In service-learning university courses, it is often difficult to support an effective and healthy balance between performance in the field and students' engagement in their community service. Based on the author's teaching experience, this article presents a qualitative case study on the experiences of compassion, fatigue, responsibilization, and identification as they were reported by students and observed in the field. I conceptualize these experiences as linked to three main themes: the students' first practical use of psychology-related knowledge, the social construction of their professional identity, and the perceived effectiveness of their field work. This study concludes with an argument to consider experiences of compassion as constructive although challenging components of service-learning courses. I suggest interpreting psychological and relational challenges as occasions for self-knowledge, engagement with the field, and understanding of the limits of power and responsibility in community service.


The amount of sewage sludge produced worldwide is expected to further increase due to rising efforts in wastewater treatment. There is a growing concern against its direct use as fertilizer due to contamination of the sludge with heavy metals and organic pollutants. Incinerating the sludge degrades organic compounds almost completely and concentrates heavy metals and phosphorus. However, the sewage sludge ash (SSA) is almost completely disposed of and with it all resources are removed from the economic cycle. Comprehensive knowledge of the composition of SSA is crucial to assess the resource recovery potentials. We conducted a survey of all SSA emerging in Germany and determined the respective mass fractions of 57 elements over a period of one year. The median content of phosphorus was 7.9%, indicating an important recovery potential. Important trace elements were Zn (2.5 g/kg), Mn (1.3 g/kg), and Cu (0.9 g/kg). Mass fractions of technology metals such as V, Cr, Ga, Nb, and rare earths were comparatively low. Considering the possible use of SSA as secondary raw material for fertilizer production it should be noted that its Cd and U content (2.7 mg/kg and 4.9 mg/kg respectively) is significantly lower than that of rock phosphate based mineral fertilizers.


The temperature field is investigated in a gaseous, reacting mixing layer between two streams containing low concentrations of hydrogen and fluorine, over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. The results show the presence of large, hot structures that govern the flow dynamics at all speeds. The mean-temperature profile is found to decrease modestly with increasing speed, a result suggesting a weak Reynolds number dependence of the production rate. Tripping ht high-speed boundary layer is found to have a significant effect on the width of the mixing zone and the profile of the mean temperature rise.


This article examines why unemployment is often experienced in a profoundly negative way, and explores the potentially mediating role of social policies. Three dominant theories of unemployment are described, which are often treated as competing, mutually exclusive explanations of the deleterious effects of unemployment. Subsequently, and through drawing upon a qualitative study of unemployed people, it is argued that all three theories are of worth and can be synthesized into a broader explanation of the experience of unemployment as an overarching process of loss. Three forms of loss are identified: loss of agency; loss of the functions of paid work; and loss of social status. The article then explores how these forms of loss can be both ameliorated and intensified through social policy interventions. Concluding, it offers policy recommendations to increase the efficacy of social policies in reversing the negative experience of unemployment, with the conclusion that this will require significant reform of the UK welfare state.


Software Engineering and Computer Science (CS) programs often contain several mathematical courses or courses with large mathematics components or dependencies. Study success in those subjects can be influenced by students' attitudes towards mathematics and their perceptions about their own relation with mathematics. To gain insights into how the mathematics perceptions of computer science students affect their studies, we collected qualitative data from fourteen CS students from two universities in the context of an elective mathematics course. In this qualitative research, we used a triangulation strategy by collecting data from three different sources (interviews, questionnaires, and math-history assignments) to develop a comprehensive understanding of CS students' mathematics perceptions. The thematic analysis revealed the factors that affect students' perceptions about mathematics, including various types of prior experiences, their self-efficacy, math anxiety, and motivation sources. The analysis also highlighted that students find mathematics important for skill transfer to specific CS topics and for supporting continuous learning.


Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been reported with many protective effects. The present study aims to evaluate immunomodulatory, antioxidant and anticancerous potential of 9Z, 11E isomer of CLA at 0.1-1mg/ml concentration. Immunomodulatory parameters include evaluation of iNOS activity, NBT reduction and bactericidal activity. CLA was found to increase 4.44↑ iNOS activity at 1mg/ml concentration. CLA at 0.3 mg/ml conc. was found to be most effective in maintaining CAT and SOD activity. However free radical scavenging activity was not very high as measured by DPPH and Lipid peroxidation assay. Anticancerous activity was measured using HepG2, Caco2 and U937 cell line. Results indicate that CLA was most effective in reducing viability of U937 cells. It was also found that conc. higher than 0.5 mg/ml resulted in reduction of viability in normal hepatic cells.


Aging buildings will sooner or later be in need of renovation, which opens opportunities to reduce energy use. Even if economically feasible energy measures or technologies exist, they are not always implemented, leading to an energy efficiency gap. This dissertation deals with how energy measures are handled and why they are enabled or disabled during the planning and design of renovations. During renovations, different kinds of building professionals are engaged, here referred to as middle professionals. The meeting practice of the professionals is investigated, with a focus on how the middle professionals exert influence from the middle-out and to the top and bottom, and how and why they enable or disable measures aimed at energy efficiency or reduction. Three renovation projects are followed in the municipality-owned housing company Stangastaden, in Linkoping, Sweden. The housing company's goal is to reduce the amount of purchased energy by 25% by 2025. Methods applied during the research are semi-structured interviews, participant observations and document analysis. The conclusions show that energy measures were implemented, but more can be done in renovations. Predefined meeting agendas make the process efficient but not flexible, thus it can be difficult to introduce innovations and alternative ways of thinking into the process. The professionals usually selected measures they had used before. Energy calculations attracted little interest compared to the aggregated knowledge from previous projects, and experience and tacit knowledge were highly valued. This and more lead to a renovation process where it is difficult for energy to enter the current meeting practice. (Less)


The aim of this Master's thesis, entitled "Legitimation of Euro adoption in government communication and press", is to analyse the government's role in communication regarding the euro, how the transition to the euro has been reported in the Estonian press and who are the participants in communication. The main focus is on observing the legitimation of the topics related to the euro changeover in government communication and press.
In the introductory part of this thesis, an overview of the euro is given as well as the social and communication context of the euro adoption. As research in this thesis is in the area of political communication, the theoretical part also deals with definitions of political communication and the focus is on the Meadow's political communication model and the Estonian political culture. In addition, the focus is also on the definition of legitimation and the public sphere, these are mainly based on Habermas' theories. In the empirical starting point of the thesis, the main results of euro-related opinion surveys are given.
The empirical part of the thesis contains both content analysis of media texts and discourse analysis of government communication and media texts. During the survey, important euro-related key events are also mapped. The thesis is based on the following main research questions:
a) What communication tools are used by the government to legitimise the euro adoption i.e. what are the main events and key points of the government communication related to the euro? What topics, problems and values are used by the government to initiate the subject of the euro adoption? What are the main euro-related discourses?;
b) How is the euro adoption reported in the Estonian media? What is the frequency and progress of this topic in daily newspapers and how is it related to government communication? Has a dialogue emerged between the government and the public? What are the euro-related topics, problems, values and discourse in the media? Who are involved in this communication?
The main conclusions of the thesis are the following: Considering the timeline and discourse analysis of government communication, the government's aim for legitimation becomes evident in the following key aspects: fulfilling Maastricht criteria at the institutional level, improving Estonia's reputation in identity questions and repositioning it in the European context as well as decisions on improving the government budget position. Despite the formal legitimation of the purpose of the euro (approval in the referendum to join the EU, support in opinion surveys) in its communication, the government constantly maintains the rightness and necessity of joining the Eurozone, which appears to be the basis of its entire legitimation strategy. As a governmental tool of legitimation during discourse analysis, appealing to such positive values as solidarity, unity, trust and reliability, Estonia's uniqueness and distinctness, capability and responsibility were used – these values are difficult to doubt. At the same time, a key element of the legitimation strategy is to use positive identity questions, highlighting Estonia's position and capability, compared to other countries. As a result of the content analyses becomes evident that the amount of newspaper articles notably varied each month depending on external events and government action and communication. Also the dominant topics related to the euro remain generally the same as in government communication. Compared to government communication the attitudes, values and voices of the media discourses were broad-ranging.
In the thesis, two hypotheses were raised. The first is that the government is trying to legitimise the strategy of overcoming the economic crisis using the euro. This was not directly proven. It became clear that the government did not try to legitimise the painful solutions using a euro target, but that this was sensed so by the public.
The other hypothesis is that the active and agenda-setting half of the legitimation process of decisions and actions connected to the euro is the government and that the role of the media in representing public expectations and demands remains one-sided. This was partly proven. It was found that in comparing the content and discourse analysis and constructing a timeline of communication of the topics that dominated the press, there was a general correlation between events and the topics initiated by the
government. Also, a certain correlation emerged between the frequency of topics raised by the government and by the media. Despite the wide reflection of euro subjects in the media, including different communication actors, several aspects raised in the opinion surveys were not treated recurrently and dominantly.
As communication regarding the transition to the euro will be a topical issue in Estonia over the coming year, the empirical data gathered in the framework of this thesis and the analysis of it enables to give additional input to the government's euro-communication strategy.
As an expansion of this subject, several questions that have yet to be analysed which are related to euro-communication could be examined: efficiency of the communication strategy in Estonia; the impact of the economic crisis on Estonian citizens' attitudes towards the euro; and the role and attitudes of media and other communication partners in shaping euro topics, etc.


