This paper describes the realization of a dynamically reconfigurable logic LSI based on a novel parallel computer architecture. The key point of the architecture is its dual-structured cell array to enable dynamic and autonomous reconfiguration of the logic circuit. The LSI was completed with successful introduction of two specific features: fully asynchronous logic circuits and homogeneous structure using only LUTs.


We construct exactly solvable models with arbitrary filling for any number of dimensions in which an excitonic phase arises. The ground-state and thermodynamic properties are investigated. There is a parameter region in the ground-state phase diagrams where an excitonic phase is sandwiched between an insulating phase and a semimetallic phase.


A firm's sustainable performance is a burgeoning issue globally. It is the strategic choice of the firm whether it should invest in its human resources. This study examines the role of human capital management in determining firm performance. HR competencies, HR practices, HR systems, and HR deliverables were selected as the dimensions of human capital management. Employee satisfaction was the mediating variable. Data were collected from a survey of conveniently selected 305 employees of purposively selected life insurance companies in Nepal. The results of the study revealed a positive significant impact of each component of human capital management and overall human capital management on firm performance, concluding that investment in human capital management is the strategic alignment rather than the liability. Firms investing more in human capital enhance their financial performance for sustainable growth. This study contributes to elaborating the resource-based view for creating dynamic capability of resources from effective development and mobilization of human resources.


Inferior local tubers such as lesser yam, wild yam and arrowroot contain bioactive compounds such as phenols and diosgenin which act as antioxidants.  Antioxidant activities in the processed of local tubers have not been reported. The aim of this research was to identify the antioxidant activity of local tubers (inferior) that has been processed through the process of steaming, frying and milling to be flour. The determination of antioxidant activity was performed using α, α, Diphenyl Picryl Hydrazil (DPPH), which is indicated as a percentage of the apprehension of radical activities by the amount of absorbance at 680 nm. The antioxidant activity of lesser yam steamed, fried and milled were 2.26 %, 0.84 %, and 3.34 % respectively. The antioxidant activity of steamed, fried and milled arrowroot were 1.44 %, 0.65 %, and 1.32 % respectively. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of steamed, fried and milled wild yam were 1.08 %, 0.08 %, and 0.82 % respectively. The antioxidant activity of inferior local tubers have decreased in different types of processing. The highest antioxidant activity was in the milled tubers followed by steamed and fried tuber.


We present the R package staRVe for analyzing spatio-temporal point-referenced data in a hierarchical generalized linear mixed model framework. Our package is designed to be easy-to-use and computationally efficient for model fitting, covariate effect estimation, prediction, and model validation. Existing workflows can easily take advantage of our package, since data input and output uses the sf and raster data formats. We develop an understanding of the model through simulation, and work through a typical analysis using a case study of Carolina wren abundance.


OBJECTIVE
Closed pleural biopsy is done to determine causes of pleural effusion after fluid analysis has been nondiagnostic. The aim of the study was to evaluate results of closed pleural biopsy in Iceland.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
All pathology reports of closed pleural biopsy from 1990-1999 at the Department of Pathology were reviewed. Hospital records for these patients were screened.

RESULTS
There were 130 samples from 120 individuals. There were 74 males and 46 females. Deceased are 75/120. The most common diagnosis was pleuritis or fibrosis in 85/120, cancer in 15 and three had tuberculosis but 17/120 had other results. The sensitivity of a closed pleural biopsy for diagnosing cancer was 27%. Adding cytology increased the sensitivity to 56%. Of those that had pleuritis on initial biopsy the cause was found to be cancer in 33/85, pneumonia in 11, trauma in 5 and in 8 there were other causes. In 25/85 no etiology could be found. By doing further studies it was demonstrated that the cause for the fluid was malignancy in 55/120. Of those most had lung cancer or 24/55, and the second most common cause was breast cancer in 7. Despite further studies no cause was found in 32/85.

CONCLUSIONS
Closed pleural biopsy has fairly low sensitivity for diagnosis of cancer but it can be increased by adding cytologic evaluation. It is necessary to do further investigations and follow-up in patients that have inflammation in pleural biopsy.


Using a unique dataset detailing laws on access to contraception (pill, IUD, sterilization) combined with the Demographic and Health Surveys of 21 sub- Saharan African countries, we examine the effect of these laws on contraceptive use. We find that countries with more liberal contraceptive laws had higher rates of contraceptive use. We consider colonial origin, as French colonies had stricter contraceptive laws than British colonies at the time of independence. There is a legacy of the laws at the time of independence in the current laws, and presently former French colonies have stricter laws than the former British colonies. We find that the effect size of a contemporaneous liberalization of contraceptive laws is statistically smaller in former French colonies. The legacy of the stricter legal environment in the former French colonies resonates to affect contraceptive uptake today.


Software Effort Estimation (SEE) may suffer from changes in the relationship between features describing software projects and their required effort over time, hindering predictive performance of machine learning models. To cope with that, most machine learning-based SEE approaches rely on receiving a large number of Within-Company (WC) projects for training over time, being prohibitively expensive. The approach Dycom reduces the number of required WC training projects by transferring knowledge from Cross-Company (CC) projects. However, it assumes that CC projects have no chronology and are entirely available before WC projects start being estimated. Given the importance of taking chronology into account to cope with changes, it may be beneficial to also take the chronology of CC projects into account. This paper thus investigates whether and under what circumstances treating CC projects as multiple data streams to be learned over time may be useful for improving SEE. For that, an extension of Dycom called OATES is proposed to enable multi-stream online learning, so that both incoming WC and CC data streams can be learnt over time. OATES is then compared against Dycom and five other approaches on a case study using four different scenarios derived from the ISBSG Repository. The results show that OATES improved predictive performance over the state-of-the-art when the number of CC projects available beforehand was small. Learning CC projects over time as multiple data streams is thus recommended for improving SEE in such scenario. When the number of CC projects available beforehand was large, OATES obtained similar predictive performance to the state-of-the-art. Therefore, CC data streams are unnecessary in this scenario, but are not detrimental either.


ABSTRACT Temporality and changeability are here considered vital characteristics of rock art, expressed through shifting light and moving bodies. Demonstrating deliberate use of non-quantifiable elements such as light is challenging. Nevertheless, there are rock art sites where its importance is apparent. For example, the results of a 3D scan of the site Hammer IX in Central Norway show how the same lines make out both an elk head and a whale. Whereas in Vingen in Western Norway, 77 panels positioned across a scree slope, non-corporeal elements appear to be as important as the motifs. Approaching rock art in a non-representational framework, we consider the involvement of intangible elements as part of the constant knowledge production and shaping of realities at sites. This is the point of departure for our discussion of the making and use of rock art as a meaning-making and storytelling practice in Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Norway.


Space Debris: the space garbage problem The dramatic growth in space activities since 1957 has generated a large amount of "in-orbit garbage", namely space-debris. Many of these are potentially dangerous for space vehicles and/or for the people on Earth. In an acceptable space security framework, a major role is reserved to cooperative space debris monitoring in order to prevent and to mitigate the effects of the problem.


Castrated Lithobius forficatus L. showed increased activity of the cerebral glands which are cephalic neurohemal organs exerting a role in spermatocyte and oocyte growth. This glandular hyperactivity is characterized by higher activity of the Golgi apparatus. The reaction, although comparable in both sexes, is apparently more pronounced after ovariectomy. About 50 days after castration glandular cells showed signs of injury while their activity remained similar or somewhat lower in comparison with controls. It is suggested that the glandular hyperactivity arises from the cessation of negative feedback signals from the gonads. The genital glands could act either directly or indirectly via the brain.


Abstract: To explore the possibility that peroxtdative degradation of brain tissue lipid constituents is an important mechanism of irreversible ischemic damage, we measured cortical fatty acids and phospholipids during reversible brain ischemia in the rat. Neither complete nor severe incomplete ischemia (5 and 30 min) caused any measurable breakdown of total or individual fatty acids or phospholipids. Except for a small (and reversible) decrease of inositol plus serine phosphoglycerides in the early postischemic period following 30 min of incomplete ischemia, there were no significant losses of fatty acids or phospholipids during recirculation. Since peroxidation, induced in brain cortical tissue in vitro, characteristically involves degradation of polyenoic fatty acids (arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids) and of ethanolamine phosphoglycerides, the present in vivo results fail to support the hypothesis that peroxidation of membrane lipids is of primary importance for ischemic brain cell damage. Both complete and severe incomplete ischemia caused a similar increase in the tissue content of free fatty acids (FFA). Thus the FFA pool increased by about 10 times during a 30‐min ischemic period, to constitute 1 ‐ 2% of the total fatty acid pool. Since there was a relatively larger increase in polyenoic FFA (especially in arachidonic acid) than in saturated FFA, the release of FFA may be the result of activation of a phospholipase A2 unbalanced by reesterification. Increased levels of FFA persisted during the initial recirculation period, but a gradual normalization occurred and the ischemic changes were essentially reversed at 30 min after restoration of circulation. The pathophysiological implications of the changes in FFA are discussed with respect to mitochondrial dysfunction, formation of cellular edema and prostaglandin‐mediated deterioration of postischemic circulation.


