This article offers the first comprehensive analysis of the ways in which the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) employed the terms 'technology' and the 'technique' over the course of his intellectual career. His use of these words in his mature writings, it is argued, reflects a profound ambivalence: Foucault sought to denounce the pernicious effects of what he called modern 'technologies of power,' but also deliberately evoked the more positive values associated with 'technology' to develop a philosophical standpoint shorn of the 'humanist' values he associated with existentialism and phenomenology. The article situates Foucault's condemnation of power technologies within the broader skepticism towards 'technological society' that pervaded French intellectual circles following World War II. In the first phase of his career (1954-1960), Foucault built on these attitudes to articulate a conventional critique of technology's alienating effects. Between 1961 and 1972, the theme of 'technology' fell into abeyance in his work, though he often suggested a connection between the rise of technology and the advent of the 'human sciences.' Between 1973 and 1979, 'technology' became a keyword in Foucault's lexicon, notably when he coined the phrase 'technologies of power'. He continued to use the term in the final stage of his career (1980-1984), when his emphasis shifted from power to 'technologies of the self.' The essay concludes by addressing Paul Forman's thesis on the primacy of science in modernity and of technology in modernity, suggesting that in many respects Foucault is more of a modernist than a postmodernist.


National constitutions exhibit a wide variety of approaches to international law. Some constitutions provide that customary international law is directly incorporated into the constitutional order, while others do not even mention customary international law. Some constitutions establish elaborate treaty-making processes, while others have relatively simple processes involving one or two actors. We have to date very little theory as to why countries differ on these dimensions. This article draws on the literature on constitutions as pre-commitment devices, and examines the unique features of international law that facilitate policy entrenchment. It argues that constitution-writers design the interface with international law to facilitate an optimal level of commitment. In particular, international law is useful to constitution-writers in new democracies, who have relatively limited domestic mechanisms to commit themselves to policies. The article draws on a new database of national constitutions to provide preliminary empirical evidence for these propositions.


This Article examines the appropriate balance between public and private enforcement of statutes seeking to distribute resources or social services to a socioeconomically diverse set of beneficiaries through a case study of the federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It focuses particularly on the extent to which the Act's enforcement regime sufficiently enforces the law for the poor. The Article responds to the frequent contention that private enforcement of statutory regimes is necessary to compensate for the shortcomings of public enforcement. Public enforcement, the story goes, is inefficient and relies on underfunded, captured, or impotent government agencies, while private parties are appropriately incentivized to act as private attorneys general. This Article challenges that argument as not applicable to all circumstances. Instead, it uses the IDEA to identify certain features of institutional design that can make heavy reliance on private enforcement lead to predictable disparities in enforcement in favor of wealthier beneficiaries as opposed to poor beneficiaries, in contravention of the stated goals of some statutes. These features of institutional design include universal rather than means-tested service provision distributed by relying on nontransparent, nonprecedential, private bargaining over a highly individualized system where the contours of the right are determined through significant amounts of agency discretion. Where these features are present, the Article argues, greater attention to public enforcement, as opposed to private enforcement, is likely to be necessary if the goal is to avoid enforcement disparities in favor of wealthier beneficiaries. Alternatively, modifying these features may reduce enforcement disparities and make public enforcement less necessary.


Fibrous zeolites (FZ) are the only group of natural zeolites that have been well investigated under pressure. The high-pressure (H P ) behaviour of several FZ has been studied by means of in situ H P -single-crystal/powder diffraction experiments. Here I report a comparative study on lattice compressibility, structural deformation mechanisms and the role played by the framework (Si/Al-distribution, cross-linking of the building unit chains) and extra-framework content on the H P -behaviour of FZ. The structural analogy among the FZ group, due to the 4 = 1 secondary building unit (SBU), induces similar elastic behaviour and a "FZ-average bulk modulus" can be calculated: K T0 = 50±10 GPa. The bulk modulus value changes as function of the extra-framework content, following the sequence: K T0 (Ba-FZ)> K T0 (Ca-FZ)> K T0 ((Ca+Na)-FZ)> K T0 (Na-FZ). Another interesting result is related to the axial compressibility. The experiments on natrolite, scolecite, edingtonite and thomsonite show that the elastic anisotropy, represented by the axial bulk moduli, is strongly influenced by the tetragonal topological symmetry. The H P -structural refinements performed show one main deformation mechanism for all these zeolites: the cooperative rotation (anti-rotation) of the SBU. This mechanism strongly reduces the free volume of the 8-membered ring channels, parallel to the SBU-chain direction.


The objective of this study is to determine the time elapsed from the onset of pain in patients with AMI to their hospital admission (pain to door time) and fibrinolytic administration (door to needle time). The objective is also to determine whether there is a difference between the frequency of fibrinolytic administration to patients and the survival rate of patients with AMI with respect to the location they are transported from. This prospective clinical study included patients manifesting clear clinical, electrocardiographic and biochemical evidence of AMI, according to criteria of ECS (European Society of Cardiology), and who were admitted to the Coronary Care Unit of Split Clinical Hospital in the period from 1 January to 31 December 1999. On the basis of their residence, the patients were divided into three groups: 1. patients from Split and the surrounding area distant up to 15 km from the city; 2. patients from the surrounding area within 15 km from Split, 3. patients living on the islands of Central Dalmatia. 409 patients with AMI were admitted to hospital in the period in question. The first group consisted of 207, the second of 163, and the third of 39 subjects (254:39; p < 0.001). The median time from the onset of pain to hospital admission for all patients with AMI was 7.3 hours, for patients from the islands 13 hours, whereas for those coming from locations distant more than 15 km from Split it amounted to 7.6 hours (p < 0.001). The number of patients that were administered fibrinolysis is extremely low (17.1%) and there is no significant difference in the frequency of fibrinolytic administration between certain patient groups (p > 0.05). Similarly, the mortality rate prior to hospital discharge is high (18.8%) and does not vary among the three studied groups (p > 0.05). The results of this study are in opposition to the assumption that the mortality rate will be lower in patients living in Split and the immediate surroundings when compared to the mortality rate of patients living on the islands of Central Dalmatia (21.7%: 15.4%).


The diet of the Wedge-tailed Eagle Aquila audax was studied in south-central Queensland, an area of low rabbit density, by means of prey remains (n = 795 prey animals) and pellets (Iotal 2.26 kg) from 13 active nests at five sites (four sheep stations, one national park) over one breeding season. Nine clutches were all of two eggs, and a mean of 1.2 fledglings was raised per attempt. By biomass, the eagles' diet was dominated by macropods, especially in the national park, with few rabbits taken among a range of mammals, birds and lizards (total 28 species). Prey composition varied geographically, with habitat and land use, and seasonally. However, despite variation in density, lamb formed a similar (though minor) proportion of the diet across sites. Remains (or.ts, mostly post-cranial) represented 29 percent of estimated dietary intake, whereas pellets were found to represent only 6.1 percent of intake.


This is the first introductory statistics text to use an estimation approach from the start to help readers understand effect sizes, confidence intervals (CIs), and meta-analysis (the new statistics). It is also the first text to explain the new and exciting Open Science practices, which encourage replication and enhance the trustworthiness of research. In addition, the book explains NHST fully so students can understand published research. Numerous real research examples are used throughout. The book uses todays most effective learning strategies and promotes critical thinking, comprehension, and retention, to deepen users understanding of statistics and modern research methods. The free ESCI (Exploratory Software for Confidence Intervals) software makes concepts visually vivid, and provides calculation and graphing facilities. The book can be used with or without ESCI. Other highlights include: - Coverage of both estimation and NHST approaches, and how to easily translate between the two. - Some exercises use ESCI to analyze data and create graphs including CIs, for best understanding of estimation methods. -Videos of the authors describing key concepts and demonstrating use of ESCI provide an engaging learning tool for traditional or flipped classrooms. -In-chapter exercises and quizzes with related commentary allow students to learn by doing, and to monitor their progress. -End-of-chapter exercises and commentary, many using real data, give practice for using the new statistics to analyze data, as well as for applying research judgment in realistic contexts. -Dont fool yourself tips help students avoid common errors. -Red Flags highlight the meaning of "significance" and what p values actually mean. -Chapter outlines, defined key terms, sidebars of key points, and summarized take-home messages provide a study tool at exam time. -http://www.routledge.com/cw/cumming offers for students: ESCI downloads; data sets; key term flashcards; tips for using SPSS for analyzing data; and videos. For instructors it offers: tips for teaching the new statistics and Open Science; additional homework exercises; assessment items; answer keys for homework and assessment items; and downloadable text images; and PowerPoint lecture slides. Intended for introduction to statistics, data analysis, or quantitative methods courses in psychology, education, and other social and health sciences, researchers interested in understanding the new statistics will also appreciate this book. No familiarity with introductory statistics is assumed.


Low-titer cold-stored O-positive whole blood (LTCSO+WB) resuscitation therapy is the cornerstone of military hemorrhagic shock resuscitation. During the past 19 years, improved patient outcomes have shown the importance of this intervention in shock treatment. Iliac crest intraosseous (IO) placement is an alternative when peripheral sites such as the humeral head and tibia are not available options. To date, no study has explored the administration of LTCSO+WB through an iliac crest IO in the military prehospital setting. Contingency procedures for vascular access are necessary for casualties with severe trauma to all four extremities, and the iliac crest is a viable option. The literature supports situational advantages over other peripheral IO sites.


