Abstract Objective: The study determined the impact of a community-based nutrition education programme, using trained community nutrition advisors, on the anthropometric nutritional status of mixed-race children aged between 2 and 5 years. Design and setting: The programme was implemented over two years in four study areas in the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces. Two control areas were included to differentiate between the effect of the education programme and a food aid programme that were implemented simultaneously. Weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height were summarised using standard deviations from the NCHS reference median. For each of the indicators, the difference in the percentage of children below minus two standard deviations from the reference NCHS median in the initial and follow-up surveys was determined. Subjects: Initially 536 children were measured and, after two years of intervention, 815. Results: Weight-for-age improved in all areas, but only significantly in boys and girls in the urban study area, and in boys in one rural study area. No significant improvement in height-for-age occurred in any area. Weight-for-height improved significantly in the urban study area. Conclusion: The education programme in combination with food aid succeeded in improving the weight status of children, but was unable to facilitate catch-up growth in stunted children after two years of intervention.


The International Olympic Committee has identified mental health as a priority that significantly affects the physical health and safety of collegiate athletes. Interventions that improve diet quality have been shown to improve mental health in several populations. However, studies are needed to examine this relationship in female collegiate athletes, who have elevated risk of experiencing anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as dietary insufficiencies. In a quantitative, cross-sectional study, female student athletes at a U.S. university completed three mental health questionnaires: Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Athlete Psychological Strain Questionnaire (APSQ), and COVID Stress Scales (CSS). Each female athlete also completed a validated, web-based Diet History Questionnaire (DHQ-III) resulting in a Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Seventy-seven participants completed all survey information. HEI scores were consistently higher for athletes with poorer mental health. HEI scores were significantly positively associated with stress (p = 0.015), performance concerns (p = 0.048), CSS components of danger (p = 0.007), contamination (p = 0.006), and traumatic stress (p = 0.003). Although findings support statistically significant associations among dietary quality and mental health indicators, including broad symptom severity or stressors specific to athletics or COVID-19, these associations were in the opposite direction hypothesized. Possible reasons for results and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Whatever the causes (natural or man-made) of natural disasters, it adversely affects on all. Social, cultural, economic, political or religious differences are not the issue of natural disasters. This means natural disaster is a common natural problem. Effective management of a common natural problem is not an easy task. Three types of institutional mechanisms involve in management of natural disasters--State, Community and Third Party. In this paper, it is tried to find out the effective management mechanism of natural disasters. Based on the theoretical debates on management of natural disasters, it is argued that effective management of natural disasters cannot be left to any one of these institutions. Practical policy may involve all these institutions. It is also argued that coordination and cooperation of all kinds of machinery (both government and non-government) and institutions are required for effective management of natural disasters.


The present study investigates the mediating effect of the dividend policy on the relationship between corporate governance quality and informative income smoothing. Tucker and Zarowin (TZ) and Albrecht and Richardson (AR) approaches are utilized as the proxies of informative income smoothing. In addition, the accumulated coding method and dividend are applied to measure the corporate governance quality and dividend policy respectively. By applying a systematic elimination method, 109 firms remained as the final sample for the period from 2007 to 2014. Using the TZ method, we found that there is a significant and positive relationship between corporate governance quality and informative income smoothing. Finally, according to the results of Sobel's Test, the role of dividend policy as a mediating variable was not verified in the relationship between corporate governance quality and informative corporate governance (TZ); however, if the AR method is used for measuring informative income smoothing, the dividend policy may mediate the relationship between corporate governance quality and informative income smoothing.


Increasingly, parents with learning disabilities are being referred to clinical psychologists for assessments relating to their ability to provide safe and adequate parenting for their children. This study examines how decisions about parental competence are currently being made, and identifies the psychological factors which are relevant in determining both parenting ability, and the mother's potential to benefit from teaching and support. It is argued that clinical psychologists, while working within a multi-disciplinary context, need to be able to define what are the specifically psychological components of the assessment task. During the first stage of this study, a group of fifteen mothers with learning disability was identified, and thirty-four professionals associated with them interviewed, using a structured interview schedule designed for the purpose. The results indicated widespread reservations about how well the current assessment process operates when it is applied to mothers with learning disabilities. In particular, a need to assess more closely the psychological factors relating to parental competence was indicated. Intellectual, psychological, environmental and child-related factors were all seen as important determinants of parenting ability, and this is supported by previously reported research findings in this area. The second stage of the study was the development of an assessment instrument for use by clinical psychologists, contributing to an assessment of parental competence in mothers with a learning disability. Drawing on the research literature and the findings of the present study, a framework was developed so that information can be systematically collected in the three key areas which the clinical psychologist needs to address : - the mother's ability and her current level of functioning, her potential to improve her functioning if necessary, and the nature of the support required to enable her to do so. Once developed this assessment was completed with a further group of fifteen mothers with a learning disability. The third stage of the study assessed the usefulness of the new assessment framework, through interviews with an additional group of thirty-one professionals who were involved with the women who had been assessed. The results indicated positive changes following the implementation of the new assessment.


Based on the data of Environmental Status of Bali Province Year 2009, Sungi River is the one of ten rivers that have experience quality degradation which contaminated by waste. Pollution parameters that have exc.eeded the quality standard, are: BOD, COD, Total Phosphate, Total Coliform, and Faecal Coliform. It requires to concerned because Sungi River as the point area for drinking water in Tabanan (data of Environmental Board of Bali Province). Purpose of research is to determine the characteristic of pollution source which will be impact to the changing of water quality in physical, chemical, and biological in middle and down stream area, detern1ine the pollution index in up stream, middle. and dow stream area of Sungi River. Water parameters that will observe are: temperature, pH, turbidity, TDS, TSS, DHL, DO, BOD, COD, Total Phosphate, Total Coliform and Faecal Coliform. The measurement result will compare with the best of water quality, based on the Regulation of Bali Governor Number 8 Year 2007, because of it utilization as drinking water. Result of research shown that the activity in Sungi River dominated by agriculture activity, settlement, animal husbandry, and industry that located in dov.n stream area. The waste that result from the above activities caused the degradation of water quality that shown by the increasing of water parameter indicators, such as: BOD, COD, Total Phosphate, and Faecal Coliform Bacteria. In the middle will increasing and down stream area will get degradation. This condition is inversely proportional to the content of DO as impact of contaminants accumulation, such as: organic waste in middle are, because the water movement is more calm with average water flow is 0,14 m/second compared with the up and down stream area with average water flow are 0,15 m/second and 0,35 m/second. Characteristic of pollution source which effect the water quality at Sungi River in area I caused by llie activities of agriculture, animal husbandry, settlement, and industry, for area II caused by the activities of agriculture, animal husbandry, settlement, and villa. The quality staLus of Sungi Rlver in up stream area still result a good quality water but in the middle and down stream area are get lightly pollution. Water quality parameter which exceeded a good water quality in Sw1gi Rive,· is Total Phosphate with average value is 0,44 mg/I in the middle area, 0,40 mg/l in down stream area and Faecal Coliform with average value is 166/100 ml in the middle area and 152/100 ml in the down stream area.


The ice caps on high plateaus of northern Norway (lat 70°N) can be grouped according to altitude. The highest ice caps (> 1500m) are dry-based and are slowly retreating to reveal undisturbed block fields; they appear to be found only in southern Lyngen. Ice on plateaus at lower elevations (≤ 1500 m above sea level) is wet-based and has produced extensive striated bedrock surfaces and moraine sequences on the glacier forefields. We propose that this geomorphological distinction can be applied to other plateau glaciers to identify present and, in particular, former basal thermal regimes.


The presentation is concerned with higher twist corrections of nonpartonic origin to semi-inclusive observables in the kinematical region relevant for the HERMES experiment. We demonstrate a strong impact of the VDM-like interaction and the exclusive production of $\rho^0$ meson on the extraction of the $\bar d - \bar u$ asymmetry from charged pion DIS multiplicities. We also show that it is the exclusive-$\rho^0$ channel which accounts for the experimentally observed effect of the excess of charged over neutral pions produced at large $z$.


A compact and robust laser system is essential for mobile atom interferometers. Phase modulation can provide the two necessary phase-coherent frequencies without sophisticated phase-locking between two different lasers. However, the additional laser frequencies generated can perturb the atom interferometer. In this article, we report on a novel method to produce a single high-power laser beam composed of two phase-coherent sidebands without the perturbing carrier mode. Light from a diode laser is phase-modulated by using a fiber-coupled electro-optic modulator driven at 3.4 GHz and passes through a Fabry-Perot cavity with a 6.8 GHz free spectral range. The cavity filters the carrier mode to leave the two first-order sidebands for the two-photon Raman transition between the two hyperfine ground states of 87Rb. The laser beam is then fed to a single tapered amplifier, and the two sidebands are both amplified without mode competition. The phase noise is lower than that of a state-of-the-art optically phase-locked external-cavity diode laser (−135 dBrad2/Hz at 10 kHz) at frequencies above 10 Hz. This technique can be used in all-fiber-based laser systems for future mobile atom interferometers.


A computer implemented method includes obtaining at least one current spectrum with an in-situ optical monitoring sys tem, comparing the current spectrum to a plurality of different reference spectra, and determining based on the comparing whether a polishing endpoint has been achieved for the sub strate having the outermost layer undergoing polishing. The current spectrum is a spectrum of light reflected from a Sub strate having an outermost layer undergoing polishing and at least one underlying layer. The plurality of reference spectra represent spectra of light reflected from substrates with out ermost layers having the same thickness and underlying lay ers having different thicknesses.


