ABSTRACTIn this study, a causal analysis of the airport turnaround processes is presented, which is a key factor to enhance the air traffic management reliability. Cause–effect relationship analysis demands for a knowledge representation technique that considers the stochastic, dynamic and synchronous nature of the turnaround process, and allows representing both the structure and the different ways in which the sub-processes can be influenced. In this work an exhaustive timed evaluation of the different perturbations that can affect the turnaround time due to precedence task interdependencies is presented. This analysis is used to illustrate the complexity of the turnaround process at operational level (e.g. dynamic critical paths) and to provide a comprehensive turnaround behaviour analysis by taking advantage of causal methods and simulation models as a useful tool to improve turnaround reliability by a better understanding of the impact of induced delays on the full turnaround process.


Multivariate curve resolution via alternating least squares (ALS) is used to resolve the concentration profiles C and the pure component spectra E of S species from the multivariate absorbance data A, assuming the bilinear model A = C E. Due to the possible permutations of profiles and the presence of intensity and rotational ambiguities, soft constraints such as nonnegativity of C and C as well as unimodality, monotonicity, closure, and local rank selectivity of C are typically used to obtain tighter solution bounds for C and E [1]. In addition, hard constraints in the form of kinetic models are also often used. Unfortunately, these models are subject to structural plant-model mismatch and parametric uncertainty, which weakens their impact. As an alternative, this paper proposes to use constraints based on variant states called extents. The computation of these extents does not require any information on the rate processes, that is, x(t) = T n(t), with x(t) and n(t) the vectors of extents and numbers of moles at time t, respectively, and T a matrix known from the reaction stoichiometry, the inlet composition and the initial conditions [2]. Expressing the S concentrations in terms of d extents and q = S - d invariants reduces the dimensionality of the problem from S to d. Each column of the extent matrix X describes the extent of a single rate process, for example of a reaction or an inlet flow. It turns out that the unknown concentration matrix C can be expressed in terms of the lower-dimensional matrix X as C = V -1 X T -T, where V is a diagonal matrix containing the volume profile. Since each column of X describes a single rate process, additional constraints can be enforced on X such as monotonicity and convexity/concavity [3]. Furthermore, the q invariant relationships can be used as constraints in the least-squares problem. As a consequence, the use of extents in ALS reduces the ambiguity between C and E, yielding faster convergence and tighter solutions. The use of extent-based constraints also opens up new perspectives for hard-soft ALS methods, since hard kinetic models can be identified individually (that is independently of the other rates) for some selected processes, while soft extent-based constraints are used for the unknown processes. Another feature involves the possibility of initializing or constraining the ALS scheme with a concentration submatrix (of dimension at least S × S) estimated from multiple experiments performed under well-designed conditions and local-rank information. Together with the corresponding absorbance data, this submatrix can efficiently replace the traditional initialization via factor analysis and be used to compute a better initial estimate of E. After a brief review of the mathematical properties of extents for batch and open reactors, this talk will present the modified ALS scheme and illustrate it via simulated examples. References: [1] A. de Juan, J. Jaumot, R. Tauler, Anal. Methods 6, 4964 (2014). [2] D. Rodrigues, S. Srinivasan, J. Billeter, D. Bonvin, Comp. Chem. Eng. 73, 23 (2015) [3] S. Srinivasan, D.M.D. Kumar, J. Billeter, S. Narasimhan, D. Bonvin, IFAC Symposium DYCOPS (2016)


Windrow composting of livestock manure materials provides a strategy for converting organic wastes into a recyclable soil fertility product that is less hazardous to the environment. Although outdoor windrow composting can produce runoff that is detrimental to surface water quality, vegetative filter strip (VFS) buffers were reported to significantly reduce runoff and contaminants from a windrow composting research site. To estimate the efficacy of VFS buffers and other best management practices on runoff from future windrow composting facilities, a computer hydrologic model may provide a valuable tool for predicting runoff losses from these proposed sites. This research evaluated a windrow composting/vegetative filter strip buffer (WCVFS) hydrologic model for estimating runoff volume losses from a livestock manure-based windrow composting site with a fly ash composting pad surface and VFS buffers. Runoff and physical attribute data from six rainfall events during 2002 to 2004 at a central Iowa windrow composting research site were used in the WCVFS model evaluation. Three rainfall events were designated as "wet" composting period events (2002 and 2003 seasons), and three were designated as "dry" composting period events (2004 season). Runoff data were comprised of average observed runoff volumes from three compost windrow area:VFS buffer area ratio treatments that included 1:1, 1:0.5 (large and small VFS buffer areas, respectively), and a 1:0 (no buffer) control. The WCVFS model performance was good to very good for the 2003 wet composting period model validation rainfall event with no significant differences among 1:1, 1:0.5, and 1:0 ratio treatments for simulated versus observed runoff volumes. In contrast, WCVFS model performance was unsatisfactory for the 2004 dry composting period validation event with significantly higher simulated runoff volume from the 1:0.5 ratio treatment versus observed runoff volumes. There were no significant differences for the 1:1 and 1:0 treatments. The WCVFS model effectively estimated 1:1, 1:0.5, and 1:0 treatment runoff volumes from the earlier wet composting period and 1:1 and 1:0 treatment runoff volumes from the later dry composting period rainfall events. However, the soils data-derived VFS buffer runoff and infiltration functions in the WCVFS model flow routing component may not have sufficiently accounted for some short-term hydrologic changes in VFS buffer soil and fly ash pad surfaces. This could have resulted in overestimation of dry composting period simulated runoff volume from the smaller 1:0.5 ratio VFS buffer area treatment. Consequently, the use of other alternatives to soils data-derived VFS buffer runoff and infiltration functions should be evaluated in future WCVFS model simulation trials to potentially improve runoff volume prediction accuracy.


First chapter of this thesis finds a new consumption growth predictor linked to macroeconomic fundamentals: the technology gap, the dierence between potential and actual productivity of capital. I construct a representative firm business cycle model, in which the technology gap generates specic patterns of short- and long-run consumption growth, and consumption growth volatility. Intuitively, a high technology gap acts as an economic shock that increases consumption in the long term due to a higher future productivitylevel. I use quality-adjusted price indices of durable investment goods to create a proxy for the technology gap. Consistent with the model, I find empirical evidence that a high technology gap predicts: (i) strong consumption growth at longer horizons, (ii) high consumption growth volatility, and (iii) high risk-free rate.Second chapter demonstrates the relationship between research and development expenditure, and firm productivity. I construct a model which implies that firm-level R&D optimal policy should be dependent on ex-ante productivity. Firms ex-ante further from the frontier optimally invest more in R&D. Ex-post productivity depends on the amount of R&D investment and the match between new technology and existing production factors. Firms investing more in R&D are ex-post on average closer to the frontier, controllingfor theoretically motivated endogeneity. I present empirical evidence supporting the model. Using data envelopment, I construct a measure of firm-level distance from industry-wide productivity frontier. On average, a 1% larger distance from the frontier causes a 0.5% increase in R&D intensity next quarter. R&D activity in turn predicts high stock return volatility. Third chapter tests the existing durable consumption-based asset pricing model of Yogo (2006). Consumption risk is measured by the covariance between asset returns and future durable consumption growth, rather than contemporaneous growth, as in the original model. I present empirical evidence that excess returns on Fama-French portfolios are correlated more with future than contemporaneous durable consumption growth. I transform the original Euler equations of the model to use information aboutthe future consumption growth. As its correlation with returns is higher, the estimate of risk aversion from the model decreases substantially compared with Yogo (2006). I also find that the altered consumption risk measure increases the explanatory power of themodel. I approximate the original model and show that it can be estimated in the simple OLS framework. Cross-sectional R square is highest when the consumption growth is sampled over six to eight quarters ahead. This result is robust to dierent sets of test assets.


How worker productivity evolves with tenure and experience is central to economics, shaping, for example, life-cycle earnings and the losses from involuntary job separation. Yet, worker-level productivity is hard to identify from observational data. This paper introduces direct measurement of worker productivity in a firm survey designed to separate the role of on-the-job tenure from total experience in determining productivity growth. A key innovation is to elicit what managers know about the productivity of their workers. Several findings emerge concerning the initial period on the job. (1) On-the-job productivity growth exceeds wage growth, consistent with wages not being allocative period-by-period. (2) Previous experience is a substitute, but a far less than perfect one, for on-the-job tenure. (3) There is substantial heterogeneity across jobs in the extent to which previous experience substitutes for tenure. The survey makes use of administrative data to construct a representative sample of firms, check for selective non-response, validate survey measures with administrative measures, and calibrate parameters not measured in the survey.


By using the space-resolved spectrograph, the K-shell emission from laser-produced plasma was investigated. Electron density profiles along the normal direction of the target surface in aluminum laser-plasmas were obtained by two different diagnostic methods and compared with the profiles from the theoretical simulation of hydrodynamics code MULTI1D. The results corroborate the feasibility to obtain the electron density above the critical surface by the diagnostic method based on the Stark-broadened wings in the intermediately coupled plasmas.


