In spite of the large number of normative and legal documents dealing with gender issues, a problem of ensuring equal rights of men and women does still exist in Ukraine. The article is mainly devoted to the gender inequality of payment for labor. The purpose of the study is to highlight the peculiarities of gender asymmetry of payment for labor, to outline directions for reducing it, and to make proposals on achieving gender equality of payment for labor. The labor market analysis in 2013-2017 showed that gender gap of payment for labor depends on the type of economic activity. The study also found the largest gender-based payment gap in the highest legislative body, the Ukrainian parliament, due to the small number of women in its composition, which in some way affects all social sectors. In conclusion, a number of gender differentiation features in payment for labor were singled out. The authors had proposed ways to overcome the gender gap and suggested appropriate measures to be taken. It is necessary to establish gender quotas in the parliament and to impose fines for their non-compliance, a similar proposal applies to senior positions of state institutions. There is also a need to inform society about the topic under study, to develop programs for women in rural areas, and to introduce indicators of gender inequality in enterprise reporting.


This paper describes a new inverse solver for optical tomography. As with prior studies, we employ an iterative perturbation approach, which at each iteration requires the solution of a forward problem and an inverse problem. The inverse problem involves the solution of a linear perturbation equation, which is often severely underdetermined. To overcome this problem, we propose to represent the unknown image of optical properties by a set of linearly independent basis functions, with the number of basis functions being equal to or less than the number of independent detector readings. The accuracy of the solution depends on the choice of the basis. We have explored the use of the weight functions associated with different source and detector pairs (i.e. the rows in the weight matrix of the perturbation equation) as the basis functions. By choosing those source and detector pairs which have uncorrelated weight functions, the inverse problem is transformed into a well-posed, uniquely determined problem. The system matrix in the transformed representation has a dimension significantly smaller than the original matrix, so that it is feasible to perform the inversion using singular value decomposition (SVD). This new method has been integrated with a previously reported forward solver, and applied to data generated from numerical simulations using diffusion approximation. Compared to the Conjugate Gradient Descent (CGD) method used in previously reported studies, the new method takes substantially less computation time, while providing equal, if not better, image reconstmction quality at similar noise levels.


The predicament of defense has been an obsession of torment to any escalating nation. It has been branded that one dome by which this populace that nomadic of the nation is being documented and properly scrutinized. In line, to skirmish the colonization control, the manuscript consequently anticipated a safe and sound frontier defense using dual countenance check through Boast Cosseted (BC) scheme. The dual countenance check exploits fingerprint detection and face recognition in the boast cosseted scheme as adroit for detection and corroboration of personnel inimitably. Then, i the likelihood of double registration at the frontier by the colonizer ABSTRACT The predicament of defense has been an obsession of torment to any escalating nation. It has been branded that one dome by which this hindrance can be scuffled is to boast a safe border where the populace that nomadic of the nation is being documented and properly scrutinized. In line, to skirmish the colonization control, the manuscript consequently anticipated a safe and sound frontier defense using dual countenance check through Boast Cosseted (BC) scheme. The dual countenance check exploits fingerprint detection and face recognition in the boast cosseted scheme as adroit for detection and corroboration of personnel inimitably. Then, indubitably the intended proposal purges the likelihood of double registration at the frontier by the colonizer Dr. Jagadeesh and . The predicament of defense has been an obsession of torment to any escalating nation. It has been hindrance can be scuffled is to boast a safe border where the populace that nomadic of the nation is being documented and properly scrutinized. In line, to skirmish the colonization control, the manuscript consequently anticipated a safe and sound frontier defense using dual countenance check through Boast Cosseted (BC) scheme. The dual countenance check exploits fingerprint detection and face recognition in the boast cosseted scheme as adroit for ndubitably the intended proposal purges the likelihood of double registration at the frontier by the colonizer.


With poverty and hunger growing in sub-Saharan Africa, increased agricultural productivity is urgently required. Agricultural extension services should improve their delivery to those small-scale farmers who play a key role in production. There is a need to build on previous research focusing on the integration and sharing of knowledge from different sources, and into the role of small-scale farmers in an agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS). Studying an AKIS requires a broad theoretical framework to explain its different facets comprehensively. This article reviews perspectives, theories, concepts and models for studying the AKIS of small-scale farmers. A critical review and analysis of the literature, it offers a holistic theoretical framework to underpin research, to ensure a deep understanding of the complexities of the AKIS of such farmers in a developing country context.


Abstract We are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague and friend, Craig Holden. Craig was the Gregg T. and Judith A. Summerville Chair of Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and the current Department Chair. He was a prolific scholar and advisor to many students. In his role as SFS Secretary/Treasurer, which he began in 2012, Craig was a tremendous contributor to the SFS and its journals. He was a champion of international research collaboration, online publication, and was instrumental in improvements that changed how we interact with papers online. Most recently, when the 2020 Cavalcade was going to be canceled due to COVID-19, Craig volunteered to host the entire event virtually with the Kelley School. With only a few weeks of lead time, he managed to design an online conference format that was a great success and serves as a model for many other conferences. Craig was a wonderful colleague who cared greatly for his coworkers, his students, and for the profession. He spoke fondly of his family, of the Kelley School of Business, and of UCLA, where he earned his PhD. The SFS is better for his involvement these past nine years, and we will miss him greatly.


1. The problem of louse control by powders has been shown to be twofold, namely (a) to kill the lice present on a verminous person at the time of treatment, and (b) to prevent reinfestation of a deloused person or infestation of a clean person. In these experiments no single insecticide was found that would fulfil both functions. 2. The work shows the necessity of using laboratory tests ('cell tests') in conjunction with insecticide tests on the parasite living under natural conditions ('field trials'). 3. The technique and results of the cell tests and the field trials are described in detail. In the field trials naturally louse-infested persons living in verminous surroundings were treated and examined daily to observe the true insecticidal value of each preparation. 4. Naphthalene was found to be the most effective insecticide for killing body lice quickly. It failed to give any protection against reinfestation. 5. The vegetable insecticides, derris and pyrethrum, were found to be toxic to Pediculns humanus corporis, but either alone or in combination with each other they were inferior to other combinations of insecticides. 6. The combination of high-boiling tar acids and derris resulted in the combined chemicals being more toxic to lice than either alone. This proved an activation effect, and the theory of activation is discussed. 7. Activated derris, while slow in killing lice, was shown to be the best preparation which gave protection against reinfestation. 8. The preparation referred to as A.L. 63 was outstanding as the best preparation that controlled body lice and which fulfilled the original conditions stipulated for a successful louse powder for human use. The formula is: H.B.T.A. 2 % Derris root 14·3 % giving 1 % rotenone and a minimum of 3 % extract in the final product Naphthalene 50·0 % China clay 33·7 % The nature of each chemical in this formula is defined. 9. A.L. 63, when applied to the clothing of a verminous person, killed 95% of all lice on the treated garment in 24 hr., and gave complete protection against reinfestation for an average of 5 days, and partial protection for 8 days. When applied to clean garments as a prophylactic measure, A.L. 63 gave complete protection for an average of 7…8 days, and partial protection for approximately 16 days. 10. Patients living in a verminous environment were made to wear one shirt continuously for a month without washing it. Even under these conditions they were protected from infestation by treatment of the inside of the shirt, at 8-day intervals, with A.L. 63. 11. A short history is given of the use of A.L. 63 in the British army from 1940 to 1944. During this work we have had much help and sympathy from many people, but we would like to place on record our especial thanks to the following: Prof. P. A. Buxton, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for supplying us with the original material for establishing a louse colony, and for his great interest and encouragement during the work; Dr W. E. Parry, the Divisional Police Surgeon at Spitalfields, for his kindness in describing the best areas to search for suitable patients, and his assistance in finding suitable accommodation for establishing the 'clinic'; those numerous volunteers, within the Cooper, McDougall and Robertson organization, who offered to feed lice when the colony was being maintained at the Research Station, and suffered much discomfort while doing so.


Hydroxyapatite (HAP), Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, is a well-known and a valuable implant material with biocompatibility and bioactive properties. Full utilisation of the unique properties of hydroxyapatite bulk ceramics is, however, enhanced by a proper reinforcement, i.e. by preparation of composites. The goal of this study was to synthesize a HAP-coated zirconia composite powder by the precipitation of HAP in presence of zirconia. The idea was to avoid uncontrolled agglomeration of the zirconia nanostructured reinforcement during the sintering step. ZrO2 nanopowders, previously synthesized by hydrothermal crystallisation, were added in an appropriate amount to an intensively stirred aqueous suspension of Ca(OH)2. HAP was precipitated by addition of H2PO4 at controlled pH in order to obtain a 50:50 composite powders. The obtained powders, fully characterized by TEM, XRD, TG-DTA and BET, were used for the preparation of the nanostructured composite speciments. The sintered materials were characterized in order to evaluate their structural and morphological properties.


Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the United States to threaten, and if necessary to impose, trade sanctions against countries that engage in certain "unfair" international trade practices. This Article defends the use of Section 301 to induce other nations to fulfill their legal obligations to the United States under international trade agreements that lack effective third-party dispute resolution. It also develops a limited argument for the use of Section 301 against practices that do not violate any international agreement, principally when a foreign country increases its level of protection, when it takes inappropriate advantage of loopholes or ambiguities in existing trade agreements, or when (as with many developing countries) it maintains a high level of protection relative to the United States yet is the beneficiary of important trade preferences. Finally, the Article reviews the history of Section 301 cases to date and suggests tentatively that the statute has proven reasonably successful as promoting the national economic interest.


No one denies that the institution of collective bargaining between workers and employers has been a powerful tool for social dialogue. Without our history of effective collective bargaining there would be no mutual understanding, no industrial peace, no constructive cooperation between social partners. Yet there is a feeling today that this history has drawn to a close; that our post-industrial world demands something different, something our tradition of collective bargaining and collective agreements cannot give us. What information and insight can we gather to verify or challenge this feeling? This was the first major question addressed by the distinguished delegates to the twenty-seventh World Congress of Labour and Social Security Law held at Montevideo, 25 September 2003. The aim of the conference was to discover current problems regarding the existing structures and functions of collective bargaining in industrialized countries today problems readily identifiable in the context of economic globalization, falling union density, the increase in atypical and knowledge-based workers, and the tertiarization or declining economic importance of manufacturing-based industry. This bulletin contains some of the most important papers devoted to this major theme of the conference. It presents twenty national reports, each written by a scholar well-versed in the law and practice of collective bargaining in the country covered. Two introductory reports deal with such general issues as the varying competences of representatives under different legal systems, labor union representation within the public sector, the development of collective bargaining in EC law, the levels and structures ofcollective bargaining practice, and the widening gap between the relevant legal norms and real situations. The national reports were drafted on the basis of a questionnaire, which appears as an annex. This allows the reader to easily compare the solutions set forth for consideration in the various countries under review. The Actors of Collective Bargaining will be of great value for all practitioners and academics in the field of industrial relations.


This article aims to deepen the understanding of courage through a theoretical analysis of classical philosophers' work and a review of published and unpublished empirical research on courage in nursing. The authors sought answers to questions regarding how courage is understood from a philosophical viewpoint and how it is expressed in nursing actions. Four aspects were identified as relevant to a deeper understanding of courage in nursing practice: courage as an ontological concept, a moral virtue, a property of an ethical act, and a creative capacity. The literature review shed light on the complexity of the concept of courage and revealed some lack of clarity in its use. Consequently, if courage is to be used consciously to influence nurses' ethical actions it seems important to recognize its specific features. The results suggest it is imperative to foster courage among nurses and student nurses to prepare them for ethical, creative action and further the development of professional nursing practices.


OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the results of the use of the pectoralis major flap in the reconstruction of head and neck surgeries. METHODS: we conducted a retrospective study with data bank analysis and review of medical records of patients with head and neck cancer operated at the Discipline of Head and Neck Surgery, Surgery Department, Sao Paulo Holy Home of Mercy, using the pectoralis major flap for reconstruction, in a period of 16 years. We analyzed age, gender, primary site of neoplasia, clinical staging, preoperative radiotherapy (RT) and complications, classified as major and minor. RESULTS: the series comprised 92 patients, of whom 86 (93.5%) were men; the mean age was 61.39 (±11.35) years; the most common primary sites were the mouth, in 35 cases (38%), oropharynx, in 21 (22.8%), and larynx, in 18 cases (19.6%). The majority of patients were in stage IV (88/92, 95.6%) and only four (4.3%) had preoperative RT. The overall complication rate was 48.9%, but only 6.5%, characterized as major complications. In the univariate statistical analysis, we found no factors related to the occurrence of complications. Only the primary neoplasm site presented marginal significance (p = 0.06). CONCLUSION: the pectoralis major flap is safe, with few complete and effective losses in reconstructions in head and neck surgeries, with low rates of major complications, being an option to be considered.


OBJECTIVES
to understand the meanings assigned by family caregivers about children's chronic disease diagnosis.

METHODS
qualitative study, which used as theoretical framework the Symbolic Interactionism, and methodological, the Grounded Theory. It was held in a pediatric unit in Southern Brazil, in 2016, through interviews submitted to open and axial analysis, with the participation of 20 family caregivers of hospitalized children.

RESULTS
relatives, interacting with the nursing/health staff, perceive children's disease at birth. They are diagnosed with chronic disease by the physician and deny it. Subsequently, they accept and seek information on care.

CONCLUSIONS
the results pointed out the stages that relatives experience by assigning meanings to about children's chronic disease diagnosis. These meanings provide subsidies for nurses' actions, which need to be aware of children's and family's needs in order to offer comprehensive and humanized care.


Although the therapeutic landscape for multiple myeloma (MM) has expanded, the disease always tends to relapse. In attempt to obtain deep and durable responses, each relapse requires the use of a new strategy. In recent years, new treatment options have emerged even for heavily treated patients. Novel, well-tolerated and highly effective therapies in the relapsed/refractory (RRMM) setting currently represent a real hope. Belantamab mafodotin (BLENREP™) is a first-in-class monoclonal antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) whose target is B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) conjugated to the cytotoxic microtubule inhibitor monomethyl auristatin F (MMAF). Here, we present two cases of heavily pre-treated RRMM patients that were favorably treated with Belantamab mafodotin, obtaining at least a partial response. Treatment was well tolerated and is ongoing. This is a rare report on real life clinical use of Belantamab mafodotin outside of controlled clinical trials and provide information on efficacy and safety of this anti-myeloma new class of drugs.


View looking southeast along base of meeting hall, depicting point where arbor begins; "In 1949, the Southwest Christian Seminary in Phoenix had commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design a Classical University. The drawings for this University were completed and made public in 1950. Drawings included a chapel, administrative buildings, seminar rooms, library, Greek theatre, faculty homes, and were designed for eighty acres. Because the Seminary ceased its operation, the University was never built. The leadership of First Christian church knew of the unused plans and obtained permission from Frank Lloyd Wright's widow to use them for their new building. The construction of the new Worship Center began in 1971. It was completed in 1973, with the church occupying the building in February of that year. The building has been called "One of the ten best church buildings ever built in America" by Harold Wagoner, a former Dean of the Church Architects Guild of America. Mr. Wright's philosophy was that a building in the shape of a triangle was a building in the attitude of prayer. Accordingly, the Worship Center was designed as a double triangle, or diamond shape. It offers a place of worship with only walls of glass. As you enter the building and lobby, there is a low overhead (a common Frank Lloyd Wright characteristic) of rough concrete and native stone, Mr. Wright's favorite building materials in the West. To the left, by the cornerstone, is the red tile with Mr. Wright's signature imprinted, authenticating the fact that the building is an original FLW design. The building rests on twenty-three triangular pillars of concrete and steel, representing the Trinity. Wright saw them as desert trees. On each side of the lobby are the Builders' Walls, intentionally designed as recognition of those who helped make the building possible. There is a free-standing bell tower next to the church, also by Wright. Source: First Christian Church, Phoenix [website]; http://www.fccphx.com/ (accessed 7/14/2008)


The neural crest is a migratory cell population that gives rise to multiple cell types in the vertebrate embryo. The intrinsic determinants that segregate neural crest cells from multipotential dorsal progenitors within the neural tube are poorly defined. In this study, we show that the winged helix transcription factor Foxd3 is expressed in both premigratory and migratory neural crest cells. Foxd3 is genetically downstream of Pax3 and is not expressed in regions of Pax3 mutant mice that lack neural crest, implying that Foxd3 may regulate aspects of the neural crest differentiation program. We show that misexpression of Foxd3 in the chick neural tube promotes a neural crest-like phenotype and suppresses interneuron differentiation. Cells that ectopically express Foxd3 upregulate HNK1 and Cad7, delaminate and emigrate from the neural tube at multiple dorsoventral levels. Foxd3 does not induce Slug and RhoB, nor is its ability to promote a neural crest-like phenotype enhanced by co-expression of Slug. Together these results suggest Foxd3 can function independently of Slug and RhoB to promote the development of neural crest cells from neural tube progenitors.