Limited research is published on teaching restorative justice in the criminal justice or justice studies curriculum in higher education. This article contributes to the discourse on restorative justice pedagogy by discussing a restorative justice seminar that is taught in a circle process with contemplative practices. Students learn the process of circles, one of the major processes in restorative justice practice, by modeling the practice with participation and leadership. Contemplative practices enhance the learning of restorative justice with meditation and reflection.


Genomics of breast cancer is paving the way towards more and more tailored treatments. The number of molecularly targeted therapies under development is increasing. In parallel, the high-throughput analyses revealed the molecular heterogeneity of disease, and identified several very different molecular subtypes, numerous and sometimes very scarce molecular alterations, and multigenic signatures predictive for clinical outcome, some of which are being tested in prospective clinical trials. This molecular segmentation of breast cancer and the multitude of new drugs to be tested (alone and in combination) lead to develop clinical trials based on the molecular profile of tumors to guide the patient towards the most suitable drug.


Invasive species have the ability to rapidly adapt in the new regions where they are introduced. Classic evolutionary theory predicts that the accumulation of genetic differences over time in allopatric isolation may lead to reproductive incompatibilities resulting in decreases in reproductive success and, eventually, to speciation. However, experimental evidence for this theoretical prediction in the context of invasive species is lacking. We aimed to test for the potential of allopatry to determine reproductive success of invasive plants, by experimentally admixing genotypes from six different native and non‐native regions of Centaurea solstitialis, an invasive forb for which preliminary studies have detected some degree of reproductive isolation between one native and non‐native region. We grew plants under common garden conditions and outcrossed individuals originating from different source populations in the native and introduced range to evaluate reproductive success in terms of seed to ovule ratio produced. We also assessed geographical and genetic isolation among C. solstitialis regions as a potential driving factor of reproductive success. Experimental admixture generated mixed fitness effects, including significant increases, decreases and no differences in reproductive success as compared to crosses within population (control). Centaurea solstitialis invasive populations in the Americas generated preponderantly negative fitness interactions, regardless of the pollen source, suggesting selection against immigrants and reinforcement. Other non‐native populations (Australia) as well as individuals from the native range of Spain demonstrated an increase in fitness for between‐region crosses, indicating inbreeding. These differences show an asymmetrical response to inter‐regional gene flow, but no evidence of isolation by distance. Synthesis. The speed of adaptation and the accumulation of reproductive incompatibilities among allopatric populations of invasive species might be more rapid than previously assumed. Our data show a global mosaic of reproductive outputs, showcasing an array of evolutionary processes unfolding during colonization at large biogeographical scales.


Summary

1
Costs of reproduction might be mediated by a resource-allocation trade-off between immunity and reproductive effort. Recent studies have suggested that the moult–breeding overlap observed mainly in males may affect this trade-off. In order to test whether increased investment in immunity may affect the onset of moult or reproductive output in a species with moult–breeding overlap, we immunized breeding male pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca (Pallas) with a non-pathogenic antigen (sheep red blood cells) in the first week post-hatching and compared their moult score, parental effort and reproductive success shortly before fledging with that of control males injected with sterile phosphate-buffered saline.

2
Immunized males provisioning nestlings delayed the onset of post-nuptial primary moult compared to control males. The experimental activation of the immune defence of males affected their stress levels (heterophile/lymphocyte ratio, heat-shock proteins) on day 13 after chicks hatched. An activated immune response tended to depress reproductive output, although the experimental design was not efficient enough to find a significant effect because the manipulation was not performed early enough in the nestling period.

3
The results suggest that experimental activation of the males' immune system decreased the resources necessary for initiating post-nuptial moult. The trade-off between immunity and moult onset may imply costs of delayed moult in cases of infection and may interact with reproductive immunosuppression in cases of moult–breeding overlap. Moult, immunity and reproduction are locked in a three-way interaction which may markedly affect avian life histories.


BACKGROUND
Mounting evidence suggests the addition of a beta-lactam (BL) to daptomycin (DAP) results in synergistic in vitro activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and bolsters the innate immune response to infection. The objective of this study was to provide clinical translation to this experimental data and determine if DAP+BL combination therapy results in improved clinical outcomes compared to treatment with DAP alone in patients with MRSA bloodstream infections (BSI).

METHODS
This was a retrospective, comparative cohort study conducted at two academic medical centers between 2008 and 2018. Adults with MRSA BSI treated with DAP for ≥72 hours and initiated within five days of culture collection were included. Patients who received a BL for ≥24 hours and initiated within 24 hours of DAP comprised the DAP+BL group. The primary outcome was composite clinical failure (60-day all-cause mortality and/or 60-day recurrence). Analyses were adjusted for confounding using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW).

RESULTS
A total of 229 patients were included (72 DAP+BL and 157 DAP). In unadjusted and IPTW-adjusted analyses, DAP+BL was associated with significantly reduced odds of clinical failure (OR 0.362, 95% CI 0.164, 0.801; aOR 0.386, 95% CI 0.175, 0.853). Adjusted analyses restricted to pre-specified subgroups based on infection complexity and baseline health status, were consistent with the main analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
The addition of a BL to DAP was associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients with MRSA BSI. This study provides support to ongoing and future studies evaluating the impact of combination therapy for invasive MRSA infections.


Background and Hypothesis: Treatment for infected total knee arthroplasty (TKA) employs antibiotic-eluding articulating or static spacers, with or without intramedullary (IM) dowels between implant resection and reimplantation. While it is unknown which spacer type is more efficient intra-operatively, IM dowels require additional time for fabrication. Surgical efficiency is critical to minimizing anesthesia time and blood loss, especially in complex surgeries with compromised hosts. We quantified operative time and postoperative intra-articular blood loss based on spacer type and the use of IM dowels.
Project Methods: 103 consecutive infected TKAs treated from 2010-2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Outcome variables included operative time and intraarticular drain rate. Covariates included sex; age, BMI; ASA-PS classification; surgeon; McPherson infection classification; tourniquet time; tranexamic acid (TXA) use; intrathecal anesthesia, length of stay, and blood transfusion. Multivariate analyses were used.
Results: The sample was 52% female with average age of 66±9 years and average BMI of 36±9 kg/m2. Articulating spacers without dowels (ASwoD), articulating spacers with dowels (ASwD), and static spacers with dowels were used in 57.3%, 21.4%, and 21.4% of knees, respectively. Longer mean operating time was observed when static spacers with dowels were used at resection (162 vs.130 ASwoD/140 ASwD minutes; p=0.001) and reimplantation (187 vs. 149 ASwoD/148 ASwD minutes; p=0.017). At reimplantation, drain rate was highest when articulating spacers with dowels were used (37 vs. 20/26 mL/hr), but not when TXA was used (p=0.002).
Conclusion and Potential Impact: Articulating and static spacers provide equivalent infection eradication, and the necessity of IM dowels has not been thoroughly studied. In light of this equivalency, it is important to understand other costs associated with spacer types and IM dowels. Our observations that spacer/dowel constructs affect time under anesthesia and blood loss may contribute to the efficiency and safety of the two-stage treatment protocol.


The practice of humanitarian military action has changed markedly in the 21st century when compared with the 1990s. This essay explores three broad trends that have shaped this evolution. First, the UN has adopted the protection of civilians as a central element of its agenda and as a guiding principle for reforming its peace operations and its responses to atrocities such as genocide and ethnic cleansing. Second, major powers have played a central role as belligerents or patrons of belligerents in many of the worst conflicts of the last two decades. And third, the wealthy Western states with the greatest resources and military capabilities for ambitious humanitarian operations have substantially reduced their direct contributions to these missions. Together, these developments have shifted the balance of responsibility and effort for humanitarian military operations toward the UN and developing countries; constrained the ambitions of these missions; limited what they can accomplish and contributed to gaps between the expectations they create and the protection they are able to deliver; and discouraged meaningful action in response to many of the century's most devastating conflicts.


Throughout the world, the large-scale use of pesticides in agriculture is an area of concern due to known harmful effects on human and environmental health. Mixtures of different pesticides are found in lakes and streams, where their presence endangers aquatic organisms, like benthic algae, and the ecosystem services they provide. Benthic algae are important primary producers and chemical modulators. Since they are photoautotrophs, they are especially threatened by photosynthesis inhibiting herbicides. Studies have shown that exposure to herbicides causes toxic effects on algae, although most chemical risk assessments are performed on planktonic algae. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the herbicide diflufenican (2',4'-difluoro-2-(α,α,α-trifluoro-m-tolyloxy)nicotinanilide) on the photosynthetic efficiency of benthic algal communities. The choice of herbicide is based on the high prevalence of diflufenican above its water quality standard in Swedish surface waters as well as its known toxicity to aquatic organisms. Diflufenican inhibits the synthesis of carotenoids in weeds, which causes photo-bleaching of green tissues due to oxidative degradation of chlorophylls, the main light-harvesting pigments. The hypothesis of this study was that diflufenican would diminish the photosynthetic efficiency of the benthic algal community. The study was conducted using benthic algae grown for six weeks on tiles submerged in Lake Erken (59˚50'N, 18˚35'E). The algae were then exposed to diflufenican for twelve days. To evaluate the effects on photosynthesis throughout the experiment, chlorophyll fluorescence was measured with a Pulse Amplitude Modulated Fluorometer (PAM-FMS 1, Hansatech®). In contrast to my expectations, the photosynthetic efficiency of the algae exposed to the highest test concentration (10 μg/L) increased to a level above the control. Interestingly, the biomass did not seem to differ between the treatments and the control. These results indicate that diflufenican might have induced synthesis of more chlorophylls as a way to increase energy attainment to be able to cope with the toxic stress; a mechanism called the greening effect. However, diflufenican does not affect the existing pool of carotenoids, thus it only affects the growing parts of weeds. Since the algal biomass did not increase over the course of this study, the existing carotenoids might have been sufficient, at least for some of the algae. This could explain the lack of difference in photosynthetic efficiency between the lower treatments and the control. Additionally, it has been shown that diflufenican also inhibits synthesis of fatty acids in plants. This mechanism might have contributed to the induced greening effect despite the lack of growth. Further analysis will be performed to evaluate the effects on species composition and the pigment content, which will bring more insights regarding the effects of diflufenican on the community of benthic algae.


