Cloud computing has become an increasingly popular choice for businesses and individuals due to its flexibility, scalability, and convenience; however, the rising cost of cloud resources has become a significant concern for many. The pay-per-use model used in cloud computing means that costs can accumulate quickly, and the lack of visibility and control can result in unexpected expenses. The cost structure becomes even more complicated when dealing with hybrid or multi-cloud environments. For businesses, the cost of cloud computing can be a significant portion of their IT budget, and any savings can lead to better financial stability and competitiveness. In this respect, it is essential to manage cloud costs effectively. This requires a deep understanding of current resource utilization, forecasting future needs, and optimising resource utilization to control costs. To address this challenge, new tools and techniques are being developed to provide more visibility and control over cloud computing costs. In this respect, this paper explores a graph-based solution for modelling cost elements and cloud resources and potential ways to solve the resulting constraint problem of cost optimisation. We primarily consider utilization, cost, performance, and availability in this context. Such an approach will eventually help organizations make informed decisions about cloud resource placement and manage the costs of software applications and data workflows deployed in single, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments.


This paper contributes to the discussion of how Public Private Interplay (PPI) can be used to foster Next Generation Access (NGA) buildouts in Europe by introducing the experience of Japan. Japan, which succeeded in both promoting nationwide network buildouts and fostering competitive dynamics that led to the world's fastest and cheapest broadband services and deploying them nationwide. The process entailed deregulation, which unleashed new entrepreneurial private actors, and re-regulation that protected them from incumbent carriers. The resulting market dynamics lowered Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) prices, influencing the market price for Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), for which the government had heavily subsidized carriers. Central government initiatives, combined with local incentives, led to an almost 100% broadband accessibility within a few years. However, Japan quickly discovered that taking advantage of the broadband environment to produce innovation, productivity growth, and economic dynamism, was far more difficult than facilitating its creation. It discovered regulatory barriers for the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in various areas of the economy. Like Europe, Japan was not home to the ICT lead-user enterprises and industries that drove the ICT revolution, producing innovation and productivity gains. Moreover, the advent of US-centered cloud computing services potentially decreases the minimum bandwidth requirement to access global-scale computing power. The development of wireless technologies far cheaper than Japan's nationwide FTTH also merits serious consideration for European policy discussions.


How do people actively learn functional rules, i.e. a mapping of continuous inputs onto a continuous output? We investigate information search behavior in a multiple-feature function learning task in which participants either actively select or passively receive observations. We find that participants benefit from actively selecting information, in particular in their function extrapolation performance. By introducing and comparing different models of active function learning, we find that participants are best described by a non-parametric function learning model that learns about both the underlying function and inputs that are likely to produce high outputs. These results enrich our understanding of active function learning in complex domains.


Background/Objectives: For the security control, MDM effectively limits functionality of smart phone. However, the control and monitoring of mobile devices causes the user to suffer much inconvenience. Methods/Statistical Analysis: We performed experiments applying the Kalman filter and the BLE to improve location accuracy for MDM system. And designed a MDM system using the BLE and the central server, smart phones, CCTV, WiFi, etc. Findings: In the system proposed in this study, regardless of security zones and other regions through the existing RFID tags or input/output gates, the user's access information is sent to the mobile security server depending on the precise indoor position by using beacons regarding the staff who has entered the security zone. Also, PUSH messages are transmitted so that mobile security control policies can be applied depending on the security classification of each zone of the house. For the proposed system, we were experimented on using six virtual BLE beacons in the system server. And noises included correction values obtain into more accurate correction values by applying the Kalman filter. Application/Improvements: The error of location measurement contained the noise turned out (11, 9.6) in the positioning coordinates (x, y). However, reduce error to (3.47, 5.02) if applying the extended Kalman filter.


Food choice, in animals, has been known to change with internal nutritional state and also with variable dietary conditions. To better characterize mechanisms of diet-induced plasticity of food preference in Drosophila melanogaster, we synthesized diets with macronutrient imbalances and examined how food choice and taste sensitivity were modified in flies that fed on these diets. We found that dietary macronutrient imbalances caused compensatory behavioral shifts in both sexes to increase preference for the macronutrient that was scant in the food source, and simultaneously reduce preference for the macronutrient that was enriched. Further analysis with females revealed analogous changes in sweet taste responses in labellar neurons, with increased sensitivity on sugar-reduced diet and decreased sensitivity on sugar-enriched diet. Interestingly, we found differences in the onset of changes in taste sensitivity and behavior, which occur over 1–4 d, in response to dietary sugar reduction or enrichment. To investigate molecular mechanisms responsible for diet-induced taste modulation, we used candidate gene and transcriptome analyses. Our results indicate that signaling via Dop2R is involved in increasing cellular and behavioral sensitivity to sugar as well as in decreasing behavioral sensitivity to amino acids on dietary sugar reduction. On the other hand, cellular and behavioral sensitivity to sugar relies on dilp5 and a decrease in sugar preference following dietary sugar abundance was correlated with downregulation of dilp5. Together, our results suggest that feeding preference for sugar and amino acid can be modulated independently to facilitate food choice that accounts for prior dietary experience. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Animals adjust their feeding preferences based on prior dietary experiences. Here, we find that upon dietary macronutrient deprivation, flies undergo compensatory changes in food preference. The altered preference correlates with changes in peripheral taste sensitivity. While Dop2R mediates changes following dietary sugar reduction, downregulation of dilp5 is associated with changes caused by a sugar-enriched diet. This study contributes to a better understanding of neurophysiological plasticity of the taste system in flies, and its role in facilitating adjustment of foraging behavior based on nutritional requirements.


This paper examines the relationship between annual hours worked and rural residence for a sample of working-age (18-64 years) householders using 1993 Panel Study of Income Dynamics data. The basic question we address is whether and to what extent failure to account for rural residential choice biases the measured effect of rural residence on labor market outcomes. Results from a single equation model that assumes rural residence is exogenous finds no statistically significant relationship between annual hours worked and living in a rural area. By contrast, a simultaneous model that accounts for the possibility that rural residence is a choice indicates that rural people worked 307 hours more than urban people, all else being equal. A Smith-Blundell test for exogeneity of rural residence suggests that rural location should be treated as a choice variable. Study findings highlight the importance of testing, and if necessary, correcting for endogeneity of rural residence if we are to obtain accurate measures of the effect of living in a rural location on individual behavior and well-being.


We estimate the impact on health care utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures of a major reform in Thailand that extended health insurance to one-quarter of the population to achieve universal coverage while keeping health spending below 4% of GDP. Identification is through comparison of changes in outcomes of groups to whom coverage was extended with those of public sector employees and their dependents whose coverage was not affected. The reform is estimated to have reduced the probability that a sick person goes without formal treatment by 3.2 percentage points (11%). It increased the probability of receiving public ambulatory care by 2.7 ppt (5%) and of admission to a public hospital by 1 ppt (18%). OOP expenditures were reduced by one-third on average, as was the probability of spending more than 10% of the household budget on health care, while spending at the very top of the OOP distribution was reduced by one-half representing substantial reductions in exposure to medical expenditure risk. Supply-side measures implemented with the coverage extension are likely to have helped realize these effects from an increased, but still very tight, budget.


Population pyramid is a very popular presentation of the age-sex distribution of the human population of a particular region. The shape of the pyramid shows many demographic, social, and political characteristics of the time and the region. In the paper results of hierarchical clustering of the world countries based on population pyramids are presented. Special attention is given to the shapes of the pyramids. The changes of the pyramids' shapes, and also changes of the countries inside main clusters are examined for the years 1996, 2001, and 2006. Also smaller territorial units of a country can be observed through clusters. To illustrate this, clusters of 3111 mainland US counties in the year 2000 obtained using the hierarchical clustering with relational constraint of countiesc population pyramids are examined. In the paper, the results for clustering into nine main clusters are presented.


Although islet transplantation is an effective treatment for severe diabetes, its broad application is greatly limited due to a shortage of donor islets. Suppression of TGFβ receptor signaling in β-cells has been shown to increase β-cell proliferation in mice, but has not been rigorously examined in humans. Here, treatment of human islets with a TGFβ receptor I inhibitor, SB-431542 (SB), significantly improved C-peptide secretion by β-cells, and significantly increased β-cell number by increasing β-cell proliferation. In addition, SB increased cell-cycle activators and decreased cell-cycle suppressors in human β-cells. Transplantation of SB-treated human islets into diabetic immune-deficient mice resulted in significant improvement in blood glucose control, significantly higher serum and graft insulin content, and significantly greater increases in β-cell proliferation in the graft, compared with controls. Thus, our data suggest that transient suppression of TGFβ receptor signaling may improve the outcome of human islet transplantation, seemingly through increasing β-cell number and function.


Groundwater over-pumping by manipulating water meters may constraint the efficient use of the resource, leading to the potential aquifers' deterioration. Well designed institutional arrangements might be effective at reducing over-exploitation. The objective of this research was to shed light on the design of various incentive schemes to face groundwater over-pumping ranging from individual water use-based incentive schemes, where individual withdrawals are the users' private information, to total water use-based incentive schemes, where the aggregate withdrawal is publicly observable. For the latter setting, two schemes were proposed. The first one is within the framework of moral hazard in teams, where the Water Authority administers monetary incentives that do not balance the budget, restoring thereby the full-information outcome. The second scheme promotes a cooperative management governed by a collective responsibility rule that induces peer monitoring by members. We show that groundwater overuse is more likely when monitoring costs are high, punishments are weak and cooperatives are large. We also show how the cooperative size and punishments are determined endogenously by constraints on monitoring. We extend the basic analysis to study collusion in monitoring between cooperative members and compare different monitoring structures. The results confirm that well-designed incentives and institutions can reduce groundwater over-exploitation, and that constraints on monitoring costs affect institutional design.