End-window transmission-target X-ray tubes are designed for very close anode-to-sample coupling for compact portable XRF instruments. Several recent improvements have been achieved to make these tubes considerably brighter, with better output stability and even smaller size and lower power consumption for handheld instrumentation. Areas of the tube that have been improved include the anode, the cathode, and the high-voltage power supply. 1) The anode can be a sputtered film on the inside of the X-ray window. Densified films of a more uniform thickness provide higher X-ray output and more consistent performance from tube to tube. 2) Changes in the anode geometry have resulted in reduced spectral contamination from metal parts in the anode. 3) The electron beam position on the anode is primarily influenced by the filament placement relative to the cathode optic. Using finite-element analysis (FEA) charged-particle beam modeling software it was possible to design an improved cathode optic with significantly better electron beam performance. This results in higher electron density on the target and a more stable beam position. 4) Finally, innovations in the high-voltage power supply have resulted in significant reductions in size and weight in this component. New power supply designs also require significantly less input power than the earlier designs. The combination of these improvements results in miniature X-ray tubes with higher flux, lower spectral contamination, more stable X-ray beams, smaller and lighter packages, and lower overall power


The Vardar Zone is an integral part of the Internal Hellenides and has long been regarded as an ophiolite-decorated suture zone separating two distinct continental blocks, namely the Pelagonian Zone to the west and the Serbo-Macedonian Massif to the east. Several bodies of granites, gneisses and volcanic rocks are associated with the ophiolitic rocks and can provide additional constraints on the evolution of the suture. Single-zircon and monazite dating of felsic rocks yields accurate ages for the processes of accretion of the suture. The igneous formation ages obtained range from 155 to 164 Ma, suggesting an important magmatic phase in the Late Jurassic. The chemical and isotopic composition of these rocks is in accord with their formation in a volcanic-arc setting at an active continental margin. Older continental material incorporated in the Vardar Zone is documented by 319 Ma gneisses and by inherited zircons of mainly Mid-Palaeozoic ages. The Late Jurassic magmatic event overprinted such gneisses, as is evident in monazite ages of 158 Ma. The prevalence of Late Jurassic subduction-related igneous rocks indicates that arc formation and accretion orogeny were the most important processes during the evolution of this part of the Internal Hellenides.


The ongoing growth of corn-based ethanol production raises some fundamental questions about what impact continued growth will have on U.S. and world agriculture. Estimates of the long-run potential for ethanol production can be made by calculating the corn price at which the incentive to expand ethanol production disappears. Under current ethanol tax policy, if the prices of crude oil, natural gas, and distillers grains stay at current levels, then the break-even corn price is $4.05 per bushel. A multi-commodity, multi-country system of integrated commodity models is used to estimate the impacts if we ever get to $4.05 corn. At this price, corn-based ethanol production would reach 31.5 billion gallons per year, or about 20% of projected U.S. fuel consumption in 2015. Supporting this level of production would require 95.6 million acres of corn to be planted. Total corn production would be approximately 15.6 billion bushels, compared to 11.0 billion bushels today. Most of the additional corn acres come from reduced soybean acreage. Wheat markets would adjust to fulfill increased demand for feed wheat. Corn exports and production of pork and poultry would all be reduced in response to higher corn prices and increased utilization of corn by ethanol plants. These results should not be viewed as a prediction of what will eventually materialize. Rather, they indicate a logical end point to the current incentives to invest in corn-based ethanol plants.


Leader debates have become a pre-eminent means of campaign communication in numerous countries and were introduced in the UK relatively recently. However, the quality of such communication is, to put it mildly, open to question. This article uses the Discourse Quality Index (DQI) to assess the deliberative quality of the 2010 UK party leaders' debates. When scrutinized in isolation, and viewed through the full prism of the DQI categories, the quality of discourse evidenced in the debates is a relatively poor reflection of mainstream idealizations of democratic deliberation. However, when the analysis is rehoused within the wider project of constructing a deliberative system in the UK, and is given a comparative institutional dimension, the epistemic value of the debates is revealed. The relatively high level of justification employed by the party leaders suggests that the debates are a valuable means for the mass communication of reasoned defenses of manifesto pledges to the public sphere, and that they are likely to have a significant educative effect. Moreover, we argue that sequencing such debates with representative deliberative fora will force elites to improve the deliberative quality of their communication and enhance the reflective capacity of the


In this paper, the authors discuss employees' beliefs about their abilities to competently use computer information security tools in the determination of effective information security practices within organizations. In the first section the authors present a background about information security practices at work. Then, the authors present a research approach based on social cognitive theory applied in the information security context within organizations to address the individual and environmental factors that explain information security behavior of end users. The objective of the literature review is to describe the definition and operationalization of constructs such as information security awareness and information security practice as the mediating and dependent variables, and the independent variables of support within the organization, encouragement by others, others' use as environmental factors in the information security context; and finally, self-efficacy and outcome expectations as the individual factors. A research model with a set of propositions is presented to improve the understanding of the personal and environmental factors that influence the effective security practices of organizational employees.


Practical Applications Summary In The Unrealistic Optimism That Threatens Retirement Security, from the Fall 2019 issue of The Journal of Retirement, author Alfred Rappaport of Northwestern University details the retirement crisis facing Americans today. Fewer employers are offering lifetime pensions, and nearly half of American families have no retirement savings—but most Americans believe they are on track to a comfortable retirement. This unrealistic optimism comes from the fact that Americans underestimate their expenses in retirement while overestimating how much their investments will grow once they start saving. Investors often assume they will realize high rates of return in line with historical growth rates. However, they often sabotage their retirement nest egg's potential by failing to reinvest dividends, and by investing when the market is high and selling when the market is low. Investors also often fail to factor in investment fees, inflation, and taxes. The author gives investors a reality check, providing tools that show how these factors cut into retirement savings over time. Financial advisors can use these tools to educate their clients and create retirement savings plans that are free of unrealistic optimism.


This dissertation looks at meeting talk as organisational action, asking how meetings partly constitute "organisation". It considers how meeting members use the phrase "out there" in their work. I conducted observation research, attending the fortnightly staff meetings of an office-based organisation for six months, audio-recording, taking notes and transcribing tapes shortly afterwards. I watched conversations, and following the methodological principles of actor-network theory (ANT), tried to avoid making prior assumptions about how this action was ordered. The phrase "out there" was used by meeting members in each of the workplace meetings attended. I have analysed what members were attending to each time the phrase was used. In three chapters, conversation analysis (CA) is used to carefully examine three uses of the phrase. I use the involvement of the phrase in the meetings to consider members' attempts to make organisational actions and realities. Is the use of the phrase part of the procedures enabling actors able to build shared worlds? I argue that "out there" refers to places and situations that exist precisely in what is made of them in these particular settings. Further, I suggest that we need to ask just where the effects of this making occur. Such effects occur not "out there" or elsewhere, but here. More specifically, the dissertation considers how meeting members come to be allowed to undertake, and do undertake, the action in the meetings of proposing future actions, and being able to propose future actions forcefully and normatively. I suggest that first-hand experience is a valuable resource for suggesting and defending what the organisation should do next. The intention of this dissertation is to contribute to studies of talk in action and research in workplaces that attempts to understand organisational members' world-building activities.


In this study, we investigate the use of deep learning-based and kernel-based proxy models in nonlinearly constrained production optimization and compare their performances with directly using the high-fidelity simulators (HFS) for such optimization in terms of computational cost and optimal results obtained. One of the proxy models is embed to control and observe (E2CO), a deep learning-based model, and the other model is a kernel-based proxy, least-squares support-vector regression (LS-SVR). Both proxies have the capability of predicting well outputs. The sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method is used to perform nonlinearly constrained production optimization. The objective function considered here is the net present value (NPV), and the nonlinear state constraints are field liquid production rate (FLPR) and field water production rate (FWPR). NPV, FLPR, and FWPR are constructed by using two different types of proxy models. The gradient of the objective function as well as the Jacobian matrix of constraints are computed analytically for the LS-SVR, whereas the method of stochastic simplex approximated gradient (StoSAG) is used for optimization with E2CO and HFS. The reservoir model considered in this study is a two-phase, three-dimensional reservoir with heterogeneous permeability which is taken from the SPE10 benchmark case. Well controls are optimized to maximize the NPV in an oil-water waterflooding scenario. It is observed that all proxy models can find optimal NPV results like optimal NPV obtained by HFS with much less computational effort. Among proxy models, LS-SVR is found to be less computationally demanding in the training process. Overall, both proxy models are orders of magnitude faster than numerical models in the prediction. We provide new insights into the accuracy and prediction performances of these machine learning-based proxy models for 3D oil-water systems as well as their efficiency in nonlinearly constrained production optimization for waterflooding applications.


Open-access journal publishing has significantly grown in recent years. Restricted access publications have, in turn, increasing access costs as they benefit from a unique economic model in which relevant work and essential inputs are provided free of charge to vendors who have a captive market that has almost no competition. An additional issue typical of industries that work under the copyright regime is that the oligopoly market structure of the publishing industry which in turn further contributes to increase their products' prices. Mandatory open-access policies, as determined by the NIH, constitute a threat to this business model and are being challenged by the industry on several fronts, including the passage of legislation to undermine these initiatives. The purpose of this commentary article was to review key aspects of this confrontation and to suggest potential strategies for encouraging open-access publishing in Brazil.


Hydroxyapatite (Ca5(PO4)3 OH) (HAp) is a crystalline structure and composition analogue to calcified tissues of vertebrates. The biomedical significance of HAp is its bioactivity – HAp ceramics leads to the formation of new bone on their surface. HAp properties are ascribed to the characteristic surface structure of HAp, while the detailed mechanism is still unknown. Modeling and computation of HAp molecular nanostructures, exploration of the possible mechanisms of its surface charging (polarization), based on proton transfer, and the discussion of the adhesion properties of HAp nanoparticles and ceramics are the aim of the work.