This paper explores user authentication schemes for banking systems implemented over mobile phone networks in the developing world. We analyze an authentication scheme currently deployed by an Indian mobile banking service provider which uses a combination of PINs and printed codebooks for authenticating users. As a first step, we report security weaknesses in that scheme and show that it is susceptible to easy and efficient PIN recovery attacks. We then propose a new scheme which offers better secrecy of PINs, while still maintaining the simplicity and scalability advantages of the original scheme. Finally, we investigate the usability of the two schemes with a sample of 34 current and potential customers of the banking system. Our findings suggest that the new scheme is more efficient, less susceptible to human error and better preferred by the target consumers.


This research was intended to discuss and explore three formulated terms. 1) Why is the Wayang Gana Murti performance held in the Rsigana ceremony at the Pujung Sari Traditional Village, Tegallalang, Gianyar? 2) What is the process for the performance of the Gana Murti Wayang in the Rsigana Ceremony in the Pujung Sari Traditional Village, Tegallalang, Gianyar? 3) What are the implications of the Wayang Gana Murti performance at the Rsigana ceremony on the social, religious and cultural life of the people of the Pujung Sari Traditional Village? The purpose of this study in general is to analyze in depth the performance of Wayang Gana Murti in the Rsigana ceremony, hopefully it can be used as a reference and applied to Hinduism and Balinese culture.


We elucidate the key chemical and physical requirements necessary for the future successful design and fabrication of molecular field-effect devices. We show that the molecular assembly, device fabrication, and electrical measurements of reported self-assembled monolayer field-effect transistors (SAMFETs) cannot be reproduced. Carrier tunneling and device electrostatics place minimum molecular lengths of L > 2.5−3 nm and minimum gate dielectric thickness tdielectric ≲ L/1.5 for such devices. In conflict with reported SAMFET device characteristics, for the values of L and tdielectric in these structures, it is fundamentally impossible to either turn the devices off or to obtain a significant field-effect. Synthesis, assembly, and characterization of functionalized molecular systems and fabrication and characterization of appropriately scaled device structures may enable the successful preparation of a molecular field-effect transistor.


This paper presents the design and the experimental verification of an 18-slot/14-pole fractional-slot concentrated winding interior permanent magnet machine. The prototype machine was optimized for wide constant power speed range (7:1) and very low cogging torque, two of the most important requirements for traction machines. Measured performance of the constructed prototype machine has confirmed the finite-element modeling results. Experience gained from this study has led to develop a set of design rules for the concentrated winding (CW)- interior permanent magnet (IPM) machine. Scaling up of the prototype design based on these rules is also discussed in this paper.


1.1.1. Atom The atom is the basic unit of matter and consists of a nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons (Fig. 1.1). The atomic nucleus comprises positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons. The protons and neutrons are much more massive than electrons. Atomic number (Z) refers to the number of protons in the nucleus, and mass number (A) is the total number of protons and neutrons (N). The chemical properties of an atom are determined by the number of orbital electrons, which is the same as the atomic number in the electrically neutral atom.


Several N-aryl-substituted thioamides with an axis of chirality along the N-C(aryl) bond were prepared in good to excellent yields. NMR spectra revealed preferences for the E rotamer (along the N-C(=S) bond). X-ray crystallographic analysis showed that the planes of the aryl and thioamide groups were almost perpendicular (79 degrees). For the first time, these atropisomeric thioamides were used for an asymmetric Claisen rearrangement. LDA deprotonation led selectively to the enethiolates of Z stereochemistry, and subsequent reaction with a variety of allyl halides furnished S-allyl keteneaminothioacetals. These intermediates were not detected as they rearranged readily to gamma-unsaturated thioamides in good to high yields and diastereoselectivities up to 88:12. Chemical correlation allowed the assignment of the (aR*,2R*) configuration to the major diastereoisomer. A model was proposed to explain the stereochemical course of the thio-Claisen rearrangement.


The digitization of the pump characteristic curve between lift and flow rate is crucial for state detection, fault diagnosis and optimal control of large watering and drainage system in modern industry. In this paper, the characteristic equation of pump is analyzed, an adline neural network is designed for parameters identification for the pump characteristic equation. The proposed scheme solves the question how to measure the characteristic equation in arbitrary speed, raises the identification precise with adaptive filtering, learning, and approaching function of adline neural network. The experiment results confirm its feasibility and effectiveness.


Author(s): Leonard, Erin Janelle | Advisor(s): Yin, An | Abstract: Although sub-surface oceans have been detected on Europa and Enceladus, two of the best studied icy satellites in the outer solar system, the birth and evolution of these oceans and their impacts on the tectonic history of the overlying ice shells remain poorly understood. One of the fundamental questions regarding Europa and Enceladus is how the apparently young surfaces, evident from a lack of impact craters, are resurfaced and how this is related to the evolution of the underlying oceans. In this dissertation, I address this question by examining the cross-cutting relationships and spatial association of key morphological features on the two satellites. The results are expressed as sets of geomorphological maps that quantify the spatial and temporal relationships of the geologic features, which can then be related to the physical states of the ice shells.For the Europa studies, I constructed a global geologic map at 1:15M scale and the first detailed structural-geology map using the highest-resolution (~14 m/pixel) Galileo SSI images with a corresponding regional geological map for context. The main mapping results of my work include: (1) establishment of a global three-stage evolutionary model of the features on Europa's surface, and (2) recognition of a transition from distributed to discrete deformation potentially resulting from ice-shell cooling and thickening. In order to further understand how the observed morphological relationships have developed, I used a gravity-scaled physical analogue model to analyze the formation of the ridged plains, the oldest surface features visible on Europa. I performed a series of two-layer physical analogue experiments, with a brittle layer above a ductile layer. The model permits a systematic test of two competing hypotheses for the formation of the ridged plains: horizontal ice-shell compression versus horizontal ice-shell extension. With these experiments, I showed that the similarity between the experimentally generated landscape and the observed ridged plains morphology strongly favors the compression mechanism.For the Enceladus study, I conducted a systematic investigation of high-resolution Cassini ISS images focusing on establishing regional structural relationships and the kinematics of major shear zones across the southern part of the Leading Hemisphere Terrain (LHT). The study area displays a unique morphological feature informally known as the "cratered islands" and referred to in this study as the relic cratered blocks. The blocks are characterized by isolated heavily cratered domains surrounded by younger ridged terrain that is essentially free of craters. The main finding of this work is that the relic cratered blocks have experienced vertical-axis rotation during distributed ductile strike-slip shear deformation. In order to understand how the ductile shear deformation evolved, I developed an analytical thermo-mechanical model that relates the shear strain rate of ductile deformation constrained by surface observations to the heat flow during the formation of the deformed features. The model results indicate that the ice shell of Enceladus likely experienced several periods of intense but local heating (g 0.3 W/m2), causing ice-shell thinning, ductile flow, and local resurfacing.By evaluating the formation mechanisms of first-order surface morphological features on Europa and Enceladus, I show that the predicted past ice-shell thicknesses on Europa and Enceladus are considerably thinner than their current values. This in turn implies that the underlying oceans may have experienced episodic development caused by the evolution of the overlying ice shell. As a result, this may have an effect on the potential habitability of the underlying oceans if the thermal and chemical environment is not stable over geologic time.


We have developed a superscalar RISC processor for the super technical server HITACHI SR8000. The processor includes architectural features specialized in scientific applications, in which massive amounts of data in the main memory must be processed. These features are a slide-windowed-registers scheme and a simultaneous execution of up to 16 prefetch instructions. The slide-windowed-registers scheme enables instructions of the processor to access any of 160 floating point registers (FPRs). The execution mechanism for prefetch instructions produces high efficiency of the out-of-order superscalar processor despite the long latency of the main memory. A logic simulation showed that the performance of the processor reaches over 3 floating-point operations per cycle and the memory throughput of over 12 bytes per cycle.


The present article describes the experience of the UFCSPA (Universidade Federal de Ciencias da Saude de Porto Alegre) Psychology course. Opposite to the current trend in other Psychology courses, it shares a significant amount of time for psychological assessment classes. This experience brings up an innovative approach to the teaching of psychological assessment in Brazil by offering classes according to the constructs being studied. It also has the property to link theory with practice through multidisciplinary assessment activities in a psychiatric hospital. The curriculum of the course is also focused on the development and evaluation of psychological and public health programs, which is an emphasis of the course.


In large-scale fingerprinting localization systems, fine-grained location estimation and quick location determination are conflicting concerns. To achieve finer grained localization, we have to collect signal patterns at a larger number of training locations. However, this will incur higher computation cost during the pattern-matching process. In this paper, we propose a novel discriminant minimization search (DMS)-based localization methodology. Continuous and differentiable discriminant functions are designed to extract the spatial correlation of signal patterns at training locations. The advantages of the DMS-based methodology are threefold. First, with through slope of discriminant functions, the exhaustive pattern-matching process can be replaced by an optimization search process, which could be done by a few quick jumps. Second, the continuity of the discriminant functions helps predict signal patterns at untrained locations so as to achieve finer grained localization. Third, the large amount of training data can be compressed into some functions that can be represented by a few parameters. Therefore, the storage space required for localization can be significantly reduced. To realize this methodology, two algorithms, namely, Newton-PL and Newton-INT, are designed based on the concept of gradient descent search. Simulation and experiment studies show that our algorithms do provide finer grained localization and incur less computation cost.


