Despite an increased interest in the use of hydrogel encapsulation and cellular self-assembly (often termed "self-aggregating" or "scaffold-free" approaches) for tissue-engineering applications, to the best of our knowledge, no study to date has been undertaken to directly compare both approaches for generating functional cartilaginous grafts. The objective of this study was to directly compare self-assembly (SA) and agarose hydrogel encapsulation (AE) as a means to engineer such grafts using passaged chondrocytes. Agarose hydrogels (5 mm diameter × 1.5 mm thick) were seeded with chondrocytes at two cell seeding densities (900,000 cells or 4 million cells in total per hydrogel), while SA constructs were generated by adding the same number of cells to custom-made molds. Constructs were either supplemented with transforming growth factor (TGF)-β3 for 6 weeks, or only supplemented with TGF-β3 for the first 2 weeks of the 6 week culture period. The SA method was only capable of generating geometrically uniform cartilaginous tissues at high seeding densities (4 million cells). At these high seeding densities, we observed that total sulphated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) and collagen synthesis was greater with AE than SA, with higher sGAG retention also observed in AE constructs. When normalized to wet weight, however, SA constructs exhibited significantly higher levels of collagen accumulation compared with agarose hydrogels. Furthermore, it was possible to engineer such functionality into these tissues in a shorter timeframe using the SA approach compared with AE. Therefore, while large numbers of chondrocytes are required to engineer cartilaginous grafts using the SA approach, it would appear to lead to the faster generation of a more hyaline-like tissue, with a tissue architecture and a ratio of collagen to sGAG content more closely resembling native articular cartilage.


The present study investigated the significance of mobile learning (m-learning) of English vocabulary items through a traditional contrasted with a blended method of content representation. To achieve the goals, sixty semi-illiterate adults were evaluated for their knowledge of the English alphabet and then randomly placed in two groups: traditional (G1) and the blended group (G2). Next, they were presented thirty new English vocabulary items through the two methods. Also, the vocabulary items were taught with and without pictorial annotations. Upon the completion of teaching, the participants took the paper-and-pencil-based English Vocabulary Recognition and Recall (EVRR) test. The test results were subjected to the appropriate statistical analyses. The analysis demonstrated the supremacy of blended group's performance over the traditional group in vocabulary learning. Furthermore, the obtained results confirmed that pictorial annotations enhanced the learning of L2 vocabulary compared with non-annotated items. The results can provide some practical and theoretical implications for both teachers and learners.


Cultured rat Leydig cells secreted considerable amounts of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). A major stimulus for Leydig cell-derived CRF was the trophic hormone LH/hCG, which released the peptide in a dose dependent fashion. Incubation of Leydig cells with a CRF antagonist revealed tonic suppression of basal and hCG-stimulated testosterone production by endogenously produced CRF. These findings demonstrate that CRF acts via functional Leydig cell receptors to exert autocrine inhibitory actions on Leydig cell steroidogenesis. In the testis CRF acts as an antireproductive hormone and as a major local inhibitory regulator of Leydig cell function.


Two-dimensional equations for coupled extensional, flexural, and thickness-shear motions of a piezoelectric plate are obtained systematically from the threedimensional equations of linear piezoelectricity by retaining lower order terms in power series expansions in the plate thickness coordinate. The plate can have asymmetric electrodes on its major surfaces. The equations are specialized to crystals of 6-mm symmetry and are used to analyze thickness-shear vibrations of an asymmetrically electroded plate. Energy trapping, a behavior of thickness-shear modes crucial to applications, is examined.


Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is the in-spike germination of physiologically mature grain in response to relatively high humidity due to untimely rains prior to harvest. PHS in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) results in substantial economic loss, as it decreases the functional quality of wheat grain. The Canadian Grain Commission sets the limit of percentage severely sprouted and total sprouted grain depending on the grade and wheat classes. Pre-harvest sprouted wheat is reduced in grade and value, depending on the quantity of sprouted kernels present in a sample. Breeding for PHS tolerance in wheat is challenging on phenotypic basis because PHS is inherited quantitatively and highly influenced by environmental conditions. Seed dormancy is the main factor responsible for conferring the PHS resistance to the grains of bread wheat. The objectives of this study were to identify and validate the major quantitative loci (QTL) for pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) resistance in bread wheat. A F1-derived doubled haploid (DH) population of 151 lines from a cross between two spring wheat cultivars ND690 (nondormant) and W98616 (dormant) was used to identify the genomic regions associated with PHS tolerance. A total of 950 polymorphic markers (369 SSR, 306 AFLP, 267 DArT and 8 EST) have been used to develop a genetic map and to identify QTLs for PHS tolerance. Interval mapping revealed a major QTL on chromosome 4A explaining 25% phenotypic variation in this mapping population. Forty two Canadian wheat cultivars and germplasm lines were screened with the DNA marker in the QTL region on chromosome 4A for validation. 113 BC1F1 plants from four different backcrosses were screened with the marker associated with PHS resistance. Marker assisted back crossing reduced the population size in BC1F1 generation by 40.7%. This information will help the plant breeders to pyramid this QTL with other QTLs from different PHS resistance sources.


Background: In the United States (U.S.), Bordetella pertussis incidence has increased. Cough and apnea are common findings in pertussis and also in bronchiolitis, the most common cause of hospitalization in U.S. infants. The objective was to determine the prevalence of B. pertussis infection in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis and to describe its clinical course. Methods: Children hospitalized with bronchiolitis and age <2 years were eligible for a prospective, multicenter cohort study during 3 consecutive winter seasons (November–March) from 2007 to 2010. Sixteen sites in 12 states participated using a standardized enrollment protocol. Families were asked the 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pertussis classification questions. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained and tested by real-time polymerase chain reaction for 16 viruses, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and B. pertussis. Results: Two thousand sixty-eight (94%) of 2207 children had 1 or more respiratory pathogens. B. pertussis was identified in 4 children [0.2%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.1–0.5%] with 3 having a viral co-infection. All 4 were younger than 4 months; 2 met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of probable pertussis; and 3 had received at least 1 dose of an acellular pertussis vaccine. During the hospitalization, 2 had paroxysmal cough, 1 required intensive care unit care and the median length of stay was 13 days. Conclusions: Our data support that B. pertussis is an uncommon pathogen in U.S. children hospitalized with bronchiolitis in the winter. Making a diagnosis of pertussis can be challenging because the disease can be atypical and may not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of probable infection.


Gibberellin and auxin regulate tomato fruit initiation through direct crosstalk, a process mediated by a gibberellin signaling repressor and auxin signaling components SlARFs/SlIAA9. Fruit initiation following fertilization in angiosperms is strictly regulated by phytohormones. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), auxin and gibberellin (GA) play central roles in promoting fruit initiation. Without fertilization, elevated GA or auxin signaling can induce parthenocarpy (seedless fruit production). The GA-signaling repressor SlDELLA and auxin-signaling components SlIAA9 and SlARF7 repress parthenocarpy, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we show that SlDELLA and the SlARF7/SlIAA9 complex mediate crosstalk between GA and auxin pathways to regulate fruit initiation. Yeast-two-hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation assays showed that SlARF7 and additional activator SlARFs interact with SlDELLA and SlIAA9 through distinct domains. SlARF7/SlIAA9 and SlDELLA antagonistically modulate the expression of feedback-regulated genes involved in GA and auxin metabolism, whereas SlARF7/SlIAA9 and SlDELLA coregulate the expression of fruit growth-related genes. Analysis of procera (della), SlARF7 RNAi (with downregulated expression of multiple activator SlARFs), and entire (iaa9) single and double mutants indicated that these genes additively affect parthenocarpy, supporting the notion that the SlARFs/SlIAA9 and SlDELLA interaction plays an important role in regulating fruit initiation. Analysis of the GA-deficient mutant gib1 showed that active GA biosynthesis and signaling are required for auxin-induced fruit initiation. Our study reveals how direct crosstalk between auxin- and GA-signaling components is critical for tomato fruit initiation.


Abstract Conclusion In users of a cochlear implant (CI) and a hearing aid (HA) in contralateral ears, frequency-dependent loudness balancing between devices did, on average, not lead to improved speech understanding as compared to broadband balancing. However, nine out of 15 bimodal subjects showed significantly better speech understanding with either one of the fittings. Objectives Sub-optimal fittings and mismatches in loudness are possible explanations for the large individual differences seen in listeners using bimodal stimulation. Methods HA gain was adjusted for soft and loud input sounds in three frequency bands (0–548, 548–1000, and >1000 Hz) to match loudness with the CI. This procedure was compared to a simple broadband balancing procedure that reflected current clinical practice. In a three-visit cross-over design with 4 weeks between sessions, speech understanding was tested in quiet and in noise and questionnaires were administered to assess benefit in real world. Results Both procedures resulted in comparable HA gains. For speech in noise, a marginal bimodal benefit of 0.3 ± 4 dB was found, with large differences between subjects and spatial configurations. Speech understanding in quiet and in noise did not differ between the two loudness balancing procedures.


Increasing competition and loss of revenues force newsrooms to explore new digital solutions. The new solutions employ artificial intelligence and big data techniques such as machine learning and knowledge graphs to manage and support the knowledge work needed in all stages of news production. The result is an emerging type of intelligent information system we have called the Journalistic Knowledge Platform (JKP). In this paper, we analyse for the first time knowledge graph-based JKPs in research and practice. We focus on their current state, challenges, opportunities and future directions. Our analysis is based on 14 platforms reported in research carried out in collaboration with news organisations and industry partners and our experiences with developing knowledge graph-based JKPs along with an industry partner. We found that: (a) the most central contribution of JKPs so far is to automate metadata annotation and monitoring tasks; (b) they also increasingly contribute to improving background information and content analysis, speeding-up newsroom workflows and providing newsworthy insights; (c) future JKPs need better mechanisms to extract information from textual and multimedia news items; (d) JKPs can provide a digitalisation path towards reduced production costs and improved information quality while adapting the current workflows of newsrooms to new forms of journalism and readers' demands.


