Alternative approaches to evaluating critical thinking skills are needed, as pencil and paper assessments may not accurately predict simulated or actual clinical performance. To ensure patient safety, it is imperative to determine how to best promote and measure critical thinking skills. Few studies have examined how these skills are related to performance in a simulated or actual clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between metrics of critical thinking skills and performance in simulated clinical scenarios and identify predictors of simulation-based performance of nursing students in their last term of academic preparation. A convenience sample of 36 student nurses prepared at the diploma (n=14), associate (n=12), and baccalaureate (n=10) level in their last term of academic preparation participated in a measurement of critical thinking skills and simulation-based performance using videotaped vignettes (VTV), high-fidelity human simulation (HFHS), and two standardized tests: the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). Simulation-based performance on the VTV and HFHS assessment was rated as "meeting" or "not meeting" overall expectations and in six categories: problem recognition, reports essential data, initiates appropriate nursing interventions, anticipates medical orders, provides rationale, and prioritizes the situation. Student scores on the CCTDI and CCTST were categorized as strong, average, or weak critical thinking disposition or skills. A majority (75.0%) of students did not meet overall performance expectations when assessed using VTV and HFHS. Those not meeting expectations had difficulty recognizing the clinical problem and reporting the appropriate findings to the physician. There was no significant difference between overall performance based on the method of simulation (VTV or HFHS). However, more students met performance expectations for the category of initiating nursing interventions (p=0.0002) using HFHS. The relationships between VTV performance and CCTDI or CCTST scores were not significant except for the relationship between the category of problem recognition and overall CCTST scores (Cramer's V = 0.444, p = 0.029). There was a statistically significant relationship between HFHS performance and overall CCTDI scores (Cramer's V = .413, p = 0.047). Gender, educational preparation, internship/residency participation, prior nursing aide experience, and number of classes using HFHS as a teaching method were not related to overall VTV or HFHS performance or scores on the CCTDI or CCTST. However, there was a significant relationship between age and overall CCTST scores (Cramer's V = .388, p = 0.029). The CCTDI, CCTST, and level of educational preparation were not statistically significant predictors of VTV performance. Student nurses' performance reflected difficulty meeting expectations when tested in both simulated settings. HFHS appeared to best approximate scores on a standardized metric of critical thinking. Further research is needed to determine if results of simulated performance predicts application of critical thinking skills in a clinical setting.


In this paper, we propose a new classification algorithm based on Jumping Emerging Patterns (JEPs), that have the highest impact on classification accuracy. The core idea of our method is the application of a new "REAL/ALL" coefficient, which is used to compare the discriminating power among various groups of JEPs. The efficacy of the proposed approach was confirmed by tests performed on both synthetic and real data sets. The results show that our method may significantly improve the classification performance in comparison to other classifiers based on JEPs.


This article reviews changes in the research literature on intimate partner violence (IPV) since our earlier review (Stith, Rosen, & McCollum, 2003). A rationale for systemic treatment of IPV has emerged from research that has continued to document the limited effectiveness of single-gender treatment approaches for offenders and that has identified subtypes of abusive relationships, including situational couple violence, which often includes the reciprocal use of violence. Consistent findings from the available outcome research have demonstrated that for carefully screened couples who choose to stay together, systemic interventions decrease incidences of IPV and decrease the risk factors for IPV with no increase in risk. Implications for research and treatment are offered.


Electron bifurcation moves electrons from a two-electron donor to reduce two spatially separated one-electron acceptors. If one of the electrons reduces a high-potential (lower energy) acceptor, then the other electron may proceed "uphill" to reduce a low-potential (higher energy) acceptor. This mechanism is now considered the third mode of energy transduction in biology, and offers promise for the development of novel bioinspired energy conversion strategies. Nature uses electron bifurcation to realize highly sought-after reactions: reversible CO2 reduction, nitrogen fixation, and hydrogen production. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of electron bifurcation, including both recent progress and outstanding questions in understanding and developing artificial electron bifurcation systems.


We show that the tangent cone at the identity is not a complete quasiconformal invariant for sub-Riemannian nilpotent groups. Namely, we show that there exists a nilpotent Lie group equipped with left invariant sub-Riemannian metric that is not locally quasiconformally equivalent to its tangent cone at the identity. In particular, such spaces are not locally bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic. The result is based on the study of Carnot groups that are rigid in the sense that their only quasiconformal maps are the translations and the dilations.


The goal of program obfuscation is to provably complicate the task of reverse engineering. Owners of source code wish to make it as hard as possible for others to extract information from their binaries information which may reveal trade secrets, allow undesirable modifications, or enable software piracy. Obfuscation is typically seen as a problem relating to programming languages or compilers. The connection to cryptography is not entirely clear and was only first noticed in 2000. Since then, a few papers have been published every year on the subject. Programs are generally viewed as black boxes:


Conventional chemotherapy for precursor B‐cell (preB) acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) has limitations that could be overcome by targeted therapy. Previously, we discovered a potential therapeutic molecular target, MDX3 (MAX dimerization protein 3), in preB ALL. In this study, we hypothesize that an effective siRNA therapy for preB ALL can be developed using antiCD22 antibody (αCD22 Ab) and nanoparticles. We composed nanocomplexes with super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO NPs), αCD22 Abs and MXD3 siRNA molecules based on physical interactions between the molecules. We demonstrated that the MXD3 siRNA‐αCD22 Ab‐SPIO NP complexes entered leukaemia cells and knocked down MXD3, leading the cells to undergo apoptosis and resulting in decreased live cell counts in the cell line Reh and in primary preB ALL samples in vitro. Furthermore, the cytotoxic effects of the MXD3 siRNA‐αCD22 Ab‐SPIO NP complexes were significantly enhanced by addition of the chemotherapy drugs vincristine or doxorubicin. We also ruled out potential cytotoxic effects of the MXD3 siRNA‐αCD22 Ab‐SPIO NP complexes on normal primary haematopoietic cells. Normal B cells were affected while CD34‐positive haematopoietic stem cells and non‐B cells were not. These data suggest that MXD3 siRNA‐αCD22 Ab‐SPIO NP complexes have the potential to be a new targeted therapy for preB ALL.


Integrated access to distributed data is an important problem faced in many scientific and commercial applications. A data integration system provides a unified view for users to submit queries over multiple autonomous data sources. The queries are processed over a global schema that offers an integrated view of the data sources. Much work has been done on query processing and choosing plans under cost criteria. However, not so much is known about incorporating Information Quality analysis into data integration systems, particularly in the integrated schema. In this work we present an approach of Information Quality analysis of schemas in data integration environments. We discuss the evaluation of schema quality focusing in minimality and consistency aspects and define some schema transformations to be applied in order to improve schema generation and, consequently, the quality of data integration query execution.


We introduce the novel task of identifying important citations in scholarly literature, i.e., citations that indicate that the cited work is used or extended in the new effort. We believe this task is a crucial component in algorithms that detect and follow research topics and in methods that measure the quality of publications.We model this task as a supervised classification problem at two levels of detail: a coarse one with classes (important vs. non-important), and a more detailed one with four importance classes. We annotate a dataset of approximately 450 citations with this information, and release it publicly. We propose a supervised classification approach that addresses this task with a battery of features that range from citation counts to where the citation appears in the body of the paper, and show that,our approach achieves a precision of 65% for a recall of 90%.


Conventional wisdom dictates that there is a positive relationship between governance and growth. This article reexamines this empirical relationship using nonparametric quantile methods. We apply these methods on different levels of countries' growth and governance measures as defined in World Governance Indicators provided by the World Bank. We concentrate our analysis on three of the six measures: voice and accountability, political stability, and rule of law that were found to be significantly correlated with economic growth. To illustrate the nonparametric quantile analysis we use growth profile curves as a visual device. We find that the empirical relationship between voice and accountability, political stability, and growth are highly nonlinear at different quantiles. We also find heterogeneity in these effects across indicators, regions, time, and quantiles. These results are a cautionary tale to practitioners using parametric quantile methods.


In their pursuit of market competitiveness and sustainable top line growth, enterprises are increasingly turning to sophisticated analytics solutions to derive insights and value from the deluge of data that are being generated from all sources. Leading practitioners of Big Data analytics have already moved past the stage of using single analytics modalities on siloed data sources. They are starting to create composite analytics solutions that take advantage of multiple analytics programming models and are also integrating them into their existing enterprise IT systems. At the same time, the CIOs have wholeheartedly embraced cloud computing as a means of reducing the capital and operational cost of their IT systems and streamlining their DevOps processes. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) as a cloud computing consumption model has seen wide acceptance by developers and IT administrators. Although there are PaaS platforms for individual workload types involved in these advanced composite analytics solutions, the composition aspect is not addressed by any of these individual PaaS platforms. Further, there is no lifecycle management support for the solution as a single logical entity. This paper argues for the need of a true PaaS for composite analytics solutions in order to accelerate their adoption by the industry and foster the creation of a healthy ecosystem. We present the design and prototype implementation of such a platform and our early experience of using it to deploy a Telco Fraud Detection solution.


This guide provides a general introduction to the wide-ranging methods of digital scholarship, including information on tools and resources for digital projects and information about library services that support digital research and pedagogy.


