After ensuring the food security for over 50 years, the green revolution is eventually reaching its biological limits which are very much reflected by the ongoing stagnancy in yield increased over the past few decades. Meeting the increasing food demands due to increasing population is the greatest challenge for today's plant scientists. Changing climatic conditions are posing additional threats to crop growth, productivity and yield. After successfully deploying gene editing to modify simple traits, scientists are now embarked on more ambitious adventures in genomics to combat challenges of food security in the wake of increasing population and climate change adversaries. The chapter outlines use of new technologies in tailoring crops beyond simple traits aiming to harvest the desired diversity lost during domestication and manipulating complex traits, which evolved over evolutionary timescale with special emphasis on the development of climate smart crops.


The article examines the specificity of the approach to local government in the Russian Federation in light of current changes in legal regulation of the institution, as well as the interpretation of the place and role of local government in the system of public authority, determined by the decisions of the Russian Constitutional Court. The authors maintain that despite the organizational and functional autonomy from the mechanism of state power declared in the Russian Constitution, local government should be considered as part of a unified system of public authority, since the opposite neither reflects the objective conditions of the socio-economic, political and legal development of the Russian state and society, nor find any historical confirmation or similarities in foreign experience. The affirmation of local government's place within a unified system of public authority presupposes a closer and well-coordinated interaction of the state and municipal levels in addressing issues of both local and national importance. The latter should also contribute to the positioning of local government as a standalone element of federative relations, which is important both for the development of municipal institutions themselves and federalism as a whole. At the same time, the authors stress that by virtue of its political and legal nature, local government requires the development of direct forms of democracy, involvement of citizens in solving local issues and the improvement of territories where citizens reside. Accordingly, the current professionalization of the governance mechanism at the general municipal level, with limited participation in the relevant processes of state representatives, should be accompanied with the development of forms of self-government and public participation at the local, submunicipal, level.


Since 1993, a digital transverse damper system has been used at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). The dampers are used to damp coherent oscillations and injection errors in both planes for protons and all species of Heavy Ions. Over nine years, several AGS improvements, the addition of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) operations, and our experience, created a critical need to improve the original system. Several enhancements have been made to the digital electronics including compatibility with harmonic numbers up to 24, an increase in the system resolution from eight to ten bits, and the conversion of the system interface to VME. The analog electronics were also modified to appropriately interface with the new digital electronics, as well as to provide an overall functional improvement. The pick-up electrode (PUE) preamplifiers were redesigned to decrease the radiation susceptibility of the electronics. The concepts of the AGS Damper system can be utilized in developing a solution for the damping requirements in RHIC.


We present a new architecture to perform localization (position estimation) in GNSS systems, termed NEPS (Narrowband Efficient Positioning System). The NEPS architecture is composed of three components: a low powered cheap receiver; a communication system which transmits the measurements; and a processing unit which receives the distorted observations (due to quantisation and imperfect transmission medium) and performs the position estimation algorithm. The NEPS is a stand-alone system which is designed to incorporate the quantised measurements as well as the imperfect communication channels between receiver and the backend in order to perform inference on the user's position. Compared with a conventional system, the NEPS consumes less bandwidth, requires lower power consumption and provides faster reporting rates. We derive the joint Maximum Likelihood (ML) for the position and the receiver's clock offset. We then develop an efficient algorithm to solve the resulting non-convex oinferenceptimisation problem. Furthermore, we derive a theoretical performance lower bound on the achievable accuracy via Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB). Simulation results show that the performance of the NEPS ML position estimator is close to the theoretical performance bound.


Protecting human mobility is a complex homeland security challenge. U.S. borders are crossed nearly 500 million times a year, and over a quarter of all Americans have passports. The U.S. government faces a daunting challenge in protecting people on the move from the risks of direct attack, preventing the travel and immigration system from being exploited by terrorists and criminals, and infusing it with resilience against breakdowns. In this book Susan Ginsburg, formerly a senior counsel on the staff of the 9/11 Commission, examines the massive enforcement buildup that has occurred since 9/11, and she finds it out of sync with some of the government's security imperatives. By reducing this enormous protection task to one of border security and immigration enforcement, she argues, policymakers deemphasize many of the critical elements on which mobility security depends. Adequate protection requires direct action to stop terrorist attacks, human trafficking, multinational gangs, and other criminals and conspirators. It must ensure the integrity of mobility infrastructure, from laws to territorial and airport border points. And it has to prevent life-threatening, uncontrolled, and illicit movement. To advance these goals, Ginsburg proposes a range of policy and programmatic undertakings, from travel bans to new international organizations. This innovative work sets a new agenda for U.S. security policy and practice in the context of travel, immigration, migration, and borders.


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Physical exercise would improve postural stability, which is an essential factor in preventing accidental fall among the elderly population. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of treadmill walking on balance improvement among the elderly people. A total of 30 community dwelling older adults with a Berg Balance Scale score of 36-48 and the ability to walk without aid were considered and divided into control (n=15) and experimental (n=15) groups. Individuals in the experimental group participated in 30 minutes of forward and backward treadmill training based on three times a week interval for a period of four weeks. Individuals in the control group were instructed to continue with their daily routine activity. Before and after training, gait speed was measured by six-minute walk test and balance ability was evaluated by Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale (FABS) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) tests. Postural sway items such as the Center of Pressure (COP), average displacement and velocity were evaluated by using a force platform system. Data were collected in quiet standing, tandem position and standing on foam pads before and after intervention. After intervention, balance variables in the experimental group indicated a significant improvement in quiet standing on firm and foam surfaces, but no considerable improvement was shown in tandem position. A between-group comparison showed a significant reduction in COP velocity in the sagittal plane (P=0.030) during quiet standing and in the frontal plane (P=0.001) during standing on foam, whereas no significant reduction in COP parameters during tandem position was found. It is recommended that twelve sessions of forward and backward treadmill walk are effective in balance improvement in elderly people. Trial Registration Number: IRCT201209199440N2


Abstract: The nutria (Myocastor coypus), a rodent native to South America, has been introduced and has established feral populations at numerous locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. As such, the nutria is subject to research and management programs, including investigation of surgical fertility-control techniques. We evaluated the efficacy of a mixture of ketamine and medetomidine, with additional use of isoflurane and reversal with atipamezole, to provide safe, reliable anesthesia for surgical procedures under field conditions. We anesthetized 40 free-ranging nutrias between December 2018 and March 2019, in Turin, Italy, to perform surgical reproduction control techniques. We administered a ketamine and medetomidine mixture (6 mg/kg and 140 µg/kg, respectively) after trapping the animals and weighing them in the cage traps. After induction, we reweighed the rodents and performed a brief clinical examination. The times of loss of palpebral and pedal reflexes were noted. After induction of anesthesia, heart rate, respiratory rate, and percentage of oxygen saturation were monitored and recorded. Isoflurane was delivered through a face mask to 27 nutrias (70%) to maintain an adequate depth of anesthesia. Upon completion of surgery and other procedures, atipamezole was administered to the animals at doses 2.5 higher than those of medetomidine (actual dose: 366±31 µg/kg). Induction times were short (3±2 min), with the animals completely immobilized. The heart rate and respiratory rate both decreased. After administration of atipamezole, recoveries were smooth and complete. There were two deaths after higher doses of atipamezole and longer surgeries. Carprofen (4 mg/kg) was administered subcutaneously for its analgesic effects. The animals were released at the end of all the procedures. Overall, the medetomidine and ketamine mixture, with supplemental isoflurane in most instances, provided a reliable anesthesia in free-ranging nutrias, adequate for performing surgical procedures under field conditions.


The most recent fatal encounter between a shark and a surfer off the coast of Western Australia is a tragic loss of human life. It prompted a Western Australian government reaction to "hunt and kill" the individual animal responsible for the attack. But this is a misguided response, and it's time we discussed better solutions.


The method of direct continuous measurement of the angle of attack of an aerophysical missile complex, with the use of a Hall effect sensor, when in motion in its path for the numbers of Mach of the flow М∞ ≤ 4.5, Reynolds along the forebody length ReL,∞ ≤ 108, acceleration а ≤ 32 g under the operation of a dual-thrust rocket engine (DTRE) is presented. The airborne electronic measurement system of the aerophysical missile complex, including the silicon Hall effect sensor as a sensor of the missile complex orientation in relation to the full vector of the Earth's magnetic field in this experiment, is described in detail. The Hall effect sensor has been installed between the two concentrators of magnetic flux from permalloy plates to amplify the Earth's magnetic field. The voltage in the magnetic field measurement channel has been determined by the dependence of u  K·H, where K is the meter conversion coefficient, H is the projection of the magnetic field intensity vector on the meter. A signal from the Hall effect sensor has arrived at the magnetic storage. Based on processing the path data on the angle of elevation, azimuth and range, it is found that the direction of a vector of free external stream velocity in flight of the missile complex with the operating DTRE has not changed, and the angle between the axis of this complex and the full vector of the Earth's magnetic field has been constant. This has enabled to conclude that the angle of attack in flight of the aerophysical missile complex is equal to zero with a precision of 0.3. The result corresponds to the known theoretical data and is important for the calculation of thermal flows, surface friction resistance, bottom resistance in the presence of laminar-turbulent transition, turbulent regime of wall boundary flow and its relaminarization on streamlined surfaces. Based on flight data, a scheme of the aerophysical complex for measuring the angle of attack of an uncontrolled supersonic rocket with the aim of studying its oscillations and the problem of flight stability in the active and passive sections of the trajectory is proposed.


