BACKGROUND
Drinking is influenced by youth perceptions of how their peers drink. These perceptions are often incorrect, overestimating peer drinking norms. If inaccurate perceptions can be corrected, young people may drink less.

OBJECTIVES
To determine whether social norms interventions reduce alcohol-related negative consequences, alcohol misuse or alcohol consumption when compared with a control (ranging from assessment only/no intervention to other educational or psychosocial interventions) among university and college students.

SEARCH METHODS
The following electronic databases were searched up to July 2015: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library), MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO. The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) only to March 2008. Reference lists of included studies and review articles were manually searched. No restriction based on language or date was applied.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials or cluster-randomised controlled trials that compared a social normative intervention versus no intervention, alcohol education leaflet or other 'non-normative feedback' alcohol intervention and reported on alcohol consumption or alcohol-related problems in university or college students.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We used standard methodological procedures as expected by Cochrane. Each outcome was analysed by mode of delivery: mailed normative feedback (MF); web/computer normative feedback (WF); individual face-to-face normative feedback (IFF); group face-to-face normative feedback (GFF); and normative marketing campaign (MC).

MAIN RESULTS
A total of 70 studies (44,958 participants) were included in the review, and 63 studies (42,784 participants) in the meta-analyses. Overall, the risk of bias assessment showed that these studies provided moderate or low quality evidence.Outcomes at four or more months post-intervention were of particular interest to assess when effects were sustained beyond the immediate short term. We have reported pooled effects across delivery modes only for those analyses for which heterogeneity across delivery modes is not substantial (I(2) < 50%).Alcohol-related problems at four or more months: IFF standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.24 to -0.04 (participants = 2327; studies = 11; moderate quality evidence), equivalent to a decrease of 1.28 points in the 69-point alcohol problems scale score. No effects were found for WF or MF.Binge drinking at four or more months: results pooled across delivery modes: SMD -0.06, 95% CI -0.11 to -0.02 (participants = 11,292; studies = 16; moderate quality evidence), equivalent to 2.7% fewer binge drinkers if 30-day prevalence is 43.9%.Drinking quantity at four or more months: results pooled across delivery modes: SMD -0.08, 95% CI -0.12 to -0.04 (participants = 21,169; studies = 32; moderate quality evidence), equivalent to a reduction of 0.9 drinks consumed each week, from a baseline of 13.7 drinks per week.Drinking frequency at four or more months: WF SMD -0.11, 95% CI -0.17 to -0.04 (participants = 9929; studies = 10; moderate quality evidence), equivalent to a decrease of 0.17 drinking days/wk, from a baseline of 2.74 days/wk; IFF SMD -0.21, 95% CI -0.31 to -0.10 (participants = 1464; studies = 8; moderate quality evidence), equivalent to a decrease of 0.32 drinking days/wk, from a baseline of 2.74 days/wk. No effects were found for GFF or MC.Estimated blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at four or more months: peak BAC results pooled across delivery modes: SMD -0.08, 95% CI -0.17 to 0.00 (participants = 7198; studies = 11; low quality evidence), equivalent to a reduction in peak BAC from an average of 0.144% to 0.135%. No effects were found for typical BAC with IFF.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The results of this review indicate that no substantive meaningful benefits are associated with social norms interventions for prevention of alcohol misuse among college/university students. Although some significant effects were found, we interpret the effect sizes as too small, given the measurement scales used in the studies included in this review, to be of relevance for policy or practice. Moreover, the significant effects are not consistent for all misuse measures, heterogeneity was a problem in some analyses and bias cannot be discounted as a potential cause of these findings.


Current models of ranking in Information Retrieval (IR) are somewhat blind to the consideration of the social context that surrounds an information resource as a parameter that affects the precision of the ranking in the query results. On the other hand that social context is depicted upon the relational ties of the affiliated social entities (authors) thus is something that cannot be measured and quantified accurately by back-link and citation based models. In this thesis we adopt an imprecise modeling approach of the depicted relational ties using the paradigm of fuzzy sets as to express partial degrees of membership depicted on the concept of 'opinion' as an input to a model that considers both the informational (hyperlink) and social (relational) context of the information resources as to provide better ranking of the retrieved results with respect to both contexts. A formalization of the algorithm and a validation of the model using simulation is given as a proof of concept along with discussion of the obtained results.


Abstract : The United States Government requires every program manager in the Department of Defense to document program goals prior to the initiation of an acquisition program. According to the Defense Acquisition Guidebook (2005), an Acquisition Program Baseline (APB) satisfies this requirement. Updating the APB, also referred to as re-baselining, may also be required during the execution of an acquisition program. Although guidance is available for the initial production of a program baseline, scarce information on the guidance and theoretical purpose of a program re-baseline exists. The research presented in this thesis investigated the purpose and effectiveness of program re-baselines through interviews with 27 program managers from the acquisition community. An analysis of the data collected during the interviews, combined with an extensive review of the current literature, led to recommendations in the areas of improved guidance, practice, and education. Specifically, it was revealed that the purpose of re-baselining varies depending on an individual's past experiences with a re-baseline activity. In addition, this research revealed that a majority of program managers have participated in a program re-baseline during their careers, which magnifies the importance of clarifying the expectations and objectives of program re-baselines for those entering the acquisition profession. The following interview questions were asked: What is the theoretical objective of a program re-baseline?; What is considered a successful program re-baseline?; Describe any program re-baseline guidance you have received; Is the program re-baseline process effective?; Does the outcome of the re-baseline process justify the effort?; In your experience, what caused a program to re-baseline?; Are there issues relating to the re-baseline process?; and Give recommendations for improving the re-baseline process.


This paper focuses on the issue of end-to-end service accommodation on the interfaces between user networks and multi-provider, multi-strategy optical transport network domains. We propose a new, multipoint-to-multipoint artifact called multi-provider federation interface (MPFI), which we believe is a valid architectural alternative to the UNI/NNI concept, if inter-domain administration, multiple service level agreements (SLA), as well as heterogeneity in network infrastructure characterize service provisioning. Two evolutionary scenarios for MPFI implementation are considered. In the first scenario, multiple networks create a federation, for which the collocation points are dictated by the physical topology of each single domain. For that scenario, we study the policy-based provisioning, given a choice of candidate domains to perform the provision. In the second scenario, we study the case where one large network domain splits into smaller domains along the same physical topology, while keeping the federated operation. In such scenario, we study the optimal placement of multi-provider interfacing points. Based on the solution for optimal MPFI installation, we finally analyze the improvement in blocking performance of the so-called end-to-end path provisioning crossing multiple provider domains based on WDM, with particular policy-based requirements on service accommodation.


Previous literatures show that pre-trained masked language models (MLMs) such as BERT can achieve competitive factual knowledge extraction performance on some datasets, indicating that MLMs can potentially be a reliable knowledge source. In this paper, we conduct a rigorous study to explore the underlying predicting mechanisms of MLMs over different extraction paradigms. By investigating the behaviors of MLMs, we find that previous decent performance mainly owes to the biased prompts which overfit dataset artifacts. Furthermore, incorporating illustrative cases and external contexts improve knowledge prediction mainly due to entity type guidance and golden answer leakage. Our findings shed light on the underlying predicting mechanisms of MLMs, and strongly question the previous conclusion that current MLMs can potentially serve as reliable factual knowledge bases.


Authigenic titanite occurs as a secondary, pore-filling cement in the Permian sandstones of the Cock of Arran, Scotland. The titanite is apparently not associated with in situ alteration of a specific mineral phase or phases, suggesting it crystallized from fluids migrating through these porous and permeable sandstones. The titanite contains significant concentrations of Zr, Nb, P, Ce, Nd, Gd and Y, implying that these elements were also carried in solution, probably in the form of halogen or carbonate complexes associated with hydrothermal circulation related to the intrusion of the adjacent Northern Granite.


There is a growing trend in higher education to explore the various benefits of Open Educational Resources. This applies not only to the cost benefits, but also to potential pedagogical benefits as well. This study explores the process of developing and implementing an Open Educational Resource for an undergraduate course and experimenting with OERenabled pedagogy. Interview data provide an account of this process, outlining challenges and highlighting insights, which might prove useful for other professionals contemplating the move toward developing Open Educational Resources. Interview data are also organized using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology constructs pertaining to attitude, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, technology self-efficacy, and facilitating conditions. A qualitative interpretive approach was then used to analyze the data. Analysis indicates that most of the constructs can strongly influence faculty to adopt Open Educational Resources but that "social influence" has no effect on adoption. Findings also include reflections on OER-enabled pedagogy as it was applied in the course. These findings indicate that OER-enabled pedagogy has the potential for increasing student engagement, though this potential has not yet been realized. Finally, findings provide an outline of recommendations that might guide others when considering developing and implementing Open Educational Resources.