Constitutional pluralism has long been controversial, but has recently come under renewed attack. Critics allege that by justifying departure by national courts from the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) orthodoxy on the primacy of EU law, constitutional pluralism is (at best) susceptible to abuse by autocratic member state governments, or is (at worst) a favored tool of Europe's new authoritarians. This article is a defense of heterodoxy in European constitutional thought, and of constitutional pluralism in particular. It uses the concept of "loyal opposition" as a framing discourse, allowing us to see that heterodox approaches to EU constitutionalism and opposition to the received and dominant interpretation of the primacy of EU law are not necessarily any less "loyal" to the principles and values of European integration than agreement with the CJEU. A "legitimacy test" is proposed, by which we can determine whether a given instance of national judicial disagreement with the CJEU is loyal, principled opposition, or disloyal, abusive opposition.


The paper discusses the research findings on building innovation infrastructure in the framework of cross-border partnerships within the European vector of foreign economic relations development. The key strategic areas for creating business incubators and enhancing integration processes in terms of cross-border partnerships are identified. The alternative ways of funding innovative projects and providing support for innovation infrastructure in the context of cross-border collaboration in the form of public-private partnerships are suggested. The paper argues that public-private partnerships in cross-border cooperation involves not the whole spectrum of relations between communities within the territories of neighbouring states but only those that are associated with general use public infrastructure development and related services provision. Evidence is given that, on the one hand, cross-border infrastructure itself acts as an object of investment, and on the other one, is an essential prerequisite of investment attractiveness and economic growth. It is briefly explained that building an innovation infrastructure on the basis of cross-border partnerships will contribute to: improving the business climate and building environment for investments inflow into Ukrainian economic regions; increasing turnover, boosting small and medium entrepreneurship; creating and maintaining cross-border economic and business incubators, clusters, enhancing and further developing of infrastructure. It is specified that the integration of the developed innovation infrastructure with education, research and business brought together provides for building efficient industry innovation chains, implementing the full cycle of competitive scientific and technological product development – from a research idea to a large-scale manufacturing.


Objective Cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) metabolizes about half of all drugs on the market; however, the impact of CYP3A4 loss-of-function variants on drug exposures remains poorly characterized. Here, we report the effect of the CYP3A4*20 frameshift allele in two Spanish liver transplant patients treated with tacrolimus. Patients and methods A series of 90 transplanted patients (with DNA available for 89 of the recipients and 76 of the liver donors) treated with tacrolimus were included in the study. The genotypes of liver donors and of the recipients for CYP3A4*20 (rs67666821), CYP3A4*22 (rs35599367) and CYP3A5*3 (rs776746) were compared with weight-adjusted tacrolimus dose (D), tacrolimus trough concentration (C0), and dose-adjusted tacrolimus trough concentrations (C0/D) using the Mann–Whitney U-nonparametric test. Results The CYP3A4*20 allele was detected in two of the liver donors. This genotype yielded at all times higher C0/D (2.6-fold, average) than intermediate CYP3A metabolizers (CYP3A4*1/*1 and CYP3A5*3/*3) (P=0.045, 90 days after transplantation). CYP3A4*22 carriers showed a 1.9-fold average increase in C0/D (P=0.047, 0.025, and 0.053; at days 7, 14, and 30 after transplantation, respectively) compared with intermediate metabolizers. In terms of recipients' genotype, CYP3A5*1 had reduced (P=0.025) and CYP3A4*22 increased C0/D (P=0.056) 7 days after transplantation. The incidence of biopsy-proven acute rejection was 0, 12, and 20% for livers with poor, intermediate, and extensive CYP3A-metabolizing capacity, respectively (P=0.0995). Conclusion This first description of CYP3A4*20 null genotype in liver-transplanted patients, supports the relevance of CYP3A genotyping in tacrolimus therapy.


Background and Purpose: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common metabolic disease in the aged population, which leads to an increase of stroke incidence, poor stroke outcome, and slower neurological recovery. A better understanding of the pathological cascades of brain injury in the aged DM population is of major clinical importance for stroke management. The present study was designed to characterize the behavioral and pathological changes in older DM rats after embolic stroke.

Methods: Male Wistar rats at age of 13 months were subjected to intraperitoneal nicotinamide (NTM, 210mg/kg) and streptozotocin (STZ, 60mg/kg) injection (n=19). Rats were subjected to embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) 30d after induction of DM (n=10). Aged matched normal rats (n=9) and ischemic rats (n=11) without induction of DM were used as controls.

Results: Rats subjected to STZ-NTM administration exhibited persistent hyperglycemia and reduction of insulin producing pancreatic β-cells, and have clinical manifestations of type 2 DM (T2DM). These rats exhibited substantial spatial learning deficits measured by the Morris water maze (39±3 vs 50±4% of time spent in the correct quadrant in age matched non-DM rats, p<0.05) 65d after induction of DM. Histological analysis revealed that there was patchy vascular and parenchymal fibrin deposition mainly in the hippocampus and white matter, which were associated with significant (p<0.05) reductions in neurofilament positive axonal density (14±3 vs 23±4% in non-DM rats) and myelinating oligodendrocytes (78±11 vs 98±13/mm2). Stroke in DM rats exacerbated vascular and parenchymal fibrin deposition (32±8 vs 17±6 mm2 in non-DM ischemic rats), decreased axonal density (9±2 vs 17±4%) and dendritic spines (10±4 vs 19±5/μm), and increased loss of oligodendrocytes (47±12 vs 73±14/mm2), which were associated with spatial learning and neurological deficits 35d after stroke onset, although the primary infarct volumes within the MCA territory were not different between groups.

Conclusions: T2DM exacerbates neurovascular and white matter damage, leading to neurological deficits in older rats, which closely resembles pathological symptoms observed in stroke patients with T2DM.


This case invites students to discuss the key resources, factors, and relationships that could be causing the poor performance of a student-run consulting organization. Students are asked to develop a causal-loop diagram showing the key resources, feedback relationships, and delays in the system. Sufficient information is available for students to develop and test a computer simulation model. Policy analysis is expected once a valid model is developed.


Urban open green spaces which are an important component of urban area's uses provide physical and social development for a city and they also collect communal and cultural activities within their. Open green spaces, in addition to be associated with natural life are those spaces that create social and economic values. The aim of this study as an empirical study is to query the economic values created by Ankara/Botanik park. In this study, taking into account the house selling prices nearby the Botanik Park, the impact of distance to the Botanik Park has been evaluated on house prices. Hedonic price model has been employed to examine the relationship between the rate of proximity to the park and the house prices and as a result, increase the price of houses that are close to the Ankara/Botanik Park has been determined. Key Words: Open-Green Space, Hedonic Price Model, Economic Value, Park, Turkey.


Although the earliest medieval universities began as teaching-only institutions, the university as an institution has since experienced revolutions in the way its functions are conceived. Currently, the university embraces three functions: teaching, research and community engagement. Although the teaching and research functions of the university are much more established than its third function, the importance of community engagement is acknowledged in the academic literature and, to varying degrees, by governments, higher education agencies and universities. For example, a review of the mission statements of Ugandan universities shows that, besides teaching and research, the universities aspire to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of society. Unfortunately, such assertions reveal little about the actual commitment of the universities to community engagement because there is a dearth of literature about community engagement at African universities. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional commitment of Ugandan universities to community engagement. However, the discussion will focus on a single university, Makerere University. Data was generated through document reviews and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The review shows that the university (1) recognises community engagement as one of its core functions; (2) has integrated some aspects of community engagement into its curriculum and policies; and (3) has organisational structures and personnel to organise and provide community related activities and services. Nonetheless, community related activities remain largely unsupported and the contributions of the faculty to community engagement are insufficiently rewarded. Key words : Higher education; institutional commitment; community engagement; Uganda; Makerere University


A measure of robustness against naturally occurring distortions is key to the safety, success, and trustworthiness of machine learning models on deployment. We propose an adversarial black-box attack that adds minimum Gaussian noise distortions to input images to make machine learning models misclassify. We used a Reinforcement Learning (RL) agent as a smart hacker to explore the input images to add minimum distortions to the most sensitive regions to induce misclassification. The agent employs a smart policy also to remove noises introduced earlier, which has less impact on the trained model at a given state. This novel approach is equivalent to doing a deep tree search to add noises without an exhaustive search, leading to faster and optimal convergence. Also, this adversarial attack method effectively measures the robustness of image classification models with the misclassification inducing minimum L2 distortion of Gaussian noise similar to many naturally occurring distortions. Furthermore, the proposed black-box L2 adversarial attack tool beats state-of-the-art competitors in terms of the average number of queries by a significant margin with a 100% success rate while maintaining a very competitive L2 score, despite limiting distortions to Gaussian noise. For the ImageNet dataset, the average number of queries achieved by the proposed method for ResNet-50, Inception-V3, and VGG-16 models are 42%, 32%, and 31% better than the state-of-the-art "Square-Attack" approach while maintaining a competitive L2.Demo: https://tinyurl.com/yr8f7x9t


Epistasis, the nonadditive interaction between loci, is thought to play a role in many fundamental evolutionary processes, including adaptive differentiation and speciation. Focusing on species differences in ecophysiological traits, we examined the strength and direction of pairwise epistatic interactions between target chromosomal regions from one species, when co-introgressed into the genetic background of a foreign species. A full diallel cross was performed using 15 near-isogenic lines (NILs) constructed between two tomato species (Solanum habrochaites and Solanum lycopersicum) to compare the phenotypic effects of each chromosomal region singly and in combination with each other region. We detected main effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for two of our three focal traits. Epistatic effects accounted for c. 25% of detected effects on trait means, depending on the trait. Strikingly, all but two interactions were antagonistic, with the combined effect of chromosomal regions acting in the opposite direction from that of one or both individual chromosomal regions. Our study is one of the few to systematically examine pairwise epistatic effects in a nonmicrobial system. Our results suggest that epistatic interactions can contribute substantially to the genetic basis of traits involved in adaptive species differentiation, especially highly complex, multivariate traits.