Effective capacity (EC) defines the maximum communication rate subject to a specific delay constraint, while effective energy efficiency (EEE) indicates the ratio between EC and power consumption. We analyze the EEE of ultrareliable networks operating in the finite-blocklength regime. We obtain a closed-form approximation for the EEE in quasistatic Nakagami- $m$ (and Rayleigh as subcase) fading channels as a function of power, error probability, and latency. Furthermore, we characterize the quality-of-service constrained EEE maximization problem for different power consumption models, which shows a significant difference between finite and infinite-blocklength coding with respect to EEE and optimal power allocation strategy. As asserted in the literature, achieving ultrareliability using one transmission consumes a huge amount of power, which is not applicable for energy limited Internet-of-Things devices. In this context, accounting for empty buffer probability in machine-type communication (MTC) and extending the maximum delay tolerance jointly enhances the EEE and allows for adaptive retransmission of faulty packets. Our analysis reveals that obtaining the optimum error probability for each transmission by minimizing the nonempty buffer probability approaches EEE optimality, while being analytically tractable via Dinkelbach's algorithm. Furthermore, the results illustrate the power saving and the significant EEE gain attained by applying adaptive retransmission protocols, while sacrificing a limited increase in latency.


ABSTRACT
 The introduction of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) in the United States has been associated with declines in abundance of resident mosquito species, presumably because of resource competition, as larvae of Ae. albopictus have been illustrated as superior competitors under certain resource conditions. We evaluated the hypothesis that varying the type and ratio of two food resources (Foxtail grass: American elm) alters the competitive outcome of Ae. albopictus and Culex pipiens (L.). We measured survivorship, development time, size, and adult longevity, and estimated the population growth index (&lgr;′) of populations raised both alone and in equal number with the interspecific competitor, across five ratios of the two food resources. Competition was asymmetric with Ae. albopictus, the superior competitor across all resource treatments; however, the competitive advantage Ae. albopictus had over Cx. pipiens was reduced as grass became the predominant resource. With elm as the predominant resource, the population growth index (&lgr;′) for both Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens was lower in intraspecific and interspecific competition treatments, respectively. The treatments also impacted adult life history, as life spans of both Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens varied when they emerged from larval conditions with different resource and competition treatments. We discuss the possible differences in the two species' efficiencies in exploiting the two resource types. Despite some resource conditions alleviating the competitive effects of Ae. albopictus on Cx. pipiens, competition remained asymmetric; thus, additional mechanisms are likely operating under field conditions when the two species coexist.


BACKGROUND
Reviewing the literature on vertebral artery flow during cervical rotation shows various results. Furthermore, most studies have investigated exclusively the effects of contralateral rotation employing less-than-optimal Doppler ultrasound technique.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to use the latest advancement in Doppler ultrasound technology to investigate flow velocity in the vertebral artery during both ipsilateral and contralateral cervical rotation in normal subjects.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A prospective, controlled study in a university hospital vascular laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty healthy university students.

RESULTS
Peak flow velocity decreased significantly during contralateral rotation and increased significantly during ipsilateral rotation. The differences, however, were modest. We found no correlation between peak flow velocity and systolic blood pressure.

CONCLUSION
With modern Doppler ultrasound technique, preventing some sources of error in measuring, our finding during contralateral rotation were in accordance with most previous studies showing a decrease in peak flow velocity. For the first time, however, we report an increased flow velocity in the vertebral artery during ipsilateral rotation.


As consumers are increasingly engaged in social networking and E-commerce activities, businesses grow to rely on Big Data analytics for intelligence, and traditional IT infrastructures continue to migrate to the cloud and edge, these trends cause distributed data storage demand to rise at an unprecedented speed. Erasure coding has seen itself quickly emerged as a promising technique to reduce storage cost while providing similar reliability as replicated systems, widely adopted by companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Google. However, it also brings new challenges in characterizing and optimizing the access latency when erasure codes are used in distributed storage. The aim of this monograph is to provide a review of recent progress (both theoretical and practical) on systems that employ erasure codes for distributed storage.
In this monograph, we will first identify the key challenges and taxonomy of the research problems and then give an overview of different approaches that have been developed to quantify and model latency of erasure-coded storage. This includes recent work leveraging MDS-Reservation, Fork-Join, Probabilistic, and Delayed-Relaunch scheduling policies, as well as their applications to characterize access latency (e.g., mean, tail, asymptotic latency) of erasure-coded distributed storage systems. We will also extend the problem to the case when users are streaming videos from erasure-coded distributed storage systems. Next, we bridge the gap between theory and practice, and discuss lessons learned from prototype implementation. In particular, we will discuss exemplary implementations of erasure-coded storage, illuminate key design degrees of freedom and tradeoffs, and summarize remaining challenges in real-world storage systems such as in content delivery and caching. Open problems for future research are discussed at the end of each chapter.


Abstract. Shallow coastal waters in many regions are subject to nutrient enrichment.
Microphytobenthos (MPB) can account for much of the carbon (C) fixation in
these environments, depending on the depth of the water column, but the
effect of enhanced nutrient availability on the processing and fate of
MPB-derived C (MPB-C) is relatively unknown. In this study, MPB was labeled
(stable isotope enrichment) in situ using 13 C-sodium bicarbonate. The
processing and fate of the newly fixed MPB-C was then traced using ex situ
incubations over 3.5 days under different concentrations of nutrients
(NH 4 + and PO 4 3 - : ambient, 2 × ambient, 5 ×
ambient, and 10 × ambient). After 3.5 days, sediments incubated with
increased nutrient concentrations (amended treatments) had increased loss of
 13 C from sediment organic matter (OM) as a
portion of initial uptake (95 % remaining in ambient vs. 79–93 % for
amended treatments) and less 13 C in MPB (52 % ambient, 26–49 %
amended), most likely reflecting increased turnover of MPB-derived C
supporting increased production of extracellular enzymes and storage
products. Loss of MPB-derived C to the water column via dissolved organic C
(DOC) was minimal regardless of treatment (0.4–0.6 %). Loss due to
respiration was more substantial, with effluxes of dissolved inorganic C
(DIC) increasing with additional nutrient availability (4 % ambient,
6.6–19.8 % amended). These shifts resulted in a decreased turnover time
for algal C (419 days ambient, 134–199 days amended). This suggests that
nutrient enrichment of estuaries may ultimately lead to decreased retention
of carbon within MPB-dominated sediments.


Research was conducted onboard a Gulfstream G-V aircraft to evaluate integrated Synthetic Vision System concepts during flight tests over a 6-week period at the Wallops Flight Facility and Reno/Tahoe International Airport. The NASA Synthetic Vision System incorporates database integrity monitoring, runway incursion prevention alerting, surface maps, enhanced vision sensors, and advanced pathway guidance and synthetic terrain presentation. The paper details the goals and objectives of the flight test with a focus on the situation awareness benefits of integrating synthetic vision system enabling technologies for commercial aircraft.


Objectives : To assess the efficacy of pro biotic in 1) the probiotic effect in enhancing immune responce 2) prevention of constipation in critically ill patient. Design : A single centre, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled tudy that was conducted in the Intensive Care Unit, Universitiy Malaya Medical Centre between Jun 2016 to December 2016. A total of 36 patients who required mechanical ventilation and enteral nutritional feeding for atleast 3 days were randomised into two group : the intenvention group who received Hexbio, a probiotic preparation or the control group who received placebo. The patient were monitored for 5 consecutive days. Blood sample taken on 1,3,5 days of intervention,min reflo reading with total usage of intravenous insulin, timing for first bowel movement, stool frequency and consistency were recorded using King's stool chart. Result: Primary outcome : Serum analysis for IL-6, IL-10 and hemeoxygenase still in progress. Therefore unable to modulate the outcomes. Secondary outcomes: The intervention group showed shorter time for first bowel opening of 3.2 days compared with 4.6 days in placebo group (p=0.03). It is also showed higher mean frequency 3.75 times perday compared with 0.35 times perday ( p=0.09). Beside that, they also presented with lower gastric aspirates with p value 0.0003. Other parameter showed indirect beneficial effect of probiotic in reducing morbidity in critically ill by reduce lenght of ICU stay, reduce number of days required ventilator support and better min blood sugar level. Conclusion : Probiotics could reduce inflammation in critically ill-patients and might be considered as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment if critically ill-patients as it help in reduce morbidity . Probiotics also have beneficial effect in preventing contipations as statiscally showed significant difference in first bowel opening and reduced mean gastric contents daily. Other that that, probitotic promote antioxidant effect which suqsequently help in ontrollinu blood sugar level in critical ill patients.


Arsenic (As) is the one the most toxic element present in earth which poses a serious threat to the environment and human health. Arsenic contamination of drinking water in South and Southeast Asia reported one of the most threatening problems that causes serious health hazard of millions of people of India and Bangladesh. Further, use of arsenic contaminated ground water for irrigation purpose causes entry of arsenic in food crops, especially in Rice and other vegetable crops. Currently various chemical technologies utilized for As removal from contaminated water like adsorption and co-precipitation using salts, activated charcoal, ion exchange, membrane filtration etc. are very costly and cannot be used for large scale for drinking and agriculture use. In contrast, phytoremediation utilizes green plats to remove pollutants from contaminated water using various mechanisms such as rhizofiltration, phytoextraction, phytostabilization, phytodegrartion and phytovolatilization. A large numbers of terrestrial and aquatic weed flora have been identified so far having hyper metal, metalloid and organic pollutant removal capacity. Among the terrestrial weed flora Arundo donax, Typha latifolia, Typha angustifolia, Vetivaria zizinoids etc. are the hyper As accumulator. Similarly Eicchornea crassipes (Water hyacinth), Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), Lemna minor (duck weed), Hyrdilla verticillata, Ceratophyllum demersum, Spirodella polyrhiza, Azola, Wolfia spp., etc. are also capable to extract higher amount of arsenic from contaminated water. These weed flora having As tolerance mechanism in their system and thus remediate As contaminated water vis-à-vis continue their life cycle. In this chapter we will discuss about As extraction potential of various aquatic and semi aquatic weeds from contaminated water, their tolerance mechanism, future scope and their application in future world mitigating As contamination in water resources.