Carbon nanosheets are a new kind of two-dimensional polymeric material that is fabricated by cross-linking aromatic self-assembled monolayers with electrons. Due to their uniform thickness of only about one nanometer, as well as their high chemical, mechanical, and thermal stability, such materials are of high interest for a wide variety of applications. Carbon nanosheets can be released from their original substrate and transferred to arbitrary new substrates. When placed on oxidized silicon wafers, nanosheets can be seen by the naked eye. Folds appear to be darker and blue shifted with respect to the substrate color. This effect was systematically studied for multilayer stacks of nanosheet by means of UV/Vis reflection spectroscopy and simulation. The oxide layer acts as an optical spacer, similar to an interferometer. Thus, the contrast was found to be dependent on the wavelength of light as well as the thickness of the oxide layer.
On perforated substrates such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids, large freestanding membranes with the thickness of one monolayer were obtained with an aspect ratio of up to 1:225000. This way, for the first time, the bottom side of the nanosheet became accessible for functionalization, and it was possible to selectively couple fluorescent dyes to the nanosheet; this highlights the versatility of the nanosheets. Freestanding nanosheets have been used as sample supports to image nanoparticles by TEM. Due to the thickness of the nanosheets, the nanoparticles can be observed in intricate detail, with only minimal background from the nanosheet as compared to conventional carbon films. Also, the individual layers of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) were resolved. In scanning TEM even single gold atoms were observed.
It is possible to deposit more than just nanoparticles onto freestanding nanosheets. The sheets can also be metalized in a variety of different ways either before transfer or afterwards; this was demonstrated by fabricating gold patterns onto freestanding nanosheets. As the nanosheet is stable under an electron beam, patterns can also be written by electron beam induced deposition (EBID).
By annealing nanosheets in ultra high vacuum their conductivity can be adjusted flexibly. This is due to a gradual transition to a graphitic phase that reaches a sheet resistivity of only [almost equal to]100 k[Ohm]/sq at [almost equal to]1200 K. The structural changes that are associated with this transition are reflected in the TEM and Raman data. For multilayer stacks it was also possible to observe the transition to graphite by means of UV/Vis spectroscopy.
Because of their stability and flexibility, carbon nanosheets will likely find a multitude of applications, including potential use as sensors, filtration membranes, sample supports, and even conductive coatings.


Research has proven the optimality of a no-trade region around an investor's desired asset proportions to assure that trading occurs only when asset proportions drift outside this region, and then only to bring proportions back to the boundary of the no-trade region, not to the target proportions. Because current solution methods are complex, managers typically rely on ad hoc heuristics that are either calendar-based or volatility-based and whose performance against an optimal strategy is unknown. The authors characterize the size and shape of the no-trade region as a function of key problem parameters and compare the performance of different rebalancing strategies. The analysis suggests that extraction of key features associ-ated with optimal rebalancing allows development of more tractable rebalancing heuristics that enhance the effectiveness of optimal rebalancing.


Word Count: 3,624  In ?The Ideology of Modernism,? Georg Lukacs proposes the following antithesis in order to critique the aesthetic condition of modern subjectivity: ?Abstract potentiality belongs wholly to the realm of subjectivity; whereas concrete potentiality is concerned with the dialectic between the individual?s subjectivity and objective reality? (24). The necessity of such an opposition resides in the aesthetic preservation of ?Realism,? i.e., the commitment to interrogating and discovering the true laws governing objective reality?in short, the uncovering of essence from the distorting images of appearance. Lukacs identifies the emergence of Modernism as a symptom of the impossibility to negotiate, aesthetically, the difference between appearance and essence: ?If the distinction between abstract and concrete potentiality vanishes, if man?s inwardness is identified with an abstract subjectivity, human personality must necessarily disintegrate? (ibid). Despite his dialectical exhortations, my paper will be an attempt to demonstrate that Lukacs? understanding of Realism effectuates an absolutization of ?concrete potentiality? insofar as he reduces the relationship of the literary subject to an essentialized form, namely, an explicit recuperation of Aristotle?s concept of man as a ? zoon politikon ? (31). The circumscription of the literary subject as an immutable absolute?renders eternal, what realist literature has always understood to be temporal. In other words, Lukacs? aesthetic strictures have transformed the immanent forms of literary production into static forms of transcendence.


The coastal circulation in the Gulf of Lions (GoL) is influenced by the Northern Current (NC), forced by a complex wind system and also affected by important river discharges from the Rhone River. Correct modelling of this current is therefore important for obtaining a good representation of the gulf circulation. An observing system simulation experiment using the SEEK filter data assimilation method was used in a regional 1/16° configuration of the GoL in the NEMO model. The synthetic observation database used for the experiment comprised altimetric data in addition to in-situ temperature and salinity profiles. Statistical diagnostics and other physical criteria based on the improvement of NC representation were set up in order to assess the quality of this experiment. Comparisons between the free 1/16° simulation and the experience with assimilation show that data assimilation significantly improved the description of the characteristics of the NC as well as its seasonal and mesoscale variability, which in turn improved the description of the water exchanges between the coastal region and the open sea.


In this lucid classic, beloved teacher Ayya Khema introduces the reader to the essence of the Buddhist path. She addresses the how and why of meditation, providing a clear framework for understanding the nature of karma and rebirth, and the entirety of the eightfold path. With specific, practical advice Ayya Khema illuminates the practices of compassion and sympathetic joy, and offers forthright guidance in working with the hindrances that we all encounter in meditation. Few introductory books are both simple and profound. Being Nobody, Going Nowhere is both.


Heated (20-100 °C/0-30 min) skim milks (pH 6.5-7.1) were diluted in buffer (pH 7.0). Rennet was added, and the particle size with time was measured. For all samples, the size initially decreased (lag phase) and then increased (aggregation phase). Milks heated at ≤60 °C had short lag phases and rapid aggregation phases regardless of pH. Milks heated at >60 °C at pH 6.5 had long lag phases and slow aggregation phases. As the pH increased, the lag phase shortened and the aggregation phase accelerated. The aggregation time was correlated with the level of whey protein associated with the casein micelles and with the level of κ-casein dissociated from the micelles. Heated milks formed weak gels when renneted. It is proposed that the milks heated at low pH have whey proteins associated with the casein micelles and that these denatured whey proteins stabilize the micelles to aggregation by rennet and therefore inhibit gelation. In the milks heated at higher pH, the whey proteins associate with κ-casein in the serum and, on rennet treatment, the κ-casein-depleted micelles and the serum-phase whey protein/κ-casein complexes aggregate; however, the denatured whey proteins stabilize the aggregates so that gelation is still inhibited.


The spindle checkpoint delays sister chromatid separation until all chromosomes have undergone bipolar spindle attachment. Checkpoint failure may result in chromosome mis-segregation and may contribute to tumorigenesis. We showed that the human protein Hec1 was required for the recruitment of Mps1 kinase and Mad1/Mad2 complexes to kinetochores. Depletion of Hec1 impaired chromosome congression and caused persistent activation of the spindle checkpoint, indicating that high steady-state levels of Mad1/Mad2 complexes at kinetochores were not essential for checkpoint signaling. Simultaneous depletion of Hec1 and Mad2 caused catastrophic mitotic exit, making Hec1 an attractive target for the selective elimination of spindle checkpoint–deficient cells.


Picking is the process through which a single entity or a list of entities is selected from a scene. The subject of picking is both a rendering and a collision detection problem, with the majority of research being on optimizing the ray-scene intersection problem. Several algorithms that solve the picking problem exist in the context of rasterization, but all of them lack several of the features of our proposed solution while, with one exception, all being much more expensive in terms of computational time. We propose a novel single frame method which is able to correctly select not only primitives but also any type of objects that may appear on the screen at a fragment level including hardware instanced, alpha culled, hardware tessellated, hardware animated and particle systems. The proposed technique has optimal memory requirements and offers the opportunity to pick at micro polygon level and is not limited to the first contact, offering the full intersection list per ray if required to do so. The proposed technique offers further unique opportunities such as flexible fuzzy object selection and is the only technique that selects without disregarding opacity accumulation from transparent objects.


The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) contributes to sustainable development by advancing policy recommendations on international trade and investment, economic policy, climate change and energy, and management of natural and social capital, as well as the enabling role of communication technologies in these areas. We report on international negotiations and disseminate knowledge gained through collaborative projects, resulting in more rigorous research, capacity building in developing countries, better networks spanning the North and the South, and better global connections among researchers, practitioners, citizens and policy-makers. IISD's vision is better living for all—sustainably; its mission is to champion innovation, enabling societies to live sustainably. IISD is registered as a charitable organization in Canada and has 501(c)(3) status in the United States. IISD receives core operating support from the Government of Canada, provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and from the Province of Manitoba. The Institute receives project funding from numerous governments inside and outside Canada, United Nations agencies, foundations and the private sector.