Uniformly sized microspheres of poly(d, l-lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA) encapsulating tamoxifen(TAM) were successfully prepared by solvent evaporation. In this study three different polylactide-co-glycolides were used with differing lactide-glycolide ratios (50:50, 75:25, and 85:15, respectively). The sphere size distribution and morphology was analyzed using Laser Particle Size Analyzer and SEM. The drug loading and release in vitro of the microspheres were also investigated. The result showed that the microspheres have good spherical and better sustained release.


In this paper we describe a highly scalable multi-modal traffic simulation platform on parallel and distributed environments ranging from multi-core or many core machines to multi-node clusters or supercomputer environments. We evaluated our platform with multi-modal transportation networks from the capital city of Ireland, Dublin, and verified its high scalability and real-time performance on both a 1-node with 12 core machine for a multi-threading environment and a cluster of 12 nodes (with a total of 144 cores) for a distributed system. With this platform, municipal planners or traffic engineers at transportation companies can quickly conduct many series of simulations with various what-if scenarios in a parallel and distributed manner, allowing them to assess and select the best responses to sudden incidents, or plan for major events or disaster responses.


A series of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films are fabricated by pulsed laser deposition under controlling the oxygen partial pressure or adding an oxygen post-annealing process. The film after oxygen post-annealing shows an orientation change and has more non-lattice oxygen near the surface than those of the films without annealing. Moreover, only the structure of Ag/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/Pt with the oxygen annealed film behaves a big current-voltage hysteresis and stable resistance switching properties by applying voltage pulse. Experimental results indicate that the increase of non-lattice oxygen content induced by oxygen annealing in the vicinity of the Ag/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 interface contributes to the occurrence of resistance switching. And with the accurate controlling of the oxygen annealing parameters, the improvement of resistance switching property of the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 film can be expected.


Using longitudinal household data, I document that Democrats are less likely than Republicans to invest in the stock market under Democratic presidencies, precisely when stock market return is substantially higher. This pattern contains even for college-educated and financially sophisticated individuals, and is best explained by their partisan identity. Moreover, the gap in stock market participation between Democrats and Republicans accounts for about half of their discrepancy in wealth accumulation over presidential cycles. A profound implication of these findings is that rising political polarization in the U.S. may be fueling wealth inequality.


Mao et al. isolated a binding partner for the Wnt signaling inhibitor Dickkopf1 (Dkk1) by expression cloning. This binding partner was a member of the Kremen family of transmembrane proteins, and subsequent analysis showed that Dkk1 and Dkk2 both bound to Kremen1 and Kremen2. Contransfection of Dkk1 and Kremen1 or Kremen2 inhibited Wnt signaling measured as change in reporter gene expression. Wnt signaling is initiated by interactions with two receptors: Frizzled and LRPS or LRPG. Dkk1 promoted the interaction of Kremen2 with LPR6, and in transfected cells, Dkk stimulated the endocytosis of LRP6 and Dkk1. Thus, Dkk proteins may inhibit Wnt signaling by stimulating the removal of one of the Wnt receptor partners from the cell surface. B. Mao, W. Wu, G. Davidson, J. Marhold, M. Li, B. M. Mechler, H. Dellus, D. Hoppe, P. Stannek, C. Walter, A. Glinka, C. Niehrs, Kremen proteins are Dickkopf receptors that regulate Wnt/β-catenin signalling. Nature 417, 664-667 (2002). [Online Journal]


In any visualisation of the city more is left unseen than made visible. Contemporary visualisations of the city are increasingly influenced by quantification, and thus anything which cannot be quantified is hidden. In contrast, we explore the use of 'lo-fi', doodled, participatory maps made by skateboarders in Tyneside, England, as a means to represent their cityscape. Drawing on established work an skateboarding and recent developments in cartography, we argue that skateboarders understand the city from a postrepresentational perspective. Such a framing presents a series of challenges to map their worlds which we explore through a processual account of our mapmaking practice. In this process we chart how skateboarders' mappings became part of a more significant interplay of performance, identity, visualisation, and exhibition. The paper makes contributions to the emerging field of postrepresentational cartography and argues that its processual focus provides useful tools to understand how visions of the city are produced.


The lower and upper bounds on the minimum time needed to process a given directed acyclic task graph for a given number of processors are derived. It is proved that the proposed lower bound on time is not only sharper than the previously known values but also easier to calculate. The upper bound on time, which is useful in determining the worst case behavior of a given task graph, is presented. The lower and upper bounds on the minimum number of processors required to process a given task graph in the minimum possible time are also derived. It is seen with a number of randomly generated dense task graphs that the lower and upper bounds we derive are equal, thus giving the optimal time for scheduling directed acyclic task graphs on a given set of processors. >


A suite of sensors has been assembled to map surface elevation and topography with fine resolution from small unmanned aircraft systems. The sensor package consists of a light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) instrument, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a Global Positioning System (GPS) module, and digital still and video cameras. The system has been utilized to map ice sheet topography in Greenland and to measure sea ice freeboard and roughness in Fram Strait off the coast of Svalbard and in the Southern Ocean near McMurdo, Antarctica. The elevation measurement accuracy is found to be <; 10 cm (1σ) when short-baseline differential GPS processing is used to position the aircraft, and IMU data are used to correct for off-nadir pointing of the LIDAR. The system is optimized to provide coincident surface topography measurements and imagery of ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice, and it has the potential to become a widely distributed observational resource to complement manned-aircraft and satellite missions.


Are rebounding U.S. corporate profits causing managers to be complacent about the Japanese competitive challenge? Is the world market share of Japanese industry really shrinking? According to this author, it's too soon to count the Japanese out. Using company data, he has tracked changes in world market shares in various industries since the 1960s. The results of his survey suggest that the current U.S. response to the Japanese global challenge is inappropriate and that managers should reexamine their efforts to position their companies in world markets.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the quality of surgical resection of transanal total mesorectal excision (TA-TME) and robotic total mesorectal excision (R-TME).

BACKGROUND
Both TA-TME and R-TME have been advocated to improve the quality of surgery for rectal cancer below 10 cm from the anal verge, but there are little data comparing TA-TME and R-TME.

METHODS
Data of patients undergoing TA-TME or R-TME for rectal cancer below 10 cm from the anal verge and a sphincter-saving procedure from 5 high-volume rectal cancer referral centers between 2011 and 2017 were obtained. Coarsened exact matching was used to create balanced cohorts of TA-TME and R-TME. The main outcome was the incidence of poor-quality surgical resection, defined as a composite measure including incomplete quality of TME, or positive circumferential resection margin (CRM) or distal resection margin (DRM).

RESULTS
Out of a total of 730 patients (277 TA-TME, 453 R-TME), matched groups of 226 TA-TME and 370 R-TME patients were created. These groups were well-balanced. The mean tumor height from the anal verge was 5.6 cm (SD 2.5), and 70% received preoperative radiotherapy. The incidence of poor-quality resection was similar in both groups (TA-TME 6.9% vs R-TME 6.8%; P = 0.954). There were no differences in TME specimen quality (complete or near-complete TA-TME 99.1% vs R-TME 99.2%; P = 0.923) and CRM (5.6% vs 6.0%; P = 0.839). DRM involvement may be higher after TA-TME (1.8% vs 0.3%; P = 0.051).

CONCLUSIONS
High-quality TME for patients with rectal adenocarcinoma of the mid and low rectum can be equally achieved by transanal or robotic approaches in skilled hands, but attention should be paid to the distal margin.


The objective of this study was to explain the determinants of the fresh vegetables purchase decision by Chinese urban consumers in Beijing including awareness and attitudes to food safety, and their willingness to pay (WTP) more for specific safety
characteristics when buying fresh vegetables. The research rationale arises out of a history of
food safety scares and scandals in China, and a national government response to promote quality assurance and safety through labelling. The primary hypothesis was that an understanding of food safety system
s and product labelling, and trust in supply chain integrity would be key determinants in consumer willingness to purchase and pay more for safety assured vegetables. Based on a questionnaire survey of consumers in Beijing, the analysis found that the major factors underlying the purchase decision of fresh vegetables were product freshness, convenience and competitive price rather than assured product labelling. The decisions whether to purchase assurance-labelled vegetables and WTP more for chemical residue-free product were analysed by binomial and ordinal multinomial logit modelling
respectively. It revealed a WTP moreof between 20% and 40%. Monthly household income was a key determinant of both quality assured product and WTP, together with degree of concern over residues, trust in reta
iler and assurance labels and place of purchase.
The results suggest much still remains to be done to build trust though rigorous monitoring and enforcement of food safety standards to improve supply chain integrity and consumer confidence.