OF DISSERTATION PRECLINICAL TARGETING OF TREM2 FOR THE TREATMENT OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE-TYPE PATHOLOGY IN A TRANSGENIC MOUSE MODEL Alzheimer's disease (AD) is defined as a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and is characterized by a devastating mental decline. There are three pathological hallmarks of the disease necessary for its diagnosis, these are extracellular amyloid plaques comprised of beta-amyloid (Ab) protein, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles comprised of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, and marked neuronal loss. Active immunization against Ab1-42 or passive immunization with monoclonal anti-Ab antibodies has been shown to reduce amyloid deposition and improve cognition in transgenic mouse models of AD, aged beagles, and nonhuman primates. Unfortunately, due to cerebrovascular adverse events, both active and passive immunization strategies targeting Ab have failed in clinical trials. It is, therefore, necessary to identify novel amyloid-clearing therapeutics that do not induce cerebrovascular adverse events. We hypothesized that neuroinflammatory modulation could be a potential novel target. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) is a lipid and lipoprotein binding receptor expressed exclusively in the brain by microglia. Homozygous TREM2 loss of function mutations cause early-onset progressive presenile dementia while heterozygous, function-reducing point mutations triple the risk of sporadic, late-onset AD. Heterozygous TREM2 point mutations, which reduce either ligand binding or cell surface expression, are associated with a reduction in the number of microglia surrounding amyloid plaques, microglial inability to phagocytose compact Ab deposits and form a barrier between plaques and neurons, an increase in the number of phosphotau-positive dystrophic neurites and increased tau in the cerebrospinal fluid. Heterozygous mutations also double the rate of brain atrophy and decrease the age of AD onset by 3-6 years. Although human genetics support the notion that loss of TREM2 function exacerbates neurodegeneration, it is unclear whether activation of TREM2 in a disease state is beneficial. The work we present here characterizes a TREM2 agonizing antibody as a potential therapeutic for amyloid reduction. We found that its administration results in immune modulation, recruitment of microglia to the site of amyloid plaques, reduced amyloid deposition and improvement in spatial learning and novel object recognition memory in the 5xFAD model of AD. More specifically, we show that intracranial injection of TREM2 agonizing antibodies into the frontal cortex and hippocampus of 5xFAD mice leads to clearance of diffuse and compact amyloid. We also show that systemic injection of TREM2 agonizing antibodies weekly over a period of 14 weeks results in clearance of diffuse and compact amyloid as well as elevated plasma concentrations of Ab1-40 and Ab1-42. Furthermore, systemic administration of these antibodies led to immune modulation and enhanced cognitive performance on radial arm water maze and novel object recognition tests. Importantly, we show the TREM2 agonizing antibody does not induce the adverse cerebrovascular events known to accompany amyloid modifying therapies. Though systemic administration of both TREM2 agonizing and anti-Ab antibodies does not further enhance amyloid clearance or cognitive performance, co-administration mitigates the adverse cerebrovascular events associated with anti-Ab antibodies. Collectively, these data indicate TREM2 activators may be an effective therapeutic target for the treatment of AD.


Classic studies of a few extreme, almost pathological cases of rigidity in political leaders (e.g., Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations debacle) have tended to obscure the fact that virtually all leaders alternate between periods of pragmatic flexibility and rigid intransi gence in the face of political opposition or unpleasant facts. This study develops a general theoretical framework for explaining rigidity and flexibility in political leaders by extending insights from classic studies of extreme cases to everyday policymaking and by integrating these findings with more recent theoretical and empirical work in political psychology. The plausibility of hypotheses derived from this framework is investigated by examining the conditions associated with pragmatism and rigidity in 15 cases from the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The results are generally consistent with the proposed model, which stresses person-situation interaction and traces rigidity to the arousal of leaders' sources of self-validation in a particular policy context. I conclude by evaluating the implications of this new framework for other areas of theory and research.


We study fairness of resource allocation in multirate, multicast networks. In multirate networks, different receivers of the same multicast session can receive service at different rates. We develop a mathematical framework to model the maxmin fair allocation of bandwidth with minimum and maximum rate con- straints. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for a rate allocation to be maxmin fair in a multirate, multicast network. We propose a distributed algorithm for computing the maxmin fair rates allocated to various source-destination pairs. This algorithm has a low message exchange overhead, and is guaranteed to con- verge to the maxmin fair rates in finite time. Index Terms—Algorithms, complexity theory, fairness, multi- cast.


Background: We considered a problem of inference in epidemiology when cumulative exposure is the true dose metric for disease, but investigators are only able to measure its duration on each subject. Methods: We undertook theoretical analysis of the problem in the context of a continuous response caused by cumulative exposure, when duration and intensity of exposure follow log-normal distributions, such that analysis by linear regression is natural. We present a Bayesian method to adjust duration-only analysis to incorporate partial knowledge about the relationship between duration and intensity of exposure and illustrate this method in the context of association of smoking and lung function. Results: We derive equations that (a) describe under what circumstances bias arises when duration of exposure is used as a proxy of cumulative exposure, (b) quantify the degree of such bias and loss of precision, and (c) describe how knowledge about relationship of duration and intensity of exposure can be used to recover an estimate of the effect of cumulative exposure when only duration was observed on every subject. Conclusions: Under our assumptions, when duration and intensity of exposure are either independent or positively correlated, we can be more confident in qualitatively interpreting the direction of effects that arise from use of duration of exposure per se. We can use external information on the relationship between duration and intensity of exposure (namely: correlation and variance of intensity), even if intensity of exposure is not available at the individual level, to make reliable inferences about the magnitude of effect of cumulative exposure on the outcome.


Although the effects of magnetic reconnection in magnetospheres can be observed at planetary scales, reconnection is initiated at electron scales in a plasma. Surrounding the electron diffusion region, there is an Ion‐Decoupling Region (IDR) of the size of the ion length scales (inertial length and gyroradius). Reconnection at the Earth's magnetopause often includes cold magnetospheric (few tens of eV), hot magnetospheric (10 keV), and magnetosheath (1 keV) ions, with different gyroradius length scales. We report observations of a subregion inside the IDR of the size of the cold ion population gyroradius (∼15 km) where the cold ions are demagnetized and accelerated parallel to the Hall electric field. Outside the subregion, cold ions follow the E × B motion together with electrons, while hot ions are demagnetized. We observe a sharp cold ion density gradient separating the two regions, which we identify as the cold and hot IDRs.


Current interactive services for digital TV are limited. They basically display a Web page alongside the TV program, which enhances the viewer's experience by providing extra information about the TV program. We define new interactive services for digital TV, which provide DVD-like interactivity to TV viewers. These services enable viewers to control the content and final presentation of a TV program. Some of the attractive applications of our services include parental management, multilingual audio, multiangle video, video in video, etc. The challenge in implementing these services is in transmitting an extra audio or video stream (called incidental) along with the main streams of the TV program. In the first part of this paper, we present a framework for adding the incidental streams to the original transmission stream without increasing the required bandwidth, degrading the picture quality of the main streams, or violating the compatibility of the transmitted stream with standard TV receivers. In the second part of this paper, we explore the two basic mechanisms of the presented framework: traffic characterization and admission control. We present methods for implementing these mechanisms. Using our methods, one can determine whether a TV transmission network has the capability of sending an incidental stream or not. Simulations were conducted to test the validity of our method. The results verify that our method successfully transmits the incidental streams without any discrepancy and without affecting the quality of the main streams


This paper analyzes S. Weir Mitchell and his son John Kearsley Mitchell's views on phantom limb pain in late 19th c. America. Drawing on a variety of primary sources including journal articles, letters, and treatises, the paper pioneers analysis of a cache of surveys sent out by the Mitchells that contain amputee Civil War veterans' own narratives of phantom limb pain. The paper utilizes an approach drawn from the history of ideas, documenting how changing models of medicine and objectivity help explain the Mitchells's attitudes, practices, and beliefs regarding the enigma of phantom limb pain as experienced by their patients. The paper also assesses concerns over malingering, pain, authenticity, and deception through these intellectual frameworks of somaticism and mechanical objectivity. The paper concludes that much of relevance to the ways in which the Mitchells and other late 19th c. neurologists regarded and treated their patients' pain is explicable in terms of the larger intellectual frameworks that structured these healers' ideas about lesionless pain.


For the original paper see ibid., vol. 42, no. 10, p. 1896-1903 (1994). Here the commenters aim to provide another reason in addition to those given in Section II of the aforementioned paper in response to the rhetorical question, "Which mode-matching equations are linearly independent?" When the mode-matching method is used to obtain the generalized scattering matrix of a discontinuity between two waveguides of different cross sections, it is essential to make an adequate choice of the eigenfunctions, which will be used to test the continuity equations of the tangential components of the electromagnetic field in the plane of the discontinuity. It is known that the testing eigenmodes are chosen as being those of the larger guide for enforcing the electric-field continuity and as those of the smaller guide for enforcing the magnetic-field continuity. This means that the electric-field test eigenmodes must be chosen from the smaller guide and the magnetic-field test eigenmodes must be chosen from the larger guide. In the original paper, the authors prove this, first qualitatively and then rigorously. Now the commenters would like to add their reason which lends further support to the point-of-view presented in the paper. In reply the authors disagree with the last sentence of the comments of Solano et al., i.e., that testing the continuity of the tangential magnetic field by the M modes of the larger guide would result in a wrong formulation if the testing cross section is the smaller one. In order to clarify the whole situation, the authors present a table of all possible testing equations.