In this study, the mode of obtaining grains (pellets) from wort prepared from rye processed by the shock-activator-disintegrator (SAD), has been developed. Additionally, the enrichment of the grains by proteins using the strain of yeast producing proteins was carried out. For cultivation of a pure culture of a strain of yeasts producing proteins, grains with a concentration of 43.00 g 100 g-1 reducing substances and 62.71 mg g-1 of the total amount of amino acid were used. Different concentrations (10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by weight of the grains) of filtrate 24.90% dry matter, 21.00 g 100 g-1 reducing substances and 10.82 mg g-1 of the total amount of free amino acid was added to the grains. As nitrogen and phosphorus-containing mineral feed, diammonium phosphate was added to the nutrient medium. To obtain a pure culture of Candida tropicalis, SK-4 yeast strain was isolated. The content of crude protein and the concentration of amino acids were determined. The morphological state of the cells was assessed. The results of this study show that to prepare the nutrient medium for a pure culture of a strain of protein microorganisms-producers and its cultivation, it is necessary to add 30% of the filtrate to the grains, while the proportion of crude protein in the protein-containing additive reaches more than 40%. The resulting protein-enriched product has a balanced amino acid composition, which is of interest as a protein-containing feed additive and its fine particle size distribution allows its use for feeding farm animals.


Verification of PCTL properties of MDPs with convex uncertainties has been investigated recently by Puggelli et al. However, model checking algorithms typically suffer from state space explosion. In this paper, we address probabilistic bisimulation to reduce the size of such an MDPs while preserving PCTL properties it satisfies. We discuss different interpretations of uncertainty in the models which are studied in the literature and that result in two different definitions of bisimulations. We give algorithms to compute the quotients of these bisimulations in time polynomial in the size of the model and exponential in the uncertain branching. Finally, we show by a case study that large models in practice can have small branching and that a substantial state space reduction can be achieved by our approach.


Perdew-Zunger self-interaction correction (PZ-SIC) offers a route to remove self-interaction errors on an orbital-by-orbital basis. A recent formulation of PZ-SIC by Pederson, Ruzsinszky and Perdew proposes restricting the unitary transformation to localized orbitals called Fermi-Löwdin orbitals. This formulation, called the FLOSIC method, simplifies PZ-SIC calculations and was implemented self-consistently using a Jacobi-like (FLOSIC-Jacobi) iteration scheme. In this work we implement the FLOSIC approach using the Krieger-Li-Iafrate (KLI) approximation to the optimized effective potential (OEP). We compare the results of present FLOSIC-KLI approach with FLOSIC-Jacobi scheme for atomic energies, atomization energies, ionization energies, barrier heights, polarizability of chains of hydrogen molecules etc. to validate the FLOSIC-KLI approach. The FLOSIC-KLI approach, which is within the realm of Kohn-Sham theory, predicts smaller energy gaps between frontier orbitals due to the lowering of eigenvalues of the lowest unoccupied orbitals. Results show that atomic energies, atomization energies, ionization energy as an absolute of highest occupied orbital eigenvalue, and polarizability of chains of hydrogen molecules between the two methods agree within 2%. Finally the FLOSIC-KLI approach is used to determine the vertical ionization energies of water clusters.


Postnatal systemic and inhaled glucocorticoid therapies continue to be used in the management of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Systemic dexamethasone therapy has been studied longer than aerosolized glucocorticoid therapy. Several prophylactic trials of systemic dexamethasone therapy demonstrated a reduction in the incidence of BPD and neonatal mortality. However, evidence of potentially serious acute and long-term adverse effects has reduced enthusiasm for use of systemic dexamethasone therapy. Although no trial to date of inhaled glucocorticoid therapy showed a reduction in the incidence of BPD, some studies demonstrated secondary pulmonary benefits with few short-term adverse effects. This article compares the clinical efficacy and safety of these two routes of administration of glucocorticoid therapy.


Optical character recognition (OCR) is essential in various real-world applications, such as digitizing learning resources to assist visually impaired people and transforming printed resources into electronic media. However, the development of OCR for printed Arabic script is a challenging task. These challenges are due to the specific characteristics of Arabic script. Therefore, different methods have been proposed for developing Arabic OCR systems, and this paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of these methods. This paper also discusses relevant issues of printed Arabic OCR including the challenges of printed Arabic script and performance evaluation. It concludes with a discussion of the current status of printed Arabic OCR, analyzing the remaining problems in the field of printed Arabic OCR and providing several directions for future research. Keywords—Optical character recognition; arabic printed OCR; arabic text recognition; arabic OCR survey; feature extraction; segmentation; classification


The objective of this work is to demonstrate the capabilities of a two-axes, three-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) system for future use as a large-scale wind tunnel research tool. A two-axes PIV system provides the capability for camera placement virtually anywhere within three-dimensional space relative to the laser sheet plane of measurement. The Scheimpflug focusing method is applied in two orthogonal axes to achieve off-axis focusing. The two-axes, three-dimensional PIV system uses off-axis stereoscopic viewing to determine two perspective measurements of a three-dimensional velocity field within the laser sheet. A unique calibration procedure is used to determine the optical parameters that describe the position of the camera systems and which are necessary to perform the three-dimensional reconstruction of the displacements. This paper presents the calibration procedure as well as a method for reconstructing the three-dimensional particle displacements for this two-axes, three-dimensional PIV system. This two-axes, three-dimensional PIV system was demonstrated by measuring three-dimensional displacements of a target. Maximum instantaneous errors are estimated as 2% or less for all velocity components. These error estimates are for instantaneous displacements and include all error sources. The two-axes, three-dimensional PIV system was also used to make measurements of the freestream velocity within a wind tunnel. The out-of-plane freestream component of velocity measured by the PIV system differed from the expected value by less than 1.1{%}.


The author experienced a case of pyogenic granuloma on the tongue of pregnant woman. The patient, a 29-year-old woman, referred to my clinic because of tumor on the tongue occuring 10 days earlier on October 3, 1986. Histology showed no abnormality except 9 months of pregnancy. Routine clinical laboratory tests were almost normal. Examination revealed that the tumor was a round mass of about 4 mm in diameter, which was reddishblack with yellow area and well-defined. Clinically, it was diagnosed as a benign tumor of the tongue and resected under local anesthesia. The removed mass measured 6×4×3mm and the surface was plain. The cutting plane was reddish-black and elastic soft. Histo-pathological finding revealed that the tumor was lined by squamous epithelium, capillary tissues, and edema was observed. From these findings, it was diagnosed histo-pathologically as pyogenic granuloma. The post-operative course was uneventful and there was no recurrence 8 months after the operation.


I FEEL sure that each of you, learning that my subject was to be "Psychiatry Without Freud," quite simply assumed that I was indulging in a pious fraud. Your assumptions, I must admit, speak well for your perspicacity, for it is a fact that I favored the title for two reasons. First, because it is provocative—and then because itisa "pious fraud." Psychiatry, that is, present day psychiatry, without Freud, and without all that has been added to it by his disciples and followers, is difficult to conceive. A recitation that literally considered psychiatry without Freud would be of interest only historically—and most likely would be a confounding, if not a "lugubrious," story. Yet lest you also assume that I purchased your interest by a trick, I must add that, though the manner was something of a fraud, the intent remains pious, and that once beyond this point, I


It has been long known that sparsity is an effective inductive bias for learning efficient representation of data in vectors with fixed dimensionality, and it has been explored in many areas of representation learning. Of particular interest to this work is the investigation of the sparsity within the VAE framework which has been explored a lot in the image domain, but has been lacking even a basic level of exploration in NLP. Additionally, NLP is also lagging behind in terms of learning sparse representations of large units of text e.g., sentences. We use the VAEs that induce sparse latent representations of large units of text to address the aforementioned shortcomings. First, we move in this direction by measuring the success of unsupervised state-of-the-art (SOTA) and other strong VAE-based sparsification baselines for text and propose a hierarchical sparse VAE model to address the stability issue of SOTA. Then, we look at the implications of sparsity on text classification across 3 datasets, and highlight a link between performance of sparse latent representations on downstream tasks and its ability to encode task-related information.


Abstract Not Available – First paragraph follows:
Potato blackleg and soft-rot of tubers, caused by Erwinici carotovora var. carotovora and E. carotovora var. atroseptica, respectively, continue to cause mild to severe field, shipping, and storage losses of potatoes in California. An understanding of the survival capabilities of the bacteria and the factors that contribute to their spread is essential for the development of effective controls for these diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated that (1) the bacteria are seed-borne, and (2) they overwinter in the lenticels and stem-end portions of the seed tubers. Whether the bacteria can survive in soil, however, has been much more controversial, primarily because of the lack of sensitive techniques for detecting bacteria populations below 1000 cells/g of soil.


