to do so. Too few people fall into either of these categories to make a real difference for the climate, the author writes, but he identifies five behavioral-science strategies that might help overcome the psychological barriers to climate action.


Restrictions on the hyperbolic trigonometric (HT) transformation are imposed to guarantee that a probability density function is obtained from maximum likelihood estimation. Performance of the restricted HT transformation using data generated from normal, beta, gamma, logistic, log-normal, Pareto, Weibull, order statistic, and bimodal populations is investigated via sampling experiments. Results suggest that the restricted HT transformation is sufficiently flexible to compete with the actual population distributions in most cases. Application of the restricted HT transformation is illustrated by characterizing uncertain net income per acre for community-supported agriculture farms in the northeastern United States.


Background There are only few reports on the diagnostic yield (DY) of small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We aim to report our SBCE experience in patients with CKD. Methods Retrospective study; case notes of patients with low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) who underwent SBCE (March 2005-August 2012) for anemia and/or obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) were retrieved and abstracted. Severity of CKD was defined according to Renal Association recommendations as: stage 3 (eGFR: 30-59); stage 4 (eGFR: 15-29); and stage 5 (eGFR <15 or on dialysis). Results In the aforementioned period, 69 patients with CKD [stage 3: 65/69 (92.8%), stage 4 or 5:4/69 (7.2%)] had SBCE. 51/65 (78.5%) patients with stage 3 CKD had SBCE due to unexplained anemia and/or OGIB [43 (66.1%) and 8 (12.3%), respectively]. In 25/51 (49%), the SBCE was normal and in 17/51 (33.3%) showed small-bowel angiectasias. Other findings were active bleeding (n=2), fold edema (n=2), ileal erosions (n=1), adenocarcinoma (n=1), and inconclusive/videos not available (n=3). All patients (n=4) with CKD grade 4 or 5 were referred due to unexplained anemia; 3/4 (75%) had angiectasias and 1 normal SBCE. Fecal calprotectin (FC) was measured in 12 patients with CKD stage 3 and unexplained anemia prior to their SBCE; no significant smallbowel inflammation was found in this subgroup. Conclusion SBCE has limited DY in CKD patients referred for unexplained anemia. Sinister SB pathology is rare, while the most common finding is angiectasias. Furthermore, FC measurement prior to SBCE -in this cohort of patientsis not associated with increased DY.


This essay hypothesizes that the tension between religious ideology and pragmatism has persisted throughout Iranian history. The Iranian Revolution simply put it on graphic display in the contemporary period. The essay also suggests that the dynamic processes of cultural maturation seem to be shifting the balance of influence increasingly away from religious ideology toward pragmatic calculation of the national interest in the making and implementation of foreign policy decisions. The obvious implications of all this for US-Iran relations are mentioned. The balance of ideology and pragmatism in the making of Iranian foreign policy decisions has been one of the most persistent, intricate and difficult issues in all Iranian history, from the sixth century BC, when the Iranian state was born, to the present time. For example, in assessing the decisions of Cyrus the Great for maintaining peace in the Iranian "world state," Adda B. Bozeman suggests that pragmatism rather than ideology dictated Cyrus's decisions.1 In my own works over the past half a century I have tried to hypothesize that the conundrum of the relationship between ideology and state interest has challenged Iranian policymakers ever since the establishment of the Safavid dynasty in 1501. Here, however, I would like to ask questions about the ideology-pragmatism challenge by drawing concrete examples from the pre-Islamic as well as Islamic periods of Iranian foreign policy. Richard N. Frye's seminal works on ancient Iran inspire me to do so.2 Within the limited scope of an essay, of course, even raising questions in the broadest strokes is quite an intellectual challenge. But the overarching purpose of this essay is only to suggest that the tension between ideology and interests in foreign policymaking has persisted throughout Iranian history. PRE-ISLAMIC EXAMPLES In her classic Politics and Culture in International History, Bozeman suggests that Cyrus succeeded in establishing not only the first world state, but also the first "international society" in large part because he was motivated by prudence rather than ideology in making policy decisions.3 Cyrus established a cosmopolitan state at a time when "the tyranny of empires plagued the fabric of community life everywhere." In such a world, she continues, "the Persian Empire, vaster than any preceding empire west of China, attained universal peace for some two hundred years in a large part as the result of tolerant respect for the cultural diversity of the subjugated peoples...." Cyrus's political prudence more than religious ideology underpinned his law. Richard Frye notes that Cyrus's law, which predated the Roman law, allowed the religious laws of Egyptians, Babylonians, and Hebrews to stay in force. The testimonies of ancient commentators seem to attribute Cyrus's observance of the practical circumstances in decision-making to his personal character. Herodotus testifies to his "statesmanship and liberality." Xenophon's Cyropeadia finds Cyrus "deserving admiration," above all, for honoring his people "as if they were his own children."4 Of course, the Bible reveres Cyrus for liberating the Jews from Babylonian captivity. Even the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt in the fifth century BC "with Persian assistance."5 To this day, Iraqi Jews trace their origins to his liberation policy. It is significant that in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi proudly declared to the world on December 10, 2003 "I am an Iranian, a descendant of Cyrus the Great" and "I am a Muslim."6 This showed that a quarter of a century of "Islamization" had failed to undermine the strong attachment of the Iranian people to their pre-Islamic cultural heritage, including its concern with human rights. Also, as will be seen, despite the Islamist zeal in the early phase of the Iranian Revolution, the Iranian foreign policy-makers never stopped taking into account national interest in making pragmatic decisions. …