Adrenarche in humans occurs at the age of 5-7 years, yet the process by which dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) biosynthesis in the adrenal zona reticularis (ZR) increases so dramatically remains as a matter of debate. One suggestion is that increased DHEA production by P450c17 (CYP17A1 as listed in HUGO Database) in the ZR results from a coincident fall in the expression of HSD3B, which would otherwise compete for pregnenolone substrate. Nonetheless, studies of human and rhesus adrenal show that cytochrome b5 (CYTB5) expression increases in the ZR with DHEA biosynthesis, and cloned human and rhesus P450c17 show selective increases in 17,20-lyase activity in the presence of CYTB5. The marmoset, a New World primate, expresses a fetal zone during development which regresses after birth. Adult males, however, do not develop an obvious functional ZR, while females develop a ZR in a manner that depends on their social/gonadal status. In all social and physiologic states, changes in marmoset ZR function relate directly to changes in the expression of CYTB5. Recent cloning and expression of marmoset P450c17 also show that while amino acid sequence homology is in the order of approximately 85% of that found in human and rhesus sequences, and basal lyase activity is low compared with rhesus, all previously described amino acids critical to human 17,20-lyase activity are completely conserved. Furthermore, the 17,20-lyase activity of the marmoset P450c17 clone is dramatically increased by addition of CYTB5. We propose that these combined data from the marmoset model provide further compelling evidence that the control of ZR CYTB5 expression is a key determinant of ZR function.


In this study we compare the quality and information content of risk neutral densities obtained by various methods. We consider a non-parametric method based on a mixture of log-normal densities, the semi-parametric ones based on an Hermite approximation of Madan and Milne, or based on an Edgeworth expansion of Jarrow and Rudd, the parametric approach of Malz which assumes a jump-diffusion for the underlying process, and eventually Heston's approach assuming a stochastic volatility model. We apply those models on FRF/DEM exchange rate options for two dates, for various maturities. Models differ when important news hit the market (here the 1997 snap elections). The non-parametric model provides a good fit to options prices but is unable under critical circumstances to provide as much information about market participants expectations than Malz's jump-diffusion model.


Our aim was to evaluate the capacity of polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) to selectively deliver an antituberculosis drug (rifampicin; RF) to alveolar macrophages. Anionic biodegradable copolymer sodium alginate-g-allylamine-mannose (SA-g-AA-M) was synthesized by atom transfer free radical polymerization and direct coupling of the respective conjugates. The fabrication of RF-loaded Zn2+ ion-cross-linked SA-g-AA-M PNPs was conducted by an O/W emulsion method followed by ionotropic gelation. The structural nature of the RF-loaded SA-g-AA-M PNPs was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Meanwhile, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to illustrate the shape and morphology of the nanoparticles. The PNPs were observed as uniform spheres in the nanometer range (<300 nm), with a low polydispersity index, and excellent performance in terms of drug encapsulation and release ability. The PNPs also showed strong antimicrobial activities against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cytotoxicity evaluation in VERO cells by an MTT assay suggested that the PNPs have good biocompatibility. Alveolar macrophage targeting was evaluated via cellular uptake by A549 cells. The cellular uptake results revealed that the Zn2+ concentration of the PNPs increases the intracellular concentration of RF and enhances its antitubercular efficiency. Overall, the results suggest that PNPs could lead to the development of a possible mannose-containing carrier for a macrophage-targeting drug delivery system.


Eggs from the small, intestinal pig whipworm Trichuris suis constitute the active pharmaceutical ingredient in a novel type of medicine for chronic autoimmune diseases like Crohn's disease. The pharmaceutical potency of such an egg suspension can be assessed by microscopic inspection, as only eggs containing a viable, infective larva provoke the wanted immune reaction. Thus, a precise and objective estimate of the concentration of infective eggs is crucial for dosing the new medicine. In this paper, a vision-based method for detecting and classifying T. suis parasite eggs is described. The detection is based on matched filters and the classification is done using linear and quadratic discriminant analysis on a set of biologically inspired features, including the autocorrelation-based longitudinal anisotropy and the mean scattering intensity under dark field illumination. Despite the presence of impurities and overlapping eggs, the proposed method achieves cross-validated classification rates around 93%.


This study aims to investigate potential B2B customer segments in Umea concerning company-wellness and rehabilitation services. We will investigate the market, identify a prospect target market and evaluate this target market on commission from Svenska-Re. The company Svenska-Re offers a service where customers travel to Gran Canaria, Spain, for a three week rehabilitation program. They offer various programs and are specialized in work-related injuries. By evaluating the target market we will investigate if there is an interest and need of the services provided by Svenska-Re in Umea.


Nitric oxide (NO) alters chondrocyte metabolism, and is thought to be a key catabolic mediator in osteoarthritis. NO is also an important modifier of bone metabolism, and may partially mediate the bone-sparing effects of oestrogen. Oestrogen has also been linked to the modulation of osteoarthritis, though its role is not clear. The aim of this study was to examine the structural and metabolic effects of ovariectomy and the NO donor glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) on (1) normal ovine femoro-tibial joint tissues, and (2) the progression of joint lesions in the established ovine meniscectomy model of osteoarthritis.

Preliminary investigations tested a novel computer-assisted histomorphometric method of assessing osteochondral changes post-meniscectomy, in a trial of a putative disease-modifying osteoarthritis compound. Quantitative assessment revealed a subtle protective effect not evident by qualitative methods. These techniques were then used to test the experimental hypotheses in a combined trial involving 48 aged ewes, variously subjected to ovariectomy, bilateral lateral meniscectomy, and/or topical GTN therapy. At six months, joint tissues were analysed using histology, histomorphometry, dynamic biomechanical testing, serum markers, bone densitometry, and tissue culture of synovial fibroblasts and explants of cartilage and bone. Ovariectomy modified cartilage structure and chondrocyte metabolism, and induced subchondral bone remodelling. Prior ovariectomy altered the development of OA lesions post-meniscectomy, producing thicker but biomechanically inferior cartilage and elevated metabolic activity in subchondral bone. GTN treatment of normal sheep induced thinner, structurally-altered cartilage in normal sheep, and accentuated cartilage and subchondral bone lesions post-meniscectomy. These results support an important homeostatic role for oestrogen in joint tissues, and show that GTN, a commonly used angina therapy, can induce structural alterations in joint tissues and potentially accelerate the progression of concurrent OA. Results also advance understanding of the role of synovial and subchondral bone changes in the pathogenesis of this OA model.


A lateral version of the insulated gate transistor [1] (LIGT), with anode, cathode, and gate terminals accessible at the top of the silicon wafer is very promising for use in monolithic power IC's due to its process compatibility with low-voltage circuitry and its ability to support high voltages laterally due to RESURF action. These structures can be isolated either by a dielectric layer or by means of junction isolation. In the latter situation there is an additional bipolar transistor coupling the anode to the substrate. In both these structures there is a parasitic p-n-p-n path between the anode and the cathode, which is generally suppressed by means of cathode short. However, the lateral current flow underneath the cathode junction forward biases the cathode leading to the low impedance latched mode of the device, at which point the lateral IGT behaves like a lateral thyristor loosing the gate control. In this presentation, results from two-dimensional numerical analysis of suitably designed lateral IGT's to withstand forward blocking voltage of 300 V, on both junction-isolated substrate and dielectric isolated substrate will be presented to elucidate the behavior of these devices under different bias conditions. Their current-voltage,characteristics, carrier distributions, as well as actual current paths inside the device, will be presented and compared. The ]latching phenomena will be discussed in some detail. The LIGT on junction isolated substrate latches at substantially higher current levelis than its dielectric isolated counterpart (200 A/cm2 compared to 70 A/cm2 at 2 V for the case under study). Due to conductivity modulation, the current density of LIGT is significantly better (4 times for LIGT on DI and 10 times for LIGT on JI) than the corresponding lateral DMOS transistor. Substrate current in LIGT on JI is optimized by the use of pepitaxial layer over heavily doped p+ substrate. The difference in current flow paths in lateral and vertical IGT's and its implications on latching current density will be briefly discussed.


The introduction of the concept of Harm Reduction into the practical work of the narcological survive confidence relations with injecting drug users were established, which resulted in the possibility to carry out information and educational, as well as preventive work. In addition, there occurred changes in public opinion with respect to the problems of drug addiction (a drug addict was now regarded as a sick person) and AIDS (HIV infection was considered to be a problem, topical for wide strata of the population). The creation of a dedicated team comprising medical personnel, psychologists, representatives of the clergy, volunteers from drug addicts contributed to successes in this work. The work on the correction of negative manifestations, carried out by the organs of law protection, also contributed to the creation of balance between the strategy of Harm Reduction and the strategy of the reduction of need in narcotic drugs.


Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the gold standard of bone densitometry. However, inaccurate estimation of areal bone mineral density (aBMD) is of concern when calcium in bone mineral is partially substituted with bone-seeking elements such as strontium, lead and aluminum. Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) is an alternative bone densitometry technique that can assess bone health based on the measurement of acoustic parameters. This study aims to investigate the effect of the clinically relevant concentrations of bone-seeking elements on aBMD measured by DXA and the acoustic parameters measured by QUS, using trabecular bone-mimicking phantoms. Statistically significant linear relationship was observed between aBMD and strontium concentration. For clinically relevant concentrations of lead and aluminum, the deviation in aBMD measurements was within 1% coefficient of variation of DXA. No statistically significant deviation was observed in stiffness index measurement by QUS in the presence of any of the three bone-seeking elements


A report analyzing public reporting practices for assessment data for students with disabilities in K-12 schools in the United States -- the 15th NCEO report to do so. The publication presents information on publicly reported participation and performance data for the 50 regular states and the 11 unique states (American Samoa, Bureau of Indian Education, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Department of Defense Education Activities, District of Columbia, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands). For the 2011-12 school year, 49 of the 61 states reported participation and performance data for students with disabilities for all general assessments within the ESEA accountability system. Fifty-one states reported participation and performance data for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) that were within the ESEA system. Information about state assessments outside of ESEA is also presented. This report additionally includes information on public reporting for English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities, and includes recommendations for future public reporting of disaggregated data for students with disabilities.