Identification techniques provide a means of efficiently implementing complex nonlinear bearing models in practical turbomachinery applications. This paper considers both identification from an advanced numerical model and identification from experimental tests. Identification from numerical models is essential at the design stage, where rapid simulation of the dynamic performance of a variety of designs is required. Experimental identification is useful to capture effects that are difficult to model (e.g. geometric imperfections, compressibility and its effect on cavitation). With regard to identification from a numerical model, it was shown in a previous paper that the numerical solution of the incompressible Reynolds equation may be replicated using Chebyshev polynomial fits. Tests were performed on a simple rotor-bearing configuration incorporating an advanced numerical bearing model. The identified model was found to be able to match the accuracy of the numerical solution to the Reynolds equation while requiring a fraction of the computation time. In the present work the SFD identification scheme is applied to a realistically-sized representative whole-aeroengine model. It is shown that using recently introduced nonlinear solvers combined with the identified high accuracy bearing models it is possible to run full engine rotor-dynamic simulations, in both the time and frequency domains, at a fraction of the previous computational cost. One major drawback of the Chebyshev technique is that it is not amenable to experimental identification of actual bearings. For this reason, a second identification approach, involving the use of neural networks, is considered in this paper. A test rig that enables empirical identification of SFD forces has been constructed and details of the building and operation of the test rig is presented. The method used to ascertain the training data required by the neural network identification scheme, is also described.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Drug allergy has been studied by flow cytometry with the technique of cellular cycle, of which the principle is based on cellular activity. There were four groups of patients in the study: The first reference groups (A:20 patients) gave evaluation of phase S + G2-M without antigenic stimulation of monodisperse lymphocyte cultures. This was 4%. The second group (B:15 patients) presented a phase S + G2-M of 14.1% with PHA compared with the reference response significant at 2.5%. The third group (C) was composed of 5 wasp venom allergic subjects with cellular activity phase of 17.3% and 5 nonallergic subjects with an almost identical response of around 15%. The fourth group was 5 subjects who were allergic to drugs with clinical history that strongly indicated an allergy. The response to stimulation in these subjects was much greater for each of the drugs than that of a reference subject who was taking the same drug without problem. Wasp venom seems to behave like PHA, as a mitogen. In contrast, the subjects who were objectively and clinically sensitive to drugs, had an overall greater response to them than those shown by references. It is important to have a control for each drug used.


Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), including blockchains, are increasingly getting a massive interest from established industries. The interest is especially strong among financial services firms, which are starting to see DLTs as a potential driver of huge savings in infrastructure and back-office processes.


The primary objective of this study was to identify the significant determinants of export marketing performance from an Australian export market venture's perspective. The unit of analysis was the individual product-market export venture. Data were gathered via a mail survey of firms exporting from Queensland, Australia. The firms comprising the sample came from a wide cross section of industries including agriculture, mining, light industries, metal-working, electronics, chemical and the services industries. The findings support the contention that export marketing strategy, firm characteristics and market characteristics were the significant determinants of export marketing performance.


Resonant X-ray scattering measurements for a GdB4 single crystal have been carried out at Gd L3- and L2-edges. Branching ratios between x-ray scattering intensities at two x-ray energies are different for resonance peaks. Their analysis shows different anisotropic characters of 5d electron states of Gd ions corresponding to the peaks.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the effects of a 12-week treatment course of a rosiglitazone-based versus a metformin- or glyburide-based strategy on inflammatory biomarkers and adipokine levels in hypertensive, type 2 diabetes patients.

METHODS
One hundred three treatment-naive patients or patients on monotherapy with either metformin or glyburide, and a hemoglobin A1C (A1C) ≥7.5%, were randomly assigned to either rosiglitazone add-on (4 mg/day ± titration to 8 mg/day) or a combination of metformin (250 mg twice per day [BID] titrated to 500 BID if A1C ≥7.5% and ≤8.0%; 500 mg BID titrated to 1 g BID if A1C >8.0%) and glyburide (2.5 mg BID titrated to 5 mg BID if A1C ≥7.5% and ≤8.0%; 5 mg BID titrated to 10 mg BID if A1C >8.0%).

RESULTS
Rosiglitazone add-on produced significantly greater reductions in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (2.1 mg/L to 0.9 mg/L) and increases in adiponectin (8.7 mg/mL to 14.8 mg/mL) levels compared with metformin/glyburide (both P<0.005). At close-out, all patients had improved fasting plasma glucose and A1C levels (8.5% to 7.4% and 8.8% to 7.1% for rosiglitazone add-on and metformin-glyburide, respectively [P<0.001 for both arms]) relative to the corresponding baseline values.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrated that in hypertensive, diabetic subjects, a rosiglitazone-based treatment strategy results in favourable changes in inflammatory biomarkers compared with metformin/glyburide.


A comparative study of the processing of powders to obtain the high-Tc YBa2Cu3O7−x superconductor has been made. The effects of the starting barium compound and the preparation procedure on compositional homogeneity have been investigated. Our results show that the co-precipitation method using barium nitrate is a simple and convenient sintering method.


With his serialized novel Blake (1859-62), Martin Robison Delany carried the message of militant revolution into a discourse dominated by the often more temperate and sentimental approaches favored by his contemporaries Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe. However, Blake's popular reception was disappointing, certainly due to many complicated contributing factors, not least of which were its promotion of black insurrection and its disjointed publication at a time when much of Delany's prospective black audience had turned their attention to the possibility of emancipation encouraged by the Civil War. (1) Despite Delany's efforts, Blake would not move quickly from serialization to publication in book form, as would the much-lauded Uncle Tom's Cabin. (2) Instead, Delany's representation of organized, violent resistance would fade into virtual obscurity until Floyd J. Miller's 1970 reprint of the extant chapters in novel form. Upon its re-release, Blake was again received by audiences wary of its radical message, which remained so even in the 1970s, despite the fact that the novel's central image of slave revolt was no longer immediately significant. Skeptical critics like John Zeugner both lamented Delany's literary skills and compared him to representative "recent militants" James Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael. Zeugner credits the novel as representing "the birth of the black militant position, at least in fictional presentation," and yet provides a narrow reading almost entirely focused on the violence in the novel (102). Zeugner's one allowance is that Delany maintains a consistency of position in this novel that is not present in his other published works, identifying the violence of insurrection as the central and surprisingly consistent message of the novel (98). However, violence serves a secondary rather than central function in Blake, presented as a lamentable but ultimately embraceable response to the betrayal of African American human rights and as a means to an end rather than as a discrete solution. Zeugner's argument that "[v]iolence is the essential message Henry carries from plantation to plantation, as he imparts his 'secrets' and builds an insurrectionary organization" (99) is an assumption that overlooks the possibility that this community-building secrecy is, in and of itself, the central and consistent insurrectionary message of the novel. If, as Roger W. Hite has claimed, Delany's novel functions as "artistic support" (194) for his political views, then the novel's apparent literary shortcomings, especially its ostensible vagaries of plot, can be read instead as a formal reflection of its politics of secrecy. Recent critics have looked more deeply at the implications of the historical context in which Delany produced Blake, and have found it to be both timely and perceptive. Eric Sundquist argues that "in its narrative inconclusion, Blake is a most appropriate final account of New World Slavery--and of the antebellum world of slaves and masters alike--at the moment of its revolutionary cataclysm" (221). Patricia Okker evaluates Delany's serialized novel as an important text both for its timely "engagement with the slave trade" and for its literary distinction in depicting the slave trade as "global and systemic" as well as "local and personal" (104). John Ernest goes so far as to suggest that Delany was something of a trickster who "devoted the narrative above all to a determined mystery," a claim that brings to mind the many apparent contradictions of Delany himself (Resistance and Reformation 111). Employed at different times in his life as "journalist, editor, doctor, scientist, judge, soldier, inventor, customs inspector, orator, politician, and novelist" (Gilroy 19), Delany was an enigmatic personality, volatile and elusive. By the time of Blake's original publication, increasing sectional animosity, rumors of aggressive abolitionism, and images of corrupted slaves turning against their masters had contributed to a climate of fear and paranoia among slaveholders in the South. …


The Wiener-Hopf integral equation (1)and the related problems of factorization are considered for the kernels , where and . If is even or the symbol has a positive zero, then the existence of Volterra factorization is proved in the supercritical case . An extension of this result to the general supercritical case is indicated. The solubility of the corresponding equation (1) is proved for . Several other results in the supercritical case or for are obtained. The approach discussed is essentially based on the method of special factorization and on the generalized Ambartsumyan equations.


Recently, controlled and sustained drug delivery has become the standard in modern Pharmaceutical design and an intensive research have been undertaken in achieving much better drug product effectiveness, reliability and safety. This interest has been sparked by the advantages shown by in situ forming polymeric delivery systems such as ease of administration and reduced frequency of administration, improved patient compliance and comfort. The formation of gels depends on factors like temperature modulation, pH change, presence of ions and ultra violet irradiation, from which the drug gets released in a sustained and controlled manner. Various biodegradable polymers that are used for the formulation of in situ gels include gellan gum, alginic acid, xyloglucan, pectin, chitosan, poly(DLlactic acid), poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) and poly-caprolactone. Mainly in situ gels are administered by oral, ocular, rectal, vaginal, injectable and intraperitoneal routes. The in situ gel forming polymeric formulations offer several advantages like sustained and prolonged action in comparison to conventional drug delivery systems. From a manufacturing point of view, the production of such devices is less complex and thus lowers the investment and manufacturing cost.


Abstract We reported a rare case demonstrating that the hyperbaric oxygen chamber provided faster clinical improvement in a patient with a variant of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). A patient with progressive, acute weakness of upper extremity locomotor muscles and with difficulty breathing and swallowing was diagnosed with axonal GBS. Despite life-saving conventional therapies, there was no significant improvement until day 5. During hyperbaric oxygen therapy, there were daily gradual improvements until day 20, at which time the patient was capable of walking slowly without using a walking aid.