As a marginalised group in Australian art history and society, women artists possess a valuable and vital craft tradition, which inevitably influences all aspects of their arts practice. Installation art, which has its origins in the craft tradition, has only recently been acknowledged in the art mainstream; yet evolved in the home of the 1950s. The social policies of this decade are well documented for their insistence upon women remaining in the home in order to achieve personal success in their lives. This cultural oppressiveness paradoxically resulted in a revolution in women's art in the environment to which they were confined. Women's creative energies were diverted and sublimated into the home, resulting in aesthetic statements of individuality in home decoration. A re-examination of this vital period in women's art and craft history reveals the social and cultural policies which insidiously undermined women's attempts publicly to express their creativity.

The patriarchal society in which women have existed has sought to place them in a subservient domestic role, which has been socially constructed with an inherent bias towards men. The cultural stereotyping of women and men framed the dichotomy of private and public which has become ingrained in society. Women were expected to fulfil their lives within the home and men outside the home, thus negating any competition or conflict in a career situation. The domains of each gender were clearly marked, and society ensured that these lines were rarely transgressed.

The house, with its symbolic connotations for women, encompassed therefore social roles and expectations of both women and men. During the 1950s and early 1960s, women of all classes were expected to stay at home and raise their family. Many families owned their own homes in this decade, as can be seen from statistics which indicate the dramatic rise of home ownership. The Modernist emphasis on space efficiency and simplicity of construction was eminently suitable to the home-builder, as smaller, simpler houses were more appropriate to their skills and budget. The austerity and simplicity of 1950s houses necessitated careful consideration of the placement of objects and furniture within the space. The home therefore became a stimulus to women whose creativity had been hindered by social policies.

During their married lives, including the time before, during and after childbirth, many women created an environment within the home that was both functional and aesthetic. In fact, many women had actually assisted in the construction of their house as partners in home-building, and therefore possessed an intimate knowledge of the construction of their space; usually refreshed during the completion of daily household tasks. As the 'woman of the house' the responsibility was upon them to organise the space through placement and arrangement of objects within in. This inherent responsibility came with numerous choices in order to create the ambience of the home they envisaged. The home as an aesthetic space in the 1950s can be re-examined through the definition of installation art in contemporary art this decade. The term installation has only been used in the last decade by mainstream art historians to describe a type of art making which rejects concentration on one object in favour of a consideration of the relationships between a number of elements, or of the interaction between things and their contexts.

The home was curated by a woman, whose sole purpose was to achieve an aesthetic relationship between the objects and environment to which they were integral. This relationship between the artist and the home can be classified as the advent of installation in women's art history. Installation is concerned with the fusion of art and life, a feature certainly evident in considering both functional and aesthetic values in the home through choices made by the artist/curator. The home was interactive because of its functionality, and viewers in the roles of visitors and family were encouraged to engage in and have dialogue with the installation which had been created.