Right ventricle myocardial infarctions (RVMIs) accompany inferior wall ischemia in up to one-half of cases. The clinical sequelae of RVMIs vary from no hemodynamic compromise to severe hypotension and cardiogenic shock. Diagnosis is based on physical examination, electrocardiography, echocardiography and coronary angiography. Because the standard 12-lead electrocardiogram is insufficient for the assessment of RV involvement, right-sided precordial leads should always be included. Adequate fluid administration in combination with positive inotropic agents and early coronary reperfusion are crucial components of treatment, while diuretics and nitrates should be avoided. Intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation and right ventricle assist devices may be used with success in RVMIs associated with medically refractory heart failure. Right ventricular involvement appears to be an independent prognostic factor that dramatically increases in-hospital mortality, due, in part, to a significantly higher risk of hemodynamically compromising arrhythmias. Thus, using right-sided precordial leads and early RVMI identification to trigger an appropriately aggressive treatment protocol may improve patients' prognosis.


Every person speaks or writes their own flavor of their native language, influenced by a number of factors: the content they tend to talk about, their gender, their social status, or their geographical origin. When attempting to perform Machine Translation (MT), these variations have a significant effect on how the system should perform translation, but this is not captured well by standard one-size-fits-all models. In this paper, we propose a simple and parameter-efficient adaptation technique that only requires adapting the bias of the output softmax to each particular user of the MT system, either directly or through a factored approximation. Experiments on TED talks in three languages demonstrate improvements in translation accuracy, and better reflection of speaker traits in the target text.


Background and aims: Virus-like particles (VLPs) are promising vaccine candidates, usually eliciting broad and strong immune responses in humans. The aim of this study was to produce VLPs for coxsackievirus B1 (CVB1). CVB viruses cause severe morbidity and mortality worldwide, causing a major impact on the health care system, but there are no treatments or vaccines available against CVBs. The specific aims of this study were to find out the most efficient insect cell-line for CVB1-VLP production, and finding a scalable purification method for CVB1-VLP and finally the characterization of CVB1-VLP. Methods: Baculovirus-insect cell expression system was used in the production of CVB1VLPs. Various steps in the CVB1-VLP production were optimized including the type of insect cell line and the flashBAC DNA variant, the Multiplicity Of Infection (MOI) used for CVB1-VLP amplification, baculovirus cultivation time, type of cell growth medium and culture volumes and the CVB1-VLP purification method. VLPs were concentrated either using tangential flow filtration or PEG-precipitation and purified using multi-step ion exchange chromatography (IEX) purification. The quality and the purity of the CVB1VLPs were estimated with SDS-PAGE, Western Blotting, dynamic light scattering and Transmission Electron Microscopy analyzes. Results: The highest CVB1-VLP production level was obtained in High Five cells and they expressed two times more extracellular VLP than Sf9 cells. FlashBAC ULTRA and flashBAC GOLD expressed considerably more extracellular VLP than flashBAC or flashBAC PRIME in High Five cells. Further, the production levels of flashBAC ULTRA and flashBAC GOLD were almost equal. MOI 1 seemed to give the highest production levels. Highest yield was in 50 ml culture and culture volume could not be efficiently scaled up. 67 % pure VLP was produced with ultracentrifugation, while 100 % pure VLP was produced with IEX. Yield for 100 % pure VLP was 0.6 mg/l. Conclusion: Highest VLP yield was achieved with High Five insect cells using 5 days baculovirus infection, 50 ml culture volume, flashBAC GOLD or ULTRA and MOI 1. 100 % pure CVB1-VLP was generated using three step IEX.


An important goal in the preparation of highly active supported metal particles is the enhancement of the metal support interaction, providing a more stable catalyst, especially for liquid phase reactions as the leaching and reconstruction of the active phase causes deactivation. In this work, a covalent triazine framework (CTF) as support for Pd nanoparticles is compared to activated carbon (AC), the typical support used in liquid phase reactions. The results indicate that the presence of the N-heterocyclic moieties on the surface of the frameworks is beneficial for improving the stability of Pd nanoparticles during the liquid phase glycerol oxidation. Pd/CTF showed better activity and in particular better stability when compared to Pd supported on activated carbon (AC).


BACKGROUND
There is increasing pressure to optimize asthma treatment efficiency. It is possible that hospital characteristics influence such efficiency.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the association of selected hospital characteristics with cost and length of stay (LOS) among pediatric patients with asthma after adjusting for patient characteristics.

DESIGN
Secondary analysis of 1995 hospital discharge data in the state of New York.

SUBJECTS
Nineteen thousand six hundred eighty-eight patients aged 1 to 17 years with asthma discharged from 206 acute care hospitals in New York in 1995.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Length of stay and hospital cost.

ANALYSIS
Hospitals were described with respect to teaching status and ownership. The differences in the distribution of children within each hospital type were assessed by chi(2) tests. In multivariate analyses, hierarchical models were constructed to analyze cost and LOS, adjusting for both hospital- and patient-level covariance.

RESULTS
Asthma severity did not meaningfully differ by hospital ownership and teaching status. Public and teaching hospitals had more minority and Medicaid patients. After adjusting for patient- and hospital-level covariates and for the hierarchical nature of the data, there were no statistically significant differences between public and private hospitals in mean cost or LOS. Adjusted mean LOS in teaching hospitals was not significantly shorter, while costs were significantly but not meaningfully greater ($2459 vs $2271; P<.001).

CONCLUSION
Hospitals providing medical education to pediatricians and safety net care do so without increasing LOS or cost of care for pediatric asthma.


Manipulation arguments and the explanatory nature of moral responsibility Manipulation arguments against moral responsibility (or against compatibilism about moral responsibility) rely on the following assumption: (M) Manipulation reduces responsibility because of features shared with causation (or with deterministic causation). Consequently, they would be undermined if the reduction were due specifically to the agent's being manipulated—intentionally caused to act in ways not relying on the agent's rational cooperation. To strengthen (M), Pereboom has argued that responsibility is equally reduced by versions of his manipulation cases where analogous natural events are substituted for manipulators. Significantly, however, these versions seem less intuitively compelling, suggesting that (M) is mistaken. In this talk, I suggest that manipulation arguments seem uniquely compelling because manipulation provides particularly straightforward cases of actions caused by conditions outside the agent's control. Moreover, equally straightforward non-manipulative cases are possible: manipulation arguments are merely a species of arguments from straightforward causation by external factors. Such arguments rely on the following assumption: (S) Straightforward causation by external factors reduces responsibility because of features shared with causation (or with deterministic causation). (S) might seem more plausible than (M): although the intentional and social nature of manipulation might be especially responsibility undermining, whether causation is straightforward in the relevant sense depends on explanatory interests and perspectives, and it might seem that moral responsibility must rest on a more secure basis than that. Before closing, however, I provide evidence that our everyday notion of moral responsibility is essentially guided by certain explanatory interests, suggesting a way for defenders of moral responsibility to reject (S).


This work introduces a generic methodology to determine the hourly average CO2eq. intensity of the electricity mix of a bidding zone. The proposed method is based on the logic of input–output models and avails the balance between electricity generation and demand. The methodology also takes into account electricity trading between bidding zones and time-varying CO2eq. intensities of the electricity traded. The paper shows that it is essential to take into account electricity imports and their varying CO2eq. intensities for the evaluation of the CO2eq. intensity in Scandinavian bidding zones. Generally, the average CO2eq. intensity of the Norwegian electricity mix increases during times of electricity imports since the average CO2eq. intensity is normally low because electricity is mainly generated from hydropower. Among other applications, the CO2eq. intensity can be used as a penalty signal in predictive controls of building energy systems since ENTSO-E provides 72 h forecasts of electricity generation. Therefore, as a second contribution, the demand response potential for heating a single-family residential building based on the hourly average CO2eq. intensity of six Scandinavian bidding zones is investigated. Predictive rule-based controls are implemented into a building performance simulation tool (here IDA ICE) to study the influence that the daily fluctuations of the CO2eq. intensity signal have on the potential overall emission savings. The results show that control strategies based on the CO2eq. intensity can achieve emission reductions, if daily fluctuations of the CO2eq. intensity are large enough to compensate for the increased electricity use due to load shifting. Furthermore, the results reveal that price-based control strategies usually lead to increased overall emissions for the Scandinavian bidding zones as the operation is shifted to nighttime, when cheap carbon-intensive electricity is imported from the continental European power grid.


An extracellular esterase from Candida albicans A-714 was found to be induced in a medium containing 0.7% yeast nitrogen base and 2.5% Tween 80 (polyoxyethylenesorbitan compounds). Enzyme activity, which exists predominantly in the extracellular space, was measured by a colorimetric method using alpha-naphthyl palmitate as a substrate. The induction level of the esterase activity was found to be well correlated with fungal growth and was dependent on the Tween 80 concentration. Such esterase activity was observed only in medium containing Tween 80 or other Tweens as the sole carbon source and therefore was not observed in either peptone-glucose medium or peptone-glucose medium supplemented with Tween 80. The induced esterase was heat labile and had maximum activity at pH 5.5. Enzyme activity was stimulated by the addition of sodium taurocholate, an activator of lipase. Thin-layer chromatography revealed that this enzyme does not hydrolyze triolein and L-alpha-lecithin, suggesting that it is a monoester hydrolase (not a lipase in the strict sense of the word). Esterase activity was examined in 85 clinical isolates of Candida species; C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. parapsilosis tended to have higher enzyme activities than C. kefyr, C. krusei, C. glabrata, and C. guilliermondii. Although the physiological properties of this esterase are not clear at present, it was found to be crucial for fungal growth under specific conditions.