A modified method for the direct extraction of DNA from alkaline-saline soils with minimum DNA fragmentation and a possible reduction in chimera formation during polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed. The commercial extraction kit Power Soil DNA (Mo Bio™ Laboratories, Inc.) was used as a reference technique. The method reported here was based on cell lysis employing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and cell disruption with mechanical force with FastPrep-24™ equip followed by one cycle of freezing at -40 °C for 60 min and thawing at 65 °C for 20 min. The extraction method was tested for allophonic soils with large concentrations of organic matter, fulvic and humic acids, electrolytic conductivity (EC) ranging between 2.6 dS m-1 and 39.9 dS m-1, and pH between 8.8 and 10.9. The yield of DNA extracted depended on soil type, i.e., DNA extracted from soil varied between 2.35 (Texcoco-2) to 3.66 (Texcoco-1) μg DNA g-1 soil. The proposed method in this study produced enough DNA with yield and quality for PCR amplification of 16S rDNA when bovine serum albumin (BSA) was added to the reaction buffer. The DNA obtained had sufficient quality and yield for later use for 16S sequencing or possible use in other sequencing technologies, e.g. whole metagenome shotgun sequencing.


Since 1981, water allocation in Chile has been based on a water use rights (WURs) market, with limited regulatory and supervisory mechanisms. The volume to be granted as permanent and eventual WURs is calculated from streamflow records, if stream gauge data are available, or from hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments, usually with less than 50 years of record. To test the performance of this allocation system, while analyzing the long-term natural variability in water resources, we investigated a 400 year-long (1590–2015) tree-ring reconstruction of runoff and historical water rights for Perquilauquén at Quella catchment, a tributary to the Maule River in Central Chile (35°S–36°30S). Furthermore, we assess how the current legislation would perform under a projected climate scenario, based on historical climate simulations of runoff calibrated against observed data, and future projections. Our analyses indicate that the allocation methodology currently applied by the Water Authority in Chile is very sensitive to the time window of data used, which leads to an underestimation of variability and long-term trends. According to the WURs database provided by the Chilean Water Directorate, WURs at Perquilauquén at Quella are already over-allocated. Considering regional climate projections, this condition will be exacerbated in the future. Furthermore, serious problems regarding the access and quality of information on already-granted WURs and actual water usage have been diagnosed, which further encumber environmental strategies to deal with and adapt to climate change. We emphasize the urgent need for a review and revision of current water allocation methodologies and water law in Chile, which are not concordant with the dynamics and non-stationarity of hydrological processes. Water scarcity and water governance are two of the key issues to be faced by Chile in the Anthropocene.


http://ctt.canterbury.ac.nz Abstract: In my paper I briefly examine three popular mystifications of the concept of capital, before I further argue that the concept of fetishism should be conceived of as a process of social forgetting. I argue that we are living in a fetishistic society insofar as fetishism is not only collective but also objective. However, I am not opening up totally new territory here, since, for example, Zizek argued that commodity fetishism is "the unconscious of the commodity form," and Jameson expanded the idea of the objective quality of commodity fetishism towards what he calls the "historical amnesia" of consumer societies. However, I hope that my reflections can be seen as an extension of these positions in two important respects: first, they go beyond the concept of commodity and tie the concept of fetishism back to the concept of capital, and, second, they tie the problem of amnesia and fetishism back to Marx's method.


The paper focuses on Etwinning, the community for schools in Europe. Launched in 2005 as a fundamental component of the eLearning program of the European Commission, eTwinning has become an integral part of the Erasmus +, the EU Programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport, in 2014. The Central Support Service eTwinning is run by European Schoolnet, an international partnership formed of 31 European ministries of education, which designs learning tools for schools, teachers and students in Europe. ETwinning promotes school collaboration in Europe through information and communication technologies by providing support, tools and services to schools. The portal is available to teachers through online tools by which they may seek partners, can start the project, they can exchange ideas and best practices and can start to work immediately thanks to the broad range of customized tools on the eTwinning platform. From October 2007, eTwinning started to be carried out in Romania. In the long term, it aims to improve the abilities to use new technologies, to improve communication in foreign languages, knowledge and intercultural dialogue.The paper also deals with the development of key competences through eTwinning, rules of communication and behavior inside etwinning community and implications for teaching activities. The next part of the paper presents Etwinning advantages from eLearning perspective: accessibility, the freedom of decision, professional community, information resources, training opportunities for teachers, specialist support, motivation and recognition systems.
ETwinning platform is ideal for secondary education because it offers extensive opportunities for managing virtual spaces - which facilitates, in a much higher degree than other web platforms, learning activities. Benefits of eTwinning platform for students and teachers involved in online learning projects by collaboration at European level are very high due to factors such as: the opportunity to interact with students and teachers in other European countries, didactic and technological support offered by the portal to the highest European standards, innovative working tools, teamwork, stimulate interest and critical thinking. Advantages for school are also important because the image of the school is promoted by eTwinning projects and foundations of a future collaboration at the institution level in future partnerships are set up.


The laparoscopic and pathological diagnoses of 43 patients who underwent abdominal laparoscopy for various indications are presented. Major indications for the laparoscopy included hepatomegaly in 32 patients, ascites in 28, and pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) in 18 patients. A combination of two or more of these indications was a more common feature. The most frequently encountered laparoscopic diagnoses were tuberculosis and chronic liver disease (16 patients each), followed by cancer (9 patients). However, on pathological examination of peritoneal or liver biopsy tissue and on follow-up, tuberculosis was confirmed in 12 patients, chronic liver disease in 14 patients and hepatocellular carcinoma in 11 patients. No complications were encountered during the laparoscopy. Our findings indicate that abdominal laparoscopy is a safe, quick and inexpensive diagnostic tool, particularly when appropriate and adequate tissue is taken for pathological examination. In such instances, laparoscopy would save an unnecessary laparotomy, especially where tuberculosis and cancer are considered in the differential diagnosis.


This study was conducted to determine some biological characteristics of Calosoma sycophanta L. under laboratory conditions between 2001 and 2003 in Kahramanmaras. The adult emergence period of C. sycophanta started at the end of February and extended until the first week of March (from soil). When they emerged, they fed on caterpillars of the pine processionary moth. After 1-1.5 weeks of feeding, adult beetles copulated and deposited their eggs into humid soil. The oviposition period continued for 20-25 days. The first instars hatched from eggs within 6-13 days. The first instars were 7-8 mm in length and dirty whitish–yellow, but turned black within 1-1.5 h. Three larval instars were observed. The beetle became a pupa in June and this stage continued for 9 to 16 days. The biology of the predator was well synchronized with the that of pine processionary moths in the region.


We consider deep multi-layered generative models such as Boltzmann machines or Hopfield nets in which computation (which implements inference) is both recurrent and stochastic, but where the recurrence is not to model sequential structure, only to perform computation. We find conditions under which a simple feedforward computation is a very good initialization for inference, after the input units are clamped to observed values. It means that after the feedforward initialization, the recurrent network is very close to a fixed point of the network dynamics, where the energy gradient is 0. The main condition is that consecutive layers form a good auto-encoder, or more generally that different groups of inputs into the unit (in particular, bottom-up inputs on one hand, top-down inputs on the other hand) are consistent with each other, producing the same contribution into the total weighted sum of inputs. In biological terms, this would correspond to having each dendritic branch correctly predicting the aggregate input from all the dendritic branches, i.e., the soma potential. This is consistent with the prediction that the synaptic weights into dendritic branches such as those of the apical and basal dendrites of pyramidal cells are trained to minimize the prediction error made by the dendritic branch when the target is the somatic activity. Whereas previous work has shown how to achieve fast negative phase inference (when the model is unclamped) in a predictive recurrent model, this contribution helps to achieve fast positive phase inference (when the target output is clamped) in such recurrent neural models.


This guide is designed for students at the M.A. level and focuses on interdisciplinary online resources in Medieval Studies. This is only a starting point and electronic resources should be verified with their print ancestors in many cases.


Background/Objectives: The composition of palm oil fronds that has a potential to produce bio oil is examined and the bio oil yields produced from pyrolysis process is optimized in Response Surface Method (RSM). The chemical components found in bio oil are identified. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Lignocellulosic biomass like palm oil fronds contains 28.36% cellulose, 19.89% hemicellulose and 22.83% lignin. The high percentage of cellulose in this biomass will give higher fraction of bio oil produced. Parameters that have been investigated in this research for the optimization are reaction temperature, reaction time and flow rate of nitrogen gas. Pyrolysis process was done in the fixed bed reactor with Central Composite Design (CCD) in RSM was used for optimization of process parameters. Findings: The optimal conditions was found at reaction temperature of 500°C, reaction time of 60 min and flow rate of nitrogen gas for 2 l/min which produced highest amount of bio oil for 19.68% g of bio oil/g of biomass feed. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was done and shows the presence of functional group of phenol, alcohol, carboxylic acid, ketones, quinones, aldehydes, alkenes, alkanes and aromatic groups in the bio oil. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis shows that 26 chemical components present in the bio oil. Application/Improvements: Demands for fossil fuel as a source of energy is increasing every year since industry's revolution era. With this scenario, many countries in the world started to find any possible alternative source of energy to ensure the sufficient of energy supply. Bio oil is the best alternatives to replace the source of energy supply in transportation sector.


