But existing evidence is enough to implicate it as a health hazard

R ecently the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed more than 50 studies of passive smoking and lung cancer.1 The pooled excess risk of lung cancer from exposure to spousal smoking was about 20% for women and 30% for men. So what do the two articles featured in this issue add to the evidence on the health hazards of passive smoking, which is already quite extensive (277, 287)?2 3

Compared with the large number of cases of lung cancer (about 6700) available for the IARC meta-analysis, the report from the EPIC study makes a relatively modest contribution (about 100 newly diagnosed cases).2 The adjusted hazard ratio for lung cancer among people exposed to passive smoking was 1.70 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 2.60). Some methodological limitations have been noted in …


Discharge of volcanic gases in the marine environment can lead to local perturbations in ocean acidity, with consequences for biological communities and the potential for hazards related to depressurization and release of gases at the surface. Numerous hydrothermal vents in the crater of Kolumbo submarine volcano (Aegean Sea) are discharging virtually pure gaseous CO 2 together with clear fluids at temperatures up to 220 °C. Acoustic imaging of the ascending bubbles suggests that the gas is being dissolved into seawater within ∼10 m above the crater floor (500 m below sea level). Dissolution of the gas likely causes local increases in water density that result in sequestration of CO 2 within the enclosed crater, and the accumulation of acidic seawater. Lack of macrofauna at the Kolumbo hydrothermal vents, occurrence of carbonate-poor sediment in the crater, and pH values as low as 5.0 in recovered water samples point to acidic conditions within the crater. Buildup of CO 2 -rich water in the bowl-shaped crater of Kolumbo may be producing conditions analogous to some African volcanic lakes (Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos, Cameroon) where overturn of gas-rich bottom waters led to abrupt releases of CO 2 at the surface. A minimum estimate of 2.0 × 10 5 m 3 (STP) of excess CO 2 may currently exist in the bottom 10 m of the Kolumbo crater.


Purpose We established the China Respiratory Illness Surveillance among Pregnant women (CRISP) to conduct active surveillance for influenza-associated respiratory illness during pregnancy in China from 2015 to 2018. Among annual cohorts of pregnant women, we assess the incidence of acute respiratory illness (ARI), influenza-like illness (ILI), laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection and the seroconversion proportion during the winter influenza season. We also plan to examine the effect of influenza virus infection on adverse pregnancy, delivery and infant health outcomes with cumulative data from the three annual cohorts. Participants Cohort nurses enrol pregnant women in different trimesters of pregnancy from prenatal care facilities in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, eastern China. Pregnant women who plan to deliver in the study facilities are eligible. Pregnant women who are seeking care for anything other than routine prenatal care, such as confirmation of low progesterone and threatened miscarriage, are excluded. At enrolment, study nurses collect baseline information on demographics, education-level attained, underlying medical conditions, seasonal influenza vaccination receipt, risk factors for influenza infection, gravidity and parity and contact information. For each participant, cohort nurses conduct twice weekly follow-up contacts, one phone call and one WeChat message (free instant messaging), from the time of enrolment until delivery or termination of pregnancy. During follow-up, study nurses ask about symptoms, timing and characteristics of ARI, healthcare-seeking behaviour and medications taken for participants reporting respiratory illness since the last contact. In addition, we collect combined nasal and throat swabs for identified ARI to test for influenza viruses. We collect paired sera before and after the influenza season. Active respiratory illness surveillance and seroinfection data during pregnancy of participants are linked to their medical record and the Suzhou Maternal Child Information System for detailed information on clinical treatment for respiratory illness, pregnancy, delivery and infant health outcomes. Findings to date In 2015–2016, of 4915 pregnant women approached, 192 (4%) refused to participate, 91 (2%) were ineligible because they did not plan to deliver in one of the study hospitals or because their visit was for anything other than routine prenatal care and 4632 (94%) were enrolled, 46% during their first trimester of pregnancy (range 5–12 weeks), 48% during the second trimester (range 13–27 weeks) and 6% during the third trimester (range 28–37 weeks). The median age of the enrollees was 27 years (range 16–45) and two (0.04%, 95% CI 0.01% to 0.17%) reported influenza vaccination in the previous 12 months before pregnancy, while zero reported influenza vaccination in the previous 12 months during pregnancy. During the observation time of 648 518 person-days, 1355 ARI episodes were identified. Among 1127 swabs collected (for 83% of all ARIs), 68 (6%) tested positive for influenza virus, for a laboratory-confirmed influenza incidence of 0.31 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.40) per 100 person-months during pregnancy in the study cohort. Future plans Results will be used to describe influenza disease burden in this population to model potential numbers of influenza illnesses averted if influenza vaccination coverage were increased and to support enhanced influenza prevention and control strategies among pregnant women in China. We also plan to enrol and follow three cohorts of pregnant women over three influenza seasons during 2015–2018 which will allow an analysis of the effect of influenza virus infection during pregnancy on adverse pregnancy, delivery and infant outcomes.


Email security becomes a sensitive case to study in the field of information security. From the most important security issues of network is how to secure Email from the threats that can be exposed of the security of massages by attackers. In addition, what are the techniques that can be using to secure the Email? Different solutions and several standards levels have been fashioned according to the last security requirements that enhance the Email security. Some of the current enhancements concentrate on keeping the exchange of data through Email in an integral and confident way. While the others concentrate on authenticating the sender and confirm that, client will not repudiate from his message. This paper will explain Email works and discuss different threats in Email Communication and several Email security solutions. This paper introduces several models and techniques utilized to fix and enhance the safety of Email systems.


Estrogen mediates its effects through multiple cellular receptors. In addition to the classical nuclear estrogen receptors (ERalpha and ERbeta), estrogen also signals through the seven-transmembrane G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) GPR30. Although estrogen is a cell-permeable ligand, it is often assumed that all GPCRs function solely as cell surface receptors. Our previous results showed that GPR30 appeared to be expressed predominantly in the endoplasmic reticulum. A critical question that arises is whether this localization represents the site of functional receptor. To address this question, we synthesized a collection of cell-permeable and cell-impermeable estrogen derivatives. We hypothesized that if functional GPR30 were expressed at the cell surface, both permeable and impermeable derivatives would show activity. However, if functional GPR30 were predominantly intracellular, like ERalpha, only the permeable ligands should show activity. Cell permeability was assessed using cells expressing ERalpha as a model intracellular estrogen-binding receptor. Our results reveal that despite exhibiting similar binding affinities for GPR30, only the cell-permeable ligands are capable of stimulating rapid calcium mobilization and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) activation. We conclude that GPR30 expressed intracellularly is capable of initiating cellular signaling and that there is insufficient GPR30 expressed on the cell surface to initiate signaling in response to impermeable ligands in the cell lines examined. To our knowledge, this is the first definitive demonstration of a functional intracellular transmembrane estrogen receptor.


This paper debates how Andean mountains become persons with political ontology, a post-humanist orientation that has recently highlighted this phenomenon. Mountains' physical bodies synthesize various life processes and precipitate as metapersons when people engage them socially as willful agents, hoping to regulate mountains' extra-human powers morally. This socialization remains incomplete, however. Aloof to human vulnerability, mountains frequently appear as q'alas, Andean people's barely human racial persecutors and class enemies. By taking this form, mountains suggest that people's relation with the land is similarly troubled, not the benign matter of kinship that political ontology proposes.


Gouty arthritis is one of the most common rheumatic diseases. The clinical burden of gouty arthritis has historically been well recognized; however, gout is often misdiagnosed and mismanaged. The prevalence of gout is rising and is likely attributed to several factors including increased incidence of comorbidities, lifestyle factors, and increased use of causative medications. With the increasing prevalence, there have been several innovations and evidence‐based updates related to the diagnosis and management of gout. Acute gouty arthritis should be treated with nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), colchicine, or corticosteroids, or a combination of two agents. Xanthine oxidase inhibitor therapy remains the consensus first‐line treatment option for the prevention of recurrent gout. Add‐on therapies that reduce serum urate concentration include traditional uricosuric agents and a novel uric acid reabsorption inhibitor. Prophylaxis of acute gout with NSAIDs, colchicine, or corticosteroids is universally recommended when initiating any urate‐lowering therapy in order to prevent acute gouty arthritis for a period of at least 6 months. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology and risk factors for gouty arthritis and evaluate diagnostic strategies and therapeutic regimens for the management of gout, including a new drug approval.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify disease‐related aspects of functioning and disability in people with joint contractures from a health professionals' perspective and to describe the findings, using categories of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). Design: An Internet‐based expert survey. Methods: We asked international health professionals for typical problems in functioning and important contextual factors of individuals with joint contractures using an Internet‐based open‐ended questionnaire. All answers were linked to the ICF according to established rules. Absolute and relative frequencies of the linked ICF categories were reported. Findings: Eighty experts named 1785 meaning units which could be linked to 256 ICF categories. Among the categories, 24.2% belonged to the component Body Functions, 20.7% to Body Structures, 36.3% to Activities and Participation, and 18.8% to Environmental Factors. Conclusion: Health professionals addressed a large variety of functional problems and multifaceted aspects due to the symptom joint contractures. Clinical Relevance: International health professionals reported a large variety of aspects of functioning and health, which are related to joint contractures.


