Author(s): Zaragoza-Watkins, Matthew David | Advisor(s): Auffhammer, Maximilian | Abstract: This dissertation consists of three studies analyzing the challenges of mechanism design in the context of environmental regulation. Each study focuses on the unanticipated outcomes that arise due to behavioral responses by agents subject to a particular policy instrument.In Chapter 1, I analyze the welfare consequences of post-allocation resale for a class of mechanisms that are commonly used to allocate goods. When initial allocations are inefficient, agents will often organize secondary markets to facilitate redistribution. If these agents are forward-looking, their actions to influence the primary allocation and participation in the secondary market will be interdependent. I study how interdependence affects predictions about strategic behavior and welfare in a model of the first-price all-pay auction with two bidders with asymmetric private-value distributions. Asymmetric value distributions commonly generate inefficient allocations, which motivates my analysis of resale. Resale occurs via a take-it-or- leave-it offer made by the auction winner - a best response, given the losing bidder's private value remains unknown. Adding a resale stage increases expected revenue in the auction stage, where opportunity for post-auction trade motivates the stronger bidder to bid less aggressively and the weaker bidder to bid more aggressively - each of which are forms of rent-seeking. Somewhat surprisingly, the mutual incentive to rent-seek causes the equilibrium bidding strategies and bid distributions to converge. These results suggest that models of strategic interactions that conclude in an inefficient allocation, when resale can produce a Pareto improvement, may provide less accurate predictions about equilibrium behavior than what has previously been believed. Moreover, models where the initial allocation mechanism relies on costly effort (e.g. lobbying) to allocate rents may understate the social cost of the initial allocation.In Chapter 2, my co-authors and I study the implications of alternative forms of cap-and-trade regulations on the California electricity market. Specific focus is given to the implementation of a downstream form of regulation known as the first- deliverer policy. Under this policy, importers (i.e. first-deliverers) of electricity into California are responsible for the emissions associated with the power plants from which the power originated, even if those plants are physically located outside of California. We find that, absent strict non-economic barriers to changing import patterns, such policies are extremely vulnerable to reshuffling of imported resources. The net impact implies that the first-deliverer policies will be only marginally more effective than a conventional source-based regulation.In Chapter 3, I evaluate the effectiveness of a regional environmental policy targeting local air pollution from the transportation sector. In the United States, air pollution from light-duty vehicles is controlled via new-vehicle emissions standards complemented by inspection and maintenance programs. One unintended consequence of this approach is that it likely causes millions of motorists to operate "fugitive" vehicles in regions where registration is tied to meeting emission standards. I study a program operated in California's San Joaquin Valley, which attempts to abate air-pollution and bring "fugitive" vehicles into compliance by offering repair subsidies to motorists of high-emitting vehicles. One concern with this policy is that it may be highly susceptible to gaming by motorists seeking to fund infra-marginal repairs (i.e. free-riders). Exploiting quasi-random variation in the likelihood of participation, I estimate causal effects of the treatment for vehicle emission and registration rates, via instrumental variables. I find that the treatment lowers CO emission rates by 30%, HC emission rates by 19%, and NOx emission rates by 20%, and increases the likelihood of registration by 52%. Comparing these estimates with the "naive" estimate (i.e. the pre-to-post-treatment difference), I find that 22% to 36% of emissions rate improvements are infra-marginal. These results are surprisingly low, given the relatively high repair-completion rate among motorists that do not attempt to access the subsidy program. It is likely that the significant time-commitment required to participate in the program functions as a screening mechanism, consistent with a model in which motorists with lower values of time are also less likely to independently complete pollution-control equipment repairs.


Abstract The increasing success of the evidence-based policy movement is raising the demand of empirically informed decision making. As arguably any policy decision happens under conditions of uncertainty, following our best available evidence to reduce the uncertainty seems a requirement of good decision making. However, not all the uncertainty faced by decision makers can be resolved by evidence. In this paper, we build on a philosophical analysis of uncertainty to identify the boundaries of scientific advice in policy decision making. We start by introducing a distinction between empirical and non-empirical types of uncertainty, and we explore the role of two non-empirical uncertainties in the context of policy making. We argue that the authority of scientific advisors is limited to empirical uncertainty and cannot extend beyond it. While the appeal of evidence-based policy rests on a view of scientific advice as limited to empirical uncertainty, in practice there is a risk of over reliance on experts beyond the legitimate scope of their authority. We conclude by applying our framework to a real-world case of evidence-based policy, where experts have overstepped their boundaries by ignoring non-empirical types of uncertainty.


This dissertation theorizes description as an ethical art inflected by the technologies that share and shape our lives. In recent decades, camera drones, advanced medical imaging, and smartphones have all quietly changed the cultural function of description by changing what we can see and re-see. Similarly, the data abundance characteristic of digital culture foregrounds human reliance on pieces of description that help us sort and access data: lists, maps, keywords, captions, and titles. Because of these shifts, I argue, a theory of contemporary descriptive practice has the potential to bring the fields of writing studies, technology studies, and visual cultural studies together in new and necessary ways around questions of access to information, which I understand as pressing questions of social justice. I argue that examining what "counts" as descriptive in diverse settings provides a way of understanding how shared terms and practices generate and delineate communities; and I suggest that "good" descriptions make specialist domains more inclusive and teach us about writing for accessibility across contexts.

Chapters on Objectivist poetics, ekphrastic writing, the stock image industry, and activist artists' use of aerial photographs trace out ways in which descriptions' differently styled failures to match the world perfectly produce different kinds of social bonds. In each chapter, examples set by practitioners (including writers, photographers, and interface designers) ground philosophical meditations on the interplays that characterize relations between text-and-image, human-and-nonhuman, and observation-and-being. This dissertation also argues that description's status as the rhetorical mode (and poetic figure) most likely to behave as if it were a non-linguistic object makes the study of description an ideal interface between writing studies and new materialist thing theories (e.g. Barad, Braidotti, Brown, Bryant, Garcia, Harman, Hodder), which have gained traction across a wide array of academic disciplines during the last two decades.


Megan is excited when Cindy moves into her neighbourhood -- maybe she'll finally have a best friend. Sure enough, the two girls quickly become inseparable. Cindy even starts to learn sign language so they can communicate more easily. But when they go away to summer camp together, problems arise. Cindy feels left out, because Megan is spending all of her time with Lizzie, another deaf girl; Megan resents that Cindy is always trying to help her, even when she doesn't need help. Before they can mend their differences, both girls have to learn what it means to be a friend.


Grape tomatoes have become popular additions to the produce offerings at supermarkets across the country. These tomatoes are smaller in size than cherry tomatoes making them desirable for salads and snacking. Several varieties are now available from many seed sources. Sixteen varieties were evaluated at the Beaumont Horticultural Unit in Beaumont, MS in the summers of 2002 and 2003. Samples of 11 varieties were sent to the Garrison Sensory Evaluation Laboratory evaluation for by panelists in 2003. An expert panel was conducted evaluating the reactions of respondents. All panelists were instructed to taste and evaluate the attributes of appearance, shape, size, color, gloss-shininess, translucency, stem, stem appearance, aroma, descriptor terms of aroma, general tomato aroma, hand/texture/firmness, mouth/bite/skin penetration, skin chewability, firmness of flesh, mealiness, juiciness, mushiness, internal pressure in mouth, seed/seed size, flavor, sweetness, sourness, saltiness, umami, overripe flavor, and general tomato flavor. Based on the information gathered through the sensory evaluation panel, >Mini Charm= was the most preferred grape tomato variety in this study. >Mini Charm= ranked first in 11 of the 20 attributes evaluated. The least preferred variety was >St. Nick=.


The Vyborg-3 republican sanatorium is intended to serve 210 patients with ocular tuberculosis. A total of 2521 histories of patients admitted to the sanatorium from different regions of the country were examined. A fourth of the patients needed differential diagnostic studies. In 9% of patients, the tuberculous etiology of eye diseases was excluded. Patients with hematogenic severe and complicated ocular tuberculosis are prevalent every year. The proportion of complicated forms of ocular tuberculosis (cataract, retinal lesions, uveal glaucoma, fibrosis of the vitreous body) is 28%. Therapeutical efficiency in the underlying disease is 92%.


Many situations require us to distribute rewards and resources between different members of a group. The members are often described with respect to their age, sex, experience, personality, and productivity. Distribution of rewards and resources requires that all these qualitatively different inputs be properly considered. How are multi-dimensional inputs handled in allocations of one-dimensional reward or resource? In Experiments 1-4, the allocation tasks had heterogeneous inputs such as effort on job and actual performance or behaviour toward administration and actual performance and allocators were college students and professional managers. All the four experiments indicated that allocators calculate separate equity ratios for each input of the allocation task and then average the two ratios in determination of reward. The commonly held belief that all the inputs are converted to a common currency of deservingness and then reward is allocated did not receive any support at all. In Experiments 5-8, the allocation task consisted of performance over two periods and the allocators were college students, professional managers, and union leaders. While college students and professional managers converted the two-year performance in a unitary measure of deservingness as is commonly believed, union people followed the model employed in Experiments 1-4. The instructions to divide fairly and to minimize conflict between the two claimants affected the perception of inputs and not the rule of reward distribution. Implications of these findings were discussed for management of reward systems in Indian organizations.