We previously reported that 3-acetyl-5-methyltetronic acid (AMT) had inhibitory effects on rat renal vitamin K1 2,3-epoxide reductase (VKOR), as well as anti-fibrotic effects on Thy-1 glomerulonephritis and cisplatin-induced renal fibrosis in rats. In the present study, we investigated the general toxicity of AMT in male Crl:CD (SD) rats following a single or 2-week oral administration. After a single oral dose up to 1,500 mg/kg, no death or bleeding tendency was observed in any animal. In the 2-week repeated toxicity study, we performed clinical observations, body weight measurements, a urinalysis, hematology, blood chemistry, gross autopsy, organ weight measurements, and histopathology. The result obtained showed significant decreases in the red blood cell count, hematocrit value, hemoglobin concentration, and urinary calcium. However, no bleeding tendency was observed, even at the highest dose of 400 mg/kg. We also confirmed that the oral bioavailability of AMT was 56.7% in a pharmacokinetic study, and the area under the blood concentration (AUC) at 400 mg/kg of the 2-week oral toxicity study in rats was markedly larger than that in renal fibrosis model rats at 30 mg/kg intravenously. We concluded that AMT does not cause systemic bleeding in rats at the dose levels which AMT showed anti-fibrotic effects.


Spread transform dither modulation (STDM) is a form of quantization index modulation (QIM) that is more robust to re-quantization. However, the robustness of STDM to JPEG compression is still very poor and it remains very sensitive to amplitude scaling. Here, we show how a perceptual model that scales linearly with amplitude scaling can be used to (i) provide robustness to amplitude scaling, (ii) reduce the perceptual distortion at the embedder and (iii) significantly improve the robustness to re-quantization.


Objective: To compare implementation of robbery prevention strategies between gas station/convenience stores with liquor stores/grocery stores/pharmacies, restaurants/bars, and other retail businesses. Methods: One hundred forty-nine retail businesses were evaluated by police personnel across four police departments for adherence to robbery prevention strategies. Assessment of these strategies occurred between November 2012 and October 2014. Implementation of these strategies were compared across business types using logistic regression. Results: Liquor/grocery stores/pharmacies and restaurants/bars were less likely to have a high site assessment score for robbery prevention elements when compared with gas station/convenience stores. Conclusions: Non-gas station/convenience stores require stronger consideration when developing robbery prevention programs and policies to assure appropriate implementation of robbery prevention strategies.


The aim of this article is twofold. Recently, Lewis has presented an argument, now known as the "counting anomaly", that the spontaneous localization approach to quantum mechanics, suggested by Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber, implies that arithmetic does not apply to ordinary macroscopic objects. I will take this argument as the starting point for a discussion of the property structure of realist collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics in general. At the end of this I present a proof of the fact that the composition principle, which holds true in standard quantum mechanics, fails in all realist collapse interpretations. On the basis of this result I reconsider the counting anomaly and show that what lies at the heart of the anomaly is the failure to appreciate the peculiarities of the property structure of such interpretations. Once this flaw is uncovered, the anomaly vanishes.


The relationship between Taiwan and China is a paradox. On the one hand, the two economies are becoming increasingly integrated, as Taiwanese companies have come to regard the mainland as the best place to manufacture their products and maintain global competitiveness. On the other hand, the long-running and changing political dispute between the two governments remains unresolved. Each side fears the intentions of the other and is acquiring military capabilities to deter disaster. In its pursuit of peace in the Taiwan Strait, the United States could get drawn into a war between the two rivals. Richard C. Bush, whose career has been dedicated to Taiwan-China issues, explores the conflicts between these nations and the difficulties that must be resolved. Disagreements over sovereignty and security form the core of the dispute. What would be the legal status and international role of the Taiwan government in a future unified China? Given China's growing military power, how could Taiwan feel secure? Complicating these issues are domestic politics and international competition, as well as misperceptions on both sides. Thus multiple obstacles prevent the two sides from even getting to the negotiating table, much less reaching a mutually acceptable resolution. For reasons of policy and politics, the United States is constrained from a central role. To begin with, it must provide China with some reassurance about its policy in order to secure cooperation on foreign policy issues. At the same time, it must bolster Taiwan's political confidence and military deterrence while discouraging provocative actions. The arcane nature of this dispute severely restricts the role of the United States as conflict mediator. But if there is to be any solution to this conflict, the comprehensive analysis that this book provides will be required reading for effective policy.


Abstract Background and study aims Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) requires extensive hands-on training. Currently in ERCP training there are two very important problems that need attention: lack of standardized commands for communication, and misunderstanding between the trainee and the trainer. Methods A method of "blind-eye" cannulation was developed with two paired trainees using the Boškoski-Costamagna ERCP Trainer. The trainee who was holding the duodenoscope was blind-folded and the other trainee gave instructions on what maneuvers were necessary to achieve cannulation, under the supervision of a trainer. Before starting cannulation, a standard list of commands was agreed by the operators. Results The blind-eye method of cannulation teaches the operator trainee to listen and the assistant trainee to teach. Trainees use standardized commands. During the training session the two trainees swapped roles. Conclusions Currently, we do not have proof that this type of training is useful, therefore, scientific studies are needed for confirmation. However, we believe that this ERCP model may provide an entirely safe means of improving communication and technical proficiency.


We study metric contraction properties for metric spaces associated with leftinvariant sub-Riemannian metrics on Carnot groups. We show that ideal subRiemannian structures on Carnot groups satisfy such properties and give a lower bound of possible curvature exponents in terms of the datas.


Between one and two million migrants reside in cramped conditions in Nairobi's slums without proper access to sanitation or affordable clean water. Children in such areas are exposed to enormous risks, health risks in particular. Using longitudinal data collected every four months during the period between 2002 and 2004, we analyze their survival patterns of children under five year of age who resided in two informal settlements (Viwandani and Korogocho). The research question assumes that children born to recent migrant mothers are more likely to die. The assumption is that migrant mothers do not have social network, which translates to a lack of information and lower access to health facilities. In the subsequent event history analysis, childhood mortality is shown to remain very high in the Nairobi informal settlements, especially among new migrants. Given the high degree of rural urban migration, which is bound to increase in the foreseeable future for most African countries, our study raises critical public health concerns. Another important finding in the context of the HIV AIDS pandemic is the risk factor associated to the mortality among children who have lost their mother. Our study also demonstrated a persistent disadvantage of children born to migrant mothers irrespective the length of stay in the receiving zone. The latter seems to point out the difficulties for migrant to develop social network outside their area of origin.


Abstract. Many mountainous regions depend on seasonal snowfall for their water resources. Current methods of predicting the availability of water resources rely on long-term relationships between stream discharge and snowpack monitoring at isolated locations, which are less reliable during abnormal snow years. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been shown to be an effective tool for measuring snow water equivalent (SWE) because of the close relationship between snow density and radar velocity. However, the standard methods of measuring radar velocity can be time-consuming. Here we apply a migration focusing method originally developed for extracting velocity information from diffracted energy observed in zero-offset seismic sections to the problem of estimating radar velocities in seasonal snow from common-offset GPR data. Diffractions are isolated by plane-wave-destruction (PWD) filtering and the optimal migration velocity is chosen based on the varimax norm of the migrated image. We then use the radar velocity to estimate snow density, depth, and SWE. The GPR-derived SWE estimates are within 6 % of manual SWE measurements when the GPR antenna is coupled to the snow surface and 3–21 % of the manual measurements when the antenna is mounted on the front of a snowmobile  ∼  0.5 m above the snow surface.


Results from simulations of spectral-analysis-of-surface-waves (SASW) measurements are presented for the common geotechnical condition of soft surficial soils overlying a stiffer half-space. Several recent experimental and numerical studies have demonstrated the dominance of higher-mode surface wave propagation at low frequencies for profile conditions where strong, shallow contrasts in elastic properties exist. This transition to higher-mode propagation has proven problematic for methods utilizing a fundamental-mode forward model in the inversion procedure, resulting in overprediction of the shear wave velocity (VS) profile. The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the SASW methodology, which uses an effective-velocity forward model, in dealing with the soft-over-stiff profile condition. Specifically, this study focuses on the phase unwrapping procedure used in the SASW method. Nine VS profiles were simulated in this study, representing different conditions of VS contrast and depth to the stiffer layer. The results show that in some cases the phase unwrapping procedure produces an experimental dispersion curve that is inconsistent with both the fundamental mode and the true effective-velocity dispersion curve for the profile. The resulting VS profile is substantially under-predicted. Experimental results from measurements at a soft-over-stiff site are presented that support the findings from the simulated measurements.


We have used zinc aluminate nanostructured films deposited by spray pyrolysis to determine its biocompatibility assessed by cells attachment and cell differentiation. Cell attachment onto zinc aluminate showed an increase of 53, 81 and 86% at 180, 300 and 420 minutes (p<0.05) when compared to controls. Mineralization was analyzed at 5 and 14 days of culture by scanning electron microscopy, microanalysis and atomic force microscopy. Our results showed in experimental culture a higher density of mineral-like tissue with small needle-shaped crystal and granular nanoparticles with preferential orientation when compared to controls. The composition of the mineral-like tissue deposited in zinc aluminate nanostructured material had a Ca/P ratio of 1.6, whereas control culture had a Ca/P ratio of 1.50. Our finding revealed that ZnAl2O4 promoted higher expression of type I collagen, bone sialoprotein, osteocalcin and alkaline phosphatase, suggesting that zinc aluminate provides a microenvironment that favors mineral formation and cell differentiation. Our results point to the potential use of ZnAl2O4 for the osteoinductive process in biomedical implants.