Abstract The Solvency II Directive introduces the idea of a formal Actuarial Function to have responsibility over delivering the requirements of Article 48 of the Directive. Article 48 describes the responsibilities as being concerned with technical provisions, an opinion on reinsurance adequacy, an opinion on underwriting policy and contributing to the risk management system. Considerable documentation has been produced by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority on the subject, much of it very recent to the publication of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with some practical insights and suggestions around addressing the requirements of Article 48 of the Solvency II Directive in general insurance firms, taking into consideration the publications of the aforementioned regulatory authorities. It is not our intention to give advice, nor to be seen to give advice, but rather to make suggestions and observations that we hope the reader will find useful. The Regulations lay down the tasks of the Actuarial Function, so insurers should consider the need for formal terms of reference, backed up by proportionate governance procedures. The Regulations also require the production of an Actuarial Function Report to document the tasks undertaken by the Actuarial Function and its results. Such a report can be an aggregate report, made up of individual component reports completed at suitable points in the Actuarial Function's work cycle, so long as it reports on all the required tasks. The technical provisions section should cover at least all the areas laid down in the Delegated Acts. The opinions required covering reinsurance adequacy and underwriting policy are not formal "sign offs", but contributions to the effective running of the insurer by applying the skills and knowledge of actuaries to areas for which they are not normally responsible. Again, the Delegated Acts mandate the minimum contribution the Actuarial Function should make. The responsibility for delivering the work of the Actuarial Function does not have to be given to a member of the IFoA; however, the PRA is going to require (at least) one person to be designated the "Chief Actuary", defined as the person responsible for delivering the requirements of Article 48 of the Directive. In response, the IFoA has stated its intention to require its members holding the role of Chief Actuary, as defined by the PRA, to hold a practicing certificate. Any Actuarial Function will need to consider issues of governance, independence and conflicts of interests. The PRA intends to require the Actuarial Function to be independent of an insurer's revenue-generating functions. In addition, normal good governance requires a degree of separation between those who perform Actuarial Function work and those who review and supervise it. There are numerous stakeholders in the Actuarial Function's work. Some of these will rely on the output of the Actuarial Function, others will provide inputs to its work. Setting out stakeholder responsibilities clearly and in advance will be of vital importance. Good communication and coordination between these groups will be important to the efficient running of the insurer. Bringing together issues of governance, independence and meeting the Directive and regulators' requirements will require a suitable organisational structure which will also need to consider practical issues, such as the availability of suitable staff. Many such arrangements may be possible, but all will require trading off advantages and disadvantages. The Actuarial Function is primarily about good practice and getting the most out of the actuarial skills available. For many insurers, meeting the requirements should not be unduly burdensome.


enclosing small areas of extravasated blood: scanty, small round cell infiltration of the vein wall and little or no endothelial cell invasion of clot, which lay unattached in the lumen of a vein killed by destruction of its nutrient vessels-a viper-venom effect. I could scarce conclude but that " successful " injection must destroy nutrient vessels, necrose veins, produce an unanchored clot and clinically a soft, rather painless thrombophlebitis-a success fraught with danger to the patient. Fatal accident after injection has been rare, because with injection alone necrosis of the vein occurs only in the smaller superficial veins, and that rarely. It is not disputed that injection sometimes has a chain effect-the consequent thrombophlebitis spreading with unexpected speed and violence-and even restarting with new severity after apparent cessation: that ligation and its consequent venous stasis may magnify very greatly the inflaming, thrombosing effect of injection-nor disputable that, should it occur, a deep thrombosed vein of which the necrosed wall cannot send anchoring cells into its contained clot would constitute a lively danger to its carrier. We can all agree with Mr. Wickham Lawes that " we knew beforehand that the blood goes from the superficial to the deep veins, and the position of the main communicating veins has been known for a long time. . . Massive doses of strong sclerosants should be abandoned." With great respect, I suggest to him that should he, as ally to his phlebographic studies, take advantage (as I have done) of the frequent occurrence of varicose veins in both legs of the same patient to perform ligations and injections (retrograde or otherwise) in one leg and ligations only in the other leg (what better control could there be ?), he will-I am confident of it-find that his injections of " minimal amounts of minimal strength " have had no effect other than to give extra pain and a longer convalescence. Success will be found to depend only on the number and sites of his "ligations."


Exciton-polaritons, two-dimensional composite bosons arising from the quantum mixture of excitons and photons, can manifest many-body quantum effects at liquid He temperatures (4 K). Interestingly, polaritons are predicted to behave as particular quantum fluids due to their out of equilibrium character, arising from their reduced lifetime (shorter than their thermalization time). Here we report the observation of superfluid motion of polaritons in semiconductor microcavities both under cw and pulsed excitation. Among other signatures, superfluidity is manifested via the absence of scattering of the polariton condensates when encountering a localized defect in their flow path.


After long time of exploration and hard work, most countries in the world form their own systems of primary health care to a certain extent with primary health care providers having different features. Combined with specific national conditions of our country, generalized definition of the primary health care providers should include relevant government employees participating in provision of primary health care and health workers, and narrow definition of primary health care providers includes rural and urban basic health service providers. Rural primary health care work is mainly composed of towns and townships, rural community health service centers and village health posts, health management and health technical personnel. The level of primary health care provider is mainly come from the community health service center, health management and health technical personnel. Therefore, the training for primary health care providers should focus on the basic health workers.


Abstract. Using data of the ionosonde in Sodankyla, (SOD, 67° N, 27° E, Finland), parameters of variations of foF2 critical frequency in the Pc5/Pi3 (1–5 mHz) frequency range are studied. For that, a technique of automatic detection of critical frequency from an ionogram is developed. The variations of foF2 are compared with the Pc5/Pi3 geomagnetic pulsations on the ground and in the magnetosphere. The variations of foF2 are in the majority of cases decoupled from the Pc5/Pi3 on the ground. Meanwhile, the analysis of geomagnetic and foF2 variations at SOD show intervals with noticeable coherence for both horizontal components. These coherent pulsations are predominantly registered in the afternoon MLT sector. Statistically, their spectral content, polarization and spatial distribution differs from those of background variations. Coherent pulsation tend to occur under moderate geomagnetic and auroral activity, SW speed, and dynamic pressure fluctuations. The fraction of coherent geomagnetic and foF2 pulsations is higher for the geomagnetic pulsations registered in the magnetosphere, than on the ground.


With economic inequality on the rise in Canada, the federal government needs to consider innovative solutions. One possibility for improving the tax-transfer system involves refundable tax credits (RTCs). Making all tax credits refundable wouldn't require Ottawa to introduce new tax measures; the Canadian tax system already contains a mix of RTCs and NRTCs, so the government could simply continue its practice of designing tax credit programs to be refundable. Using Statistics Canada's Social Policy Simulation Database and Model, this paper examines the impacts and cost of converting NRTCs to RTCs, with and without an income exemption equal to 25 percent of the before-tax lowincome standard for a census family, the Census Family Low-Income Line. Under the Option Without Exemption (OW/OE), RTC recipients are taxed at a single rate of 15 percent, regardless of family size, right up to the Line. Under the Option With Exemption (OWE), RTC recipients are taxed at zero percent up to 25 percent of the Line and at a single rate of 20 percent, regardless of family size, up to 100 percent of the Line. The incremental cost of switching NRTCs to RTCs under the OW/OE is $6.6 billion, as additional benefits are provided to 6.4 million families — slightly less than 37 percent of all families. The cost of the OWE is $7.2 billion, as benefits flow to slightly more families — 6.45 million. However, the percentage of benefits reaching low-income families is much higher under the OWE (69 percent vs. 49 percent). Additionally, the OWE provides an average of nine percent more RTC benefits to low-income tax filers, making it clearly the superior option for poverty reduction. Moreover, the paper shows that alternative conversion schemes that set benefit reduction rates to differ by family size can further increase the benefits to low-income families at a lower overall cost. Such changes would elicit a labour-supply response in terms of a reduction in hours worked, and while the effect is smaller under the less expensive OW/OE, the difference between the two options is slight. This paper simulates the conversion of NRTCs to RTCs in comprehensive detail, besides providing practical advice on how such a shift would be funded. It offers valuable food for thought on an issue that is increasingly critical to Canadian society.


Candida auris is a multidrug-resistant yeast which has emerged in health care facilities worldwide; however, little is known about identification methods, patient colonization, environmental survival, spread, and drug resistance. Colonization on both biotic (patients) and abiotic (health care objects) surfaces, along with travel, appear to be the major factors for the spread of this pathogen across the globe. In this investigation, we present laboratory findings from an ongoing C. auris outbreak in New York (NY) from August 2016 through 2018. ABSTRACT Candida auris is a multidrug-resistant yeast which has emerged in health care facilities worldwide; however, little is known about identification methods, patient colonization, environmental survival, spread, and drug resistance. Colonization on both biotic (patients) and abiotic (health care objects) surfaces, along with travel, appear to be the major factors for the spread of this pathogen across the globe. In this investigation, we present laboratory findings from an ongoing C. auris outbreak in New York (NY) from August 2016 through 2018. A total of 540 clinical isolates, 11,035 patient surveillance specimens, and 3,672 environmental surveillance samples were analyzed. Laboratory methods included matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for yeast isolate identification, real-time PCR for rapid surveillance sample screening, culture on selective/nonselective media for recovery of C. auris and other yeasts from surveillance samples, antifungal susceptibility testing to determine the C. auris resistance profile, and Sanger sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and D1/D2 regions of the ribosomal gene for C. auris genotyping. Results included (a) identification and confirmation of C. auris in 413 clinical isolates and 931 patient surveillance isolates as well as identification of 277 clinical cases and 350 colonized cases from 151 health care facilities, including 59 hospitals, 92 nursing homes, 1 long-term acute care hospital (LTACH), and 2 hospices, (b) successful utilization of an in-house developed C. auris real-time PCR assay for the rapid screening of patient and environmental surveillance samples, (c) demonstration of relatively heavier colonization of C. auris in nares than in the axilla/groin, and (d) predominance of the South Asia clade I with intrinsic resistance to fluconazole and elevated MIC to voriconazole (81%), amphotericin B (61%), flucytosine (5FC) (3%), and echinocandins (1%). These findings reflect greater regional prevalence and incidence of C. auris and the deployment of better detection tools in an unprecedented outbreak.