In today's world, social media has been trending and as a source of advertising. Also, social media influencer marketing is not new to the system, rather, there is a recent development which is the main reason why there is decreasing of consumers in online marketing. Recent research shows that over eighty percent of a post made online is female millennials, and also, in Ireland, female millennials are more active on social media than the male millennials. So, the researcher thought it wise to investigate the Irish male millennials to find out the level of their engagement with the social media influencers and their purchase intention. More so, the Fashion industry was used as a case study.

The main objective of this study was to assess the extent to which physical attractiveness of the social media influencer can affect purchase intentions. In addition, to also evaluate the reaction of Irish male millennials towards a sponsored post on a social media platform. There were two different male millennials´ groups used for this study, eight focus group and eight in-depth interview participants. The researcher adopted an inductive method to understand the real feeling of male millennial's and their perception toward social media influencer. Thematic coding was applied to interpret the data collected.

The key findings show that male millennials are not accustomed to traditional advertising. Instead, they live in an age where internet triumphs and they spend most of their time on social media. It reveals also that, for companies to reach the Irish male millennials through online advertising, they have to use influencer marketing. More so, it was confirmed that visual content appeal them on social media platforms and their preferred social media platform is Instagram. The physical appearance of a social media influencer is the significant factors that influence an Irish male millennials perception and behaviour towards a social media influencer. Also, there is a need for further exploration of this topic from different industry.


we must challenge the rather offensive remarks against both pathologists and coroners' officers on their attitude and lack of sympathetic communication with the bereaved. Having worked in close association with the coroners' system in south-east London and Greater London over many years we can only state that rarely does a day pass when a member of the "team" does not explain in simple language the reasons for a coroner's postmortem and the findings-the explanation may be in terms like "furred" or "blocked" pipes in relation to infarctions, obstructions in the bowel, etc-either to the coroner's officers or the bereaved relatives. Furthermore, we know that many of our colleagues in hospital pathology and other medicolegal institutions are more than willing to speak to relatives at any time.


Based on the recursion method of shearing ragidity of soil layer, dynamic torsional impedance of the radial inhomogeneous viscoelastic soil is studied.Under the certain fundamental assumption,combined with displacement basic solution of the plane axial symmetry strain question,the displacement the continuous and boundary of the soil layers, the formula of dynamic torsional impedance of the pile-soil contact surface is deduced.Degenerated into homogeneous viscoelastic model,the model is further confirmed accurate.Finally, the conclusion is obtained:(1) The bigger is G2/G1,the larger the soil body actual stiffness is. The dynamic damping presents the trend of increase;(2)In the area of the radial disturbance soil,as 'd'increases, the soil body actual stiffness is increasing. When G2/G1 is smaller than 1,the dynamic damping is reducing along with increases of 'd',when G2/G1 is bigger than 1,the dynamic damping is increasing along with increases of 'd'.(3)Actual stiffness and dynamic damping assumes the linear variation along with increasing of material damping.


We propose a combination of character-based and word-based language models in an end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) architecture. In our prior work, we combined a character-based LSTM RNN-LM with a hybrid attention/connectionist temporal classification (CTC) architecture. The character LMs improved recognition accuracy to rival state-of-the-art DNN/HMM systems in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese tasks. Although a character-based architecture can provide for open vocabulary recognition, the character-based LMs generally under-perform relative to word LMs for languages such as English with a small alphabet, because of the difficulty of modeling Linguistic constraints across long sequences of characters. This paper presents a novel method for end-to-end ASR decoding with LMs at both the character and word level. Hypotheses are first scored with the character-based LM until a word boundary is encountered. Known words are then re-scored using the word-based LM, while the character-based LM provides for out-of-vocabulary scores. In a standard Wall Street Journal (WSJ) task, we achieved 5.6 % WER for the Eval'92 test set using only the SI284 training set and WSJ text data, which is the best score reported for end-to-end ASR systems on this benchmark.


Robots have proven very useful in automating industrial processes. Their rigid components and powerful actuators, however, render them unsafe or unfit to work in normal human environments such as schools or hospitals. Robots made of compliant, softer materials may offer a valid alternative. Yet, the dynamics of these compliant robots are much more complicated compared to normal rigid robots of which all components can be accurately controlled. It is often claimed that, by using the concept of morphological computation, the dynamical complexity can become a strength. On the one hand, the use of flexible materials can lead to higher power efficiency and more fluent and robust motions. On the other hand, using embodiment in a closed-loop controller, part of the control task itself can be outsourced to the body dynamics. This can significantly simplify the additional resources required for locomotion control. To this goal, a first step consists in an exploration of the trade-offs between morphology, efficiency of locomotion, and the ability of a mechanical body to serve as a computational resource. In this work, we use a detailed dynamical model of a Mass–Spring–Damper (MSD) network to study these trade-offs. We first investigate the influence of the network size and compliance on locomotion quality and energy efficiency by optimizing an external open-loop controller using evolutionary algorithms. We find that larger networks can lead to more stable gaits and that the system's optimal compliance to maximize the traveled distance is directly linked to the desired frequency of locomotion. In the last set of experiments, the suitability of MSD bodies for being used in a closed loop is also investigated. Since maximally efficient actuator signals are clearly related to the natural body dynamics, in a sense, the body is tailored for the task of contributing to its own control. Using the same simulation platform, we therefore study how the network states can be successfully used to create a feedback signal and how its accuracy is linked to the body size.


A 28-year-old woman was evaluated for 4 months of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), after an overnight polysomnogram (PSG) revealed neither sleep disordered breathing nor a sleep related movement disorder. A full sleep evaluation revealed the presence of heavy daytime napping and pervasive fatigue. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) Score was 10/24. No features characteristic for depression or narcolepsy were present. Chronic pain in the low back and thighs, as well as chronic daily headaches were identified as potential sleep-disrupting forces. Risk factors for hypovitaminosis D included limited natural sun exposure, dark skin tone, and obesity. A 25-hydroxyvitamin D level was low, at 5.9 ng/mL. Vitamin D supplementation was initiated at a dose of 50,000 IU once weekly, and EDS improved within 2 weeks. One week later, a PSG with next-day multiple sleep latency testing (MSLT) failed to show significant pathology. At follow-up, she reported resolution of thigh pain and headaches, with a significant improvement in her low back pain syndrome. EDS had resolved, and her ESS score was 1/24. Follow-up 25-hydroxyvitamin D level was normal at 39 ng/mL. Mechanisms for her clinical improvement could include enhanced sleep quality due to resolution of hypovitaminosis D-associated noninflammatory myopathy, or a possible immunomodulatory effect of vitamin D decreasing central nervous system (CNS) homeostatic sleep pressure via its effects on tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and/or prostaglandin D2. More research is needed to determine if patients presenting with EDS should be more broadly screened for vitamin D deficiency.


We analyse rural household livelihood and children´s school enrollment decisions in a post-conflict setting in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. The innovation of the paper lies in the fact that we employ information about current subjective perceptions regarding the possibility of violence in the future and past actual experiences of violence to explain household economic decision-making. Preferences are endogenous in line with behavioural economics. Regression results show that heightened subjective perceptions of future violence and past actual experiences of conflict influences current consumption increases child enrollment, and encourages risky mixed crop cultivation. The trauma emanating from past experiences combined with current high perceptions of risk of violence may induce bolder and riskier behaviour in line with prospect theories of risk. Furthermore, a post-conflict household-level Phoenix or economic revival factor may be in operation, based in part on greater within group trust.


Author(s): Emmery, Laura | Advisor(s): Hall, Patricia | Abstract: My dissertation examines compositional process in Elliott Carter's five string quartets. Because Carter composed five quartets over a period of five decades (1951-1995), it creates an advantageous setting to systematically explore the stylistic changes within the same genre. Supplementing my analyses with sketch study, correspondence, and text manuscripts, I shed new light on the understanding of each quartet individually, and draw conclusions on their collective meaning and place in Carter's evolving compositional processes. The First String Quartet (1951) was written at a time when Carter became increasingly interested in new and unusual ideas, which stem from his interest in time perception. Seeking new ways to address this notion musically, Carter turned to the modernist literature, primarily Marcel Proust. Chapter 1 examines Carter's First Quartet from the perspective of Proustian time: the superimposition of multiple temporal strands and the role memory plays in relating all events in time and space. Musical expression in the Second String Quartet (1959) evolved from Carter's explorations in the First. Chapter 2 examines the similarities between the two quartets and the crucial differences that set this work apart from its predecessor. I argue that the Second Quartet is the piece in which Carter solidified his harmonic language, through his experimentation with serialization, as well as borrowing compositional techniques of other composers, namely Bela Bartok and Anton Webern. For Carter, the audience's experience was the most important factor in the Third String Quartet (1971). Chapter 3 examines the ways space relates to music. It also tracks the development of the concept of spatialization in Carter's music by looking at his earlier works (the first two quartets, the Double Concerto and the Concerto for Orchestra), as well as evaluating the spatial techniques of Carter's initial source--Charles Ives. Chapter 4 focuses on sketch study to decipher the rhythmic, harmonic, and formal designs of the Fourth String Quartet (1986). My examination reveals a logical hierarchical system in Carter's compositional process, starting with a long-range polyrhythmic outline of the piece, adding distinct intervallic constraints to each instrument, and lastly forming a general effect of the piece. I argue that by the time Carter finished sketching the rhythmic, harmonic, and formal elements, he had already conceived the entire quartet, and was ready to write out the piece in a nearly fair-copy format. In Chapter 5, I examine how Carter's choice of harmonic, intervallic and rhythmic constraints, combined with the development of a conceptually novel form, reflect the composer's aesthetic objectives and technical preferences in his Fifth String Quartet (1995). In addition to the novelties in his technical language, I shed light on Carter's meta-compositional concept in this piece--this final quartet is not only a composition in itself, but it captures the processes of a rehearsal, discussion, analysis, and performance, all working together to reveal the composition.


