We propose a framework of look-ahead dispatch which considers forecast uncertainty and infeasibility management. Two major advantages of the framework are demonstrated: 1) economic performance improvement under the presence of forecast uncertainty; and, 2)feasibility enhancement of the dispatch problem. In the look-ahead dispatch framework, a weighted predictive scheduling (WPS) technique is proposed to relieve the negative impacts on dispatch due to wind forecast uncertainty in future steps. Look-ahead security management (LSM) is introduced, which is a technique to identify and quantify potential infeasibility of the dispatch in advance. The LSM technique is shown to be capable of working out an optimal recovery plan for future violation of system security. Finally, the proposed techniques are illustrated in a modified 24 Bus Reliability Test System.


Date Presented 4/21/2018 Materials are available to occupational therapy practitioners that can reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injury during patient handling. This study examined the SallyTube and the Smooth Mover transfer board, which both reduced the hand forces involved with a lateral patient transfer compared with a cotton sheet. Primary Author and Speaker: Robert Larson Additional Authors and Speakers: Martin Rice


The paper motivates and describes the tax treatment of German retirement benefits and pensions after the 2005 reform initiated by the German Federal Constitutional Court. The main question is whether this reform has produced a "level playing field" among the many instruments generating retirement income in Germany.The paper briefly outlines rational principles for the taxation of retirement benefits and pensions and compares these with current practice in Germany and abroad.


Join a Growing movement: Learn how you can join a fast-growing global movement to redefine success in business—led by well-known icons like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry's as well as disruptive upstarts like Warby Parker and Etsy—recently covered by the New York Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Inc.

 Build a better business: Drawing on best practices from 100+ B Corps, this book shows that using business as a force for good can help distinguish your company in a crowded market, attract and retain the best employees, and increase customer trust, loyalty, and evangelism for your brand.

 More than 1,000 companies from 80 industries and 30 countries are leading a global movement to redefine success in business. They're called B Corporations—B Corps for short—and these businesses create high-quality jobs, help build stronger communities, and restore the environment, all while generating solid financial returns. Author and B Corp owner Ryan Honeyman worked closely with over 100 B Corp CEOs and senior executives to share their tips, advice, and best-practice ideas for how to build a better business and how to meet the rigorous standards for—and enjoy the benefits of—B Corp certification.

 This book makes the business case for improving your social and environmental performance and offers a step-by-step "quick start guide" on how your company can join an innovative and rapidly expanding community of businesses that want to make money and make a difference.


Green Energy Economies offers insight into the major drivers that are shaping a new future powered by clean energy sources. Assembling cutting-edge researchers as contributors, the book provides a comprehensive account of the shift underway, examining in detail the complexities and intricacies involved with such a transition. The book first details the promises and problems of a green energy transition. Next, it explores the economic benefits that a comprehensive strategy toward a green energy economy might create. Then it investigates how communities will be affected and explores the social, cultural, and other changes that are likely to result. Finally, it explores the shift toward new technologies in-depth. Green Energy Economies concludes with policy options that support a transition to a better energy, environmental, and economic future. The contributors argue that a green energy economy offers great promise, but its realization will require making hard choices, and soon. They argue for investments in renewable energy and economic systems that can deliver a sustainable and equitable future. This book makes a forceful case for a green future.


This paper presents an experiment on the loyalty enhancing effect potentially created by retroactive price reduction schemes. Such price reductions are applied ex post to all units bought in a certain time frame if the total quantity passes a given threshold. Close to the threshold, the marginal price for the missing units up to the threshold is very low. A dominant firm can use this effect to exclude potential rivals from competition, which is why some jurisdictions consider retroactive discounts as unlawful. This study considers whether there in fact is a loyalty enhancing effect of retroactive discounts and shows how it relates to risk preferences and loss aversion.


How to explore photography as a way of problematizing urban phenomena? Is it possible to use different aesthetic concepts, in photography, to expand the dialogue with cities? These two questions guide the photographic research developed as part of the project, "Highrise Living and the Inclusive City", with a focus in São Paulo / Brazil and Lyon / France. The first question highlights the territory and the production of capitalist urban space by photography realized in fieldwork. The second one involves editing and re-elaborating the images, considering the approximation between the research project, local records and photography aesthetic. The High-Rise Project, on the other hand, discusses the contemporary verticalization process and its spatial and social implications in Sao Paulo city, considering a contextual (São Paulo, Lyon) and multiscale analysis model, while incorporating different reading strategies and territory interpretation. The field study, initially organized as a team, resulted in different materials, including the photographic one, from which discussion and editing meetings were conducted by this researcher, considering possibilities for language experiments in interaction with the territory. The series and photographic montages realized allowed a reflection about the relationship between public spaces and paths capturing a specific ambience to the places; and, also, exploring different comparative strategies that highlight, in the four distinct regions, intense landscape transformation due to verticalization. On the other hand, these photographic setting acquire a relative autonomy in relation to the original project, being placed on the edge of applicated use of image and esthetic research with its own characteristics.


We study the features of electromagnetically induced transparency(EIT) in a single Λ-type three-level atom placed in a high-finesse cavity under the action of a coupling laser and a probe laser.Our calculations show that three transparency windows appear when the pump strength is large enough.This can be explained by the residual pump in the cavity mostly resulting in energy splitting.The level |3 is split into four slightly different energy levels,and interference takes place between the excitation pathways.Furthermore,it is also shown that the frequencies of the EIT windows can be tuned by changing the coupling field detuning 2,and that the reflection profile is very sensitive to the cavity field detuning △c.


Inborn errors of amino acid metabolism such as phenylketonuria, maternal phenylketonuria, maple syrup urine disease, homocystinuria, methylmalonic acidemia, propionic acidemia, isovaleric acidemia and other disorders of leucine metabolism, glutaric acidemia type I and tyrosinemia types I and II, and urea cycle disorders are rare diseases that are treatable by diet. Treatment might include the restriction of one or more amino acids, the restriction of total nitrogen, or the supplementation of specific substances. Untreated, these diseases culminate in severe mental retardation or death.
 Once diagnosis is confirmed, treatment of amino acid and urea cycle disorders must be carefully monitored by a physician with expertise in metabolic diseases. Special medical foods, commercially available, are indispensable for the active, ongoing treatment of diagnosed amino acid and urea cycle disorders. Special medical foods would, if used as the sole dietary source, represent a hazard to affected and healthy children. US Public Law (Publ L) 100-290 defines the term medical food as ". . . a food which is formulated to be consumed or administered enterally under the supervision of a physician and which is intended for the specific dietary management of a disease or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, are established by medical evaluation."1
 After passage of Publ L 100-290, many states provided funding for these products through Medicaid, and most states offered assistance through Crippled Children's and Women, Infant, and Children's programs. Some states now have laws mandating private insurance coverage for special medical foods.
 It is the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics that special medical foods that are used in the treatment of amino acid and urea cycle disorders are medical expenses that should be reimbursed.


Abstract Advocates of wartime international criminal tribunals (ICTs) hope that such tribunals can deter combatant atrocities against civilians. Yet, more than twenty-five years after the establishment of the first wartime ICT—the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)—wartime ICTs' role in deterring such violence remains a matter of debate. Insights from criminology, as well as research on civil conflicts and international legal compliance, suggest that ICTs are most likely to deter government and rebel forces from committing atrocities against civilians when all three of the following conditions are present: (1) ICT officials have secured sufficient prosecutorial support, (2) combatant groups rely on support from liberal constituencies, and (3) combatant groups have centralized structures. Case studies of the ICTY's impact on fourteen combatant groups from the Yugoslav conflicts—combined with hundreds of field interviews with war veterans and others—confirm this prediction. The ICTY's record thus sheds important light on how and when contemporary wartime ICTs—including the International Criminal Court—might succeed in deterring combatant atrocities against civilians.


Abstract Objectives The improvement in the/reaction time is important, as it is an indicator of cognitive function. Therefore, there is a need, especially for adolescents in the form of techniques or courses that can improve the reaction time. Yoga was found to cause a better improvement in the health of the individuals. The present study intended to show the effects of Bhramari pranayama (Bhr.P) on reaction time in the healthy adolescents. Methods Of the 730 potential subjects screened, 520 apparently healthy adolescents randomly assigned to either the Bhr.P group (n-260) or control group (n-260). Bhr.P group practiced the bhramari pranayama for 3 days in a week for 6 months. The Auditory Reaction Time (ART) and the Visual Reaction Time (VRT) were assessed before and after Bhr.P pranayama practice. Results Bhr.P group shows significant shortening of response time in both VRT (from 267.13 ± 52.65 to 249.87 ± 39.41 ms) and ART (from 237.42 ± 48.12 to 227.91 ± 34.60 ms) after 6 months of Bhr.P practice. In control group subjects, no such significant changes were found (p > 0.05). Conclusions Shortening of RT implies an improvement in the information processing and reflexes. This beneficial effect of Bhr.P on reaction time can be used for improving cognitive function in the adolescents for their academic performances.