Computer and video games have been developed into effective tools for educational programmes. However, the question which follows is "Can computer games really become an effective educational tool in the classroom?" Debates and discussions regarding the best methodology for classroom education have gone on for decades. Researchers in many countries are slowly gaining acceptance to the use of educational games for educational purposes in schools and colleges. However the use of Educational Computer Games (ECG) is still not popular in schools and universities in Thailand. Thus, the research on the use of ECG for educational purposes in Thailand is scarce. This may be due to the negative impression of computer games from the community. Nevertheless, according to the Thailand Reform Education Act 1999, Thai universities should adopt student-centred learning as the main focus in teaching. It is therefore important to examine the possibilities of using ECG to support this type of learning environment. It is the purpose of this thesis to investigate the feasibility of adopting ECG in undergraduate courses in Thailand. The objectives of this thesis are: 1) to investigate the factors affecting the use of ECG in the classrooms by Thai lecturers and students, 2) to examine the learning and teaching styles that benefit the use of ECG, and 3) to determine the genre of computer games which are appropriate and effective as educational computer games. In order to study the adoption of ECG for teaching and learning in Thai undergraduate courses, three main theoretical frameworks have been investigated. There are technology acceptance theories, ECG concepts and pedagogical theories.

The research strategy for this study is survey research. Questionnaires and interviews are instruments used for data collections. The thesis combined both qualitative and quantitative research. A sample size of 400 students and 40 lecturers were selected from four Thai universities. As for the interview survey, there were 18 interviewees participated voluntarily. The results from the literature review on the theoretical frameworks have the effect in formulating the five research propositions of the study and the 20 hypotheses.

The major findings from this study are as follows: 1) every ECG acceptance factor namely Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Attitude towards Use (AU), Subjective Norms (SN), Perceived Entertainment (PE) and University Environment Support Factors (UESF) have positive influence on the behavioural intent to use ECG in teaching and learning; 2) nearly half of the Thai students have a Pragmatist Style of learning (43.5%) and a reasonable share of Thai lecturers have a Facilitators Style of teaching (41.4%); 3) when the learning style is used as a predictor of ECG adoption, every style of learning has a positive influence on the behavioural intent to use. After Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) testing, it was found that there is no statistical significant difference between each learning style. However, when using regression analysis with "enter" method to each learning style; it can be found that the Activist Style has the most positive influence on the behavioural intent to use ECG. In contrast, with ANOVA testing, different teaching styles have different intent to use ECG. By a comparison of teaching styles using Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) method, it shows that there were two pairs of teaching styles that have a statistical significant difference at .011 and .013. The first pair is Facilitator and Personal, and the second pair is Facilitator and Delegator; 4) when the respondents were asked "What is Your Opinion If the University Has a Policy of Employing ECG into the Curriculum as a Learning Tool in the classrooms?", most respondents have positive comments on accepting this type of education technology. 82.4% of students and 65.4% of lecturers agreed with this policy; 5) there are a variety of comments from the interviewees on the game genres they think could be appropriate for an education environment. Most of them think that all game genres can be applied to ECG (52.6%). 26.3% think that it depends on the content and subject areas. The rest recommended some other game genres such as adventure, puzzle, role-playing, simulation, and sport games. However, in order to support the research finding, further studies have been carried out based on previous research papers relating with game genre and learning theories. The papers have been reviewed, analyzed, matched, used to bridge the gap, synthesised and, subsequently the three new conceptual frameworks are proposed: 1) conceptual model of relationships between learning styles, learning activities and possible game genres; 2) conceptual model of relationships between game genre and three learning theories; and 3) three stages of adopting digital game platforms for learning in the classroom. This study provides some useful insights into the ECG adoption in the Thai undergraduate classroom


Purpose of review Anxiety is one of the most common co-occurring psychiatric conditions in youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This article reviews recent evidence as well as earlier relevant studies regarding the characteristics, assessment, and treatment of anxiety in youth with ASD. Recent findings It is well established that the prevalence of anxiety in youth with an ASD is significantly greater than the prevalence of anxiety in the general population. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of informant, method, and instrument when measuring anxiety in this population. Despite the high prevalence, findings to date have been unable to identify any consistent risk factors for anxiety. New psychological treatments, including modified cognitive behavioral therapy for youth with high functioning ASD and co-occurring anxiety, are emerging. Pharmacological data, however, are scant. Existing studies show that youth with ASD are at increased risk for behavioral activation when taking SSRIs. Summary Clinicians working with youth with ASD are encouraged to routinely screen for anxiety. Until further data are available, clinical judgment is needed when prescribing treatments, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which require close monitoring of side-effects. Research on risk factors, pathophysiology, and treatment of this condition is needed.


International aid and funding agencies usually receive more requests to support conservation proposals than can be supported by their available funds and therefore have to rank these. A checklist of questions or factors which may be taken into account by funding agencies in prioritising inter-country and inter-regional requests is given. The mechanics of allocation of funds on the basis of net economic benefits are discussed and limitations of the cost benefit approach are noted. A list of factors likely to•favour the selection of particular projects is listed. Communicators should take those into account. The possibility of non-economic and strategic factors influencing the distribution of funds for support of protected areas is discussed.


Purpose: High calcium intake from dairy products and supplements has been associated with an increased risk of incident and lethal prostate cancer (PCa) in some, but not all, studies. We evaluated the associations of dietary (from foods only) and total (from foods and supplements) intake of calcium with PCa risk in a pooled analysis of 14 prospective cohort studies. Methods: There were 51,896 incident cases of PCa diagnosed among the 806,969 participants including 5,061 advanced stage (equivalent to T4, or N1, or M1, or fatal) and 9,414 high grade (equivalent to poorly differentiated, undifferentiated, or Gleason score ≥8) cancers. Using the primary data, we estimated study-specific relative risks (RR) using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, and pooled the RRs using a random effects model. We tested for between-studies heterogeneity using the Q statistic. We examined PCa risk overall and by stage (advanced and localized [equivalent to T1 or T2 and N0M0]), and grade (high and low grade [equivalent to well or moderately differentiated or Gleason score Results: We saw an increased risk of PCa overall with high dietary (pooled RRQ5 vs. Q1: 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04–1.12) and total (pooled RRQ5 vs. Q1: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.03–1.13) calcium intake. The results for localized PCa were similar to those observed for overall prostate cancer; pooled RRsQ5 vs. Q1 (95% CI) were 1.07 (1.03–1.10) for dietary calcium and 1.06 (1.02–1.09) for total calcium intake. Nonsignificant associations were observed between calcium intake and risk of advanced stage PCa; the pooled RRsQ5 vs. Q1 (95% CI) were 1.05 (0.94–1.17) for dietary calcium intake and 1.05 (0.90–1.22) for total calcium intake. Neither of these results was significantly different from those observed for localized PCa (p-value, test for common effects >0.50). There was also no significant association between calcium intake and risk of fatal PCa; the pooled RRsQ5 vs. Q1 (95% CI) were 1.03 (0.94–1.13) for dietary calcium, and 1.00 (0.80–1.25) for total calcium intake. In categorical analyses using common cutpoints comparing ≥1500 vs. Results for low grade PCa for both dietary and total calcium intakes were similar to those observed for localized PCa. Nonsignificant associations were observed for both dietary (pooled RRQ5 vs. Q1 1.06, 95% CI: 0.99–1.13) and total (pooled RRQ5 vs. Q1: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.99–1.16) calcium intake and risk of high grade PCa. Associations for dietary and total calcium intake did not differ significantly by grade (p-value, test for common effects for quintile 5 >0.50). There was no evidence of between-studies heterogeneity in any of the analyses conducted for dietary or total calcium intake (p-value, test for between-studies heterogeneity for highest category ≥0.15). Conclusion: These preliminary findings from our pooled analyses of 14 cohort studies suggest that high calcium intake may modestly increase the risk of prostate cancer, regardless of stage or grade. We did not find an increased risk of high grade or advanced stage prostate cancer with high calcium intake. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):B104.


The objective of this paper is to shed light on obstacles to, and opportunities for, increasing the effectiveness of construction firms in managing buyer-supplier relationships. More specifically, the focus is on assessing the maturity level of buyer-supplier relationship management by construction firms. First, on the basis of a literature review and discussions with industry experts, five constructs were defined and, on the basis of these constructs, a measurement tool was developed. Following this, the maturity level in terms of the five constructs was assessed by applying the measurement tool in 19 Dutch construction firms. The results demonstrate a large potential for improved management of buyer-supplier relationships. Although there are major factors impeding, there are, at the same time, developments stimulating the effectiveness of managing buyer-supplier relationships. A useful next research step would be to determine the optimum portfolio of relationship types between contractors and suppliers in the construction industry


BACKGROUND
The positive health and wellbeing effects of social support have been consistently demonstrated in the literature since the late 1970s. However, a better understanding of the effects of age and sex is required.

METHOD
We examined the factor structure and reliability of Kessler's Perceived Social Support (KPSS) measure in a community-based sample that comprised younger and older adult cohorts from the Australian Twin Registry (ATR), totalling 11,389 males and females aged 18-95, of whom 887 were retested 25 months later.

RESULTS
Factor analysis consistently identified seven factors: support from spouse, twin, children, parents, relatives, friends and helping support. Internal reliability for the seven dimensions ranged from 0.87 to 0.71 and test-retest reliability ranged from 0.75 to 0.48. Perceived support was only marginally higher in females. Age dependencies were explored. Across the age range, there was a slight decline (more marked in females) in the perceived support from spouse, parent and friend, a slight increase in perceived relative and helping support for males but none for females, a substantial increase in the perceived support from children for males and females and a negligible decline in total KPSS for females against a negligible increase for males. The perceived support from twin remained constant. Females were more likely to have a confidant, although this declined with age whilst increasing with age for males.