Confronted with the general dilemmas besieged by limited land resource and traffic congestion, land transport authority of Singapore has successfully implemented the Vehicle Quota System (VQS) to control the vehicle population. The VQS requires each new vehicle buyer to bid for a license, called Certificate of Entitle (COE), for the registration of her/his new vehicles. This study will examine the quantifiable and unquantifiable determinants of the COE premium for cars in Singapore firstly, based on a revealed preference (RP) survey and some related literature reviews. Through the collected real data, the impacts of these determinants are further analyzed by formulating an autoregressive model with exogenous variables, which is verified to well fit the trend of the COE premium. Thus, the autoregressive model can be used by the authority or bidders to understand the feasibility of VQS and to estimate COE premium changing trend more reasonably.


I attend to the particular social and revelatory functions that the folkloric has been made to perform in the Japanese tradition. Reaching deep into literary history, I examine the gazetteer (fudoki) and the explanatory tale (setsuwa) as two crucial premodern sites of collection, examining the ways that folkloric texts are embedded in their surrounding literary projects, before turning to a consideration of contemporary women's fiction. I investigate folklore, not in terms of typology or motif, but rather as a shared cultural reference that can be adjusted, embroidered upon, altered radically, or changed subtly as an act of cultural intervention. This reframing of folklore sheds light on the exigency of tales about sex with nonhumans in contemporary feminist fiction, where encounters with the anomalous reveal the consistent, persistent, but generally unseen or invisible workings of a gendered, and sexually violent, world.


The presence of a third dimension makes accurate drawing in virtual reality (VR) more challenging than 2D drawing. These challenges include higher demands on spatial cognition and motor skills, as well as the potential for mistakes caused by depth perception errors. We present Multiplanes, a VR drawing system that supports both the flexibility of freehand drawing and the ability to draw accurate shapes in 3D by affording both planar and beautified drawing. The system was designed to address the above-mentioned challenges. Multiplanes generates snapping planes and beautification trigger points based on previous and current strokes and the current controller pose. Based on geometrical relationships to previous strokes, beautification trigger points serve to guide the user to reach specific positions in space. The system also beautifies user's strokes based on the most probable intended shape while the user is drawing them. With Multiplanes, in contrast to other systems, users do not need to manually activate such guides, allowing them to focus on the creative process.


Ants of the Tetramorium solidum group occur in Africa, with the vast majority of species endemic to the arid regions of southern Africa. The first revision of the genus was published more than 30 years ago and ant surveys have since considerably expanded the number of specimens available for study. The revision of this group reveals five new species, expanding the total number to 19. Almost all the species in this group occur in the southern parts of the Afrotropical region, with the exception of T. setuliferum Emery, 1895 and T. rothschildi (Forel, 1907). These two species have broad distributions within African grasslands and savannas, with T. setuliferum occurring in southern Africa and T. rothschildi in East Africa and the Sahel. Five new species are described in this revision: T. aisha sp. nov., T. brigitteae sp. nov., T. duncani sp. nov., T. lerouxi sp. nov. and T. margueriteae sp. nov. An illustrated key is presented and descriptions of new species are provided, supported by montage images and distribution maps.


Epidemiological and preclinical evidence supports that omega-3 dietary fatty acids (fish oil) reduce the risks of macular degeneration and cancers, but the mechanisms by which these omega-3 lipids inhibit angiogenesis and tumorigenesis are poorly understood. Here we show that epoxydocosapentaenoic acids (EDPs), which are lipid mediators produced by cytochrome P450 epoxygenases from omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid, inhibit VEGF- and fibroblast growth factor 2-induced angiogenesis in vivo, and suppress endothelial cell migration and protease production in vitro via a VEGF receptor 2-dependent mechanism. When EDPs (0.05 mg⋅kg−1⋅d−1) are coadministered with a low-dose soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor, EDPs are stabilized in circulation, causing ∼70% inhibition of primary tumor growth and metastasis. Contrary to the effects of EDPs, the corresponding metabolites derived from omega-6 arachidonic acid, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids, increase angiogenesis and tumor progression. These results designate epoxyeicosatrienoic acids and EDPs as unique endogenous mediators of an angiogenic switch to regulate tumorigenesis and implicate a unique mechanistic linkage between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and cancers.


The professional and technical staff of the Atlanta Cardiovascular Research Institute preclinical laboratory facility are aggressively pursuing basic and applied research to aid in the understanding of cardiovascular disease and develop new therapeutic approaches. We are optimistic that our intense and broad-ranging research efforts will contribute to important advances in the care of cardiovascular disease patients in the near future and for years to come.


Purpose – Work engagement represents an important aspect of employee well-being and performance and has been related to both job and personal resources. The purpose of this paper, based on Social Cognitive Theory, is to emphasize the proactive role of self-efficacy which is hypothesized to predict work engagement, not only directly, but also indirectly through positive changes in employee's perceptions of social context (PoSC); namely, perceptions of one's immediate supervisor, colleagues and top management. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 741 employees of a communication service company completed two questionnaires, with a time interval of three years. Structural equation modeling was performed in order to test the hypothesized model. Findings – Results revealed that, as expected: first, initial self-efficacy predicts work engagement three years later; and second, positive changes in employee's perceptions of the social work context across the three year period, mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and work engagement. Research limitations/implications – Results relied only upon self-report data. Moreover, each variable was only measured at the time in which it was hypothesized by the conceptual model. Practical implications – The significant role of self-efficacy as a direct and indirect predictor of work engagement suggests the development of training programs centered on the main sources of self-efficacy, specifically focussed on the social work domain. Originality/value – This research provides evidence of the substantial contribution of self-efficacy to work engagement over time. Moreover, the results also support the beneficial effects of self-efficacy through its influence on the improvements in the individuals' perceptions of their social context.


This chapter explores the narration of risk in marine produce from Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The release of radioactive matter into the Pacific Ocean following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in north-east Japan is the largest-ever accidental marine pollution incident. In Fukushima, this has affected coastal communities for whom fishing is economically, socially and culturally significant. We explore the interplay between two different narratives around radiation risk in marine produce. One concerns dispelling 'harmful rumours' around safety of marine produce, claiming that as marine radiation can be known and controlled, raising concerns over safety is harmful to the recovery of affected locales. The second is an alternative narrative emerging from local-level actors (municipal government, fisheries cooperatives, NGOs) focused on the inherent uncertainty associated with complex coastal ecosystems. Transparency and participation in data collection act to develop collective understandings of an 'acceptable' level of uncertainty. Drawing on field research from Iwaki, we illustrate that while these two narratives are distinct, they are by no means polar opposites. Common to both are wider questions about trust in the people and institutions producing knowledge about water and about what can be known with certainty in water environments.


Recent analysis of the divergence constraint in the incompressible Stokes/Navier--Stokes problem has stressed the importance of equivalence classes of forces and how it plays a fundamental role for an accurate space discretization. Two forces in the momentum balance are velocity--equivalent if they lead to the same velocity solution, i.e., if and only if the forces differ by only a gradient field. Pressure-robust space discretizations are designed to respect these equivalence classes. One way to achieve pressure-robust schemes is to introduce a non-standard discretization of the right-side forcing term for any inf-sup stable mixed finite element method. This modification leads to pressure-robust and optimal-order discretizations, but a proof was only available for smooth situations and remained open in the case of minimal regularity, where it cannot be assumed that the vector Laplacian of the velocity is at least square-integrable. This contribution closes this gap by delivering a general estimate for the consistency error that depends only on the regularity of the data term. Pressure-robustness of the estimate is achieved by the fact that the new estimate only depends on the $L^2$ norm of the Helmholtz--Hodge projector of the data term and not on the $L^2$ norm of the entire data term. Numerical examples illustrate the theory.


Purpose
The primary purpose of this research was to expand the knowledge base regarding the behavior of steel columns during exposure to fire. This paper presents the numerical study of the effect of heat on the performance of parking steel column in a seven-story steel building under cyclic loading.

Design/methodology/approach
In this research, the forces and deformations developed during a fire are estimated by using detailed 3D finite-element models. The analyses are in the form of a coupled thermo-mechanical analysis in two types of loading: concurrent loading (fire and cyclic loading) and non-concurrent loading (first fire and then cyclically), and the analyses have been conducted in both states of the fire loading with cooling and without cooling using the ABAQUS software. Further, it was investigated whether, during the fire loading, the specimen was protected by a 3-cm-thick concrete coating and how much it changes the seismic performance. After verification of the specimen with the experimental test results, the column model was investigated under different loading conditions.

Findings
The result of analyses indicates that the effect of thermal damage on the performance of steel columns, when cooling is happening late, is more than the state in which cooling occurs immediately after the fire. In this paper, thermal–seismic performance of parking steel columns has been specified and the effect of the fire damage has been investigated for the protected steel by concrete coating and to the non-protected steel, under both cooling and non-cooling states.

Originality/value
This study led to recommendations based on the findings and suggestions for additional work to support performance-based fire engineering. It is clear that predicting force and deformation on steel column during fire is complex and it is affected by many variables. Here in this paper, those variables are examined and proper results have been achieved.


A computer program is developed using Microsoft Visual C++ in theWindows environment. This program focuses on two specific finite Abelian groups, which are the group Zn under addition modulo n and the group U(n) under multiplication modulo n, where n is any positive integer less than or equal to 120. Computations of the properties of the two groups get more tedious and time consuming as the value of n increases. Therefore a program that could assist in the computation would indeed be of great help. This program in C++ is written relating to some properties of Zn and U(n). It enables the user to enter any positive integer n (n · 120) to generate answers to some properties of these two groups. A lattice diagram can be obtained for any groups of Zn and, for groups of U(n) which are cyclic.