Context. The Li-rich turn-off star recently discovered in the old, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397 could represent the smoking gun for some fundamental, but very rare episode of Li enrichment in globular clusters and in the early Galaxy. Aims. We aim to understand the nature of the Li enrichment by performing a spectroscopic analysis of the star, in particular of its beryllium (Be) abundance, and by investigating its binary nature. Methods. We used the VLT/UVES spectrograph to observe the near UV region where the Be ii resonance doublet and the NH bands are located. We also re-analyzed an archival Magellan/MIKE spectra for C and O abundance determination. Results. We could not detect the Be ii lines and derive an upper limit of log(Be/H) < −12.2 that is consistent with the Be observed in other stars of the cluster. We could detect a weak G-band, which implies a mild carbon enhancement [C/Fe]+0.4 ± 0.2. We could not detect the UV NH band, showing that this star is less N-enhanced than other stars of the cluster, and we derive an upper limit [N/Fe] < 0.0. For oxygen we could not convincingly detect any of the near UV OH lines, which implies that oxygen cannot be strongly enhanced in this star. This is consistent with the detection of the strongest line of the O i triplet at 777 nm, which is contaminated by telluric absorptions but is consistent with [O/Fe] ∼ 0.5. Combining the UVES and Mike data, we could not detect any variation in the radial velocity greater than 0.95 kms −1 over 8 years. Conclusions. The chemical composition of the star strongly resembles that of "first generation" NGC 6397 stars, with the huge Li as the only deviating abundance. Not detecting Be rules out two possible explanations of the Li overabundance: capture of a substellar body and spallation caused by a nearby type II SNe. Discrepancies are also found with respect to other accretion scenarios, except for contamination by the ejecta of a star that has undergone the RGB Li-flash. This is at present the most likely possibility for explaining the extraordinary Li enrichment of this star.


When a cyclist is racing at velocities higher than 15 m=s, the aerodynamic drag is the largest contributor to the resistive force felt by the cyclist. In order to overcome resistance a cyclist has to deliver a total power output from which about 90 % is necessary
to overcome the aerodynamic drag. In order to reduce this aerodynamic resistance and to increase aerodynamic knowledge wind tunnel tests can be performed at the
Flanders' Bike Valley (FBV) wind tunnel in Paal-Beringen (Belgium). Flanders' Bike Valley is a Belgian bottom-up industry cluster collaboration which focusses on open innovation in the bicycling industry. Next to that the new wind tunnel is up and running from 1 april 2016 and is creating a knowledge base for cycling related companies. Together with an incubation centre the wind tunnel is gaining more and more insight in aerodynamics which is stimulating innovation in the cycling sector.
The main task during this internship was to (re)design the housing/mounting of the loadcell which is located within the wind tunnel. This design had to be compatible
with multiple types of bicycles and also had to be aerodynamic such that it didn't affected the flow in the test section. Next to that the flow within the windtunnel had to be calibrated. And as a side-project an exhibition carousell was designed which will be in an exhibition booth next january at the Velofollies (a bike show in Belgium). For this side-project the complete structure and driving mechanisme had to be designed.


This paper analyses the mathematical properties of some unusual quantum states that are constructed by inserting an impenetrable barrier into a chamber confining a single particle. If the barrier is inserted at a fixed node of the wave function, then the energy of the system is unchanged. After barrier insertion, a measurement is made on one side of the chamber to determine if the particle is physically present. The measurement causes the wave function to collapse, and the energy contained in the subchamber where the particle is not present transfers instantaneously to the other subchamber where the particle now exists. This thought experiment constitutes an elementary example of an Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment based on energy conservation rather than momentum or angular–momentum conservation. A more interesting situation arises when one inserts the barrier at a point that is not a fixed node of the wave function because this process changes the energy of the system; the faster the barrier is inserted, the greater the change in the energy. At the point of a sudden insertion the energy density becomes infinite; this energy instantly propagates across the subchamber and causes the wave function to become fractal. If an energy measurement is carried out on such a fractal wave function, the resulting mixed state has finite non–zero entropy. Fractal mixed states having unbounded entropy are also constructed and their properties are discussed. For a finite time insertion of the barrier, Landauer's principle is shown to be insufficient to resolve the apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics that arises when a Maxwell demon is present. This problem is resolved by calculating the energy required to insert the barrier.


This essay investigates aspects of the critical nature of spirituality as a discipline. It first analyses how a recent publication on philosophy critiques the role of the critical mind in contemporary philosophy and how it reclaims spirituality as solution for what went wrong. In a next section it discusses similar criticism of traditional theology and spirituality by Contextual Theologies and points out the development of Contextual Spiritualities as a critical response and solution to what went wrong. It finally focuses on the selfimplicating nature of the critical mind in terms of the spirituality of the researcher as a safeguard against such excesses and against the deformation of the critical mind.


UNLABELLED
The aim of this study was to integrate and present pertinent findings from the literature dealing with the treatment of the elderly within a primary care setting. Medical care for the elderly is an integral part of a general practitioner's (GPs) everyday work and is challenging for many reasons. Older people often experience multiple chronic diseases concurrently (comorbidity, multimorbidity) and they often have deteriorated organ function and decreased physiological reserves due to the natural aging process. The choice of appropriate medication for each particular disease is a complex process and can cause "therapeutic confusion", especially among younger GPs in the field. Elderly people are prone to develop adverse side-effects to usual dosages of medications and the side-effects are even 7 times more frequent in elderly than in younger patients. Moreover, in therapy for elder patients, a responsible clinician always needs to think about potential drug to drug interactions and possible compromised pharmacokinetic dynamics in the aging body. Professional geriatric societies in many countries (USA, Germany, UK) have developed lists of potentially inappropriate medications for the elderly, and they update them systematically. Lists such as The Beers Criteria list and STOPP/START criteria should always be consulted when administering therapy to elderly patients. In this paper we emphasized the importance of medication lists as an important practical support in a GP's everyday work. Implementation of such therapeutic aids reduces the possibility of medical error and minimizes the chance of an inappropriate prescription for this vulnerable population stratum.

CONCLUSION
When prescribing drugs for the elderly, GPs should take into account the specificities of the elderly, their biological and chronological framework and should always apply the principles of rational, conservative and evidence-based pharmacotherapy.


The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to investigate the cell biology behind the settlement and adhesion processes of biofouling algae. Using the fluorescent dye FM 1-43 in Ulva zoospores to follow membrane recycling, rapid mass membrane retrieval of FM 1-43-labelled plasma membrane was found to occur to an endosomal compartment during settlement. Biolistic delivery of dextran Oregon Green BAPTA-1 and Texas Red enabled ratiometric imaging with a 5-fold greater response to Ca\(^{2+}\)-ionophores than AM-ester Ca\(^{2+}\) indicators. During settlement, zoospores exhibited both localised and diffuse increases in cytosolic calcium implying a role in secretion of the adhesive. Secretion of redox-active substrates was detected using amperometry when settled spores were mechano-stimulated. Secretory events were similar to those seen in bovine chromaffin cells with the presence of foot signals in the recordings implying a role for a 'fusion pore' in exocytosis. Using DAF-FM DA nitric oxide (NO) production in Seminavis robusta was found to be 4-fold greater on a surface to which the cells adhered weakly than on a surface to which they attached more strongly. Increased NO reduced attachment strength and it is thought that NO may play a signalling and/or regulatory role in diatom adhesion.


Background. Acute poisoning, especially deliberate self-poisoning with agricultural pesticides, is an emerging global public health problem, but reliable incidence estimates are lacking. Only a few previous studies have assessed the impact of regulatory or other preventive measures. Objective. To estimate trends in incidence and causes of acute poisoning over time in rural Sri Lanka, and to assess the possible impact of policies that aimed to restrict availability of highly toxic pesticides. Methods. Time series of incidence of acute poisoning based on retrospective in-patient records of six government hospitals in southern Sri Lanka from 1990 to 2002. Results. Data of 8,110 admissions for acute poisoning were available for analysis. Most cases were young adults, who deliberately self-poisoned themselves with pesticides, males outnumbering females. Average incidence rate of acute poisoning over the study period was 318 per 100,000 (95% confidence interval [CI], 311 to 325). Incidence of all poisoning showed an increase over the period of study. However, this increase was lower for pesticide poisoning, and the mortality rate and case fatality ratio of pesticides went down towards the end of the 1990s. The decline in mortality was attributed to regulatory controls for the group of highly hazardous organophosphorus compounds implemented in 1995 and for the organochlorine endosulfan in 1998. Conclusions. Regulatory control of highly toxic pesticides provides important health benefits, especially in terms of lower number of deaths from self-poisoning. However, despite the positive effect of these bans, many deaths from pesticide self-poisoning still occur after ingestion of agricultural pesticides classified as only moderately poisonous.


The present investigation describes the design and development of selfcorrecting monolithic Gastroretentive system of baclofen. Tablets were prepared by direct compression method. Optimization was carried out using simplex lattice design. Drug released at 2h, 4h, 8h, and floating lag time were considered as response variables related to percentages of diluent (MCC), Polyethylene oxide (PEO) and sodium bicarbonate. Tablets were evaluated for in-vitro buoyancy, in-vitro drug release, swelling index and ex-vivo bioadhesion studies. The similarity factor (f2) was used as a base to compare dissolution profiles. Drug release data was fitted into different kinetic models. The floating lag time and floating time were found to be 2min and 12h respectively. Increasing trend in bioadhesive strength was observed with an increase in the amount of PEO. The experimental values of Q2, Q4 and Q8 for check point batch were found to be 30.8%, 44.1% and 69.9% respectively. Similarity factor (f2) for check point batch was 78.08. Kinetics of drug release from tablet followed Korsmeyer–Peppas model by anamolous non-fickian diffusion. It was concluded that gastroretentive tablet of baclofen can be prepared via floating and bioadhesion mechanism to increase residence time of drug in stomach and there by increases absorption.