The loneliness many women felt in being relegated to the home throughout history, was relieved in some ways by the pride they felt in creating a home and atmosphere which was their own. As Kerr notes (in Heritage: The National Women's Art Book), female artists working at home with young children in the 1950s speak also of the physical isolation they experienced, largely as a result of a spreading population and poor public transport. 'Not surprisingly, they frequently turned to their domestic circumstances – as indeed women had in the past for their inspiration and subject matter' (85). In this era the decorative arts of the home were not considered to be an art/craft form, and therefore many women justifiably believed they had to distance themselves from the domestic in order to be taken seriously as artists.


Johnson, born weak and half-blind, shambolic and poverty-stricken, became the most admired and quoted man in the eighteenth century. Thrown out of Oxford for a lack of funds, he rose to celebrity: author of "The Dictionary", a friend to the king, companion of Reynolds, Goldsmith and Garrick. David Nokes looks beyond Johnson's remarkable public persona and beyond the Johnson that Boswell to some extent created. Nokes looks at his troubled relationship with his first wife, whom he married for money but felt guilty about for the rest of his life; at his family, who haunted his dreams for years; and at his difficult, intimate relationship with Mrs Thrale. He shows a man who gave a quarter of the government pension he received to the poor, filled his home with the blind and destitute, and bequeathed his wealth to Frank Barber, an emancipated black slave brought from Jamaica. Insightful and engaging, "Samuel Johnson" draws an illuminating portrait of Johnson, his life and world.


We use molecular design, tailored syntheses, intermolecular interactions, and selective chemistry to direct molecules into desired positions to create nanostructures, to connect functional molecules to the outside world, and to serve as test structures for measurements of single or bundled molecules. Interactions within and between molecules can be designed, directed, measured, understood, and exploited at unprecedented scales. We examine how these interactions influence the chemistry, dynamics, structure, electronic function, and other properties. Such interactions can be used to advantage to form precise molecular assemblies, nanostructures, and patterns, and to control and to stabilize function. These nanostructures can be taken all the way down to atomic-scale precision or can be used at larger scales. We select and tailor molecules to choose the intermolecular interaction strengths and the structures formed within the film. We selectively test hypothesized mechanisms for electronic switching and driven motion by varying molecular design, chemical environment, and measurement conditions to enable or to disable functions and control of these molecules using predictive and testable means. Critical to understanding these variations has been developing the means to make tens to hundreds of thousands of independent single-molecule measurements in order to develop sufficiently significant statistical distributions, comparable to those found in ensemble-averaging measurements, while retaining the heterogeneity of the measurements. We quantitatively compare the conductances of molecule-substrate junctions. We find that the contacts and substrate play critical roles in switching. Switching of rigid, conjugated molecules is due to changes in the molecule-substrate bonds, which involves motion of the molecules and of substrate atoms. We are able to measure the coupling of the electrons of the molecules and substrate by measuring the polarizabilities of the connected functional molecules in high and low conductance states. These polarizabilities are compared to those of other families of molecules and to detailed calculations.


The reform of the public sector has been a continuing challenge for many governments around the world. In recent years, this reform has become dominated by such terms as 'new public management', 'managerialism', 'marketisation', 'privatisation' and 'commercialisation'. These terms reflect a broadly-based commercial direction that governments started taking in response to reform's pressures resulting from a perceived crisis of legitimacy, responsiveness, efficiency and accountability in public sectors. A significant feature of this commercial orientation was the adoption of private sector practices and economic market models by governments and public sector organisations. The underlying principle was competition. Governments believed that competition plays a major role in improving organisational performance, and by subjecting government organisations to relevant forms of competition they would become more cost conscious and results focused, leading to increased efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. In Australia, this commercial orientation has taken momentum with the introduction of the National Competition Policy, which advocated that to become more economic, efficient and effective, public sector organisations should operate on the same commercial principles as the private sector. In this regard, the policy required Australian governments to ensure competitive neutrality by eliminating resource allocation distortions arising out of government ownership, such as tax exemptions, regulatory advantages, discounted interest rates on loans, and cross-subsidization. Accounting has been a key element of this reform process, with a change being required as the traditional cash accounting system was not capable of providing the additional financial information that was needed as a result of the commercial orientation. In this regard, governments in Australia have introduced a commercial accounting system through the adoption of accrual-based accounting, budgeting and reporting practices. At first, the adoption of these practices started in organisations that provide business-like services and are in competition with private providers. At a later stage, Australian governments started also to introduce the practices into their whole public sector. While accrual accounting was believed to be useful in a competitive operating environment, this study aims to analyse its working in the Northern Territory of Australia where competition is very limited. The high cost of production resulting from a relatively small and dispersed population and the lack of economies of scale have resulted in a small private sector in the Territory. This has made the provision of many government services driven more by social imperatives than economic imperatives. In this regard, the study intends to assess the extent that commercial accounting practices have achieved their intended reform objectives. This study highlights a number of findings based on an assessment of the Northern Territory public sector's responses overall, supported by more detailed analyses of accounting changes in two departments. First, the small private sector in the Northern Territory has not supported the creation of a competitive market for most government goods and services. Second, although accrual accounting has been able to provide full cost information, the heterogeneity of some government services has resulted in a questionable full cost figure. The use of full cost in pricing has not achieved its intended benefits because of the absence of competitive market pressures. Also, the use of cost information in benchmarking has been fragile, mainly because higher costs of services are the result of 'capital cost disabilities' that exist in the Northern Territory and may have nothing to do with performance efficiency. Third, this study shows that accrual budgeting has not been used properly and therefore it has failed to achieve its objectives. Finally, while accrual reporting has improved the completeness of the accounting information available, especially at the whole of government level, it has not changed much from cash reporting in discharging accountability at organisational and whole of government levels.