Cadmium Znic Oxide (CdZnO) based optoelectronics materials and devices are studied and discussed in this dissertation. CdZnO thin films with various Cd:Zn mol ratios were grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on silicon (Si) and c-plane sapphire substrates, respectively. Room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) showed the peak position of the near band edge (NBE) emission of the CdZnO thin films shifted from 3.30eV to 2.59eV on Si (100) substrates, while it shifted from 3.26eV to 2.40eV on c-plane sapphire substrates. The color of the RT PL emission of the CdZnO thin films covers from ultraviolet (UV) to blue region on Si (100) substrates, and to green region on c-plane sapphire substrates. The NBE emission peak energy was estimated to be the band gap energy of the CdZnO thin films at RT. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) study of the CdZnO thin films showed Cd:Zn ratio increased with the decrease of the band gap energy of the CdZnO. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies showed the crystal structure of the CdZnO thin films changed from the pure wurtzite (wz) structure to mixture of wz and rocksalt (rs) structure, and finally to pure rs structure with the increases of Cd:Zn ratio. Temperature dependent PL measurements were performed on three typical CdZnO samples having pure wz, pure rs, and wz-rs mixture structures, respectively. The temperature dependence of the CdZnO bandgap change was investigated and analyzed based on the empirical Varshni and Bose-Einstein fitting on the NBE PL peak positions. The temperature dependence of the integral PL intensity in the CdZnO samples was also fitted, where fitting equation with hopping term showed a closer fit to the experimental data. The possible hopping processes in the CdZnO thin films may be related to the band tail states due to alloying effect and nonuniformity of Cd distribution in the CdZnO samples. Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at different temperature was performed on in situ annealed CdZnO thin films to study the thermal stability of the CdZnO. Pure wz CdZnO showed insignificant NBE PL peak shift after RTA, while mixture structure CdZnO showed evident blue shifts due to phase change after annealing, indicating the rs phase CdZnO changes to wz phase CdZnO during RTA process. On the other hand, CdZnO thin films without in situ annealing showed dramatic NBE emission peak energy increase with increasing RTA temperature. RT PL and temperature dependent PL showed phase separations in the samples after the annealing process. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements showed redistribution of Cd in the as-annealed sample, which is believed to be the reason of PL peaks shift. ZnO heterojunction samples with CdZnO active layers were grown on p-type Si (100) substrate and n-type Si (100) substrate, with structures of n-ZnO/i-CdZnO/p-Si and p-ZnO/i-CdZnO/n-ZnO/n-Si, respectively. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated from both samples showed typical diode rectifying I-V curves. Blue and cyan color emissions were observed under forward bias at RT. RT PL measurements at different thicknesses on the sample showed the existence of CdZnO active layer. Temperature dependent electroluminescence (EL) showed that the change of EL peak energy agree with Varshni equation, while RT PL verified that the EL emission come from the CdZnO layer. Devices with metal-insulator-semiconductor structure and ZnO p-n junction with CdZnO quantum well structure were grown and fabricated respectively. Random laser emissions were observed from both of the devices under forward bias. Closely packed column structures are believed to serve as random resonance cavities for the laser emissions.


The author has written a very careful and on the whole, well-balanced presentation of critical views to-day concerning the New Testament. He accepts the Virgin Birth as most likely true and holds to the actual Resurrection of Jesus. He accepts with some doubt the .Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel and the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles. But he is certain that both .Jude and 2 Peter are not genuine. The book is calculated to be helpful to aU who know how to read with dis(·rimination. A. T. R,OBERTSON.


The aim is to analyze a junction produced by a Friction Stir Welding (FSW) joining process under multiaxial loading, employing a modified Arcan test that allows an angle variation of the loading in order to evaluate the failure of the FSW weldment as compared to the base material. A short review of the earlier studies and relevant theories about the FSW processes and fracture modes I and II under multiaxial loading are presented and were experimentally evaluated for an AA2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheets (t = 1.6 mm) processed by FSW. The results obtained can serve as a basis to compare the junctions made using FSW and conventional joint methods such as rivets (very common practice in the aeronautical industry).


1 Male steriles (MS) must have a fitness advantage relative to hermaphrodites (H) if they are to be maintained in gynodioecious species. We report experiments in which we disentangle the relative contributions of seed size, inbreeding and maternal sex to the fitness advantage of male steriles in Plantago coronopus L. 2 Seed size effects were observed throughout growth experiments in the glasshouse and were reflected in all biomass measurements. In the field, seed size effects resulted in a fourfold increase in standardized seed production per initial buried seed after 2 years between small (mean weight = 0.13 mg) and large (0.20 mg) seeds. 3 Inbreeding depression, calculated from seed to seed was δ = 0.37 after one generation of selfing and δ = 0.93 after the second generation of selfing. Regression of log(1 − δ) on inbreeding level suggested synergistic epistasis in fitness. 4 Even after taking into account the effects of seed size and inbreeding level, the offspring of a male sterile mother had a 16% advantage over a hermaphrodite, but this disappeared when the progeny sex ratio (the ratio of MS : H individuals among the offspring) was taken into account. 5 In the field, offspring of large seeds had both a higher overall incidence of flowering, and a higher probability of flowering in their first year, thus generating an extra cohort of individuals. The high inbreeding depression in fitness after two generations of selfing was also due to a very low incidence of flowering among the S2 individuals. Flowering probability therefore appears to be a critical trait in this system. 6 In the field, the contributions of seed size variation (15%) and inbreeding (9%) combine with 48% higher seed production to give a total fitness advantage of 70% of male steriles relative to hermaphrodites. This is probably sufficient for maintenance of gynodioecy under nuclear‐cytoplasmic inheritance of male sterility. 7 Both inbreeding effects (as a consequence of the sexual system) and pleiotropic effects (of the genes coding for male sterility) play a role in the maintenance of gynodioecy in this species, with an apparently greater role for the latter.


with schistosomal ova is an essential part of the syndrome and that the immunological response a consequence of the infestation and not the cause of the neurological lesion. In 41 cases of schistosomal spinal cord disease I have traced in the literature' 5 the neurological deficit was caused by cord compression due to a discrete granuloma in 13. It would be superfluous to implicate an immunological cause in these cases. Of the remaining 28 cases, in which cord compression was not reported, the spinal cord was examined histologically in 18 and ova found in all of these. I can find no recorded case of this condition in which ova were looked for in the spinal cord and not found. This is in remarkable contrast to schistosomiasis without clinical spinal cord involvement, in which ova are rarely found in the cord." As ova appear to be invariably present in the affected part of the spinal cord in these cases it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the lesion is a direct consequence of their presence and there is no need to postulate an immunological cause. JOHN SIDDORN


A novel method for the on-line measurement of powder flowrate in pneumatic conveying system is proposed. It is a nonrestrictive method based on the measurement values of total pressure drop of gas-solid two-phase flow and the powder concentration, and also has the advantage of simplicity, reliability and low cost. An intelligent measurement system for the powder flowrate measurement is developed. The experimental results show that the maximum measurement error is satisfactory for industrial application.


IN A PREVIOUS paper it was shown that fusion of the vertebral bodies could be attained when the intervertebral disk was removed through the transabdominal approach. 1 It was predicated at that time that the same result could be obtained by removing the disk after a laminectomy from the usual posterior approach. It has been claimed by some surgeons that osseous union will be secured in patients after thorough removal of the disk through the posterior approach, although no conclusive evidence has been presented to establish it as a fact. In order to study the results of a resection of the disk through the posterior approach, a series of experiments were performed on animals. The method employed consisted of exposing the spinous processes and the laminas of the lower lumbar vertebrae. Because of the small size of the laminas and the disk, it was necessary to remove the spinous processes


Background Laminectomy with fusion (LF) and laminoplasty are two posterior-based surgical approaches for the surgical treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). The decompressive effect of these approaches is thought to be primarily related to the dorsal drift of the spinal cord away from ventral compressive structures. A lesser known mechanism of spinal cord decompression following cervical LF is regression of the ventral disc osteophyte complexes which is postulated to result from the alteration of motion across the fused motion segment. The goal of this study was to determine whether regression of the ventral disc-osteophyte complexes occur following laminoplasty and compare the magnitude of this occurrence to cervical laminectomy and fusion. Methods Seventy patients with CSM who underwent pre- and postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and were treated with either laminoplasty or LF. The size of the disc-osteophyte complex at all operative levels were measured on pre- and postoperative MRI using digital calipers. Results The laminoplasty group consisted of 25 patients with an average age of 54.9 and a mean of 3.24 surgical levels while the LF group consisted of 45 patients with an average age of 65.4 and a mean of 3.44 surgical levels (age, p < 0.0001; levels, p= 0.46). The average time interval between pre- and post-operative MRI was 16.2 and 15.6 months in the laminoplasty and LF groups, respectively (p = 0.91). The average time interval between surgery and post-operative MRI was 10.1 and 10.7 months in the laminoplasty and LF groups, respectively (p = 0.86). When comparing pre- and post-operative MRI, there was a 9.59% decrease in disc-osteophyte complex size from 3.84mm ± 0.74 to 3.47mm ± 0.86 in the laminoplasty group compared to a 35.4% decrease in disc-osteophyte complex size from 4.60mm ± 1.06 to 2.98mm ± 1.33 in LF group (laminoplasty, p < 0.0001; LF, p = 0.0067). Using logistic regression analysis, LF, increased time interval between surgery and post-operative MRI, high cobb angle, and straight sagittal alignment were all independently associated with increased disc-osteophyte complex regression (p < 0.05). No differences in functional outcomes (as defined by mJOA scores) was found between the two surgical techniques. Conclusions In patients with CSM that had a posterior surgical approach, LF is associated with a larger interval regression in disc-osteophyte complex size compared to laminoplasty. This is likely related to the loss of motion of the cervical spine after surgery as governed by Wolff's law and the Heuter-Volkmann's principle. Although the decompressive effect of LF and laminoplasty is primarily related to the dorsal drift of the spinal cord away from ventral compressive structures, disc-osteophyte complex regression likely provides another mechanism of spinal cord decompression.