The present paper refers to the remelting of light waste. The research aims to provide a substantial decrease of the oxidation losses and a decrease of the noxious expulsion resulting from the production of aluminium alloys. The fundamental solution found consists in achieving a stable flux layer. For this the wastes are introduced directly in the metallic bath, without a previous preparation. Data about oxidation losses, the content of gases and the correlation between the casting properties and the quality of remelting secondary alloys are presented. Several samples are analysed in order to point out the quality of the alloy and the relationship between the chemical composition, the content of gases and the free linear contraction of the alloy.


Gesture is a compelling user interaction modality for enabling truly on-the-go interactions. Unlike keyboard and touch screen interactions which require considerable visual attention and impose stringent constrains on the form factor of mobile devices, people can easily use hand gestures to perform simple actions (e.g. retrieve voice mail) without having to slow down. In this paper we present an efficient gesture recognition pipeline optimized for "continuous" recognition while minimizing processing overhead and enhancing usability by not requiring the user to delimit explicitly the start and end of gestures. The pipeline is constructed to allow for early filtering of unwanted sensor data with minimal processing cost, and limiting the invocation of processing intensive stages (i.e. HMM) to a limited subset of data (< 5% of sensor data). We also present our evaluation results from a 10 user experiment using 17 gestures and demonstrate that we can achieve considerable processing and power saving without impacting overall recognition accuracy.


We use three-dimensional distributions of classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to model the stellar density distribution of a young and old stellar population in that galaxy. We use these models to estimate the microlensing self-lensing optical depth to the SMC, which is in excellent agreement with the observations. Our models are consistent with the total stellar mass of the SMC of about under the assumption that all microlensing events toward this galaxy are caused by self-lensing. We also calculate the expected event rates and estimate that future large-scale surveys, like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), will be able to detect up to a few dozen microlensing events in the SMC annually. If the planet frequency in the SMC is similar to that in the Milky Way, a few extragalactic planets can be detected over the course of the LSST survey, provided significant changes in the SMC observing strategy are devised. A relatively small investment of LSST resources can give us a unique probe of the population of extragalactic exoplanets.


Objectives: To evaluate the implementation of first trimester screening in the studied population during 1996–2007 on the number of infants born with numerical chromosomal anomalies, the gestational age at diagnosis, and the number of invasive procedures. Methods: Population based cohort study. National Registry of Congenital Anomalies, 53 Genetic Departments. Population – about 100,000 pregnancies per year. Primary outcomes were the rates of fetuses and newborns with diagnosed numerical chromosomal anomalies and gestational age at diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were the rates of chorion villus sampling and amniocentesis and the contribution of age groups on the detection rate of trisomy 21. Results: The number of newborns with Down syndrome (DS) decreased from 5.42/10 000 in 1996 to 3.66/10 000 newborns in the 2007 (P < 0.001). The total incidence of DS increased from 13.42 to 20.66/10 000. The detection rate in women < 35 years increased from 11.85 in 1993 to 45.08 in 2007; in women > 35 years from 22.21 to 38.52 (P < 0.001). The number of amniocenteses/detected case of DS was 124 in 1996 and 123 in 2007. The corresponding number of CVS decreased from 83 in 1996 to 10 in 2007 (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Despite the increase of maternal age and the corresponding increase of DS, the number of newborns with DS decreased. Implementation of the first trimester combined screening lead to a shift towards earlier diagnosis of all major chromosomal abnormalities and a decrease in the number invasive procedures required.


Considering full-scan circuits, incompletely-specified tests, or test cubes, are used for test data compression. When considering path delay faults, certain specified input values in a test cube are needed only for determining the lengths of the paths associated with detected faults. Path delay faults, and therefore, small delay defects, would still be detected if such values are unspecified. The goal of this paper is to explore the possibility of increasing the number of unspecified input values in a test set for path delay faults by un specifying such values in order to make the test set more amenable to test data compression. Experimental results indicate that significant numbers of such values exist. The proposed procedure unspecified them gradually to obtain a series of test sets with increasing numbers of unspecified values and decreasing path lengths. Experimental results also indicate that filling the unspecified values randomly (as with some test data compression methods) recovers some or all of the path lengths associated with detected path delay faults. The procedure uses a matching of the sets of detected faults for the comparison of path lengths.


The scattering matrix S describing photonic crystal slabs is formulated. A new method is introduced to solve the eigenfrequency ω for a given Bloch wave vector K from the equation det S −1(ω,K) = 0. Using this method, we can obtain not only guided modes but also leaky modes in photonic crystal slabs with a higher-frequency resolution than that of the FDTD method.


Part I . MHC peptides derived from tumor associated antigens (TAA) can serve as the basis for development of immunotherapeutics for treatment of human malignancies. Recently, we identified novel HLA-A*0201 (HLA-A2) restricted peptides recovered from soluble HLA (sHLA) molecules secreted by sHLA-transfected human tumor cell lines. Here, four candidate peptides eluted from sHLA-A2 were selected on the basis of their precursor proteins being TAA. Peptide p1028 (GLIEKNIEL), derived from DNA methyl transferase I (DNMT-1), which is overexpressed in various human tumors, showed the highest affinity to HLA-A2 and was relatively abundant in the sHLA/peptide complexes of all transfected breast, ovarian and prostate cancer cell lines. Peptide p1028 was immunogenic in vitro and p1028 effector CTL were capable of lysing tumor cells. p1028 CTL were peptide-specific and HLA-A2-restricted. Since DNMT-1 is a widely expressed tumor-associated enzyme, the novel DNMT-1-derived and HLA-A2 restricted peptide GLIEKNIEL identified here might find use as a therapeutic cancer vaccine. Part II. CD28 and CTLA-4 are the critical costimulatory receptors that predominantly determine the outcome of T cell stimulation, with CD28 promoting positive costimulation and CTLA-4 inducing inhibitory signals. However, the exact mechanism of CTLA-4's inhibitory function remains elusive. Here, we investigated CD8+ T cell regulation by CTLA-4 and the influence of CTLA-4 upregulation on CD28 expression using CD8+ CTLA-4+ T cell transfectants. Upregulation of CTLA-4 induced abrogation of IL-2 production as well as inhibition of the TcR proximal tyrosine kinases ZAP-70, p56lck and p59fyn, a phenotype of anergic T cells. In addition, CTLA-4 upregulation promoted the internalization and proteolytic degradation of CD28, leading to decreased CD28 surface expression. These data suggest that apart from the established competition of CD28 and CTLA-4 for their ligands CD80 and CD86, inhibition of T cells by CTLA-4 might be explained by significant reduction of CD28 on the cell surface, which might impede T cell response to stimulation. Our data provide a previously unrecognized mechanism for T cell regulation by CTLA-4.


The urban acoustic environment is composed of a great variety of sounds, whose effects citizens are mainly unaware of, despite medical studies showing that urban noise affects quality of life and health, causing various problems from sleep disturbances to cardiovascular diseases. The development and deployment of wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs) presents new ways to meet urban acoustic challenges in the context of a smart city environment. The improvement of the quality of life of the citizens cannot be limited to measuring the equivalent levels of noise in the streets but should also identify the type of noise source and its impact on the overall noise measurement. For this purpose, the collection of noise sources information requires the application of many techniques, including the recording and labeling of noise events. The latter is a task that is mostly performed manually by experts, using certain types of software, and it is very time-consuming. To improve this task and to take advantage of the rise of new technologies, we propose the design of a game using a mobile application to encourage citizens' participation in research. The goals of the app are two-fold: to raise awareness of the problems generated by noise and to help experts in the work of pre-labeling sounds for later analysis. We detail the envisioned mechanics of the proposed game, its dynamics and its design.


This article explores the nature of international technology transfer and the operation of the market for know-how. It begins by examining the relationship between codification and transfer costs and then analyzes various imperfections in the market for know-how. The special properties of know-how are shown to confound various aspects of the exchange process when arms-length contracting is involved. The internalization of the exchange process within multinational firms serves to bypass many of these difficulties, and explains why the multinational firm is of such importance. Several forms of regulation of technology imports and exports are examined. It is discovered that the process is insufficiently well understood to permit the design of effective regulation that, moreover, appears unlikely to eliminate inefficiency. An efficiency focus is maintained throughout since I feel no qualification to pontificate on complex and confused distributional issues.


Introduction: Physical examination of the deceased potential donor is used in conjunction with information obtained from the family and donor's General Practitioner. The findings of these assessments are used to determine the degree of risk their organs and tissues could pose to a recipient. Objective: To review the international practices of performing the physical examination on deceased potential organ and tissue donors. Method: A systematic search of the databases PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and MedLine and grey literature was conducted. The search was limited to English-language articles, published between 2000 and 2017. Results: The integrative review included 14 of 1223 articles identified. We found that, although a physical examination is considered a routine component of international donor screening practices and standards, supportive evidence for this is lacking. A systematic head to toe approach to the physical examination is consistently advocated, but guidance on the components and processes of such an examination is limited. The literature demonstrates some commonalities regarding what constitutes a high-risk finding, but there is some variation in its completeness, and information on how many donors are declined because of such findings was found in only 1 article. The training and education of staff were considered essential to enable an accurate and thorough physical examination, yet details of constituents of education and training programs were sparse. Conclusion: More research is needed into the components of the physical examination that potentially would reduce risk to recipients. A review of current practice may identify opportunities for practice improvement, education, and training.


