This paper examines the mediation role of government staff interpreters in China. Based on data collected from six political meetings involving senior officials of Guangdong Province, with interpreting performed by staff interpreters in the Protocol Department of the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong, the paper analyzes cases of personal pronoun shifts in the rendition of the interpreters. Results show that personal pronoun shifts occur in all of the interpreted dialogues, and can be divided into: (1) personal pronoun shifts with the same footing, including shifts between first person and third person pronouns and shifts between second person and third person pronouns, (2) personal pronoun shifts with a different footing, for purposes of avoiding misunderstanding or impoliteness, coping with frequent changes of speaking subjects, and correcting an error in the rendition. The paper argues that government staff interpreters of dialogues, with all the constraints posed by the political settings, do not always conform with the norms and rules, but perform a mediation role in communication.


We study the properties of a test of that determines whether two time series co-move. The test computes a simple non-parametric statistic for `concordance,' which describes the proportion of time that the cycles of two series spend in the same phase. We establish the size and power properties of this test. As an illustration, the procedures are applied to output series from selected major industrial countries. We find limited evidence of widespread concordance for these countries.


Provider and patient enthusiasm for frequent home nocturnal hemodialysis (FHNHD) has been renewed; however, the cost-effectiveness of this technique is unknown. We performed a cost-utility analysis of FHNHD compared with conventional hemodialysis (CvHD; 4 hours three times per week) from a health payer perspective over a lifetime horizon using patient information from the Alberta NHD randomized controlled trial. Costs, including training costs, were obtained using microcosting and administrative data (CAN$2012). We determined the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Robustness was assessed using scenario, sensitivity, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Compared with CvHD (61% in-center, 14% satellite, and 25% home dialysis), FHNHD led to incremental cost savings (-$6700) and an additional 0.38 QALYs. In sensitivity analyses, when the annual probability of technique failure with FHNHD increased from 7.6% (reference case) to ≥19%, FHNHD became unattractive (>$75,000/QALY). The cost/QALY gained became $13,000 if average training time for FHNHD increased from 3.7 to 6 weeks. In scenarios with alternate comparator modalities, FHNHD remained dominant compared with in-center CvHD; cost/QALYs gained were $18,500, $198,000, and $423,000 compared with satellite CvHD, home CvHD, and peritoneal dialysis, respectively. In summary, FHNHD is attractive compared with in-center CvHD in this cohort. However, the attractiveness of FHNHD varies by technique failure rate, training time, and dialysis modalities from which patients are drawn, and these variables should be considered when establishing FHNHD programs.


BACKGROUND:Urinary tract infections are the most frequent nosocomial and community-acquired infections. Cephalosporins have a role in treating urinary tract infections, but are not recommended for empiric therapy because of the relatively high rates of resistance and low efficacy. Effective management of urinary tract infections has been hampered by the fact that many strains have developed resistance to several antimicrobial agents.OBJECTIVE:A. To demonstrate the common local bacterial pathogens and, B. To test the in-vitro the susceptibility to cephalosporinsin women with urinary tract infections.PATIENTS AND METHODS:One hundred and twenty women from the outpatient department ofAlbatoolMaternity Teaching Hospital from the coauthor's private clinic with signs and symptoms of uncomplicated acute urinary tract infections with no previous history of antibiotic intake were included in the study. Culture and sensitivity tests to cephalosporins and other antibiotics were done to all of them.RESULTS:Six types of bacterial species were isolated from the urine samples. E. coli was isolated from 49 cases (40.83%), Klebsiella was found to be the second most common bacteria isolated in 31cases (25.83%).About one third of E. coli, Klebsiella, Proteus and Citrobacterwere resistant to cephalosporins.E. coli and Klebsiella resist most cephalosporins.CONCLUSION:Many types of bacteria cause urinary tract infection, most of these bacteria resist cephalosporins. Cephalosporins should not be used as first line therapy and when used have to be preceded by culture and sensitivity testing.


Introduction. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a serious pandemic that caused viral respiratory illness. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge about COVID-19 pandemic in patients having attended dental dinics in Birjand. Materials and methods. This study was conducted as a cross-sectional survey among 270 patients attending to dental dinics. They were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire. The sampling method was counting of all participants. The questionnaire included demographic information and covid-19 knowledge. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistical methods and chi-square test using SPSS software. Results and discussion. The study, performed in February, showed that 19.5%, 30.6% and 49.9% of the respondents had poor, fair and satisfactory level about Covid-19, respectively. Above 65% of them answered correctly to all questions. Men had poorer information (P = 0.014), the statistical tests released showing that knowledge had a significant association with educational level, age and monthly income among respondents (P <0.05). Conclusions. Patients knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 is generally good. Further steps need to be taken to educate the patient about its transmission in a dental clinic. Also, training programs about mechanism of potential spread of COVID are suggested for improving the existing knowledge.


This paper is the outcome of a related broader project, exploring the explanatory power of the Legal Theory of Finance, which proposes a new institution-based analytical framework for the analysis of phenomena of financial markets. One of its most important theoretical assumptions, the legal construction of financial markets, is highlighted by the example of the private creation of money by structured finance products in this paper. Further implications can then be shown referring to pari passu clauses and collective action clauses, which are both exhibit a differential application of these legal rules according to the hierarchical status of the respective market participant, and can therefore endanger sovereign debt restructurings. Legal instruments to avoid this are briefly explored. An example of another key role of the law in crisis that is the task to resolve the tension between market discipline and financial stability is exemplified by the regulation of the OTC derivatives market and proposals of effective loss-sharing among CCPs. Related questions about the significance of legal rules to ensure financial stability are raised in the analysis of minimum capital requirements under Basel III.


This study aims to develop a measureable tool to identify the feature of Taiwan cultural landscape. In-depth interviews from ten scholars were first conducted to design a questionnaire which contained a seven-dimension measurement model of identifying cultural landscape, and then 808 local participants were asked to response this questionnaire for gathering the quantitative data in four cultural significant sites. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to confirm the structure of the supposed measurement model from the questionnaire data. The result of factor analysis showed that the confirmed measurement model was less complicated than the supposed measurement model. The cultural feature dimension of cultural landscape was composed of three factors which are environment element, human evidence and traditional custom. And the place meaning dimension of cultural landscape contained cultural atmosphere, life dependence and affective identity. This finding revealed the evidence that local participants' perception to the feature of cultural landscape was very different from experts' understanding of the composition of cultural landscape in Taiwan. It also hints the difficulty of conservation for cultural landscape was local people's disregards to their cultural landscape since these features didn't have any physical connection with local people's daily life. This study build a 16-item scale measuring cultural landscape from the perspective of local people in Taiwan, which provide practitioners a reliable and valid analytical tool to assess cultural landscape. And it also offered government agencies a useful foundation to make conservation strategies with local people for cultural landscape.


A random sample of 1,261 non-institutionalised persons aged 70-95 years in four Danish communes replied to questionnaires on health, functional ability, drug use, and living situation in October-November, 1986. Twenty-four % assess their health as excellent, 27%, 39% and 10% good, fair, or poor. Younger persons report better self-assessed health than older, males better than females irrespective of age. Chronic ailments are reported by 51%, most frequent hypertension (24%), heart disease (17%), and chronic bronchitis/asthma (12%). More females than males and more old than young report chronic ailments. Seventy-six % have experienced one or more physical symptoms during the past month, most frequently aching in back and hips (39%) aching in knee and feet (36%), vertigo (27%), swollen legs (25%), and headaches (19%). Fourty-six % report one or more mental symptoms during the past month, most frequently difficulties falling asleep (30%), fatigue without specific reason (21%), and depression (18%). Females report more symptoms than men, older persons report more symptoms than younger. Fourty-nine % report difficulties in hearing during conversations among several persons, 24% in conversations with one other person. Twenty-three % have difficulties reading printed text. Fifty-nine % report memory problems. Functional ability is described by 13 daily activities and 31% can perform all activities without trouble, 29% with some trouble but without help, whereas 13 and 27% need help for one, or more of these activities. More females than males and more older than younger need help.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Bilateral thalamic stroke is usually due to compromised artery of Percheron, an anatomical variation of the vascular supply of the thalamus. The stroke in this area is very uncommon, and is mainly due to top of the basilar syndrome. Other causes are extremely rare. We describe the case of a patient with a pituitary adenoma who underwent surgery and later presented with a bilateral thalamic infarct, suggesting compromise of the artery of Percheron. This would be the third case published in the literature about this complication. We present a literature review about the vascular supply of the thalamus, the artery of Percheron, and its involvement in pituitary surgery.


SMART is an open source web application designed to help data scientists and research teams efficiently build labeled training data sets for supervised machine learning tasks. SMART provides users with an intuitive interface for creating labeled data sets, supports active learning to help reduce the required amount of labeled data, and incorporates inter-rater reliability statistics to provide insight into label quality. SMART is designed to be platform agnostic and easily deployable to meet the needs of as many different research teams as possible. The project website contains links to the code repository and extensive user documentation.