An industrial sector-based source volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission inventory was developed for the year 2011 in China with the use of 'emission factor method'. Based on the concept of source-tracing and a 'bottom-up' approach, it is estimated that the total emissions of industrial VOCs were 15.8 Tg for the year 2011, 17.7% of which came from production of VOCs, 8.4% came from storage and transport, 14.2% came from industrial processes using VOCs as raw materials, and 59.7% came from use of VOCs-containing products. Industrial VOCs emissions in East China were the largest contributors, comprising 40% of total. Four kinds of sources including furniture manufacturing, petroleum refining, machinery equipment manufacturing and printing industry took up 53.8% of total emissions. Therefore, more efficient VOCs control equipment should be paid attention to and promoted. A quantitative approach, the bootstrap simulation and Monte Carlo sampling, was used to analyze uncertainties, there is relatively medium uncertainty with an error of –42% to +71%, ranging from 9.2 to 27.2 Tg on the 95% confidence interval. To reduce VOCs emission inventory uncertainties requires giving priority to research on conducting more measurements of key sources. It's imperative to establish domestic emission factor database.


Large carpenter bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa) have traditionally been thought of as exhibiting solitary or occasionally communal colony social organization. However, studies have demonstrated more complex fonns of social behaviour in this genus. In this document, I examine elements ofbehaviour and life history in a North American species at the northern extreme of its range. Xylocopa virginica was found to be socially polymorphic with both solitary and meta-social or semi-social nests in the same population. In social nests, there is no apparent benefit from additional females which do not perfonn significant work or guarding. I found that the timing of life-history events varies between years, yet foraging effort only differed in the coldest and wettest year of2004 the study. Finally, I that male X virginica exhibit female defence polygyny, with resident and satellite males. Resident males maintain their territories through greater aggression relative to satellites.


Ecological corridors are landscape elements that prevent the negative effects of fragmentation. However, their effectiveness has never been clearly validated in urban landscapes. We analysed the role of green corridors in an urban context by comparing metacommunities of arthropods in (i) woodlots considered as sources of species, (ii) woody corridors and domestic gardens that are (iii) connected (CG) or (iv) disconnected to corridors (DG) and taking into account the connectivity of the matrix. We trapped 3 taxa of arthropods – spiders, carabids and staphylinids – because they are sensitive to fragmentation but with different dispersal capabilities. We analysed their species richness, abundance and taxonomic and functional composition. For the 3 taxa, the taxonomic and functional compositions of communities in CG were closer to those of the corridor and the source than those of DG. Woodland species were associated with source, corridor and CG. A lower abundance in DG was revealed for staphylinids and spiders. Lower species richness in DG was observed for staphylinids. The differences between taxa could be explained by the dispersal capabilities of the species and by their various responses to landscape structures. For carabids, processes at a wider scale could be responsible for their rarity in sources and, consequently, in gardens. For spiders, the colonisation from other sources could explain the high species richness found in disconnected gardens. Our results suggest that the role of corridors is crucial for enhancing biodiversity in green spaces such as domestic gardens. Our results clarify the effectiveness of corridors in urban landscapes and have direct implications for the ecological management of cities.


The quasi-static and dynamic compression experiments of ultrafine-grained copper fabricated by equal channel angular pressing method were performed at temperatures ranging from 77 to 573K. The influence of temperature on flow stress, strain hardening rate and strain rate sensitivity were investigated. The results show that the flow stress of ultrafine-grained copper shows much larger sensitivity to testing temperature than that of coarse grained copper. However, the temperature sensitivity of ultrafine-grained copper to true strain is comparative weaker than that of coarse grained copper. For the ultrafine-grained copper, both the strain hardening rate and its sensitivity to temperature of ultrafine-grained copper are lower than those of its coarse counterpart. The SRS also displays apparent dependence on temperature. The activation volume for UFG-Cu is estimated to be on the order of ~10b3 in current experiment temperature. It is suggested that the dislocation-grain boundary interactions process might be the dominant thermally activated mechanism for UFG-Cu.


The results of experimental investigations of the dislocation-related DLTS-peaks originated from the dislocation networks (DN) are presented. Samples with DNs were produced by direct bonding of p-type silicon wafers and no enhancement of oxygen concentration was detected near the DN plane. Origins of the DLTS peaks were proposed and a correlation with the dislocation-related photoluminescence data was established based on known dislocation structure of the samples. Two types of shallow DLTS peaks exhibited Pool-Frenkel effect, which could be linked to the dislocation deformation potential. One of the shallow DLTS peaks was related to straight parts of screw dislocations and another - to the intersections of the dislocations.


Various Risk factors initiate Submucous fibrosis which may be augmented by NSAIDs. A number of animal studies on their mechanism indirectly support it especially regarding alterations in prostaglandin synthesis. This study has been designed to find association of these drugs with Oral Submucous fibrosis in the presence of risk factors. Newly diagnosed patients of Oral Sub mucous fibrosis were recruited for this study who attended Dental Department of Karachi Medical and Dental College from July 1 till Dec 31, 2013.A structured interview and medical record of each patient was used to determine the demographic profile, any addiction, previous and present illnesses and drug (s) used. Through examination of Oral cavity was carried out to access the severity of disease as per modified Khanna & Andrade Classification (1995). Statistical Analysis was done by SPSS 15. Total 102 patients were recruited from dental OPD as per criteria of inclusion. Among these patients 36 (49.31%) were using NSAIDs in which Acetaminophen (30.55%), Acetylsalicylic acid (25.00%) and Diclophenac (19.44%) were 1st, 2nd and 3rd most common drugs. Data shows that 14 patients (28.88%) had mild and 22(61.11%) had sever fibrosis which was significantly high (P<0.05). Mild fibrosis was seen in 05 (45.46%) and Sever fibrosis in 06 (54.54%) out of total 11 patients who were using NSAIDSs since less than or equal to 6 months. Similarly mild fibrosis was seen in 09 (36.00%) and Sever fibrosis in 16 (64.00%) out of total 25 patients who were on NSAIDs since more than 6 months. No statistical significant difference (P>0.05) in severity of fibrosis is seen in patients who were using NSAIDs since less than or equal to 6 months but statistical significant difference (P<0.05) in severity of fibrosis is seen in patients who on these drugs since more than 6 months. Addiction burden was calculated by Average Duration x Average Frequency, which was 92.72 for Pan, 88.88 for Supari and 61.30 for Miscellaneous. No statistically significant difference (P>0.05) was seen in addiction burden of various substances in these patients. An association of NSAIDs with Oral Sub mucous fibrosis exists. The pathology is augmented if these drugs are used in the presence of risk factors. Therefore these drugs should not be prescribed to these patients until a clear benefit is not targeted.


Marine energy is poised to become an important renewable energy contributor for the U.S., but widespread deployment of the technology hinges on its benefits outweighing the potential ecological impacts. One stressor marine energy installations introduce is light, which is known to cause varying responses among wildlife and has not yet been addressed as an environmental concern. This review discusses requirements and regulations for similar structures and how lighting design choices can be made to meet these requirements while minimizing environmental consequences. More practical guidance on implementing lighting for marine energy is needed, as well as updated guidelines to reflect technological and research advances. Known responses of wildlife to light are introduced in addition to how the responses of individuals may lead to ecosystem-level changes. The impact of light associated with marine energy installations can be reduced by following basic guidance provided herein, such as removing excess lighting, using lights with high directionality, and employing controls to reduce light levels. Continued research on animal responses to light, such as findings on minimum light levels for animal responses, alongside the development of highly-sensitivity spectral characterization capabilities can further inform lighting guidelines for deploying future open ocean marine energy devices.


A commercially viable cattle embryo transfer (ET) industry was established during the early 1970s. Initially, techniques for recovering and transferring cattle embryos were exclusively surgical. However, by the late 1970s, most embryos were recovered and transferred nonsurgically. Successful cryopreservation of embryos was widespread by the early 1980s, followed by the introduction of embryo splitting, in vitro procedures, direct transfer of frozen embryos and sexing of embryos. The wide spread adoption of ethylene glycol as a cryoprotectant has simplified the thaw-transfer procedures for frozen embryos. The number of embryos recovered annually has not grown appreciably over the last 10 years in North America and Europe; however, there has been significant growth of commercial ET in South America, especially Brazil. Although a number of new technologies have been adopted within the ET industry in the last decade, the basic procedure of superovulation of donor cattle has undergone little improvement over the last 20 years. The effects of a large number of factors on the pregnancy rates of fresh and frozen cattle embryos were examined over a period of years at several different locations. For fresh embryos, overall pregnancy rates were 68.3% (n=9023) and 77.1% (n=2650) at different locations and time periods. Frozen-thawed embryo pregnancy rates were 56.1% (n=3616) in The Netherlands and 58.4% (n=5297) and 68.7% (n=774) for two studies in the United States. Pregnancy rates of surgical versus nonsurgical transfers were very similar. There were no differences in the pregnancy rates of beef versus dairy embryos, but the pregnancy rate was greater in dairy and beef heifers and beef cows than in dairy cows. Estrous asynchrony between plus and minus 24 h did not affect pregnancy rate for frozen-thawed or fresh embryos. Neither breed nor parity of recipients affected the influence of asynchrony on pregnancy rates. Embryo grade was a significant factor in pregnancy rate for both fresh and frozen-thawed embryos, but neither embryo stage nor age was a significant factor. Pregnancy rate was not affected by holding embryos after flushing for up to 3 h prior to freezing. Therefore, there are numerous potential donor and recipient factors that may alter pregnancy rates for an embryo transfer program. This review will focus on these factors.