Abstract Diabetic disease and its chronic complications is a public health problem that affects millions of people all over the world. Feet diabetics need private care by using appropriate shoes and socks, to avoid friction, sweating and high temperature. Diabetic socks have to attain an effective thermal comfort and higher appraisal performance. To achieve these conditions, the diabetic socks have to attain comfortable fit, no pressure points or seams on fingers, suitable size, classified as spring-summer or autumn-winter and also to avoid high temperature. The specifications of the diabetic socks sold in the market consist of its material combination, size and chemical treatments. No definite physical mechanical properties of diabetic socks are proposed. Diabetic socks taken from the market, with appropriate price, were evaluated for both thermal and non-thermal properties. The tested samples demonstrate a great variability's in the fabric construction and properties. By analyzing the tested socks, the proposed values concerning the properties of diabetic socks for summer and winter are introduced. Moreover, relative geometrical mean of thermal comfort properties was proposed for determining a global measure of diabetic sock properties.


This national case study reports on the development of a national network, curriculum framework and resources for teacher education, with specific focus on the inclusion of environment and sustainability, also known as education for sustainable development (ESD) in the South African teacher education system. It reviews and reports on the history of environment and sustainability education in teacher education, and from this, the national case study begins to conceptualise a new approach to environment and sustainability teacher education within a new curriculum policy environment, and a new teacher education and development policy environment. Action research case study methodology is used to document the first phase of the emergence of this network, and this report covers Phase 1 of the initiative, which covers formation of the network, review of previous practices, three conceptual development pilot studies undertaken in both in-service and pre-service teacher education environments and a piloting of a 'Train the Trainers' or 'Educate the Teacher Educators' programme, which complements and extends the actual teacher education and development (TED) programme under development. The study highlights critical insights of relevance to the shift to a content referenced curriculum in South Africa, and shows how the 'knowledge mix' which forms the foundation of the new Teacher Education Qualifications Framework can be engaged. It also highlights some features of the changing knowledge environment, and what dominant knowledge practices are in environment and sustainability-related teaching and teacher education practices, opening these up for further scrutiny. It raises concerns that dominant knowledge work, while integrating a range of forms of knowledge (as is expected of the teacher education system under the new policy), tends to be limited by content on problems and issues for raising awareness, and fails to develop deeper conceptual depth and understanding of environment and sustainability, as issuesbased knowledge dominates. Similarly, it fails to support social innovation as a response to environment and sustainability concerns, as awareness raising dominates in dominant knowledge work. The study provides a revised conceptual framework for the Teacher Development Network (TEDN) programme, with guidance on key elements necessary to take the programme forward in Phase 2. national Case study Teacher Professional Development with an Education for Sustainable Development Focus in South Africa: Development of a Network, Curriculum Framework and Resources for Teacher Education1


Cells have intrinsic mechanisms for cleaning harmful oxidants represented mainly by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Despite the antioxidant defense, ROS can cause serious damage to the retina that with age leads to various eye diseases and even blindness. Among numerous cell sites of ROS generation, mitochondrial electron transport is of crucial importance. Recently, for the purpose of cleaning ROS in the mitochondrial matrix, powerful mitochondria- targeted antioxidant "SkQ1" has been invented. We studied SkQ1 effects upon tissues of rat posterior eye cup that consisted: retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) ? choroidal coat ? scleral coat. The eye cups were isolated from the eyes of adult albino rats and cultivated in rotary tissue culture system in the presence of 20 nM SkQ1 or without this compound. After 7 days - 1 month in vitro eye cup samples were studied by immunohistochemistry, routine histology, morphometry, and digital image analysis. We have found that under chosen, "in vitro like in vivo" conditions 20 nM SkQ1 effectively reduced cell death in RPE and choroid, protected RPE from disintegration caused by cell phenotypic transformation and withdrawal from the layer, suppressed transmigration of choroidal coat cells. In the ex vivo model we used degenerative processes were more pronounced in the eye cup center where SkQ1 effect was most vivid. All this give us hopes for effectiveness of SkQ1 treatment of retinal central part that is very susceptible to light-induced over-oxidation injury and mostly suffering in many age-related diseases, AMD, in particular.


The proliferation of new writing on the tarot in recent years has tended to obscure the fact that interpretation of tarot cards as an esoteric device was suggested in the context of the occult revival at the end of the eighteenth century. Writers associated with the French occult revival at the end of the eighteenth century began to link the Tarot, first with Egyptian hieroglyphs, then with the cabbala (Howe 1972, 40-4; Cavendish 1975, 11-59; McIntosh 1987, 101-8; Dummett 1988, 10-19). The intellectual source of such beliefs, however misapplied, is undoubtedly what has come to be described as a western esoteric tradition.(1) Until recently, most discussions of tarot were popular in nature. However, historian and philosopher Michael Dummett has introduced a new, scholarly approach to the subject. In The Game of Tarot (1980) and A Wicked Pack of Cards (1996), Dummett is dismissive of occult and divinatory interpretations. This is not surprising in a professional philosopher who has to deal with the somewhat haphazard use of philosophical principles which characterises occult and divinatory writings on the tarot. Historians of folklore will sympathise with two of the points he makes: first, that arguments, especially those about the nature of antiquity, are often dependent on assumptions made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and secondly, that popular writers tend to repeat each other rather than check their facts (Dummett 1980, Introduction). Dummett's work has also led to changes in the historiography of tarot: it is now clear that it made its first appearance in Europe, not in the fourteenth but in the fifteenth century, and its original geographical location seems to have been Italy not France, as was previously thought (ibid., 10-26). The present discussion, however, is limited to the development of tarot in Britain from the late 1880s to the 1930s. During this period, ideas about the nature of culture were combined with ideas about the origin and meaning of Arthurian literature and with speculation about the occult nature of the tarot. These factors worked to create an esoteric and pseudo-academic legend about the tarot as "secret tradition," which transformed the tarot into a vibrant manifestation of popular culture. One of the aspects of modern tarot which I intend to consider here is the nature of the tension between creative innovation and historical accuracy and how it contributes to the dynamics of the modern phenomenon. Another area worth considering,if we are to understand esoteric developments in relation to the tarot as an occult or fortunetelling device, is the notion of culture which influenced the study of folklore and the study of Arthurian literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A.E. Waite, the Development of the Tarot in Britain, and the British Occult Movement One of the key figures in these developments was Arthur Edward Waite. Waite was born in Brooklyn in 1857, the son of a sea captain. His mother returned to England after his father's death and eventually became a Roman Catholic. His formal education was somewhat sketchy, although adequate enough to enable him to earn his living as a journalist and writer. By the time of his death in 1942, he had produced an enormous number of books, poems, articles and reviews on esoteric subjects. Despite his interest in esoteric orders such as Freemasons and Rosicrucians and his involvement with the Order of the Golden Dawn, there was a strong vein of populism in Waite. His writing style was verbose; and it may this, coupled with the length and opacity of his writings, that keeps him from being republished more often. Waite's writings are important for any consideration of the tarot in the context of popular culture or folklore studies. In his work, folklore theory and a new approach to Arthurian literature began to overlap with esoteric ideas. He brought together a number of key ideas associated with modern occultism, such as the supposed "secret doctrine" running throughout western esoteric tradition, and the availability of that tradition to the individual through mystical experience (Waite 1911a, 59-71; 1911b, 2:379). …


Age is the most powerful cardiovascular risk factor. Based on a meta-analysis of a million control patients in hypertension trials, the Clinical Trialists Collaboration has estimated that doubling of major cardiac and stroke events occurs with age increments of < 10 years (1). Data from the ACCOMPLISH trial, which will be presented at this ISH meeting for the first time, show that patients aged > 70 (mean: 75.2), compared with those < 70 (mean: 63.7), had a 2.82-fold greater event rate for cardiovascular death and a 2.31-fold greater event rate for stroke.The benefits for treating hypertension in older people are well established. SHEP (2), the first study to enroll patients aged > 60 with isolated systolic hypertension (mean baseline systolic BP = 170mmHg) demonstrated that active treatment with chlorthalidone reduced systolic BP to 143mmHg and, compared with placebo (systolic BP = 155 mmHg), significantly reduced stroke by 36%. Similarly, in the SystEUR trial (3), also conducted in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension, the calcium channel blocker nitrendipine was significantly superior to placebo in preventing stokes.The ACCOMPLISH trial has compared cardiovascular outcomes rates according to achieved systolic BPs. In patients aged < 70, the rates for the primary endpoint (CV death or non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke) was significantly lower (by 39%) at < 140 than at > 140 mmHg; and was reduced by a further 27% at < 130 mmHg. For pts > 70, there was also a significant 34% reduction in events when systolic BP was reduced to < 140 mmHg, but there was no further benefit at < 130 mmHg. However, unlike SPRINT (discussed below), the ACCOMPLISH cohort included in a large proportion of diabetic patients in whom - both in analyses of ACCOMPLISH (4) as well as of the ACCORD trial (5) conducted in diabetic patients - CV outcomes were not improved when systolic BPs were reduced to targets lower than < 140 mmHg.HYVET (6) was a landmark study in ambulatory community-dwelling hypertensive patients aged > 80 (average: 84). In patients randomised to active treatment, indapamide and perindopril were used to achieve a systolic target of < 150 mmHg (achieved: 143 mmHg). Compared with placebo, there was a significant 21% reduction in total mortality. Overall, treatment was well tolerated.The SPRINT trial (7), performed in non-diabetic patients, has received much attention, particularly as its cohort included 30% of patients aged > 75. In this older cohort (average age: 80), intensive treatment (systolic target < 120 mmHg), compared with standard treatment (target < 140 mmHg) reduced systolic BP to 123.4 mmHg and significantly decreased the composite CV outcome by 34%, heart failure by 38% and total mortality by 33%. The treatment was well tolerated symptomatically, but there was a significant adverse effect on renal function. Similar decreases in renal function were also observed in ACCOMPLISH when systolic bps were outside the optimal 130-139 mmHg range (4).It is important to note that BP in SPRINT was measured by an automated device with patients seated alone and unobserved by professional personnel. This method appears to provide systolic BPs around 5-10 mmHg lower than well-measured standard office BPs, so the achieved value of 123.4 mmHg in the older patient group in SPRINT corresponds to around 130 mmHg in usual clinical practice. Another issue in interpreting the SPRINT results is that the patients in the intensively treated group were significantly more likely to receive agents like renin-angiotensin system blockers, calcium channel blockers and thiazide-like diuretics that are known to exhibit CV benefits independent of BP reduction. So, how much of the benefit in the intensively treated group was due to its lower BP, and how much to the cardioprotective actions of the additional drugs?