Mineral exploration under a thick sedimentary cover naturally relies on geophysical methods. We have used high-resolution airborne magnetic and gravity gradient data over northeast Iowa to characterize the geology of the concealed Precambrian rocks and evaluate the prospectivity of mineral deposits. Previous researchers have interpreted the magnetic and gravity gradient data in the form of a 2D geologic map of the Precambrian basement rocks, which provides important geophysical constraints on the geologic history and mineral potentials over the Decorah area located in the northeast of Iowa. However, their interpretations are based on 2D data maps and are limited to the two horizontal dimensions. To fully tap into the rich information contained in the high-resolution airborne geophysical data, and to further our understanding of the undercover geology, we have performed separate and joint inversions of magnetic and gravity gradient data to obtain 3D density contrast models and 3D susceptibility models, based on which we carried out geology differentiation. Based on separately inverted physical property values, we have identified 10 geologic units and their spatial distributions in 3D which are all summarized in a 3D quasi-geology model. The extension of 2D geologic interpretation to 3D allows for the discovery of four previously unidentified geologic units, a more detailed classification of the Yavapai country rock, and the identification of the highly anomalous core of the mafic intrusions. Joint inversion allows for the classification of a few geologic units further into several subclasses. We have demonstrated the added value of the construction of a 3D quasi-geology model based on 3D separate and joint inversions.


Developing dialogue systems is a complex process. In particular, designing efficient dialogue management strategies is often difficult as there are no precise guidelines to develop them and no sure test to validate them. Several suggestions have been made recently to use reinforcement learning to search for the optimal management strategy for specific dialogue situations. These approaches have produced interesting results, including applications involving real world dialogue systems. However, reinforcement learning suffers from the fact that it is state based. In other words, the optimal strategy is expressed as a decision table specifying which action to take in each specific state. It is therefore difficult to see whether there is any generality across states. This limits the analysis of the optimal strategy and its potential for re-use in other dialogue situations. In this paper we tackle this problem by learning rules that generalize the state-based strategy. These rules are more readable than the underlying strategy and therefore easier to explain and re-use. We also investigate the capability of these rules in directing the search for the optimal strategy by looking for generalization whilst the search proceeds.


Barchan dunes are crescentic shape dunes with horns pointing downstream. The present paper reports the formation of subaqueous barchan dunes from initially conical heaps in a rectangular channel. Because the most unique feature of a barchan dune is its horns, we associate the time scale for the appearance of horns to the formation of a barchan dune. A granular heap initially conical was placed on the bottom wall of a closed conduit and it was entrained by a water flow in turbulent regime. After a certain time, horns appear and grow, until an equilibrium length is reached. Our results show the existence of the time scales 0.5t_{c} and 2.5t_{c} for the appearance and equilibrium of horns, respectively, where t_{c} is a characteristic time that scales with the grains diameter, gravity acceleration, densities of the fluid and grains, and shear and threshold velocities.


Essential oils (EOs) are widely used in various industrial sectors but can present several instability problems when exposed to environmental factors. Encapsulation technologies are effective solutions to improve EOs properties and stability. Currently, the encapsulation in lipid nanoparticles has received significant attention, due to the several recognized advantages over conventional systems. The study aimed to investigate the influence of the lipid matrix composition and spray-drying process on the physicochemical properties of the lipid-based nanoparticles loaded with Lippia sidoides EO and their retention efficiency for the oil. The obtained spray-dried products were characterized by determination of flow properties (Carr Index: from 25.0% to 47.93%, and Hausner ratio: from 1.25 to 1.38), moisture (from 3.78% to 5.20%), water activity (<0.5), and powder morphology. Zeta potential, mean particle size and polydispersity index, of the redispersed dried product, fell between −25.9 mV and −30.9 mV, 525.3 nm and 1143 nm, and 0.425 and 0.652, respectively; showing slight differences with the results obtained prior to spray-drying (from −16.4 mV to −31.6 mV; 147 nm to 1531 nm; and 0.459 to 0.729). Thymol retention in the dried products was significantly lower than the values determined for the liquid formulations and was affected by the drying of nanoparticles.


There are many engineering simulations and scientific computing applications where large linear system of equations is to be solved. With the generous development in scientific computing the use of large linear system of equations also increases. There are many solvers for solving these equations. Jacobi is one of the important solvers for solving linear system of equations. Jacobi method is more efficient when implemented in a pipelined manner in an FPGA and it also shows more parallelism in this paper hardware based implementation of Jacobi solver is discussed .The main idea of Jacobi to obtain preference is its computation that can be trivially done in parallel.


The composition and structure of iron-nickel alloys in the Santa Catharina iron meteorite were investigated by metallographic techniques, electron microprobe analysis, Mossbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The occurrence of an ordered Fe-Ni phase with non-cubic symmetry is demonstrated. This phase is present in large proportions in the Santa Catharina meteorite, and has been identified by its asymmetric Mossbauer spectrum, arising from the presence of a quadrupolar splitting superposed on the magnetic hyperfine splitting. The other major Fe-Ni phase in Santa Catharina gives rise to a single line Mossbauer spectrum with no hyperfine components. X-ray diffraction confirms the presence of the Fe-Ni Llo superstructure in this meteorite. Lattice parameter variations with temperature were found to be identical for the meteorite and for electron irradiated Fe-Ni alloys of the sample composition. Detailed Mossbauer spectroscopy studies from room temperature to liquid helium, and in the presence of external magnetic field show the presence of a smaller amount of another ferromagnetic Fe-Ni phase, probably with disordered structure. The destruction of the superstructure in the Santa Catharina meteorite was investigated after heating the samples. Partial ordering seems to coexist with the disordered phase at intermediate annealing temperatures. At higher temperatures the samples are homogenous and similar to laboratory produced Fe-Ni alloys with 35% Ni. Order-disorder transformations produced by shock waves and by mechanical treatment are also described.


A rapid and accurate procedure for electron microscopy of individual cells from suspensions (blood, peritoneal exudate, etc.) is described. After fixation of the sample with standard techniques, the particulate constituents are suspended in buffered 5% bovine serum albumin, thin-layered by gravity on clear supports (cover glasses or polyester slips) in which an orientation grid had been scored, and then immobilized by exposure of the preparations to acrolein vapors. The specimens are examined for cells of interest under a light microscope using interference or phase contrast; individual cells to be sectioned are documented in three photomicrographs taken at different magnifications. After this the specimens are embedded like ordinary cover slip preparations. When examining the face of the polymerized block under a light microscope, the position of the selected cell beneath the orientation grid relief can readily be relocated by the aid of the pre-embedding reference micrographs.


Reasoning under uncertainty is a unique capability of human beings. Reasoning under uncertainty in AI is concerned with automated reasoning using contradicting or inconsistent information. That requires using more expressive forms of logic like higher-order logic, or using numeric representations for uncertainty like Bayesian Networks (BN), or Cost-Based Abduction (CBA). Abduction is ?Inference to the best explanation? which may result in many explanations. CBA is an important AI formalism for representing knowledge under uncertainty to enable us to choose among those explanations. In CBA, the data to be explained is treated as a goal that is necessarily true, and it is to be proven through a set of assumable hypotheses. The optimal solution for a given CBA instance, which is the best explanation, is the one associated with the Least Cost Proof (LCP). Finding LCP for a given CBA system is NP-Hard. Current methods suffer from exponential complexity, in the worst case. This book, therefore, provides a novel scalable and noise tolerant method using High Order Recurrent Neural Network (HORN) to solve CBA. Our work shows that HORN is a very promising method for solving NP-Hard problems.


Endomorphin-1 and -2, putative endogenous ligands for the mu-opioid receptor, inhibited acetylcholine (ACh) release evoked by electrical field stimulation (EFS) at 1 Hz, which partially activates muscarinic autoreceptors, but not at 10 Hz, which fully activates muscarinic autoreceptors, in longitudinal muscle with the myenteric plexus (LMMP) preparations of guinea pig ileum. After blockade of autoinhibition by atropine, the peptides also inhibited EFS-evoked ACh release at 10 Hz. The inhibitory effects on ACh release were abolished by the mu-opioid antagonist cyprodime. These results suggest that endomorphin-1 and -2 inhibit ACh release from LMMP preparations of guinea pig ileum and that the mechanism of the inhibition must have a component in common with muscarinic autoinhibition.


A two-level decentralized control structure is formulated for large scale interconnected subsystems controlled by N decision makers. Chained aggregation is used to decompose the overall team problem with a decentralized information structure into (N+1) sub-problems: one low order team problem with a centralized information structure and N decentralized optimal control problems. Accordingly, the control of each decision maker is decomposed into three components: a decoupling control which induces aggregation, a local control which controls the subsystem dynamics, and an aggregate control which controls the dynamics of the interconnection variables. The robustness of this composite control with respect to perturbations in the system dynamics and the cost functional is established.