Osteotomies to set back the anterior part of the maxilla or the whole maxilla (Le Fort I) can be done to reduce the anteroposterior discrepancy in class II anomalies. Predictable and stable results can be expected. Transverse discrepancies may be treated either by orthodontic means or by combined surgical-orthodontic means or by combined surgical-orthodontic methods, depending on the age of the patient, the axial inclination of the teeth, and the width of the apical base. Surgical expansion alone works well in the anterior maxillary osteotomy. Surgical expansion on the whole maxillary arch by additional palatal splitting in Le Fort I osteotomies gives excellent results, provided the gaps are filled with autogenous bone grafts. Mandibular segmental osteotomies or body osteotomies to advance portions of the mandible also provide stable results. Advancement procedures carried out in the rami show a tendency for relapse that can be compensated by overcorrection and orthodontic treatment.


We show that quaternionic Gaussian random variables satisfy a generalization of the Wick formula for computing the expected value of products in terms of a family of graphical enumeration problems. When applied to the quaternionic Wigner and Wishart families of random matrices the result gives the duality between moments of these families and the corresponding real Wigner and Wishart families.


We report on the variation in the optical polarization of the blazar PKS 1749+096 observed in 2008--2015. The degree of polarization (PD) tends to increase in short flares having a time-scale of a few days. The object favors a polarization angle (PA) of $40^\circ$--$50^\circ$ at the flare maxima, which is close to the position angle of the jet ($20^\circ$--$40^\circ$). Three clear polarization rotations were detected in the negative PA direction associated with flares. In addition, a rapid and large decrease in the PA was observed in the other two flares, while another two flares showed no large PA variation. The light curve maxima of the flares possibly tend to lag behind the PD maxima and color-index minima. The PA became $-50^\circ$ to $-20^\circ$ in the decay phase of active states, which is almost perpendicular to the jet position angle. We propose a scenario to explain these observational features, where transverse shocks propagate along curved trajectories. The favored PA at the flare maxima suggests that the observed variations were governed by the variations in the Doppler factor, $\delta$. Based on this scenario, the minimum viewing angle of the source, $\theta_\mathrm{min}=4.8^\circ$--$6.6^\circ$, and the location of the source, $\Delta r\gtrsim 0.1$pc, from the central black hole were estimated. In addition, the acceleration of electrons by the shock and synchrotron cooling would have a time-scale similar to that of the change in $\delta$. The combined effect of the variation in $\delta$ and acceleration/cooling of electrons is probably responsible for the observed diversity of the polarization variations in the flares.


Abstract The current generation of continental-scale ice-sheet models cannot successfully reproduce the complex ice/water/sediment interactions of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) in a physically meaningful manner. The potential of a thin-film-based subglacial water-flow model for incorporation into a continental-scale coupled ice/water flow model of the WAIS is evaluated in this paper. The subglacial water-flow model is applied to the Ross Sea sector of the WAIS, in both a steady-state and time-dependent form, to derive the equilibrium water depth for the present-day configuration. The potential for coupling the model to an ice-flow model is then demonstrated, using a variable sliding parameter that is a function of the subglacial water depth. A coupled ice/water flow model, using the parameterization tested in this paper, could have the potential for reproducing the surface elevation, velocity and thermal regime of the WAIS successfully. These requirements are crucial in modelling the evolution of the WAIS, and must be addressed before reliable continental-scale predictive models can be utilized.


The impacts of advertising and the role of dairy cooperatives in marketing are considered. Irreversibility in Advertising-Demand Response Functions: An Application to Milk Philip Vande Kamp and Harry Kaiser, Cornell University Advertising. Structural Change, and US Non-Alcoholic Beverage Demand Hui Xiao, American Express; Henry Kinnucan, Auburn University; Harry Kaiser, Cornell University. The Role of Cooperatives in Milk Marketing Christopher Wolf and Larry Hamm, Michigan State University. Competition between Advertised and Unadvertised Brands, James Binkley and Daniel Clendenning, Purdue University.


Leucine rich repeat proteins have gained considerable interest as therapeutic targets due to their expression and biological activity within the central nervous system. LINGO-1 has received particular attention since it inhibits axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury in a RhoA dependent manner while inhibiting leucine rich repeat and immunoglobulin-like domain-containing protein 1 (LINGO-1) disinhibits neuron outgrowth. Furthermore, LINGO-1 suppresses oligodendrocyte precursor cell maturation and myelin production. Inhibiting the action of LINGO-1 encourages remyelination both in vitro and in vivo. Accordingly, LINGO-1 antagonists show promise as therapies for demyelinating diseases. An analogous protein to LINGO-1, amphoterin-induced gene and open reading frame-3 (AMIGO3), exerts the same inhibitory effect on the axonal outgrowth of central nervous system neurons, as well as interacting with the same receptors as LINGO-1. However, AMIGO3 is upregulated more rapidly after spinal cord injury than LINGO-1. We speculate that AMIGO3 has a similar inhibitory effect on oligodendrocyte precursor cell maturation and myelin production as with axogenesis. Therefore, inhibiting AMIGO3 will likely encourage central nervous system axonal regeneration as well as the production of myelin from local oligodendrocyte precursor cell, thus providing a promising therapeutic target and an area for future investigation.


We propose a neural hybrid model consisting of a linear model defined on a set of features computed by a deep, invertible transformation (i.e. a normalizing flow). An attractive property of our model is that both p(features), the density of the features, and p(targets | features), the predictive distribution, can be computed exactly in a single feed-forward pass. We show that our hybrid model, despite the invertibility constraints, achieves similar accuracy to purely predictive models. Moreover the generative component remains a good model of the input features despite the hybrid optimization objective. This offers additional capabilities such as detection of out-of-distribution inputs and enabling semi-supervised learning. The availability of the exact joint density p(targets, features) also allows us to compute many quantities readily, making our hybrid model a useful building block for downstream applications of probabilistic deep learning.


. Population dynamics can be highly variable in the face of environmental hetero- geneity, and understanding this variation is central in the study of ecology. Robust management decisions require that we understand how populations respond to management at a range of scales, and under a broad suite of conditions. Population models are potentially valuable tools in addressing this challenge. However, without adequate data, models can fail to pro- duce useful results. Populations of arable weeds are particularly problematic in this respect, as they are widespread and their dynamics are extremely variable. Owing to the inherent cost of collecting data, most studies of plant population dynamics are derived from localized experi-ments under a small range of environmental conditions, limiting the extent to which variance in population dynamics can be measured. Density-structured models provide a route to rapid, large-scale analysis of population dynamics, and can expand the scale of ecological models that are directly tied to data. Here we extend previous density-structured models to include environmental heterogeneity, variation in management, and to account for inter-population variation. We develop, parameterize, and test hierarchical density-structured models for a common agricultural weed, black-grass ( Alopecurus myosuroides ). We model the dynamics of this species in response to crop management, using survey data gathered over 4 yr from 364 fields across a network of 45 UK farms. We show that hierarchical density-structured models provide a sub- stantial improvement over their nonhierarchical counterparts. Using these models, we demonstrate that several alternative crop rotations are effective in reducing weed densities. Rotations with high wheat prevalence exhibit the most severe infestations, and diverse rotations generally have lower weed densities. However, a key outcome is that in many cases the effect of crop rota- tion is small compared to the high variability arising from spatiotemporal heterogeneity. This result highlights the need to monitor and model population dynamics across large spatial and temporal scales in order to account for variation in the drivers of plant dynamics. Our framework for data collection and modeling provides a means to achieve this.


Objective: This article evaluates the feasibility and benefits of implementing cognitive remediation interventions in everyday clinical practice among individuals living with schizophrenia. Method: We retrospectively assessed short-term cognitive and occupational outcomes of 89 consecutively admitted people with schizophrenia at a public mental health service. A computerized cognitive remediation program was offered at the facility as an integral component of psychosocial treatments. Data of service recipients who had completed the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS; Keefe et al., 2004) on admission and discharge were included for evaluating outcomes. Results: Thirty-seven service recipients did not participate (nontrainee), 18 completed less than 20 hr (incomplete trainee), and 34 completed more than 20 hr of cognitive remediation (completed trainee). Whist a variety of factors affected involvement, lack of interest was the predominant reason voiced for nonparticipation. Repeated measures analysis of variance did not reveal significant Group × Time interaction. Exploratory contrasts showed statistically significant improvement within the completed trainee group from baseline to discharge on the BACS composite score, list learning, and token motor task. Logistic regression analysis indicated that although improved cognition predicted enhanced employment outcome, there was no significant difference among the 3 groups. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Cognitive remediation interventions were accepted by a sizable proportion of people with schizophrenia admitted to an inpatient clinical treatment and rehabilitation facility. Promising improvement in cognitive function among those who completed the training suggests the need for methodologically rigorous research exploring the feasibility and benefits of cognitive remediation programs at everyday clinical settings.


