Aim: ASPiH (2016) produced a standards framework to guide the delivery of high quality simulation in healthcare. In 2017, ASPiH will use these standards as a platform to develop guidelines for individual and institutional accreditation. The Multiprofessional Paediatric in situ Simulation (MPIS) programme is the first programme developed from the ASPiH standards and aimed to drive multi-professional learning initiatives across a regional network.
Methods: A regional scoping study was conducted to assess the delivery of MPIS. Semistructured interviews and questionnaires were conducted with Simulation Educators using questions based upon two main categories defined within the ASPiH standards framework: Faculty and Activity. The findings of the scoping study underpinned the development of driver diagrams and the creation of the MPIS programme. The MPIS programme was piloted across 8 hospital sites, delivering 15 simulation sessions to 74 participants. It was evaluated using a 14 item questionnaire assessing participants' perceptions that simulation supported multi-professional learning pre and post participation in the MPIS programme.
Results: Multi-professional learning was not supported, with a lack of relevant and well defined learning objectives for professional groups other than trainee doctors across the network; this justified the need to develop the MPIS programme. Evaluation using Paired T Test statistical analysis demonstrated significant improved perception that simulation supported multiprofessional learning following participation in the MPIS programme (t(73)=8.51, p<0.001). Further ANOVA subset analysis highlighted increased perception of learning for both doctors and nurses (F (1,72)=71.0, p<0.001) to the same degree (F (1,72)=0.11, p=0.74).
Conclusion: Our MPIS programme supports multi-professional simulation learning initiatives and is valued by both doctors and nurses. Our programme is the first programme to be developed from the ASPiH standards framework and if endorsed nationally, the MPIS programme could lay the foundations for ASPiH's accreditation and ensure high quality delivery of in-situ simulation.


The stellar populations in the inner kiloparsecs of the Milky Way (MW) show complex kinematical and chemical structures. The origin and evolution of these structures are still under debate. Here we study the central region of a fully cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of a disk galaxy that reproduces key properties of the inner kiloparsecs of the MW: it has a boxy morphology and shows an overall rotation and dispersion profile in agreement with observations. We use a clustering algorithm on stellar kinematics to identify a number of discrete kinematic components: a high- and low-spin disk, a stellar halo, and two bulge components, one fast-rotating and one slow-rotating. We focus on the two bulge components and show that the slow-rotating one is spherically symmetric while the fast-rotating component shows a boxy/peanut morphology. Although the two bulge components are kinematically discrete populations at present day, they are both mostly formed over similar timescales, from disk material. We find that stellar particles with lower initial birth angular momentum (most likely thick-disk stars) end up in the slow-rotating low-spin bulge, while stars with higher birth angular momentum (most likely thin-disk stars) are found in the high-spin bulge. This has the important consequence that a bulge population with a spheroidal morphology does not necessarily indicate a merger origin. In fact, we do find that only ∼2.3% of the stars in the bulge components are ex situ stars brought in by accreted dwarf galaxies early on. We identify these ex situ stars as the oldest and most metal-poor stars on highly radial orbits with large vertical excursions from the disk.


A new state-of-health (SOH) estimation method for lithium batteries that uses a dual-sliding-mode observer is presented. The capacity fade and resistance deterioration were estimated by the dual-sliding-mode observer. The dual-sliding-mode observer consists of a fast-paced time-varying observer and a slow-paced time-varying observer. The fast-paced time-varying observer estimates parameters, such as the state of charge and terminal voltage, and polarization effects. The slow-paced time-varying observer estimates the SOH in terms of the capacity fade and resistance deterioration. The convergence of the proposed observer was proved by the Lyapunov equation. The structure of the proposed system is simple and easy to implement and shows robust control properties against modeling errors and temperature variations. The test results show that the proposed observer system has superior tracking performance than previous ampere-counting method.


Financial forecasting has been an important and active area of machine learning research because of the challenges it presents and the potential rewards that even minor improvements in prediction accuracy or forecasting may entail. Traditionally, financial forecasting has heavily relied on quantitative indicators and metrics derived from structured financial statements. Earnings conference call data, including text and audio, is an important source of unstructured data that has been used for various prediction tasks using deep earning and related approaches. However, current deep learning-based methods are limited in the way that they deal with numeric data; numbers are typically treated as plain-text tokens without taking advantage of their underlying numeric structure. This paper describes a numeric-oriented hierarchical transformer model (NumHTML) to predict stock returns, and financial risk using multi-modal aligned earnings calls data by taking advantage of the different categories of numbers (monetary, temporal, percentages etc.) and their magnitude. We present the results of a comprehensive evaluation of NumHTML against several state-of-the-art baselines using a real-world publicly available dataset. The results indicate that NumHTML significantly outperforms the current state-of-the-art across a variety of evaluation metrics and that it has the potential to offer significant financial gains in a practical trading context.


The
development of mechanically strong,
flexible and crack-resistant hydrogels is of great academic and
practical significance and demands
for the biomimetic exploration
of energy dissipation pathways. The rational design of strong hydrogels is also
limited by insufficient mechanism study, resulting from the lack of powerful technique to "see" hydrogels at morphological level. Herein, we constructed a
thermoresponsive mechanically strong hydrogel from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
(PNIPAM) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide). Its hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity
transformation and composition-dependent microphase separation are directly
visualized by using luminogens with aggregation-induced emission as fluorescent
indicators. Based on the morphological
observation and mechanical measurements, the concept of morphomechanics with a comprehensive mechanism
clarification is proposed. In this regard, thermoresponsive strengthened mechanical
properties are attributed
to the entanglement of PNIPAM
chains and the formation of multiple noncovalent interactions, mainly hydrogen
bonds. The enhanced fracture energy by crack multifurcation is related to the disruption
of weak interfaces between two separated phases.


Augmented reality provides solutions and benefits in many areas of knowledge. In the field of education, we can apply this technology for learning contents and for developing skills in an engaging way. Engineering educators are aware of the need for spatial vision skills in order to project and interpret drawings and plans. We propose an educational kit for use at university-level with contents based on engineering graphics. Preliminary results of a validation study with first year Mechanical Engineering students indicate that this augmented reality training has a positive impact on students' spatial ability and learning for basic engineering graphics contents.


Microalgae are tiny photosynthetic plants. Nowadays, microalgae are being used as nutrient-dense foods and sources of fine chemicals. They have significant amounts of lipid, carotenoids, vitamins, protein, minerals, chlorophyll, and pigments. Oil extraction from algae is a hotly debated topic currently because introducing an efficient method could decrease the process cost. This can determine the sustainability of algae-based foods. Scientific research works show that solvent extraction using chloroform/methanol (2:1) mixture is one of the efficient methods for oil extraction from algal cells, but both methanol and chloroform are toxic solvents, and therefore, the extracted oil will not be suitable for food application. In this paper, the effect of two food grade solvents (hexane and hexane/ isopropanol) on oil extraction yield from microalgae Dunaliella sp. was investigated and the results were compared with chloroform/methanol (2:1) extraction yield. It was observed that the oil extraction yield using hexane, hexane/isopropanol (3:2) and chloroform/methanol (2:1) mixture were 5.4, 13.93, and 17.5 (% w/w, dry basis), respectively. The fatty acid profile derived from GC illustrated that the palmitic (36.62%), oleic (18.62%), and stearic acids (19.08%) form the main portion of fatty acid composition of microalgae Dunalliela sp. oil. It was concluded that, the addition of isopropanol as polar solvent could increase the extraction yield significantly. Isopropanol solves cell wall phospholipids and enhances the release of intercellular lipids, which improves accessing of hexane to fatty acids. Keywords—Fatty acid profile, Microalgae, Oil extraction, Polar solvent.


This paper describes the experiments ran for SemEval-2022 Task 2, subtask A, zero-shot and one-shot settings for idiomaticity detection. Our main approach is based on fine-tuning transformer-based language models as a baseline to perform binary classification. Our system, CardiffNLP-Metaphor, ranked 8th and 7th (respectively on zero- and one-shot settings on this task. Our main contribution lies in the extensive evaluation of transformer-based language models and various configurations, showing, among others, the potential of large multilingual models over base monolingual models. Moreover, we analyse the impact of various input parameters, which offer interesting insights on how language models work in practice.


OBJECTIVE
Assessing the relationship between happiness and social support networks in Colombia.

METHODOLOGY
A cross-sectional, observational study was carried out on 7,335 people living in an urban area (Bogotá) and a rural area (Ubaté) who had been stratified by age, economic status and last year of schooling. A questionnaire asked about the people's perception of their current mood and how they received support when they had problems.

RESULTS
Average age was 31; 31 % perceived that they were happy. God provided the greatest support (91 % prevalence), followed by oneself (77 %), a friend (60 %), mother (57 %) and a brother/sister (50 %). The greater the support network, the greater the amount of perceived happiness (66 OR; 5-9 95%CI).

CONCLUSIONS
A strong relationship between happiness and social support networks promotes people's well being.


An investigation is underway to determine the mechanisms which contribute to the enhanced performance of electro-thermal chemical (ETC) ignition systems. Measurements of the plasma properties are difficult due to the hot, low density, ionized plasma flow which interfered with the data acquisition system. The present study utilizes an infrared (IR) camera to measure the temperature of both a copper disk and propellant grains exposed to a plasma. Use of the IR camera minimizes the electrical noise interference experienced in past experiments. The copper disk was used to determine the total energy flux produced by the plasma and the propellant grains were used to determine the energy flux absorbed by the propellant. A larger average energy appears to be transferred to JA2 compared to M30 propellant with similar plasma energy inputs. While it is likely that this is due to the higher absorption coefficient of JA2, the JA2 experiments also showed a significant amount of particles on the propellant face which may have contributed to the higher energy measured.