Constrictive remodeling after arterial injury is related to collagen accumulation. Cross-linking has been shown to induce a scar process in cutaneous wound healing and is increased after arterial injury. We therefore evaluated the effect of cross-linking inhibition on qualitative and quantitative changes in collagen, elastin, and arterial remodeling after balloon injury in the atherosclerotic rabbit model. Atherosclerotic-like lesions were induced in femoral arteries of 28 New Zealand White rabbits by a combination of air desiccation and a high-cholesterol diet. After 1 mo, balloon angioplasty was performed in both femoral arteries. Fourteen rabbits were fed beta-aminopropionitrile (beta-APN, 100 mg/kg) and compared with 14 untreated animals. The remodeling index, i.e., the ratio of external elastic lamina at the lesion site to external elastic lamina at the reference site, was determined 4 wk after angioplasty for both groups. Pyridinoline was significantly decreased in arteries from beta-APN-treated animals compared with controls, confirming inhibition of collagen cross-linking: 0.30 (SD 0.03) and 0.52 (SD 0.02) mmol/mol hydroxyproline, respectively (P = 0.002). Scanning and transmission electron microscopy showed a profound disorganization of collagen fibers in arteries from beta-APN-treated animals. The remodeling index was significantly higher in beta-APN-treated than in control animals [1.1 (SD 0.3) vs. 0.8 (SD 0.3), P = 0.03], indicating favorable remodeling. Restenosis decreased by 33% in beta-APN-treated animals: 32% (SD 16) vs. 48% (SD 24) (P = 0.02). Neointimal collagen density was significantly lower in beta-APN-treated animals than in controls: 23.0% (SD 3.8) vs. 29.4% (SD 4.0) (P = 0.004). These findings suggest that collagen and elastin cross-linking plays a role in the healing process via constrictive remodeling and restenosis after balloon injury in the atherosclerotic rabbit model.


Abstract
A 67-year-old patient underwent a left pneumectomy because of a moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Two weeks later, while still in hospital, he suddenly experienced an acute increase in dyspnoea. Pulmonary embolism was considered. However, echocardiography showed compression of the right ventricle and right atrium by an intrapericardial mass, confirmed by computed tomography. Following signs of a large thrombus in the inferior vena cava, pericardiocentesis was considered undesirable due to possible dislocation resulting from the sudden changes in intrapericardial pressure. Re-thoracotomy was equally undesirable because of the recent operation and status of the patient. After stabilisation and extensive consulting the patient was referred for pericardiocentesis by sternotomy. Huge blood clots were removed from the pericardial space. No thrombus mass was found in the inferior vena cava. The patient recovered uneventfully.


Vitamin D deficiency is common among postmenopausal women. Telomere length can be a potential protective mechanism for age-related diseases. The objective of our study is to examine the association of vitamin D supplementation on leukocyte telomere length (LTL) in healthy postmenopausal women with vitamin D deficiency. The study was designed as a placebo-controlled study to investigate the short-term effects of vitamin D supplementation and seasonal changes on vitamin D related parameters, including 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D parathormone (PTH), Vitamin D binding protein (VDBP), vitamin D receptor (VDR), and telomere length in a cohort of postmenopausal women (n = 102). The group was divided as supplementation (n = 52) and placebo groups (n = 50). All parameters were measured before and after treatment. Serum VDBP levels were measured by ELISA method and VDR, GC (VDBP) gene expressions and relative telomere lengths were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using a quantitative real-time PCR method. The results demonstrate that baseline levels were similar between the groups. After vitamin D supplementation 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D, PTH and VDBP levels were changed significantly compared to the placebo group. At the end of the study period, LTL levels were significantly increased in both groups and this change was more prominent in placebo group. The change in GC expression was significant between treatment and placebo groups but VDR expression remained unchanged. Even though the study was designed to solely assess the effects of vitamin D supplementation, LTL was significantly increased in the whole study group in summer months suggesting that LTL levels are affected by sun exposure and seasonal changes rather than supplementation. The study displayed the short-term effect of Vitamin D supplementation on vitamin D, PTH levels, LTL and vitamin D associated gene expressions. The relation between Vitamin D and LTL is not linear and could be confounded by several factors such as the population differences, regional and seasonal changes in sun exposure.


The author argues that historians researching
women's political careers should take the
personal ambitions of their subjects as their
starting point. The author and political activist
Henriette Roland Holst's ideal was to develop
her literary talent while serving a not always
clearly defined cause. To be accepted by
her male heroes, she needed to deemphasise
her sex; acceptance of male norms was the
best strategy to gain autonomy and personal
freedom. Roland Holst probably never saw
this 'male' orientation as problematic. She
did not sympathise with the movement for
women's suffrage and actively discouraged
feminists because she was of the opinion that
feminism was detrimental to the worker's
struggle. Marxism and, later on, religious socialism
provided ample opportunities for her
poetry, her writing and her impressive oratory
ability. While men of her class needed to acquire
a position and to earn a living, a woman
could lead a satisfying life volunteering.


We studied 18 formalin-fixed brains using MRI, and correlated our data with subsequent gross and microscopic examinations. 9 of our patients died from brain diseases (stroke due to infarction 4, stroke due to hemorrhage 1, encephalitis 2, head injury 1, brain tumor 1). 9 of our patients died from non-CNS diseases (stomach cancer 1, colon cancer 1, liver cirrhosis 1, myocardial infarction 2, trauma 4). In MRI of postmortem brain, T1WI and T 2WI was able to clearly show the myelination process of brainstem, basal ganglia, internal capsule and optic radiation in a 2 months-old-boy. The findings were similar to MRI of live infants. In normal adult postmortem brains, the T1WI showed a relatively low signal intensity of white matter as compared to gray matter. The pictures were similar to proton density images, not T1WI of normal adult brains. The reason why the signal intensity of the white matter was lower than the gray matter may have been due to lysis of lipid of myelin sheath in the formalin solution. Postmortem MRI was able to detect the periventricular hyperintensity (corresponding to arteriosclerotic encephalopathy) and subcortical hyperintensity spots (which corresponding to the widening of the Virchow-Robin perivascular space because of arteriosclerosis) in the brains of our elderly patients. Postmortem MRI detected the intracerebral hemorrhage, which appeared as a dark signal in both short and long TR images. However, MRI did not show blood in the ventricles, sulci, or superficial hemorrhages in the cortex of brain. Brain edema was revealed in the postmortem MRI and appeared as low signal intensity in T1WI and hyperintensity in T2WI. It was associated with a significant mass effect.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) has recently attracted keen interest from regulatory bodies around the world as a key strategy to overcome spectrum scarcity in beyond 5G networks. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted a three-tier DSS model for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band managed by a spectrum access system (SAS) to share incumbents' spectrum with commercial cellular broadband applications. In this article, we first present a survey of current DSS approaches and their limitations and then discuss the benefits of using in-band full-duplex (IBFD) techniques in DSS networks. To illustrate the improvement in the performance of priority access license (PAL) and general authorized access (GAA) users in an IBFD-assisted CBRS, we consider a CBRS mobile broadband network (MBN) architecture comprising an incumbent in the form of a MIMO radar system and an IBFD MIMO MBN, consisting of PAL and GAA users. In particular, we design joint beamformers at the MBN, with constraints on transmit power at the MBN and detection probability of the radar system, and beamformers at the radar system to mitigate the interference from the radar system toward the cellular system. It is shown that the IBFD CBRS network architecture not only leads to improved performance of PAL and GAA users, but does so while producing less interference toward the radar than state-of-the-art half-duplex solutions. Finally, we present some open research challenges to invigorate research on beyond 5G IBFD DSS networks.


Currently the uncertainty in the prediction of shower observables for different primary particles and energies is dominated by differences between hadronic interaction models. The LHC data on minimum bias measurements can be used to test Monte Carlo generators and these new constrains will help to reduce the uncertainties in air shower predictions. In this article, after a short introduction on air showers we will show the results of the comparison between the updated version of high energy hadronic interaction models with LHC data. Results for air shower simulations and their consequence on the comparison with air shower data will be discussed.


The growth and expansion of transnational Islamic movements in the global system has created new questions for sociologist and social movement scholars alike. Mainly, how do Islamic movements cross the transnational chain and sustain their presence in new contexts? This paper addresses this query by advancing traditional social movement paradigms by introducing the concept of social movement spheres (SM spheres). These spheres are sustained by two internally distinctive processes: the imagined solidarities (Ummah) that exist between and among Muslims globally and the Mosque institution. Through comparable global cases, this paper will show that SM spheres are constrained by the Islamic legal tradition and Muslim cultural frameworks, which forcibily enables localized movements to share economic, social, and cultural forms of capital with transnational movements. This in turn faciliates the expansion and institutionalization of new movement in different global settings.


In this paper we show how to recast the results of the semiclassical method of Baier, Katkov & Strakhovenko for pair production, including the possibility of specifying all the spin states and photon polarization, in a form that is suitable for numerical implementation. In this case, a new type of integral appears in addition to the ones required for the radiation emission process. We compare the resulting formulas with those obtained for a short pulse plane wave external field by using the Volkov state. We investigate the applicability of the local constant field approximation for the proposed upcoming experiments at FACET II at SLAC and LUXE at DESY. Finally, we provide results on the dependence of the pair production rate on the relative polarization between a linearly polarized laser pulse and a linearly polarized incoming high energy photon. We observe that even in the somewhat intermediate intensity regime of these experiments, there is roughly a factor of $2$ difference between the pair production rates corresponding to the two relative photon polarizations, which is of interest in light of the vacuum birefringence of QED.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of external audit on the management of the Common Fund of the Mozambique National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Design/methodology/approach
This paper followed a case study approach of the INE Common Fund that was based on the qualitative evidence from the content analysis of the external audit reports, annual plans of activities and budget for the past seven years and interviews with middle managers of the INE.

Findings
The research found that external audit has a relatively significant impact on the management of the INE Common Fund. The authors attribute the positive impact to the high concern of management to implement the external audit recommendations, associated with the financial dependence between the agent (the National Institute of Statistics) and the principal (Fund Donors), explained through Laughlin's Model of Accountability.