Fast-ion Dα (FIDA) and collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostics provide indirect measurements of fast-ion velocity distribution functions in magnetically confined plasmas. Here we present the first prescription for velocity-space tomographic inversion of CTS and FIDA measurements that can use CTS and FIDA measurements together and that takes uncertainties in such measurements into account. Our prescription is general and could be applied to other diagnostics. We demonstrate tomographic reconstructions of an ASDEX Upgrade beam ion velocity distribution function. First, we compute synthetic measurements from two CTS views and two FIDA views using a TRANSP/NUBEAM simulation, and then we compute joint tomographic inversions in velocity-space from these. The overall shape of the 2D velocity distribution function and the location of the maxima at full and half beam injection energy are well reproduced in velocity-space tomographic inversions, if the noise level in the measurements is below 10%. Our results suggest that 2D fast-ion velocity distribution functions can be directly inferred from fast-ion measurements and their uncertainties, even if the measurements are taken with different diagnostic methods.


Nearly 3 million hectares of grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L). Moench] are harvested in the USA each year. It may be possible to add value to crop and animal systems by enhancing the digestibility of the stover residue by the use of brown midrib (bmr) genes if grain yields can be maintained. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of bmr-6 and bmr-12 genes on grain yield of sorghum and to evaluate the effect of the bmr genes on stover yield and quality in these genetic backgrounds: 'Wheatland', 'Redlan', RTx430, Tx623, Tx630, Tx631, and the hybrid AWheatland × RTx430. Plant height, maturity, grain yield and test weight, stover neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and in vitro NDF digestibility (IVNDFD) were measured in split-plot experiments replicated four times in each of four environments with lines being whole-plots and genotypes being subplots. Brown midrib genes reduced grain yield and residue yield in the lines; however, yield reduction was not observed in the bmr-12 AWheatland x RTx430 hybrid. The bmr-12 near-isolines generally had lowest stover lignin content and highest fiber digestibility, bmr-6 was intermediate, and wild-type counterparts had highest lignin content and lowest fiber digestibility. When all data are considered, the bmr-12 gene appears superior to the bmr-6 gene in terms of potentially adding value to the stover of grain sorghum for use in crop/animal systems. The variable expression of bmr-12 and bmr-6 in different lines indicates that selection of compatible genetic backgrounds will be critical in determining the realized impact on value.


Background Research suggests that schools' capacity to successfully implement and sustain reform programs may rest, in part, with district-level facilitation. The importance of district leadership has been established for a variety of educational reforms, including school, family, and community partnerships. However, few studies have been conducted to understand how successful district leaders implement and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as an educational reform. Focus of Study This case study seeks to fill this gap. It describes leadership strategies employed by the office of parent involvement in an urban school district in the United States. More specifically, this article focuses on the collaborative relationship between the office of parent involvement and a community-based parent involvement organization (CPIO). Research Design The study employed a multiple case study design, which included interviews with district, school, and parent leaders; observations of workshops, meetings, presentations, and other work-related activities of key district-level respondents; document collection and review; and school site visits. Findings Analyses suggest that the collaboration between the district's office of parent involvement and the CPIO has helped to support and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as a reform initiative for nearly a decade. The relationship has resulted in (1) complementary parent leadership training for school-based partnership teams, (2) joint planning and implementation of districtwide partnership activities, and (3) community advocacy for district partnership personnel and resources.


The application of advanced technologies in a rural highway environment continues to gain an increasingly significant degree of exposure within the IVHS community. As part of the Minnesota Guidestar IVHS program, emphasis will be placed on an investigation of rural applications of advanced technology in the state. This emphasis has culminated in the development of a major program to operationally test and evaluate advanced technologies in a rural environment. This paper outlines some of the concepts proposed in this program.


Recent technological trends are transforming sensor nodes from passive data-gathering entities to a collaborative network of sensors; capable of providing data-related and event-related information services. Such a sensor-based information service is useful only if it can be seamlessly accessed across traditional networks and through familiar device interfaces. In order to enable such ubiquitous access to sensor-based services, we need a remote messaging protocol that supports versatile messaging options, interoperates over different types of network, and allows messages to be routed based on flexible attribute-based addressing of endpoints. Furthermore, in order to ensure ease of adoption and deployment within an enterprise as well as in consumer environments, we must leverage communication abstractions that are well-known and already supported on traditional networks. In this paper, we propose TinySIP as a communication abstraction for accessing sensor-based services. TinySIP is based on the session initiation protocol (SIP), which is a standard application-level signaling mechanism. Users on traditional networks remotely interact with a sensor network service by sending SIP messages. A gateway maps the SIP abstractions to the corresponding TinySIP abstractions and propagates the messages to the sensor nodes. We are currently planning on deploying the SIP-based solution that we propose on a research testbed to enable users on a wireless mesh to access the in-network storage and event correlation services offered by a sensor network consisting of 20 MicaZ sensor nodes


This paper follows through a previous work ("Celebrification in Philippine Politics") in 2010 that investigates the role of celebrity endorsers' parasocial interaction and relationships (PSIR) in voting preferences towards the endorsed candidates of the 2007 Philippine senate elections. As a sequel, this current work confirms the paradigmatic relational approach on how celebrities affect voters' political behaviors in the context of the succeeding 2010 Philippine presidential elections. Furthermore, this study offers improvement of the parasocial scale by adopting recently developed scales and suggesting an additional dimension realized from an in-progress complementing qualitative study of the paper. More importantly, this paper develops and highlights a logit model of celebrity PSIR's effects to the odds of positive voting preferences towards the endorsed political candidates. The paper concludes that, in general, celebrity endorsers' PSIR significantly contributes to voting preferences of the public (i.e., a strong agreement to each PSIR item may lead voters to 1.089 times more likely to vote for the political endorsee of celebrity; with effect size R2 = .21). However, when analyzing individual celebrity—political candidate pairs, the model estimates show that only two of four celebrity exemplars' PSIR coefficients are significant. Implications on political marketing, opinion leadership, and relational paradigm in celebrity endorsements are discussed.


Welcome to this special issue of PPAR research dedicated to "PPARs in Eye Biology and Disease." PPARs are well known to regulate the expression of genes involved in lipid and glucose metabolism. Very recently, these transcription factors have been demonstrated to modulate proliferative, inflammatory, and oxidative stress responses, including those that happen in the eye. We have collected a comprehensive group of review papers that are focused on discussing the relationships of PPARs with choroidal neovascularization, inflammation, and redox balance, as well as perspective therapeutic potentials of PPAR modulators in eye diseases.

Angiogenesis is an important element of normal development and neovascularization which occurs normally in wound healing. However, neoangiogenesis is unfortunately also associated with various pathological ocular conditions including corneal neovascularization secondary to graft rejection and traumatic, chemical, and infectious insults; diabetic complications in both the anterior and posterior segments; retinoproliferative disease secondary to vaso-occlusive events; as well as choroidal neovascularization associated with trauma, high myopia, genetic disease, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Of these, AMD is currently the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. As such, much effort and expense is and has been invested in understanding and seeking cures for this devastating condition. Although there is little direct evidence linking PPAR action to AMD, there is a growing body of literature demonstrating that PPARs may be involved in various chemical pathways associated with AMD. In this issue, three papers authored by respected experts in the field are presented which review what we now know about the relationship between the 3 PPAR isoforms, α, β, and δ, and ocular angiogenesis with emphasis on AMD. Bishop-Bailey has reviewed PPARβ/δ-mediated angiogenesis in the context of ocular disorders. Gehlbach et al. have briefly discussed the PPAR-α ligands as potential therapeutic agents for wet AMD. Chan et al. have comprehensively described PPARs with the development of AMD. There now appears to be ample data in the peer-reviewed literature to encourage further study of the link between PPARs and AMD, and investigate the therapeutic potential of PPARs. In addition, an authoritative fourth paper authored by Pershadsingh is also offered to address PPARγ agonists as potential therapeutics for non-AMD proliferative retinopathies.

Inflammatory signaling participates in the development of different forms of eye diseases. Inflammatory injury happens under the conditions in which pathoangiogenic signaling is activated in acute inflammatory responses; chronic inflammation is triggered by oxidative stress in diabetic retinopathy and atrophic AMD. The majority of reports documented in the literature support an anti-inflammatory role of PPARs, in particular PPARγ, by blocking the release of inflammatory mediators from activated immune cells in vitro and dampening inflammation in animal models. Minghetti et al. have explored the roles of PPARγ in microglial cell functions and therapeutic potentials of PPARγ ligands on ocular diseases such as AMD, diabetic retinopathy, autoimmune uveitis, and optic neuritis. Yanagi has evaluated the role of PPARγ in the breakdown of blood-retinal barrier, providing strong evidence that targeting PPARγ would be beneficial to diabetic retinopathy via maintaining the integrity of blood-retinal barrier. Phipps et al. have extensively reviewed the literature regarding the role of lymphocytes in thyroid eye disease-related inflammation, offering PPARγ ligands as a therapeutic approach via inhibition of inflammatory signaling in activated lymphocytes and fibroblasts.