Catalase, which can decompose H2O2, has recently been found to generate unspecified reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a result of ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation. Many proteins, hemes, and iron compounds were first tested to determine that this ROS generation was unique to catalase and immunoglobulin G (IgG). An increase in absorbance at 502 nm due to 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein, the oxidized product of 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorecein diacetate as a result of UVB (310 nm) irradiation, was measured in order to estimate this ROS generation. Catalase and IgG generated a pronounced amount of ROS when irradiated with UVB. Another heme protein, cytochrome c, and heat-inactivated catalase had no such effect. ROS generation by catalase was at least 5 times more potent than that reported for IgG with UVB and without antigens. This catalasemediated ROS generation was largely temperaturedependent in the range of 25 to 42°C. As IgG is considered an evolutionally important bactericidal component, the same was considered true for this enzyme. Next, inhibitory effects of various drugs, including antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs, on catalase-mediated and UVB-induced ROS generation were examined. Many of the drugs, including catalase inhibitors, had inhibitory effects with different potencies. Melanin was found to be the most effective inhibitor of this ROS generation (IC(30), 0.2 μg/mL), followed by Indigo Carmine and rutin. Also inhibiting this ROS generation were ascorbic acid, α-tocopherol, indomethacin, coenzyme Q10, β-carotene, uric acid, piroxicam, diclofenac, and glutathione, in that order of potency. Various ROS were apparently generated by catalase under UVB, creating a cycle or chain which was thought due to the biphasic effects of some drugs such as 3-aminotriazole or sodium azide. Excess ROS generation induces inflammation. Catalase might serve dual roles, removing H2O2 and generating various ROS depending on the H2O2 concentration and other factors.


Background Hepatosplenic schistosomiasis (HSS) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are both endemic in sub-Saharan Africa but the clinical epidemiology of co-infection is not well-characterised. Within a current HIV cohort study, we assessed the prevalence of HSS and its impact on markers of liver fibrosis in HIV-HBV co-infected individuals. Methods At two urban HIV care facilities in Zambia's capital Lusaka, we screened for HBV co-infection using a hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) test and for lifetime infection with Schistosoma mansoni using an IgG enzyme-linked immunoassay (Abcam, Cambridge, UK). Among HIV-HBV patients, we also performed abdominal ultrasonography. We defined HSS as evidence of periportal hepatic fibrosis on ultrasound regardless of IgG result. Patient characteristics, including liver fibrosis markers (ALT and transient elastography) were measured and stratified by HSS. We used Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous and chi-square test for categorical comparisons between groups. Results Among 895 HIV-infected adults, lifetime exposure to S. mansoni was observed in 23.3%. Within the cohort 92 HBsAg-positives underwent assessment for HSS. Median age among these was 34.7 years (interquartile range [IQR], 28.9–39.9), 48% were men, CD4 count was 247 cells/mm3 (IQR, 145–335), HBV viral load was 2.87 (IQR, 1.00–5.18) log10 IU/mL, and liver stiffness was 5.5 kilopascals (IQR, 4.7–6.9). On ultrasound, 1 patient had cirrhosis and 36 (39.1%) had evidence of HSS. HBV-HSS patients had a non-significant trend toward higher portal vein diameter (8.5 versus 10.2; p=0.15) compared to those without HSS but ALT (18.5 vs 20 U/L), and liver stiffness (5.3 vs 5.0 kPa) were similar between groups (both p >0.05). Conclusions Lifetime S. mansoni exposure and current HSS were common among HIV-infected patients with HBV co-infection in Zambia. Mild HSS did not appear to alter non-invasive markers of liver fibrosis. Further research on the impact of more advanced HSS on HBV co-infection is needed.


The population in Canada is aging, and even the 'Silicon Valley of the North' Waterloo Region is no exception. Aging societies can have a positive impact on the Economy; however, proper policies and programs must be in place in order to thrive through the peak of the Baby Boom retirement wave in 2026. This paper discusses research and recommendations from literature reviews and best practices found among municipalities regarding methods to thrive in an aging society. It is hoped that this paper will aid economic developers and supporting organizations to prepare for the impending age shift through adapting new employment, service, and built environment policies and programs. Adapting economic development now may prevent future economic downturns due to changes in work, lifestyle, and spending habits that are expected throughout the aging and retirement of the baby boom generation. Keywords: Older adults, senior, caregiver, age friendly, anti-aging, adaptive employment


A Fishnet-Mushroom-like metamaterial electromagnetic behaviour is represented in -parameters numerically and experimentally for X-band frequencies arena. The design has introduced a dielectric substrate as a host with metallic parts. The proposed design is predicted to provide the electromagnetic band gap characterization with desired reiterative characteristic parameters, negative permittivity, and negative permeability exhibiting a double negative left-handed region, which is identified with the X-band regime with good agreement between the simulated and the measured results.


Twenty three surface sediment samples were collected in the area surrounding the Isla de Sacrificios located in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The temporal impact of natural discharges in the area was evaluated through the study of the textural and chemical characteristics of the sediments that surround the Veracruz Reef System. The particle size during the three sampled seasons was associated with the prevailing energy conditions. The degree of influence of terrigenous sediments was evaluated through the content of Al2O3, SiO2, Na2O and K2O, which is higher in October (2004) compared to June (2004) and/or February (2005) due to the rainy season. It was observed that gravel, CaO and CO3 were significant variables grouped in Factor 1 that suggested that gravel-sized fractions are produced by the abrasion of the reef in February (2005) and being correlated with other variables in June (2004). Another groupings were among SiO2, CaO, K2O, CO3, for October (2004) which suggested dilution of carbonates due to the terrigenous input. In addition, the factor analysis showed that grain size and heavy minerals represented by TiO2, MnO, MgO and Fe2O3 have a major importance in February (2005) associated with fluvial discharges. The factor analysis showed that the sedimentological and geochemical characteristics of the sediments varied throughout the different seasons. A correlation among Al2O3 and Na2O, P2O5, y Fe2O3 and organic carbon in the three sampling seasons suggested that these chemical components have a terrigenous source.


Let $Q$ be a Riemannian $G$-manifold. This paper is concerned with the symmetry reduction of Brownian motion in $Q$ and ramifications thereof in a Hamiltonian context. Specializing to the case of polar actions we discuss various versions of the stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi equation associated to the symmetry reduction of Brownian motion and observe some similarities to the Schr\"odinger equation of the quantum free particle reduction as described by Feher and Pusztai. As an application we use this reduction scheme to derive examples of quantum Calogero-Moser systems from a stochastic setting.


Summary. Late Pleistocene and Holocene changes in sea-level at technically stable shorelines contain information on the melting history of the ice sheets and on the response of the Earth to changes in surface loads on time scales of 104yr. Some separation of parameters defining the ice loads and the Earth's response can be achieved by examining sea-level change at different sites around the world and at different epochs. This paper examines the mathematical requirements for obtaining satisfactory solutions for the sea-level equation rather than emphasizing results for the Earth's response to the surface loads. an examination of the equation expressing the sea-level variation on a viscoelastic earth indicates that careful consideration needs to be given to both the definition of the ice load and the geometry of the redistributed water load if geophysically significant Earth-response parameters are to be deduced from observations of relative sea-level. the spectrum of the 5°x 5° area-mean description of the ice load, widely used in glacial rebound studies, contains significant power at high degrees (n > 30) and can result in substantial spatial variations in sea-level unless a thick lithosphere is introduced in the Earth's response function. A smoothed 1°× 1° description of the ice model avoids these high-degree oscillations in relative sea-level and produces satisfactory sea-level results without requiring a thick lithosphere. At far field sites, the Holocene sea-levels are sensitive to the Earth's response to the meltwater loading in the vicinity of the site and a high-degree spatial resolution of coastline geometry is required to model the mantle flow driven by the differential loading about the site. At some sites convergence of the solution to the sea-level equation is not obtained, even when the solution is expanded to degree 180. Convergent solutions at lower degrees can be achieved by introducing earth models with a moderately thick lithosphere. If high-resolution ice and meltwater load models are not used then the tendency will be to overestimate the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere. Estimates of mantle viscosity are also of questionable value if these high resolution models are not used. A preliminary examination of sea-levels at sites in both the near- and far-field places an upper limit of about 50–80 km on the effective lithospheric thickness. These sea-level observations are also consistent with an upper mantle viscosity of about 1021 Pas with a lower mantle viscosity in the range of 1021-1023Pa s.


A wide spectrum responsive CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite was successfully prepared via a facile one pot reaction and was fully characterized. The as-obtained CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite shows absorption in both visible and NIR regions due to the introduction of NiTiO3. The hydrogen (H2) evolved over the CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite under whole visible to NIR irradiation in 5 h was 2381 μmol, which is 22-fold that produced over pure CdS. The superior photocatalytic performance over the CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite can be ascribed to its wide spectrum response and the formation of a CdS/NiTiO3 heterojunction as well as the deposition of CoS as a cocatalyst for H2 evolution. The formation of the heterojunction of CdS/NiTiO3 to suppress the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers over the CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite was well demonstrated by PL studies. Moreover, the photo-corrosion of CdS in the CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite induced by the hole-oxidation of lattice S2− can be inhibited due to the morphology change of CdS from nanoparticles in pure CdS to nanoflakes in the CdS/NiTiO3/CoS nanocomposite. This study can provide some guidance for the development of wide spectrum responsive photocatalysts for H2 evolution.