Keratosis lichenoides chronica may be seen clinically and histologically as a variant of lichen planus. One in three patients have nail involvement with changes that may superficially resemble psoriasis, but pitting and pustulosis do not occur. Hyperkeratotic hypertrophy of the periungual tissues is a distinctive feature. Psoralens and UV-A therapy as well as etretinate have improved some cases.


This study evaluated the physicochemical properties and protein and mineral content of honey samples from Ceara State, Northeastern Brazil, one of the major honey exporters in the country. Nutritional importance of the minerals detected was also analyzed. Physicochemical properties were examined according to the AOAC and CAC official methods; the protein content was determined using the Bradford method, and the minerals were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry. All analyses were performed in triplicate. The levels of macrominerals sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) varied from 1.80-47.20, 21.30-1513.30, 14.58-304.82, and 2.48-28.33 mg/kg, respectively, and the trace elements iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), and chromium (Cr) varied from 0.12-8.76, 0.07-1.29, 0.06-1.96, 0.07-1.85 mg/kg, 0.36 × 10-3-62.00 × 10-3 and 22.50 × 10-3-170.33 × 10-3 µg/kg, respectively. Myracrodruon urundeuva honey sample had high contents of macrominerals (Na, K, Ca, and Mg). Protein content of the Anacardium occidentale honey sample was the highest (1121.00 µg/g) among the samples analyzed. Among the minerals detected in the honey samples, K showed the highest concentration, followed by Ca, Na, and Mg. The presence of trace elements can show environmental contamination. The honey samples studied were free of trace elements contamination, except for Mn; the Piptadenia moniliformis was the only honey sample that was in compliance with the law requirements. The variations of the chemical constituents in the honey samples are probably related to differences in the floral origin and mineral and protein contents and confirm the nutritional importance of Ceara State honey.


Deposition of a hydrothermal method has a number of advantages; low deposition temperature, high-purity, deposition on a three-dimensional structure, and a large thickness. The present paper investigates the improvement of an epitaxial lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film deposited via hydrothermal synthesis. The critical parameter contributing to the film morphology was revealed to be the holding position of the reaction solution during deposition. In addition to this improvement, the SrRuO3 bottom electrode was confirmed to be able to withstand high alkali concentrations during the hydrothermal reaction. A hydrothermal synthesis time of 24 h yielded a PZT film with a thickness of 500 nm on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 (100) at 150 °C. The remanent polarization 2Pr and coercive electric field were 38.4 μC/cm2 and 21.8 kV/cm, respectively.


Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is a highly effective approach for studying genetically complex forms of plant disease resistance. With QTL mapping, the roles of specific resistance loci can be described, race-specificity of partial resistance genes can be assessed, and interactions between resistance genes, plant development, and the environment can be analyzed. Outstanding examples include: quantitative resistance to the rice blast fungus, late blight of potato, gray leaf spot of maize, bacterial wilt of tomato, and the soybean cyst nematode. These studies provide insights into the number of quantitative resistance loci involved in complex disease resistance, epistatic and environmental interactions, race-specificity of partial resistance loci, interactions between pathogen biology, plant development and biochemistry, and the relationship between qualitative and quantitative loci. QTL mapping also provides a framework for marker-assisted selection of complex disease resistance characters and the positional cloning of partial resistance genes.


This article introduces a preliminary model that conceptualizes the drivers, expressions, and consequences of consumers' controversies about the limits of legitimate consumption within a social context. Drawing on qualitative data on the North American conflict over the cultural legitimacy of the Hummer brand of vehicles, the study documents that – contrary to the prevailing consumer-producer centric model – market-mediated social conflicts also emerge as immediate, interpersonal social practices through which consumers contest each other's consumption choices, ideologies, and behaviors. The study reveals that consumer controversies often begin with violations of social expectations, manifest in vigilant justice, insult, discredit, ridicule, and instruction practices, and serve consumers to preserve, promote, and defend the consumption-related meanings, practices, objects, and identities that they consider sacrosanct for themselves and their social peers. The study suggests that consumer controversies affect consumer culture, identity projects, and marketing practices in important ways previously unrecognized by theories of consumer emancipation and resistance.


Multirotor UAVs are widely used for aerial inspection applications where missions are accomplished either via manual or autonomous control. Human controlled UAVs require trained pilots which can be a barrier from using the technology for general inspection personnel. Fully autonomous navigation, which employs onboard sensing, planning and coverage algorithms, is effective but comes with the cost of development and operational complexities. A human supervised UAV system design is presented where a deployed aerial vehicle operates in semi-autonomous mode. An operator, who is equipped with a smart handheld laser pointer, gives the UAV global guiding directions to reach the inspection target. The UAV is equipped with onboard vision sensing for local planning and target identification in addition to video streaming or recording. System operation is validated in indoor fliaht tests.


Virtual bandwidth synthetic aperture radar (VB-SAR) is a radical new technique that promises, for the first time, sub-surface imaging at large stand-off distances applicable to airborne and spaceborne platforms. The scheme relies on understanding and exploiting the way a radar wave interacts with a soil volume. A wave passing through a soil to a buried object is delayed relative to the equivalent free-space path due to the higher relative permittivity of a soil, which is measured as a phase shift. This can equivalently be thought of as a shift in the real radar frequency to a virtual frequency. Temporal variations in soil moisture across a temporal stack of differential interferometric SAR (DInSAR) images can transport the real radar frequency at a pixel across a set of virtual frequencies to create a virtual bandwidth. Even small changes in moisture can produce large virtual bandwidths promising very high, centimetric-scale vertical resolutions: 1.6 cm at X-band and 8.6 cm at L-band for a 10% moisture change in a sandy soil. To produce a sub-surface depth profile at an image pixel, a Fourier transform is performed on the complex data stack collected across the DInSAR set. Retrieving the depth profile at each pixel across the 2D image provides a 3D map of the sub-surface backscattering through the scene. A description of the model is presented, and representative modelling results are presented to assess performance and application across different soil types, moisture regimes, and SAR platforms.


This paper concerns itself with a relatively unexplored type of personal robot that operates in the tool space. Handheld robots aim to cooperate with the user to solve tasks and improve what tools can offer enhanced by actuation, sensing, and importantly, task knowledge. To this end, we devised a new lightweight robotic platform that has 4 DoF and uses a cable driven continuum structure. Feedback from the robot to the user is provided in an intuitive, implicit manner by the robot end effector pointing towards the goal, avoiding pointing, and/or refusing to perform an action when it conflicts with the task specification. We evaluate two generic tasks involving aiming in space and picking/placing objects with a number of volunteers. Repeated measures ANOVA is used to analyse results to show in which conditions an increased level of automation in the handheld robot improves task performance or user perception of task load. The robot is offered as an open robotics platform[1] and the results indicate directions to improve on feedback and interaction mechanisms.


Facial recognition is a technique makes it possible to use the facial images of a person to authenticate him into a secure system, for criminal identification, for passport verification. Facial expressions identification by using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) Mechanism. In PCA faces are represented as a linear combination of Eigen faces. It reduces the large dimensional space to small dimensional space. In this paper face recognition and the multiple expression images are taken for feature extraction and compare it with the registered database image. PCA can identify face and different expression such as Happy, Anger, Sad, Disgust, Neutral, fear etc. Training process that read all the faces where training database is stored and testing process that reads all the faces of the person where the test folder.


Seventeen commercial and research laboratories participated in two comparison tests under the auspices of the International Society for Animal Genetics to develop an internationally tested, microsatellite-based parentage and identification panel for the domestic cat (Felis catus). Genetic marker selection was based on the polymorphism information content and allele ranges from seven random-bred populations (n = 261) from the USA, Europe and Brazil and eight breeds (n = 200) from the USA. Nineteen microsatellite markers were included in the comparison test and genotyped across the samples. Based on robustness and efficiency, nine autosomal microsatellite markers were ultimately selected as a single multiplex 'core' panel for cat identification and parentage testing. Most markers contained dinucleotide repeats. In addition to the autosomal markers, the panel included two gender-specific markers, amelogenin and zinc-finger XY, which produced genotypes for both the X and Y chromosomes. This international cat parentage and identification panel has a power of exclusion comparable to panels used in other species, ranging from 90.08% to 99.79% across breeds and 99.47% to 99.87% in random-bred cat populations.


Teaching probability and statistics is more than teaching the mathematics itself. Historically, the mathematics of probability and statistics was first developed through analyzing games of chance such as the rolling of dice. This article makes the case that the understanding of probability and statistics is dependent upon building a "mature" understanding of common random phenomena such as the rolling of dice or the blind drawing of balls from an urn. An analysis of the verbalizations of 24 college students, who interact with random phenomena involving the mixture of colored marbles, is presented, using cognitive schema to represent the subjects' expressed understanding. A cognitive schema representing a mature understanding is contrasted to a diversity of observed immature understandings. Teaching to explicitly build the mature cognitive schema is proposed.


Fusarium is a soil borne pathogen which is common in almost all types of soil causing heavy losses in the crop production. Long term survival of pathogen in the soil as chlamydospores has increased its threat making it a highly devastating disease. High accessibility and simple application process of chemical control method has made it an effective and highly adopted approach of eliminating disease causing organisms. The present study was conducted in IAAS, Lamjung Campus to test the efficacy of fungicides in-vitro by poisoned food technique in PDA medium against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lentis. The fungicides tested were Carbendazim (50% WP), Chlorothalonil (75% WP) and Dithane M-45 (75% WP) at three different concentrations (100 ppm, 150 ppm and 200 ppm). The treatments were arranged in complete randomized design and replicated five times. The measurement of diameter of the fungal mycelium was taken 8 times at 48 hours interval until the fungus nearly covered the plate in control treatment and inhibition percent of the chemicals were calculated. All the fungicides inhibited the fungal growth significantly, among which carbendazim was highly effective in all the concentrations reducing 100% of mycelial growth followed by chlorothalonil. Dithane M-45 showed least inhibition i.e. 26.62% in 200 ppm (day 13). The chemicals exhibited increased tendency of inhibition with increased concentration.