Recently proposed electric springs (ESs), as alternatives to conventional energy storage systems, are used to regulate bus voltages of ac microgrids with few or even no battery packs. Pioneering works have demonstrated the merits of ES in reducing the infrastructure and maintenance costs of expensive battery packs while still improving the power quality, stability, and dynamic responses of microgrids. However, distribution power loss reduction of islanded ac microgrids by controlling distributed ES has never been investigated. The major novel contribution of this article is to extend the function of ES, along with emerging high-speed communication techniques, to enhance the rate of energy utilization in islanded ac microgrids. A predictive control in the power flow router calculates and feeds the optimal bus voltage references to each ES, which in turn controls the respective distribution power flow based on real-time power measurements. This allows the distributed ES to mitigate the overall distribution power loss of the islanded ac microgrid. Simulation results verified the significant power loss reductions in various structures of islanded ac microgrids with the distributed ES under the proposed predictive control. Experimental results also validate the effectiveness of the distributed ES operating under the predictive control in reducing the distribution power loss of a 3-bus and a 5-bus islanded ac microgrid.


During May 12th 2008 Wenchuan earthquake with the magnitude of 8.0, a 4-span rigid frame arch bridge named as Xiaoyudong Bridge which situated close to the epicenter was hit by strong ground motion and was severely damaged. The earthquake response analysis of the bridge was made using FE software MIDAS based on recorded ground motion during the Wenchuan earthquake in this paper. The study showed that the main and minor arch legs on the both ends piers were weak links which may be damaged firstly under strong ground motion. The next damage at the pier with weakest horizontal stiffness is one of the important reasons causing the bridge collapsed. This paper will introduce our work on those respects and some drawn conclusions.


Objectives: The aim of this work is to carry out an economic evaluation of the intra-articular (i.a.) use of the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy in the short period treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Recently the scientific literature has shown the effectiveness of this treatment. The comparator adopted is the Hyaluronic acid (HA) which represents the standard i.a. therapy.
Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using a decision tree model. The effectiveness outcomes are reported in terms of Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). The costs are reported in Euro (€) currency evaluated in 2016. Deterministic and probabilistic sensibility analyses are reported in order to evaluate the robustness of the results and account for the different sources of uncertainty.
Results: The PRP therapy results more costly but also more effective than HA. Using a Willingness to pay thresholds of € 10,000/QALY, the PRP is cost-effective with respect to HA, for patient with moderate to severe knee OA, presenting an Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) of €760 per QALY.


Reviews into teacher education and reform measures, such as implementing professional standards for teachers, are designed to raise the quality of education. Such reviews and reforms also target preservice teachers; hence universities examine their teacher education programs to address these issues, including developing programs that are current with the literature. Over the past fifteen years, concerns have arisen about Australian early adolescents and their disengagement from the schooling system, their "at risk" behaviour and their need for social, emotional and academic support. These concerns have prompted a middle schooling movement in Australia with the literature recognising a need for specialised middle school teachers. As a result, various universities have responded by developing courses specifically designed to graduate teachers who possess the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge for engaging early adolescent learners. This mixed-method study analysed the responses of preservice teachers from three universities across two states in Australia near the completion of their middle years teacher preparation program. The three aims of the study were to: (1) investigate final-year preservice teachers' perceptions of their confidence to teach in the middle years of schooling; (2) analyse the experiences included in their teacher preparation course that made them feel confident; and (3) describe strategies for enhancing middle schooling teacher education preparation. Data were gathered from final-year preservice teachers (n=142) using a survey that was developed in response to middle schooling literature and the Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers (Queensland College of Teachers, 2006). A questionnaire collected extended information about the participants' (n=142) experiences that made them feel confident. It also gathered information about strategies for enhancing middle years teacher preparation. One-to-one, 45-minute interviews (n=10) were conducted to elicit in-depth responses aligned with the research aims. Quantitative results indicated that the majority of preservice teachers (n=142) claimed confidence associated with survey items relating to creating a positive classroom environment (range: 70-97%), developing positive relationships for teaching (71-98%), pedagogical knowledge for teaching (72-95%), and implementation of teaching (70-91%). Qualitative findings suggested that the experiences that assisted them to be confident for teaching were practicum and associated field studies coursework, a positive mentor teacher, specifically designed middle years subjects, the pedagogical approaches of university staff, and other real-world experiences such as volunteering in schools and participating in professional development alongside their mentors. This study demonstrated that universities presenting middle years teacher preparation need to consider: the quality of the practicum experience; the suitability of mentor teachers; the significance and practicalities of middle years subjects; university lecturers' modelling of pedagogical practices; and the inclusion of real-world learning experiences. Although the findings of this study provided evidence as to how preservice teacher confidence for teaching has been influenced by their middle schooling teacher preparation, further research is required to investigate how confidence translates into practice within their first years of teaching.


Developing a reliable model to identify the sea state is significant for the autonomous ship. This paper introduces a novel deep neural network model (SeaStateNet) to estimate the sea state based on the ship motion data from dynamically positioned vessels. The SeaStateNet mainly consists of three components: an Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network to capture the long dependency in the ship motion data; a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract time-invariant features; and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block to extract frequency features. A feature fusion layer is designed to learn the degree affected by each component. The proposed model is applied directly to the raw time series data, without needing of any hand-engineered features. A sensitivity analysis (SA) method is applied to assess the influence of data preprocessing. Through benchmark test and experiment on ship motion dataset, SeaStateNet is verified effective for sea state estimation. The investigation on real-time test further shows the practicality of the proposed model.


Thoracotomy is one of the most painful surgical procedures known. Chronic pain in the postoperative period after thoracotomy is a common complication. Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) is a chronic pain with neuropathic and non-neuropathic components, continuing after 2 months of thoracotomy, causing disability by affecting the daily activities and functions of patients. Patients generally describe neuropathic symptoms such as hyperalgesia, allodynia, hypoesthesia at the site of the incision or related dermatomes. Etiology includes preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative factors. Although the mechanism of PTPS formation is not clear yet, the most common cause is the intercostal nerve injury. PTPS treatment is complex because of the neuropathic component of the pain. The risk of PTPS formation can be reduced by controlling early pain before the onset of the disease. When pain occurs, medical treatments are implemented and also minimally invasive interventional procedures could be performed if necessary.


Cerebellar long-term depression (LTD) requires protein kinase C (PKC)-regulated interactions between glutamate receptor subunit GluR2 and other postsynaptic proteins. Chung et al. found that LTD could not be elicited in cultured Purkinje cells from mice that were deficient in GluR2. LTD in cells from these mice could be rescued with GluR2, but not by mutant GluR2 lacking its PKC phosphorylation site. H. J. Chung, J. P. Steinberg, R. L. Huganir, D. J. Linden, Requirement of AMPA receptor GluR2 phosphorylation for cerebellar long-term depression. Science 300, 1751-1755 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


ROT1 is an essential gene that has been related to cell wall biosynthesis, the actin cytoskeleton and protein folding. In order to help to understand its molecular function, we carried out a characterization of the Rot1 protein. It is primarily located at the endoplasmic reticulum–nuclear membrane facing the lumen. Rot1 migrates more slowly than expected, which might suggest post‐translational modification. Our results indicate that Rot1 is a protein that is neither GPI‐anchored nor O‐glycosylated. In contrast, it is N‐glycosylated. By a directed mutagenesis of several Asn residues, we identified that the protein is simultaneously glycosylated at N103, N107 and N139. Although the mutation of these three N sites is not lethal, cellular growth is impaired. Sequence analysis predicts a transmembrane domain at the C‐terminus. This fragment affects neither the targeting of the Rot1 protein to the ER nor its N‐glycosylation, although it is important for the anchoring of the protein to the membrane and for its functionality. The existence of a signal sequence at the N‐terminus has been suggested. However, deletion of this fragment impedes neither translocation to the ER nor N‐glycosylation, but it is required for cell viability. Finally, we found that Rot1 is translocated to the ER by an SRP‐independent post‐translational mechanism which depends on Sec62. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The present study is the result of an experience in the hospital Correia Picanço in Recife, Pernambuco Federal State, a reference hospital for HIV patients. The objective of this investigation is to supply the discrepancy of information on elderly carriers of HIV. This is a quantitative, transversal and retrospective research. A diagram form was used to organize the data collected from 46 medical records. Results showed that there was an increase on the number of women, especially married women, heterosexuals, and elderly infected by HIV. The study also showed an increase on the number of infections through sexual contact and the predominance of carriers who were undereducated. It was also observed that the medical records were incomplete. The conclusion was that preventive education programs have to be elaborated in order to reach the population in general, including the elderly.