CONCLUSIONS
Total scores for perceived social support conflate heterogeneous patterns on sub-scales that differ markedly by age and sex. Our paper describes these relationships in detail in a very large Australian sample.


ABSTRACT Mycobacterium abscessus is a major nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pathogen and is responsible for about 80% of all pulmonary infections caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria. Clofazimine is an effective drug active against M. abscessus, but the mechanism of resistance to clofazimine in M. abscessus is unknown. To investigate the molecular basis of clofazimine resistance in M. abscessus, we isolated 29 M. abscessus mutants resistant to clofazimine and subjected them to whole-genome sequencing to identify possible mutations associated with clofazimine resistance. We found that mutations in the MAB_2299c gene (which encodes a possible transcriptional regulatory protein), MAB_1483, and MAB_0540 are most commonly associated with clofazimine resistance. In addition, mutations in MAB_0416c, MAB_4099c, MAB_2613, MAB_0409, and MAB_1426 were also associated with clofazimine resistance but less frequently. Two identical mutations which are likely to be polymorphisms unrelated to clofazimine resistance were found in MAB_4605c and MAB_4323 in 13 mutants. We conclude that mutations in MAB_2299c, MAB_1483, and MAB_0540 are the major mechanisms of clofazimine resistance in M. abscessus. Future studies are needed to address the role of the identified mutations in clofazimine resistance in M. abscessus. Our findings have implications for understanding mechanisms of resistance to clofazimine and for rapid detection of clofazimine resistance in this organism.


SAG39 is a rice (Oryza sativa) gene that encodes a cysteine protease. SAG39 shares 55% homology with the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) senescence-associated protein SAG12. The promoter for SAG39 (PSAG39) was isolated, and SAG39 expression was determined to be relatively low in mature leaves, while not expressed in the endosperm. SAG39 mRNA levels increased as senescence progressed, with maximum accumulation of transcripts at late senescence stages. Gel retardation assays indicated that two cis-acting elements in PSAG39, HBOXCONSENSUSPVCHS and WRKY71OS, responded to leaf senescence. To test if PSAG39 could be useful for increasing rice yields by increasing cytokinin content and delaying senescence, homozygous transgenic plants were obtained by linking PSAG39 to the ipt gene and introducing it into Zhonghua 11. The chlorophyll level of the flag leaf was used to monitor senescence, confirming the stay-green phenotype in PSAG39:ipt transgenic rice versus wild-type plants. Changes in the cytokinin content led to early flowering and a greater number of emerged panicles 70 d after germination in the transgenic rice. Measurements of sugar and nitrogen contents in flag leaves demonstrated a transition in the source-sink relationship in transgenic plants triggered at the onset of leaf senescence, with the nitrogen content decreasing more slowly, while sugars were removed more rapidly than in wild-type plants. The importance of these changes to rice physiology, yield, and early maturation will be discussed.


Abstract The concept of identity can be seen from different angles and understood on different levels. In the context of Viking identity, we can contrast two possibilities: 1) that there was an overarching Scandinavian cultural unity in the Viking Age, or 2) that there were distinct cultural identities in different parts of what is often called the "Viking world." In fact these options are not mutually exclusive; both could easily be true and probably are. In this paper, identity is discussed based on archaeological, literary, and iconographic sources. The focus is on the North Atlantic settlements, especially Iceland and Greenland, and the extent to which Norsemen regarded their connections with Scandinavia as homeland connections. Many factors affected the sense of belonging of a Norse group with Scandinavian roots, including language, names, religious customs, and material culture. House constructions suggest that building traditions were transferred even if the materials needed were not always locally available. Comparisons are drawn with other, more recent situations, and examples are given from the emigration of Swedes to America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Swedish-Americans have a dual identity. they feel both as Swedes and (above all) as Americans. It is suggested that something similar was true for the Norse settlers in Greenland; they were Greenlanders, but at the same time, their Scandinavian roots continued to be significant.


Endmember extraction is usually based on the solution of a system of linear equations that allows the identification of some basic spectra in terms of which the observed mixed spectra may be expressed as linear combinations. In this paper, we propose to close the loop of such an approach by identifying only the basic spectra that reproduce the dominant cover classes of a region as endmembers, and distinguishing them from outlier spectra present in the scene. The latter are often confused by other methods as endmember spectra, whereas in many practical applications, they are treated as anomalies or targets in the scene. Thus, the proposed method identifies endmembers in a robust way, separating them from outliers.


The quayside container crane is the crucial equipment of port handling operation. With the increasing demand of trade logistics, quayside container cranes are developing towards more and more large and high-parameter to adapt to larger ships. With the increase of logistics demand, quayside container cranes are developing towards large-scale and high-parameter. Nevertheless, the fatigue problem of metal structures has become increasingly prominent due to the long-term and high-strength continuous operation of equipment. The structure of quayside container crane is huge, and there are many types of connection, such as welds, openings, variable crosssection, etc. Therefore, the mechanical condition of equipment structure is complex. How to effectively determine high-risk fragile zones and health monitoring points is an urgent problem to be solved, which is also the key to success or failure of structural health monitoring. Five key factors of quayside container crane is been considering, such as structure type, welding technology, heat treatment, non-destructive testing and load condition, this paper puts forward a method for identifying health monitoring points of quayside container crane. Firstly, the hierarchical structure model of highrisk fragile zone fuzzy recognition is constructed. Secondly, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed to determine the weight of each index. Then, the risk value of fragile zone is calculated by using the theory of fuzzy evaluation. Finally, the method is used to identify the high-risk fragile areas and health monitoring points of quayside container cranes. In view of the field application of health monitoring for a port quayside container crane, the method proposed in this paper is used to determine the location of health monitoring points, which coincides with the location of cracks in equipment in the past. The method proposed in this paper provides a scientific and effective means for the location selection of structural health monitoring, and has important value for improving the effectiveness of structural health monitoring.


The paper describes inflation targeting, and tries to emphasize a difference between the theory and the practice. The strategy is highly demanding of information, and thus hard to implement reasonably in practice. Flexible inflation targeting doesn't fix inflation expectations. Its global application is dubious too. Inflation targeting is not suitable for transitive economies since there cannot be satisfactory long-run prediction model at the disposal of the central bank.


In the present study, we examine the effect of point defects and fission gases on thermal transport in representative actinide oxides used in modern reactors. In particular, oxygen interstitials and Kr/Xe fission gas bubbles are of primary focus. Reverse non-equilibrium molecular dynamics is employed to investigate thermal transport in UO2 and PuO2 with oxygen interstitials at the defect concentrations of 0.1%, 1%, and 5%. The results show that any alteration to the lattice structures of these fuels reduce their thermal conductivities significantly. For the largest UO2 structure simulated in the present study, for example, 0.1% oxygen interstitials decreased the thermal conductivity by 18.6%. For the case of the effect of fission gas bubbles, serious modification to phonon dispersion in oxide fuels is caused by the presence of a single fission gas bubble, resulting in a large temperature drop in their temperature profiles. The average interfacial thermal resistance across a fission gas bubble (comprised of 30 Kr and/or Xe atoms) is estimated to be 2.1 × 10−9 Km2/W.


Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) is a common complaint. Recently, it has become well recognized that tendinopathy and tears of the gluteus medius (GM) are a cause of recalcitrant GTPS. Nevertheless, the clinical syndrome associated with GM tears is not fully characterized. We characterize the clinical history, findings on physical examination, imaging and intraoperative findings associated with symptomatic GM tears. Forty-five patients (47 hips) who underwent GM repair for the diagnosis of tear were evaluated. Pain was estimated on the visual analog scale (VAS) and hip-specific scores were administered to assess functional status. The imaging modalities were reviewed and intra operative findings were recorded. The average patient age was 54 years (17–76), 93% were females. Symptom onset was commonly insidious (75%) and the average time to diagnosis was 28 months (2–240). The most common pain location was the lateral hip (75%). The average pre-surgery VAS and modified Harris Hip Score were 6.65 (0–10) and 55.5 (12–90), respectively. All patients had pathological findings on magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) ranging from tendinosis to complete tears of the GM tendon. There was a discrepancy between MRA interpretation by a radiologist and findings during surgery. Hip abductor tears are an under-recognized cause of hip pain and hip symptomatology. In this study, we further characterize the clinical presentation of this entity. The data we present here may facilitate early diagnosis, early orthopedic care and avoid unnecessary prolonged patient sufferings.


The process by which regulatory standards are established for drinking water contaminants is based on extrapolating animal toxicity data to humans using a standard mathematical model. The assumptions and judgments involved introduce a relatively high degree of uncertainty and conservativeness into both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the process. Setting standards based on knowledge of specific mechanisms of carcinogenicity would decrease the uncertainty involved in risk assessment. Understanding these mechanisms is necessary for arriving at the most appropriate mathematical construct for calculating more rational standards.


Fatty acid esters are food additives with strong antibacterial activity against spore-forming bacteria. The antibacterial activity of monoglycerol fatty acid esters (MGs) and sucrose fatty acid esters (SEs) with various fatty acid chain lengths was systematically investigated on four typical Bacillus species: B. cereus, B. subtilis, B. megaterium, and B. coagulans. Monoglycerol monolaurate (MG12) and monoglycerol monomyristate (MG14) showed relatively strong bactericidal effects on vegetative cells of these species among the MGs tested at both pH 6.0 and pH 8.0. Different SEs showed bactericidal effects on different species at pH 6.0, while the SEs had antibacterial effects only on B. coagulans at pH 8.0. SEs showed antibacterial effects on vegetative cells of these species, as was the case with MGs. In addition, it was found that MGs and SEs showed strong antibacterial effects on both B. cereus and B. subtilis in the logarithmic phase of growth, while the antibacterial activities of MGs persisted longer than those of SEs.