Scattering spectra from X-ray, electron or neutron diffraction experiments are sufficient to describe the phase behaviour of noble gas clusters and to determine their temperature. Using classical Monte Carlo simulations combined with optimized data analysis and Path Integral Monte Carlo calculations as "idealized experiments" we obtain scattering spectra of Arand Ne-clusters. Starting from the classical and quantum mechanical hypervirial theorems we devise a method to estimate the temperature and the caloric curves (which describe the phase behaviour of the noble gas clusters) directly from these scattering spectra using an interatomic potential function as input. As applications we studied for Ar-clusters the effect of different model potentials on the temperature estimate thus contributing to the intricate question of what experimentally is the temperature of an isolated cluster. For Ne-clusters we investigate the differences between classical and quantum mechanical treatment. PACS: 36.40.+d; 05.20.Gg; 05.30.-d


Radiation measurement units have undergone a change from Rads and Rems to Grays and Sieverts. However, radiobiology literature uses both systems, resulting in confusion for Radiologists. Radiation exposure is quantified by the unit Kerma which is currently expressed in Grays and Sieverts. In this review, we attempt to explain both the earlier units and the present system of SI (System International) units. This review also appraises the reader that human beings live under significant doses of radiation from natural sources, such as the naturally occurring radioactive gas radon, besides that from man-made sources such as X-rays, radioactive medication and nuclear installations. The biological effects of radiation had been studied and documented within few years of the discovery of X-rays and further information has consequently been available from longitudinal studies on populations affected by the atomic bomb. Biological effects are classified as deterministic (or certainty effects) and stochastic effects. Both deterministic and stochastic effects may either result in changes in organs (somatic effects) or in the genes (genetic effects). Deterministic or certainty effects are directly related to a known dose of radiation and have a dose threshold and their severity is also dose related. Stochastic effects are random events which are not dose related but their probability increases with an increase in the radiation dose. Carcinogenesis and genetic mutations are stochastic effects. The radiosensitivity of organs varies, therefore the various doses at which the deterministic effects on different organs occur are reviewed. The doses likely to be associated with 'risks of cancer' are also enumerated and the doses related to genetic mutations are also discussed. The effects on the fetus are both somatic and genetic and the most radiosensitive period is 8-17 weeks of gestation. The safety of radiographic imaging is discussed with reference to doses delivered in common radiological studies. Radiation doses permissible during pregnancy in the general population and in radiation workers are also highlighted.


Light-matter interactions at the nanoscale have found great applications in photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Semiconductors and metals are two groups of materials where nanostructuring has opened new pathways in the development of light-matter interactions. Both of them have the ability to absorb light efficiently and confine it to very small volumes (hot-spots) through the appearance of optical resonances. Optical resonances of semiconductor and metal nanostructures as well as the location of the hot-spots are highly tunable with the geometry of the nanostructure and the nature of the material. These resonant nanomaterials can be used as platforms for localized generation of carriers, as the result of enhanced light absorption at the hot-spots. The photogenerated carriers can be used to drive chemical reactions at the nanoscale confined close to the hot-spots of the nanostructures. As a result, light can be used as a tool for the spatially controlled occurrence of chemical reactions. In this thesis, we fabricate and investigate how optical resonances of both semiconductor and metal nanostructures can be used for selective deposition of new nanomaterials at the hot-spots with the aim of designing hierarchical nanostructures which could play a role in photocatalysis.