Of 1479 cattle from herds in Northwestern Spain previously diagnosed as tuberculosis (TB) positive, 218 animals which gave a positive tuberculin or interferon‐γ reaction were examined at the slaughterhouse. Medial retropharyngeal and caudal mediastinal lymph nodes, and any tissues containing lesions suspected to be tuberculous, were removed and submitted to the laboratory. Three techniques for diagnosis of TB were used: post mortem examination (PME), smear staining by means of auramine O method (AOM), and culture isolation in Coletsos and Lowenstein‐Jensen media followed by confirmation of M. tuberculosis complex organisms using PCR (CIM‐PCR). Only 123 (29·9%) of the 412 samples collected showed typical tuberculous lesions. Confirmed M. tuberculosis complex organisms were isolated in 144 cases, 114 of which were from tissues showing lesions (success rate of 92·8%). Smears were found positive in 113 cases, 96 of which came from lesions suspected to be tuberculous (success rate of 78·0%). The sensitivities of CIM‐PCR compared with those of PME and AOM were 92·7% and 85·7%, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that PME and AOM are good indicators of the presence of M. tuberculosis complex organisms in tuberculin‐ or interferon‐γ reacting cattle.


A new method (Freeze-Transfer) is described for performing high-resolution immunocytochemistry for soluble cell proteins on frozen sections of biological tissues that involves thaw-mounting frozen tissue sections directly onto the surface of nitrocellulose thin films instead of directly onto glass slides. This technically straight-forward change in methodology resulted in chromogenic immunocytochemical assays for Her-2 and EGF receptors that were 1-2 orders of magnitude more sensitive while still fully utilizing the diagnostic resolving power of light microscopy. The effects of membrane pore size and surface chemistry on the resolution and intensity of Her-2 signal suggest that the enhanced sensitivity of Freeze-Transfer was caused by the cytologically coherent transfer of target molecules normally lost from cut surfaces of cells mounted on nonporous glass during assay.


The struggle for sustaining existence and environment of humans is as old as humanity. Capitalism has accelerated problems relating to sustainability. Many scholars have endeavoured to address these problems by purposing an alternative social order. Robert Owen is one of these scholars. He shares that the clues for reaching sustainable communities could be achieved by advocating a cooperative-oriented life style. Even though his idea of villages of cooperation became an intellectual phenomenon this theoretical phenomenon of the Owenite Movement, proved a practical failure due to several inaccuracies. In this paper, developments of the cooperative system concepts, the Owen's point of view and his implementations are analysed. Through the analyses the new term of "Neighbourhood Cooperatives", which may play a key role in fulfilling the basic services of local community, is proposed. The term is considered as a strategic tool embracing entirely the components of sustainability. These components include social, economic, environmental and governance which are also seen as a building blocks leading to sustainable cities. The paper also deals with the scope of neighbourhood cooperatives, its functions and services, and their positions at a management level. And in the final section particular inferences will be made regarding possible benefits such as social, cultural, economic and governance.  Keywords: Sustainability, Neighbourhood, Cooperative, Owenite movement, Neighbourhood Cooperatives


Integrating simultaneous in situ measurements of magnetic field fluctuations, precipitating electrons, and ultraviolet auroral emissions, we find that Alfvénic acceleration mechanisms are responsible for Ganymede's auroral footprint tail. Magnetic field perturbations exhibit enhanced Alfvénic activity with Poynting fluxes of ~100 mW/m2. These perturbations are capable of accelerating the observed broadband electrons with precipitating fluxes of ~11 mW/m2, such that Alfvénic power is transferred to electron acceleration with ~10% efficiency. The ultraviolet emissions are consistent with in situ electron measurements, indicating 13 ± 3 mW/m2 of precipitating electron flux. Juno crosses flux tubes with both upward and downward currents connected to the auroral tail exhibiting small‐scale structure. We identify an upward electron conic in the downward current region, possibly due to acceleration by inertial Alfvén waves near the Jovian ionosphere. In concert with in situ observations at Io's footprint tail, these results suggest that Alfvénic acceleration processes are broadly applicable to magnetosphere‐satellite interactions.


We develop an energy management system, which also takes into account regenerative generation plants such as photovoltaic or hydroelectric power plants. This paper discusses and describes a single-diode photovoltaic module, which is needed for the development of a hybrid power system and its energy management system. The photovoltaic model is based on five parameters from the datasheet. The equivalent circuit diagram, the equations used and the necessary parameters from the datasheet of the photovoltaic modules to be simulated are shown. In addition, we present a Matlab script, which uses the previously described Matlab simulation model of the photovoltaic module to output a table (.xls file) containing the maximum power point (MPP) as a function of irradiance and temperature. The generated .xls-file can be used for long-term simulations since more complicated algorithms like the maximum power point tracker are not considered in this type of simulation.


Fish genomes possess three type II interferon (IFN) genes, ifnγ1, ifnγ2 and ifnγ-related (ifnγrel). The IFNγ-dependent STAT signalling pathway found in humans and mice had not been characterized in fish previously. To identify the antiviral functions and signalling pathways of the type II IFN system in fish, we purified the ifnγ1, ifnγ2 and ifnγrel proteins of ginbuna crucian carp expressed in bacteria and found them to elicit high antiviral activities against crucian carp hematopoietic necrosis virus. We also cloned two distinct ifnγ receptor alpha chain (ifngr1) isoforms, 1 and 2, and stably expressed them in HeLa cells by transfecting the cells with ifngr1-1 or ifngr1-2 cDNA. When receptor transfectants were treated with the ligands in a one-ligand-one-receptor manner (ifnγ1 and ifngr1-2 or ifnγ2 and ifngr1-1), the stat1 protein was phosphorylated at both serine-727 and tyrosine-701 residues. Gel shift mobility analysis and reporter assay clearly showed that the specific ligand-receptor interaction resulted in the binding of the stat1 protein to the GAS element and enhanced transcription. Therefore, the actions of ifnγ1 and ifnγ2 were found to be mediated by a specific receptor for each signalling pathway via a stat1-dependent mechanism.


Abstract In response to the mixed views about the appointment-based connectedness between CEO and subordinate C-level executives, we systematically analyze the net effect of top management team (TMT) connectedness in the context of real corporate investment activities. We document a robust negative association between TMT connectedness and corporate investments, driven by the reduction in corporate R&D spending and acquisitions. Further tests show investment inefficiency in firms with closely connected managers, suggesting an average weak governance effect of TMT connectedness. To explain such an effect, we find that connected executives tend to avoid risky investments and shirk investment responsibilities when facing little career concerns. Interestingly, the agency cost and coordination benefit of interconnected TMT are not mutually exclusive. The adverse investment effect of TMT connectedness tempers in firms facing financial constraints and even reverses during the Global Financial Crisis when financial constraints are most likely binding.


Abstract When road symbols are shown in a size proportionate to the reduced scale, several problems of legibility may arise concerning the urban blocks. By the method proposed in this paper, in order to overcome these problems, urban block areas are enlarged through amalgamation and the intervening roads in the amalgams are eliminated. This method includes two new approaches for computation of threshold used in determination of important roads based on the connectivity measure, and for definition of minimum block space and area requirements based on graphic limits. A block life cycle was designed for amalgamation of blocks. For the amalgamation process, a new algorithm was developed. The experimental testing indicates that important roads and the roads surrounding the urban area have been preserved. A simpler and more legible road network has been acquired. This method can be described as a more holistic approach as the buildings are taken into account. The problems arising in the experimental testing indicate that the cartographic selection/elimination process is not sufficient by itself for road network generalization, which can be assumed as one of the integral parts of Digital Earth. As well as the selection/elimination, processes such as displacement and caricaturizing are also needed.


Three years ago we proposed that the summer Arctic would be nearly sea ice free by the 2030s; "nearly" is interpreted as sea ice extent less than 1.0 million km2. We consider this estimate to be still valid based on projections of updated climate models (CMIP5) and observational data. Similar to previous models (CMIP3), CMIP5 still shows a wide spread in hindcast and projected sea ice loss among different models. Further, there is no consensus in the scientific literature for the cause of such a spread in results for CMIP3 and CMIP5. While CMIP5 model mean sea ice extents are closer to observations than CMIP3, the rates of sea ice reduction in most model runs are slow relative to recent observations. All CMIP5 models do show loss of sea ice due to increased anthropogenic forcing relative to pre‐industrial control runs. Applying the same technique of model selection and extrapolation approach to CMIP5 as we used in our previous paper, the interval range for a nearly sea ice free Arctic is 14 to 36 years, with a median value of 28 years. Relative to a 2007 baseline, this suggests a nearly sea ice free Arctic in the 2030s.


Ips sexdentatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is one of the most destructive and economically important forest pests. A better understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying its adaptation to toxic host compounds may unleash the potential for future management of this pest. Gene expression studies could be considered as one of the key experimental approaches for such purposes. A suitable reference gene selection is fundamental for quantitative gene expression analysis and functional genomics studies in I. sexdentatus. Twelve commonly used reference genes in Coleopterans were screened under different experimental conditions to obtain accurate and reliable normalization of gene expression data. The majority of the 12 reference genes showed a relatively stable expression pattern among developmental stages, tissue-specific, and sex-specific stages; however, some variabilities were observed during varied temperature incubation. Under developmental conditions, the Tubulin beta-1 chain (β-Tubulin) was the most stable reference gene, followed by translation elongation factor (eEF2) and ribosomal protein S3 (RPS3). In sex-specific conditions, RPS3, β-Tubulin, and eEF2 were the most stable reference genes. In contrast, different sets of genes were shown higher stability in terms of expression under tissue-specific conditions, i.e., RPS3 and eEF2 in head tissue, V-ATPase-A and eEF2 in the fat body, V-ATPase-A and eEF2 in the gut. Under varied temperatures, β-Tubulin and V-ATPase-A were most stable, whereas ubiquitin (UbiQ) and V-ATPase-A displayed the highest expression stability after Juvenile Hormone III treatment. The findings were validated further using real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR)-based target gene expression analysis. Nevertheless, the present study delivers a catalog of reference genes under varied experimental conditions for the coleopteran forest pest I. sexdentatus and paves the way for future gene expression and functional genomic studies on this species.