This article demonstrates the ways in which cultural analysis can contribute to the historiography of twentieth-century Colombia, particularly the 1930s and 1940s and the period of the Republica Liberal. With this goal in mind, and from a Latin American perspective, it reclaims for cultural history the work of authors we consider precursors and examines texts that have shaped the field. First, we outline the partisan historiography that first examined the Republica Liberal as an object of historical analysis after 1948, and the later introduction of disciplinary analyses that, from a structuralist perspective, proposed the first critical approaches to the period. We then discuss works that opened up new paths and that, more or less explicitly, introduced the analytical tools and methodologies of cultural analysis, thus expanding the repertoire of historical actors and actions that made up the warp and woof of life during this period. Finally, we map out recent works on the first half of the twentieth century in other Latin American countries that can suggest ways to delve further into the human experience during these two decades, a topic that remains barely studied.


This thesis describes, proposes and evaluates methods for automated analysis and quantification of medical images. A common theme is the usage of generative methods, which draw inference from unknown images by synthesising new images having shape, pose and appearance similar to the analysed images. The theoretical framework for fulfilling these goals is based on the class of Active Appearance Models, which has been explored and extended in case studies involving cardiac and brain magnetic resonance images (MRI), and chest radiographs. Topics treated include model truncation, compression using wavelets, handling of non-Gaussian variation by means of cluster analysis, correction of respiratory noise in cardiac MRI, and the extensions to multi-slice two-dimensional time-series and bi-temporal three-dimensional models. The medical applications include automated estimation of: left ventricular ejection fraction from 4D cardiac cine MRI, myocardial perfusion in bolus passage cardiac perfusion MRI, corpus callosum shape and area in mid-sagittal brain MRI, and finally, lung, heart, clavicle location and cardiothoracic ratio in anterior-posterior chest radiographs.


This paper presents a project called i-Maestro (www.i-maestro.org) which develops interactive multimedia environments for technology enhanced music education. Guided by an analysis of pedagogical needs, the project develops enabling technologies to support music performance and theory training, including tools based on augmented instruments, gesture analysis, audio analysis and processing, score following, symbolic music representation, cooperative support and exercise generation for tuition, self- learning, and collaborative work scenarios. This paper briefly describes the context and background of the project, together with an overview of the framework and a number of different tools to support technology-enhanced music learning and teaching.


The term 'second opinion' is a well-known phenomenon in dentistry. In the Netherlands, this phenomenon has mainly been worked out in five so called Dental Information Points (TIP). The way in which these offices function and the kind of problems they have to cope with have been described in this article. Finally, recommendations are given to enable the general practitioner to provide the patient with a well-considered second opinion.


Abstract This paper is a contribution to quantification of bio-leached arsenic and antimony from mining waste collected from impoundment in Slovinky (Slovakia). Autochtonous fungal strain Aspergillus niger was used in all bioleaching experiments. The contents of arsenic and antimony in two different samples from the impoundment were 294.7 and 328.2 mg.kg−1 As and 225.3 and 285.7 mg.kg−1 Sb, respectively. After 21-day cultivation of Aspergillus niger on such contaminated substrates, this strain was capable to bioleach, bioaccumulate and biovolatilize both toxic elements.


The structural evolution of a Pd/C catalyst during the liquid phase selective aerobic oxidation of cinnamyl alcohol has been followed by in situ XAFS and XPS. The fresh catalyst comprised highly dispersed, heavily oxidised Pd particles. Cinnamyl alcohol oxidation resulted in the rapid reduction of surface palladium oxide and a small degree of concomitant particle growth. These structural changes coincided with a large drop in catalytic activity. Prereduced Pd/C exhibited a significantly lower initial oxidation rate demonstrating the importance of surface metal oxide in effecting catalytic oxidation. Use of a Pd black model system confirmed that the oxide→metal transformation was the cause, and not result, of catalyst deactivation.


Mobile marketing through mobile messaging service has highly impressive growth as it enables e-business firms to communicate with their customers effectively. Educational institutions hence start using this service to enhance communication with their students. Previous studies, however, have limited understanding of applying mobile messaging service in education. This study proposes a theoretical model to understand the drivers of students' intentions to use the university's mobile messaging service. The model indicates that social influence, perceived control and attitudes affect students' intention to use the university's mobile messaging service. It also provides five antecedents of students' attitudes—perceived utility (information utility, entertainment utility, and social utility), innovativeness, information seeking, transaction specificity (content specificity, sender specificity, and time specificity) and privacy concern. The proposed model enables universities to understand what students concern about the use of a mobile messaging service in universities and handle the service more effectively. The paper discusses the model development and concludes with limitations and implications of the proposed model. Keywords—education, intention, mobile marketing, mobile messaging.


We present the results from self-consistent numerical simulations of cosmic structure formation with a multifrequency radiative transfer scheme and non-equilibrium molecular chemistry of 13 primordial species (e − ,H , H + ,H − ,H e, He + ,H e ++ ,H 2 ,H + ,D , D + , HD and HeH + ), performed using the simulation code GADGET. We describe our implementation and we show tests for ionized sphere expansion in a static and dynamic density field around a central radiative source, and for cosmological abundance evolution coupled with the cosmic microwave background radiation. As a demonstrative application of radiative feedback on molecular gas, we also run cosmological simulations of early structure formation in a ∼1-Mpc sized box. Our tests agree well with analytical and numerical expectations. Consistent with other works, we find that ionization fronts from central sources can boost H2 fractions in shock-compressed gas. The tight dependence on H2 also leads to a corresponding boost of HD fractions. We see a strong lowering of the typical molecular abundances up to several orders of magnitude, which partially hinders further gas collapse of pristine neutral gas. This clearly suggests the need for reionized gas or metal cooling in the formation of the following generation of structures.


Recent citizen deaths involving police use of force have increased discussion surrounding police accountability and community relations. One piece of this discussion is the use of body worn cameras (BWCs) by officers. Unfortunately, little rigorous research has been conducted to estimate the effectiveness of BWCs in reducing problematic police-citizen interactions. In this paper, we estimate two measures of effectiveness of BWCs by comparing incidents that occur in a squad assigned cameras to incidents that occur in a squad assigned control. First, we estimate the effect of being assigned a BWC (but not necessarily using the camera) on reducing complaints and resistance associated with incidents. Second, we employ data on BWC use to estimate the effect of cameras if they were used with full compliance. Together, these two estimates provide a plausible range of effectiveness that policymakers can expect from BWCs. We find that BWCs have no effect on the rate of arrest or resistance, but can substantially reduce complaints.