This book contains the proceedings o f a conference held by the Office of Health Economics in June 1994. The papers, by a number of distinguished contributors, explore the role industrial policy can play in providing an economic environment in which the pharmaceutical industry meets the needs of patients and health care purchasers, so providing an economic asset to those countries hosting its R&D and manufacturing activity. Governments cannot avoid policy interaction with the pharmaceutical industry. They are responsible for both 'health and safety' and 'economic' regulation. The former primarily governs the licensing procedures before a new medicine can be put on the market. The latter has two key elements — intellectual property protection (the pharmaceutical industry is the most patent intensive of any industrial sector) — and, in most countries, government as a major purchaser of medicines. There is another key aspect of government policy that is of enormous importance to the industry — the funding of 'basic' science. Public funding of this research and of universities generates advance in 'basic' scientific knowledge and a supply of skilled scientists. The first four papers in this book explore and contrast the approaches the European Community, and Japanese, US and UK governments have taken to industrial policy in this sector. Have they, intentionally or unintentionally, contributed to the relative success of the industry in their home bases? Those dealing with the European Community, Japan and the US are by Yarrow, and Professors Neary and Scherer, respectively. In the fourth paper Hale and Towse assess how valuable the UK-based pharmaceutical industry is to the UK economy. The fifth paper, by Professor Jones, then considers the scientific potential for medical breakthrough, trends in the costs of achieving these breakthroughs, and the importance of government science and education policy for the discovery and development process. The seventh and eighth papers by Quam and Professor Grabowski respectively explore the role of government as purchaser and economic regulator. Quam discusses, from US experience, the relative merits of public versus private purchasing, and of centralised versus decentralised purchasing of medicines, for the long term health of patients and of the pharmaceutical industry, drawing lessons for Europe. Grabowski examines the potential impact of price control on innovation, drawing on a study of innovation in the USA. Finally Holmes and Professor Dunning explore the impact of government industrial policy on the location and investment decisions of the pharmaceutical industry. I hope that the readers of this book will find the papers as stimulating as did the audience in London in June 1994. The pharmaceutical industry has been a major contributor to health and to wealth creation, but is not without its critics. An understanding of the economic issues behind its relationship with governments is crucial to public policy making that ensures the industry continues to meet the needs of society.


Acetate has been proposed as an astrocyte‐specific energy substrate for metabolic studies in the brain. The determination of the relative contribution of the intracellular and extracellular compartments to the acetate signal using diffusion‐weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy can provide an insight into the cellular environment and distribution volume of acetate in the brain. In the present study, localized 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy employing a diffusion‐weighted stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) sequence at an ultra‐high magnetic field (14.1 T) was used to investigate the diffusivity characteristics of acetate and N‐acetylaspartate (NAA) in the rat brain in vivo during prolonged acetate infusion. The persistence of the acetate resonance in 1H spectra acquired at very large diffusion weighting indicated restricted diffusion of acetate and was attributed to intracellular spaces. However, the significantly greater diffusion of acetate relative to NAA suggests that a substantial fraction of acetate is located in the extracellular space of the brain. Assuming an even distribution for acetate in intracellular and extracellular spaces, the diffusion properties of acetate yielded a smaller volume of distribution for acetate relative to water and glucose in the rat brain.


Although silicon solar cells currently dominate the market share for photovoltaic (PV) devices, it is important to explore other materials and device configurations that could be cheaper and more environmentally friendly to produce, as well as potentially more efficient at energy conversion. Here, we review some of our recent theoretical work aimed at accurate evaluation of key materials properties associated with optimizing alternative PV materials. These include potential new light absorbers and transparent conductors in devices ranging from traditional PVs to tandem dye-sensitized solar cells and thin-film PVs to intermediate band gap PVs. We specifically focus on two materials families: transition-metal oxides (TMOs), such as NiO, CoO, FeO, and Cu2O, and mixed metal sulfides, such as Cu2ZnSnS4. Both families are p-type semiconductors being explored as less expensive solar cell components.


Many firm have found the business case for greater attention to corporate social responsibility to be compelling, particularly given reputational risk and other pressure of the contemporary business environment. Corporate social responsibility is the obligation an organization has to be ethical, accountable and reactive to the needs of society as mentions in triple bottom line. It's suggest that socially responsibility firms undertake two things, eliminating negatives and doing positives. In general, business experts agree that socially responsibility firms are more likely to thrive and survive in the long term and being good reputation firms. Manager presume that social responsiveness generates goodwill from employee, consumers, and other publics that enhance the long run profitability and viability of firms and the protects their own employment. Positive oriented and socially responsible firms can couple the goal of being beneficial force in society with the goal of attracting consumers and generating loyalty. Furthermore, CSR is one of part in holistic marketing orientation beside internal marketing, integrated marketing and customer relationship marketing. Finally, the holistic marketing orientation is a key the company for improving environment to improving performance in long term toward their marketplace.


A gold-coupled ZnTe/ZnO-nanowire array is a new photocathode for selective CO2 reduction to CO. At −0.7 VRHE under simulated 1 sun illumination, its photocurrent (−16.0 mA cm−2) and incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (97%) represent the highest among reported ZnTe photocathodes for CO2 reduction and dramatic enhancement from those of a bare electrode (−7.9 mA cm−2, 68%). In addition, the Au nanoparticles convert mainly-hydrogen-producing bare ZnTe/ZnO-nanowires into mainly-CO-producing photocathodes in photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction. The remarkable effects of the Au co-catalyst originate from the formation of a Schottky junction with ZnTe to improve charge separation and to provide reaction centers for CO2 reduction suppressing competing water reduction.


In the future, mobile users will have the possibility to use a variety of wireless access networks simultaneously making the vision "Always best connected" come true. The Internet Protocol (IP) will most likely be the least common divisor allowing service providers to deploy services in a unified way regardless of access network type (being wired or wireless). The 3GPP-led development of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a promising step towards the vision. However, there are a number of obstacles along this way forward. Various deployment difficulties related to already installed base of user and infrastructure equipment and service providers protecting their old investments are the most common obstacles. In addition to those reasons, somewhat conservative regulatory authorities, shortcomings in digital rights management, multiple standardization bodies proposing non-aligned solutions, as well as non-uniformed and non-optimized use of radio spectrum do not improve the speed of change. Our research is performed within the area of seamless real-time multimedia distribution in heterogeneous wireless access networks with a user-centric and end-toend system approach. Having proposed various extensions to Mobile IP (MIP) including multihoming and port-based handling of flows, as well as solutions for global connectivity in ad hoc networks we now present a combined architecture using both MIP and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for mobility management where MIP is used for TCP connections and SIP is used for UDP traffic carrying real-time multimedia streams of data.


The advantages of a printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) are the compactness and efficiency derived from its heat-transfer characteristics; furthermore, a PCHE for which a diffusion bonding method was used during production can be applied to extreme environments such as a cryogenic condition. In this study, a micro-channel PCHE fabricated by diffusion bonding was investigated in a cryogenic environment regarding its thermal performance and the pressure drop. The test rig consists of an LN2 storage tank, vaporizers, heaters, and a cold box, whereby the vaporized cryogenic nitrogen flows in hot and cold streams. The overall heat-transfer coefficients were evaluated and compared with traditional correlations. Lastly, we suggested the modified heat-transfer correlations for a PCHE in a cryogenic condition.


In this article we will analyze how work is described by some of the most classic utopias, including utopian socialism. We believe that authors such as More, Campanella, Bacon, Andrae, Saint-Simon, Owen, and Fourier, inter alia, when building their utopias must have necessarily referred to work in those non-existent worlds. Accordingly, those dreams can help illustrate the scope and perspectives of current labor law. In this paper, we take a look at the possible utopian nature of labor law, especially in the unwanted but socially necessary tasks, which are generally invisible.


The conditions for verbal irony comprehension implicitly or directly claimed as necessary by all of the recent philosophic, linguistic and psycholinguistic theories of verbal irony (Clark and Gerrig 1984; Kreuz and Glucksberg 1989; Kumon-Nakamura, Glucksberg and Brown 1995; Sperber and Wilson 1981, 1986) were experimentally tested. Allusion to a violation of expectations, predictions, desires, preferences, social norms, etc., was confirmed as a necessary condition, but pragmatic insincerity was not. Pragmatically sincere comments can be comprehended ironically. A revised set of conditions was proposed, involving intentional violation of Gricean conversational maxims and the portrayal of a contrast between expectations and reality. A cautionary note was made, however, regarding the viability of a single account of verbal irony comprehension.


In an experiment with 739 subjects we study whether and how different interventions might have an influence on the degree of moral behavior when subjects make decisions that can generate negative externalities on uninvolved parties. Particularly, subjects can either take money for themselves or donate it to UNICEF for measles vaccines. By considering two fairly different institutional regimes – one with individual decision making, one with a double-auction market – we expose the different interventions to a kind of robustness check. We find that the threat of monetary punishment promotes moral behavior in both regimes. Getting subjects more involved with the traded good has no effect, though, in both regimes. Only the removal of anonymity, thus making subjects identifiable, has different effects across regimes, which we explain by different perceptions of responsibility.


This paper utilizes the notion of securitization as a framework for explaining Jamaica's security response to the 2009 Jamaica-USA Extradition Affair. The Extradition Treaty between the two countries is an important agreement used to address Jamaica's drug trafficking problem. The paper argues that Jamaica's official state response in this extradition matter was securitized, and it supports this argument in three ways. First, it explains the securitization model as an important analytical tool in security studies. Second, the paper discusses the production of drug trafficking as a security problem in Jamaica. Further, it demonstrates how the 2009 affair was securitized, culminating in the death of seventy-five Jamaicans before the capture and extradition of the alleged drug cartel. Finally, the paper questions whether, because of the responses it generates, securitization of the drug threat remains a useful policy option for the Jamaican state rather than an alternative of de-securitization. It concludes that, despite the benefits of de-securitization, internal conditions still support the continued securitization of Jamaica's drug problem.