Considerable attention has been paid during recent years to the study of the intestinal flora of the breast-fed and the artificially fed infant. In general, investigators are agreed that the predominating intestinal organisms of the breast-fed infant are gram-positive, mostlyB. bifidus, whereas in the artificially fed infant a greater variety of bacteria are present, most conspicuous of which are those of the colon-aerogenes group. Authors agree, also, that the bacteria of the meconium are of various kinds but that with the disappearance of the meconium stool, the flora merges into that of the typical bifidus-predominating type. Much of the information has been derived from direct smears, from sediments from fermentation tubes inoculated with fecal material and from other cultural methods. The original object of the present study was to determine what differences, if any, might be found in the intestinal flora as the result of different kinds of artificial


abstract:Based on archival research, this article presents a succinct history of the street theater movement in China through the 1930s. It examines how complex discourses and competing visions, as well as historical events and practices—in particular the War of Resistance against Japan—both shaped and propelled the movement. The author focuses on theoretical and practical issues that promoters and practitioners of street theater dealt with and reflected on in three succeeding stages. Observing that the street theater movement hastened the formation of a modern national imagination, the author argues that the movement presented a paradigmatic development as it foregrounded the imperative to engage rural China as well as the need for participants to acquire new subject positions.


Tensions between farmers, government and society have recently been running high in the Netherlands. Dutch farmers are furious with the national government because of the ever-stricter nitrogen policy that is supposed to save nature in the Netherlands, in line with European directives. The current plan states that nitrogen emissions need to be reduced by 50% in 2030. The disagreement over how to tackle the nitrogen issue in the Netherlands is a deeply rooted conflict that goes back decades. In this political commentary, we analyse the conflict and argue that the solutions proposed in the public and political debate tend to ignore the systemic nature of the problem. We suggest that it is important to work towards innovation in the rules and arrangements that govern agricultural value chains to create a more conducive and enabling environment for the regional initiatives that have emerged in response to the current crisis, several of which challenge the currently dominant food system.


Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) permeates a variety of diseases and is a ubiquitous concern in every transplantation proceeding, from whole organs to modest grafts. Given its significance, efforts to evade the damaging effects of both ischemia and reperfusion are abundant in the literature and they consist of several strategies, such as applying pre-ischemic conditioning protocols, improving protection from preservation solutions, thus providing extended cold ischemia time and so on. In this review, we describe many of the latest pharmacological approaches that have been proven effective against IRI, while also revisiting well-established concepts and presenting recent pathophysiological findings in this ever-expanding field. A plethora of promising protocols has emerged in the last few years. They have been showing exciting results regarding protection against IRI by employing drugs that engage several strategies, such as modulating cell-surviving pathways, evading oxidative damage, physically protecting cell membrane integrity, and enhancing cell energetics.


Organisations invest enormous amount of resources in acquiring Enterprise Systems (ES), presumably expecting positive impacts to the organisation and its functions. Despite the optimistic motives, some ES projects have reported nil or detrimental impacts. This paper studies the proposition that the perspective of the stakeholders of an organisation may have contributed to the differences in receiving benefits reported in prior studies in this domain. An Enterprise System, unlike a traditional Information System (IS), entails many stakeholders ranging from top executives to data entry operators. These stakeholders (a.k.a employment cohorts) typically have multiple and often conflicting objectives and priorities and rarely agree on a set of common aims. The importance of gathering perceptions of success at multiple levels in organizations has been discussed among academics for several decades. However, there is no universal agreement on what employment cohorts should be canvassed (i.e. which are the distinctive employment cohorts?). This paper seeks to illustrate the importance of multiple stakeholder perspective in assessing ES success by analysing 456 responses gathered from 27 public sector organizations. The alleged differences in perceptions of organisational performance are empirically measured using a prior validated model, employing four constructs and thirty-seven measures. The paper identifies three key stakeholder groups in the context of ES and highlights the importance of measuring ES success from a multiple stakeholder view point.


Abstract. Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) play an important role in the manufacturing of electronic devices. To ensure a correct function of the PCBs a certain amount of solder paste is needed during the placement of components. The aim of the current research is to develop an real-time, closed-loop solution for the analysis of the printing process where solder is printed onto PCBs. Close range photogrammetry allows for determination of the solder volume and a subsequent correction if necessary. Photogrammetry is an image based method for three dimensional reconstruction from two dimensional image data of an object. A precise camera calibration is indispensable for an accurate reconstruction. In our certain application it is not possible to use calibration methods with two dimensional calibration targets. Therefore a special calibration target was developed and manufactured, which allows for single image camera calibration.


The increasing popularity of virtual reality (VR) in a wide spectrum of applications has generated sensitive personal data such as medical records and credit card information. While protecting such data from unauthorized access is critical, directly applying traditional authentication methods (e.g., PIN) through new VR input modalities such as remote controllers and head navigation would cause security issues. The authentication action can be purposefully observed by attackers to infer the authentication input. Unlike any other mobile devices, VR presents immersive experience via a head-mounted display (HMD) that fully covers users' eye area without public exposure. Leveraging this feature, we explore human visual system (HVS) as a novel biometric authentication tailored for VR platforms. While previous works used eye globe movement (gaze) to authenticate smartphones or PCs, they suffer from a high error rate and low stability since eye gaze is highly dependent on cognitive states. In this paper, we explore the HVS as a whole to consider not just the eye globe movement but also the eyelid, extraocular muscles, cells, and surrounding nerves in the HVS. Exploring HVS biostructure and unique HVS features triggered by immersive VR content can enhance authentication stability. To this end, we present OcuLock, an HVS-based system for reliable and unobservable VR HMD authentication. OcuLock is empowered by an electrooculography (EOG) based HVS sensing framework and a record-comparison driven authentication scheme. Experiments through 70 subjects show that OcuLock is resistant against common types of attacks such as impersonation attack and statistical attack with Equal Error Rates as low as 3.55% and 4.97% respectively. More importantly, OcuLock maintains a stable performance over a 2month period and is preferred by users when compared to other potential approaches.


It is known that evapotranspiration (ET) differs before and after vegetation change in watersheds. However, impacts of vegetation change on ET remain incompletely understood. In this paper, we investigated the process-specific, nonclimatic contribution (mainly vegetation coverage changes) to ET at grid, sub-basin, and basin scales using observation and remote sensing data. The Poyang Lake Basin was selected as the study area, which experienced a fast vegetation restoration from 1983 to 2014. Our results showed that vegetation cover change produced contrasting effects on annual ET in magnitude and direction during shifts from a less covered to a more covered stage. At the early stage (1983–1990), with vegetation cover of 30%, vegetation cover change produced negative effects on ET over the basin. At the middle stage (1990–2000), the vegetation coverage increased at a fast pace and the negative effects gradually shifted to positive. At the late stage (2000–2014), the vegetation coverage remained high (over 60%) and maintained a positive relationship with ET. In summary, the vegetation effects are collaboratively influenced by both vegetation coverage and its change rate. Our findings should be helpful for a comprehensive understanding of complicated hydrological responses to anthropogenic revegetation.


The readership of the International Journal of Stroke may be interested to know that stroke is a major neurological problem and a leading cause of disability in the elderly in Nigeria. Community reintegration has been studied in stroke in some countries (1). Apart from studies on functional outcome (2) and quality of life (3) there has been to the best of our knowledge, no study on community reintegration of stroke survivors in Nigeria. The participants in the study that we conducted were 64 community-dwelling stroke survivors recruited in the outpatients' physiotherapy clinics of four selected hospitals in the southwest of Nigeria. The main outcome measure for this study was the Reintegration to Normal Living Index (RNLI). functional ambulation categories was used to assess the walking ability. Forty-eight participants (75%) had mild to moderate deficit (i.e., RNLI scores of 60–99) and 16 participants (25%) had severe deficits (i.e., RNLI scores o60). The mean RNLI score was 63 8714 3. Generally, all the community-dwelling stroke survivors were not fully satisfied with their level of reintegration into the community. The findings of our study show an association between community reintegration and poststroke duration (Table 1). Though this study found no association between walking ability and community reintegration, a study has established that patients with a long duration of stroke are better at walking (4). The reasons for our finding may be similar to this, as longer poststroke duration allows more time for patients to cope with their disabilities (5). In this environment, stroke rehabilitation is presently largely focused on the motor function of the stroke survivor. Programmes incorporating reintegration into the community should be included in the rehabilitative intervention. Because of the preselected nature of our study, the limitations are that only stroke survivors who attended the physiotherapy outpatient clinics of the selected hospitals were included in the study and, patients with severe strokes were not included.


In Hārith al-miyāh (The Tiller of Waters, 1998) Hudā Barakāt departs from traditional war narratives to unravel the horrors of war by depicting a protagonist whose life is reduced to an animal-like existence and whose relationship with space and time disorients both him and the reader. To preserve knowledge of his self, and to safeguard his homeland from complete annihilation, he reconstructs its history by telling stories to his beloved about Lebanon's textiles industry. Through this alternative national 'history,' he tries to re-orient himself with (and within) his metropolis as it becomes a war-ravished wasteland. As he recreates his nation through oral narration, he also reintegrates its (now) scattered and conflicting communities as he recalls them into his narratives. This essay argues that the knowledge of history challenges disorientation and can become a means by which to defend the metropolis from erasure.


This paper demonstrates an active vibration control system of flexible structures by using piezoelectric sensors and actuators. A set of vibration control equations, sensing equations and actuating equations are derived through using the modal theory for piezoelectric flexible structures, then the model is converted into the state space form. With recent developments in sensors/actuators technologies, many researchers have concentrated on control methods for suppressing vibration of the structures using smart materials such as piezoelectric transducers (PZT). In this paper, two piezoelectric patches are collocated on both sides of the same position of the structure which used as modal sensors and actuators, and the optimal location of them is ascertained by the function of displacement deflection, a LQR controller is designed based on the independent mode space control techniques to suppress the vibration of the system. Finally, the paper takes a piezoelectric cantilever beam as an example, and gives the control simulation results which demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in this paper.


Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are increasingly popular among epidemiologists. The reason for this may in part be that MCMC offers an appealing approach to handling some difficult types of analyses. Additionally, MCMC methods are those most commonly used for Bayesian analysis. However, epidemiologists are still largely unfamiliar with MCMC. They may lack familiarity either with he implementation of MCMC or with interpretation of the resultant output. As with tutorials outlining the calculus behind maximum likelihood in previous decades, a simple description of the machinery of MCMC is needed. We provide an introduction to conducting analyses with MCMC, and show that, given the same data and under certain model specifications, the results of an MCMC simulation match those of methods based on standard maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE). In addition, we highlight examples of instances in which MCMC approaches to data analysis provide a clear advantage over MLE. We hope that this brief tutorial will encourage epidemiologists to consider MCMC approaches as part of their analytic tool-kit.


The study by Sanchez-Ramos et al 1 delineates a number of factors that predict the development of hallucinations in patients with Parkinson disease. Complex visual hallucinations occurred in more than 55 (25%) of the study population of 214 consecutive patients with PD and they were strongly associated with age, dementia, disease duration, depression, and sleep disorders. The absence of detailed ophthalmological evaluation in these patients precluded an accurate estimate of visual loss that is an important cause of visual hallucinations. Complex hallucinations have been reported in 22 (21%) of 104 consecutive patients with retinal and neural afferent visual pathway lesions causing trivial to profound visual loss. 2 Cogan 3 has conjectured that such hallucinations stem from ongoing cerebral activity of the visual system and are released by removal of normal visual input. Along with neurological disorders, toxic and metabolic abnormalities, psychiatric disorders, and miscellaneous conditions, including sleep disturbances and sensory


A novel phenyltriazole acetic acid compound (DAS734) produced bleaching of new growth on a variety of dicotyledonous weeds and was a potent inhibitor of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedling growth. The phytotoxic effects of DAS734 on Arabidopsis were completely alleviated by addition of adenine to the growth media. A screen of ethylmethanesulfonate-mutagenized Arabidopsis seedlings recovered seven lines with resistance levels to DAS734 ranging from 5- to 125-fold. Genetic tests determined that all the resistance mutations were dominant and allelic. One mutation was mapped to an interval on chromosome 4 containing At4g34740, which encodes an isoform of glutamine phosphoribosylamidotransferase (AtGPRAT2), the first enzyme of the purine biosynthetic pathway. Sequencing of At4g34740 from the resistant lines showed that all seven contained mutations producing changes in the encoded polypeptide sequence. Two lines with the highest level of resistance (125-fold) contained the mutation R264K. The wild-type and mutant AtGPRAT2 enzymes were cloned and functionally overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Assays of the recombinant enzyme showed that DAS734 was a potent, slow-binding inhibitor of the wild-type enzyme (I50 approximately 0.2 μm), whereas the mutant enzyme R264K was not significantly inhibited by 200 μm DAS734. Another GPRAT isoform in Arabidopsis, AtGPRAT3, was also inhibited by DAS734. This combination of chemical, genetic, and biochemical evidence indicates that the phytotoxicity of DAS734 arises from direct inhibition of GPRAT and establishes its utility as a new and specific chemical genetic probe of plant purine biosynthesis. The effects of this novel GPRAT inhibitor are compared to the phenotypes of known AtGPRAT genetic mutants.


The need for power semiconductor devices with high-voltage, high- frequency, and high-temperature operation capability is growing, especially for advanced power conversion and military applications, and hence the size and weight of the power electronic system are reduced. Development of 15-kV SiC IGBTs and their impact on utility applications is discussed.


A thymine-requiring mutant of Staphylococcus aureus, strain 8325 (PI258)thy, undergoes prophage induction and lysis after thymine starvation. Four different phages were isolated from the lysate in low titers, among which was a phage designated phi 14, which differs from phage phi 11 in its immunity locus. The thymineless induced lysates of strain 8325(PI258)thy transduce the penicillinase plasmid at high frequency (10(-1), whereas transduction of chromosomal markers is inefficient. A plasmic-cured derivative of strain 8325(PI258)thy is also lysed by thymine starvation and be used for high-frequency transduction of other plasmids. Reconstitution of a strain of S. aureus that responds to thymine starvation was only partially successful, but this system can effectively be used to transduce plasmids or plasmid derivatives.


The performance of engineering activities has significant impacts on the successfulness of implementing industrial construction projects. Improving engineering performance can lead to better project outcomes. Previous studies on engineering performance improvement have either focused on the use of certain techniques or products, or looked at specific engineering processes or areas. There has been a lack of a systematic and analytical approach that improves engineering performance based on the understanding of the relationships between engineering inputs and project outcomes. The paper proposes a generic model, which integrates genetic algorithms with artificial neural networks, for modeling engineering performance measurement and improvement in industrial construction projects. Due to their robust and efficient search ability in complex situations, genetic algorithms are employed to search for solutions to improving engineering performance with the searching criteria, fitness function, being the neural networks that establish the relationships between engineering inputs and project outputs.


Citrus canker, caused by a bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri, is a serious disease of most citrus varieties. The disease causes necrotic lesions on leaves, stems, and fruit (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Severe infestation can cause defoliation, premature fruit drop, twig dieback, general tree decline, and very bad blemishes on fruit. Trees infected with citrus canker become weak, unproductive, and unprofitable. This document is PP-214, one of a series of the Plant Pathology Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date October 2005.
PP-214/PP136: Field Identification of Citrus Canker Symptoms and Decontamination Procedures (ufl.edu)


Malignant pleural mesothelioma has a poor prognosis and an average survival of 12–18 months despite treatment. One of the unique features of this malignancy is development of diffuse nodules inside the pleural cavity which lead to an irregular lymph node metastasis pattern in the chest cavity. Lymph node staging of mesothelioma was the same as Lung Cancer lymph node staging. It was recently revised to include unique intrathoracic involvement sites (internal mammary, peridiaphragmatic, pericardial fat pad and intercostal lymph nodes) in mesothelioma and ipsilateral mediastinal and intrapulmonary lymph nodes were grouped as N1. The preoperative invasive lymph node staging is inadequate and almost 40% are understaged in clinical N0 patients and 30% in N1 patients. Invasive mediastinal staging with cervical mediastinoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound or endoscopic ultrasound are used, however pericardial, posterior intercostal and internal mammary lymph nodes are inaccessible. Invasive preoperative mediastinal staging is important to stratify patients for appropriate treatment. The number and sites of potential lymph node involvement in mesothelioma is much higher and widespread than lung cancer. Thus, the technique and principles of lymphadenectomy or sampling in lung cancer is obviously not enough in mesothelioma. Long term survival difference is less than 10% in patients with bronchopulmonary or ipsilateral mediastinal and extrapleural lymph node involvement compared with those without lymph node involvement. The revised N staging system emphasizes the importance of preoperative invasive mediastinal staging, broadens surgical indications without dramatic improvements in survival.


A new time discretization scheme is presented, based on a Taylor series expansion of the continuous time nonlinear system. It is shown that any Taylor series coefficient of the corresponding discrete-time nonlinear system can be calculated exactly. Therefore, the notion of Lie sequences is introduced facilitating the calculation of Taylor-Lie series significantly. Since the resulting coefficient can be expressed in terms of the matrix exponential, numerical algorithms for the determination of each coefficient can be used. An illustrative example quantifies the results.


Rapid advancements in genomics have changed the landscape of target identification and drug development for targeted therapies. Targeted agents work well when drugs are given to patients with the actionable targets. For example, TKI works well for lung cancer patients with EGFR mutation and crizotinib is highly effective for patients with EML4-ALK translocation. Targeted agents, however, do not work for everyone and may not work at all. Hence, the goals for developing target agents include (1) testing the treatment efficacy, (2) identifying prognostic and predictive markers, and (3) providing better treatments to patients enrolled in the trial. Several novel designs have been introduced to achieve these objectives. For example, Bayesian adaptive designs can assign more patients to the more effective treatments based on the available data at the time via the outcome-adaptive randomization. More frequent interim monitoring can drop the ineffective treatments early for futility. New treatments can be added, and effective treatments can graduate for further evaluation. The concepts of the basket design and the N-of-1 design have also been proposed to study the targeted agents based on patients9 genomic profiles across different disease sites. Information collected from such trials can be put together to form a continuously updated knowledge database for adaptive learning. Statistical methods such as the hierarchical model and Individual level meta-analysis can be applied to model data collected in the knowledge database to estimate the treatment effect, the marker effect, and their interactions. A platform of a clinical trial infrastructure can be established to facilitate the conduct of such trials. In the talk, pros and cons of various designs will be discussed. Examples and lessons learned from the recently completed BATTLE trial and the on-going BATTLE-2 trial in non-small cell lung cancer will be given. Citation Format: J. Jack Lee. Adaptive designs and adaptive learning for biomarker-based clinical trials for targeted therapies. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer; 2014 Jan 6-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2014;20(2Suppl):Abstract nr IA06.


Sport is now mobilized as a novel and effective means of achieving international development goals, leading to an increasingly institutionalized relationship between sport and development. While there is recent evidence of the effectiveness of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) programmes and policies, research has also drawn attention to the relations of power that underpin the movement and, in particular, to colonizing tendencies in SDP initiatives. This article explores this critical research and considers it against the insights and importance of a development praxis concerned with decolonization. We argue that SDP scholars and activists would be well served to consider the main tenets of a decolonizing framework and we put forth some theoretical and methodological imperatives for decolonizing sport for development.