Climate change, habitat destruction, and myriad other ecological stressors will impact us all and have already contributed to what is being labeled the sixth wave of extinction (Ceballos et al. 2015, Régnier et al. 2015). As a countering force, conservation biology strives to identify those areas of the planet most worthy of protecting due to their unique natural value (Dudley and Stolton 2008). Despite their value, criticisms (Camillo and Peter 2011) have been leveled at 1) the social cost of maintaining protected status (Lele et al. 2010) and 2) instances of continued biodiversity decline despite protection regimes (Craigie et al. 2010, Dudley et al. 2014). At present, the selection and delimitation of protected areas is an intuitive and often subjective process, leading to ambiguities in the semantics behind and across their definitions.
 Thus, we propose that the application of ontological techniques to the ambiguities in protected area semantics is a timely contribution to conservation informatics. We hold that coherent semantic representation of the biogeographic areas which overlap protected areas (often designated empirically) will provide more efficient and standardized informatics, supporting research and decision-making processes. Our approach draws from comparative biogeography, which seeks to classify biogeographic areas based on their natural properties in a process known as bioregionalisation. In particular, we convert a cladogram of biogeographic areas (similar to cladogram of taxa) into a series of ontological classes, each corresponding to a monophyletic clade of areas. In this model, areas of endemism are treated as formal objects related by hierarchical relationships and constrained by the monophyly condition (Ung 2018). This approach unifies a model-theoretic view of endemism with the semantic web and therefore, offering new possibilities to communicate the biogeographic units conservation.
 We use semantic web standards (RDF and OWL) expressed through interoperable "Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry" and Library resources to model areas of endemism as evolutionary entities for comparative biogeography. This aligns with current efforts in the OBO Foundry to extend their semantic coverage to the domains of Earth and ecosystem science. Due to our work's heavy reliance on environmental semantics, we base our work on the Environment Ontology (ENVO), extending it with often confounded biogeographic entities including biogeographic areas, such as areas of endemism and endemic areas, as well as their relationships. Hence, we seek to provide a rigorous and simple framework that improves biogeographic analyses and interoperability between systems.


PolyhedraI symmetries play an important role in mathematics, physics, chemistry, art and architecture. Despite the rich bibliography on this subject, little is known, to the non-expert, on the use of symmetric constructions in specialized scientific applications. We present a short review showing the influence of the geometry of polyhedra in the design of multi-detector systems employed in nuclear physics studies. In detection systems with a small number of detectors, designs based on Platonic and Archimedean solids have been used. On the other hand, in order to accommodate a large number of detector modules, highly segmented shell-like structures have been created. These constructions are based on a geodesic breakdown of an icosahedron and resemble architectural dome structures.


PROBLEM BEING ADDRESSED
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a substantial cause of death and morbidity in Canada. Endoscopy screening by colonoscopy has been recommended, but widespread implementation is impossible because it is difficult to obtain, especially in rural areas.

OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM
To screen for CRC safely and effectively using colonoscopy performed by non-specialist endoscopists in rural areas.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Health providers and community organizations were informed about the screening program. Patients between the ages of 50 and 75 and those at high risk of CRC based on family history were screened. Measures of safety and effectiveness were monitored. In 2 years of screening, one of 152 patients was found to have CRC, and 23.7% had adenomatous polyps. There were no complications. Rates of CRC and adenoma detection and cecal intubation were similar to rates found in other screening studies.

CONCLUSION
It was not difficult to design and implement a CRC screening program in our small rural community. Colonoscopies performed by family physicians have been effective, and there have been no serious complications.


This thesis addresses the problem of rapid development and dynamic deployment of services in the distributed service environment. It is not enough to deploy services rapidly, as the dynamic service environment is changing continually, requiring services to be adaptable also. By this we mean, that in addition to being able to rapidly deploy new services, it must be possible to dynamically change existing services to adapt to conditions in the service environment that were not foreseen when the service was originally deployed. In this environment, service availability is an important concern. Traditionally, availability has been seen as an atomic property asserting the average time a system is "up" or "down". In order to model and analyse the availability of computerised systems in a world where the dependency on and complexity of such systems are increasing, this notion of availability is no longer sufficient. This thesis provides a conceptual model for service availability designed to meet the challenges of ensuring availability in a rapidly changing telecommunications environment. The core of this model is a characterisation of service availability by means of accessibility properties and exclusivity properties, which is further specialised into measurable aspects of service availability. One of the core challenges of service engineering is to find practical ways to model services (partial functionalities) separately such that services may be composed into well functioning systems while satisfying availability requirements. This is especially challenging for services being provided in a distributed manner requiring cooperation of several components and actors (users). This thesis presents a policy-driven methodology and approach for modelling dynamic composition of services. This involves a model-driven concept for enabling dynamic composition of separately specified service parts. We demonstrate this concept for dynamically adding authentication and authorization to existing services, as a means to provide and restrict access to the service for authorized users only. The concept of a policy enforcement state machine (PESM) diagram and composition policies are used to model dynamic composition of services. The PESM diagrams and composition policies specify the coordination of separately specified UML2.x collaborations.


The purpose of this study was to comparison of lipid profile pattern and dyslipidemia in obese versus non obese Libyan type 2 diabetic patients in Benghazi city. Hospital based case study was selected from the Benghazi Diabetes Center and Benghazi Medical Center, Benghazi – Libya. A total of 350 patients (152 women and 198 men) were divided according to type 2 diabetes and obesity. Body mass index BMI, waist circumference WC and blood pressure were measured after conducting face to face interview for each participant. Blood sample was collected to measure fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol , LDL & HDL cholesterol and triglyceride. Most of the study patients had any type of dyslipidemia, with low HDL-cholesterol dyslipidemia being the most common type, and there was statistically sig-nificant difference in the proportions of patients with different BMI category and lipid ab-normalities. A significant increase in levels of serum cholesterol and serum LDL –C and a significant decrease HDL-C in obese diabetics subjects were observed. The study has docu-mented several lipid profile abnormalities and dyslipidemia among obese and non-obese type 2 diabetic patients. Since both dyslipidemia and obesity increase the risk for coronary artery diseases (CAD), so their proper control might reduce the incidence of CAD among diabetics. The study revealed that obesity and dyslipidemia were high among diabetic patients and re-quired special attention. This can be achieved through health education at the primary care level and in the diabetic clinics.


The list of presenting features of mitochondrial disease expands even further with this report of two patients who presened with chronic diarrhoea during the second year of life. The gastrointestinal problcms, initially attributed to gluten, cow's milk protein intolerance, were severe enough to vitrrant parenteral nutrition in both cases. Sur:,ngly, in both patients, the diarrhoea remit -,d at the age of 4 years followed by a four to five year period of reasonable health before developing diabetes mellitus, retinitis pigmentosa, cerebellar ataxia, sensorineural deafness, and seizures. Both died at 12 years of age. The clue to an underlying mitochondrial disorder was the development of a raised plasma lactate in response to the high carbohydrate dict given because of their failure to thrive. A respiratory enzyme deficiency was recognised on skeletal muscle biopsy. Analysis of mtDNA in muscle showed that both patients had deletions in the same region of the mitochondrial genome. Lymphocyte mtDNA analysis was normal. This particular deletion has been reported before in Pearson syndrome which has quite different clinical features. The authors postulate that thc high number of direct repeat sequences at the end points of the deletions predisposed to the mutations which arose de novo. Why should the cells of the gut be affected? It is suggested that it is because the cells have a high turnover rate. It remains an enigma as to why the symptoms spontaneously remitted. This paper raises the question as to whether to perform mtDNA analysis in several tissues in young children with intractable diarrhoea.


The authors examined whether measurement of resistance to outflow of cerebrospinal fluid (Rcsf) predicts outcome after shunting for patients with normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). In four centers 101 patients (most of whom had idiopathic NPH) who fulfilled strict entry criteria underwent shunt placement irrespective of their level of Rcsf obtained by lumbar constant flow infusion. Gait disturbance and dementia were quantified by using an NPH scale and the patient's level of disability was assessed by using the modified Rankin scale (mRS). In addition the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination was performed. Patients were assessed prior to and 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after surgery. Primary outcome measures were based on differences between the preoperative and last NPH scale scores and mRS grades. Improvement was defined as a change measuring at least 15% in the NPH scale score and at least one mRS grade. Intention-to-treat analysis of all patients at 1 year yielded improvement for 57% in NPH scale score and 59% in mRS grade. Efficacy analysis, excluding serious events and deaths that were unrelated to NPH, was performed for 95 patients. Improvement rose to 76% in NPH scale score and 69% in mRS grade. Six cut-off levels of Rcsf were related to improvement in NPH scale score using two-by-two tables. Positive predictive values were approximately 80% for an Rcsf of 10, 12, or 15 mm Hg/ml/minute, 92% for an Rcsf of 18 mm Hg/ml/minute, and 100% for an Rcsf of 24 mm Hg/ml/minute. Negative predictive values were low. More important was the highest likelihood ratio of 3.5 for an Rcsf of 18 mm Hg/ml/minute. Extensive comorbidity was a major prognostic factor. Measurement of Rcsf reliably predicts outcome if the limit for shunting is raised to 18 mm Hg/ml/minute. At lower Rcsf values the decision depends mainly on the extent to which clinical and computerized tomography findings are typical of NPH.