The melibiose utilization system ofEscherichia coli W3133, a derivative of K12, is nonfunctional between 37 and 42 °C. The reason for this temperature sensitivity was thought to be that the melibiose transporter (MelB) of W3133 cells was temperature-sensitive. A mutant W3133-2 has been isolated as a temperature-resistant strain that can utilize melibiose between 37 and 42 °C. However, we found that the melibiose transporter of the W3133-2 was still temperature-sensitive. Half-life activities of the melibiose transporter at 37 °C (or 40 °C) in both E. coli W3133 and W3133-2 were exactly the same. Furthermore, we found that the nucleotide sequence of coding region of the melB structural gene (the second gene of the melibiose operon) of W3133-2 was exactly the same as that of W3133. Activity of α-galactosidase (product of the first gene, melA, of the melibiose operon) of W3133 cells grown at 40 °C was very low, although that of W3133-2 cells grown at 40 °C was high. These observations suggested that expression of the melibiose operon in W3133 is also temperature-sensitive. In fact, we found that the expression in W3133 cells was temperature-sensitive, while that in W3133-2 cells was temperature-resistant, by analyzing mRNA levels using the Northern blot method. Furthermore, we identified mutations in the promoter region of the melibiose operon of W3133-2 that resulted in the elongation of an 18 nucleotide inverted repeat sequence to a 28-nucleotide repeat sequence present immediately upstream of the −35 region. This may stabilize a possible stem structure due to the inverted repeat at 37–42 °C.


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I was recently contacted by an American doctor who asked for some good references on evidence-based medicine (EBM) to help him prepare for a debate with another physician who was opposed to EBM. After recovering from the shock that some 2004 doctor would take the opposing position, I offered him what I thought were good sources, and decided to try to make a succinct case for EBM.

Some years ago, the US Preventive Services Task Force[1,2] determined the hierarchy of quality of evidence to support interventions, such as:

At least 1 properly randomized, controlled trial;

Well-designed, controlled trials without randomization;

Well-designed, cohort or case-control analytic studies;

Multiple time series with or without the intervention;

Dramatic results in uncontrolled experiments; and

Opinions of experts or committees, clinical experiences, and descriptive studies.

Thus, the randomized, controlled clinical trial with blinding and sufficient numbers to have statistical power became the gold standard. Recognizing that not all interventions have been properly studied but that physicians must make clinical decisions anyway, David Sackett[3] is credited with having defined EBM as the "integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values."

I consider the near opposite of pure EBM to be pure FBM -- faith-based medicine. St. Paul defined faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.[4]" This was OK for medicine in the first century AD, but in 2004, when there is evidence, I choose it as the basis for my care. That's my opinion. I'm Dr. George Lundberg, Editor of MedGenMed.

Readers are encouraged to respond for the editor's eye only or for consideration for publication via email: ten.dmbew@grebdnulg.


A simple strategy to realize new controllable 3D microstructures and a novel method to reversibly trapping and releasing microparticles are reported. This technique controls the height, shape, width, and arrangement of pillar arrays and realizes a series of special microstructures from 2-pillar-cell to 12 cell arrays, S-shape, chain-shape and triangle 3-cell arrays by a combined top down/bottom up method: laser interference lithography and capillary force-induced assembly. Due to the inherent features of this method, the whole time is less than 3 min and the fabricated area determined by the size of the laser beam can reach as much as 1 cm(2) , which shows this method is very simple, rapid, and high-throughput. It is further demonstrated that the 'mechanical hand'-like 4-cell arrays could be used to selectively trap/release microparticles with different sizes, e.g., 1.5, 2, or 3.5 μm, which are controlled by the period of the microstructures from 2.5 to 4 μm, and 6 μm. Finally, the 'mechanical hand'-like 4-cell arrays are integrated into 100 μm-width microfluidic channels prepared by ultraviolet photolithography, which shows that this technique is compatible with conventional microfabrication methods for on-chip applications.


BACKGROUND
Gene Electro Transfer (GET) is a promising method for therapeutic purposes. Intratumoral GET has reached clinical evaluation for antitumor treatment. An increasing number of studies suggests that antitumor effectiveness not only depends on the transfection efficiency, but also on the induction of immune responses and vascular effects that result in the nonspecific induction of cell death. Real time noninvasive optical imaging methods allow longitudinal studies of these dynamic biological processes.

OBJECTIVE
In the present study, a noninvasive bioluminescence technology was used to further explore the phenomena associated with GET to tumors by a real time monitoring of the transfection efficiency as well as cell death following the treatment.

METHOD
By using transgenic light-producing tumors, tumor growth was visualized, and since dead cells stop producing light, effectiveness of the treatment or the emergence of necrotic areas in the tumors was followed visually. The transfection efficiency of reporter genes (iRFP protein and luciferase) in the subcutaneous tumors was also evaluated.

RESULTS
Our results showed that the GET of a reporter gene can lead to nonspecific antitumor effectiveness and even complete regression of tumors. Using light-producing tumors, we were also able to indirectly visualize the previously described vascular effects of electroporation. Additionally, using the intratumoral GET of a luciferase encoding plasmid, we localized the source of the expression mainly in the peritumoral and not in the tumoral region.

CONCLUSION
The data obtained provide new insights into some of the phenomena associated with GET to tumors, which should be taken into account when designing improved and more effective cancer gene therapy, in order to accelerate the transfer of the technology into clinical trials.


Background Persons with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) follow individual strategies to cope with this highly heterogeneous disease. As surveys show, lifestyle habits play an important role in pwMS. However, little is known about individual experiences of pwMS with different lifestyle adjustment strategies. Objective This study aims to describe and understand individual experiences of pwMS with lifestyle adjustments. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 pwMS in Germany. Criteria for inclusion were age ≥ 18 years and a diagnosis of relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Data were analyzed inductively and deductively according to a six-step thematic analysis. Results The three main themes for experience-based lifestyle adjustments were: 1) nutrition and supplements, 2) exercise and physical activity, and 3) stress management. Influencing factors on the decision-making process such as active disease management, information and advice, desire for mental health and social support, and the wish for self-determination were identified. Impacts of starting or maintaining lifestyle habits included, for example, MS-specific, general, and mental health benefits, the development of coping strategies, social support, and barriers that led to a termination of lifestyle adjustments. Conclusion This study provides a rich and nuanced amount of experiences of pwMS with lifestyle adjustments and leads to three important conclusions: 1) Further research is warranted to better describe the perceived effects of lifestyle habits on MS symptoms and progression, in particular with regard to nutrition and stress reduction; 2) patient education in MS should include the available evidence on lifestyle management and 3) patients need to be actively supported in changing their lifestyle behavior.


With an increased demand for operations in deeper water, the requirements of vessels to withstand the environmental loads and stay in position become more important. The increased water depth puts higher requirements of the mooring system; the weight of the lines is an important factor since it affects the amount of payload. The mooring system can be made less heavy if the line damping contribution is included in the mooring calculations and so reduces the motions as well as the line tensions. In the classification rules there is limited information regarding the damping contributions from the mooring lines and the guidance note in DNV-OS-E301 gives conservative and rather low damping levels for mooring systems.
The aim with this thesis is to achieve a better understanding of when and how the viscous damping of mooring lines and risers should be accounted for. In addition to this, the aim is to establish realistic levels for viscous damping contribution from mooring lines and to compare the time-domain and frequency-domain methods with regard to the mooring-line damping. The study has been performed on a generic semi-submersible drilling platform at 5 water depths ranging from 100 to 1,250m.
The study shows that the performed simulations in time-domain compared to frequency-domain methods give a greater contribution of mooring line damping to the system. The damping levels in surge from mooring lines are between 8 and 28 per cent of the critical damping and in sway 10 and 36 percent, depending on water depth and heading. The damping in absolute numbers decreases with increasing water depth, although the relative percentage of critical damping remains at the same order of magnitude.
For further investigation a different system is recommended with a higher pre-tension in order to achieve a stiffer system and to not allow such large static displacements, and, in addition, also to include risers to study the influence on the damping. Moreover, the damping is dependent on sea state and it is of interest to perform the study in another sea state than the extreme sea state used.


Wine production is a complex process from the vineyard to the winery. On this journey, microbes play a decisive role. From the environment where the vines grow, encompassing soil, topography, weather and climate through to management practices in vineyards, the microbes present can potentially change the composition of wine. Introduction of grapes into the winery and the start of winemaking processes modify microbial communities further. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology have progressed our understanding of microbial communities associated with grapes and fermentations. We now have a finer appreciation of microbial diversity across wine producing regions to begin to understand how diversity can contribute to wine quality and style characteristics. In this review, we highlight literature surrounding wine-related microorganisms and how these affect factors interact with and shape microbial communities and contribute to wine quality. By discussing the geography, climate and soil of environments and viticulture and winemaking practices, we claim microbial biogeography as a new perspective to impact wine quality and regionality. Depending on geospatial scales, habitats, and taxa, the microbial community respond to local conditions. We discuss the effect of a changing climate on local conditions and how this may alter microbial diversity and thus wine style. With increasing understanding of microbial diversity and their effects on wine fermentation, wine production can be optimised with enhancing the expression of regional characteristics by understanding and managing the microbes present.