Indigenous Chicken(IC) ( Gallus domestica ) is increasingly becoming an essential component of diets in urban centers. This increase in demand is accompanied by an increase in production by smallholder farmers. These farmers rely on the indigenous chicken for food security, household income, employment and quick funds in emergencies. The profit associated with the production of indigenous chicken, constitutes part of the contribution of the Agriculture sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Kenya. However, in Makueni County there is little information on the amount of profit from production of IC or its relationship with socioeconomic factors. The objectives of this study was to calculate the profit of IC in Makueni and to determine the relationship between socio economic factors and profit from IC.A total of 130 households were sampled using multi stage sampling after which data was collected using a pre tested questionnaire in a house hold survey. These data was then analysed using budgetary analysis and multiple regression in STATA 11. The results showed that the profit from IC production in Makueni was Ksh. 5347/100 birds (1US$= Ksh86.70).Age, education, access to credit, flock size, price and years in farmer group had a significant relationship with the profit. Therefore it is recommended to form marketing groups that will engage in contractual agreements with final buyers of indigenous chicken. Key words: Indigenous chicken, food security, profitability, flock size, credit


In this paper, we introduce a notion that we call a hypergroup; this notion captures the natural algebraic structure possessed by the set of equivalence classes of irreducible bifinite bimodules over a II 1 factor. After developing some basic facts concerning bimodules over II 1 factors, we discuss abstract hypergroups. To make contact with the problem of what numbers can arise as index-values of subfactors of a given II 1 factor with trivial relative commutant, we define the notion of a dimension function on a hypergroup, and prove that every finite hypergroup admits a unique dimension function, we then give some nontrivial examples of hypergroups, some of which are related to the Jones subfactors of index 4cos 2 π/(2n+1). In the last section, we study the hypergroup invariant corresponding to a bifinite module, which is used, among other things, to obtain a transparent proof of a strengthened version of what Ocneanu terms 'the crossed-product remembering the group'.


Liquid droplets impacting on liquid films is common in many industrial and natural processes. It is crucial to understand the impact of droplets on a liquid film resting on soft deformable substrates in some of the applications including 3D printing of engineering structures, prosthetic implants and tissue engineering. By recognizing the practical relevance of soft-substrates, we present an experimental investigation to assess the role of deformable substrates on bouncing-to-merging transition in droplet impact on the liquid film. First, we prepared polyacrylamide (PAAm) soft-gel substrates with various "softness" (i.e., Young's modulus) by modulating the concentration of a crosslinker, N,N-methylene-bis-acrylamide (BIS). We found that the Young's modulus of PAAm initially increases with the concentration of crosslinker, and subsequently becomes almost constant due to inhomogeneity of crosslinking. Next, through the experiments of droplet impact on the liquid film resting on soft substrates with different Young's moduli, we observe that the early merging and corresponding bouncing-to-merging transitional boundaries remain unaffected by the "softness" since such merging occurs further away from the substrate. However, the late merging, which appears during the retraction process of the deformed droplet, occurs relatively close to the substrate, and hence is found to be significantly affected by its "softness". A scaling analysis is presented to quantify the role of change in Young's modulus of the substrate on late merging, which is supported by the experimental data.


This paper has focused on analyzing the nature of the liquidity and its impact of profitability from listed companies in Sri Lanka. In this study an attempt has been made to analyze the liquidity and its impact on profit earning capacity during 2008 to 2012.To evaluate the profitability it has been used the ratio of ROE and ROA. Based on the nature of data collection through different tools, the following statistical techniques were employed: Descriptive analysis, correlation and regression. The research findings show that there is no significant relationship between liquidity and profitability. These results are consistent with prior empirical studies.


Abstract Objective: Early involvement of specialists is associated with improved survival in ovarian cancer patients. However, only 33–60% of patients are currently being referred. A more effective strategy to get patients with an elevated risk of ovarian cancer to gynecologic oncologists is needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of a multivariate index assay, OVA1*, by assessing its ability to drive referral of ovarian cancer patients to gynecologic oncologists prior to their first surgical intervention. Research design and methods: Information on patients who received a multivariate index assay was collected retrospectively from 22 obstetricians/gynecologists through a chart review. Physicians were recruited from a variety of practices and hospitals representing major geographic regions within the United States. Clinical utility of the multivariate index assay was assessed by examining the rate at which obstetricians/gynecologists involved a gynecologic oncologist for patients with elevated-risk results prior to first surgical intervention. Results: A total of 136 patients with elevated-risk assay results were assessed, of whom 122 underwent surgery to remove an adnexal mass. Prior to surgery, 98 (80%) of the patients were referred to a gynecologic oncologist with an additional 11 (9%) having a gynecologic oncologist available if required by intra-operative findings. Primary ovarian cancer was found in 65 (53%) patients, and gynecologic oncologists performed 61 (94%) of the initial surgeries these patients. Similar results were found in premenopausal and postmenopausal patients. Conclusions: A high proportion of patients with elevated-risk assay results were referred to a gynecologic oncologist prior to their initial surgery. Nearly all of the patients who had primary ovarian malignancies were appropriately referred to gynecologic oncologists, highlighting the clinical utility of the multivariate index assay. Nearly all patients identified with ovarian cancer received their initial surgery by a gynecologic oncologist – demonstrating a higher rate of gynecologic oncologist involvement in comparison to past studies. The study may be limited by unintentional bias in physician response and recall.


ABSTRACT Antimicrobial catheter lock therapy is practiced to prevent lumenal-sourced infections of central venous catheters. Citrate has been used clinically as an anticoagulant in heparin-free catheter locks. Ethanol has also been widely studied as an antimicrobial lock solution component. This study reports on the synergy of glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) with citrate and ethanol in rapidly eradicating methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans biofilms in an in vitro model for catheter biofilm colonization. GTN has a long history of intravenous use as a hypotensive agent. It is potentially attractive as a component of a catheter lock solution because its physiologic half-life is quite short and its metabolic pathways are known. A lock containing 7% citrate and 20% ethanol required 0.01% GTN to fully eradicate biofilms of all test organisms within 2 h in the model. This GTN concentration is below the levels where clinically significant hypotensive effects are expected.


This paper presents measurements of 10 kHz OH planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) with an objective to study the interaction of effusion cooling with the flame and hot combustion products in the liquid fueled combustor. The combustor rig is a single sector representation a rich-burn/quick-quench/lean-burn (RQL) configuration. It consists of a swirl nozzle, dilution, and effusion jets. The rig is operated under realistic aircraft conditions, including elevated combustor inlet temperature, and elevated pressure. The PLIF laser sheet was arranged perpendicular and parallel to the liner at distinct liner locations. Parametric variations of important parameters, namely equivalence ratio, and effusion cooling air blowing ratio are conducted to investigate their effect on flame-effusion jet interactions. The PLIF images were analyzed using several data reduction techniques to de-noise the images and identify patterns in the effusion jet-flame interactions. Results show that the effusion jets are highly unsteady, interacting strongly with the turbulent flame from the swirl nozzle and the dilution jets. This work is an extension of recent effusion film mixing studies that were performed with acetone PLIF under non-reacting conditions.


We examined bacterioplankton abundance and metabolic characteristics in northern San Francisco Bay, California during spring and summer 1996 at three sites: Central Bay, Suisun Bay and the Sacramento River. These sites spanned a salinity gradient from marine to freshwater, and sampling occurred during a period of seasonally declining river flow. The microbial measures included radio-labeled amino acid uptake (L-leucine, L-proline, L-serine), ectoenzyme activity (aminopeptidase and 13-D-glucosidase), and bacterial abundance using l um filters to separate free from particle-associated bacteria. We observed a seasonal decline in all bacterial metabolic measures at all stations, suggesting that a system-wide variable may be important in controlling bacterial activity. One such variable is freshwater flow into the Bay (as a proxy for organic matter flux), which positively covaried with all metabolic measures. We also observed a sharp decline in particle-associated bacteria in Suisun Bay and the Sacramento River between July and August. This may be due to combined effects of declining nutritive value of the aging particles, and increasing grazing pressure by benthic filter feeders. Aminopeptidase activity was positively related to increasing salinity and 13-D-glucosidase was negatively related to increasing salinity, indicating a gradient in the relative quality of organic matter from carbohydrate-rich riverine to protein-rich oceanic materiaL Overall, Suisun Bay had the highest proportion of particle-associated bacteria (avg. 49%), followed by Sacramento River (avg, 36%) and Central Bay (avg. 11%), Particles were the sites of enhanced ectoenzyme activity, but not amino acid incorporation. Therefore bacteria may be actively dissolving the particulate organic matter but their growth rates are not significantly enhanced on particles.


A new finishing technique called ultrasonic-assisted magnetic abrasive finishing integrates ultrasonic vibration with magnetic abrasive finishing process for finishing of workpiece surface more efficiently as compared to magnetic abrasive finishing in the nanometer range. During finishing, two types of forces are generated in ultrasonic-assisted magnetic abrasive finishing, namely, a normal force (indentation force) and a tangential force (cutting force) that produces a torque. The finishing forces have direct control on the rate of change of surface roughness and material removal rate of the workpiece surface. This article deals with the theoretical modeling of the normal force and the finishing torque based on the process physics. In this work, finite element simulations of the electromagnet were performed to calculate a magnetic flux density in the working zone; they were also used to evaluate the normal force on the workpiece surface. The theory of friction for the abrasion of metals was applied together with the effect of ultrasonic vibration to calculate the finishing torque. The developed model predicts the normal force and finishing torque in ultrasonic-assisted magnetic abrasive finishing as functions of the supply voltage, working gap and concentration of abrasive particles in a flexible magnetic abrasive brush. A comparison of theoretical and experimental results is performed to validate the proposed model.