Ovarian cancer is a heterogeneous disease and recent advances in improving patient outcome havebeen limited. It is estimated that a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 70, making it a frequently occurring cancer type in women.This thesis investigated biological events in ovarian cancer, which were translated into clinically relevant observations using different biomolecular approaches.Study I investigated the use of sex steroid hormone receptor expression as a prognostic marker in ovarian cancer. We evaluated the expression of estrogen receptor (ER)α, ERβ, progesterone receptor (PR) and androgen receptor (AR) in a cohort of serous and endometrioid cancers. We found that expression of PR and AR was associated with favorable outcome, and co-expression of AR and PR granted an additional prognostic effect. Although we were unable to detect any association between mRNA expression and a favorable outcome in an independent data set, molecular subtypes in the data set differentially expressed PGR and ESR1. Whether this effect accounted for the reported improved outcome in some of the subgroups remains to be investigated.Study II characterized ovarian clear cell carcinomas (OCCC) with the purpose of identifying potential treatment candidates. OCCC presents a distinct molecular subtype of ovarian cancer, with high chemoresistance. Through integrative bioinformatics we evaluated combined gene expression data, DNA sequencing data and protein expression data from OCCC tumors. The collective data suggested Rho GTPases as a potential treatment candidate in OCCC.Study III evaluated the effect of targeting Rho GTPases in OCCC using simvastatin and CID-1067700 in OCCC cell lines. All OCCC cell lines were more sensitive to simvastatin as compared to conventional platinum-based chemotherapy. Both of the drugs we evaluated were found to disorganize the cytoskeleton and inhibit migration. The cellular response mechanisms differed between cell lines, however a potential effect on both the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and RAS/ERK pathways was suggested.Study IV aimed at evaluating the effects of screening prediagnostic liquid based vaginal samples for TP53 mutations, an approach applied for early detection of ovarian cancer. We identified 8 women with somatic TP53 mutations in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) and analyzed both prediagnostic (presymptomatic) and diagnostic vaginal samples. We used ultrasensitive droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) (IBSAFE™) and found mutations in diagnostic samples from 75% (6/8) of the patients; however, no mutations were detected in the prediagnostic samples. Despite this ddPCR was able to analyze samples with very limited DNA, where other methods would fail. This provides a basis for the further evaluation of IBSAFE™ in a larger cohort of patients.In conclusion, these studies further characterized ovarian cancer biology and heterogeniety, and have provided the basis for future studies in ovarian cancer with the potential of improving outcome. (Less)


Accurate prediction of the completion time of a business process instance would constitute a valuable tool when managing processes under service level agreement constraints. Such prediction, however, is a very challenging task. A wide variety of factors could influence the trend of a process instance, and hence just using time statistics of historical cases cannot be sufficient to get accurate predictions. Here we propose a new approach where, in order to improve the prediction quality, both the control and the data flow perspectives are jointly used. To achieve this goal, our approach builds a process model which is augmented by time and data information in order to enable remaining time prediction. The remaining time prediction of a running case is calculated combining two factors: (a) the likelihood of all the following activities, given the data collected so far; and (b) the remaining time estimation given by a regression model built upon the data.


The nonlinear Schr6dinger (NLS) equation i~ t + V2~ + al~lS~ = 0 is a canonical and universal equation which is of major importance in continuum mechanics, plasma physics and optics. This paper argues that much of the observed solution behavior in the critical case sd = 4, where d is dimension and s is the order of nonlinearity, can be understood in terms of a combination of weak turbulence theory and condensate and collapse formation. The results are derived in the broad context of a class of Hamiltonian systems of which NLS is a member, so that the reader can gain a perspective on the ingredients important for the realization of the various equilibrium spectra, thermodynamic, pure Kolmogorov and combinations thereof. We also present time-dependent, self-similar solutions which describe the relaxation of the system towards these equilibrium states. We show that the number of particles lost in an individual collapse event is virtually independent of damping. Our numerical simulation of the full governing equations is the first to show the validity of the weak turbulence approximation. We also present a mechanism for intermittency which should have widespread application. It is caused by strongly nonlinear collapse events which are nucleated by a flow of particles towards the origin in wavenumber space. These highly organized events result in a cascade of particle number towards high wavenumbers and give rise to an intermittency and a behavior which violates many of the usual Kolmogorov assumptions about the loss of statistical information and the statistical independence of large and small scales. We discuss the relevance of these ideas to hydrodynamic turbulence in the conclusion.


OBJECT
It is becoming apparent that the presence of certain genetic variations (polymorphisms) may increase the individual's susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases, even in the absence of a family history. We hypothesized that brain aneurysms more prone to rupture may be identified on the basis of an individual's genotype for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), a critical vasomodulatory protein found to be increasingly relevant to the pathobiology of aneurysms.

METHODS
Patients' clinical data were recorded prospectively. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood samples obtained from individuals presenting consecutively to the Mayo Clinic with ruptured (58 patients) or unruptured (49 patients) intracranial saccular aneurysms. Using polymerase chain reaction and gene microarray technology, the following eNOS genetic polymorphisms were studied: intron-4 27-base pair variable number of tandem repeats (27 VNTR); promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (T-786C SNP); and exon-7 SNP (G894T SNP). Both groups of patients had similar demographic and clinical characteristics. For all three polymorphisms, variant alleles (p < or = 0.003) and their corresponding genotypes (p < or = 0.006) were found two to four times more frequently in patients with ruptured aneurysms than in patients with unruptured aneurysms. Strikingly, the odds ratio for presenting with a ruptured brain aneurysm among individuals demonstrating the copresence of all three variant alleles was 11.4 (95% confidence interval 1.7-75.9, p = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS
The authors have uniquely identified a set of tandem eNOS gene variations whose presence can be used to identify patients with aneurysms likely to rupture. We believe that if this finding is reproducible in a large multicenter study, in addition to known anatomical factors a rapid and cost-effective screening tool will become available to clinicians as a genetic aid to predict the risks of rupture in patients presenting with unruptured intracranial aneurysms.


Objective Heart rate variability (HRV) evaluates small beat-to-beat time interval (BBI) differences produced by the heart and suggested as a marker of the autonomic nervous system. Artifact produced by movement with wrist worn devices can significantly impact the validity of HRV analysis. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of small errors in BBI selection on HRV analysis and produce a foundation for future research in mental health wearable technology. Methods This was a sub-analysis from a prospective observational clinical trial registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03030924). A cohort of 10 subject's HRV tracings from a wearable wrist monitor without any artifact were manipulated by the study team to represent the most common forms of artifact encountered. Results Root mean square of successive differences stayed below a clinically significant change when up to 5 beats were selected at the wrong time interval and up to 36% of BBIs was removed. Standard deviation of next normal intervals stayed below a clinically significant change when up to 3 beats were selected at the wrong time interval and up to 36% of BBIs were removed. High frequency HRV shows significant changes when more than 2 beats were selected at the wrong time interval and any BBIs were removed. Conclusion Time domain HRV metrics appear to be more robust to artifact compared to frequency domains. Investigators examining wearable technology for mental health should be aware of these values for future analysis of HRV studies to improve data quality.


In this paper, we develop a carrier phase estimation algorithm to allow GPS receivers to maintain continuous signal tracking through wideband radio frequency interference events. Due to the nature of the GPS signal, carrier phase estimation is a hybrid estimation problem, requiring simultaneous estimation of the discrete-time navigation data bits and the continuous carrier phase. We use an interacting multiple model algorithm with two measurement models corresponding to the two possible choices of navigation data bits (+1 and -1) over each 20 ms coherent integration interval. At the end of each interval, we extract the final state vector estimate by combining the two modes' estimation results using their likelihood functions. We present experimental results to evaluate the performance of the IMM filter during wideband interference events.


Abstract Accelerated repeated measures degradation tests are often used to assess product or component reliability when there would be few or even no failures during a traditional life test. Such tests are used to estimate the failure-time distributions of highly reliable items in applications where it is possible to take repeated measures of some appropriate degradation measure. When engineers have valid prior information about failure mechanisms, it is important that such information be used in inference and test planning. Bayesian methods provide a vehicle for doing this. This article describes methods for selecting a Bayesian repeated measures accelerated degradation test plan when the degradation and acceleration model is linear in the parameters. A Bayesian criterion based on estimation precision of the failure-time quantile at use conditions is selected for finding optimum test plans. We use a large-sample approximation for the posterior distribution to simplify the planning criterion. The general equivalence theorem is used to check for global optimality of the optimum test plan. We also discuss how to find a compromise test plan that satisfies practical constraints while still providing good statistical properties.


Ever since the term "cloud computing" was coined a few years back, there are numerous reasons that adopted by businesses and offer abstracted Internet services. Due to varied degree of security features and management schemes within the cloud entities security in the cloud is challenging. Security issues ranging from system misconfiguration, lack of proper updates, or unwise user behavior from remote data storage that can expose user's private data and information to unwanted access can plague a Cloud Computing. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in Cloud computing environment. We also proposed a security scheme keeping in view the issues and challenges faced by cloud computing. Keywords— Cloud Computing, Data Protection, Security, Application Program Interface, Average Revenue Per user.