The safety of telemental healthcare delivered to clinically unsupervised settings, such as a personal residence, must be established to inform policy and further the dissemination of telemental health programs. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of safety issues associated with telemental healthcare and, through a systematic literature review, evaluate the safety of telemental healthcare delivered to unsupervised settings. The review resulted in a total of nine studies that specifically evaluated the delivery of telemental healthcare to unsupervised settings. Six of the nine studies reviewed explicitly described safety plans or specific precautions that could be used if necessary. Two of the nine studies reported events that required the researchers to use safety procedures to effectively respond to concerns they had regarding participant safety. In both of these studies, the issues were resolved with prescribed safety procedures. Recommendations and future directions for the development and evaluation of safety protocols are discussed.


Recent researches focused on breeding lycopene–rich watermelon varieties are active since lycopene content in watermelon is 60% higher than in tomato. We developed a new microplate method using a UV spectrophotometer to select genetic resources of watermelon containing high lycopene content. The microplate method showed more accurate analysis (about 97% positive correlation) than HPTLC, suggesting the microplate method is a reliable analytical technique for the rapid and simple selection of watermelon resources. Lycopene contents of 96 watermelon accessions using the new microplate method was a wide variation of 3.2-98.3 ㎍.g-1FW to assess, allowing selection of 15 high-lycopene watermelon accessions. Lycopene contents of the 15 watermelon accessions was 4.4∼9.6 fold higher than lycopene content of a commercial cultivar 'Speedplus'. These results suggest that the watermelon accessions selected using a novel microplate method can be used for breeding of lycopene-rich cultivars.


The impact of the fragmentation of executive and legislative bodies on the level and composition of government expenditure is a feature of politics that has attracted considerable attention from economists. However, previous authors have abstracted from two important concepts: ideology and intra-party politics. In this paper, we account for these two phenomena explicitly, and make two main contributions. First, we show that both intra- and inter-party ideological dispersion matter in explaining the level of sub-national public spending. Therefore, it is improper to consider parties as monolithic entities. We also show that ideological dispersion matters especially for current expenditures, and not so much for investment expenditures. To do so, we construct a panel database (2003–2010) comprising data from a survey that quantifies the policy preferences of party members who were candidates in Swiss elections.


The cloud computing literature provides various ways to utilise cloud services, each with a different viewpoint, focus, and mostly using heterogeneous technical-centric terms. This hinders efficient and consistent knowledge flow across the community. Little, if any, research has aimed on developing an integrated process model which captures core domain concepts and ties them together to provide an overarching view of migrating legacy systems to cloud platforms that is customisable for a given context. We adopt design science research guidelines in which we use a metamodeling approach to develop a generic process model and then evaluate and refine the model through three case studies and domain expert reviews. This research benefits academics and practitioners alike by underpinning a substrate for constructing, standardising, maintaining, and sharing bespoke cloud migration models that can be applied to given cloud adoption scenarios.


ABSTRACT What do young people leaving youth care think about their future? How do they view their transition between youth care and adulthood? These questions were answered by 71 young people leaving youth care in Flanders. The analysis of the interviews showed that three groups of young people can be distinguished when it comes to their expectations regarding the transition: those with positive future expectations that do not expect any difficulties during their transition, those with positive future expectations expecting difficulties that will eventually pass, and those with negative future expectations, who do not expect their transition difficulties will pass. Most respondents think the future is looking bright, because they are about to graduate or have graduated, and/or because they are intrinsically motivated to deal with their anticipated transition difficulties. Young people with negative future expectations do not stress their intrinsic motivation. Some of them think a (future) partner and their parents will be able to support them through their difficulties; they do not consider professional support as helpful, however.


A rapid and effective way of working out the optimum convergence control parameter in the homotopy analysis method (HAM) is introduced in this paper. As compared with the already known ways of evaluating the convergence control parameter in HAM either through the classical constant h − curves ( h is the convergence control parameter) or from the classical squared residual error as frequently used in the literature, a novel description is proposed to find out an optimal value for the convergence control parameter yielding the same optimum values. In most cases, the new method is shown to perform quicker and better against the residual error method when integrations are much harder to evaluate. Examples involving solution of algebraic, highly nonlinear differentialdifference, integro-differential, and ordinary or partial differential equations or systems, all from the literature demonstrate the validity and usefulness of the introduced technique


The objective of this paper is to share the RCA (Root Cause Analysis) of the power failure incident of 11kV substation fed from upstream 33kV SWGR through 2 nos. 33/11kV transformers at Company operating Plant.
 Both interconnecting 33/11kV transformers tripped simultaneously causing black out of certain process train at the plant. However, all other downstream substations fed from the same 33kV SWGR did not trip
 Maintenance team performed preliminary investigation and found that event records of protection relays of both 33kV outgoing feeders indicated that downstream 11kV incomers were racked-out.
 Since, no physical rack out of both 11kV incomers, and after quick review of the relevant schematics, it was thought that simultaneous tripping could be attributed to mal-operation of Arc flash flap Switch at incomer/coupler circuit breakers of 11 KV Switchboard.
 As such, in order to restore the power supply and resume production, the following has been made: Switchgear cubicles along with VT and circuit breakers compartments were inspected and cleared from major findings.TC (Temporary Concession form) had been filled and Risk Assessed to temporary disable Arc flash flap Switch at incomer/coupler circuit breakers of downstream 11 KV SWGR – till further investigation.
 Finally, 11KV Power supply was restored after approximately 2 hours.
 Company formed investigation team lead by the author of this paper to find out the root cause, which is concluded as follows: This particular 11kV substation among all other substations is 1500 meter far from main upstream 33kV substation. As such, the interconnecting control cable is long enough to carry undesired stray voltage due to well-known phenomena of capacitive effect.11kV CB rake-out trip signal was directly wired to upstream outgoing CB protection relay and powered from 110VDC control voltage of upstream substation. Due to long distance, stray voltage of 15VDC was measured in the cable but it was not enough to trigger the trip signal until 110V DC system disturbance took place causing enough stray voltage above 25VDC (experimentally verified) to initiate the trip.Nevertheless, why other substation did not trip even though all of their 33kV outgoing feeders are tapped from the same affected110VDC source? This is what we will explain in the next pages.


Hirayama disease is a rare type of neurological disease commonly manifesting as brachial monomelic amyotrophy in young males of Asian origin, easily understood as juvenile non-progressive cervical amyotrophy. The first case was reported by Hirayama in 1959. The pathogenesis is attributed towards chronic compression of cervical spinal cord during flexion movements of neck in cases where there is detachment of posterior dura mater. This chronic event, invariably leads to features of cord atrophy along with other MRI features. We report a case of 21-year-old male who presented with atrophy of distal muscles of his right hand and was sent for MRI of cervical spine which revealed prominent posterior epidural venous plexus without significant cord atrophy. Clinico-radiologic profile of the patient leads toward the diagnosis of Hirayama disease which was considered as borderline because of asymmetrical cord atrophy which is a not a routine imaging feature of the entity.


We show that the modular Serre weights of a sufficiently generic mod $p$ Galois representation of an unramified $p$-adic field are themselves generic, and give precise bounds on the genericity, by extending previous work of Emerton, Gee and Herzig. Our bounds are nearly optimal in some cases. We use this to improve recent weight elimination theorems.


Calcium is an essential trace element of human body. It is both the constructor and regulator of the body, and the source of our human life. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a glycoprotein involved in bone metabolism and plays a regulatory role in the immune, the skeletal and the circulatory systems. In recent years, the level of circulating OPG has become an independent biomarker of cardiovascular disease, not only for patients with acute or chronic heart disease, but also for healthy people. Furthermore, OPG has been involved in various inflammations and is closely associated with diabetes mellitus and poor glycaemic control. In view of the function of calcium and the role of OPG in calcification, the potential interaction between dietary calcium and OPG deserves much attention.


The JRSM's readership is mostly UK based, with our second largest readership hailing from the United States of America. Yet the difference in reader numbers between the UK and US is so large that this publication is some way from becoming a transatlantic journal, although when you read this issue you might be forgiven for gathering that impression.

The increasing influence of US healthcare and US healthcare organisations on the UK's health system are good reasons to occasionally dip this Journal's pages in the Atlantic.

For instance, both of this month's research papers are analyses from across the pond. First, Arch Mainous III and colleagues compare diabetes management in adults between England and the US, a highly topical issue since the English government is planning to offer opportunities in primary care provision to American companies, among others (p. 463).

Some early but contentious evidence has suggested that the UK's health systems, systems that offer universal access, might have much to learn from the US and its market-based system. Particularly since advocates and critics of the current reforms in the English health service love to talk of the 'emerging healthcare market'—which is a good or an evil thing depending on your politics.

Mainous III and his fellows (none of whom, disappointingly, have Roman numerals after their names) judge that individuals in the universal access healthcare system have better management of diabetes, as measured by HbA1c and prescription of ACE inhibitors, than those who are uninsured in a market-based system. Indeed, the differences between the uninsured and the insured in the market-based system are also eye-catching.

The second paper, a comparison of reports of randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews in leading UK and US surgical journals, finds little difference across the Atlantic (p. 470). The point here is that the world of surgery has long been criticised for not conducting enough studies with a rigorous design, and an up-to-date evaluation of the published literature should give an indication of any improvement. Disappointingly, the UK and the US turn out to be as bad as each other, with randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews comprising only a small percentage of the publications in these leading journals.

Where the UK can certainly learn from the US, argues Donald Irvine, is in the way in which Troy Brennan has lead recertification for internists in the US. The specific lesson is for the Royal Colleges and specialist societies who Liam Donaldson, England's Chief Medical Officer, has handed the responsibility of delivering the recertification element of revalidation for their members (p. 430). This is one of many significant proposals presented by Donaldson in response to the Shipman inquiry.