Global declines among many species of bumblebee have led to considerable debate as to how best to conserve species, with a number of studies highlighting the restoration of unimproved grasslands as the most prudent option. In the UK research into the effectiveness of such measures is largely restricted to a few well documented areas in the south of England where remnants of the rare and declining bumblebee species are still known to exist. Outside of these areas there is an admission that research is presently lacking with a number of areas having only sporadic records of species distributions. Thus this study sought to examine the effect of unimproved wildflower grassland on bumblebee species diversity and abundance within Lancashire. Freeman's Pasture, one of the few remaining areas of unimproved grassland in Lancashire, was surveyed throughout the summer of 2013 along with a similar site which had undergone development in order for comparison. In total 380 bumblebees were identified across the two sites comprising 6 different species. Analysis of the results showed that while unimproved grassland provided a small increase in species diversity, the overall number of individuals supported by a single patch is insufficient to sustain bumblebee communities in the long term. It was therefore suggested that study in the area should instead focus on providing comprehensive, up to date records of species distribution in order to instruct conservation strategy in the future.


The relative abundance of ship rats (Rattus rattus), Norway rats (R. norvegicus), and Pacific rats (R. exulans), was measured in four vegetation types on Stewart Island/Rakiura, over six consecutive seasons. Ship rats were found in all four vegetation types and dominated in podocarp-broadleaf forest and riparian shrubland. Norway rats were most common in subalpine shrubland and Pacific rats dominated in manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) shrubland. Analysis of micro-habitat affinities for the three species showed that ship rats were habitat generalists. Norway rats were associated with plants of damp sites. Pacific rats showed a significant positive relationship with increasing amounts of the ground cover wire rush, (Empodisma minus). Reasons for the observed habitat use on Stewart Island could include physiological adaptation to cold and wet conditions in Norway rats; the avoidance of predation or inter-specific competition by Pacific rats; and possibly preference for more structurally complex vegetation types by ship rats.


Periodic swarms or blooms of gelatinous macrozooplankton have a negative effect on many human activities such as tourism, fisheries, and industry, but for several reasons (sampling procedures, underestimation of their real abundance, etc.), they have often been neglected in the local literature. The high spatial resolution exercise of the South-western Atlantic anchovy Engraulis anchoita Recruitment Project (SARP) was therefore also suitable for estimating standing stocks of jelly macrozooplankton, attempting to establish particular environmental patterns exerting control on the spatial distribution of these facultative carnivorous predators in coastal frontal environments. These studies were carried out through a sampling programme on board the German R/V Meteor in three different systems, convergence and divergent, in the South-western Atlantic Ocean: Region A (42°S) on the Argentine shelf, characterised by tidal mixing fronts; Region B (36°S), the freshwater outflow from Rio de la Plata; and Region C (28°S), under upwelling events in subtropical waters on the Brazilian shelf. In general, a dominance of gelatinous macrozooplankton, compared with the other fraction of macrozooplankton and micronekton was observed. Mean standing stock of the gelatinous zooplankton was always greater than 50% of organic carbon (org. C) in every section analysed. The lobate ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi dominated the zooplankton biomass in Region A, Argentina. It represented 60% of total org. C and was more abundant at the stratified zone of the front. Ctenophores were also dominant in Region B, Rio de la Plata, where the related species Mnemiopsis mccradyi and the cydippid ctenophore Pleurobrachia pileus comprised 81% of total org. C. Mnemiopsis was most common in areas of vertical thermal and saline stratification, while Pleurobrachia was dominant in the less stratified areas. Gelatinous zooplankton was also the principal component of the macrozooplankton biomass in Region C, Brazil. The hydromedusae Rhacostoma atlantica and Olindias sambaquiensis dominated both the total and gelatinous biomass (68% and 7% of total org. C), being always more abundant under lower thermal stratification. It was found that, both in convergent and divergent local systems, gelatinous plankton tended to aggregate in areas where the presence of isolines outcropping to the surface (associated with production processes) was observed. These results are discussed in the context of existing hypotheses regarding ecosystem production and food webs.