Practical implications
The results indicate that external audit associated with the financial dependence of the agent on the principal has a significant impact on the accountability. Thus, it contributes to assist in the formulation of public policies on external financing to developing countries.

Originality/value
Most of the studies on external audit and accountability are from countries with more developed economies than Mozambique's, without heavy reliance on external financing, and these studies analyse the audits carried out by public audit institutions. This research explores the phenomenon in the context of external financing to the State Budget by governments and international organisations.


Boolean functions are fundamental to synthesis and verification of digital logic, and compact representations of Boolean functions have great practical significance. Popular representations, such as CNF, DNF, circuits and ROBDDs [4], offer different advantages and are preferred for different tasks. Conversion between those representations is common, especially when one is used to represent the input and another speeds up relevant algorithms. Our work addresses the construction of ROBDDs that represent outputs of a given Boolean circuit. It is used in synthesis and verification. Earlier works (Fujita, Fujisawa, and Kawato, 1988. Malik et al., 1988.) proposed ordering circuit inputs and gates by graph traversals. We contribute orderings based on circuit partitioning and placement, leveraging the progress in recursive bisection and multi-level min-cut partitioning achieved in late 1990s. Our empirical results show that the proposed orderings based on circuit partitioning and placement are more successful than straightforward DFS and BFS, as well as related heuristics.


Uses analytic modeling and simulation to evaluate network servers implemented on clusters of workstations. More specifically, we model the potential benefits of locality-conscious request distribution within the cluster and evaluate the performance of a cluster-based server called L2S (Locality and Load-balancing Server) which we designed in light of our experience with the model. Our most important modeling results show that locality-conscious distribution on a 16-node cluster can increase server throughput with respect to a locality-oblivious server by up to seven-fold, depending on the average size of the files requested and on the size of the server's working set. Our simulation results demonstrate that L2S achieves throughput that is within 22% of the full potential of locality-conscious distribution on 16 nodes, outperforming and significantly outscaling the best-known locality-conscious server. Based on our results and on the fact that the files serviced by network servers are becoming larger and more numerous, we conclude that our locality-conscious network server should prove very useful for its performance, scalability and availability.


Primary production has always been considered the weak link in the entire food production chain (from farm to fork) and, due also to the grave health and food emergencies that have taken place over the years (BSE, dioxin, avian flu etc.), greater attention has been focused on the production stage, together with the need to regain the consumers' faith. To preserve and support small farms in a local setting and, consistent with the aims of flexibility and respecting the main requisites contained in the EC Regulations (No. 852/2004; No. 853/2004) (European Commission, 2004; 2004a), production is allowed for tastingadministration on the premises and the processing and sales of agricultural products produced exclusively on the farm, such as: fresh meat from poultry and rabbits and small farmed wild animals; processed meats obtained from animals raised on the farm and from hunting; fishing and aquaculture products; raw milk for direct human consumption and dairy products; eggs, honey, fruit and vegetables, woodland products; jams and preserved fruit, flours, vegetable preserves, wild above ground and underground mushrooms; dried fruits, fruit juices, cereals, syrups; oil, wine, bread and baked products. This possibility is reserved for individual farmers or co-operatives, registered in the company register according to Article 8 of the Law 29th December 1993 No. 580 (Italian Republic, 1993); who may sell directly inside and outside farm, products coming mainly from the respective farms, observing the current regulations regarding health and hygiene. All this should provide an instrument for rural and competitive development for the entire European agricultural production chain strongly influenced by the marketing conditions imposed by the mass retailing groups on their own suppliers. Not least is the possibility of creating work and occupation and adequately counteracting the phenomenon of the depopulation of the countryside, encouraging the return to agricultural activities on the part of young people; and, consequently, a form of safeguarding the environment by reducing the costs linked to hydro-geological instability and soil maintenance. This trend, together with the national directions, may represent a support even for small local farms which, taking advantage of simplified procedures consistent with the objectives of flexibility of the community Regulations (EC) (No. 852/2004; No. 853/2004) (European Commission, 2004; 2004a), may take part in the promotion of agricultural markets managed directly by the farmers as sales points for local products (farmers' markets), so as to guarantee a fairer price and consolidate the territorial link between production and consumption (short distribution chain or short circuit). Without, of course, renouncing the necessary prerequisites for placing any food on the market: health-hygiene; traceability; health and well-being of the animals; safeguarding of the environment and the plants.


ABSTRACT Although youth research has highlighted the importance of a holistic understanding of the changing nature of youth education to work transitions, few studies have examined these transitions from a process perspective. In this study on continuity and discontinuity of work, the process perspective proved to be useful to analyse the education to work transition of rural-urban migrants in Kathmandu, Nepal. Qualitative longitudinal data, consisting of two consecutive in-depth interviews, with twenty-one participants, reveal how they shift choices, negotiate positions, embrace changes and decisions. A reemphasis on the understanding of rural-urban migrant youth education to work transition as part of a process is suggested calling for a holistic understanding of rural-urban migrant youth education to work transition among scholars and policymakers in Nepal and also in other contexts.


The paper deals with the evaluation of the mechanical properties of the crepe paper and chickpaper. The thickness of crepe paper was 300 m with the surface mass 150 g*m-2 and chickpaper paper thickness was 100 m with the surface mass 40 g*m-2. Crepe paper and chickpaper are usually used for chicken breeding. Longitudinal and transversal tensile properties were studied. The tensile behavior was monitored on the motorized test stand ANDILOG STENTOR 1000 (Andilog Technologies, Vitrolles, France).There were measured the tensile properties as modulus of elasticity, maximal elongation, maximal tensile force, tensile strengths, tensile index and strain at break of the longitudinal and transversal samples by testing paper strips. Mean values of the maximal elongation b of longitudinal chickpaper samples were three times smaller than maximal elongation of transversal samples. Mean values of maximal tensile force Ft, tensile strength b tensile indexw and maximal strain at break T of longitudinal chickpaper samples were two times smaller than maximal quantities of transversal samples. Mean values of the tensile modulus of elasticity of longitudinal and transversal chickpaper samples were almost equal. Chickpaper mechanical properties in tension were different in the longitudinal and transversal direction of the original paper surface. Mean values of the maximal elongation b and maximal strain at break T of longitudinal crepe paper samples were sixty times smaller than maximal elongation and maximal strain at break of transversal samples. Mean values of maximal tensile force Ft, tensile strength b andtensile indexw of longitudinal crepe paper samples were fourth times smaller than maximal quantities of transversal samples. Mean values of the tensile modulus of elasticity of longitudinal samples of crepe paper were thirty eight times smaller than values of transversal samples.


The main objective of the study is to identify the critical factors affecting performance of low cost airlines in India For this purpose, the research focused on the low cost airline industry with regards to their macro environment, its strategic aspects and an analysis of the industry The study incorporated the Porter's Five Forces Model to study the five forces having an impact on the industry and thus directing a firm's strategic actions The study also conducted an industry analysis from the point of view of travel agents through questionnaire A customer satisfaction survey was also done to know their satisfaction levels and loyalty to a particular airline.

 This is achieved by the adoption of primary research techniques including surveys and interviews of the industry specialist and customers and secondary research including reading the existing literature on the subject, industry reports and articles published in journals

 A critical analysis of the industry highlighted the factors having an impact on the industry as a whole The porter's five forces analysis revealed the current and future trends for the industry and provided an understanding for future survival strategies for the airlines.

 Industry professionals state that the Airline industry is in infancy stage They have a long way to go The factors such as airport infrastructure, massive expansion plans, aggressive growth strategies, demand and supply patterns and the exchange rate mechanism affects their performance But the highest factor restricting the growth of any airline is the high price of ATF All the three- industry professionals, travel agents and consumers believe that LCC's have benefited the industry providing low fares and making air travel affordable They are quite positive about the times ahead and hope that the industry will bounce back Consumers are quite satisfied and content with the offerings As suggested by a consumer that they should be named as 'value for money' airlines and not LCC's

 The Porter's Five Forces analysis revealed that there are high entry barriers as this is a highly capital intensive industry and that buyers and suppliers both have high bargaining power There is moderate threat of substitute like railways looking at the future potential of the aviation sector The analysis further revealed that the market is highly competitive with very few players and to reach the customer's expectations the players have to cut their prices most often thus creating an imbalance in the cost and revenue Also, unhealthy competitive practices prevail in the industry which hamper the overall growth process and thus affect the performance The research provided insight on the future opportunities and the several future industry success and survival factors The research also gives further scope of the study and thereby concludes that there needs to be a consensus so that both the regulatory bodies and the airlines are benefited thus promoting growth and prosperity of the country.

 Dissertation Layout: The first chapter of the dissertation titled 'Introduction' primarily covered a range of aspects from history to the LCC situation globally and then following it traces to India thus leading to the statement of the problem and the objectives of the study The second chapter 'Review of Literature' covered the previous research on the factors impacting the performance of low cost airlines The third chapter 'Research Methodology' covered the data collection process, sampling description and the methodology for data analysis The fourth chapter titled 'Data Analysis and Interpretation' covered the customer satisfaction and industry analysis The fifth chapter 'Summary and Conclusion' listed the major findings, implications and limitations, scope for further research and conclusion drawn from the research.
 Keywords: LCC's, critical factors, performance, airlines, low cost, ATF, aviation.