Irvine gives the proposals a vote of confidence with some important caveats, particularly with regards to undergraduate education and the future role of the GMC. Irvine believes, some might think contentiously, that the council of the regulatory body should be 'disbanded and its successor re-formed with members, medical and lay, who can give it a convincing fresh start.' Do you agree? The Chief Medical Officer has asked for your views and so does this Journal—from either side of the ocean.


Objective The classic chondrocyte isolation protocol is a 1-step enzymatic digestion protocol in which cartilage samples are digested in collagenase solution for a single, long period. However, this method usually results in incomplete cartilage dissociation and low chondrocyte quality. In this study, we aimed to develop a rapid, high-efficiency, and flexible chondrocyte isolation protocol for cartilage tissue engineering. Design Cartilage tissues harvested from rabbit ear, rib, septum, and articulation were minced and subjected to enzymatic digestion using the classic protocol or the newly developed sequential protocol. In the classic protocol, cartilage fragments were subjected to one 12-hour digestion. In the sequential protocol, cartilage fragments were sequentially subjected to 2-hour first digestion, followed by two 3-hour digestions. The collected cells were then subjected to analyses of cell-yield efficiency, viability, proliferation, phenotype, and cartilage matrix synthesis capacity Results Overall, the sequential protocol exhibited higher cell-yield efficiency than the classic protocol for the 4 cartilage types. The cells harvested from the second and third digestions demonstrated higher cell viability, more proliferative activity, a better chondrocyte phenotype, and a higher cartilage-specific matrix synthesis ability than those harvested from the first digestion and after the classic 1-step protocol. Conclusions The sequential protocol is a rapid, flexible, high-efficiency chondrocyte isolation protocol for different cartilage tissues. We recommend using this protocol for chondrocyte isolation, and in particular, the cells obtained after the subsequent 3-hour sequential digestions should be used for chondrocyte-based therapy.


What do you associate with the initials PC? Personal Computer? Too trivial. Political Correctness? More likely. Post-Colonialism? Most probably not… Colonialism has determined the life experience of the vast majority of the people living in the world today. Yet, in Scandinavia, as in most countries that were not formally part of the European colonial system, the common attitude is that it is none of our business, since we didn't have any colonies. Interestingly enough, in the Scandinavian case that is not even true. The present Virgin Islands were the Danish West Indies from 1754 to 1917, and constituted a key link in the transatlantic slave trade. Wonderful Copenhagen was to a large extent literally built with earnings from the lucrative business of the 'black gold' [1]. And the Scandinavian state authorities' treatment of the indigenous populations of the Arctic rim are exemplary colonial power relationships. Nevertheless, the modern myth of Scandinavian innocence and excellence keeps on thriving and makes it difficult for postcolonial theories and perspectives to enter into the Nordic public debate. Several parallel recent events do however indicate that a change may be underway. The art project Rethinking Nordic Colonialism. A postcolonial exhibition project in five acts, initiated by the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art (NIFCA), was carried out in 2006 with exhibitions, seminars and other public events in Iceland, Greenland, The Faroe Island and Finnish Sapmi (the fifth act was virtual and consists of the project's DVD documentation and website www.rethinking-nordiccolonialism . org/). A simultaneous tour of museums and locations was made by the exhibition Traces of Congo, a more conventional attempt at shedding light on the Scandinavian participation in the plundering of the Congo and of Congo's presence in the Scandinavian imaginary. 2006 also saw the birth of a new Nordic researcher network on the theme The Nordic Colonial Mind, initiated and coordinated by the Nordic Africa Institute based in Uppsala, Sweden. The above-mentioned projects do of course reach a limited and perhaps already enlightened audience. But the TV-series Slavarnes slaegt (The Family of the Slaves), made by Danish film producer Alex Frank Larsen and broadcast in several Nordic channels since its premiere screening in DR2 [2] in 2005, has affected and engaged a much wider audience. For this project, initiated ten years ago, Larsen has meticulously searched thorough the Danish historical archives. He has traced between 800 and 900 descendants of black slaves, not only in Denmark but in Sweden and Iceland as well, and he believes there may be thousands. Larsen's investigative TV journalism, which ought to shake the fundaments of Scandinavians' self-image, is a prime example of the usefulness of the postcolonial perspective: rewriting history from a different angle and thus giving voice to those whose stories have been silenced or forgotten. By coincidence, this sudden interest in a Nordic colonial past was articulated in a year that the Swedish government had proclaimed as the 'multicultural year'. Yes, I actually believe it is a mere coincidence, although it may seem likely that a discussion of a hidden colonial legacy ought to have something to do with today's heated debate, especially in Denmark, on immigration and integration. But such connotations are very rarely made, even in academic discourse. Nor is it common anywhere to apply a postcolonial perspective in communication for development – in spite of ComDev strategies that explicitly aim at 'empowerment' and 'giving voice to the disadvantaged', etc. The main reason for this miscommunication may be postcolonial theorists' self-inflicted reputation for being highly academic, difficult and inaccessible. Another reason is that postcolonialism turned into ideology can be dogmatic, even fundamentalist, and/or saturated with political correctness. And there is a prevailing gap between theory and cultural practice. Postcolonial literature was never exclusive or high-brow. But part of the problem is probably also due to reluctance and suspicion among ComDev practitioners. There is a general lack of critical selfreflection in development cooperation, where a postcolonial analysis certainly could contribute a much-needed corrective to the mainstream agenda – even though, or rather especially since, it would potentially challenge its very foundations. The colonial legacy of the development aid industry is difficult to deny. It has been analyzed by Maria Eriksson Baaz in The Paternalism of Partnership: a postcolonial reading of identity in development aid (London: Zed Books, 2005) [An article based on her book is published in this issue of Glocal Times, which focuses on the aftermath of the WCCD held in Rome last October.] A more humble gathering took place in Malmo and Copenhagen in December 2006, as part of the ComDev master course at Malmo University: a seminar on 'postcolonialism at home' located at both sides of the Oresund strait[3], in the two stigmatized immigrant-dominated areas of Norrebro (Copenhagen) and Rosengard (Malmo), with some ten participants on location and about twice as many attending online. The seminar intended to bring together the above-mentioned three discourses: immigration and multiculturalism, postcolonialism and communication for development. Among the speakers in the Norrebro session was Ellen Nyman, a Swedish- Eritrean actress and activist living and working in Copenhagen. Her artistic and political activism includes posters, flyers, stickers, T-shirts, spam-mail, lectures, (fictitious) newspaper articles and, most of all, live performances in public places, where with her dark complexion she impersonates 'the other'. One of the front figures of her Spacecampaign is Alem, a veiled woman from Eritrea who challenges the prejudices of the spectators by acting against their expectations. In the mass demonstrations at the European Union summit in Goteborg in 2001, she walked alone in front of a puzzled delegation of Danish Communists with the inscription 'Whites Only' in the ring of stars of the blue and yellow EU flag. Later that same year, she achieved massive media attention at the culmination of the famous Danish election campaign that brought the current conservative government with its anti-immigration and apartheid policy to power: She was "the Somali woman" who sang the Danish national anthem outside the parliament building. Students attending the workshop were asked to produce anything that somehow referred to the content and context of the seminar, and at least one of the groups was apparently inspired by Ellen Nyman's approach. They staged a near-future scenario where the Swedish government made the pioneer decision to give development aid to one of its Nordic neighbours: formerly well-off Denmark, with its dismantled welfare system. Experts from two experienced developing countries, Nicaragua and Ghana, were consulted to decide whether the influx money should be invested in health or education. (Any resemblance with the recently adopted Danish policy to let celebrities advice on the allocation of Danish development support is of course merely coincidental.) Another group of students tried a more serious application in the concretely outlined project News Impulse, aiming at no less than a renewal of news reporting in Malmo and the Oresund region. Their formula consisted in letting inhabitants of the immigrant-dominated and socially deprived (sub-) urban areas become news editors and reporters for one week. During this week, they would work side by side with professionals, who would in turn report on the reactions among people in the communities concerned. The whole project would preferably be analyzed and followed-up by students in ComDev, Culture and Media, Urban Studies, Ethnic Relations and other inter-related subjects at Malmo and other universities in the region. The short duration of the workshop did not allow any local research, neither in Norrebro nor in Rosengard, and the fact that most of the students participating were attending online, from Colombia to China, turned the venture into a true challenge. But the three online groups, organized according to time zones – Asia, Africa/Europe and America – managed to exchange messages, images and links, and jointly put together different kinds of web documents that were presented at the concluding plenary session. This experimental pilot workshop actually broke new ground in the Malmo ComDev master programme's ongoing exploration of the unimagined potential of web-based collaborative pedagogy. Another lesson learned might be that postcolonial theories and perspectives do not necessarily have to be high-brow textual analyses. They can be readily applied on all kinds of phenomena in the global everyday. Turning the tables, reversing angles, inverting hierarchies etc. are effective methods and communication tools. In fact, I would consider the mind-opening potential to be their major asset. The Nordic countries – and Sweden in particular – have gained a reputation of being practical and pragmatic, not least in politics. If postcolonial thought has finally rooted itself in these barren territories, the Scandinavian contribution might be precisely that: A more pragmatic approach to global cultural matters. [1] Sweden's less successful recent colonial affairs are not due to altruistic reasons but mainly historic circumstances. The last war with Russia craved resources that otherwise might have been put into colonialist enterprises. [2] A Danish public service TV 'culture' channel. [3] Oresund is the strait that separates the Danish island Sjaelland from the south-Swedish province of Skane.