Despite the substantial research on poetry produced by female Xhosa poets on sociopolitical issues, there is little commentary on their poetry on sociocultural issues in the post-apartheid era. As a result, their voice and role in sociocultural issues is misunderstood. Using textual analysis, this article critically analyses Mbungwana's sociocultural protest in her poem 'Ababuyanga'. The poem stems from the death of her brother, who went to initiation school and never returned. Mbungwana notes that her brother had not come back yet, as women, they were not supposed to talk about it or even ask what had happened at the initiation school. This article uses the theory of African feminism to consider Mbungwana's protest against the sociocultural oppression of women. Mbungwana argues against keeping information from women and silencing them on issues of ulwaluko (loosely translated as male circumcision and initiation rites), even when they lose a loved one. She argues that women are intellectually capable of being part of the solution to the problem of dying initiates, without compromising the secrecy and sacredness of the custom. The analysis of Mbungwana's protest contributes to the understanding of voice and the role of women in sociocultural issues.


Postoperative or pressure alopecia (PA) is an infrequently reported group of scarring and non-scarring alopecias. It has been reported after immobilization of the head during surgery and following prolonged stays on intensive care units, and may be analogous to a healed pressure ulcer. This review presents a summary of cases published in pediatrics and after cardiac, gynecological, abdominal and facial surgeries. PA may manifest as swelling, tenderness, and ulceration of the scalp in the first few postoperative days; in other cases, the alopecia may be the presenting feature with a history of scalp immobilization in the previous four weeks. The condition may cause considerable psychological distress in the long term. Regular head turning schedules and vigilance for the condition should be used as prophylaxis to prevent permanent alopecia. A multi-center study in high-risk patients would be beneficial to shed further light on the etiology of the condition.


This study examines multimodal pairing and switching of codes as features of visualverbal texts and how they are used as strategies for evoking humour in Nigerian standup comedy performances, an area that has not attracted much scholarly attention. Data were obtained through purposive random sampling and analysed through content analysis. Six DVDs (Vols. 3, 7, 8 & 28 of Nite of a Thousand Laughs; Vols. 27 & 28 of AY LIVE Happiness Edition) and 6 video clips (downloaded from the Internet) all totalling 8 hours and 20 minutes of play were selected for the study. Incongruity, Layered Meaning and Visual Semiotics serve as theoretical framework. The study identifies different multimodal strategies such as code-pairing and integration in different forms of oral codes, gestures, costume, and symbols; intertextuality; incongruous translations/ deliberate misinterpretations; and mimicry, quotes and paralanguage used to elicit laughter. It suggests that these features are also useful in other speech-making events, and concludes that the integration of codes and modes of communication serves as an effective strategy in evoking humour and laughter in stand-up comedy


Abstract A 19-month-old sun conure (Aratinga solstitialis) of undetermined sex was examined for feather picking of the cranial ventral thoracic region and a lump on the right shoulder. An irregular dermal mass present on the dorsal aspect of the bird's right shoulder was surgically removed. On the basis of histopathologic, histochemical, and immunohistochemical examination, the mass was determined to be a cutaneous vascular hamartoma.


This paper focuses on Iran next generation network (NGN) Pilot, the purpose of which is to achieve appropriate knowledge for a desired move through current telecommunication network of Iran to NGN. On the base of this purpose, obtaining a proper knowledge about capabilities and weaknesses of vendors' NGN equipments is necessary as well as verifying the functionalities of these equipments in a multi-vendor environment. Accordingly, a test bed has been designed with the capability of executing various tests scenarios related to NGN and processing the results. At these stage two types of tests, i.e. Functional tests and Interoperability tests have been done. Since Functional tests are performed in a single-vendor environment; the proper interoperation among multi-vendor equipments can not be guaranteed. Consequently, other types of tests called Interoperability tests have been designed. These tests are performed in a multi-vendor environment and classified into two groups which process interoperation of two Call Servers or a Call Server and Gateway from different vendors, respectively. The following paper represents the results obtained from the mentioned tests as well as the precise assessment of them.


Light and electron microscopic investigations have been made on the lipid droplets of the sebaceous flank gland alveoli of the Indian musk shrew, Suncus murinus oiridescens. The undifferentiated sebaceous cells can be distinguished from the differentiating and differentiated cells by the absence of lipid droplets in the former. Adjacent droplets in the differentiating cells fuse to form larger droplets. Lipid droplets are also synthesized in the differentiating cells. Large accumulation of lipid droplets are seen in well differentiated cells. The cells of the inner layer of "the sebaceous alveoli disintegrate and the holocrine products are liberated into the lumen. The probable role of mitochondria and polyribosomes in the synthesis and development of lipid droplets in the sebaceous cells of the flank gland is discussed.


An exchange of the amplitude axis for the time axis offers a possibility of overcoming resolution problems in analog-to-digital conversion in low-voltage CMOS circuits and/or of circumventing special resistor options in silicided processes. This exchange can be effected via some form of duty-cycle modulation. For its implementation a circuit configuration is described, consisting of an asynchronous sigma-delta modulator, followed by a phase-synchronized tapped ring oscillator which produces a poly-phase signal for sampling the asynchronous signal at a relatively low frequency. A detailed analysis is presented which accurately predicts the properties of the conversion scheme with respect to aliasing, quantization noise and nonlinear distortion. The results are illustrated with simulations of a design example.


Increasing crime rates in a community can be associated with several factors such as land use, economics ac-tivities, building use and demography. A preliminary survey conducted showed that land use and building use are potential cofactors that contribute to a crime. In this research, we attempt to develop a model to pre-dict crime areas by utilizing these two cofactors. To pursue this endeavor, Analytical Hierarchy Proces (AHP) method and Geographical Information System (GIS) were implemented. AHP is used to produce consistent and realistic weight values of crime factors by calculating the consistency ratio (CR) which can thereafter be used for validation. Though, the GIS is applied to visualize the weights obtained from the AHP results in spatial mapping in order to identify potential crime areas, which were classified as either high, me-dium or low. The data set for this research has been drawn from UGISP Sdn Bhd, which covers the areas of Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (WPKL). From the result, it shows that the potential crime areas are Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Indah, Jinjang and Bandar Tun Razak. As a conclusion, our model would assist the au-thorities (i.e., Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) to identify and rank the potential crime areas, and then they can plan a strategy to monitor this matter properly.


A rare case suffering from tuberculous labialis caused by tattooing, was reported. Its main clinical features, causes of symptoms, methods of diagnosis and treatment were analyzed.


Neuromorphic hardware are designed by drawing inspiration from biology to overcome limitations of current computer architectures while forging the development of a new class of autonomous systems that can exhibit adaptive behaviors. Several designs in the recent past are capable of emulating large scale networks but avoid complexity in network dynamics by minimizing the number of dynamic variables that are supported and tunable in hardware. We believe that this is due to the lack of a clear understanding of how to design self-tuning complex systems. It has been widely demonstrated that criticality appears to be the default state of the brain and manifests in the form of spontaneous scale-invariant cascades of neural activity. Experiment, theory and recent models have shown that neuronal networks at criticality demonstrate optimal information transfer, learning and information processing capabilities that affect behavior. In this perspective article, we argue that understanding how large scale neuromorphic electronics can be designed to enable emergent adaptive behavior will require an understanding of how networks emulated by such hardware can self-tune local parameters to maintain criticality as a set-point. We believe that such capability will enable the design of truly scalable intelligent systems using neuromorphic hardware that embrace complexity in network dynamics rather than avoiding it.


Background Studies have shown disparities in the perception of skin disease burden between patients and physicians, with patients often feeling that the severity, emotional impact, and social repercussions of their skin condition are underestimated. Although physician's professional behavior is guided by documents such as the Hippocratic Oath, there are no patient-driven principles to guide healthcare interactions involving skin concerns. Objective To develop a concise and practical charter for patients based on their perceptions of unmet needs with the goals of helping patients express their needs and exercise their rights to accessing and utilizing the healthcare system for conditions, diseases, or traumas involving the skin. Methods An initial literature review examined healthcare delivery concerns of patients with skin conditions. Results were used to draft a charter that was reviewed by a Canadian patient focus group representing various skin condition advocacy groups. A revised charter was reviewed by Canadian dermatologists before being formally approved by the Canadian Skin Patient Alliance Board and endorsed by the Canadian Dermatology Association. Results The Patient Charter comprises 8 principles for providing and receiving professional services for the skin in the healthcare setting. Conclusions This Patient Charter provides direct insights into patient priorities and will be used as an educational and advocacy tool in healthcare, occupational, and social settings. The intended goal is for the Patient Charter to empower patients and to educate health professions, government, industry, and society at large. Accordingly, the charter will be disseminated through print materials, informational videos, and social media campaigns.


The combination of model predictive control (MPC) and learning methods has been gaining increasing attention as a tool to control systems that may be difficult to model. Using MPC as a function approximator in reinforcement learning (RL) is one approach to reduce the reliance on accurate models. RL is dependent on exploration to learn, and currently, simple heuristics based on random perturbations are most common. This paper considers variance-based exploration in RL geared towards using MPC as function approximator. We propose to use a non-probabilistic measure of uncertainty of the value function approximator in value-based RL methods. Uncertainty is measured by a variance estimate based on inverse distance weighting (IDW). The IDW framework is computationally cheap to evaluate and therefore well-suited in an online setting, using already sampled state transitions and rewards. The gradient of the variance estimate is then used to perturb the policy parameters in a direction where the variance of the value function estimate is increasing. The proposed method is verified on two simulation examples, considering both linear and nonlinear system dynamics, and compared to standard exploration methods using random perturbations.