Erosion degrades soils and undermines agricultural productivity. For agriculture to be sustainable, soil erosion rates must be low enough to maintain fertile soil. Hence, quantifying both pre-agricultural and agricultural erosion rates is vital for determining whether farming practices are sustainable. However, there have been few measurements of pre-agricultural erosion rates in major farming areas where soils form from Pleistocene deposits. We quantified pre-agricultural erosion rates in the midwestern United States, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. We sampled soil profiles from 14 native prairies and used in situ–produced 10Be and geochemical mass balance to calculate physical erosion rates. The median pre-agricultural erosion rate of 0.04 mm yr–1 is orders of magnitude lower than agricultural values previously measured in adjacent fields, as is a site-averaged diffusion coefficient (0.005 m2 yr–1) calculated from erosion rate and topographic curvature data. The long-term erosion rates are also one to four orders of magnitude lower than the assumed 1 mm yr–1 soil loss tolerance value assigned to these locations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hence, quantifying long-term erosion rates using cosmogenic nuclides provides a means for more robustly defining rates of tolerable erosion and for developing management guidelines that promote soil sustainability.


University of Washington Abstract This Grievable Life: Precarity, Land Tenancy, and Flooding in the Kampung of Jakarta Linda Kathleen Cuadra Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Laurie Sears History Slum clearing in Jakarta has taken on a new intensity since the end of the New Order in Indonesia, despite the nation's claim of providing a more democratic atmosphere and expansion of civil right for its citizens. This paper considers the conflation of forces that work to make the lives of Jakarta's poor residents more precarious, considering Judith Butler's ideas of precarity and dispossession and how these can lead not just to increased poverty but possibly to positive responses from the dispossessed. Considering how the poor have been moved as demand for developable land and land prices escalate in Jakarta highlights how disenfranchised the poor in modern Indonesia have become. Problems of flooding and climate change are explored, as well as the complicated nature of land use and land tenancy in Jakarta. Neoliberal pressures to both provide cheap, informal labor and to conform to international ideals about environmentalism are considered. Finally, this paper explores whether ideas of dispossession paired with social media may increase the ability of Jakarta's poor to struggle against those external forces that pressure quality of lives toward penury.


Uranium concentrations of 42 to 169 ppm in fibrous calcite from spring-deposited tufa in the middle Miocene Barstow Formation, California, are among the highest reported for calcite. Fission-track maps of multiple bands of uniformly dull-luminescent fibrous calcite show that the concentration of U increases in the outward growth direction of the calcite of each individual band. Homogeneous dull luminescence in the fibrous calcite indicates no change in redox conditions of the fluid from which the calcite was precipitated. It is proposed that the cyclic pattern of increase in U concentration reflects a cyclical change in the U/Ca ratio in the fluid. Episodic mixing between Ca-rich spring water with a low U/Ca ratio and Ca-poor saline alkaline lake water with a high U/Ca ratio could produce the episodes of formation of fibrous calcite with increasing U concentrations. The spring water supplies the Ca for calcite precipitation, and the U concentrations increase with the decreasing fraction of spring water and increasing fraction of lake water. These cycles reflect a variable recharge of groundwater into the lake by springs. The large variation in U concentrations suggests mixing of 0% to 45% spring water with the lake, while the narrow range in δ 18 O of −6.37‰ to −6.87‰ limits the variation of the proportions of spring and lake water to 5%.


This Article presents a novel, ex ante method of patent valuation for licensing purposes. It suggests that the value of patents should correlate with their technological contribution for our patent system to adequately reward innovation. The proposed method deviates from existing methods in at least four novel aspects. First, it adopts a social-normative perspective instead of a positive-economic one. Thus, it asks what should be the license value, from the standpoint of the patent system, and not what would be that value in a world with no regulatory intervention. Second, it is performed ex ante, upon the grant of patent protection, far before any licensing negotiations are initiated. Third, it recommends setting flexible limitations over the ultimate license value, rather than setting a single fixed price. Fourth, it suggests subjecting the process of patent valuation to external regulation, instead of leaving it to the exclusive control of free market powers. Accordingly, this Article advances a two step, novel method of patent valuation: first, determining the quality of a given patent according to the proposed quality indicators, and then, assigning flexible price limitations that correlate with the patent's quality. Such a social-normative method of patent valuation, this Article contends, would promote at least four significant objectives. First, by translating patent quality into patent value, it could encourage high quality innovation and improve patent quality. Second, by setting ex ante limitations over the licensing price the patentee may ultimately demand, it would downgrade patent trolling. Third, by determining the price of a patent upon issuance, it could neutralize the manipulative effect of external factors, such as the identity of negotiating parties and their respective bargaining powers, as well as the circumstances surrounding the licensing negotiations, which bears no relation to patent quality, over the patent's value. The proposed ex ante method could hence limit the ability of patentees having strong bargaining power to obtain un-proportional licensing fees that fail to reflect the true value of their inventions. Consequently, it could hamper their ability to hold-up follow-on innovation and impede future research. Fourth, in the long term, the proposed method would also reduce litigation costs and decrease litigation rates for the benefit of the public as a whole.


Allergy is a multisystem disease in children that often occurs with the coexistence of diverse clinical manifestations that cause great impact on quality of life and academic performance due to sleep disorders arising from the disease or treatment, and absenteeism that children may experience. Because of the time spent in school, there is a possibility that allergic reactions may occur first in these facilities, where a lack of staff knowledge has been found regarding how to proceed in allergy crisis situations. Cooperative action among health teams, community, parents, and school authorities is essential to ensure that the school can prevent, recognize, and ensure quick access to emergency services (if needed) and treatment protocols for allergic reactions, thus allowing allergic children to be better protected in the school environment, which should be considered an extension of the home environment and an important arm in proper management to control the disease.


In this paper, I study the intergenerational mobility of education and income in China. Using the CHNS database which gives information on parental educational attainment and income level, I show that there is a relatively high intergenerational mobility in China, compared to other developed and developing countries. Even if parents' social characteristics influence the child's ones, the transmission of parents' educational and income level remains low. Nevertheless, I stress a growing impact of parents' income on the determination of children educational attainment, what can be an increasing factor of income inequality in the future. Moreover, I emphasize that parents' farming activity plays an important and significant negative role in the child's educational level. JEL: O12, O15, I12, I20 CERDI, Etudes et Documents, E 2007.29


During COVID-19 pandemic, medical schools and teaching hospitals are required to cease on-site teaching, learning and assessment activities for undergraduate students. These on-site activities have been transformed into online instructions. Although blended learning, a combination of online and on-site learning is common in medical schools [1], online instructions have never been conducted to such a great extent, where wholly or almost every instruction is conducted online. Several changes have been noticed during COVID-19 as preliminary measures to conquer the challenges caused by this pandemic.


While current computational capability has led to finite element analysis becoming the predominant means of assessing three-dimensional stress concentrations, there are nonetheless some three-dimensional configurations where the desired level of accuracy of stresses is not realized on the finest mesh used. Here we offer some simple means of improving the accuracy of finite element stresses for such configurations, and doing so with modest increases in computational effort. These improved stresses are obtained by using an adaptation of Richardson extrapolation on original mesh results, and also on mesh results with a reduced mesh refinement factor. Verification of the improvements is undertaken using the convergence checks and error estimates reported earlier. The approach is applied to nine three-dimensional test problems. Finite element analysis of these test problems leads to eleven stresses on the finest meshes used that could benefit from being improved. The extrapolation procedure in conjunction with the reduced refinement factor improved all eleven stresses. Error estimates confirmed these improvements for all eleven.


The metabolic syndrome is characterized by central obesity, dyslipidemia, elevated blood pressure, and hyperglycemia. The Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS) Family Study recruited extended pedigrees of Hispanic descent from San Antonio, TX (SA) and San Luis Valley, CO (SLV). Thirty-five of these pedigrees (27 SA and 8 SLV) had at least 2 individuals with metabolic syndrome (216 affected individuals and 563 affected relative pairs). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and component criteria in subjects from these pedigrees were 35% metabolic syndrome, 43% increased waist circumference, 31% hypertriglyceridemia, 69% low HDL cholesterol, 31% increased blood pressure, and 25% either increased fasting glucose or presence of diabetes. Nonparametric linkage analysis provided evidence for linkage of metabolic syndrome to 1q23-q31 (D1S518; logarithm of odds [LOD] 1.6) with significant site heterogeneity (SA LOD 2.6 and SLV LOD 0.0), and removing all individuals with diabetes reduced, but did not eliminate, the evidence for linkage to this region (LOD 1.2). This heterogeneity may partially be explained by phenotypic differences. Members in the SA pedigrees were older, had greater central obesity, had higher prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, and were from a more urban environment than members of the SLV pedigrees. These results contribute to the growing evidence that chromosome 1q harbors at least one locus related to the metabolic precursors of diabetes. Diabetes 53:1170 ‐1174, 2004


Three types of metals,Al, Cu and Fe,doped TiO2 thin filmsat deferent concentrations were prepared via sol-gel method achieves using dip-coating technique. All the samples were undergone to calcination in a furnace at (450oC) with temperature rate of 20oC/min for three hours. XRDtest show anatase crystal phase for all films. The absorption spectra were adopted for calculation the band gap. Noticeable UV to visible red shifts was recordedin Fe-doped TiO2samples (absorption edge reach 418.92 nm),while minor shift were observed in both Al-doped TiO2 and Cu-doped TiO2 samples. Systematic absorption edges shifting with concentration dependence were realized for all adopted samples. Self-cleaning capability of the prepared samples were examinedinterrelated to the hydrophilicity using contact angle measurements.