Traditional person recognition methods rely on knowledge/possession-based approaches such as password and access cards. However, these kinds of approaches suffer from the threat that they might be shared or stolen. Thus, differentiating between authorized and unauthorized users is very difficult (if not impossible). Biometrics on the other hand offers a means to reliable person recognition which overcomes the previously mentioned issues of traditional methods. In modern days the rise of computer tools have made it achievable to make recognition processing fully automated. Fingerprints were one of the first biometric traits to be accepted and utilized by law enforcement agencies. Despite popular belief and years of research, automatic fingerprint recognition is not a foolproof system and is yet an open and challenging problem. One of the most prominent issues in automatic fingerprint recognition which prevent it from being foolproof is that impressions of different fingers may be more similar to each other than the impressions of the same finger (inter-class similarity). Likewise, different acquisition of the same finger may be dissimilar from each other compared to the impressions taken from different fingers (intra-class variation). Obviously, the above statement directly relates to how the similarity or dissimilarity of fingerprints is defined. One of the main factors leading to high intra-class variation is the low quality of the fingerprints. The performance of the fingerprint recognition system deeply depends on fingerprint image quality. The matching accuracy of automated fingerprint recognition system decreases significantly when the quality of the fingerprint is poor. For example, a fingerprint is considered of poor quality due to the existence of noise and scars on it which in these cases manual recognition achieves better accuracy than automated systems. Dealing with intra-class variation and inter-class similarity is even more challenging when it comes to partial fingerprint recognition. The issues of partial fingerprint recognition is outwardly similar to the issues of full fingerprint matching, however it keeps its own unique characteristics e.g. unavailability of all the features, covering small part of the finger, and being unclear and/or distorted. Although it is claimed by researchers that some regions of a fingerprint provide more distinguishing characteristics than others, uncertainty in what regions are available in a partial fingerprint increases the probability of misrecognising it. Also, different types of features can be extracted from a full fingerprint but not all of them are available in a partial fingerprint. Thus, correct recognition of partial fingerprint is dependent on proposing a method which is robust to the missing features and image quality as well as being able to extract the available distinguishing features, independently from partial fingerprint size and shape. In order to reasonably define the similarity in full and partial fingerprints, distinguishing the intra and inter cases, and to advance science in this field, the following contributions are presented: Firstly, a partial fingerprint alignment method is presented. Maltoni et al. and Pankanti et al. induced designers to look for additional distinguishing fingerprint features beyond minutiae (the widely-used fingerprint feature). The authors found that a grey-level fingerprint image contains richer, more discriminatory information than only the minutiae location. Considering the rich information provided by the grey-level fingerprint image, it can be used to align the fingerprints. Two fingerprints should be aligned properly in order to measure their similarity. The previously developed fingerprint alignment methods, including minutia and non-minutia feature based alignment methods, are not suitable for partial fingerprints. These methods are dependent on the fingerprint's particular features such as reference points which might not be available in partial fingerprinting. Also,feature selection is a vital step in alignment (the same as for the matching process). Thus, the information/features used for alignment plays an important role in accurate alignment which is very important, specially in region-based matching (since corresponding regions will be compared). In the alignment stage, two methods are proposed which are suitable for partial and full fingerprint alignment. Here, the information obtained in the alignment step is used as the first level of fingerprint recognition. The first method is based on using the singular points and ridge structure of a fingerprint by cropping different regions with different sizes from query fingerprints and computing the similarity of these regions with registered fingerprints at different angles. The rotation angle that provides the highest correlation is considered as the rotation difference of query and registered fingerprint. However, singular points are not always available in partial fingerprints and additionally the correlation maximum score of comparing two regions might not always be the correct correlation. In some cases, it is possible that more than one peak (of approximately the same height) exists. That increases the probability of choosing the incorrect peak. Also a situation may happen whereby the correct peak is slightly lower than the false peak. To combat this in the second method, the consistency of corresponding regions located on the registered fingerprint is considered. By using the information provided from the alignment method, a Neural Network classifier is used to learn the behaviour of intra and inter comparisons in alignment. This classifier is used as the first-level of matching to reject/accept cases that do not need any further processing to be recognised. Secondly, a new similarity measurement technique that is suitable for partial and full fingerprints is presented. There is no agreed definition for the term similarity between researchers in terms of defining the similarity between fingerprints. As a matter of fact, an algorithm should be defined to assign high similarity scores to different captured fingerprints from the same finger even if they have high intra fingerprint variation. If the similarity could be defined in such a way that it couldcover high variation between fingerprints of the same finger and low variation between fingerprints of different fingers, then the system error could be maintained close to zero. In other words, the fingerprints from the same finger are supposed to be more similar to each other compared to the fingerprints from different fingers and the similarity measurement needs to be defined as such to assign high similarity to the fingerprints of the same finger regardless of the variability in the capture environment which introduces unpredictable errors in the captured image; and also assigns low similarity to the fingerprints of a different finger even if they appear to be very indistinguishable. The proposed similarity measurement method is based on the texture characteristic of the fingerprint which is claimed by researchers to provide more reliable and distinguishing information. Reliability and distinguishability of the texture based features compared with other available features is discussed. Also the different texture features are compared and investigated in order to identify the best texture/region based feature of the fingerprint. As a result the similarity is mainly computed based on the Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) of the fingerprint (sub-regions) along with other techniques to lower the effect of high intra-class variation and low-inter class similarity and consequently, better distinguishing the intra and inter fingerprints even in low quality partial fingerprint. Also, the similarity of the two fingerprints is computed in such a way that the distorted regions are assigned low weights so they will not significantly skew the final similarity of two fingerprints. The main objective of this research relates to partial fingerprint recognition and the proposed method reasonably addresses the difficulties in partial fingerprint (as well as full fingerprint) matching. In all parts, the aim was to make it independent from any particular feature of the fingerprint to adaptively deal with the partial fingerprint size. The proposed method uses the fingerprint ridge structure to obtain the characteristic information of the partial fingerprints. As mentioned, fingerprints ridge structure provides rich and distinguishing information and atthe same time the similarity of partial fingerprint can be computed independently from region size, shape, and location in the fingerprint. Thus, unavailability of any particular feature such as reference points and minutiae will not be an issue and even if a small region is available, the matching can proceed. Also, there is always a mis-detection rate (however low) when extracting features like reference points and minutiae which might lead to falsely accepting or rejecting a query fingerprint. This is not an issue in the proposed method as it does not rely on any particular feature. As a result, the experiments conducted on partial dataset generated from the FVC2002 (Fingerprint Verification Competition) dataset shows the effectiveness and improvement achieved through the proposed method with approximately an 8.5% better Equal Error Rate (in average) while being able to process almost 3 times more of the partial fingerprints in the dataset (regardless of their size) compared to the state-of-the-art method proposed by Abraham et al.


Why do large domestic and multinational enterprises choose one Chinese city over the others in which to set up their company headquarters? What could the Chinese local governments do in order to attract enterprises to establish headquarters in their localities? Following the Chinese commonly used term 'headquarter economy' and investigating the issue mostly from the local governments' perspective, this research examines two cases, Pudong and Shenzhen, to see how they have capitalized on their local advantages and attracted different types of large investments. Both the Pudong and Shenzhen governments provide preferential policies and administrative reforms to build a good investment environment and to develop a 'headquarter economy'. Their preferential policies are similar in design but different in content, so as to attract different target investors. Their administrative reforms are similar in direction but with variations in pace and design for implementation. Our conclusion shows that 'headquarter economy' is a concept flexibly used and wisely adopted by Chinese local governments to develop local economies.


Ammonites and inoceramid bivalves were stratigraphically collected from lower and upper Maastrichtian units in continuous exposure along the seacoast near Zumaya, Spain. Three ammonite teilzones can be recognized: (1) a lower zone correlative with parts of the Globotruncana ganserri planktonic foram zone and characterized by numerous inoceramids among three different species as well as Pachydiscus neubergicus , a noded Baculites , Polyptychoceras sipho , and Hauericeras renbda ; (2) a middle zone that has no inoceramids but that has Pachydiscus fresvillensis and P. neubergicus and is correlative with the lower parts of the Abathomphalus mayaroensis Zone (planktonic foram); and (3) an upper zone that has P. colligatus and is correlative with the upper parts of the A. mayaroensis Zone. These three teilzones may be the basis for a Tethyan, facies-wide ammonite zonation of the Maastrichtian. The four main components of the fossil record at the Zumaya section show differing range characteristics with respect to the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary exposed in this section. The inoceramids disappear at the top of the lower Maastrichtian, except for the small enigmatic form Tenuipteria , which has a restricted range in the uppermost levels of the Cretaceous. Ammonites range upward to levels approximately 10 m below the boundary. Most larger planktonic forams and many nannofossil species disappear within several centimetres of the boundary. Echinoid fossils range up to, and possibly across, the K/T boundary. The Zumaya section is thus characterized by apparently nonsynchronous or graded extinctions of most of its fossil content.


This review describes the temporal changes of high-energy phosphate metabolites during the cardiac cycle. Under baseline condition, the extent of cyclical changes ("cycling") of ATP, phosphocreatine and inorganic phosphate varies between 10-15%. Such energy oscillations are not augmented under various forms of metabolic stress including 1) inotropic stimulation, 2) acute hypoxia and 3) failing, chronically infarcted hearts. Thus, the concentrations of high-energy phosphates over the cardiac cycle are a tightly regulated entity, even when energetic needs are substantially augmented.


The main characteristics of a new concept of spherical gaseous detectors, with some details on its operation are first given. The very low energy threshold of such detector has led to investigations of its potential performance for dark matter particle searches, in particular low mass WIMP's : original methods for energy and fiducial volume calibration and background rejection are described and preliminary results obtained with a low radioactivity prototype operated in Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane ("Frejus" lab) are presented. Typical expected sensitivities in cross section for low mass WIMP's are also shown, and other applications briefly discussed.


Background: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is expressed in all female reproductive organs. Therefore, inhibitors of COX-2 may affect reproductive function. We evaluated the effect of extended administration of meloxicam on ovulation and the menstrual cycle. Our hypothesis was that meloxicam administered from menstrual cycle day 5- 22 could interfere with follicular rupture, without disrupting the menstrual cycle, and could be a potential non-hormonal contraceptive method. Methods: The study was conducted in 56 healthy sterilized women. Before the onset of treatment and after the end of treatment, participants were observed during a control cycle to ensure that they had progesterone (P4) serum levels (N12 nmol/l) consistent with ovulation. Participants were treated for 18 days, during three consecutive cycles. They were randomized to 15 or 30 mg/day. The menstrual cycle was monitored with serial ultrasound and hormone assays in blood. Results: Fifty-six volunteers completed the study. In 55% of cycles treated with 15 mg/day and in 78% of cycles treated with 30mg/day (pb0.001) we observed dysfunctional ovulation defined as follicular rupture not preceded 24–48 h earlier by an LH peak or preceded by a blunted LH peak (b21 IU/l) or not followed by an elevated serum P4 level N12 nmol/l. Ovulation was observed in 44.6% and in 21.7% of women in the lower dose group and the higher dose group, respectively. There were no differences between the two doses in other parameters measured. There were no serious adverse events and adverse events were not different between doses or between control and treated cycles. Conclusions: Although administration of meloxicam on menstrual cycle days 5- 22 resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of ovulation, more than 20% of subjects had normal ovulation with the highest dose. Implications: Previous studies have shown that oral meloxicam can delay follicle rupture. This study investigated daily oral meloxicam as a non-hormonal contraceptive. Since ovulation occurs in over 20% of cycles even with a high dose of 30 mg daily, it is not likely that the approach would be a highly effective contraceptive strategy.


The development of very stable phosphors with a narrow band emission opened the way to a further miniaturization of fluorescent lamps. A discussion is presented of the present possibilities to reduce lamp dimensions to a degree that makes them suitable for home lighting. Reduction of length is essential, and on the basis of experimental data the balance is considered between this desired reduction in length and the accompanying effects such as loss of efficacy and increase of ballast volume. This leads to an optimum discharge diameter, which is between 10 and 15 mm, depending on the level of luminous flux. Lamps with this diameter must be bent in order to arrive at an acceptable length. Two types of compact fluorescent lamps, designed for the home lighting area, are described. A few remarks are made about their possible applications and their economics.