This paper examines the role of work-life balance practices (WLB) in explaining the "paradox of the contented female worker". After establishing that females report higher levels of job satisfaction than men in the UK, we test whether firm characteristics such as WLB and gender segregation boost the satisfaction of women proportionately more than that of men, thereby explaining why the former are reportedly happier. The results prove that WLB practices increase the likelihood of reporting higher satisfaction but similarly for both demographic groups thereby reducing the gender gap in job satisfaction only slightly. Still, the results indicate that WLB practices at the forefront of worker welfare policy improve the wellbeing of the workforce. Experiments with firm-fixed effects allowed by the matched dimension of the data reveal that firm effects are relevant but they only explain a half of the gender gap in job satisfaction, suggesting that the other half may be due to individual heterogeneity.


The cross-border operation of individuals and business brings about the problems of double taxation. Long time ago countries resorted to conclusion of bilateral treaties in the attempt to eliminate these obstacles to movement and trade. Besides unilateral measures, double taxation treaties are an important instrument in today's taxation policy of many countries. In the same time double taxation treaties are also identified as tax obstacles, especially in the area of company taxation in the single market. The EU must consider possible conflicts between the EC Treaty and the bilateral double taxation treaties that Member States have concluded with each other and with third countries. It is a part of EU general strategy and policy of addressing the tax problems. Described situation requires urgent solution and it is possible to find several proposals in this field. Although this proposals can be divided in two main groups – namely, positive and negative integration it is clear that mentioned conflict(s) can not be resolved through negative integration (of direct taxes within the EU by ECJ). But, the double taxation agreements of Member States will continue to be subject to review by the ECJ and there are certain rulings in this area that must be pointed out. The second group of solution is positive integration is consisted of several (possible) activities. Not third, but more intermediate solution is also suggested. Since Amsterdam Treaty introduced and Nice Treaty developed further the possibilities for closer cooperation between sub-groups of "compatible" member states it is suggested "closer cooperation" because it might provide a moving forward in the area of direct taxation and cross-border tax problems.


This paper considers the impact of automatic segmentation on the fully-automatic, semi-supervised training of automatic speech recog-nition (ASR) systems for five-lingual code-switched (CS) speech. Four automatic segmentation techniques were evaluated in terms ofthe recognition performance of an ASR system trained on the resulting segments in a semi-supervised manner. For comparative purposesa semi-supervised syste Three of these use a newly proposed convolutional neural network (CNN) model for framewise classification,and include a novel form of HMM smoothing of the CNN outputs. Automatic segmentation was applied in combination with automaticspeaker diarization. The best-performing segmentation technique was also evaluated without speaker diarization. An evaluation basedon 248 unsegmented soap opera episodes indicated that voice activity detection (VAD) based on a CNN followed by Gaussian mixturemodel-hidden Markov model smoothing (CNN-GMM-HMM) yields the best ASR performance. The semi-supervised system trainedwith the best automatic segmentation achieved an overall WER improvement of 1.1% absolute over a semi-supervised system trainedwith manually created segments. Furthermore, we found that recognition rates improved even further when the automatic segmentationwas used in conjunction with speaker diarization.


Two books have recently been published, both named Media Art History, one edited by Peter Weibel and the other edited by Oliver Grau. It seems that, although these books approach media art through differing frameworks, both grapple with the same overarching question: How can media art and interaction be thought about or written about through an art history paradigm? This paper enters into this discussion by firstly investigates some of the problems associated with including media art and interaction in a discourse built upon ideas of static objects, aesthetic distance and subject/object distinctions. Secondly, it investigates the way in which the concepts that new media theorists invent as solutions to these problems may retrospectively change the way we think about art history and the history of reception. There is of course a strong history of interaction in art, its beginnings seen quite clearly in Kinetic Art and perhaps earlier in some manifestations of Dada. Although media art has its origins in these well-known forms, it has become significantly bifurcated from this type of aesthetic. The argument is that to draw upon the traditional modes of writing about art is to impoverish the interactive and temporal qualities of media art. In a sense we reduce the work of media art to fit into the pre-established tropes of an art history discourse. Instead, we need to write about media on its own terms, as a form that invents new concepts, and which, as a result, may inform the more traditional framework of art history.


ABSTRACT Russin, J. S., Guo, B. Z., Tubajika, K. M., Brown, R. L., Cleveland, T. E., and Widstrom, N. W. 1997. Comparison of kernel wax from corn genotypes resistant or susceptible to Aspergillus flavus. Phytopathology 87: 529-533.Kernels of corn genotype GT-MAS: gk are resistant to Aspergillus flavus. Earlier studies showed that this resistance is due in part to kernel pericarp wax. Experiments were conducted to compare wax from GTMAS: gk kernels with that from kernels of several susceptible commercial hybrids. GT-MAS: gk had more pericarp wax than did the susceptible hybrids. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that GT-MAS: gk kernels appeared rough and showed abundant wax deposits on kernel surfaces. Susceptible kernels appeared much more smooth and lacked the abundant surface deposits observed in GT-MAS: gk. In vitro bioassays showed that kernel wax from GT-MAS: gk reduced A. flavus colony diameter by 35%. Colony diameters on a medium amended with wax from susceptible kernels did not differ from those of controls. Thin-layer chromatography and analyses of chromatograms using NIH Image software showed a distinctive composition for GT-MAS: gk kernel wax. Chromatograms of wax from GT-MAS: gk contained a peak unique to this genotype, but also lacked a peak common to all susceptible hybrids. This is the first report of specific kernel factors involved in resistance to A. flavus in corn.


In recent years, the extreme weather has caused a serious effect to the engineering, strong rainfall is the important reason result in debris flow frequent happens. For the problem of slope stability under the condition of strong rainfall, this paper adopted the strength reduction by FEM, combining case of slope, analyzed the causes the bedrock soften under the condition of normal and strong rainfall separately, band slope appears the phenomenon of saturated water softening under strong rainfall, an d its physical mechanical properties and strength greatly reduce. The conclusion can be obtained that the problem of slop safety and stability is caused by bedrock softening. Following bedrock strength decreases by step, then slop loses safety and stability.


An experimental study was performed to determine the heat transfer characteristics of a premixed butane/air round flame jet, of low Reynolds number, impinging upwards normally on a flat rectangular plate. The effects of the exit Reynolds number and equivalence ratio of the flame jet, and the distance between the nozzle and the impingement plate, on the thermal performance of the jet were examined. The range of Reynolds numbers was selected to cover the laminar to the transitional flow conditions. The investigations were conducted with equivalence ratios corresponding to the fuel-rich, stoichiometric, and fuel-lean conditions. The nozzle-plate distance was varied from 1d to 8d. Within the range of Reynolds numbers investigated, the highest Nusselt numbers were obtained at the equivalence ratio of φ = 0.85 when the nozzle-plate distance was maintained at 5d. At the stoichiometric condition, the highest Nusselt number was obtained at the nozzle- plate distance of 6d. Nondimensional correlations were obtained...


Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of male cancer deaths due to disease progression to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Androgen receptor (AR) splice variants including AR-V7 function as constitutively active transcription factors in CRPC cells, thereby promoting resistance to AR-targeted therapies. To date, there are no AR variant specific treatments for CRPC. Here we report that the splicing of AR variants AR-V7 as well as AR-V1 and AR-V9 is regulated coordinately by a single polyadenylation signal in AR intron 3. Blocking this signal with morpholino technology or silencing of the polyadenylation factor CPSF1 caused a splice switch that inhibited expression of AR variants and blocked androgen-independent growth of CRPC cells. Our findings support the development of new therapies targeting the polyadenylation signal in AR intron 3 as a strategy to prevent expression of a broad array of AR variants in CRPC.


We introduce affine Volterra processes, defined as solutions of certain stochastic convolution equations with affine coefficients. Classical affine diffusions constitute a special case, but affine Volterra processes are neither semimartingales, nor Markov processes in general. We provide explicit exponential-affine representations of the Fourier-Laplace functional in terms of the solution of an associated system of deterministic integral equations of convolution type, extending well-known formulas for classical affine diffusions. For specific state spaces, we prove existence, uniqueness, and invariance properties of solutions of the corresponding stochastic convolution equations. Our arguments avoid infinite-dimensional stochastic analysis as well as stochastic integration with respect to non-semimartingales, relying instead on tools from the theory of finite-dimensional deterministic convolution equations. Our findings generalize and clarify recent results in the literature on rough volatility models in finance.


Introduction The aim of this study was to explore the age at which socioeconomic inequalities in child height emerge among children from a middle-income country. Methods Using data from the 2004 Pelotas cohort study from Brazil we modelled individual height growth trajectories in 2106 boys and 1947 girls from birth to 48 months using a linear spline mixed effects model. We examined the associations of maternal education on birth length and length/height growth and explored the effect of adjusting for confounding factors. Results We showed linear and positive associations of maternal education with birth length and length/height growth rates in the first four years of life. By age four, the mean height of boys in the lowest education category was 100.98 cm (SE=0.21) compared with 104.23 cm (SE=0.12) in the highest education category. The equivalent predicted heights at age four for girls were 100.08 cm (SE=0.25) and 103.00 cm (SE=0.15) in the lowest and highest education categories respectively. Thus for both boys and girls there was on average a 3 cm difference between the extreme maternal education categories. Differences in postnatal growth rates persisted in the adjusted analyses. Conclusion Our data demonstrate an increase in the absolute and relative inequality in height after birth indicating that height inequality, which was already present at birth, widened considerably through childhood growth. These findings differ from studies in high income countries where height inequalities at birth exist but do not widen postnatally. Our results highlight the importance of postnatal environment on infant and childhood growth in a middle-income setting.