To compare the clinical and pathological effects of high and low nicotine cigarette smoke 12 young adult male beagles were separated into four equal groups and exposed to smoke from high (4.6 mg) or low (1.4 mg) nicotine cigarettes, administered in six or 12 cigarettes per day. Two control groups, sham-exposed and nontracheostomized, consisted of three dogs each. The dogs were exposed seven days per week for five months. Tracheobronchitis developed in smoke-exposed dogs; gross lesions were generally confined to the lungs and tracheobronchial lymph nodes. Histopathological changes were found in all smoke-exposed dogs, with slightly more severe or extensive lesions in the dogs exposed to 12 cigarettes per day. The incidence and severity of rhinitis, turbinate basal epithelial cell hyperplasia, and squamous metaplasia were increased among dogs in the high nicotine cigarette groups.


The monic normalization equation-error (MNEE) algorithm for adaptive IIR filtering is applied to the reduced-order identification. It is shown that the parameter estimates converge to the solution of the well-known eigenvalue equation. Unlike the ordinary equation-error adaptive IIR filter, the MNEE adaptive IIR filter matches the second-order response as well as the impulse response of an unknown system. The simulation results confirm that the simple MNEE algorithm can provide a stable, unbiased estimate in the reduced-order case.


The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the calculation method, which takes into consideration the electrostatic ligands field as well as the the magnetic interactions. Our calculations method based on crystal field (CEF) together with the Zeeman effect in one Hamiltonian and allows calculating many of the temperature dependencies of the magnetic and electronic properties of the rare earth compounds. The result of the calculations shows the accuracy of the approach even for the intermetallic compounds. The obtained results for calculations of the compounds of the family in RERu2Si2 (RE – rare-earth element) are fully confirmed the experimental data such as: the easy magnetic direction of all the analyzed compounds, the thermal dependencies of magnetic properties; in particular the giant magnetocrystalline anisotropy of PrRu2S2 with the calculated anisotropy field BA>400T, in-plain anisotropy of ErRu2Si2, the cause of difficulty in magnetic ordering of compounds TmRu2Si2 and YbRu2Si2 as well as effects and dependencies not foreseen before. In this paper we have put together the elementary calculated magnetic properties for the chosen compounds of RERu2Si2 in the paramagnetic region. All Calculations are on the basis of the calculating computer package BIREC 1.51.


Analytic reports are special textual documents containing condensed results from a data mining process. Embedded knowledge enables the interpretation of the reports by automated procedures, which opens the way to content-based retrieval. We elaborate the technique for statistical association rules as specific form of discovered knowledge, demonstrate its formal apparatus on examples from the medical domain, and outline the perspectives of sharing and reusing the content of analytic reports over the Semantic Web.


Relations in cattle and beef trade between Canada and the United States have been tense in the past few years, despite the fact that few barriers to trade remain and that the markets are well integrated. The antidumping and countervailing duty suits brought by a group of U.S. ranchers against imports of Canadian live cattle are likely to be unproductive in facilitating the resolution of remaining issues between the industries. The Canadian and U.S. cattle and beef industries have numerous cooperative interests that provide a basis for a binational commodity group. Alternative methods of resolving trade disputes merit investigation.


Electrothermally Tuned and Electrostatically Actuated MEMS Resonators: Dynamics and Applications The objective of this thesis is to present a theoretical and experimental investigation of the dynamics of micro and nano-electromechanical systems electrothermally tuned and electrostatically actuated, and explore their potential for practical applications. The first part of the dissertation presents the tuning of the frequency of clampedclamped micro and nano-resonators, straight and curved. These resonators are electrothermally or electrostatically tuned. The effect of geometric parameters on the frequency variation is investigated experimentally and theoretically using a reduced order model based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. High tunability is demonstrated for micro and nano beams, straight and initially curved. The second part discusses the dynamical behavior of a curved (arch) beam electrothermally tuned and electrostatically actuated. We show that the first resonance frequency increases up to twice its fundamental value and the third resonance frequency decreases until getting very close to the first resonance frequency triggering the veering phenomenon. We study experimentally and analytic ally, using the Galerkin procedure, the dynamic behavior of the arch beam. Next, upon changing the electrothermal voltage, the second symmetric natural frequency of the arch is adjusted to near twice, three times, and 5 four times the fundamental natural frequency. This gives rise to a potential two-to-one, three-to-one, and four-to-one autoparametric resonances between the two modes. These resonances are demonstrated experimentally and theoretically. The third part of the dissertation is concerned with the incorporation of the electrothermally tuned and electrostatically actuated microresonators into potential applications: filtering and sensing. First, we experimentally prove an exploitation of the nonlinear softening, hardening, and veering phenomena of an arch beam, to demonstrate a flat, wide, and tunable bandwidth and center frequency by controlling the electrothermal actuation voltage. Second, a pressure sensor based on the convective cooling of the air surrounding an electrothermally heated resonant bridge is demonstrated experimentally. The concept is demonstrated using both straight and arch microbeam resonators driven and sensed electrostatically. The change in the surrounding pressure is shown to be accurately tracked by monitoring the change in the resonance frequency of the structure.


This paper aims to describe and explain the processes behind the creation of a digital library composed of two Swiss newspapers, namely Gazette de Lausanne (1798-1998) and Journal de Geneve (1826-1998), covering an almost two-century period. We developed a general purpose application giving access to this cultural heritage asset; a large variety of users (e.g. historians, journalists, linguists and the general public) can search through the content of around 4 million articles via an innovative interface. Moreover, users are offered different strategies to navigate through the collection: lexical and temporal lookup, n-gram viewer and named entities.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental alteration of biological basis that started in childhood may persist during adolescence-youth and, despite what was believed until not many years ago, also in adulthood up to 50-60% of those affected, producing a significant clinical and psychosocial deterioration. In spite of being a syndrome easily identifiable by the triad: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that characterizes it, in clinical practice there are different circumstances that hinder and complicate its diagnosis and treatment. One of the most significant is the presence, both in childhood and adulthood, of other comorbid mental disorders. It is from adolescence-youth when together with ADHD we can detect the presence of personality, mood and anxiety disorders and especially the use of several substances. The evidences existing until now show how the comorbidity of ADHD and substance use disorder influence the evolutionary course of both, complicating the approach, the treatment and, therefore, aggravating the final prognosis. The difficulties in their approach and the scarcity of treatment options make us underline the importance of preventive treatment in the infantile stage, starting from psychoeducation programs focused on the vulnerability of these patients to substances and the consequences associated with consumption.


This thesis considers the archaeology of rural water management in the Maghreb in relation to modern colonialism. An attempt is made to recover the attitudes to people and landscape expressed in the archaeological literature, and to analyse them in a colonial/postcolonial context. The primary focus lies on works relating to early water management in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.The study consists of three sections. In the first of these (Chapters 1, 2, 3), colonial legacies in the archaeology of the rural Maghreb are considered, and the archaeological material related to rural water management is briefly summarised. Common issues of geography, history and archaeology with relevance to the study of ancient water management are addressed in Chapter 3. In the main section of the thesis (Chapters 4, 5, 6), a selection of archaeological works are examined with respect to the representation of Roman and indigenous people, and attitudes to landscape. In these three chapters I deal respectively with early colonial writings from the turn of the nineteenth century, post-Second World War writings from the late 1940s through the 1950s, and recent archaeological survey publications produced during the period of political independence in the Maghreb, from c.1960 to the present. In the concluding section (Chapter 7), my observations are brought together in an analysis of colonial mindsets manifested in the archaeological literature. These include studies of the production of knowledge, nationalism and colonial ideology, the use of stereotypes in representing the Other, and Western attitudes to landscape. Finally, the concept of creolisation is suggested as an alternative interpretive framework for rural water management in the Roman-period Maghreb.A shift of focus from Roman to native is observed in archaeological interpretations of Roman-period rural water management in North Africa, changing over time from the late nineteenth century to the present. It is concluded that there is a strong relationship between modern colonialism, including decolonisation, and the representation of ancient, Roman colonialism. Dualistic approaches to colonialism are a common feature of the literature, as is a similar attitude to man and nature.


Dolichopodidae (long-legged flies) is the world's fourth largest dipteran family, but a phylogeny based on a broad global taxon sample is still lacking. We present here a first molecular phylogenetic hypothesis for Dolichopodidae, based on 157 dolichopodid species in 68 genera and 15 subfamilies from the Old and New World, and seven empidoid species (Empididae, Hybotidae) as outgroups. Both relatively fast-evolving mitochondrial markers (COI, 12S, 16S) and a more conserved nuclear marker (18S) were used, the latter being widely employed to study the phylogeny at higher taxonomic levels. We present strong evidence for Microphorinae as sister group to Dolichopodidae sensu stricto, and for the monophyletic Parathalassiinae as part of Dolichopodidae sensu stricto. Monophyly of Achalcinae, Dolichopodinae, and Sciapodinae is supported and Stolidosomatinae are placed within Sympycninae. Diaphorinae, Medeterinae, Neurigoninae, Rhaphiinae, and Sympycninae are paraphyletic, and Hydrophorinae and Peloropeodinae polyphyletic. Our broad taxon sample allows us to gain new insights into the complex systematics of Dolichopodidae. Our results highlight several problems with the traditional classification, which have considerable consequences for the systematic status of some taxa. The poor resolution observed in deep divergences supports previous hypotheses suggesting a rapid early radiation of Dolichopodidae.