Objective To review smoking policies of major international airports, to compare these policies with corresponding incountry tobacco control legislation and to identify areas of improvement for advancing smoke-free policy in airports. Methods We reviewed smoking policies of 34 major international airports in five world regions, and collected data on current national and subnational legislation on smoke-free indoor places in the corresponding airport locations. We then compared airport smoking policies with local legislation. Additionally, we collected anecdotal information concerning smoking rules and practices in specific airports from an online traveller website. Results We found that 52.9% of the airports reviewed had indoor smoking rooms or smoking areas; smoking policy was unknown or unstated for two airports. 55.9% of the airports were located in countries where national legislation allowed designated smoking rooms and areas, while 35.3% were in smoke-free countries. Subnational legislation restricted smoking in 60% of the airport locations, while 40% were smoke-free. 71.4% of the airport locations had subnational legislation that allowed smoke-free laws to be more stringent than at the national level, but only half of these places had enacted such laws. Conclusions Despite the increasing presence of smoke-free places and legal capacity to enact stricter legislation at the local level, airports represent a public and occupational space that is often overlooked in national or subnational smoke-free policies. Secondhand smoke exposure in airports can be reduced among travellers and workers by implementing and enforcing smoke-free policies in airports. Additionally, existing information on smoke-free legislation lacks consistent terminology and definitions, which are needed to inform future tobacco control policy within airports and in the law.


The signaling pathways that lead to the localization of cellular protein to the area of interaction between T cell and antigen-presenting cell and the mechanism by which these molecules are further sorted to the peripheral supramolecular activation cluster or central supramolecular activation cluster regions of the immunologic synapse are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the functional involvement of CD28 costimulation in the T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated immunologic synapse formation with respect to protein kinase C (PKC)θ localization. We showed that CD3 crosslinking alone was sufficient to induce PKCθ capping in naïve CD4+ T cells. Studies with pharmacologic inhibitors and knockout mice showed that the TCR-derived signaling that drives PKCθ membrane translocation requires the Src family kinase, Lck, but not Fyn. In addition, a time course study of the persistence of T cell molecules to the immunologic synapse indicated that PKCθ, unlike TCR, persisted in the synapse for at least 4 h, a time that is sufficient for commitment of a T cell to cell division. Finally, by using TCR-transgenic T cells from either wild-type or CD28-deficient mice, we showed that CD28 expression was required for the formation of the mature immunologic synapse, because antigen stimulation of CD28− T cells led to a diffuse pattern of localization of PKCθ and lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 in the immunologic synapse, in contrast to the central supramolecular activation cluster localization of PKCθ in CD28+ T cells.


Abstract The lattice dynamics computer code PARAPOCS was successfully used to calculate the 240 vibrational frequencies of pyrope garnet, Mg3Al2Si3O12, at ambient conditions. The atomic displacement vectors (eigenvectors) for each frequency were also calculated and their symmetry relations analyzed with the aid of factor group analysis (FGA), to determine the symmetry species of each vibrational mode. Comparison with the experimental IR and Raman data shows excellent agreement, but no LO-TO reversals were identified. Calculation of the frequency shifts due to the isotopic substitution of 26Mg and 30Si, together with a more detailed analysis of the calculated eigenvectors, enabled identification of the dominant site or cation motion contributing to each vibrational mode. Previous assignments of the high-frequency vibrations to pure SiO4 internal modes and the lower-frequency vibrations to mixed cation modes are supported. We conclude that the specific number of site/atom motions predicted by site group analysis (SGA) is not adhered to due to substantial mode mixing, and that FGA and SGA, in which the SiO4 tetrahedra are treated as isolated units, are only applicable at high frequencies. The agreement observed between the calculated and experimental data leads us to conclude that the method of computer modeling used and the interatomic potentials employed in the simulations provide a good description of the lattice dynamical behavior of pyrope garnet.


We present analytical exploration of novel activation functions as consequence of integration of several ideas leading to implementation and subsequent use in habitability classification of exoplanets. Neural networks, although a powerful engine in supervised methods, often require expensive tuning efforts for optimized performance. Habitability classes are hard to discriminate, especially when attributes used as hard markers of separation are removed from the data set. The solution is approached from the point of investigating analytical properties of the proposed activation functions. The theory of ordinary differential equations and fixed point are exploited to justify the "lack of tuning efforts" to achieve optimal performance compared to traditional activation functions. Additionally, the relationship between the proposed activation functions and the more popular ones is established through extensive analytical and empirical evidence. Finally, the activation functions have been implemented in plain vanilla feed-forward neural network to classify exoplanets.


Companies across industries aim to disseminate blockchain through respective projects that evaluate, design, or implement use cases. However, due to its novelty and complexity, blockchain poses novel challenges in carrying out such projects. Companies use success criteria to constantly evaluate projects. Even though literature provides frameworks for the general evaluation of projects, no research yet investigated if success criteria fundamentally differ for blockchain projects due to the characteristics of the technology. Therefore, we assess success dimensions and criteria, deduced and evaluated from an in-depth interview study with blockchain experts from 12 different projects. We contribute to the theory on blockchain project management by introducing a new success dimension and specific success criteria for blockchain projects. Our findings help to elaborate the value of blockchain in companies and novel possibilities to evaluate respective projects. We provide additional insights by assessing their relative importance and discussing implications for theory and practice.


Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) intervention and surveillance is currently based on maximum transverse diameter, even though it is recognized that this might not be the best strategy. About 10% of patients with small AAA transverse diameters, for whom intervention is not considered, still rupture; while patients with large AAA transverse diameters, for whom intervention would have been recommended, have stable aneurysms that do not rupture. While maximum transverse diameter is easy to measure and track in clinical practice, one of its main drawbacks is that it does not represent the whole AAA and rupture seldom occurs in the region of maximum transverse diameter. By following maximum transverse diameter alone clinicians are missing information on the shape change dynamics of the AAA, and clues that could lead to better patient care. We propose here a method to register AAA surfaces that were obtained from the same patient at different time points. Our registration method could be used to track the local changes of the patient-specific AAA. To achieve registration, our procedure uses a consistent parameterization of the AAA surfaces followed by strain relaxation. The main assumption of our procedure is that growth of the AAA occurs in such a way that surface strains are smoothly distributed, while regions of small and large surface growth can be differentiated. The proposed methodology has the potential to unravel different patterns of AAA growth that could be used to stratify patient risks.


Introduction: In the treatment of Gustilo Type 3B open tibial fractures, it is important to perform soft tissue reconstruction and bone reconstruction simultaneously. Gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle flaps are generally used as rotational flaps for the tibia. The distal third of the tibia can often not be covered with the gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle flaps. Treatment distal to the distal third of the tibia is difficult because fewer flap options are available. In the present report, we describe our experience with a Gustilo Type 3B open tibial fracture treated by gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle flaps, along with an additional proximally based flexor hallucis longus flap, which is a rare procedure. Case Report: The participant was a 17-year-old male who injured his left tibia in a motorcycle traffic accident. Physical examination revealed a wound of 13 cm × 7 cm extending from the medial lower leg to the posterior aspect, with extensive skin loss. There was no nerve or vascular injury. The tibia was exposed, with detachment of the periosteum. The radiograph revealed a tibial shaft fracture. The AO/OTA classification was 42-A3.3, and it was classified as a Gustilo-Anderson Type 3B fracture. Gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle flaps were lifted in the area of the soft-tissue defect and then, placed over the tibia. Despite this, the distal portion of the tibia remained uncovered. Therefore, a flexor hallucis longus flap was lifted and placed over the distal portion of the tibia. On day 7 after the injury, the external fixation device was removed and the tibial shaft was fixated with two Ender nails (4.5 mm in diameter). The clinical course was satisfactory, and the skin graft and flap were successful. Bone union was achieved without infection, and the resulting range of motion was normal. Conclusion: For the treatment of Gustilo-Anderson Type 3B open tibial fractures, early treatment of the soft-tissue defect is vital. We surgically treated a Gustilo-Anderson Type 3B open tibial fracture with gastrocnemius muscle and soleus muscle flaps, along with an additional proximally based flexor hallucis longus flap, which is a rare procedure. In the event of a soft-tissue defect in the distal third of the tibia, the use of a proximally based flexor hallucis longus flap is an effective surgical approach.


Abstract. The climate impact of black carbon (BC) is notably amplified in the Arctic by its deposition, which causes albedo decrease and subsequent earlier snow and ice spring melt. To comprehensively assess the climate impact of BC in the Arctic, information on both atmospheric BC concentrations and deposition is essential. Currently, Arctic BC deposition data are very scarce, while atmospheric BC concentrations have been shown to generally decrease since the 1990s. However, a 300-year Svalbard ice core showed a distinct increase in EC (elemental carbon, proxy for BC) deposition from 1970 to 2004 contradicting atmospheric measurements and modelling studies. Here, our objective was to decipher whether this increase has continued in the 21st century and to investigate the drivers of the observed EC deposition trends. For this, a shallow firn core was collected from the same Svalbard glacier, and a regional-to-meso-scale chemical transport model (SILAM) was run from 1980 to 2015. The ice and firn core data indicate peaking EC deposition values at the end of the 1990s and lower values thereafter. The modelled BC deposition results generally support the observed glacier EC variations. However, the ice and firn core results clearly deviate from both measured and modelled atmospheric BC concentration trends, and the modelled BC deposition trend shows variations seemingly independent from BC emission or atmospheric BC concentration trends. Furthermore, according to the model ca. 99 % BC mass is wet-deposited at this Svalbard glacier, indicating that meteorological processes such as precipitation and scavenging efficiency have most likely a stronger influence on the BC deposition trend than BC emission or atmospheric concentration trends. BC emission source sectors contribute differently to the modelled atmospheric BC concentrations and BC deposition, which further supports our conclusion that different processes affect atmospheric BC concentration and deposition trends. Consequently, Arctic BC deposition trends should not directly be inferred based on atmospheric BC measurements, and more observational BC deposition data are required to assess the climate impact of BC in Arctic snow.