Background To investigate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs10078761, rs12696304, rs2853669, rs16847897, rs2736100, rs10069690) of telomerase gene (TERT) and the risk clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a Chinese Han population of the Northwest region. Methods A total of 150 BPH patients and 150 healthy older males from the northwest Chinese Han population were included in this study. The sample size for this unmatched case-control study was estimated by the look-up table method. Meanwhile, the general information and disease data of patients were collected. Age was only collected in healthy control subjects for statistical correction. Genotypes were detected using a multiplex PCR + ligase detection reaction (LDR). Typing results and clinical data were statistically analyzed using multiple linear regression and logistic regression. Pearson correlation was used for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Results The included population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was no significant association between SNP and the risk of BPH by correlation analysis. However, 4 haplotypes (TCTGGT, TCTGTC, TGCCTC, and TGTGTC) were identified as risk factors of BPH by haplotype analysis. The SNP rs2853669 is an independent risk factor for smooth muscle type of hyperplasia. Besides, rs2736100, rs10078761, and rs10069690 which are in linkage disequilibrium are associated with the severity of BPH. Conclusions Polymorphism of the TERT gene determines the different disease development and pathological manifestations of BPH in the Chinese Han population the Northwest region.


OR 1.16, CI OR: 1.03–1.33). Regression analysis revealed that the odds of failure increased as size of ectopic increased (P = 0.045, OR 1.85, CI OR 1.01–3.39). Conclusions: Similar results to previous studies were found regarding failure rate of methotrexate therapy. The odds of failure of methotrexate therapy and need for surgical intervention increased by 16% for every 500 iu increase noted in pretreatment βhCG level. Size of ectopic pregnancy also played an important role with failure of therapy almost doubling as size of ectopic increased. Cutoff levels for size and βhCG at which risk of failure was considered clinically significant were calculated.


Striated muscle development requires the coordinated expression of genes involved in sarcomere formation and contractility, as well as genes that determine muscle morphology. However, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanisms that control the early stages of muscle morphogenesis. To explore this facet of myogenesis, we performed a genetic screen for regulators of somatic muscle morphology in Drosophila, and identified the putative RNA-binding protein (RBP) Hoi Polloi (Hoip). Hoip is expressed in striated muscle precursors within the muscle lineage and controls two genetically separable events: myotube elongation and sarcomeric protein expression. Myotubes fail to elongate in hoip mutant embryos, even though the known regulators of somatic muscle elongation, target recognition and muscle attachment are expressed normally. In addition, a majority of sarcomeric proteins, including Myosin Heavy Chain (MHC) and Tropomyosin, require Hoip for their expression. A transgenic MHC construct that contains the endogenous MHC promoter and a spliced open reading frame rescues MHC protein expression in hoip embryos, demonstrating the involvement of Hoip in pre-mRNA splicing, but not in transcription, of muscle structural genes. In addition, the human Hoip ortholog NHP2L1 rescues muscle defects in hoip embryos, and knockdown of endogenous nhp2l1 in zebrafish disrupts skeletal muscle development. We conclude that Hoip is a conserved, post-transcriptional regulator of muscle morphogenesis and structural gene expression.


Camptocormia is the abnormal posture of the trunk with thoraco-lumbar spine flexion, which increases during walking and improves when supine. A man, aged 57, noticed a rash behind his left knee. Next, he developed pain in his left knee and hip, then progressive leg weakness over 4–6 weeks. His posture started to stoop, to the point that he became shorter than his wife. Examination showed camptocormia. Muscle tone was normal, with mild weakness of the neck flexors, truncal and abdominal muscles, as well as in the left arm and leg. He was areflexic. He had a suspended sensory level from T8 to T10. Routine blood screen was normal, as was spinal MRI. LP showed: clear CSF, WBC 100 (66% neutrophils, 32% lymphocytes), protein 1884 mg/l, glucose 5.9 (serum 10.9), oligoclonal bands seen in CSF but not blood. Serological tests for Borrelia burgdorferi were positive in blood and CSF. Neurophysiology was not performed. The diagnosis of paraspinal muscle weakness secondary to polyradiculopathy caused by Lyme disease was made. Treatment with IV ceftriaxone resulted in rapid resolution of his pain. The strength in his muscles returned over the next few months. Videos before and after treatment will be shown. We believe this is the first reported case of camptocormia secondary to polyradiculopathy caused by Lyme neuroborreliosis.


The observation of high energy cosmic gamma rays with an energy threshold of 15 GeV using the proposed MAGIC ground based air imaging Cherenkov telescope requires the development of new low noise fast preamplifiers for the camera photosensors. The speed and noise performance of a transimpedance preamplifier that resolves the multi photoelectron peaks from a hybrid photomultiplier with a peaking time below 7 ns is presented. The new front-end circuit is designed with RF low noise bipolar transistors and provides fast output pulses that allow for fast trigger settings.


Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Abstract Investing in construction projects is not without risks. Risk management is considered an important aspect when making decisions in the construction industry—as it deter-mines whether the construction project will be successful or will fail. Effective decisions are made based on certain predetermined criteria such as investigating the construction project in detail, generating good alternatives to manage risk, exploring the best options, etc., whereas, decisions can fail when the best suitable alternatives to manage risk are not made clear at the onset of a construction project, or logical assessment of project- specific criteria are not considered part of the process. As a result, risks can possibly have an adverse effect on the delivery of construction projects with respect to its objectives. Therefore, this chapter will present the numerous tools and techniques that are available to support the various phases of the risk management process in construction projects.


Heparin was first discovered in 1916 and at present is used in more than 12 million patients a year. In the 1950s, several physicians noticed an uncommon paradoxical phenomenon in which heparin appeared to function as a procoagulant instead of an anticoagulant. This phenomenon is now known as the immune-mediated heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and thrombosis syndrome (HITTS). Our understanding of this syndrome has evolved over the last 2 to 3 decades, and therapeutic options are arising. This article will focus on the most extensively studied therapy for HIT, which is the class of drugs known as the direct thrombin inhibitors. Specifically, we will focus on the mechanisms by which direct thrombin inhibitors may be useful in this syndrome, the evidence for their use, and the unique characteristics of the two FDA-approved agents in this class, lepirudin and argatroban.


As Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) become more and more connected it follows
that they need to become more secure. Traditional Intrusion Detection Systems
(IDSs) do not work well due to the fact that they mostly work on a signature
basis and there are not many known signatures to detect attacks on ICSs. Since
the network traffic from an ICS is claimed to be static and signatures are scarce,
searching for anomalies in the network to detect threats is more effective. This
can be achieved using machine learning and other statistical models, teaching the
system to tell regular traffic from irregularities. In this thesis we survey papers
from related work and evaluate their results, conduct a risk analysis of ICSs from
published sources and a workshop with an industry expert. Based on the survey
and the risk analysis we analyze over 100 days of network traffic from a water
distribution system in order to get further understanding of how ICSs act, both
considering network traffic and process semantics. From this work we propose and
evaluate three methods to be used when creating a more data driven IDS, capable
of detecting process semantic tampering within an ICS.
Our results from conducted experiments exhibit a static nature of the data originating
from the ICS and the result from evaluating two of the three proposed methods
using proof of concept systems, we deem that these anomaly-based detection methods
work well for both semantic tampering as well as on a network basis. Having
an IDS using a fusion of all three proposed methods, would benefit the security of
an ICS since both semantics and network behavior are taken into account.


The current paper aims to investigate the religious identity crisis in the themes of Alsanousi's The Bamboo Stalk (2015). It also determines to explore the kinds of the identity status depicted in the novel as well as the causes of identity loss. The paper takes the qualitative approach for data interpretation and adopts the descriptive discourse analysis (DDA) method. The analysis is then guided by the intercultural communication theory (ICT). The paper found that the protagonist and some other characters face identity crisis and suffer from religious dilemma due to several reasons the most of which is the dominance of the socio-class norms that prevents religion from playing its role in making its adherents equal. The paper also confirms the negative effect of hybridization on the religious identity formation. It reinforces the validity of the application of ICT on fictive data and contributes new form of IC analysis on fictive data.


Objective Dietary sodium and potassium intakes are factors known to influence blood pressure (BP) through different pathways. These mechanisms likely result in differential effects on parameters characterizing BP. The aim of the study was to evaluate relationships between both sodium and potassium intake and all BP parameters – namely systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) – simultaneously in a large general population. Methods The present cross-sectional analysis was performed on 4919 middle-aged men and women, participants in the SU.VI.MAX study. Dietary intake was assessed through at least three 24-h dietary records. SBP and DBP were measured twice at a single visit after 10 min rest and averaged. Analysis of covariance was used to test for difference in BP parameters across tertiles of dietary sodium and potassium intakes. Results In univariate analysis, increased dietary sodium and potassium intakes were both significantly associated with increased BP parameters (P < 0.0001). After relevant adjustments, sodium intake remained positively associated with PP (P = 0.006), whereas potassium intake became negatively associated with SBP, DBP and MAP (P ≤ 0.02) but was not linked to PP (P = 0.56). Conclusion The positive association between dietary sodium intake and PP observed in the present study provides further evidence for the current concept linking sodium to rise in BP through modification and stiffening of the arterial wall, whereas negative associations between dietary potassium intake and both SBP and DBP, hence MAP, support the vasodilator properties of this latter nutrient.