The existing studies based on 2-dimension cutting model are partial investigations on tool wear. In order to get close to the true cutting conditions, the Lagrangian thermo-viscoplastic cutting simulations were conducted and the tool wears were predicted under different cutting speeds using 3-dimension finite element models. The simulation results indicate that when the cutting speed increases the cutting forces will reduce accordingly while the wear depth will be deeper. As a result, different factors should be considered at the same time when the speed range is selected. This study has shown that the finite element method is a valuable approach to understand the tool wear mechanism in machining and the influences of different cutting speeds.


The transient heating of a polymer preform within a cylindrical furnace is the initial step in the manufacture of polymer optical fiber. A numerical model was used to simulate the radiative and convective heat transfer within the furnace enclosure during this initial heating. Results illustrate a strong dependence of the preform's heating rate on the radiative properties of the preform. Due to the prominence of radiative heat transfer at steady-state, the resulting axial temperature profile within the preform is strongly coupled to the corresponding axial temperature profile of the furnace wall. Numerical predictions were compared with experimental results for several preform surface emissivities, preform diameters, and thermal boundary conditions. The results compare well for preforms with well-characterized surface finishes (such as black paint and aluminum), with discrepancies between experimental and numerical results typically less than 1.3°C. Experiments indicate that the heating characteristics of poly(methyl methacrylate) preforms can be adequately simulated by assuming that the preform exhibits nearly blackbody behavior (ε = 0.96) when exposed to the low furnace temperatures (85°C) used in this study. Finally, the experiments revealed the tendency for unstable natural convection within tall furnace cavities, with experimental readings indicating oscillatory air temperatures as the system approached steady-state.


The binding pattern, electronic properties and work function of MoS2 nanostructures stacked on a graphene substrate have been studied through density functional theory calculations. Three MoS2 dimensionalities have been considered: edge-free monolayer, one-dimensional nanoribbon and zero-dimensional quantum dot (QD). Our results clearly reveal the importance of MoS2 edges in regulating the binding strength and interfacial electron coupling. Remarkably, the MoS2 monolayer stacking on graphene is through van der Waals (vdW) attraction with negligible electron coupling, thus the Dirac-cone electronic band dispersion of graphene is totally conserved. As for the MoS2 ribbon and QD, they can form stronger binding (beyond the vdW attraction) with graphene and are robust enough to attract graphene's electrons, resulting in the opening up of a bandgap in graphene. The excess electrons uniformly accumulate at the S-edges of MoS2 structures forming edge states, which are believed to be responsible for the enhanced catalytic activity observed in experiments. It is also found that the edge-free MoS2 stacking on graphene can lower the work function of the complex compared to the two counterparts. Our study highlights the importance of MoS2 dimensionalities in the heterostructure which is important to guide the design of nanostructures with fruitful electronic and chemical properties.


Prostatic adenocarcinoma (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed non-cutaneous malignancy and second leading cause of cancer death in men in the US. Although organ-confined disease is manageable, treatment options for disseminated PCa are limited. First-line therapy for metastatic PCa targets the androgen receptor (AR) via androgen deprivation therapy (ADT); however, tumors often recur, displaying reactivation of AR signaling despite continued therapeutic targeting. There is currently no durable treatment for this advanced disease stage, termed castrate-resistant PCa (CRPC). While most localized PCa express wild-type p53, recent high-profile, genome-wide studies identified increased TP53 gene mutation rates in advanced disease (specifically CRPC). Using these data, we noted that the patient-derived, CRPC-specific p53 mutations observed are relatively unique to prostate cancer. These mutations occur in "hotspot" clusters altered in other tumor types, but represent distinct amino acid changes seemingly unique to prostate cancer. While the underlying consequences of these CRPC-specific p53 mutations are unknown, it was hypothesized that their presence in the DNA-binding domain of p53 protein may represent "gain-of-function" (GOF) alterations that direct the transcription factor to alternative, pro-tumorigenic gene targets. Our preliminary findings strongly support this contention and reveal that these p53 mutations are major drivers of CRPC phenotypes. Specifically, our findings demonstrate that mutant p53: 1. Selectively alter p53 activity, based on analyses of PCa-relevant p53 target genes; 2. Compromise DNA damage response; 3. Alter AR signaling and response to AR-directed therapeutics; and 4. Promote transition to castration-resistance. These data are further supported by recent longitudinal studies of patient progression, wherein the R248Q mutation was found to be a key genetic alteration identifying lethal disease. While future investigation will be directed to better understand the specific contribution of individual DDR mutations, it is clear that deregulation of DNA damage repair and response pathways is likely to underlie increased genomic instability that is observed among advanced prostate cancers. Citation Format: Jeffry L. Dean, Jennifer K. Jones, Jonathan F. Goodwin, Karen E. Knudsen. Determining the impact of CRPC-specific p53 mutation on therapeutic response and prostate tumor progression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1217. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1217


An Internal Circulation Impinging Stream Biofilm Reactor (ICISBR) was developed and used for treatment synthetic organic wastewater with corncob as biofilm carriers. Effects of COD loading rates and aeration rates on COD removal and DO contents were investigated. COD removal efficiency increased together with effluent COD with increasing COD loading rates. As the aeration rate was increased, the DO content also increased together with COD removal efficiency up to an optimum aeration rate of 0.3m3h-1. Beyond this optimum aeration rate a significant decrease in DO content and COD removal efficiency were experienced. This study could provide theoretic basis for the ICISBR treating organic wastewater.


As P.L. 93-641, the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 makes clear, Health Systems Agencies (HSAs) were created to improve the costs, availability, accessibility, acceptability, quality, and continuity of the health system. To fulfill this mandate, agencies require clear definitions of these six characteristics and valid measures which can be applied to assess the performance of the existing health system and the impact of proposed modifications. The current state of the planning art does not provide for either of these requirements. This is due to the lack of consensus regarding the definitions of the characteristics and our limited understanding of the variety and validity of measures presently in use. Recognizing these problems, DHEW'S Bureau of Health Planning and Resources Development (BHPRD) initiated a project with The Orkand Corporation in June 1976, to accomplish the following objectives: (1) develop mutually exclusive definitions for the six characteristics; (2) identify and develop model operational measures for each of the characteristics; (3) produce guidelines for the application of these measures; and (4) design a methodology for HSAs to use in appraising the various interrelationships among characteristics. This paper is an introduction to the operational measures project. It describes the operational measures concept and the measures' intended uses. The monograph to be produced by the project is described. Finally, the project findings to date are summarized.


Mesoscopic circuit elements such as quantum dots and quantum point contacts (QPCs) offer a uniquely controllable platform for engineering complex quantum devices, whose tunability makes them ideal for generating and investigating interacting quantum systems. However, the conductance measurements commonly employed in mesoscopics experiments are poorly suited to discerning correlated phenomena from those of single-particle origin. Here, we introduce non-equilibrium thermopower measurements as a novel approach to probing the local density of states (LDOS), offering an energy-resolved readout of many-body effects. We combine differential thermopower measurements with non-equilibrium density functional theory (DFT) to both confirm the presence of a localized state at the saddle point of a QPC and reveal secondary states that emerge wherever the reservoir chemical potential intersects the gate-induced potential barrier. These experiments establish differential thermopower imaging as a robust and general approach to exploring quantum many-body effects in mesoscopic circuits.


Cauliflower heads, which were precooled using four different methods including vacuum, forced-air, and high and low flow hydro precooling, were stored under controlled atmosphere and room conditions. Controlled atmosphere conditions (CA) were as follows: 1°C temperature, 90 ± 5% relative humidity, and 0:21 [(%CD 2 :%D 2 ) – (0:21) control] atmosphere composition. Room conditions (RC) were: 22±1°C temperature and 55-60% humidity. Various quality parameters of the cauliflower heads were assessed during storage (days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35) under controlled atmosphere and room conditions (days 0, 5, and 10). During storage, weight loss, deterioration rate, overall sensory quality score, hardness, and colour (L, a, b, C and α) were evaluated. In the present study, the strength and quality parameters of cauliflower under CA and RC conditions were obtained. Vacuum precooling was found to be most suitable method before cauliflower was submitted to cold storage and sent to market. Furthermore, the storage of cauliflower without precooling resulted in a significant decrease in quality parameters.


Protease-activated receptors (PARs) are a novel family of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) whose activation requires the cleavage of the N-terminus by a serine protease. However, recent evidence reveals that alternative routes of activation also occur, that PARs signal via multiple pathways and that pathway activation is activator- dependent. Given our increased understanding of PAR function both under physiological and pathophysiological conditions, one aspect that has remained constant is the link between PAR2 and inflammation. PAR2 is expressed in immune cells of both the innate and adaptive immune system and has been shown to play a role in several peripheral inflammatory conditions. PAR2 is similarly expressed on astrocytes and microglia within the CNS and its activation is either protective or detrimental to CNS function depending on the conditions or disease state investigated. With a clear similarity between the function of PAR2 on both immune cells and CNS glial cells, here we have reviewed their roles in both these systems. We suggest that the recent development of novel PAR2 modulators, including those that show biased signalling, will further increase our understanding of PAR2 function and the development of potential therapeutics for CNS disorders in which inflammation is proposed to play a role.