Hamsters were immunized against reticulum cell sarcoma transplants by using tumor-associated antigens (TAA) ex tracted by sonication from the tumor cells. After tumor cell challenge, more than one-half of the immunized animals (51.37%) completely rejected the tumor whereas 35.73% exhibited a longer latency period than did unimmunized animals. All the immunized animals exhibited cell-mediated immunity against TAA as measured by footpad test and microcytotoxicity test. In all the animals in which a tumor developed at any time after the tumor cells challenge, blocking antibodies did develop in their serum at the time of appearance of the tumor. The immune status of hamsters receiving transplants was also studied to define whether any immune response de veloped after transplantation of syngeneic tumor cells. In Group 1, which received a low inoculum, tumors developed as fast as in Group 3, which received high inoculum. Several animals in Group 2, which received an intermediate inoculum, completely rejected the tumor, and in many the tumor developed after a long latent period. All the tests showed an absence of immune response in Group 1, as if the few cells could not elicit an immune response. In Group 2, the animals rejecting the tumor did not present any blocking activity in their sera; therefore, the cell-mediated immune response could be effective in the rejection of the tumor. Animals showing a delayed tumor growth exhibited blocking activity in their sera. In all the animals in Group 3,a cell-mediated immune response developed comparable with the one observed in immunized animals, and also, a strong blocking activity in their sera. The time of blocking activity appeared closely related to the appearance of the tumor. Immunization with TAA or suitable amount of tumor transplant appeared capable of eliciting a beneficial cell-mediated response except when blocking anti bodies were also present.


Objectives To evaluate variability in life expectancy at birth in small areas, describe the spatial pattern of life expectancy, and examine associations between small-area socioeconomic characteristics and life expectancy in a mid-sized city of a middle-income country. Design Cross-sectional, using data from death registries (2015–2018) and socioeconomic characteristics data from the 2010 national population census. Participants/setting 40 898 death records in 99 small areas of the city of Córdoba, Argentina. We summarised variability in life expectancy at birth by using the difference between the 90th and 10th percentile of the distribution of life expectancy across small areas (P90-P10 gap) and evaluated associations with small-area socioeconomic characteristics by calculating a Slope Index of Inequality in linear regression. Primary outcome Life expectancy at birth. Results The median life expectancy at birth was 80.3 years in women (P90-P10 gap=3.2 years) and 75.1 years in men (P90-P10 gap=4.6 years). We found higher life expectancies in the core and northwest parts of the city, especially among women. We found positive associations between life expectancy and better small-area socioeconomic characteristics, especially among men. Mean differences in life expectancy between the highest versus the lowest decile of area characteristics in men (women) were 3.03 (2.58), 3.52 (2.56) and 2.97 (2.31) years for % adults with high school education or above, % persons aged 15–17 attending school, and % households with water inside the dwelling, respectively. Lower values of % overcrowded households and unemployment rate were associated with longer life expectancy: mean differences comparing the lowest versus the highest decile were 3.03 and 2.73 in men and 2.57 and 2.34 years in women, respectively. Conclusion Life expectancy is substantially heterogeneous and patterned by socioeconomic characteristics in a mid-sized city of a middle-income country, suggesting that small-area inequities in life expectancy are not limited to large cities or high-income countries.


A presentation is given of the form taken by the thermodynamic theory of homogeneous chemical equilibrium when transcribed into Landsberg's (1961) formulation of thermodynamics in terms of set theory. Certain sets of points can usefully be defined, in order to deal separately and explicitly with metastable equilibrium states, and with open systems as such, without having simultaneously to consider non-equilibrium states. 'Narrower' and 'wider' thermodynamic principles can be distinguished in terms of what is the set for which some proposition is asserted to apply, and Landsberg's formulation makes possible greater clarity in the enunciation of the special axioms of chemical thermodynamics. In particular, the axiom of the ideal behaviour of dilute systems takes a very clear-cut significance. When arguments of the type introduced by Landsberg are used, the assumptions involved in a formal development of the thermodynamic theory of homogeneous chemical equilibrium are clearly apparent. Metastable equilibrium states, and non-equilibrium states, each have their own distinct place in the theory. Some comments are made in relation to the usual presentation.


The water sorption isotherms for homogeneous and asymmetric cellulose acetate membranes have been measured at different temperatures. Subtle differences between the water sorption isotherms for asymmetric and homogeneous membranes have been interpreted by suggesting that capillary condensation contributes significantly to sorption in asymmetric membranes at high activities and also to an intriguing excess sorption observed in homogeneous membranes at intermediate activities. This model has been supported by the experimentally determined values of the enthalpy and entropy changes associated with sorption.


We present some numerical results corresponding to a recently proposed structured illumination based set-up able to achieve resolution beyond the diffraction limit in 4f optical setup. The technique is based on the use of a liquid crystal display to multiplex the different linear phases which produce all the tilted plane waves at the same time. At the SLM plane constant phases are assigned to each tilted beam. The object is illuminated several times with simultaneous illumination (i.e., simultaneous tilted beams), every time carrying different constant phases. A total of interferograms are recorded at the CCD plane, corresponding to the same number of constant phases sets. The proper selection of phases helps to separate the correlated terms. In a post processing procedure, each hologram is transformed to the spectrum domain and spatially shifted to its proper position. The combination of these shifted segments of the object spectrum gives the synthesized spectrum. To obtain super resolved image inverse Fourier transform is taken of the synthesized spectrum.


In this work, a biodegradable poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG-PCL-PEG, PECE) triblock copolymer was successfully synthesized, which was flowing sol at low temperature and turned to nonflowing gel at body temperature. The toxicity evaluation of PECE hydrogel as a potential in situ sustained opthalmic drug delivery system was performed, including the biodegradability of PECE hydrogel in the eye, its effect on cultured human lens epithelia, intraocular pressure, and ocular tissues. The results indicated that the prepared PECE hydrogel was biocompatible and biodegradable despite of temporary elevated intraocular pressure and slight corneal endothelial damage at specific concentration. Therefore, PECE hydrogel may be a safe candidate for sustained ophthalmic drug delivery system.


In recent years, X-ray computed tomography (XCT) has successfully entered the field of dimensional metrology. XCT offers advantages over traditional tactile and optical coordinate measuring machines because of its ability to detect both the outer and inner geometries of an object. Due to the complex nature of XCT, there are a large number of factors which can influence dimensional measurement; many of these factors are still poorly understood. The novel study of a number of influence factors associated with the X-ray tube and their influence on dimensional measurement in micro-focus cone-beam XCT systems is presented in this thesis. The influence factors investigated in this study are the positional stability of the focal spot, the off-focal radiation, the focal spot size and the focal spot shape. The necessary background information to X-ray physics, XCT technology and dimensional metrology is discussed. The analysis of these influence factors was conducted at the National Physical Laboratory using experimental and computer simulation techniques. The experimental part of this research was carried out on Nikon Metrology XT H 225 M, with simulations performed using bespoke computer codes. The results of the study show that the positional stability of the focal spot, the off-focal radiation, the focal spot size and shape can all affect dimensional measurement. It is, therefore, proposed to include these parameters as part of the future standardised X-ray tube qualification and performance verification procedures of XCT systems. The evaluation techniques developed during the study can be employed as part of these standardised procedures. In addition, based on the findings of the study a number of future areas of research are proposed.


This article presents a 3D-printable prototype design for a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by flexing any muscle in the user's body through a sensor that collects electromyographic (EMG) signals from the muscle. The development of this type of prosthesis exists in the literature, but it is expensive; Therefore, the aim of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility of using 3D printing technology to build a prototype of a controlled arm as the first step towards the development of low-cost prosthetics as a possible aid for low income people with disabilities.


The DOE gaseous diffusion plant complex makes extensive use of CFC-114 as a primary coolant. As this material is on the Montreal Protocol list of materials scheduled for production curtailment, a substitute must be found. In addition to physical cooling properties, the gaseous diffusion application imposes the unique requirement of chemical inertness to fluorinating agents. A series of studies has therefore been undertaken to evaluate the gas-phase chemical reactivity of potential alternate coolants. This report examines the reactivity of perfluorocyclobutane (C-C{sub 4}F{sub 8}) with UF{sub 6} and F{sub 2} at selected reference conditions (approximately 10 Torr partial pressure of each reactant at 150{degrees}C). At the reference conditions, a very slight degree of reactivity was observed with F{sub 2}, but much less than the observed reactivity of the reference coolant, CFC-114. No reaction was observed with UF{sub 6}. A limited number of experiments was conducted at higher temperature, providing a first estimate of the rate of increase of reaction rate with increased temperature.


Childhood and youth have been addressed and lived out under the sign of minority. Outside social control, they are actually considered as a "disease" that must be cured. This article briefly outlines the genealogy of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), highlighting its advances in relation to previous legislation on childhood in Brazil, the Code of Minors. It analyzes the emergence of ECA against the background of the New Republic and the redemocratization process in Brazil, through the conceptual operator of democratic governmentality, showing that it related to the subjectification of children and youth as citizens of rights, under a logic of comprehensive protection. A democratic form of government, yet a government of childhood and youth, nonetheless, keeping them under the guardianship of adults. It draws attention to the limitations of this legislation since, despite the advances and comprehensive protection policy, children and youth continue dying or being incarcerated on large scale. Considering possible escape routes from the government of childhood, a distinct political approach outside the condition of minority, the text explores the philosophy of Charles Fourier, who conceives a completely different relationship between children, youth and adults, refuting any kind of guardianship. In the words of René Schérer, a "majority childhood," emancipated, a sign of great health.