The potential regulation of redox balance by PPARs in the eye has been recently suggested and may constitute a new, exciting research field over the next few years. Phagocytosis of tips of rod outer segments' selectively upregulates expression of PPARγ in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, suggesting that PPARγ activation might deal with oxidative stress during RPE cell phagocytosis. Oxidative stress is a major risk factor causing RPE cell degeneration since RPE cells are exposed to high levels of free radicals due to phagocytosis of oxidized photoreceptor outer segments, intense light irradiation, and high oxygen consumption in the macular area. PPARγ ligands protect a variety of cell types from oxidative stress injury in vitro, including retinal cells, though no in vivo data are available yet. Chang et al. have briefly reviewed the cytoprotective effects of an endogenous PPARγ agonist, 15d-PGJ2, on oxidative stress-induced RPE cell death.

PPARs are emerging as potential targets for drugs that might be used in the treatment of ocular diseases in which PPAR activities play a key role in disease pathology. It is our hope that this special issue will serve as a seed stimulating broad interests to pursue therapeutic avenues of PPARs in eye diseases. The outcomes of such investigations will undoubtedly shed light on the roles of PPARs in eye diseases and possibly identify new roles of PPARs in the etiology of eye diseases.

Suofu Qin

Roy S. Chuck


Projects to assess environmental impact or restoration success in rivers focus on project-specific questions but can also provide valuable insights for future projects. Both restoration actions and impact assessments can become "adaptive" by using the knowledge gained from long-term monitoring and analysis to revise the actions, monitoring, conceptual model, or interpretation of findings so that subsequent actions or assessments are better informed. Assessments of impact or restoration success are especially challenging when the indicators of interest are imperiled species and/or the impacts being addressed are complex. From 1997 to 2015, we worked closely with two federal agencies to monitor habitat availability for and population density of Roanoke logperch (Percina rex), an endangered fish, in a 24-km-long segment of the upper Roanoke River, VA. We primarily used a Before-After-Control-Impact analytical framework to assess potential impacts of a river channelization project on the P. rex population. In this paper, we summarize how our extensive monitoring facilitated the evolution of our (a) conceptual understanding of the ecosystem and fish population dynamics; (b) choices of ecological indicators and analytical tools; and (c) conclusions regarding the magnitude, mechanisms, and significance of observed impacts. Our experience with this case study taught us important lessons about how to adaptively develop and conduct a monitoring program, which we believe are broadly applicable to assessments of environmental impact and restoration success in other rivers. In particular, we learned that (a) pre-treatment planning can enhance monitoring effectiveness, help avoid unforeseen pitfalls, and lead to more robust conclusions; (b) developing adaptable conceptual and analytical models early was crucial to organizing our knowledge, guiding our study design, and analyzing our data; (c) catchment-wide processes that we did not monitor, or initially consider, had profound implications for interpreting our findings; and (d) using multiple analytical frameworks, with varying assumptions, led to clearer interpretation of findings than the use of a single framework alone. Broader integration of these guiding principles into monitoring studies, though potentially challenging, could lead to more scientifically defensible assessments of project effects.


In this paper we introduce a mean field model to analyze an optical switch equipped with both wavelength converters (WCs) and fiber delay lines (FDLs) to resolve contention in OBS networks. Under some very general conditions, that is, a general burst size distribution and any Markovian burst arrival process at each wavelength, this model determines the minimum number of WCs required to achieve a zero loss rate as the number of wavelengths becomes large. The mean field result is exact as the number of wavelengths goes to infinity and turns out to be very accurate for systems with (a few) hundred wavelengths, commonly occurring when using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Moreover, we show that if the number of WCs is underdimensioned, (i) periodic system behavior may occur (with the period being the greatest common divisor of the burst lengths) and (ii) increasing the number of WCs may even worsen the loss rate under the often studied minimum horizon allocation policy (as opposed to the minimum gap policy). Finally, we further demonstrate that in terms of the loss rate, including (more) FDLs may have little or no effect on the number of WCs required to achieve a near-zero loss, especially for higher loads.


This paper aims to draw insights from New Structural Economics by applying its practical policy tool – the Growth Identification and Facilitation Framework (GIFF) – to least-developed countries (LDCs) with a special focus on the case of Uganda. The GIFF offers practical development paths for enabling developing countries to follow comparative advantage in its industrial development and to tap into the potential of advantages of backwardness in industrial upgrading in an effort to achieve sustained and dynamic growth. After a brief introduction of the GIFF, we present an overview of Uganda's recent economic and social performance and analyses Uganda's factor endowments, i.e., land (or natural resources), labour and capital that can be used in the production process. After identifying tradable goods and services which would fit Uganda's latent comparative advantage, we diagnose sector-specific binding constraints in starting and scaling up the selected subsectors and discuss how to remove or mitigate these key constraints. Finally, we conclude with main findings and policy recommendations. The take-home message is that developing countries should not focus on what they lack but what they have when formulating their development strategies.


The increasing number of metagenomic and genomic sequences has dramatically improved our understanding of microbial diversity, yet our ability to infer metabolic capabilities in such datasets remains challenging. FINDINGS We describe the Multigenomic Entropy Based Score pipeline (MEBS), a software platform designed to evaluate, compare and infer complex metabolic pathways in large 'omic' datasets, including entire biogeochemical cycles. MEBS is open source and available through https://github.com/eead-csic-compbio/metagenome_Pfam_score. To demonstrate its use we modeled the sulfur cycle by exhaustively curating the molecular and ecological elements involved (compounds, genes, metabolic pathways and microbial taxa). This information was reduced to a collection of 112 characteristic Pfam protein domains and a list of complete-sequenced sulfur genomes. Using the mathematical framework of relative entropy (H'), we quantitatively measured the enrichment of these domains among sulfur genomes. The entropy of each domain was used to both: build up a final score that indicates whether a (meta)genomic sample contains the metabolic machinery of interest and to propose marker domains in metagenomic sequences such as DsrC (PF04358). MEBS was benchmarked with a dataset of 2,107 non-redundant microbial genomes from RefSeq and 935 metagenomes from MG-RAST. Its performance, reproducibility, and robustness were evaluated using several approaches, including random sampling, linear regression models, Receiver Operator Characteristic plots and the Area Under the Curve metric (AUC). Our results support the broad applicability of this algorithm to accurately classify (AUC=0.985) hard to culture genomes (e.g., Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator), previously characterized ones and metagenomic environments such as hydrothermal vents, or deep-sea sediment. CONCLUSIONS Our benchmark indicates that an entropy-based score can capture the metabolic machinery of interest and be used to efficiently classify large genomic and metagenomic datasets, including uncultivated/unexplored taxa


This study draws on theological and demonological works that discuss demons' reaction to sodomy, and concentrates on Gianfrancesco Pico's 1523 dialogue Strix. While the medieval theological view stressed the demons' abhorrence of sodomy and refrainment from engaging in sodomitical relations, fifteenth-century demonologists already found it difficult to reconcile such a view with the newly developed theory of diabolic witchcraft. During the sixteenth century, the notion of the demons' disgust at sodomy was radically transformed. This transformation was gradual, but in Strix the shift away from the traditional view was already decisive. The article examines Pico's original configuration of the relations between sodomy and witchcraft, and suggests a few possible reasons for his decision to challenge the medieval notion.These include the influence of Girolamo Savonarola's antisodomy campaign, the growing emphasis on demonic sex in sixteenth-century demonology, and the predominance of men among the alleged witches in the Mirandolese witchcraft trials, in which Pico was personally involved.


Slow Time presents a selection of over 100 works by British artist David Ward (b. 1951), made over the last forty years. Ward is most widely known for his photographic and light works of the 1980s, performances later in that decade and architecturally-related works using light, glass and sound from the 1990s to the present. This extensive exhibition includes drawings, photography, collage, painted reliefs and film. Shown together for the first time, they reveal lines of continuity that have persisted over four decades, representing Ward's study of the world – that is, of light, the body, the activity of line and the sensitive nature of surfaces. Early collaged photograms combine ordered, repetitive motifs with delicate, unpredictable lines of exposed light. An hypnotic film projection of an Amazonian river surface transcends its subject matter to become abstract, almost immaterial. Multiple line drawings convey the stasis and motion of figures in a live performance. Elsewhere, a series of photographic works depict Rodin's The Age of Bronze, revealing the cast's tarnished surfaces, yet almost ethereal and otherworldly presence. And a series of recent pastel 'colour fields', each comprising two paper sheets, densely filled with pure pigment, are harmonious and alluringly tactile, yet blank and inscrutable. Slow Time also features a new film, The Analysis of Beauty, filmed in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Comprising two sequences of footage projected one above the other, the work examines – literally – the two aspects of the beautiful fanvaulted ceiling: above and below. The work is rich in juxtapositions: light and dark; the divine and earthly; craft and utility; grandiosity and the prosaic.


With changes in life expectancy across the world, technologies enhancing well-being of individuals, specifically for older people, are subject to a new stream of research and development. In this paper we present the ACCOMPANY project, a pan-European project which focuses on home companion technologies. The projects aims to progress beyond the state of the art in multiple areas such as empathic and social human-robot interaction, robot learning and memory visualisation, monitoring persons and chores at home, and technological integration of these multiple approaches on an existing robotic platform, Care-O-Bot®3 and in the context of a smart-home environment utilising a multitude of sensor arrays. The resulting prototype from integrating these developments undergoes multiple formative cycles and a summative evaluation cycle towards identifying acceptable behaviours and roles for the robot for example role as a butler or a trainer. Furthermore, the evaluation activities will use an evaluation grid in order to assess achievement of the identified user requirements, formulated in form of distinct scenarios. Finally, the project considers ethical concerns and by highlighting principles such as autonomy, independence, enablement, safety and privacy, it embarks on providing a discussion medium where user views on these principles and the existing tension between some of these principles for example tension between privacy and autonomy over safety, can be captured and considered in design cycles and throughout project developments.