Ecological theory suggests that habitat disturbance differentially influences distributions of generalist and specialist species. While well-established for macroorganisms, this theory has rarely been explored for microorganisms. Here we tested these principles in permeable (sandy) sediments, ecosystems with much spatiotemporal variation in resource availability and other conditions. Microbial community composition and function was profiled in intertidal and subtidal sediments using 16S amplicon sequencing and metagenomics, yielding 135 metagenome-assembled genomes. Microbial abundance and composition significantly differed with sediment depth and, to a lesser extent, sampling date. Several generalist taxa were highly abundant and prevalent in all samples, including within orders Woeseiales and Flavobacteriales; genome reconstructions indicate these facultatively anaerobic taxa are highly metabolically flexible and adapt to fluctuations in resource availability by using different electron donors and acceptors. In contrast, obligately anaerobic taxa such as sulfate reducers (Desulfobacterales, Desulfobulbales) and proposed candidate phylum MBNT15 were less abundant overall and only thrived in more stable deeper sediments. We substantiated these findings by measuring three metabolic processes in these sediments; whereas the generalist-associated processes of sulfide oxidation and hydrogenogenic fermentation occurred rapidly at all depths, the specialist-associated process of sulfate reduction was restricted to deeper sediments. In addition, a manipulative experiment confirmed generalists outcompete specialist taxa during simulated habitat disturbance. Altogether, these findings suggest that metabolically flexible taxa become dominant in these highly dynamic environments, whereas metabolic specialism restricts bacteria to narrower niches. Thus, an ecological theory describing distribution patterns for macroorganisms likely extends to microorganisms. Such findings have broad ecological and biogeochemical ramifications.


Abstract The extended reliance on media can be seen as one indicator of mediatization. But even though we can assume that the pervasive character of digital media essentially changes the way people experience everyday life, we cannot take these experiences for granted. There has recently been a formulation of three tasks for mediatization research; historicity, specificity and measurability, needed to empirically verify mediatization processes across time and space. In this article, we present a tool designed to handle these tasks, by measuring the extent to which people experience that media reach into the deeper layers of daily human life. The tool was tested in an empirical study conducted in Sweden in 2017. The results show that perceived media reliance is played out in relation to three types of basic desires: (1) (re)productive desires, (2) recognition desires, and (3) civic desires, and is socially structured and structuring. We argue this tool, in diachronic analyses, can measure one important aspect of mediatization.


To obtain a material with potential for use in tissue engineering, anionic collagen was obtained from porcine serosa (S) and bovine tendon (T) by alkaline hydrolysis for 72h. Part of this collagen was mixed with water to obtain 4 % (weight/weight) collagen suspension and part was solubilized in acetic acid pH 3.5 to obtain 1.5% (w/w) gel. The suspensions were mixed with their respective gels (2:1) (suspension: gel) and grape seed extract, whose main product is proanthocyanidin, was added at concentrations of 0.03% and 0.5%, thus obtaining the scaffolds SC (serosa collagen suspension and gel), TC (tendon collagen suspension and gel), SCP003 (SC with 0.03% extract), TCP003 (TC with 0.03% extract), SCP05 (SC with 0.5% extract added) and TCP05 (TC with 0.5% extract). The materials were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and characterized by phosphate buffered saline absorption assay and in vitro biological stability assay. By DSC it is observed that the addition of 0.5% of extract increases the denaturation temperature (Td) of collagen, indicating that at this concentration the extract acts as polymer crosslinking agent. SEM shows disorganized cross-section pores in all scaffolds, not exceeding 130 μm. Absorption and degradation assays indicated that the addition of 0.5% addition of 0.5% extract increases the absorption of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) by the scaffolds and decreases the degradation percentage by collagenase. These results suggests that the scaffolds can be used for different applications, e.g. as hemostatic agent.


Twelve healthy male volunteers received phenytoin 0.5 and 1 g, lamotrigine (a new anticonvulsant) 120 and 240 mg, diazepam 10 mg and placebo orally in a double-blind, cross-over, randomized trial. Maximum drug concentrations at 4 h, measured in plasma were 11.5 +/- 2.2 micrograms ml-1 for phenytoin and 2.7 +/- 0.4 micrograms ml-1 for lamotrigine. These levels were in the therapeutic range for phenytoin and the putative therapeutic range for lamotrigine. Side effects after diazepam (mainly sedation) and phenytoin (mainly unsteadiness) differed markedly from lamotrigine which produced no important side effects. Subjective effects as measured by visual analogue scales were caused by phenytoin and diazepam but not by lamotrigine. Diazepam impaired eye movements, adaptive tracking and body sway. Phenytoin impaired adaptive tracking, increased body sway and impaired smooth pursuit eye movement. Lamotrigine produced only a possible slight increase in body sway. There were significant correlations between performance and saliva levels of phenytoin and diazepam. It was concluded that the tests used were suitable for monitoring CNS effects of anticonvulsants and that lamotrigine possibly could have a more favourable CNS side effect profile than phenytoin.


Self-aligning four-point bend fatigue tests were conducted to investigate the influence of humid air on the fatigue behavior of an AA2524-T34 Al alloy. Test specimens of the alloy along the rolling direction was cycled at room temperature and frequency of 15 Hz, tension-tension loading(R = 0.1), in 15% relative humidity (RH) and 95% RH up to 107 cycles to failure. The S-N data shows continuous reduction tendency. It was found that with the increase of test relative humidity, the fatigue properties of the alloy is decreased, the fatigue limit in 95% RH was nearly 20% reduction of that in 15% RH, only 67% of its yield strength. Meanwhile, the S-N data is much more scattered than it in lower relative humidity. In 15% and 95% RH, cracks were initiated predominantly at coarse particles but partly at grain boundaries on the surface in 95%RH. SEM results show the characteristics of intergranular fracture in high humidity circumstance.


Spontaneous growth and growth responses to GH therapy vary considerably among girls with Turner's syndrome. In an attempt to clarify this variability, we assessed growth parameters, 24-h GH profiles, arginine-stimulated serum GH levels, and plasma insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) concentrations in a group of 41 girls with Turner's syndrome with a mean (+/- SD) age of 13 +/- 3 yr (range, 6.7-18.9). We subsequently treated all girls with biosynthetic GH (24 IU/m2 x week) and documented the growth response after 1 yr of therapy. GH profiles were analyzed according to Pulsar and Cluster, and GH secretion rates were calculated by waveform-independent deconvolution (Pulse). Factor analysis selected the mean 24-h GH secretion rate and number of GH peaks according to Cluster and Pulse as the principal GH profile variables to be used for further analysis. The mean (+/- SD) daily pituitary GH secretion rate was 127 +/- 47 micrograms/L.24 h (range, 37-232). The GH secretion rate correlated inversely with body mass index (r = -0.45; P < 0.01; n = 41). There was no relationship between the GH secretion rate and the growth parameters before or after GH therapy. However, the number of GH peaks (Pulse) correlated negatively with baseline height velocity (r = -0.53; P = 0.03) and was a positive predictor for height velocity increment during the first year of GH therapy (r = 0.71, P = 0.001). The mean (+/- SD) IGF-I level was 217 +/- 91 ng/mL (range, 87-413). There was no relationship between GH secretion rate or growth parameters and IGF-I. However, the number of GH peaks correlated negatively with IGF-I (r = -0.49; P = 0.04; n = 17). We conclude that an elevated spontaneous GH pulse frequency pattern is associated with relatively low IGF-I levels and slow baseline growth in girls with Turner's syndrome and that girls with such a pulse pattern may benefit most from exogenous GH therapy.


The fiber cement composite production process consumes extremely high fuel especially boiler and autoclave leading to the release of a lot of waste energy. In this study, the concept of energy and exergy utilization is analyzed and illustrated in the form of the Sankey diagram. It was found that the energy and exergy efficiencies of the boiler were 72.04 and 69.98%, respectively. The exergy destruction of the boiler system is 30% or 3.89 MW. Which can also be represented in the Power Available Diagram (PAD). In the exergy analysis, there are 2 methods in reducing the energy loss of the boiler by increasing the steam outlet temperature or reducing the temperature of the exhaust gas of the boiler. For the autoclave system, the energy analysis showed the total energy input at 43.67 GJ/batch. The three main energy losses are; the exhaust steam (49.74% or 23.74 GJ/batch), condensate (16.42% or 7.83 GJ/batch) and autoclave shell heat loss (13.67% or 6.25 GJ/batch). For the exergy, the exergy destruction in the autoclave is at 87.14%. However, the PAD of the autoclave cannot present the relation of the exergy loss. The main causes of the exergy destruction are the three main energy losses; the exhaust steam (50.80%), condensate (16.47%) and autoclave shell loss (10.01%) respectively.