There are several distinct failure modes for overoptimization of systems on the basis of metrics. This occurs when a metric which can be used to improve a system is used to an extent that further optimization is ineffective or harmful, and is sometimes termed Goodhart's Law. This class of failure is often poorly understood, partly because terminology for discussing them is ambiguous, and partly because discussion using this ambiguous terminology ignores distinctions between different failure modes of this general type. This paper expands on an earlier discussion by Garrabrant, which notes there are "(at least) four different mechanisms" that relate to Goodhart's Law. This paper is intended to explore these mechanisms further, and specify more clearly how they occur. This discussion should be helpful in better understanding these types of failures in economic regulation, in public policy, in machine learning, and in Artificial Intelligence alignment. The importance of Goodhart effects depends on the amount of power directed towards optimizing the proxy, and so the increased optimization power offered by artificial intelligence makes it especially critical for that field.


Constitutive low-level vancomycin resistance is found intrinsically in certain enterococcal species and is encoded by vanC ligase genes. These intrinsically vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) will be referred to as VANC VRE. A prospective study to determine the clinical and epidemiologic significance of VANC VRE was conducted. VANC VRE were recovered from the stools of 34 of 601 (5.7%) patients, a rate similar to that obtained for the stools of 100 outpatients in the community (5%). VANC VRE were also isolated from the nonstool specimens of 9 of 538 patients (1.7%), including two patients with bacteremia. No VRE of the vanA or vanB genotypes were detected in nonstool specimens. Eighty-two hospital contacts of the first 23 patients found to be colonized or infected with VANC VRE were screened, and 6 contacts were found to be gastrointestinal carriers of VANC VRE. However, typing of isolates from these 6 contacts by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis with SmaI showed the isolates to be unique and different from those recovered from the index patients. In fact, all VANC VRE isolates from different patients in this study were unique. A case-control study with patients who were negative when screened for VANC VRE as controls failed to identify any risk factor associated with colonization or infection with this organism. VANC VRE were infrequently recovered from clinical specimens but were occasionally found as part of the normal stool flora. Since no transmission between patients was documented, additional isolation procedures may not be necessary for patients colonized or infected with VANC VRE.


Image storyboards of films and videos are useful for quick browsing and automatic video processing. A common approach for producing image storyboards is to display a set of selected key‐frames in temporal order, which has been widely used for 2D video data. However, such an approach cannot be applied for 3D animation data because different information is revealed by changing parameters such as the viewing angle and the duration of the animation. Also, the interests of the viewer may be different from person to person. As a result, it is difficult to draw a single image that perfectly abstracts the entire 3D animation data. In this paper, we propose a system that allows users to interactively browse an animation and produce a comic sequence out of it. Each snapshot in the comic optimally visualizes a duration of the original animation, taking into account the geometry and motion of the characters and objects in the scene. This is achieved by a novel algorithm that automatically produces a hierarchy of snapshots from the input animation. Our user interface allows users to arrange the snapshots according to the complexity of the movements by the characters and objects, the duration of the animation and the page area to visualize the comic sequence. Our system is useful for quickly browsing through a large amount of animation data and semi‐automatically synthesizing a storyboard from a long sequence of animation.


This paper presents a novel approach to the analysis of the overtraining phenomenon in pattern classifiers. A nonlinearity measure /spl Nscr/ is introduced which relates the shape of the classification function to the generalization capability of a classifier. Experiments using the k-nearest neighbour rule, a neural classifier and the quadratic classifier show that the introduced measure /spl Nscr/ can be used to study the overtraining behaviour of a classifier. Moreover /spl Nscr/ shows to be a predictor for the local sensitivity of a classifier. Classifiers that have a small local sensitivity are shown to have a low nonlinearity whereas an increased nonlinearity indicates an increase in local sensitivity.


Recent theory and experiments have reported a reproducible tendency for the coexistence of microbial species under controlled environmental conditions. This observation has been explained in the context of competition for resources and metabolic complementarity given that, in microbial communities, many excreted by-products of metabolism may also be resources. Microbial communities therefore play a key role in promoting their own stability and in shaping the niches of the constituent taxa. We suggest that an intermediate level of organisation between the species and the community level may be pervasive, where tightly-knit metabolic interactions create discrete consortia that are stably maintained. We call these units Metabolically Cohesive Consortia (MeCoCos) and we discuss the environmental context in which we expect their formation, and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of their existence. We argue that the ability to identify MeCoCos would open new avenues to link the species-, community-, and ecosystem-level properties, with consequences for our understanding of microbial ecology and evolution, and an improved ability to predict ecosystem functioning in the wild.


Cotton production contributes considerably to Uzbekistan's export earnings. The various reforms implemented to increase the operational autonomy of agricultural producers considered the stability of cotton production, yet often at the expense of farm incomes. Options for improving the farm incomes can be achieved through modifications of the cotton policy settings. Such options are analyzed by replacing the present area-based yield prescriptions by tradable cotton targets between cotton-growing farms. As part of ongoing research, the findings indicate the scope for promoting such modification to tradable production targets as it would potentially increase farm revenues, cotton yields, crop diversification, and sustainable water use at the same level of cotton output as today. The net benefits would increase due to the difference in land fertility and location to irrigation canal between contracted farms. However, the sustainability of such policy modifications would depend on strong mechanisms for price negotiation and conflict resolution


The vast majority of the mass in the Milky Way (MW) is in dark matter (DM); we therefore cannot directly observe the MW mass distribution and have to use tracer populations in order to infer properties of the MW DM halo. However, MW halo tracers do not only feel the gravitational influence of the MW itself. Tracers can also be affected by MW satellites; Garavito-Camargo et al. (2109) demonstrate that the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) induces a density wake in the MW DM, resulting in large-scale kinematic patterns in the MW stellar halo. In this work, we use spherical harmonic expansion (SHE) of the velocity fields of simulated stellar halos in an effort to disentangle perturbations on large scales (e.g., due to the LMC itself, as well as the LMC-induced DM wake) and small scales (due to substructure). Using the Garavito-Camargo et al. simulations, we demonstrate how the different terms in the SHE of the stellar velocity field reflect the different wake components and show that these signatures are a strong function of the LMC mass. An exploration of model halos built from accreted dwarfs suggests that stellar debris from massive, recent accretion events can produce much more power in the velocity angular power spectra than the perturbation from the LMC-induced wake. We therefore consider two models for the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream—the most recent, massive accretion event in the MW apart from the LMC—and find that the angular power on large scales is generally dominated by the LMC-induced wake, even when Sgr is included. We conclude that SHE of the MW stellar halo velocity field may therefore be a useful tool in quantifying the response of the MW DM halo to the LMC's infall.


Oral microbiota consists of hundreds of different species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and archaea, important for oral health. Oral mycoses, mostly affecting mucosae, are mainly caused by the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. They become relevant in denture-wearers elderly people, in diabetic patients, and in immunocompromised individuals. Differently, bacteria are responsible for other pathologies, such as dental caries, gingivitis and periodontitis, which affect even immune-competent individuals. An appropriate oral hygiene can avoid (or at least ameliorate) such pathologies: the regular and correct use of toothbrush, toothpaste and mouthwash helps prevent oral infections. Interestingly, little or no information is available on the effects (if any) of mouthwashes on the composition of oral microbiota in healthy individuals. Therefore, by means of in vitro models, we assessed the effects of alcohol-free commercial mouthwashes, with different composition (4 with chlorhexidine digluconate, 1 with fluoride, 1 with essential oils, 1 with cetylpyridinium chloride and 1 with triclosan), on several virulence traits of C. albicans, and a group of viridans streptococci, commonly colonizing the oral cavity. For the study here described, a reference strain of C. albicans and of streptococci isolates from pharyngeal swabs were used. Chlorhexidine digluconate- and cetylpyridinium chloride-containing mouthwashes were the most effective in impairing C. albicans capacity to adhere to both abiotic and biotic surfaces, to elicit proinflammatory cytokine secretion by oral epithelial cells and to escape intracellular killing by phagocytes. In addition, these same mouthwashes were effective in impairing biofilm formation by a group of viridans streptococci that, notoriously, cooperate with the cariogenic S. mutans, facilitating the establishment of biofilm by the latter. Differently, these mouthwashes were ineffective against other viridans streptococci that are natural competitors of S. mutans. Finally, by an in vitro model of mixed biofilm, we showed that mouthwashes-treated S. salivarius overall failed to impair C. albicans capacity to form a biofilm. In conclusion, the results described here suggest that chlorhexidine- and cetylpyridinium-containing mouthwashes may be effective in regulating microbial homeostasis of the oral cavity, by providing a positive balance for oral health. On the other side, chlorhexidine has several side effects that must be considered when prescribing mouthwashes containing this molecule.