Flavobacterium odoratum Stutzer and Kwaschnina 1929 was originally meagerly described. No type strain was designated, and the species does not appear to have been referred to in the literature since it was first described. We have examined a reference strain (ATCC 4651 = NCTC 11036) of this species, one of Stutzer's strains, which we propose as the neotype strain. Of 1,500 gram-negative, non-fermentative isolates submitted to the National Collection of Type Cultures for computer-assisted identification over the last 10 years, nine conformed in their characters to the proposed neotype strain of F. odoratum. We have examined these strains in a large number of biochemical tests and in susceptibility to a range of antimicrobial agents in order to give a revised description of the organism by which it may be more easily recognized in clinical material. All 10 isolates of F. odoratum were resistant to gentamicin and carbenicillin as well as to several other antimicrobial agents generally useful in the treatment of infections caused by gram-negative, non-fermentative organisms, and this suggests that infections due to this organism might prove difficult to treat.


Mark lee Advertising Director To open the Summer issue, Clarke, Nolan, and Sampson review a framework for evaluating investment innovation and assessing its contribution to "investor welfare," a measure of investors' ability to build portfolios that ref lect their preferences. They also discuss opportunities for innovation and the technological and regulatory developments that could bring them to the marketplace. Renshaw reports that the weakening of the Index Effect has been pronounced for largeand mid-cap stocks. He examines the importance of several other aspects related to the Index Effect including illiquidity and unscheduled rebalances. He also discusses potential explanations for the weakening. Next, Henke, Kaufmann, Messow, and Fang-Klingler investigate the application of factor investing in corporate bonds. Their results suggest that investors in the corporate bond market should strongly consider using systematic strategies in the form of an integrated multifactor approach instead of relying on external managers to implement factor exposures, combining a wide variety of factors from the areas of risk, value, quality, and sentiment. Fisher, McDonald, and Kozlowski examine the cross-sectional correlations among equities and relate that to the performance of actively managed mutual funds. They find that actively managed mutual funds generate lower abnormal returns when the average cross-sectional correlation is high. This result holds for both small funds and large funds, within various subperiods, and when controlling for fund fixed effects. To complete this issue, Dey and Wang, in a return commonality framework, estimate portfolio betas associated with changes in returns of 15 Chinese ADRs and their underlying H-shares. Their results indicate asymmetric impact of changes in portfolio returns on changes in ADR and H-share returns; further, the asymmetries are enhanced across return quartiles. As always, we welcome your submissions. Please encourage those you know who have papers or have made good presentations on indexing, ETFs, mutual funds, or related subjects to submit them for consideration. We value your comments and suggestions, so please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


Abstract This article explores the legal structures and discursive framings informing the governance of one particular "backward" region of India, the Andaman Islands. I trace the shifting patterns of occupation and development of the islands in the colonial and postcolonial periods, with a focus on the changes wrought by independence in 1947 and the eventual history of planned development there. I demonstrate how intersecting discourses of indigenous savagery/primitivism and the geographical emptiness were repeatedly mobilized in colonial-era surveys and postcolonial policy documents. Postcolonial visions of developing the Andaman Islands ushered in a settler-colonial governmentality, infused with genocidal fantasies of the "dying savage." Laws professing to protect aboriginal Jarawas actually worked to unilaterally extend Indian sovereignty over the lands and bodies of a community clearly hostile to such incorporation. I question the current exclusion of India from the global geographies of settler-colonialism and argue that the violent and continuing history of indigenous marginalization in the Andaman Islands represents a de facto operation of a logic of terra nullius.


Mutual coupling effects within an antenna array play a very important role in the areas of EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) and antenna array design. A circuit model is developed to represent the input admittance of an antenna array with a finite number of elements. This model consists of a component to represent the input admittance of an isolated antenna element and infinite shunt components with each to represent different degrees of antenna mutual coupling effects. Twersky's (1952) algorithm of multiple scattering analysis is used to illustrate the physical meaning of each circuit component. Numerical results show that good accuracy for the antenna input admittance calculation can be obtained by using this model to the second order approximation. As the array is large and sparse, a very small amount of computation can yield good accuracy. This model is shown not only to be numerically efficient compared to the full wave analysis using the moment method, but also to give a physical insight into the antenna array mutual coupling mechanism. Furthermore, this model has no limitation on antenna array geometry and excitation.


Human fMRI studies examining the putative firing of grid cells (i.e., the grid code) suggest that this cellular mechanism supports not only spatial navigation, but also more abstract cognitive processes. This research area, however, remains relatively unexplored, perhaps us to the complexities of data analysis. To overcome this, we have developed the Matlab-based Grid Code Analysis Toolbox (GridCAT), providing a graphical user interface, and open-source code, for the analysis of fMRI data. The GridCAT performs all analyses, from estimation and fitting of the grid code in the general linear model, to the generation of grid code metrics and plots. Moreover, it is flexible in allowing the specification of bespoke analysis pipelines; example data are provided to demonstrate the GridCAT's main functionality. We believe the GridCAT is essential to opening this research area to the imaging community, and helping to elucidate the role of human grid codes in higher-order cognitive processes. Highlights The putative firing of grid cells (i.e., the grid code) can be examined using fMRI Necessary steps for grid code analysis are reviewed The Matlab-based grid code analysis toolbox (GridCAT) is introduced Automated grid code analysis can be conducted either via a graphical user interface or open-source code A detailed manual and an example dataset are provided


This study examines what effects dowry has on the gender relations in the Savar area outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The collection of data was made through fieldwork on sight in Savar, with the help of ADESH, during a two month period, in the spring of 2012. Almost twenty interviews were made out in villages with female members of ADESH who told me of how dowry and their participation in ADESH's activities affected their lives. A few interviews were also made in ADESH's own office with employees to gain a deeper understanding of the women's life situation and the work of ADESH. The focus of this thesis is on analysing how dowry affects different aspects of the society in Savar and how this affects the gender relations. In this thesis I will also examine how ADESH is conducting their work and what activities they offer their members. The conclusion of my study is in short that dowry seems to have a large impact on many aspects of the women's lives and that the actions that are taken to decrease and remove gender differences might not always work as intended, this does however not mean that they are without effect.


Abstract It is well known that perforation of a flat plate reduces its drag when exposed to a flow. However, studies have shown an opposite effect in the case of cylinders. Such a counterintuitive result can have significant consequences on the momentum modelling often used for wind turbine performance predictions, where increased porosity is intrinsically linked to lower drag. Here, a study of the drag of various types of porous cylinders, bars and plates under steady laminar inflow is presented. It is shown that, for most cases, the drag decreases with increased porosity. Only special types of perforations can increase the drag on both cylinders and bars, either by enhancing the effect of the rear half of the models or by organizing the wake structures. These rare occurrences are not relevant to wind turbine modelling, which indicates that current momentum models exhibit the qualitatively correct behaviour.


Sea level has risen significantly in the recent decades and is expected to rise further based on recent climate projections. Ocean reanalyses that synthetize information from observing networks, dynamical ocean general circulation models, and atmospheric forcing data offer an attractive way to evaluate sea level trend and variability and partition the causes of such sea level changes at both global and regional scales. Here, we review recent utilization of reanalyses for steric sea level trend investigations. State-of-the-science ocean reanalysis products are then used to further infer steric sea level changes. In particular, we used an ensemble of centennial reanalyses at moderate spatial resolution (between 0.5 × 0.5 and 1 × 1 degree) and an ensemble of eddy-permitting reanalyses to quantify the trends and their uncertainty over the last century and the last two decades, respectively. All the datasets showed good performance in reproducing sea level changes. Centennial reanalyses reveal a 1900–2010 trend of steric sea level equal to 0.47 ± 0.04 mm year−1, in agreement with previous studies, with unprecedented rise since the mid-1990s. During the altimetry era, the latest vintage of reanalyses is shown to outperform the previous ones in terms of skill scores against the independent satellite data. They consistently reproduce global and regional upper ocean steric expansion and the association with climate variability, such as ENSO. However, the mass contribution to the global mean sea level rise is varying with products and its representability needs to be improved, as well as the contribution of deep and abyssal waters to the steric sea level rise. Similarly, high-resolution regional reanalyses for the European seas provide valuable information on sea level trends, their patterns, and their causes.


The great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) are our closest relatives. Despite the many similarities, there are significant differences in aging among apes, including the human ape. Common to all are dental attrition, periodontitis, tooth loss, osteopenia, and arthritis, although gout is uniquely human and spondyloarthropathy is more prevalent in apes than humans. Humans are more prone to frailty, sarcopenia, osteoporosis, longevity past reproductive senescence, loss of brain volume, and Alzheimer dementia. Cerebral vascular disease occurs in both humans and apes. Cardiovascular disease mortality increases in aging humans and apes, but coronary atherosclerosis is the most significant type in humans. In captive apes, idiopathic myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyopathy predominate, with arteriosclerosis of intramural coronary arteries. Similar cardiac lesions are occasionally seen in wild apes. Vascular changes in heart and kidneys and aortic dissections in gorillas and bonobos suggest that hypertension may be involved in pathogenesis. Chronic kidney disease is common in elderly humans and some aging apes and is linked with cardiovascular disease in orangutans. Neoplasms common to aging humans and apes include uterine leiomyomas in chimpanzees, but other tumors of elderly humans, such as breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers, are uncommon in apes. Among the apes, chimpanzees have been best studied in laboratory settings, and more comparative research is needed into the pathology of geriatric zoo-housed and wild apes. Increasing longevity of humans and apes makes understanding aging processes and diseases imperative for optimizing quality of life in all the ape species.