Realistic representation of building walls from images is an important aspect of scene understanding and has many applications. Often, images of buildings are the only input for texturing 3D models, and these images may be occluded by vegetation. One task of image inpainting is to remove these clutter objects. Since the disturbing objects can also be of a larger scale, modern deep learning techniques should be applied to replace them as realistically and context-aware as possible. To support an inpainting network, it is useful to include a-priori information. An example of a network that considers edge images is the two-stage GAN model denoted as EdgeConnect. This idea is taken up in this work and further developed to a three-stage GAN (3GAN) model for façade images by additionally incorporating semantic label images. By inpainting the label images, not only a clear geometric structure but also class information, like position and shape of windows and their typical color distribution, are provided to the model. This model is compared qualitatively and quantitatively with the conventional version of EdgeConnect and another well-known deep-learning-based approach on inpainting which is based on partial convolutions. This latter approach was outperformed by both GAN-based methods, both qualitatively and quantitatively. While the quantitative evaluation showed that the conventional EdgeConnect method performs minimally best, the proposed method yields a slightly better representation of specific façade elements.


In order to evaluate the potential loss of tungsten associated with small-arms ammunition from range soils into leachate and runoff water, preand post-firing soils were subjected to three leaching/ extraction techniques: the distilled, deionized water suspend and settle (DDI SS the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP); and the sequential extraction (SE) procedure. The SE, and, to a lesser extent, the TCLP extraction, were not effective for evaluating tungsten mobility, because of the inverse relationship between acidity and the solubility of tungsten species. However, results from DDI S&S tests and the exchangeable SE fraction do provide some information about the potential for migration of tungsten from soil. The concentration of tungsten obtained using the DDI S&S procedure was highest in leachates from Sand and Glacial Till and lowest in leachate from Muck. The two soil types (Sand and Glacial Till) that exhibited high leachability in the DDI S&S leaching procedure also produced SE-exchangeable extraction solutions that contained the highest tungsten concentrations. Because of the unique properties of elemental tungsten with regard to oxidation and dissolution in aqueous solutions, TCLP and the acid-derived SE procedure are less useful for predicting the long-term leachability of tungsten than the DDI S&S procedure.


A retired man in his sixties presented in 1995 with a history of tremor, gradually worsening over the preceding eight years. He described this as a postural and action tremor affecting his upper limbs symmetrically, but there were no parkinsonian symptoms. A maternal aunt had suffered with a tremor, but no other details were known, and alcohol did not affect his tremor. More recently he thought he had become unsteady on his feet, although this only troubled him when walking in the Himalayas! He was not on any medication and was otherwise well.

On examination he was mildly dysarthric, had a postural tremor of the upper limbs with a superimposed action component, and his deep tendon reflexes were diminished. There was reduction to pain sensation in a stocking distribution. There were no other signs.

A diagnosis of either a neuropathy related tremor or essential tremor was considered, and the following tests were normal: neurophysiology, MR brain, cerebrospinal fluid, EEG, and routine blood tests, including the known SCA mutations, and immunoglobulins.

His tremor did not to respond to propranolol, isoniazid, or valproate and four years later both his tremor and unsteadiness had deteriorated. Reassessment revealed absent reflexes, his tremor remained postural and on action, with the frequency and amplitude of essential tremor. There was probably superimposed dysmetria and he had mild gait ataxia, but no other new signs. Repeat nerve conduction studies were again normal. A diagnosis of "atypical essential tremor" …


This paper reviews the research on the impacts of incarceration on crime. Where data availability permits, reviewed studies are replicated and reanalyzed. Among three dozen studies I reviewed, I obtained or reconstructed the data and code for eight. Replication and reanalysis revealed significant methodological concerns in seven and led to major reinterpretations of four. I estimate that, at typical policy margins in the United States today, decarceration has zero net impact on crime outside of prison. That estimate is uncertain, but at least as much evidence suggests that decarceration reduces crime as increases it. The crux of the matter is that tougher sentences hardly deter crime, and that while imprisoning people temporarily stops them from committing crime outside prison walls, it also tends to increase their criminality after release. As a result, "tough-on-crime" initiatives can reduce crime in the short run but cause offsetting harm in the long run. A cost-benefit analysis finds that even under a devil's advocate reading of this evidence, in which incarceration does reduce crime in U.S., it is unlikely to increase aggregate welfare.


A conjecture is made that a tapped delay line adaptive array of K elements can be used to suppress more than K - 1 noncoincidentcenter frequency interferers when the interferers operate within afraction of the signal bandwidth. This is possible because of theavailability in the increased number of degrees of freedom. Asimulation study is made verifying this conjecture for the case of atwo-element array and two interferers. Three and five tap sectionsare used in the simulation. The study indicates that the performanceimproves with increasing number of taps.


BACKGROUND
Numerous Clinical studies have reported the safety and efficacy of injection of one Marrow and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells in patients with lower limb ischemia. Earlier we have reported the six months follow-up of successful application of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells in patients with Fontaine Stage IV critical limb ischemia due to diabetes. As a continuation of the previous study, herein we report the long term results of the six patients after a follow-up for five years.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Six Diabetic patients with Fontaine Stage IV critical limb ischemia with ulcers were given intra-lesional injections of their autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNC), isolated following the cGMP protocols. The patients have been followed up at regular intervals for five years after the treatment with all relevant clinical investigations.

RESULTS
Six months follow-up results revealed that all the patients showed improvements with appearance of healthy granulation tissue and uniform revascularization. Complete healing was reported at a mean duration of nine months in five patients and one patient died due to a complication of renal failure, peritoneal dialysis and cardiac failure, which were unrelated to the BMMNC injection. Five year continuous follow-up revealed that the healed tissue with or without skin grafting remained healthy in all the five patients and two of the patients are able to walk without support with a pain free walking distance of greater than 100m.There were no adverse effects in any of the patients..

CONCLUSION
Autologous bone marrow stem cell therapy has been found to be salvaging the affected limb in patients with Fontaine Stage IV Critical Limb ischemia patients where revascularization was not feasible. Hence with our experience of six patients we recommend that the same should be considered in patients of similar clinical parameters before considering an amputation.


Abstract 3395 Although non-cycling quiescent CD34+ chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells are more resistant to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and cell-mediated immunity than their cycling counterparts, bortezomib treatment of these cells enhances the cytotoxic effect of allogeneic natural killer (NK) cells from HLA-identical sibling donors against them (Yong, et al, Blood 2009;113:875-82). To extend these observations for clinical application in CML patients ineligible for allogeneic stem cell transplantation, we studied the effect of autologous NK cells from patients with established CML against cycling and quiescent CD34+ CML cells. Purified NK cells from CML patients were cultured over 11–18 days, according to the technique previously reported for NK cells from healthy individuals, using irradiated EBV-LCLs as feeder cells, and interleukin-2. Autologous NK cells were expanded in 12 (6 chronic phase, 6 accelerated phase [AP]) of 14 CML patients with overt disease, achieving greater than 10-fold NK expansion in over 75% of patients. Expanded autologous NK cells were BCR-ABL negative by fluorescence in situ hybridization. In two patients with advanced CML (one blast crisis and another AP), autologous NK cells failed to expand. Using fluorescence activated cell sorting, the progeny of CD34+ CML cells after 4 days culture in serum-free media supplemented with interleukin-3, interleukin-6, stem cell factor, granulocyte-colony stimulating factor and Flt-3 ligand were isolated into cycling CD34-negative and CD34+, and non-cycling quiescent CD34+ populations. Expanded autologous NK cells lysed quiescent CD34+ cells from CML patients but these non-cycling cells were less susceptible to lysis than their cycling CD34+ and CD34-negative counterparts. Addition of the clinically achievable dose of 10nM bortezomib to CD34+ cell cultures significantly enhanced the cytotoxic effects of expanded autologous NK cells on cycling and quiescent non-cycling CD34+ CML cells by 20–40% compared to without pre-treatment. The increased sensitivity to autologous NK-cytotoxicity correlated with increased expression of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptors DR4 and DR5 on the surface of CD34+ quiescent cells, and was reversed by blocking TRAIL. Conversely, enhanced autologous NK-cytotoxicity against cycling CD34+ cells occurred independent of TRAIL and was mediated through upregulation of NKG2D ligands MICA/B, and reversed by NKG2D blockade. The direct pharmacologic effect of bortezomib on primitive CML progenitors is complementary to its ability to sensitize quiescent and cycling CD34+ CML cells to autologous NK cell cytotoxicity, and these findings support its further development as an adjunct treatment with adoptive transfer of autologous expanded NK cells in CML patients who are resistant to TKI and are not eligible for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In various wireless systems, such as sensor RFID networks and body area networks with implantable devices, the transmitted signals are simultaneously used both for information transmission and for energy transfer. In order to satisfy the conflicting requirements on information and energy transfer, this paper proposes the use of constrained run-length limited (RLL) codes in lieu of conventional unconstrained (i.e, random-like) capacity-achieving codes. The receiver's energy utilization requirements are modeled stochastically, and constraints are imposed on the probabilities of battery underflow and overflow at the receiver. It is demonstrated that the codewords' structure afforded by the use of constrained codes enables the transmission strategy to be better adjusted to the receiver's energy utilization pattern, as compared to classical unstructured codes. As a result, constrained codes allow a wider range of trade-offs between the rate of information transmission and the performance of energy transfer to be achieved.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Small echogenic foci within pediatric thyroid nodules are commonly seen by ultrasound and are one of the features used to determine the level of suspicion for malignancy. These are sometimes termed "microcalcifications," but their relation with malignancy is controversial due to the lack of standard terminology. Our aim was to evaluate sonographic patterns of echogenic foci in malignant pediatric thyroid nodules and describe the distribution of corresponding psammoma bodies and other histopathologic findings in thyroidectomy specimens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ultrasounds of 15 pathologically proved malignant thyroid nodules in children were retrospectively reviewed by 2 radiologists who separately classified echogenic foci into the 4 morphologic patterns described in the American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging, Reporting and Data System and noted their presence and distribution. Interobserver agreement was assessed, and consensus was reached for nodules for which there was disagreement. Surgical pathology findings from thyroidectomy specimens were retrospectively reviewed for the presence and distribution of psammomatous and dystrophic/stromal calcifications and eosinophilic/sticky colloid. Ultrasound and histopathologic ratings were compared, and frequencies and percentages corresponding to observed agreement levels were calculated. RESULTS: Interobserver agreement between radiologists' sonographic assessments for the presence and distribution of echogenic foci ranged from 53% to 100% for all categories. Punctate echogenic foci were present in all nodules, and macrocalcifications, in 27%. Histopathology of the 15 nodules revealed that only 4 (27%) had psammomatous calcifications, while 9 (60%) had stromal calcifications and 8 (53%) had sticky colloid. CONCLUSIONS: Sonographically detectable echogenic foci in malignant pediatric thyroid nodules can be reliably classified on the basis of American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging, Reporting and Data System, with punctate echogenic foci composing the most common subtype. These echogenic foci do not represent psammomatous calcifications most of the time; instead, more than half of the malignant thyroid nodules with echogenic foci contained stromal calcifications or sticky colloid.