The growing interest in both the automation of machine learning and deep learning has inevitably led to the development of a wide variety of methods to automate deep learning. The choice of network architecture has proven critical, and many improvements in deep learning are due to new structuring of it. However, deep learning techniques are computationally intensive and their use requires a high level of domain knowledge. Even a partial automation of this process therefore helps to make deep learning more accessible for everyone. In this tutorial we present a uniform formalism that enables different methods to be categorized and compare the different approaches in terms of their performance. We achieve this through a comprehensive discussion of the commonly used architecture search spaces and architecture optimization algorithms based on reinforcement learning and evolutionary algorithms as well as approaches that include surrogate and one-shot models. In addition, we discuss approaches to accelerate the search for neural architectures based on early termination and transfer learning and address the new research directions, which include constrained and multi-objective architecture search as well as the automated search for data augmentation, optimizers, and activation functions.


The rapid and reliable detection of injury, particularly in battlefield conditions, remains a fundamental challenge in emergency medicine. Furthermore, injuries that cause internal bleeding, especially in circumstances when the affected individual fails to exhibit outward signs of this life-threatening condition, are particularly difficult to identify. These situations have illustrated the need for advanced diagnostic measures to assess injuries to the soft tissues with a high degree of accuracy. Commonplace approaches have been directed at sophisticated diagnostic equipment for the detection of these conditions such as magnetic resonance imaging and electromyography. However, these tools are costly, time-consuming, and a challenge to operate in the field during which the delivery of an immediate therapeutic intervention is crucial. In situations where such imaging equipment or laboratory tests are not available or cannot deliver results in a timely fashion, the diagnosis is typically administered by a medical professional upon thorough physical examination. Unfortunately, owing to the complex pathophysiology of many injuries, this approach has frequently resulted in misdiagnoses that have resulted in unnecessary treatments, thereby encumbering the healthcare provider and placing an additional burden upon the patient. Effective diagnostic tools that enable the rapid administration of a targeted treatment would offer great promise for improving the prognosis of injury, particularly in battlefield conditions. Recent research endeavors in the biochemical computing arena have resulted in the demonstration of sophisticated enzyme-based cascades that leverage Boolean principles to emulate electronic logic gates in the biochemical domain. Such enzyme-based logic gates possess the unique ability to integrate complex patterns of bio-/ chemical inputs and tender a diagnosis in a straightforward binary '0'/'1' or 'NO'/'YES' format. This dissertation explores the manner in which such advanced diagnostic systems can be engineered and leveraged to achieve useful aims in the diagnosis (and eventual treatment) of injury in an autonomous fashion, thereby leading towards the development of an integrated 'Sense- Act-Treat' field 'hospital-on-a-chip' system. The systems presented in this work are evaluated at their physical limits under utilitarian embodiments and are hence shown to be of practical importance in the healthcare, fitness, security, and environmental monitoring domains


A solution of the wave equation is obtained corresponding to an outgoing cylindrical wave between two parallel ground planes, and satisfying the boundary conditions appropriate to a center-fed, full height antenna at the origin. Expressions for the antenna current and impedance are obtained from a small radius approximation to these; formulas are obtained for comparison with those from usual antenna theory. Attention is directed to the expansion parameter and gap capacitance.


In this paper, we present the results of the MitoEM challenge on mitochondria 3D instance segmentation from electron microscopy images, organized in conjunction with the IEEE-ISBI 2021 conference. Our benchmark dataset consists of two large-scale 3D volumes, one from human and one from rat cortex tissue, which are 1,986 times larger than previously used datasets. At the time of paper submission, 257 participants had registered for the challenge, 14 teams had submitted their results, and six teams participated in the challenge workshop. Here, we present eight top-performing approaches from the challenge participants, along with our own baseline strategies. Posterior to the challenge, annotation errors in the ground truth were corrected without altering the final ranking. Additionally, we present a retrospective evaluation of the scoring system which revealed that (1) the challenge metric was permissive with the false positive predictions and (2) the size-based grouping of instances did not correctly categorize mitochondria of interest. Thus, we propose a new scoring system that better reflects the correctness of the segmentation results. Although several of the top methods are compared favorably to our own baselines, substantial errors remain unsolved for mitochondria with challenging morphologies. Thus, the challenge remains open for submission and automatic evaluation, with all volumes available for download.


Gentrification, leading to displacement, is an increasingly recognized social problem. Individuals who are confronted with tight housing possibilities but have adequate incomes confront personal ethical issues on whether to act in ways that may contribute to displacement of lower-income residents, and researchers working on housing issues may be particularly concerned. In order to work out an ethical position, clarity is first needed on the differences among the various aspects of gentrification. The working definition used here is that gentrification includes the danger of displacement. A public policy response is thus required to deal with its social injustices. Specific steps are suggested for the development of such policy. Secondly, the suggestion is made that the individual choice of whether to move in or not is, importantly, a personal ethical choice and should take into account both the economic and political impact of the move itself but also the contribution that can be made through collective and political action by an in-mover to deal with the injustices of gentrification. However, it is also an ethical choice for the professions involved and their associations.


By using a combination of finite difference time domain (FDTD) and plane wave expansion (PWE) methods, we study the propagation of acoustic waves through waveguide structures in phononic band gap crystals composed of solid constituents. We investigate transmission through perfect linear waveguides, waveguides containing a resonant cavity, or waveguides coupled with a side branch resonator such as a cavity or a stub. A linear guide can support one or several modes falling in the absolute band gap of the phononic crystal. It can be made monomode over a large frequency range of the band gap by varying the width of the guide. The transmission through a guide containing a cavity can be made very selective and reduced to narrow peaks associated with some of the eigenmodes of the cavity. The effect of a side branch resonator is to induce zeros of transmission in the spectrum of the perfect guide that appear as narrow dips with frequencies depending upon the shape of the resonator and its coupling with the guide. We find perfect correspondences between the peaks in the transmission spectrum of a waveguide containing a cavity and the dips in the transmission of a cavity side coupled waveguide. Finally, when a gap exists in the spectrum of the perfect guide, a stub can also permit selective transmission of frequency in this gap. The results are discussed in relation with the symmetry of the modes associated with a linear guide or with a cavity.


We present the first approach capable of learning domain-independent planning heuristics entirely from scratch. The heuristics we learn map the hypergraph representation of the delete-relaxation of the planning problem at hand, to a cost estimate that approximates that of the least-cost path from the current state to the goal through the hypergraph. We generalise Graph Networks to obtain a new framework for learning over hypergraphs, which we specialise to learn planning heuristics by training over state/value pairs obtained from optimal cost plans. Our experiments show that the resulting architecture, STRIPS-HGNs, is capable of learning heuristics that are competitive with existing delete-relaxation heuristics including LM-cut. We show that the heuristics we learn are able to generalise across different problems and domains, including to domains that were not seen during training.


EARTH SCIENCE
Seasonally, the amount of water stored on and in the upper part of the various land areas and river basins varies greatly. These changes are enough to produce subtle differences in the distribution of mass over Earth, which produce slight effects in its local gravity. To detect these slight variations, the satellite mission GRACE flies twin satellites in formation, which communicate with each other, increasing sensitivity greatly. It has been recording global gravity since its launch in March 2002, producing essentially monthly data sets.

Ramillien et al. present an analysis of Earth's terrestrial hydrosphere using the GRACE data for the past 2 years, and attempt to separate out water in snow, groundwater, surface water, and soil water. By inversion, and with precipitation data, this also provides information on net evapotranspiration, an important climate parameter. Although the data resolution is still undergoing improvement, large-scale monthly hydrologic changes are evident over Earth's major river basins, and evapotranspiration seems to be more seasonal in tropical basins than in purely equatorial ones. — BH

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett . 235 , 283 (2005).


Abstract. A new procedure is presented for simultaneous estimation of SO2 and ash abundance in a volcanic plume, using thermal infrared (TIR) MODIS data. Plume altitude and temperature are the only two input parameters required to run the procedure, while surface emissivity, temperature, atmospheric profiles, ash optical properties, and radiative transfer models are not necessary to perform the atmospheric corrections. The procedure gives the most reliable results when the surface under the plume is uniform, for example above the ocean, but still produces fairly good estimates in more challenging and not easily modelled conditions, such as above land or meteorological cloud layers. The developed approach was tested on the Etna volcano. By linearly interpolating the radiances surrounding a detected volcanic plume, the volcanic plume removal (VPR) procedure described here computes the radiances that would have been measured by the sensor in the absence of a plume, and reconstructs a new image without plume. The new image and the original data allow computation of plume transmittance in the TIR-MODIS bands 29, 31, and 32 (8.6, 11.0 and 12.0 μm) by applying a simplified model consisting of a uniform plume at a fixed altitude and temperature. The transmittances are then refined with a polynomial relationship obtained by means of MODTRAN simulations adapted for the geographical region, ash type, and atmospheric profiles. Bands 31 and 32 are SO2 transparent and, from their transmittances, the effective ash particle radius (Re), and aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (AOD550) are computed. A simple relation between the ash transmittances of bands 31 and 29 is demonstrated and used for SO2 columnar content (cs) estimation. Comparing the results of the VPR procedure with MODTRAN simulations for more than 200 000 different cases, the frequency distribution of the differences shows the following: the Re error is less than ±0.5 μm in more than 60% of cases; the AOD550 error is less than ±0.125 in 80% of cases; the cs error is less than ±0.5 g m−2 in more than 60% of considered cases. The VPR procedure was applied in two case studies of recent eruptions occurring at the Mt Etna volcano, Italy, and successfully compared with the results obtained from the established SO2 and ash assessments based on look-up tables (LUTs). Assessment of the sensitivity to the plume altitude uncertainty is also made. The VPR procedure is simple, extremely fast, and can be adapted to other ash types and different volcanoes.