Ductile fracture in steels is essentially due to cavity nucleation, growth and coalescence. Once voids are initiated in the metallic matrix, and the deformation continues to increase, voids grow in size and finally coalescence to fracture. This dissertation investigates ductile fracture initiating in the bulk of material for relatively low stress triaxialities. Particularly zero stress triaxiality conditions, i.e. under shear dominated loading, provided for an isolated study of single mechanisms such as void nucleation, and shear localization. In this dissertation, we show that the idealized division of ductile fracture in a sequence of elementary processes is not appropriate for the selected quenched and tempered VAR steel. Ductile fracture is nucleation-controlled, i.e without meaningful void growth. Void nucleation occurs by debonding of tempering carbides from the surrounding metallic matrix. The carbide-matrix interface strength is estimated by a dislocation-based stress decohesion model. By means of FEM computations with a unit cell simulations comprising a single carbide, the role of the carbide-matrix interface strength is emphasized. The results of FE computations demonstrate that the carbide-matrix interface strength is the key parameter controlling damage initiation and its evolution to fracture.


Strengthening knowledge and skills in mathematics is critically important to preparing the next generation of innovators, problem solvers, and interdisciplinary thinkers. School-based agricultural education offers a valuable context to co-develop mathematics knowledge and skills alongside knowledge and skills in agriculture, food, and natural resources. The current study explored the role of school-based agricultural education teachers in facilitating interdisciplinary agriculture, food, natural resources, and mathematics learning experiences. Findings suggest teachers possessed positive attitudes, supportive subjective norms, high levels of perceived behavioral control, and moderate to high perceptions of mathematics knowledge. Additionally, teachers intended to teach mathematics content in an average of 24.51% of agriculture, food, and natural resources curriculum. However, in modeling the intentions of school-based agricultural education teachers to teach math, the combination of attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and mathematics knowledge explained only 9% of the variance. Within the model, perceived behavioral control was a statistically significant, positive predictor of intentions to teach math. Findings are discussed in terms of statistical and practical significance, with specific recommendations for follow-up research exploring a wider breadth of variables potentially influencing intentions to teach math.


The Borre Monitoring Project investigated how environmental factors, in particular, precipitation and soil moisture variation as well as different soil and sediment types, affect the quality of GPR data collected for archaeological purposes. To study these questions, regular GPR surveys were conducted over a period of 14 months across a test area covering a hall building at the Iron and Viking Age site of Borre in Norway. In order to obtain in situ measurements of environmental factors relevant for electromagnetic wave propagation including volumetric water content, bulk electrical conductivity, ground temperature, and precipitation, three monitoring stations were erected at the test site. Soil and sediment samples taken from the profiles at the respective monitoring stations were analysed to gain a basic description of their physical and chemical properties. Twelve GPR surveys were conducted roughly once a month between August 2016 and September 2017 and the results clearly indicated differences in the quality of the data collected. To better understand the underlying causes for this variation, GPR data were compared against and integrated with the in situ measurements gathered using the monitoring stations. The results of this analysis emphasised the benefit of dry conditions, which, if prevailing over a longer period of time, proved to generate GPR data of the highest quality. Seasonality could not be attested; instead, data quality was governed by small-scale weather patterns, where the time and intensity of rainfall events prior to the surveys as well as sudden changes in air temperature played a decisive role. While the results of this study are only valid for sites with similar settings such as Borre, they emphasise the importance of considering the environmental factors during all stages of a GPR survey and highlight the need for further studies investigating other settings.


The Nigeria Economic Report (NER) is a regular publication of the World Bank. Each edition provides an overview of recent macroeconomic developments and devotes special attention to a topic of particular relevance or urgency. In this edition the macroeconomic overview is followed by both a detailed analysis of the country's fuel subsidy and an assessment of the current state and economic potential of its natural gas sector. 2015 has been a momentous year for Nigeria. The general elections held in March brought about the first democratic transition of power from a ruling party to an opposition party, heightening expectations for meaningful political change. The new Government is taking power during a very challenging time, however, marked by a sharp decline in global oil prices and continuing violence in the country's northeast. This creates a difficult context for realizing the new administration's ambitious reform agenda for job creation, the power sector, oil and gas, agriculture, and public administration. Chapter two of the report analyzes the costs and benefits of Nigeria's fuel subsidy, including their implications for low-income households. Fuel subsidy costs are expected to amount to 18 percent of government oil revenues in 2015, and this share could increase to more than 30 percent by 2018 even if oil prices remain low. There is a general consensus that increasing the supply of power in Nigeria is critical to the future development of the country. The success of the current plans to boost generation capacity will hinge on the development of the natural gas sector. Nigeria is endowed with substantial natural gas reserves, but major reforms will be necessary to attract the investment necessary to harness the potential of the natural gas sector to supply the domestic energy market. Chapter three of this report summarizes the current regulatory situation in the natural gas sector and outlines potential avenues for reform.


This paper explores how climate change adaptation concerns were integrated into the Swedish forestry debate and policy process during the period of 1990–2012, and draws lessons on barriers and opportunities identified in this process. Using a framework focusing on "advocacy coalitions", we analyze how the adaptation debate in the forestry sector evolved over the period; who the main advocates for and against adaptation were; and which main arguments and processes affected the debate and policy. The results show that academics advocating climate change adaptation, aided by outside influences, such as political pressure for adaptation responses and the negative impacts of the 2005 storm Gudrun, contributed to an increased general awareness and understanding of adaptation issues amongst forestry stakeholders. Nonetheless, the strong dominance of actors arguing for increased forest production and the limited number and relatively poor organization of adaptation advocates have acted as barriers to mainstreaming adaptation concerns into forestry policy and practice. The dominant coalitions and their values have also determined the direction of debate and policy. The main conclusions for policymakers aiming to further this integration process are the importance of stimulating adaptation coalitions and the value of creating arenas for multiple stakeholder learning about adaptation.


The Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation (COMMIT) was an intervention trial funded by the National Cancer Institute to evaluate the effects of a multi-component, community based smoking control intervention on cessation in adult smokers.1,2 The primary (adult) outcomes of this trial have been published elsewhere.3,4 In this letter we test the hypothesis that a comprehensive, community based intervention aimed at adult smokers would have an ancillary impact on the prevalence of youth smoking.

The COMMIT intervention5 included youth oriented activities directed toward four principle areas: school based education programmes, smoking policies in schools, legislative activities related to youth smoking, and participation by students and teachers in other COMMIT activities. The evaluation …


With the increasing demand for high strength concrete, more attention has been paid to the problem of high viscosity mixture in high strength concrete technology by academic and engineering circles. This project studied the effects of ultra-fine limestone powder on the workability and viscosity of fresh concrete using the ultra-fine limestone powder (LP) obtained by ultra-fine grinding of limestone powder, building sandstone processing waste, as fine mineral admixture of high strength concrete. The experimental results show that the viscosity of fresh high strength concrete with ultra-fine limestone powder decreases significantly. At the same time, the influence of ultra-fine limestone powder on the strength of the concrete at different ages is very little.


We examine the open-economy implications of the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). We add a CBDC to the menu of monetary assets available in a standard two-country DSGE model and consider a broad set of alternative technical features in CBDC design. We analyse the international transmission of standard monetary policy and technology shocks in the presence and absence of a CDBC and the implications for optimal monetary policy and welfare. The presence of a CBDC amplifies the international spillovers of shocks to a significant extent, thereby increasing international linkages. But the magnitude of these effects depends crucially on CBDC design and can be significantly dampened if the CBDC possesses specific technical features. We also show that domestic issuance of a CBDC increases asymmetries in the international monetary system by reducing monetary policy autonomy in foreign economies.


The paper focuses on the phenomenon farmers' markets in the Czech Republic. Boom of the farmers' markets is used as an illustration for ongoing transition process within agrofood regime. The paper provides information about the incumbent regime (based on sale of food via large retail chain store) and the alternative initiative and its logic. The farmer's markets have developed from previous marginal activities framed by the alternative food networks. Using the secondary sources and empirical material (16 interviews) there is in details described the mechanisms of anchorage that enables the initiative to gain new position in the regime. The analysis shows that the success of the initiative has been conditioned by several factors that have aligned and created a stable structure in the regime.