In 1992 we introduced C++ as one of the major programming languages used in our teaching at the Computer Science Department at Victoria University of Wellington. We now have three years worth of experience of teaching C++ in both university and professional courses, and the paper is a review of the decisions we have made and the experience toe have gained. The paper has three goals. The first is to examine our curriculum design, specifically the choice of programming languages used in our computer science degree programme. We discuss the factors that influenced our choice. The second goal is to present our approach to teaching object-oriented programming in general and C++ in particular. Finally, we discuss our experience associated with teaching C++, in particular focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the language.<<ETX>>


In conversation with a proposal that the book of Jonah was written as a reaction to the two apparently contradictory wisdom sayings of Proverbs 13:21 and Psalm 25:8, this paper reviews the book of Jonah in light of the two maxims from a Latin American perspective. Noting the element of surprise throughout the book, the author gives a contextual interpretation to the change of Jonah's appearance from dove (a passive character) to wolf (an enraged character) willing to die rather than witness God's mercy. As a missionary concern, the author parallels the anger of "Christian continent" (Latin America) against God's mercy for "outsiders" and the continent's self-righteousness with Jonah's enraged character. The self-righteousness is so strong that churches and congregations would rather die than open God's grace to others (Jonah 4). The paper concludes by stating that gender studies have alerted us to the danger of employing either/or (rather than both/and) and hierarchical (rather than egalitarian) categories and interpretations that do not leave sufficient space for diversity, both in the biblical text and in congregational life today.


Background: Continuous venovenous hemodialysis (CVVHD) may generate microemboli that cross the pulmonary circulation and reach the brain. The aim of the present study was to quantify (load per time interval) and qualify (gaseous vs. solid) cerebral microemboli (CME), detected as high-intensity transient signals, using transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Materials and Methods: Twenty intensive care unit (ICU group) patients requiring CVVHD were examined. CME were recorded in both middle cerebral arteries for 30 minutes during CVVHD and a CVVHD-free interval. Twenty additional patients, hospitalized for orthopedic surgery, served as a non-ICU control group. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test or the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test, followed by Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons. Results: In the non-ICU group, 48 (14.5-169.5) (median [range]) gaseous CME were detected. In the ICU group, the 67.5 (14.5-588.5) gaseous CME detected during the CVVHD-free interval increased 5-fold to 344.5 (59-1019) during CVVHD (P<0.001). The number of solid CME was low in all groups (non-ICU group: 2 [0-5.5]; ICU group CVVHD-free interval: 1.5 [0-14.25]; ICU group during CVVHD: 7 [3-27.75]). Conclusions: This observational pilot study shows that CVVHD was associated with a higher gaseous but not solid CME burden in critically ill patients. Although the differentiation between gaseous and solid CME remains challenging, our finding may support the hypothesis of microbubble generation in the CVVHD circuit and its transpulmonary translocation toward the intracranial circulation. Importantly, the impact of gaseous and solid CME generated during CVVHD on brain integrity of critically ill patients currently remains unknown and is highly debated.


Aim/Background: The safe and complete extraction of flavonoids from plant material influenced by various factors has been ever challenging for the researchers. The study was planned to optimize the extraction of flavonoids from nucifera seeds and their antioxidant activity. Materials and Methods: The flavonoids were extracted at various combination of four extraction factors including particle size of the flour in terms of sieve number (SN), microwave treatment time (MTT), concentration of methanol as extracting solvent (CM) and soaking time (ST) each at five levels using a response surface central composite design. The extracts were analyzed for total flavonoid content (TFC), β-carotene bleaching capacity (BCBC) and linoleic acid reduction capacity (LARC). Results: A statistically significant (p<0.05) effect of the extraction factors was observed on TFC, BCBC and LARC. A linear positive effect of MTT and CM and a quadratic positive effect of SN and CM was observed on TFC. The BCBC and LARC were also found to be increased linearly by increasing the SN, MTT and CM. The levels of SN, MTT, CM and ST to obtain optimal value of TFC (1.468 g/100g dry weight) were found to be 132.94 meshes/inch, 1.85 min, 99.87% and 3.06 h respectively. Conclusion: The increase in TFC by increasing the MTT and CM may be attributed to the microwaveassisted release of bound flavonoids and their amphiphilic structure. The data would be a valuable guideline for the researchers regarding the extraction of plant flavonoids and their antioxidant potential.


This paper examines the short- and long-run effects of capital market distortion on income distribution and social welfare in a developing dual economy. In addition to capital market distortion, we also consider the distortion that exists in the labor market. In particular, wage inequality is a consequence of the labor market distortion. The capital market distortion can lead to capital misallocation, which further affects the factor returns in the economy. We find that in the short run, a rise in the capital market distortion in favor of the urban firms do not yield a significant impact on wage inequality. However, the preferential policy on lower capital costs to the urban firms can attract new entry to the urban sector, which could raise skilled wages through an increase in the demand for skilled labor, but lower unskilled wages by substituting capital for unskilled labor. Thus, the existence of the capital market distortion can contribute to wage inequality in the economy via firm dynamics.


The slow reaction kinetics and structural instability of organic electrode materials limit the further performance improvement of aqueous zinc-organic batteries. Herein, we have synthesized a Z-folded hydroxyl polymer polytetrafluorohydroquinone (PTFHQ) with inert hydroxyl groups that could be partially oxidized to the active carbonyl groups through the in-situ activation process and then undertake the storage/release of Zn2+. In the activated PTFHQ, the hydroxyl groups and S atoms enlarge the electronegativity region near the electrochemically active carbonyl groups, enhancing their electrochemical activity. Simultaneously, the residual hydroxyl groups could act as hydrophilic groups to enhance the electrolyte wettability while ensuring the stability of the polymer chain in the electrolyte. Also, the Z-folded structure of PTFHQ plays an important role in reversible binding with Zn2+ and fast ion diffusion. All these benefits make the activated PTFHQ exhibit a high specific capacity of 215 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1, over 3400 stable cycles with a capacity retention of 92%, and an outstanding rate capability of 196 mAh g-1 at 20 A g-1.


Rh-based nanozymes show high catalytic efficiency, specific surface area, good stability, and unique physicochemical properties, while magnetic nanozymes facilitate the magnetic separation of detection samples under an external magnetic field for improved sensitivity. However, magnetic Rh nanozymes, especially those with excellent stability, have not been reported. Herein, we apply the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to prepare a CoRh graphitic nanozyme (termed as CoRh@G nanozyme), which structurally consists of CoRh nanoalloy encapsulated by a few layers of graphene for sensitive colorimetric sensing applications. The proposed CoRh@G nanozyme has superior peroxidase (POD)-like activity, and it shows higher affinity of the CoRh@G nanozyme than horseradish peroxidase (HRP) toward 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzydine (TMB) oxidation. In addition, the CoRh@G nanozyme shows high durability and superior recyclability owing to its protective graphitic shell. The outstanding merits of the CoRh@G nanozyme allow its use for quantitative colorimetric detection of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA), showing high sensitivity and good selectivity. Moreover, it shows satisfactory performance for AA detection in commercial beverages and energy drinks. The proposed CoRh@G nanozyme-based colorimetric sensing platform shows great promise in point-of-care (POC) visual monitoring.


Some young and active patients requiring abdominoperineal resection for rectum cancer ask for an alternative of an abdominal colostomy. We analysed the results after a combination of a perineal colostomy and antegrade continence enemas (ACE). Fifteen patients have been operated between 1999 and 2004. Follow-up was >six months in 12 patients with a mean of two years and with a maximum of 55 months. The QLQ-C30 (version 3) and CR 38 questionnaires of the EORTC have been used to evaluate quality of life aspects. Five out of 15 patients presented complications: infection of the caecal conduit (2), small bowel obstruction (1), prolapse of the perineal colostomy (1), eventration (1), urologic complications (2). ACE are still used by all patients. The volume needed was 400 ml and duration of irrigation was 30 minutes (15-45 minutes). The median score for faecal incontinence was 0 ; faecal pseudocontinence was obtained by 7/12 patients. The scores for all aspects of functioning were excellent, as well as the score for body image. The general health status and quality of life were estimated at 75% from normal value. The procedure is simple and can be performed in one operative session. A perineal colostomy with ACE seems to be a valuable and less expensive alternative for an abdominal colostomy, and certainly for total anorectal reconstruction.