The analysis of water resources in Nepal identifies two critical impacts of climate change –GLOFs and variability of river runoff – both of which pose significant impacts not only to hydropower, but also to rural livelihoods and agriculture. Temperature differences are most pronounced during the dry winter season, and least during the height of the monsoon. Impacts on water resources and hydropower rank significantly higher than any other sector for several reasons. First, a number of impacts on water resources and hydropower are directly related to rising temperatures that have already been observed, and are projected to increase further over the coming decades. This includes glacier retreat that in turn causes both greater variability in stream flow and glacial lake outburst floods that pose significant risk to hydropower facilities, other infrastructure, and human settlements. GLOFs are not hypothetical; such events have already had significant impacts in Nepal. In this study over the Gandaki river basin, discharge of the rivers, temperature trends, and rainfall patterns are analyzed using data from meteorological stations of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Government of Nepal. Similarly the hydrological stations over the major glacier rivers of the basin are examined. In the study area, some hydropower stations and their energy production fluctuations over the seasons reflect the climate change impact to the hydro energy production in Nepal. Key words: Climate change; GLOF; Hhydropower; DHM DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v8i1-2.5108 J ournal of the Institute of Engineering Vol. 8, No. 1&2, 2010/2011 Page: 160-173 Uploaded Date : 20 July, 2011


A commonly held belief in the IS discipline is that rigour and relevance are contrary to each other and that addressing both is virtually impossible. It is also believed widely that the editorial practices of our premier conferences and journals over-emphasise rigour on the cost of relevance. However, while these two topics have been filled with numerous subjective discussions, more solid evidence into the true relationship between rigour and relevance and the impact of conference editors on this relationship is still outstanding. This paper contributes to this debate by deriving empirical evidence from a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the characteristics of the submissions and the reviewing practices of three recent IS conferences. It provides first insights into the actual relationship between rigour and relevance and into the role conference chairs play in balancing rigour and relevance. Besides the outcomes that the current set of evaluation criteria does not provide a straight forward proxy for relevance to practitioners, the paper offers two main contributions. First, empirical insights are provided that rigour and relevance do in fact not have to be mutually exclusive. Second, the editorial practices at conferences are skewed towards rigorous papers rather than relevant papers.


The nature of excess electrons has been studied in donor-acceptor (D-A) compounds based on substituted triarylamines and a nitrile-functionalized fluorene, by changing the substituents on the triarylamines and also the solvent polarity. We observed that both electron push-pull capability at the distant location in the amine donor unit and solvation in solvents of varying polarity significantly affect the nitrile ν(C≡N) vibrations of the fluorene acceptor unit in radical anions of these D-A compounds. Quantum calculations show that the push-pull capability translates the position of an excess electron while keeping its width relatively constant. On the other hand, solvation changes both, making an electron more compact in polar media. The current study points to the idea that solvation plays a more significant role in controlling the nature of excess electrons, while synthetic modification that influences electron push-pull capability enables further tuning.


The mouse decidua secretes many factors that act in a paracrine/autocrine manner to critically control uterine decidualization, neovascularization, and tissue remodeling that ensure proper establishment of pregnancy. The precise mechanisms that dictate intercellular communications among the uterine cells during early pregnancy remain unknown. We recently reported that conditional deletion of the gene encoding the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor 2 alpha (Hif2α) in mouse uterus led to infertility. Here, we report that HIF2α in mouse endometrial stromal cells (MESC) acts via the cellular trafficking regulator RAB27b to control the secretion of extracellular vesicles (EV) during decidualization. We also found that Hif2α-regulated pathways influence the biogenesis of EVs. Proteomic analysis of EVs secreted by decidualizing MESC revealed that they harbor a wide variety of protein cargoes whose composition changed as the decidualization process progressed. The EVs enhanced the differentiation capacity of MESC and the production of angiogenic factors by these cells. We also established that matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2), a prominent EV cargo protein, modulates uterine remodeling during decidualization. Collectively, our results support the concept that EVs are central to the mechanisms by which the decidual cells communicate with each other and other cell types within the uterus to facilitate successful establishment of pregnancy.


The reason why late degenerative arthritis developed in some patients who had sustained displaced bimalleolar fractures of the ankle was investigated. The roentgenograms indicated that incomplete reduction of the lateral malleolus and a residual talar tilt were present. When bimalleolar fractures were created in cadavera the talus could be anatomically repositioned only when the lateral malleolus was accurately reduced. Fifty-three patients with bimalleolar fractures were treated by anatomically fixing the lateral malleolus with a four-hole plate. There was an anatomical reduction of the talus and medial malleolus in each instance and there were no late cases of degenerative arthritis when these patients were followed for from six months to nine years. We concluded that the lateral malleolus is the key to the anatomical reduction of bimalleolar fractures, because the displacement of the talus faithfully followed that of the lateral malleolus.


In "Why Assessment?" (2009), Gerald Graff argues that the critical conversations arising from regular program assessment are often as important as the actual findings themselves: outcomes assessment, he writes, is not only fundamental to measuring students' performance, but potentially "transformative" in terms of creating a recognizable dialogue about — and a more lively institutional culture of — good teaching (153). Agreeing with Graff's claim, I argue that writing centers should take an active, if not central, role in the assessment of writing program outcomes by positioning themselves at the center of the evaluation process. My experiences as a writing center director involved in our university's less-than-three-year-old writing program assessment has led me to this conclusion.


The treatment of isolated SV40 mini-chromosomes by DNA-topoisomerase I leads to relaxation of DNA within a small fraction (2-5%) of mini-chromosomes strongly enriched in endogenous RNA-polymerase. The DNA supercoiling in the bulk of mini-chromosomes remained unchanged. The relaxable fraction proved to be specifically hypersensitive to DNAase I, but lost hypersensitivity after prior topoisomerase treatment. The DNA relaxation induced either by topoisomerase or DNAase I nicking and breaking led to almost a complete loss of proteins from this fraction while the DNA-protein interactions in the bulk of mini-chromosomes remained unchanged. Endogenous RNA-polymerase remained specifically enriched in these uncoated mini-chromosomes. It is concluded that (1) there is an elastic torsional strain in DNA within transcriptionally active mini-chromosomes, (2) DNA-protein interactions are altered within transcriptionally active mini-chromosomes, (3) there is evidence to indicate that local DNA conformational transitions in transcriptionally active chromatin are caused by DNA torsional strain.


Flexible micro‐supercapacitors, with high energy and power density, and using materials with a low environmental impact are attractive for next‐generation energy storage devices. Carbon‐based materials are widely used for supercapacitors but can be increased in energy density via combination with metal oxides. Red mud is an iron‐oxide‐rich by‐product of aluminum production, which needs to be more widely utilized to reduce its environmental damage. To achieve a flexible micro‐supercapacitor device with increased energy density, a laser‐induced graphene (LIG) supercapacitor is realized from a polyimide substrate, decorated with red‐mud nanoparticles (LIG‐RM), employing a solid‐state ionic liquid electrolyte with a mixture of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([EMI][TFSI]), and 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF4]). The fabricated two‐electrode flexible device, in an interdigitated planar design, with inkjet‐printed silver current collectors, has a high energy of 0.018 mWh cm−2 at a power of 0.66 mW cm−2, with 81% of capacitance retained after 4000 cycles and good resistance to bending and flexing. The high energy storage performance, brought about through the combination of graphene and red‐mud nanoparticles, which would—if not utilized—be an environmental liability, shows a promise as a material for future energy storage with low environmental impact.


This paper has three objectives. First, we present the mobility pattern for intergenerational education persistence. Second, we estimate the effect of parental education on children education by using instruments generated by the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and further explore the mechanisms of this causal relationship. Third, this study aims to investigate the impact of two education reforms on intergenerational transmission of education, including the Compulsory Education Law and college expansion reform. Although mobility seems increasing for the newer generation, the lowest mobility is found in rural areas for the lowest-educated group. Fathers' education has a significant impact on children education through the nurture effect, which is almost entirely driven by father's income. Finally, we find that popularizing compulsory education did not have a expected effect on increasing mobility. Moreover, the college expansion policy indeed reduces the intergenerational education mobility in urban areas, but this effect is not found in rural areas.


Cardiac glycosides have been used therapeutically for more than 3000 years. They have been the treatment of choice for congestive heart failure for many decades, and recently their clinical utility has been redefined. Despite increased telemetry and development of a sensitive radioimmune assay of serum digoxin levels and the availability of digoxin immune Fab fragments (Digibind) to treat digitalis-induced life-threatening dysrhythmias, toxicity remains a serious and common problem. A body of literature, old and new, speaks to the clear but potentially unrecognized role that digitalis-induced central nervous system symptoms can play in the early detection and management of digitalis toxicity.


Firstly, 3-DOF parallel robots were classified into different types from the view of moving form. A new method of analyzing the singularity of 3-DOF parallel robots was introduced, which is based on translational Jacobian matrix and rotational Jacobian matrix. The singularity of parallel robots with pure translational form and pure rotational form was introduced summarily. Secondly, the process of solving the plane-symmetry 3-RPS parallel robot with combined moving forms was focused on, through which translational Jacobian matrix and rotational Jacobian matrix were adopted. Finally, the solving results were compared with the axis-symmetry 3-RPS parallel robot, which showed more general singularity can be solved through the new method.