The study of white ethnicities is becoming increasingly important in the social sciences. This book provides a critical introduction to the topic. Whiteness has traditionally been seen as "ethnically transparent" - the marker against which other ethnicities are measured. This analysis is clearly incorrect, but only recently have many race and ethnicity scholars moved away from focusing on ethnic minorities and instead oriented their studies around the construction of white identities. Simon Clarke and Steve Garner's book is designed to guide students as they explore how white identities are forged using both sociological and psycho-social ideas. Including an excellent survey of the existing literature and original research from the UK, this book will be an invaluable guide for sociology students taking modules in race and ethnicity. Show More Show Less


BACKGROUND: Reports of histological types of orbital and adnexal tumours are few in the West African Sub-region and non-existent in Ghana. OBJECTIVE: This study was to determine and report the histological types of orbital and adnexal tumours seen in the eye unit in Korle-bu Teaching Hospital METHODS: This was a retrospective study of orbital and adnexal tumours in a referral orbit and oculoplastic clinic in a teaching hospital in Ghana. Biopsy specimen taken from the orbit, conjunctiva and eyelids of patients referred to the orbit and oculoplastic clinic of the eye unit between November 2005 and October 2009 were mailed to Royal Hallamshire Hospital Sheffield, UK for histological evaluation. Histology reports of these biopsy specimens were reviewed and analysed for types of†tumours, frequency of occurrence, sex and age of patients. RESUL TS: A total of 190 histological specimen were taken. One hundred and four (54.7%) were malignant tumours, 53 (27.9%) benign tumours and 12 (6.3%) inflammatory lesions. Eighteen (9.5%) of biopsies taken were mostly degenerative conditions. CONCLUSION: Our findings show, as reported from other centres, that squamous cell carcinomas are the commonest cancers of the orbit and adnexia, while malignant melanomas account for only 3.8% of cancers. WAJM 2012; 31(1): 58 � 62.


Software development efforts are characterised by; project failures, runaway projects and integration and communication problems. Analysing why some projects finish on target while others lose track of their original objectives, constraints and milestones, can only be viewed as a long term investment. The study of failures is a sensible approach for utilising past experience and advancing to the next level of maturity. This paper introduces the discipline of forensic engineering and frames it within the ECBS environment. The value of failure analysis is discussed from a number of viewpoints. This paper calls for a new attitude towards failure, where in order to maximise potential learning, acceptance of failure is the new order of the day.<<ETX>>


Decision support systems combine individuals' and computers' capabilities to improve the quality of decisions. Usually adopted in manufacturing to design floor plans and optimize resource allocation and performance, DSSs are penetrating increasingly complex application areas, from insurance fraud detection to military system procurement to emergency planning. Although researchers have suggested many approaches, DSSs haven't yet entered the main stream of software engineering tools. The complexity of the software process and its sociotechnical nature are often mentioned as the main obstacles to their adoption. As DSSs are developed for other equally complex application areas, we need to identify approaches that can overcome these difficulties and enable project managers to exploit DSSs' capabilities in their daily activities. A hybrid two-level modeling approach is a step in this direction


Considering the great significant role that routing protocols play in transfer rate and choosing the optimum path for exchange of data packages, and further in the amount of consumed energy in the routing protocol, the present study has focused on developing an efficient compound energy algorithm based on cluster structure which is called active node with cluster structure. The purpose of this algorithm is to distribute the heavy traffic of data and equal load of highly-consumed energy throughout the networks by introducing unequal and unbalanced clusters into the network. In the second stage, the light sensor mechanism which is called active node sensor algorithm has been proposed. The major purpose of this mechanism is to prevent excessive interfering data of sensors through incorporating a set of active nodes in each cluster with a defensive shield near to the incident node. The third stage has aimed at proposing an active node algorithm for complexity of internal and external addressing due to clusters routing in high density distribution based on the values within node range. The obtained results indicate relative success of the design in terms of energy optimization on the basis of routing protocol. Index Terms Routing; energy efficiency; dense distribution; clustering.


Containers are quickly increasing in popularity as the mechanism to deploy computation in the cloud. In order to provide consistent and reliable performance, cloud providers must ensure containers cannot adversely interfere with one another. Because containers share the same underlying OS, it is more challenging to provide isolation in a container-based framework than a traditional VMbased framework. And while many schemes can isolate CPU, memory, disk, or network bandwidth in multi-tenant environments, less attention has been paid to how the time spent processing network traffic affects isolation on the host server. This paper shows computational overhead associated with the network stack can break isolation in container-based environments. Specifically, a container with heavy network traffic can decrease the computation available to other containers sharing the same server. We propose a scheme, called Iron, that accounts for the time spent in the networking stack on behalf of a container and ensures this processing cannot adversely impact colocated containers through novel enforcement mechanisms. Our results show Iron effectively provides isolation under realistic and adversarial conditions, limiting interferencebased slowdowns as high as 6× to less than 5%.


Introduction: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. With the challenges of cancer treatment in developing countries there is a need for a systematic and methodical approach to treatment in resource-limited settings. Objective: To retrospectively evaluate the profile of breast cancer patients irradiated with curative intent and discuss the therapeutic outcomes, and to compare this cohort with the available developed-world data. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 689 breast cancer patients from 2010–2014 at Tygerberg Hospital, Western Cape Province was analysed. The best-case disease-free survival was calculated at five years and compared with the SEER database. Various prognostic factors were calculated by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: The five-year best-case disease-free survival (DFS) for Stage I is 94.7% (95% CI 68–99) and for Stage IIIC, 71.3% (95% CI 39–88). Conclusion: Outcomes of treatment at this institution are comparable to data reported in first-world countries. As two-dimensional radiotherapy compares with most Cobalt specifications, the majority of breast cancer patients in sub-Saharan Africa can be treated efficiently with Cobalt-type technology.


SEGER, J.D., Retrieving the Past: Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology in Honor of Gus W. Van Beek (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996, for the Cobb Institute of Archaelogy), pp. xxxi + 312. Cloth, n.p. ISBN 1-57506-012-4. The introductory matter deals with Van Beek (biography, bibliography, correspondence with J.A. Callaway). Very much an archaeologist's volume, and reflecting Van Beek's insistence on integrating detail with broader synthesis: the nineteen essays (each with an individual dedication) contain five studies on pottery and other artifacts (Blakely and Glanzman, Futato, Gitin, Jacobs, Killebrew, MagnessGardiner, Schaub); two on methods (Borowski and Doolittle on Remote Sensing, Seger on Total Retrieval); Elliott on A. Negev; Dever on the tell as artifact; Levy on protohistoric Negev; Hesse on the Iron Age economy of the Yemen; A. Mazar, D. Amit and Z. Ilan on Hurvat Shilhah; Parr on late Second Millennium settlement in NW Arab; Rollefson on the 'Neolithic Devolution' at cain Ghazal; Tsafrir on Byzantine Palestine; Wapnish on the Akkadian seni ani ld mdni ('small cattle with-


ABSTRACT Introduction: Thymosin alpha 1 (Ta1) is a natural occurring peptide hormone that is crucial for the maintenance of the organism homeostasis. It has been chemically synthesized and used in diseases where the immune system is hindered or malfunctioning. Areas covered: Many clinical trials investigate the Ta1 effects in patients with cancer, infectious diseases and as a vaccine enhancer. The number of diseases that could benefit from Ta1 treatment is increasing. To date, questions remain about the physiological basal levels of Ta1 and the most effective dose and schedule of treatment. Evidence is growing that diseases characterized by deregulation of immune and/or inflammatory responses are associated with serum levels of Ta1 significantly lower than those of healthy individuals: to date, B hepatitis, psoriatic arthritis, multiple sclerosis and sepsis. The sputum of cystic fibrosis patients contains lower levels of Ta1 than healthy controls. These data are consistent with the role of Ta1 as a regulator of immunity, tolerance and inflammation. Expert opinion: Low serum Ta1 levels are predictive and/or associated with different pathological conditions. In case of Ta1 treatment, it is crucial to know the patient's baseline serum Ta1 level to establish effective treatment protocols and monitor their effectiveness over time.


Abstract Studies were conducted to determine the effect of interference between tropic croton (Croton glandulosus) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) on plant growth and productivity. Tropic croton height was not affected by weed density, but cotton height decreased with increased weed density 10 wk after planting. Tropic croton biomass per plant was not affected by weed density, but total weed biomass per meter of crop row increased with weed density. Cotton lint yield decreased linearly 2 kg ha−1 with each gram increase in weed dry biomass per meter of row. Percent yield loss–density relationship was described by the rectangular hyperbola model. Estimated coefficients A (maximum yield loss) and I (yield loss per unit density as density approaches zero) were 129.6 ± 42.2 and 35.6 ± 8.0%, respectively, when asymptotic iterations were based on least sums of squares. When A was constrained to 100% yield loss, I was 42.5 ± 5.1%. Results indicated that tropic croton was less competitive with cotton than many weeds but represents an economic threat to cotton growers. Nomenclature: Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. 'Deltapine 51'; tropic croton, Croton glandulosus var. septentrionalis Muell.-Arg. CVNGS.