This article develops and implements a simulation approach to value patents and patent-protected R&D projects based on the Real Options approach. It takes into account uncertainty in the cost-to-completion of the project, uncertainty in the cash flows to be generated from the project, and the possibility of catastrophic events that could put an end to the effort before it is completed. It also allows for the possibility of abandoning the project when costs turn out to be larger than expected or when estimated cash flows turn out to be smaller than anticipated. This abandonment option represents a very substantial part of the project's value when the project is marginal or/and when uncertainty is large. The model presented can be used to evaluate the effects of regulation on the cost of innovation and the amount on innovative output. The main focus of the article is the pharmaceutical industry. The framework, however, applies just as well to other researchintensive industries such as software or hardware development.


The objective of this study is to examine the user's adoption aspects of autonomous vehicle, as well as to investigate what factors drive people to trust an autonomous vehicle. A model explaining the impact of different factors on autonomous vehicles' intention is developed based on the technology acceptance model and trust theory. A survey of 552 drivers was conducted and the results were analyzed using partial least squares. The results demonstrated that perceived usefulness and trust are major important determinants of intention to use autonomous vehicles. The results also show that three constructs—system transparency, technical competence, and situation management—have a positive effect on trust. The study identified that trust has a negative effect on perceived risk. Among the driving-related personality traits, locus of control has significant effects on behavioral intention, whereas sensation seeking did not. This study investigated that the developed model explains the factors that influence the acceptance of autonomous vehicle. The results of this study provide evidence on the importance of trust in the user's acceptance of an autonomous vehicle.


The workplace can be a major source of stress, and this can cause health problems that have a negative impact on the individuals, organizational, and society. This concise, evidence-based volume, written by a leading occupational health psychologist, explores how work conditions and organizational characteristics pose threats and harms to people's wellbeing through the lens of occupation stress theories and models. The author then summarizes the potential adverse impacts of major job stressors across individuals, families, organizations, and nations. In a final section, several evidence-based prevention strategies targeting individuals, management, and organizations are explored, including recovery from work, job crafting, and supervisors as change agents. Practitioners can modify and tailor these actionable strategies to assist employees and organizations in managing occupational stress. This book is essential reading for clinical and occupational psychologists, managers, supervisors, and anyone interested in making the workplace a healthier place.


Traditionally, coins and exonumia found in archaeological contexts have been examined in a way that fails to utilize their full potential for making substantive contributions to historical questions. Often bearing dates and/or dateable iconography, these numismatic objects are used primarily to provide temporal data for archaeological contexts or sites; and, as material culture related to the economic sphere, the function of these objects is assumed. When archaeological excavations in England's North American colonies uncover European coins and exonumia that are obsolete in their original countries of origin, they are often interpreted as items imported for the Indian trade without consideration of their full social and cultural contexts. Since 1994, archaeological excavations on the c. 1607-24 site of James Fort, the initial English settlement at Jamestown, have uncovered over two hundred Dutch and English tokens and Irish coins that are both unusual for the Virginia context and are no longer current in their original settings. This thesis examines this unusual group of base metal coins and exonumia found in the fort's tightly dated discrete contexts as evidence of an undocumented scheme of token currency in the early English colony. The research incorporates a biographical approach to the data, weaving together numismatic scholarship, evidence from archaeological contexts, and contemporary historical accounts. The use of token currency in Bermuda and Newfoundland, two early English colonies established subsequent to Jamestown, provides evidence of parallel adaptive measures required to fulfil local needs in New World settlements. In conclusion, familial and commercial links connecting the leaders of the Virginia enterprise, English governmental officials, and the Royal Mint are suggested as agencies for the obsolete coins and tokens at Jamestown. Using numismatic objects as portals to Jamestown's past, this study demonstrates new understandings may be gained from beginning an historical inquiry with contextually relevant material culture.


We say that a digraph D = (V,A) admits a good decomposition D = D1 ∪ D2 ∪ D3 if D1 = (V1, A1), D2 = (V2, A2) and D3 = (V3, A3) are such subdigraphs of D that V = V1 ∪ V2 with V1 ∩ V2 = ∅, V2 6= ∅ but V1 may be empty, D1 is the subdigraph of D induced by V1 and is an acyclic digraph, D2 is the subdigraph of D induced by V2 and is a strong digraph and D3 is a subdigraph of D, every arc of which has its tail in V1 and its head in V2. In this paper, we show that a digraph D = (V,A) with minimum outdegree 3 has no vertex disjoint directed cycles of different lengths if and only if D admits a good decomposition D = D1∪D2∪D3, where D1 = (V1, A1), D2 = (V2, A2) and D3 = (V3, A3) are such that D2 has minimum outdegree 3 and no vertex disjoint directed cycles of different lengths and for every vertex v ∈ V1, d+D1∪D3(v) ≥ 3. Moreover, when such a good decomposition for D exists, it is unique. By these results, the investigation of digraphs with minimum outdegree 3 having no vertex disjoint directed cycles of different lengths can be reduced to the investigation of strong such digraphs. Further, we classify strong digraphs with minimum outdegree 3 and girth 2 having no vertex disjoint directed cycles of different lengths.


This research investigates how consumers choose between options when prices offset perceived quality differences. We suggest that consumers choose between equated alternatives by first assessing which option is of higher quality, and then relying on their confidence in this assessment to determine how much weight to give to equating prices: The lower the confidence in their quality assessments, the more weight they give to equating prices, and the more likely they are to choose a lower-priced option against an equally attractive but higher-quality alternative. In five studies, we manipulated consumers' confidence in their quality assessments and then asked them to choose between equated alternatives. As predicted, consumers were more likely to choose the higher-quality option against an equated alternative when they were more confident in their quality assessments. This occurred even when confidence was manipulated without altering the choice options themselves (e.g., by degrading the font of the questionnaire).


The analytical approach to studying waste management is investigated here in the context of large scale dairying. The typical short-run approach that regards waste management as separable from primary production is contrasted with a longer-run systems approach in which waste management is regarded as an interdependent stage of production. Failure to consider interdependencies between waste management and agricultural production could compromise potential efficiencies in the overall system. Furthermore, cooperative waste treatment and disposal among livestock producers may contribute to greater efficiency and afford opportunities for resource conservation and recovery through waste utilization.


Effects of factors influencing spatial and temporal variability of crop yields are usually expressed in crop growth patterns. Consequently, monitoring crop growth can form the basis for managing site-specific farming (SSF). This experiment was conducted to determine whether crop growth patterns forecast grain yields. Effects of irrigation rates (50 and 80% evapotranspiration, ET), elevation, soil texture, soil NO 3 -N, arthropods, and diseases on corn (Zea mays L.) growth and grain yield were evaluated at Halfway, TX, in 1998 and 1999. Data on plant height, leaf area index, leaf dry matter, stem dry matter, and ear dry matter were collected from geo-referenced locations (DGPS). These data were used to derive total dry matter, crop growth rate, and net assimilation rate (NAR). Grain yields at DGPS locations were classified into four distinct clusters. In 1998, a dry season, clusters were strongly influenced by elevation and soil texture. Grain yields were higher at high elevations where water use was high and soil texture was heavy compared with low elevations. Grain yields at low elevations also were reduced by common smut [Ustilago zeae (Beckm.) Unger] that preferred dry conditions. In 1999, a relatively wet season, clusters included areas with different elevation and soil texture combinations. Measured parameters forecast grain yields better in 1998 than in 1999. Differences in NAR were evident before the 12-leaf stage, making NAR a potentially useful measurement for early in-season management decisions. Biomass measurements, for which differences were observed after the 12-leaf stage, also may be used to formulate decisions for both in-season and the following season's management.


In this paper, we study the statistical limits in terms of Sobolev norms of gradient descent for solving inverse problem from randomly sampled noisy observations using a general class of objective functions. Our class of objective functions includes Sobolev training for kernel regression, Deep Ritz Methods (DRM), and Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINN) for solving elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) as special cases. We consider a potentially infinite-dimensional parameterization of our model using a suitable Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space and a continuous parameterization of problem hardness through the definition of kernel integral operators. We prove that gradient descent over this objective function can also achieve statistical optimality and the optimal number of passes over the data increases with sample size. Based on our theory, we explain an implicit acceleration of using a Sobolev norm as the objective function for training, inferring that the optimal number of epochs of DRM becomes larger than the number of PINN when both the data size and the hardness of tasks increase, although both DRM and PINN can achieve statistical optimality.


Currently the housing sector accounts for about 40 percent of societies total energy consumption. New methods of constructing houses can greatly reduce the use of energy for modern homes but measures must also be taken to make existing buildings more energy effective. One method of doing so is by so called weather optimization of the buildings heating system. This means that the level of heating is based on detailed information about the weather instead of solely the temperature, which is the case for the majority of buildings today. The aim of this report is to evaluate these systems from a real estate owner perspective. This is done by studying a commercially available system and a locally developed system for weather optimization in order to evaluate how they operate, their benefits and the level of competence needed to implement them.