A novel rigid polyurethane thermosetting foam is synthesized via the reaction of isocyanate terminated polyimide prepolymers with polyether polyol(4110), and deionized water and n-pentane are used for blowing agents simultaneously. The prepolymers and polymers are characterized by conventional methods and -NCO conversion rate, characteristic structure and morphology are also studied. The results show that the optimal condition of polymerization of polyimide prepolymers is under 60 oC for 30min. FTIR data show that the imide groups have been achieved successfully. The rigid polyurethane-imide foams prepared by this technique possess the cell diameter ranging from 1.5mm to 2.5mm and bubbles distributing equably.


Context. We present here an analysis of the potential sources of oxygen species in the Uranus atmosphere.
Aims. Our aim is to explain the current measurements of H2O, CO, and CO2 in the Uranus atmosphere, which would allow us to constrain the influx of oxygen-bearing species and its origin in this planet.
Methods. We used a time-dependent photochemical model of the Uranus atmosphere to ascertain the origin of H2O, CO, and CO2. We thoroughly investigated the evolution of material delivered by a cometary impact, together with a combined source, i.e. cometary impact and a steady source of oxygen species from micrometeoroid ablation.
Results. We find that an impactor in the size range ~1.2–3.5 km hitting the planet between 450 and 822 yr ago could have delivered the CO currently seen in the Uranus stratosphere. Given the current set of observations, an oxygen-bearing species supply from ice grain ablation cannot be ruled out. Our study also indicates that a cometary impact cannot be the only source for rendering the observed abundances of H2O and CO2. The scenarios in which CO originates by a cometary impact and H2O and CO2 result from ice grain sublimation can explain both the space telescope and ground-based data for H2O, CO, and CO2. Similarly, a steady influx of water, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, and a cometary impact delivering carbon monoxide give rise to abundances matching the observations. The time evolution of HCN also delivered by a cometary impact (as 1% of the CO in mass), when discarding chemical recycling of HCN once it is lost by photolysis and condensation, produces a very low stratospheric abundance which could be likely non-detectable. Consideration of N2-initiated chemistry could represent a source of HCN allowing for a likely observable stratospheric mixing ratio.
Conclusions. Our modelling strongly indicates that water in the Uranus atmosphere likely originates from micrometeroid ablation, whereas its cometary origin can be discarded with a very high level of confidence. Also, we cannot firmly constrain the origin of the detected carbon monoxide on Uranus as a cometary impact, ice grain ablation, or a combined source due to both processes can give rise to the atmospheric mixing ratio measured with the Herschel Space Observatory. To establish the origin of oxygen species in the Uranus atmosphere, observations have to allow the retrieval of vertical profiles or H2O, CO, and CO2. Measurements in narrow pressure ranges, i.e. basically one pressure level, can be reproduced by different models because it is not possible to break this degeneracy about these three oxygen species in the Uranian atmosphere.


Recently, aspheric glass lens molding core is fabricated with tungsten carbide(WC). If molding core is fabricated with silicon carbide(SiC), SiC coating process, which must be carried out before the Diamond-Like Carbon(DLC) coating can be eliminated and thus, manufacturing time and cost can be reduced. Diamond Like Carbon(DLC) is being researched in various fields because of its high hardness, high elasticity, high durability, and chemical stability and is used extensively in several industrial fields. Especially, the DLC coating of the molding core surface used in the fabrication of a glass lens is an important technical field, which affects the improvement of the demolding performance between the lens and molding core during the molding process and the molding core lifetime. Because SiC is a material of high hardness and high brittleness, it can crack or chip during grinding. It is, however, widely used in many fields because of its superior mechanical properties. In this paper, the grinding condition for silicon carbide(SiC) was developed under the grinding condition of tungsten carbide. A silicon carbide molding core was fabricated under this grinding condition. The measurement results of the molding core were as follows: PV of 0.259 ㎛(apheric surface) and 0.094 ㎛(plane surface), Ra of 5.3 ㎚(aspheric surface) and 5.5 ㎚(plane surface). The fabricated aspheric glass lens was used 5 mega pixel, 4 optical zoom camera phone module.


Total hip replacement is a common practice in every day clinical work. Artificial hip implants consist of a femoral component and an acetabular component. Nowadays the acetabular component is composed of a polymeric cup and a metallic shell. This study focuses the development of an innovative acetabular component substituting the metallic shell by a multilayer coating on the acetabular cup. A titanium coating was deposited onto ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) samples by physical vapour deposition (PVD), having an in situ pretreatment with argon ion bombardment in order to optimize the adhesive strength by surface modification, followed by the deposition of a thin film of hydroxyapatite (HA) using rf magnetron sputtering technique, at room temperature. Results obtained seem to indicate that these multilayer coatings can be a viable alternative to the metallic shell, leading to the substitution of a two part for a one part acetabular component.


Design thinking, which initially emerged in the 1980s, has notably been recently receiving increased attention, particularly in business communities, as a process that enables rapid, innovative, and user-centric problem solving (Lockwood, 2010). As the forthcoming generations of marketing graduates enter this 'Consumer Age', they will be forced to think innovatively and empathetically in order to adjust to constant and rapid changes in our environment (Hanttu, 2013). Design thinking equips modern marketers with the opportunity to become consumercentric and effectively generate innovative solutions on a constant basis to complex challenges that exists (Mohr, 2015). While the concept is gaining increasing hold amongst practitioners, surprisingly little academic attention has been devoted to applications of Design Thinking specifically in Marketing education settings, though the methodology's strong emphasis on obtaining a deep understanding of the user would seem to connect with the principles of marketing (Glen et al., 2014). Notably, research has mainly been focused on business environments, leaving a gap where empirical research of Design Thinking specific to the Marketing student is needed. Thus the research question that I address in this study looks to determine: "What potential can Design Thinking offer Marketing students in meeting workplace learning and performance challenges?" The research design is itself based on the principles of design thinking thus applies the iterative, cyclical and human-centred nature of the process, predominantly relying on frequent engagement and interactions with the marketing student to aid in addressing the research question. This thesis contributes to the area of Marketing education by offering insight into the Marketing students' unarticulated issues and needs in relation to the Marketing curriculum, and in addition explores the most sought after requirements by today's Marketing industry employees. This study also offers recommendations for the development of a collaborative and engaging toolkit that can support a Marketing students' creative and solution-orientated thinking.


In wireless mesh networks, designing algorithms that efficiently balance the traffic loads among a given set of network gateways is a challenging problem. Links interfere, transfer capacity is limited, and traffic demands vary overtime. The position of the gateways also affects the overall network performance as a result of its direct impact on the way routers are associated to gateways. In this paper, we investigate the performance of several routers-to-gateways association heuristics in relation with different gateway placement algorithms.We show that if bounds on the number of hops between routers and gateways exist, load-based heuristics perform the best. In general cases however, interference-based approaches provide better load balancing.


The practice of cardiology is increasingly constrained by guidelines, regulations, and legal considerations. Cardiologists, like any other group of doctors, have a primary duty of care to individual patients, but also have wider responsibilities to society in general, to their institution, and to their colleagues. In the UK these duties and responsibilities have been defined by the General Medical Council and have been described in a series of publications which have been sent to every doctor; these contain the answers to questions about good medical practice, the role of doctors in the management of health care, confidentiality and other issues.

Clinical freedom died around 1983.1 A number of factors sounded the death knell. Among the more important were, first, the incontrovertible results of randomised controlled trials. Many of these were in the cardiovascular field—for example, coronary artery bypass grafting for patients with angina and severe disease, thrombolysis and β blockade for myocardial infarction, and aspirin for the acute coronary syndromes. These, together with earlier trials demonstrating the efficacy of antihypertensive treatment, and subsequent trials showing the benefits of statins and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, have fundamentally altered the practice of medicine. Physicians have to have good reasons for denying patients the potential benefits of these treatments.

Financial constraints were a second factor that killed off clinical freedom. These became apparent in the British National Health Service (NHS) somewhat before other countries and have led to the universal recognition that third party payers of health care should not be expected to fund treatments simply on the assertions of a doctor, however distinguished. Evidence of benefit is mandatory.