Introduction: Moyamoya patients under two years of age represent a therapeutic challenge because of their frequent neurologic instability and concomitant anesthetic risks. We report our experience with pial synangiosis revascularization in this population. Methods: We reviewed the clinical and radiographic records of all patients with moyamoya syndrome in a consecutive series of patients under 2 years of age, who underwent cerebral revascularization surgery using pial synangiosis at a single institution. Results: During a 12-year period (1994-2005), thirty-four procedures (15 bilateral, 4 unilateral) were performed in 19 patients under two years of age (out of a total of 456 procedures in 240 patients). Eighteen of these patients presented with either stroke or TIA. Average age at first surgery was 1.4 years (range 6 months to 1.9 years). Unanticipated staged operations occurred in three patients, two due to persistent EEG changes during the initial surgery and one due to brain swelling during the procedure requiring ventriculostomy. There were two perioperative strokes; both patients had post-operative seizures but made clinical recoveries. The average follow-up was 7 years (range 1-14). In long term follow-up, 13 patients (68%) were clinically independent for their age, with 8 (42%) having no significant deficit. Late complications included subdural hygroma evacuation (1), additional revascularization procedures years later for frontal lobe ischemia (2), late infarction (1) and asymptomatic ischemic change on routine follow-up MRI studies (1). All patients who had both pre and post-operative angiography demonstrated progression of disease. Conclusions: Despite the challenges inherent to this population, the majority of children with moyamoya under 2 years of age have a good long-term prognosis. Our data support the use of pial synangiosis as a safe, effective and durable method for treatment of moyamoya for most children in this potentially high-risk population.


In an extended Uzawa-Lucas model that includes labor-leisure decisions, sector-speci c externalities in the production of goods generate a market failure relative to the socially optimal decisions. We show that, regardless of whether agents value pure or effective units of leisure, the first best solution can be attained either by using a time-varying subsidy to the human capital employed to produce goods or by combining consumption and labor income taxes with this type of subsidy. Moreover, when leisure is de ned as raw time, we fi nd that even when there is global determinacy, local indeterminacy may arise for several combinations of the parameters that are consistent with empirical evidence and previous literature. Importantly, under local indeterminacy the optimal policy does not ensure that identical economies will converge to the same per capita levels. Thus, not only the size and type of human capital externalities are important for optimal policy but also the indeterminacy aspects are relevant.


The neural network has proven to be an effective machine learning method over the past decade, prompting its usage for modelling language, among several other domains. However, the latent representations learned by these neural network function approximators remain uninterpretable, resulting in a new wave of research efforts to improve their explainability, without compromising on their predictive power. In this work, we tackle the problem of disentangling the latent style and content variables in a language modelling context. This involves splitting the latent representations of documents, by learning which features of a document are discriminative of its style and content, and encoding these features separately using neural network models. To achieve this, we propose a simple, yet effective approach, which incorporates auxiliary objectives: a multi-task classification objective, and dual adversarial objectives for label prediction and bag-of-words prediction, respectively. We show, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that the style and content are indeed disentangled in the latent space, using this approach. We apply this disentangled latent representation learning method to attribute (e.g. style) transfer in natural language generation. We achieve similar content preservation scores compared to previous state-of-the-art approaches, and considerably better styletransfer strength scores. Our code is made publicly available for experiment replicability and extensibility.


Abstract The dynamic/thermodynamic shallow-ice model SICOPOLIS is applied to the Greenland ice sheet. Paleoclimatic spin-ups from 125 ka BP until today, as well as future-climate experiments 500 years into the future, are carried out with three different grid spacings, namely 20, 10 and 5 km. The scenarios are a subset of those specified by the SeaRISE (Sea-level Response to Ice Sheet Evolution) community effort. The bed topography includes improved troughs for Jakobshavn Isbræ, Helheim, Kangerdlugssuaq and Petermann glaciers, processed by an algorithm that preserves shape, orientation and continuity of the troughs on the 5 km scale. Comparison of simulated and observed present-day surface velocities shows that these ice streams and outlet glaciers are resolved with different accuracies, ranging from poor (20 km grid) to reasonably good (5 km grid). In the future-climate experiments, the simulated absolute ice volumes depend significantly on the resolution, while the sensitivities (ice volumes relative to the constant-climate control run) vary only by a few centimeters of sea-level equivalent.


In these proceedings we present recent efforts to understan d the energetics of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence driven by the magneto-rotat i nal instability (MRI). These studies are carried out in the local (shearing box) approximation us i g the Athena simulation code. Athena is a higher order Godunov algorithm based on the piecewise pa rabolic method (PPM), the corner transport upwind (CTU) integration algorithm, and the c onstrained transport (CT) algorithm for evolving the magnetic field. This algorithm is particula rly suited for these studies owing to the conservation properties of a Godunov scheme and the particu l mplementation of the shearing box source terms used here. We present a variety of calculations which may be compared directly to previously published results and discuss them in some detail. T he only significant discrepancy found between the results presented here and in the published lite ratur involves the turbulent heating rate. We observe the presence of recurrent channel solutions in ca lculations involving a mean vertical magnetic field and the associated time lag between the energy injection and thermalization rate. We also present the results of a shearing box calculation which includes an optically thin radiative term with a cooling rate selected to match the turbulent heating r ate. Some properties which we find uniformly present in all of the calculations presented here are compressible fluctuations, spiral waves and weak shocks. It is found that these compressible modes do minate the temporal fluctuations in the probability distribution functions for most of the ther modynamic variables; only the specific entropy is relatively immune to their effects.


What has driven the worldwide adoption and subsequent revision of gender quota policies? This study argues that this phenomenon can be best understood as exemplifying 'glocalization'--with policies adopted due to a combination of changing international discourses and regional diffusion combined with domestic political activists. Moreover a process of policy learning is evident; where the initial policies were relatively ineffective, by failing to ensure a more equitable gender balance in elected office, this spurs subsequent revisions. Empirical analysis supporting this interpretation draws on a new comprehensive cross-national dataset, The Gender Quota Database (GQD, Release 1.0 May 2014). Part I of the paper provides the theoretical framework and literature review. Part II summarizes the research design, data and evidence. Part III describes the use of the main types of gender quotas in politics in various regions of the world (as of May 2014), and discusses trends (waves) in the adoption and amendment of quotas. Part IV presents the results of the analysis of drivers behind the initial adoption of legal gender quotas. Both regional and domestic forces play a role in the initial adoption of gender quota policies, controlling for fixed socio-economic, political and cultural conditions. Part V considers policy-learning processes leading to subsequent revisions strengthening quota laws, focusing upon the lack of success when implementing earlier policies. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and considers their implications.


A fundamental question in the correlation of 1-D sedimentologic data is whether to use a layer-cake or shingled correlation approach. The resulting reservoir geometry has important implications for the characterization of reservoir heterogeneities and fluid flow. On the Saiq Plateau in Oman, epeiric carbonate ramp deposits of the Triassic Sudair Formation are well exposed and can be investigated in detail over several kilometers. There, reservoir heterogeneities on different scales have been documented by creating various outcrop wall panels and 2-D correlations. Multi-level architectural elements with different depositional geometries were discovered, which were linked to a sequence-stratigraphic hierarchy consisting of three levels. Level 1: A "layer-cake"-type stratigraphic architecture with minor thickness variations over several kilometers becomes apparent when correlating fourth-order cycle set boundaries. Level 2: The correlation of fifth-order cycle boundaries reflects horizontally continuous geometries, within which, however, internal grainstone layers were discovered to be arranged in a shingled fashion. Muddy layers in between these shingles illustrate sixth-order mini-cycle boundaries. Level 3: Within sixth-order mini-cycles another scale of a shingle-like architecture can be observed. Amalgamated cm-thick grainstone units form thin wedges with subtle but clearly inclined dipping geometry.
 Fourth-order cycle sets and fifth-order cycles can be traced over several kilometers, and therefore assumed to be related to allocyclic stratigraphic processes. The internal shingle geometries within fifth-order cycles are traceable over 100s of meters and presumably reflect an autocyclic lateral migration of a shoal complex. Cm-thick shingling grainstone wedges within sixth-order mini-cycles are interpreted as storm-related spill deposits. Their event-driven character is reflected by frequent amalgamation and reworking of the preceding deposits.
 The results of this study of epeiric carbonate ramp deposits suggest that a "layer-cake" correlation approach is appropriate when correlating 10s of m-thick grainstone units over a distance of several kilometers. However in the documented example, these thick grainstone units consist internally of small-scale architectural elements, which show inclined geometries and require a shingled correlation approach. These small-scale heterogeneities within an overall "layer-cake" architecture might have an impact on fluid flow in similar subsurface reservoirs and should be taken into account for detailed reservoir correlations and static reservoir models.


Recent increases in imports of catfish, crawfish, and shrimp have caused concern as to their impact on domestic prices. This study seeks to identify the linkages between imports of these goods and producer prices. Increases in imports of catfish and shrimp are shown to decrease related domestic prices. However, recent trends show a simultaneous increase in both imports and domestic prices of crawfish.


BACKGROUND Despite state and federal efforts to implement medical malpractice reform, there is limited evidence on which to base policy decisions. The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) offers an opportunity to evaluate the effects of previous malpractice tort reforms on malpractice payments and premiums. METHODS For every state and the District of Columbia, we calculated the number of malpractice payments, total amount paid, and average payment from NPDB data reported from 1999 through 2001. We analyzed 44,913 claims using logistic regression to study associations between payments, physician premiums, and 10 state statutory tort reforms. RESULTS Wide variations exist in malpractice payments among states. The reforms most associated with lower payments and premiums were total and noneconomic damage caps. Mean payments were 26% lower in states with total damage caps ($196,495.34 vs $265,554.50, P = .001). Mean payments were 22% less in states with noneconomic damage caps ($219,225.98 vs $279,849.86, P = .010). Total damage caps were associated with lower mean annual premiums, especially for obstetricians ($22,371.57 vs $42,728.68, P <.001). Hard noneconomic damage caps were associated with premium reductions for obstetricians (30,283.75 vs 45,740.88; P = .039). CONCLUSIONS Significant reductions in malpractice payments could be realized if total or noneconomic damage caps were operating nationally. Hard noneconomic damage and total damage caps could yield lower premiums. If tied to a comprehensive plan for reform, the money saved could be diverted to implement alternative approaches to patient compensation or be used to achieve other systems reform benefiting patients, employers, physicians, and hospitals.