Most oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) took place during the middle part of the Cretaceous and the Late Hauterivian probably recorded the first anoxic event within this peculiar time interval. The so-called Faraoni event (~131 Ma) was initially defined as a short-lived anoxic event restricted to the Mediterranean domain. Since its recognition, numerous geochemical studies were conducted on the Faraoni event and new occurrences of this event were suggested outside the Tethyan domain. This paper presents an update on the Late Hauterivian Faraoni event and examines if this event agrees with the definition of OAEs.


Introduction: The work is dealing with scientific and practical substantiation of the prospects for the use of fractionated sunflower lecithins (FSLs) as an encapsulating agent in relation to hydrophilic and lipophilic physiologically functional micronutrients. Materials and Methods: Studies were conducted on the advanced equipment according to the standard techniques. Evaluation of the obtained results was carried out using contemporary methods of calculation of static reliability. Results: The article presents the results of comparative studies of the composition, physicochemical indicators and ability to form the FSL-based microemulsions produced by the innovative technology, which consists of processing of cover-free sunflower seeds using a reduced impact technology conditions and ethanol as the extractant. Discussion: A certain method is proposed to produce the FSL-based microemulsions with encapsulated hydrophilic and lipophilic micronutrients, consisting of vitamin C and oil solution of β-carotene. It is shown that treatment of the FSL-based microemulsion by an electromagnetic field with magnetic induction of 0.5 T during 5 min provides degrees of encapsulation of vitamin C at a level of 83% and β-carotene at a level of 100%. Conclusion: The results obtained can underlay the further research on the creation of a range of encapsulated forms of micronutrient premixes.


This paper investigates the capacity problem of heterogeneous wireless networks in mobility scenarios. A heterogeneous network model which consists of n normal nodes and m helping nodes is proposed. Moreover, we propose a D-delay transmission strategy to ensure that every packet can be delivered to its destination nodes with limited delay. Different from most existing network schemes, our network model has a novel two-tier architecture. The existence of helping nodes greatly improves the network capacity. Four types of mobile networks are studied in this paper: i.i.d. fast mobility model and slow mobility model in two-dimensional space, i.i.d. fast mobility model and slow mobility model in three-dimensional space. Using the virtual channel model, we present an intuitive analysis of the capacity of two-dimensional mobile networks and three-dimensional mobile networks, respectively. Given a delay constraint D, we derive the asymptotic expressions for the capacity of the four types of mobile networks. Furthermore, the impact of D and m to the capacity of the whole network is analyzed. Our findings provide great guidance for the future design of the next generation of networks.


The fear of public speaking is a kind of social phobia. The patients having the fear of public-speaking show some symptoms like shame and timidity in the daily personal relationship. They are afraid that the other person would be puzzled, feel insulted, and they also fear that they should be underestimated for their mistakes. For the treatment of the fear of public speaking, the cognitive-behavioral therapy is generally used. The cognitive-behavioral therapy is the method that makes the patients gradually experience some situations inducing the fears and overcome those at last. But if the real situations inducing fears cause dangerous symptoms or the patients have difficulty in imagining the situations, the effect of this method is notably reduced. And making the situations inducing the fears to patients requires a vast amount of effort and time. In this study, we developed the public-speaking simulator and the virtual environment for the treatment of the fear of public speaking. The head-mounted display, the head-tracker and the 3-dimensional sound system were used for immersing in the virtual environment. The virtual environment of this system is suggested in a seminar room where 6 virtual audiences are seated. The virtual audiences were made with real movies and inserted into the virtual environment. The patient speaks in front of these virtual audiences and the therapist can make virtual audience members respond with some motions. Moreover, clinical tests have been made to verify the effectiveness of the treatment.


Despite a surfeit of studies recognizing Cotton Mather's support for a range of alchemical and occult practices, historians have yet to integrate these occult activities with Mather's religious and scientific thought as a whole. I argue that we can bring clarity to Mather's engagement with the occult by refracting it through his reverence for Lutheran Pietist Johann Arndt, whose writings, especially Vier bucher vom wahren Christentum (Four Books of True Christianity), offer a key to Mather's employment of hermetic materials in his major works of natural philosophy. Through analysis of The Christian Philosopher and The Angel of Bethesda, as well as Mather's private writings, I suggest that Mather's cosmology was vitalistic in ways not previously acknowledged by historians. This view of creation as dynamic, enchanted, and marked by divine signatures—evidenced most clearly in Mather's concept of the nishmath-chajim—helped Mather reconcile the new science, Puritan covenant theology, and alchemical traditions descending from Paracelsus. By positing a divine, dynamic presence in nature, Mather retained an orthodox view of God as sovereign and transcendent while intimately engaged in a process of cosmic redemption, slowly transmuting the base matter of a fallen creation into a new heaven and new earth.


We would like to make a contribution toward the recent publication in TRANSFUSION by Mestra and coworkers. Firstly, the authors said that this is the first report of transfusion-transmitted leishmaniasis in an immunocompromised patient in Colombia. However, identification of the Leishmania infection was demonstrated neither in transfused blood components nor in blood donors. Antibodies against Leishmania spp. were detected in the patient's serum samples as part of a study to rule out renal transplant-transmitted visceral leishmaniasis. However, it is not clear if the serologic Leishmaniapositive result of the patient's serum corresponded to a sample taken before or after receiving transfusions. To our understanding, if no data related to the patient's infection status before the transfusions have been clearly provided and, additionally, as Leishmania infection in transfused blood components and/or blood donors has not been demonstrated by the authors, it is very difficult to agree that this certainly represents a case of transfusiontransmitted visceral leishmaniasis. From the transfusion point of view it would have been interesting to know whether or not the transfused blood components were leukoreduced and, if so, when the leukoreduction was performed, that is, before storage or at the bedside, since various studies have been published on the efficacy of whole blood, fresh plasma, and red blood cell filters used for leukoreduction in reducing the number of Leishmania spp. parasites in blood components and thereby minimizing the potential risk of Leishmania transmission through blood transfusions. This information could have thrown light on the probability of the parasite being transmitted to the patient through the transfusion of a contaminated blood component taken from an asymptomatic donor. This case was also published in 2006 as allograft kidney dysfunction associated with infection with amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi. However, neither polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nor any other antigen detection technique was performed to demonstrate that the amastigotes in the renal parenchymal corresponded to T. cruzi. To distinguish Chagas disease from Leishmania infection, it would have been helpful to perform Leishmaniaand T. cruzi– specific PCRs on the renal biopsy since it is difficult to differentiate the amastigotes from these two genera by direct microscopic examination. This observation has implications related to the article being commented on because it would explain the patient's clinical symptoms showing after the renal transplant and immediately before initiating the transfusions. Nifurtimox was given to treat Chagas disease. This may have also contributed to delaying the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis, since this medication is partially effective against Leishmania spp. as in vivo studies have shown. All these aspects could also be compatible with the reactivation of a latent Leishmania infection by immunosuppression. We believe that this is a very interesting report concerning a case of visceral leishmaniasis caused by L. (L.) mexicana in an immunocompromised patient in Colombia. This is already in itself a very remarkable contribution made by the authors because, as mentioned in the article, L. (L.) mexicana is a species that has been associated mainly with cutaneous leishmaniasis. There are, however, various aspects that might support the fact that this case was due to the reactivation of a latent Leishmania infection, that is, the patient's clinical symptoms, the lack of data related to the patient's infection status before the transfusion, the blood components transfused, and their donors. Similarly, other aspects, which are primarily based on ruling out the transmission of visceral leishmaniasis through solid-organ transplantation, and the fact that the patient's medical interview did not reveal any prior exposure to Leishmania, all support the hypothesis that the visceral leishmaniasis was transmitted through blood transfusion. Since there are arguments both for and against the two options, we would suggest that this report be considered as a possible case of transfusion-transmitted visceral leishmaniasis.


Nurses are increasingly finding themselves in the role of concerned health care-givers in a toxic environment. Some of the effects of pollution on our environment are briefly discussed and guidelines offered for those who want to combat this pressing problem.


Aiming at the fabrication of nano-structured materials and hybrid aggregates we synthesize and characterize nanoscopic objects from polymers, noble metals, and semiconducting materials. As an example for the preparation of mesoscopic functional assemblies we first describe the layer-by-layer deposition of dendritic building blocks to the walls of nanometric pores in an anodized alumina (Al2O3) substrate used as template. After dissolution of the matrix hollow nano-tubes are obtained with an outer diameter that corresponds to the pore diameter and with a wall thickness that is determined by the number of layers deposited. The tube length is given by the pore depth of the template and reaches in our examples up to 80 micrometers. Next, a single colloid particle-based templating protocol for the fabrication of non-trivial Au nanostructures is described. The obtained nano-crescents can be varied in terms of their size and shape over a wide range (at the hundreds of nanometers scale). Their plasmonic resonance behavior, e.g., the spectral position of their (multipole) absorbance peaks shows a characteristic dependence on the polarization of the exciting laser light. Finally, the optical properties of colloidal semiconductor (quantum dots) are analyzed. In particular, the spectral photoluminescence properties are described for nanotube assemblies that are fabricated by the deposition of (positively charged) dendrimers alternating with (negatively charged) quantum dots of different emission wavelength (energy transfer cascades). The last example of a hybrid assembly concerns the electronic coupling of (the HOMO/LUMO levels of) semiconducting nanoparticles to (the Fermi level of) a gold electrode.