Oral squamous cell carcinoma is seen predominantly after the fourth decade of life. We have retrospectively reviewed 103 patients (92 males and 11 females) with squamous cell carcinoma, which were confirmed by histopathologic examination and treated by surgical excision at Kaohsiung Medical College Hospital from 1987 to 1991. The age of the patients ranged from 23 to 87 years. 39.8% of cases occurred on the buccal mucosa, 27.2% on the tongue, 15.5% on the gingiva of mandible, 8% on the maxilla, 7.8% on the lower lip and 1% on the floor of the mouth. 23.3% of the patients had stage I disease, 14.6% were stage II, 43.7% were stage III and 18.4% stage IV. Of 103 patients treated with wide excision, about 65% (17/103) of patients treated with wide excision and radical neck dissection or suprahyoid neck dissection, and 41% (42/103) were treated by a combination of radiation and surgery. 96% (99/103) of our cases have completed a minimum follow-up period of 3 years. The sex and age of the patients did not influence survival significantly. The 5-year survival rates were 62% for patients with stage I disease, 80% for patients with stage II disease, 42% for patients with stage III, and 19% for patients with stage IV disease. Stage at initial presentation was an important factor influencing survival. The location of the primary tumor did not significantly influence survival for early stage tumors (stage I & II). In terminal stage tumors (stage III & IV). those with carcinomas of the floor of the mouth, gingiva of the mandible, lip, and maxilla had a 5-year survival of 15%, those with carcinomas of the tongue had a 5-year survival of 47%, and those with carcinomas of the buccal mucosa had a favorable survival rate of 53%. The differences were significant (P = 0.017).


There are many current initiatives concerned with achieving institutional changes to curricula. These include, inter alia, various versions of online learning, distance learning and work-based learning. This paper considers blending academic curricula and qualifications with professional body curricula and qualifications as a possible way of achieving cost-effective curricula change. The author's home institution currently delivers Academic Qualifications in Facilities Management (FM); a BSc (Hons) and an MSc. The institution also delivers the Professional Qualifications for the relevant professional body, the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), at levels 4, 5 and 6.All qualifications and awards are delivered by web-based distance learning. This paper analyses the content and assessment of the Professional Qualification and compares the Professional Qualification with the equivalent Academic Qualification. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis the paper finds that the Professional Qualification is more challenging and more rigorous than the Academic Qualification. The expectations of the learners from the professional body are higher than the expectations of the students from the university. The implications of this finding are then considered. Given that the Professional Qualification is more challenging and rigorous, could the institutional curricula be changed so that the Professional Qualification could be integrated into an Academic Qualification, thus opening a vocational route for a degree? The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the financial costs and other implications of such an institutional curricula change.


theatre, it was matched by the politics of its surroundings. Indeed, a diffuse but very palpable historical unity emerges between the 'organized anarchy' of Artaud's theatre and a range of popular fascist theatres in Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, if not the simultaneous discipline and euphoria of the Hitlerite rally itself. By framing Artaud's writings and theatrical productions in the tumultuous context of inter-war fascism, Jannarone ultimately overturns the longstanding and habitually un critical leftist investment in the political radical ism of Artaud's work and world view at large. Undeniably, Artaud's proposals for a radically reinvigorated culture entail an impending transi tion into a wholly different future. That that future might be desirable according to any liberal or leftist standard, however, is an idea that Artaud and His Doubles decisively dispels and sets asunder. Thus Jannarone reproves and leaps free of the dead weight of much previous Artaud scholarship. To students and scholars concerned with Artaud's philosophical outlook, her book should prove provocative and fertile; to those engaged with his theatrical ideas it represents an indispensable portolan. simon ferdinand


OBJECTIVE
In the last years, symptomatic slow-acting drugs for osteoarthritis (SYSADOA) have been vastly studied and have generated considerable interest among clinicians. SYSADOA are generally used as a ground therapy with the main rationale to reduce the consumption of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and thus limit the related adverse events.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
In this study, we evaluated the short-term effect of an oral combination of hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and keratin matrix on early symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Forty patients were treated for 1 month and were allowed to assume analgesics or NSAIDs if necessary.

RESULTS
At 2 months, the mean reduction of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) score was 36% (p<0.001), and the mean reduction of the WOMAC pains score was 40% (p<0.001). Only two patients reported a sporadic need to assume analgesics; no patient reported any side effect during the study period.

CONCLUSION
This data demonstrates that the oral combination of hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, and keratin matrix is safe, well tolerated, and shows a rapid action reducing pain and improving joint function and stiffness in early symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.


Respiratory problems are a major cause of death in the acute and chronic phases of cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI); CSCI paralyzes the intercostal and abdominal muscles, reducing ability to cough and clear secretions. Impaired cough due to neuromuscular disorders can be assessed with the maximum expiratory pressure (MEP). This study consists of two experiments with CSCI patients. In the first, MEP measurements were recorded with the following maneuvers performed: (1) spontaneous cough attempts, (2) manually assisted cough, and (3) cough attempts with functional electrical stimulation (FES) applied to the abdominal wall. In the second, spontaneous cough attempts and cough attempts with a portable FES unit were recorded. These CSCI patients were found to have a greatly reduced MEP when they coughed spontaneously. Either FES-assisted or manually assisted coughing increased the MEP in all patients studied. By increasing the MEP, abdominal muscle FES could enhance cough in quadriplegics.


The paper explains the principle of analytic network process(ANP).Eight steps of ANP are summarized and the similarities and differences between ANP and analytic hierarchy process(AHP) are made clear.On the basis of selecting reasonable rules in evaluating suppliers ANP is applied to set up the dependence-feedback network for supplier selection.Thus,the limitation that comes from the hypothesis of independence element of AHP is overcome.It is a more actual approach for supplier selection.


Background Research studies have supported the role of Advanced Practice Physiotherapists (APP's) acting as first contact practitioners in the management of musculoskeletal (MSK) patients1. In 2012, funding was approved for 24 APP posts in Ireland through the Clinical Strategy and Care Programmes Directorate of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland. These posts were to provide orthopaedic and rheumatology triage clinics across 16 hospitals throughout the country as a waiting list initative for patients with MSK complaints. Objectives i)To present the data reported on the throughput of Rheumatology patients seen by the APPs nationally in 2014. Methods 13 sites provided MSK triage through rheumatology clinics nationally in 2014. While each post has a target of seeing 1,000 patients per year it has been reported that APP's see a ratio of 5:1 orthopaedic to rheumatology patients. Data was collected monthly from all sites and reported directly to the rheumatology clinical care programme. Descriptive data was analysed using a Microsoft® Excel package. Results 2,177 new and 530 return rheumatology patients were seen nationally in 2014. Regarding new patients the most common areas were shoulder (n=329, 15.1%) and lumbar spine (n=288, 13.2%), 35.2% (n=766) had multiple pain sites. Regarding waiting times 58.6% (n=1275) were seen within 6months of referral and 21% (n=457) had imaging ordered. 40.1% (n=873) were referred for physiotherapy within the hospital or primary care. 63.3% (n=1378) were discharged directly from the APP clinic and 15% (n=327) were referred on to another medical speciality. Conclusions APPs have been effective in triaging MSK referrals within a rheumatology setting. A large proportion of patients were discharged back to the referring source. References Desmeules et al (2012) Advanced practice physiotherapy in patients with musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 13: 107–128. Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge the work of the APP's nationally in the collection of the data. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The paper presents our new research area in virtual reality technology combining with electronic by imitation platform for mobile robot. By this platform, path planning will become easier. From rebuilt virtual reality geographic feature by electronic digital map, mobile robot moving in the actual area could be imitated. Mobile robot coordinate could be corrected by virtual reality characteristic point and CCD image.


Tropical savannas represent a diverse range of heterogenous ecosystems that play an important role in the global carbon cycle as they occupy approximately one fifth of the land surface. Despite their significance, there remains a paucity of studies that quantify the carbon stocks and uxes of these dynamic ecosystems, particularly within Australia (Chapter 1). This study contributes to the field of tropical savanna carbon cycle dynamics by quantifying the carbon stocks and fluxes at three study sites in northern Queensland and placing them in the context of climate change and the global carbon cycle.

Chapter 2 presents a review of the ecology and carbon dynamics of tropical savannas. The chapter addresses uncertainty regarding the definition and extent of tropical savannas, and the state of knowledge surrounding the drivers behind the extent of tropical savannas. In particular, stochastic disturbances such as fire play a crucial role in these ecosystems. Tropical savannas are also unique in that they consist of a mix of distinct and competing vegetation in the form of trees and grasses, that generally utilise contrasting photosynthetic strategies. As these photosynthetic pathways respond differently to atmospheric CO₂ and temperature, how these ecosystems will respond to climate change is also a matter of some uncertainty.

Chapter 3 presents a detailed description of the three sites used in this study; two of the sites (Davies Creek and Koombooloomba) are located near the rainforest-savanna boundary in a high rainfall zone (mean annual precipitation (MAP) ~1500mm) while the third site (Brooklyn Station) is both more arid (MAP ~900mm) and more seasonal.

In Chapter 4, aboveground biomass (AGB) and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) is quantified using an inventory-based assessment. These sites are some of the more densely wooded tropical savannas in Australia and basal area remained unchanged at all sites over the sample interval. While the carbon stocks in the AGB (40, 75, and 87 t C ha⁻¹ for Brooklyn Station, Davies Creek, and Koombooloomba, respectively) were dominated by the tree component, the grassy understorey was a significant contributor to ANPP (4.1, 5.1, and 9.2 t C ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ for Brooklyn Station, Davies Creek, and Koombooloomba, respectively) at all sites, consisting of almost three quarters of the total. The woody carbon stock was sensitive to disturbance with high mortality at two sites attributed to damage caused by fire and Tropical Cyclone (TC) Yasi. These results highlight the sensitivity of the carbon storage potential of tropical savannas to stochastic disturbance and their vulnerability to substantial shifts in both structure and composition as a result of climate change.