What characteristics push people to move and what pulls them to a new location? Evidence from the US has suggested that people are pulled to cities with a high population density and with large concentrations of skilled people. But how does this apply to New Zealand? Where are people moving to and from and what are the characteristics associated with the migrants' origins and destinations? This paper investigates the effect that the characteristics of a community have on the likelihood of people leaving and/or travelling to the community. The movement of people is obtained from a mobility table produced from census data by Statistics New Zealand. We use geographical information system (GIS) tools to define variables based on aggregations of meshblocks around the area units of interest. How does migration vary geographically across New Zealand? We model migration decisions and investigate their causes. Who moves and where do they go? We investigate the broad characteristics of areas that exhibit high losses and/or gains in population through migration. We investigate the relationship between the level of turnover or 'churning' of people with the characteristics of the population in that area.


Background and objectives: Pre-eclampsia is one of the medical complication of pregnancy and contributes significantly to maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Hyperuricemia is often associated with preeclampsia. The objective of this study was to assess serum uric acid in group of women with pre-eclampsia and to evaluate its diagnostic effect on perinatal outcome. Patients and methods: This is a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in Maternity Teaching Hospital in Erbil city, Iraq. Convenient sample size of 200 participants preeclamptic pregnant women with ≥ 34 weeks of gestation in different level of hypertension were included. After getting informed consent from participant who were diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (hypertension and proteinuria), all sociodemographic information was collected from 1st June 2017 to 19th January 2018. Blood samples were obtained to assess serum uric acid besides other investigation routinely done and fetal outcome (birth weight, gestational age, intrauterine death, Apgar score, admission to neonatal care unit, intrauterine growth restriction and early neonatal death) was evaluated. Results: Serum uric acid was ≥ 6 mg/dL in 127 (63.5%) among all pre-eclamptic women. There was positive significant association between means of serum uric acid at different levels of hypertension with p=0.000 in ANOVA and x2 test. This study revealed significant association between increased level of serum uric acid and bad fetal outcome (birth weight, gestational age, intrauterine death, Apgar score, admission to neonatal care unit, intrauterine growth restriction and early neonatal death and Apgar score in 1st minute). Conclusion: This study revealed significant raised level of serum uric acid among pre-eclamptic women and significant effect on fetal outcome and perinatal morbidity and mortality.


A roofing manufacturer is motivated to increase accountability, minimize risk and differentiate themselves from other manufacturers to increase their sales. In order to achieve this, the manufacturer approached the research group to implement a warranty program that measures the performance information of their systems and applicators. The manufacturer submits a list of warranted jobs to the researchers, researchers perform a satisfaction check by calling the end users and report back to the manufacturer. Concepts utilized by the manufacturer include the use of warranty to ensure performance decreases risk, transparency is the best way to mitigate risk and risk can be mitigated before it happens. The research revealed that warranty program minimizes the risk for manufacturer and clients and helps differentiates the manufacturer by identifying end users that are not satisfied, applicators that are low performing, jobs that are leaking, customer retention rate and having a running log of satisfaction rating for every warranted job.


Background—Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is common in heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Current AFib stroke risk prediction models include the presence of HF but do not specifically include HFpEF as a risk factor. Whether a history of AFib should be used to identify patients with HFpEF who are at risk has not been established. Methods and Results—Baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients with HFpEF in the Irbesartan in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction Trial were analyzed in relation to AFib. At baseline, 1209 (29.3%) had a history of AFib. Of these 557 (13.5%) had history of AFib alone, whereas 670 (16.2%) had both a history and AFib on ECG; 2901 (70.3%) had neither. There were no significant differences in the risk of stroke between the 2 groups with a history of AFib who did or did not have AFib present on baseline ECG. During a median follow-up of 53 months, a fatal or nonfatal stroke occurred in 6.5% (79/1209) patients with history of AFib compared with 3.9% (114/2901) with no AFib. Having a history of AFib was independently associated with higher risk of stroke (hazard ratio, 2.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.6–3.2; P<0.0001) compared with those with no history of AFib. Conclusions—In patients with HFpEF, a history of AFib was common and independently associated with increased risk of stroke, regardless of whether AFib was present on ECG. Patients with HFpEF and a history of AFib should be considered at risk. Further studies are needed to determine whether this risk can be safely reduced. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT000095238.