The interaction of androgens and prolactin, the major factors regulating the male accessory sex organs, on the specific activity of seminal vesicular enzymes of the pyruvate/malate cycle were studied in castrated mature monkeys. Castration decreased the activity of these enzymes, including NADP+ isocitrate dehydrogenase, ATP citrate lyase, malate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme and fatty acid synthase. Testosterone propionate (TP)/dihydrotestosterone given as replacement to castrates increased the activity of all these enzymes, except for malate dehydrogenase. Prolactin restored normal activity of ATP citrate lyase, malic enzyme and fatty acid synthase but not of isocitrate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase (MDH). Prolactin had a specific control over MDH. Moreover, when prolactin was combined with androgens a further stimulatory influence was observed on fatty acid synthase activity. In order to prove the direct influence of prolactin on enzymes of the pyruvate/malate cycle, bromocriptine was administered and this inhibited all of the enzymes. Thus prolactin was found to have a direct, as well as a synergistic, action with androgens on enzymes of the pyruvate/malate cycle in the seminal vesicles of monkeys.


This paper presents a fast evaluation procedure for high-cycle fatigue (HCF) under multiaxial random loading. The recent multiaxial cycle counting method of Wang and Brown is used to identify the loading reversals. For each identified reversal, the effective shear stress amplitude is directly calculated from the component stress ranges by an equation derived from the MCE approach, which is a newly developed method to account for nonproportional loading effect. This shear stress amplitude and the maximum hydrostatic stress during the time period of an identified reversal are used to evaluate the fatigue damage for that reversal by Crossland's criterion. The fatigue damage of the loading block is then calculated by summing the damages of all the identified reversals by Miner's rule. Comparisons with other multiaxial HCF approaches show that the procedure is a computationally efficient and conservative engineering approach.


Genes shared between the nonrecombining parts of the two types of sex chromosomes offer a potential means to study the molecular evolution of the same gene exposed to different genomic environments. We have analyzed the molecular evolution of the coding sequence of the first pair of genes found to be shared by the avian Z (present in both sexes) and W (female-specific) sex chromosomes, CHD1Z and CHD1W. We show here that these two genes evolve independently but are highly conserved at nucleotide as well as amino acid levels, thus not indicating a female-specific role of the CHD1W gene. From comparisons of sequence data from three avian lineages, the frequency of nonsynonymous substitutions (K(a)) was found to be higher for CHD1W (1.55 per 100 sites) than for CHD1Z (0.81), while the opposite was found for synonymous substitutions (K(s), 13.5 vs. 22.7). We argue that the lower effective population size and the absence of recombination on the W chromosome will generally imply that nonsynonymous substitutions accumulate faster on this chromosome than on the Z chromosome. The same should be true for the Y chromosome relative to the X chromosome in XY systems. Our data are compatible with a male-biased mutation rate, manifested by the faster rate of neutral evolution (synonymous substitutions) on the Z chromosome than on the female-specific W chromosome.


Here we present NekoStat, an extension to the Neko tool. Neko is a Java framework that permits rapid prototyping and qualitative analysis of distributed applications, that can be exercised both on real networks and on simulated ones. In order to enlarge the spectrum of V&Vactivities we realized an extension to standard Neko, called NekoStat. The extension permits to obtain quantitative evaluations of distributed systems: a unique code can be exercised and the same supports can be used to make both simulative and experimental analysis.


Long-distance contacts, exchange of goods and more organized forms of trade have been a part of human life since the beginning of what is commonly perceived as culture. One reason for this has always been an unequal geographic distribution of desirable raw materials such as obsidian, flint, or metals. Another driving force comprises the construction of social networks through the exchange of extraordinary objects. My work explores the connectivity and cross-cultural communication between the Bronze Age societies, in particular the Mycenaean world and Central Europe. These links are less researched than those between the Eastern Mediterranean societies of the time. The cultural differences between the Mycenaean Greece and Central Europe, along with the diversity of their societies, provide an interesting and strongly debated case study. There are significant differences in opinions on the nature of these relations, their importance, intensity, and range. Archaeological evidence of cross-cultural contacts between Central Europe and the Aegean is rich and diverse. It includes amber, faience, weapons and tools, dress fasteners, personal ornaments and jewellery, metal vessels, Handmade Barbaric Ware, horse harness made of bone and antlers, loaf-of-bread idols and decorative elements, etc. Despite the often unclear context in which these objects and elements have been found, there is a striking similarity of appearance and this shared materiality may indicate shared notions of technology and ideology.


Abstract We used recent population data and a deterministic matrix model that accounted for important aspects of raptor population biology to evaluate the likely impact of falconry harvest (including take of different age classes) on wild raptor populations in the United States. The harvest rate at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) ranged from 0.03 to 0.41 for the species examined. At least for peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), harvest rate at MSY was greatest for nestlings and lowest for adults. The quality of demographic data for the species influenced MSY. For most species the state of current knowledge probably underestimates the capacity for allowed harvest because estimates of vital rates, particularly survival, are biased low, because emigration is not distinguished from survival. This is offset somewhat by biases that might overestimate sustainability inherent in MSY-based analyses and deterministic models. Taking these factors into consideration and recognizing the impracticality of monitoring raptor populations to determine actual effects of harvest, we recommend that falconry harvest rates for juvenile raptors in the United States not exceed one-half of the estimated MSY up to a maximum of 5%, depending on species-specific estimates of capacity to sustain harvest. Under this guideline, harvest rates of up to 5% of annual production are supported for northern goshawks (Accipter gentilis), Harris's hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus), peregrine falcons, and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos); lower harvest rates are recommended for other species until better estimates of vital rates confirm greater harvest potential.


Sign languages are the primary means of communication for many hard-of-hearing people worldwide. Recently, to bridge the communication gap between the hard-of-hearing community and the rest of the population, several sign language translation datasets have been proposed to enable the development of statistical sign language translation systems. However, there is a dearth of sign language resources for the Indian sign language. This resource paper introduces ISLTranslate, a translation dataset for continuous Indian Sign Language (ISL) consisting of 31k ISL-English sentence/phrase pairs. To the best of our knowledge, it is the largest translation dataset for continuous Indian Sign Language. We provide a detailed analysis of the dataset. To validate the performance of existing end-to-end Sign language to spoken language translation systems, we benchmark the created dataset with a transformer-based model for ISL translation.


In monetary unions, a time inconsistency problem in monetary policy leads to a novel type of free-rider problem in the setting of non-monetary policies. The free-rider problem leads union members to pursue lax non-monetary policies that induce the monetary authority to generate high inflation. Free-riding can be mitigated by imposing constraints on non-monetary policies. Without a time inconsistency problem, the union has no free-rider problem; then constraints on non-monetary policies are unnecessary and possibly harmful. This theory is here detailed and applied to several non-monetary policies: labor market policy, fiscal policy, and bank regulation.


OBJECTIVE
Patients with chronic pain and severe disuse syndrome have pain with physiological, psychological and social adaptations. The duration and severity of complaints, combined with previously failed treatments, makes them unsuitable for treatment in primary care.

DESIGN
A prospective waiting list controlled study.

PATIENTS
A total of 32 patients with chronic pain for at least one year and severe disuse syndrome were included in an inpatient multidisciplinary cognitive behavioural treatment.

METHODS
Patients were assessed before the waiting list period, before the clinical phase, after the clinical phase and after follow-ups of 6 months and one year. The visual analogue scale for pain and fatigue were assessed. Muscle strength of the arms and legs, arm endurance and a 6-minute walking test were used to assess physical outcome. The Symptom Checklist-90, RAND-36, pain cognition list and the Tampa scale for kinesiophobia were used to assess psychological outcome.

RESULTS
Long-term significant (p < 0.001) improvements were found for pain, fatigue, walking distance, muscle strength, anxiety, depression, somatization, negative self-efficacy, and catastrophizing in the intervention period.

CONCLUSION
An inpatient multidisciplinary cognitive behavioural programme is beneficial for patients with chronic pain and a severe disuse syndrome.


Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) have received considerable attention for flexible transparent conductive films (TCFs) since they provide a relatively low sheet resistance at a high transmittance. However, the diffuse light scattering, haze, has been regarded as a hurdle to achieve clarity of films. Here we revisit the Mie scattering theory to calculate the extinction and scattering coefficients of Ag NWs which were employed to estimate haze of TCFs. The theory predicted a decrease in haze with a decrease in Ag NW diameter which was supported by experimental investigations carried out using Ag NWs with 5 different diameters (17.6, 19.9, 22.5, 24.3, and 29.6 nm). Overall, excellent properties of TCFs (haze = 0.21%–1.8%, transmittance = 95.33%–98.45%, sheet resistance = 20.87–81.76 Ω sq−1) were obtained. Ag NWs with a diameter of 17.6 nm provided minimum haze values at equivalent sheet resistances (e.g., haze = 0.21%, transmittance = 98.45%, sheet resistance = 77.36 Ω sq−1) compared with ones with lager diameters and the controls in literatures. This work investigated the interdependence between haze and NW diameter and might provide a design guide for flexible Ag NW TCFs.