Agricultural aspects have been covered in the scenario process on shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs), but only to a limited extent. In order to analyze the future dynamics of agricultural development they need to be complemented and specified by Representative Agricultural Pathways (RAPs), which cover different aspects of agricultural development as for example European agricultural and domestic policy, environmental policies,  different livestock management systems, cropping systems or irrigation efficiencies. In this paper we will develop a general framework for RAPs where we define for each SSP the corresponding specific agricultural development. Some aspects of the above mentioned specifics can be derived from the definitions in the SSPs, as for example irrigation efficiencies which are linked to technological development. Agricultural policies on the other hand are not included in the SSP definitions. Here we will define agricultural and environmental policies, including the available funding in each area of the common agricultural policy (CAP) (pillars 1 and 2). As RAPs can only to a small degree be developed as European guidelines and implemented unilaterally, it is important to translate the overall storylines into specific scenario parameterization at national levels. Concerned by this are 1. national policies, as well as the agri-environmental schemes of the CAP in Pillar II, 2. livestock efficiencies and the development of extensive and intensive farm management, and  3. crop management systems. Additionally we will define which respresentative concentration pathways (RCPs) will match best the future agricultural and agro-economic trajectories. The following 5 preliminary RAPs for Europe will be further developed in our analysis: EU-RAP1 (Sustainable Europe) : strong CAP, strong shift on environmental regulation, no producer support, green CAP with strong mititgation component EU-RAP2 (Middle of the road): BAU or things will stay as they are. EU-RAP3 (Fragmented Europe): Europe breaks up, rich countries support farmers with national subsidies, poor countries do not. There is no CAP anymore EU-RAP4 (Two Europes): Europe is divided in a poor and a rich part. In the rich part a green and environmental friendly  CAP will be implemented, in the poor part of Europe, the CAP will cease to exist EU-RAP5(Fossil fueled Europe): free market world, strong institutions, weak on enviromental regulations, low domestic polices? Local green CAP without mitigation


This Paper uses a large new panel data set to examine the relationship between elections and fiscal policy. We find clear evidence of political business cycles in macroeconomic policy: spending increases before elections while revenues fall, leading to a larger deficit in election years. We also show that there are large systematic differences between developed and developing countries in the size and composition of the electoral policy cycles. We propose a moral hazard model of electoral competition to explain these differences. In the model, the sizes of the electoral budget cycles depend on the rents of remaining in power and the share of informed voters in the electorate. Using suitable proxies, we find that these institutional features explain a large part of the difference in policy cycles between developed and developing countries.


For the numerical description of high velocity impact, Smooth-Particle-Hydrodynamics (SPH) has gained more and more interest. The standard Lagrangian Finite-Element (FE) approach has difficulties in describing large deformations and fracture. However, a simulation based on SPH only is very expensive due to the small size of the particles. A well adopted solution to this is to couple both methods, using SPH only where it is necessary, and capturing the outer boundary conditions with a bias FE-mesh correctly - without considerable extra computational cost.
 We apply such a hybrid approach in LS-DYNA® for the characterization of threats in terminal ballistics. Different meshing approaches for the projectile and target were implemented to guarantee an optimal initial condition. The particle size and the required size of the SPH-region were studied to exclude discretization effects. Exemplarily, a projectile surrogate with simplified geometry is investigated for a fixed impact velocity and two different angles of obliquity. A qualitative comparison between experiments, observed with X-ray cinematography, reveals a good potential of this approach towards predicting fracture and ricochet during high velocity impact events.


"Blue-Water Empire" is Robert Holland's magnificent narrative of Britain's military and cultural ties with the Mediterranean Sea, in the style of the epic naval histories of N. A. M. Rodger. Britain has been a major presence in the Mediterranean from the Battle of the Nile to the end of empire, as both a military and a colonising force on the islands and coastlines of the sea. Robert Holland traces the fascinating story of that presence, from its legacies in culture, language and law to the Mediterranean's own influence on Britain. Evoking the conflicts and contrasts between British and local societies caught up in dramatic events, as well as their mutual resilience under pressure, "Blue Water Empire" charts with vigour, flair and clarity the British experience in the Mediterranean in the age of empire. Reviews: "An important corrective to current historical amnesia...the definitive account of Anglo-Mediterranean history for years to come". (Amanda Foreman, "New Statesman"). "A rich and readable account of the British in the Middle Sea...As Holland's learned, lucid and enjoyable work makes clear, many British politicians saw the Mediterranean as the pre-eminent global strategic arena, representing the key to victory in Europe and Asia". (Dominic Sandbrook, "Sunday Times"). "This is an important subject, and it has never before been drawn together into a single coherent narrative..."Blue-Water Empire" puts the land, not the sea, at the heart of the story". ("Literary Review"). "Robert Holland's masterly history of the Mediterranean is a pleasure to read. "Blue-Water Empire" shows how Britain's mastery of the Middle Sea shaped the modern world, whilst reminding us how profoundly the Mediterranean has influenced the British". (Simon Ball (author of "The Bitter Sea: The Struggle for Mastery in the Mediterranean", 1935-1949)). "Lively and absorbing". (Philip Mansel, "Spectator"). About the author: Robert Holland is one of the world's leading historians of the Mediterranean and the author of "Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus", 1954-59, and (with Diana Markides) "The British and the Hellenes: Struggles for Mastery in the Eastern Mediterranean", 1850-1960. He holds professorial positions at the Centre for Hellenic Studies in King's College London and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the same University.


After the introduction of Roundup Ready® technology, there were changes in community composition of weeds in the Southwest of Goias. In this sense, this study aimed at evaluating weed distribution in different cropping systems in this region. Thus, phytosociological survey was conducted in three different periods. Studies were conducted on thirty-five areas derived from combined soybean crops resistant to glyphosate and conventional soybean, maize, sorghum, millet or fallow in succession. The number of individuals of weeds, dry biomass of soil surface and edaphoclimatic data was obtained in order to describe the variables responses of floristic composition. The factors associated to the total occurrence of species were evaluated and five species difficult to control (Cenchrus echinatus, Alternanthera tenella, Chamaesyce hirta, Euphorbia heterophylla e Glycine max) in regression analysis on tree were selected. A total of 3,219 individuals among 79 species were recorded. Regarding total occurrence of species period desiccation of main crop pre-planting (44.80 pl. 5 m2) and on sites that showed pH> 5,37 (51.20 pl. 5 m2) had higher infestations. Voluntary soybean was found in off-season, preferably with high sand content. Species of hard control, tolerant or resistant to herbicides were diagnosed in areas study.

 Key words: Soybean, tolerance, herbicide.


Since René Descartes famously separated the concepts of body and mind in the seventeenth century, western philosophy and theory have struggled to conceptualize the interconnectedness of minds, bodies, environments and cultures. While environmental psychology and the cognitive
 sciences have shown that spatial perception is 'embodied' and depends on the aforementioned concepts' interconnectedness, architectural design practice, for example, has rarely incorporated these insights. The article presents research on the epistemological foundations that
 frame the communication between design theory and practice and juxtaposes it with scientific research on embodied experience. It further suggests that Asian aesthetics, with its long history in conceiving relations and art as interactive, could create a bridge between recent scientific insights
 and design practice. The article links Asian aesthetics to a discourse on ecologies in the post-Anthropocene, in dialogue with contemporary conceptions of time. It outlines an approach to the interconnectedness of minds, bodies, environments, the sciences and cultures, in favour of a future
 that is governed by creative wisdom rather than 'smart' efficiency.


Steam trap valves are mainly used in thermal power systems to pour out condensate water and keep steam inside. While during the condensate water flowing through steam trap valves, the condensate water is easy to reaching cavitation, which may cause serious damage to the piping system. In order to reducing the cavitation occupation in steam trap valves, this paper mainly deals with an optimization study. With Computational Fluid Dynamics codes, numerical model of a typical steam trap valve is established with Mixture model. The inner pressure field, flow field and steam volume fraction are all achieved under both maximum flow rate working condition and regular working condition. Based on the cavitation results, the throttling stages of the steam trap valve are optimized. And the results show that cavitation range inside the steam trap valve is reduced.


In order to improve faculty understanding of the library-based computer searching service at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Reference Department decided to organize a series of informational workshops. Open to both faculty and graduate assistants, the seminars had a dual purpose: first, to explain how computer searching could improve the quality of research and/or classroom instruction, and second, to provide more complete and accurate information about computer searching to pass on to their students. By reaching a group of instructors who in turn could reach hundreds of our potential computer search patrons, the department hoped they could work in partnership with the faculty to increase knowledge campus-wide of the library's searching services. Bibliographic instruction is almost always thought of in terms of students, undergraduate or graduate. However, the teaching faculty, who are in constant contact with those students, can serve as the librarian's allies in the effort to impart knowledge about the library, its resources and its services. To that end, bibliographic instruction for targeted or self-selected groups of faculty can enhance an already active BI program aimed at students.