The smartphone industry today is characterized by a thicket of patents and wars based on those patents. Every day brings a new lawsuit or development between Apple, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. The lawsuits span numerous courts and several continents.This 5-page article attempts to make sense of the chaos, with a particular emphasis on standards and reasonable licensing ("FRAND") terms. It summarizes court rulings on whether injunctions should be granted on "standard essential patents" and "non-standard essential patents." And it discusses the European Commission investigations of Motorola and Samsung, and the Department of Justice's approval of the patent portfolio acquisitions of Novell, Nortel, and Motorola.


The major barriers for the success of mobile data services are the lack of comprehensible mobile service architectures, their confusing business models and the complexity combined with the inconsistency of the technology enablers. This paper attempts to present a more structured and comprehensive analysis of the current mobile service architectures and their technology enablers. The paper starts with a thorough study of the evolution of mobile services and their business models, and a collection of expectations of the different actors, including the end-user. Next, starting from the original mobile services architecture and environment, an attempt to place the different technology enablers in relation to each other and in relation to their position in the mobile system, will be carried out. Each technology enabler together with their contribution in the enhancement of mobile services are then summarised in a complete and comprehensive way. The paper concludes with a recapitulation of the achievement of the state-of-the-art technology enablers and an identification of future improvements.


Background: High dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is the standard of care and commonly used procedure for patients with relapsed non Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). There is no clear evidence of superior conditioning regimen and studies that comparing different high dose regimens regarding the efficacy and toxicity profiles were little. Objectives: To compare efficacy and toxicity profiles of BU/CY and CMV conditioning regimens in patients with relapsed NHL scheduled for ASCT. Patients and Methods: Between June 2013 and January 2017, a total of 50 patients were enrolled in the study, 25 patients received CMV and 25 patients received BU/CY followed by ASCT in Bone Marrow Transplantation Center, Nasser Institute and El Sheikh zayed Hospitals, Egypt. Results: The median time for both neutrophil and platelet engraftment showed no significant difference between the two groups (p= .4) and (p=.3) respectively. Transplant related mortality (TRM) was less in CMV arm, but p value didn't reach the statistical difference (p= .1). The 3- year DFS and OS were slightly higher in CMV arm. However, they didn't show any significant statistical difference 72.8% and 66.5%, (p =.81) and (p= .07). The toxicities, Grade III / IV mucositis, nausea/vomiting and diarrhea occurred slightly higher in BU/CY than in the CMV (16%, 24%, 8% vs. 12%, 16%, 4% respectively).Pulmonary toxicity was higher in BU/CY (3 patients (12%) in BU/CY arm and 1 patient (4%) in CMV arm). However, the toxicities didn't reach the statistical difference. Conclusion: We found that both BU/CY and CMV regimens are not significantly different in terms of efficacy and toxicity. Although, the small number of patients that were enrolled in our study, we recommend further trial with larger number of patients to confirm the results.


Abstract Jinja Town in Uganda, selected as one of five centres of growth in the post-Second World War era of colonial developmentism, is perennially represented in the Ugandan media as the quintessential industrial town gone off track. This is particularly evident for the case of the African housing estates built in Jinja in the 1950s where the dominant everyday rhythm is no longer dictated by the factory siren or the monthly wage but is instead a landscape scored by multiple rhythms. By conceptualising these estates as inherited machines – still loaded with a profusion of signs and objects from the era of the modern industrial "refrain" – this paper seeks both to illustrate the colonial planning rationality and to examine contemporary processes of vernacular urbanism and contestations surrounding "re-occupations" of the postcolonial city. It is argued that we need to seriously question any a priori invocation of a generic form of vernacular urbanism that is (or is not) to be prioritised over or "mixed" with a Western planning cycle. Instead, the case study shows how historically mediated place specificities complicate the notion that the logics of place making can be unproblematically abstracted from.


The politics of the twenty-first century is marked by dissent, tumult and calls for radical change, whether through food riots, anti-war protests, anti-government tirades, anti-blasphemy marches, anti-austerity demonstrations, anti-authoritarian movements and anti-capitalist occupations. Interestingly, contemporary political protests are borne of both the Right and Left and are staged in both the Global North and South. Globally, different instances of protest have drawn attention to the deep fissures which challenge the idea of globalisation as a force for peace. Given the diversity of these protests, it is necessary to examine the particular nature of grievances, the sort of change which is sought and the extent to which localised protest can have global implications. The contributions in this book draw on the theoretical work of Hardt and Negri, David Graeber and Judith Butler, among others, in order explore the nature of hegemony, the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, the responses of authorities to protest and emotion and public performance in, and representation of, protest. The book concludes with David Graeber's reply to reviews of his recent The Democracy Project: A History, A Crisis, A Movement. This book was published as a special issue of Global Discourse.


It is 1938 and the prospect of war hangs over every London inhabitant. But the city doesn't stop. Everywhere people continue to work, drink, fall in love, fight and struggle to get on in life. At the lodging-house at No.10 Dulcimer Street, Kennington, the buttoned-up clerk Mr. Josser returns home with the clock he has received as a retirement gift. The other residents include faded actress Connie; tinned food-loving Mr. Puddy; widowed landlady Mrs. Vizzard (whose head is turned by her new lodger, a self-styled 'Professor of Spiritualism'); and flashy young mechanic Percy Boon, whose foray into stolen cars descends into something much, much worse.


Fibrous networks are ideal functional materials since they provide mechanical rigidity at low weight. Here, we demonstrate that fibrous networks of the blood clotting protein fibrin undergo a strong and irreversible increase in their mechanical rigidity in response to uniaxial compression. This rigidification can be precisely controlled by the level of applied compressive strain, providing a means to program the network rigidity without having to change its composition. To identify the underlying mechanism we measure single fiber-fiber interactions using optical tweezers. We further develop a minimal computational model of cohesive fiber networks that shows that stiffening arises due to the formation of new bonds in the compressed state, which develop tensile stress when the network is re-expanded. The model predicts that the network stiffness after a compression cycle obeys a power-law dependence on tensile stress, which we confirm experimentally. This finding provides new insights into how biological tissues can adapt themselves independently of any cellular processes, offering new perspectives to inspire the design of reprogrammable materials.


Birds arriving from spring migration have higher chances of securing a territory if they reach the breeding area before their companions. However, an early arrival may compromise their chances of surviving until reproduction begins. Here, we study how evolutionarily stable responses to these opposite constraints may shape patterns of arrival in a population of migratory birds, with the help of a simple evolutionary algorithm. We show that, initially, an increasing level of competition for breeding territories generates a massive peak of early arrivals. However, when the level of competition becomes very high, the temporal distribution of arrivals may take diff erent shapes, depending on the modalities of competition. If individuals trying to usurp territories have relatively high chances of success, a second peak of arrival emerges at the very end of the arrival period. Birds arrive then in two successive waves. By contrast, if these chances are low, a single early peak of arrival is still present. Many individuals do however continuously arrive afterwards, at a regular and increasing tempo, until reproduction begins. The prior residence effect, that rules competition between resident birds and their challengers, is thus expected to influence the whole distribution of arrival dates on breeding grounds. This distribution will, in turn, affect the ability of the population to respond to changing environmental conditions.


Climate models show the possibility of abrupt climate changes caused by a collapse of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC). Strong THC fluctuations on interannual to interdecadal timescales and high erros in THC measurements hinder the detection of a possible THC slowdown.Our analysis shows that the temperature structure in the Atlantic Ocean can be a sensitive indicator identifying early THC weakening with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Simulations with the coupled atmosphere-ocean circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM emphasize the subsurface temperature signature in the Atlantic Ocean with its potential to trace THC changes. A part of this signature can be understood with the advective-diffusive balance which is confirmed in a stochastic low-order model of the Atlantic Ocean circulation. Finally, instrumental and proxy data are used to estimate THC fluctuations on decadal to multi-decadal time scales.


This article focuses on ethnic and linguistic minorities and radio broadcasting in South Africa. It examines the country's language, cultural and broadcasting policies and their potential impact on the participation of ethnic minorities in radio broadcasting. In particular, special focus is given to community and public radio. The study is broadly theoretical and exploratory, and examines how such policies influenced institutional changes in broadcasting and the communication rights of ethnic minorities. The critique of policy is done within the broader context of international human rights law which the South African government has ratified. Some of these treaties clearly put an obligation on state parties to support the rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities. These obligations are not only discussed within a rights framework, but also the country's specific social and historical context.