CONCLUSIONS
We now know that treating patients into their 80 s, and possibly beyond, is well justified. Mortality and major cardiovascular outcomes are reduced. It is appropriate to recommend an office-measured systolic BP target of around 130 mmHg in older patients. Any of the major antihypertensive drug classes can be used: in particular calcium channel blockers, RAS blockers, and thiazides are indicated. In general, treatment in older patients is well tolerated, although it is wise to check for orthostatic symptoms in older patients and to monitor renal function when pursuing aggressive BP targets.


Hidden Markov models (hmms) and partially observable Markov decision processes (pomdps) provide a useful tool for modeling dynamical systems. They are particularly useful for representing environments such as road networks and ooce buildings, which are typical for robot navigation and planning. In a previous paper SK97] we have empirically shown that by taking advantage of readily available odometric information, learning hmms/pomdps can be made faster and better. This paper extends our previous results in two ways. We show that our algorithm, which introduces an additional data structure and constraints to the standard hmm and extends the Baum-Welch algorithm to accommodate them, indeed converges to a local maximum of the likelihood function. In addition, we extend our empirical study, and show that the algorithm is robust in the face of reduction in the length of the training sequences. Thus, the use of local odometric information yields faster convergence to better solutions with less data.


This study examined the educational activities at the University of Jordan, established in 1962, which is the oldest university in the country. The study traced the historical development of the university, which emphasizes highly-qualified graduates, and analyzed some of its educational practices.
Research on this subject is limited. Jordanians have written little about their educational system, and there is little evidence of foreign scholars' interest in the subject. Some researchers argued that national pride was the main reason for establishing the university, since financial resources were not available to initiate and sustain serious research.
The university started in the fall semester of 1962 with 167 students and one faculty, the Faculty of Arts. Two decades later, the university had ten faculties: Commerce and Administrative Sciences, Sciences, Medical Sciences (Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy), Agriculture, Education, Law, Engineering, Sharia, and Physical Education.
The total number of staff continued to increase from 7 in 1962 to 627 by 1982. The size of the physical structure increased from one building to 40 buildings with approximately 18,000 square meters in 1982. As of 1982, more than 15,253 students had graduated from the university with bachelor's, master's, and diplomas-in-education degrees.
In 1972, the University of Jordan changed from the yearly system to the credit-hour system, making it the first university in the region to adapt the credit-hour system. This study also provided information on students studying in Jordanian schools, students in host countries, students and faculty distribution in seven faculties, faculty demographics, research projects, degree programs, university budgets, as well as the multipurpose general secondary education examination which has no clear directive philosophy.


Nanoparticles containing praziquantel made of poly (D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) were designed by an emulsion-solvent evaporation method. Two organic solvents were separately utilized as disperse phase: methylene chloride and ethyl acetate. The size of the particles prepared with the former solvent was bigger than the particles prepared with the latter. The entrapment efficiency was bigger when methylene chloride was used, 79.82% in comparison with 29.27% by using ethyl acetate. DSC and infrared studies showed that no strong chemical interaction between drug and polymer occurred. Release kinetics of praziquantel, used as a model drug, was governed not only by actual drug loading but also by particles size. The higher the drug content and the smaller the particle size resulted in faster drug release.


We demonstrate how to map Local Binary Patterns (LBP), a class of leading feature extractors, onto a neuromorphic processor such as TrueNorth, a silicon expression of a non-von Neumann, low-power, spiking-based, brain-inspired processor. The application is presented in the form of a texture feature extractor that can process 8-bit grayscale video at 30fps. While consuming less than 140mW of power, this neuromorphic implementation provides a rotation and contrast insensitive characterization of texture, with similar accuracy as a standard von Neumann implementation of the same algorithm. The successful mapping of an important vision routine on a neuromorphic architecture is indicative of an alternative paradigm for addressing the von Neumann bottleneck, which is currently placing severe constraints on the processing speed, power consumption, reliability, scalability, programmability and mobility of vision algorithms. This also introduces a new methodology for the design of vision algorithms for power efficient, asynchronous, mobility-targeted applications.


Of the seven crucial reform decrees written between 1523 and 1526 in the three free states of Graubunden, five were issued in Ilanz, and two in Chur. Ilanz, the first and only Romansch speaking city on the Rhine was the center of the Grey League and fostered a close relationship to Zwingli's Zurich as well as with southern Germany. A school of writing developed in this location, whilst the chancery of the Grey League maintained from here diplomatic correspondences throughout Europe. The scholarly clerics and politicians trained in humanism prepared the official decrees that led to the breakthrough of the Reformation.


Recent studies clearly support the role of the cardioverter implantable defibrillator in reducing arrhythmic and all-cause mortality in patients with a previous myocardial infarction. However, the use of the cardioverter implantable defibrillator cannot be extended to all myocardial infarction patients despite its effectiveness because implantation is an invasive procedure and the cost of the device is high. Thus, the correct and effective identification of patients at high risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias represents a clinically relevant problem owing to the availability of an effective but expensive therapeutic tool. Many non-invasive tests have been studied in past years to assess the risk of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction; moreover, also programmed ventricular stimulation has been used to evaluate inducibility of ventricular tachycardia. Nevertheless, the positive predictive value of both non-invasive and invasive testing is low and not adequate to make a clinical decision. This finding is probably related to the multifactorial genesis of malignant ventricular arrhythmias which need several concomitant factors to trigger arrhythmias. For this reason the combined use of multiple risk markers is needed in order to improve diagnostic accuracy and identify subgroups of patients at high enough risk to define specific prophylactic options. In this scenario, according to available data, patients with two or more non-invasive risk markers should undergo electrophysiologic testing. In fact, patients with a recent myocardial infarction who have positive non-invasive tests and also show inducibility of sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia at programmed ventricular stimulation have a high incidence of arrhythmic events during the subsequent follow-up period and, in the author's opinion, should undergo a cardioverter defibrillator implantation. In the present review, an analysis of the main diagnostic tests for risk stratification of postinfarction patients will be performed and operative suggestions will be provided.


1Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 530021, People's Republic of China; 2Behavioral Style Construction Office, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region 530021, People's Republic of China Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy worldwide. Although the contradictory role of ADORA1 has been explored in certain types of cancers, its clinical significance and function in hepatocellular carcinoma cells are largely unknown. Materials and Methods: The level of ADORA1 in HCC tissues and cells was evaluated by RT-PCR. The function of ADORA1 overexpression on HCC cell proliferation and invasion was assessed by MTS, transwell analysis, and colony formation assay. In addition, a mouse subcutaneous xenograft model was used to study in vivo effects. The efficacy of knockdown of ADORA1 sensitizes to chemotherapy was assessed by staining with Annexin V/propidium iodide followed with flow cytometry and nuclei fragmentation. Results: In this study, ADORA1 was identified to be up-regulated in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissue. High ADORA1 mRNA expression predicted poor survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Ectopic expression of ADORA1 increased hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation and invasion. ADORA1 knockdown inhibited HCC cell growth and sensitized to chemotherapy. Furthermore, ADORA1 activated PI3K/AKT oncogenic signaling pathways. Treatment with PI3K inhibitor LY294002 blocked the effects of ADORA1 on tumor growth in either ADORA1-overexpressing or -deficiency cells. Finally, overexpression of ADORA1 stimulates HCC tumor growth in vivo. Treatment of ADORA1 antagonist oppositely suppressed HCC xenograft tumor growth. Conclusion: ADORA1 serves as an important oncoprotein and a promoter of cell proliferation through PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma.