This paper will discuss a human-system and application centered approach to the conduct of research on auditory alerting system design, from the perspective of 30 years of human factors research on design principles for aircraft cockpit auditory displays. Too often there is a gap between the results of carefully controlled research conducted in the laboratory and the specific questions raised by auditory display engineers as they design a new auditory alerting system for the cockpit. Absent studies that are representative of the cockpit environment, research findings are often extrapolated to a new design without an understanding by the design engineer of other factors that may influence human auditory perception, signal processing, and cognitive interpretation. Alternatively, again in the absence of research findings applicable to the cockpit environment, the design engineer may present some alternative auditory signal designs informally to one or two project pilots, obtain their preferences and suggestions, and design the system to satisfy this small, unrepresentative sample of the user population. Even some of the current standards for auditory display design contain guidance that does not adequately take the cockpit environment into consideration. Examples will be presented with lessons learned and with recommendations for methods of incorporating the rigor of laboratory experimental design into applied research conducted in the aircraft cockpit environment, simulated and real.


The precursor observations,such as electromagnetism,underground fluid,geodesy,etc.,for earthquake monitoring and prediction have been internationally implemented for decades.However,nowadays it is highly debatable whether the earthquake-related precursory anomalies can be observed or not,owing to the lack of both the reproducibility and similarity of these anomalies.The anomalies of direct current apparent resistivity(AR,for short;denoted asρs)recorded by station Chengdu before the MS8.0 Wenchuan quake on May 12,2008,and the MS7.0Lushan quake on Apr.20,2013 provide examples to address this issue.The reasons for this are as follows.First,this station is only 35 km from the epicenter in Wenchuan and 99 kmfrom that in Lushan.Second,both the two events happened along the NE-strike Longmen Shan fault zone west of the station.Third,the two focal mechanisms and depths are almost the same.Whether did the reproducibility and similarity of the AR anomalies appeared before the two great shocks?The primary curve of AR observation data and the annual-variation-free curve from which the annual variation of AR is eliminated by using the moving Fourier method(MFM,for short)are traditionally adopted to analyze the anomalies in China.As for the traditional approaches,it is reliable for identifying the relative AR change with the amplitude of no less than 1% because the measurement accuracy is much better than 0.3%in the observation of AR.But,it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the normal and anomalous changes using the traditional approaches,which will result in the uncertainty of anomalies.To solve this problem,the normalized variation rate method(NVRM)is put forward and its principle is briefly described as follows.The long-term decreasing or decreasing variation in the AR time series {ρs}(with the length N),if any,is eliminated by the linear regression and the annual variation in it is also removed by using the MFM.Theξcontinuous data in{ρs}are selected to form the ith time sub-series and the variation rate is calculated fromρ·′si= Ki ×Ri(where Kiis its slope coefficient and Riis linear correlation coefficient).Like this,the initial variation rate time series{ρ·′s}(i=ξ,ξ+1,…,N)is generated with the step lengthξfixed.Finally,the NVRM time series{ρ·s}(dimensionless)with its mean value m →0and RMSEσn-1 → 1is obtained from {ρ·′s}after the processing such as the normalization,centralization,and noise reduction.The index of anomalies is consistently defined as±2.4on {ρ·s}for each station or channel.In this paper the traditional approaches and the NVRM are applied to process the AR data observed by station Chengdu.At station Chengdu,two measurement channels are respectively in N58°E and N49°W orientations at the same location and each channel employs the fixed Schlumberger array.Before the MS8.0 Wenchuan and MS7.0 Lushan events,the two orthogonal channels recorded preseismic anomalies with the repeatability,similarity and difference.(1)The two anomalies recorded by each channel showed the repeatability and similarity.The AR anomalies of channel NE,with the relative amplitude of ~-7.0% on the daily mean curve,before the Wenchuan event persistently decreased for 19 months,and then started a recovery(increasing)change about3.5months before the shock.Another decrease anomaly,-5.9%,before the MS7.0Lushan event continued for 8months and started a recovery change immediately following the maximum drop. The earlier decreasing and then increasing changes had distinctly exhibited the reproducibility in their changing forms and processes,which tallied with the change process of the electrical resistivity within the focal area predicted by the dilatancy-diffusion model.Furthermore,they also exhibited the similarity in the large-amplitude decrease in the mediumterm before the two events.The two anomalies recorded by channel NW in the medium-term clearly showed their reproducibility of the two positive anomalies on the NVRM curves.Their change forms were identical,their starting times were nearly the same,and only the amplitude was larger before the near-distance and greater event in Wenchuan than that before the slightly farther and smaller shock in Lushan.(2)Before each quake the two anomalies recorded by the two channels showed differences in their change forms,amplitudes and starting times.The channel NE recorded the two prominent decreasing anomalies in the medium-term while channel NW recorded two NVRM positive anomalies that indicated the increasing changes of AR,which manifested as the anisotropic changes in the reverse directions.The two anomalies on themonthly and daily mean curves of channel NE were larger in amplitude while those of channel NW appeared only on the NVRM curves that indicated the small-amplitude changes of AR,which showed the apparent anisotropic changes in amplitude.The two medium-term anomalies of channel NE started earlier while those on channel NW started later.Furthermore,the channel NE is obviously superior to channel NW in the responsiveness to the two quakes.(3)The possible reasons for the anomalies of AR is theoretically explained based on the anisotropic medium as follows.During the later preparation of the two great earthquakes,there occurred such the processes as the nonlinear growth and development of the micro cracks within the medium below the station,with the micro-crack strikes in the dominant arrangement roughly along the NW—SE direction and the penetration of low-resistance water within the medium.As a result,the processes brought about the anisotropic changes in electrical resistivity within the medium,with the change in the direction being larger in amplitude than that perpendicular to direction.It resulted in the apparent anisotropic changes,with the AR change of channel NE being larger than that of channel NW.Furthermore,the anisotropic changes in the electrical resistivity were rather strong due to the near distance and large magnitude,so the reverse changes of AR appeared;and before the Wenchuan quake the underground medium below this station had undergone the process mostly characterized by the NW—SE direction compression since August 2006 at latest,and before the Lushan quake the compression had been formed since August 2012.The MS8.0 Wenchuan and MS7.0Lushan earthquakes all occurred on the Longmen Shan fault,very near to station Chengdu.Their focal characters and depths are almost the same,and the two measuring channels in the station record the AR anomalies with the following features:(1)Before the two events,the two anomalies recorded by each channel clearly exhibited the repeatability in the medium-term feature and changing form,and the similarity in the amplitude.Especially,the two anomalies recorded by channel NE show the repeatability in the "earlier decreasing and then recovery(increasing)change"process.(2)Before each quake,the two anomalies recorded by the two channels show the differences in the change form,amplitude and starting time.The repeatability and similarity prove the anomalies to be directly associated with the two great earthquakes,and the differences show that the anisotropic AR changes are directly related to the two source characters.


Abstract. The dependency of surface- and groundwater flows and aquifer hydraulic properties on deformation induced by changes in aquifer head is not accounted for in the standard version of MODFLOW. A new USGS integrated hydrologic model, MODFLOW-OWHM, incorporates this dependency by linking subsidence and mesh deformation with changes in aquifer transmissivity and storage coefficient, and with flows that also depend on aquifer characteristics and land-surface geometry. This new deformation-dependent approach is being used for the further development of the integrated Central Valley hydrologic model (CVHM) in California. Preliminary results from this application and from hypothetical test cases of similar systems show that changes in canal flows, stream seepage, and evapotranspiration from groundwater (ETgw) are sensitive to deformation. Deformation feedback has been shown to also have an indirect effect on conjunctive surface- and groundwater use components with increased stream seepage and streamflows influencing surface-water deliveries and return flows. In the Central Valley model, land subsidence may significantly degrade the ability of the major canals to deliver surface water from the Delta to the San Joaquin and Tulare basins. Subsidence can also affect irrigation demand and ETgw, which, along with altered surface-water supplies, causes a feedback response resulting in changed estimates of groundwater pumping for irrigation. This modeling feature also may improve the impact assessment of dewatering-induced land subsidence/uplift (following irrigation pumping or coal-seam gas extraction) on surface receptors, inter-basin transfers, and surface infrastructure integrity.


Purpose The use of sign-supported speech (SSS) in the education of deaf students has been recently discussed in relation to its usefulness with deaf children using cochlear implants. To clarify the benefits of SSS for comprehension, 2 eye-tracking experiments aimed to detect the extent to which signs are actively processed in this mode of communication. Method Participants were 36 deaf adolescents, including cochlear implant users and native deaf signers. Experiment 1 attempted to shift observers' foveal attention to the linguistic source in SSS from which most information is extracted, lip movements or signs, by magnifying the face area, thus modifying lip movements perceptual accessibility (magnified condition), and by constraining the visual field to either the face or the sign through a moving window paradigm (gaze contingent condition). Experiment 2 aimed to explore the reliance on signs in SSS by occasionally producing a mismatch between sign and speech. Participants were required to concentrate upon the orally transmitted message. Results In Experiment 1, analyses revealed a greater number of fixations toward the signs and a reduction in accuracy in the gaze contingent condition across all participants. Fixations toward signs were also increased in the magnified condition. In Experiment 2, results indicated less accuracy in the mismatching condition across all participants. Participants looked more at the sign when it was inconsistent with speech. Conclusions All participants, even those with residual hearing, rely on signs when attending SSS, either peripherally or through overt attention, depending on the perceptual conditions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8121191.