Public support for global development in rich countries is critical for sustaining effective government and individual action. But the causes of public support are not well understood. Does spending time living in a developing country play a role in generating individual commitment to development? Addressing this question is fraught with selection bias, as individuals are rarely exogenously assigned to spend time in different countries. In this paper I address this question using a natural experiment—the quasi-random assignment of missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to two-year missions in different world regions. I provide the first causal estimates of the effect of travel to a developing country on attitudes to global development. Data comes from a new survey gathered through mission alumni Facebook groups. Missionaries assigned to low-income and middle-income world regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean) have similar prior characteristics to those assigned to high-income Europe. Those assigned to Africa self-report greater interest in global development and greater charitable attitudes and behaviours. However they also express stronger opposition to immigration from poor countries, and are less likely to be involved in political campaigns to address global development. Spending time in lowerincome countries may lead to greater support for charity but less support for political change. www.cgdev.org Lee Crawfurd


Troponin contains a globular Ca2+-binding domain and an elongated tail domain composed of the N terminus of subunit troponin T (TnT). The tail domain anchors troponin to tropomyosin and actin, modulates myosin function, and is a site of cardiomyopathy-inducing mutations. Critical interactions between tropomyosin and troponin are proposed to depend on tail domain residues 112–136, which are highly conserved across phyla. Most cardiomyopathy mutations in TnT flank this region. Three such mutations were examined and had contrasting effects on peptide TnT-(1–156), promoting folding and thermal stability assessed by circular dichroism (F110I) or weakening folding and stability (T104V and to a small extent R92Q). Folding of both TnT-(1–156) and whole troponin was promoted by replacing bovine TnT Thr-104 with human TnT Ala-104, further indicating the importance of this cardiomyopathy site residue for protein folding. Mutation F110I markedly stabilized the troponin tail but weakened binding of holo-troponin to actin-tropomyosin 8-fold, suggesting that loss of flexibility impairs troponin tail function. The effect of the F110I mutation on troponin-tropomyosin binding to actin was much less, indicating this flexibility is particularly important for the interactions of troponin with tropomyosin. We suggest that most cardiomyopathic mutations in the troponin tail alter muscle function indirectly, by perturbing interactions between troponin and tropomyosin requisite for the complex effects of these proteins on myosin.


Summary 1. Countergradient variation in growth rate requires that rapid growth rate trades off with other performances, such that submaximal growth evolves in certain environments. Negative effects of rapid growth on other traits within a single ontogenetic stage are conspicuous candidates for such trade-offs, but trade-offs spanning ontogenetic stages have received much less attention. 2. We tested whether rapid growth and development of embryonic lizards was associated with poor juvenile performance, as estimated by growth rate and sprint speed after hatching. To do so, we raised lizards from three populations that differ in their environmental temperature and measured their performances during embryonic and hatchling stages. 3. Under the same environmental conditions, embryos from two cold environments grew and developed more rapidly than did the embryos from a warm environment. Among populations, rapid growth and development was associated with slow growth after hatching. But surprisingly, the opposite pattern was observed within populations. 4. Our results highlight the need to consider trade-offs mediated by ecological factors (e.g. competition and predation), which calls for similar experiments in natural environments.


Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) are problem-solvers for other organizations. The coronacrisis affects KIBS directly, but also means that their clients are confronting new problems. How are KIBS addressing these two sets of challenges? This paper draws on material available in the trade and industry press, on official reports and statistics, and the early academic studies addressing these themes. We find that KIBS have been active (alongside other organizations) in providing a substantial range of services aimed at helping their clients (and others) deal with various contingencies thrown up by the crisis. Not least among these is the need to conform to shifting regulatory frameworks, and requirements for longer-term resilience. KIBS themselves have had to adapt their working practices considerably, to reduce face-to-face interaction with clients and within teams collaborating on projects. Adaptation is easier for those whose tasks that are relatively standardized and codified, and it remains to be seen how far a shift to such activities - and away from the traditional office-based venues of activity - is retained as firms recover from the crisis. KIBS are liable to play an important role in this recovery from the crisis, and policymakers can mobilize their services. Some KIBS are liable to be critical for rendering economies more resilient in the face of future pandemics and we argue that these firms are also important for confronting the mounting climate crisis.


This paper reviews research on young children's responses to television commercials in the context of the history of attempts to regulate television advertising directed to children. Concern with regulation emerged in the 1960s, when children were recognized as a market in their own right. The few available and relevant empirical studies played a clear role in shaping early Federal Communications Commission (1974) policy. Subsequent research demonstrated that young children have difficulty distinguishing between programs and commercials, that most manifest little or no understanding of commercials' persuasive intent, and that those who do not understand persuasive intent are highly vulnerable to commercial claims and appeals. These findings led the Federal Trade Commission (1978) to attempt to ban television advertising to children too young to understand persuasive intent. However, the history of regulatory attempts demonstrates that research findings are not a dominant influence on policy decisions. Rather, policy is a result of competing value orientations (e.g., protection of the marketplace or protection of the child) and the political maneuvering they engender.


According to the characteristics of subway construction in Tianjin, a risk assessment indicator system has been established in subway construction. On the basis of traditional AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), the introduction of the concept of triangular fuzzy numbers evaluates the weight of risk factors in a more accurate and objective way. Adopting a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation mathematical model, by constructing membership matrix, the metro construction is not difficult to quantify the risk factors with the scientific evaluation methods. It can be proved that fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method used in subway construction process is a scientific, effective evaluation method.


Casting magnesium alloys are heterogeneous materials containing numerous voids. Assuming the voids are spherical, in the present investigation, the evolution equations of the growth and nucleation of the voids have been presented. Combining the evolution equation of the void growth with that of the void nucleation, the evolution rule of the voids was obtained. Based on the void evolution rule a nonclassical elastoplastic constitutive model involving void evolution was developed. The corresponding numerical algorithm and finite element procedure were developed and applied to the analyses of the elastoplastic response and the porosity of casting magnesium alloy. The calculated results show the satisfactory agreement with experiments.


INTRODUCTION
Previous research has documented that a variety of anxiety, depressive, and psychosomatic symptoms are present in a substantial portion of mobbing victims. This study aimed to explore the frequency of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among mobbing victims, and to investigate how PTSD was linked to pertinent psychometric scales.

METHOD
We recruited 20 mobbing victims and conducted the Structural Clinical Interview (SCID) to assess PTSD according to DSM-IV criteria. The trauma criterion was homogeneously defined as mobbing.

RESULTS
55% of our entire sample had a current PTSD, and 70% suffered from severe posttraumatic stress symptoms according to the Impact of Event Scale. Using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), we found that mobbing victims with a current PTSD tended to demonstrate higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms, and less quality of life (SF 36 Short-Form Health Survey), especially in terms of bodily pain, compared with those without a PTSD diagnosis. No significant differences in personality factors (Freiburg Personality Inventory) between mobbing-victims with and without PTSD were evident by multivariate analysis. Univariate statistics, however, revealed that mobbing-related PTSD showed a trend towards higher scores in social orientation and somatic complaints. There was no general evidence that mobbing victims with a PTSD used more often negative and positive coping strategies (SVF - Stress Coping Questionnaire). However, they showed a tendency to employ control strategies, avoidance, social withdrawal, and cognitive preoccupation.

CONCLUSION
Posttraumatic stress disorder subsequent to mobbing can occur frequently. PTSD therefore should be specifically considered in routine care.


High concentrations of caesium occur in the New Red Sandstone of Devon, England. Values are most abundant in breccias at the base of the Permian and decrease upwards through the sandstones and marls. Caesium resides in the clay fraction (<2 μm) where it reaches 468 ppm in Watcombe breccia, 146 ppm in Exmouth mudstone and 35 ppm in Triassic Otter sandstone. Credition Trough values attain 108 ppm in the Cadbury breccia. Extensive volcanic activity on the south eastern edge of the Cornubian Massif provided a supply of Cs. Due to its low ionic potential, this alkali was concentrated at source under extreme weathering in the hydrolysate fraction of red bed sediments. The source area was largely exhausted by late Permian, reflected by a reduction in Cs content of New Red Sandstone detritus.


Abstract The challenge of transition from service to civilian life is explored through the experiences of a sample of 225 UK army veterans between 1945 and 2000. All subjects had a war pension for a psychological disorder, and most had served overseas in combat roles. Statements about issues of adjustment and health were analyzed by the constant comparison method. Although 20 themes were identified, three ('anxiety, nerves and depression', 'enduring illness attributed to combat exposure', and 'illness interferes with the ability to find or keep employment') accounted for 46% of the total and were reported by between 53% and 86% of subjects. Consistency was observed in the ranking of themes over time. In content, they replicate those reported by veterans of recent conflicts, suggesting that the core issues of transition have an enduring quality. Most statements (66%) date from the 1940s, a time when the application process for a pension required the veteran to provide an explanation for his illness. A rise in the number of statements during the 1980s and 1990s reflected wider cultural acceptance of post-traumatic illness and veteran population entering retirement with time to reflect on defining experiences.


The nature of participants' experience in practitioner research is often taken for granted, and its more tacit dimensions overlooked. Poetic expression is valuable in surfacing these tacit dimensions, enabling the researcher to engage with them more consciously and draw on them to strengthen the research. To illustrate, I draw on my own poetically expressive writing relating to the experience of leading an action research project – a text entitled A Gossamer Thread. I describe how I came to write in this way, and draw on the poet Robert Frost's account of 'the figure a poem makes' to show how the writing arises from within experience and is able to clarify its meaning. This process is linked to an understanding of Dewey's concept of integral experience. Ways in which poetic expression may contribute to practitioner research are discussed, exploring how the vitality of poetic expression can energise research and how writing poetically emphasises receptivity, stepping back from assumptions and opening up to possibility.