In the thesis the costs for extracting ground power cables from grass, asphalt or cobblestone using excavator or Kabel-X is examined. This is then compared to the sale value of the cable to a recycling company. The cables examined are 2 plastic (PVC) cables, 1 paper cable and 1 oil cable. The environmental perspective in the form of CO2, SO2, PO4, C2H4 and CFC11 is also examined where emissions from the extraction and the recycling process is compared to the avoided emissions from reusing the materials in the cables instead of extracting and processing new materials.In the thesis the costs for extracting ground power cables from grass, asphalt or cobblestone using excavator or Kabel-X is examined. This is then compared to the sale value of the cable to a recycling company. The cables examined are 2 plastic (PVC) cables, 1 paper cable and 1 oil cable. The environmental perspective in the form of CO2, SO2, PO4, C2H4 and CFC11 is also examined where emissions from the extraction and the recycling process is compared to the avoided emissions from reusing the materials in the cables instead of extracting and processing new materials.From an environmental point of view there is an incentive to extract the cables since the avoided emissions are greater than the combined emissions from the extraction and recycling.


We analyze nonlinear excitation in a four-level atomic system that exhibits electromagnetically induced transparency induced by a strong coupling laser. We show that, at the line center of the atomic transition, the nondegenerate two-photon excitation in the dressed states can be enhanced by constructive quantum interference in two excitation paths while the linear absorption is inhibited by destructive quantum interference. We report an experimental study of the interference-enhanced two-photon absorption in a multilevel Λ-type rubidium atomic system and compare the measurements with the theoretical calculations.


Prey capture in zebrafish larvae is an innate behavior which can be observed as early as 4~days postfertilization, the day when they start to swim. This simple behavior apparently involves several neural processes including visual perception, recognition, decision-making, and motor control, and, therefore, serves as a good model system to study cognitive functions underlying natural behaviors in vertebrates. Recent progresses in imaging techniques provided us with a unique opportunity to image neuronal activity in the brain of an intact fish in real-time while the fish perceives a natural prey, paramecium. By expanding this approach, it would be possible to image entire brain areas at a single-cell resolution in real-time during prey capture, and identify neuronal circuits important for cognitive functions. Further, activation or inhibition of those neuronal circuits with recently developed optogenetic tools or neurotoxins should shed light on their roles. Thus, we will be able to explore the prey capture in zebrafish larvae more thoroughly at cellular levels, which should establish a basis of understanding of the cognitive function in vertebrates.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the construct of concept maps as well as the relationship between conceptual maps and foreign language (FL) Arabic speaking learners. It also aims at connecting the previous research to the classroom implementation and FL students' benefits when using this tool to improve their language learning. The researcher demonstrates some examples of conceptual maps from first year students at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, this paper presents an overview of the main trends of thought that have led to the interest in concept mapping as an instructional and learning tool to facilitate the development of Arabic speaking learners' reading, critical thinking, understanding, and remembering the new language words, ideas and facts.


A remedy scheme of water leakage in the deep foundation pit of a subway station is introduced. The deformation and axial forces of the supporting structure as well as the underground water level were monitored during the leaking prevention process. At the same time, a plane model was developed to simulate the construction process of foundation pit by FEM. Then, the fundamental reason for the leaking of the foundation pit was analyzed by numerical results and in situ measured data. Furthermore, importance of the strength of the supporting structure to the excavation of the foundation pit was also detailed demonstrated. Finally, the remedy measures were put forward to prevent the water leakage, which were proved to be effective and feasible in practice.


In the past, many European countries were faced with the problem of providing care for boarded‐out children. And very often the policies implemented up to the middle of the twentieth century were essentially similar and thus similarly inadequate. The problem with boarding out is that it was a measure in response to widely varying situations, not only in respect of the illegitimate as well as the legitimate children concerned, but also with regard to the reasons which led to boarding out. Orphans after the First World War with no relatives who could take them in formed a minority, and in several Swiss cantons the legitimate children outnumbered the illegitimate ones by far. Up to the First World War, the age group concerned was mostly that of children from birth to 14 years. There was considerable ambivalence in the motives leading to the boarding out of children, because they were the result of two conflicting concepts. On the one hand, the parents or the mother of an illegitimate child had to out‐place her child/children because the mother had to go out to work, as was often the case with the spread of industrialisation and the frequently inadequate income of the working class. On the other hand, the local Assistance Board was often ready to split up poorer families and to take away their children with the argument that the family environment was considered morally harmful for their upbringing according to the contemporary view. Both parents and the local Assistance Board often chose the cheapest solution for different reasons. In numerous cases the children were placed with farming families quite unable to offer a proper upbringing and children were taken in only because they represented a supplementary source of income and an addition to the workforce. For the local authorities, be they rural or urban, in some cantons even during the interwar period, the auctioning of the children to families living in other parts of Switzerland was a frequent stratagem in order to pay the lowest possible boarding fees, and the level of these fees decreased enormously the older the child was since his/her work capacity increased over time. In most cantons, one of the main problems with boarding out was the totally inadequate supervision of the families to which the children were entrusted, either because of the geographical distance between the local authority and the children, or because of the inadequacy of the supervisory staff, often benevolent females with no clear rules existing for judging the adequacy of the entrusted families, or due to the general lack of interest for the destiny of the children.


Abstract Objective Venous thromboembolism (VTE) remains a leading cause of maternal mortality. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (RCOG) have proposed pregnancy-specific risk scoring guidelines for antepartum (AP) and postpartum (PP) thromboprophylaxis. We compared the impact of scoring thresholds and their potential preventative effect. Study design We conducted a retrospective cohort study of hospitalized maternity patients over a 4-month period. Patients were assigned an AP and PP risk score using each guideline. Hospitalization-associated VTE was accessed over a 6-year period. Comparison was by Fischer's exact and Chi Square tests. Results 638 women were included. Of AP patients, 20% met pharmacoprophylaxis criteria for baseline characteristics and 100% for length of stay using RCOG, and 12% met phrarmacoprophylaxis criteria using ACOG (p < .001). For PP patients, 53% met criteria for RCOG compared to 24% using ACOG (p < .001). If pharmacoprophylaxis were performed at a threshold 1 point above recommendation, 7% of AP patients and 11% of PP women would meet ACOG criteria. This increased ACOG threshold captured all cases of VTE following hospitalization. Conclusion In our population, using ACOG prophylaxis guidelines at an increased threshold would have potentially prevented all hospitalization related VTE without excessive anti-coagulation.


BACKGROUND
Gabapentin and pregabalin inhibit Ca(2+) currents via high-voltage-activated channels containing the alpha2delta-1 subunit, reducing neurotransmitter release and attenuating the postsynaptic excitability. They are antiepileptic drugs successfully used also for the chronic pain treatment. A large number of clinical trials indicate that gabapentin and pregabalin could be effective as postoperative analgesics. This systematic-narrative review aims to analyse the most recent evidences regarding the effect of gabapentinoids on postoperative pain treatment.

METHODS
Medline, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE and CINHAL were searched for recent (2006-2009) randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of gabapentin-pregabalin for postoperative pain relief in adults. Quality of RCTs was evaluated according to Jadad method. Visual analogue scale (VAS), opioid consumption and side-effects (nausea, vomiting, dizziness and sedation) were considered the most important outcomes.

RESULTS
An overall of 22 gabapentin (1640 patients), 8 pregabalin (707 patients) RCTs and seven meta-analysis were involved in this review. Gabapentin provided better post-operative analgesia and rescue analgesics sparing than placebo in 6 of the 10 RCTs that administered only pre-emptive analgesia. Fourteen RCTs suggested that gabapentin did not reduce PONV when compared with placebo, clonidine or lornoxicam. Pregabalin provided better post-operative analgesia and rescue analgesics sparing than placebo in two of the three RCTs that evaluated the effects of pregabalin alone vs placebo. Four studies reported no pregabalin effects on preventing the PONV.

CONCLUSION
Gabapentin and pregabalin reduce pain and opioid consumption after surgery in confront with placebo, but comparisons with other standard post-operative regimens are not sufficient. Gabapentin and pregabalin seem not to have any influence on the prevention of PONV.


Introduction: Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity across industries for its ability to engage users on a level unprecedented by print or 2-D media; however, few guidelines exist for the use of VR technologies in technical and professional communication (TPC) curricula. To address this need, this experience report details the study of a recognizable and adopted set of VR devices to promote understanding of the ways in which emerging VR technologies provide new approaches to pedagogy. Literature review: Drawing from literature in computer science, communication studies, and anthropology, as well as embodiment and phenomenology, the authors provide a historical account of VR development. About the study: Using three concurrent case studies and qualitative interviews, the authors share their deployment of three low-end to high-end VR devices: Google Cardboard, Google Daydream View, and HTC Vive. Using a modified heuristic, the authors assess the functions, features, and uses of the devices; showcase current or potential deployments; and for triangulation, provide a user study of two devices. Results/discussion: VR immersion can provide students with a deeper understanding of course content; immersion in future workplaces can give students an initial vision of their project and profession; concepts can be seen from new vantage points; and user themes include felt experience, sense and sensibility, agency and autonomy, and constant identities. Together, these themes provide an entry into discussions of designing VR content for technical and professional communication.  Conclusion: The authors discuss limitations to VR integration and provide resources so practitioners might implement VR in engaging and relevant ways.