A third factor has been the gradual realisation by the public that doctors are not always to be trusted. Some have fallen off their pedestals rather publicly, so that nowadays doctors not only …


OF DISSERTATION BIODEGRADABLE HYDROGELS AND NANOCOMPOSITE POLYMERS: SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS Hydrogels are popular materials for biological applications since they exhibit properties like that of natural soft tissue and have tunable properties. Biodegradable hydrogels provide an added advantage in that they degrade in an aqueous environment thereby avoiding the need for removal after the useful lifetime. In this work, we investigated poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) biodegradable hydrogel systems. To begin, the factors affecting the macromer synthesis procedure were studied to optimize the reproducibility of the resulting hydrogels made and create new methods of tuning the properties. Hydrogel behavior was then tuned by altering the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance of the chemicals used in the synthesis to develop systems with linear and twophase degradation profiles. The goal of the research was to better understand methods of controlling hydrogel properties to develop systems for several biomedical applications. Several systems with a range of properties were synthesized, and their in vitro behavior was characterized (degradation, mechanical properties, cellular response, etc.). From these studies, materials were chosen to serve as porogen materials and an outer matrix material to create a composite scaffold for tissue engineering. In most cases, a porous three dimensional scaffold is ideal for cellular growth and infiltration. In this work, a composite with a slow degrading outer matrix PBAE with fast degrading PBAE microparticles was created. First, a procedure for developing porogen particles of controlled size from a fast-degrading hydrogel material was developed. Porogen particles were then entrapped in the outer hydrogel matrix during polymerization. The resulting composite systems were degraded and the viability of these systems as tissue engineering scaffolds was studied. In a second area of work, two polymer systems, one PBAE hydrogel and one solgel material were altered through the addition of iron oxide nanoparticles to create materials with remote controlled properties. Iron oxide nanoparticles have the ability to heat in an alternating magnetic field due to the relaxation processes. The incorporation of these nanoscale heating sources into thermosensitive polymer systems allowed remote actuation of the physical properties. These materials would be ideal for use in applications where the system can be changed externally such as in remote controlled drug delivery.


There has been extensive research in the field of Hyperspectral Image Classification using deep neural networks. The deep learning based approaches requires huge amount of labelled data samples. But in the case of Hyperspectral Image, there are less number of labelled data samples. Therefore, we can adopt Active Learning combined with deep learning based approaches to be able to extract most informative data samples. By using this technique, we can train the classifier to achieve better classification accuracies with less number of labelled data samples. There is considerable amount of research carried out for selecting diverse data samples from the pool of unlabeled data samples. We present a novel diversity-based Active Learning approach utilizing the information of clustered data distribution. We incorporate diversity criteria with Active Learning selection criteria and combine it with Convolutional Neural Network for feature extraction and classification. This approach helps us in obtaining most informative and diverse data samples. We have compared our proposed approach with three other sampling methods in terms of classification accuracies, Cohen Kappa score, which shows that our approach gives better results with comparison to other sampling methods.


The essay discusses some current issues of risk management in the Georgian tourism industry. There are proposals which presented to improve the risk management process in this very important sector of the Georgian economy, will help to improve the safe environment and increase investment opportunities. The paper analyzes the immanent nature of risks in the sector, internal and external risk factors. The main causes of financial risks are studied, namely: lack of working capital and credit, incorrect investment policy, inflation, increased financial liabilities, declining profitability, seasonality of tourism facilities, unqualified staff, the risk of selecting tour operators and others. There are the statistical indicators of the type of travel insurance of Georgian insurance companies for the last three years which are analyzed, namely: number of policies issued, insurance premiums attracted, reinsurance premiums, reimbursed losses and the share of travel insurance in the structure of the insurance market. Risk insurance is considered as an effective risk management tool in the Georgian tourism industry. There is proposed some suggestions for minimizing losses and reducing or neutralizing the probability of risk, namely: diversification of investments, cost limitation, efficient turnover of working capital, attraction of venture capital, etc.


This paper explored a novel method for strategic monitoring of a power system to schematically monitor power system variables that are sensitive to transients. The characteristics of a fully developed transient or power swing increase frequency slip rates, generator pole slips, rotor out-of-step etc. whose effects lead to loss of synchronism of coherent generators in a power system. When these occur, the resulting remedy could be load shedding schemes, generator tripping or controlled islanding. Failure to achieve any of these might lead to geographically extensive blackouts and/or the damage of auxiliary power system equipment.This paper looked at the Wide Area Monitoring (WAM) principle, consisting of collection and pre-processing of field data, using Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). A data mining exercise was performed purposing to identify strategic positions for PMU placement using the Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm. The logic of CART was therefore also discussed.The proposition of strategic PMU placement as implied by the Decision Tree (DT) model acknowledges that a few PMUs in the power system network are capable of achievingWide Area Protection(WAP)functions.


With recent economic, political, and social events worldwide, reliability in the energy sector is growing more valuable, and the surrounding issues are gaining visibility. Increasingly, concerns about energy supply security (and climate change) have led to proposals to shift away from oil dependence to wide use of alternative transportation fuels, such as biofuels or hydrogen. Hydrogen is of particular interest because it offers multiple societal benefits. It is often asserted that hydrogen would enhance energy reliability because it can be made at diverse scales from many primary resources. But no studies have systematically assessed reliability. There are many questions surrounding energy system reliability – especially when considering a future fuel like hydrogen. How should reliability be defined and evaluated? And would a transition to hydrogen increase or decrease reliability? This paper presents a general method to assess reliability in energy supply systems. The technique uses qualitative ratings from an expert panel regarding a set of reliability metrics. We illustrate the method by evaluating two hydrogen pathways: 1) centralized steam reforming of imported liquefied natural gas and pipeline distribution of hydrogen, and 2) on-site electrolysis of water using electricity produced independent of the grid. We found the second pathway to be more reliable, primarily due to the distributed nature of the system and the lack of hydrogen transport. The application intends to demonstrate how the method is applied, however, and the results should be regarded as preliminary. In future work, the method could be extended to compare reliability among different fuel pathways.


Ischemic hepatitis (IH) is a rare entity, usually associated with hypoperfusion secondary to low cardiac output (congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction or dilated cardiomyopathy), followed in frequency by respiratory insufficiency and sepsis.
A 49-year-old man presented at the emergency room with progressive dyspnea and hypotension, objectifying a significant increase in transaminases (aspartate transferase 5.550 U / L, alanine transferase 3.826 U / L) and LDH (10.375 U / L). Liver Doppler ultrasound was normal. The echocardiogram confirmed the suspected diagnosis of massive pericardial effusion. Cardiac tamponade is a rare cause for this clinical picture. In the case of our patient, rapid diagnosis and urgent pericardiocentesis led to his prompt recovery.


The flow regime paradigm is central to the aquatic sciences, where flow drives critical functions in lotic systems. Non‐perennial streams comprise the majority of global river length, thus we extended this paradigm to stream drying. Using 894 USGS gages, we isolated 25,207 drying events from 1979 to 2018, represented by a streamflow peak followed by no flow. We calculated hydrologic signatures for each drying event and using multivariate statistics, grouped events into drying regimes characterized by: (a) fast drying, (b) long no‐flow duration, (c) prolonged drying following low antecedent flows, (d) drying without a distinctive hydrologic signature. 77% of gages had more than one drying regime at different times within the study period. Random forests revealed land cover/use are more important to how a river dries than climate or physiographic characteristics. Clustering stream drying behavior may allow practitioners to more systematically adapt water resource management practices to specific drying regimes or rivers.


The fishermen families are a part of society. Unfortunately, they live in a minimum income. Therefore, sometimes some of them do subsidiary work to fulfill their needs. This study done at Dusun Kampala Desa Bonto Mate'ne as a part of coastal community where the fishermen family are working. The method used is the mixed; the quantitative and qualitative approach. This study aims to know more about social economy of Dusun Kampala's people as a coast village, to know more about the relationship and role of household members base on the gender perspective domestic or public and to know more about the function of local institutions, informal and formal in Dusun Kampala's social activities. The research determine that base on its natural resources condition, then the main livelihood of Dusun Kampala's people is fishery which are consist of 4 kinds of work grouping: as ponggawa, sawi, padallekang, and fishponder, the level of knowledge and low technology application and also of natural factors like flood in every rainy season affect to the live of fishermen, and the women usually have expanded skill, but less opportunity to actualize themselves and need consultation, training and enlightening. Key word : social welfare, house hold, fishermen, local institution, social net, gender relation, local value


In this paper we assess the importance of heterogeneity and selective fertility in altering estimates and interpretations of the determinants of the human capital of children. We set out a sequential model of human capital investments in children incorporating endogenous fertility and heterogeneity in human capital endowments to illustrate the fertility selection problem and issues of identification. Empirical results based on parametric and semi-parametric estimates of selectivity models applied to data on birthweight and schooling in Malaysia indicate that the hypothesis of no fertility selection is strongly rejected, with mothers having higher birthweight children tending to have substantially lower birth probabilities (negative birth selectivity). As a consequence, the positive association between mother's schooling and birthweight is substantially underestimated and the positive effects of delaying childbearing overestimated when birth selectivity is not taken into account. The schooling results indicate strong rejection of the "efficient schooling" model, in which schooling is allocated efficiently across children, but only when the selectivity of fertility is taken into account.


The teacher who has an affair with a student. The teacher who is a transvestite. The teacher who advocates personal beliefs. These are 'teachers in trouble.' Their behaviour, whether it occurs in the classroom or off the job, offends the community and brings down censure from the school board. At root, schools are cultural institutions and teaching, a cultural activity. Teachers are expected to shape students according to accepted community norms. They interpret and apply curricula - and can divert curricula from their intended purpose. Teachers are at the eye of the vortex in the struggle for control over education, buffeted by the forces of social change and conflicting public expectations. The authors of this book examine how teacher conduct is monitored and what types of misconduct can produce 'social dramas.' Boards of reference have been established to arbitrate disputes between school boards and teachers who are dismissed. Drawing on the decisions of these boards of reference across Canada, the authors identify normative issues and propose a classification scheme for contentious behaviours. Teachers in Trouble poses fundamental questions about the role of teachers in society. It is an invaluable guide for teachers and professional organizations, education administrators, and members of the community who are concerned about ethics in our schools.