Abstract The widely used porcine artificial insemination procedure involves the use of liquid‐stored semen because it is difficult to control the quality of frozen–thawed porcine sperm. Therefore, there is a high demand for porcine semen. The control and enhancement of sperm function are required for the efficient reproduction of pigs. We previously reported that gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) enhanced sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction in mice. In this study, we demonstrated the presence of GABAA receptors in porcine sperm acrosome. Furthermore, we investigated the GABA effects on porcine sperm function. We did not detect any marked effect of GABA on sperm motility and tyrosine phosphorylation of sperm proteins. However, GABA promoted acrosome reaction, which was suppressed by a selective GABAA receptor antagonist. GABA binds to GABAA receptors, resulting in chloride ion influx. We found that treatment with 1 μM GABA increased the intracellular concentration of chloride ion in the sperm. In addition, the GABA concentration effective in the acrosome reaction was correlated with the porcine sperm concentration. These results indicate that GABA and its receptors can act as modulators of acrosome reaction. This study is the first to report the effects of GABA on porcine sperm function.


ABSTRACT Music and sound contributions of interpersonal meaning to film narratives may be different from or similar to meanings made by language and image, and dynamic interactions between several modalities may generate new story messages. Such interpretive potentials of music and voice sound in motion pictures are rarely considered in social semiotic investigations of intermodality. This paper therefore shares two semiotic studies of distinct and combined music, English speech and image systems in an animated short film and a promotional filmtrailer. The paper considers the impact of music and voice sound on interpretations of film narrative meanings. A music system relevant to the analysis of filmic emotion is proposed. Examples show how music and intonation contribute meaning to lexical, visual and gestural elements of the cinematic spaces. Also described are relations of divergence and resonance between emotion types in various couplings of music, intonation, words and images across story phases. The research is relevant to educational knowledge about sound, and semiotic studies of multimodality.


This paper presents a new stochastic decomposition method well-suited to deal with large-scale unit commitment problems. In this approach, random disturbances are modeled as scenario trees. Optimization consists in minimizing the average generation cost over this "tree-shaped future". An augmented Lagrangian technique is applied to this problem. At each iteration, nonseparable terms introduced by the augmentation are linearized so as to obtain a decomposition algorithm. This algorithm may be considered as a generalization of price decomposition methods, which are now classical in this field, to the stochastic framework. At each iteration, for each unit, a stochastic dynamic subproblem has to be solved. Prices attached to nodes of the scenario trees are updated by the coordination level. This method has been applied to a daily generation scheduling problem. The use of an augmented Lagrangian technique, provides satisfactory convergence properties to the decomposition algorithm. Moreover, numerical simulations show that compared to a classical deterministic optimization with reserve constraints, this new approach achieves substantial savings.


A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University.
In this work we introduce several new optimisation methods for problems in machine learning. Our algorithms broadly fall into two categories: optimisation of finite sums and of graph structured objectives. The finite sum problem is simply the minimisation of objective functions that are naturally expressed as a summation over a large number of terms, where each term has a similar or identical weight. Such objectives most often appear in machine learning in the empirical risk minimisation framework in the non-online learning setting. The second category, that of graph structured objectives, consists of objectives that result from applying maximum likelihood to Markov random field models. Unlike the finite sum case, all the non-linearity is contained within a partition function term, which does not readily decompose into a summation.
For the finite sum problem, we introduce the Finito and SAGA algorithms, as well as variants of each.
For graph-structured problems, we take three complementary approaches. We look at learning the parameters for a fixed structure, learning the structure independently, and learning both simultaneously. Specifically, for the combined approach, we introduce a new method for encouraging graph structures with the "scale-free" property. For the structure learning problem, we establish SHORTCUT, a O(n^{2.5}) expected time approximate structure learning method for Gaussian graphical models. For problems where the structure is known but the parameters unknown, we introduce an approximate maximum likelihood learning algorithm that is capable of learning a useful subclass of Gaussian graphical models.


II Choosing options and accommodations for children: A guide to planning inclusive education (COACH) (1993) M. F. Giangreco, Cloninger, and V. Salce Iverson Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., P.O. Box 10624 Baltimore, MD 21285-0624 189 pages,$40.00 Choosing Options and Accommodations for Children (COACH) is a guide to planning the education of children in inclusive settings. The approach calls for extensive cooperation within the treatment team and gives parents a determining role in the preparation of their child's programme. The guide is divided into five sections. The first two introduce the reader to the COACH method and offer a detailed description of the process. Directions for using COACH are presented in the third section, which is itself divided into three parts; Part 1: Directions for Completing the Family Prioritization Interview, Part 2: Directions for Defining the Educational Programme Components and Part 3: Addressing the Educational Programme Components in Inclusive Settings. All sections are accompanied by numerous examples and charts to facilitate understanding by the reader. References can be found in section 4 and Appendices in section 5. The authors have included in the appendices various examples of the completed COACH process, a self-monitoring and peer coaching guide, and blank copies of all forms used in the completion of COACH with permission to photocopy them. One needs to study the manual in depth and apply the method several times before being able to use COACH proficiently. Applying the entire COACH method may not be necessary in certain settings, but isolated parts of COACH may be very useful to occupational therapists, for example, the Activity Lists. These lists break down the acquisition of skills into progressive steps in the following areas: Communication, Socialization, Personal Management, Leisure/Recreation, Applied Academics, Home, School, Community and Vocational. Also of particular interest is part 3 of the third section which offers valuable and innovative advice to make the most of learning experiences in nonhomogenous groups of students. The approach appears complicated, and therapists may reject it at first, but once familiarized with COACH it can be a valuable tool for all professionals working in


Background MiR-25 was reported to be down-regulated in patients with intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). However, the potential role of miR-25 in IDD remained unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of miR-25 on human intervertebral disc nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs).Methods We evaluated the expression of miR-25 and small ubiquitin-related modifier 2 (SUMO2) in human nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues by real-time PCR and western blotting. Then, the target relationship between miR-25 and SUMO2 was validated by luciferase reporter assay and biotin-coupled miRNA pulldown assay. The potential roles of miR-25 in NPC proliferation and apoptosis were confirmed using CCK-8 assay, EdU incorporation assay, and flow cytometry.Results MiR-25 was lowly expressed in the patients with IDD. In addition, miR-25 facilitated the growth of NPCs by increasing cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. Furthermore, we elucidated that SUMO2 was a target gene of miR-25, and was regulated by miR-25 through p53 signaling pathway. Restore of SUMO2 expression abrogated the effects of miR-25 on NPCs.Conclusion MiR-25 promoted the proliferation, inhibited the apoptosis of NPCs, and suppressed the development of IDD via SUMO2-mediated p53 signaling axis.


Numerical simulations using viscoelastic wave equations allow investigation of interactions between the effects of scattering by variations in P velocity, S velocity, density, and intrinsic Q for both P and S waves. When variations are spatially correlated between the parameters in a scattering medium, the amount of scattered energy increases. Thus, neglect of the contribution of any parameter to scattering will result in biased estimates of the contributions by the other parameters; this is especially true if interactions between intrinsic and apparent Q are neglected. The presence of finite intrinsic Q values has two effects; the overall amplitudes of both the incident and scattered waves are attenuated, and new scattering is introduced by the spatial variation of Q. The energy in the coda is reduced substantially and shifted to lower frequencies by attenuation in a viscoelastic medium. For a given scatterer size, the frequency at which the dominant scattering occurs is lower for S waves than for P waves.


Field results of the reclosing principle application on the low voltage side of distribution transformers are presented. This work was carried out in order to assess the outage time reduction yielded by a recloser especially developed for this application. An adapted service based on standard molded case circuit breakers is described, as well as the series of tests performed on the prototype, both in the laboratory and in the field. Eight low voltage reclosers were installed on different distribution areas of the Mexican Utility (CFE), and the operational results obtained so far are discussed. >


The emergence of agile methods in software development has brought many opportunities and challenges for researchers and professionals. A major challenge is the effort estimate for agile software development. When the estimation of effort is not well defined or is inaccurate, the results can directly reflect the software delivery, causing customer dissatisfaction or decrease the quality of the product, thus leading to the need for new mechanisms that can assist in this process. Given this need, this paper presents a framework, called GiveMe Effort to support the effort estimation activities in the maintenance and evolution of software in agile methods. The solution is based on historical data change requests associated with the maintenance and evolution of software.


Many choices are available to the practitioner of restorative dentistry for children. With the introduction of several new classes of restorative materials in recent years, some confusion has been created about what these materials are, making it difficult to identify their appropriate clinical use. This paper reviews glass-ionomer materials, resin-modified (reinforced) glass ionomers, compomers, and composite resins for the practitioner. Definitions of these materials, a general description of their contents, and usage-selection criteria are provided. Although more choices for tooth restoration can make the selection of the right material more difficult, a better understanding of the components and the strengths and weaknesses of each category of materials offers the opportunity to select the right material for the right situation.


Foreign body ingestion has serious consequences if left untreated. Impacted dentures for a prolonged period can lead to life-threatening complications. Therefore, prompt diagnosis and immediate intervention are lifesaving. Our patient presented to his local accident and emergency department after having swallowed his dentures during a meal. Initial investigations and workup detected no abnormalities and he was discharged back to the community. Twelve weeks following ingestion, he had developed dysphagia and weight loss which prompted an urgent referral for oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGD). This identified the dentures impacted within the upper oesophagus and initial attempts at removal were unsuccessful, therefore he required hospital admission for alternative feeding in the interim. A joint procedure with the Ear, Nose and Throat and upper gastrointestinal surgeons was carried out to successfully remove the dentures endoscopically. The patient made an immediate recovery, resuming his normal oral diet with appropriate follow up after discharge. It is suspected our patient had an impacted denture for a period of 12 weeks without sustaining any life-threatening complications, which makes this case rather unique. This case highlights the importance of thorough and careful clinical history taking and examination.