We report a quantum dynamics study of O + OH (v = 1, j = 0) collisions on its ground electronic state, employing two different potential energy surfaces: the DIMKP surface by Kendrick and Pack, and the XXZLG surface by Xu et al. A time-independent quantum mechanical method based on hyperspherical coordinates has been adopted for the dynamics calculations. Energy-dependent probabilities and rate coefficients are computed for the elastic, inelastic, and reactive channels over the collision energy range E(coll) = 10(-10)-0.35 eV, for J = 0 total angular momentum. Initial state-selected reaction rate coefficients are also calculated from the J = 0 reaction probabilities by applying a J-shifting approximation, for temperatures in the range T = 10(-6)-700 K. Our results show that the dynamics of the collisional process and its outcome are strongly influenced by long-range forces, and chemical reactivity is found to be sensitive to the choice of the potential energy surface. For O + OH (v = 1, j = 0) collisions at low temperatures, vibrational relaxation of OH competes with reactive scattering. Since long-range interactions can facilitate vibrational relaxation processes, we find that the DIMKP potential (which explicitly includes van der Waals dispersion terms) favours vibrational relaxation over chemical reaction at low temperatures. On the DIMKP potential in the ultracold regime, the reaction rate coefficient for O + OH (v = 1, j = 0) is found to be a factor of thirteen lower than that for O + OH (v = 0, j = 0). This significantly high reactivity of OH (v = 0, j = 0), compared to that of OH (v = 1, j = 0), is attributed to enhancement caused by the presence of a HO(2) quasibound state (scattering resonance) with energy near the O + OH (v = 0, j = 0) dissociation threshold. In contrast, the XXZLG potential does not contain explicit van der Waals terms, being just an extrapolation by a nearly constant function at large O-OH distances. Therefore, long-range potential couplings are absent in calculations using the XXZLG surface, which does not induce vibrational relaxation as efficiently as the DIMKP potential. The XXZLG potential leads to a slightly higher reactivity (a factor of 1.4 higher) for O + OH (v = 1, j = 0) compared to that for O + OH (v = 0, j = 0) at ultracold temperatures. Overall, both potential surfaces yield comparable values of reaction rate coefficients at low temperatures for the O + OH (v = 1, j = 0) reaction.


We measured insulin antibody binding in 2 groups of patients: Study 1, 32 children with newly diagnosed IDDM before onset of insulin therapy, and, in 20 of these, 10 days, 1, 3, and 6 months after beginning therapy; and Study 2, 35 children with long-standing IDDM, 20 of whom had free insulin concentrations measured before, and for 2 hours following subcutaneous injection of 0.25 U/kg regular insulin. Almost 35% of new onset subjects had insulin antibody binding above control levels. In those studied prospectively, binding increased significantly with time. Pre-treatment binding did not correlate with later insulin antibody binding nor metabolic control. In Study 1 we have confirmed previous studies showing abnormally high insulin antibody binding in children with IDDM pre-treatment. We have been unable to demonstrate a relationship between this binding and that found 6 months after initiation of therapy. In Study 2, we have shown that insulin antibody binding is not related to either the level of metabolic control or the rate of rise of free insulin levels in children with IDDM.


We study cloud-storage systems with a very large number of files stored in a very large number of servers. In such systems, files are either replicated or coded to ensure reliability, i.e., file recovery from server failures. This redundancy in storage can further be exploited to improve system performance (mean file access delay) through appropriate load-balancing (routing) schemes. However, it is unclear whether coding or replication is better from a system performance perspective since the corresponding queueing analysis of such systems is, in general, quite difficult except for the trivial case when the system load asymptotically tends to zero. Here, we study the more difficult case where the system load is not asymptotically zero. Using the fact that the system size is large, we obtain a mean-field limit for the steady-state distribution of the number of file access requests waiting at each server. We then use the mean-field limit to show that, for a given storage capacity per file, coding strictly outperforms replication at all traffic loads while improving reliability. Further, the factor by which the performance improves in the heavy-traffic is at least as large as in the light-traffic case. Finally, we validate these results through extensive simulations.


Major ruptures along the San Andreas Fault System (SAFS) are driven by stress that has accumulated in the upper locked portion of the crust. The present‐day stress accumulation rate on any given fault segment is fairly well resolved by current geodetic measurements. Model stress accumulation rates vary between 0.5 and 7 MPa per century and are inversely proportional to earthquake recurrence intervals. In contrast, the total accumulated stress on a given fault segment is poorly resolved since it depends on the uncertain rupture history of each fault over the past few thousand years. We simulate accumulated stress at crustal depths for both past and present‐day conditions by assuming complete release of accumulated slip deficit during major ruptures. These speculative results indicate that the southern San Andreas, which has not ruptured in a major earthquake in over 300 years, is currently approaching a threshold stress level.


Molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of tumors improves the specificity of MRI by using targeted probes conjugated to contrast-generating metals. The limitation of this approach is in the identification of a target molecule present in sufficient concentration for visualization and the development of a labeling reagent that can penetrate tumor tissue with the fast kinetics required for use in a clinical setting. The receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPµ is a transmembrane protein that is continuously proteolyzed in the tumor microenvironment to generate a high concentration of extracellular fragment that can be recognized by the SBK2 probe. We conjugated the SBK2 peptide to a gadolinium chelate [SBK2-Tris-(Gd-DOTA)3] to test whether the SBK2 probe could be developed as an MR molecular imaging probe. When intravenously injected into mice bearing flank tumors of human glioma cells, SBK2-Tris-(Gd-DOTA)3 labeled the tumors within 5 minutes with a high level of contrast for up to 2 hours post-injection. The contrast enhancement of SBK2-Tris-(Gd-DOTA)3 was significantly higher than that observed with a current MRI macrocyclic gadolinium chelate (Gadoteridol, ProHance) alone or a scrambled control. These results demonstrate that SBK2-Tris-(Gd-DOTA)3 labeling of the PTPµ extracellular fragment is a more specific MR molecular imaging probe than ProHance or a scrambled control. Consequently, the SBK2 probe may be more useful than the current gold standard reagent for MRI to identify tumors and to co-register tumor borders during surgical resection.


&NA; A single case is reported in whom ventricular cardiac arrhythmias were related to the occurrence of polygraphically verified sleep. A strong relationship was found to exist between the heart rate in any one minute and the number of premature ventricular contractions, with higher rates associated with a greater number of these ectopic beats.


The emergence of the Enterprise 2.0 technologies indicates that they can provide value to different types of users and potentially different types of value. Many published research explored what these E2.0 tools and applications can offer to organizations, such as collaboration platforms, social networking and user-created content, enhancing their productivity and management among employees. However, little research was devoted to study the effect these tools and applications have on the decision making process. Decision 2.0 has received little attention in literature, especially from the standpoint of making use of the "crowd". Therefore, this paper focuses on this research gap with a case study in an attempt to elucidate and extract knowledge to answer this question "How does decision 2.0 make use of the crowd to support the traditional decision making process and hence add value to organizations through collaboration and collective intelligence?".


For the majority of patients, schizophrenia is a chronic recurrent disease that leads to significant residual morbidity which occurs through a process of behavioral deterioration. The factors that influence the course of schizophrenia after its onset and the ability of treatment to modify the effects of the patient's illness are not well understood. This article examines specific clinical and biological variables that are associated with treatment response and outcome. These variables, which are both trait and state dependent, include premorbid adjustment, age and mode of onset of illness, gender, duration of psychosis, schizophrenia subtype, primary negative symptoms, and extrapyramidal signs including tardive dyskinesia and plasma HVA and brain pathomorphology. In addition, the chronic effects of antipsychotic drug treatment may influence illness course both favorably and adversely as well as potentially altering the neurobiological substrates that mediate expression of the illness and treatment response. Finally, the question of whether the active phase of the illness involves a pathologic process that leads to illness progression is discussed. In light of this discussion, we can speculate that although certain aspects of the illness in terms of its severity and course may be, to an extent, predetermined, a number of factors can exert favorable and unfavorable effects on the course of the illness and its ultimate outcome. One question for the field is to develop therapeutic strategies that minimize the morbidity of the illness in a way that does not introduce iatrogenic consequences to the patient.


We analyse the winter and summer climatic signal following 15 major tropical volcanic eruptions over the last half millennium based on multi‐proxy reconstructions for Europe. During the first and second post‐eruption years we find significant continental scale summer cooling and somewhat drier conditions over Central Europe. In the Northern Hemispheric winter the volcanic forcing induces an atmospheric circulation response that significantly follows a positive NAO state connected with a significant overall warm anomaly and wetter conditions over Northern Europe. Our findings compare well with GCM studies as well as observational studies, which mainly cover the substantially shorter instrumental period and thus include a limited set of major eruptions.


BACKGROUND
Albendazole is the most commonly used drug in preventive chemotherapy programmes against soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, with the standard dose of 400 mg resulting in suboptimal clinical outcomes. Population pharmacokinetic (PK) models that could inform dosing strategies are not yet available.

METHODS
A population pharmacokinetic model was developed based on micro-blood samples collected from 252 patients aged 2 to 65 years, infected with either hookworm or Trichuris trichiura and treated with albendazole doses ranging from of 200 to 800 mg. An exposure-response analysis was performed relating albendazole and its two metabolites to cure rates and egg reduction rates (ERR). Finally, model-based simulations were conducted to determine equivalent exposure coverage in infants to adults.