A rare case of extracerebral dural cavernous angioma sited near the sigmoid sinus is reported. This 60 yr old male patient gave history of episodic ataxia of left sided limbs experienced twice on same day and occasional giddiness. Examination did not reveal any findings. A mass was diagnosed on CT Scan following which angiography was carried out. The features matched with those of a meningioma. Retro-sigmoid craniectomy was performed. Occipital artery was coagulated. Tumor was dissected out. Post-operative course of the patient was uneventful. Histopathology revealed that the mass was a cavernous haemangioma.


An international group of experts brings you an exhaustive full-color two-volume reference to help you effectively select and interpret the best imaging studies for the challenges you face in musculoskeletal diagnosis. They cover every aspect of musculoskeletal radiology, including the latest diagnostic modalities and interventional techniques. Plus, a CD featuring case studies, additional chapters, and valuable appendices enriches your knowledge and gives you step-by-step guidance on all of the most important musculoskeletal procedures. Examples of cutting-edge modalities such as MR, multislice CT, ultrasonography, and nuclear medicine are balanced with conventional radiographic images, enabling you to compare and contrast findings from all imaging modalities. More than 5,300 digital-quality illustrations offer exceptional detail and clarity, and user-friendly features including key points boxes, classic signs, protocols, and ACR guidelines put todays best practices at your fingertips.Offers advice from a diverse group of experts from around the globe, providing you with a wide range of options and perspectives, including the pros and cons of each modality, to help you overcome difficult challenges. Presents radiographic images as well as MR, multislice CT, ultrasonography, and nuclear medicine imaging findings so you can easily compare results. Delivers essential background information to help you fully understand each topic.Integrates protocols, classic signs, and ACR guidelines, ensuring a better decision making process.Structures every chapter consistently to include pathophysiology, imaging techniques, imaging findings, differential diagnosis, and treatment options so you can make the best informed decisions. Provides boxes highlighting what the referring physician needs to know, to assist you with report writing, as well as suggestions for treatment and future imaging studies.Includes a CD of case studies, valuable appendices, and additional chapters that provide step-by-step guidance on all of the most important musculoskeletal procedures.Uses more than 5,300 superior, large digital-quality images depicting all of the musculoskeletal imaging findings youre likely to see, and helping you distinguish between conditions with similar presentations. Features a full-color design throughout, including color-coded tables and bulleted lists that highlight key concepts and get you to the information you need quickly, as well as color artwork that lets you easily find critical anatomic views of diseases and injuries.


Introduction. Hypermagnesemia generally develops in people with renal function disorders or due to exogen Mg intake for constipation. Hospitalized cases of fatal hypermagnesemia are rare in the literature. !e aim of this case report was to see if fatal progression could be due to delayed diagnose. Case Presentation. A 61 year old woman presented at the emergency department (ED) for the evaluation of her symptoms which were leg pain, weakness, nausea, constipation and general debility. In her prior history, she had used magnesia calcine for laxative until two weeks before. Electrocardiography showed atrial "brillation with high ventricular respond (HVRAF). Initial serum magnesium (Mg) concentration was 6.80 mEq/l. 10% calcium gluconate with 20 ml used to antagonize symptoms for treatment. Intravenous (IV) metoprolol was used for HVRAF but the patient was unresponsive. On the second day Mg rose to 7.06 mEq/l. !e patient's consciousness was altered, she developed lethargy, and hemodynamic instability was revealed. In addition, respiratory distress was present and patient was intubated. !erefore, she was diagnosed with a suspected Mg intoxication due to laxative use. Continuous hemodia"ltration (CHDF) was urgently used to decrease Mg. On the third day the patient was unresponsive to the treatment and died in intensive care unit (ICU). Conclusion. Patients with nonspeci"c symptoms due to a prolonged laxative use can be admitted to the ED. Hypotension, altering consciousness and cardiac dysthymias can be revealed quickly and therefore the progress is fatal. Mg intoxication must be noticed early in the ED. IV calcium directly antagonises the e#ects of magnesium. It can reverse e#ects such as cardiac arrhythmias. IV normal saline must be used for supportive treatment and if those not responding to intravenous calcium and other supportive measures, CHDF must be used urgently for all patients with features of life threatening hypermagnesemia.


Session of Thursday, December 26 The Society met in the American Museum of Natural History; President James Hall in the chair, and a large number of Fellows and guests present. The President called the Society to order at 10 40 a. m., and introduced Morris K. Jesup, Esquire, President of the American Museum of Natural History, who welcomed the Society and gave a brief statement respecting the character and purposes of the Museum, showing how closely it is related to work such as is done by the Geological Society. President Hall replied, acknowledging the courtesy of the Trustees of the Museum, and recalling some interesting facts to show the early prominence of New York as a scientific center. The minutes of the meeting held at Toronto on August 28, 1889, were read by the Secretary and approved; after which the report of the Treasurer was read. It showed a balance . . .


Methods for enhancement of the direct thermal to electrical energy conversion efficiency, upon development of advanced thermoelectric materials, are constantly investigated mainly for efficient implementation of thermoelectric devices in automotive vehicles, for converting the waste heat generated in such engines into useful electrical power and thereby reduction of the fuel consumption and CO2 emission levels. It was recently shown that GeTe based compounds and specifically GeTe-PbTe rich alloys are efficient p-type thermoelectric compositions. In the current research, Bi2Te3 doping and PbTe alloying effects in GexPb1-xTe alloys, subjected to phase separation reactions, were investigated for identifying the phase separation potential for enhancement of the thermoelectric properties beyond a pure alloying effect. All of the investigated compositions exhibit maximal dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, values beyond 1, with the extraordinary value of 2.1 found for the 5% Bi2Te3 doped-Ge0.87Pb0.13Te composition, considered as among the highest ever reported.


Operation flexibility and the high efficiency of thermal cycle are the two hot research topics for the steam turbine unit. For the operation flexibility, it requires the turbine unit be able to start up quickly and frequently, and good thermal fatigue properties of the components are a must. On the other hand, the trend to higher temperature with ultra supercritical (USC) steam is the key drive of ongoing development for the validation of a method to improve the thermal cycle efficiency, but the application of the higher steam temperature will intensify the component's thermal fatigue.
 In this paper, a high pressure inner casing for the new designed solar steam turbine was studied, and the Finite Element Method (FEM) combined with linear elastic material was applied to simulate the transient stress and temperature fields during the daily warm/hot startup process. On the basis of the stress spectrum in the critical zone, the standard DIN EN-12952-3 and the fatigue curve were used to evaluate the low cycle fatigue life consumption in the transient process.


Objectives: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is defined as gastroesophageal reflux causing troublesome symptoms or complications. In this study we reviewed the literature regarding the prevalence of GERD symptoms in infants and children. Methods: Databases of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane were systematically searched from inception to June 26, 2018. English-written studies based on birth cohort, school-based, or general population samples of ≥50 children aged 0 to 21 years were included. Convenience samples were excluded. Results: In total, 3581 unique studies were found, of which 25 studies (11 in infants and 14 in children) were included with data on the prevalence of GERD symptoms comprising a total population of 487,969 children. In infants (0–18 months), GERD symptoms are present in more than a quarter of infants on a daily basis and show a steady decline in frequency with almost complete disappearance of symptoms at the age of 12 months. In children older than 18 months, GERD symptoms show large variation in prevalence between studies (range 0%-38% of study population) and overall, are present in >10% and in 25% on respectively a weekly and monthly basis. Of the risk factors assessed, higher body mass index and the use of alcohol and tobacco were associated with higher GERD symptom prevalence. Conclusions: This systematic review demonstrates that the reported prevalence of GERD symptoms varies considerably, depending on method of data collection and criteria used to define symptoms. Nevertheless, the high reported prevalence rates support better investment of resources and educational campaigns focused on prevention.


Abstract Aim: To contribute knowledge concerning how physiotherapists using social cognitive theory, empowerment and information and communication technology can promote children's physical activity in a school context. Methodology: Four studies were conducted in the northern part of Sweden and a qualitative discourse analysis of the results from all four studies was performed to enable a more comprehensive understanding. Three of the studies involved children, and one study involved parents. Major findings: The findings formed three themes: A, Acknowledging empowerment; B, Bonded forces overcame barriers; and C, Competence and motivation enable change. The first theme includes the act of creating the intervention using an empowerment approach. The second theme concerns barriers to being physically active and social support from parents and peers regarding physical activity promotion. The third theme concerns motivation and associated personal factors, such as self-efficacy. Principal conclusion: This course of action might be a way for physiotherapists to promote children's physical activity using social cognitive theory, empowerment and information and communication technology in a school context. An empowerment approach that includes the formation of partnerships with children is a promising avenue for developing physical activity interventions in schools. In addition, physical activity interventions should attempt to build on children's self-efficacy and make physical activity opportunities fun and enjoyable.