Small-scaled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) emerge as ideal image acquisition platforms due to their high maneuverability even in complex and tightly built environments. The acquired images can be utilized to generate high-quality 3D models using current multi-view stereo approaches. However, the quality of the resulting 3D model highly depends on the preceding flight plan which still requires human expert knowledge, especially in complex urban and hazardous environments. In terms of safe flight plans, practical considerations often define prohibited and restricted airspaces to be accessed with the vehicle. We propose a 3D UAV path planning framework designed for detailed and complete small-scaled 3D reconstructions considering the semantic properties of the environment allowing for user-specified restrictions on the airspace. The generated trajectories account for the desired model resolution and the demands on a successful photogrammetric reconstruction. We exploit semantics from an initial flight to extract the target object and to define restricted and prohibited airspaces which have to be avoided during the path planning process to ensure a safe and short UAV path, while still aiming to maximize the object reconstruction quality. The path planning problem is formulated as an orienteering problem and solved via discrete optimization exploiting submodularity and photogrammetrical relevant heuristics. An evaluation of our method on a customized synthetic scene and on outdoor experiments suggests the real-world capability of our methodology by providing feasible, short and safe flight plans for the generation of detailed 3D reconstruction models.


Embelin, a natural quinone found in the fruits of Embelia ribes, is commonly used in Ayurvedic home medicine for a variety of therapeutic potentials including anti-inflammation, anti-fever, anti-bacteria and anti-cancer. Molecular mechanisms of these activities and cellular targets have not been clarified to-date. We demonstrate that the embelin inhibits mortalin-p53 interactions, and activates p53 protein in tumor cells. We provide bioinformatics, molecular docking and experimental evidence to the binding affinity of embelin with mortalin and p53. Binding of embelin with mortalin/p53 abrogates their complex resulted in nuclear translocation and transcriptional activation function of p53 causing growth arrest in cancer cells. Furthermore, analyses of growth factors and metastatic signaling using antibody membrane array revealed their downregulation in embelin-treated cells. We also found that the embelin causes transcriptional attenuation of mortalin and several other proteins involved in metastatic signaling in cancer cells. Based on these molecular dynamics and experimental data, it is concluded that the anticancer activity of embelin involves targeting of mortalin, activation of p53 and inactivation of metastatic signaling.


This paper analyzes the interference of lightning flashes with wireless communication systems operating in the microwave band at 2.4 GHz. A bit error rate (BER) measurement method was used to evaluate BER during 3 heavy thunderstorms on January 25, March 17 and March 20, all in year 2011. In addition, BER measurements also were done on January 21 and March 30, 2011 under fair weather (FW) conditions providing a baseline for comparison. The Transmitter-Receiver separation was fixed at 10 meter with line-of-sight (LOS) consideration. We infer that lightning interfered with the transmitted digital pulses which resulted in a higher recorded BER. The maximum recorded BER was 9.9·10-1 and the average recorded BER was 9.95·10-3 during the thunderstorms with the average fair weather BER values under the influence of adjacent channel interference (ACI) and co-channel interference (CCI) being 1.75·10-5 and 7.35·10-6 respectively. We conclude that wireless communication systems operating at 2.4 GHz microwave frequency can be significantly interfered by lightning.


We present recursive cascaded networks, a general architecture that enables learning deep cascades, for deformable image registration. The proposed architecture is simple in design and can be built on any base network. The moving image is warped successively by each cascade and finally aligned to the fixed image; this procedure is recursive in a way that every cascade learns to perform a progressive deformation for the current warped image. The entire system is end-to-end and jointly trained in an unsupervised manner. In addition, enabled by the recursive architecture, one cascade can be iteratively applied for multiple times during testing, which approaches a better fit between each of the image pairs. We evaluate our method on 3D medical images, where deformable registration is most commonly applied. We demonstrate that recursive cascaded networks achieve consistent, significant gains and outperform state-of-the-art methods. The performance reveals an increasing trend as long as more cascades are trained, while the limit is not observed. Code is available at https://github.com/zsyzzsoft/Recursive-Cascaded-Networks.


The dry (lean) season imposes a natural feed restriction in grazing animals that must be compensated for during the wet (lush) season. The nutrition physiological backgrounds governing the changes during growth retardation and higher gain during compensation are obscure. Immature male lambs were used to determine the effects of feed quality restriction, i.e. feeding grass straw, on the pattern of feed intake, feed efficiency and growth, and changes in the physiological state of the animals. During restriction and following realimentation, the grass straw intake of the restricted animals was significantly higher than of their controls. Maintaining gut capacity was the main reason of ingesting more low quality feed. The delay in growth during the restriction period was fully compensated after realimentation with a significantly lower total feed consumption, while the carcass of the realimented animals was leaner than of the controls. Higher grass straw intake, lower maintenance requirements, an increased feed efficiency and changes in the composition of gain were mechanisms supporting compensatory growth. During the dry season with limited amounts of good quality feed available, imposing feed quality restriction is a useful strategy. During the following recovery period, animals compensate through increased feed intake and a more efficient use of the nutrients. Modelling the implementation of a strategy of compensatory growth indicated the possibility of a reduction of the total concentrate input by 40% per animal compared to an intensive system. Compared to an extensive system, only 35% of the rangelands is required, thereby reducing the grazing pressure on the rangelands and allowing regeneration of the vegetation species.


This paper describes a one-year introductory robotics course sequence focusing on computational aspects of robotics for third- and fourth-year students. The key challenges this curriculum addresses are scalability, i.e., how to teach a robotics class with a limited amount of hardware to a large audience,student assessment, i.e., how to assess the students' success on robotic design and programming assignments, and depth versus breadth, i.e., how to down-select content from the interdisciplinary field of robotics to computer science students. This is achieved by combining simulation-based laboratory assignments, which can be conducted anywhere and anytime, with compatible hardware devices that allow a seamless transition from simulation to real hardware, and a focus on performance-based assessment with an open-ended final project/competition. Content learning and retention is assessed for a subset of students who successfully went through the proposed curriculum. All class materials as well as hardware-in particular, a low-cost, highly articulated robotic arm developed for teaching advanced robotics concepts-are open-source and available online.


Environmental crises renew questions about the values associated with the "objects of nature". In this context, there is an endogeneisation of these values in the economic field, by assigning an economic value to the various items and services related to the ecosystem. The neo-classical approach to the environment, however, faces the problem of damages and profits commensurability. In fact, the evaluation process can not avoid the issue of sociospatial construction of associated environmental goods values. Two emergent specific environmental goods illustrate these valuation difficulties: the night and the starry sky. The negative impact of excess artificial light are now being studied by various fields of knowledge (especially ecology, medicine), but the question of located values associated with the night sky and its stars remains current and overturns a paradigm: it is the darkness of certain territories which can makes their value by a new consideration of sociocultural (welfare, scientific heritage, landscape resource) and ecosystem services (regulation and self-sustaining ecosystem, circadian cycle, etc.) they produce. Because the night and the starry sky are complex and unbargainable pure collective goods, the ability to characterize their value is derived from processes that have cognitive and spatial dimensions. Thus, since the end of 2000s, initiatives of certification of dark sky protected areas are growing world-wide. They stress an increasing concern about the problems of light pollution caused by the socioeconomic activities. That place the night and the starry sky in the center of new territorial considerations. The paper aims to interrogate the valorization process of the night and starry sky, and the types of services they provide to the territories. We question how value is geographically produced, with three entries. (i) What is the position of the objects "night" and "starry sky" in the field of ecosystem services? (ii) How the value of these objects is produced from new territorial action devices? (iii) In return, how these territories convert these services to bring them to local resources, localized competitive advantages, and thus create value from them?


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the expression characteristics of forkhead box K1 (FOXK1) in breast cancer (BCa). Meanwhile, its relationship with clinicopathology and prognosis of patients with BCa was also explored.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The expression level of FOXK1 in 65 paired BCa tissues and para-cancerous tissues was detected by quantitative Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between FOXK1 expression and BCa pathological parameters as well as the prognosis of patients was analyzed. Meanwhile, the expression of FOXK1 in BCa cells was detected by qRT-PCR. Subsequently, FOXK1 knockdown and overexpression models were constructed by lentivirus transfection in BCa cell lines (including MCF-7 and SKBR3). The effect of FOXK1 on the biological functions of BCa cells was analyzed using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), cell cloning assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Finally, whether the role of FOXK1 was achieved via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway was explored.

RESULTS
The qRT-PCR results showed that FOXK1 expression in BCa tissues was significantly higher than that of adjacent tissues. Compared with patients with low expression of FOXK1, the pathological grading was markedly higher in those with high expression. Meanwhile, the overall survival rate was remarkably lower in patients with high expression. In addition, compared with the negative control group, the proliferation ability of cells in FOXK1 knockdown group was significantly decreased, while cell apoptosis was markedly up-regulated. Besides, Western blot results revealed that silencing FOXK1 could reduce the levels of key proteins in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, thereby promoting the malignant progression of BCa. Finally, PI3Kα/mTOR-IN-1, which was the inhibitor of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, significantly reversed the proliferative capacity of cells in FOXK1 overexpression group, as well as enhanced anti-apoptotic ability.

CONCLUSIONS
FOXK1 expression was remarkably increased both in BCa tissues and cells. Meanwhile, it was markedly associated with pathological stage and poor prognosis of patients. Besides, FOXK1 might promote the malignant progression of BCa by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.