RESULTS
A population PK model, with one distribution compartment for each compound and one peripheral compartment, following oral administration with a lag time, assuming first-order absorption and linear elimination, best described the concentration-time profiles. Clearance and volume parameters were scaled to body size (weight for albendazole and height for albendazole sulfoxide and sulfone). Dose proportionality was observed for the active metabolite, albendazole sulfoxide, but only in hookworm-infected individuals, with increasing exposure resulting in increased ERR. Exposure of sulfoxide was lowest in the tallest individuals.

CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacometric simulations indicate that doses up to 800 mg could further increase albendazole efficacy in hookworm-infected adults, whereas the standard dose of 400 mg is sufficient in the youngest age cohorts. In the absence of evidence-based arguments for adjusting albendazole doses in T. trichiura-infected individuals, the search for new treatment options is further emphasized.


Artificial recharge was carried out experimentally in north London by the Water Resources Board and the Metropolitan Water Board between 1953 and 1970(Boniface 1959). These trials were successful, although only small volumes of water were recharged. Research by Thames Water Authority continued between 1975 and 1984 at a larger scale in the north London area (Flavin & Hawnt 1979; Flavin & Joseph 1983). Thames Water Utilities drilled and tested 14 new production boreholes for the Enfield-Haringey Scheme along the course of the New River in north London (Fig. l, opposite). These new boreholes, together with nine existing sites, are designed to increase the strategic groundwater resources of north London by 90 Ml/d by artificially recharging the Chalk and Thanet Sands aquifer beneath London (O'Shea 1994). During an average year, demand for water is often lower than that available from the Coppermills Water Treatment Works and between 10 and 20 M1/d of this excess fully treated water can be gravity recharged to the aquifer. This will be by low-rate, trickle recharge ensuring that the volume of water stored in the aquifer is sufficient to sustain a prolonged drought abstraction for up to 200 days. When demand for water is high, as in drought conditions, groundwater can be pumped from the aquifer, using the same boreholes, directly into the New River which acts as an aqueduct taking the water back to Coppermills, via the East Reservoir at Stoke Newington for treatment and supply. The scheme will be used strategically in times of


ABSTRACT As people are living longer, there is an emphasis on adding life to years instead of years to life. Flow is regarded as an optimal experience, which contributes to the quality of life. Such flow experiences are likely to occur in serious leisure settings. Thus, this study explored the relationship between serious leisure types and a flow experience (frequency and quality) among older adults. Respondents were recruited from six different community programmes and a total of 113 surveys were used in the study. Serious leisure activities were classified into five types (i.e. "physically & socially centred stimulating" activity, "cognitively centred stimulating" activity, "diversely low stimulating" activity, "diversely high stimulating" activity, and "cognitively & socially centred stimulating" activity) based on the physical, cognitive, and social stimulation. The findings indicated that people who engage in serious leisure activities that emphasize the cognitive stimulation were significantly more likely to experience higher frequencies of flow. On the other hand, there was no significant difference among the different types of serious leisure in terms of quality of flow. This might indicate that what matters the most to experiencing flow is not what we do, but how we do it.


Empirical studies have shown there is wide variation in cost (e.g., of devising and executing test cases) and effectiveness (at finding faults) across existing state-based coverage criteria. As these criteria can be considered as executing the control flow structure of the statechart, we are attempting to investigate how data flow information can be used to improve their cost-effectiveness. This article presents a comprehensive methodology to perform data flow analysis of UML statecharts, applies it to the round-trip path (transition tree) coverage criterion and reports on two case studies. The results of the case studies show that dataflow information can be used to select the best cost-effective transition tree when more than one satisfies the transition tree criterion. We further propose a more optimal strategy for the transition tree criterion, in terms of cost and effectiveness. The improved tree strategy is evaluated through the two case studies and the results suggest that it is a cost-effective strategy that would fit into many practical situations


As government increasingly recognizes its own obligations to support and provide family planning as a health and social measure, serious questions are raised as to the proper role for Planned Parenthood World Federation as a private organization. Federal programs both at home and abroad tend to make private fundraising more difficult, whatever the role of this organization may be. Contrary to common impression, experience thus far indicates that the existence of governmental programs does not decrease demands on Planned Parenthood as a private agency. A wide gap also exists between public acceptance, which has been realized, and public conviction, which still has not been accepted. Only those who feel distress at the vision of an all-encompassing megalopolis, only those with concern for the qualify of life in the crowd, and only those who see finite limits of resources recognize that the US must someday plan a halt to population growth. As the gap between the developed and the underdeveloped world widens, economists point out that the US, with less than 6% of the world's population, already consumes some 50% of the world's available raw materials. Business and government leaders are beginning to understand the rate at which an industrial and affluent society consumes the world's substance and threatens the environment. If the assumption is correct that the population explosion constitutes a major threat to life on earth, then America's own attitudes and actions at home, as well as abroad and in the developing countries, are vital. In the next few years Planned Parenthood faces the task of converting the tide of public acceptance into one of conviction and effective action on a giant scale both at home and abroad. In its effort, Planned Parenthood has continued to expand its own service functions. It now has 157 local affiliates with an additional 30 in the organizational stage. In 1967 Planned Parenthood affiliates operated 470 family planning centers, 71 more than in the previous year. Beginning in 1964 an attempt was made to quantify the needs and the costs of bringing birth control services to all who need it in the US. The partnership with government has been more intimate than simple parallelism of effort. Planned Parenthood initiated or helped to administer nearly half of the family planning projects sponsored by the War on Poverty. It has served as a consultant on family planning programs to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and assisted affiliates and other community agencies in developing project applications for federal funds totalling about $4 million, of which about $2 million for 25 projects has been funded. Planned Parenthood World Population has undertaken the planning function and has for that purpose established a national technical assistance center and program.


In the framework of the coordinated project called CINAMON, a list of ground-based stations associated with the Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) contribute to the quasi-global validation of ENVISAT atmospheric chemistry data. This paper reports on such activities performed during the Commissioning Phase (CP) of the satellit e. After a description of the correlative database generated during this period, preliminary ground-based studies relying on this database give a first picture of the quality of SCIAMACHY ozone and nitrogen dioxide columns, and GOMOS and MIPAS ozone profiles. Illustration of the global mapping of MIPAS ozone profile data is also presented. The paper concludes with perspectives for the Main Validation Phase of ENVISAT.


In Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, the states own and operate most of the research and development institutes (RDIs). These institutes often play an important and even dominant role in conducting research and development (R&D). In high-income economies, however, the private sector typically dominates R&D. Private sector research usually responds better to market incentives, resulting in more useful innovations than public sector R&D, although the two are complementary. In general, the economic impact of RDIs in ECA has been low. Although several ECA RDIs are able to publish and patent as much as their high-income economy counterparts, the quality of their research and ability to diffuse knowledge is lagging and their international publications are not highly cited. In addition, their patents are not translated into commercial applications through licensing or contract research with industry. A reform strategy is proposed here for RDIs in ECA, based on their relevance to national priorities, expected role as providers of public versus private goods, performance levels, and relation to relevant markets and users. When deciding on the appropriate ownership and management structures for the RDIs, governments need to distinguish among RDIs that provide mainly public goods, RDIs that sell or could possibly sell mainly private goods and services, and RDIs that produce public and private goods.


This paper empirically analyzes moral hazard in car insurance using a dynamic theory of an insuree's dynamic risk (ex ante moral hazard) and claim (ex post moral hazard) choices and Dutch longitudinal micro data. We use the theory to characterize the heterogeneous dynamic changes in incentives to avoid claims that are generated by the Dutch experience-rating scheme, and their effects on claim times and sizes under moral hazard. We develop tests that exploit these structural implications of moral hazard and experience rating. Unlike much of the earlier literature, we find evidence of moral hazard.


Abstract The Toba ash occurs extensively in the Indian subcontinent and marks a ca. 74,000-yr-old event. In the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean it is about 10 cm thick, whereas in several alluvial basins, it is usually 1-3 m thick. The latter occurs in a partly reworked state but as nearly chemically pure first-cycle sediments, The ash has a broad northwesterly dispersal pattern. Samples of ash from the Indian subcontinent compare closely with the youngest (74,000 yr B.P.) Toba Tuff and the deep-sea Toba ash in bulk chemical composition, REE signature, and bubble-wall shard morphology. However, a more proximally located and thicker (2-5 m) ash-bed, from the alluvial basins in the gneissic area and close to east coast, has a lower magnitude negative Eu anomaly, possibly because of minor contamination by feldspathic silt. Quaternary sediments in the central Narmada and middle Son basins contain rich late and middle Pleistocene mammalian and cultural records. Based on the presence of the ash layer marker and stratigraphic relations, late Pleistocene sediments within the subcontinent can be correlated with those from central India and the deep sea.


This chapter explores the financial penalties imposed for breaches of competition law in the EU and the UK. Broadly speaking, enforcers have three kinds of 'weapons' in their arsenal to use against those who attack competition: remedies, imprisonment, and fines. The first of these weapons may be the most powerful, and includes conduct, structural, and third-party remedies. Incarceration — the second weapon — is a well-publicized feature of the US system, and has been an option in the UK in relation to hard-core cartel conduct since the entry into force of the Enterprise Act 2002 (EA). The argument in favour of the efficacy of fines, the third weapon, is a persuasive one: companies take part in anti-competitive conduct in order to boost profits; remove those profits and the incentive for illegal conduct vanishes.