This paper explores empirical evidence for a connection between income
 inequality and skill (advanced-level educated workers share) using panel
 data methods that take into account cross-section dependency and
 heterogeneity. To assess the income inequality associated with skill, we run
 a data set for 24 developed The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
 Development (OECD) countries from 1995 to 2018. In order to determine the
 stationary characteristics of the variables, we employ the Cross-sectionally
 Augmented Im, Pesaran and Shin (CIPS) test approach. Following this, we
 employ Westerlund (2007), and Gengenbach, Urbain, and Westerlund (2016)
 Panel Cointegration tests, and then the Panel Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares
 (PDOLS) estimator. Our empirical test results conclude that there is a
 relationship between inequality and skill in the long run and the PDOLS
 estimator findings show that as the skill level in employment increases,
 inequality decreases. In addition, according to the findings, this negative
 relationship is more pronounced in the United States, whereas it is more
 moderate or not valid in European countries. The results obtained are
 primarily consistent with the framework presented by Daron Acemoglu (2002,
 2003). And these findings constitute one of the main contributions of the
 study in terms of supporting Acemoglu's (2003) thesis that the skill premium
 is more pronounced in the United States.


INTRODUCTION
This report describes the research of the plaster cast room in the outpatient clinic Orthopedics, Traumatology, and Plastic Surgery at Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam. The cast room annually treats 6,300 patients, which include both inpatients and outpatients. This research focuses on the improvement of the cast room process regarding the interaction between patient flow and capacity.
PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The cast room has an unbalance in patient waiting time, quality of labor, and quality of care. Hereby, the workload during the week as well as during shifts is not balanced. In addition, the cast room capacity in terms of personnel is not constant as Orthopedic Cast Technicians (OCTS) encounter unscheduled unavailability during the day. The combination of peaks in workload and continuous changes in capacity result in patient waiting time. In addition, the quality of care decreases during busy periods as a result of disturbances during patient treatment. Hereby, quality of labor decreases as shifts both combine high peaks in workload and moments of idle time. The quality of labor further decreases as a result of overtime.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The objective of the research is to design and evaluate several recommendations to improve the performance and service level of the current cast room performance as well as balance the OCT workload per shift. This research uses average patient waiting time and the average number of patients seen within 20 minutes of waiting as the service level measures.
RESEARCH APPROACH
First, this research provides a detailed context analysis of the current cast room process, its actors, and its performance according to the key performance indicators patient waiting time, utilization, and overtime. We connect the findings regarding the cast room performance to the literature and our practical insight of the situation. Hereby, we formulate several recommendations to improve the current situation. These recommendations vary in required commitment, dedication, and resources to improve the current situation. This research focuses on the recommendations regarding appointment planning, staff scheduling, and patient prioritization. We group our recommendations in three interventions:
 Intervention 1: Less invasive improvement actions
Intervention 1 combines recommendations regarding improvements in communication and behavior of both the OCTs as the DAs. The goal of intervention 1 is to decrease or remove delay in the cast room process. Hereby, we mean delay as a result of lack in communication between the OCTs and DAs, as well as timeliness of the OCTs at the start of shifts.
 Intervention 2: Redesign of the agenda system and of the appointment scheduling
Intervention 2 provides a redesign of the agenda system in combination with several rules of thumb regarding appointment scheduling to spread patients over a shift. Furthermore, we try to schedule patients around peak
4
moments to stimulate the balance in workload during the entire shift. Hereby, the goal of intervention 2 is to balance the workload for OCTs throughout the shift. Intervention 2 also uses intervention 1.
 Intervention 3: More invasive improvement actions
Intervention 3 requires additional personnel resources and commitment compared to interventions 1 and 2. Hereby, the sub-interventions of intervention 3 include further alterations in the agenda system regarding the slot duration, improvement in communication regarding the lack in appointment scheduling of walk-in patients and same-day patients, reducing the percentage of no-shows and cancellations, and adjustments in the outpatient clinic capacity to further improve the performance of our interventions in the cast room. Intervention 3 also uses intervention 1 and 2.
RESULTS
We use a computer simulation model to analyze the current situation and evaluate our (sub)-interventions, extensions, and capacity evaluation. We determine a base situation as representation of the current situation. The service level of the base situation is 72.3% with an average patient waiting time of 18.3 minutes. Hereby, the average OCT overtime for the morning and afternoon equals 4.3 minutes and -7.6 minutes respectively. We compare our interventions with this base situation according to 95% confidence interval to evaluate if changes are significant.
Intervention 1 increases the service level to 77.7% with an average patient waiting time of 13.9 minutes. The OCT overtime remains 4.3 minutes overtime in the morning, and increases to -11.1 minutes undertime in the afternoon. Furthermore, we find that we decrease the patient waiting time at the start of shifts.
Intervention 2 increases the service level to 81.3% with an average patient waiting time of 11.4 minutes. The OCT undertime increases to 13.7 minutes overtime in the morning, and decreases to -0.6 minutes undertime in the afternoon.
The best case of Intervention 3 increases the service level to 95%, which is our target service level. However, this situation is hard to implement. The best case situation assumes the elimination of OCT unavailability, the extensive use of a DA to reduce or remove process delays and disturbances, and the spread of specialists' consulting hours. Hereby, the OCT overtime decreases to -6.7 minutes overtime in the morning, and to -46.3 minutes n the afternoon.
CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
We find that the best case situation improves the service level to 95% and the average patient waiting time to 2.9 minutes. However, the best case situation is hard to implement, certainly on a short notice. Intervention 1 shows that we can improve the current situation with low invasive improvement actions with a reduction of 21% of the average patient waiting time. Furthermore, the adjustments regarding appointment scheduling contribute to the spread of workload for OCTs. We recommend to implement intervention 1 and 2 as soon as possible, as they do not require additional (financial) resources. Intervention 3 indicates the importance of controlling cast room capacity as well as reducing disturbances and variance during treatments. Hereby, we adjust capacity to deal with these occurrences (see Section 4.5.3). Those adjustments require additional financial resources. Therefore, we also recommend that the OCTs collaborate with the outpatient clinic stakeholders to adjust the current capacity levels so that no additional financial resources are required. Furthermore, the increase in coordination of external tasks around peak moments contributes to the desired performance as well.


Abstract The moral force and capacity for inspiration of both religion and politics alike arise in part from the sense that they authentically map the world as we find it, yielding claims about how it should be. This paper asks what role we might imagine for law in this "hyper-real" world of religion and politics, arguing that law can display distinctive virtues linked to its capacity for strategic agnosticism about the real. Applying Sunstein's idea of "incompletely theorized agreements" to the politics of religious freedom, the paper examines the role of law as a tool of adhesion in two very different constitutional settings—Canada and Israel—and argues for modesty as a functional virtue in law and legal process. Viewed in this way, law draws its worth from its tolerance for ambiguity, its sub-theoretical nature, and its pragmatic proceduralism, seeking to sustain political community in the presence of normative diversity, rather than speaking truth to difference.


A likelihood ratio test for the equality of two partial correlation coefficients based on two independent multinormal samples has been derived. The large sample Z-test for the same problem has also been discussed. The power analysis of the two tests is obtained. It has been found that the approximate likelihood ratio (ALR) test showed consistently better results than Z -test in terms of power. The size of the ALR test is slightly more than the alpha level. The ALR test is recommended strongly for use in practice.


The sociology of punishment has developed a rich understanding of the social and historical forces that have transformed American penality during the last 40 years. But whereas these social forces are not unique to the United States, their penal impact there has been disproportionately large, relative to comparable nations. To address this issue, I suggest that future research should attend more closely to the structure and operation of the penal state. I begin by distinguishing penality (the penal field) from the penal state (the governing institutions that direct and control the penal field). I then present a preliminary conceptualization of "the penal state" and discuss the relationship between the penal state and the American state more generally.


Abstract Context: In October 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration reclassified hydrocodone to schedule II, increasing regulations on use. The impact of rescheduling hydrocodone on opioid exposures is unclear, especially in states with special restrictions required for prescribing schedule II agents. Objective: To assess whether changes in exposures to prescription opioid analgesics and heroin as reported to poison centers occurred in the 6 months after hydrocodone rescheduling. We hypothesized that hydrocodone exposures would decrease, while less tightly regulated opioids, such as codeine and tramadol, would increase. Materials and methods: This study compares opioid analgesic exposures reported to Texas Poison Centers before and after this change in a state that requires special prescription pads for Schedule II agents. Cases included all opioid analgesic exposures reported to a statewide poison center network, comparing exposures from 6 months before to 6 months after heightened regulations. Specific opioids with large changes in reported exposures were further characterized by patient age and exposure intent. Results: Hydrocodone exposures decreased from 1567 to 1135 (28%, p = 0.00017), decreasing for all ages. Codeine exposures increased significantly from 189 to 522 (176%, p = 0.00014), including a 263% increase for age >20 years. Codeine misuse increased 443% and adverse drug events 327%. Oxycodone exposures increased from 134 to 189 (39%, p = 0.0143), increasing only among patients age >20 years. Reported heroin exposures increased from 156 to 179 (15%, p = 0.2286) and tramadol from 666 to 708 (6%, p = 0.0193). Other opioid exposures changed little or had limited reports. Discussion: The increased regulation of hydrocodone was followed temporally by a decrease in reported hydrocodone exposures, but also increases in codeine, oxycodone and tramadol exposures. This may reflect a shift in prescribing practices, changes in street availability of hydrocodone or decreased drug diversion. Conclusion: The increased regulation was temporally associated with decreased hydrocodone exposures reported to Texas Poison Centers.


We show that a Scottish policy reform, which introduced free formal personal home care for those aged 65 and above, reduced the probability and the hours of receiving informal personal care. Moreover, we find that the group of individuals that most benefited from the policy introduction, i.e. women aged 75 and above, experienced the largest fall in informal care. We go on to investigate whether such reductions in informal and increases in formal personal care impacted on the care recipients' health outcomes. Our results demonstrate that switching from informal to formal care does very little to the recipients' hospital usage and health outcomes.