The subject matter of this paper is the moment at which Soviet Russia made its first and unexpected step into international legal relations on 16 April 1922, the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany. My focus is the role played, as a Legal Adviser, by Yevgeniy Pashukanis, who, in the West, has become the best known Soviet Marxist theorist of law. I start with the context for the Treaty of Rapallo, followed by a more detailed account of the Treaty and its provisions, drawing on contemporary accounts. I then turn to Yevgeny Pashukanis, his background and pre-World War I studies in Germany. I analyse in detail his central participation in the negotiation of the Treaty. I next turn to contemporary evaluation of the Treaty. Then I examine the more controversial question of the secret military agreement between Soviet Russia and Germany, whereby Germany was able to test new weapons and train military personnel secretly in Soviet Russia, contrary to the Versailles Treaty; and Soviet Russia gained the benefit of the latest German military technology. I trace the tragic trajectory of Pashukanis up to his murder by Stalin's regime, and conclude with an evaluation of the significance of the Treaty. It is my contention that the General Theory is not at all representative of Pashukanis's work as whole. With the exception of this text, Pashukanis was an orthodox Soviet legal scholar, adapting successfully, until he fell victim to Stalin's purges, to changes in the prevailing theoretical and ideological direction of the USSR. He made a significant contribution to a wholly unanticipated diplomatic coup by Soviet Russia. The Treaty between two defeated and to different extents pariah powers was of immense significance, not only for the immediate survival of Soviet Russia, and its gradual integration into the international legal order, but also for the subsequent trajectories of both countries.


Biomass gasification represents an efficient process for the production of power, heat and biofuels. Different technologies are used for gasification and this article focuses on a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) system. Understanding the behaviour of particles is of primary importance and a cold flow CFB experimental unit was constructed and tested. The particle circulation rate is greatly affected by the loop seal performance, and therefore the loop seal should be properly optimized to maintain an uninterrupted operation. Smooth flow regimes were obtained for the CFB by varying the loop seal aeration rates. Particles with size 850–1000 μm and 1000–1180 μm were chosen for the experiments. The minimum flow rates of air into the riser for the two particle sizes were found to be 1.3 and 1.5 Sm3/ min, respectively. To obtain a smooth flow regime, a velocity range for aeration in the loop seal was found for the two particle sizes. Based on the experimental results, combinations of flow rates were suggested for the simulations. A Computational Particle Fluid Dynamic (CPFD) model was developed using Barracuda VR, and the model was validated against experimental results. The simulated results for the system regarding the pressure and the height of the bed material in the standpipe agreed well with the experimental results. The deviation between the experimental and computational pressure was less than 0.5% at all the locations for both the particle sizes. The deviation in particle level was about 6% for the 850–1000 μm particles and 17% for the 1000–1150 μm particles. Both the experiments and the simulations predicted that a small fraction of the circulating sands are emitted from the top of the rig. The validated CPFD model was further used to predict the flow behaviour and the particle circulation rate in the CFB.


The authors use a simulation methodology to assess the potential value added and residual risk from active management in the Japanese bond market. They examine the performance potential of taking bets on both credit sectors and interest rates, as well as combination strategies. They compare the results from taking bets of different sizes and skill levels to the returns of actual managers and to simulated U.S. strategies over the same period. Illiquidity in Japanese spread sectors severely limits the opportunity for managers to add value using credit strategies instead of the established broad market benchmark, even at high skill levels.


Glass beads are solid glass spheres. Because of their high strength, chemical stability, low thermal expansion, and good flowability, they are manufactured from colorless glass for many industrial purposes. In recent years, the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon has become very serious in urban centers. Heat emitted from exterior walls of buildings accounts for a relatively large proportion of total anthropogenic waste heat. Retroreflective (RR) materials are researched worldwide for the potential in application to building exterior wall surface instead of normal diffuse highly reflective (DHR) materials to resist the UHI. Glass beads are the common main components of these RR materials. Glass beads have different refractive indices and diameters. The classification and reflection principles of glass beads, experimental analysis on the optical properties and thermal performance of glass bead RR materials are elaborated in detail in this chapter. In addition, if these glass bead RR materials are used in building facades, when the incident angle of the sun is very high, the facade will produce a large specular reflection to the road, which may cause adverse effects on pedestrians. Therefore, theoretical and technical aspects of preventing the specular reflection from glass bead RR materials should be studied and implemented.


Abstract. This paper uses a method of atmospheric flow analogues to reconstruct an ensemble of atmospheric variables (namely sea-level pressure, surface temperature and wind speed) between 1781 and 1785. The properties of this ensemble are investigated and tested against observations of temperature. The goal of the paper is to assess whether the atmospheric circulation during the Laki volcanic eruption (in 1783) and the subsequent winter were similar to the conditions that prevailed in the winter 2009/2010 and during spring 2010. We find that the 3 months following the Laki eruption in June 1783 barely had analogues in 2010. The cold winter of 1783/1784 yielded circulation analogues in 2009/2010. The reconstructed surface temperature over land bears significant correlations with local observations, although the amplitude of the reconstruction is weaker.


Relapse is a common sequel of antibiotic‐associated colitis due to Clostridium difficile. It has been suggested that Cl. difficile may persist in the stools in spite of the resolution of symptoms after treatment and this may cause the relapse. Our study was designed to define the factors that predispose to relapse and to determine if prolonging treatment to clear Cl. difficile from the stools might prevent relapse. Of 60 consecutive patients, 36 with more severe disease required treatment. Treatment with either vancomycin or bacitracin was continued until the results of the examination of stools for cytotoxin became negative and Cl. difficile could no longer be cultured (sensitivity of culture was 10–100 organisms/mL). This was achieved in 35 patients who were then followed for one month. Symptoms reappeared in 10 (28.6%) of the treated patients while Cl. difficile reappeared in the stools of an additional seven patients (20%) without the recurrence of diarrhoea. On comparing those who relapsed with those who did not, the age (67.3 ± 5.5 years in those who relapsed compared with 51.6 ± 4.4 years; P < 0.025, x¯ ± SE) and a history of recent abdominal surgery (59% of those who relapsed compared with 17%; P < 0.05) were significantly different. Although those who relapsed had received therapy with multiple antibiotic agents more often, this was not statistically significant. Disease was not more severe in patients who relapsed, nor was it more difficult to clear the pathogen from these patients. The 24 untreated patients did not suffer symptomatic relapse. Continuation of treatment until Cl. difficile apparently is absent from the stools is expensive and does not prevent relapse. Elderly patients and those who have recently undergone abdominal sugery are more likely to suffer a relapse.


This paper is based in a report for the international project "GERPISA-Labour Relations" on the concept of leader-factory, and in other papers written after that using the case study of the Renault factory in the Aveiro region. This case study is articulated with other studies on engine factories of the same company in Spain, France and Mexico. That study has been co-ordinated by Prof. Juan Jose Castillo (Univ. Complutense Madrid, Spain). Here we present the results of this empirical research from where were developed the first indicators of a discussion on the concept of new production models and leader-factory that have been studied by the GERPISA international network.


This study investigates how multiple dimensions of power each facilitate knowledge integration within innovation projects in supply chains and their interrelationships. Adopting a process perspective of knowledge, we offer an alternative to much of the existing debate, which has focussed on the possession of resources. We collected data from four case-study Original Equipment Manufacturers and six associated suppliers and analysed these using Template Analysis and cross-case analysis. Our findings reveal how the power of the system, operationalized through relative performance measures, performance measurement mechanisms and the individuals in-charge of them, provides a facilitative context within which other dimensions of power operate. Here, the power of resources (expert and legitimate power), processes (associated with raising issues, cross-functional teams, early supplier involvement and reviews) and meaning (creating legitimacy through reviews) interact to support knowledge integration within innovation projects in supply chains. This, we argue, emphasises the plurality of power dimensions deployed and importance of their interrelationships in facilitating knowledge integration within hierarchical supply chain networks.


bed. The number of dressing changes required was considerably reduced because the exudate was able to be aspirated from around his rather large lesions using an ordinary hypodermic needle and syringe, the small puncture hole being "repaired" with a small square of OpSite. The lesions could be easily examined through the transparent dressings, which required changing at approximately 10-day intervals. It is unfortunate that this product is not currently available on the drug tariff despite its ability to produce savings in terms of doctor and nurse time and the number of dressings required. In this particular case because it reduced the odour associated with the skin metastases the patient's admission to hospital was certainly avoided. I feel that the DHSS should therefore revise its drug tariff products and allow the community health care personnel the benefits of the same products used successfully in hospitals.


ABSTRACT Informal carers, also referred to as partners in care, provide the bulk of care to people living with dementia across a range of community settings; however, the changing experiences and contexts of providing informal care for people with dementia in rural settings are under-studied. Drawing on 27 semi-structured interviews with former partners in care in Southwestern and Northern Ontario, Canada, we examine experiences of providing and accessing care over the course of the condition and across various settings. Our findings illustrate the challenges associated with navigating the system of care, finding people who understand dementia in the surrounding community, negotiating hours of home support, facing resistance to respite from the person with dementia, and feeling pressured into long-term care. We argue that partners' time, bodies and choices are spatially constrained within rural and small-town settings and the current systems of home, community and long-term care.