The historic informal architecture of New Zealand's coastline is precise; it's small, modest, individual, and ultimately exhibits the concept that less, is more. This architectural heritage is the bach. It's an icon on the New Zealand coastlines. These occasionally occupied dwellings hold a nostalgic feeling to many Kiwi's. Baches typically sit lightly on the land, and are careful to not outshine the beautiful environment that attracted its occupants to its site.  Through the effects of privatization and subdivision, parts of New Zealand's coastline have been overdeveloped, which has dramatically affected and diminished the coastal environment. The contemporary holiday home is typically a more expensive, large, suburban house, unsympathetic to its landscape. This change in coastal architecture and settlement patterns is making the coastline inaccessible for many. As the old Kiwi bach is being redeveloped and replaced, New Zealand architecture is losing part of its identity. We are ruining that pristine environment that attracted us to the coastline in the beginning.  This research looks towards coastal environments in the northern area of the North Island of New Zealand. Kawau Island serves as the testing ground for the design research, with a historic and hypothetical subdivision as the setting. The design tests the research at varying scales; how the land can be subdivided, how the land can be occupied, and how the buildings can be designed, to collectively and individually have less impact on the environment. The purpose of this research is to find how we can design more sustainably for our inhabitation of the coast of New Zealand. If we still want to inhabit the coastline, how can this happen in a more mindful way? We inhabit the coast to enjoy that environment, so we need to build with the least impact so that it can be retained and enjoyed.  An understanding of building with low-impact to the environment is at the forefront of this research, to ensure that there is minimal impact throughout both construction, and occupation. Building with minimal impact was investigated through theoretical sustainability principles, precedents and design testing. This impact is interpreted through several different aspects of the development; the way that the development is owned and operated, the siting and clustering of buildings within the land, the tectonics and constructions of individual dwellings, and the way that this development connects on a larger scale with the island.


In this article I will describe the general properties of Negative Concord in Russian, which is a strict Negative Concord language, where all negative indefinites must co-occur with sentential negation. However, there are several cases where the negation marker can be absent (like in fragment answers) or can appear in a non-standard position (like at the left of an embedded infinitival). I will take into consideration all these specific cases described by the literature on the negation system of Russian and analyse them according to current approaches to Negative Concord.


When people witness occasions when police use their powers to investigate crime and arrest offenders, how do those members of the public assess what they have seen? This book reports research in which a variety of groups from the West Midlands watched short video-clips of such real-life incidents and then discussed their appraisal amongst themselves. What emerges from those discussions is that the practice of policing is deeply controversial. On most issues, group members were divided and strongly, often passionately arguing their case. There was no 'blank cheque' for the police, neither was there unremitting criticism, even though some of groups comprised young offenders or the homeless. People worried about whether or not the police on the video-clips had justification for their suspicions; how they managed situations to prevent them getting out of hand; and whether any use of force was justified. Allowing the reader to 'hear the voices' of dissension that were analysed, the authors present implications which are profound for the police and for all those who are policed - suspects, victims, bystanders, and the public at large - as well as practical proposals for police officers and police governance.


In this study, ferrihydrite/ultrasound (US) system was used to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to treat humic acid (HA) in artificial aqueous. The physical and chemical properties of ferrihydrite were characterized using SEM, zeta potential, BET, XRD, FTIR, and XPS analysis. A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of various factor on HA removal, including dosage of ferrihydrite, PMS concentration and pH value. The combination uses of US and ferrihydrite had obvious synergistic effect for HA removal. Under ferrihydrite/US/PMS system, nonthermal effect of US played the main role for HA removal. According to the result of radical quenching experiment, 1O2 was identified as the main reactive oxidative species (ROS) which contributed to HA removal. The study indicates ferrihydrite/US/PMS system is promising strategy for treatment of natural organic pollutant.


Digital Media and Society, by Simon Lindgren. London: Sage, 2017. 328 pages. ISBN 9781473925014
FROM the 'flamethrower squirrel' meme chosen for its cover to the many box-outs that define key questions, concepts and exercises for thinking, Simon Lindgren's Digital Media and Society is a punchy, engaging text pitched perfectly for undergraduates and others seeking an accessible introduction to contemporary media research.


We are grateful to receive Cafaro et al.'s () response to our article (Büscher et al., ). They clarify some of the principal tenets of the Nature Needs Half movement, and there are important issues we agree on. The outlook for biodiversity is bleak and we share a deep concern about this. Non-humans should be able to exist and thrive, and this is something that we also fully affirm. Equally important is the acknowledgement by Cafaro et al. that the neoliberal growth economy needs to be challenged if we are to make headway in addressing the extinction crisis. This position is significant given that it differs from that of the main champion of the Half Earth concept, E.O. Wilson (), who appears to have blind faith in the ability of free market capitalism to correct its social and environmental problems. It also opens up the potential for conservation to support efforts to resist the ravages of neoliberal capitalism— something that has become more urgent in light of the Trump presidency (Büscher & Fletcher, ). Nevertheless, we remain unconvinced by the proposal to set aside half of the planet in protected areas. Cafaro et al. may be correct in saying this would save many species (although arguably only if the effects of climate change on biodiversity prove to be less severe than predicted). However, it will not address the destruction of nature that is fundamental to the global economy. Cafaro et al. acknowledge that setting aside half of the planet needs to be accompanied by an end to 'human misbehaviour' in the other half, but they offer no strategy for how to achieve this. We worry that focusing only on protected area expansion will make such changes less likely. It could distract from any search for mechanisms to redress an inherently unsustainable political economy or, worse, provide an excuse for doing nothing. This is why we argue for a Whole Earth vision. There are parallels here with the question of human population growth, raised by Cafaro et al. This is an important issue, but one that cannot be treated separately from the question of unequal levels of environmental impact. To do so provides a convenient rationale for focusing attention on the reproductive habits of the poor rather than the more environmentally damaging consumption habits of the rich. Most significant is the human cost of the Half Earth proposal. Moving from c. % to % of the globe in protected areas across all biomes would have a tremendous social impact through processes of physical, economic and symbolic displacement. This could have desirable implications in some wealthier parts of the world (for example, through rewilding), but many of the new protected areas would be in places whose inhabitants have contributed least to the problem of global environmental change. It is all well to suggest that 'local communities should be actively involved in conservation efforts', but what power will their interests, voices and rights have in the face of the claims of supporters of the Nature Needs Half movement? The lack of a clear and operationalized commitment to global justice is a profound flaw in the Nature Needs Half vision. Setting aside half of the planet does not help us learn how to live with nature (Turnhout et al., ) in an unjust world. Rather, it exacerbates already problematic nature/culture dichotomies that are at the heart of the problem of extinction of species, and of the neoliberal growth economy. Without a definite plan for how to address either the human costs of the Nature Needs Half proposal or continued threats from the global economy to the non-human species in whose name it is promoted, we remain deeply concerned by the implications of such a proposal. We believe we need aWhole Earth approach that explores new ways for humansandnon-humans to live togetherwithin an economy that promotes prosperity without the need for narrow economic growth.


The development of a bioactive hydrogel that acts as a cell carrier can overcome current limitations in cell therapy. However, the hydrogels usually have a tendency to get damaged during use, and they sometimes also pose a real threat of cell apoptosis. Therefore, the present work has been performed to develop a bio-inspired, self-healing chitosan-5-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-4-hydroxyisophthalaldehyde (CBTHP) fluorescent hydrogel. The physico-chemical properties of this polymeric hydrogel have been characterized by using FT-IR spectroscopy, solid state 13C NMR, rheological analysis, SEM, TEM, DLS, UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, TGA and swelling study. CBTHP exhibits ultrafast excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) through keto–enol tautomerism in both the gel and solution phase. The dynamic equilibrium between the Schiff base linkages between the aldehyde and amine reactants introduces the self-healing property in the hydrogel. The self-healing property of the hydrogel has also been monitored by rheological analysis through step-strain measurements (strain 0.1 to 100%) at 25 °C. The polymeric hydrogel network exhibits a reversible sol–gel transition for several cycles owing to the dynamic equilibrium between the Schiff base linkages. The cellular uptake and cell imaging efficiency suggest that as compared to other fluorescent materials, the formulation of this bio-inspired hydrogel can enable more molecules to enter the cells and thereby causing a greater intensity of fluorescence.


Algal toxins are important from an analytical point of view because they need to be constantly scrutinized owing to the danger they pose to consumers when they concentrate in filter-feeding shellfish or in drinking water and fish. Their chemical diversity is very large, with each group having many analogs. Each group has different pharmacological activities, although not all the mechanisms of action are understood. The main marine toxin groups are as follows: saxitoxin and analogs, okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins, azaspiracids, yessotoxins, pectenotoxins, cyclic imines, domoic acid, ciguatoxins, brevetoxins, palytoxin, gambierol, and polycavernoside. The main cyanobacterial toxins considered are hepatotoxins such as microcystins, nodularin, and cylindrospermopsin. The research concerning marine toxins is underdeveloped owing to a historic scarcity of standards. This has delayed not only the progress in their pharmacology but also the development of methods for detection and measurement. In the current situation, the mouse bioassay is the most common method being used to measure them. New methods are rapidly emerging as future solutions: (i) functional and nonanalytical methods, which provide information on their toxicity and quantify the toxin group (cell assays, receptor assays, biosensor assays), (ii) biochemical methods that do not provide information on toxicity (antibody-based methods), and (iii) analytical methods, which identify the species in each toxin group, and can quantify those for which standards are available. The main drawback of these methods is the lack of toxicity equivalent factors, which allow the conversion of toxin amounts to toxic values of a reference toxin. None of these methods has been validated, and therefore much remains to be done in the field.