Brands are an important element of consumer culture. They represent communication of symbolic meanings, in which they are realised, and confirm critical aspects in social, cultural and psychological life contexts. Not only is the function of brands to explain the world of (im)material values and options and make them accessible but they also aim to reduce feelings of uncertainty with regard to multiple purchase decisions in conditions of expanding consumer options. Historically, trademarks change the traditional personified relationships of trust between local merchants and customers and generate its new impersonal form in the global environment of interactive relationships of manufacturers and consumers. The modern consumer is thus no longer a passive object of pervasive techniques and manipulative strategies used by the retailers, but also an active actor in the processes of production, innovations, product presentation and creation of the brand value. The study aims to show that brands should be communicated as open contexts, inspiring and motivating the consumers to fulfil them, make them complete, adjust and develop them in accordance with who the consumers are and who they would like to become. In the current marketing context, the trustworthiness, meaningfulness and attractiveness of these contexts is reflected via the social environment of the dominant values (individualism and hedonism) represented by advertising slogans such as "Just Do It" or "No Limits".


In independently derived drug-resistant sublines of the mouse lymphoid tumor P388, multidrug resistance is associated with the exclusive overexpression of the mdr3 gene. In P388/VCR cells, mdr3 overexpression occurs in the absence of gene amplification, while in P388/ADM-2 cells overexpression is associated with mdr3 gene amplification. The mechanism underlying mdr3 overexpression in these cells was investigated. Measurement of the rate of transcription by nuclear "run-on" assays showed that increased mdr3 expression in P388/VCR cells was caused by transcriptional activation of the gene. Analysis of the 5' end of mdr3 mRNA transcripts by primer extension indicated that in P388/VCR cells, these mRNAs extended approximately 200 nucleotides upstream exon 2, about 60 nucleotides longer than their counterparts expressed in normal tissues from the known transcription start site of the gene (TS1). Northern blotting experiments using discrete exon and intron probes derived from the 5' end of the gene near TS1, together with ribonuclease protection using a complementary RNA probe from the same region, demonstrated that transcriptional activation in P388/VCR cells occurred from a novel transcription start site named TS3, located either upstream of TS1 or within intron 1 at a site immediately upstream a novel exon. In P388/ADM-2 cells, Northern blotting and ribonuclease protection identified overexpressed mdr3 mRNAs initiating near TS1 and a large partially spliced mdr3 mRNA species initiating upstream of TS1 at a novel initiation site designated TS2. Therefore, mdr3 overexpression in independently derived multidrug-resistant isolates of P388 cells is associated with the appearance of novel transcription start sites in the gene and novel sequences at the 5' end of the overexpressed mRNAs.


Reducing the number of features used in data classification can remove noisy or redundant features, reduce the cost of data collection, and improve the accuracy of the classifier. This important step is normally conducted before a data separation (typically a hyperplane) is found. We reverse the process: a separating hyperplane is found first, and then afterwards a revised hyperplane is calculated that has fewer features, but that provides the same separation or better. The method relies on recent algorithms for finding sparse solutions for linear programs. Experiments show that the number of features in the separating hyperplane can be reduced substantially, while the overall accuracy often increases (but never reduces). This approach allows feature reduction to be easily incorporated into classifier decision tree construction using any algorithm for hyperplane selection. Separations that are substantially similar to the original separation but that use even fewer features can also be found. If the features have costs, the algorithm is easily extended to find separations that are at least as accurate as the original separation at much lower total cost.


IntroductionLinking distinct historical sources on an automated basis directs attention to the quality and representativeness of the linked data created by these systems. Linking with time-invariant personal characteristics arguably minimizes bias or departures from representativeness even though a wider set of features might generate more links.
Objectives and ApproachThe objective of this research is to compare, evaluate and understand bias when two linking methodologies are employed on the same data sources. Our approach to studying this problem is by comparing linked records from Canadian censuses (linking 1871 to 1881) generated by two different linking strategies. The first method is a support vector machine based classification model on time-invariant individual characteristics. Using this method a large number of multiple matches is generated, as records look similar on a small number of time-invariant individual characteristics. The second method adds a second stage of disambiguating multiple matches using family information.
ResultsWe compare the links produced by the two methods used in the study and we discuss the results. The comparison is in terms of number of links produced, their quality (false positive rate) and the bias of the linked data produced. A complication is that there are many dimensions of bias. Even time-invariant criteria typically generate some bias.
As expected, the two-step process produces a larger linked sample. Interestingly, it also produces a lower error rate and different patterns of bias. Both methods understate the Quebec-born, French-ethnicity, the unmarried and adolescents. Unexpectedly, the bias in favour of married people is larger using individual (first method) than family information (second method). However, family-based linking does over-represent young children.
Conclusion/ImplicationsResults suggest that neither method will be universally preferable. Rather, the choice of research question may affect the preferred balance of biases and link rate. Fortunately, the advance of computational capacity allows a researcher to select a method that generate links most appropriate for the problem at hand.


: A consensus development conference held to reach agreement on definition, diagnostic criteria and clinical and ancillary investigations concerning the diagnosis of the dementia syndrome was convened in Utrecht by the National Organization for Quality Assurance in Hospitals in the Netherlands on November 4, 1988. Dementia was defined as a clinical syndrome diagnosable by clinical methods only. Its manifestation is primarily behavioural. It is characterized by a decline of two or more cognitive capacities, including memory, without alteration of consciousness, and by a significant disturbance of the usual daily activities of the patient. It was agreed that at present the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for dementia are the most acceptable, with the exception of one viz. evidence or presumption of an etiologic organic factor, because this criterion is not compatible with the syndromal character of the dementia syndrome. Consensus was also reached about the following statements. The diagnosis of dementia syndrome is not valid in the presence of delirium. For clinical reasons it is considered important to distinguish between the conditions of cortical and subcortical dementia. Pseudodementia is an out-of-date concept. Epidemiological data on dementia are important for the diagnosis and prognosis in individual cases. In all patients with signs of the dementia syndrome, physical, neurological, psychiatric, and neuropsychological examinations should be performed, preferably according to a standardized protocol. The etiologic role of drugs in the dementia syndrome and delirium in the aged cannot be overemphasized. For the differential diagnosis of the disease states that produce the dementia syndrome, standardized laboratory tests should always be performed, but with individual modifications. EEG and CT (or NMR) are appropriate in certain cases.


An optical parametric amplifier based on periodically poled KTiOPO(4) was used to generate 3-ns pulses at 1.544 mum . The device was pumped by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, and the signal output-pulse energy reached 71 muJ ; the maximum gain was 66 dB. The seed source was an Er-Yb:glass microchip laser. A theoretical fit to experimental data gave an effective nonlinear coefficient of 9.7 pm/V , close to the highest values reported for periodically poled KTiOPO(4) . Furthermore, the broad parametric gain observed could be used for broadband pulse amplification.


This paper presents an error amplifier structure to improve load regulation of low-voltage low-dropout regulators. The proposed error amplifier has ultrawide swing to extend the high-gain region so that the size of power transistor can be reduced. Experimental results show that the required power transistor size is reduced by 25% to achieve similar performance in load regulation. Moreover, extra power consumption and increase of silicon area are not significant.


The purpose of this study is to reflect on the literary Grail and its continuing relevance, drawing on the development of my novel The Book of Astolat. I will suggest that, as a motif and a narrative device, the Grail represents that which has meaning within the cultural moment of the novelist.

The French poet Chretien de Troyes wrote the first Grail romance, Perceval, in the twelfth century, and Thomas Malory revived it for a new readership in the fifteenth century. Both Chretien and Malory were literary innovators who made the story's themes more accessible to their readers. In the centuries since, a significant number of novelists and poets have reimagined the Grail for their own time. This study will consider some of these reimaginings alongside my own intervention.

The study is divided into four parts which could be seen to correspond to the Four Hallows, or sacred objects: Cup, Platter, Lance and Sword, which are carried in the Grail procession in Perceval. Each Hallow represents a natural element and corresponds to a human quality. In Jungian analytical psychology there is a corresponding theory of these human qualities as four 'psychological types': 'thinking', 'feeling', 'sensation' and 'intuition'. According to the Jungian model, we each possess these four functions, but one's most developed, or dominant, psychological function defines their personality. In the novelist, perhaps this dominant function also, to some degree, defines their writing. The four central characters in the Book of Astolat: Elayne of Astolat, Elizabeth Wydeville, Thomas Malory and William Caxton, might each be seen to embody one of these psychological types. Between them, there is potential for the narrative to be made whole.

Part I: the Cup, introduces the Grail as a literary device and Jungian motif, and also the character of Elayne as the evolution of the tragic heroine The Lily Maid of Astolat. Elayne's psychological type might be defined as 'feeling'. This chapter examines the challenges of structuring a narrative that spans two decades in the fifteenth century, and how writing a commissioned novel which is outcome-driven might impact on the creative practice of the author.

Part II, the Lance, introduces my fictional version of Thomas Malory and the historical character that he was modelled from -- using as clues his own writing and that of his biographers. Malory, a poet and early novelist, is assigned the psychological type 'intuition'. Part II pursues the idea that writing a novel is as much an undertaking of the unconscious mind as the conscious. It expands on the discussion about the difficulties of balancing creative and instinctive urges with the expectations of a commercial publisher.