Preferential surface texturing is expected to significantly improve tribological performance of ultralow flying magnetic storage head-disk interfaces (HDIs) by modifying the roughness and reducing the contact area preferentially, thereby reducing the relevant interfacial forces, such as friction, contact, and adhesive forces. Because of the different etch rates in the titanium carbide (top surface) and alumina (bottom surface) portions of the slider air-bearing surface (ABS), during reactive ion etching the surface heights possess a distinct bimodal distribution. In order to accurately and realistically capture the interfacial phenomena of the ultralow flying HDI with a preferentially textured slider ABS, a probability density function was proposed by linking two different Gaussian asperity distributions. The proposed bimodal asperity distribution was then directly incorporated into a previously developed rough surface contact model to calculate the corresponding interfacial forces. The results were then directly compared to a single Gaussian approximation (ignoring the bimodality) as well as a high-order polynomial curve-fit approximation (encompassing the bimodality). Comparative studies revealed that the proposed bimodal distribution method has a main advantage of being able to resolve the top and bottom asperity contributions separately, which is physically more accurate, and thereby providing interfacial force estimates that are more physically accurate. Other simpler methods, by assuming a single continuous distribution over the entire surface, are not able to isolate the top and bottom asperity distributions and thus are more likely to overestimate the interfacial forces in sub-5 nm flying HDIs.


In order to measure the gas and liquid flow rates of the wet gas on line not separation, this paper develops a wet natural gas two-phase computation system, which accompanies with the dual throttling wet gas flow meter as a secondary instrument. This flow computation system is based on ARM9 embedded system with the Linux OS and is powered by a solar power system. A hardware and software platform of a secondary instrument working for the flow rates computation is constructed for unattended operational natural gas wells. The signal acquisitions of the pressure, differential pressure, temperature, and the calculation of two phase metering model have been actualized. In addition to the basic function, the system provides display, storage, and historical data inquiry of the instantaneous and accumulative flow rates, as well as the GPRS wireless communication. It has already been trial run at some unattended operational wellheads for the gas and liquid metering of the wet gas.


In the framework of virtual prototyping, a virtual human is a useful tool to evaluate what one can reach or see. However because engineers and industrial designers are not necessarily skilled animators, it is important to provide intuitive or high-level interfaces to control virtual characters. With those considerations in mind, in this thesis we investigate three interfaces to control virtual humans for reaching tasks. First we propose an online full-body control using motion capture technology. The posture is reconstructed with an inverse kinematics solver. Coupled with a collision avoidance module, it is a powerful interface to control interactively virtual humans in cluttered environment. Secondly, we propose a novel interface for the full-body online control of differing-height characters. Instead of scaling the markers to the size of the virtual human, we suggest inversely scaling the virtual world. We conduct a user-study to evaluate if such interface is susceptible to help the user experiences the efforts involved by the differing-height character to complete a reaching task. Finally, we investigate motion graph technology for navigation coupled with reaching motions.


Three crater lakes occur on top of the dormant stratovolcano Keli Mutu in Flores (Indonesia). The lakes contain cool (20–30°C) acid-sulfate-chloride brines and have high TDS with relatively high Zn and Pb contents. Two lakes show plume-like upwellings, probably fed by subaqueous fumaroles. A river on the mountain slope contains fluids that escaped from the lakes through seepage. The fluid compositions have varied strongly over time for S and the halogens (the volcanic-gas derived elements), whereas many of the major cations (rock-derived elements) show a net increase in the lakes over this century. Speciation and mineral saturation modeling, bulk sediment analyses, and micro-probe sediment analyses indicate that the lakes are reducing at depth, and all three lakes are close to saturation with gypsum/anhydrite. One lake is also saturated with Fe-oxides, while the other two are thought to be saturated with a suite of Cu and As minerals. The most acid lake is also saturated with native sulfur and possibly pyrite. Mass balance estimates based on fresh volcanic rocks and ashes, the dissolved element load and the lake sediment chemistry strongly suggest that the lakes are partly fed by underlying geothermal circulation systems. The lakes are thus not closed reaction vessels with dissolution of local rock debris by fluids acidified by volcanic gases, but they draw a rock-derived element flux from deeper levels. Mass transfer is large in these dynamic systems, including the transport of tonnes of ore metals over a period of centuries.


Although major progress has been achieved in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) with the employment of antiangiogenic agents, several questions remain on the use of these drugs in older patients. Since cardiovascular, renal and other comorbidities are common in the elderly, an accurate assessment of the patients' conditions should be performed before a treatment decision is made. Since most CRC patients enrolled in clinical trials testing antiangiogenic drugs were aged < 65 years, the efficacy and tolerability of these agents in elderly patients has not been adequately explored. Data suggest that patients with advanced CRC derive similar benefit from bevacizumab treatment regardless of age, but the advantage of other antiangiogenic drugs in the same class of patients appears more blurred. Literature data suggest that specific antiangiogenic-related toxicities such as hypertension or arterial thromboembolic events may be higher in the elderly than in the younger patients. In addition, it should be emphasized that the patients included in the clinical studies discussed herein were selected and therefore may not be representative of the usual elderly population. Advanced age alone should not discourage the use of bevacizumab. However, a careful patients' selection and watchful monitoring of toxicities are required to optimize the use of antiangiogenics in this population.


SUMMARY It has long been known that the upland areas of the Pennines, northern England, were a local ice source during the Late Devensian (Dimlington Stadial) glaciation of Britain. However, there has been little detailed work on their significance for ice sheet reconstructions. The presence of drumlins at high elevations within the northern Pennines is reported from the upper reaches of the Tees valley and Harwood Beck. Geomorphological mapping has identified 134 drumlins occurring up to an elevation of 662 m OD in association with superimposed drumlins and drift tails. These landforms, particularly the presence of superimposed forms, enable the reconstruction of two ice flow events associated with a local ice centre that formed during the Late Devensian glaciation in northern England. The earlier flow event was directed straight down the upper Tees valley from a limited source area on the high ground to the east of Cross Fell. The later event indicates a flow direction more transverse to the valley, from a more extensive source area that had migrated and expanded westwards across the high plateau of Cross Fell and southwards towards Dufton Fell. The presence of drumlins at this high altitude indicates sufficient ice thickness to allow basal deformation and suggests that drumlin upper elevation defines a thermal regime above which the plateau ice field was cold based and frozen to the bed. This requires the area to be completely covered by ice. This study demonstrates the importance of these upland areas in detailed reconstructions of a multi-domed, British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS).


Abstract In the field of mathematics education, understanding teachers' content knowledge (Grossman, 1995; Hill, Sleep, Lewis, & Ball, 2007; Munby, Russell, & Martin, 2001) and studying the relationship between content knowledge and instructional decisions (Fennema & Franke, 1992; Raymond, 1997) are both crucial. Teachers need a robust understanding of key mathematical topics and connections to make informed choices about which instructional tasks will be assigned and how the content will be represented (Ball & Bass, 2000, Fennema & Franke, 1992). Ma (1999) described this profound understanding of fundamental mathematics as how accomplished teachers conceptualize key ideas in mathematics with a deep and flexible understanding so that they are able to represent those ideas in multiple ways and to recognize how those ideas fit into the preK-16 curriculum. Slope is a fundamental topic in the secondary mathematics curricula. Unit rate and proportional relationships introduced in sixth grade prepare students for interpreting equations such as y = 2x-3 as functions with particular, linear behavior in eighth grade (National Governors Association [NGA] Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers [CSSO]), 2010; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2006). The focus on relationships with constant rate of change leads to distinctions between linear and non-linear functions (Yerushalmy, 1997) and the idea of average rate of change in high school (NGA Center for Best Practices & CCSSO, 2010). Ultimately, these ideas prepare students for instantaneous rates of change and the concept of a derivative in calculus. The diversity of conceptualizations and representations of slope across the secondary mathematics curriculum presents a challenge for secondary teachers. These teachers must work flexibly and fluently with various representations in many contexts in order for their students to build a coherent, connected conceptualization of slope. Since secondary mathematics teachers need a deep understanding of slope to mediate students' conceptual development of this key topic, the study reported here investigates both how teachers think about and present slope.


From the view of the point of the systems engineering, the model of 7D planning of product design is presented in this paper based on the previous work. The planning of products design includes design ideas, design environments, design objective, design process, design contents, design methods and the design quality evaluation methods, so named 7D planning model. Besides the understanding of the customer requirements, the seven aspects of 7D planning should be considered completely and planned systematically. The paper makes a detailed expatiation of the 7D planning model of synthesized design method based on systems engineering.


We based our research on existing functional organizational structures and systems of financial administration of Slovakia. We worked on the assumption that improvement of effectiveness of the system of optimal tax collection was necessary for sustainable devel- opment of Slovak socio-economic system as such. Based on the current trends analysis we assume that a forthcoming tax and customs administration reform would significantly increase the effectiveness of the system and as a result it would also lead to a more positive view of taxes as socially unpopular obligations. By this process, Slovakia aims at effective tax system, which can lead to increase in effi- ciency and higher competitiveness of our state among EU countries. Based on the survey in three Slovak regions and by factor analysis we want to analyze the structure of following social factors: collection of contributions and accessibility, competency of tax administration employees, electronization of tax administration, effectiveness of tax collection, labor costs, and administrative burden of tax administra- tion. These are considered to be hidden reasons of mutually correlated variables. The aim is to explain and clarify the observed correla- tions. It can lead to improvement of the conditions of tax collection for taxpayers when they can use electronic form of their declarations of contributions and taxes (taxes, contributions: social security and health insurance) based on which the state can distribute via a unique identifier the funds to individual institutions.