Keywords:

marine toxins;
detection;
okadaic;
saxitoxin;
food safety


This paper develops a series of two-stage duopoly models of quality- price competition and a series of monopoly models of quality-price choice in order to examine the impact of information technology (IT) investments on firm profit, firm productivity, and consumer welfare. We solve the duopoly and monopoly models for four cost functions, where each function makes a different assumption about the form of the marginal cost of production. These models are used to conduct a two-by-four comparison [(monopoly, duopoly) × (four cost functions)] of the impact of IT investments on economic performance. The analysis reveals that together market structure and cost structure play a critical role in determining the form of the relationship between IT investment and economic measures. Specifically, moving from monopoly to duopoly and moving from zero marginal cost to marginal cost as a function of quality increase the number of economic measures for which the directional effects of IT investment are ambiguous, or depend on model parameter values.


To further clone the human gastric mucin MUC5AC cDNA, we screened a human gastric cDNA library with previously identified MUC5AC sequences. We obtained 32 independent clones encoding newly identified sequences comprising the entire N-terminal sequence of MUC5AC, up to 3024 bp upstream of the previously identified MUC5AC sequences. The N-terminus of MUC5AC shows high homology (43% identity) with the N-terminus of MUC2 and contains three domains homologous to the D-domains found in the pro-von Willebrand factor. Furthermore, the N-terminus of MUC5AC contains a putative leucine zipper motif not found in any other mucin identified so far. Moreover, a large central repetitive sequence was identified encoding approximately 2500 amino acids (7.5 kb). We were able to establish that the MUC5AC cDNA together with the previously identified 6.1 kb of MUC5AC cDNA sequence is about 16.6 kb, encoding 5525 amino acids. A model of the domain structure of MUC5AC is presented.


Background It is important for clinicians to find a simple yet effective rehabilitation method to improve balance in patients suffering with chronic ankle instability (CAI). A wobble board program may be a useful intervention to improve dynamic balance. The Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) is a dynamic measure of balance and is sensitive to improvements in balance following rehabilitation. Objective To determine if SEBT-posteromedial reach direction improved in Division I athletes with CAI following a four-week wobble board rehabilitation program. Design Randomised-controlled trial. Setting Athletic Training room. Patients Eighteen patients with CAI were included; rehabilitation group: (n = 9, height = 174.76 ± 8.60 cm, body mass = 73.51 ± 6.89 kg, age = 20 ± 1 years); control group: (n = 9, height = 174.00 ± 6.88 cm, mass = 62.78 ± 5.15 kg, age = 20 ± 1 years). Interventions The rehabilitation group completed the protocol three days a week for four weeks. Each session consisted of five 40 s sets of clockwise/counter-clockwise rotations changing directions every 10 s. Progressions were made as needed. The control group continued with normal activities. Main outcome measurements The dependent variable was SEBT-posteromedial reach distance score (three trials averaged/normalised to leg length). Means ± standard deviations were calculated. A 2 × 2 repeated-measures ANOVA analysed changes in the dependent variable. Tukey Honest Significant Difference was used for post hoc comparisons to explain a significant interaction. Alpha level was set a priori (p = 0.05). Results Means ± standard deviations for rehabilitation group: pre-test = 0.93 ± 0.08 and post-test = 1.02 ± 0.11. Means ± standard deviations for control group: pre-test = 0.99 ± 0.17 and post-test = 0.97 ± 0.15. We observed a significant interaction between test (pre/post) and group (rehabilitation/control) (p = 0.005). Post hoc analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-tests of rehabilitation group (p < 0.01), but not of control group (p > 0.05). Conclusions A four-week wobble board rehabilitation program improved dynamic balance as measured by the SEBT-posteromedial reach direction scores in Division I collegiate athletes suffering with CAI.


We present herein a first comparative analysis of the quality of 50 mm and 75 mm diameter SiC wafers, purchased directly from vendors across the world, types including the most widely available configurations. Large Area White Beam Synchrotron Back Reflection X-Ray Topography was used to analyse selected ~1cm2 regions at various locations on up to 10 different bulk SiC wafers. The study concentrated particularly on the density and distribution of threading screw dislocations (TSDs). We also examined all wafers for basal plane dislocation (BPDs) densities and distributions. Alarmingly large variation in wafer quality was observed. TSD densities vary from a minimum of 0 cm-2 (in a-plane material) to values as large as over 2,000 cm-2 on some n-type 4H-SiC wafers. TSD densities on individual wafers can also vary by similar magnitudes, e.g. 500cm-2 to 2,500 cm-2 on two regions only 2 cm apart on a 50 mm diameter wafer. Computer-based image process analysis was used to present a statistical analysis of the distributions of defects. For example algorithms created in MATLAB®, Image Processing Toolbox, isolated possible TSD locations allowing rapid counting to be performed. These counts were confirmed by manual counting of selected unmodified images.


Eye defects can lead to emotional, psychological, and social changes, impacting negatively the quality of life of the patient. When these structures cannot be satisfactorily repaired by reconstructive surgery, the prosthetic rehabilitation is the better treatment option to restore lost ocular anatomy and promote the social integration of the individual. The aim of this clinical report is to report and discuss a case of ocular prosthesis confection eviscerated patient with opening limitation eyelid and shortening of the distance between palpebral commissure, to obtain a more natural and comfortable to the patient ocular rehabilitation.


Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been considered as hotspots for pharmaceutical residues, such as antidepressants, antimicrobials and active ingredients of over-the-counter drugs. Despite evidence of ecotoxicological effects of these microcontaminants on exposed fish in the aquatic systems, there is currently no regulation in terms of the levels of pharmaceutical residues allowable for release into the environment. Depending on the extent of treatment employed in WWTPs removal of pharmaceutical residues are highly variable. This study compares the removal efficiencies for several antimicrobials, antidepressants, and other pharmaceuticals at different stages of the wastewater treatment process of seven WWTPs that employ varying treatment technologies including biological, physical, advanced chemical oxidation, and a combination of two or more of these technologies. The concentrations of the pharmaceuticals were measured by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry at multiple points during the course of treatment. Additionally, the ecotoxicological effects of the WWTP effluents were also evaluated based on the behavioral effects in larval zebrafish. It was found that biological treatment process provided negative to low removal ( 95% overall removal) for 14 out of 15, and 9 out of 11 compounds detected in WWTP influents, respectively. Notably, the final effluents of the seven WWTPs in this study did not show any significant behavioral alterations in zebrafish, indicating that despite differences in removal efficiencies all the treatment processes investigated are sufficient in preventing short-term biological effects.


This paper presents an anomaly detection approach using artificial neural networks and the wavelet transform for the condition monitoring of wind turbines. The method aims to attain early anomaly detection and to prevent possible false alarms under healthy operations. In the approach, nonlinear autoregressive neural networks are used to estimate the temperature signals of the gearbox. The Mahalanobis distances are then calculated to measure the deviations between the current states and healthy operations. Next, the wavelet transform is applied to remove noisy signals in the distance values. Finally, the operation information is considered together with the refined distance values to detect potential anomalies. The proposed approach has been tested with the real data of three 2 MW wind turbines in Sweden. The results show that the approach can detect possible anomalies before failure events occur and avoid reporting alarms under healthy operations.


The phenomenon of elastic boundary layers under quasi-static loading is investigated using the Floquet-Bloch formalism for two-dimensional, isotropic, periodic lattices. The elastic boundary layer is a region of localised elastic deformation, confined to the free-edge of a lattice. Boundary layer phenomena in three isotropic lattice topologies are investigated: the semi-regular Kagome lattice, the regular hexagonal lattice and the regular fully-triangulated lattice. The boundary layer depth is on the order of the strut length for the hexagonal and the fully-triangulated lattices. For the Kagome lattice, the depth of boundary layer scales inversely with the relative density. Thus, the boundary layer in a Kagome lattice of low relative density spans many cells.


Dr. Lipton et al. examined the prevalence and associated risk factors of opioid use among respondents in the Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes study, a cross-sectional, longitudinal web-based study. Of the 2,388 respondents who were using acute prescription medications for migraine, more than one-third used or kept opioids on hand, contrary to guidance. Male sex, high body mass index, allodynia, increasing monthly headache frequency, Total Pain Index score, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular comorbidities, and emergency or urgent care use for headache in the previous 6 months were associated with opioid use. In response, Dr. Gupta cites his experiences in headache care in India and the United Arab Emirates and suggests intravenous metoclopramide as an alternative to opioid use in patients with severe migraine headaches, noting that it can provide analgesia through arginine-vasopressin and opioid release. Noting the different potential psychological effects of mu and delta opioid receptors and arguing that consensus statements and guidelines are insufficient to overcome the opioid abuse crisis, Dr. Gupta emphasizes the importance of understanding migraine pathophysiology and studying nonopioid medications such as metoclopramide. In another response, Dr. Blumenfeld notes that although this study demonstrates that patients using opioids are worse off in many domains, the causal directions cannot be determined. Dr. Blumenfeld posits that worsening headache likely came first, leading to initial opioid use and wonders whether a lack of education about alternative treatment options, as well as misdiagnosis and poor prescribing of migraine-specific medications, may be the real issue here. In a third response, Dr. Minen compares the study with previous work showing that patients presenting to a headache center reported emergency department providers as being the first to prescribe their opioids, and she advocates for better training for emergency and urgent care physicians in headache management. Dr. Minen also notes the need for more headache-specific training for pain specialists because opioid users are more likely to have their headaches managed by such specialists (versus neurologists or headache specialists) and cites ongoing efforts by the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the Pain Medicine journal that are addressing this issue. Dr. Minen also argues that neurologists or headache specialists may be best suited for managing patients with migraine and cardiovascular comorbidities, being more familiar with nonopioid options. Responding to these comments, the authors agree that opioid treatment of migraine may be particularly problematic in the United States and that intravenous metoclopramide is an important nonopioid option for emergency migraine care. They note that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, triptans, gepants, ditans, and neuromodulation are also important acute treatment options. They acknowledge that they cannot determine the causal sequence linking opioid use to migraine features and comorbidities but note that in animal models, prolonged opioid exposure can produce latent sensitization and long-lasting changes to descending pain modulation, suggesting mechanistic links for how opioid use may worsen headaches. They suggest that longitudinal studies with close follow-up and daily diaries may help resolve the causal sequence. The authors suggest that gepants, on the other hand, may not exacerbate headache because they do not produce latent sensitization and that such acute agents may be helpful in longitudinal studies. Finally, they agree that additional training and education in headache management is important for emergency and urgent care physicians and pain specialists. This exchange highlights 3 important aspects of tackling opioid use among patients with migraine—the challenges of disentangling various elements in the causal chain; the importance of high-quality, accessible headache-specific education; and the promising role of the growing armamentarium of migraine-specific acute therapies in mitigating opioid use.