Background Reference change values are used to assess the significance of a difference in two consecutive results from an individual. Reference change value calculations provide the limits for significant differences between two results due to analytical and inherent biological variations. Often more than two serial results are available. Using the reference change value concept on more than two measurements results in an increased number of false-positive results. This problem has been solved for both uni- and bidirectional differences through use of wider limits when additional results are included. Methods Based on normally (Gaussianly) distributed simulated data, a dynamic reference change value model was developed using more than two results and total coefficients of variation. The dynamic reference change value model includes validation of a set-point as the mean of the four first serial results and additional results are assessed for compliance to the steady state with the same set-point. Furthermore, the dynamic reference change value model compensates for increasing false-positive results with subsequent results. The dynamic reference change value model was designed to calculate significant limits for bidirectional differences. Results Reference change factors were calculated for multiplication of the mean of previous results to create the limits for significant differences. The reference change factors are provided as a function of number of results and total coefficients of variation both in tables and in figures. Conclusions The dynamic reference change value model is appropriate for ongoing assessment of the steady state of a biomarker using more than two serial results.


PURPOSE
The randomized controlled OptiTrain trial showed beneficial effects on fatigue after a 16-week exercise intervention in patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. We hypothesize that exercise alters systemic inflammation and that this partially mediates the beneficial effects of exercise on fatigue.

METHODS
Two hundred and forty women scheduled for chemotherapy were randomized to 16 weeks of resistance and high-intensity interval training (RT-HIIT), moderate-intensity aerobic and high-intensity interval training (AT-HIIT) or usual care (UC). In the current mechanistic analyses, we included all participants with >60% attendance and a random selection of controls (RT-HIIT=30, AT-HIIT=27, UC=29). Fatigue (Piper Fatigue Scale) and ninety-two markers (e.g. IL-6, TNFα) were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Mediation analyses were conducted to explore whether changes in inflammation markers mediated the effect of exercise on fatigue.

RESULTS
Overall, chemotherapy led to an increase in inflammation. The increase in IL-6 (pleiotropic cytokine) and CD8a (T-cell surface glycoprotein) was, however, significantly less pronounced following RT-HIIT compared to UC (-0.47 (95%CI -0.87;-0.07) and -0.28 (-0.57;0.004), respectively). Changes in IL-6 and CD8a significantly mediated the exercise effects on both general and physical fatigue by 32.0% and 27.7%, and 31.2% and 26.4%, respectively. No significant between-group differences in inflammatory markers at 16 weeks were found between AT-HIIT and UC.

CONCLUSION
This study is the first showing that supervised RT-HIIT partially counteracted the increase in inflammation during chemotherapy, i.e. IL-6 and soluble CD8a, which resulted in lower fatigue levels post-intervention. Exercise including both resistance and high-intensity aerobic training might be put forward as an effective treatment to reduce chemotherapy-induced inflammation and subsequent fatigue.


In this work we calculate the low-energy effective action for gravity with torsion, obtained after the integration of scalar and fermionic matter fields, using the local momentum representation based on the Riemann normal coordinates expansion. By considering this expansion around different spacetime points, we also compute the non-local terms together with the more usual divergent ones. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our results to the calculation of particle production probabilities.


Hydraulic servoactuators have long been used in industry where high performance precision motion control is required. Because of their precision and ability to generate large forces, applications are numerous in industry. One such application provides cockpit motion for flight simulation. This thesis investigates a new emergency shutdown (abort) scheme for such high performance servo-systems. Because flight simulation involves the motion control of both man and machinery (a mock cockpit in motion), it will be used as the standard by which a safe and effective abort is modeled. The justification for motion abort during actuator operation is unsafe actuator accelerations. In order to protect man and equipment, the operation of critical servosystems, such as flight simulators, must be constantly monitored to detect system malfunctions which might cause personal injury or equipment damage. After any malfunction is detected, the appropriate shutdowm hardware must be signaled to safely take command of the servosystem and bring it to rest. The intent of this thesis was to verify the integrity of a new concept in hydraulic actuator abort, which utilizes the mechanical feedback of actuator acceleration. Once verified, critical design parameters can be further optimized and possible design configurations suggested. The abort system was modeled on a software package called Continuous System Modelling Program (CSMP). The actual abort subsystem proved to work as expected, but when integrated into the flight simulation actuation system, instability was observed. This instability occurred due to extremely large inertial forces acting on relatively large volumes of compressible hydraulic fluid. The spring rate imposed by the hydraulic fluid caused high frequency oscillations, superimposed on the desired steady state behavior, to pass through the entire system. Various loop gains in the model were adjusted to minimize the oscillations, but an additional dampening device would be the likely solution to effectively attenuate the instability. Such a device could be the topic of another thesis.


A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist exposes the secret history of racial cleansing in America. "Leave now, or die!" From the heart of the Midwest to the Deep South, from the mountains of North Carolina to the Texas frontier, words like these have echoed through more than a century of American history. The call heralded not a tornado or a hurricane, but a very unnatural disaster - a manmade wave of racial cleansing that purged black populations from counties across the nation. We have long known about horrific episodes of lynching in the South, but the story of widespread racial cleansing - above and below the Mason-Dixon line - has remained almost entirely unknown. Time after time, in the period between Reconstruction and the 1920s, whites banded together to drive out the blacks in their midst. They burned and killed indiscriminately and drove thousands from their homes, sweeping entire counties clear of blacks to make them racially "pure". The expulsions were swift - in many cases, it took no more than twenty-four hours to eliminate an entire African-American population. Shockingly, these areas remain virtually all-white to this day. Based on nearly a decade of painstaking research in archives and census records, "Buried in the Bitter Waters" provides irrefutable evidence that racial cleansing occurred again and again on American soil, and fundamentally reshaped the geography of race. In this groundbreaking book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin has rewritten American history as we know it.


The silica modified with chitosan was synthesized as a carrier material. The glutaraldehyde was coupled with amido group of chitosan, and template protein-bovine hemoglobin was immobilized by aldehyde group. Then, the carrier was coated by sol-gel, after template protein was removed; molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared for selectively recognizing bovine hemoglobin (BHb). The results of IR and scanning electron microscope(SEM) demonstrated the formation of a grafting polymer layer on the modified silica gel surface. Selectivity adsorption experiments under equilibrium adsorption show that the imprinted polymers have good adsorption capacity and specific recognition for BHb in aqueous solution, and imprinted polymer hold good recognition capability for BHb when completive substances are present. The MIP synthesis strategy is promising for separating and purifying specific protein compositions in bio-samples. It may have good prospect for riching target protein, which is required to further study.


Researchers and community managers try to measure the success of online communities using a variety of success determinants, such as member activity, turnover and interaction. Although many success determinants have been proposed in the literature, it remains largely unclear which are applicable to which kind of online communities. In this work, we focus on the use case of question answering (Q&A) communities, where we can measure asker satisfaction as an aspect of community success towards the goal of solving questions. We evaluate how well the proposed success determinants correlate to asker satisfaction, and we find that less than half of them are at least moderately (±0.3 or more) correlated. That underlines the importance of evaluating the proposed success determinants on real data of specific community types.


We perform high‐resolution 3D shear‐wave structures of the crust and upper mantle using continuous wave data recorded at 170 stations from national and regional networks in the southeastern Tibetan plateau. First, empirical Green's functions are obtained between all the possible station pairs. Then Rayleigh‐wave group velocity and phase velocity dispersion curves are retrieved using the frequency–time analysis method. The Rayleigh‐wave group velocity images at periods from 8 to 50 s and phase velocity images at periods from 8 to 40 s are inverted on a 1°×1° grid. Finally, the 1D shear‐wave structure beneath each grid and the 3D shear‐wave velocity structure are acquired by linear interpolation. Our results indicate that low‐velocity layers (LVLs) are ubiquitous in the middle–lower crust beneath the southeastern Tibetan plateau but vary in depth (20–35 km), thickness (5–20 km), and strength (5.4%–10.8% velocity reduction) in different blocks. The 3D geometry of the LVLs is complex and cannot be interpreted as a model with a uniform flow channel. The shear velocity in the Chuandian block is unevenly distributed, indicating that the block is inhomogeneous. The 12 May 2008 Wenchuan and 20 April 2013 Lushan earthquake sequences ( M s≥3.0) all occurred in the crustal layers in which LVLs are inhibited by the strong Sichuan basin and in which the topography and crustal thickness vary sharply. This formed the earthquake preparation environment of the two earthquakes. The Ningnan–Qiaojia pull‐apart region is characterized by low shear‐wave velocity in the shallow crust, which agrees well with the sedimentary features of the upper crust. A relatively high velocity is observed in the central part of the low‐velocity Sichuan basin in the shallow layers, indicating the basement beneath the Sichuan basin may be uplifted around the central part of the basin.


Background: Although modern Thai women have more education and knowledge, from variety sources of information including cervical cancer prevention, cervical cancer screening coverage rate in them is still low at only 5%. Therefore, limitation of their knowledge should not be the cause. Authors did this study to examine all the causes remained after extensive health education given. Objective: To examine reasons why Thai women still do not have Pap smear after extensive health education was provided Method: We have examined reasons that might be the causes of Pap smear lack after periodically educating 200 women, aged 35-60 years-old, in an inner city community for at least twice within 1 year and asking the ones who still did not have Pap smear at 8-12 months for their reasons. Design: Interventional cohort by health education and descriptive study for their reasons of Pap smear lack Setting: Samliem inner city community, Khon Kaen, Thailand Result: At 8-12 months after extensive health education for at least twice, 63% (126/200) of educated women still did not have Pap smear. The reasons were as follows; busy (67.5%), embarrassment (32.5%) and no symptom (20.6%). Conclusion: Thai inner city women are too busy to have Pap smears. Embarrassment is the second reason. Screening-based cervical cancer prevention programme still needs other supporting strategies to build up an occasion for them.