Mesoamerican peoples had a long history of cacao use—spanning more than 34 centuries—as confirmed by previous identification of cacao residues on archaeological pottery from Paso de la Amada on the Pacific Coast and the Olmec site of El Manatí on the Gulf Coast. Until now, comparable evidence from San Lorenzo, the premier Olmec capital, was lacking. The present study of theobromine residues confirms the continuous presence and use of cacao products at San Lorenzo between 1800 and 1000 BCE, and documents assorted vessels forms used in its preparation and consumption. One elite context reveals cacao use as part of a mortuary ritual for sacrificial victims, an event that occurred during the height of San Lorenzo's power.


It is apparent from a review of the reported cases of hepatitis associated with sulfonamide therapy that it is usually possible to recognize this toxic manifestation. This is of considerable practical importance since, in every instance in which the sulfonamide is responsible for the jaundice, treatment with the drug should be discontinued and some other form of therapy, such as the antibiotics, instituted. If the jaundice is not secondary to the sulfonamide, therapy may be continued even in the presence of hepatitis secondary to the infection.

Jaundice which appears during the first week of chemotherapy is usually associated with a previous history of ingestion of sulfonamides and accompanying signs of toxicity (immediate sulfonamide jaundice) or with acute hemolytic anemia and jaundice (intermediate jaundice). In either instance the diagnosis is not difficult because the clinical and laboratory abnormalities are characteristic. Finally, jaundice which occurs after ten days of chemotherapy is usually associated with other toxic manifestations, especially fever and various forms of rashes (delayed jaundice). Occasionally jaundice may be the only toxic manifestation of sulfonamide therapy and, in such patients, a definite diagnosis may be difficult.


Rapid urbanization and climate change concerns have led to a growing drive to integrate nature into the built environment. It is expected that London will face increasing risks of flooding, overheating and drought, through hotter drier summers and warmer wetter winters. In response, the Mayor of London adopted new policies for encouraging the use of living roofs and green walls. Greenery systems are considered as promising solutions for improving energy and thermal efficiency of buildings as well as reducing pollution, encouraging biodiversity and water runoff, reducing Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects and improving the microclimate overall. The research aims to review the current state-of-the-art literature concerning the potentials and limitations of vertical greenery systems on energy and thermal performance of buildings in temperate climates. This review paper synthesises and summarizes the literature with regards to vertical green systems (VGS) when used as a passive design strategy to enhance energy savings in buildings. From the review of the literature, some key aspects to consider when designing VGS are outlined, such as climate influence, the plant species grown and the different operating mechanisms as associated such as shade, evapotranspiration, insulation and wind barrier. The results achieved from the literature review clearly indicate that green walls may be considered as key solutions to mitigate operational energy consumption of buildings as well as provide thermally comfortable indoor and outdoor environments. The results of this research will prove useful to builders, architects, engineers and policy makers as it will provide an in-depth understanding of the potential of VGS to mitigate buildingrelated energy consumption in a renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient and cost-effective way.


In this study, 55 suspected pasteurellosis clinical cases from different provinces of Morocco were investigated. Molecular analysis revealed that 47% of samples were positive for Pasteurella multocida, all typed as serogroup A, and 11% positive for Mannheimia heamolytica. Eight isolates were recovered from 26 P. multocida positive samples, and characterized by biochemical and molecular typing methods. Among these isolates, two strains (S13 and S14) were selected for genes (RNA16S and rpoB) sequence analysis and virulence study in mice, guinea pigs and sheep. Phylogeny study showed similarities of both S14 and S13 isolates with strains from other species. In laboratory animals, the strain S14 was more virulent than S13 and induced severe illness in sheep. The high mortality of infected mice suggests that this model may represent an alternative for testing pathogenicity and vaccine efficacy.


This article discusses the complexity associated with the minimum distribution rules under Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(9) and why Congress must reform these rules.Over the past two decades the landscape regarding qualified plans has changed dramatically: Defined contribution plans have replaced defined benefit plans as the plan of choice, there are fewer limitations on the size of retirement account balances, and Congress has introduced Roth IRAs. These changes, along with others (e.g., higher marginal tax rates than in the 1980s), have catapulted the minimum distribution rules to a new level of importance.The stated goal of the minimum distribution rules is to ensure that taxpayers use their qualified plan benefits during their (and their spouses') retirements. This analysis, however, concludes that the minimum distribution rules fall far short of realizing this goal. Instead, they often permit the tax subsidy to continue on for several generations, allowing the accumulation of enormous tax-sheltered accounts. In addition, the minimum distribution rules are virtually impossible to administer and favor high-income taxpayers.This analysis makes two alternative proposals. The preferred proposal would have Congress modify the minimum distribution rules to permit only a surviving spouse to be a designated beneficiary, mandate that life expectancies be recalculated for purposes of computing distribution amounts, and direct that plan administrators, especially IRA administrators, be held responsible for making required distributions. The alternative proposal would be to eliminate the minimum distribution rules entirely and replace them with mandatory distribution requirement after the deaths of the taxpayer and the taxpayer's spouse.


Tourism is a major source of service receipts for many countries, including Taiwan. The two leading tourism countries for Taiwan, comprising a high proportion of world tourist arrivals to Taiwan, are Japan and USA, which are sources of short and long haul tourism, respectively. As it is well known that a strong domestic currency can have adverse effects on international tourist arrivals, daily data from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2008 are used to model the world price and US$ / New Taiwan $ and Yen/ New Taiwan $ exchange rates, and tourist arrivals from the world, USA and Japan to Taiwan, as well as their associated volatility. The sample period includes the Asian economic and financial crises in 1997, and part of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Inclusion of the exchange rate allows approximate daily price effects on world, US and Japanese tourist arrivals to Taiwan to be captured. The Heterogeneous Autoregressive (HAR) model does not reproduce the theoretical hyperbolic decay rates associated with fractionally integrated (or long memory) time series models, but it can nevertheless approximate quite accurately and parsimoniously the slowly decaying correlations associated with such models. The HAR model is used to approximate long memory properties in daily exchange rates and international tourist arrivals, to test whether alternative short and long run estimates of conditional volatility are sensitive to the approximate long memory in the conditional mean, to examine asymmetry and leverage in volatility, and to examine the effects of temporal and spatial aggregation. The empirical results show that the conditional volatility estimates are not sensitive to the approximate long memory nature of the conditional mean specifications. The QMLE for the GARCH(1,1), GJR(1,1) and EGARCH(1,1) models for world, US and Japanese tourist arrivals to Taiwan, and the world price and US$ / New Taiwan $ and Yen/ New Taiwan $ exchange rates, are statistically adequate and have sensible interpretations. Asymmetry (though not leverage) is found for several alternative HAR models for the world, US and Japanese tourist arrivals to Taiwan. For policy purposes, these empirical results suggest that an arbitrary choice of data frequency or spatial aggregation will not lead to robust findings as they are generally not independent of the level of aggregation used.


The study of Toyohashi city's economic growth and resultant growth in municipal solid waste management were empirically examined by the relation between city economic growth, city expenditure for solid waste management and municipal solid waste. The growth in the economy and the population has increased discharge of municipal solid waste in Toyohashi city. The economic size of the city is identified as a strong explanatory variable. Various kinds of municipal solid waste were generated with the city growth. Our study found that during the period of 1980 to 2005, Toyohashi city grew fast and, disposal municipal solid waste of the city was increased as a by-product of economic activities. Such increase in solid waste disposal put in more on demand for policy and technological interventions. As a result, the city expenditures on waste management increased during the same period. The city opened its high-tech waste treatment facility in 1984. The facility provides waste to heat and power generation technology (Toyohashi city, 2011). Later on, the national concept of the sound-material based society supports the city to initiate efficient and effective municipal waste management strategy from 2001 onward (Tachibana, et al., 2008). The positive coefficient of economic level for generation of municipal solid waste was positive. The result denotes that economic growth put upward pressure to the municipal solid waste generation. The negative coefficient of (economic level)2 indicates governmental initiative to manage the municipal solid waste generation in terms of regulations and/or technology was successful in case of Toyohashi city. The coefficient of per capita city expenditures for generation of municipal solid waste was positive and the expenditures on management of the municipal solid waste grew steadily. The result implies that the higher the waste generated, the more the city needs to spend more for waste management. The negative coefficient of per capita (city expenditures)2 indicates technological and regulatory intervention was appropriate to manage the waste generated by the city. The results provide theoretical and practical significance and proposition. The growth of Toyohashi city was positively correlated to produce higher municipal solid waste while better regulatory intervention and technological improvement could end up well management of the waste generated.