To analyze the polymorphism of TAP gene and the shared rates of alleles between mothers and their infants in Chinese patients with pre-eclampsia, TAP1 and TAP2 genotyping was performed by the amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) in 42 patients, 106 normal pregnant women, and their neonates. The allelic frequency of TAP and the alleles shared in maternal-fetus were compared and analyzed in the two groups. Our results showed that, with totally eight alleles of TAP1 and TAP2 examined in the samples, no significant difference was found in allelic frequencies between pre-eclampsia group and control group, as well as between mothers and their neonates. Similar finding was obtained in the comparison with shared alleles. In conclusion, our results do not support a role for the polymorphisms of TAP in the etiology of pre-eclampsia.Cellular & Molecular Immunology.2005;2(2):141-144.


Information Translation, Mediation, and Mosaic-Based Browsing in the TSIMMIS System Joachim Hammer, Hector Garcia-Molina, Kelly Ireland, Yannis Papakonstantinou, Jeffrey Ullman, Jennifer Widom Department of Computer Science Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2140, USA E-mail: email@example.com The tsimmis project [1] provides an architecture and tools for accessing multiple heterogeneous information sources by translating source information into a common self-describing object model, called the Object Exchange Model (OEM) [2]. tsimmis provides integrated access to heterogeneous sources through a layer of source specific translators as well as "intelligent" modules, called mediators. Translators (wrappers) convert queries over information in the common del (OEM) into requests the source can execute. The data returned by the source is converted back into the common model. Mediators are programs that collect information from one or more sources, process and combine it, and export the resulting information to the end user or an application program. Users or applications can choose to interact either directly with the translators or indirectly via one or more mediators. End users can access information either by writing applications that request OEM objects, or by using one of the generic browsing tools we have developed: a graphical user interface based on DOS and Microsoft Windows, a UNIX-based textual interface, and a graphical interface based on the HTTP protocol called mobie (MOsaic-Based Information Explorer) 1 . Our demo uses mobie since it is the most interesting of the three. mobie is a platform-independent tool for displaying and exploring OEM objects that are returned as a result of queries. mobie provides a mechanism for This work was supported by ARPA Contract F33615-93-11339, by the Anderson Faculty Scholar Fund, by the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford University, and by equipment grants from Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM Corporporation


Using a matched employer-employee dataset on the French manufecturing sector in the 1990s, we investigate how training incidence responds to technical and organizational changes. Using a difference-in-difference approach across age groups and types of firms, we find that older workers in low-skill occupations lag behind in terms of training (in computer skills and in teamwork) when firms implement advanced information technologies. By contrast, there is no significant difference between age groups in the training response to advanced IT among workers in high-skill occupations, or in the training disadvantage of older workers with regard to training in computer skills may be one cause of age-biased technical change. It severly affects low-skill older in firms implementaing advanced information technologies.


Lignin content is the most important parameter in chemicalpulping. At present, kappa number is the most common parameterfor determination of lignin content and the base for otheron-line methods and for industrial automation (Chapter 1). However, a substantial portion of the kappa number originates from non-lignin structures, for example from pulp xylan, whichhas been severely degraded and modified during the kraft cook (Chapter 2). During a systematic research about the hexenuronic acid (HUA) structure, one of the most important structures derivedfrom carbohydrates, a new, simple, fast and sensitivecolorimetric method has been developed for the quantificationof the HUA group (Chapter 3). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the quantitative contribution of the HUAgroups to the kappa number is 0.84-0.86 kappa units per 10µmol of HUA (Chapter 4). In systematic work about the reactions involved in the kappanumber determination, it was found that an addition of permanganate onto all the double bonds in the aromatic rings of lignin takes place, resulting in a reduction of permanganate toMnO2. The present standard method should therefore beimproved by rejecting or modifying the iodometric titrationmethod, correcting the concept of remaining permanganate, resetting the applicable region of permanganate consumption andshortening the reaction time (Chapter 5). The quantitative fundament for the kappa numberdetermination has been found to be a consumption of 11-12equivalents of KMnO4 per mole of C9units from any wood lignin structure. Besides HUA,any other non-lignin but oxidizable structure will, more or less, influence the accuracy of the kappa number determination;the most noticeable structures being double bonds, aldehydes orα-keto carboxylic acids (Chapter 6). Based on the above fundamental research, anoxymercuration-demercuration-kappa (Ox - Dem kappa) numberdetermination has been developed. All the noticeably interfering non-lignin structures are eliminated by one Ox -Dem procedure before a conventional kappa number determination so that a more accurate determination of aromatic (Klason) lignin content in pulps then can be easily, quickly and directly obtained (Chapter 7). For industrial and laboratory made unbleached chemicalpulps, it has been revealed that for different pine kraft orsoda pulps 2.9 - 4.8 kappa units were from non-ligninstructures, corresponding to 13-26% of the observed kappanumber. For birch kraft pulps, these data are much higher: 8.2-9.4 units, 60 - 80 % of the observed kappa number! Among these non-lignin contributions, approximately 30-60% are caused by HUA structure while the others are from double bonds, aldehydes or α-keto carboxylicacid structures, except forpine soda pulps where the non-lignin contributions are mainlyfrom the latter types of structures. Preliminary application ofthe Ox - Dem kappa number has resulted in brand new delignification curves for kraft cooking and OQP bleaching of birch pulp. A possible reformation of "lignin" in kraft cookingand a higher bleach-ability after low alkalinity and lowtemperature cooking have been noticed (Chapter 8). The easy and more accurate determination of lignin contentdescribed in this thesis suggests a promising future for better control of cooking and bleaching and for further optimizationand modification of present chemical pulping procedures.


We are reporting the results of implementing Learning from Observation and Discussions at Clinical Campus International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This initiative was conceived and successfully implemented with the aim to identify medical students' learning perception from self-reported learning experiences. A total of 80 semester eight medical students were invited to participate in the study. A structured, validated and reliable instrument developed from a work skill development framework was used to assess students' perception of learning through discussions and observations (Total D&O), input from their experience providing future ideas (Total Ideas) and guided ward rounds as a new learning format (Total Visit). Informed consent was obtained from 42 students who participated over the ten-month period of the study. Data was analysed with ANOVA and structural regression equation modelling. The study showed that both Total Visit and Total Discussion & Observation can predict Total Perception of Learning. According to student evaluations, the Total Visits rating was the best single predictor summarising positive perception of rounds at the neonatal intensive care unit based on the significance values, partial eta squared and power. Students ranked the process of guided rounds at the neonatal intensive care unit as valuable in providing educational experiences and integral to their learning perception.


This case report presents a patient with pheocromocytoma and the first use of 123 I-MIBG scintigraphy in the diagnostic workup of an adrenal gland tumor with elevated metanephrine and normetanephrine levels in our institution and in Croatia. The patient had intensive pulsing headaches for a year. A tumor of the right suprarenal gland has been observed by ultrasound, by CT scan, and by MRI of the abdomen. A comprehensive endocrinological observation revealed significantly increased values of metanephrine, normetanephrine, epinephrine and noreinephrine. 123 I-MIBG scintigraphy were excluded multiple tumors and metastases of malignant pheochromocytoma. After surgery, diagnosis of pheochromocytoma was proven histologically. Three weeks after surgery, the values of metanephrine and normetanephrine were in the normal range.


Schistosomiasis remains one of the most common human helminthiases, despite the availability of an effective drug against the causative parasites. Drug treatment programmes have several limitations, and it is likely that a vaccine is required for effective control. While decades of vaccine development have seen the discovery and testing of several candidate antigens, none have shown consistent and acceptable high levels of protection. The migrating larval stages are susceptible to immunity, however few larval‐specific antigens have been discovered. Therefore, there is a need to identify novel larval‐specific antigens, which may prove to be more efficacious than existing targets. Immunomics, a relatively new field developed to cope with the recent large influx of biological information, holds promise for the discovery of vaccine targets, and this review highlights some immunomic approaches to schistosome vaccine development. Firstly, a method to focus on the immune response elicited by the important and vulnerable larval stage is described, which allows a targeted study of the immunome at different tissue sites. Then, two high‐throughput arrays are discussed for the identification of protein and carbohydrate antigens. It is anticipated that these approaches will progress vaccine development against the schistosomes, as well as other parasites.


This study focuses on the local and regional impact of large-scale gold mining in Africa in the context of a mineral boom in the region since 2000. It contributes to filling a gap in the literature on the welfare effects of mineral resources, which, until now, has concentrated more on the national or macroeconomic impacts. Economists have long been intrigued by the paradox that a rich endowment of natural resources may retard economic performance, particularly in the case of mineral-exporting developing countries. Studies of this phenomenon, known as the "resource curse," examine the economy-wide consequences of mineral exports. Africa's resource boom has lifted growth, but has been less successful in improving people's welfare. Yet much of the focus in academic and policy circles has been on appropriate management of the macro-fiscal and governance risks that have historically undermined development outcomes. This study focuses instead on the fortune of local communities where resources are located. It aims to better inform public policy and corporate behavior on the welfare of communities in Africa in which the extraction of resources takes place.


Variable-capacitance micromechanical accelerometer is widely used because of its high sensitivity and low power. Therefore, the further study on its performance has much theoretical and applicable significance. This paper takes the closed-loop bias stationary comb-finger variable-capacitance accelerometer as an example, introduces its operation principle, establishes its mechanics model through analysis, and gives force balance equations. Then it researches and analyzes its performances such as electrostatic forces, full scale, stability, resolution and so on. Based on the model of the parameters from the accelerometer, key expressions were acquired. These expressions reflect and affect electrostatic forces, measure range, stability, sensitivity of the accelerometer. The results prove that performance of the accelerometer are connected with the dimension of the beam, the mass, the area of the pole plate, bias voltage, feedback voltage and so on. This work will provide a reliable theoretic foundation for the further optimum design of variable-capacitance micromechanical accelerometer.