Disturbances of coronary circulation have been reported in diabetic patients with microvascular complications but without obstructive coronary atherosclerosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate coronary flow reserve in young adult patients with IDDM but without microalbuminuria and diabetic autonomic neuropathy. Coronary flow reserve was determined in 12 nonsmoking male patients with IDDM (age 30.0 ± 6.6 years) and 12 healthy matched volunteers. Groups were similar with respect to blood pressure and serum lipid concentrations, and no subject had a positive family history of coronary heart disease. The patients with IDDM had normal exercise echocardiography and autonomic nervous function tests. Five patients had minimal background retinopathy, and none had microalbuminuria. Positron emission tomography and [15O]H2O were used to measure myocardial blood flow at rest and after dipyridamole administration. The studies were performed during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia (serum insulin ∼70 mU/1). The baseline myocardial blood flow was similar in patients with IDDM and in control subjects (0.84 ± 0.18 vs. 0.88 ± 0.25 ml · g−1 · min−1, NS). The myocardial blood flow during hyperemia was 29% lower in patients with IDDM (3.17 ± 1.57) compared with the control subjects (4.45 ± 1.37 ml · g−1 · min−1 P < 0.05). Consequently, coronary flow reserve (the ratio of flow during hyperemia and at rest) was lower in diabetic patients than in control subjects (3.76 ± 1.69 vs. 5.31 ± 1.86, P < 0.05) and the total coronary resistance during hyperemia was higher in diabetic patients (53.7 ± 31.5) compared with the control subjects (31.4 ± 11.6 mmHg · min · g · ml−1 P < 0.05). The coronary flow reserve was similar in diabetic patients with and without mild background retinopathy. No association was found between the coronary flow reserve and serum lipid or HbAlc values in either group. Coronary flow reserve is impaired in young adult males with IDDM and no or minimal microvascular complications and without any evidence of coronary heart disease. This abnormality cannot be explained by standard coronary heart disease risk factors. The results imply early impairment of coronary vascular reactivity in IDDM patients, which may represent an early precursor of future coronary heart disease or may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy.


I. INTRODUCTION I am a Utahn and a United States Senator. I am also a Christian man and a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. As a Christian, I appreciate the virtue of humility, a virtue which teaches us the imperfection of man, and, by inference, man's society. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, I know of the failures of the state to protect the faithful. I am a member of a faith that, in this Republic's short history, was brutally, murderously persecuted.1 Joseph Smith, the first prophet of our faith, never saw Utah, having been martyred in 1844 in the state of Illinois.2 In our relatively short modern history, Mormons have known persecution. As we exchange ideas during this Symposium about religious freedom in our various countries, I recognize that we in the United States are still working to advance these protections. Respect for the exercise of conscience and religion is a fundamental aspect of a universal understanding of human rights. II. THE U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL APPROACH: THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION The First Amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly prohibits Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."3 The First Amendment encompasses the view that there is a distinction between society and the state and that the state with its legal monopoly of police power must be limited to ensure the liberty of its citizenry. This liberty encompasses the right of the people to a certain degree of autonomy, which, in essence, means to be free from coercive interference in private matters, such as the family, work, social life, and matters of belief and conscience. We should not forget that the Founders of the Republic believed that there was a direct relationship between liberty and religion.4 It was believed-and I strongly believe this to be true today as wellthat a Republic could only survive if its citizenry had the capacity to engage in civic virtue.5 In other words, a republic would flourish only when its people were moral. And, to the Founders, it was religion that established morality.6 As such, the government was prohibited from-in the words of the Constitution-"prohibiting the free exercise of religion."7 All of this is certainly not to suggest that the Framers invented these ideas. As practical men, the Framers were aware of history.8 Indeed, one cannot understand the Constitution without an appreciation that many of the rights contained therein-such as the First Amendment's freedoms-are the result of historical prescription. The Framers saw in Britain and in the states of Europe the establishment of state religions and the suppression of competing beliefs.9 This coercion appalled them.10 Indeed, many members of dissenting religions, such as the Puritans from Anglican England, fled to America to escape religious persecution.11 The new Americans argued initially for toleration of the differing Christian sects, and finally for legal protection of all faiths.12 As such, freedom of conscience was protected in what we refer to as the Free Exercise Clause, and a state religion supported by tax revenue was prohibited by the Establishment Clause.13 Exactly how the free exercise of religion and the prohibition against establishment of an official religion were defined and enforced has become part and parcel of America's constitutional, cultural, and legal debate.14 Each generation of Americans has fought over these values, and our courts, in particular, have struggled to apply eighteenth-century language and precepts of liberty to modern problems.15 III. AMERICANS' VIEW OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ABROAD For the historical reasons just described, Americans have a deep interest in the protection of religious freedom around the world. As Americans, we appreciate and celebrate our Constitution's core commitment to religious liberty. …


Basis set superposition error (BSSE) remains one of the major difficulties besetting current ab initio calculations of molecular interactions. Despite the widespread notion that lowering of the BSSE to negligible magnitude requires extremely large basis sets, we show that simple modifications of basis sets of only moderate size (e.g., 6‐31G**) can accomplish the same end at much reduced computational expense. These modifications include reoptimization of the orbital exponents within the framework of the relevant molecules, plus addition of a single diffuse shell of sp orbitals on nonhydrogen centers. Subsequent addition of a second set of d‐functions further lowers the SCF BSSE, bringing it below 0.1 kcal/mol for both (HF)2 and (H2O)2. It is notable that addition of the latter d‐functions without prior reoptimization of the valence orbitals produces the opposite effect of an increase in the BSSE. Although the MP2 BSSE is also substantially decreased by the above modifications, it appears difficult to reduce this quantity below about 0.4 kcal/mol.


In total, of 173 prescriptions of the patient the total number of 329 drug interaction was found in which the 240 interaction was found in male and 89 in the female beraing the 72.90% and 27.10% respectively. Patient was of various age groups in which the maximum frequency was seen in the age group of 61- 70 years having 105 interaction bearing the percentage of 31.9% . According to the participation of different age group of the male and female with their corresponding age .The participation of male is high having frequency of 240 (72.9% )than female participation of frequency 89 (27.1%).The participation of male in the age group of 61-70 years is 83 and the female is 40 in the age group of 51-60 years. Potential drug interactions were categorized based on the gender. In that compared to 13 (40.6) females, males 19 (59.4%) were found to have more potential drug interactions. Our study more potential drug interactions in adult patients. Because, in adults lacking of nutrition's and in elderly patients multiple prescribers, multiple drugs and multiple diseases. The number of potential DDI increased with an increase in the number of drug prescribed. The numbers of drug prescribed increase with age .This drug interaction have a potential to increase or decrease the therapeutic effect or to increase the risk of ADR. An increased awareness of PDDIs ,rational co – prescription of drugs and a close monitoring of patients in whom these drugs are prescribed is recommended .The recommendation is based on the special monitoring and the perspiration of the clinical pharmacist .The Drug interaction observed in the geriatric patient are more severe and common in compared to the other group of study. The geriatric patient are physiological disability in correspond with the first pass metabolism and the presence of the other disease which also enables the multiple prescription causing poly pharmacy. The gender specification also the cause of the interaction , the female are more prone to the drug interaction due to the hormonal distribution in the body and inability of the physiological function to absorb and the distribution .The special training should be provided to the pharmacist for looking forward of the geriatric patient and female patient .The training regarding the prescription their adherence, use, toxicity, dosage regimen ,are being properly enabled in the training for the practical application. This study helps to know the different interaction related to the cardiovascular agent with own class of the drug and the other class of drugs used therapeutically to care the disease.


The new edition of Business Statistics in Practice delivers clear and understandable explanations of business statistics concepts through the use of continuing case studies and an emphasis on business improvement. The cases and examples show real applications of statistics relevant to today's business students. The authors motivate students by showing persuasively how the use of statistical techniques in support of business decision-making helps to improve business processes. A variety of computer centered examples and exercises, and a robust, technology-based ancillary package are designed to help students master this subject. Acknowledging the importance of spreadsheets and statistical software in their statistical instruction, the authors continue to integrate Excel and Minitab output throughout the text. In addition, a new enhanced version of MegaStat, an Excel add-in program designed to optimize Excel for statistical application, is available free on the Student CD. For students and instructors who want to explore statistical concepts from a graphical perspective, Visual Statistics is again available on the Student CD. New Business Improvement icons are integrated throughout the text to illustrate the BI theme.


Regeneration of skeletal muscle requires the activation, proliferation, differentiation and fusion of satellite cells to generate new muscle fibres. This study was designed to determine the role of tensin in this process. Cardiotoxin was used to induce regeneration in the anterior tibial muscles of tensin-knockout and wild-type mice. From histological analysis, we found that the regeneration process lasted longer in knockout than in wild-type mice. To investigate the mechanism involved in this delay, we examined each regeneration step in animals and cultured primary cells. We found fewer proliferating myogenic cells identified by bromodeoxyuridine and desmin double labelling in knockout mice on the first 2 days after injury. Expression of myosin, paxillin, dystrophin and dystrophin-associated proteins were delayed in knockout mice. Withdrawal from the cell cycle was less efficient in isolated knockout myoblasts, and the fusion capacity was reduced in these cells as well. These defects in regeneration most likely contributed to the 9-fold increase of centrally nucleated fibres occurring in the non-injected knockout mice. Our results demonstrated clearly that tensin plays a role in skeletal-muscle regeneration.


Renderings of volumetric data have become an important data analysis tool for applications ranging from medicine to scientific simulation. We propose a volumetric drawing system that directly extracts sparse linear features, such as silhouettes and suggestive contours, using a temporally coherent seed-and-traverse framework. In contrast to previous methods based on isosurfaces or nonrefractive transparency, producing these drawings requires examining an asymptotically smaller subset of the data, leading to efficiency on large data sets. In addition, the resulting imagery is often more comprehensible than standard rendering styles, since it focuses attention on important features in the data. We test our algorithms on datasets up to 5123, demonstrating interactive extraction and rendering of line drawings in a variety of drawing styles.