The paradigm of advisable planning, in which a user provides guidance to influence the content of solutions produced by an underlying planning system, holds much promise for improved usability of planning technology. The success of this approach, however, requires that a planner respond appropriately when presented with conflicting advice. This paper introduces two contrasting methods for planning with conflicting advice, suited to different user requirements. Soft enforcement embodies a heuristic approach that prefers planning choices that are consistent with specified advice but will disregard advice that introduces conflicts. Soft enforcement enables rapid generation of solutions but with suboptimal results. Local maxima search navigates through the space of advice subsets, using strict enforcement techniques to identify satisfiable subsets of advice. As more time is allocated, the search will yield increasingly better results. The paper presents specific algorithms for soft enforcement and local maxima search, along with experimental results that illustrate their relative strengths and weaknesses in trading computation time for advice satisfaction.


In Israel, the Office of the Medical Director of the Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible for the medical service in residential-care centers for persons with intellectual disability (ID). A standard annual questionnaire was developed during 1997-1998, and the first national survey study was conducted in 1998. This present paper presents the findings of the seventh national survey in 2007, for which the following information was gathered via questionnaires: age, gender, and level of intellectual disability of persons served at the residential care center in question, status of the population served, functional profile, nursing, medical, and allied professional staff, number of annual examinations, preventive medicine aspects, medications, number of annual cases of infectious disease, annual unintentional injuries, number of deaths, number of hospitalizations, internal residential center hospitalization, ambulatory out-patient use, use of outside laboratory examinations, and dental care. In 2007, 6,872 persons were served in 9 government, 37 private, and 13 public centers. The average number of persons served per center was 116.47 (range 24 to 341). The survey in 2007 showed that 79% of the population with ID in residential care in Israel was between the ages of 20 and 60 years old, 44% with severe or profound ID, 43% with moderate and 13% with mild ID. Twenty-seven percent were nursing patients, and 18% were confined to a wheelchair, 34% had epilepsy, 86% were found to be receiving medication daily for chronic illness, and 51% received psychotropic medication for psychiatric illness.


Executive Summary This report presents a comprehensive analysis of inequities in child mortality and intervention coverage in the Philippines. A lack of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) equity analysis in recent years has led to a substantive gap in the literature. Responding to this, we use the best available country data and the most advanced methods to investigate the levels and distribution of, and the trends in, both MNCH mortality and intervention coverage. The findings shed light on inequities between rural and urban populations, and between different ethnic groups, development regions and wealth quintiles. Analyses of mortality over time allow the backtrack of mortality progress, enabling the evaluation of past policies' influences on reducing health inequity and of the appropriateness of current and potential future policy. Hence, this Equity Report aims to constitute a milestone for MNCH equity analyses in the Philippines…


SiC BJTs show instability in the I-V characteristics after as little as 15 minutes of operation. The current gain reduces, the on-resistance in saturation increases, and the slope of the output characteristics in the active region increases. This degradation in the I-V characteristics continues with many hours of operation. It is speculated that this phenomenon is caused by the growth of stacking faults from certain basal plane dislocations within the base layer of the SiC BJT. Stacking fault growth within the base layer is observed by light emission imaging. The energy for this expansion of the stacking fault comes from the electron-hole recombination in the forward biased base-emitter junction. This results in reduction of the effective minority carrier lifetime, increasing the electron-hole recombination in the base in the immediate vicinity of the stacking fault, leading to a reduction in the current gain. It should be noted that this explanation is only a suggestion with no conclusive proof at this stage.


Abstract Background Rapid blood glucose estimation is required to prescribe treatments and to make dose adjustments in diabetic patients. However, measuring plasma glucose levels is time consuming. Therefore, the use of glucometers has greatly increased. Objectives To measure the correlation between capillary and venous blood glucose levels. Methods Seventy patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were enrolled in the present study and informed written consent was obtained from all participants. Demographic characteristics and clinical information was noted. Capillary and venous glucose levels were determined. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 was used for data analysis. Results Mean age of patients was 52 ± 12 years. It included 29% men; 71% women; 9% smokers; and 90% poor. Mean venous glucose was 11.73 ± 4.64 mmol/L and mean capillary glucose 12.57 ± 5.21 mmol/L. These findings demonstrated a significant intermethod mean difference of 0.84 mmol/L (P < 0.001). Inter-glucose difference was not significant at glucose levels near normal. However, it increased gradually with rise in glucose measurements and was significant at elevated glucose levels. Both concordance correlation coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficient demonstrated positive correlation and more consistency between glucose estimations. A Bland and Altman plot presented excellent agreement between glucometrically and photometrically determined glucose levels. Conclusion A positive correlation coefficient showed strong association between capillary and venous glucose measurements.


Infliximab, the monoclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor, is indicated for refractory luminal and fistulizing Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Infliximab treatment has adverse events including infusion reactions, opportunistic infections, and the potential for the event such as reactivation of latent tuberculosis. Cutaneous adverse reactions of TNF-α agents include skin rash, urticaria, pruritus, lupus-like eruption, and injection site reactions. Most of all, psoriasis or psoriasiform dermatitis induced by infliximab treatment for Crohn's disease is rarely reported in Korea. We report a case of psoriasis induced by infliximab treatment for Crohn's disease with a review of world literature.


Experiments on Charpy and CT specimens were carried out on one heat of A533B steel under two conditions: (i) as received, and (ii) thermally aged (450°C - 5000h). A shift of the ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) was measured after aging. In both cases SEM observations showed that fracture occurred both by intergranular and transgranular cleavage fracture modes when the materials were tested at sufficiently low temperature. Detailed examinations revealed that intergranular fracture was associated with micro-segregated zones, enriched in carbon and phosphorus. A recent model developed by the authors for predicting the fracture toughness of inhomogeneous materials was applied to describe the large scatter related to the bimodal failure modes observed in both conditions and the DBTT shift after aging. It is shown that thermal aging produces a slight decrease of the critical cleavage stress (due to the crossing of grain boundaries embrittled by phosphorus segregation) and a larger decrease of the critical intergranular fracture stress. The McLean-Guttmann- Militzer model is used to predict the kinetics of segregation during aging. An attempt is made to show how these results can be used to model DBBT variations under in-service conditions.


Climate change-related anomalies have increased public concern regarding environmental protection. This has opened newer rural development avenues. In this regard, livability of villages is crucial; it can be evaluated based on the villagers' quality of life (QoL). The WHOQOL-BREF, a comprehensive cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary scale proposed by the World Health Organization to assess QoL, has aided in assessing and improving QoL in different regions. However, the factors of this instrument are mutually influential, necessitating an improvement strategy considering the entire system. This problem may be resolved using the DANP-mV model. However, the traditional DANP-mV model includes many items and responding to all of them is difficult for experts. Therefore, by using the case of Xingshisi Village in China, this study proposed a modified DANP-mV model to provide additional suggestions for systematic improvement of the QoL and livability in the village. Xingshisi is a model village built according to an aspirational benchmark; however, different from the traditional definition of a benchmark, this village exhibits room for improvement. Although the modified model reduces the number of questions from 650 to 168, its effect remains similar to that of the traditional model. Moreover, in the modified model, physical capacity (D1) presented the largest dimensional gap. The interaction among the factors indicated that considering the effect of the environment (D4) and developing a systematic improvement strategy are necessary to improve the livability of villages facing limited resources.


In-line inspection (ILI) data is commonly used in corrosion growth models (CGMs) to predict the corrosion growth in energy pipelines. A hierarchical stochastic corrosion growth model is considered in this paper which considers the variations in the corrosion growth, both spatially and temporally, the inherent measurement error of the ILI tools as well as the model uncertainties. These uncertainties are represented as unknown model variables and are often inferred using a Bayesian method [1], [2] and samples of the unknown parameters' posterior probability density functions (PDFs) are obtained using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling techniques [3].
 ILIs can result in massive data sets. In order for MCMC-based inference techniques to yield reasonably accurate results, many samples (approaching infinity) are required. This fact in addition to the massive data sets exponentially increases the scale of the inference problem from an attainable solution to a potentially impossible one that is limited by today's computing power. For this reason, MCMC-based inference techniques can become inefficient in the cases where ILI datasets are large. The objective is to propose variational inference (VI) as an alternative to MCMC to determine a Bayesian solution for the unknown parameters in complex stochastic CGMs. VI produces approximations of the posterior PDFs by treating the inference as an optimization problem. Variational inference emerged from machine learning for Bayesian inference of large data sets; therefore, it is an appropriate tool to use in the analysis of mass pipeline inspection data[4]–[7].
 This paper introduces VI to solve the inference problem and provide a solution for a hierarchical stochastic CGM to describe the defect-specific corrosion growth experienced in pipelines based on excessively large ILI datasets. To gauge the accuracy of the VI implementation in the model, the results are compared to a set of values generated using a stochastic gamma process that represents the corrosion growth process experienced by the pipe.


The 1-hexadecyl-3-vinylimidazolium bromide (hvimBr), a water-soluble long-chain imidazolium ionic liquid (IL) with surfactant properties, showed the ability to produce stable homogeneous aqueous dispersions of pristine Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs). The purpose of this study is the improvement of SWNT dispersing ability by assessing the effect of different groups in position 3 of the imidazole ring. In this regard structural analogues were synthesized and, after characterization, their capability to dissolve SWNTs in water was investigated. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to provide a semi-quantitative indication of the affinity of each dispersing agent toward SWNT and to attempt an explanation of the experimental results.