Chapter 5 presents data on soil carbon and nitrogen, as well as their stable isotopes. Soil carbon stocks (0-30cm) were 114 ± 25, 41 ± 14, and 38 ± 19 t C ha⁻¹ at Koombooloomba, Davies Creek, and Brooklyn Station, respectively. The carbon isotopes were used to partition the soil carbon into C3 and C4 sources; the grassy understorey contributed approximately half of the soil carbon at two of the sites (Brooklyn Station and Koombooloomba), but contributed only 27% at the third site. Soil carbon displayed a high level of spatial arrangement at the two wettest sites with higher soil carbon in areas adjacent to trees, but not at the driest site and redistribution of carbon inputs by termites may be responsible. Although considerable quantities of soil carbon are stored at these sites for now, climate change may result in vegetation shifts, changes to _re regimes, and exacerbated erosion that could result in the loss of soil carbon from these sites.

Chapter 6 provides the most comprehensive dataset of soil respiration in tropical savannas in Australia. Soil respiration was measured monthly for two years at the three sites. Soil respiration was temporally controlled by temperature and moisture availability, with high respiration rates (~4-8 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) during the wet season (November - April) when plant growth is high, and low respiration rates (~1-4 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹) during the dry season (May - October) when plant growth slows. Soil respiration was spatially variable and controlled by proximity to woody vegetation with high soil respiration rates near trees and low soil respiration rates in open areas dominated by grasses. Soil respiration in these tropical savanna environments is thus both temporally and spatially heterogeneous suggesting that more complex models may be required to accurately estimate the soil respiration in such systems.

In Chapter 7, an experimental drought was created at Davies Creek over two years in order to examine the effects of drought on soil respiration and soil chemistry. The drought successfully reduced soil moisture without impacting significantly on other environmental variables. The drought delayed the growing season of the grasses in the first year and killed them in the second year. Soil respiration was correspondingly reduced in the first wet season and then increased in the second wet season, likely as a result of these changes to plant biomass availability. Higher soil carbon in the drought experiment suggests that there were additional carbon inputs, presumably due to the death of the grass and subsequent recolonisation of the soil by neighbouring grasses. Extended droughts could see shifts in species and ecosystems potentially accompanied by an increase in soil respiration before ecosystem stability is reached.

This study presents the first comprehensive assessment of carbon cycle dynamics in tropical savannas in Queensland. Furthermore, this is the first study in Australia to examine transition zone savannas that occur at the rainforest-savanna boundary and the first study in Australia to attempt to simulate drought in tropical savannas.


Natural products are important sources of biomolecules possessing antitumor activity and can be used as anticancer drug prototypes. The rich biodiversity of tropical and subtropical regions of the world provides considerable bioprospecting potential, including the potential of propolis produced by stingless bee species. Investigations of the potential of these products are extremely important, not only for providing a scientific basis for their use as adjuvants for existing drug therapies but also as a source of new and potent anticancer drugs. In this context, this article organizes the main studies describing the anticancer potential of propolis from different species of stingless bees with an emphasis on the chemical compounds, mechanisms of action, and cell death profiles. These mechanisms include apoptotic events; modulation of BAX, BAD, BCL2-L1 (BCL-2 like 1), and BCL-2; depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane; increased caspase-3 activity; poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage; and cell death induction by necroptosis via receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) activation. Additionally, the correlation between compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential is demonstrated that help in the prevention of cancer development. In summary, we highlight the important antitumor potential of propolis from stingless bees, but further preclinical and clinical trials are needed to explore the selectivity, efficacy, and safety of propolis.


Abstract An injection unit is considered as a speed control system utilizing a reaction-force sensor. Our purpose is to design a fault detector that detects and isolates actuator and sensor faults given that the system is disturbed by a reaction force. First described is the fault detector's general structure. In this system, a disturbance observer that estimates the reaction force is designed for the speed control system in order to obtain the residual signals, and then post-filters that separate the specific frequency elements from the residual signals are applied in order to generate the decision signals. Next, we describe a fault detector designed specifically for a model of the injection unit. It is shown that the disturbance imposed on the decision variables can be made significantly small by appropriate adjustments to the observer bandwidth, and that most of the sensor faults and actuator faults can be detected and some of them can be isolated in the frequency domain by setting the frequency characteristics of the post-filters appropriately. Our result is verified by experiments for an actual injection unit.


The decrease of tuberculotic diseases was continuous in the past years. This statement relates to pulmonalis as well as to extrapulmonalis tbc. The authors want to call attention to the possibility of the varied and more rarely appearing extrapulmonalis manifestation. In the first of their cases the burst of spondylitis tbc, and in the other one the very rare spleen tbc--which was made probably clinicum and later by the US abdomen examination--caused differential diagnostic problem.


Salmonella resistance is becoming a worldwide serious health issue in these days; therefore, it is an urgent need to develop some alternative approaches to overcome this problem. Twenty bacterial strains were isolated and purified from different environmental sources and confirmed as Salmonella by morphological and biochemical analyses. Further confirmation was done by 16s rRNA sequencing. Antibiotic susceptibility test was performed by well diffusion assay against different concentrations of Ceftriaxone and Ciprofloxacin. The behaviour of both antibiotics was different against diverse strains of Salmonella. Salmonella strains resistant to both antibiotics were analysed for antibacterial activity of natural extracts of Nigella sativa (black seeds). N. sativa oil was found to be more effective against Salmonella species for which even Ceftriaxone and Ciprofloxacin were ineffective. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis of N. sativa oil was also accomplished, exhibiting 10 compounds including thymoquinone, p-cymene, cis-carveol, thymol, α-phellandrene, α-pinene, β-pinene, trans-anethole, α-longipinene and longifolene.


Two-step linear quadratic optimal control update equations and a sequential gain updating scheme are used to design a reliable guaranteed cost discrete-control system called two-stage linear quadratic reliable control (TSLQRC). Using this method reliable linear quadratic design results for continuous-time systems can be easily extended to discrete-time systems. The stability and performance gain margins of the TSLQRC are evaluated to show the connections between the continuous-time and the discrete-time designs.


The word "literacy" has come to be used to describe a wide range of competencies, including design literacy – a term that, despite its presence in design discourse, is still characterised by a certain fuzziness. In this paper, we explore this highly discursive theoretical field in order to gain a more nuanced and expanded understanding of the topic. In doing so, we argue that these divergent positions are also due to the ambiguity of the term "design".
We understand design as the perpetual de- and reconstruction of the world, as a way of worldmaking, both physically and conceptually. Thus, design literacy can be understood as a way to perceive traces of design and its processes, to perceive the world as contingent: a circular cognitive process of recognising that something – if not everything – in our cultural pluriverse is designed, understanding how it was designed and that it can potentially become the subject of design again and again. In our paper, we emphasise the contingency of design – and the ethical level that can arise from understanding the possibility of a different design.
Ultimately, our aim with this paper is to emphasise that design literacy is a crucial competence for encouraging pluralistic perspectives and initiating transition processes, as it helps to acknowledge the temporary necessity but long-term non-necessity of things (which particularly includes the transitory nature of one's own creations).


The recent tailings storage facility (TSF) failure at Mt Polley has highlighted the importance of the proper identification and characterization of stiff clay foundation soils. Specifically, the propensity for over consolidated stiff clays to transition to a normally consolidated state under vertical loading is a critical design consideration for TSFs constructed on stiff clay foundation soils. In many parts of Western Australia, TSFs are constructed on relatively stiff clayey soils. These materials can be either residual or transported, with materials of both origins found in relatively close proximity in some cases. Such soils may, under some loading conditions, and if saturated, exhibit contractive undrained behavior, giving mobilized shear strengths lower than drained strength. However, such soils are typically unsaturated prior to commencement of tailings deposition within the TSF, and may remain in such a state depending on the life of the facility and the influence of the hydrogeological conditions on seepage from the TSF. Further, residual soils are in some ways more difficult to characterize than transported soils, particularly with respect to defining a pre-consolidation stress and defining normally consolidated conditions. To characterize the behavior of a clay foundation soil below and adjacent to a TSF in Western Australia, a number of block samples were obtained in field investigations from near-surface locations, adjacent to the toe of the TSF. The material was then tested using a direct simple shear apparatus under a range of vertical effective stresses relevant to existing and future TSF loads. Preliminary results indicate that the material can exhibit contractive behavior when sheared under high vertical effective stresses, which are relevant to future TSF loading. Piezocone Penetration Testing undertaken near to the sample location provided results inconsistent with the laboratory testing. The reasons for potential divergence of the in situ and laboratory testing of the material are discussed.