In complex dynamic multi-robot domains, there is a set of individual robots that must coordinate together through a centralized planner that inevitably makes assumptionsbased on a model of the environment and the actions of the individual. Eventually, the individuals may encounter failures, because the centralized planner's models of the states and actions are incomplete and the assumptions it makes are incorrect. In this thesis, we address the problem of what an individual robot must do when faced with such failures and can no longer execute the plan generated by the centralized planner. While previous work has exclusively explored centralized approaches or decentralized approaches for dynamic multi-robot problems, it lacks the combination of acentralized approach with intelligent planning individuals, whom are often found in decentralized approaches. In centralized approaches, the focus has been on removingthe need for replanning through conditional planning and policy generations, on hierarchical decomposition to simplify the multi-robot problem, or on predicting theinformational needs of teammates. In decentralized approaches, the focus has been on improving auctioning algorithms, task decomposition, task assignment, and policy generation. In this thesis, I contribute a novel intra-robot replanning algorithm for the individual robots that autonomously handle failures with a set of pre-defined plans. To make local replanning feasible, I introduce a rationale-driven plan that provides the reasoning behind the choices made by the centralized planner. The intra-robot replanningalgorithm then has a choice of how to fix the plan, given the set pre-defined plans and provided rationales, or of invoking the centralized planner. We can improve this process by learning scores for the pre-defined plans that are used by the intra-robot replanning algorithm to improve the performance of the robot. This thesis is motivated by my previous work with individual robot replanning andcentralized planners and the inability of their individual robots to handle failures. With autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), their approach to failures is to rise to thesurface of the ocean, message the centralized controller, and wait for a new plan. With the Small-Size League soccer robots, their approach to failures is to continue, blindlyexecuting a failing team plan, because taking at least some course of action, even if currently failing, can be better than inaction in an adversarial domain. Of course, continuing to execute a failing plan is an inadvisable approach, but the individual soccer robots lacked the necessary individual intelligence to fix the problem. These domains share the common thread of relying on the centralized planner to provide them with a new solution to handle failures. And, in doing so, they act inefficiently, are slow to react, and oftentimes have a higher cost in regard to the team's performance. In this thesis, we describe our rationale-driven plan which details the reasoning for the actions and parameters chosen within the plan. We then explain our intrarobot replanning algorithm which uses the rationale-driven plan to replan locally. We evaluate the work with multiple domains in different environments to provide evidence of the effectiveness and generality of our approach. We then describe our method for learning and improving the intra-robot replanning algorithm. Lastly, we discusspossible future work that can expand upon the work in this thesis.


The growth of the options and futures markets for financial assets has made available important tools to the professional investor. Derivative securities allow the investor to alter the risk-return characteristics of an investment in many different ways. This tutorial introduces the important characteristics of options and futures so that they can be used intelligently.


This thesis presents several simple and effective QoS schemes aimed to support VoIP in the IEEE 802.11 network. The proposed schemes are called dynamic backoff adjustment (DBA), high priority DCF (HP-DCF), adaptive DCF (ADCF) and direct priority DCF (DP-DCF). All four schemes utilize the contention mechanism and are compatible with the IEEE 802.11 standard. The first three schemes use dynamic adjustment approach to improve the delay of high-priority traffic in infrastructure network and the last schemes is designed for use in ad-hoc network.

From the simulation results, the DBA scheme shows better bandwidth utilization over DCF and provides better differentiated service performance than EDCF. Whereas, the HP-DCF and AP schemes give better protection of the real-time traffic classes from the excessive best-effort traffic load in the infrastructure mode. Moreover, the DP-DCF also shows its ability in protecting the real-time traffic class in the ad-hoc environment.


In this paper, we propose a sense and response system for tsunami detection and mitigation. We use the directed diffusion routing protocol as a baseline network protocol and develop several communication mechanisms to improve its performance. These include an efficient flooding technique, a route repair algorithm, and distributed services framework. We summarize the analysis mechanism used to predict tsunami propagation and briefly discuss the results of this algorithm. Finally, we describe potential barrier mechanisms and the real-time communication protocol that supports time-critical response of the system.


This paper presents a summary of the evidence review group (ERG) report into the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of dabigatran etexilate (DBG) for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients undergoing elective hip and knee surgery based upon a review of the manufacturer's submission to the NICE as part of the single technology appraisal (STA) process. The submission's evidence came from three reasonable-quality trials comparing DBG with enoxaparin, and a comparison of DBG with fondaparinux based on the relative efficacy and safety as derived from a mixed treatment comparison (MTC) meta-analysis. DBG (220 mg and 150 mg once daily) is not inferior to enoxaparin (40 mg once daily and 30 mg twice daily) in terms of major VTE or VTE-related events (secondary outcome). Meta-analysis shows that 220 mg DBG is not inferior to enoxaparin (40 mg once daily or 30 mg twice daily) in reducing total VTE and all-cause mortality (primary outcome) in total hip or knee replacement, whereas there is uncertainty around the clinical effectiveness of 150 mg DBG for this outcome. In the MTC analysis DBG compared favourably with the other interventions, with the exception of extended enoxaparin and fondaparinux. The adverse event profile was not significantly different in those receiving DBG and those receiving enoxaparin. The submitted two-phase economic model compares DBG with enoxaparin and fondaparinux in total hip and knee replacement. The model structure is appropriate and the model assumptions are reasonable. The health states, costs, utilities and recurrence rates used are considered to be appropriate for the required analysis. The model estimated that at the licensed dose of 220 mg once daily DBG dominates enoxaparin in both total hip replacement and total knee replacement and that at the lower dose of 150 mg once daily DBG dominates enoxaparin in total hip replacement and enoxaparin dominates DBG in total knee replacement. DBG is less cost-effective than fondaparinux in total hip replacement at both doses; the cost per quality-adjusted life-year of fondaparinux versus DBG is 11,111 pounds and 6857 pounds for the higher and lower doses of DBG respectively. In total knee replacement, both DBG doses are dominated by fondaparinux. For DBG versus all comparators in all cases the cost-effectiveness results are based on small incremental cost and health benefits. Weaknesses of the submitted evidence include that methods used for screening studies, data extraction and applying quality assessment criteria to included studies, as well as key details of trials included in the MTC, were not adequately described. In addition, some input parameters into the modelling process are incorrect. The ERG was unable to correct all of these mistakes and the impact on the model results is therefore unknown. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance issued as a result of the STA states that DBG is recommended as an option for the primary prevention of VTE events in adults who have undergone elective total hip or knee replacement surgery.


In this paper, we explore user reactions to prototypes that integrate population fitness data with personal practice to bolster motivation and help decrease pragmatic barriers to incorporating exercise in daily life. We conducted a study in a major United States based company that makes wearable devices available to their employees through its wellness program. We interviewed each of 26 employees to understand their exercise and tracking habits. Each expressed an interest in improving or maintaining his or her fitness level but was frustrated by not getting appropriate support from the current Fitbit application. Based on the interview findings, we designed four use cases and two prototypes to address the main problems revealed through analyses of the participants' interviews and their Fitbit data. In a second interview probing reactions to they prototype, the same group of users reported a desire for Fitbit to support their daily, dynamic routines and to help them make adaptive, weekly plans. In addition, the participants perceived benefits to leveraging at least one of three different types of personalized reference groups (self, friends, or a population of similar individuals) to increase their motivation and to help incorporate activities into their daily or weekly plans. We discuss design consideration for researchers and designers of personal informatics tools and organizational wellness plans.


Background To investigate attitudes of staff, residents and family members in long-term care towards sex and intimacy among older adults, specifically the extent to which they conceptualise sex and intimacy as a need, a right, a privilege or as a component of overall well-being. Methods The present study was a part of a two-arm mixed-methods cross-sectional study using a concurrent triangulation design. A validated survey tool was developed; 433 staff surveys were collected from 35 facilities across the country. Interviews were conducted with 75 staff, residents and family members. Results It was common for staff, residents and family members to talk about intimacy and sexuality in terms of rights and needs. As well as using the language of needs and rights, it was common for participants to use terms related to well-being, such as fun, happiness or being miserable. One participant in particular (a staff member) described receiving intimate touch as a 'kind of care'—a particularly useful way of framing the conversation. Conclusion While staff, residents and family frequently used the familiar language of needs and rights to discuss access to intimate touch, they also used the language of well-being and care. Reframing the conversation in this way serves a useful purpose: it shifts the focus from simply meeting minimum obligations to a salutogenic approach—one that focuses on caring for the whole person in order to improve overall well-being and quality of life.