Abstract: In the present study the subacute effects of β‐N‐oxalylamino‐l‐alanine (BOAA) and β‐N‐methyIamino‐l‐alanine (BMAA) on CNS monoamine neurons in rats were investigated following intracisternal injections or local intracerebral administration into substantia nigra. In vitro effects of BOAA and BMAA on high‐affinity synaptosomal uptake of dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), and serotonin (5‐HT) were also examined. Intracisternal administration of BMAA decreased NA levels in hypothalamus, whereas no effects were seen on DA or 5‐HT levels. Following intranigral injections of BOAA, NA levels tended to decrease in several regions, whereas the DA levels and the levels of DA metabolites were unaffected in all regions analyzed. Loss of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity in the intranigral injection sites and the presence of TH‐immunoreactive pyknotic neurons near the borders of the injection sites were observed following both BOAA and BMAA treatments. Furthermore, substance P‐immunoreactive terminals in substantia nigra pars reticulata were also found to have disappeared within the lesioned area following either BOAA or BMAA injections. Incubations with both BOAA and BMAA (10‐‐5M) reduced high‐affinity [3H]NA uptake in cortical synaptosomes to 69% and 41% of controls, respectively, whereas the striatal high‐affinity [3H]DA uptake and the cortical high‐affinity [3H]5‐HT uptake were unaffected by BOAA or BMAA. The results demonstrate that both BOAA and BMAA can affect central monoamine neurons, although the potency and specificity of these substances on monoamine neurons when administered acutely into cerebral tissue or liquor cerebri seem to be low. However, the in vitro studies indicate selective effects of both compounds on NA neurons in synaptosomal preparations.


Africa boasts one-third of the world's mineral resources. Mineral development, if governed by appropriate legal frameworks, is key to facilitating development in Africa. With this realization, the African Union (AU) adopted the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) in 2009, which aims to prioritize African industrialization, safeguard the environment, build and utilize local labor force capacity, facilitate transparency, and improve revenue-sharing mechanisms in Africa. However, at the same time, the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) and complex levels of automation is making quick inroads into the mineral development sector. This article argues that, in response to the AMV, over half of Africa's governments enacted a new generation of laws that seek to maximize the retention of mining benefits within the country. Focusing on labor-related local content provisions of these laws as an example, it highlights the inclusion or enhancement of provisions on local content aimed at building and utilizing local labor force capacity to address employment challenges in these countries. It concludes that because these reforms do not envisage the dawn of advanced automation, the elements of the law that aim to address growing unemployment may already be ineffective on arrival. Local content provisions on labor speak to the need to hire locally with due attention to efficiency and economy. However, they are in tension with automation, which is also aimed at improving efficiency, economy, and safety, thus quashing the push for increases in local labor force numbers before it can materialize. Closer and specific engagement between industry and government, for example, through collaborative multi-stakeholder sectorplanning commissions, is necessary to plan for the impact of automation, and a reframing of local content may be necessary to ensure that the sector's legal framework is responsive to the realities of automation. Cite as: Nneoma Veronica Nwogu, Mining at the Crossroads of Law and Development: A Comparative Review of Labor-Related Local Content Provisions in Africa's Mining Laws Through the Prism of Automation, 28 WASH. INT'L L.J. 137 (2019).


BACKGROUND
A sizeable proportion of patients with primary stable microvascular angina (MVA; exercise-induced angina, positive exercise stress test [EST], normal coronary arteries) have recurrent symptoms during follow-up. There have been no previous studies, however, on the long-term results of EST and their correlation with symptom outcome.Methods and Results:Follow-up EST was performed in 71 MVA patients at an average of 16.2 years (range, 5-25 years) from the first EST. Angina status was assessed on weekly frequency of angina episodes and nitroglycerin consumption and by whether symptoms had worsened, improved, or remained unchanged over time. At follow-up EST, 41 patients (group 1) had exercise-induced ischemia, whereas 30 patients (group 2) had negative EST. Compared to group 2, group 1 patients more frequently had exercise-induced dyspnea, and had a greater maximum ST-segment depression and a lower coronary blood flow response to adenosine and cold pressor test, but group 2 patients had a more frequent history of rest angina. No differences between the 2 groups were found at follow-up in angina status or change in symptom status during follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
Electrocardiogram results improve significantly in a sizeable proportion of patients with MVA. Changes in EST results, however, were not associated with clinical outcome.


Peripheral neuropathy is a rare, yet treatable manifestation of sarcoidosis, a multisystem disorder characterized by the presence of non-caseating granulomas that are seldom found in nerve biopsy specimens. In order to learn more about the subject, we reviewed our clinical and pathological findings in a series of 11 patients (six men and five women aged 26-83 years) with symptomatic neuropathy associated with characteristic granulomas in nerve biopsy specimens. Only two patients were known to have sarcoidosis before the occurrence of the neuropathy. The neuropathy was focal or multifocal in six patients, including one with a multifocal neuropathy associated with conduction blocks, and one with a multifocal axonal motor deficit. Four patients had a distal symmetrical deficit and one patient had a Guillain-Barré-like syndrome with facial diplegia and respiratory failure. Serum angiotensin-converting enzyme concentration was elevated in only two patients. Epineurial granulomas and perineuritis were present in all nerve specimens. The inflammatory infiltrates invaded the endoneurium, following connective tissue septae and blood vessels, in five patients. Multinucleated giant cells were found in eight patients and necrotizing vasculitis in seven. Inflammatory lesions were associated with variable, asymmetrical involvement of nerve fascicles and axon loss. A muscle specimen was sampled during the same procedure in 10 patients. It showed inflammatory infiltrates and granulomas in nine patients and necrotizing vasculitis in two. Immunolabelling showed a mixed inflammatory infiltrate of T cells (predominantly CD4+ cells) and macrophages, in keeping with a delayed hypersensitivity reaction. In addition to nerve involvement, all patients had at least one other tissue or organ affected, including muscle in nine patients, lungs and/or intrathoracic lymph nodes in eight, skin in three, arthritis in two, and peripheral lymph nodes, stomach and eye in one patient each. Most patients improved on corticosteroids. Two patients remain free of symptoms after 7 years. Severe side-effects of long-term treatment with corticosteroids occurred in two patients, leading to death in one. This study illustrates the wide range of clinical manifestations of sarcoid neuropathy and the frequent association of granulomatous inflammatory infiltrates with necrotizing vasculitis and with silent or symptomatic involvement of other organs.


Background Cancer patients are usually polymedicated, therefore one of the objectives of pharmaceutical care in cancer patients is to identify drug interactions. Purpose To identify potential drug interactions with oral antineoplastic agents and risk factors in order to design a medicines reconciliation programme in an oncology outpatient clinic. Material and methods The study was undertaken at an oncology outpatient clinic during July 2014 in patients taking oral antineoplastic agents. The information regarding patient demographics and drug treatments was collected retrospectively from Hospital and Outpatients records. Potential drug interactions were identified selecting clinically relevant interactions. Drug interactions were assessed by using Micromedex, the summaries of product characteristics of the oral antineoplastic agents and a published interactions guide. 1 Results 174 patients were included: median 65 years old (range: 27–84), 52% female. 41 patients (23.6%) showed 50 potential drug interactions, averaging 1.2 interactions per patient. Of this group of patients, 22 (53.6%) were male. Their age range was 34–83 years (median 64) and they received 1 to 24 concomitant drugs (median 9). 20 oral antineoplastic agents were identified in the patient records, of which 14 had potential interactions, most commonly seen in erlotinib 14 (28%), dabrafenib 6 (12%) and gefitinib 5 (10%). According to the severity the interactions found were: contraindicated 1 (2%); severe 29 (58%). Recommendations in the literature were: avoid the drug combination, 3; adjust posology/administration, 25 and monitor, 22. Conclusion A large number of patients treated with oral antineoplastic agents had potential drug interactions, especially with the new drugs. However, many of those interactions are predictable and therefore preventable. It would be helpful to implement a medicines reconciliation programme in polymedicated oncology outpatients. Reference Gonzalez-Carrascosa T, Sierra Sanchez JF, Martinez Bautista MJ, et al . Conciliacion en el Paciente Oncologico. Guia de Interacciones, 1st ed. 2013 No conflict of interest.


The work herein investigates exciting new prospects for practical chromatographic systems which may be achieved using the rapidly evolving technology; three-dimensional printing. Previous studies in the literature have suggested that ordered chromatographic media can provide advantages over the traditional randomly packed column, an idea which is elaborated upon in this work. Numerical modelling coupled with high performance computing was used to investigate flow in ordered porous media via the Lattice Boltzmann method, to simulate the propagation and dispersion of solute species within these systems. Practical chromatographic metrics were derived from this model and used to contrast various media and analyse practical chromatographic phenomena. There are four distinct bodies of work presented in this thesis. The first illustrates the chromatographic performance of ordered packed beds when using several different particle shapes, in various structural configurations. This chapter also highlights the influence of flow tortuosity in ordered packings and how this variable can be used to estimate system performance. The second focus is "wall effects" in confined ordered packing and how this detrimental phenomenon can be mitigated using "embedded" column walls, a prospect made possible via three-dimensional printing. The penultimate chapter considers ordered monolithic structures, more specifically, triply periodic minimal surfaces (TMPS) and a range of manipulations which can be used to optimise chromatographic performance of these structures. The fourth chapter further develops the model to observe full chromatographic separations by defining a permeable stationary phase and including adsorption and desorption behaviour of the solute species in the presence of an eluent. This facilitated systematic studies of practical chromatographic variables and laid the foundations for future work, using this model. Deputy Vice-Chancellor's Office Postgraduate Office


Resistance spot welding is used extensively to fasten sheet for automotive applications. In many components, these welds should maintain their integrity under severe loading conditions. However fatigue strength of the spot welded joint is considerably lower than base metal due to stress concentration at the nugget edge, and is influenced by its geometrical and mechanical factors such as welding condition and etc. In this paper, it is estimated that effect of strain rate variation on fatigue life of spot welded joint. The analytical method proposed to overcome above difficult using lethargy coefficient concept for evaluating the fatigue life cycle of spot welded joint. The reliability of the life cycle is completed by comparing with the life cycle obtained by fatigue test for the specimen with the welding current. And the above procedure is numerically extended to get the life of dynamic strain rate region.