As intelligent systems permeate the world, our everyday lives are made easier and less tedious. However, there exist too many "intelligent" systems whose lack of communication or low intelligibility frustrate users. In this study, we present a tangible interface aimed to bridge human-system interaction. It expresses behaviors through shape-change, and its body movements indicate system status and are responsive and rapid enough for perceptual crossing. Based on preliminary results of a user study conducted with 16 participants, the prototype's implicit interactions show promise in establishing a basic dialog and point to goals and challenges in designing technology that feels truly "smart."


What role do elections play during counterinsurgency wars? Prompted by the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, two broad empirical trends also underlay the posing of this research question. In the modern era, the number of electoral regimes in the international system has expanded dramatically. And in this same period, the fortunes of governments combatting asymmetric internal threats has reversed, with incumbents being defeated by their 'weaker' opponents one third of the time, and securing outright victory for themselves only to an equal extent. But while the grievances expounded by insurgents vary across conflicts, the inclusivity of access to the institutions of power and the right to shape policy is a constant facet of every political system. Endogenous Mobilization Theory, argues that elections and their associated institutions provide both a proxy measure for a state's willingness to accede to the desires of a broader swathe of its domestic populace than their non-elected counterparts, as well as serve as the mechanism which binds political regime elites to the aspirations of their masses across a myriad host of salient political cleavages. The theory is evaluated cross-nationally using a dataset of all modern counterinsurgency wars fought since the end of World War II. Controlling for a wide variety of factors, and employing both categorical as well as duration modelling approaches, the results support that elected governments indeed enjoy vastly better war prospects and face a considerably reduced hazard of suffering an outright defeat. These findings are sustained across a series of tests employed to address potential concerns with respect to endogeneity bias, including an application of the instrumental variables technique utilizing two-stage least squares. Further quantitative testing, at the sub-national level, examines the 2003 War in Iraq. The results support that the precipitous decline in violence during the surge period, is strongly associated with the political realignment of Sunnis following the reintroduction of electoral institutions in 2005, which promoted a shift in domestic political opportunity structures, and created access points within the new status quo regime for more moderate members/supporters of the erstwhile nationalist Sunni based insurgency. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Political Science First Advisor Avery Goldstein


Isaac Newton dedicated a good part of his activity to alchemical experiments. This article tries to discuss the motivations that drove Newton to spend so much of his time in the laboratory: the search for a unitary vision of the forces acting in the macrocosm and in the microcosm, the belief on a hidden prisca sapientia in the occult philosophy to be rediscovered with a scientific approach and the dispute with materialistic philosophy.

An educational version of this article is published in the popular magazine L'Indiscreto.  Our motto "No walls. Just bridges" implies that Substantia aims at being a top level interdisciplinary scientific journal, but wants to be also an actor in public engagement, in the framework of the University's Third Mission.  In other terms we want to promote "scientific leaks" (Sci-leaks).


Abstract A general expression for the effective viscosity of a dilute suspension of arbitrary-shaped particles in linear shear flow between two parallel walls is derived in terms of the induced stresslets on particles. This formula is applied to $N$ -bead rods and to prolate spheroids with the same length, aspect ratio and volume. The effective viscosity of non-Brownian particles in a periodic shear flow is considered here. The oscillating frequency is high enough for the particle orientation and centre-of-mass distribution to be practically frozen, yet small enough for the flow to be quasi-steady. It is known that for spheres, the intrinsic viscosity $[{\it\mu}]$ increases monotonically when the distance $H$ between the walls is decreased. The dependence is more complex for both types of elongated particles. Three regimes are theoretically predicted here: (i) a 'weakly confined' regime (for $H>l$ , where $l$ is the particle length), where $[{\it\mu}]$ is slightly larger for smaller $H$ ; (ii) a 'semi-confined' regime, when $H$ becomes smaller than $l$ , where $[{\it\mu}]$ rapidly decreases since the geometric constraints eliminate particle orientations corresponding to the largest stresslets; (iii) a 'strongly confined' regime when $H$ becomes smaller than 2–3 particle widths $d$ , where $[{\it\mu}]$ rapidly increases owing to the strong hydrodynamic coupling with the walls. In addition, for sufficiently slender particles (with aspect ratio larger than 5–6) there is a domain of narrow gaps for which the intrinsic viscosity is smaller than that in unbounded fluid.


Studies of power optimization of a 5-cm gain length chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) energized by a jet-type singlet oxygen generator (JSOG) are presented. For 10 mmol/s of Cl/sub 2/ flow rate, output power of 132 W with chemical efficiency of 14.5% was obtained without a water vapor trap, 163 W and 18% were achieved when coholed (173 K). He was introduced downstream of the JSOG; under these conditions, the small-signal gain was estimated to be 0.32% cm/sup -1/. 190 W and 10.5% were obtained for 20 mmol/s of CI/sub 2/ flow rate. Replacing He by N/sub 2/ as a buffer gas resulted in a 13% power decrease only. The main key for increasing the chemical efficiency of a COIL without a water vapor trap for a given iodine-oxygen mixing system is found to be high oxygen pressure and low water vapor pressure inside the reaction zone of the JSOG. The last goal was achieved by optimizing the composition and temperature of the basic hydrogen-peroxide solution (BHP). The experimental results are discussed and related to the composition and flow conditions of the gaseous reactants and of the BHP.


textabstractThe search for a clinically useful blood substitute has been stimulated by the inherent
limitations of the homologous blood transfusion system, particularly its sufficiency, safety and
costs. Blood has been described as the "most complicated fluid in animals" (Winslow, 1992).
An attempt to forulUlate a blood substitute is misguided because blood is composed of a complex
mixture of fluids, cells, salts, proteins and numerous other molecules having various functions
and characteristics. The hemorrhage or loss of blood foremost results in a hypovolemic state and
ultimately leads to depletion of oxygen delivering capability (Dracker, 1995).
Biologically significant hemorrhage may be defined as a blood loss sufficient to impair
oxygen transport (Shoemaker et al., 1973; Bassin et al., 1971; Hauser and Shoemaker, 1982).
The major physiological effect of hemorrhage is anemia and hypovolemia leading to drastic
aIterations in blood flow to the vital organ systems (Prough et al., 1991). The persistent
hypoperfusion to organ systems is responsible for ultimate organ failure even after reperfusion
(Knaus et al., 1985). The infusion of large volume of Ringer's lactate in the resuscitation of
hemorrhaged patients is associated with several disadvantages. In addition, problems associated
with blood transfusion necessitate the development of an alternative resuscitative solution which
can be administered in small volumes and is effective in combating the comprom.ised
hemodynamics. Haemoglobin-based blood substitutes (oxygen carriers) have been proposed to
be effective in the treatment of hemorrhagic shock.
The major categories of blood substitutes include the (I) perfluorocarbon solutions and (2)
haemoglobin based compounds.


This paper explores the politics of gender circulating within the discourse of culture in psychology. Two complementary conceptualizations of culture are considered in relation to the politics of gender representation they either afford or disallow. Notions of dominant or mainstream culture typically portray gender as marginal or else as indicative of other markers of difference (whereby the over-visibility of gender reflects its tokenized, reified and homogenized status). Either way, both the centrality and intersectionality of gender and culture are overlooked in ways that bolster the liberal pluralism of multiculturalist discourse. Alternatively, discourses around culture that presume minority status currently function to indicate racialized difference. These not only reify cultural practices in ways that abstract and separate them from the contexts of their emergence and function and so feed into discourses of cultural pathologization, but they also privilege 'race' over gender and so, paradoxically, marginalize and even exclude some minority women's positions, interests and experiences. Within both discourses of culture, the contemporary romanticization and abstraction surrounding notions of 'community' is shown to marginalize gender-specific issues posed by the position of minoritization. Drawing on conceptual-political problems posed by prevailing discourses of culture and gender in relation to domestic violence, some examples are offered to indicate how re-conceptualizing the relations between culture, 'race' and gender can challenge and change theory, policy and practice.


Although it is clinically asymptomatic in some cases, pilonidal sinus disease may also present as a complicated disease, characterized by multiple sinus tracts, leading to severe impairment of patient quality of life. Although clinical studies of pilonidal sinus have been conducted for approximately a century, the gold standard for treatment is undefined. The ideal treatment requires a shorter hospital stay, requires less wound care, results in rapid recovery, maintains quality of life, and has low recurrence rates. In this review, we aim to discuss the challenges and possible solutions for the management of pilonidal sinus disease.