Lakes contribute 9%–19% of global methane (CH4) emissions to the atmosphere. Dissolved molecular oxygen (DO) in lakes can inhibit the production of CH4 and promote CH4 oxidation. DO is therefore often considered an important regulator of CH4 emissions from lakes. Presence or absence of DO in the water above the sediments can affect CH4 production and emissions by (a) influencing if methane production can be fueled by the most reactive organic matter in the top sediment layer or rely on deeper and less degradable organic matter, and (b) enabling CH4 accumulation in deep waters and potentially large emissions upon water column turnover. However, the relative importance of these two DO effects on CH4 fluxes is still unclear. We assessed CH4 fluxes from two connected lake basins in northern boreal Sweden where one was experimentally oxygenated. Results showed no clear difference in summer CH4 emissions attributable to water column DO concentrations. Large amounts of CH4 accumulated in the anoxic hypolimnion of the reference basin but little of this may have been emitted because of incomplete mixing, and effective methane oxidation of stored CH4 reaching oxic water layers. Accordingly, ≤24% of the stored CH4 was likely emitted in the experimental lake. Overall, our results suggest that hypolimnetic DO and water column CH4 storage might have a smaller impact on CH4 emissions in boreal forest lakes than previous estimates, yet potential fluxes associated with water column turnover events remain a significant uncertainty in lake CH4 emission estimates.


The recent years have witnessed an enormous growth of mobile services for energy management in buildings. However, these solutions are often proprietary, non-interoperable, and handle only a limited function, such as lighting, ventilation, or heating. To address these issues, we have developed an open platform that is an integrated energy management solution for buildings. It includes an ecosystem of mobile services and open APIs as well as protocols for the development of new services and products. Moreover, it has an adapter layer that enables the platform to interoperate with any building management system (BMS) or individual device. Thus, the platform makes it possible for third-party developers to produce mobile energy efficiency applications that will work independently of which BMS and devices are used in the building. To validate the platform, a number of services have been implemented and evaluated in existing buildings. This has been done in cooperation with energy companies and property owners, together with the residents and other users of the buildings. The platform, which we call Elis, has been made available as open source software under an MIT license.


In the decade between the beginning of the world depression and the Japanese occupation of the islands there appeared a steadily mounting volume of literature on the Netherlands East Indies. This was a reflection of the increasing interest taken by the world, and by the United States in particular, in this large, tropical, insular dependency, but it was also an indication of the rapid social economic and political developments within the dependency. Before 1930 interest in the Netherlands Indies was not great; since 1930 world interest in it increased rapidly and by the end of the decade had become keen. The large corps of well-trained, scientifically minded Dutch officials sent forth a steadily increasing number of excellent studies on various phases of Indies life. Obviously, it is impossible to review the entire field of this literature; only the more significant contributions can be here considered.


In the context of conservation and use of plant genetic resources, both storage in gene banks (ex situ) and
safeguard on-farm (in situ) are important concepts. Increasingly attention focuses on the on-farm
management of plant genetic resources as a dynamic maintenance strategy. To date, little is known about
the potential of 'evolutionary' adaptation to site-specific conditions and the mechanisms involved. Lentil
is an autogamous food legume crop with limited recombination. In long-term experiment three old lentil
cultivars were exposed to ten generations of natural selection at three farms in Central and Northern
Germany under rain-fed conditions. Two of the selection sites were on soils with low fertility and expected
frequent shortages in water supply during the growing season. The following four main questions were
investigated: i) Did natural selection during ten generations lead to site-specific adaptation in terms of
yield? ii) Did natural selection alter phenotypic and genotypic variability? iii) What is the importance of
seed weight for natural selection and adaptation? iv) Was drought a significant factor for site-specific
development?
The three lentil cultivars are distinctly different in their morphological and phenological traits. Populations
in the fifth and tenth generation under site-specific natural selection within each cultivar and the
corresponding initial material were compared in a two-year field trial at the three selection sites. Singleplant
progeny testing during two years at one location and SNP genotyping using KASPar™ assays was
done to assess phenotypic and genotypic within-population variability. Selections for extreme seed size
for six generations from each cultivar were phenotyped in the field and genotyped by SNP markers.
Additionally, populations in the tenth generation of natural selection were tested in induced drought in
rainout shelters for their variation in drought stress tolerance during three years at one location.
Significant continuous site-specific changes in seed weight and flowering time in both directions were
observed for one cultivar. Natural selection at the more stress-prone location led to a lower seed weight
and earlier flowering, whereas in the most fertile location selection favored larger seeded genotypes and
later flowering. However, these changes did not lead to a significant site-specific adaptation in terms of
yield. But a general yield advantage across locations for the population with a lower seed weight and
earlier flowering was observed. A general tendency towards better yield for the latest generations across
cultivars and locations suggests that natural selection was positive in terms of the general performance.
Phenotypic and genotypic variation within the initial material of one cultivar goes back to three main
genotypes, which differ significantly in seed weight and flowering time. The observed phenotypic changes
and site-specific differences in the genetic variability are supposedly caused by different selection pressure
at the three locations. However, at the most stress-prone location, within-population variability is
relatively high due to recombination, whereas the population selected at the most fertile location is highly
dominated by one genotype. Across all locations, the genetic variation within this cultivar was maintained.
The other two cultivars exhibited a very low genetic variability and were maintained at all three farms
without changing their characteristic seed weight significantly.
A general yield improvement by selection for larger seeds was observed in all cultivars. The full genetic
variation within one cultivar was maintained by the selection for both extremes in seed size. Selection
within two cultivars with very low genetic variability resulted in an unintended genetic modification from the initial material by selecting 'off-types', probably resulting from spontaneous outcrossing, with smaller
seeds in one case and with larger seeds in the other.
Significant site-specific variation in drought tolerance was not found. Thus, the effect of year may have
counteracted a continuous site-specific adaptation or selection sites are not as distinctly different as
expected in water regimes. Consequently, the main factors involved in the continuous site-specific changes
in one cultivar remain unidentified. It was observed that cultivars reacted differently to drought
conditions.
On-farm management with lentil can lead to a site-specific development and site-specific adaptation may
occur in the long-term. Given a substantial genetic variability, seed yield, straw yield, harvest index, seed
weight, and flowering time were altered significantly by natural selection.
Our results prove the maintenance and management on-farm of plant genetic resources in an autogamous
species a dynamic management strategy. For the maintenance of material with substantial genetic
diversity, at least two farms with significantly different environmental conditions are necessary.
Homogeneous accessions, when combined with ex situ maintenance, could be managed at one location. I
recommend the characterization of the material in advance for its genetic diversity and outcrossing
potential to establish a well-grounded management strategy accordingly. Different material of the same
crop should not be maintained at one farm. Selection for traits considered negative for agronomic
performance and monitoring of characteristic traits may be considered to preserve the integrity of the
material and/or to improve its agronomic performance. To study the main factors involved in site-specific
adaptation by natural selection for autogamous crops, I suggest using genetically broad populations, which
should be well characterized in advance, phenotypically as well as by molecular markers, to monitor their
spatial and temporal development in diverse environments.


Power quality improvement at both grid and motor ends is always an industrial concern for multilevel inverter (MLI) fed induction motor drives. The power quality of an induction motor drive (IMD) is vehemently influenced by the pulse width modulation (PWM) technique of the drive systems. The conventional triangle carrier based level shifted (LS) space vector PWM (LS-CSVPWM) technique provides less power quality problems than the LS sinusoidal PWM (LS-SPWM). In this paper, an advanced LS carrier based bus-clamping PWM (ALS-BCPWM) technique is proposed to mitigate the power quality problems of the IMD systems. The proposed technique utilizes center-aligned harmonic injected saturation LS sinusoidal carriers. In this paper, a 54-pulse AC-DC converter is utilized to feed a 7-level (7L) cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter based IMD. The proposed ALS-BCPWM technique employed in CHB inverter's switching reduces the total harmonic distortion (THD) of grid current, stator voltage, stator current, inverter switching and conductor power losses, and torque ripple of the IMD. The performance of the proposed ALS-BCPWM technique for IMD is verified in the MATLAB/Simulink environment and through some preliminary experimental tests.


The question of the "frontiers of humanity" is at the heart of the social sciences project. It is possible to distinguish two ways of addressing the issue. The first is normative: the aim is to draw a line between what is "peculiar to humans" and what is not. The second way of considering the "frontiers of humanity" is descriptive: it is a form of reflection on the way in which any being can be humanized or dehumanized. From this point of view, humanity appears to be the result of processes that make it either appear or disappear. For twenty years now, the fields of biomedicine and of disability are both characterized by a particularly complex work concerning the "frontiers of humanity" understood in the second meaning: this issue tries to give a comprehensive overview of it. Beyond these two fields, sociology of the "frontiers of humanity" is an invitation to investigate various settings, maybe more ordinary, in which membership in a common humanity is at stake.