The differential evolution strategy with individuals in groups (GDES) is proposed to solve the electromagnetic inverse scattering of multiple perfectly conducting cylinders with transverse magnetic wave incidence. The inverse problem is to locate the cylinders and reconstruct their contours, besides the determination on the number of cylinders. The governing electric field integral equations for the scattering problem are expressed as surface integrals over the cylinder contours. The scattering problem is solved using point-matching method with pulse basis and Dirac test functions. The inverse problem is cast into an optimization problem and solved using the GDES. Numerical reconstruction results show that both the quality of the reconstructed profile and the convergence performance are significantly improved, as compared to the original DES.


Social judgment data was analyzed using fuzzy least squares regression analysis based on the extension principle. The proposed analysis is new fuzzy least squares regression analysis in which input data, output data, and coefficients are represented by L-R fuzzy numbers. To evaluate data fitness, we propose a fuzzy version of a squared multiple correlation (R) and conducted an experiment to determine the effect of partial attribute information on the overall evaluation of desirability for a marital partner and personality of a person using fuzzy rating to measure vagueness in social judgment. Participants in the experiment were 90 university students. The result of marital partner judgment indicated that the fuzzy weight of consideration was higher than physical attraction on overall desirability evaluation for a marriage partner. The result of personality judgment indicated that the fuzzy weight of kindness was slightly higher than responsibility in overall desirability for a marriage candidate.


Tetracaine and pramocaine were used as the lead compounds to design benzoate compounds. The combination principle was used to design the target molecule, and the target molecule was modified by bioisostere formation and modification with alkyl groups. In this research, a total of 16 compounds were designed and synthesized. In the process of synthesis, we selected a route with high total yields, mild conditions and simple operation. Three steps were used in the synthesis of the new target compounds, namely, alkylation, esterification and alkylation. The newly designed target compounds were evaluated via surface anesthesia, infiltration anesthesia, block anesthesia and acute toxicity tests. The results of biological activity experiments showed that compounds 4d, 4g, 4j, 4k, 4n, and 4o had a good local anesthetic effect, and the results of acute toxicity tests showed that the target compounds had low toxicity.


In this paper we investigate the propagation of long-term climate variabilities and climate changes through a catchment system to the flood frequency curve, through the use of a rainfall-runoff model that captures rainfall and water balance variability at a multiplicity of time scales, ranging from event to seasonal, inter-annual and inter-decadal time scales. This modelling investigation is carried out in the Susannah Brook catchment, Western Australia. Analysis of the results shows that, for example, a 10-year flood may change over to a 15-year flood over the next 50 years, due to a possible declining rainfall trend. Similarly, the 25-year flood may become a 40-year flood over the same period. These results suggest that engineers will need to come up with creative changes to traditional flood frequency estimation procedures to deal with long-term climate variability and changes.


siderable effect of advanced imaging technologies, are reflected in this revised edition of a classic textbook. This third edition adds more than 100 new figures, tables, helpful management algorithms, and illustrations that are based on the understanding of pathophysiology and neurologic presentation of critical illness in the ICU. In the first of four parts, the author describes in detail general clinical neurologic problems in the ICU. Delirium and coma are common clinical states that confront intensive care physicians. With appropriate diagnosis and treatment, coma can often be treated successfully. Any delay in diagnosis and treatment can be detrimental. The author emphasizes that the clinician must determine whether the cause of impairment is structural or metabolic because diagnostic testing and treatment methods will differ accordingly. Recent technologic improvements in computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography have facilitated earlier intervention. The detailed description of neurologic examination of patients in coma is outstanding. The author then describes the effect of commonly used medications in clinical practice and their neurologic manifestations, with emphasis on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of commonly used sedatives and narcotics in critical illness. The addition of ketamine and butyrophenones to this review would have made the chapter more comprehensive, however. Furthermore, the author describes in detail the differential diagnosis and management of seizure disorders in the ICU, with emphasis on early detection of structural lesions. For practicing intensivists, the reviews of drug-associated seizures as well as seizures associated with drug withdrawal and metabolic abnormalities provide an important resource in patient management. The author also evaluates the current knowledge of neuromuscular problems in the critically ill, peripheral neuropathy, critical illness polyneuropathy, acute motor neuropathy, neuromuscular junction dysfunction, and myopathy. In part two, the author reviews neurologic complications of commonly performed invasive procedures in the ICU. Then he provides a detailed review of the neurologic manifestations of acute bacterial and viral infections. In addition, the author offers practical advice on how to manage various forms of encephalopathy resulting, in the medical and surgical ICUs, from toxicity of endogenous products secondary to organ failure, with detailed reviews of liver and renal failure, endocrine dysfunction, and toxicity secondary to exogenous poisons (e.g., sedative drugs, psychotropic drugs). He also addresses abnormalities secondary to electrolyte and acid-base disturbances. The author also provides a review of neurologic complications of hematologic disorders. The author's discussion of neurologic complications of cardiac arrest, resuscitation, and the use of therapeutic hypothermia is especially helpful. In part three, the book describes outcomes after various neurologic complications. The review of the outcomes of medical pathology was outstanding. It is extremely important that surgical pathology and stroke be well defined for timely consultation and intervention by neurosurgical and neurology services. However, I believe this section needs more detailed criteria for critical care physicians to obtain proper imaging for thorough and timely consultation. The end of the book details the challenges of consultation in the ICU, especially end-of-life decisions, brain death, and organ donation. In general, Neurologic Complications of Critical Illness provides very comprehensive coverage of neurologic diseases, including reviews on virtually all critical illness with serious neurologic complication. Certain chapters of this book are written for neurologists, however, and not for medical intensive care specialists, especially the chapter on consultations in the ICU. I believe defining the indications for neurologic service consultations should provide guidelines for the timely intervention of the neurologists in the management of critically ill patients.


A popular hypothesis of in situ transformation of amphibolite facies gneisses to patchy charnockites by CO2 influx from mantle was proposed primarily from the Kabbaldurga quarries in South Karnataka and subsequently reported from several south Indian localities. However, presence of abundant mafic granulite enclaves in Kabbaldurga and its neighborhood and its implications in relation to patchy charnockite genesis were not discussed. In these quarries patchy charnockites occur in various modes and associations. Some of these patches do occupy structural weak zones, such as shear bands and fold noses in the migmatitic gneisses, but many of the patchy charnockite bodies occur as branching veins transecting the gneissic foliation and hence do not account for fluid pathways. Most importantly, charnockitic leucosomes at margins of mafic granulite enclaves and charnockitic veins within some mafic granulite enclaves indicate a close genetic link between them via dehydration partial melting. This is further corroborated by trace element distribution between them. Dehydration partial melting in mafic rocks in a migmatite terrain such as Kabbaldurga, can explain all the different modes of the patchy charnockites as various stages of segregation and mobility relative to deformation. Abundant mafic granulite enclaves and field features suggesting a relatively late origin of the patchy charnockites, are compelling evidence against the notion of a transition zone. Mantle derivation age of the mafic source rocks (protoliths of mafic granulites) at Kabbaldurga at 3.08 ± 0.08 Ga with small positive ? values is virtually identical to the source of the massive charnockite of Karnataka craton at 3.08 Ga. This could imply a widespread mafic magmatism in South India around 3.0 Ga.


The emergence of new transnational actors on the international scene has considerably transformed the global political landscape. The increasing number of multinational corporations, transnational criminal and terrorist groups, and humanitarian and charitable organizations whose activities cross borders means that states, acting alone, are much less capable of governing global affairs. According to many observers, this trend means that states have lost their monopoly in global diplomacy, becoming just one actor among many on the world stage. Particularly for a country like France, whose identity has long been structured around the primacy of the state, such a vast decline of state capacity is sometimes lamented as the "end of France."


Climate influences a population through a variety of processes, including reproduction, growth, migration patterns and phenology. Climate may operate either directly through metabolic and reproductive processes or indirectly through prey, predators, and competitors. One mechanism that may be particularly important, and which is the focus of this review, is the role of climate in affecting the reproductive success of a predator through its effect on the relative timing of food requirement and food availability during early life stages. This principle — the match or mismatch of predators' requirement with resource availability — originated in the marine literature, where it ini- tially referred to how growth and survival of fish larvae (predator) depends on this production being synchronous with that of their main food items, i.e. early stage zooplankton (prey). Here we review how the match/mismatch hypothesis (MMH) is used to describe climate effects on ecological patterns and processes in both marine and terrestrial systems. In addition to studying match/mismatch sensu stricto, we expand on it to include effects of overall production level and the spatial aspect. Possible impacts of climate change on match/mismatch are examined in the context of one of the most appar- ent effects of global warming: an advancement of spring phenology. As a consequence of different species reacting dissimilarly, even minor changes in climate may invoke non-linear responses unbal- ancing established patterns of synchrony. All components of a food chain cannot be expected to shift their phenology at the same rate, and thus are unlikely to remain synchronous.