Kinematic surveys of the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites of the Milky Way are revealing tantalising hints about the structure of dark matter (DM) haloes at the low-mass end of the galaxy luminosity function. At the bright end, modelling of spiral galaxies has shown that their rotation curves are consistent with the hypothesis of a Universal Rotation Curve whose shape is supported by a cored dark matter halo. In this paper, we investigate whether the internal kinematics of the Milky Way dSphs are consistent with the particular cored DM distributions which reproduce the properties of spiral gal axies. Although the DM densities in dSphs are typically almost two orders of magnitude higher than those found in (larger) disk systems, we find consistency between dSph kinematics an d Burkert DM haloes whose core radii r0 and central densitiesρ0 lie on the extrapolation of the scaling law seen in spiral galaxies: log ρ0≃α log r0 + const with 0.9< α< 1.1. We similarly find that the dSph data are consistent with the relation betweenρ0 and baryon scale length seen in spiral galaxies. While the origin of these scaling relations is unclear, the fi nding that a single DM halo profile is consistent with kinematic data in galaxies of widely varying size, luminosity and Hubble Type is important for our understanding of observed galaxies and must be accounted for in models of galaxy formation.


Cornell University's survey of U.S. organizations in 2016 showed that the compensations of agreeable employees were 18% lower than those of the spontaneous" ones. The research that employee personality traits influence their salary levels is merely in Europe and the United States currently and directs to European and American organizations and cultural contexts. In the existing studies, on the one hand, the measurement of pay is economic pay and there are no total rewards to research; on the other hand, how the conclusion drawn from the Western culture and the organizational context adapts to the Chinese culture and organizations, and what is the relationship between employee's agreeableness and salary levels in the context of the Chinese culture and organizations, domestic and foreign scholars are still relatively lacking in research. Therefore, different from the Western culture, whether the findings of Cornell University are consistent with the organizational context of traditional Chinese culture and can confirm the Chinese saying the honest people suffer more, the squeaking wheel gets the oil" is a scientific question worth exploring.   Based on the existing research, combining the Chinese culture and the organizational context, the paper combs the scientific connotation of agreeableness and total rewards, establishes a theoretical model of the relationship between them, and uses the NEO-PIR scale and the U.S. compensation association for comprehensive compensation. The questionnaire is designed by using the NEO-PIR scale and the total rewards defined by the WorldatWork. The questionnaire survey is conducted on a sample of 1, 486 employees in state-owned enterprises and private-owned enterprises in China. On the basis of reliability and validity analyses, the data are statistically analyzed by using correlation and multiple regression analyses. The analysis results show that agreeableness will reduce the overall salary level of employees. But different from Western context of organizations, the employee agreeableness and total rewards are not completely negatively correlated in Chinese organizational context, while the agreeableness is negatively related to monetary payoff and has no correlation with benefits. Furthermore, agreeableness is negatively related to learning and development, and positively related to the work environment. Modesty, altruism and tender mindedness are the important factors that affect monetary payoff, and compliance, straight forwardness and altruism are critical variables that affect non-monetary compensation.  Based on the above conclusions, the article proposes management practice implications from two aspects of employees and organizations: employees need to make good use of expectation management" and clearly define their core competencies and capability boundaries to break through the adverse effects of agreeableness on their total rewards; organizations should combine humanization" and dehumanization" to rationally and comprehensively measure the abilities and performance of agreeable employees, and effectively exert the cultural essence of Chinese harmony" to integrate the values and create a harmonious working environment, effectively exerting the advantages of different personality traits of staff to truly let Lei Feng not lose out".


We present a new data-driven video inpainting method for recovering missing regions of video frames. A novel deep learning architecture is proposed which contains two subnetworks: a temporal structure inference network and a spatial detail recovering network. The temporal structure inference network is built upon a 3D fully convolutional architecture: it only learns to complete a low-resolution video volume given the expensive computational cost of 3D convolution. The low resolution result provides temporal guidance to the spatial detail recovering network, which performs imagebased inpainting with a 2D fully convolutional network to produce recovered video frames in their original resolution. Such two-step network design ensures both the spatial quality of each frame and the temporal coherence across frames. Our method jointly trains both sub-networks in an end-to-end manner. We provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation on three datasets, demonstrating that our method outperforms previous learning-based video inpainting methods.


It is clear that C is symmetric. However, in order to avoid the solution of two special eigenvalue problems, it is desirable to have a way of forming the transforming matrix A~* in terms of the known matrix A without a previous determination of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A. Indeed, this is possible by an iterative process, based on Newton's algorithm, for any matrix A with real positive eigenvalues. Newton's method. Two simple algorithms can be presented for the iterative solution of the scalar equation ax2 1 = 0 with a positive a ; these are


Experimental results show that the contamination performance of silicone rubber composite insulators is better than porcelain insulators. This is attributed to the hydrophobicity of the silicone rubber. This suggests that the flashover mechanism of these insulators is different. This paper experimentally investigates contamination build-up, diffusion of low molecular weight (LMW) polymer chains, surface wetting, electrical field caused interaction between droplets, generation of conductive regions and filaments, field intensification caused spot discharge and the ultimate flashover of silicone rubber along wetted filaments. The studies resulted in a new flashover mechanism, which provides a better understanding of the superior performance of silicone rubber outdoor insulators. The results will be useful for the development of improved laboratory test procedures and to evaluate composite insulators' performance in contaminated conditions. The part of the paper describes an overview of the flashover mechanism and the diffusion of LMW polymer chains and wetting of the silicone rubber surface in detail. >


Context-aware applications rely on models of the physical world. Within the Nexus project, we envision a World Wide Space which provides the conceptual and technological framework for integrating and sharing such context models in an open, global platform of context providers. In our ongoing research we tackle important challenges in such a platform including distributed processing of streamed context data, situation recognition by distributed reasoning, efficient management of context data histories, and quality of context information. In this paper we discuss our approach to cope with these challenges and present an extended Nexus architecture.


The plight of refugees and asylum seekers has been a trending issue of critical importance for social workers in Indonesia. At the end of February 2018, the public was overwhelmed by mass media coverage of the large number of refugees living on the streets in front of the Immigration Office in Jakarta. Their existence needs to be noticed by the government in particular and all parties in general. In fact, many of the difficulties experienced by refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia, but the most felt is due to the issue of legal status and limitations in the language of communication, they can not access public services such as health care, education, work, and others. The plight of them must necessarily be a very important concern for social workers in Indonesia, as it may create new social problem. Social workers work to uphold the dignity of all those refugees and asylum seekers including unaccompanied minors (UAM) and to work with them for successful social functioning. This paper explores available integrative literature, quantitative document analysis, and presents mixed methodology through individual interviews and an exploratory study to analyze social workers' role to respond the various issues faced by today's refugees and asylum seekers rights as well as potential way for being supporting document as a policy framework for Indonesian government to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention.


This talk discusses the radiation and propagation properties of elastic waves on conical shells by making use of a previously developed theory [Y. P. Guo, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 2388 (A) (1992)]. The three types of dominant waves in the mid‐frequency domain, namely, the compressional, shear, and flexural waves are examined. It is shown that when propagating toward the apex of the cone, shear waves are turned back at caustics but compressional waves are cut off only where they have become subsonic. The radiation losses of these waves are also discussed. It is found that compressional waves radiate much more efficiently than shear waves on a cone, indicating that much less compressional wave energy would be reflected by a cone‐shaped endcap. This is indeed what was observed in these scattering experiments.


For predictive quantile regressions with highly persistent regressors, a conventional test statistic suffers from a serious size distortion and its limiting distribution relies on the unknown persistence degree of predictors. This paper proposes a double-weighted approach to offer a robust inferential theory across all types of persistent regressors. We first estimate a quantile regression with an auxiliary regressor, which is generated as a weighted combination of an exogenous random walk process and a bounded transformation of the original regressor. With a similar spirit of rotation in factor analysis, one can then construct a weighted estimator using the estimated coefficients of the original predictor and the auxiliary regressor. Under some mild conditions, it shows that the self-normalized test statistic based on the weighted estimator converges to a standard normal distribution. Our new approach enjoys a nice property that it can reach the local power under the optimal rate T with nonstationary predictor and squared root of T for stationary predictor, respectively. More importantly, our approach can be easily used to characterize mixed persistence degrees in multiple regressions. Simulations and empirical studies are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly proposed approach. The heterogenous predictability of US stock returns at different quantile levels is reexamined.


The effects of timing, frequency and duration of mouth opening and marine overwash events on fish assemblages in two, adjacent temporarily open/closed estuaries were investigated. Sampling was conducted biannually over two years during summer and winter, using selective sampling gear to target estuarine-associated marine species. During this period the East Kleinemonde Estuary opened more frequently than the West Kleinemonde Estuary and it also experienced a greater number of bar overwash events when larval recruitment can occur. The timing of mouth opening and the frequency of marine overwash events did not influence species richness of marine-spawning species but had a pronounced effect on abundances (catch-per-unit-effort) of species. The species composition of both estuaries was similar, but the catch-per-unit-effort in the East Kleinemonde Estuary was more than three times greater than that of the West Kleinemonde Estuary. The East Kleinemonde also supported a greater proportion of immature individuals of Rhabdosargus holubi and Monodactylus falciformis, and the length frequency distributions of both these species differed significantly between the two estuaries. The larger fish sizes in the West Kleinemonde Estuary were attributed to the prolonged mouth closure that resulted in the trapping of larger juveniles and mature fish within the estuary.