Part III, The Platter, examines the inspiration behind my conceit that Elizabeth Wydeville, Edward IV's queen; psychological type: 'sensation', could feasibly have been Malory's patron in writing the Morte D'Arthur. Elizabeth is historically defined by her physical beauty and, in my rendering of her, drawn to the earthly pleasures of wealth and fame. The impact of editorial intervention on The Book of Astolat and the challenges posed by he second significant restructuring of the novel are explored in this chapter.

Part IV, The Sword, considers the influence of William Caxton, England's first publisher, had on the Grail story. A shrewd businessman, editor and gifted translator, Caxton is the 'thinker'. Part IV draws some conclusions about the influence of genre-led publishing and the book trade on creative practice, and the Grail as synonymous with the search for meaning, in narrative as in life.

As a result of this study I have come to see the literary Grail as an intrinsically personal motif, illuminating the quest inherent in writing an extended narrative and symbolic of the latent wisdom of the psyche. The Grail quest might be in fact a search for something lost; that which has personal meaning.


Fluid injection at a pressure below the local minimum principal total stress in a fault may (re)activate shear crack propagation (hydroshearing). Because of the presence of asperities along the fault's surfaces, fault hydraulic width increase with slip. Scaled experiments in fact show that dilatancy (inelastic increment of hydraulic width) varies non linearly with the slip up to a constant value (for large values of shear displacements) [3]. Its effect on pore pressure diffusion along the fault is a local drop at the crack tip. Depending on the ability of the fluid to flow in the newly created void space, the local effective stresses increase and this leads to a stabilizing effect [2]. The questions we want to address in this contribution are the fol- lowing: does the increment of hydraulic width (dilatancy) always kill the dynamic instability associated with a frictional weakening fault subjected to fluid injection? does the change of fault permeability associated with dilatant hardening affect the shear crack propagation? Garagash & Germanovich [1] showed that the regime of propagation of pressurized faults can be ultimately stable or unstable depending on whether the initial shear stress state is greater or lower than the fault residual strength. In the former case the shear crack propagates with a moderate velocity (quasi-static) as it is induced by fluid pressure diffusion (but it might turns into a dynamic instability followed by an arrest). In the latter case, the shear crack initially propagates quasi-statically; then, as slip accumulate along the fault, the quasi-static crack growth become unstable and the shear crack runs away. The effect of dilatancy leads to a local reduction of pore-pressure at the shear crack tip. Notably, the local pore pressure drop and the consequent local increment of effective stress depends on the hydraulic diffusivity of the fault: we expect higher pressure drop for fault characterized by constant permeability (no change with fault dilatancy) than for fault whose permeability increase with dilatant hardening. So it is clear that there is an interplay be- tween pressure drop associated with dilatant hardening and fault permeability change. In this contribution we want to investigate such an interplay for both ultimately stable and unstable faults.


BACKGROUND
 Chest computed tomography (CT) is crucial for the detection of lung cancer, and many automated CT evaluation methods have been proposed. Due to the divergent software dependencies of the reported approaches, the developed methods are rarely compared or reproduced.

 OBJECTIVE
 The goal of the research was to generate reproducible machine learning modules for lung cancer detection and compare the approaches and performances of the award-winning algorithms developed in the Kaggle Data Science Bowl.

 METHODS
 We obtained the source codes of all award-winning solutions of the Kaggle Data Science Bowl Challenge, where participants developed automated CT evaluation methods to detect lung cancer (training set n=1397, public test set n=198, final test set n=506). The performance of the algorithms was evaluated by the log-loss function, and the Spearman correlation coefficient of the performance in the public and final test sets was computed.

 RESULTS
 Most solutions implemented distinct image preprocessing, segmentation, and classification modules. Variants of U-Net, VGGNet, and residual net were commonly used in nodule segmentation, and transfer learning was used in most of the classification algorithms. Substantial performance variations in the public and final test sets were observed (Spearman correlation coefficient = .39 among the top 10 teams). To ensure the reproducibility of results, we generated a Docker container for each of the top solutions.

 CONCLUSIONS
 We compared the award-winning algorithms for lung cancer detection and generated reproducible Docker images for the top solutions. Although convolutional neural networks achieved decent accuracy, there is plenty of room for improvement regarding model generalizability.


Class inevitably raises awkward questions for the protagonists of contemporary art -- about their backgrounds, patrons and ideological proclivities. Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie investigates this latent yet easily overlooked issue, which has been historically eclipsed by gender, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality. This book creates a conversation on a sensitive subject, bringing together essays by art-world types including artists, curators and critics. On one hand, the ideas here raise the question of whether a given socio-economic background still helps define an artistic career -- and to which point this career might reflect or consolidate the hierarchies in question. On the other hand, the project asks whether the traditional ways of analyzing class structure are actually helpful in an examination of who makes art today.

This essay was developed from a talk given at 'Gasworks' gallery on 27 January 2007, connected with the international touring exhibition/research project 'Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie'.


Many remote and local climate variabilities influence Antarctic sea ice at different time scales. The strongest sea ice teleconnection at the interannual time scale was found between El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and a high latitude climate mode named the Antarctic Dipole. The Antarctic Dipole is characterized by an out-of-phase relationship between sea ice and surface temperature anomalies in the South Pacific and South Atlantic, manifesting itself and persisting 3–4 seasons after being triggered by the ENSO forcing. This study examines the life cycles of ENSO warm and cold events in the tropics and associated evolution of the ADP in high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. In evaluating the mechanisms that form the ADP, the study suggests a synthesized scheme that links these high latitude processes with ENSO teleconnection in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins. The synthesized scheme suggests that the two main mechanisms responsible for the formation/maintenance of the Antarctic Dipole are the heat flux due to the mean meridional circulation of the regional Ferrel Cell and regional anomalous circulation generated by stationary eddies. The changes in the Hadley Cell, the jet stream in the subtropics, and the Rossby Wave train associated with ENSO link the tropical forcing to these high latitude processes. Moreover, these two mechanisms operate in phase and are comparable in magnitude. The positive feedback between the jet stream and stationary eddies in the atmosphere, the positive feedback within the air-sea-ice system, and the seasonality all reinforce the anomalies, resulting in persistent Antarctic Dipole anomalies.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of TENS electrodryneedling as compared to single dry needle insertion in the treatment of Myofascial Pain Syndrome . This study was a prospective, unblinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. A sample size of 60 patients from the Durban Metropolitan area was used. Only patients diagnosed with active trigger points in the Trapezius muscle were accepted into the study. The sample was divided into two groups of 30 patients each. Group A received single dry needle insertion and Group B received electrodryneedling. Each patient received two treatments over a period of one week. The short term effects of both treatments were noted. Data was obtained from the patients before and immediately after each consultation. Subjective data was obtained with the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NRS 101) and the objective data was obtained from pressure threshold algometry. Statistical analysis of the data involved parametric testing. Intra-group comparisons were made using the paired t-test for NRS 101 and algometer scores. Inter-group comparisons were made using the unpaired t-test for NRS


The molecular basis of chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis (CIMF) has remained elusive, thus hampering the development of effective targeted therapies. However, significant progress regarding the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenes is of this disease has been made in recent years that will likely provide ample opportunity for the investigation of novel therapeutic approaches. At the fore front of these advances is the discovery that 35%-55% of patients with CIMF harbor mutations in the Janus kinase 2 tyrosine kinase gene. Until very recently, the management of patients with CIMF involved the use of supportive measures, including growth factors, transfusions, or interferon, and the administration of cyto-reductive agents, such as hydroxyurea and anagrelide. However, several trials have demonstrated the efficacy of antiangiogenic agents alone or in combination with corticosteroids. In addition, the use of reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic stem cell transplantation has resulted in prolonged survival and lower transplant-related mortality.


Protecting terrestrial ecosystems through international environmental laws requires the development of economic mechanisms that value the Earth's natural systems. The major international treaties to address ecosystem protection lack meaningful binding obligations and the requisite financial instruments to affect large–scale conservation. The Kyoto Protocol's emissions–trading framework creates economic incentives for nations to reduce greenhouse–gas (GHG) emissions cost effectively. Incorporating GHG impacts from land–use activities into this system would create a market for an important ecosystem service provided by forests and agricultural lands: sequestration of atmospheric carbon. This would spur conservation efforts while reducing the 20% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions produced by land–use change, particularly tropical deforestation. The Kyoto negotiations surrounding land–use activities have been hampered by a lack of robust carbon inventory data. Moreover, the Protocol's provisions agreed to in Kyoto made it difficult to incorporate carbon–sequestering land–use activities into the emissions–trading framework without undermining the atmospheric GHG reductions contemplated in the treaty. Subsequent negotiations since 1997 failed to produce a crediting system that provides meaningful incentives for enhanced carbon sequestration. Notably, credit for reducing rates of tropical deforestation was explicitly excluded from the Protocol. Ultimately, an effective GHG emissions–trading framework will require full carbon accounting for all emissions and sequestration from terrestrial ecosystems. Improved inventory systems and capacity building for developing nations will, therefore, be necessary.


The field of Health Impact Assessment is relatively new to the United States, but already a number of state and local governments are incorporating these assessments into land use planning and decision making. In five years, the use of HIA in the U.S. has increased dramatically with more than 100 HIAs completed or in progress in the U.S. from 2007 to 2010. This article provides a brief overview of HIA in the United States, describes how it is being used in other states with respect to land use decision making, and examines how HIA is starting to be incorporated into traditional land use and environmental decision making in New York.