This article deals with the concepts of space and territoriality in law and politics seen through reflexion on borders, which are understood primarily as forms of identification and the basis for nation-building. While in the classical antiquity, borders were seen as exclusionary defensive structures, in modern international law in the 18th and 19th centuries, they became spaces for the delimitation of states sovereign territories. The author attempts to enligthen the symbolic significance of borders in modern European history, which have been connected with imperial designs, nationalist discourses and political imaginaries. Border rhetoric often emphasised territorial inclusions and exclusions relied to the concepts such as sovereignty, security and natural living space ("natural borders"). The concept of borders is also related to the understanding of the division of Earth's surface into areas defined as regions. Regions may construct and transcend natural and political borders. Although, borders have been through world history sites of conflict, they also build ways of interconnections between locals and neighbours. The struggle over cultural and political domination and attempts to integrate and assimilate border populations were mostly reflected into deliberate linguistic policies relating to the language of administration and the public sphere. After the Second world war, the perception of borders have changed and the new understanding of borders have prevailed, based upon the idea of cooperation and the recognition of local traditions and minority rights. The principle of uti possidetis iuris was applied in order to prevent redrawing of the borders of new states and to maintain the territorial stability of the regions. But the recent migration crisis and security concerns in Europe and America have re-actualised the perception of state borders as defensive structures. Moreover, introduction of new technologies, such as ICT and the bio-metric, have transformed classical, linear forms of territorial border surveillance into mechanisms of remote control and ruling at a distance.


Many aspects of the Californian approach to controlling the greenhouse gases that cause climate change now have a sufficient track record to provide potential models or lessons for national and even international action. In comparison, the stateÕs efforts on climate change adaptation, although multifaceted, are less well developed and thus far have focused largely on information sharing, impact assessments, and planning. Still, adaptation could advance more quickly in California than in many other regions, given relatively high public awareness and concern, extensive scientific information, a strong tradition of local and regional planning, and some enabling policies and institutions. Much more political support and sufficient financing will have to be mustered at state and local levels to enable new projects and initiatives to cope with sea level rise, water management, and ecosystem adaptation, not to mention public health and other key areas of concern. Even so, CaliforniaÕs initial efforts to adapt to unavoidable changes in climate may offer insights for other governments that will, inevitably, need to fashion their own adaptation strategies.


The aim of this study was to assess the effect of different commercial liquid phases (Ketac, Riva, and Fuji IX) and the use of spherical pre-reacted glass (SPG) fillers on cement maturation, fluoride release, compressive (CS) and biaxial flexural strength (BFS) of experimental glass ionomer cements (GICs). The experimental GICs (Ketac_M, Riva_M, FujiIX_M) were prepared by mixing SPG fillers with commercial liquid phases using the powder to liquid mass ratio of 2.5:1. FTIR-ATR was used to assess the maturation of GICs. Diffusion coefficient of fluoride (DF) and cumulative fluoride release (CF) in deionized water was determined using the fluoride ion specific electrode (n=3). CS and BFS at 24 h were also tested (n=6). Commercial GICs were used as comparisons. Riva and Riva_M exhibited rapid polyacrylate salt formation. The highest DF and CF were observed with Riva_M (1.65x10 -9 cm 2 /s) and Riva (77 ppm) respectively. Using SPG fillers enhanced DF of GICs on average from ~2.5x10 -9 cm 2 /s to ~3.0x10 -9 cm 2 /s but reduced CF of the materials on average from ~51 ppm to ~42 ppm. The CS and BFS of Ketac_M (144 and 22 MPa) and Fuji IX_M (123 and 30 MPa) were comparable to commercial materials. Using SPG with Riva significantly reduced CS and BFS from 123 MPa to 55 MPa and 42 MPa to 28 MPa respectively. The use of SPG fillers enhanced DF but reduced CF of GICs. Using SPG with Ketac or Fuji IX liquids provided comparable strength to the commercial materials.


This paper intends to examine religious ideology and discourse conventions of majlis-e-Hussain; i.e. the speech to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad; from a critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) perspective. The analysis involves identification of multiple linguistic devices such as pronominalization, recontextualization, resemantisization, implicatures, interactional strategies and cohesive links; which serve to perpetuate the religious ideologies in Shi'ah Muslims of Pakistan. In this way, this paper makes an attempt to highlight the way majlis discourse delegitimizes and deconstructs sectarian prejudice still prevalent in Pakistani society; and hence argues for a broader interpretation of majlise-Hussain than merely associating it with Moharram mourning rituals.


One-dimensional coded apertures have been investigated for use in imaging long, narrow objects such as reactor fuel pins. Since coded apertures work better for small, point-like objects, while pinhole apertures work better for large extended objects, a hybrid aperture combining these properties seems attractive for imaging fuel pins. The one-dimensional aperture behaves like a coded aperture in the direction for which the object is small, while it acts like a pinhole in the direction for which the object is extended. A one-dimensional Fresnel zone plate has been investigated, and an iterative, nonlinear algorithm has been developed for removing the background produced by extra-core values in the point spread function. The algorithm is shown to have a decidedly nonlinear effect on the effective system transfer function. Uniformly redundant sequences have also been investigated as possible aperture codes. They can produce filled apertures and result in a decoded image with a uniform background level that can be easily removed by subtraction.


In this paper, we present the design of a reconfigurable transmitarray operating in the D-band (110 – 170 GHz). The transmitarray unit cell has a relatively simple structure with three metal layers and two quartz dielectric substrates. The active transmitting patch of the unit cell ensures a 1-bit phase shift resolution by alternating the states of two innovative switches. Here, we overcome the small dimensions challenge in the D-band by introducing compact switches that are compatible with the dimensions of the proposed unit cell. The switches are made of phase change materials (PCM) that alternate between the amorphous and the crystalline states under the effect of heat. We present a full-wave simulation of the unit cell, which shows an insertion loss that is below 1.5 dB over a relative frequency band of 27%. Furthermore, we synthesize a 16×16 elements transmitarray using an in-house MATLAB tool and compare its theoretical results to a full-wave HFSS simulation. The outcome shows that by integrating the proposed switches into the unit cell, the designed transmitarray can achieve promising reconfiguration results in the D-band.


Data suggest that β cell exosomes, extracellular vesicles released by exocytosis of multivesicular endosomes (MVEs) , may act as paracrine effectors in islet health. However, mechanisms linking β cell stress to changes in exosomes and whether activation of these pathways can impact diabetes remain less explored. In other cells, the enzyme neutral spingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2) induces ceramide dependent MVE vesicle formation and release of ceramide-enriched exosomes. We hypothesized that β cell inflammatory stress engages ceramide-dependent exosomal formation pathways, and that ceramide-enriched exosomes could then impact surrounding β cells. To test this we treated INS-1 β cells with 24 hrs of 5 ng/mL of IL1β. nSMase 2 and ceramide expression were quantified with immunoblot and/or flow cytometry and exosomes were isolated using a tetraspanin bead-based pulldown. IL1β increased β cell nSMase2 expression and ceramide expression in concert. Direct nSMase2 activation with 24 hrs of 5-ng/mL Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) also increased β cell ceramide staining. IL1β and CAPE treatments also yielded increased ceramide expression on β cell exosomes. Human islets exhibited similar increases in cellular nSMase2 and ceramide staining after 24-hr cytokine mix treatment (5ng/mL IL1β, 10ng/mL TNFα, and 100ng/mL IFNγ) . To test the potential for transfer of β cell exosomes to surrounding cells, we generated INS-1 cells with GFP tagged CD9 (exosome transmembrane protein) , which release GFP labeled exosomes. Flow cytometry staining in wild-type INS-1 cells after 24-hr transwell coculture with CD9-GFP cells showed that cocultured wild-type cells exhibited increased green fluorescence, suggesting transfer of CD9-GFP exosomes. Our findings suggest that nSMase2 activity may regulate β cell exosome subpopulations under conditions of inflammatory stress. Future work will interrogate impacts on exosome cargo and physiologic impacts of transfer on recipient cells.

 J.Xu: None. E.K.Sims: Other Relationship; Medscape, Patent.

 5 R01DK121929


A new perspective on the topic of antibiotic resistance is beginning to emerge based on a broader evolutionary and ecological understanding rather than from the traditional boundaries of clinical research of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. Phylogenetic insights into the evolution and diversity of several antibiotic resistance genes suggest that at least some of these genes have a long evolutionary history of diversification that began well before the 'antibiotic era'. Besides, there is no indication that lateral gene transfer from antibiotic-producing bacteria has played any significant role in shaping the pool of antibiotic resistance genes in clinically relevant and commensal bacteria. Most likely, the primary antibiotic resistance gene pool originated and diversified within the environmental bacterial communities, from which the genes were mobilized and penetrated into taxonomically and ecologically distant bacterial populations, including pathogens. Dissemination and penetration of antibiotic resistance genes from antibiotic producers were less significant and essentially limited to other high G+C bacteria. Besides direct selection by antibiotics, there is a number of other factors that may contribute to dissemination and maintenance of antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial populations.