Chemical and mechanical stimuli are known to cause directed movement in a number of different cell types. Less prominently studied, direct current (DC) electric fields are known to induce a similar response. In this study, we report on DC electric field-induced chondrocyte migration and re-orientation. Galvanotaxis and galvanotropism, migration and shape change in response to applied DC electric fields, respectively, have been demonstrated in many cells. For instance, field strengths of 1–10 V/cm have been reported to induce migration in keratinocytes. corneal epithelial cells, bone cells, fibroblasts and neural cells [1,7,8,11]. Recently, we have demonstrated for the first time that chondrocytes exhibit a galvanotactic response, realigning and migrating in response to applied DC electric fields (6 V/cm) [6]. In cartilage, chondrocytes may see electric fields associated with streaming potentials estimated to be up to 15 V/cm with current densities of up to 0.1A/cm2 [2]. The aim of this study was to explore basic science aspects of directed cell migration under applied DC electric fields and to investigate the potential application of this phenomena for tissue engineering, healing and repair of cartilage. The ability to direct cell growth and function will have significant implications on the bioengineering of replacement tissues.


The indispensible nature of diversity management as a concept is no longer contestable, because it has become a major requirement for any organisation that wants to optimize the productivity of its workforce. Organisations are now faced with intense competition arising from a globalized workforce that necessitates the application of diversified management principles, culture and managerial thinking. One of the effects of a globalized workforce is that it places a high expectation on organisational managers on the need to achieve a higher premium on effective management of diversified workforce.  Globalization in this 21 st century has brought with it a higher than normal requirement to strike a balance between mono-cultural and multicultural workforce. This is caused by  heterogeneous background in terms of our biological and physical characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, educational,  political and  religious beliefs, just to mention a few.  It is on the basis of the above, that public and private organisations need to develop a culture that is compatible with diversification of workforce in order to remain relevant in a fast changing and globalized economy. This paper aims at evaluating the various ways in which diversity in organisations can be managed to ensure the survivability of global organisations in fulfilling the need of both the local market and the world market at large. Managing diversity effectively will unfold how to plan and develop a good diversity audit   in an organisation with a view to developing a robust program for your needs as well as creating an organisational culture that encourages diversity in order maximize the productivity of your workforce, build an all embracing multicultural work teams, design interesting meetings that work for everyone, and recruit, select, motivate, and promote a diverse workforce. Furthermore, managing diversity in organisations involves maintaining work-life balance; diversity sensitivity training; improved management information system on diversity; mentoring as part of staff development; and attitude change. Keywords: diversity; organisational survival; cultural diversity; mono-culture;  multi-culture


Malnutrition often occurs in patients with disabilities. The prevalence of malnutrition in geriatric rehabilitation was higher than in hospital (50.5% vs 38.7%) according to MNA classi- fication. Nutrition care management of patients with disabilities is often inappropriate. As nutri- tional status is associated with rehabilitation outcome, a combination of both rehabilitation and nutrition care management may be associated with a better outcome. This concept is defined as rehabilitation nutrition. Rehabilitation nutrition aims to assess patients according to the Interna- tional Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health including nutrition status and to practice a rehabilitation nutrition care plan under adequate prognosis prediction. It is not enough for pa- tients with disabilities to coordinate only their rehabilitation or clinical nutrition. Rehabilitation nutrition care management is important to improve their activities of daily living and quality of life. Sarcopenia is a syndrome characterized by progressive and generalized loss of skeletal mus- cle mass and strength. Primary sarcopenia is considered to be age-related when no other cause is evident, other than ageing itself. Secondary sarcopenia should be considered when one or more other causes are evident, such as activity-related sarcopenia, disease-related sarcopenia, or nutri- tion-related sarcopenia. Activity-related sarcopenia can result from bed rest, deconditioning, or ze- ro-gravity conditions. Disease-related sarcopenia is associated with invasion (acute inflammatory diseases) , cachexia (cancer, advanced organ failure, collagen diseases, etc.) , and neuromuscular disease. Nutrition-related sarcopenia results from inadequate dietary intake of energy and/or pro- tein. Treatment, including rehabilitation and nutrition care management, differs according to the causes of sarcopenia. No nutrition care, no rehabilitation. Nutrition is a vital sign for rehabilita- tion. ( Jpn J Rehabil Med 2011;48:270.281 )


A common approach to automatic quad layout generation on surfaces is to, in a first stage, decide on the positioning of irregular layout vertices, followed by finding sensible layout edges connecting these vertices and partitioning the surface into quadrilateral patches in a second stage. While this two-step approach reduces the problem's complexity, this separation also limits the result quality. In the worst case, the set of layout vertices fixed in the first stage without consideration of the second may not even permit a valid quad layout. We propose an algorithm for the creation of quad layouts in which the initial layout vertices can be adjusted in the second stage. Whenever beneficial for layout quality or even validity, these vertices may be moved within a prescribed radius or even be removed. Our algorithm is based on a robust quantization strategy, turning a continuous T-mesh structure into a discrete layout. We show the effectiveness of our algorithm on a variety of inputs. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Computer graphics; Mesh models; Mesh geometry models; Shape modeling;


The proliferation of GPS-enabled devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) and locationbased social networks has resulted in the abundance of trajectory data. The publication of such data opens up new directions in analyzing, studying and understanding human behavior. However, it should be performed in a privacy-preserving way, because the identities of individuals, whose movement is recorded in trajectories, can be disclosed even after removing identifying information. Existing trajectory data anonymization approaches offer privacy but at a high data utility cost, since they either do not produce truthful data (an important requirement of several applications), or are limited in their privacy specification component. In this work, we propose a novel approach that overcomes these shortcomings by adapting km-anonymity to trajectory data. To realize our approach, we develop three efficient and effective anonymization algorithms that are based on the apriori principle. These algorithms aim at preserving different data characteristics, including location distance and semantic similarity, as well as user-specified utility requirements, which must be satisfied to ensure that the released data can be meaningfully analyzed. Our extensive experiments using synthetic and real datasets verify that the proposed algorithms are efficient and effective at preserving data utility.


In this paper we propose a technique of Within-Class Covariance Correction (WCC) for Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) in Speaker Recognition to perform an unsupervised adaptation of LDA to an unseen data domain, and/or to compensate for speaker population difference among different portions of LDA training dataset. The paper follows on the study of source-normalization and interdatabase variability compensation techniques which deal with multimodal distribution of i-vectors. On the DARPA RATS (Robust Automatic Transcription of Speech) task, we show that, with two hours of unsupervised data, we improve the Equal-Error Rate (EER) by 17.5%, and 36% relative on the unmatched and semi-matched conditions, respectively. On the Domain Adaptation Challenge we show up to 70% relative EER reduction and we propose a data clustering procedure to identify the directions of the domain-based variability in the adaptation data.


The aim of this study was to evaluate potential DNA damage and cytotoxicity in pathology laboratory technicians exposed to organic solvents, mainly xylene. Peripheral blood and buccal cells samples were collected from 18 technicians occupationally exposed to organic solvents and 11 non-exposed individuals. The technicians were sampled at two moments: Monday and Friday. DNA damage and cytotoxicity were evaluated using the Comet Assay and the Buccal Micronucleus Cytome assay. Fifteen subjects (83.5%) of the exposed group to solvents complained about some symptom probably related to contact with vapours of organic solvents. DNA damage in the exposed group to solvents was nearly 2-fold higher on Friday than on Monday, and in both moments the individuals of this group showed higher levels of DNA damage in relation to controls. No statistical difference was detected in buccal cell micronucleus frequency between the laboratory technicians and the control group. However, in the analysis performed on Friday, technicians presented higher frequency (about 3-fold) of karyolytic and apoptotic-like cells (karyorrhectic and pyknotic) in relation to control group. Considering the damage frequency and the working time, a positive correlation was found in the exposed group to solvents (r=0.468; p=0.05). The results suggest that pathology laboratory workers inappropriately exposed to organic solvents have increased levels of DNA damage.


As well as knowledge of computing, statistics and modelling, a successful simulation analyst needs to develop ways to understand the important features of an application domain. The last two decades have seen the increasing use of 'soft' approaches to help analysts structure the problems they are asked to tackle. The idea is to help ensure that the right problem is tackled. The complementary use of these problem structuring approaches with the technical side of computer simulation offers the prospect of better simulation practice. This advanced tutorial introduces some of these structuring approaches and discusses how they can be used in simulation projects, paying attention to the different ways in which simulation models are used.


Provision of high data rates with always-on connectivity to high mobility users is one of the motivations for design of fifth generation (5G) systems. High system capacity can be achieved by coordination between large number of antennas, which is done using the cloud radio access network (CRAN) design in 5G systems. In terms of baseband processing, allocation of appropriate resources to the users is necessary to achieve high system capacity, for which the state of the art uses the users' channel state information (CSI); however, they do not take into account the associated overhead, which poses a major bottleneck for the effective system performance. In contrast to this approach, this paper proposes the use of machine learning for allocating resources to high mobility users using only their position estimates. Specifically, the `random forest' algorithm, a supervised machine learning technique, is used to design a learning-based resource allocation scheme by exploiting the relationships between the system parameters and the users' position estimates. In this way, the overhead for CSI acquisition is avoided by using the position estimates instead, with better spectrum utilization. While the initial numerical investigations, with minimum number of users in the system, show that the proposed learning-based scheme achieves 86% of the efficiency achieved by the perfect CSI-based scheme, if the effect of overhead is factored in, the proposed scheme performs better than the CSI-based approach. In a realistic scenario, with multiple users in the system, the significant increase in overhead for the CSI-based scheme leads to a performance gain of 100%, or more, by using the proposed scheme, and thus proving the proposed scheme to be more efficient in terms of system performance.