ABSTRACT In Australia, boarding schools and residential facilities for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) students have long been part of the educational landscape. Policy settings are paying considerable attention to boarding schools and residential colleges as secondary schooling options for First Nations students, particularly for those from remote areas. Further, First Nations education is seeing increased investment in scholarship programmes, transition support services and establishment of national boarding standards. There is an emerging body of qualitative evidence about the experiences and outcomes of boarding for remote First Nations students. However, in Australia there are no publicly available evaluations showing quantitative impacts of boarding. In this paper, the authors critically examine boarding using three capital theory lenses: social/cultural capital (based on Bourdieu), human capital (based on Becker), and identity capital (based on Erikson). Using these lenses we intend to go beyond an understanding of impact on individuals towards a more nuanced consideration of the social, cultural, health and well-being consequences of pursuing boarding as strategic policy for First Nations students in Australia.


Customer dropout represents a critical challenge to online vendors and has significantly hindered the proliferation of B-to-C e-commerce. In this study, we investigate the relationship between customers' trust in an online vendor and their decisions to exit of the vendor's website along the general consumer decision process. We analyze important salient trust antecedents for each stage of the decision process and empirically test them and their correlation with the dropout decision by conducting an online study that involves undergraduate business students from two major universities in the U.S. and Hong Kong, respectively. Our comparative analysis results are fairly consistent and suggest that customers' trust in an online vendor has significant effects on their decisions to exit of the vendor's website, and that important salient trust antecedents appear to vary in different stages of the consumer decision process. Interestingly, our findings show that customers tend to rely on general, subjective antecedents that pertain to personal traits or perceptions about the website's ease of use for assessing the trustworthiness of an online vendor in the early stages but focus on specific, objective, transaction-oriented antecedents specific to their purchase decision making in the later stages. Our results show little differences between the investigated countries and have important implications for e-commerce research and practice, which are discussed in the paper.


With the growing economic development experienced in China, there is an urge for more and better public infrastructure. Public-private partnership (PPP) is an innovative method for delivering these facilities and services. However, along with this method there are certain risk factors that exist or are more severe when compared to the traditional delivery method. This paper considers three types of common public projects in China that are often delivered by the PPP method, including water and wastewater, power and energy, and transportation. For each type of project, experienced practitioners in China were asked to rank the severity of 20 risk factors sought from a comprehensive literature review. The top five most severe risk factors for each type of project were considered. Government intervention and public credit were ranked severe for all three types of projects. The findings indicate that the most severe risks are government-related. It appears that the stakeholders have low confidence in the government. These findings have highlighted the severity of risk factors for common types of PPP projects in China. With this information, both public and private parties can be more aware of which risk factors would be the most severe for certain projects. As a result, appropriate precautions can be made to avoid or minimize the likelihood and consequences of these risks. By doing so, PPP projects can be carried out more successfully, and their further use can be encouraged in China. PPP stakeholders from other countries can also use the findings presented in this paper to prevent the occurrence of potential risks. Furthermore, the methodology adopted in this paper can easily be adopted for other countries.


Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) and multidrug resistance protein 4 (MRP4) are involved in uric acid excretion in humans and mice. Despite evidence suggesting that chicken renal proximal tubular epithelial cells participate in uric acid secretion, the roles of BCRP and MRP4 in chickens remain unclear. This study evaluated the relationship between chicken BCRP and MRP4 expression and renal function in the liver, kidneys, and intestines. Sixty 20-day-old Isa brown laying hens were randomly divided into four groups: a control group (NC) and groups provided with sulfonamide-treated drinking water (SD), a diet supplemented with fishmeal (FM), and an intraperitoneal injection of uric acid (IU). Serum uric acid, creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels were significantly higher in the SD and IU groups than in the NC group. BCRP and MRP4 levels in the SD and IU groups were significantly increased in the kidneys and ileum and decreased in the liver. In the FM group, BCRP and MRP4 were significantly increased in the kidneys and slightly increased in the ileum. These results demonstrate that chicken BCRP and MRP4 are involved in renal and intestinal uric acid excretion. When renal function is impaired, serum uric acid increased and BCRP and MRP4 in the liver, kidneys, and ileum exhibit compensatory increases; when renal function is normal, serum uric acid changes have no effect on ileum BCRP and MRP4 expression. Therefore, this study may provide the references to the uric acid regulation in human.


optimising management system. Material and methods Dispensing data for the first 6 months of 2019 from the haematology, oncology and chemotherapy departments were collected. ABC analysis was performed: class A accounted for 72% of total expenditure, class B for 23% and class C for 5%. The VEN tool was further extended to a score index (summarising the characteristics of the health impact of the medicines) grouped into three classes: class V for vital, class E for essential and class N for non-essential medicines. Crosstab ABC-VEN analysis resulted in three major categories: I (AV, BV, CV, AE), II (BE, CE) and III (AN, BN, CN). Result Fifty-seven CA-MtADR were analysed. Expenditure for CA-MtADR was 40% of the total expenditure for medicines in the hospital. According to the ABC analysis, 7 medicines (12%) were class A, 12 medicines (21%) class B, and 38 (67%) class C. According to the VEN analysis, 9 medicines (16%) were characterised as V, 43 (75%) as E and 5 (9%) as N. According to the ABC-VEN crosstab analysis, category I (eg, daratumumab (ATC L01XC24)) included 16 medicines (28%), category II (eg, trastuzumab emtansine (ATC L01XC14)) 36 medicines (63%) and category III (eg, pantoprazole (ATC A02BC02)) 5 medicines (9%). Conclusion and relevance ABC-VEN crosstab analysis revealed three categories of corresponding priority: CA-MtADR category I, including expensive and/or vital medicines which need patient oriented personalised stock management; CA-MtADR category II, medicines which should be monitored with special consideration to ensure availability (because they are essential); and CA-MtADR category III, medicines where stock is according to demand (due to low price). ABC, VEN and ABC-VEN analysis can assist in developing a robust approach to improve budgetary planning in hospitals.


STUDY DESIGN
Non-randomised longitudinal observational study.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the association between baseline pain duration and medium-to-long term clinical outcomes, in low back pain (LBP) patients enrolled on the North East of England Regional Back Pain and Radicular Pain Pathway (NERBPP).

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
The NERBPP is based upon National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. These guidelines no longer differentiate management of LBP patients based on pain duration. Medium-to-long term data from the NERBPP is lacking.

METHODS
Between May 2015 and December 2019, 786 and 552 LBP patients from the NERBPP returned 6-month and 12-month follow-up outcome measures, respectively. Outcomes included pain (Numerical rating scale), function (Oswestry Disability Index) and quality-of-life (EuroQol five-dimension, five-level questionnaire), analysed using a series of covariate-adjusted models. Patients were categorized into four groups based upon baseline pain duration: <3 months, ≥3 to <6 months, ≥6 months to <12 months, ≥12 months.

RESULTS
Patients with <3 months duration demonstrated clinically important improvements on all outcomes, at both follow-ups. The improvements in outcomes from this group were larger than those in the ≥12 month's duration group (p < 0.05), these group differences in change, in some cases surpassed our threshold for clinical relevance. Functional improvements in those with ≥12 month's duration were not clinically relevant at either follow-up. All patients, regardless of baseline pain duration, reported similar levels of readiness to self-manage at the 12-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
Baseline pain duration would appear to be of clinical importance. Patients with shorter baseline pain duration demonstrated better outcomes. Those with ≥12 month's duration of pain may need additional support during their management to achieve clinically relevant functional improvements in the medium-to-long term. These findings raise questions about the decision by NICE to move away from duration of pain to differentiate management of LBP patients.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
3.


The aim of this paper is to give an overview on partial discharges at dc voltage. A model is presented which describes the stochastic discharge process. The model is experimentally verified for internal discharges and for corona in air. In addition, the classification of discharge patterns is discussed. The 3-dimensional histogram describing the number of discharges depending on the discharge magnitude and on the time to the successive discharge is suggested to be used as a base for discharge recognition at dc voltage. Experimental proof is presented to show the strength of this approach. >


Abstract In order to create public value and meet the demands of the modern information society, governments and public administrations strongly rely on information technology and e-government, but its acceptance is significantly influenced by the level of citizens' trust in government. This study explores the issue of citizens' trust in government in relation to i-voting in Slovenia, a country with existing interest in i-voting but a low level of trust in government, especially among the young population. The authors analyze how such distrust impacts behavior intention towards i-voting, decomposing trust into a political component and an administrative component, and into local and state levels. Based on a modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the results of 194 respondents show that young student voters' trust in politicians and electoral committees does not affect their intention to use i-voting. However, they trust the local level of government more than the state level, and electoral committees more than politicians.


This paper examines the factors that led to the recent price hikes in food commodities and the implications to food security in Malaysia. Unlike the previous price crises, the price upsurge in 2008 resulted from the convergence of fundamental and technical factors and the increase of energy prices. The high price of crude oil has increased the demand for biofuel such as biodiesel, which utilises palm oil as the main feedstock. If this development continues, it may affect Malaysia's capacity to produce more food as arable land will be dedicated to oil palm plantations. Hence, the landscape for food security concern has changed as energy and food demand are competing for the same pool of resources, in particular land and water. Further, low investments in agriculture and heavy emphasis on export crops have left the food sector unattended. Rice, which is the country's "security crop", failed to progress despite heavy subsidies and incentives provided by the government. This paper highlights the major issues faced by Malaysia in its bid to achieve "food security" as well as identify future challenges and policy options.