Assessing the quality of tissue engineered (TE) cartilage has historically been performed by endpoint measurements including marker gene expression. Until the adoption of promoter-driven reporter constructs capable of quantitative and real time non-destructive expression analysis, temporal gene expression assessments along a timeline could not be performed on TE constructs. We further exploit this technique to utilize microRNA (miRNA or miR) through the use of firefly luciferase reporter (Luc) containing a 3' UTR perfect complementary target sequence to the mature miR-145-5p. We report the development and testing of a firefly luciferase (Luc) reporter responsive to miR-145-5p for longitudinal tracking of miR-145-5p expression throughout MSC chondrogenic differentiation. Plasmid reporter vectors containing a miR-145-5p responsive reporter (Luc reporter with a perfect complementary target sequence to the mature miR-145-5p sequence in the 3'UTR), a Luc reporter driven by a truncated Sox9 (one of the targets of miR-145-5p) promoter, or the Luc backbone (control) vector without a specific miRNA target were transfected into MSCs by electroporation. Transfected MSCs were mixed with untransfected MSC to generate chondrogenic pellets. Pellets were imaged by bioluminescent imaging (BLI) and harvested along a preset time line. The imaging signals from miR-145-5p responsive reporter and Sox9 promoter-driven reporter showed correlated time-courses (measured by BLI and normalized to Luc-control reporter; Spearman r=0.93, p=0.0002) during MSC chondrogenic differentiation. Expression analysis by qRT-PCR suggests an inverse relationship between miR-1455p and Sox9 gene expression during MSC chondrogenic differentiation. Non-destructive cell-pellet imaging is capable of supplementing histological analyses to characterize TE cartilage. The miR-145-5p responsive reporter is relatively simple to construct and generates a consistent imaging signal responsive to miR-145-5p during MSC chondrogenesis in parallel to certain molecular and cellular events.


The chemical composition of the new lunar meteorite Yamato-86032 has been studied by several laboratories in a consortium study. A preliminary report on the first analytical results from seven laboratories is given in this paper. The meteorite, which is the largest lunar meteorite recovered so far, is more heavily shocked than the other five lunar meteorites, which makes it difficult to classify the rock exactly. Although it may be classified as an anorthositic breccia the trace element composition of Y-86032 is somewhat different from the composition of the other known lunar meteorites. The major element chemistry of Y-86032 is similar to the other lunar meteorites, except for the iron content, which is lower by a factor of about 1. 4. Since the magnesium abundance is nearly identical there is a disparity in the mg ratio. The REE abundances in Y-86032 are very low and comparable to Y-82192/3. There is no evidence of any KREEP component. The abundances of several lithophile and incompatible elements are lower in Y-86032 than in the other lunar meteorites. The siderophile element contents are low and vary between individual chips. Sc, Cr, Mn, and Co have significantly lower abundances than in Y-82192/3. The chemical investigations demonstrate that Y-86032 is a new and important sample from the lunar highlands.


Due to uncertainties associated with material properties, structural geometry, boundary conditions, and connectivity of structural parts as well as inherent simplifying assumptions in the development of finite element (FE) models, actual behavior of structures often differs from model predictions. FE model updating comprises a multitude of techniques that systematically calibrate FE models in order to match experimental results. Updating of structural models can be posed as an optimization problem where model parameters that minimize the errors between the responses of the model and actual structure are sought. However, due to limited number of experimental responses and measurement errors, the optimization problem may have multiple admissible solutions in the search domain. Global optimization algorithms (GOAs) are useful and efficient tools in such situations as they try to find the globally optimal solution out of many possible local minima, but are not totally immune to missing the right minimum in complex problems such as those encountered in updating. A methodology based on particle swarm optimization (PSO), a GOA, with sequential niche technique (SNT) for FE model updating is proposed and explored in this article. The combination of PSO and SNT enables a systematic search for multiple minima and considerably increases the confidence in finding the global minimum. The method is applied to FE model updating of a pedestrian cable‐stayed bridge using modal data from full‐scale dynamic testing.


. The quantity and characteristics of sediment deposited in lakes are affected by climate to varying extents. As sediment is deposited, it provides a record of past climatic or environmental conditions. However, determining a direct relationship between specific climatic variables and measurable sediment properties, for instance between temperature and sediment optical reflectance, is complex. In this study, we investigate the suitability of sediment reflectance, recorded as digital pixel intensity (PxI), as a paleoclimate proxy at a large ice-contact lake in southern Patagonia, Lago Argentino. We also evaluate whether 5 sediment PxI can be used to investigate the present-day climatic drivers of sedimentation across Lago Argentino. First, we show that sediment PxIs relate to underlying sediment composition, and are significantly correlated with XRF major element compositional data. Secondly, we find that PxIs correlate with both austral summer temperatures and austral summer wind speeds, but not with precipitation. PxI timeseries reach the correlation significance threshold for use as paleo-temperature or paleo-wind speed proxies. However, high spatial variability and the non-unique relationship between PxI and both temperature 10 and wind speed challenges the necessary assumption of stationarity at Lago Argentino. While we do not find it suitable for use as a paleoclimatic proxy, significant correlations between PxI and instrumental climate data do chronicle current climatic controls on sediment deposition at Lago Argentino: high summer temperatures enhance settling of coarse, optically dark grains across the lake basin by promoting ice melt and lake stratification, while high wind speeds reduce the settling of fine, optically bright grains in the ice-proximal regions by transporting sediment-rich waters away from the glacier fronts. The assumptions 15 required for quantitative paleoclimatic reconstruction must be carefully evaluated in complex lacustrine environments, but records unsuitable for use as proxies might nevertheless yield valuable information about the drivers of modern sedimentary transport and deposition. of magnetic susceptibility and gamma-beam density, and split the cores lengthwise into two halves at the CSD Facility. We then conducted near-UV to near-IR spectrophotometric and magnetic scans on each positive red band PxI and K and a weak correlation anticorrelation between red band PxI Ca.


Background: The air pollutants such as CO, SO2, NO2, O3, and particulate matters have harmful effects on public health. Determination of the actual concentration of the pollutants and description of air quantity and quality contents in comparison of standard conditions and timely informing people to regulate control programs is essential. Kashan is exposed to the winds contain-ing the suspended particulate matters due to the proximity of the desert. Moreover, the growth of population, factories and industries in the city are artifical resources of the air pollution. Hence, assessment and monitoring of air pollution standard condition in kashan is crucial. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional and descriptive study, the concentration of CO, SO2, NO2, O3, and suspended particulate matters less than 10 microns (PM10) measured according to WHO standards in Panzdah-e-Khordad station of Kashan in 2011. The annual mean and maximum rates, the mean and maximum rate of summer and winter, and annual percentile 98%, determined for each pollutant and used in AirQ software. Then, the number of death and disease attributed to each pollutant was calculated. Results: The results demonstrate that the cumulative number of deaths attributed to PM10, NO2, SO2, and O3 was 100, 22, 82, and 54, respectively. Conclusion: In total, the suspended particulate matters have the most effects on death and disease resulted from the air pollution. Hence, managing the resources of particulate matters and SO2 pollutants has many effects on reducing the adverse health effects of air pollution in Kashan.


It has been claimed that MIMO radars perform better than conventional radars against repeater and hot clutter jammers (jammer signals reflected from the ground into the radar). It is shown here that conventional radars can perform as well if not better than MIMO radars against these jammers as well as against barrage noise jammers. The results are presented in tutorial form without heavy math. Instead physical explanations are given for these results. Applied here to reject the barrage jammer and hot clutter is the Adaptive-Adaptive Array Processing (AAAP) technique which makes use of the information available as to where the jammers are rather than assuming there location is not known as done for the classical sample matrix inversion (SMI) method. This is reminiscent of the KA-STAP technique used by DARPA. It also could be called Cognitive Adaptive Array Processing (CAAP). The method reduces the transient time (the number of time samples needed to calculate the interference covariance matrix) by orders of magnitude. Also the interference covariance matrix size is reduced by orders of magnitude and in turn the computation of its matrix inverse. Finally this method reduces the sidelobe degradation usually resulting from using the SMI method. The AAAP technique lends itself well to both the MIMO and conventional array systems when digital beam forming is used.


ABSTRACT Private child and family serving agencies operate within a turbulent environment characterized by changing client needs, interorganizational competition, resource scarcity, and demand for accountability. Qualitative data regarding external pressures experienced by private agencies across six states, and managerial strategies to address them, were collected from a 2016 electronic survey of senior agency administrators (n = 182). Specific themes were organized into the following categories: funding; operations and practice-related issues; staff recruitment and retention; laws, regulations and licensure; contracts and contractual expectations; and, interorganizational relationships. Implications for management practice and research regarding how private human service organizations navigate different external pressures are discussed.


You might have a closer relationship than you think with one of nature's most widespread and successful parasites. Many of us harbour this subtle organism in our brains and muscles in an uneasy truce; but recent insights into its biochemistry and genetics could provide us with new ways of coping when this 'guest' gets out of hand.


Photoconductive antennas are promising sources of terahertz radiation that is widely used for spectroscopy, characterization, and imaging of biological objects, deep space studies, scanning of surfaces, and detection of potentially hazardous substances. These antennas are compact and allow for generation of both ultrabroadband pulses and tunable continuous wave terahertz signals at room temperatures, with no need for highpower optical sources. However, such antennas have relatively low energy conversion efficiency of femtosecond laser pulses or two close pump wavelengths (photomixers) into the pulsed and continuous terahertz radiation, correspondingly. Recently, an approach to solving this problem that involves known methods of nanophotonics applied to terahertz photoconductive antennas and photomixers has been proposed. This approach comprises the use of optical nanoantennas for enhancing the absorption of pump laser radiation in the antenna gap, reducing the lifetime of photoexcited carriers, and improving the antenna thermal efficiency. This Review is intended to systematize the main results obtained by researchers in this promising field of hybrid optical-to-terahertz photoconductive antennas and photomixers. We summarize the main results on hybrid THz antennas, compare the approaches to their implementation, and offer further perspectives of their development including an application of all-dielectric nanoantennas instead of plasmonic ones. Enhancement of Terahertz Photoconductive Antenna Operation by Optical Nanoantennas Sergey Lepeshov1, Andrei Gorodetsky1,2,*, Alexander Krasnok1,3, Edik Rafailov2, and Pavel Belov1