There has been interest in mechanisms that enable the secure use of legacy code to implement trusted code in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), such as Intel SGX. However, because legacy code generally assumes the presence of an operating system, this naturally raises the spectre of Iago attacks on the legacy code. We observe that not all legacy code is vulnerable to Iago attacks and that legacy code must use return values from system calls in an unsafe way to have Iago vulnerabilities. Based on this observation, we develop Emilia, which automatically detects Iago vulnerabilities in legacy applications by fuzzing applications using system call return values. We use Emilia to discover 51 Iago vulnerabilities in 17 applications, and find that Iago vulnerabilities are widespread and common. We conduct an in-depth analysis of the vulnerabilities we found and conclude that while common, the majority (82.4%) can be mitigated with simple, stateless checks in the system call forwarding layer, while the rest are best fixed by finding and patching them in the legacy code. Finally, we study and evaluate different trade-offs in the design of Emilia.


Creativity is a psychological construct that has gained research popularity (Akgul & Kaveci, 2016), however it remains a challenging one to define. The variety of definitions promulgated to understand creativity hints at the complexity of the mental process. Furthermore, as a subset of creativity, domain-specific mathematical creativity has also garnered a variety of definitions. The transdisciplinary research on creativity (Sriraman & Haavold, 2017) is seminal in this world of fast-paced innovation, invention, solution, and synthesis. Considering every human being with at least average cognitive abilities possesses the ability to think creatively (Baran, 2011), developing students' creative talents and abilities must be high on a list of educational priorities. Much of the literature surrounding mathematical creative thinking is centered on trying to quantify an individual's creative thinking abilities. There have also been studies conducted that enabled researchers to describe various traits and demonstrate multiple levels of creativity. The basis of this work will be to synthesize the characteristics of mathematical creativity, analyze the impact of specific teaching approaches on mathematical creativity, and examine the relationship between student affect and mathematical creativity.


Background. There is no baseline information on the South African (SA) MMed mini-dissertation, which became a compulsory (and controversial) research component for specialist registration in 2011. Objective. To obtain evidence-based information regarding the current composition of the research output of the MMed mini-dissertation. Methods. SA MMed mini-dissertations ( N =307) were downloaded from electronic theses and dissertation websites and 8 university repositories that provide specialist training. Fourteen variables were noted for each mini-dissertation, the data were entered into an Excel (2016) (Microsoft, USA) spreadsheet and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results. The 307 mini-dissertations, representing 24 of the Colleges of Medicine of SA, were submitted from 1996 to 2018, mainly in monograph format (76%) and almost equally divided between prospective and retrospective studies. Observational studies predominated, with meta-analyses, systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials comprising 5% of the sample. Although quantitative investigations dominated (82%), just less than half of these used statistics to test variables. Confirmed ethical compliance improved from 41% in pre-2011 dissertations to 83% for dissertations submitted during 2015 - 2018. Conclusions. This study provides descriptive data on the SA MMed mini-dissertation. Comparisons indicate that the MMed research component compares favourably with the content and research approach of similar international specialist trainee research outputs.


If per capita class action filing rates were the same nationwide as they are in Madison County, Illinois there would have been over 42,000 class action filings in 2000. One reason for the county's popularity among class action lawyers is its reputation for the propensity of its judges to accommodate class action lawyers' interests. In this monograph, I focus on a single class action (Schuppert et al. v. Down et al.) filed in Madison County on behalf of hundreds of thousand of mostly elderly Americans who were the victims of a vast mass-marketing scheme conducted by James Blair Down ("Down"), a Canadian citizen. Ironically, if not tragically, the elderly victims of the scheme appear poised to become victims a second time - of "class action" justice in Madison County. A provisional settlement agreement is so abusive of the class's rights that it can only gain final judicial approbation from a court oblivious to the need to protect class members from self-interested behavior by its self-appointed class lawyers. Indeed, if there were an award for the most abusive class action settlement of the decade if not the century, this settlement would be an odds-on favorite to gain the prize. The only possible impediment is a unique confluence of events that is permitting public scrutiny of the settlement - scrutiny that has already had some effect on the judicial proceedings in Madison County.


There has recently been increased interest in the potential for formal and informal networks to aid interventions with biologic families in helping them achieve reunification in the context of the child protection system. When group support is provided to families, the creation of a network of social support seems to be a consequence. The article analyzes the conceptualization of social support in order to create social support networks and the benefits on the intervention with families in the framework of the child protection system through a systematic review. From a wide search 4348 documents, finally 14 articles were included in the reviews. Results show that social support is considered a process by which social resources are provided from formal (professional services and programs associated with those services in any off the protection, health of educational systems) and informal (extended family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances) networks, allowing the families to confront daily moments as well as in crisis situations. This social support is related to emotional, psychological, physical, instrumental, material and information support that allow families to face their difficulties. Formal and informal networks of child protection systems contribute to social support, resilience, consolidation of learning and the assistance of families to social intervention programs.


The aerospace industry has encountered many failures of the metallic hardware and sub-systems made of aluminum alloys, wherein the residual stresses are known to play a major role. This requires an accurate measurement of the residual stresses at various locations of the component in a nondestructive manner. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) method of measuring the residual stresses offers one of the most commonly used nondestructive techniques providing accurate stress values. The aluminum alloys, used for launch vehicle and satellite applications, are subjected to a variety of processing operations to realize the final product. These processes invariably introduce crystallographic texture in the material, which, in turn, influences the residual stresses measured using the diffraction method. The sin2ψ–2θ plots show nonlinearity in the longitudinal and transverse direction for the alloys studied. This nonlinearity could be caused by two major factors, namely, the crystallographic texture and stress gradient from the surface to the core of the sheets. In the case of aluminum alloys studied, both the factors play important roles by influencing the residual stress measurements. This paper covers the anisotropy in residual stress measurements caused by the influence of texture using the diffraction technique. Experiences at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) have been discussed with case studies on textured aluminum-alloy materials.


Infectious diseases are a significant burden on global economies and public health. There are indeed more deaths due to infections than cancer demonstrating that it is high time to pay attention to the escalating bacterial enemy. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) pose a serious health problem affecting millions of people each year with total cost for treatment being in billions of dollars. A large share of that expense and inappropriate use of antimicrobials comes from a 48 hours wait for the infected sample to be cultured in the laboratory and tested for antibiotic sensitivity (AST). The current study presents an ultra-rapid point-of-care system for determining AST of pathogens found in human urine leading to UTI. Sensitivity and specificity of the new test for antibiotic susceptibility was found to be 0.94 and 0.97, respectively. The results of AST using the new test are available in 4 hours as compared with 48–72 hours of conventional methods. Availability of this rapid assay will obliterate the need for empirical treatment in case of UTI-like infectious diseases and lead to specific and most appropriate treatment at the earliest ensuring healthcare to all. Further as the result of cultures are available in ∼4 hours this test facilitates de-escalation necessary for the containment of bacterial resistance, favours targeted patient therapy with reduced antimicrobial spectrum of action of prescribed antibiotics and, consequently, lowers the cost of treatment significantly.


Predicting protein–chemical interaction has been an important and challenging task in the bioinformatics community, and there are many related applications in biomedical research, including QSAR modelling and novel lead discovery. A fundamental hypothesis for predicting protein–chemical interaction is that chemical compounds sharing chemical similarity should also share protein target profiles, and the critical question is hence how to measure the distance (or similarity) between two chemicals. An increasing number of chemical descriptors have been invented in the past decades. As chemical descriptors play a critical role in predicting protein– chemical interaction, it is of great importance to compare chemical descriptors and evaluate their performance in such predictions. In this paper, we reported our case study on comparing the performance of DRAGON descriptors, the frequent subgraph-based descriptors (FFSM), and the signature molecular descriptor on predicting protein–chemical interaction using support vector machines over a large number of data sets. Our experiments demonstrated that FFSM and signature descriptors outperformed most DRAGON descriptor classes, and wisely selecting chemical descriptors will be beneficial for predicting protein–chemical interaction.


The purpose of this research is to understand the state of art of total quality management in Hong Kong Hotel Industry and to develop a model of business excellence to help monitor and guide hoteliers in search of excellence. With this in mind, a preliminary study was conducted to understand the concepts, management practices, barriers to their implementations and future plan that are pertinent to total quality management. Founded on Kanji's Business Excellence Model, the Business Excellence Model for Hong Kong Hotel Industry is developed, tested and applied using survey data from 28 members of the Hong Kong Hotels Association and the questionnaires are mainly responded by directorates of the hotels. To compliment the business excellence study, over 2,400 interviews were made from guests of 62 hotels to set up a customer satisfaction index for Hong Kong Hotel Industry. A full-scale study on customer satisfaction for three international and two Asian hotels is included as a case study. Five critical success factors are identified in the preliminary study and they are People Management, External Customer-Satisfaction, Teamwork, Internal Customer-Satisfaction and Leadership. Under staffing is the major barrier to the hotel's implementation of TQM in terms of both frequency and degrees of difficulty, and the approach believed to be short-lived gimmicks or fads comes second. The customer satisfaction survey 1999 reveals that Customer Satisfaction is mainly influenced by both Expectation and Perceived Quality. This, perhaps, gives the hoteliers the starting points for improving their customer satisfactions. Contrasts between the two groups of hotels in the case study reveal that the Asian group outperforms the International group of hotels in all the five dimensions of the Customer Satisfaction Model for both sexes and for both ethnic groups of White and Chinese. This indicates that the difference is something fundamental, perhaps in their quality cultures, quality initiatives and, most importantly, leaderships.