CONTEXT: Although adherence has been identified in practice guidelines for youth with type 1 diabetes to promote optimal glycemic control, there has been no systematic integration of studies investigating the adherence-glycemic control link. This recommendation partly stemmed from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT); however, this trial did not comprehensively measure adherence and had only 195 adolescents. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine the magnitude of the adherence-glycemic control link in pediatric type 1 diabetes and evaluate its correlates. METHODS: Our data sources were PubMed (1950–2008), Scopus (1950–2008), and references from reviews in pediatric type 1 diabetes. Studies that included youth under age 19 with type 1 diabetes and a reported association between adherence and glycemic control were eligible for inclusion. Articles were not included if they contained youth with type 2 diabetes, had study samples that overlapped with other studies, or the results came from intervention studies. Of the eligible 26 studies, 21 had sufficient statistical data. Two authors independently extracted information by using a standardized protocol. Agreement between coders was high. RESULTS: The mean effect size across 21 studies, including 2492 youth with type 1 diabetes, was −0.28 (95% confidence interval: −0.32 to −0.24). As adherence increases, A1c values decrease. No sample or disease characteristics were correlates of the adherence-glycemic control link. Pre-DCCT studies had a mean effect size of −0.32 (8 studies; 1169 participants) compared with −0.25 in post-DCCT studies (13 studies; 1323 participants). CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis supports the adherence-glycemic control link in pediatric type 1 diabetes. The weaker post-DCCT association suggests that the approach to intensive diabetes management has shortcomings. We conclude that this is because of a mismatch between what scientists and clinicians know is the best way to manage pediatric type 1 diabetes and the capabilities of youth and their families.


: This paper concerns a newly developed software model called COSIMA-ROAD for project evaluation in the Danish road sector. COSIMA-ROAD is developed as a combined effort in co-operation between the Danish Road Directorate and the Technical University of Denmark. The applied case study is developed by the Danish Road Directorate. The main purpose of this paper is primarily to describe how @RISK is used in COSIMA-ROAD. First the two main modules of COSIMA-ROAD are described as respectively a traditional cost-benefit analysis (deterministic point estimate) and a risk analysis using Monte Carlo Simulation (stochastic interval estimate). Next the actual case example is presented with the obtained results. Finally, conclusions and a perspective of the future modeling work are given.


The title compound, {[Nd2(CH2CHCOO)6(H2O)3]·3H2O}n, was synthesized by hydrothermal methods. The structure contains one-dimensional coordination polymers in which two distinct NdIII atoms show different coordination modes. One is coordinated by four bidentate acrylate ligands, two of which bridge NdIII atoms, and by two O atoms from a further two bridging acrylate ligands. The other NdIII atom is coordinated by two bidentate acrylate ligands, two O atoms from bridging acrylate ligands, and three water molecules. Extensive hydrogen bonding between the coordinated and uncoordinated water molecules and the O atoms of the acrylate ligands link the coordination polymers into a three-dimensional network.


Federated learning (FL) is a promising way to use the computing power of mobile devices while maintaining the privacy of users. Current work in FL, however, makes the unrealistic assumption that the users have ground-truth labels on their devices, while also assuming that the server has neither data nor labels. In this work, we consider the more realistic scenario where the users have only unlabeled data, while the server has some labeled data, and where the amount of labeled data is smaller than the amount of unlabeled data. We call this learning problem semi-supervised federated learning (SSFL). For SSFL, we demonstrate that a critical issue that affects the test accuracy is the large gradient diversity of the models from different users. Based on this, we investigate several design choices. First, we find that the so-called consistency regularization loss (CRL), which is widely used in semi-supervised learning, performs reasonably well but has large gradient diversity. Second, we find that Batch Normalization (BN) increases gradient diversity. Replacing BN with the recently-proposed Group Normalization (GN) can reduce gradient diversity and improve test accuracy. Third, we show that CRL combined with GN still has a large gradient diversity when the number of users is large. Based on these results, we propose a novel grouping-based model averaging method to replace the FedAvg averaging method. Overall, our grouping-based averaging, combined with GN and CRL, achieves better test accuracy than not just a contemporary paper on SSFL in the same settings (>10%), but also four supervised FL algorithms.


The Lorentz gas is one of the simplest and most widely-studied models for particle transport in matter. It describes a cloud of non-interacting gas particles in an infinitely extended array of identical spherical scatterers, whose radii are small compared to their mean separation. The model was introduced by Lorentz in 1905 who, following the pioneering ideas of Maxwell and Boltzmann, postulated that its macroscopic transport properties should be governed by a linear Boltzmann equation. The linear Boltzmann equation has since proved a useful tool in the description of various phenomena, including semiconductor physics and radiative transfer. A rigorous derivation of the linear Boltzmann equation from the underlying particle dynamics was given, for random scatterer configurations, in three seminal papers by Gallavotti, Spohn and Boldrighini-Bunimovich-Sinai. The objective of the present study is to develop an approach for a large class of deterministic scatterer configurations, including various types of quasicrystals. We prove the convergence of the particle dynamics to transport processes that are in general (depending on the scatterer configuration) not described by the linear Boltzmann equation. This was previously understood only in the case of the periodic Lorentz gas through work of Caglioti-Golse and Marklof-Str\"ombergsson. Our results extend beyond the classical Lorentz gas with hard sphere scatterers, and in particular hold for general classes of spherically symmetric finite-range potentials. We employ a rescaling technique that randomises the point configuration given by the scatterers' centers. The limiting transport process is then expressed in terms of a point process that arises as the limit of the randomised point configuration under a certain volume-preserving one-parameter linear group action.


The effects of water pollution on benthic macrofauna species composition in Koluama Area of Niger Delta in Nigeria was studied to create awareness of the consequences of water pollution. A total of seven sampling stations were established: Foroupa (N4 36.004 E5 39.128); Ekeni (N4 41.659 E5 34.451); Ezetu 2 (N4 43.333 E5 34.640); Kuluama 1 (N4 28 433 E5 46.248); Kuluama 2 (N4 25.805 E5 49.582); Fish Town (N4 24.642 E5 51.128) and Ikebiri fishing port (N4 30.374 E5 50.298). Replicate samples were collected and the mean used for further analysis. The benthic samples for the analysis of benthic organism were collected using an Eckman grab of 10 cm diameter and 12 cm long. Three hauls were made at each sampling station by sending the grab down into the bottom and using the messenger to close and grab some quantity of sediment. The benthic samples were collected from each station. The remaining benthic samples were washed through 1×1 mm mesh size to collect the benthic organisms. The washed sediment with macro-invertebrates were poured into a wide mouth labeled plastic container and preserved with 10% formalin solution to which Rose Bengal (dye) had been added. The Rose Bengal dye strength was 0.1% selectivity colored all the living organisms in the sample. The preserved samples were taken to the laboratory for further analysis. A total of 383 species belonging to 4 major taxonomic groupings were recorded. These groupings and their percentage contribution to the total macro-benthic collection are Crustaceans (48%), Polychaetes (35%), Gastropod Moluscs (12%) Bivalve Molluscs (5%). Density of benthos fluctuated between 36 (SW/SD 5) and 118 (SW/SD C2) while species count per station was 9 in SW/SD 5 and 21 in SW/SD C2. Twenty- eight species belonging to 14 families, 6 classes and 3 phyla of macro-invertebrates were recorded in the study area. The faunal composition was dominated by polychates with 13 species from 7 families (46.4%) in terms of the species richness. Oligochaeta had 2 families and 7 species (25%), Bivalvia had 1 family and 3 species (10.7%). Crustacea was represented by 2 families and 2 species, Gastropoda had one family 2 species and insecta had 1 family and one species constituting 7.2, 7.2 and 3.6% of the species richness respectively. The diversity of benthic macro-invertebrates in the study area in the stations were generally low. Polychaetes was dominant in the brackish water station (Degema). This may be attributed to their level of pollution tolerance. The numerical numbers of the individual species recorded in this study were high. This suggests that the mud flat of station the study area is grossly polluted.


In a series of momentary encounters with the surface details of The Lowry Centre, a cultural venue located in Salford, Greater Manchester, UK, this article considers the fate of the image evoked by the centre's production and staging of cultural experience. Benjamin's notion of 'aura' as inimical to transformations of art and cultural spectatorship is explored, alongside its fatal incarnation in Baudrillard's concept of 'simulation'. L.S. Lowry, I argue, occupies the space as a medium: both as a central figure of transmission of the centre's narrative of inclusivity through cultural regeneration, and as one who communes with phantoms: remainders of the working-class life and culture that once occupied this locale. Through an exploration of various installations there in his name, Lowry is configured as a 'destructive character', who, by making possible an alternative route through its spaces, refuses to allow The Lowry Centre to insulate itself from its locale and the debt it owes to its past.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how austerity has impacted to date upon European Union (EU) financial reporting developments and how this might influence future reforms. It considers how a critical juncture in EU financial reporting might be recognized and factors which might prevent or delay such a juncture being realized. Design/methodology/approach - – The paper uses the theoretical conceptualization of the territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles of accounting (Miller and Power, 2013), linked to document analysis and interviews with members of the relevant policy communities. In technical terms, austerity makes accounting subject to greater demands for consistency and uniformity. In political terms, accounting is implicated in increasing external fiscal surveillance of sovereign states. Findings - – The authors have shown how the Miller-Power framework illuminates these developments. The territorializing role of accounting in sovereign states creates an environment which facilitates the mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles. Austerity promotes re-territorializing, yet also creates incentives for governments to hide risks and guarantees: the comparability of financial reports and national accounts may be achieved only at a rhetorical level. Evidence for a critical juncture would be termination of national traditions of financial reporting, greater harmonization of accounting across tiers of government, weakening of the linkages to private sector accounting, and stronger alignment of government financial reporting with statistical accounting. Originality/value - – The paper provides a theoretically based analysis of how austerity influences government financial reporting and statistical accounting and brings them into closer contact. This analysis is located within broader tensions between technocracy and democracy that are institutionalized in EU fiscal surveillance.