To study the relationship between Secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), Transforming growth factorβ1 (TGFβ1), Endoglin and angiogenesis in lung cancer, 40 cases of lung cancer specimens and 40 adjacent normal lung tissues specimens were collected and 10 cases from each were selected for preparation of tissue chip. CD34 (endothelial cell marker), Endoglin human α-Smooth muscle actin, and (α-SMA) markers were performed by immunohistochemical staining, and the immuno-phenotype and the relationship between different morphologies of the microvascular wall components were evaluated. The expression of SPARC mRNA and protein, TGFβ1 mRNA and protein and Endoglin in the remaining 30 cases of lung cancer were detected by immunohistochemistry and in-situ hybridization. The result shows that the positive rates of SPARC, TGFβ1 and Endoglin in lung cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal lung tissues (P less than 0.05). The expression of SPARC and TGFβ1 was negatively correlated with lung cancer. When the positive expression of SPARC increased, the micro-vessel density (MVD) marked by Endoglin decreased gradually; while the positive expression of TGFβ1 increased, MVD increased gradually, and SPARC, TGFβ1 and MVD were correlated (P less than0.05). High SPARC mRNA expression in lung cancer tissues could inhibit the progression of lung cancer, while high TGFβ1 mRNA expression can promote the progression of lung cancer and participate in the metastasis of lung cancer. To sum up, the angiogenesis of lung cancer may be related to the interaction of SPARC, TGFβ1 and Endoglin.


Expanded partnership with the medical community is an important strategy for reducing dental caries disparities. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between fluoride (F) "in office" (drops/tablets and/or varnish), as prescribed or applied by a health care professional by age 1 y, and 1) caries development and 2) presence of other caries risk factors or mediators (e.g., socioeconomic status). Child–primary caregiver (PCG) pairs (N = 1,325) were recruited in Indiana, Iowa, and North Carolina as part of a longitudinal cohort study to validate a caries risk tool for primary health care settings. PCGs completed a caries risk questionnaire, while children received caries examinations per the criteria of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System at ages 1, 2.5, and 4 y. Baseline responses regarding children's history of F in office were tested for association with other caries risk variables and caries experience at ages 2.5 and 4 y via generalized estimating equation models applied to logistic regression. The sample was 48% female, and many children (61%) were Medicaid enrolled. The prevalence of cavitated caries lesions increased from 7% at age 2.5 y to 25% by age 4 y. Children who received F in office were likely deemed at higher caries risk and indeed were significantly (P < 0.01) more likely to develop cavitated caries lesions by ages 2.5 and 4 y, even after F application (odds ratios: 3.5 and 2.3, respectively). Factors significantly associated with receiving F included the following: child being Medicaid enrolled, not having an employed adult in the household, child and PCG often consuming sugary drinks and snacks, and PCG having recent caries experience. Increased F in office from a health care provider by age 1 y was associated with known caries risk factors. Most (69%) children had never been to the dentist, suggesting that risk factors could be alerting medical providers and/or parents, thereby affecting in-office F recommendations. Differences among states could also be related to state-specific F-varnish reimbursement policies (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01707797).


Online news readers exhibit a very dynamic behavior. News publishers have been investigating ways to predict such changes in order to adjust their recommendation strategies and better engage the readers. Existing research focuses on analyzing the evolution of reading interests associated with news categories. Compared to these, we study also how relations among news interests change in time. Observations over a 10-month period on a German news publisher indicate that overall, the relations amid news categories change, but stable periods spanning months are also found. The reasons of these changes and how news publishers could integrate this knowledge in their solutions are subject to further investigation.


Objective: The objective in the study was to detect the intermediate trophoblastic cells and to differentiate the abortion from ectopic pregnancy by using immunohistochemical methods. Method: Four groups of patients were included in the study, and the archival materials of the patients were used for immunohistochemistry. Group 1 comprised of 10 patients who had miscarriages between the 5th and 12th weeks of gestation. There were 5 non pregnant patients in group 2. In group 3, there were 64 patients who had ectopic pregnancy between the 5th and 12th weeks of gestation. Group 4 comprised of 50 patients who were clinically suspected of miscarriage without chorionic villi, and cyto and syncytiotrophoblast. Results: All trophoblastic cells of chorionic villi showed strong positivity for sitokeratin in group 1 though this was not the condition in group 2 and 3. In group 4, however, 35 of 50 patients had intermediate trophoblast cells as detected by cytokeratin staining. Conclusion: The use of these hormone markers in endometrial specimens increases precision in the diagnosis of intrauterine versus ectopic pregnancy. Key words: Trophoblast, immunohistochemistry, ectopic pregnancy


Here we give our reply to the comment by Sibirtsev et al on our paper ``Mass and K-Lambda Coupling of the N*(1535).


Isolated fibre bundles from myotonic human skeletal muscle showed after-contractions and spontaneous mechanical activity. The K+ channel openers cromakalim (10-100 mumols/l) and EMD 52962 (1-10 mumols/l) completely suppressed these abnormalities in mechanical activity. Voltage-clamp experiments revealed that cromakalim (100 mumols/l) increased the membrane K+ conductance of isolated, non-myotonic human skeletal muscle fibres 4-fold; Cl- conductance was not altered. The data show that myotonia is suppressed by an increase in in membrane K+ conductance.


The disproportionation of H2O into solar fuels H2 and O2, or water splitting, is a promising strategy for clean energy harvesting and storage but requires the concerted action of absorption of photons, separation of excitons, charge diffusion to catalytic sites and catalysis of redox processes. It is increasingly evident that the rational design of photocatalysts for efficient water splitting must employ hybrid systems, where the different components perform light harvesting, charge separation and catalysis in tandem. In this topical review, we report on the recent development of a new class of hybrid photocatalysts that employs MxV2O5 (M = p-block cation) nanowires in order to engineer efficient charge transfer from the photoactive chalcogenide quantum dots (QDs) to the water-splitting and hydrogen evolving catalysts. Herein, we summarize the oxygen-mediated lone pair mechanism used to modulate the energy level and orbital character of mid-gap states in the MxV2O5 nanowires. The electronic structure of MxV2O5 is discussed in terms of density functional theory and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) measurements. The principles of HAXPES are explained within the context of its unique sensitivity to metal 5(6)s orbitals and ability to non-destructively study buried interface alignments of quantum dot decorated nanowires i.e., MxV2O5/CdX (X = S, Se, Te). We illustrate with examples how the MxV2O5/CdX band alignments can be rationally engineered for ultra-fast charge-transfer of photogenerated holes from the quantum dot to the nanowires; thereby suppressing anodic photo-corrosion in the CdX QDs and enabling efficacious hydrogen evolution.


We present results on parameterization of reactive force field [van Duin, A. C. T.; Dasgupta, S.; Lorant, F.; Goddard, W. A. ReaxFF: A Reactive Force Field for Hydrocarbons. J. Phys. Chem. A 2001, 105, 9396-9409] for investigating the properties of the [Nb6O19Hx]((8-x)-) Lindqvist polyoxoanion, x = 0-8, in water. Force-field parameters were fitted to an extensive data set consisting of structures and energetics obtained at the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof density functional level of theory. These parameters can reasonably describe pure water structure as well as water with an excess of H(+) and OH(-) ions. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed on [Nb6O19Hx]((8-x)-), x = 0-8, submerged in bulk water at 298 K. Analysis of the MD trajectories showed facile H atom transfer between the protonated polyoxoanion core and bulk water. The number of oxygen sites labeled with an H atom was found to vary depending on the pH of the solution. Detailed analysis shows that the total number of protons at bridging (terminal), η-O (μ2-O), sites ranges from 3(1) at pH 7, to 2(0) at pH 11, to 1(0) at pH 15. These findings closely reflect available experimental measurements.


The research focuses on identifying factors forming the image of the city among international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Although there are many researches related to INGOs, most of the researches are about areas needing support or the policies for INGOs working in the country. The thesis brings a new perspective on studies related to INGOs, which is the formation of the city image in the eyes of INGOs. Since there is a lack of literature in the research orientation, theories of marketing, branding, destination image, and marketing for attracting FDI were borrowed to form a theoretical background for the study. In the research, INGOs are considered a market segment which needs to be paid attention to and get insight from. Understanding what forms the image of the city among INGOs and what the current city image is are the two among the thesis's purposes. The research applied the qualitative approach to explore the factors forming the city image. The results are the proposed framework of factors forming the image and the perceptual and affective image attributes of the city. The city image consists of perceptual and affective components. The perceptual component is mainly about the evaluation of natural feature, infrastructure and the cooperation between INGOs and local partners. The affective component is formed based on the evaluation and is how INGOs feel about the city. Factors affecting the formation are the field of operation, and previous experience when working at the city. The city image is positive in both i i perceptual and affective aspects. The research results also show the limitations in the cooperation with local partners, local government, and the reliability of the information sources for INGOs. The areas need to be improved is the skills of front-line government staff, and the information system supporting the work of INGOs. Keywords: International Non-Governmental Organization; Place Marketing; City Image; Destination Image; City Marketing; City Branding; Non-profit marketing