Predictive models learned from historical data are widely used to help companies and organizations make decisions. However, they may digitally unfairly treat unwanted groups, raising concerns about fairness and discrimination. In this paper, we study the fairness-aware ranking problem which aims to discover discrimination in ranked datasets and reconstruct the fair ranking. Existing methods in fairness-aware ranking are mainly based on statistical parity that cannot measure the true discriminatory effect since discrimination is causal. On the other hand, existing methods in causal-based anti-discrimination learning focus on classification problems and cannot be directly applied to handle the ranked data. To address these limitations, we propose to map the rank position to a continuous score variable that represents the qualification of the candidates. Then, we build a causal graph that consists of both the discrete profile attributes and the continuous score. The path-specific effect technique is extended to the mixed-variable causal graph to identify both direct and indirect discrimination. The relationship between the path-specific effects for the ranked data and those for the binary decision is theoretically analyzed. Finally, algorithms for discovering and removing discrimination from a ranked dataset are developed. Experiments using the real-world dataset show the effectiveness of our approaches.


Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a deep-rooted perennial that may be able to remove nitrate from subsoil beneath the rooting zone of annual crops. Alfalfa cultivars with rapid and deep root elongation would be beneficial for reducing future nitrate contamination of ground water supplies. The objectives of this research were to (i) develop a protocol using the herbicide fluridone {1-methyl-3-phenyl-5-[3-(trifluromethyl) phenyl]-4(1H)-pyridinone} as a marker for indicating alfalfa root penetration in soil, and (ii) determine the variability in rate of geotropic root elongation within and among diverse alfalfa germplasms. Fluridone caused rapid, distinctive bleaching of alfalfa leaves at a rate of 25 mg a.i. kg -1 soil, without being fatal. When transplanted after onset of fluridone symptoms, alfalfa recovered and resumed normal growth and flowering. Alfalfa populations did not differ in sensitivity to fluridone. Decomposition of roots from a fluridone-treated plant did not cause symptom development in other plants. Individual plants within alfalfa germplasms differed by 56 d in onset of symptoms, indicating a similar difference in root activity at 80 cm depth in soil. Mean geotropic root elongation rate for 12 diverse germplasms ranged from 1.12 to 1.40 cm d -1 . Populations selected for unique root morphological traits were significantly faster in geotropic root elongation rate than their nonselected parental populations. Our method permits in situ identification of plants with rapid geotropic root elongation rates within heterogeneous populations and has proven useful in germplasm selection.


Purpose To investigate whether commonly used vasodilating drugs ameliorate angiogenesis in experimental retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and to study the response of these drugs to different growth factors. Methods We used a rat and mouse model of oxygen-induced ischemic retinopathy. Animals were treated with nimodipine, gingko-biloba and dipyridamole intraperitoneally starting the day before exposure to room air (day 1). Controls were injected with vehicle solution only. Eyes were processed histopathologically with serial sections and neovascularization was measured by counting the nuclei within the retinal internal limiting membrane, by a masked observer. Retinal and vitreous tissues were assayed by ELISA for VEGF, PDGF and TGFβ2. Results Nimodipine significantly inhibited the growth of new vessels in rats. The number of nuclei was 310 ± 69 in the control group (n:14) and 121 ± 53 in the treated ones (n:14), (p<0.0005). Similar results were found with ginkgo-biloba extracts: 344 ± 53 (n:15) in controls, and 136 ± 29 (n:11) in treated ones (p<0.0005), and with dipyridamole: 303 ± 69 (n:13) in controls, and 131 ± 48.5 in treated rats (p<0.0005). Results were similar in mice. 186 ± 45 (n:7) nuclei counted in controls against 90 ± 25 (n:6) for dipyridamole treated (p<0.0005); and 81 ± 21 for ginkgo-biloba treated animals (p<0.0005). A gradual, very significant increase in VEGF values in response to relative hypoxia (room air) contrasted with the significant inhibition noted both with ginkgo-biloba extracts and dipyridamole. TGFβ2 and PDGF both showed a gradual increase in relative hypoxia at days 2 and 4 of room air (p<0.0005). Treated animals showed marked inhibition of the three growth factors. Conclusions All three drugs markedly inhibited angiogenesis in experimental ROP. Growth factors were elevated in hypoxic conditions. Treated animals showed significant decreases of PDGF, VEGF, and TGFβ2 in retinal and vitreous tissues.


The precipitation of copper during aging at 650oC within ferrite in high-purity Fe-1.03wt%Cu steel was examined by transmission electron microscopy, and the influence of precipitation particles on property of experimental steel was investigated. The microstructure and the corresponding diffraction patterns of different zone axis were analyzed. Nano-scale copper-rich clusters with B2-like structure and high density dislocation around precipitate was observed during either solution treatment or aging. Nano-scale metastable precipitates and high density around them were found to play the most important role for increasing steel strength.


The topic of this paper is theoretical and practical aspect of strategic marketing in the field of education. In the paper is emphasized that the first and the most important step in strategic marketing in education is strategic analysis, with models for analysis of global education's market place. Implementation of marketing strategies in development of education get new approaches, according to trends on global educational market place. Strategic control is important step in strategic development of educational institutions, through point out on gaps in process of implementation of marketing strategies. The goal of the paper is to define modern approach of strategic marketing in positioning of educational institutions in global environment and digital environment. The key hypothesis in the paper is that strategic marketing present's platform for development and positioning of the educational institutions. In the paper are present results of the in-depth interviews with professors at the educational institutions in Europe, and comparative analysis of good examples at the education. The results of the paper have scientific, professional and social contributions. Scientific contributions of the paper is in development models of strategic marketing in education. Social contributions of the paper is development of the most important social field, education.


Anthropologists have not systematically examined extramarital affairs. Our cross-cultural study found that within every culture men and women actively resort to mate-guarding tactics to control their mate's extramarital behavior. A person's level of interest and involvement does not change with a culture's notion of descent, level of social complexity, or the degree to which a culture is normatively permissive or restrictive in sexual matters. In effect, sexual propriety is the presumed right of both sexes. Our findings are consistent with both the sexual jealousy and the pair-bond hypotheses, which hold that every marriage or love relationship is organized around a presumption of sexual propriety. (Extramarital affair, pair bond, sexual jealousy, human universal) ********** Conventional wisdom holds that in many societies women express relative indifference to their spouse's infidelities. Many social-science researchers ascribe this indifference to either male's propensity for psychological violence (Bourdieu 2001; MacKinnon 1988) or women's structural marginality (Freeman 1990; Harris 1993; Leacock 1993; Ressner 1987; Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974). These theories link patriarchy with male superiority to account for institutionalizing a double standard. A constant life lesson for women in these societies is their inability to forestall their spouse's infidelities. Reinforced by folk ideology, social convention, and common practices, men come to believe that it is their right to have extramarital affairs, while women become indifferent to their spouse's infidelity. From this theoretical perspective, it is axiomatic that men believe that they have ownership of women's bodies, whereas women own neither their own bodies nor that of their spouse. The strength of this axiom derives in part from a kind of folklore of professional anthropologists and not from empirical documentation. To date, there is no comparative study that systematically examines how husbands and wives respond to a spouse's infidelity. Thus, the conventional wisdom of ownership and indifference remains untested anthropological assertion. This article examines the similarities and differences in women's and men's responses to a mate's infidelity. It explores the significance of structural factors--degree of social complexity, type of descent ideology, the degree to which sexual practices are restrictive or permissive, etc.--on the way men and women respond to an act of infidelity. It also questions if there are sex-linked factors shaping men's and women's perception of and response to spousal infidelity. SOCIAL-SCIENCE EXPLANATIONS FOR EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIRS Half a century ago, Ford and Beach's (1951) pioneering cross-cultural study of human sexuality found that less than 39 per cent (54 out of 139) of societies approved of some form of infidelity. Although not explored in any depth, the study determined that cultures overwhelmingly prefer to "circumscribe [extramarital affairs] in one way or another" (Ford and Beach 1951:114). A more recent cross-cultural survey of human sexuality found that extramarital affairs ranked just below incest "as the most strictly prohibited type of sexual relationships" (Frayser 1985:20). This finding was reaffirmed in a study that found no society, not even America during the permissive 1960s, condoning extramarital affairs (Harrell 1997:475). In spite of these holocultural surveys, cultural anthropology has yet to develop a theory accounting for extramarital sex's nearly universal approbation. There are theories that focus on some aspect of the phenomenon. The most prevalent explanation is sociological. This perspective offers a gender-specific explanation for why men's extramarital affairs are tolerated more than women's. Focusing exclusively on stratified societies, Collins (1975) argues that men are the beneficiaries of a patriarchal ideology and a set of social practices that ensure and validate men's perception of women as their sexual property. …


Modeling business processes has become a complex design task due to a increasing rate of organizational change. Therefore business process modeling is in search for ways to reach beyond the rigidity of traditional approaches. In order to overcome new challenges, like the involvement of a diverse stakeholder community and variability of models, end-user development (EUD) and collaboration are considered promising instruments. In this paper we propose to enhance collaborative process modeling by EUD concepts. Precisely we apply the Meta-Design guidelines to the domain of business process modeling and present a first prototypic environment for collaborative process modeling along with a case-study. The paper concludes by highlighting benefits and unsolved issues of our Meta-Design based process modeling approach and by indicating the next steps of our


While there are case reports in the literature describing gastroparesis after COVID-19, large-scale studies are currently lacking. To address this gap, we aim to investigate the risk of gastroparesis after COVID-19 using a large database