Abstract Typhoid fever is a significant global health problem that impacts people living in areas without access to clean water and sanitation. However, collaborative international partnerships and new research have improved both knowledge of the burden in countries with endemic disease and the tools for improved surveillance, including environmental surveillance. Two typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) have achieved World Health Organization prequalification, with several more in the development pipeline. Despite hurdles posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, multiple TCV efficacy trials have been conducted in high-burden countries, and data indicate that TCVs provide a high degree of protection from typhoid fever, are safe to use in young children, provide lasting protection, and have the potential to combat typhoid antimicrobial resistance. Now is the time to double down on typhoid control and elimination by sustaining progress made through water, sanitation, and hygiene improvements and accelerating TCV introduction in high-burden locations.


To most individuals, "trust" can be viewed as a knowledge asset that may add, or rest, value to the company. The role of knowledge in achieving a judicious advantage is becoming an increasingly important issue with individuals and organizations. Trust supports an ethical valuation of people and organizations that fundamentally affects relationships with others. When trust is present, communication and problem solving are relatively easy. When distrust occurs, productivity and relational value can suffer significantly. Trust lowers transaction costs in more uncertain environments, thus providing individuals and organizations with a source of unique advantage. Moreover, distrust emerges when the suspicion arises that the disruption of expectations in one exchange is likely to generalize through all other exchanges.

As such, the Throughput Modeling approach indicates how six different trust behaviors can be guided, how trust decision making can be improved and made defensible, and how special problems facing individuals, relational systems, and institutions can be dealt with via decision-making pathways leading to action.


Introduction: Racism has a profound impact on health inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Australian medical schools are required to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health curriculum in their medical courses and policies have been developed to support this work. Methods: The research question was: how is racism framed in medical education policies guiding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health curriculum for entry-level medical courses? Applying an Indigenous Research Paradigm and Intersectionality Based Policy Analysis, three key policies were analysed: Australian Medical Council (AMC) Standards for Assessment and Accreditation of Primary Medical programs; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (ATSIHCF); Committee of Deans of Australasian Medical Schools Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework (CDAMS). Results: The AMC standards did not refer to racism, while CDAMS and ATSICF supported the notion that teaching students about racism would lead to reduced racism or increased anti-racism in healthcare practice. However, both policies' learning objectives lacked inclusion of critical reflection required to inform responsive action to racism. As the CDAMS and ATSIHCF were not mandated, there is little accountability for medical schools to implement either of the curriculum policies. Conclusion: Realising the goal of medical practitioners who understand racism and practice anti-racism requires a multi-layered approach. This involves evidence-based teaching about racism and anti-racism, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership in curriculum development, inclusion of racism and anti-racism in medical school accreditation standards, and development of student critical reflection skills. Importantly, education and health institutions need to value and model anti-racism.


Giuseppe Toniolo must be recognised as one of the leading Italian economists animating the debate on the role of credit at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. While his contribution was limited on theoretical grounds, it must be acknowledged that his strong reference to ethics conferred a novel and heterodox colour on his work. Toniolo accepted the view of money as goods and the bank as intermediary but, in his criticism of capitalism coloured by Catholic ideals, he did not fail to underline the risks involved in permitting capital to gain dominion over labour and therefore over man. The central role of ethics in Toniolo's work emerges clearly from his analysis of income distribution and the definition of interest rates. He criticised Bohm-Bawerk's theory of capital and interest, suggesting that the latter attributed an intrinsically productive value to capital. Some of Toniolo's reflections regarding speculation are of undoubted interest today for their modernity. If Catholic morality had placed man and labour at the centre, the new social and economic order, he observed, had made capital the protagonist. Such a change had paved the way for usury, speculation and monopoly. Toniolo underlined the fact that the economic system no longer favoured the expansion of productivity and social wealth, preferring rather to encourage financial speculation. It was therefore essential in his opinion for capital to re-assume its original role, so as to be no longer a cause of crisis and change in income distribution. Toniolo called on the banking system to fulfil an important task for the progress of social economy, not however without a drastic renewal of both its operators and its instruments. Emblematic of Toniolo's approach is the central role attributed to the banks, especially the people's cooperative banks, in order to remedy a number of financial crises threatening the Italian economy of his time.


Hydrogen in metals can cause a degradation of the mechanical properties, the so-called hydrogen embrittlement. In combination with internal stresses, hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) can occur. This phenomenon is not completely understood yet. To better characterise the cracking behaviour, it is important to gain information about the evolution of the 3D crack network. For this purpose samples of lean duplex stainless steel were loaded with hydrogen by means of electrochemical charging and investigated by means of synchrotron refraction CT and SEM fractography after uniaxial tensile loading. Synchrotron refraction CT is an analyser-based imaging (ABI) technique. It uses a Si (111) single crystal as analyser, which is placed into the beam path between sample and detector. According to Bragg's law only incident x-rays within a narrow range around the Bragg-angle are diffracted from the analyser into the detector. Hence, the analyser acts as an angular filter for the transmitted beam. This filtering allows to turn the refraction and scattering of x-rays into image contrast. Refraction occurs at all interfaces, where the density of the material changes and is more sensitive to density changes than the attenuation. Therefore, it is possible to detect smaller cracks than with classical x-ray imaging techniques, like CT, with comparable spacial resolution. It also visualises the 3D structure of the cracks and gains quantitative information about their morphology and distribution. Since cracks introduced by HAC are usually very small and have a small opening displacement, synchrotron refraction CT is expected to be well suited for imaging this cracking mechanism and can be a valuable tool to characterise the formation and the evolution of a 3D crack network.


This paper extends to gray-scale the method proposed by Hildebrand and Rüegsegger for estimating thickness of trabecular bone, which is the most used in trabecular bone research, where local thickness at a point is defined as the diameter of the maximum inscribed ball that includes that point. The proposed extension takes advantage of the equivalence between this method and the opening function computed for the granulometry generated by the opening operation of mathematical morphology with ball-shaped structuring elements of different diameter. The proposed extension (a) uses gray-scale instead of binary mathematical morphology, (b) uses all values of the pattern spectrum of the granulometry instead of the maximum peak as used for binary images, (c) corrects bias on local thickness estimations generated by partial volume effects, and (d) uses the gray-scale as a weighting function for global thickness estimation. The proposed extension becomes equivalent to the original method when it is applied to binary images. A new non-flat structuring element is also proposed in order to reduce the discretization errors generated by traditional flat structuring elements. Translation invariance can be attained by up-sampling the images through interpolation by a factor of two. Results for synthetic and real images show that the quality of the measurements obtained through the original method strongly depends on the binarization process, whereas the measurements obtained through the proposed extension do not. Consequently, the proposed extension is more appropriate for images with limited resolution where binarization is not trivial.


We investigate the generalization capabilities of neural signed distance functions (SDFs) for learning 3D object representations for unseen and unlabeled point clouds. Existing methods can fit SDFs to a handful of object classes and boast fine detail or fast inference speeds, but do not generalize well to unseen shapes. We introduce a two-stage semi-supervised meta-learning approach that transfers shape priors from labeled to unlabeled data to reconstruct unseen object categories. The first stage uses an episodic training scheme to simulate training on unlabeled data and meta-learns initial shape priors. The second stage then introduces unlabeled data with disjoint classes in a semi-supervised scheme to diversify these priors and achieve generalization. We assess our method on both synthetic data and real collected point clouds. Experimental results and analysis validate that our approach outperforms existing neural SDF methods and is capable of robust zero-shot inference on 100+ unseen classes. Code can be found at https://github.com/princeton-computational-imaging/gensdf.


A different kind of shake-up will hit the science establishment when the New Year dawns in earthquake-prone Japan, reports Nature in its lead story this week. Science kicks off self-referentially with a lead story about its decision to publish a paper on sequencing the human genome from Craig Venter of Celera Genomics.


Beyond Umpire and Arbiter: Courts as Facilitators of Intergovernmental Dialogue in Division of Powers Cases in Canada Wade Kenneth Wright The courts in Canada have often been cast, by both courts and legal scholars, as 'umpires' or 'arbiters' of the federal-provincial division of powers – umpires or arbiters that have the exclusive, or at least decisive, authority to clarify and enforce, and resolve disputes about, 'who does what' in the federal system. However, the image conveyed by these metaphors underestimates the role that the federal and provincial political branches play in the federal system, by working out their own solutions, in the intergovernmental arena, both directly and indirectly, where questions and disputes arise about how jurisdiction is and should be allocated. The image conveyed by the umpire or arbiter metaphors also sits uncomfortably with the facilitative role that the Supreme Court of Canada has carved out for itself in its recent division of powers decisions, a role that casts the courts as facilitators of these instances of intergovernmental dialogue. This doctoral dissertation challenges, and moves beyond, the umpire and arbiter metaphors. It examines the political safeguards available to the provinces in Canada to prevent, or limit, perceived federal encroachments on provincial jurisdiction, in the process highlighting the role that the political branches play in Canada in working out their own allocations of jurisdiction, outside of the courts. It describes, and critically evaluates, the facilitative role carved out by the Court in its recent division of powers decisions, identifying various reasons to be skeptical of a facilitative role that casts the courts as facilitators of intergovernmental dialogue. Finally, and with an eye to future research, it briefly outlines an alternative facilitative role that focuses on facilitating deliberation about the division of powers implications of particular initiatives, arguing that it would be premature to dismiss facilitative approaches to judicial review altogether.