Cysticercosis, an infection caused by larvae of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium in human tissues, is a common cause of neurologic disease in most non-Muslim developing countries, where it accounts for more than one-third of adult-onset epilepsy cases (1). Cysticercosis is increasingly diagnosed in patients in industrialized nations; persons who have never left the United States as well as visitors to disease-endemic regions are at risk. Traditionally considered an exotic disease, this infection now accounts for up to 2% of neurologic/neurosurgical admissions in southern California (2) and more than 1,000 cases per year in the United States (3). Further away from diseaseendemic regions, an outbreak of cysticercosis among orthodox Jews living in New York City was reported after food was contaminated with T. solium eggs by immigrant cooks infected with the pork tapeworm (4); these carriers may have been completely unaware of their infections. Neurocysticercosis has been reported in AIDS patients, but immuno-suppression does not appear to increase the incidence of this infection. Once cysticercosis is diagnosed, treatment may be necessary, but optimal therapy and particularly the role of cestocidal drugs is controversial. In this commentary, we discuss current options in the treatment of established cysticercosis. The clinical and pathologic features of neurocysticercosis vary, depending on the inflam-matory response around cysticerci, their number, size, and location. The presence of viable, living cysticerci in the central nervous system usually does not cause symptoms (5). In contrast, inflammation around degenerating cysticerci may have severe consequences, including focal encephalitis, edema, and vasculitis. The most frequent symptom is epilepsy. However, neurocysticercosis can cause a wide variety of clinical syndromes—from chronic meningitis and cranial nerve palsies to spinal infarction and symptoms due to either a mass effect or, particularly in racemose disease, raised intracranial pressure. Such variable clinical features necessitate further investigations to make a diagnosis before treatment. The diagnosis may be made by excision biopsy of subcutaneous cysticerci, which are found in 4% to 25% of patients with neurocysticercosis (the percentages are higher in Asia than in Latin America). However, radiologic and serologic tests are usually required for diagnosis unless biopsy of a central nervous system lesion is possible. Computed tomography visualizes living cysticerci as hypodense lesions not enhanced with intravenous contrast; a small, hyperdense scolex may be observed within a living cyst (6). Degenerating cysticerci which are more often symptomatic are isodense or hyperdense, and edematous inflammation around them usually causes ring or nodular enhancement by intravenous contrast (5). Magnetic resonance imaging provides detailed images of living and degenerating cysticerci, as seen in a heavily infected patient (Figure), but may not detect calcified, destroyed cysticerci (3). An immunoblot diagnostic test on serum has been shown to have greater than 98% sensitivity and specificity (7). However, in patients with single ring-enhancing lesions, sensitivity falls to 60% to 80%. Sensitivity is also reduced if cerebrospinal fluid rather than serum immunoblot is used.


An open clinical trial of caerulein diethylamine, a cholecystokinin analogue, was performed in a total of 58 chronic schizophrenic patients maintained on drugs such as antipsychotic agents without dosage modification. The neuro-peptide medication by intramuscular route produced a clinical improvement in 20 cases and was eventually assessed to have been of therapeutic value in 23 cases. Clinical responses to the medication observed in the present series in-cluded: subjective changes in mood mostly to become feeling "fine" or "re-freshed in the head", improvement in contact, increased spontaneity and objective behavioral changes such as restlessness and excitement. These features of clinical responses observed in respect of mental condition seem to indicate that the drug affects emotion and exerts an analeptic effect as its principal clinical effects. The clinical effects were remarkably long sustained for 1-2 weeks after a single i.m. dose in most responders. Feeling of facial warmth and lassitude as well as symptoms of the gastrointestinal system were encountered as attendant symptoms in 6 cases.


Managers at the Caterpillar plant in Aurora, Illinois were facing a request from senior executives at the home office in Peoria, Illinois for a "Footprint Study" – Identify the best global source (location) for production of the company's new hybrid/electric exoloader. Using Caterpillar's capital expenditure model (CapX model), students must decide whether to recommend expanding and refocusing an existing production facility in Aurora IL (Scenario A), or building a new facility in China (Scenario B). On the surface, the standard capital budgeting template looks like a clear manifestation of the rational decision making model. Decision makers, however, are subject to a predictable set of psychological biases (decision heuristics) that may surreptitiously influence the underlying assumptions used to produce a "rational decision" (Bazerman, 2009; Kahneman et al. 2011). The case introduces students to a variety of these decision biases in the context of the capital budgeting decision. Students are required to examine how the assumptions underlying Caterpillar's capital budgeting template could be influenced by individuals' decision biases. Furthermore, the case provides an opportunity for students identify the risk factors identified in Caterpillar's 10-K and consider how the overall risk environment influences the company's financial statements. Given their assessments of the overall risk environment, student must incorporate their assessments into a determination of the investment hurdle rates appropriate for the alternative capital expenditure scenarios. Ultimately, students must identify the assumptions underlying the CapX model and evaluate these assumptions on two dimensions: (1) importance of the assumption, and (2) uncertainty of the assumption. Students can use the resulting 2 × 2 matrix of assumptions to think about how they would prioritize their time in terms validating the model assumptions and assess how decision biases might influence assumptions uncertainty. In the terms of class implementation, the case is structured to essentially create a debate between those who support Scenario A (U.S. production) and those who support Scenario B (China production). For every argument in support of Scenario A, students also must develop a counter-argument against Scenario A and in favor Scenario B. The objective is to increase students' ability to think using a 360° perspective. By pursuing a 360° perspective students open themselves up to a wider decision making perspective that might include innovative and potentially superior decision alternatives.


The concept that the lithosphere behaves as a perfectly rigid body during plate tectonism is challenged as a fundamental rule in the theory of new global tectonics. Experimental studies in rock mechanics indicate that confining pressure, temperature, solutions, the size of masses, and strain rate produce plates of little fundamental strength which can be subjected to plastic deformation by conventional geologic processes. A plastic plate tectonics model is geologically more realistic than the rigid body concept. The rigid model is believed to place some confining and perhaps unnecessary restrictions on the theory of global tectonics. The plastic plate model allows new possibilities concerning the fit of continental masses, as well as new interpretations related to the change in shape of such plates as they are transported across the surface of the Earth.


In unilateral pregnant ewes, obtained by surgically transecting one uterine horn to isolate it from the rest of the pregnant uterus, the isolated horn develops endometrial oxytocin receptors by day 16 despite being in a hormonal environment equivalent of that of a pregnant ewe. This study examines uterine prostaglandin production in these animals. On day 16 of pregnancy, ewes were anaesthetized and a uterine vein draining each horn and the jugular vein cannulated. Venous blood samples were taken at 10 min intervals for 1 h before and 1 h after an i.v. injection of oxytocin (1 microgram). Uterine vein samples were assayed for PGF2 alpha and PGE2 and jugular blood samples assayed for 13,14-dihydro,15-keto-PGF2 alpha. All ewes showed high plasma concentrations of 13,14-dihydro,15-keto-PGF2 alpha after the oxytocin injection. PGF2 alpha increased in the uterine vein draining the nonpregnant transected horn of a unilaterally pregnant ewe following oxytocin treatment, whereas there was no increase in concentration in plasma draining the pregnant horn. Basal plasma PGF2 alpha concentrations from the uterine vein draining the pregnant horn were significantly higher than concentrations obtained from the uterine vein of the transected horn while PGE2 concentrations did not vary between the two horns. After oxytocin injection, there was a significant increase in plasma PGE2 concentration in venous blood collected from both sides.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The legumes are an important group of flowering plants with a poorly documented evolutionary history. New fossil evidence provides data on the timing of the origin of the two derived subfamilies of legumes (the Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae). These data strongly suggest the importance of bee pollinators during a major period of angiosperm diversification.


Objective: Perception of verticality can be perturbed after cortical stroke. However, a relationship between lesion location and pathologic perception of verticality is still a matter of debate since previous studies revealed contradictory results. Thus, the aim of the current study was to test whether specific cortical lesions were associated with tilts of subjective visual vertical (SVV) and to determine the critical brain areas that cause such tilts in the case of a lesion. Methods: SVV was systematically studied in 54 patients (22 patients with left-sided and 32 patients with right-sided lesions) with acute unilateral strokes, analyzed by modern voxel-wise lesion-behavior mapping techniques. Results: The data give evidence for an association between tilt of SVV and the insular cortex (IC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in both hemispheres. Whereas the IC seems to be the prominent structure in the left hemisphere, the IFG is most affected in the right hemisphere. Furthermore, other cortical regions such as the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the rolandic operculum as well as—subcortically—the inferior occipitofrontal fascicle and the superior longitudinal fascicle seem to be involved in the vestibulo-cortical network for the perception of verticality in the roll plane. Conclusion: Damage to these regions might lead to an imbalance within the vestibular network of one hemisphere due to a deficit in multimodal signal processing.