Abstract: We present an Odonata (Insecta) check list of species occurring in a fragment of the Seasonal Deciduous Forest (Atlantic Forest biome) from the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), southern Brazil, along with a list of the odonate species recorded in this phytoecological region for the state. In addition, we provide comments on the seasonal distribution of the species occurring in the study area. Two streams and seven farm ponds located in the middle course of the Jacuí River basin were surveyed between December 2007 and February 2009. Overall, we recorded 49 species from 21 genera and six families. Argia serva Hagen in Selys, 1865 (Coenagrionidade) had its first occurrence record mentioned for the state, elevating to 183 the total number of Odonata species occurring in Rio Grande do Sul. The number of species recorded in the study area corresponds to ~26% of the known Odonata diversity in RS. Libellulidae was the most species-rich family (22 species, ~45% of the total), followed by Coenagrionidae (18 species, 37% of the total). The checklist for the Seasonal Deciduous Forest in RS indicated the occurrence of 83 species of Odonata in this phytoecological region (~45% of the known odonate species in the state). This elevated diversity could be related to the density of the vegetation structure. In the study area, 20 species were found in streams, and 45 in farm ponds. Species occurrence showed marked seasonal patterns in the study area, with 88% of the species recorded from summer to autumn, and no species detected in streams in the winter. Moreover, 70% of the species were recorded in either one or two seasons in farm ponds, while 65% occurred solely in one season in streams. This result indicates that the life cycle of Odonata in southern Brazil is strongly influenced by seasonal patterns in temperature.


A process discovery algorithm aims to construct a model from data generated by historical system executions such that the model describes the system well. Consequently, one desired property of a process discovery algorithm is rediscoverability, which ensures that the algorithm can construct a model that is behaviorally equivalent to the original system. A system often simultaneously executes multiple processes that interact through object manipulations. This paper presents a framework for developing process discovery algorithms for constructing models that describe interacting processes based on typed Jackson Nets that use identifiers to refer to the objects they manipulate. Typed Jackson Nets enjoy the reconstructability property which states that the composition of the processes and the interactions of a decomposed typed Jackson Net yields a model that is bisimilar to the original system. We exploit this property to demonstrate that if a process discovery algorithm ensures rediscoverability, the system of interacting processes is rediscoverable.


Microgrid (MG) is a promising approach to proliferate distributed energy resources for electrification in remote areas. Remote area MGs usually operate as standalone systems and are supplied by a combination of conventional fossil fuel-based generators, renewable energy resources and energy storage systems. Irrespective of all considerations at the planning and design stage, such MGs are always prone to the uncertainties of their demand variation and the generation of their non-dispatchable renewable sources. Such events can cause voltage or frequency violation in the MG. This thesis has focused on developing proper operational and control techniques for such MGs. First, an effective management technique has been proposed and developed that can retain the voltage and frequency of the MGs within a predefined desired region, at least cost, using a multilayer scheme. If a violation is detected, the proposed technique will aim to define the most optimal generation level of dispatchable sources, MG's best network configuration and engagement level of the supportive actions such as exchanging power with neighbouring MGs, utilising energy storages, demand response and renewable energy curtailment (if and when available). The technical, reliability and environmental aspects of the MG are considered within the proposed technique along with the operational cost. The determined optimal control variables will then be sent to the local controllers to apply proper arrangements in the system to retain the voltage or frequency within the desired range. On the other hand, some techniques are available in the literature that can predict the uncertainties of demand and renewable energy sources a few minutes ahead. Using such techniques, the voltage or frequency violation can also be predicted in short-horizon and prevented with the introduction of a suitable preventive controller. Hence, this thesis has then proposed and developed a look-ahead controller that uses the short-horizon prediction data of demand and renewable generation to determine any prospective voltage or frequency violation. Another alternative is temporarily coupling the adjacent MGs to support each other and form a system of coupled MGs. Thus, the thesis has then proposed and developed a suitable technique to form systems of coupled MGs while preserving the voltage and frequency of each MG and reassuring the optimal performance of all MGs. The proposed optimisation approach tries to solve the voltage or frequency problem by coupling the MGs when the local actions, such as energy storages, are inadequate or cost-ineffective. Another technique has also been proposed and developed that can readjust the dispatch of the suitable generation units, between the optimisations, to support small changes in load. To this end, the potential field concept is used by the loads to select suitable generation units to make the decision very quickly. The decision is made based on different criteria, such as cost, reliability, emission, and power loss. This process requires low computational efforts and can be done instantly. Besides, a periodic optimisation is performed by the MG's central controller to retune the whole system and reconfirm the optimal operation. The performance of the developed techniques has been demonstrated and validated through extensive numerical analyses in MATLAB®.


In this paper we present evidence on the impact of distance to school and school availability on households' decisions concerning primary age children's time allocation between work, schooling and household chores activities using data from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 1998-99 (GLSS) and the Guatemalan Living Standards Measurement Survey 2000 (ENCOVI). Overall, our results indicate that the increased and eased access to school has a well-defined impact on children's time use, with both similarities and striking dissimilarities between the chosen countries. In particular, in Ghana the availability and the travel distance to schools (both primary and middle) in the community influence children's work in both economic activities and household chores and children's school attendance. The longer the travel time to school the more difficult it is for children to reconcile work and school attendance. In Guatemala, secondary school access constraints have almost no effect on children's time allocation. In addition, reducing the cost of access to primary education has an effect only on children's school attendance but it reduces neither child work nor time spent in household chores. Our results are robust to control for the endogeneity of school location and per capita expenditures.


The indicator evaluation system is introduced to the study of rural public safety planning in this article. By researching the current rural public safety planning and environmental carrying capacity, we select some carrying capacity indicators influencing the rural public safety, such as land, population, ecological environment, water resources, infrastructure, economy and society, to establish the environmental carrying capacity indicator system. We standardize the indicators, use gray correlation analysis method to determine the weight of indicators, and make DEA evaluation of the indicator system, to obtain the evaluation results as the basis for decision making in rural safety planning, and provide scientific and quantified technical support for rural public safety planning.


: Esophageal stricture resulting from gastroesophageal reflux is common among children in Ecuador. The sequence of events is vomiting, recurrent pneumonia, failure to thrive and stricture with resulting malnutrition. The diagnosis is confirmed by barium meal and esophagoscopy. The age of the affected population ranges from one month to 12 years. In the past, surgical treatment included esophageal replacement but the most appropriate current treatment is Nissen fundoplication to restore the gastroesophageal sphincter function.


Corporatist regulation has a hybrid structure in that it covers state regulation, regulated self-regulation as well as private-public co-regulation. Notably diverging from the standard mode of state regulation, such arrangements required a higher degree of legitimation. Corporatist concepts flourished in the Weimar Republic. This paper deals with three legal scholars' considerations regarding how to legitimize corporatist models, namely Edgar Tatarin-Tarnheyden, Heinrich Herrfahrdt, and Friedrich Glum. Their institutional touchstone was the Imperial Economic Council, as provided for by article 165 of the Weimar Constitution. This article envisioned a multi-level system of economic councils ranging from regional economic councils up to the Imperial Economic Council and involving representatives of all occupational groups in the performance of state tasks. However, only a Provisional Imperial Economic Council, with a restricted consultative remit, was ever actually established. Based on this model, Tatarin-Tarnheyden, Heinrich Herrfahrdt, and Friedrich Glum conceptualized organizational structures aiming at the comprehensive inclusion of non-state actors. They were legitimized primarily with reference to their output; that is, these organizational forms were supposed to enable a more appropriate and efficient realization of public interests. The input-based argument was basically a question of participation, which implies considerable proximity to typical topoi of democratic legitimation. This similarity is perhaps counter-intuitive, given that corporatist concepts are traditionally associated with anti-democratic ideologies due to their anti-parliamentarian slant. The numerous points of convergence between corporatist and democratic thought simultaneously reflect the heterogeneity of democratic reasoning in the Weimar period and the openness for ideas that were sceptical of—or even hostile to—parliamentary democracy and the party-based state.


Paternalism is a policy that advances an individual's interests by restricting his or her freedom. In a setting with present-biased agents, I characterize the scope of private paternalism—paternalism implemented by private institutions. Private paternalism arises from two channels: (i) agents who seek commitment because they hold sophisticated beliefs about their present bias, and (ii) agents (naive or sophisticated) who use model-free forecasts to choose organizations that have a history of generating high experienced utility flows for their members (O'Donoghue and Rabin 1999b). When naive consumers are common, private paternalism will be shrouded, explaining why commitment mechanisms are typically shrouded in the labor market (the commitment puzzle). Private paternalism has greater traction when production occurs in the formal sector instead of the informal (household) sector, where monitors are not always present, able, or willing to implement socially efficient forcing mechanisms.


The texture evolution of an as-extruded ZK60 Mg alloy with different tensile strains has been determined by X-ray diffraction technique. As strain increases, {0002} basal plane of most grains gradually inclines to the tensile direction, which is more pronounced for TD sample. This firmly suggests that the mechanical anisotropy and the difference of deformation modes between ED and TD samples are not only caused by initial basal texture, but also by the developed texture during the tensile test.