This letter presents the diagnostic of electrohydraulic actuators. Different types of faults common in practice are considered such as a pump fault, abnormal viscous friction, oil contamination, and internal or external oil leakage. The entire diagnostic consists of two components: 1) reference tracking control; 2) recursive harmonic analysis. Firstly, the robust repetitive control is used such that the actuator position follows the harmonic reference signal. Secondly, the Fourier transforms of the control input at multiple harmonics are calculated recursively from sliding discrete Fourier transform. Instead of the raw control input, the modulated input signal is employed for better efficiency and robustness. The diagnostic decision is made based on distribution of the Fourier transforms. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated with numerical simulations. Diagnostic performance with different sizes of the sliding window is analyzed in terms of separation metrics, as a critical design parameter.


type="main"> Accounting research provides theory and evidence on the choice and use of subjective performance measures for evaluating managerial performance. However, accounting research does not focus on the subjective performance measurement of managerial behaviour once measures have been chosen. We extend accounting research by investigating the factors that influence the subjective performance measurement decision. We predict that the level of subjective performance measurement is influenced by the informativeness of financial performance measures and by the verifiability of the nonfinancial measures in a formula-based incentive plan. We expect that the measures' informativeness and verifiability depends on the observability of both the managerial behaviour being subjectively measured and the reliability of the financial and nonfinancial performance measures. More specifically, we hypothesize that the influence of the levels of the financial performance measures on the level of subjective performance measurement is moderated by the observability of either the managerial behaviour being measured (for the financial measures) or the performance measures' reliability (for the nonfinancial measures). Data from a firm provide support for our hypotheses.


The cases of two patients suffering from carcinoma of the lung and severe thrombocytopenia are described. The thrombocytopenia was probably due to an immune mechanism and not to marrow replacement by carcinoma or consumption coagulopathy. It is suggested that patients in the older age group presenting with thrombocytopenia may have occult carcinoma.


Background: Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a heterogeneous tumor and senescence is crucial in the occurrence of cancer. This study aimed to identify senescence-based subtypes and construct a prognostic signature to predict the prognosis and guide immunotherapy or chemotherapy decisions for COAD patients. Methods: Based on the single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data of 13 samples from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we assessed cellular senescence characteristics. Transcriptome data, copy number variations (CNVs) and single nucleotide variations (SNVs) data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. GSE39582 and GSE17537 were used for validation. Senescence subtypes were identified using unsupervised consensus clustering analysis, and a prognostic signature was developed using univariate Cox analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Response of risk groups to chemotherapy was predicted using the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values. We further analyzed the relationship between risk gene expression and methylation level. The prediction performance was assessed by nomogram. Results: Senescence-related pathways were highly enriched in malignant cells and bulk RNA-seq verified cellular senescence. Three senescence subtypes were identified, in which patients in clust3 had poorest prognosis and higher T stage, accompanied with higher tumor mutation burden (TMB) and mutations, activated inflammatory response, more immune cell infiltration, and higher immune escape tendency. A senescence-based signature using 11 genes (MFNG, GPRC5B, TNNT1, CCL22, NOXA1, PABPC1L, PCOLCE2, MID2, CPA3, HSPA1A, and CALB1) was established, and accurately predicted a lower prognosis in high risk patients. Its robustness was validated by external cohort. Low risk patients were more sensitive to small molecule drugs including Erlotinib, Sunitinib, MG-132, CGP-082996, AZ628, Sorafenib, VX-680, and Z-LLNle-CHO. Risk score was an independent prognostic factor and nomogram confirmed its reliability. Four risk genes (CALB1, CPA3, NOXA1, and TNNT1) had significant positive correlation with their methylation level, while six genes (CCL22, GPRC5B, HSPA1A, MFNG, PABPC1L, and PCOLCE2) were negatively correlated with their methylation level. Conclusion: This study provides novel understanding of heterogeneity in COAD from the perspective of senescence, and develops signatures for prognosis prediction in COAD.


In this paper, an approach for robust sensor fault reconstruction of wind turbine systems in the presence of simultaneous uncertainty and disturbance is proposed. For this purpose, an adaptive sliding mode observer is designed such that the fault is reconstructed through an online adaptive law. The significance of the proposed approach in addition to its robustness against the bounded disturbances and uncertainties is that it does not require the fault and uncertainty bounds to be known a priori. An efficient algorithm is presented to adjust the design parameters based on the Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) concept. The proposed approach is applied to a 5MWs wind turbine system and simulation results demonstrate the accuracy and desirable performance of the approach.


In this paper, chromosome number, karyotype and pollen morphology of Centaureagoeksunensis Aytac & H. Duman, described in 2005, are studied for the first time. Centaurea goeksunensis is found to be tetraploid (2n=4x=60). This is the second record of polyploidy in Centaurea sect. Psephelloideae (Boiss.) Sons. The basic chromosome number of C. goeksunensis was found to be x=15 and the haploid karyotype formula is 18 m+10 sm+2 st. The pollen grains of C. goeksunensis were found to be radially symmetric, isopolar and tricolporate. They are intersemiangular in polar view and prolate–sphaeroidal in equatorial view. The exine is thickened at the poles.


Bangladesh has the Westminster type of political system, where the prime minister is the main executive, leader of the house and advises the president. The civil service is the administrative arm of the government and has the responsibility to serve the people of the country (GoB, 1994: Art 21). However, the structure of Bangladesh Civil Service shows a rigid pattern of ranks which correspondence to occupational type hence financial benefit, privileges, honours and power. The horizontal classification of civil service is also based on number of other factors such as educational requirements, level of responsibility and so on. Civil servants in Bangladesh are categorized into four "Classes" among which higher level civil servants are recognized as Class I "gazetted officers". Below them are three other classes namely Class II, Class III, and Class IV "employees" performing jobs of varied responsibility. But less privileges, honour, and rewards are attached to these three lower-level "classes". It is to mention that higher skill or occupational expertise, autonomy or self-directing, exclusiveness etc are some essential attributes of members of professionalized occupation. Most importantly, occupational expertise that justifies privileges and higher status depend on the state and its policies i.e. how a state officially define and classify particular kinds of work in the national labour market (Freidson, 2001:128). In this paper, I shall explore the development of the vocational situation in a historical context of primary schoolteachers particularly related with their position in the civil service system in Bangladesh. My discussion will also cover the following two basic questions: (a) How historically primary teaching occupation has taken shape particularly in relation to civil service system in Bangladesh? In other words, to what extent primary schoolteachers' position in the country's civil service system put them in an unfavourable situation to achieve qualities of members of a professionalized occupation; (b) to what extent different political regimes perceived primary teaching as a self-directing occupation i.e. extended the opportunity for greater autonomy in performing teachers' professional tasks since country's independence. I think these are main two questions need to be answered in order to explain the development of primary education in general and teaching occupation in particular i.e. demeanour and standards of what teachers do and material rewards as well as social prestige that have been linked to primary schoolteachers' jobs.
Keywords: state-profession relation, professionalization of occupation, status of schoolteachers, professional autonomy, teaching occupation


Monoclonal antibodies have been considered promising therapeutic entities due to their highly specific binding to antigens. For oncology in particular, the tumor specific binding of an antibody, without affecting normal tissue, is considered an ideal cancer therapy. Although the proposed mechanism of action of antibody therapeutics varies by targets and indications, antibody-dependent cytotoxicity (ADCC), complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC), ligand neutralization and inhibition of the signaling pathway are commonly used. Recent advances in genomic information, genetic engineering, and transgenic technology have greatly accelerated drug development processes. It is also possible to add new functions to antibody molecules through molecular engineering. For example, antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), which combine a monoclonal antibody and a small-molecule cytotoxic drug, have been successfully used for cancer treatment. It has been more than 20 years since the first therapeutic antibody was approved in Japan, and there are now more than 30 antibodies on the market, with many new molecules under development. Despite some drawbacks and challenges, antibody therapeutics hold great promise as we advance our knowledge and technologies in the coming years.


The cold-formed thin-walled steel has such advantages as light-weight , good seismic capability and is suitable for reconstruction in seismic disastrous area. Nonlinear analysis by software ANSYS on the performances of static and dynamic of a 2 -story building has been done. The analysis reveals that: (1) under the conditions of participation in the earthquake, the top lateral value of structural is large and the maximum is 9.985 mm, but all lateral displacement values standard requirement. (2) Based on the analysis under three kinds of seismic waves, the corner roofing of second independent room has much larger displacement values than others, torsion has been happened on structure. (3) Under the seismic wave, the maximum value is 2.47 which happened on the 400cm/s2 of Taft wave; structure has obviously response under Taft wave。


Sheets of water discharging freely from straight or curved spillways may be subjected to differential pressure across the faces of the nappe. An analytical solution derived for the two-dimensional problem allows determination of the trajectory in cases in which the initial velocity, angle of projection, and nappe thickness are known. The general equations are derived from the equations of motion in horizontal and vertical directions, and the resulting differential equation can be solved if the effects of surface tension are ignored. It is known that surface tension can safely be omitted in most practical applications. Typical results compare favorably with those from similar equations solved by numerical methods on an electronic computer. The sensitivity of thin nappes to transverse pressure difference suggests that an accurate pressure measuring device can be devised by application of the equations developed. The phenomenon of nappe oscillation that sometimes occurs on long free-flow spillways of dams raised by stressed cables and on crest gates is being studied by consideration of the influence of rapidly varying pressures on nappe profiles.